Landek

[Ted]

 As I was doing research for the BUNGALO election newsletter, I came across this article.  Steve Landek is Berwyn's current state senator and is running for re-election.  David Donohue (the political muscle behind Betty Loren Maltese) is now a consultant on Landek's campaign.  Cicero Town spokesman Ray Hanania is also on Landek's campaign as his communications consultant.

  It is a long article but well worth the read:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-20/news/ct-met-bridgeview-club-20111120_1_strip-club-liquor-license-felons

   Strip club brought together a shadowy alliance

  Lawsuit against suburban Bridgeview and others reveals how organized crime, politicians and a mayor got their hands on Polekatz

November 20, 2011
By Joseph Ryan,
Chicago Tribune reporter

  When a pair of political insiders set out to strike it rich in the strip club business, they picked a site in a middle-class suburb where one of them was close to the mayor.

  Then they turned to organized crime associates and felons to help bankroll and run the enterprise. When it needed janitorial service, the club paid a firm founded by the suburb's mayor.

  It proved to be a lucrative business model for Polekatz Gentlemen's Club in southwest suburban Bridgeview.

  A Tribune investigation has uncovered the behind-the-scenes story of Polekatz: how political players, ex-cops and mob associates helped build and run a multimillion-dollar strip club, paying for high salaries, luxury cars and lavish homes.

   The club's shadowy control and murky funding illustrate how easy it can be for felons to get in the business of selling liquor and skin despite laws aimed at keeping them out. The mayor is the first line in enforcing such laws, and Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek's ties to Polekatz only heighten the concern of watchdogs.

  The findings, gathered from court records and public documents, set off alarm bells for the Chicago Crime Commission, which has been exposing organized crime for nearly a century.

  "It looks like this club is the result of investments by people with backgrounds that don't lend themselves to holding liquor licenses," said Art Bilek, commission vice president. "For a sensitive establishment like a strip joint, it is very critical the mayor understands who owns it, who is paying to operate it and who is taking the profits out of it."

  Landek publicly opposed the strip club, but the village eventually settled a lawsuit that let it open in 2005.

  Polekatz's listed owner has always been an attorney, Stephen Dabrowski. But by 2007 a lawsuit was filed that claimed Polekatz was secretly owned by Steve Reynolds, a former Landek aide and close friend of Dabrowski's. The lawsuit was filed by Reynolds' wife shortly after his death.

  The lawsuit is ongoing and has spurred depositions and court records that detail the role of felons as lenders and high-paid consultants. Felons are not allowed under Illinois law to have an ownership interest in a liquor license unless granted an exemption.

Landek, who is also a state lawmaker, declined to give a detailed interview. He said he listens to the advice of attorneys when it comes to approving Polekatz's liquor license.

  Bridgeview attorneys said it is best for the judge overseeing the lawsuit to decide who owns the club. Meanwhile, they said state law gives Landek little wiggle room to shut it down since no felons are listed as "owners."

Dabrowski denies he is a front, saying he controls "everything" about the club.

The plan

By several accounts, the idea for Polekatz started with Reynolds, a muscular political insider who was a warehouse supervisor for the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

Back in 2001, Reynolds talked about building a southwest suburban strip club with political consultant David Donahue, as the pair worked to re-elect Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese.

"It started out just the two of us," Donahue said in a 2009 deposition.

An untapped market existed in the southwest suburbs' middle-class region. Most of the area's strip joints were in struggling towns such as Harvey or Markham.

And Reynolds was establishing connections with a political up-and-comer in the region: Landek. He had been in local politics since the 1970s, first at the park district, then the village and township.

The two met at a political event, Landek said in a deposition not directly related to the Polekatz lawsuit. Landek said he would later turn to Reynolds to submit purchase orders at the forest preserve district for the mayor's janitorial supply firm, Eco-Chem.

Landek said he hired Reynolds — who had once been a police officer — in late 2002 for special mayoral assignments in which he would probe local bars and the suburb's public works department.

By the summer of 2003, Reynolds was scouting sites in Bridgeview for his club. Then a strip club application came for a building in an industrial park off Harlem Avenue.

