A new City Council committee created by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as part of his push to reform City Hall spent most of its first meeting talking about the glory days of patronage hiring.
Members of the council’s Committee on Workforce Development and Audit met on Tuesday for the confirmation hearing of Human Resources Commissioner Soo Choi, who was previously the city’s deputy inspector general in charge of hiring oversight. The committee sent Choi’s appointment to a full council vote with unanimous approval, but not before some aldermen complained to her about restrictions put in place to prevent patronage.
Under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, prosecutors alleged “massive fraud” in city hiring designed to reward campaign workers affiliated with aldermen, Democratic ward organizations and other pro-Daley groups. A federal corruption probe led to the appointment of a monitor to oversee city hiring in 2005.
Veteran Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), whose legendary North Side ward organization is known for handing out jobs to the politically faithful, asked Choi why he couldn’t recommend qualified candidates for certain positions.
“I’ve got the greatest recruiter that lives in my ward, let’s say. Just a hypothetical,” Mell said, prompting laughter from some of his colleagues. “I could not suggest that recruiter to you because if I did, then that would almost be the kiss of death for that recruiter in today’s atmosphere that we have. And that’s sad.”
Choi said job seekers can include aldermen as a professional reference on applications, but a federal court decree bars elected officials from ordering city agencies to hire politically connected candidates.
Mell countered that he believes the federal hiring monitor would perceive even a letter of recommendation negatively, and Choi recommended that aldermen speak with the hiring monitor to clarify what they can and cannot do.
“But I want to make it clear that nothing prohibits an alderman from being a professional reference,” Choi said.
That did not prevent other aldermen from jumping in and pining for the days when a job applicant’s clout counted for something.
Ald. Latasha Thomas (17th), whose husband resigned in 2009 as a deputy commissioner of Cultural Affairs after the city’s inspector general recommended he be disciplined for patronage violations, accused the human resources department of becoming an extension of the hiring monitor.
“The H.R. [department] has become an arm of the monitor as opposed to .. walking the departments through the hiring process,” said Thomas, who is a protege of Chicago Transit Authority board chairman Terry Peterson. “I don’t think that the aldermen should be having a conversation with the monitor to find out if they can do whatever you’re telling us.”
“It’s kind of sad that when constituents asked you about city work, you can’t say anything,” said Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), who is a protégé of former alderman Isaac Carothers. Carothers led one of the largest pro-Daley patronage groups and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in 2010. Mitts later congratulated Choi on her appointment.
Not all of the aldermen were worried that recommending a candidate for a city job would come back to haunt them.
“I don’t think that if I write a letter for somebody, I don’t really know if it goes into a black hole—or wherever it goes—or I get in trouble for supporting somebody,” said Ald. Rey Colon (35th) said.
After the meeting, Choi said she understands why aldermen are frustrated and hopes to put measures in place that would help end federal oversight of city hiring.
“Altogether, I think the city is just eager to be in a place where we can present ourselves as the kind of entity that we want to be, which is one that does not require court supervision to be able to conduct one of its fundamental H.R. functions,” Choi said.
This makes me want to vomit. While I respect them for being honest about wanting to pay off people with jobs but my stomach is still churing.
We are paying tons of dough to the Monitor, Court Costs, the Inspector General all to elude a law…is it asking too much for the City/Aldermen to just follow the law? It’s too bad that the law does not make them comfortable and they have to work harder for their salaries.
It’s too bad that Mr Thomas had to pay the price for someone else’s misdeeds. I can imagine that he was following orders from above.