UPDATE 4:33 p.m. by Hal Dardick and Todd Lighty – Details of Daley proposal, aldermanic reaction.
Mayor Richard Daley today proposed expanding the powers of the city’s inspector general to include investigating aldermen — an idea long opposed by City Council — as well as taking away the hiring oversight duties currently held by the mayor’s compliance office.
The proposed ordinance, which Daley will introduce at Wednesday’s council meeting, would be a dramatic shift in the power struggle between City Hall watchdogs.
The move was endorsed by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who while appointed by the mayor is considered more independent than the Daley administration’s Office of Compliance.
“The proposal announced by the mayor here today to amend the inspector general’s ordinance constitutes a watershed moment in the history of the city,” Ferguson said. “This proposal comes to grips with core structural reforms necessary to root out patronage and corruption in the city of Chicago.
In a report last month, Ferguson said “the dangers of political hiring remain real and constant" and recommended that a city ordinance that bars him from investigating aldermen be lifted. He said the ordinance has prevented him from looking into a November Tribune story detailing that aldermen had put family members, campaign operatives and others with political connections on a stealth taxpayer-funded payroll.
Many aldermen have long opposed the notion of the inspector general investigating them, and by law such probes are prohibited. A similar effort last year by several alderman to expand the inspector general’s powers died in committee.
Daley typically gets what he wants from the council, but he may have a fight over the inspector general proposal, which could get shifted to a committee for hearings when it is introduced at Wednesday’s meeting.
Daley said the corruption investigation of former Ald. Isaac Carothers, who has cooperated in an ongoing federal probe into city developments, played a role in his decision to make a change. “I think after the Carothers issue, some people are losing confidence in government,” the mayor said.
Ald. Bernard Stone, 50th, said he opposes Daley’s plan to give the inspector general the ability to investigate council. Stone had accused Ferguson’s predecessor, David Hoffman, of overstepping his bounds when an investigation led to prosecution of one of the alderman’s aides.
“If (Daley) wants to have (the inspector general) oversee hiring, that’s the executive branch and that’s OK with me,” Stone added. “The executive branch should not be able to oversee the legislative branch, because the executive branch can use it to blackmail the legislative branch. That’s the same thing J. Edgar Hoover did to Congress.”
Stone, noting that 29 aldermen have been convicted in the last four decades, also said there’s simply no need for further aldermanic oversight.
“Law enforcement is doing an excellent job in sending crooked aldermen to jail,” Stone said. “Why do we need someone to duplicate that?”
Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, predicted Daley’s proposal would succeed where his had failed. “His winning percentage is close to one thousand,” Moore said.
Moore said voters are angry with government corruption, noting that the political climate was ripe for change inside City Hall. “The mayor continues to struggle with abuses in hiring,” he said. “And, we have another alderman going off to jail.”
Carothers pleaded guilty last week to bribery and tax fraud charges. He admitted receiving $40,000 in improvements to his home in exchange for supporting a developer’s controversial commercial and residential development know as Galewood Yards.
After ticking off a list of reform efforts, including an executive order prohibiting him from accepting campaign contributions from people or companies doing business with the city, the mayor admitted changing the culture was not easy.
“The challenge of reforming government is tough and ongoing,” Daley said. “We acknowledge that our efforts to reform the oversight of hiring have not yet worked as well as we liked. The truth is that while I believed the Office of Compliance model for hiring oversight was a good one, it did not yield the results we hoped for.”
City Hall is operating under a decades-long consent decree aimed at keeping politics out of most personnel decisions. A federal judge appointed a monitor in 2005 to oversee hiring after federal authorities accused Daley’s patronage chief and others of circumventing that decree by rigging hiring to reward the mayor’s political allies with jobs, promotions and overtime.
In 2007 Daley created the Office of Compliance to ensure that city personnel decisions are free from illegal political influence, part of the mayor’s plan to persuade a federal judge to end the court oversight.
Daley has said he plans to ask the court this year to end oversight, arguing that the city was in “substantial compliance,” a legal threshold for ending court involvement. Once the court case ends, oversight for hiring would go to the inspector general.
Michael Shakman, the lawyer who brought suit 40 years ago and for whom the decree is named after, said Daley had taken a step in the right direction but more needs to be done.
Shakman said the Daley administration needs to tackle the issue of contract workers who function as city employees in apparent violation of hiring rules. He said the city still needs to complete its hiring plan, which 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.
And, Shakman said, the mayor must get rid of the head of the Office of Compliance, Anthony Boswell. “No one has any confidence in Boswell,” he said. “I don’t, the monitor doesn’t, and it’s clear, the mayor doesn’t. He’s got to go.”
Boswell could not be immediately reached for comment.
Ferguson and Boswell also have tangled. Ferguson last month concluded that Boswell and his top deputy, Mark Meaney, mishandled a 2008 sexual harassment complaint from an intern at the 911 center. Ferguson concluded that the two men repeatedly disregarded city policies and showed favoritism toward the 911 supervisor by trying to find him another city job and a new intern.
He recommended to Daley that the men be suspended for at least 30 days. Meaney has resigned his post.
Daley today refused to answer questions about if he has made any decision on Boswell’s fate.
Boswell’s lawyer, Jamie Wareham has said the inspector general’s investigation was politically motivated by the desire to take over many of Boswell’s duties. Wareham said it was a “classic Chicago power grab.”
UPDATE AT 3:07 P.M. — originally posted by Hal Dardick at 2:35 p.m.
Mayor Richard Daley today proposed expanding the powers of the city’s inspector general to include investigating aldermen — an idea long opposed by City Council — as well as taking the hiring oversight duties currently held by the mayor’s ethics compliance office.
The proposed ordinance, which Daley will introduce at Wednesday’s council meeting, would be a dramatic shift in the power struggle between City Hall watchdogs.
The move was endorsed by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who while appointed by the mayor is considered more independent than the Daley administration’s ethics department known as the Office of Compliance.
Ferguson said he supports Daley’s proposed changes, which “constitute a watershed moment in the history of the city.”
Many aldermen have long opposed the notion of the inspector general investigating the council, and by law such probes are prohibited.
Daley said the corruption investigation of former Ald. Isaac Carothers, who has cooperated in an ongoing federal investigation into development issues, played a role in his decision to make a change.
“I think after the Carothers issue, some people are losing confidence in government,” Daley said.
After ticking off a list of reform efforts, including an executive order prohibiting him from accepting campaign contributions from people or companies doing business with the city, the mayor added:
“Still, the challenge of reforming government is tough and ongoing. We acknowledge that our efforts to reform the oversight of hiring have not yet worked as well as we liked. The truth is that while I believed the Office of Compliance model for hiring oversight was a good one, it did not yield the results we hoped for.”
Daley typically gets what he wants from City Council, but he may have a fight over the inspector general proposal, which could get shifted to a committee for hearings when it is introduced at Wednesday’s meeting.
Posted by Hal Dardick at 2:35 p.m.
Mayor Richard Daley announced today he wants to shift oversight of city hiring issues from his own Office of Compliance to the city’s inspector general, the latest sign of tensions between watchdog agencies at City Hall.
Daley, who is eager to end a decades-long federal consent decree that governs city hiring, introduced an ordinance to strip the compliance office of its hiring oversight and give that authority to the inspector general. The mayor wants the ordinance considered at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Daley created the compliance office in 2007 to take over the oversight duties of the court-appointed hiring monitor when the decades-long legal case officially ends. But the office has been criticized by the city inspector general and by the court-appointed hiring monitor.