CHICAGO (WBBM) — Even Mayor Daley won’t know until sometime in the next week how many applicants he has for the vacant 1st and 29th ward aldermanic seats.
The application window closed Friday night on Chicago’s first-ever solicitation for aldermanic appointees on the Internet. Now, Daley said, the director of his Office of Governmental Affairs, Joan Coogan, is going through the applications to see how many fit the prerequisites.
Candidates had to be registered to vote, residents of the ward for at least a year, owed no taxes or other outstanding debt to the city and have a clear criminal record. Those with convictions for bribery, perjury or any other “infamous crime” were told they need not apply.
Speaking for the first time on the unprecedented decision to advertise $110,556-a-year aldermanic jobs on the Internet, Daley said he’s looking for idea people.
“You meet some interesting people,” he said. “Besides that, you get some good ideas from them.”
Former Ald. Manny Flores (1) resigned to become chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission. Former Ald. Isaac Carothers had to resign his office upon entering a guilty plea to accepting $40,000 in home improvements, meals and sports tickets from a West Side developer in exchange for zoning changes that profited the developer.
Daley said it may not be the last such effort.
“This is the era of technology and many times people communicate through these various (Internet) technologies,” he said.
Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services