The Village Board voted down the idea, resulting in a lawsuit.

By late 2004, Bridgeview officials signed off on the settlement to let the club open. And Landek issued the club's liquor license.

Polekatz's listed owner: the attorney Dabrowski, a longtime friend of Reynolds'.

Dabrowski said in his deposition that Reynolds was involved in the club's founding and operations, but denied Reynolds ever held an ownership interest.

Political consultant Donahue said he and Reynolds didn't own the club on paper and even set up an off-shore company to funnel money to "shield" their interest. He said in his deposition that being listed as an owner could cast a shadow on his consulting work.

The mayor was certainly aware of Reynolds' involvement. Landek contacted Reynolds to arrange a walk-through before the Polekatz grand opening. It was Reynolds, he said, who guided him around for part of the tour.


   ......

Reynolds paid himself in cash from "dancer revenue and champagne rooms," his consultant pal Donahue said in his deposition. But as for how much, "I didn't ask; he didn't tell me."

When Reynolds had a falling out with his wife, he moved into a $1.2 million Elmhurst house that Sarcinelli said he bought at Reynolds' urging. Sarcinelli said the club paid him about $12,000 a month rent on the house. The club also installed ATMs owned by Sarcinelli's company.

Meanwhile, the club paid Eco-Chem, the company founded by the mayor, for maintenance and cleaning supplies, Dabrowski said in response to questions from the Tribune.

The Tribune found copies in court files of two Polekatz checks written to "Eco Chem" totaling $2,855. One was dated in July 2006, and the second was dated in March 2007.

A few months before the first check, Mayor Landek came off state records as the company's longtime secretary and part-owner. In an email, Landek told the Tribune he "relinquished" the company to employees "to avoid any potential conflict of interest" in late 2005.

Yet, it was Landek's girlfriend and one of his relatives who took over the company at that point, according to state records. And Landek was still listed as the company's registered agent.

In a brief interview, Landek told the Tribune he "may have been aware" that Eco-Chem sold janitorial supplies to Polekatz.

Dabrowski said he was "aware of the connection" to Landek "but saw no harm in it." It remained unclear how many times Eco-Chem was paid or how much.


   ..... 

Still going

Even though village attorneys heard ex-cons were involved and the ownership was being questioned in court, the mayor signed off on liquor licenses for the club later that year and again in late 2010.

Landek said he listens to village attorneys on whether to approve the license. Attorney Mary Patricia Burns said it is best for the village to let the judge sort out the ownership.

"We are not in the position as the village to weigh who is telling the truth and who is not telling the truth," Burns said.

Bridgeview attorney Vincent Pinelli said Landek can do little about consultants and lenders to the club, so long as local laws are being followed.

Unimpeded in Bridgeview, those involved in Polekatz continue to branch out.

Political consultant Donahue has been trying to open a strip club in west suburban Broadview off Interstate 290. Ex-cop Quaranta opened a Polekatz in Gary, Ind., and moved to start a "bikini bar" in Houston.

Quaranta remains a consultant at Polekatz, but Dabrowski said Stavropoulos, Pascente, Lawson and Sarcinelli are no longer involved. Mangiamele said most of his money was paid back.

As for Landek, the 55-year-old Democrat is now in his fourth term as mayor. He is also the local township committeeman and was appointed this year to the Illinois Senate.

[Ted]

 Steve Landek has a blog.  Here is a blog post about being supported by Larry Dominick and the Cicero Voters Alliance. The post is from Cicero Town spokesman Ray Hanania:

http://stevenlandek.blogspot.com/2012/02/landek-hosts-breakfast-for-cicero.html 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

  Landek hosts breakfast for Cicero Voters Alliance volunteers and precinct captains

   State Sen. Steve Landek hosted a breakfast Feb. 11 at the headquarters of the Cicero Voters Alliance where dozens of volunteers and precinct captains collected literature and yard signs to hand out to voters.

