Nor, he said, was he aware that his mayoral executive assistant was benefitting from a city contract. <\/p>\n
Here’s what officials records show: <\/p>\n
Since 2004, the Chicago Heights Park District paid South Suburban Chemical and Supply $382,963. In 2009, the City of Chicago Heights paid South Suburban $4,594. <\/p>\n
The company is owned by Frank Perez, a former park district human resources director and current mayoral executive assistant to Lopez. Lopez has worked full-time as the park district superintendent since 2006. <\/p>\n
Records show the Chicago Heights Park District paid GF Janitorial Services $348,750 since 2004. While Gary Finnin owns GF Janitorial Service, David Gonzalez, the park district superintendent from 1999 until 2006, is the registered agent for the company. That means he submits the corporation’s annual reports to the secretary of state’s office every year. <\/p>\n
His accounting company, Gonzalez and Associates, does accounting work for GF Janitorial. Gonzalez and Associates has billed GF Janitorial Services $1,200 a year for its accounting services since 2004, Gonzalez said. <\/p>\n
But he insisted the money his firm is getting from GF Janitorial Services had nothing to do with the firm getting hired by the park district while he was in charge of it. <\/p>\n
“It’s not like we’re getting them business so we can be employed,” he said, adding that he was just supporting local companies in his work as park district superintendent. <\/p>\n
Perez, too, denied his company’s work for the park district and city had any ties to his positions in either governmental agency or his political connections. <\/p>\n
“I’m not voting and I’m not authorizing the work either,” Perez said. “The money is for costs – cleaning supplies, soap products – I’m just as competitive as anyone else locally. <\/p>\n
“I’m a local business. Why wouldn’t a local government support local business? I don’t see what the issue is.” <\/p>\n
Lopez said while Perez’s business with the park district and city might appear to be improper, he believes it was co nducted legally. <\/p>\n
“If (Perez) is authorizing the contract, I see where there would be conflict,” Lopez said, pointing out that Perez would not have been the park official to approve the work for the district. <\/p>\n
Lopez said he was unaware Perez’s company was getting money from the city, which he conceded could be seen from the outside as a “possible conflict.,” But he said he didn’t view it as such because Perez, in his position with the city, did not cast a vote in favor of the deal. <\/p>\n
Peter Murphy, president and CEO of the Illinois Association of Park Districts, said state law requires park districts to award all contracts of more than $20,000 through a competitive bidding process. <\/p>\n
Park board President Joe Stanfa said it’s the park district superintendent who doles out work to vendors, and if a contract exceeds $20,000 the superintendent is supposed to bring it to board for approval. <\/p>\n
But Lopez said he thought the $20,000 threshold applied to each bill submitted by a contractor, not a total for the work. <\/p>\n
Under such a setup, all the deals with South Suburban Chemical Supply and GF Janitorial Services wouldn’t have first required competitive bidding on the work, he said, because none of their individual invoices would have exceeded $20,000. <\/p>\n
Lopez said he planned to have his attorneys review Perez’s company’s contract with the city and whether the park district deals should have gone through the bidding process first. And he said he would “have no problem,” having businesses bid for the work if it is determined the park district is required to do so by law. <\/p>\n
Stanfa defended the park board’s role in awarding the work to the two companies, saying it would have been Lopez who handled all of the details of the deals. <\/p>\n
“The superintendent’s responsibility is to handle the day-to-day operations,” he said, adding he did not know whether the bills from the two companies came up in the monthly bills that the board reviews and approves. <\/p>\n
Lopez “would be the point person of interaction with the vendors, not the board,” Stanfa said. <\/p>\n
In his defense, Lopez said he was conducting business the way Gonzalez had as a park district superintendent before him, and Gonzalez said he was following the practices of his predecessor. <\/p>\n
Gonzalez also said South Suburban Chemical and Supply worked for the park district before his tenure as park district superintendent, although a Freedom of Information Act request turned up no bills for the company prior to 2004. <\/p>\n
Multiple messages left for Finnin were not returned. <\/p>\n
POLITICAL TIES<\/p>\n
