Michael Lowecki, 47, had admitted bribing Shirley McMayon with cash, vacations, car payments and other kickbacks to secure $8 million in Chicago Park District work for his Mundelein-based business, James Michael Inc.

Lowecki told the judge he has tried to live his life with integrity and apologized to the court and the people of Chicago for his conduct. He said that he “walks in shame” in his Libertyville community and that his family has suffered.

“I have no one to blame but myself,” Lowecki told the judge, adding that he lost a business he had started in college and “subjected my wife and children to public embarrassment.”

According to Lowecki’s February plea, he and Haas first bribed McMayon in May 2000, when they sent her on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. That same year, they bought McMayon two tickets to a Green Bay Packers game.

McMayon was sentenced to 34 months in prison. John Kevin Haas, the former chief operations officer of Lowecki’s firm, was sentenced to 20 months.

McMayon, the Park District’s former director of natural resources, admitted accepting $137,000 in payments from Lowecki’s company.

U.S. District Judge David Coar told Lowecki he thought Lowecki had learned his lesson.

“I hope, unless you’re just stupid, that you’ll never be in another courtroom again,” Coar said. But the judge added that he still needed to send a significant message of deterrence with the sentence.

In December 2000, Lowecki paid for McMayon and her two children to stay at a ski resort in Michigan.

That year, Lowecki’s firm got the bulk of the Park District’s $6.8 million landscaping contract, according to the plea agreement.

Source: Chicago Tribune