ChicagoClout

Bruce rat out the rest of the scumbag city workers. these 11th ward guys are wrecking the job.

found on the Chicago Reader City Clout boards:

===George Schmidt
June 22nd - 6:45 a.m.

I was there. Room 1100. What a site.

Terrence Bruner's summary of a former Chicago City Worker case was brilliant. It was clear to everyone in the hearing room (even, I suspect, those two young lawyers starting out in Cloutland and that scowling hearing officer) that the Daley palace guard kept Fox News out of the hearing room because an actual video of Bruner's step-by-step destruction of the city's "case" against Former City Worker would have quickly made it on to the Internet.

From here it would have laid to waste all but the most die-hard Daley lovers still wanting to destroy the former city worker.

The number of whistle blowers in Chicago will be growing in the coming months.

To take one little example from a place that almost always gets a pass when the rest of the press goes digging for clout and patronage -- CPS. That sanctimonious patch of patronage known as CPS Headquarters (Chicago Pile of ____ heads) down the street at 125 S. Clark St. is roiling right now because they can't get enough money to cover all the holes in their budget, and there are too many clout jobs in the school system to hide anymore, even from people who don't want to see them.

In December, things had gotten so bad at CPSH that even the school board's auditors (the fifth auditor since Daley took over the schools back in 1995, by the way) had to add 30 pages to the annual financial report (specifically called the "Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for FY 2006"), warning how many deadlines CPSH has blown and how bad that might be.

Then, last week, federal auditors asked for a return of $16 million (tip of the iceberg) that had been mishandled.

That's not yet "news" in Chicago, but people inside CPS are squirming, because when the schools were turned over to HDO and Clout, the sky was the limit. And once it's out that the schools are no different from Streets and Sanitation or the Water District as far as clout goes, even a blind seeing eye dog will be able to find a story or two. At that point, typically, the Daley people at the top will look for lower and mid-level scapegoats.

The few of us who have already been out there blowing the whistle on all this crap will be welcoming you all former wannabes and now newcomers.

The sludge around this town is so deep it's more than you'd need to fertilize every soy and corn field between here and Carbondale.===

and

===bravo!
June 22nd - 8:33 a.m.

That's one helleuva post there, George, I hesitate to say you've got my hopes up, but I can hear that old national anthem playing, "O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave".....

Sic 'em, Ben and Mick, and whoever else wants to pile on.....

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning".====

also

===Hugh
June 22nd - 8:21 a.m.

Jackson Pillow Talk

With pillow talk like this, you might think ONE of these reform proposals from BEFORE the election might have crept into the Jackson City Council legislative agenda. I'd hate to think Jesse Jackson Jr.'s 10-point City Council reform plan was all bluster, he being the son of a preacher man and all.

Oh, well, maybe NEXT meeting, huh?

REFORM 1 - Make it illegal for developers and City contractors to contribute to aldermanic or mayoral campaigns within one year of receiving a zoning change, city
building permit, or city contract.

REFORM 2 - Limit all campaign contributions to mayoral, city clerk, city treasurer and aldermanic campaigns to $1,000 per individual and $5,000 per political action committee. The same limits would apply to in-kind contributions. Forbid campaign contributions from business firms or labor unions, although business and labor PACs can contribute. Current campaign finance rules allow unlimited contributions from individuals and businesses.

REFORM 3 - Prevent city officials including aldermen, from collecting city pensions if
convicted of a felony related to their public duties.

REFORM 4 - Prevent aldermen or other elected city official from running for any city office if convicted of a felony related to their duties.

REFORM 5 - No longer allow the mayor to appoint replacements for aldermen who die or resign.

REFORM 6 - Give the city inspector General jurisdiction over aldermen and city Council employees.

REFORM 7 - Reduce the number of City Council standing committees from 27 to 10, require them to meet at least 10 times a year and post agendas of proposed legislation one week in advance of meetings on the City Clerk's Web site. Any legislation which has not been considered by a committee within six weeks of introduction shall automatically go to the floor of the council for debate and a vote without having to pass a motion to discharge the committee which currently requires a 2/3 majority vote.

REFORM 8 — Allow political minority factions in the city council to appoint a least one staff member to represent and provide information to the minority on each standing committee as done in the US Congress and Illinois legislature.

REFORM 9 - Post the divided roll call vote for the entire tour year term to the city council, all aldermanic campaign contributions, and attendance at City council
committee meetings an he city clerk's Web site.

REFORM 10 - Broadcast all city council meetings (including committee meetings) on cable TV and the Internet.===

and

===jackson the reformer?
June 22nd - 9:15 a.m.

a few tweaks, for the 'jackson family's proposed 'reform lite':

reform 1 - make it 5 years.

reform 2 - knock a zero off the end of both limits, ie., $100 for individuals and $500 for pacs.

reform 3 - since these folks present themselves as being worthy of our trust, ANY felony conviction during their term in office should loose them their public pensions, as, being servants of the public, by choice, they've accepted the sworn duties of the office 24/7/52.

reform 4 - ditto the above, ANY felony conviction during your term means you're barred for life from not only holding public office, but from being employed by ANY government agency, directly or INDIRECTLY, ie., NO business employing ex-felons, convicted while holding public office, shall be granted ANY business with city or county or state government, period.

reform 5 - Grant the city council the authority to appoint, by a super-majority vote of the council, the temporary replacement, said vote being taken only AFTER 3 public hearings are held, to garner the opinions of the voters who choose to attend and to honor the voters opinions, should the voters object to the proposed replacement, by a majority showing of hands of those in attendance at all three hearings, and, further, that an election to replace the temporary replacement be held on the next regularly scheduled election day, be it a primary or general election.

reform 6 - Give the Inspector General jurisdiction over EVERY city employee, whether elected, appointed or hired and have the Inspector General be an elected position, requiring a candidate to garner no less than 2/3rds of the votes cast on election day OR no less than 1/2 of the total number of registered voters as of that election day, WHICHEVER IS THE GREATER NUMBER.

reform 7 - make that ONE MONTH advance notice, make that at least 12 times per calender year, make that 4 weeks from date of introduction, and require a minimum of 1 public hearing on ANY matters that a SINGLE alderman requests be discussed at said public hearing.

reform 8 - better make that 3, even if only as non-voting committee observers.

reform 9 - post ALL roll call votes, it's only bytes and bites, doesn't cost anything significant for the minimum extra disk space.

reform 10 - why not either buy time on the cheapest broadcast station or establish a UHF station for the sole purpose of same, broadcasting in analog, even after the switch to digital. There's plenty of room in the broadcast bandwidth for this to not only be feasible, but possibly becoming very popular on the county and state levels.

Put some real teeth into this and we all might have a chance at honest government.

Add the ousting of machine hack incumbents at every opportunity, that is every election, and that might be the smell of the breath of fresh air we've been holding our breaths in anticipation of for so very long.===

Can we begin to hope that Goliath is getting weak in the knees and is about to fall?

HI PAT THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN. I JUST WANT TO MENTION MY HEARING WILL BE TUESDAY 7-17-07 ON THE 11TH FLOOR. IF THEY CHANGE THE LOCATION AT THE LAST MINUTE I WILL CALL YOU. THE BEST WISHES TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY