Daley-run Hiring Objected Thank God

Daley has ruled over hiring for over 20 years. Way to many people have been cheated out of an opportunity to get a job and promotion. The Chicago residency program for Chicago employees are an additional tool Daley uses to keep enough city workers to perform his political desires. Thanks again to Fran Spielman for this article. Patrick McDonough

]]>Shakman monitor objects to Daley-run hiring office
FEDERAL WATCHDOG | Cites ‘history of noncompliance’

September 28, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com
A federal hiring monitor Thursday filed strenuous objections to Mayor Daley’s plan to create a new Office of Compliance to police city hiring and pick up where the monitor leaves off.

Noelle Brennan cited the city’s “history of noncompliance,” a series of violations and fears that only Inspector General David Hoffman is independent enough to guarantee compliance.

Brennan cited examples, including the case of a high-ranking employee who dared to report a violation to the monitor and was punished.

• Monitor blasts Daley hiring plan
Individuals in the mayor’s office retaliated against the employee by attempting to “exclude her from meetings . . . have her stripped of certain duties and attempting to isolate her from the rest of her working group,” the report said. The only explanation for the treatment was that the employee “could not be trusted.”
Several other examples were cited.

“Even after the appointment of the monitor, the city continued to violate the Shakman decree by appointing individuals into ‘exempt’ positions that simply did not exist,” the monitor wrote.

“To ‘correct’ this problem, a former deputy chief of staff violated the decree further by moving open Shakman-exempt slots from one department to another, an action prohibited” by court order.

And despite a requirement that individuals involved in the hiring process verify that it was free from political influence by signing sworn affidavits, an audit revealed that “hundreds of certifications were missing for completed hires and only partial certifications existed for others.”

In another case, the monitor told the city that a city department had engaged in “extensive and blatant manipulation of the hiring rules to promote two pre-selected individuals into higher paid positions.”

In a settlement reached earlier this year, the city agreed to set up a $12 million fund to compensate applicants bypassed in favor of political favorites. Under that agreement, the city can get out from under the Shakman decree Dec. 31, 2008, if the court agrees that there is substantial compliance.

Brennan filed her objections with U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen, who will make the final decision.

6 Replies to “Daley-run Hiring Objected Thank God”

  1. When a system is as thoroughly corrupted as this one is, the only sane solution is to conserve one’s energies, by not wasting them on trying to repair what is beyond repair, and concentrate on HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT.

    The obvious fact is that these current crooks cannot continue to rob us blind if they’re not in the positions of authority they use for same.

    Come election day, every citizen who gives a shit about honest government should have already:

    REGISTERED TO VOTE

    Made a list of every incumbent, excluding ONLY those incumbents they are CERTAIN deserve to remain in office.

    Then, each voter makes that trip to their polling place, with their ‘Incumbents to Oust’ list in hand, firmly determined to cast their votes in such a way as to be the most effective at firing all the incumbents on their list.

    Apply this formula, when there are 2 or more challengers to an incumbent:

    If the INCUMBENT’s name is listed 1st, then vote for the CHALLENGER who is listed LAST

    or

    If the INCUMBENT’s name is NOT listed 1st, then vote for the CHALLENGER who IS LISTED FIRST.

    This will concentrate the most votes for a single challenger, thus, negating any attempts by the political machine to split the votes of the dissatisfied voters.

    The source of our dissatisfactions are the very people who now hold the powers and authorities of their offices.

    Remove them from said offices and you deprive them of that power.

  2. And thanks to Noelle Brennan for monitoring reality, speaking the truth and hanging tough. She is earning her fees! Big Time! I hope the Federal Judge makes the right call.

  3. IG, Shakman against Daley oversight plan
    Posted by Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty at 6:18 p.m.

    Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman and lawyer Michael Shakman told a federal court Friday that Hoffman’s office should be in charge of keeping city hiring free from politics.

    In separate court filings, Hoffman and Shakman objected to a plan by Mayor Richard Daley’s administration to create a new City Hall department to oversee how jobs are filled.

    Shakman argued that the inspector general’s office is the most independent arm of city government. “The city’s proposed hiring plan is an effort to dilute the Inspector General’s existing authority,” Shakman said in his filing.

