Forum 49 Post: by Hugh
Most of DevCorp North's revenue can be accounted for by its ongoing contracts with the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development as a "technical consultant to business" and as the "sole service provider" for the Howard and Morse Special Service Areas.
Kimberly Bares, Executive Director of DevCorp North, recently wrote that "DevCorp North is not a government agency." DevCorp North's disclosures show that financially DevCorp North is a creature of the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development. DevCorp North is largely publicly funded, using funding derived from property taxes.
Can you see the thin strip of teal at the top of the chart? Look close, it's real thin. That's the contribution to DevCorp North's revenues from membership dues.
DevCorp North's web site is carefully crafted to give the impression that it is a membership-based organization. The web site lists the members and features a searchable database of the membership, led by Alderman Moore.
Member Directory
In fact, membership dues make an insignificant contribution to DevCorp North's revenues. Not to mention the City, fees from real estate developers, other consulting fees, and other unspecified revenue are all more important sources of revenue than the membership.
Benefits of Membership
Membership dues make so little of a contribution to DevCorp North's bottom line that it is difficult to understand why they bother. Why bother soliciting money from me and my neighbors, neighbors who have far fewer resources than DevCorp North, solicitions that even go so far as to include claims that you can make money by sending money to DevCorp North?
WARNING: DevCorp North is known to have several serious misrepresentations in their financial disclosures, including:
* under reporting of assets, including their ownership share of the company that owns Gateway Mall.
* no accounting for expenses by program as required by law.
DevCorp North's financial disclosures should be interpreted with skepticism.
This chart is derived from DevCorp North's financial disclosures, as filed with the Internal Revenue Service, available from GuideStar.org. Nor does this include Special Service Area #24 income figures. That will pad the bank account with another quarter million dollars a year in 2004 and 2005.
15 comments:
$169,267.00 in revenue attributed to "Events and Promotions" in 2000, another $103,078 in 1999? What was THAT?
Must have been a good season at the Farmerless Market?
>You're making a mountain out of a mole hill.
So go read some other blog.
>why don't you go to the "authorities"
Are you a proponent of the Tim Flentye school of conflict resolution?
Escalate first, ask questions later.
The saga of our middle rear porch
>why don't you go to the "authorities"
Why don't you contact DevCorp North and ask them to publicly clarify some of these issues? Thanks!
Huey said "Are you a proponent of the Tim Flentye school of conflict resolution"
So how many sides of this two sided story do you know about Hugh?
You seem to believe everything that is written,accusing someone of wrong doing to be the TRUTH.
YOU......the man who posts on blogs with the conviction of the great know it all. Just because you spend too much time in front of your computer woefully trying to make something out of anything that blows your way, is nothing but your own personal SPIN/Belief.
How many times did you get your Ass kicked on the playground?
PS Don't you eat that Yellow Snow...
>You seem to believe everything that is written ... be the TRUTH.
I read DevCorp North's written financial disclosures, and I did not believe them. I checked into it. They're not a true.
I once read on DevCorp North's web site that they were a chamber of commerce. I checked into that. It turned out they were not a chamber of commerce.
Michael C. posted...
> ... why don't you go to the "authorities" ...
Thanks for the suggestion.
Of course we could use all the help we can get with the issues raised here on this blog. We strongly encourage all our neighbors who are reading this blog and are concerned about what they are learning to call or write people. Whether your concern is fraud or problem landlords or drug dealing or protitution or handgun violence, please write a letter or send an e-mail or call DevCorp North, or the Alderman, or the Mayor, or the Illinois Attorney General or anyone else you can think of that might be able to help our neighborhood. Don't expect or wait for someone else to do it. Please ask questions, ask for clarification, and share what you learn with your neighbors.
Thanks again.
Michael posted...
...there's really aint nuttin there.
Let's review.
* Fraudulent filings with the IRS and the State of Illinois, understating assets.
* A tax-exempt public charity that owns an off-the-books partnership, a for-profit real estate development company.
* Soliciting funds from our neighbors under false pretenses.
* Submitting fraudulent documents in support of grant applications.
* An unregistered lobbyist and grassroots lobbyist for local corporations, the City of Chicago, and the Alderman.
* Laundering property tax money into the Alderman's political campaign.
* Raising and squandering property taxes.
Michael, you seem to have a very high tolerance for fraud and corruption. You should contact DevCorp North and express an interest in serving on their Board of Directors if you have not done so already. They could use more people like you. By now there are probably more than a few directors who are asking themselves, how long can I lend my time and my name to these people?
DevCorp North 2004 Board of Directors
Michael posted...
"...why don't you go to the "authorities" with this if y'all think DevCorp guys are such big crooks? But I think I know why. Because there's really aint nuttin there."
Have you no compass beyond external authority? Is your conscience so out of whack that you've fallen back on whatever you can get away with is cool? Is it the policy of DevCorp North to play "catch me if you can" with the neighborhood? Do you distinguish right from wrong by whether a paddy wagon pulls up? Is that where you're at these days? My, my.
After a decade of anything goes, the energy and financial industries and many others are struggling through some and very embarrassing restating and very expensive restructurings to correct for past excesses. We have our own fall-out from the Age of Irrational Exuberance right here in our own backyard. DevCorp North has a little in-house clean-up project ahead of them. As uncomfortable as it will be, DevCorp North needs to make it right:
Out with the off-the-books partnership.
Be honest with the community you claim to serve.
The first step is the hardest. The first step in reform is publicly stating you have a problem. You can do this. You will feel better afterward.
DevCorp North, come out, come out!
Is it the official policy of DevCorp North to play "catch me if you can" with the neighborhood? Isn't that what the punks slinging vials on Morse and Howard are doing?
Michael posted...
>...why don't you go to the "authorities" with this? ... Because there's really aint nuttin there.
I would like to write to Attorney General Madigan. If I could get 2 minutes of AG Madigan's attention, what I would really like to talk to her about is the effect handguns are having on my neighborhood. I would like to remind her of her campaign pledge to work reduce the number of guns on the streets of my neighborhood.
I would really prefer not to bother her about DevCorp North. Do you need the Attorney General to tell you what the right thing to do is? You are right, there is nothing here in the sense that there are no complex issues here that need a legal beagle to figure out. What needs to be done is very clear. We live under rule of law in our community. DevCorp North needs to honor those laws:
DevCorp North need to make a "true, correct, and complete" disclosure of their assets to the IRS, to the state, to the city, to grant-making organizations, and to the community, as required by law.
Alderman Moore,
Thank you very much for your attention to Morse Ave.
Now will you please send a team of inspectors to DevCorp North headquarters, 1448 W Howard Street? Crime in progress.
Thanks again.
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