One of many reason I'm glad i don't live in Chicago

[juddling]

When he applied for a part-time job as a truck driver for the city of Chicago, Jerome Felske admitted he had a criminal past.

 

He acknowledged having six criminal convictions -- one burglary and five thefts.

 

 

 

At the time, three years ago, City Hall had an unwritten policy against hiring ex-cons. But Felske had clout: He was helping register voters for the Hispanic Democratic Organization, then a powerful patronage army delivering votes for Mayor Daley.

 

Felske soon worked up to a full-time trucking job with the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

 

Then, last January, he was fired. It wasn't because he'd been a thief. It was because the city inspector general found Felske had been more of a thief than he'd admitted on his job application: Felske had been convicted 22 times going back to the 1960s, not just the six convictions he owned up to. City officials called it "fraud."

 

But two months ago fortune again smiled on Felske: He got his job back.

 

Firing was too harsh a punishment, the city's Human Resources Board ruled, finding that the city's lawyers couldn't prove Felske intentionally left out the other 16 criminal convictions.

 

Felske, 64, didn't lie about his past, his lawyer, Joseph Spingola, successfully argued; he just didn't remember every last crime.

 

"I challenge anybody that is here today to try to recall their grocery list from only two weeks ago," Spingola, a former chairman of the city's Zoning Board of Appeals under Daley, told the board. "Essentially, he is being punished here for not having the best memory of anybody around.''

 

In a rare reversal, the board put Felske back on the payroll in September, turning his firing into a nine-month unpaid suspension.

 

The suspension cost Felske about $30,000 in lost wages, according to Spingola, who says he might seek back pay for his client.

 

City lawyers don't plan to appeal the decision reached by the three members of the Daley-appointed board -- attorney Enrico Mirabelli, the Rev. Lucius Hall and Don Turner, a former Chicago Federation of Labor president.

 

"Every case is decided on the merits and the facts,'' says Mirabelli. "There is no special treatment.''

 

Heroin habit

Felske declined to comment. The Bridgeport resident was on the city payroll once before -- in the early 1980s, he was a Streets and Sanitation laborer.

 

His crimes were fueled by a heroin habit, according to city records. Felske, who spent several years in prison, told city officials he stopped using drugs in 1989. His last conviction was in 1991, according to a report by Dennis Fleming, the city hearing officer in the case.

 

Eleven years ago, Felske began driving for Fresno Transport, the largest female-owned company in the city's Hired Truck Program. He was working there in 2004 when the Sun-Times exposed waste and fraud in the program, prompting an investigation that's resulted in 46 people being convicted of crimes. City Hall kicked Fresno out, suspecting it wasn't really run by a woman.

 

A few months after Fresno's suspension, Felske was among about 20 people brought to City Hall -- it's unclear by whom -- to apply for jobs, sources said. The applications asked to disclose any criminal history, including the "dates and nature of each conviction.''

 

Felske listed six crimes. He said he told a city personnel worker he couldn't remember all of his crimes and was told to put down what he remembered -- an assertion the personnel official denied.

 

Edited November 15, 2007 by juddling

[Texsox]

So many thoughts. First off, if ex-cons cannot get jobs, they will commit more crimes. So in general I support hiring ex-cons.

 

But I also believe making an "error" on your application should be an immediate adios, you're fired.

[RockRaines]

Is one of the other reasons that you cant afford it?