In his colorful 32-year career with the city, John Bills rode his political connections to rise from street lamp maintenance man to the top Transportation Department official responsible for growing Chicago's fledgling red-light camera program.
This week, Bills, a longtime political operative to the city's most powerful politicians, becomes the latest in a long line of city officials facing a federal trial on charges of using his position to line his own pockets.
Federal prosecutors say Bills, 54, was the central figure in a massive $2 million bribery conspiracy, accepting lavish hotel stays, sports tickets, vacations, a condo and cash bribes for each of the nearly 400 red-light cameras that catapulted the program into the largest in the nation.
The sweeping scandal — which by size alone ranks among the largest in Chicago's notorious history of corruption — was first uncovered by the Tribune in 2012 after the newspaper obtained a whistleblower memo detailing the questionable relationship between Bills and Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.
Bills has persistently denied the charges, refusing overtures from federal authorities interested to know the names of any others who may have benefited from the conspiracy.
"From the day he was first arrested they have always wanted him to cooperate and give them names of people further up the food chain," said Nishay Sanan, Bills' attorney. "His answer has always been that he didn't do it and there is no food chain."
Sanan describes the native South Sider as a longtime bureaucrat who had neither the authority nor the political juice to orchestrate a scheme of such magnitude.
He said the defense will hinge mostly on the credibility of federal witnesses who have cut cooperation deals, as well as the inability of federal authorities to track down most of the riches they have accused Bills of accumulating from the longtime camera vendor.
"He's been living paycheck to paycheck," Sanan said. "Hardly the kind of lifestyle you'd expect from a guy who took all the money they say he has taken."
In recent years, Sanan said, Bills has worked a series of menial jobs to make ends meet — pizza delivery, golf course maintenance, a security detail.
By contrast, federal prosecutors are expected to portray the then-No. 2 official in the city's Transportation Department as living the high life — flush with unexplained cash and frequenting ritzy hotels and pricey restaurants — as he secretly schemed to steer the lucrative city contract to Redflex and pepper the city with cameras.
For the first time in his more than two years in office, U.S. Attorney
Zachary Fardon is slated to personally prosecute Bills' case in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall. Fardon, who declined a request to be interviewed, played a key role in winning the conviction of former Gov. George Ryan on sweeping corruption charges in 2006 when he was an assistant U.S. attorney.
Jury selection is set to begin Monday. Bills faces 20 counts of mail and wire fraud, bribery, extortion, income tax evasion and conspiracy charges.
Among those on the prosecution witness list — some of whom will detail publicly for the first time their own roles in the criminal conspiracy — are Karen Finley, Redflex's former chief executive, and Bills' friend Martin O'Malley, who authorities say was hired as a consultant by the company for the sole purpose of acting as a bagman for bribes to Bills throughout the decadelong contract.
Both have pleaded guilty and have negotiated for reduced sentences in exchange for their cooperation.
Until 2012, Chicago's red-light camera program was lauded by Redflex and the city as a model of how an automated camera program should be run. After he was elected, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pointed to its success in his efforts to expand the program to include speed cameras.
That began to change following Tribune reports that detailed the alleged bribery scheme. At the time, Redflex had been the front-runner to win the speed camera contract. The company even hired Greg Goldner, a longtime Emanuel political ally and former campaign manager, as a national consultant.
But Redflex speed-camera aspirations in Chicago were doomed amid the Tribune reports that not only revealed the corruption scheme but also exposed how Emanuel had used bogus safety claims to sell the expansion to speed cameras. The newspaper also detailed how tens of thousands of drivers were unfairly ticketed because of widespread malfunctions and failed oversight of the red-light camera program that the city's inspector general later called "fundamentally deficient."
The scandal prompted Redflex to jettison six of its top executives, including Finley. Federal authorities opened their bribery investigation that includes allegations of similar practices by Redflex in 13 states. Emanuel fired the company and ordered the removal of 80 red-light cameras, promising reforms to improve oversight and management of the program.
Emanuel also scaled back his speed-camera plans. So far, the city has activated only about 150 speed cameras that have raised more than $81 million in fines. The older red-light camera program has generated more than $600 million in fines since 2003.
Bills retired from his $139,000-per-year job as the city's managing deputy commissioner of transportation in 2011, just as Emanuel was taking over
City Hall from departing Mayor Richard Daley.
Immediately upon his retirement, Bills took a job with Goldner's consulting firm working on behalf of Redflex. Federal authorities say Redflex increased its payments on Goldner's consulting contract to make up for Bills' salary. He left Goldner's employ shortly after the scandal broke.
Bills rose through the ranks in the Daley administration at City Hall as part of the vaunted patronage army of House Speaker
Michael Madigan, earning a reputation as a top fundraiser and vote-getter in Madigan's 13
th Ward Democratic Organization.
He spent decades as a top precinct captain, helping to marshal troops and money for Daley, Madigan and other political candidates they supported.
Prosecutors have outlined in court papers how Redflex sought to use Bills' connections in securing city business, prompting Bills as early as 2008 to reach out to Daley and later Madigan in an effort to legalize speed cameras. Authorities have not alleged that Madigan or Daley did anything improper.
