Commissioner faces ethics violation over leaked Bears tax appeal info
Cook County’s inspector general has recommended that a county board of review member take ethics training over the leaking of confidential information about the Chicago Bears’ property tax appeal at Arlington Park to the Daily Herald and other media outlets.
Inspector General Tirrell Paxton’s report doesn’t mention Commissioner Samantha Steele by name, but the facts of the case match previously reported details about the internal squabble at the quasi-judicial county agency, which oversees appeals of property assessments.
The Office of the Independent Inspector General determined Steele — only identified in the report as “BOR Official A” — violated the board’s ethics policy when she disclosed confidential information about the Bears’ pending appeal, as well as the duty to remain impartial under the state’s property tax code.
Steele declined to comment Wednesday and so far has not responded to Paxton’s recommendation that she participate in ethics training.
But in March — in response to the board attorney admonishing her for disclosing details about Arlington Park property deliberations — Steele told the Daily Herald that she was “trying to increase transparency within an office that has for far too long been shrouded in secrecy and corruption.”
Paxton pointed to three occasions where Steele violated the ethics policy by disclosing confidential information, including talk of a preliminary agreement over the property value for the 326-acre site that had been reached by senior analysts for Steele and fellow Commissioners Larry Rogers Jr. and George Cardenas.
In February, Steele said the analysts agreed the property should be valued at $138 million, but a day later, Cardenas and Rogers decided to lower the value to $124.7 million.
A spokesman for Cardenas in March denied the commissioner had agreed on the $138 million price tag.
The inspector general’s report also alleged some of Steele’s comments were “indicative of bias” against the Bears, when she indicated in the press that the valuation of the high-profile site correlated to the $197.2 million purchase price paid.
The report says Steele also commented how the appeal would affect funding of local school districts. Those remarks “reflected an interest not in a fair and impartial assessment, but in the funding of intervening school districts,” Paxton wrote.
Paxton’s investigation included interviews with Steele and a manager and employee in her office. The inspector general’s staff also reviewed internal board of review email records, Microsoft Teams chats and media reports.
The identity of the unnamed employee in the report points to Frank Calabrese, who filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit in June against Steele and her chief of staff, Dan Balanoff. Calabrese’s suit claims he was fired in retaliation for speaking to the inspector general and for seeking guidance from board of review attorney Cristin Duffy.
The Bears appealed the board’s valuation of $124.7 million — which would yield a tax bill of $8.9 million — to the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board. The team wants the value reduced to $60 million, which would lower the bill to $1.7 million. A decision is expected early next year.
· Daily Herald staff writer Jake Griffin contributed to this report.