Protectors of Pagano's Metra: The Way to Really Hide?

"Metra. The Way to Really Hide."

That jingle would be appear to have been apropos for some top employees at Chicago's commuter rail agency in the wake of the latest public corruption scandal.

In the wrongdoing admitted so far, Metra investigators say almost $500,000 was stolen by agency Executive Director Phil Pagano in the name of vacation time reimbursement.

While Pagano's hand may have been the only one in the cookie jar, there must have been some eyes wide shut as he looted the time-off till.

Of course these are my cynical words. In dry terminology - seemingly removed from the spin cycle - Metra wants it known as "compensation irregularity" as if it could be cured by a legislative laxative.

A 17-page report, quickly prepared after Mr. Pagano's fall from a glorious and acclaimed tenure, is careful to place virtually all the blame squarely where it cannot be challenged - with Pagano himself.

The longtime Metra executive director was laid to rest last week following his suicide that came just before a lucrative vacation-pay scam was about to be exposed by the agency board.

The wide-eyed horror expressed at Mr. Pagano's behavior had an effect that he may or may not have intended: it misdirected public attention from cronies, functionaries, politicos and enablers at Metra and probably elsewhere.

When a man who is in charge of the trains, stands in front of one, staring down an engineer who he knows will never be the same, it tends to be somewhat unnerving and command public attention.

In Pagano's case, it was like the "sweet Georgia Brown punch" that a boxer friend of mine used to throw. Hold up the left hand like a stop sign, get your opponent to look at it and then knock him out with a right hook.

While a top fighter may be in the ring alone, it always takes a few other people to get him there - from financial backers to trainer to business manager.

And so it was with Phil Pagano, 60, from Crystal Lake.

From 1999 to 2010, Pagano "violated Metra's vacation policy" by obtaining $475,000 in public funds as a result of cashing out all (or most) of his vacation time at the beginning of the calendar year."

Further, according to Metra's investigation, he took the money regardless of whether he actually took the time off during the year - including a trip to Florida in April as the scandal was about to boil over.

This was on top of his $269,000 a year public transit salary that put him past Mayor Daley and Gov. Quinn in base compensation.

"Other than Mr. Pagano, however, we did not find evidence of any other Metra employees seeking to enrich themselves at the public's expense" states the official investigation.

Please.

Corruption never exists in a vacuum. Facilitators enrich themselves not always with cash, but perhaps with power or position.

Metra officials, obviously looking for a clean break, blame the Pagano mess on a "culture of trust and loyalty to Pagano."

"No one was willing to tell Phil no," Metra-hired attorney James G. Sotos was quoted as saying in Saturday's Daily Herald.

So if no one was willing to tell Phil no, that implies the obvious: underlings at Metra knew what he was up to and were willing to do nothing.

In June 2008, Pagano was even given back vacation pay totaling $43,000 for time he was shorted! Talk about compound interest.

The extra vacation pay was described in a memo from Metra's human resources director, so obviously somebody was looking at the books.

Despite Metra's "see no evil" response, board members and top officials should have noticed cracks in Pagano's halo long ago.

Consider 2002, when lobbyist Roger "The Hog" Stanley of Burr Ridge pleaded guilty to federal charges that he greased Metra board member Donald Udstuen to land more than $4 million in Metra contracts.

It was no short-term deal either.

"It is particularly disturbing when... the bribery takes place over more than a decade," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

That scheme went on for 15 years, from 1985 to 2000, the prime time that Mr. Pagano was riding shotgun for Metra. Even after that bribery scheme was uncovered by federal authorities, the transit agency's response was deny, deny, deny.

"Our system of checks and balances prohibits this type of action from occurring, and, in fact, no one improperly influenced the awarding of these contracts" was Metra's official statement.

If officials at Metra did know about the bribes, they should have been dumped. If not, they should have just been fired for stupidity. Reprehensibly, some of the same people are still there in top positions.

These include Metra employees and executives who "handled" Pagano's requests for cash payouts for vacation time going back to 1990 including several occasions where he forged the signature of the chairman of the board.

If it was all OK, I suggest you try the same approach on the train when the Metra conductor asks for your ticket:

"I've had a compensation irregularity. But I am a loyal, trustworthy commuter and will pay you later. Thank you."

Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by email at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie