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Chicago Thu Jan 28 2010
Inspector General Recommends Termination of Water Department Official
Chicago's Inspector General Joe Ferguson--appointed to replace Senate candidate David Hoffman--has recommended the termination of a high ranking Water Department official for using public resources to fix a private problem.
The Water Department's Deputy Commissioner, Tommie Talley, popped up during the trial of Mayor Daley's so-called "patronage chief" Robert Sorich. The Water Department is the great white whale of the patronage arm of "Machine Lite". Water Department watchers (yes those exist) have been whispering about this investigation since December.
Robert Herguth at Chicago Union News has the scoop:
Talley also dispatched city water department crews to work at private sites -- including Nativity of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church, the mayor's ancestral parish in Bridgeport, Chicago's inspector general found, according to city government sources.
Talley, a veteran city worker allied with the Daley family's 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, couldn't be reached, and a city spokesman had no immediate comment.
At the Sorich trial several years ago, Talley was mentioned on the stand by Hired Truck czar-turned-government witness Donald Tomczak as one of the city officials who helped facilitate the city's rigged hiring process.
Sorich, who oversaw Mayor Daley's patronage activities, was convicted in the case and sent to prison. Talley was not charged, and kept his city job.