Wednesday, February 28, 2007

So And Slow It Goes and... Goes

Harvey vendor records missing

Despite numerous search efforts conducted by a team of Harvey staffers, private attorneys and even the mayor, many vendor payment records totaling thousands of dollars still are missing, a city official testified, prompting a government watchdog to wonder why the city's record-keeping is such a mess.

A handful of outside "forensic people" removed two computers last week from Harvey City Hall, human resources director Roberta Lyles testified in a civil deposition Tuesday as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Star's sister newspaper the Daily Southtown against the city.

[...]

Attorneys defending the city against the lawsuit hired "an outside forensic analyst to assist this firm in our analysis and investigation of these issues," Clifford Kosoff said.

Kosoff declined to name the independent analysis firm, citing an attorney-client privilege, but called it a "credible, well-respected forensic firm."

Misappropriation of funds and hiring people to defend their actions. The city will soon be in so much debt that they will give up and run out.

Harvey officer fired for false report

A Harvey police officer found guilty of falsifying a police report was fired last week by the city's civil service commission.

But officer Alex Gbur, who had worked with the department's canine, continued to insist the real reason he lost his job was because he's backing a political opponent of Mayor Eric Kellogg in the April 17 mayoral race.

Gbur -- a supporter of mayoral candidate Marion Beck -- was suspended without pay in October when he was accused of trying to cover up $2,000 in damage to his police car. At a commission hearing last month, he was found guilty of lying about backing into a fire hydrant outside his Thornton residence.

Okay.

Mayoral hopefuls promise change

Each Harvey mayoral candidate had his or her own way of handling the pulpit, zoning in on one of dozens of people last weekend at a Harvey church.

Each touted their visions for new streets, more jobs and safer neighborhoods.

But the five hopefuls donning their Sunday best at First Wesley Academy United Methodist Church on Saturday had a common mission: To take the reigns of Harvey and dissolve what they see as a corrupt administration.

[...]

Better marketing to recruit businesses to the city is what Harvey needs, said Dantzler, chairman of the city's finance committee. That starts with making sure people are safe and letting residents know what's going on in their community.

Yes, we need to give businesses a reason to want to come here. 154th street from the Metra platform to all the way west to Dixie Hwy. That used to be the downtown. There is the Metra stop and the paacebus terminal to take advantage of. maybe someday someone will.

Sources tell the Southtown: Mayor Kellogg made gun vanish

Harvey Mayor Eric J. Kellogg ordered one of his detectives to make a gun seized from a convicted felon vanish from evidence, authorities said Friday in the latest scandal to plague Harvey police and the first to finger the mayor in potentially criminal behavior.


By 2015 we will finally be a clean city.

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