Obama-funded boondoggle being investigated by Illinois AG

One consistent theme of Barack Obama's political philosophy is that there is no problem that government spending can't solve. It's a fool's premise, because it doesn't take into account bad decisions, incompetence, or corruption.

In 2000, then state-Senator Barack Obama spearheaded a $100,000 grant for the construction of a botanic garden in Chicago's impoverished Englewood neighborhood. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is now investigating the grant.

Englewood was not in Obama's Senate district, but it was within the boundaries of Illinois' 1st Congressional district. In 2000, Obama challenged incumbent Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary--Rush delivered Obama a stinging defeat.

Outside of a gazebo, which looks like the kind you can by at a Home Depot, there is no visible evidence that anything had been done with the money. The cash went to Kenny B. Smith, who not only donated $550 to Obama's political fund, but was also served as an Obama campaign volunteer.

Smith claims most of the money went to underground site preparation.

Two months ago I visited the site and took the photos you see, and although I'm not a landscape architect, my impression at the time was that nothing had been done underground. The "park," which is centered around 61st Street and Princeton, consists of land that was occupied by long-ago demolished homes and businesses. There is no visible rubble, but when I walked around the lots, I could tell that there was quite a bit of compacted debris below the thin level of top-soil. The 100 grand was to be seed money $1.1 million was estimated to be needed to build the garden. But Obama said at the time that he would "work tirelessly" to raise the rest of the money.

Well, Obama didn't do that. Now he's running for president where he'll have a lot more than $100,000 to dole out. (Please spare me the civics lessons, I am aware that Congress authorizes funds, but the president signs the legislation.)

The Chicago Sun-Times broke the story in July.

Since then, the paper has learned that no construction permit was ever taken out for the work Smith described. A contractor that Smith said did most of the work only graded that land with a bulldozer and cut down some tree--he did nothing underground.

Rodolfo Marin was the contractor, and although he couldn't remember how much he got paid for the work--and he couldn't have done much grading--but told the Sun-Times recently, If he spent about $3,000 with me, that was too much."

Where did the rest go? From today's Chicago Sun-Times:

And now state records obtained by the Sun-Times show $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood.

Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan -- a Democrat who is supporting Obama's presidential bid -- is investigating "whether this charitable organization properly used its charitable assets, including the state funds it received," Cara Smith, Madigan's deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday.

In addition to the 2001 grant that Obama directed to the housing association as a "member initiative," the not-for-profit group got a separate $20,000 state grant in 2006.

Madigan's office has notified the Obama campaign of the investigation, but Obama is not a target of the probe.

But this incident raises serious questions. Did Obama "work tireless" to get the garden built? Was his promise just grandstanding?

And if Obama did work tirelessly for the garden, then he failed miserably.

Related posts:

Obama's $100,000 boondoggle

Obama: What's going on with Cairo, Illinois' abandoned hospital?

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