{"id":444439,"date":"2010-03-18T13:22:14","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T17:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01310fb6f0ae970c"},"modified":"2010-03-18T13:22:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T17:22:14","slug":"new-alderman-graham-to-pay-city-for-moving-out-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/444439","title":{"rendered":"New alderman Graham to pay city for moving out early"},"content":{"rendered":"

From today’s print edition<\/em>:<\/p>\n

New alderman to pay city for moving out early<\/h2>\n

State representative had bought house under affordable-housing
\nprogram, but moved out before 4-year minimum<\/h3>\n

By Hal Dardick, Tribune reporter<\/p>\n

The state lawmaker Mayor Richard Daley picked to serve as 29th Ward
\nalderman agreed Wednesday to repay the city $5,000 for moving out of a
\nhome too soon under the terms of an affordable-housing program.<\/p>\n

State
\n Rep. Deborah Graham, D-Chicago, set up the repayment after the Tribune
\nraised questions about her use of the program, which helped her to net a
\n nearly $114,000 profit after just six years.<\/p>\n

Graham bought the
\nthree-bedroom Austin neighborhood house in mid-2000, just two months
\nbefore she started working for the city’s Community Development
\nDepartment, according to public records. The home’s modest $126,500
\nprice was possible, in part, because the city sold the lot to a
\nnonprofit developer for $1.\n<\/p>\n

Graham lived in the house until 2003,
\nwhen she discovered the house was just yards outside the legislative
\ndistrict to which she had just been elected. So she moved to an
\napartment inside the district and rented the house until she sold it for
\n $240,000 in 2006, according to public records.<\/p>\n

The
\naffordable-housing program that subsidized the cost of the house’s land
\nrequired she live in the home for at least four years.<\/p>\n

Graham said
\n she was unaware of that requirement until she was asked about it
\nWednesday morning. Later in the day, she agreed to reimburse the city
\nfor a portion of the subsidy, as required under the program when someone
\n moves out too soon.<\/p>\n

"Had she known at the time (of the sale), she
\n would have paid it back then," said Molly Sullivan, spokeswoman for the
\n Community Development Department, which took over the program last year
\n under a reorganization of city bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

"She’s in the process
\n of paying the city back," Sullivan said. "We expect it within the
\nweek."<\/p>\n

If approved by the full City Council, Graham will replace
\nIsaac Carothers, who resigned early last month after pleading guilty in
\nfederal court to taking a bribe from a developer doing business in his
\nward.<\/p>\n

Daley for the first time accepted applications for a vacant
\nalderman’s seat via the Internet and received more than 20 valid
\napplications for the post. Graham is a Carothers protege from the 29th
\nWard Democratic organization.<\/p>\n

Graham also was recently approved as
\n the Democratic committeeman of the 29th Ward, which is considered one
\nof the better organized political operations that backs Daley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From today’s print edition: New alderman to pay city for moving out early State representative had bought house under affordable-housing program, but moved out before 4-year minimum By Hal Dardick, Tribune reporter The state lawmaker Mayor Richard Daley picked to serve as 29th Ward alderman agreed Wednesday to repay the city $5,000 for moving out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444439","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\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}