   Landek also thanked the workers for collecting signatures for his petitions and told them he would work hard to represent their interests and the interests of their constituents. Landek is currently representing the 11th Senate District but under the new remap, he will represent the new 12th District which now includes Cicero and Berwyn.

   "I want to thank all of you for your hard work and efforts," Landek said. "Working together, we can best represent the interests and serve the needs of our voters and homeowners. Thank you."

  Landek also presented Hams to several volunteers.

[Terri]

More on Bridgeview Mayor and State Senator Landek.  The double-dipping of officials and refusing to abolish the practice is one reason Illinois has no money.

Voters, pay attention!!! 
###

State Senate: Incumbent fends off allegations by opponent in 12th District
BY THE SUN-TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD February 17, 2012 11:28PM
Updated: February 18, 2012 4:19PM

http://www.suntimes.com/news/10704290-418/story.html#.T0EOca1tq6I.facebook

Raul Montes Jr. is a community activist with one dominant issue: He says his opponent offered him cash and a campaign job to drop out of the race to represent the 12th Senate District.

Well-financed incumbent Sen. Steven Landek won't talk about that allegation, first reported by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown. The Bridgeview mayor simply says he is taking his challenge in the Democratic primary seriously and isn't concerned about demographics that would appear to benefit a minority candidate.

Voters in the newly drawn, mostly Hispanic district — a C-shaped area in western Cook County that stretches from Bridgeview on the south to parts of Berwyn and Cicero on the north — will have a chance to elect one of these two Democrats in the March 20 primary.

In January, Montes accused Landek of an attempted quid pro quo that allegedly occurred when the two met on Dec. 29 at Toyota Park, a meeting that Montes says was recorded by the FBI.

Since that blockbuster allegation, Montes said he has been asked more than 100 times about it by voters as he campaigns door-to-door.

"If it comes up, it comes up. I can't avoid it," said Montes, of Little Village. "I don't want to run a negative campaign. I'm trying to show my platform."

That shoe-leather approach might be the only way Montes can get that story out — or really anything else about his campaign. He doesn't appear to have the money for direct mail or advertising because he hasn't created a campaign committee, as candidates must under state law whenever they receive $3,000 or more in contributions.

Meanwhile, Landek had close to $35,000 available at the end of 2011, having raised more than $28,000 in the final quarter alone.

"Every [campaign] is important, and every one I take seriously," said Landek, who would not comment on allegations that he offered Montes cash and a job to exit the race.

Landek was appointed last February to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Lou Viverito (D–Burbank).

As one of his legislative successes, Landek pointed to his co-sponsorship of a bill signed by Gov. Pat Quinn that makes it possible for Cook County voters to abolish road districts in their townships, noting that it was "kind of an obscure piece" but saying it's important for local government.

He said his work on the local government and revenue committees has also been one of his primary focuses during his brief legislative tenure.

When asked if he planned to continue serving as mayor if re-elected to the Senate, Landek said holding two public positions gives him a better understanding of the issues.

"Just like everybody else has two jobs, the fact that I'm elected is just my profession," he added. "Everyone else has another source of income, so this is what I do."

Montes said he would like to see state ethics laws changed to prohibit such "double-dipping" by elected officeholders. Landek sees no need for that.

The two candidates differ on legalizing gay marriage: Montes favors it, Landek stops short of that. Landek is ambivalent about letting the 67 percent state income tax increase expire in 2014; Montes favors ending it.

Their positions on gambling expansion are similar. Both favor it, including a Chicago casino.

[watcher]

   Landek also presented Hams to several volunteers.

Delivering the pork or was he introducing Dominick and Annie Strokely from Polekatz?

[Ted]

   Landek also presented Hams to several volunteers.

Delivering the pork or was he introducing Dominick and Annie Strokely from Polekatz?

I thought it might be referring to Hamms beer, since it was capitilized.

[Terri]

Today's Tribune endorses Raul Montes for the 12th District.  This race is a hot one!! 

###
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-senate1-20120304,0,1879924.story

The Tribune begins endorsements today in contested primary races for the Illinois Senate. The election is March 20.

