10302003 - News Article - Pastrick says Post-Tribune story 'immoral'

Pastrick says Post-Tribune story 'immoral' 

Post-Tribune (IN)
October 30, 2003

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East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick angrily denied knowledge of a drug kingpin working on behalf of his administration. 

Pastrick responded Wednesday to a Post-Tribune investigation, which detailed how one contractor involved in illegal city work in 1999 said he took orders from East Chicago resident Ronald Markowski. 

In a 1983 federal indictment, Markowski was identified as the head of an international cocaine trafficking operation. 

"I don't know this person," Pastrick said after an unrelated news conference. "I have never had any dealings with this person." 

But Dave Johnson, owner of Munster-based Dave's Tree Service, said in a Sunday story that Markowski was his City Hall contact, delivering orders and approving payment for work done in 1999. 

City records show no record of Markowski ever having been employed by the city. 

But records show no contracts were signed for more than $20 million in city work done in 1999, including paving, tree removal and electrical work on private property. 

Federal prosecutors, who have so far indicted six city officials for coordinating that work, say the work was done to encourage votes for Pastrick . 

Pastrick declined to return calls seeking comment last week, but after reading of the Markowski ties, Pastrick said he was "distraught" by the story and said the Post-Tribune was "immoral" for writing it. 

Pastrick said he then talked with "two or three departments (heads) to find out if they had any communication with this person, whomever he is, and they denied it. 

"I was ready to do some drastic things. I talked to my attorneys and I cooled down." 

Markowski, reached at his East Chicago home last week, would neither confirm nor deny acting on behalf of the city, and instead berated both Johnson and officials at City Hall. 

But state and city records show Johnson was getting orders from somewhere to remove dozens of city trees. 

State audits have determined Dave's Tree Service did at least $130,000 in city-sanctioned work on private property. 

Johnson said it was Markowski who asked him, in early 1999, if his company would be interested in "some city work." 

Markowski, he said, got a daily list from someone at City Hall, listing which trees the city would pay to have removed. 

Johnson gave Markowski his prices, he said, and Markowski would "say 'yea' or 'nay.'" 

Johnson said Markowski served as his conduit to City Hall and also introduced him to Calumet Concrete owner Bob Velligan, whose company paved millions of dollars in sidewalks and driveways across the city. 

Johnson said he was told to submit invoices to Velligan, who, he said, would include a substantial markup before submitting the bills to the city. 

Johnson said their arrangement resulted in only one payment, though, leading him to sue Velligan for the hundreds of thousands he said he was due. 

After a city audit determined Dave's Tree Service was due money, Johnson said, Velligan settled the lawsuit. 

But in spite of Johnson's detailed descriptions of the arrangement and the court-record-backed financial settlement, Pastrick said he doesn't know where Dave's Tree Service got its orders to do work. 

And, Pastrick insisted, Markowski was not acting on behalf of his administration. 

"Nobody knows of him," Pastrick said. "They (department heads) don't have any idea that there was a connection." 

Tim Raykovich, special assistant to Pastrick , said the story "knocked our socks off." 

Raykovich said, "I've never heard his (Markowski's) name. I don't think anyone in City Hall knew who this guy was." 

Markowski was one of 41 people indicted in 1983, as part of "Operation Skycaine," a federal investigation into cocaine being smuggled from Colombia into the United States. 

Sentenced to 45 years in prison, he served 10 years and court records related to his early release have been sealed. 

Markowski mingled with the elite of the drug world, including those tied to former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega and famed Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar. 

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment on Markowski.