Current, former alders weigh in on Ed Burke's conviction, reverberations for Chicago City Council
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Current and former aldermen on Thursday evening weighed in on the historic corruption conviction of once-powerful former Ald. Ed Burke (14th).
Burke was found guilty Thursday of 13 of 14 counts, including racketeering conspiracy, after a six-week federal trial for scheming to use his political clout at City Hall to pressure people into hiring his private property tax law firm.
The verdict against Burke included convictions for racketeering conspiracy, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, and using an interstate facility to promote unlawful activity. The most serious of those counts – racketeering and the extortion charges – carry sentences of up to 20 years each. Jurors agreed that he tried to steer work to his law firm in exchange for favors.
He was convicted of all four schemes in which he was charged – involving the Old Post Office in downtown Chicago, a Burger King restaurant in his ward, a Binny's Beverage Depot store, and the Field Museum.
Burke was the longest-serving alderman in Chicago history – taking office in 1969 when he was 25 years old to replace his late father, Joseph Burke, and leaving just this year after not running for another term while under indictment. The elder Burke's time in the City Council dated back to 1953 – for a total of 70 years of Burke rule of the 14th Ward.
Mayor Richard J. Daley – the senior Mayor Daley – was in his fourth term when Burke first took office. As mayors came and went – Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, briefly David Orr, Eugene Sawyer, Richard M. Daley for 22 years, Rahm Emanuel, Lori Lightfoot – and aldermen came and went from other seats, Burke remained in place.
Burke and Ald. Ed Vrdolyak (10th) led the bloc of 29 aldermen who thwarted Mayor Washington's agenda during Council Wars in the 1980s. Burke spearheaded major initiatives such as a ban on indoor smoking in Chicago, and called late talk show host Jerry Springer into the City Council to demand answers on whether the violence on his show – which was taped in Chicago at the time – was real.
But now, CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller estimates that Burke, who will turn 80 later this month, will be sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison.
Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), who succeeded Burke as City Council Finance Committee Chairman, said known ethical issues in the Finance Committee under Burke prompted him to demand change.
"I think after he had reigned over it for several decades, you know, we really wanted to change the set of rules and the way that we operated – and really change the way that he had been doing business," Waguespack said, speaking to CBS 2's Joe Donlon. "So for a lot of us, I think this was something that we knew was wrong, and eventually it was going to catch up with him."
Waguespack said the days of political corruption are not necessarily over, whether in the City Council or state government.
"We have to continue – not only in the City Council, but across this state – to set up ethics barriers that prevent elected officials who have come into office, or who have been in office for a long time, from continuing, you know, to commit this kind of public corruption," Waguespack said, "and we continue to see quid pro quos in the way business is done, and I think a lot of us want to make sure that, you know, as we go through this process – as we become elected officials, that we set up those barriers."
Waguespack said many aldermen were not pleased when former Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the way business was done in the city would change. He also said removing Burke from the Finance Committee chairmanship was a "good step" on the former mayor's part.
Former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan – the biggest power broker in state government for generations – is set to go on trial himself next year. He and former ComEd lobbyist Michael McClain are facing a federal indictment charging them with racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud, most of which carry up to 20 years in prison if they are convicted.
On Burke's conviction, Waguespack said of Madigan, "I think it sends a message to any would-be jurors, and to the different teams on the defense and the prosecution's side, that he's in serious trouble."
Waguespack also criticized past mayors, saying they did not stand up against Burke.
"It was basically: 'You know what, Ed? We're going to be hands-off if you sort of stay hands off what we're doing,'" Waguespack said, specifically accusing the younger Mayor Daley and Mayor Emanuel of espousing this attitude. "And I think that allowed him to flourish in the position he was in."
Former Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), speaking to CBS 2's Jim Williams and Marie Saavedra, said Burke's conviction puts "a black eye toward alders in the City of Chicago."
"They work very hard," Sawyer said of alders. "They work eight days a week, even though it's considered a part-time position. The vast majority of alders that are there work every day to make sure their communities are getting what's necessary; what's deserved of them. And for this to occur, it does set a black eye on the entirety of the profession, or the elected position."
Sawyer said Burke – who spent the vast majority of his adult life as an alderman – represented a kind of politics that does not fly today.
"He was engaged and tuned to a different type of political activity that was mor popularity in the days gone by, 50 plus years ago, that is not acceptable now," Sawyer said.
Ald. Bill Conway (34th) was elected to the City Council just this year, and is a member of the first class of aldermen in more than half a century not to serve alongside Burke. He said public officials are entrusted not to exchange public acts for private benefits – as Burke is convicted of doing.
"I will say, as someone that was a public corruption prosecutor; as a current alderman, I hope that this really ushers in a new era of ethical behavior, of professionalism, and recognizing that, you know, you really can't get lose to the line," Conway said, speaking to CBS 2's Williams and Saavedra.
Conway noted that most alders go into office knowing public acts in exchange for private benefits are not allowed. He said freshmen aldermen meet with Steve Berlin, head of the ethics board, who gives a tutorial on ethics.
Conway said in the past, ironically, it was Burke who conducted new aldermanic orientations.
He added that he believes things have changed in the City Council.
"I have colleagues that I agree with. I have colleagues that I disagree with," he said. "But I don't think colleagues in the City Council today will operate with that level of behavior."
Former Ald. Joe Moore (49th) – who left office in 2019 after losing to current Ald. Maria Hadden – served side-by-side with Burke for nearly three decades.
"He was a smart man intellectually – knew his Chicago history backwards and forwards, knew the Chicago City Council rules and procedures. But clearly, he had a blind spot, and he used his position in the City Council to try to steel clients to his law firm," Moore said, speaking to Williams and Saavedra. "That's why I was always someone, when I was in the City Council, who pushed to have a requirement that aldermen be full-time to avoid those kinds of conflicts of interests."
Moore was asked if he ever witnessed any misconduct by Burke during their time together in the City Council.
"I always felt that sometimes, he flew a little too close to the sun. I dd not have any firsthand knowledge," Moore said. "But the fact that he had so many clients that also had business before his committee certainly raised a lot of red flags – and it's I think the surprise, probably is not that he got indicted and convicted, but that it took so ng for that to happen."
Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th) defended Burke's character as he weighed in with CBS 2's Donlon and Irika Sargent Thursday evening.
"The Ed Burke I know is a generous, caring man – a man who helped me tremendously in my 12 years that I served with him," Sposato said. "Ed Burke treated a custodian the way he treated the mayor. So I feel bad for Ed."
Burke on Thursday became the 38th alderman to be convicted of a crime in the last 55 years. But Sposato said he had never witnessed any misconduct himself.
"You have a lot of hardworking, considerate people – certainly, Ed Burke was one of them also," Sposato said. "So I don't know. I wouldn't say City Hall is dirty. People make mistakes in life. And you know, you've got a good hardworking City Council there, and I never saw any dirtiness in my 12 and a half years."
Sposato also wondered why former Ald. Danny Solis (25th) "got off so easy." Solis made a deal with prosecutors in exchange for flipping on Burke – recording hundreds or even thousands of conversations that have served the background of federal prosecutors' case against Burke.
Burke did not comment at any point Thursday. The last time he publicly addressed the charges was in 2019, when he vowed to prove his innocence.
"I haven't done anything wrong, and I'm looking forward to my day in court to prove that I am innocent of those charges," Burke said at the time.
But nearly five years later, a jury decided otherwise.
Burke is set to be sentenced in June of next year.