O’Halloran Contacted Chief McCarthy ‘Regularly’ About Metra Affairs

Tim McCarthy said he wasn’t surprised when Brad O’Halloran first contacted him about advising Metra in police and security matters.

“Brad has contacted me regularly about Metra affairs,” said the Orland Park police chief. “It’s no surprise. I’m his police chief. Though after we discussed it several weeks ago, we realized it’d have to go through the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.”

On July 10, O’Halloran spoke before the Regional Transportation Authority board to offer the reasoning into a severance package for former Metra CEO Alex Clifford that could be worth as much as $718,000. During the meeting, O’Halloran also described various Metra initiatives including one on security measures that would involve a “blue ribbon advisory panel” comprised of police chiefs from around Metra’s routes, and led by McCarthy.

McCarthy said early this week that after meeting twice with Metra Deputy Executive Director Alex Wiggins they found the intended function of the advisory panel is already a regular task of the chiefs association.

“They perform assessments on police departments and other similar efforts, so it’s logical that they would do it,” McCarthy said. “It would make far more sense for them to do it than us.”

O’Halloran resigned from both the Metra and Orland Park boards last week amid mounting scrutiny. Clifford accused him of applying political pressure to make personnel and contract decisions, along with former Metra board member Larry Huggins and House Speaker Michael Madigan, while addressing the RTA board on July 17.

Last week, it was revealed that O’Halloran had received 16 months of compensation from Orland Park for his role as a trustee, while receiving compensation as a Metra director, which is in violation of state law. O’Halloran repaid the money in July.

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