Phony Radio Contract Costs Chicago Official His Job

IN LATE SEPTEMBER THE CITY OF CHICAGO Inspector General’s office disclosed that the first deputy of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Jim Argiropoulos had issued a bogus contract for 18,000 spare parts from Motorola and spent the $2.25 million on a radio console upgrade that was never built. See the Firegeezer report HERE from September 29. At the time, the IG recommended that Argiropoulos be fired from his $149,832-a-year job.

On Tuesday it was announced that he has resigned to avoid being fired. He cleaned out his desk over the weekend and has departed while using up his leave until the end of this month. By resigning, he is protecting his pension which could be jeopardized if he was fired. He also stands to lose it if he is convicted of a felony related to his office.

agiropoulis a

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting:

The alleged irregularities took place in 2004 and 2005 while Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman was running OEMC.

Huberman has accepted responsibility for what the inspector general has called a “significant management failure” that set the stage for the contracting scheme.

Sources said he has also ordered Adrienne Hiegel, his top deputy at OEMC at the time, to take a 30-day suspension.

The inspector general’s office has said Hiegel was so complicit in the phony voucher scheme, she should be fired if she still worked for the city. She was specifically accused of directing underlings to “work backwards to get to $2.25 million — the cost of developing the Motorola software — by using 18,000 radio parts to add up to” the same amount.

On the surface, it appears that there could still be a chance of a criminal charge arising from this scheme.

Read the full STORY HERE.

Featured from across Fire/EMS

Carter

I have worked with Jimmy for many years. This cold hearted man will not be missed. His was a rare combination of evil and self worth. known by many. His ego was perpetually matched by his unethical methods of steering vendors and his staff by instilling fear. He brought us an abundance BS as he took other vendors and his own staff ideas and made them his own. He is an dis-heartening person and has underminded Orozco behind close doors. He expected 110% every day from employees and vendors alike and because of this many will say he was a tyrant and he was and wasn't well respected. As several who worked for him during his tenure will affirm, he was no good for the City. He is blamed for something that he should go to jail for. He is evil who has fallen from the sky to ground. We will unquestionably acknowledge him as a no good Manager who was very insecure and gave one no credit but himself for all that has been accomplished at 911. There' no I in Team and Argirop did not know and now there's no JA at OEMC.