Colorful
past for insider at center of red light probe
John Bills was a top Madigan operative with
family links to the mob who partied on the field with World Series champs. Now
he's at the center of the feds' red light bribery case.
By David Kidwell,
John Bills fits right in to the world of
colorful characters who do the heavy lifting for Chicago politicians every
election — raising donations, knocking on doors and delivering all of the vote.
But in Bills' case, the colors have often been
a bit brighter. A South Side native, his family history is dotted with
connections to organized crime. A huge White Sox fan, he got a job with the
club, celebrated the World Series victory on the field with players and still
sports a replica championship ring.
A veteran political worker for House Speaker
Michael Madigan, he earned a reputation as a top fundraiser and vote-getter in
the vaunted 13th Ward Democratic Organization who fell in and out of favor with
his boss and with fellow precinct captains who turned to him when they couldn't
make their numbers.
Federal investigators last week painted
another picture of Bills, as the linchpin in a decadelong corruption scheme
that brought red light cameras to Chicago.
The bribery scandal, among the most brazen
ever to envelop City Hall, centers at least for now on Bills, a 32-year
bureaucrat portrayed in a court filing last week as a man unembarrassed by his
own greed, whose demands for more never ceased and who pitted one bidder
against another in order to sweeten his own deal.
That version of Bills — one that he and his
attorney adamantly deny — is the one federal prosecutors would use to pursue
their case that he abused his office and took as much as $2 million in bribes
for steering the red light camera contract worth more than $120 million.
But Bills, 52, is also a father and a
husband, the life of the party, a man friends describe as jovial and always
ready to give his time to help friends and strangers alike.
"Whether it was at City Hall, or at the
precinct, or working to get the players to a charity golfing event, John has
always been a guy you can count on to get things done, a point person,"
said Tom Ryan, 66, a retired city employee who once worked for Bills and is one
of his best friends.
"That's the John Bills I know,"
Ryan said. "That stuff I read in those charging papers? That is not the
John I know."
In the fallout of what could be the first of
many charges in Chicago's ongoing red light camera investigation, triggered by
Tribune reporting, questions have emerged about how one midlevel bureaucrat
gets the juice to single-handedly steer such a lucrative contract and why he so
adamantly refuses to cooperate with federal authorities looking to expand their
investigation.
Bills has argued he never had the clout and
he has no information to help prosecutors. But a closer look reveals an
extended family steeped for decades in Chicago's patronage politics and an even
more insular organization, the Chicago mob.
His cousin Guy was an outfit turncoat who entered
the federal witness protection program. His uncle was once shot during a brawl
by Angelo "the Hook" La Pietra, who would later become an infamous
South Side mob boss. His dad, who spent 35 years working in the city's Forestry
Department, was arrested in his youth for taking bets on horses.
Interviews with a half dozen friends and 13th
Ward acquaintances of Bills, along with public records, paint a portrait of
Bills as hard-partying, and someone with a reputation for sometimes
embellishing tales to pump up his own importance.
"John always liked to talk," said
one friend who knew Bills from his work for Madigan at the 13th Ward.
"Sometimes we would all just look at one another and wonder, 'Did he just
say that?'
"I remember one time we were all sitting
and waiting for a precinct captains meeting and he was complaining about a trip
to Miami and the crappy hotel some contractor bought him down there," the
friend said. "It didn't register at the time that he might be talking
about the camera company, but we couldn't believe he would just be so open
about it.
"It was almost like he was proud of
it," the friend said.
For people inside Madigan's political
operation, talking openly about its inside dealings is nearly impossible. But
several contacted by the Tribune agreed to speak about their dealings with
Bills on the condition their names not be used.
"John was always making it known how
close he was to Madigan," said one close friend. "It was always Mike
says this and Mike told him that. We knew he was a top moneymaker, but we all
took most of that with a grain of salt. You had to know John."
Ryan said Bills was valuable to the Madigan
operation.
"He was a good precinct captain, one of
the best," Ryan said. "You never saw John for three weeks before an
election because he was out knocking on doors. He'd go back three, four times
if he had to, making sure people were voting, getting rides, anything they
needed."
For decades Bills was known as a top-earning
precinct captain for Madigan, always making his quotas and sometimes raking in
as much as $10,000 in fundraising tickets. Bills often sold tickets to his own
employees in the city Bureau of Electricity, dubbed "Madigan
Electric" at a criminal trial because of the number of 13th Ward political
workers with jobs there.
"Yeah, he expected his guys to buy
tickets — that's just the way it was," said another acquaintance who
worked for the bureau for 20 years, much of it under Bills. "But John
wasn't alone in that, there were a lot of guys like that."
Bills was so successful as a moneymaker that
he would often cover for other precinct captains who fell short of their
quotas, several interviewed recalled. "Some of us just weren't as into it
as he was so we would procrastinate and come up short," one said. "Sometimes
John would offer to let us use his overage, for 60 cents on the dollar.
"There always had to be something in it
for John."
Through his attorney, Nishay Sanan, Bills
denied ever charging for his help making fundraising quotas.
Almost every year, Bills would organize at
least one trip to the Super Bowl or World Series for his inner circle of up to
eight friends — mostly other Madigan precinct captains or City Hall co-workers.