12th District: Community activist and substitute teacher Raul Montes Jr., of Little Village, is running hard against Democratic Sen. Steven Landek, who was appointed last year to replace retiring Sen. Louis Viverito in the 11th District. Landek finds himself mapped into the 12th, which has a Latino population of 58 percent. There's a lot of noise in this race about whether Landek should serve simultaneously as state senator and mayor of Bridgeview, or whether he offered Montes cash or a job to drop out. We don't think those issues amount to much, but we like Montes' scrappiness. He's the candidate most likely to push back against the status quo in Springfield. Montes is endorsed.

[buzz]

Has Montes campaigned anywhere in Berwyn ?
I've seen enough of Landek   

[Ted]

 By the way, a very good "no endorsement" editorial in the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark on the Landek/Montes senate race:

http://rblandmark.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=46&ArticleID=8712&TM=43527.15

3/6/2012 10:00:00 PM 
 
    Little to choose from in 12th Senate District

When Illinois Democrats redrew the state senate district boundaries they didn't do any favors for their handpicked replacement for Lou Viverito, who retired mid-term in February 2011.

Steve Landek, who took over Viverito's seat, was drawn into the new 12th District, which is a heavily Latino district compared to the present 11th District, and Landek is vulnerable.

His opponent, a community activist/muckraker Raul Montes Jr., has spent almost his entire campaign stating why voters shouldn't choose Landek, charging that he was offered a job and cash from Landek to drop out of the race (something Landek confirmed), that Landek doesn't live in the district and that Landek improperly used a public venue to hold a private meeting.

Montes, on the other hand, could do a better job of convincing voters why they should pick him to be their state senator. He has spent little time getting his own message across, focusing instead on trying to demonize Landek.

He says he's for reforming the pension system, cracking down on Medicaid fraud, rooting out double- and triple-dippers in government (like Landek, who is also mayor of Bridgeview) and against privatizing public assets. He opposes red light and speed cameras and would like more police officers hired throughout the state, although he doesn't explain how to pay for those salaries and their impact on pension obligations, especially since he'd like the state income tax lowered.

Landek is an admitted process wonk, who is not prone to introducing game-changing legislation. On issues like pensions and education funding, he says he's a realist - you make the incremental changes you can as you go. He also suggested across-the-board cuts, a la Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinckle, as a possible way to trim the state budget.

But we don't see real reform coming from Landek, who knows that's he's vulnerable to a Latino opponent, even one who has as little to offer as Montes. He's spent lots of effort to knock Montes off the ballot, an effort that's been unsuccessful.

We also don't like the company Landek keeps. He's aligned closely with the Town of Cicero and its president, Larry Dominick. Landek hired Dominick's spokesman to serve as a communications point person during the campaign. It's also somewhat odd that Landek's biggest contributor in this campaign is his own local political party. What message does that send to the rest of the district? That Bridgeview, particularly a specific political party in Bridgeview, comes first?

To us, Landek is representative of the culture in Springfield that led to the condition the state's in right now. He hasn't been there very long, so it's hard to judge him on his short record there, but we're not convinced he can provide the kind of leadership that can help lead Illinois out of its financial morass.

Quite frankly, neither of these candidates does much for us and we don't offer an endorsement in this race.

[berwynguy]

Well I just came home to find two unauthorized Steve Landek signs on my front lawn (within my property line, NOT the parkway).  They are now in the goddammed garbage.  This practice fucking INFURIATES me.  Guess what?  Someone fucked over at the Landek campaign and you just COST your guy a vote.  I wasn't going to vote in the primary and now I am, specifically to vote AGAINST Landek. 

[Ted]

Aren't you afraid the guys in the black helicopters are going to come get you for voting in the Democratic Primary?   

[berwynguy]

No, that's your thing, pissing in your panties hiding under the bed from Frankie Marzullo and his goons. 

