Emanuel friend, alderman’s husband both illegally lobbied mayor via his personal email: ethics board

June 16--A top Chicago business executive and the husband of a South Side alderman both illegally lobbied Mayor Rahm Emanuel through his personal email account, the Chicago Board of Ethics announced Friday.

Jim Abrams, the chief operating officer of medical supply giant Medline Industries, and Alan King, the husband of 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King, each were found to have broken ethics rules for seeking to influence the mayor and City Hall action without registering as lobbyists, as the law requires.

Abrams emailed Emanuel to ask him to consider a friend's pitch to receive an exemption in an ordinance the mayor was pursuing to increase the city's minimum wage. King, a DJ and law firm partner, emailed Emanuel to have a fence removed from a Chicago park to accommodate a house music picnic.

The ethics board made the two violations public Friday but will not determine how much to fine Abrams and King until after its meeting next month.

Abrams' interaction with the mayor was first reported by the Chicago Tribune in March in a package of stories that detailed how Emanuel's personal email accounts had served as a private avenue of influence where lobbyists, corporate executives and longtime associates and campaign donors sought action from -- and access to -- the mayor. The Tribune report found 26 instances of possible lobbying violations.

The Tribune also first reported King's request of the mayor in a December story that detailed well-connected Chicagoans seeking favors from the mayor in messages to his personal email accounts.

The ethics board has seen a sharp increase in potential cases since the Tribune report in March because the panel largely relies on information being made public to form its cases since the City Council has not granted it investigative power.

Under the city's sweeping ethics law, a lobbyist is defined as someone who "undertakes to influence any legislative or administrative action" by city officials, employees and the City Council or its committees. A person does not have to be paid by a company or party to be considered a lobbyist, they just have to try to influence city officials on behalf of another individual or entity.

Lobbyists are required to register with the city and report each contact with government officials. Exempt from registering are those acting solely on their own behalf or representing nonprofit groups that don't have for-profit members.

In evaluating Abrams' case, the ethics board determined the business executive sought to influence city administrative action by forwarding Emanuel an email from a friend seeking a change in the city's minimum wage ordinance. The board found probable cause in the case in April, about a month after the Tribune first detailed the email exchange.

Abrams, who could not immediately be reached for comment Friday, emailed Emanuel in April 2015, forwarding the mayor a letter from "one of my dearest friends in the world." Douglas Bank, chief operating officer of Phoenix Electric Manufacturing Co. Bank was seeking a small manufacturer's exemption from the city's minimum wage ordinance.

In the email, Bank asked Abrams to "facilitate a meeting with the Mayor or Chief of Staff so that we can make our case." Bank also said he'd "been working diligently with our Alderman," James Cappleman, 46th.

Abrams has not registered as a lobbyist with the city, records show. Neither has Bank, whose contact with Cappleman also could mark a possible violation of the city's lobbying laws. The ethics board has not said whether it has considered a case against Bank. In finding Abrams broke the city's lobbing law, the board did not cite another interaction he had with Emanuel.

Abrams emailed Emanuel in December 2011 on a real estate deal involving the former Michael Reese hospital property. The city purchased the site from Medline in 2009 under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, who envisioned it the home of a future Olympic Village under Chicago's failed bid for the 2016 Games.

By the time Emanuel took office, the loan had become a financial drain on the city. In his email to Emanuel, Abrams discussed refinancing the loan Medline provided to the city to buy the property, including citing a specific interest rate.

Abrams agreed to a lower interest rate, but the city structured the deal so that Medline did not have to pay taxes on the profits as it did originally -- an arrangement that could boost the company's profit in the end. Under the city's ethics law, altering the terms of a public loan could qualify as an "administrative action," and it's unclear whether the ethics board reviewed this interaction.

"Wonderful seeing you and thank you," Abrams wrote at the end of his email to Emanuel. "Love to family."

Abrams and wife Wendy Mills Abrams, whose family owns Medline, are longtime friends of the mayor. The couple and Medline Co-Chairman Jonathan Mills have contributed $265,000 to Emanuel-allied campaign funds since 2010.

A 2015 Tribune investigation, "Inside Rahm Emanuel's political cash machine," found the Abrams family and Medline to be among a circle of Emanuel's roughly 100 most loyal contributors, who accounted for much of the money he had raised since leaving the Obama White House to run for mayor. Nearly 60 percent of those top donors benefited in some form from Emanuel's city government -- including Medline.

The Tribune reported that Emanuel had appointed Jim Abrams to World Business Chicago, a powerful and exclusive economic development board of executives that drives deals to bring new businesses and investments to the city. Emanuel also held a jobs announcement event with the company and made an appearance at a business conference for Medline.

In 2012, the mayor reported accepting a house stay and transportation as gifts from Jim Abrams on his annual economic disclosure filing.

In King's case, the ethics board determined there was probable cause for a lobbying violation in February, nearly two months after a Tribune story detailed how Chicago's rich and powerful had used Emanuel's personal email to request favors big and small.

"Hello Rahm. It's Alan King, Barack's buddy and Jesse Ruiz's law partner over at Drinker Biddle," King wrote Emanuel on May 21, 2015. "It was good seeing you in the suite at the Sox game on opening day."

King, a member of a cadre of disc jockeys known as the Chosen Few who pioneered house music, had planned to hold the group's 25th anniversary "House Music Picnic" in Jackson Park on July 4. Despite obtaining a Chicago Park District permit, the event was being threatened "due to some construction" on the picnic site.

"I apologize, but it is a very serious situation for me and my business partners, and I think you might be able to help at least to broker a solution," wrote King, who could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

Emanuel responded less than a half-hour later by asking if King had contacted Michael Kelly, the Park District's superintendent and CEO. About two weeks later, King wrote back to tell Emanuel that in working with the Park District and others, "I think everything is going to work out."

"Please say hello to Amy from Sophia and me," he wrote, referring to Emanuel's wife, Amy Rule. The mayor forwarded the message to David Spielfogel, then Emanuel's top adviser, who responded, "First I'm hearing. Will confirm with Mike."

King's law partner, Ruiz, also was Emanuel's appointed vice president of the Chicago Public Schools until being shifted last November to serve as president of the Chicago Park District. In April 2016, Emanuel appointed Sophia King as 4th Ward alderman.

Abrams and King's violations likely never would have come to light had Emanuel not faced pressure from open records lawsuits from the Tribune and Better Government Association. The mayor released the emails late last year as part of a settlement with the BGA, and the Tribune lawsuit is ongoing.

It's unclear how much the ethics board might fine Abrams and King.

Under the ethics law, lobbyists who fail to register face a $1,000-a-day fine if they don't register within five days of contacting city officials. That's designed to create immediate transparency on which interests are seeking to influence potential government actions as decisions are being weighed by city officials.

Abrams and King would become the second and third individuals to be fined for failing to register as lobbyists this year. In February, the board issued a record $90,000 fine to former Uber executive David Plouffe for illegally lobbying Emanuel on the city's ride-sharing ordinance. Uber was hit with a $2,000 fine for a single instance of employing a lobbyist who failed to register.

In Plouffe's case, the board issued a maximum fine based on the 90 days the former Obama campaign manager had failed to register after first emailing Emanuel asking for help on regulations for picking up travelers at the city's airports.

Under the law, Abrams could face a potential fine of more than $520,000 dating back to his April 2015 email. King could face a fine of more than $500,000, dating back to his May 2015 email.

Ethics Board Chairman William F. Conlon, however, has signaled the board is unlikely to hand out exorbitant maximum penalties. He argued the panel has the authority to reduce penalties, and it will strive not to be "unreasonable or vindictive about what the fines are."

The rulings issued Friday stated that "the board makes clear that its determination is not intended to question the subject's integrity, character or motivations."

So far, the Emanuel-appointed board has considered 28 cases, and found probable cause for illegal lobbying in 15 of them, sending notifications to those potential violators, records show. The board dropped four of those cases after meeting with individuals involved, found illegal lobbying existed in three cases and is still weighing another eight cases.

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