Bagman pleads to Hired Truck role

May 3, 2005

BY STEVE WARMBIR, TIM NOVAK AND FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporters

Plea agreement and initial complaint

City Hall officials ordered the city's top water boss, Donald Tomczak, to marshal his political army of city workers for Mayor Daley, Congressman Rahm Emanuel and other politicians, according to a federal court document released Monday and other sources.

The latest details to emerge from the federal investigation of the city's Hired Truck Program came as a top aide to Tomczak, Gerald Wesolowski Jr., pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to racketeering conspiracy.

Wesolowski admitted taking nearly $200,000 in bribes from trucking firms and passing the money to Tomczak, who ensured the companies got work in the Hired Truck Program. Wesolowski was Tomczak's top bagman among several, court documents show.

'My behavior was inexcusable'

Wesolowski's plea came three days after federal officials seized documents from the Water Department and the mayor's office of intergovernmental affairs. The office controls political hiring and activity and is run by Robert Sorich.

Wesolowski, 46, is the sixth person to plead guilty in the Hired Truck investigation, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins. So far, 27 people are charged.

"I just want to apologize to the citizens, to the government, to everyone," Wesolowski said. "My behavior was inexcusable."

Tomczak may be next

Wesolowski's plea deal with prosecutors calls for him to spend about two years in prison, pay $25,000 to the government and cooperate fully. As part of the deal, Wesolowski gets to keep his Gold Coast condominium, which the government had wanted to seize. Wesolowski made only about $4,000 from taking bribes, according to his plea.

Wesolowski likely won't have to testify against his old friend, Tomczak, who got Wesolowski his job with the Water Department more than 20 years ago.

Tomczak had run the water department since Daley became mayor in 1989 and is expected to plead guilty. He is working on a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, according to a source familiar with the matter. Tomczak, a longtime political operative in the mayor's 11th Ward, could give extremely valuable information to prosecutors.

Tomczak rewarded city workers who did political work with "raises, promotions and overtime," according to Wesolowski's plea. Once his political marching orders came down, Tomczak would allegedly hold meetings during city work hours in city offices with Wesolowski and five to 10 other trusted employees to tell them what campaigns they were supporting and to round up "volunteers," often city employees.

Among the politicians benefitting from Tomczak's political army were Daley, Emanuel and Amy Bertani, a Will County judge who is the estranged wife of Tomczak's son, former Will County State's Attorney Jeff Tomczak.

There is nothing in Wesolowski's plea agreement to indicate that Daley, Emanuel or other politicians knew the possibly corrupt nature of the help they were getting.

Wesolowski admits shaking down hired truck companies for campaign donations to Daley; the 11th Ward Democratic Organization, run by the mayor's brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, and Jeff Tomczak.

On Monday, the politicians named in the plea agreement said they knew nothing about Tomczak's alleged misdeeds.

Mayor Daley's spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said: "Clearly, anyone who is doing political work on city time is breaking the law. Mayor Daley has never sanctioned or condoned that.

"If ultimately it turns out that any of the money in his campaign fund was ill-gotten, it will be given to charity."

The Sun-Times reported last year that Mayor Daley received more than $100,000 in hired truck firm campaign contributions, the most of any politician.

The mayor's brother, John Daley, said he knew no reason why Tomczak would have his employees solicit contributions from trucking companies for 11th Ward Democrats.

Emanuel said he did not know Tomczak. "If they ever did any political work on public time, that's wrong," he said.

Wesolowski provided fresh details on Monday on how much trucking firm companies had to pay to play:

For instance, a Tomczak ally and political operative, Michael Harjung, allegedly passed along $60,000 for two trucking firm companies, which received more than $1.6 million in city business. Harjung was a CTA official at the time.

Another man charged in the case, John Cannatello, who allegedly operated a hired truck firm in his wife's name, once slipped $1,000 to Wesolowski and $2,000 in an envelope to Tomczak in late 2003, according to Wesolowski. The Cannatello firm, GNA Trucking, took in $215,743 from the Water Department for Hired Truck work that year.

One trucking firm, Fresno Transportation, allegedly paid $1,800 every two weeks to Wesolowski for Hired Truck business, to pass along to Tomczak, plus $5,000 in cash for Christmas, according to the plea agreement and sources.