WHISTLE BLOWING ON MYSELF

The original intent of this blog was to laud Chris Geovanis, the Cook County press secretary who blew the whistle on Carla Oglesby, Deputy Chief of Staff to County Board President Todd Stroger, who was charged this week with a series of felonies, including theft of government money exceeding $100,000 and official misconduct. Then I “Googled” Geovanis’ name and where my research led me made me ill.


Some background for those not familiar with the way the Cook County operates. At the County Board, contracts worth less than $10,000 do not have to be scrutinized by the Board. So it is fairly easy to get a contract approved for $9,975 if one has the authority to sign for it. Oglesby owns a public relations firm and some other companies so she authorized contracts for less than $10,000 each and approved them herself. That authority had been given to her by Stroger.

As Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez explained it at press conference,” Today’s charges allege that Carla Oglesby rigged a series of sham, no-bid contracts with companies that were allegedly being hired to perform communications work for Cook County government. In this process the county was defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money for work that was never performed.''


The Sun-Times reported that authorities also allege Oglesby was involved in signing off on payments for more than a dozen no-bid contracts with purported communications companies, several of which were incorporated after the contracts were signed.


This was discovered because, according to the Sun-Times,” One county employee told investigators that she was asked to hurriedly prepare press releases in April regarding the flood relief grants because of concerns the "feds'' would take the money back if the county could not provide proof any work was being done, according to court documents.


However, prosecutors said, Oglesby later provided those press releases and other materials produced by county employees to investigators -- and claimed CGC ( Editor’s note--a PR firm awarded a $9,975 contract to produce the press releases) had done the work.


Chris Geovanis, who works on Stroger's communication staff, said it was her own work that had been passed off as CGCs -- and so Geovanis blew the whistle.


“I became concerned that there may have been in fact some issue relating to this one contract, which credit might be taken for work that was actually done by my office, at my desk, by myself. I passed that along up the chain of command,’ Geovanis said, adding: ‘It was my belief that yes, it was Carla Oglesby's company that was claiming credit for this work.’ “


After reading all the stories about how Geovanis then went to her superiors to report the conduct, I was prepared to hold a parade in honor of an honest Cook County employee who reported illegal conduct when she saw it.


Then I “googled” her name and the first match was for her posting on Linkedln the business networking site. I clicked on it and discovered that besides being a full-time County employee since 2002, she is the founder and principal of her own PR firm!

Geovanis describes the firm herself on Linkedln as:

Principle (sic)
HammerHard MediaWorks
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
1996 — Present (14 years)


Provide full service communications, media analysis and planning services -- including issues research, drafting of media alerts and press releases, pitching stories, developing and managing media marketing strategies -- for a wide range of organizing projects and community groups. Work with local groups to craft media, networking, organizing and outreach strategies on a variety of issues, ranging from anti-war efforts to multi-cultural education advocacy. Provide hands-on training through seminars and workshops in media analysis, planning, organizing and outreach. Research, write and edit grant proposals, policy summaries, position papers, solicitation pieces, training manuals, newspaper and magazine articles, etc., for groups that include civic projects in Chicago’s African American and Latino communities, on topics that range from immigrant rights to civil liberties. Plan and promote topical forums and fundraising events. Conduct direct press research, advance work and outreach on behalf of clients.

The web site for Hammerhard (http://www.hammerhard.org/) lists:

“Groups with whom we have a standing relationship or have worked with recently include Jewish Voice for Peace, the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism, Carpenters for a Democratic Union, Peace Pledge/Chicago, the Free Palestine Alliance, the Arab American Action Network, Houston Global Awareness, People Power Can End the War Coalition, United Students Against Sweatshops, Smartmeme, PERRO -- the Pilson Environmental Rights & Reforms Organization, Democracy Uprising, the DNC to RNC March Project, the Stop CAT Coalition, the 8th Day Center for Justice, ISM -- the International Solidarity Movement, Chicago Action Medical.”

I started wondering how someone could work full-time at Cook County and run a communications firm with so many clients. Then I looked at the names of the groups she works with.


Don’t be fooled by the name “Jewish Voice for Peace.” It is basically an anti-Israel organization calling for “Israel to end its 40+ year-old Occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.”


Then I discovered that she was a featured speaker at the 2004 AL-AWDA, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition Second International Convention.


Further searching revealed a story on Cook County Commissioner Tony Pericia’s web site on May 23, 2009 (www.reformcookcounty.org) that told about a Chicago Reader profile of Geovanis, “Aside from pleading her loyalty to the Stroger family (John and Todd), Ms. Geovanis gives us a look at her “after hours” pro bono work, in which she refers to Israel as a “racist state.”


Googling her name will bring up multiple articles about Geovanis’ work with anti-Israel organizations. I won’t list them all here. I hope she chokes on her “f***ing” whistle.