Ed Burke

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Edward M. Burke (born December 29, 1943) is alderman of the 14th Ward^[1] of the City of Chicago. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1969, is the longest-serving Chicago alderman, and represents part of the city's Southwest Side. Burke has been called Chicago's "most powerful alderman" by the Chicago Sun-Times. ^[2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Election 4 Military service 5 Aldermanic career 6 Political career 7 Unsuccessful bid for Cook County State's Attorney 8 Personal life 9 Bibliography 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Early life

Burke is a lifetime resident of Chicago. Burke's father, Joseph P. Burke, was a Cook County Sheriff's policeman^[3] who worked as a court bailiff. Joseph Burke served as Committeeman from the 14 ward (a local Democratic party post), and was elected Alderman from the 14th ward on November 2, 1953.^[4]

[edit] Education

Burke attended high school at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary and then went on to DePaul University where he earned his undergraduate and law degrees. Burke attended DePaul University College of Law while working as a police officer from 1965 to 1968. Burke graduated from the DePaul University College of Law in 1968 and was admitted to the Illinois bar in November, 1968.^[5]

[edit] Election

Burke succeeded his father first as Democratic Committeeman and then as Alderman from the 14th ward.

Joseph Burke died of cancer^[3] in office May 11, 1968.^[6] The 25-year-old Edward Burke took leave of his job as a City policeman to replace his father as Democratic committeeman.^[7] Burke was elected Democratic Committeeman in the 14th ward in 1968 and retains that position. Burke's first election was his toughest. In a secret vote of 65 precinct captains, Burke won his father's committeeman's seat (and assurance of party slating for alderman) over a veteran precinct captain by 3 1/2 votes.^[3]

A special election was called for March 11, 1969, to fill the 14th ward alderman's seat, as well as several City Council seats vacant for various reasons, mostly Aldermen elected to judgeship and other offices in November, 1968.^[7] The 14th Ward Democrats slated their committeeman and their former alderman's son.^[8] Burke faced 6 opponents.^[5]

[edit] Military service

Burke applied for and was granted draft deferment as a full-time student while a law student at DePaul. Burke graduated and married his wife, Anne Marie, in 1968. After his marriage and the death of his father, Burke applied for and was granted a hardship deferment (3-A), claiming that he was the sole support of his wife, mother, and two younger brothers, Daniel and Joseph.

The Illinois selected service board of appeals voted 4 to 0 to reclassify Burke as 1-A ("Available for unrestricted military service") on June 11, 1969.^[9] At the same time, Burke was accepted into a Chicago-based United States Army Reserve unit, the 363rd civil affairs group, as a private. The 118-man unit was based at 2025 E 71st St in Chicago's southeast side. The unit was commanded by a friend, Colonel Eugene F. Welter, an attorney with offices at 33 N LaSalle St, in downtown Chicago.^[10] On August 27, 1969 an officer from the army's inspector general division in Washington came to the north suburban army post Fort Sheridan to inspect documents and interview witnesses to investigate whether Burke was improperly given special consideration and allowed to enroll ahead of thousands of men who had been waiting for as long as three years.^[11]

[edit] Aldermanic career

Burke has been alderman for more than three decades, first elected in 1969. He succeeded his late father in the position.

Burke was, along with Alderman and Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Edward Vrdolyak a leader of the "29", a faction of white, machine alderman who controlled the City Council and were in constant conflict with the minorities and white liberals known as the "21" who supported Mayor Harold Washington from 1983-1986, a period referred to as the Council Wars. Some wags referred to Vrydolyak and Burke as "Fast Eddie" and "Slow Eddie."

As alderman, he is an advocate for cutting waste from city government without raising taxes. To accomplish this he has encouraged the hiring of outside experts to monitor the city’s fiscal policies, proposed privatization of some city services, and conducting efficiency studies of city departments.^{[citation needed]}

Burke has served for many years as the powerful Chairman of the Committee of Finance. Additionally, he serves on Aviation; Budget and Government Operation; Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities; and Zoning.

Currently, Burke is a member of the Chicago Planning Commission and Economic Development Commission.

