"Chicago mayor denies clout won O'Hare deals"

Wednesday, March 21, 2001

Daley denies clout won O'Hare deals
Mayor maintains he doesn't know pal's role in pacts
By Aamer Madhani and Gary Washburn
The Chicago (IL) Tribune


Mayor Richard Daley adamantly denied on Tuesday that influence and strong
connections with City Hall helped Jeremiah Joyce, a longtime mayoral ally
and trusted political strategist, land lucrative concession contracts at
O'Hare International Airport.

"I don't know what part of the action he has," Daley told reporters at a CTA
ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Side. " I don't know and I don't care."

A Tribune investigation published on Monday revealed that Joyce won handsome
compensation when McDonald's Corp. and a national operator of duty-free
shops were awarded contracts worth millions of dollars at O'Hare shortly
after the companies signed Joyce to an employment agreement.

Joyce, a former state senator who played a critical role in Daley's 1989
election campaign, received $1.8 million last year stemming from his
involvement with the two companies, according to the Tribune report.

Joyce disputes that figure, but he declined to say how much he made.

In his first comments on the report, Daley took strong exception when
reporters asked if there was an appearance of impropriety and whether he saw
anything wrong with close friends becoming millionaires after doing business
with the city.

"I'm not here to turn anyone into millionaires," Daley said. "I resent
that."

Daley insisted that his top priority was getting good deals for the airport
and rejected the notion that contracts were steered to vendors because of
their connections.

"It doesn't matter who anyone is," Daley said. "It doesn't matter who they
are."

The report on Joyce came at a sensitive time for the mayor, who faces
criticism for his opposition to a new airport proposed for a site near
Peotone. Peotone proponents contend Daley opposes the project because he
wants to insulate O'Hare from competition and, thus, protect his fiefdom
there.

The Joyce revelations follow a recent contract award to build a new terminal
at O'Hare, valued at up to $1 billion, to a construction consortium
represented by Victor Reyes, a lawyer and former senior Daley aide. A year
ago, Daley was hit by disclosures that Oscar D'Angelo, another mayoral
friend, made hundreds of thousands of dollars representing several companies
that do business at O'Hare, even though he had not filed as a lobbyist as
required by city ordinance.

In a story published on Monday, the Tribune reported that in February 1993,
a month after the partnership of McDonald's and Duty Free International
signed an employment agreement with Joyce, the city selected the partnership
to be the concession manager at O'Hare's international terminal. Three years
later, Joyce's clients won permission for their stores to open throughout
the airport.

The city had rejected an offer from McDonald's in 1992 in favor of Host
International as concession manager. But the Host deal was never
consummated, and the city went looking for a new concession manager again
later that year.

McDonald's and Duty Free created a partnership, Chicago Aviation Partners,
and signed an agreement with Joyce to work on its behalf.

The partnership, with Joyce, quickly sealed a deal -- one that offered the
partnership a longer contract and allowed it to own a larger percentage of
the concessions than Host was offered, the investigation revealed.

On Tuesday, Daley insisted that city contracts are decided on merit alone.
He added that the agreement with Chicago Aviation Partners is a good one for
the city.

"It's been reviewed, looked at by everybody," the mayor asserted. "It's been
looked at by the airlines, everyone.... We have thousands of contracts out
there. I don't review them, have nothing to do with them."

Daley said he did not know the partnership failed to reach even half of what
it had projected in rent revenues for the city.

"The only thing I look at is what is good for the airport and what is good
for the citizens," Daley said.

The O'Hare terminal-construction contract award, to T6 Partners, was
approved by the City Council earlier this month. Reyes was Daley's chief
lobbyist until leaving last December to join a major law firm.

The mayor asserted that he played no role in the selection of T6 and noted
that he also knew members of the three other corporate teams that competed
for the contract.

The D'Angelo revelations last year prompted Daley to push a new ethics
measure through the City Council that, among other things, imposed heavy
sanctions on companies doing business with the city that employ unregistered
lobbyists.

D'Angelo received at least $480,000 for his work at O'Hare on behalf of W.H.
Smith, an airport newsstand operator. The episode was particularly
embarrassing for Daley, in part because of his friendship with the disbarred
lawyer and in part because it dredged up earlier revelations regarding two
women with ties to Maggie Daley, the mayor's wife.

W.H. Smith's contract involved a set-aside for a female-owned business
operated by Grace Barry, a friend of Maggie Daley's, and Barbara Burrell,
who also knew the mayor's wife.

Attached Photo:

Mayor Richard Daley responded to questions about Jeremiah Joyce and
concession contracts at O'Hare International Airport while at a CTA
ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Side Tuesday.

daley.jpg