In the Congress Hotel’s lawsuit against 2nd Ward Ald. Robert Fioretti, hotel lawyers are trying to demonstrate that Fioretti’s alleged use of “aldermanic prerogative” prevented the hotel from opening a sidewalk cafe on Michigan Avenue.
Their lawsuit alleges use of such prerogative violates the hotel’s rights equal protection rights guaranteed under the Constitution. It says the alderman is unfairly intervening in a labor dispute governed by federal law by conditioning permits on the resolution of the six-year-old strike at the hotel.
Fioretti’s city lawyers have denied the claim, saying the hotel cannot prove that aldermen have categorical veto power over permissions and permits in their wards.
Day one of the trial featured testimony from Fioretti himself and Fioretti advisor Hanah Jubeh as well as ousted 2nd Ward Ald.Madeline Haithcock and Ariel Adkins, an architect of the hotel.
The first new witness on July 9, day two of the trial, was Ty Tabing, executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance, a business organization that promotes growth downtown.
With Tabing on the stand, the hotel scored a little victory, convincing Judge Guzman to admit into the record a June 13, 2007 e-mail Tabing sent to senior city planning officials about the hotel and its expansion plans.
City lawyers defending Fioretti objected to the exhibit being entered into the record because of what they said was hearsay within the document.
But after sustaining the city's objections a couple of times, Judge Guzman allowed the document in under the business records exception to hearsay rules.
At that point, when the document was admitted and published into the record, Congress president Shlomo Nahmias turned to a spectator sitting on a bench in the courtroom, smiled and gave a thumbs up.
In the e-mail, as read in a question by hotel lawyer Peter Andjelkovich, Tabing wrote to city officials that, following a June 12, 2007 meeting about the Congress he and a CLA board member had with Fioretti, Tabing didn’t sense that "any new development" at the Congress was going to happen "until the strike was resolved."
During cross examination by city lawyer Karen Dorff, Tabing explained that he wrote what he wrote in the e-mail based on what Dorff called an “intonation” from the alderman — something he picked up during the June 12, 2007 meeting.
Then there was this exchange. Dorff’s questions are bolded; the questions and answers are paraphrased.


On redirect by Andjelkovich, with his questions bolded:


Later in the redirect there was this:


Dorff, taking one more crack, then got Tabing testify the CLA had concerns about the Congress’ rooftop expansion back in June 2006.


Henry Tamarin, president of Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents the approximately 130 Congress Hotel housekeepers who have been striking the hotel over wage, benefit and other issues since 2003, took the stand.
Andjelkovich’s questions dealt with contacts between Tamarin and Ald. Fioretti’s office and other city officials. You have had dialogue with the alderman about approvals for permits, he asked at one point.
We have been opposed to the permit with him and other aldermen, Tamarin said.
Why discuss with the alderman an approval for a sidewalk cafe?
“We think the Congress has been a bad actor not only toward its employees” but also to the city as whole, Tamarin responded.
As with other witness, Andjelkovich tried to establish the Local 1’s fight against the permits and aldermanic response to that; city lawyers sought to demonstrate that Tamarin, as president of a local union and an executive vice president in the international rung of the union’s structure, had much on his plate in their cross-examination.
That single hotel is not the still point in your turning world day to day, is it, asked city lawyer Dorff.
Correct, Tamarin responded.
And Ald. Fioretti is not the still point in your turning world.
Correct.
Andjelkovich took a different tack in the redirect — he had previously asked Tamarin if he had Fioretti’s cell phone number in his cell. (Yes was the answer.)
He asked Tamarin to take out his phone and go to the address book.
"Go ahead sir," Andjelkovich said after the phone was on and Judge Guzman overruled a city objection.
"I’m scrolling," Tamarin said.
He started to find a few numbers and read them out loud — "Richard M. Daley," "Aldermanic Information," "Alderman Burke," "Jesse White."
"Is there a point to this?" Guzman asked Andjelkovich.
"I thought he’d be quick," the hotel lawyer admitted.
Andjelkovich then started to ask about the "Aldermanic information" listing Tmarin had mentioned.
Guzman cut off the exercise.

The last person to complete his testimony on July 9, day two of the trial, was Bernard Citron, a zoning attorney who worked to get the Congress Hotel Plan Commission approval of its rooftop expansion project. I'll provide some details about Cintron's testimony in an upcoming post. The trial resumes at 10 a.m. July 12 in courtroom 1219 in the federal building at 219 S. Dearborn.