Burke's top political aide Peter J. Andrews was running a trucking company in the name of his wife and another woman to get work as a woman-owned firm under the city's scandal-ridden Hired Truck Program, according to the City of Chicago's Inspector General Alexander Vroustouris. In June, 2004, Vroustouris recommending that the company, Base Trucking, be stripped of its favored status as a woman-owned business and barred from the program. Base Trucking, which made $3.4 million in Hired Truck business between 1999 and 2004, was co-owned by Ginger Andrews, whose husband Peter J. Andrews was chairman of one of Burke's campaign funds and treasurer of another at the time. City records showed Ginger Andrews was the secretary of Base Trucking. Company president Carmel McGuire was the wife of John McGuire. Their husbands Peter J. Andrews and John McGuire worked together at the Chicago Park District.^[12]

Also in in June, 2004, Burke formed a partnership "51st Street Townhomes LLC" with two campaign contributors^[13] to purchase and develop a little-used triangular parking lot in the 3900 block of West 51st St. in the 14th ward. Burke and his partners purchased the lot for $300,000 from a former client of Burke's law firm. The city's Zoning Department deemed their proposed project "not recommended," reporting that the development, one massive, 4,400-square-foot, three-story house along with 13 town homes, wasn't "compatible" with the Archer Heights neighborhood, where it would tower over the surrounding bungalows. Burke and his partners hired a lobbyist, Marcus Nunes, a law partner of Mayor Daley's former chief of staff, Gery Chico to re-zone the property. The City Council went ahead and approved the project on Sept. 1, 2004, with Burke recusing himself. Burke and his partners sold the home for $900,000 to his wife's Anne M. Burke Trust on Oct. 10, 2005, and sold the 13 town homes for a total of $3.7 million.^[2]

Burke maintains, at taxpayer expense, a salaried staff to ghost-write speeches, resolutions, and works of non-fiction for him, including among others Thomas J. O'Gorman, carried on Burke's City Council staff payroll as a "legislative aide" since 1995, currently earning $7,233/month, $86,796/year.^[14] In October, 2006, Burke and O'Gorman published End of Watch, a book which details the lives and tragedies of police officers who have died in the line of duty. Also, Burke and R. Craig Sautter published the book Inside the Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions 1860-1996.^[15] Burke's staff has compiled numerous historical exhibits that hang on the walls in City Hall.

Burke's staff drafts resolutions which memorialize the deaths of prominent Americans and Chicagoans as well as honoring special visitors to Chicago. Recently Burke's staff drafted a resolution making Theodore 'Ted' Sorensen an honorary citizen of Chicago on the occasion of Sorensen's visit to Chicago on May 23, 2007, which was the 50th anniversary of John Kennedy's 1957 speech to the Democratic Party of Cook County. The irony was not lost on Mayor Richard M. Daley who enthusiastically supported the resolution (passed unanimously by the Chicago City Council) and whose father, Richard J. Daley was Democratic Party Chair in 1957.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Political career

Burke controls two well-funded political action committees, the "Friends of Edward M Burke" and "The Burnham Committee."^[16]

[edit] Unsuccessful bid for Cook County State's Attorney

Burke was an unsuccessful candidate for State's Attorney against Richard M. Daley (the current Mayor) in 1980. At the time Burke was aligned with Daley's rival, Mayor Jane Byrne.

[edit] Personal life

Burke is a part-time alderman. He is a principal in a successful downtown Chicago law firm, Klafter and Burke, which specializes in property tax appeals^[17] and an author.

Burke's wife Anne was installed as an Illinois Supreme Court Justice on July 4, 2006 and has served as an Illinois Appellate Court Justice.

Burke's brother Daniel J. Burke is a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Illinois' 23rd District, which includes the 14th ward.^[2]

Their adult children are Jennifer, Edward, and Sarah; their other adult son son Emmett was killed in a snowmobiling accident in 2004. In February 1996, the Burkes became foster parents to a child born to a woman suffering drug addiction. The child's natural mother, Tina Olison, sued to regain custody of her child several times before the Illinois State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Burkes in 2001.^[18]

[edit] Bibliography

• Burke, Edward M.; O'Gorman, Thomas J. (2006). End of Watch: Chicago Police Killed in the Line of Duty 1853-2006. Chicago's Neighborhoods, Inc.. ISBN 9780978866327. 
• Sautter, R. Craig; Burke, Edward M. (1996). Inside the Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions 1860-1996. Loyola Press. ISBN 978-0829409116. 
• Burke, Edward M. (2002-03-22). "Lunatics and anarchists: political homicide in Chicago". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (Northwestern University School of Law) 92 (3-4): 791-804. http://homicide.northwestern.edu/docs_fk/homicide/LawJournal/JCLC07.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-06-06. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Burke's Page at Chicago City Clerk's site
• Klafter and Burke, Burke's law firm.
• Chicago City Council - Committee on Finance website
• Interview with Burke on End of Watch

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