On the Republican side, 39th Ward leader Nicholas Marrandino was hired by the school district for a BRT job in 2002 despite repeated convictions between 1973 and 1993 for receiving stolen property. Marrandino, who declined to comment, left the BRT in 2005 and was rehired in March.
Meehan said he was not aware of Marrandino's record when he pushed him for the job.
All applicants, including the BRT patronage workers, undergo criminal background checks but are not barred unless they have committed serious crimes within the previous five years.
Former state representative Shadding got a job at the agency in 1997 despite a federal conviction for attempting to bribe a parole officer.
Shadding declined to comment: "You got all the information on me," he said.
Brady dodged questions about whether he helped Shadding get in at the BRT, saying only: "I think people with criminal records should have a second chance."
These low-level patronage jobs also serve as a kind of feeder system for the real work of the BRT - setting property values.
Dozens of the clerks, after getting in-house training, have graduated to positions of authority at the BRT, Foglia and board members said.
For example, the board's acting chief assessor, Barry Mescolotto, is the son of a former committeeman. He started as a patronage clerk, got a degree at Temple University, and switched to a job as a city-paid evaluator.
The board members say patronage works as a kind of apprenticeship program that's produced some fine assessors. But if they could get the school-district money with no strings attached, they say, they would do things differently.
"If we had an agreement that we could use that money for anything we want, would we use it for evaluators?" Nix asked. "Absolutely."
'Very quiet up there'
