Chicago Alderman Jason Ervin's 28th Ward Office: 'A Rathole' - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

Residents of Chicago's 28th Ward say Ald. Jason Ervin's office in the 200 block of North Pulaski looks like a dump.

We walked in with a camera and found missing ceiling tiles, water stains, exposed wires and ducts, dangling extension cords, chips and cracks and stains on the floors, and a propane tank hiding in the corner.

The outside isn't much better. The alderman's office shares space with a wrought iron company, and cars on blocks and cars with flat tires fill the lot, with weeds and garbage littering the front of the property.

So why would Ald. Ervin make his constituents visit such a rundown building?

Perhaps it's because Ervin owns the building.

Before Ervin was appointed last year to his mentor Ald. Ed Smith's seat, he rented this same location to Smith, collecting nearly $95,000 in rent from the City of Chicago.

The City is not paying Ervin to rent his own building, now that he's the alderman. But he still has a problem -- in his statement of economic interest, a form every alderman fills out to report potential conflicts of interest, Ervin fails to disclose the money he got from the city last year.

"If this alderman owns the building and is collecting rent from the city, that's exactly the kind of ownership interest that should have been disclosed," said David Morrison of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Ervin also rents office space to State Sen. Annazette Collins for $900 per month. But Collins' political campaign doesn't pay a dime to use the building, nor does the 28th Ward Democratic Committee, which also keeps an office here.

"It looks like almost all of the money is coming from two of the tenants, both of whom happen to be taxpayer-funded offices," Morrison said.

The last time we tried to talk to Ervin he ducked our camera, and he wouldn't talk to us for this story either.