"I can tell you we always had a good
time," said one regular attendee. "John was the one who always
collected the cash for the hotel or whatever. Looking back on it now that I
know there might have been someone else picking up the tab, you have to wonder
whether he was making any money off us too."
White Sox fanatic
Bills is a lifelong avid White Sox fan, who
worked for the team as a bat boy when he was a kid. His friends said Bills was
ecstatic in 1999, when he landed a part-time job as a clubhouse attendant with
the team.
He relished his ability to hobnob with
players, even as he was teased by his inner circle.
"His job was to hold their jock straps,
literally," said one longtime friend. "I mean, that was his actual
job. We always gave him a hard time about it, but he loved it. According to
him, he was practically managing the team."
A highlight of his time with the Sox was the
day in Houston in 2005 when the team won the World Series. There in the
celebratory scrum on the pitcher's mound is John Bills with his arms raised in
the air, his photograph beamed around the world.
Bills often talked about his close
relationship with the players, even suggesting to friends he once bought a used
Mercedes from a player — although the stories differ on which player.
"He told me it belonged to Aaron
Rowand," said one friend. Federal authorities, who have interviewed many
of Bills' closest friends and collected some of the same legendary tales, have
investigated the possibility that the Mercedes they say Bills bought with bribe
money once belonged to first baseman Paul Konerko.
When contacted by the Tribune, both Konerko
and Rowand, who is no longer playing baseball, said they never sold a car to
John Bills.
Friends interviewed by the Tribune said Bills
often told entertaining stories about his days with the White Sox, but it was
difficult to discern fact from fiction.
"One story he liked to tell was the day
he was on the field before a game and spotted Mayor (Richard) Daley in his
box," said one friend. "It was a day game so, of course, John being
John, he wanted everyone around him to know that he knew the mayor so he went
over to him and said hi.
"According to John the mayor said,
'Hello John,' and then sort of lowering his brow said, 'John, you're not on the
clock are you?'"
"Of course, the way John tells it, he was
on the clock, but he told the mayor 'no,'" the friend said.
A Tribune review of Bills' city payroll
records found no evidence to suggest he was working both jobs at the same time.
Federal authorities have asked the White Sox for Bills' pay records.
Both Bills' lawyer and his friend Ryan said
Bills never worked for the Sox while on the city clock.
"No way, there were a lot of guys at the
city who were jealous of John because of all the promotions he got, so there
were a lot of guys who would have loved to catch John leaving early like
that," Ryan said. "No way."
Bills was fired by the White Sox in 2007,
after a "transgression involving White Sox property," said Scott
Reifert, a club spokesman. He declined to elaborate.
One friend said Bills repeatedly sold White
Sox memorabilia on eBay.
"I remember once I got call from John
asking for a favor," said the friend. "A few minutes later he shows
up at my door with eight signed Frank Thomas bats, asking me if I would mind
mailing them to some guy in California.
"He told me he didn't want anything
coming back to his address."
Through his attorney, Bills denied selling
bats or doing anything inappropriate with club memorabilia and said the Daley
encounter never happened.
Reifert declined to discuss the specific reason
for Bills' firing, but he said it would be a violation of White Sox policy to
sell such memorabilia. Reifert also said the White Sox are curious where Bills
obtained the World Series ring he is wearing in a photograph published by the
Tribune.
"I can tell you it was never issued to
him by the White Sox," Reifert said.
Reifert also questioned another photograph of
a mounted silver presentation bat once posted online that reads "Presented
to John A. Bills, congratulations and good luck on your retirement from the
Chicago White Sox Organization, June 30, 2011."
"I have no idea where that came from,
but it wasn't from the White Sox," he said.
According to records from Bills' 2011
divorce, the value of his White Sox memorabilia collection tops $10,000. His
black Cadillac still sports White Sox vanity plates with his initials.
Bills' attorney has confirmed that federal
investigators were looking into his client's sports memorabilia collection and
speaking to his circle of friends.
Friends also knew Bills to be a hard-partier,
something that led him to acknowledge a drinking problem. In July 2000, records
show, he was arrested on a DUI charge after he lost control of his Cadillac and
crashed into a bank parking lot at 113th Street and Cicero Avenue in Alsip.
According to his arrest report, he had a
blood alcohol level of .22. Court records show the charge was dismissed.
"John has had problems in his life
related to a drinking problem, but since then he has straightened himself
out," said Sanan, his lawyer. "That was 14 years ago."
Family's mob ties
Records also show that Bills comes from a
family steeped in ties to South Side political organizations and the Chicago
mob.
According to archived law enforcement
records, Bills father — John A. Bills Sr. — was arrested in 1948 for making
book on horses out of a South Side garage with a crew that included reputed mob
characters Frank "Skids" Caruso and Morris "Mutt" Caruso.
Records don't indicate how that case was resolved.
Records also show that in 1946, Bills Sr. was
in the car with another crew responsible for the robbery and sexual assault of
a woman they met at a bar. Bills was indicted in connection with the case but
charges were dropped. Also in the car that night was Fred "Peanuts"
Roti, who would later became the longtime Chicago alderman for the 1st Ward.