    Hoffman told the court that his office, which already is charged with investigating hiring complaints, should also have responsibility for monitoring and auditing job decisions “if there is to be a strong, effective effort at uncovering the full scope of all problems in this area of government.”

    The city was required to produce a hiring plan under an agreement reached earlier this year with Shakman to settle his long-running lawsuit against political hiring. Noelle Brennan, the court-appointed official who has monitored city hiring for the past two years, has also opposed the city plan.

    The dispute will be resolved by U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen, who presides over the federal case.

    in Chicago politics, Investigations, Mayor of Chicago

  4. Oversight is urged on city hiring
    By Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty | Tribune staff reporters
    September 28, 2007
    Nobody in Mayor Richard Daley’s administration can be trusted to keep city hiring free from politics except the inspector general, a court-appointed official has concluded.

    Noelle Brennan, who has monitored city hiring for more than two years, on Thursday rejected Daley’s plan to create a new department that would oversee how jobs are filled.

    Instead, Brennan said it’s crucial that the duty be placed with Inspector General David Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor who is widely considered to be immune to political pressures at City Hall. Brennan said the city itself supported a similar role for the inspector general’s office before Hoffman was hired.

    “Any other placement will not only be substantially less effective, it will fail to engender any real confidence that the city’s commitment to an honest and open hiring system is bona fide,” Brennan said.

    Brennan also said the city did not propose to keep an adequate log of instances in which the mayor’s office or elected officials lobby city departments on behalf of job-seekers.

    Brennan’s comments came in a report filed in federal court in response to a hiring plan submitted last month by the city. The report puts Brennan in the middle of a growing dispute between the Daley administration and critics who accuse it of trying to undermine Hoffman.

    Brennan was appointed by U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen in 2005, in the midst of a federal criminal investigation into a hiring-fraud scheme that rewarded the mayor’s political allies with jobs and promotions. Andersen presides over a long-running civil lawsuit that led to the Shakman consent decree banning politics from most city hiring.

    Earlier this year, the city reached an agreement to end court supervision of its hiring practices. The agreement with attorney Michael Shakman, who filed the civil suit in 1969, called for a new plan covering nearly all facets of city hiring procedures.

    Under the agreement, Hoffman’s office investigates complaints from job applicants and city workers. But the city’s plan would create a new Office of Compliance to oversee hiring.

    Brennan said the Daley administration could not be trusted because of its long history of “essentially non-existent” compliance with the Shakman decree. Brennan also cited a series of recent examples where city departments, including the Law Department, failed to take action to prevent politics from influencing hiring decisions.

    Brennan claimed that one unidentified employee faced retaliation after reporting an alleged hiring abuse, as required by the court. When staff in the mayor’s office found out that the worker had complained, they tried to exclude her from meetings, take away some of her duties and isolate her from co-workers, Brennan said.

    Andersen will rule on the city’s hiring plan after hearing from Shakman and others.
    lcohen@tribune.com

  5. Court told city official should monitor hiring
    Tribune staff report
    September 30, 2007
    CHICAGO – Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman and lawyer Michael Shakman told a federal court that Hoffman’s office should be in charge of keeping city hiring free of politics.

    In separate court filings, Hoffman and Shakman objected to a plan by Mayor Richard Daley’s administration to create a new City Hall department to oversee how jobs are filled.

    Shakman argued that the inspector general’s office is the most independent arm of city government.

    “The city’s proposed hiring plan is an effort to dilute the inspector general’s existing authority,” Shakman said Friday in his filing.

    Hoffman told the court that his office, which already is charged with investigating hiring complaints, also should have responsibility for monitoring and auditing job decisions “if there is to be a strong, effective effort at uncovering the full scope of all problems in this area of government.”

    The city was required to produce a hiring plan under an agreement reached this year with Shakman to settle his long-running lawsuit against political hiring. Noelle Brennan, the court-appointed official who has monitored city hiring for the last two years, also has opposed the city plan.

  6. I applied for a Chicago gov’t job in the mid 90s; one in which a 2 yr college degree was required. I had a 4 yr degree and met all other requirements. I was never given a response call as promised. When I called, they said they knew nothing of me or my application. This was about 7 years after I became a REPUBLICAN.

    (It’s a safe bet dispicable cheap whore John Daley ripped it up)

    11TH WARD CONSERVATIVE, Carl Segvich

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