Two city officials indicted in hired truck
scandal
By Mike Robinson
Associated Press Writer
Published October 6, 2004, 5:31 PM CDT
Two Chicago officials were charged Wednesday with doling out
work in the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program in
exchange for payoffs and campaign contributions from trucking
companies.
The two were charged with mail fraud and bribery as federal
prosecutors expanded their investigation of fraud in the $38
million city program.
Charged in separate complaints were Gerald Wesolowski, a
supervisor in the city's water department, and John Boyle, an
engineer in the city's transportation department.
According to federal officials, the owner of a trucking company
told them he had been providing Wesolowski with biweekly
payments of $1,300. The indictment also said the unnamed
trucking company owner, who was taking in $100,000 a year in
city business, had furnished campaign contributions used for the
benefit of an unnamed water department official.
A separate complaint charging Boyle said a different trucking
company official provided Boyle with a cash payoff to resolve a
problem involving his work for the Hired Truck Program.
That trucking company official, also unnamed in the indictment,
said he left the money in a coffee can in Boyle's garage,
according to the complaint.
Wesolowski was released on $25,000 bond by federal Magistrate
Michael T. Mason.
In Boyle's case, federal officials said they had concerns about
the possibility Boyle might flee if let out on bond. Magistrate
Arlander Keys scheduled a bond hearing in the case for later.
The scandal in the Hired Truck Program broke in January when a
Chicago Sun-Times investigation found that some of the trucking
companies hired to do city work did little or no work but got
paid while trucks stood idle.
The city's budget director eventually resigned under pressure
over the scandal, the former head of the program was indicted on
federal extortion charges, and Mayor Richard Daley fired a
distant cousin from a job at the water department after he
became tangled in the burgeoning controversy.
All 165 companies involved in the program were required to
reapply to get back in, and several were thrown out, declined to
reapply or were rejected when they did. City officials said last
month that new money-saving changes in the program were expected
reduced the program's annual cost from about $40 million to $30
million.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press