WATCHDOGS: Crooked pol’s pension take was $2M; now widow collects

SHARE WATCHDOGS: Crooked pol’s pension take was $2M; now widow collects
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Morgan M. Finley in 1974. | Sun-Times file photo

In the 1980s, the FBI enlisted the help of an undercover mole to ensnare crooked Chicago politicians “dumb enough to listen to him,” according to one account.

Among those charged was then-Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Morgan Finley, accused of accepting $25,000 in bribes from the operative so a company could get a leg up on a government contract to collect parking-ticket fines.

Sentencing Finley in 1989 to 10 years in prison for racketeering and attempted extortion, a federal judge told him, “What an honor it was to hold your office, but you made it a monument” to “corruption.”

The lengthy sentence also took into account allegations Finley threatened an FBI agent while the trial was going on.

Despite going to prison, Finley’s government pension checks kept coming for decades, until his death in September at 91. Altogether, he collected nearly $2 million over the years, according to pension fund records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

And the pension checks continue, though at a reduced rate, even after his death: His widow gets survivor’s benefits starting at around $5,500 a month, pension records show.

After Finley was charged in 1987, the longtime Bridgeport resident who was an ally of the first Mayor Daley didn’t seek reelection. He left office in late 1988.

Almost immediately, he began collecting two pensions. One was for his years in county government. The other covered his eight years in the Illinois Legislature — which Finley departed in the mid-1960s, according to allegations aired at his trial, after being suspected of trying to shake down a lobbyist in exchange for a vote, though he was never charged with that.

Both pensions were boosted by a “reciprocal” arrangement: Finley’s service with the county enhanced his legislative pension, and his service in the Legislature boosted his county pension.

Also, the county pension included several years of credits from the city of Chicago, for which Finley previously was an aldermanic aide and zoning board of appeals member.

The bulk of the almost $2 million in pension payouts came from taxpayers, who subsidize both pension funds. Finley contributed just $3,840 toward his legislative pension, which ended up paying him about $720,000, pension records show. And he put in as little as $65,000 toward his county retirement pay, which paid him more than $1.2 million.

In 2015 alone, Finley got just under $100,000 in pension payouts, records show.

The checks continued while he was in prison. He even managed his retirement from behind bars, at one point while in prison appealing to the General Assembly Retirement System for a higher percentage of his final legislative pay.

Under Illinois’ felony forfeiture law, which took effect in 1955, public officials in Illinois who are convicted of a felony related to their official duties aren’t allowed to collect pensions from the affected agency’s retirement plan.

According to the county pension fund, though, “Mr. Finley entered county service before the felony forfeiture provision was enacted, so it did not apply to him.”

Finley first worked for the county from 1946 until 1950 before holding office as the county’s circuit court clerk from 1974 until late 1988.

An appeals court ruling in an unrelated lawsuit, involving former DuPage County regional schools Supt. Harold Wright, took a different view from that of the county pension fund.

Wright started as a public school teacher in Illinois in 1953 and left the state a few years later, cashing out of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois. He returned to Illinois as a teacher in 1962, later paying into the pension fund to restore his previous pension credits so he could collect retirement benefits.

Convicted in 1985 of embezzling from his agency, Wright’s pension was halted by TRS, based on the felony forfeiture rule. Wright sued, pointing to his pre-1955 start date. But an appeals court ruled against him, finding that Wright “reentered the system in 1962 pursuant to a new contract which included the felony forfeiture provision and . . . is not entitled to receive benefits from the system.”

Robert Healy. | Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Robert Healy. | Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

A former official who recently felt the sting of the forfeiture law was Robert Healy, former top administrator of the Lyons Township school treasurer’s office and onetime political ally of Finley. Healy was convicted in 2015 of stealing money from the agency, which manages hundreds of millions of dollars for west suburban school districts.

Healy began collecting a $5,618-a-month pension in 2014 through the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, which stopped those payments in 2015 when he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

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