E.C. council plans to subpoena Pabey trio

EAST CHICAGO | Members of the City Council are planning to issue subpoenas Monday calling for top members of indicted Mayor George Pabey's administration to release long-requested details on city contracts and spending.

Councilman Jimmy Ventura -- one of three council members to lose his job to recent city layoffs -- said Saturday that a five-member majority of the council plans to legally compel three key members of the administration to appear before the council later this month.

"Pabey thinks that because we are on that council we need to vote his way, but our votes on the council count for what the people elected us to do -- our job," he said. "I believe now we have to take a stance."

Ventura said he and the four other council members have hired and are consulting with Merrillville attorney Stephen Bower. Bower did not return calls Saturday.

The plan is to mail subpoenas this week to Corporation Counsel Carmen Fernandez, Controller Charles Pacurar and Human Resources Director Francisco Rosado Jr. to answer questions at the May 24 council meeting, Ventura said.

Ventura said the council members have directed Bower to demand the Pabey administration turn over credit card, cell phone and gas card records, as well as vendor contracts, pension agreements and personnel contracts.

"The Carmen Fernandez contract is insane -- $280,000," he said. "We didn't know what it was until we read it in the newspaper. We have no communication with the mayor's office."

Damien Rico, spokesman for Pabey, consulted with the mayor Saturday afternoon after being told of the potential subpoenas and records requests.

"The mayor said that the council has the right to request any document, and we are not going to impede on any of their requests," Rico said.

On Friday, Ventura and council members Adrian Santos, Myrna Maldonado and Juda Parks met with state Attorney General Greg Zoeller at an East Chicago restaurant to discuss the need for transparency in city business. Zoeller promised his support for their actions and pressed for an audit of city finances.

A similar audit helped spur a federal investigation of the 1999 sidewalks-for-votes scandal, in which three East Chicago councilmen and three top administration officials were convicted of illegally spending $24 million in public money on driveways, sidewalks, patios and tree trimming for city voters. The state attorney general's office followed with a civil racketeering lawsuit that recently culminated in a $108 million judgement against former longtime Mayor Robert Pastrick.

Pabey, who defeated Pastrick in 2004, was federally indicted in February and faces trial this summer. Pabey is accused of having city employees do work on a home he and his daughter own in Gary while on city time.

The council members threatening subpoenas, including Gilda Orange, voted in March to take the power to write checks and pay bills away from the Board of Public Works, which the mayor controls, and give it to the council. Pabey vetoed the measure, and the council did not have enough votes to overrule him.

"We are not attacking the mayor, we are trying to do what's right," Ventura said. "The city is in a critical situation. The city is collapsing, the morale in the Police Department is down, there is rampant crime and security is jeopardized."

Ventura said the council, still waiting on pension agreements requested in 2009, hired Bower.

"Last year we received the budget in October and were told we had five days to look at it," he said. "But we're not accountants. We were rushed to vote with the threat that the state would take over if we didn't approve it.

"Now we have a chance to start looking at items line by line. In the next 30 days we will be starting to meet with each department head. We want to hear from them directly about what they need."

Ventura said typically council packets are ready Friday afternoons for pickup and if there are questions there are only a few hours on Monday to get answers from staff.

"Typically at that point we can't find the administrator we are looking for, and then the council meeting begins at 6 p.m," Ventura said. "We get to the meeting and the expert we need to hear from is not available either."

The city must cut about $6 million from next year's budget to keep spending in line with revenue-stripping state property tax caps.

Ventura was fired from his job as assistant recreation director Friday, along with a handful of others, after a series of firings that included Councilwoman Maldonado from her job with the East Chicago Public Library on April 29 and Santos from his code enforcement job on April 14. On Friday, Ventura's son Damien and Santos' brother Jerry also lost their city jobs along with Armando Gomez, brother to former Councilman Jesse Gomez, also was laid off.

"People say councilmen should not work for the city and I agree, but I worked for the city for 20 years and I am in my first term," Ventura said. "A guy like me has a job and then takes an interest in helping his city. If in the future the state legislators choose to change the law, they should."

Ventura also said he made a mistake when he voted to reduce Police Department salaries by 5 percent. At the time, he said that he wanted to avoid further job reductions in the city.

"I'm going to meet with the Police Department and make public safety my priority and restore their 5 percent. I still want to protect people's jobs."

He said his firing was not unexpected. During Tuesday's primary election he kept hearing that he was "going down."