A WTTW News review of state campaign filings and Aurora public records shows a company that donated more than $135,000 to political funds connected to gubernatorial candidate Mayor Richard Irvin also received millions in city contracts.
Scientel Solutions is an Aurora-based telecommunications company that bills itself as a “technology integrator,” and has contracted with municipal governments to specialize “in networking, drone defense, security and smart city solutions.”
Scientel also routed $68,500 in additional donations to a political action committee connected to Irvin called “Build R Future.” The PAC was formed in February 2019 and is run by Dennis Cook, who also served as campaign manager for Irvin’s 2017 and 2021 mayoral bids. Nearly all of the PAC’s expenditures were to a political consulting firm that Cook runs called Strive Strategies.
Three months later in January 2018, and after convincing from Irvin, the council reversed course and approved the project in a 7-5 vote. Campaign records show that Irvin received a $10,000 donation from Scientel in April of that year. CyrusOne later sued both the Aurora City Council and Scientel, alleging Scientel’s new tower would interfere with the function of its own tower. The lawsuit was settled in 2019 but the terms have not been disclosed.
In 2018, Irvin told the Aurora Beacon-News that he never speaks to companies about campaign donations, and that the City Council’sA former Aurora council member who supported the project both times said Irvin strong-armed council members to change their votes. “Over the past four years, Scientel Solutions has been a stalwart corporate citizen in Aurora, funding community organizations that focus on mitigating homelessness and supporting veterans in both Aurora and Naperville,” Muhammed said.
, “If your computer in Illinois gets the information to your computer in New Jersey a few microseconds faster than everyone else’s, then you can beat everyone else and buy stocks and get rich.”speculated it was Citadel Securities, the trading firm owned by the main benefactor of Irvin’s campaign for governor, Ken Griffin.
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