John Kass
Insider's details hurt diversity defense
Published May 17, 2006
In federal court Tuesday, I hoped to hear more about how the City Hall patronage scandal isn't really about how the mayor's guys violated a federal court order and put hundreds of unqualified stooges on the public payroll to protect their white political boss.
And that instead, it's really all about diversity, about protecting the legacy of the city's first black mayor, the late Mayor Harold Washington.
That theory involves three noble white guys from the 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization--and another one from the 19th Ward--who apparently felt it their solemn duty to protect the interests of minority city job seekers.
Why? Because Harold would have wanted it that way and because Mayor Richard Daley wanted it that way, too, since he loved and respected Harold so much, and if he wasn't 10,000 miles away hiding out in China, he'd say so, in perfect Mandarin.
That's the gist of it.
But then Mary Jo Falcon intervened and brought a few buckets of cold reality with her.
Falcon is the former patronage chief in Daley's Water and Sewer Departments. She told the jury that she hired those people her political bosses wanted hired, because her bosses were her bosses, which makes sense. She testified under a grant of immunity, after the feds raided her office, seizing documents.
Naturally, she testified under that grant of immunity because she figured she'd go to jail if she didn't, because she figured what she did was illegal and, being a lawyer, she understands all that now.
At one point, she was asked the following question by Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Collins about how the hiring process really worked:
"Would you take into account the qualifications of the people you were rating?"
"No," Falcon said in a meek voice.
Falcon spoke quietly but clearly enough, appearing somewhat uncomfortable throughout the day as Daley's political underlings stared at her from their defense tables.
The alleged ringleader in the scheme, former City Hall patronage boss Robert Sorich, chewed on the end of his pen as she spoke, facing her.
Some of her testimony was glitzier than the simple "No."
Reporters in the courtroom were scribbling frantically when she described the instructions she was given when she took the job, which were to never put Sorich's name on anything, or include the word "Sorich" in the same sentence as "hiring." And if anyone asked, she testified, she was supposed to "deny, deny, deny."
She also recounted dozens of times she had walked out of Sorich's office with a list of which political workers to hire before she fudged documents and doctored the ratings of the job candidates. For years, she'd call the list of hires Sorich gave her "the blessed list."
"As you walked out of his office, did you consider them recommendations?" Collins asked her.
"No," Falcon said again.
"What did you consider them?"
"Hires," Falcon said.
She understands politics all right. Sorich, the former boss of the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (City Hall dropped the `Mayor's Office' part a while ago as the federal bus picked up speed), helped manage Daley's politics and that means the patronage.
Sorich allegedly gave the orders on hiring blue-collar workers, like bricklayers, truck drivers, heavy-equipment operators, laborers. But only a certain kind--the kind that are so loyal they'll work precincts in Will County for a Republican state's attorney if City Hall wants it that way, or help crush a home-grown liberal Democrat running for Congress so City Hall could install a Clinton White House hatchet man.
What hasn't come out yet is what happens when they work those elections. Besides the jobs come promotions and overtime at more than double the rates on Sundays, so they could watch football back at the shop, courtesy of taxpayers.
Collins wrapped up his questioning Tuesday (Falcon is expected to continue on the witness stand Wednesday) with the story of Laura Miller, a plumber who applied for a job as a $72,000-a-year house drain inspector.
Miller was the top candidate, according to the way things were supposed to be done. She received an outstanding recommendation on a personnel form: "Would be an asset to the department ... knowledgeable ... recommended for house drain inspector ..." And, she was black.
Unfortunately, Falcon said Miller wasn't on Sorich's "blessed list." So her candidacy was downgraded. They said Miller didn't have enough sewer experience.
But City Hall did hire a West Side truck driver without sewer experience for the same job, and others with limited experience. They all had the right political experience, though.
Obviously, diversity is fine, just so long as everybody marches in political lockstep on Election Day, right Harold?
#2
All these people should dance at the end of a rope. The Daley family included. Their subversion and coruption of our political system is every bit as bad a a terrors bombing. The effect are even longer lasting however.
Treason by a different name.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/17/2006 23:33 Comments ||
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Crook County IL
With Daley Machine and Serbian Machine...
Witness: Probe affected City Hall hiring
By Dan Mihalopoulos and Michael Higgins
Tribune staff reporters
Published May 17, 2006, 1:38 PM CDT
Mayor Richard Daley's office stopped dictating hires for coveted union jobs and the city began choosing applicants based on merit only after it became clear that authorities were investigating City Hall corruption, a former city official testified today.
Mary Jo Falcon, who resigned last year as personnel director for the Water Management Department, said the federal probe of the city's Hired Truck Program prompted a change in personnel practices in the Daley administration.
Falcon is the government's first witness in the trial of former mayoral patronage chief Robert Sorich and three other former city officials. The four are charged with participating in a scheme to rig city hiring and promotions in favor of pro-Daley political workers.
For many years, beginning in 1994, Falcon said she filled city jobs based on who Sorich or his aide, Timothy McCarthy, wanted her to hire for posts such as house drain inspector, bricklayer, laborer and truck driver.
"I never even really looked at the applications to see if they had the qualifications," Falcon said.
But Falcon went on to describe how a round of hiring in 2005after the Hired Truck investigation became publicdiffered from the usual process.
She told jurors she met with McCarthy, who had replaced Sorich, to discuss who would be hired as operating engineers at the city's water purification plants.
"He gave me names but also told me, 'Go screen and just pick whoever I thought was best,' " Falcon said.
In that case, Falcon testified, she picked those job seekers with enough experience to really do the work for the city.
Falcon said Sorich had instructed her to lead a group of Asian-American city workers on election campaigns for Daley, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore and several aldermen whose wards have heavily Asian precincts.
Sorich's orders to work for Daley in 1999, when the mayor was re-elected, came at a meeting at the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, where Sorich and McCarthy worked, Falcon said.
The leader of a pro-Daley Korean-American group was also present at the meeting, Falcon said.
Falcon resigned from the city in June after federal agents raided her office at the Water Management Department, seizing her computer and files. She is testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution.
Defense attorneys are expected to question Falcon's motives and credibility on cross-examination. McCarthy's attorney, Patrick Deady, had warned jurors Monday to be wary of her testimony.
The local news page is now open. Use for interesting police blotter stuff, local elections, all that horrible stuff. Coming soon: sports, horoscopes, "Ask Auntie Em," and special Macy's advertising inserts!
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2006 15:47 ||
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#1
FRIST!
Been reading my copy of the Penguin News (the paper of record for the Falkland Islands) from the classifieds.
Please return Russells dartboard
We dont care who you are or your
reasons for taking it but please return
Russells dartboard. Leave it
somewhere where we will find it,
we just need it back.
From Julie, Ellis and Ffion
#6
I was kind of hoping for both a "crime & punishment" and a "stupid human tricks" to go with "stupid animal tricks", though I guess the latter two could fit into a "State legislature" section.
IMPORTANT - A lot of local news webpages do not clearly state *where* they are. They use some catchy but meaningless handle like "The best news in the bi-State metro area".
Maybe hidden at the bottom of their page is some link that will hint at what their State might be, but it is extra annoying when they should say, "Nebraska" or "Pittsburgh" or whatever.
So if you post a local news item from somewhere where it isn't obvious or doesn't say, throw in a simple header before the text, like:
TEXAS - Chili cook-off kills 47 rabid javalinas, local mayor says "Dayamn! Now that thar's some real rabid javalina-killin' chili if I ever done see some rabid javalina-killin' chili! An' I have!.."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
