First, Chicagoans were told hosting the Olympics would not come at the taxpayers’ expense.
Now, the City Council has approved a $500-million guarantee and is considering a$500-million insurance policy. To see if Mayor Daley and 2016 CEO Pat Ryan are playing games to get the games, reporter Dane Placko asked an interrogation expert to study their body language. Call it a leap of faith, a run for our money. Chicago’s Olympic bid has been a gut check for this city. But with just over two months to go, are you worried somebody could be pulling punches?
“I would be highly skeptical.”
So says Perry Myers from MSI Detective Services, right here in town. His specialty – detecting deceit.
He says: “We’re trained to see certain movements as suspect. The breathing, the eyes, I’ll look at skin texture to see if there’s perspiration, I’ll look at the neck to watch the pulse.”
We asked Perry to look at five clips of 2016 CEO Pat Ryan and five clips of Mayor Richard Daley. In a couple of clips, there was nothing suspicious. But in others, Perry felt they were being less than forthcoming. Maybe not lying but possibly withholding information.
For starters he’s intrigued by Ryan’s voice inflection when answering a question at a press conference last month.
Ryan said: “It is highly unlikely that could eat through that could go through that amount of money.”
Perry’s analysis? “Highly unlikely…It may be something you want to examine or think about.”
Perry says Ryan’s exaggerated tone is often used by people when they’re over-compensating for overstating the truth.
He adds: “There’s no full disclosure there.”
Another eye opener for Perry, Ryan’s eye movements at a press conference in January of ’08 when discussing the legacy of the Olympic Vllage.
He says: “A couple times when he looked up, he looked up into the air where there wasn’t anyone so my interpretation is as a trained speaker you speak to the audience and the audience is not up here, it’s over here.”
The movement – subtle and slight but significant because Perry says it’s the only time Ryan looks away… a reflex when some people have something to hide.
He says: “They’re things they’re not saying that they want to keep private or not tell the whole truth.”
In 2007, Mayor Daley said: “The Olympics must not be a burden to the people of Chicago or Illinois.”
Perry notices “He touches the side of his face one time. It’s an unusual gesture, normal would be 2,3,4 times scratching, but when you bring it up you rarely go like that. He may have been holding something inside, not telling the truth, or not telling all of the truth.”
Perry’s also intrigued by Daley’s actions when our crew caught him at the airport after promising in Switzerland he would sign the IOC contract.
The mayor said: “All the cities were represented, Japanese, Spain, Brazil spend taxpayer money. We don’t spend taxpayer money.”
Perry observes: “He’s blinking a lot. A few words are jumbled. We’re not getting 100% disclosure.”
We asked Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp, a local consulting firm, if he feels the 2016 team has been dishonest.
He said: “There were times they danced around answers to questions they really didn’t want to answer but that’s not the same as lying about it.”
He tells us he doesn’t believe they’ve been misleading but at times they had to be careful not to give up sensitive information to the competition. Our skepticism, Ganis believes, comes from a legacy of shady Chicago politics.
He believes: “2016 is simply paying a price for generations of less than truthfulness and less than transparency for generations.”
Since he could not see Ryan and Daley speak in person, Perry can’t say for sure whether his analysis is completely correct. But he believes by looking for clues, actions do speak louder than words.
He says: “Mayor Daley, Mr. Ryan, they’re trying to get something and they’re going to present it in the best possible light.”
Because with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, none of us have money to burn.
How Chicagoans feel about Ryan, Daley, and the 2016 Olympics is actually very important to the International Olympic Committee.
As we speak, the IOC is conducting its own surveys in the four finalist cities which can weigh heavily on how the members vote.
