City's cleanup program a messJune 13, 2005 The Vacant Lot Cleaning Program is coming under scrutiny as part of the federal investigation into the scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program. City workers have been cleaning hundreds of vacant lots but failing to issue tickets, sticking taxpayers with the bill while giving passes to landowners — some with clout. BY TIM NOVAK AND STEVE WARMBIR STAFF REPORTERS Millionaire developer Elzie Higginbottom, a close ally of Mayor Daley, had a 275-ton problem, city records show. 275 tons of garbage. That's what had piled up over last year on a South Side lot that Higginbottom manages for his brother Eric, who owns the land. The lot is vacant, except in the back, where the brothers make money by leasing space for a cell phone tower. The Higginbottoms didn't clean up the mess. The city did. Last year, city workers visited the lot 16 times, toiling more than 100 hours, to cart away mounds of garbage and tires, tossing the mess into hired trucks, city records show. But the city never sent the Higginbottoms a bill. Chicago taxpayers ate the cleanup cost -- at least $12,140, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis. The Higginbottoms' tax bill on the vacant lot last year wouldn't even cover that. They paid about a third of that in taxes. No one has accused the Higginbottoms of any wrongdoing. Elzie Higginbottom said the city never notified him there was a garbage problem -- or he would have cleaned it up himself. No fines, no fees paid Friday, city officials said their crews never cleaned the Higginbottom site, even though the crew wrote down the Higginbottom address on 16 separate reports. The crews now contend they cleaned a nearby embankment along railroad tracks, not the property of the mayor's friend. The Higginbottoms -- or the railroad -- aren't the only ones who got free cleanup services, a Sun-Times investigation of the city's Vacant Lot Cleaning Program has determined. The program costs taxpayers more than $3.5 million a year. City crews did more than 4,300 cleanups last year, often visiting the same lots over and over. The Sun-Times found that in at least 500 instances, city workers falsely marked down vacant lots as being owned by the city, when in fact they were owned by businesses or people, some with political clout. Those falsifications mean no one gets fined for illegal dumping, and the city misses the chance to collect thousands of dollars from property owners who let their lots go to seed. Of course, some property owners aren't so lucky. In only 15 percent of the 4,300 cleanups, the city issued tickets to the property owners. And city officials can't say whether all of the fines were paid. Officials at Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation acknowledged Friday that the Vacant Lot Cleaning Program is a mess and told the Sun-Times they plan a number of reforms. They are moving to hand out five-day suspensions to eight supervisors for failing to write tickets on lots. Some supervisors told the city they wrote tickets in their citation books but never issued them because they needed more information on the property owner. City officials cannot verify those claims because they destroyed all of those ticket books after collecting them last summer, said Catherine Hennessy, an attorney for Streets and Sanitation. 'We admit there are problems' The head of the Vacant Lot Cleaning Program, Robert Ricciarelli, suddenly resigned from his job last month. City officials said they did not know why. The Vacant Lot Cleaning Program is coming under scrutiny as part of the federal investigation into the scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program, a probe sparked by a Sun-Times series last year. Hired Trucks -- dump trucks leased by the city -- are crucial to the Vacant Lot Cleaning Program. "We admit there are problems with the system," Streets and Sanitation spokesman Matt Smith said. "The biggest problem, believe it or not, is determining the official address of the property." In the vacant lot program, every time city crews clean a lot, a city worker fills out a one-page form, showing the exact lot address, when it was cleaned and how much garbage was removed. There's also a space to note if the lot is city-owned or privately owned. Under the rules, the city is supposed to recoup the cleanup cost when parcels are privately owned. That rarely happens. But an interesting thing happened on the paperwork for the Higginbottom lot. On 15 of 16 reports filled out by city workers for visits to the Higginbottom lot last year, city workers claimed the City of Chicago owned the lot. 16th time's the charm By making that bogus claim, no one got a ticket. No one got a bill. There's no one to ticket or bill -- if the city supposedly owns it. On the 16th report, the city got it right, saying the lot at 411 W. 107th St. was privately owned. Still, no one got a ticket. No one got a bill. It was a different story two years ago. Back then, the city showed it clearly knew who owned the lot, fining Eric Higginbottom $1,025 for having garbage and failing to enclose the land with a fence, court records show. He paid the fine but never completed the fence. The brothers say they have no idea why the city stopped issuing tickets on that lot. Nor did Elzie Higginbottom know why he didn't get a ticket on another lot he owns that the city cleaned last year. Fly-dumping sites "Nobody's doing me a favor," Elzie Higginbottom said. "I don't even know if the debris was there. "If somebody goes out there and dumps a load of tires on the site, and the city crew goes by and cleans it up, I can't control that. I don't know why they aren't sending me a bill for it. If they did, I would say, 'Hey, give me an opportunity to clean it up.' I didn't tell them to do it." His brother Eric said, "I dispute the amount of garbage they say was there. "I try to keep an eye on that lot because we do have a problem with fly dumping," he said, referring to people throwing debris on the lot. The Vacant Lot Cleaning Program began under Daley in the early 1990s. Its aim was to clean up neighborhood eyesores -- mostly on the South and West sides -- that depress home values and fuel crime. The program, indeed, has helped some areas. But a key concern among City Hall officials about the Vacant Lot Cleaning Program is no one is sure where all the trash is coming from because city workers often write down wrong addresses of the lots. It could simply be an honest mistake. Or