Jeffrey Boyd walked through the open elevator doors on the first floor of the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse. His wife, daughter and lawyer were at his side. They had already made their way through the photographers on the front steps, camped out there to record the “perp walk†of another local government official charged with bribery.
Before the elevator hit the 15th floor, Boyd, the 22nd Ward Alderman in the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ, asked his attorney a question: What does the media know about this? Attorney Terry Niehoff explained that the office of U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming had issued a news release saying only that there would be a hearing of public interest.
What Boyd didn’t know was that two hours earlier, the indictments against him, former Alderman John Collins-Muhammad and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed on multiple charges of bribery and wire fraud had been made public.
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So, as I stood there in the same elevator, I already knew that, according to the indictment, all three Democrats had been recorded in multiple conversations accepting thousands of dollars in cash from a local gas station owner and developer, in exchange for pushing through tax abatement and other governmental favors. I knew that each of the three men recently opposed a rewrite of the city’s ethics rules overwhelmingly approved by voters.
I knew that, according to the indictment, Boyd had told John Doe that the only thing standing in the way of his tax abatement were the “(expletive) little white progressives†who might raise questions about the deal.
So much for aldermanic courtesy.
That phrase — in its political sense, not the one related to civility — is, to some degree, how ºüÀêÊÓƵ got in this mess. There has long been an unwritten but sacrosanct rule in ºüÀêÊÓƵ politics that all development decisions in a specific ward go through the alderman in that ward. Increasingly in the past few years, a growing group of aldermen — Tina Pihl in the 17th Ward, and, yes, some of those “white progressives†that Boyd dismissed, such as Megan Green, Annie Rice, Shane Cohn and Cara Spencer — have sought more collective debate, letting good policy drive development decisions rather than the whims of one alderman.
But developers, big and small, have long known how the game is played in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Reed has had a penchant over the years for making political decisions — often back and forth on the same issue — that mirrored the timing of campaign donations. There was the Biddle House homeless shelter, which he voted for twice before a donation from a law firm involved in battling its location came, and then he flipped his vote. There was the debate over enhancements to the former Scottrade Center, which Reed pushed through after getting a $100,000 donation from one of the owners of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Blues.
The indictment unveiled Thursday alleges that Reed told John Doe he was going to rig redistricting in his favor, and then raise $1 million in a campaign fund to control the Board of Aldermen after it shrinks to 14 members. That is indicative of Reed’s grandiose nature. “So, of the 14 seats that are up, we need to control 10, we’d like to control 10 of them … if we do that, we control the City at that point,†Reed allegedly told Doe at a recorded meeting.
Doe gave Reed $4,000 in cash that day, the indictment claims. It did not show up in campaign finance reports. But here’s what has shown up increasingly in the past few years: Many of the same donors who were attracted to former ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Steve Stenger — who was sent to federal prison for his own pay-to-play schemes — gave to Reed, Boyd or Collins-Muhammad.
Most prominent, perhaps, was the Carpenters’ union, whose former leader, Al Bond, convinced Reed and his allies to back the ill-advised airport privatization effort that threw millions of dollars around in contracts, some of which Reed directed. Bond has since been deposed from his former position of power, and, according to federal court records, has “Department of Justice issues†of his own.
At some point, it would behoove ºüÀêÊÓƵ voters to start connecting the dots between the politicians in the city and county who end up in federal indictments, and the donors and allies they have in common.
Reading through the indictments of Reed, Boyd and Collins-Muhammad reveals a casual nature by which cash allegedly exchanged hands.
“I got you,†said Collins-Muhammad, after taking John Doe’s cash, according to the indictment.
“Oh, man, that’s perfect,†Reed said, allegedly pocketing $2,000.
“Wunderbar,†Boyd said, after apparently getting free car repairs.
This is not a flattering portrayal of Reed’s ºüÀêÊÓƵ. It’s time to shut the door on that era.