Officials ask for background checks of permit expediters
Aldermen took a stab Thursday at curtailing the decades-old practice of cash changing hands for Chicago building permits by recommending that middlemen in the process obtain licenses requiring a criminal-background check.
The City Council Building Committee approved a licensing ordinance, complete with fingerprinting, two months after the arrest of 15 people on federal bribery charges related to getting City Hall permits.
Most of those 15 cases in Operation Crooked Code involved the bribing of city inspectors by a former expediter, prosecutors said. In exchange, inspectors are alleged to have ignored problems, fabricated reports and sped up paperwork.
"Hopefully, it will get some of the bad eggs out of the business," Committee Chairman Bernard Stone (50th) said of the proposal, which will go before the full council Wednesday. If approved, it would take effect 120 days later.
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