it could be city workers hiding that they're secretly hauling trash from private lots, somehow profiting improperly from such an arrangement, city officials worry. Unless they're hauling away tires, the city crews never specify on their forms what kind of garbage they have hauled away. Last year, the vacant lot program cost taxpayers more than $3.5 million, city records show. The city spent $2.4 million disposing of more than 74,200 tons of debris from more than 4,300 visits to vacant lots, city records show. The city spent another $940,000 for workers. Recurring problems found The total doesn't include hired truck costs or disposal costs for hundreds of tons of tires. The city says the state pays for the tires but couldn't say how much it was. The Sun-Times surveyed several dozen lots as part of its investigation and found recurring problems with the program. In each instance, a lot was cleaned for free because city workers claimed the lots were city-owned. They are not. Here are a few examples. *The issue: The "vacant" lot isn't vacant. The address: 8300 S. Halsted. The story: City workers marked "city lot" on 29 separate visits to the property. In reality, it's a business, Marquette Radiator. The city claims it hauled nearly 120 tons of debris from that address during the 29 visits last year. "Bulls---," said the shop's manager, who declined to give his full name. The manager said the city never removed any trash. *The issue: The lot is owned by someone with connections. Taxpayers foot the bill. The address: 8900 S. South Chicago. The story: Michael Tadin, the former kingpin of the Hired Truck Program, acknowledges the city cleaned up his property but says the city once leased the land from him for a salt pile and was cleaning up its own mess. The city took its time. Workers hauled nearly 13 tons of debris last July. Four months later, a crew took another 21 tons. When the city moved out from Tadin's lot early last year, "they left a bunch of debris in the corner," said Tadin, a longtime Daley supporter. "I called the department, and they said they would come out and clean it. The program works pretty well. It's one of the better programs the city has." *The issue: The lot is owned by someone with connections. Taxpayers foot the bill. The address: 8900 S. Holland, just west of the Dan Ryan Expy. The story: Jerald Much is a developer from north suburban Lincolnwood and he buys vacant lots for cell phone towers. Much and his companies have donated more than $10,000 to city politicians. The city hauled more than 304 tons of garbage and 300 tons of tires from the Much lot during 32 visits last year. Much never got a ticket. City cleanup crews reported on their daily forms that the city owned the lot. City admits crews erredd In an interview, Much said there was never any trash on his lot. He said the debris the city hauled was dumped either on the street or on a vacant lot next to his. Friday, city officials said the cleanup crews erred and should have reported that all 604 tons of the garbage and tires were dumped in the street, not on Much's land. *The issue: The vacant lot is owned by a church, but city workers still mark it as "city owned." The address: 11025 S. Ashland. The story: New Hope Baptist Church got a miracle of sorts when trash started piling up on the vacant lot the church owns next door. The city came by to clean it. Three times over six months. It cost taxpayers at least $2,200 to remove the debris the city says it hauled away. The church never got a bill. After the city removed 32 tons of garbage, New Hope Baptist Church donated $500 to its alderman, Carrie Austin. It is illegal for nonprofit groups such as churches to give political donations. Neither the church's pastor, the Rev. Troy Kates, nor Austin returned calls. *The issue: The city can't decide who owns the lot. Taxpayers foot the bill. The address: 107th and Burley, across from Acme Steel. The story: John Bradich is a contractor who says he grew up with Ald. John Pope (10th) and once managed a bar for former Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak. Bradich has been fined for garbage on his lot, but not last year. In 2004, the city cleaned Bradich's lot eight times, removing more than 150 tons of trash. Seven out of eight times, city workers marked "city lot." The eighth time, workers got it right, marking it privately owned. "Are you calling me because I'm a scumbag guy having the city clean my s--- up?" Bradich cracked. "There was never tons of stuff on that lot." Big Sox fann A city supervisor in charge of the Bradich cleanups is one of the employees the city wants to suspend for failing to write tickets, a city attorney said. *The issue: A vacant lot crew cleans up land at taxpayer expense, just before a business pops up there. The address: 2140 S. Kedzie, the "Al Lopez Car Wash." The story: Thomas Schimpf is a Barrington Police officer who co-owns several car washes. He concedes the city may have cleaned up garbage last year before he began building his car wash. "They might have done some cleanups before we broke ground, but nothing since we've broken ground," Schimpf said. Postscript: Why does a cop from Barrington name his business the Al Lopez car wash? Schimpf is a huge White Sox fan, especially of former manager Al Lopez. "He was the greatest manager ever," Schimpf said. Data analysis by Art Golab Gas station -- scratch that -- parkway gets 'VIP' treatmentt BY > STEVE WARMBIR AND TIM NOVAK STAFF REPORTERSOn a hot July day last summer, a city crew rolled up to a South Side gas station to scoop up tons of trash. But it wasn't just any job. It was for a "VIP visit," according to the crew's report. Who was the VIP? The form doesn't say. At first, a citation was going to be written for the trash. Because the trash was on a private lot. But those markings were scratched out on the official city form. The city employee apparently decided that the 5.6 tons of trash was actually on city land, on the narrow parkway at 7283 S. South Chicago. Neighbors of the gas station, though, say the station is usually pretty clean. The station has changed owners since the cleanup. The job took one hour, with two city workers, a supervisor and two hired trucks. The job cost taxpayers at least $440. Residents scoffed at the claim that the city picked up the trash at the address last year. The city Department of Streets and Sanitation could offer no immediate explanation for the cleanup and changes on the form but said it would look into it.
