From today’s print edition:
Daley claims strides in cleaning up hiring, but critics voice doubts
By Todd Lighty, Tribune reporter
Mayor Richard Daley’s administration says it has made great strides in
cleaning up the city’s corrupt hiring system, but others say it’s a
muddy record of progress that raises lingering doubts about whether
City Hall has embraced reform.
Daley has said that this year he will seek to end federal court
involvement in city personnel practices, arguing that it is time to
take off the training wheels and let the city manage its hiring,
At stake is how the city’s 36,000 jobs get filled, how coveted overtime
is dished out and how job assignments are made, and whether those
decisions are made free of politics.
Since FBI agents raided City Hall in April 2005 and uncovered a massive
hiring-fraud scheme anchored in the mayor’s office, Daley has promised
reform. The city since August 2005 has paid more than $6.2 million to
lawyers and consultants, including $4.2 million to the court monitor,
to clean up its hiring.
But changing the culture of clout, where for years the fastest route to
a promotion or city job required working for Daley’s political
organization, has proved daunting.
The court monitor and investigators have alleged in a string of reports
since last summer that a handful of politically connected truck drivers
received "disproportionate amounts" of overtime, that the city has been
reluctant to discipline workers who violate hiring rules, and that more
than one top Daley aide has deliberately misled investigators looking
into hiring abuses.
The Tribune in November also revealed that a stealth budget account has
allowed aldermen to put family members, campaign operatives and others
with political connections on yet another taxpayer-funded payroll.
Michael Shakman, who filed suit 40 years ago to end the city’s practice
of trading jobs for political support, said Daley has much more work to
do.
"I am not looking for a personal apology from the mayor, but true
hiring reform won’t come until the middle managers believe the mayor is
committed," Shakman said.
A recent survey found that Chicago city workers are less likely to
report job-related misconduct, including hiring abuses, than their
counterparts elsewhere in the U.S., largely because they don’t believe
the problem will be fixed and they fear retaliation from bosses.
City Hall said it has made meaningful progress under Daley’s leadership.
The mayor revamped the personnel department and created a new ethics
office, the Office of Compliance, to take over the duties of the
court-appointed hiring monitor.
Daley also has issued executive orders prohibiting politics in hiring
decisions, requiring employees to report misconduct to the inspector
general’s office and forbidding retaliation against whistle-blowers.
"The mayor has taken a number of aggressive steps to demonstrate his
commitment to creating a hiring process that is free from political
considerations," said Jenny Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s Law
Department.
Hoyle acknowledged federal court monitor Noelle Brennan’s concerns
about the mayor’s Office of Compliance, led by Anthony Boswell, and
hiring violations involving contract workers.
"We recognize that the monitor’s concerns will have to be addressed
before we can advise the court that we are in substantial compliance,
and we will continue to work with the monitor to address her concerns,"
Hoyle said.
As part of a 2007 settlement between the city and Shakman, Chicago
agreed to pay out $12 million to victims of past political
discrimination and to develop a new hiring plan. That plan, not yet
completed, would set in place the process by which new employees get
hired, based on merit or by lottery and not on whom they know
politically.
Brennan, who was appointed monitor four months after the FBI raid,
declined to comment for this report. In July, she had said the Daley
administration made progress cleaning up hiring, but she has since
taken a tougher stance.
In a December report filed in federal court, Brennan outlined her
concerns about Boswell, a lawyer and an experienced corporate
compliance official. She said Boswell’s office violated hiring
regulations and misled her about efforts to deal with hiring abuses.
Brennan’s criticisms are particularly significant because Daley created
that office in 2007 to take over her oversight duties once the
decades-long legal case officially ends.
Shakman also questioned the compliance office’s independence and said
Boswell has a tendency to "downplay significant problems" inside City
Hall. "I’ve lost confidence in Boswell," Shakman said.
Boswell has said his staff acts independently of the mayor’s office,
noting that his office uncovered hundreds of contract workers who were
functioning as city employees in apparent violation of hiring rules,
including one "temporary worker" employed by the Department of Finance
for the last 20 years.
Boswell and his top deputy have other challenges as well. Inspector
General Joseph Ferguson this month urged Daley to give both men lengthy
suspensions for allegedly mishandling a sexual harassment complaint
filed with their office. Ferguson, a former federal prosecutor, is to
give the court his own report assessing hiring as soon as Thursday.
Daley, who says he is eager to get the court out of city hiring, is
considering stripping the Office of Compliance of any role in hiring
oversight and giving that authority to the inspector general, according
to sources in city government.
U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen, who oversees the case and appointed
Brennan monitor, ultimately must determine if City Hall can be trusted.
A truck driver in Streets and Sanitation, who asked not to be
identified because he feared retaliation, said he and fellow drivers
worry about an increase in political favoritism when court oversight
ends. The trucker said there would be a period of uncertainty.
"Then," he said, "it would be business as usual"