Lawyer for Chicago in O'Hare expansion project has ties to DuPage County chief

A few years ago, the DuPage County board and its chairman, Bob Schillerstrom, were adamantly opposed to the expansion of O'Hare Airport. Then suddenly and without public warning, Schillerstrom engineered a board vote to reverse that long-held position. Expansion opponents expressed their belief that Schillerstrom, his board members and their friends were promised a quid pro quo for changing their position. Schillerstrom and the rest, of course, denied it.

Now we learn that a former law associate of Schillerstrom's has received tens of thousands of dollars for O'Hare legal work, work that would never have the way of anyone who would have opposed the expansion. Schillerstrom also has benefited in other ways, such as strengthening his connections on the RTA board.

Here is the Tribune article that disclosed the legal work:

A former law firm associate of DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom has been paid more than $112,000 representing Chicago in routine real estate transactions related to the proposed expansion of O'Hare International Airport.

William Thomas made $112,623 between April 2005 and April 22 of this year, according to records obtained by the Tribune. Thomas was hired by the city just months after Schillerstrom closed his law office and began working as a partner in a local office of the Indianapolis-based law firm Ice Miller.

And Thomas' hiring by Chicago came two years after Schillerstrom made an abrupt about-face on the $15 billion airport expansion and modernization. DuPage County had fought the project after it was announced in 2001, but in January 2003, without advance notice, Schillerstrom introduced a resolution in support of it.

Both Thomas and Schillerstrom say Schillerstrom did nothing to help Thomas land the contract, which as a professional service was not competitively bid.