Once an 'eyesore,' now garage is a 'city-owned lot'' BY TIM NOVAK AND STEVE WARMBIR STAFF REPORTERS Go to 9040 S. Halsted, and you'll find a garage for three Hired Truck companies. A city crew, though, seems to think it's a city-owned lot. Crews went there once last year, and three more times to the back side of the business on Green Street. The Green Street addresses apparently confused city workers. Once they thought it was city land. Twice they thought it was private property. Still, no tickets were issued after workers hauled away 53 tons of garbage over the four visits, city forms show. The land is owned by William Spencer. He also owns a trucking firm, S.A.S. Dump. Spencer said no garbage came from his property. He bought the land from Charles Sawyer, who owns Jim's Cartage and Garage, a Hired Truck firm that still keeps trucks on Spencer's lot. Sawyer is the brother of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer. Three years ago, the city sued Charles Sawyer over garbage on the land, saying an "excessive amount of junk and debris as well as multiple abandoned autos and trucks render this property a public nuisance and eyesore." City going high-tech to make process more efficientt BY TIM NOVAK AND STEVE WARMBIR STAFF REPORTERS To clean up the mess in the city's Vacant Lot Cleaning Program, city officials are arming some workers with technology. The city is buying computers, adding new software, retraining inspectors and streamlining the process to slash the amount of paperwork and demand more accountability from its employees. And city officials vow to install 10 cameras at undisclosed locations, hoping to catch fly dumpers. And they say they plan to stop using hired trucks to haul debris from the vacant lots, returning the work to city workers and trucks. "We admit there are problems with the system," said Matt Smith of the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation. "That's why we are revamping it with the technology." The city reforms came after the Chicago Sun-Times began inquiring about the program. Recovering costs City officials said Friday that their employees often "guess" at the address of the lots targeted for cleanup, making it difficult or impossible to ticket the property owners. And after a cleanup is completed, it takes as long as a month for the city to research the property ownership to determine who owns it, they said. With the technology changes the city wants to put in place, the city hopes to learn the owner in three or four days. The city's Web site states that the Daley administration recoups the costs for cleaning the lots. But that hasn't happened. To go after an owner for cleanup costs, the city first must demand in a letter that the lot be cleaned up, then get a court order allowing the city to do it and charge the owner. It's unusual when that happens. Typically, the city cleans up the lots, not bothering to notify the owner until it's done. Owners can be fined, but typical fines of $500 don't cover cleanup costs. WHO'S THE OWNER??
City crews did more than 4,300 cleanups last year under Mayor Daley's Vacant Lot Cleaning Program. Few of the lot owners were issued citations for illegal dumping because the city said the bulk of the lots are city-owned. But the Sun-Times found that many of those vacant lots aren't owned by the city, but sometimes by politically connected people who got their lots cleaned for free. And the costs of cleaning those lots -- the city workers, the hired trucks and the disposal costs -- often exceeded the taxes paid by the property owners. Here are some of the lots that city crews falsely claimed the city owned. 411 W. 107TH ST.
9745 S. COTTAGE GROVE AVE..
8900 S. HOLLAND RD.
1309 S. WESTERN AVE.
7283 S. SOUTH CHICAGO AVE.
8900 S. SOUTH CHICAGO AVE.
3520-3534 S. MORGAN AVE.
8300 S. HALSTED ST.
9040 S. HALSTED & 9047-49 S. GREEN
10701 S. BURLEY AVE.
2140 S. KEDZIE AVE.
11025 S. ASHLAND AVE.
9701 S. TORRENCE AVE.
2727 W. LEXINGTON ST.
Sources: City of Chicago records, Cook County recorder of deeds, Cook County treasurer and Sun-Times analysis
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