A company that fostered friendships with powerful local fire officials, including Chicago Fire Commissioner Louis Galante, has developed a virtual monopoly over the City of Chicago`s multimillion-dollar fire truck equipment business.
The nation`s biggest manufacturers say they can`t compete for contracts here because the city`s technical bid specifications favor the fire truck supplied by Able Fire Equipment Co., of suburban Frankfort.
As a result, Able-which sells gear ranging from giant fire trucks to liquid foam-frequently has been the sole bidder on major contracts, which city officials concede places them in the precarious, possibly expensive position of having to accept whatever price the company offers.
”The City of Chicago is owned by Able Fire Equipment,” said James Glazebrook, president of Glazebrook Fire Equipment, a competitor located in Peoria. ”We don`t even call the City of Chicago.”
”Chicago is unique to the nation,” said Stuart Rafos, president of the Wisconsin-based Seagrave Fire Apparatus, which supplies giant trucks with hydraulic ladders to New York, Los Angeles and other major cities and was once a major Chicago supplier. ”We don`t know of another major city that buys major equipment without getting bidders. We`re the largest manufacturer, and we don`t even receive requests for bids.”
Galante, while acknowledging a long friendship with Robert Benker, Able`s president, said the company gets big contracts because it has the best equipment and is run by an aggressive, savvy salesman who keeps track of the city`s needs. And he said that Benker has also been close to his predecessors. ”There must be a hundred fire chiefs across the state that were literally raised with Bob Benker,” Galante said.
Indeed, Benker, a former vitamin salesman who built a multimillion-dollar business by selling custom-tailored equipment to fire departments, has worked hard to nurture friendships among city and suburban officials.
In 1974, Benker and his partners paid Galante, then an up-and-coming battalion chief, and his partner, then-Joliet Fire Chief Edward J. Peters, about $325,000 for the Frankfort building that now houses Able`s headquarters. Galante said he and Peters each made about $20,000 profit in the transaction. Last year, an Able salesman, former River Forest Fire Chief Thomas Riley, recommended that the Norwood Park Fire Protection District hire Galante to design its new fire house, according to former Norwood Park Fire Chief Rocco Olita.
Galante-who said he had not done any design work for nine years when he got the call from Olita-received $35,000 for the project. The state is now investigating whether Galante, because he is not a licensed architect, violated the law by designing the building at 7447 W. Lawrence Ave., Harwood Heights.
The Norwood Park Fire Protection District provides fire protection to Harwood Heights, Norridge and unincorporated Norwood Park Township.
Galante-who said he has also designed fire houses in Frankfort, Wonder Lake, Wheeling and Joliet-said he saved Norwood Park money because an architectural firm had said it would charge up to $125,000 for the same work. Riley has worked for Able for more than 15 years, said Benker, including the time he served as the River Forest fire chief. Another Able salesman was Ray Antonucci, who like Galante was a rising Chicago fire official in the 1970s. While serving as a division fire marshal at the time, Antonucci moonlighted by selling Able equipment to restaurants and bars, said Benker. Antonucci no longer works for Able, Benker said.
Able`s ability to win Chicago contracts has been crucial to its success. In 1987, for example, the company projected annual sales for that year of between $4.5 million and $5 million. By the end of that year, it had done $1.3 million in city work; during the first nine months of this year, Able had already received $3.5 million in city contracts.
The company has won more than $8.7 million in city contracts since January, 1983, the first year covered by records in the city Purchasing Department`s computer.
The company`s success in getting business here also provides another example of how a handful of companies have gained apparent monopolies over portions of the city`s business. City officials have cited similar
strangleholds by politically connected companies like Waste Management Inc., which disposes of much of the city`s garbage, and Consumer Tire and Supply, which supplied tires and truck parts until a federal investigation of its relationship with local government.
Galante said that one reason Able has few competitors is that some companies avoid seeking business in Chicago because of the city`s reputation for corruption and patronage, a reputation he says is now undeserved.
Galante talked about his friendship with Benker during a wide-ranging interview about recent controversies in his administration. During the discussion, he acknowledged for the first time that he ”fudged” not only his resume but also his city personnel file by claiming he had a bachelor`s degree. He said he did so because he is embarrassed that he never was graduated from college.
Galante said he met Benker during the 1960s, when Benker was an official of the city`s volunteer civil defense corps.
Benker, whose brother is a Chicago Fire Department dispatcher, said he eventually became second-in-command of the city`s civil defense forces. The job put him in constant touch with Chicago fire officials and firefighters, including Galante, then a battalion commander.
”I always wanted to be a fireman,” Benker said. ”We became good friends.”
By the 1960s, Benker`s increasing knowledge of firefighting equipment, and his ties to firefighters, caught the eye of fire equipment manufacturers, who persuaded him to give up his job selling vitamins and become a distributor.
By Benker`s account, the business expanded quickly. In 1974, he and two partners began looking for bigger quarters, preferably in the suburbs, where land prices then were much cheaper than those in the city. At some point, Galante dropped by Able headquarters to discuss equipment, Benker said, and the partners told him of their plans.
Galante volunteered that he and Peters owned a large site in Frankfort, in Will County. Able eventually purchased the property.
Galante said the transaction with a major city contractor did not represent a conflict of interest.
”I was a battalion chief,” he said. ”Are you saying they bought that building because they knew I`d end up fire chief? Come on.”
Able sold its first trucks to the city in 1976, Galante said. But it did not begin making major sales until 1982, when the city began spending millions to upgrade the fleet. It was a year before Galante became commissioner.
Before 1982, Seagrave sold the city most of its high-ladder aerial trucks, which can cost up to $300,000, according to company president Rafos.
In late 1982, however, Seagrave lost out to Able, although Able`s trucks cost $20,000 more, Rafos said.
”For whatever reason, the business went to Emergency One,” said Rafos, referring to the Ocala, Fla., firm that supplies Benker. ”Since then, I can`t say we`ve heard from the City of Chicago. We don`t understand it.”
Galante, who became fire commissioner in August, 1983, said the city decided to favor aluminum trucks because its fleet of steel trucks is rusting. But Rafos and other suppliers said the city`s bid specifications clearly favor aluminum trucks manufactured by Emergency One.
”I see the specs they send in, and we don`t bid on them,” said Tom Nist, sales manager for fire apparatus for American LaFrance, one of the biggest fire truck manufacturers in the country. ”It seemed like it was an E- One spec, so we just passed them by.”
Galante said the city`s initial truck orders in the late 1970s and early 1980s may have favored Emergency One. But although the written specifications still favor Able`s equipment, Galante said, the Fire Department now allows other companies to offer exceptions to those specifications, under certain conditions.
Nonetheless, this year, Able won four big Chicago contracts for fire equipment, totaling more than $1 million. For three of those, it was the only bidder. In the fourth, another company won but backed out because it couldn`t supply the equipment.
