Scam of the week: Sam Conti

Months ago a Sam Yoon supporter who used to work at City Hall read my blog post about how the City Councilor's hire staff and pay them different amounts of money for different time periods, essentially giving their staff bonuses which public employees are not supposed to get. This Yoon supporter read my blog and saw that one of the recent hires was Councilor Steven Murphy hiring a gentleman named Sam Conti (whom I had never heard of). This Yoon supporter wrote to me and told me that insiders knew that Sam Conti was a patronage hire, and that he was someone who almost never came to City Hall except to get a paycheck, and that he was a vote getter for Murphy in Hyde Park.

The first question in my mind was: if this guy supports Yoon why doesn't he tell Sam Yoon about it since Yoon is only a few feet away from Murphy's office and if Yoon is allegedly a reformer he would want to do something about it. Yoon has said we can't afford to waste any money in these tough times. I'm just an outsider who hates to see money wasted while we are laying off teachers, but I have no power. Yoon could actually do something about it.

But, my curiousity was piqued and over the course of a couple months if I had a spare moment I would call City Hall and ask for Steve Murphy's office and ask to speak to Sam Conti. Sure enough he was never in. I would ask when he would be in, or when he was last there and was never given a definitive answer. I saw Councilor Murphy at the elections department and asked him who Sam was and Steve said that Sam was his chief of staff. Maybe I'm naive about government, but wouldn't you want your chief of staff to come to the office every once in a while?

So, if you are wondering where all your increased taxes are going, why not call up Councilor Murphy's office and ask to speak to Sam Conti and ask him? Maybe you will have better luck than me.