[Ted]

Some interesting articles in this weekend's Tribune about Berwyn's new state senator:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-09/news/ct-met-debt-bridgeview-side-building-20120609_1_bridgeview-mayor-landek-rent-deal 
 
  Public funds, private interests intersect in building owned by Bridgeview mayor

Tenants include political fund he chairs, firm that does accounting work for village he runs

June 09, 2012
By Joe Mahr and Joseph Ryan,
Chicago Tribune reporters

The century-old gray office building may not look like much — its owner says it can be hard to rent — but it has become a central meeting place for private interests and public money.

The Summit building's owner is state Sen. Steven Landek. He has other jobs. He is mayor of Bridgeview. He also chairs the Lyons Township political fund. And both those roles intersect in his relationships with those who pay him rent.

One of his tenants is the political fund he chairs. The fund has gotten tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from those contracting with Bridgeview, where Landek has been mayor for more than a decade. And the fund pays Landek the landlord nearly $2,000 a month to rent space in his building — more than $150,000 since 1998.

Another tenant, CDK Accounting, has a bookkeeping contract with Landek's village that has paid CDK more than $1.2 million since 2005. Neither Landek nor CDK will say how much the firm pays him in rent. As an elected official, Landek must disclose the sources of some outside income by state law, but not the rent he collects from vendors whose contracts he helps oversee.

Another tenant, state Rep. Mike Zalewski, has paid Landek $500 a month out of his state-funded district expense account. Zalewski's father is a Chicago alderman who pushed his son's candidacy; the father also has a side job as a lobbyist, and the village has paid the alderman's firm at least $60,000.

Zalewski wasn't the only politician tenant. Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, a Republican, once set up a district office in Landek's building, so county taxpayers gave the landlord $500 a month. Peraica's law firm has done legal work for Bridgeview.

Landek didn't respond to detailed questions about the intersection of his real estate business with his public service. Ald. Michael Zalewski didn't return phone calls seeking comment. Peraica has defended his rent deal.

CDK's president, Jeff Bishop, told the Tribune in a written statement that he's been the village bookkeeper since 1985 but had no idea who owned the building until after he signed the lease agreement in 2003: "I hope you are not implying that there is anything being done that is inappropriate or wrong. This is the work I do, and I have built a reputation of honesty, accuracy and perfection that clients appreciate."

But campaign-reform advocates question the arrangements.

"They are all tightly connected," said David Morrison, deputy director of the watchdog Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "Voters and taxpayers and people who are affected are well within their right to ask who is actually looking out for them when their elected officials have so many different hooks into the system."

Landek landed or kept politically connected tenants despite his complaints about how tough the rental market has been. He has made that complaint in successful efforts to have county officials cut his property tax bill roughly in half in the past three years, tax records show.

In a successful 2008 pitch for lower taxes, Landek, through a lawyer, argued that the building, at 63rd Street and Archer, was "an old office building suffering from functional obsolescence." Worse yet, the recession had made it harder for landlords to fill buildings. And, he declared, landlords "are unable to increase rents."

Yet in 2009, despite his expressed fears of stagnant rent a year earlier, Landek was able to get one tenant to pay more. That was the political fund. When one of Landek's nonpolitical tenants moved out, the fund chaired by Landek tripled what it was paying him.

It's unclear if the fund took up more space in the building. Even if it had kept the old space and expanded into the new space, its rent was 27 percent more than what it and the old tenant had been paying combined, according to a Tribune analysis of records Landek provided the county.

The fund also paid Landek at least $50,000 in back rent in the past decade — money the fund, chaired by Landek, said it has owed him for years. But the nature of those payments raises additional questions. The Tribune found that when the fund later made up for missed payments, it sometimes paid Landek double the $500 to $600 he usually charged for rent. Landek declined to explain the numbers.

Through an email from a spokesman, Landek said the political fund follows state campaign finance and disclosure laws.

Those laws say political funds can't pay "clearly in excess" of the going rate for rent and other items. But disclosure rules don't require candidates to publicly justify rent amounts.

