Nepotism and Scandal?

That's silly! Silly I tell you! Haven't I been scrutined enough?

• Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday would not discuss his son's former involvement with a sewer firm whose co-owner was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges he took part in a scheme to garner city contracts by using a minority-owned business as a front.

  Patrick Daley and the mayor's nephew, Robert Vanecko, shared a 4 percent ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services. Sources have said the company was one of two unnamed firms in the indictment that allegedly used Brunt Bros. Transfer Inc., a minority-owned business, as a "pass-through" to get more than $3 million in city work.

This brings to mind some of the biggest scandals that have never been adequately covered by the media in the past few decades. These "pass-through" contracts are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. So-called "set-asides" and "approved vendor" contracts make up so much waste in Chicago, it accounts for billions of dollars that is placed on taxpayers' backs simply to make connected firms rich.

An example - The City needs to buy something - 10,000 feet of rope for Streets, dog food for the Canine Unit, 1,000 spools of wire for the Bureau of Electricity, whatever. The City won't just go to Wal-Mart to get 100 foot bundles of rope, call Purina to get a few tons of dog food, or shop at Home Depot for insulated copper wire, even though any of those choices would save taxpayers hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.

The city puts these things out for bid. And not just any bid, but a bid from "approved vendors." The vendors don't have to be manufacturers or even retailers. They just have to have an office somewhere with a phone and a mailbox, sometimes not even that. There are many of these "vendors" in existence. If you spend the time looking around city budgets and contract lists on line, you can find them here and there.

These vendors put in bids for whatever the request is (rope, dog food, wire) and the lowest bidder wins the contract. There might be a mechanism in place to make sure that certain vendors don't hog all the business and the pie is divided somewhat "fairly" in regard to which way the political winds are blowing. And here's the best part - the vendor goes to Wal-Mart, Purina or Home Depot, buys the material the city could have gotten at a bulk rate discount and delivers it after tacking on their fee.

Ta-da! This is how Outfit-connected companies manage to land all sorts of city business. The Duffs used "minority" vendors to keep their fingers in the pie. City Hall keeps vendors on speed dial for all sorts of these political rewards. Connected individuals of all types pass themselves off as legit businesses when all they do is add another layer to the costs borne by taxpayers.

That is what Patrick Daley and Robert Venecko were doing and that is what the casino investment group will be made up of once it all comes to fruition.