Accused of falsifying records to skirt government regulations, Waukegan’s Joel Kennedy Constructing Corp. is banned from getting taxpayer-funded work through Chicago’s City Hall.
Hillside’s Orange Crush, LLC, was banned from getting construction work funded by state or federal tax dollars after several members of the Palumbo family that ran the business were convicted in a fraud case 25 years ago and sent to prison.
Beyond their restrictions on public work, the two companies share something else in common: Each contributed $2,500 to the campaign fund for one of the Chicago region’s top elected prosecutors, DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin, a Republican running unopposed in November’s general election.
The contributions were part of a September fundraiser at a Clarendon Hills restaurant organized by Sam Palumbo, who was convicted in the fraud case, and well-known lobbyist John Kelly, according to campaign records and interviews.
More than 40 campaign contributions to Berlin totaling over $60,000 were reported around the time of the fundraiser, including from:
Berlin says Kelly was dining out with Palumbo when he bumped into them and they raised the idea of a campaign fundraiser.
“They complimented me on the job I was doing and they wanted to help put on an event for me,” Berlin says. “That was kind of the genesis of it.”
Kelly declined to comment.
Records show his lobbying clients have included the White Sox and the office of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. She is the political patron of outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who’s often accused of a soft-on-crime stance that is fueling — or failing to curb — violence in the city and the suburbs. Some of those who attended the fundraiser say they did so because they view Berlin as tough on crime.
Palumbo didn’t return calls.
Part of the family that runs Orange Crush, he was convicted in a fraud case in 1999 that sent him, a brother and their late father to prison. Their Palumbo Bros. Inc. and Monarch Asphalt Co. were accused of falsifying records for materials, cheating taxpayers out of millions of dollars on dozens of road projects.
Those companies and other Palumbo businesses, including Orange Crush, were subsequently barred from state and federal work.
Several other businesses that share an address with Orange Crush also donated $2,500 each to Berlin’s campaign, according to records.
Berlin, who’s previously been a prosecutor in Cook and Kane counties, says people generally “donate because they like what I’m doing, that’s really all it is.”
“I never promise anything other than I’m going to work hard . . . and do everything I can to keep the community safe,” he says. “If there’s a conflict” and a campaign donor is involved in “something we’re looking at, we’re not going to accept that.”
Berlin says of those who attended the September fundraiser, “Some of these people have given to me in the past, some are first-time donors.”
Orange Crush appears to be among the first-time donors.
Berlin says of Palumbo, “The idea that somebody did something 25 years ago — I don’t think they have a scarlet letter for the rest of their life . . . I don’t believe you forfeit your 1st Amendment rights and you get canceled out of society.”
He notes some other politicians take Orange Crush’s campaign cash, and records show they include Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Hillside Democrat whose campaign fund accepted $2,000 last year from the company.
