We all know the economy is lousy, which makes for busted budgets and–worse–constituents who want something to show for their taxes.
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And thanks to Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris, it’s a good time to be a reformer, or at least to tell the public that you’re not Rod Blagojevich or Roland Burris, and that you’re fiercely opposed to going to prison. Mike Quigley parlayed his independence on the county board into a congressional primary victory last week; county board president Todd Stroger is panicked enough about his reelection chances to call reporters and ask them for interviews; there’s talk in Springfield of strengthening Freedom of Information laws; and members of the City Council are making ever louder demands for transparency about things like the TIF program and the mayor’s stimulus requests.
When I arrived at 10:30 for the press conference, next to the elevators on the second floor of City Hall, TV crews were packing up to move upstairs, where Mayor Daley was holding his own press conference with Desmond Tutu.
Several aldermen told Moore they were going to have to leave soon for other meetings. He begged for patience.
As a mayoral aide listened and took notes nearby, Moore went on to outline the ordinance [PDF] they were proposing: it would require that the mayor pick the inspector general from a list of finalists created by an “independent” panel of judges, prosecutors, law enforcement leaders, and nonprofit watchdogs; extend the IG’s term from four to six years; increase the office’s budget to at least 0.15 percent of the total city budget (it’s currently at $5.9 million, or about 0.1 percent); and, most important, give the office the authority to investigate wrongdoing by aldermen. That’s currently beyond its scope because of fears that the IG, a mayoral appointee, could launch investigations of mayoral opponents for political reasons.
He stepped out of the elevator into the first-floor lobby. “Let me tell you something,” he said, and launched into a long, angry tirade about how he believed the inspector general had investigated one of his precinct workers to imperil his 2008 bid to remain 50th Ward Democratic committeeman. If so, it worked: Stone lost a bitter race to his onetime ally Ira Silverstein after the state senator got a rare endorsement from the mayor.