Frank Perez’s company, South Suburban Chemical and Supply, has received more than $375,000 in business from the Chicago Heights Park District, where Chicago Heights Mayor Alex Lopez works as superintendent.<\/p>\n
Perez now works for the city as Lopez’s executive assistant, and the two have a long history together. It could even be argued that Lopez might not occupy the city’s top spot had it not been for Perez.<\/p>\n
Perez served as a 2nd Ward alderman in Chicago Heights from 1995 until December 2006, when he decided not to run for re-election. In April 2007, Lopez was elected as a 2nd Ward alderman, taking Perez’s old seat.<\/p>\n
In May 2007, Perez became the executive assistant to then-city Mayor Anthony DeLuca. According to payroll records, his salary has jumped significantly every year since got hired.<\/p>\n
He earned $29,123 in 2007, $53,370 in 2008, and, $74,521 in 2009. Perez also drives a city-owned 2007 Ford Explorer valued at $24,481, records show.<\/p>\n
Two years after Lopez was elected alderman, the Chicago Heights City Council voted Lopez in as mayor. He replaced DeLuca, who resigned to fill the Illinois House seat vacated by George Scully (D-Flossmoor), who was appointed to be a Cook County judge.<\/p>\n
In addition to his work with Lopez, Perez and former Chicago Heights Park District Supt. David Gonzalez have a political history together.<\/p>\n
In 2001, Gonzalez used his political influence to assure Perez would be the Democratic nominee for Bloom Township supervisor. But Perez lost in the general election to Republican incumbent and current Bloom Township SupervisorThomas “TJ” Somer.<\/p>\n
From 2006 to 2007, Gonzalez’s political committee, the Southland Hispanic Democratic Organization, paid Perez $12,000 in consulting fees, according to campaign records.<\/p>\n
\n
WORKING FOR THE MONEY<\/p>\n
Since 2004, South Suburban Chemical and Supply and GF Janitorial Service have received more than $700,000 in business from the Chicago Heights Park District. What services have the companies provided?<\/p>\n
South Suburban Chemical and Supply provided:<\/b><\/p>\n
Janitorial services and cleaning supplies to the district’s golf courses.<\/p>\n
Cleaning supplies to the district’s recreation center.<\/p>\n
Cleaning supplies to the district’s maintenance garage.<\/p>\n
Janitorial services for the district’s preschool in the building at Commissioners Park.<\/p>\n
GF Janitorial Service provided:
\n<\/b><\/p>\n
Janitorial services, carpet cleaning and cleaning supplies for district’s recreation center.<\/p>\n
Carpet cleaning for the district’s golf courses.<\/p>\n
Cleaning up of the basement at the west golf course.<\/p>\n
Janitorial services for the building at Commissioners Park.<\/p>\n
Stripping and refinishing the floors for the building at Commissioners Park.<\/p>\n
Stripping and waxing the floor for the preschool at Commissioners Park.<\/p>\n
\n
big contributors<\/p>\n
South Suburban Chemical Supply and GF Janitorial Service have gotten more than $700,000 in work from the Chicago Heights Park District.<\/p>\n
According to campaign records, the two companies and their owners are also big political contributors to political action committees operating out of Bloom Township.<\/p>\n
GF Janitorial has donated a total of $6,300 to Friends of Chicago Heights, the Bloom Township Democratic Organization, the Regular Republican Organization of Bloom Township, Citizens to Elect Thomas “TJ” Somer and the Unity Party of Bloom Township.<\/p>\n
Gary Finnin, who owns GF Janitorial Service, donated $3,220 to the Regular Republican Organization of Bloom Township and Families United for Effective Leadership.<\/p>\n
Since 2002, South Suburban Chemical and Supply donated $6,260 to the Bloom Township Democratic Organization, the Southland Hispanic Democratic Organization, the Chicago Heights Unity Party, and the Unity Party of Chicago Heights.<\/p>\n
Frank Perez, who owns South Suburban Chemical Supply, personally donated $865 to the Democrats of Bloom Township and the Chicago Heights Believe Team.<\/p>\n
Perez denied his donations played a role in his company’s employment with the park district.<\/p>\n
“I can contribute money to any party I want,” he said. “Any candidate that has the same agenda I have, I’ll support that candidate. It has nothing to with the park district.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read the original article from SouthTown Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n Bu sinesses owned by two men with close ties to the current and former Chicago Heights Park District superintendents have reaped more than $700,000 in no-bid work from the park district. Park District Supt. Alex Lopez – who’s also the mayor of Chicago Heights – says he was not aware the park district deals violated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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