People With Vowels At The Ends Of Their Names

11:55 am, 4/25/05

People With Vowels At The Ends Of Their Names
It looks like the Governor once again needs to consider taking the state employee ethics test.

A former union leader who was hired for a six-figure-salary state job by his boyhood friend, Gov. Blagojevich, has ties to reputed organized crime figures and once was a bookie, informants have told Teamsters Union anti-corruption investigators.

"Teamsters Union anti-corruption investigators"? Is that like what happens you mix matter and anti-matter?

Daniel E. Stefanski ran Teamsters Local 726, representing hundreds of city truck drivers, from the mid-1990s until landing a top job with the Illinois Department of Transportation in April 2003, several months after Blagojevich took office.

A report authored by the anti-corruption unit last year -- and recently obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times -- contains allegations that Stefanski:

**Lunched a few times a year with mob bookie Nick "The Stick" LoCoco.

LoCoco was a onetime Local 726 member and city transportation foreman who was suspected of taking bribes from Teamsters wanting full-time city employment or plum assignments. LoCoco died late last year after falling from a horse.

**Worked in an illegal bookmaking operation in the late 1980s with Robert Abbinanti, described as a "close friend." Abbinanti, once active in Local 726, was identified by the Chicago Crime Commission as a reputed mobster.

**Met at least two or three times with former Laborers union boss Bruno Caruso after Caruso was ousted for alleged mob ties.

**While in a tavern, offered a $20,000 reward to anyone who could provide the address of a mob informant whom the Outfit reportedly wants dead.

**Maintained "close ties" to the Coalition for Better Government, a controversial political fund-raising group that once was run by ex-con John "Quarters" Boyle. Boyle is described in the Teamsters report as a mob "associate," a characterization his lawyer disputes.

"Coalition for Better Government"? We've been here before. CBG is a great organization, just ask Dominic Longo! "Quarters" was assigned his 100% authentic mobster nickname after he used his armored car company to steal $4 million in change from a Federal Reserve warehousing job and the Illinois tollway authority's bank deposits. After serving 38 months in the can, he began a lucrative career with the City of Chicago as a bribe collector for the city's hired truck program, to which he has recently pled guilty.

Stefanski, a Mundelein resident, describes the accusations as half truths, distortions and outright falsehoods. As a union leader, he had to deal with some of these people because they were involved in the labor movement, he said.

...because the labor movement is primarily a mafia front, you see.

"You understand, all that was casual contact or a business relationship," he said, adding that he has no idea what people do "after 4 p.m.," when work is through.

"It's not personal, it's just business, ya know?"

As for the mob informant, Stefanski said he knew him as a younger man and doesn't like him. He indeed did talk about him at a tavern one day, but "in no way was I offering money to find this guy," Stefanski said. "I might have said, 'Somebody would offer a lot of money to find that a------.' "

The unit that wrote the report, which outlined alleged troubles in Local 726 and various other Chicago Teamster groups, disbanded in 2004 as its lead investigator, former federal prosecutor Ed Stier, accused the Teamsters of blocking scrutiny.

A subsequent report commissioned by the Teamsters to look into Stier's allegations discounts some findings unrelated to Stefanski -- but it cites a Hoffa aide as saying he believes the troubles in Local 726 left with Stefanski's departure, according to a copy viewed by the Sun-Times.

"The leadership also discussed the bald political reality that Stefanski was now a member of the administration of the Governor of Illinois and that the state was a large [Teamsters] employer," the union report said. "There was a concern that the interests of the [Teamsters] membership would not be advanced by pursuing charges against a former principal officer and running the risk of creating ill-will with the Governor's office."

...and when you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way:

Stefanski is paid $105,000 a year by IDOT and was hired after campaigning and raising money for Blagojevich. Their closeness was evident at a campaign celebration at the A. Finkl & Sons steel plant in 2002. A Sun-Times reporter watched Stefanski thread his way through Blagojevich's security detail. The two men then bear-hugged.

Stefanski said he has known the governor since they were boys in Little League on the North Side.

A spokeswoman for the governor said: "We have never seen the report you were referring to; we weren't aware of the things that you raised. If there's any truth to those things, we'll look into them."

She praised Stefanski for his knowledge of labor issues, however, saying that's one of his professional attributes.

Stefanski has a small tattoo of a cross on one of his hands. Asked about it, he acknowledged being part of a neighborhood gang as a youth, but said it wasn't a street gang that dealt in drugs and violence. "We were like 16, and we got the India ink to put on our hands with a little needle," Stefanski said. "I would describe it as neighborhood guys, that's what we were ... we hung out at the schoolyard and the park."

"...from your first cigarette to your last dyin' day!" Or should it be the Godfather theme? Who knows.

He has had two drunken-driving arrests in recent years. One charge ultimately was thrown out, and the other resulted in supervision, Stefanski said.

His agency promotes safe and responsible driving.

He has been known to exercise caution, though.

A year and a half ago, another political group was planning an "annual cocktail party" at a Grand Avenue restaurant that caters to some -- in Stefanski's words -- questionable characters. The event was "honoring" Stefanski and called for a $50 donation. Stefanski, though, decided not to show.

"When I seen where they're having it, I declined to go," he explained. "I think some people hang out there I shouldn't be near."

Yeah, we wouldn't want the Governor's friends and the Sharks to realize they're in the same room and have a stylized musical knife fight right there in the middle of the party.