Monday, March 23, 2009
News / Clout City Stunt men
Posted by Mick Dumke on 03.23.09 at 03:23 PM
During one of many lulls during the full City Council meeting last week, 49th Ward alderman Joe Moore was in the council lounge giving an interview to TV reporters about a new proposal to expand the powers of the inspector general’s office. His colleague Helen Shiller walked by looking skeptical.
“I think it’s a stunt,” she said of the proposal. “It’s a political move.”
For years Shiller was Mayor Daley’s chief council opponent, often casting the only vote against his budgets, criticizing waste, and demanding more funding for social services and development in depressed wards.
A few years ago, though, Shiller made peace with the mayor and got his support for her Wilson Yard project. Ever since she’s been a pretty consistent aye vote.
Shiller herself says she’s just more thoughtful about getting things done, and as a result more successful. It’s true that she’s offered fresh ideas and pushed the administration to move more aggressively on issues like recycling, green job creation, and minority contracting—without holding press conferences.
It’s also true that she’s now at least as likely to speak out against the proposals of the “reform” bloc of the council as anything that comes from the mayor’s office.
“The purpose of an inspector general, I think, in our world, is as a vehicle to address political corruption,” she said in an interview. “I don’t think you do that by making one person all-powerful.”
Unlike Moore and even Daley ally Pat O’Connor, who’s introduced another inspector general ordinance, Shiller thinks it’s a bad idea to give the office the authority to investigate aldermen who, unlike city department heads or laborers, have to face voters every four years.
Shiller also believes that while the office could do more, it’s already having an impact on fighting fraud and reducing waste. She pointed to its report last year on loafing in the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
“That stuff was great, and it’s brought about changes in the department,” she said. “The inspector general’s office is already able to do their work—so what are we trying to fix? All we’re doing here is giving them more power. I don’t think it’s a well-thought-out plan.”
The proposal by Moore and his allies would also boost the inspector general’s annual budget by as much as 50 percent. “If there are specific funding requests from the office, we should hear them, but at budget time they got everything they asked for,” Shiller said. “It’s a little ironic that some of the same people doing this [proposal] joined me about five years ago when we called for eliminating the office because we thought it was such a joke.”
Shiller is no bigger fan of an idea floated by some aldermen to create an independent budget office, which would offer a second opinion on the administration’s financial projections. If aldermen want more scrutiny of the mayor’s budget proposals, she said, they should provide it themselves: “There are 50 of us,” she said. “One of our biggest jobs is voting on the budget, and I happen to think we should read it first.”
Comments (19)
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While I don't care for the What the Helen crowd, does anyone actually think that Shiller provides a function aside from pulling down a paycheck and keeping the seat warm for her son?
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Typical Helen: “The purpose of an inspector general, I think, in our world, is as a vehicle to address political corruption" .. but, only so much as it doesn't involved investigating Council? What's the tally over the last 30 years for indicted aldermen? 27? With Carothers' future as a free man in doubt? Council is the breeding ground of city corruption, of course she doesn't want anyone poking around. She certainly doesn't want people asking questions as to how Wilson Yard is being financed *ahem* Nor about where that letter of intent from Target is. Oddly, the cornerstone of the entire WY project isn't available for public scrutiny. Not does she want to draw attention to the fact that the attorney for WY developer, Peter Holsten, shares an office with her son, Brendan. As for her statement on reading proposals prior to voting on them, did anyone find out if she, like Burke, laughed off the idea of doing any reading? She's a joke. Although, not a funny one. It's easy to allow the voters to keep aldermen in check when you bus in the voters and violate election laws.
Is there any other city in the United States where the elected representatives are not allowed to be investigated for alleged fraud, corruption, and waste? And when anyone hears the term "Chicago politics", what immediately comes to mind? I don't think the public will buy this excuse that aldermen are exempt from being accountable to their constituents and to the law. Enough is enough.
James Cappleman is an effective public servant and my number one choice to take my seat in 2011.
"...Pat O’Connor, who’s introduced another inspector general ordinance..." didn't O'Connor introduce TWO alternative proposals, for a total of THREE (with Moore's)?
“The inspector general’s office is already able to do their work..." Chicago's IG can't investigate malfeasance in the aldermanic expense accounts, or audit the time cards of the friends & family plan members hanging out in aldermen's offices downtown and in the 'hoods doing nothing. The IG currently can't investigate aldermen or their staffs for doing political work on taxpayer time, or aldermen using taxpayer-funded offices for political purposes. The aldermen and their staffs are a $26M annual operation, larger than many City departments, but currently outside the purview of the City IG.
Your article is wrong where it states that Shiller started being a consistent "Aye" vote for the Mayor when he gave his support to Wilson Yard. Actually, she was "Dorothy Tillmanned" when she last ran for election and she need the Mayor's troops and endorsements to retain her seat in this rapidly changing neighborhood. She did not FIGHT the Mayor to garner more low income housing for Uptown. That is just media spin. She and the Mayor have always worked symbiotically toward their mutual goal of shoving as much subsidized housing into Uptown. She, the ultimate poverty pimp, wants as many uneducated poor in her ward as possible to manipulate in her activist agendas. Those who have watched her actions for years notice that she is much less concerned about the well being of those poor than she is about packing them into one geographic voting block to be used by her. Meanwhile, the Mayor has his own agenda to keep 49 wards happy by avoiding true racial and economic integration and packing "diversity" into a single Northern Lakefront ward. Aftet all, the city must comply with HUD regulations that require that it report it's diversity statistics every few years. What better way for him to keep all parties in the dark than by packing the Northside's entire quotient of poor, disabled, and minority races into one Uptown containment zone. The mere fact that these two, by working together, have prevented true diversity, assimilation, and integration on the North Side for 115 years is of little concern those who are getting what they want out of this deal.
Broken record. It's the same couple of whiners all the time. Yo, Orion, Orions mom, Capplemen, Hugh and Molly, Coo-Coo. Boo-hoo. No one cares.
Helen is worthless. She narrowly won the last election and will lose the next one because of the Wilson Yard shenanigans.
If we didn't complain, there could be no real change. The days of protecting the status quo in this city is quickly coming to an end. Helen's insistence of ignoring the many concerns of the 46th Ward will be her downfall. There's just so many times you can attack your constituents and get away with it. Her blanket attacks on condo owners will bite her in the butt.
To the one that wrote to uptown complainers There are alot of us that care and things will change.
Uptown Complainers has a point. It IS TOO BAD that more of those who are concerned and complaining aren't the local poor, whom Shiller has brain-washed into thinking she is a Robin Hood. IT IS TOO BAD that the poor don't realize what the former head of the Chicago Housing Department recently pointed out at a Rehab Network Conferance for low income housing developers. He stated that it is an outrage that the poor are being routed toward tiny, but horribly-expensive-to-build ($400,000) apartment units in certain crowded neighborhoods when that same goverment money would build low-income, single-family homes in other Chicago neighborhoods. He now works in real estate in Edgewater and stated that the city owned alot of land on the west side that could be put to use immediately for single family housing. Others should be outraged at the low living standard the Chicago poor are provided at huge and unnecessary tax payer expense.
Have we forgotten that Helen Shiller and Ward Superintendent Don Nowatny's "fresh idea" for recycling once included running an illegal fly-dumping operation at Lakeside and Marine Drive (4700 N)? Have we forgotten how that "fresh idea" included 23rd District police not responding to 911 calls and Dept of Revenue agents driving away from the scene as neighbors caught the truckers illegally dumping across parkways that had been illegally paved to gain access to that vacnat lot? Have we forgotten how Shiller/Nowatny's "fresh idea" to run a pay-to-dump scheme for local contractors - with lot clean up at city taxpayers expense -- was photographed and those photographs taken to Streets and San Commissioner Eileen Carey? Have we forgotten that meeting with Eileen Carey where Carey ahd her then-assistant Commissioner, Al Sanchez, vowed to put a stop to Shiller's fly dumping on Uptown scheme and keep an eye on Helen's "Pool Boy" Dave Ochal, who was caught blocking the delivery of city services to Uptown by deleting 100's of 311 requests off the Streets and San computers at Shiller's request? Shiller run for office but she cannot hide from her dirty past. An who really believes that she still isn't dirty?
"It's the same couple of whiners all the time. Yo, Orion, Orions mom, Capplemen, Hugh and Molly, Coo-Coo." Wow, you can't count... or spell. I'm guessing you can't reason, either. Ever hear of the straw man argument? You've just proven it: When you can't argue against someone's logic, set them up for a false personal attack. Hey, come to think of it, you may have a career opportunity with the Daley Administration!
Let's see. There have been 1,253,306 visits to the Uptown Update website in only 2 years. If only only a couple or 7 "whiners" are responsible for all this they must not be going to their full-time jobs, raising their kids, eating, sleeping, etc. According to Complainers logic, they are just too busy generating those 500,000 - 100,000 web vists a person. And they even have spare time to post on other media blogs, such as this too!
Uptown Updater blog is small time. Suntimes.com reaches over 1.9 million people monthly. That's the small daily news website for Chicagoland. Tribune does over 2 million a month.
Web News, little ol'Uptown Update does pretty good for a self-funded neighborhood news blog. Meanwhile, it is true that our big-city (Sun-Times) and regional (Tribune) players do have more resourses from their subscriptions and advertiser, but they are going bankrupt and no longer (if they ever did) cover neighborhood news.
