From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: The Stench Intensifies In Mayor Richard M. Daley's Chicago

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The Stench Intensifies In Mayor Richard M. Daley's Chicago

September 22, 2005

Three more federal grand jury indictments today in a probe of alleged politicking at taxpayer expense in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune reports (free reg. req.). Though this sort of stuff is nothing new, the extent of corruption in Chicago city government under Mayor Richard M. Daley is increasingly apparent, and reviled.

That's because it's already years after a federal court order called the Shakman Decree, prompted by nefarious Chicago City Hall practices, was supposed to end the assignment of political hacks to no-show or low-show city jobs in return for their doing campaign work on behalf of Democratic, mayorally-branded candidates.

More on today's indictments - and the backstory - from The Trib:

A federal grand jury today indicted three city officials in addition to two previously charged with rigging the hiring and promotion process in Chicago City Hall.
...Between 1993 and July 2005, the indictment alleged, they and other schemers ran the sham hiring system to give jobs and promotions to "preselected" individuals. People were awarded jobs and promotions in exchange for their work on behalf of the political campaigns of candidates for mayor, alderman, Congress, statewide office and the Illinois General Assembly, the indictment stated.

...The charges grew out of the federal government's 18-month investigation of (the city's patronage-laden) Hired Truck (program). So far, 36 defendants, including 20 current or former city employees, have been charged and 23 convicted. One died, and the rest have charges that are pending.

The hiring scheme allegedly spanned the last 12 years and touched at least four of the largest City Hall departments � Water, Sewers, Aviation and Streets and Sanitation, authorities have said.

Prosecutors have said the Daley administration illegally doled out city jobs and promotions to reward campaign workers for the mayor and pro-Daley candidates. The alleged scheme defied long-standing federal civil court decrees that forbid politics from affecting most City Hall job placement.

On the upside, the City of Chicago IS going after jaywalkers. And that's great, really. I'll never forget my experience with an egregious and unrepentant jaywalker when I was working as a 22-year-old Yellow Cab driver in Chicago, in 1980. (They hired me at that tender age because I had previously, while on a sabbatical from college, been driving a stretch limo in Chicago full-time). A gal jaywalking across Dearborn St. stopped in the middle of the pavement and chewed me out because I had the nerve to say she should use the crosswalk and follow the rules.

See, my old hometown of Chicago isn't exactly the kind of place - like my home since 1994, Seattle - where people, in their everyday lives, really, actually, try do the right thing, just because....it's the right thing. OhNo. (You can mock the Boy Scouts here). In Chicago, everything is "incentivized." Not that anyone there, in government at least, has any incentive to begin with. But that's another matter. Upshot: The city's motto should be, "Where's Mine? I'm In A Hurry!"