8/2/2019 1984 - June 15 - Sun-Times - Inside City Hall - Politics of Softball David

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samstersirf . States pension fund con .an-: t~ins approximately $5 bil-tm- - libn in assets: with another$200 million in the healthesi- and welfare fund. . ..th- - More. than $2.5 million ofand the money allegedly mis-fig. spent. was used to defend{ere trustees charged with viola t-era! ing their duties. -:ohg Secretary Donovanfor- charged. earlier this week .;ao- - tl~at former trustees of the -was pension fupd were responsi-In a ble for more than $73 mil.ood . lion in losses because oftral' their gross mismanagement..

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By Harry Golden Jr.Aldermen' Fred B. Roti(Ist), Edward M. Burke(14th), Frank A. Damato(37th) and Patrick J.O'Connor (40th) have per-fect .attendance records inthe Finance Committee.. .Not so h9t are cthe atten-'dance records of AldermenTimothy C. -Evans - (4th),Eugene Sawyer (6th), Mi-chael F. Sheahan (l9th),- Frank D. Stemberk (22nd),

The politics 'of softballA .diplomatic challengehas gone out toaldermento meet 'City Hall reportersin a softball game in Lin-coln Park. Last year, RayHanania, reporter for theSouthtown -Economist, ad-dressed the invitation toAld. Edward R. Vrdolyak(lOth), leader ofthe major-itybloc in the Council.Several Washington loyal-ists, such as Ald. David D.Orr (49th), huffily refusedto participate' because ofthat. This time, separate.invitations went to Vrdolyak and to Ald. TimothyC.Evans, (4th), a seniormember of -the Washington .camp, -m hopes of a bi-partisan turnout. .. With such heavy hitterson Vrdolyak's team as Mi-chael F.Sheahan (l9th) ,

Not quite-c-urrent :;

Richard F. MellDanny K.Davis -(29th),, Richard F. Me1l (33rd) andWilliam J. P. Banks (36th).They attended three orfewer of the eight recentcommittee hearings inwhich an attendance roll\!,~scajled. ... ~ - .~--I-"'" I~ ".:.CMost of the 32. commit.tee -members showed upfour -to six times in eightopportunities. .-Finance, headed byBurke, handles the mostimportant matters, meetsmost frequently and tendsto have daylong sessions.Aldermen tend to bemost conscientious,_ ofcourse, .about the commit '. tees that they head aschairmen,' and, with 37committees, nearly every-one's a chairman.:The frequency of ses-- sions has picked up mark-edly in recent weeks, per-haps partly in response tocriticism here. -May saw a one-monthrecord of' 57 committeemeetings. In -May, 1983,

when there were 29 com-mittees, there were only 20meetings.

John S. Madrzyk (13th)and Joseph _S._Kotl81;Z(35th). the aldermen won'_last year, 26-4. Will the'reporters fare better,. against a Vrdolyak-EvlU,)~'team?

Did you notice that themagazines in the city's 76-branch libraries were out. of date? They fell twomonths behind, in fact, be-cause of what can moStfavorably' be reported as.bureaucra,tic foulup~.The_firm that had supphedallAmerican magazines decid-ed, as its most recent con.tract expired, it w~o -longer interested in -~ ~ - .-::... business. Another firm .got ~-theassigriment on the ba- .sis of its low bid, but therewas a gap of-many weeks-The branches are- currentagain and are just now reoceiving bundles of back is-sues that were missed.Never hasty~isour Harold

_Bernard L. S tC ? D enois Planning Commission-to give the new mayor afree hand to appoint hisown allies. They resignedfrom the important agencyin letters dated June 30,1983.Now comes the response.-In letters dated June; 5; ,1984, Mayor Washingtonaccepts .the resignations.and thanks them for theirservice. .The Washingtonletters also say the mayorhas appointed successors.But the commission:saidyesterday that hasn!t hap-pened yet. -Slow mail!Bonanzain waitingIra Edelson, acting illv-enue director, calculatesthat the city could gain $21million in unpaid' ~es(counting sales, Cigarettes,hotel and employers' headtax) if it had' adequatedata on Chicago's thou-sands of businesses. That'sone -reason the mayorwants state permission _to. license every business. -