Daley ordered to give deposition

August 5, 2005

BY NATASHA KORECKI AND FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporters
 

In an unusual move, Mayor Daley has been ordered by a federal judge to give a sworn, pretrial interview to his cousin Mark Gyrion's lawyers in a lawsuit against the city and Daley.

Daley fired Gyrion last year after Gyrion was tied to the scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program. Gyrion is suing for wrongful termination and defamation and wants Daley to sit for a deposition.

Normally, "the mayor of Chicago should not . . . be burdened with the time that a deposition would take," U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo wrote in denying the mayor's bid to be excused. "In this case, however, I cannot determine from the record . . . that he has no relevant information; indeed the opposite appears more likely."

Dismissed after Hired Truck story

The city is appealing Bucklo's decision and awaiting a response.

Gyrion's attorney, Maura McKeever, said Thursday that Gyrion, former superintendent of garages for the Water Management Department, was "the ultimate scapegoat," made to take the fall so Daley looked like he was so serious about cleaning house he would even fire family. She said he was a 19-year exemplary employee who, despite the city's firing, has not been ensnared in the intense federal probe into the Hired Truck Program.

Gyrion claims that Daley fired his cousin to deflect heat from the mayor's office after the Sun-Times last year published a series of stories detailing extensive waste in the Hired Truck Program. Gyrion was fired in February 2004, days after the Sun-Times reported that his own mother-in-law cashed in on a Hired Truck to the tune of $1 million since 1998. City officials say he didn't disclose that connection and allegedly didn't disclose that his mother-in-law's company, JACZ Transportation, bought a 1989 Ford dump truck three days after City Hall sold the vehicle to a dealership in Franklin Park -- only to lease it back to the city.

'Biggest roadblock is the mayor'

But Gyrion alleges he told then-First Deputy Water Management Commissioner Rich Kinczyk and "various others" he couldn't have responsibility over hired trucks because he had relationships with people participating in the program. He said nobody asked him to explain the relationships. Somebody else took over the hired truck responsibilities, the suit says.

McKeever alleges the decision to get rid of Gyrion came from Daley "and trickled down from there."

"Daley says he's all about transparency, yet he's fighting our trying to take his deposition every step of the way," McKeever said. "The biggest roadblock is the mayor himself."

City Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle said the city doesn't believe the mayor has relevant information for a deposition.

"The mayor was not directly involved in that decision-making process," Hoyle said.

Gyrion last year was tapped by Kinczyk to be part of an elite four-member "dream team" to guide the water department for years to come. Less than a week later, Gyrion said Kinczyk defamed him at a news conference by saying: "I have a hard time trusting somebody like that, and I think the public does too."

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