Does this offend the Occupy Wall Street crowd.

Ex-Madigan worker gets $213,418 from city pension, three government jobs

BY TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO WITH THE BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

Kenneth E. Pannaralla — once a top precinct captain for Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan — has made a good living in government.

Pannaralla, 63, gets a pension from the city of Chicago in addition to the three paychecks from his three current government jobs, including one as the executive director of the Southwest Home Equity Assurance Program, a government agency created under a law Madigan co-sponsored.

Madigan, who is also chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, also gave Pannaralla’s daughter, Jennifer Pannaralla, a one-year legislative scholarship in 2003 to the University of Illinois at Chicago. And Pannaralla’s son, Kenneth, is paid $24,000 a year as an aide to Madigan.

Pannaralla makes a total of $213,418 a year, including:

†A $94,551 yearly pension from the city of Chicago, where he worked for 28 years, retiring under an early-retirement program passed by the Madigan-led Illinois Legislature that allowed him to buy an additional five years of service. Half of that pension goes to Pannaralla’s ex-wife under their divorce settlement, court records show.

Pannaralla, who has a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Chicago State University, served as chief sanitarian for the city’s health department under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Pannaralla was later promoted to first deputy commissioner of the city’s building department. He retired as a $105,396-a-year deputy commissioner of the planning and development department on Feb. 29. 2004.

†A $74,983 annual salary from the Southwest Home Equity Assurance Program, where he’s been executive director since May 2004. He previously served on its board of directors, appointed by Daley in November 2001.

†A $32,779-a-year salary from the village of Bridgeview, where he’s a part-time manager of property development and management. He’s worked for Bridgeview for 20 years, having started as a health inspector at the same time he was chief sanitarian for the city of Chicago.

“My assignments in the village of Bridgeview,” he says, “have included, among other things: health inspections, food-borne illness investigations, establishment health reports, complaint investigations, new-establishment licensure inspections, business-plan reviews, tax-increment financing district development, new-business procurement, various committee assignments, Toyota Park stadium development assignments, various property-management tasks and other related assignments as requested by both Mayors [John] Oremus and [Steven] Landek.”

†A $11,105 annual salary from the village of Alsip, where he has been part-time health commissioner since April 2006. “He basically supervises our health officer,” says Alsip Mayor Patrick Kitching. “He’s not here on a daily basis. . . . All he does is look over the shoulder of our health officer and fulfill a legal requirement for us” to have a microbiologist on staff.

Pannaralla also has two unpaid government posts. He’s a member of the Illinois Board of Health Practitioners. And he serves on Chicago’s Midway Noise Compatibility Commission, one of three people representing Madigan’s 13th Ward.

Madigan didn’t respond to a request for comment about Pannaralla, who lives near Madigan.

Pannaralla acknowledges his longtime relationship with Madigan, saying: “The speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Michael J. Madigan, has been the elected representative in my home district for many years. I once served my neighbors as a volunteer precinct representative in my neighborhood for over 25 years. I do not serve in that capacity currently.’’

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