Schools sue Berrios relative over parking fees

A son-in-law of former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios is being sued by the Chicago Public Schools, which says he failed to pay "no less than" $366,000 under deals that allowed his company to park cars at 10 elementary schools, mostly for baseball fans going to Cubs games last year.

According to the lawsuit filed in Cook County circuit court, James T. Weiss and his parking business stopped paying CPS last April for the right to park cars at three schools closest to Wrigley Field - but kept charging customers to park there anyway.

Weiss, the husband of former state Rep. Maria "Toni" Berrios, has co-owned several parking companies, including Blk & Wht Valet LLC, which has contracted with individual CPS schools near sporting facilities for about eight years to use their parking lots.

On Nov. 19, Weiss told CPS his company would no longer be parking cars on school property. That was in a phone call shortly after the Chicago Tribune reported his offices were raided as part of the federal investigation of now-former state Rep Luis Arroyo. Arroyo has since been charged in a federal bribery case involving unregulated video gambling machines.

Weiss - who also owns Collage LLC, which operates unregulated video terminals known as sweepstakes machines - has been lobbying state and city officials to legalize the machines.

Weiss, 41, of River Grove, hasn't been charged with any crime. He couldn't be reached for comment.

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