Friday, June 25, 2010

Privatize Your Problems Away

  • Mayor Daley revived his failed plan today to outsource city hiring to cut costs and restore public confidence shaken by the hiring scandal that culminated in the conviction of his former patronage chief.

    The latest example of Daley's privatization frenzy will start with a request-for-proposals from firms interested in recruiting and hiring tradespeople in five city departments: Streets and Sanitation, Transportation, Water Management, Aviation and General Services.

    If it works to have an outside personnel firm recruit and hire carpenters, electricians, laborers and plumbers, City Hall will move to outsource all other hiring, the mayor said.

This includes public safety hiring? We heard that retired Superintendent Hillard's company is all set to do background investigations and such for police hires.

Aldercreature Joe Moore has the best quote in the article though:
  • Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said he's “not a big fan of privatization,” especially after the parking meter fiasco.

    But he said: “Because the mayor has thoroughly failed to manage hiring in a legal fashion, he has no choice. He just received another scathing review by the inspector general on contracts. The monitor has continued to find fault with the mayor on his hiring. It's clear he's just not capable of managing certain aspects of the city.”

That's going to leave a mark.

Labels:

42 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This looks like another ploy by Daley to collect campaign dollars, while placing "HIS" people on the payroll.

This will all be done under the auspices of "Privitization"

Does shortSHANKS really think that we are that stupid???

6/25/2010 12:19:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The connected will still get the wink. Just more layers of paperwork and staff to go through to find the same results.

6/25/2010 12:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Had a new water meter installed, for the second time in 5 years. The one 5 years ago had a sensor on it so the meter reader could just walk by and get an accurate reading. BUT that wasn't good enough for the people hired by the machine. They were to lazy to walk 30' from the curb so the remote signal could be picked up, so they just estimated the usage. NOW the city has paid an outside contractor to put all new meters in that will send out a signal so the meter reader can just drive by and never leave their car.
So let's pay twice to another connected contractor!! Oh yeah I can also expect my first bill to be sky high because of all the under estimation over the last 5 years, he has heard of bills as high as $1,000. Cool just in time for my retro which should about cover the bill, so I might as well sign my check over to them, would they take a two-party check?

6/25/2010 12:28:00 AM  
Blogger sc911 said...

Did you read the public comments at the bottom of that article? There is an essay about corruption that names names and gives addresses. Fascinating reading.

Click here for the article.

6/25/2010 12:54:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"That's going to leave a mark."

I'll say.

We gon' have Wackenhuts 'stead of po-lice.

6/25/2010 01:00:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe this is a little peek into the future of privitization in the City of Chicago:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/
sheriffs-dept-to-patrol-maywood-while-city-employees-now-face-lay-offs.html

6/25/2010 04:01:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This mayor will Privatize every department and everyone cause he is the mayor wake up citizen its feel good to give everything alway even if it wasn't your to begin with when he passes on there will be no need for a mayor lol.

6/25/2010 04:08:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please send our brother Bill Cozzi a letter or a card to lift his spirits. Heard from him and it was 105 degrees down there. His appeal was filed on 18 Feb 10 and still no word.

It will only take a minute of your day. I don't know him and write to him regularly. He misses the CPD and Chicago a lot.

William J. Cozzi
#40222-424
FCI Oakdale
P.O. Box 5000
Oakdale, LA 71463

Signed,
A Friend of Bill's

6/25/2010 05:40:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OT
Anyone else get a city sticker that doesn't stick?

6/25/2010 05:55:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When is the private security bonanza set to begin ? Lots of people are still out of work.

6/25/2010 07:21:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So let's pay twice to another connected contractor!! Oh yeah I can also expect my first bill to be sky high because of all the under estimation over the last 5 years, he has heard of bills as high as $1,000. Cool just in time for my retro which should about cover the bill, so I might as well sign my check over to them, would they take a two-party check?

6/25/2010 12:28:00 AM

You can bank on your bills being higher. I am way ahead of you with that second meter and now my bills are 5 times what they were before. I am one of those guys that keeps old bills for comparison. Thanks Mayor Daley!

Oh yeah, I almost forget. They put on a meter on that measured in gallons instead of the cubic measure which they bill on and had me paying thousands for water. Thanks to an article in the Reader, I figured it out. Spent days of MY time getting the City to fix it. They sent out tens of thousands of these meters. How many people figured it out it out? How many are still being fleeced? Thanks again Mayor Daley!

6/25/2010 07:40:00 AM  
Anonymous HATER said...

HE IS TRYING TO GET AROUND THE SHACKMAN DECREE AGAIN!

I WISH HE WOULD PUT THOSE LAW SCHOOL CLIFF NOTES TO WORK ON SOMETHING POSITIVE.

CLOSES DOWN MEIGS FIELD ILLEGALLY

HAS COZZI INDICTED FOR A MISDEMEANOR CHARGE!!!

HIRED TRUCKING SCANDAL

EXPANDS OHARE AND TAKES OVER ANOTHER CITY!

SIGNS THE METER CONTRACT AND DOESNT READ IT THEN MAKES IT FOR ALMOST 100 YEARS. (I DONT EVEN DO THAT FOR A CELL PHONE CONTRACT)

SELLS SKYWAY AND METERS BECAUSE HE WAS TO LAZY TO RUN IT HIMSELF.

HIRES DA WEISEL WEIS WITH NO ACTUAL POLICE EXPERTISE.

DA MAYOR IS MY HERO (PRICKY).

6/25/2010 08:02:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When are you going to lean that nothing can touch this guy? Nothing!

6/25/2010 08:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. Jim Osborne for Mayor. I think this is the only legit guy in the city. This is a guy we could put our support around. Anyone have info on him?

6/25/2010 08:50:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Joe Moore should start holding fund raisers now...speaking 'out of turn' like that will surely turn Shortshanks against him at the next aldercreature
elections.

6/25/2010 09:39:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If the media or the voters really think that the democratic party in this town is planning on making hiring legit, they must be smoking something funny! Daley could turn over all hiring to a private company and still controll hiring if he picks a connected private company. And, the media and the feds will have a harder time monitoring this as it will be run by a private company, not the government. Parking is now in the hands of a private company and they write the majority of the parking tickets. As we recently found out, the clouted are on the " no ticket" list.

6/25/2010 09:47:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yeah I can also expect my first bill to be sky high because of all the under estimation over the last 5 years, he has heard of bills as high as $1,000. Cool just in time for my retro which should about cover the bill, so I might as well sign my check over to them, would they take a two-party check?
...... I think you'll be ok. they wont do that.It didnt hapen to me.

6/25/2010 10:00:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

He also wants to privatize the recycle pick up. He created it now he wants to sell it!! I think if we didnt recycle there wouldnt be anything to sell!!! It would save alot of jobs. I stopped

6/25/2010 10:03:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just another way to circumvent Shakman. Smoke and mirrors. Aren't all of Hillards people the exempts on this department? How's that working out?

6/25/2010 10:08:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it will circumvent shakman. patronage will continue thru these "private" companies without federal oversight.

6/25/2010 10:11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sc911 said at 12:54Am.....

WOW! EVERYBODY, PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE! Go to sc911's post for the link to an article written by a Chicago Water Dept. insider who names NAMES and ADDRESSES of corruption and fraud in Daley's administration. VERY detailed...no skimping on details, names, dates, addresses and history of Daley's corrupt activities, cronies and mob connections. A MUST READ.

6/25/2010 10:32:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The recent Foreman of Electrical Mechanics promotion process at O'Hare was a sham. They had a do-over of the verbal portion of the examination (interview) because they claimed that all eight candidates flunked the first time.

I can almost hear the bagpipes warming up for Commander Jr.

6/25/2010 11:09:00 AM  
Anonymous The Box Chevy Phantom said...

Could this be the "tell" in king shorty's end game?

A big and final "fuck you" to municipal employees/union members by destroying/underfunding/letting his nephew and others steal from municipal employee pension funds?

Destroying bargaining units by promising jobs and favors to the leaders not to mount a vigorous/noisy defense of their memberships while he negotiate in bad faith and reneges on previous agreements or demands give-backs/multiple weeks of unpaid furlough days?

Mounting a vigorous media campaign to scapegoat municipal employee pay and pensions as the sole reason the City of Chicago has a big-ass hole in the budget so as to deflect from the primary cause which is high level theft, graft, greed and incompetence of which the odor emanates directly from the 5th floor?

Knowing that most inhabitants of Chicago are too intellectually lazy to see that Daley Inc. IS THE SOLE CAUSE of budgetary malaise but will jump on the "sweet pension & early retirement" of the municipal employees during the current nationwide financial/unemployment crisis?

Most people are small minded, jealous and fickle by nature. It becomes more manifest during hard times when they howl in false outrage at municipal employees. They're mostly pissed that they stood in the wrong line.

Especially the ones loudly axe-grinding against the Police. You people laughed at us when your 401K's were fat, and you were making six figures and buying the $600k condos downtown. Now you're short-selling, bankrupt and trading what's left of that 401K for a case of beans. STFU, please! Don't shit in another man's plate just because he's eating and you aren't. It's not the fault of the Police as Daley Inc. would have you believe.)

The middle class is being fucked RAW & ROYALLY! Throw shit at the elected officials, not the Police; for cryin' out loud! Stop being so gullible and simple-minded people!

One poster at scumtimes online kicked ass and named names regarding this article. The very first entry we believe. Everybody should rear it/cut and paste it before Daley Inc. has it removed. It reads like the REAL Daley Inc. family tree and gives some insight as to why the FEDS AIN'T DOIN' SHIT TO THESE ASSHOLES!

In addition, as far as we're concerned, it's only a tacit confirmation as to why Daley Inc. expended beau coup, boo-coo MUCH MONEY, TIME AND POLITICAL CAPITOL to send the "long-legged mack daddy" aka "The Hollow Man," to 1600 Pennsylvania Av.

The Hollow Man has no weight of experience, no substance, no character, no scruples or morals... He turns like a weather vane.

A perfect creation of the Chicago Political Machine ensconced in the seat of national power to protect his liege, master and patron from being righteously and lawfully dangled at the end of stout manila hemp as is fitting for a tyrant and coward. As it is, worse men have hung for lesser crimes against the people. The heart breaking thing is that it does appear that there will be no justice for the upright, captive taxpayer/citizen of Chicago who cry out For RMD and Daley Inc. to be fully punished for their crimes.

Isn't it ironic?

We rant on these pages about mutts, multi-generational non-contributors and the thieves known as Daley Inc. but it seems they are the ones who have "won" while we foot the bill and get shit on for being responsible and actively trying to contribute something positive during our sojourn in this world.

...And people have the gall to be offended because the Policeman is fed up, pissed and saying, "FTW! Family, friends and the too thin BLUE LINE before everybody else!"

Maybe it is time for Policemen to stop being so willingly self sacrificing and start making decisions based on pure self-interest and preservation?

What? Oh, does that fuck up the notion of a humble, friendly "public servant?"

Get bent... Twice... Yeah you too j-fled.

6/25/2010 11:51:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Had a new water meter installed, for the second time in 5 years. The one 5 years ago had a sensor on it so the meter reader could just walk by and get an accurate reading. BUT that wasn't good enough for the people hired by the machine. They were to lazy to walk 30' from the curb so the remote signal could be picked up, so they just estimated the usage. NOW the city has paid an outside contractor to put all new meters in that will send out a signal so the meter reader can just drive by and never leave their car.
So let's pay twice to another connected contractor!! Oh yeah I can also expect my first bill to be sky high because of all the under estimation over the last 5 years, he has heard of bills as high as $1,000. Cool just in time for my retro which should about cover the bill, so I might as well sign my check over to them, would they take a two-party check?

6/25/2010 12:28:00 AM


I had the head of my water meter replaced too. It is being done by a contractor from Tinley Park IL. They layed off/eliminated the city employees that were supposed to read the meters and replaced them with suburbanites. the new meter heads read in actual gallons used where the old ones measured in cubic feet. they have a constant transmitter on them and can be read at any time, day/night, weekends, good or bad weather. The suburban company just do a drive by down the street and read them like they do with some of the gas company meters.
I have been getting estimated bills for months, if not a couple of years. Now I got my first bill with the new reader and it says that it too is estimated! The change is that although estimated the amount doubled with the new calculations. The sewer portion of the bill, (which is like the F.O.P. dues, automatically gets a raise when the water portion goes up), is 86% of the water bill. Just another way for the city to get their grubby little fat slimmy filthy dirty hands into your wallet and to get the last nickle/dimes from your empty pockets!
They have a piece on the city cable channel about how the entire city is going to meters. They said that you will only pay the same current amount if you switch to a meter. Ya, right, I really believe that!
Just be warned!

6/25/2010 12:19:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Freedom of Information Act doesn't apply to private contracts

6/25/2010 12:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

john kass sums it all up in his article today.

6/25/2010 01:59:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Blogger sc911 said...

Did you read the public comments at the bottom of that article? There is an essay about corruption that names names and gives addresses. Fascinating reading.

Click here for the article.


that really is amazing.......

i wonder if the mayors people signed for that certified mail?

6/25/2010 02:02:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds about as good as the idea Daley had about creating the Office of Compliance.

The boodle boys will probably be the new hiring officers, along with a token woman/black/hispanic they can trot out for the media.

6/25/2010 02:29:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who ever Jim Osborne is (whistleblower) in response to Mayor outsourcing hiring, he is just awesome. Flabergasted that his response to the article was even printed! Brings back a memory though...back in 1972 I was on a civil service clerk list after taking the test and passing. Was called to the Water Dept. to interview and was told I had job but I needed to get a letter from the Ward. At the time I had my first apartment in Bridgeport and knew nothing about politics. Went to the Ward and spoke with a Daley (I don't know which one of the brothers) and was told that there were no jobs available!!! Didn't get the letter and didn't get the job! Wow! But then I lucked out and got this god awful job! Someone please save the Police Department!

6/25/2010 02:39:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hillard-hinez, wow, they have been given insider info on investigations threatening the department (i.e. blackmail) into moving certain investigations ahead of others.

6/25/2010 04:58:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah Hillard will be just the guy to do background checks. Seems to me I remember old "step and fetch it" Hillard was in charge when an 11th district copper E.H. was charged and convicted of battery to the police. Yep good old Terry "the copper's cop" let that p.o. take a LOA and even let him take the Sgt's exam while he was suspended waiting for the trial. So E.H. gets found guilty by a jury of his peers and sentenced to one year probation. Unlike Cozzi and others on the job who have been screwed over, Hillard let E.H. come back to work after serving his time and Hillard and the black reverends made sure E.H. got all his time back and back pay at the Police Board. Last I heard OCD had E.H. on surveillance tape many times protecting a dope house in 015 while he was on duty in 011 in uniform in a marked car. Seems the Feds don't want no part of that nor does IAD but Cozzi rots in prison. Yep good old Terry Hillard would be the man I want doing background investigations.

6/25/2010 05:03:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well it looks like Ald Moore will be called on the carpet real soon.

To privatize the hiring process they can point the finger at someone else for doing all the dirt. This guy has to go and soon. But who do we have that we can trust. And PLEASE DO NOT say Hoffman. He could have dug up tons of dirty while I.G. and didn't.

6/25/2010 09:17:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Yep good old Terry Hillard would be the man I want doing background investigations.

6/25/2010 05:03:00 PM"


I STILL ENJOY HIS CLASSIC LINE ON THE WITNESS STAND,"JUST CUZ I WAS THE CHIEF OF DETECTIVES, THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WUZ A DETECTIVE." PRICELESS, THE CPD IN A NUTSHELL, THANKS FOR THE LAFFS & IRONY TERRY.

6/25/2010 09:57:00 PM  
Anonymous 29 and a day said...

john Kass did a good piece about the benefits for the mayor if he privatizes evrything

Like not being subject to scrutiny about hiring

6/25/2010 10:35:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The reason Daley is looking to privatize hiring is because private firms are less subject FOIA requests. Unlike government agencies, private businesses can do as they please. Add the the fact that there will be a shell company and the company doing the work will be in another state will combine to make any form of effective journalistic investigative oversight impossible.

It really doesn't matter if Daley is Mayor or not. Chicago is run by crime syndicates. Daley is only the figurehead. Until/unless the Feds or the media decide to really muckrake, it will be the same old shit for another generation.

He makes Capone look like a piker.

6/25/2010 11:27:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
The recent Foreman of Electrical Mechanics promotion process at O'Hare was a sham. They had a do-over of the verbal portion of the examination (interview) because they claimed that all eight candidates flunked the first time.

I can almost hear the bagpipes warming up for Commander Jr.

6/25/2010 11:09:00 AM
--------
Gee, a do-over. Sounds like the last lieutenant's test.....

6/26/2010 12:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let's hope the next step is to privatize management of the City of Chicago, from the aldercreatures all the way to the top.

6/26/2010 02:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alright who are yall voting for, DALEY! Keep corruption alive!

6/26/2010 02:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Off Topic... Just got all three of my City Stickers in the mail. Here is a shocker.. NONE of them will stick to the window. Guess there was an article in the paper about the aldermen knowing this company did crap work, yet they still awarded the contract to a crap company. I'm sure Delay's kid has a finger in this.

Anyhow the city will replace them for free. If you live on the Northwest Side you have to go to Gale Street. When you get there DO NOT stand in the horrendously long line. Let them know you are there to replace the crap you paid 75 dollars for and they will take you to the front of the line. Just an FYI

6/26/2010 09:43:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm betting Walsh Construction (or the grandmother under minority) will get the contract as general contractor to shitty hall.

6/26/2010 01:48:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Off Topic... Just got all three of my City Stickers in the mail. Here is a shocker.. NONE of them will stick to the window.

---------------------------

I tried putting mine on today and I got one of the defective ones as well. I'll be over at Gale Street this week.

Living in and working for the City is like being pecked to death by a chicken.

6/26/2010 11:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

FYI
There is also a plan to privatise part of what the fire department is doing, its all very hush-hush, but its moving forward

6/27/2010 04:17:00 PM  

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