[Ted]

 and this:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-met-debt-bridgeview-main-20120609,0,3094089.story 
 
  Soccer stadium deal kicks Bridgeview taxpayers in the teeth

Political insiders benefit, property taxes nearly triple as village is saddled with millions in debt

By Joseph Ryan and Joe Mahr, Chicago Tribune reporters

6:52 p.m. CDT,
June 9, 2012

   Rising from the rubble of an old industrial site, the 20,000-seat Toyota Park was supposed to put a small suburb on the map.

Yet the soccer stadium also has become a model of what can go wrong when a little town takes massive development gambles in a state with loose borrowing and ethics laws: Politicians and insiders benefit, while taxpayers are stuck covering budget-busting losses.

The blue-collar suburb of Bridgeview now suffers under the highest rate of debt in the Chicago region, a Tribune analysis of thousands of pages of state and local records found.

To help make its payments, the village has nearly tripled the Bridgeview property tax bill in less than a decade for the town's mostly modest ranch homes and plans to boost that burden far higher.

Residents are left frustrated. "Something has got to give," retired tollway worker Andy Staniszewski said.

The hulking, red-brick Toyota Park rises impressively from the side of gritty Harlem Avenue, its canopies jutting into the sky. The village-owned stadium is not only home to the Chicago Fire, but also hosts major music shows.

And since opening in 2006, it has come up millions of dollars short of making its huge debt payments. The yearly shortfalls are sometimes as big as the town's annual police budget, and they've helped sink the southwest suburb's credit rating to among the Chicago area's worst.

Still, not everyone in town is losing.

The big borrowing created a torrent of cash that, in part, went to companies tied to high-level village employees, the town leaders' political supporters and even companies linked to the mayor's family.

Plus, campaign contributions from those profiting at the stadium have helped bankroll a rarely challenged local political machine that recently elevated its leader, Mayor Steven Landek, to the Illinois Senate. The machine also has put thousands of dollars in rent payments into the mayor's pocket each year.

....

The Tribune reports that people and companies profiting from Toyota Park gave Mayor Steven Landek more than $170,000 in political contributions since 2004. He helped spearhead the project.

Landek's spokesman blames the economy for the fiscal problems and says nothing unethical or illegal was done...

[Beverly]

I met Landek at a Cicero event last month. He seemed like a good person. Am I going to be yelled at and called names for saying I liked him? Seems to me that too many people so quickly attack people here. Landek sounds like he is an "organization" politician and that usually means he can get things done and that is all that I care about for myself and my family. Lot of good information on this board but the political things seem the most interesting. For now.
Thanks everyone

[Boris]

I met Landek at a Cicero event last month. He seemed like a good person. Am I going to be yelled at and called names for saying I liked him? Seems to me that too many people so quickly attack people here. Landek sounds like he is an "organization" politician and that usually means he can get things done and that is all that I care about for myself and my family. Lot of good information on this board but the political things seem the most interesting. For now.
Thanks everyone

He's a good person, because you met him once at an event? The "me and mine" attitude that you have ("he can get things done and that is all that I care about for myself and my family") is the tap-root of our financial woes.

As long as things are okay for me, I don't really care if he's unethical scum, bilking those people out of their tax money ... as long as he's not bilking me outta mine...

[Bonster]

Landek sounds like he is an "organization" politician and that usually means he can get things done and that is all that I care about for myself and my family.

I don't know a lot about him other than the reports about the stadium's financial issues (and his insane signage!),  but he is a successful politician, like him or not, and their whole game is about first impressions and charming your pants off.  And kissing babies.




Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2 wishing he'd charm my pants off

[buzz]

You can trust him.  He wears Skechers.

[Ted]

 Landek came off well at the debates we had.  He is knowledgable and he is likable.

  But, the Trib reports present another side of him that has to be considered.

  I guess it depends on whether you are willing to live with a "Illinois politics as usual" kind of guy and turn a blind eye to some of the stuff he's done because "he gets things done" and is likable.

  That's not just a problem with Landek.  It's a problem with voters in Illinois in general.  That's why Crook County and Springfield Inc. keep on going year after year.  Voters are willing to overlook corruption and political favoritism if someone gets things done and is likable.

  Very few people look at what's going on under the covers and the cost to Illinois of this type of politics.