Roti was long reputed to be the mob's
representative in the City Council, and spent years in federal prison in the
1990s after convictions for racketeering and extortion.
Charles E. "Duckie" Bills — the
elder Bills' brother and John Bills' uncle — was a bookmaker associated with
the infamous 26th Street crew, records show. Duckie Bills was once shot and
wounded by La Pietra after a fistfight, according to testimony in a federal
court battle over mob influence at the Laborers' International Union.
La Pietra would later become one of the most
feared mob bosses in Chicago, ruthlessly controlling South Side gambling
operations until his conviction in 1986 in a scheme to skim profits from a Las
Vegas casino. He was released from prison in 1997 and died two years later.
Duckie Bills' death in 1992 was noted in a
City Hall resolution presented by then Ald. Patrick Huels, 11th Ward. The
tribute noted his longtime membership in the Old Neighborhood Italian American
Club, but the resolution excluded one name from Duckie's long list of family
members — Duckie's own son Charles "Guy" Bills.
Guy Bills and his brother Sean — both first
cousins of John Bills — were also longtime members of the 26th Street Crew,
records show. But Guy Bills turned federal informant against the mob after he
was arrested burglarizing a suburban jewelry store in 1986, and his testimony
at the 1989 trial of reputed mob boss Alberto Tocco landed him in the federal
witness protection program.
John Bills Sr. and his nephews Guy and Sean
have all since died.
"Everybody has bad seeds in their
family," Sanan said. "It doesn't make John a criminal or a bad
person."
Longtime city worker
Like so many of his relatives before him,
Bills made a career out of working for the city.
He started as a lamp maintenance worker in
1979 in the Bureau of Electricity in the Streets and Sanitation Department. He
rose through various positions to become a midlevel manager there, and later at
the Transportation Department and the Office of Emergency Management and
Communications.
"I have said this many times to
aldermen, friends, anyone who will listen, John Bills was the best
administrator I ever worked for," said Ryan, who became friends with Bills
while working for him at emergency management. "He was always ready to
solve any problem I brought to him, and when everyone else was bobbing and
weaving he was the one who was always ready to make a decision."
"He was always a great guy, very ready
to help out whenever you needed him," said Bernie Hansen, the longtime
44th Ward alderman who retired in 2002. He said he met Bills during his time at
City Hall and they stayed friends, with Bills stopping in to see the retired
Hansen in Arizona.
John Bills' career at City Hall wasn't
without its series of bumps, like the time in 2000 when Bills took it upon
himself to support the campaign of then-Ald. Patrick Levar, 45th, against
Dorothy Brown in her successful run for Cook County Circuit Court clerk. He
made the mistake of not seeking Madigan's approval.
"Unbeknownst to John, I guess
Madigan didn't think Levar had much of a chance, so there wasn't a lot of
support," Ryan said. "Anyway, when Madigan found out that John was
working for Levar he wasn't too happy and called him in. They had a bit of a
falling out."
Bills, then an assistant commissioner in the
electricity bureau, was exiled to a trailer in a South Side quarry.
"The next day, John was moved to the
quarry and handed a tape measure," Ryan said, adding that Bills spent
about a year measuring offices for renovations. "Eventually, they let him
back in."
"He absolutely hated it," another
friend said. "I remember he had to go down to (13th Ward Ald. Frank)
Olivo's office with his tail between his legs begging to get back in good
graces.
"Eventually, Madigan let him back
in," the friend said. "For one thing, he raised a lot of money for
Mike."
Red light investigation
Bills was an assistant transportation
commissioner in 2002 when the idea of automated red light cameras took hold at
the city; he sat on the selection committee that voted to give the business to
Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. The small program grew into a major revenue
source, generating more than $300 million for the city and more than $120
million for the company.
Bills was still overseeing the program when
he retired in 2011 as a $138,492-per-year deputy managing commissioner and went
to work for the Redflex-funded Traffic Safety Coalition, run by a Chicago
political consultant with strong ties to former Mayor Richard Daley and Mayor
Rahm Emanuel.
In late 2012, Tribune reporting about the
cozy relationship between Bills and Redflex set off a series of investigations
that cost Redflex its Chicago contract and led the company to dump its top
executives and acknowledge the firm likely bribed Bills with lavish trips and
massive payments funneled through a Bills friend set up as a Redflex
consultant.
On Wednesday, federal authorities charged
Bills with one count of bribery and accused him of hatching a scheme to steer
the contract to Redflex almost as soon as he was approached by an official with
the then-fledgling company.
Authorities allege Bills coached Redflex
officials on how to win the business during clandestine meetings and worked to
rig the selection process in their favor. In exchange, authorities said, he was
plied with numerous vacation trips and cash payments they allege he spent on an
Arizona condominium, a Mercedes convertible, a boat and other personal
expenses.
Bills was released without posting bail
money, and his attorney said authorities were using the threat of a 10-year
prison sentence to force him to point fingers at others.
Ryan said his friend is not the kind of man
who would take bribes.
"And now he's looking at losing his
pension, at losing everything," he said. "I don't believe any of
it."