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Sure, it’s a press release carefully constructed to sound nice. And certainly the alderman of the central business district needs to have a sound working relationship with the mayor. But if this isn’t simply ass-kissing political BS–if it’s any indication of the tone, style, and political approach Reilly will bring to the council in the next four years–the mayor and the machine Democrats who keep most of the seats warm in that esteemed chamber have to be just as eager to “work” with Reilly as he is with them. That’s because they’re going to get all the loyalty they had from his predecessor, Burt Natarus, without the hassle of having to listen to circus-act tangents or occasionally well-informed skepticism.
For starters, the Daley inauguration speech most of us heard last week didn’t express a desire to work with new aldermen as much as it chastised them in advance about engaging in “never-ending debate” and “endless politics.” This from a mayor who still engages in endless politicking, as his sudden “agreeing to abide by the Shakman decree” illustrates. For years Daley fought the Shakman decree, telling voters that the city no longer engaged in patronage hiring, firing, or promoting. When federal convictions of some of his patronage organizers and the court-ordered appointment of a hiring monitor showed that he was oblivious or lying, he still resisted Shakman; the chair of the aforementioned ethics committee, Daley loyalist Richard Mell, buried a proposed resolution [PDF] introduced by aldermen Joe Moore and Ricardo Munoz that called on the administration to settle the case. Yesterday, at last, the administration was forced into an agreement by politics: not even Daley can afford to appear completely unconcerned about ongoing federal investigations, mounting legal costs, and the recent election season that sent Reilly and eight other rookies into the City Council.
