Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Judge frees Chicago from Shakman decree. Lets the fox guard the hen house.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Judge frees Chicago from Shakman decree. Lets the fox guard the hen house.:

Judge frees Chicago from Shakman decree. Lets the fox guard the hen house.

"Part of the problem..."

Best quote of the day comes on the heels of Chicago being released from the 42-year-old Shakman patronage-hiring decree, allowing Rahm's boys to police themselves. The quote comes from Jay Stone, the son of retired Ald. Bernard Stone (50th).

“Emanuel is part of the problem — not part of the solution,” Jay Stone said as the mayor sat stone-faced a few feet away in federal court. Arguing that Emanuel has “shown no responsibility or remorse” for having benefited from that illegal patronage army, Stone said allowing Emanuel’s City Hall to police itself was “something out of Kafka or a George Orwell novel.” 

IN CASE YOU FORGOT...Stone told the court that Emanuel was elected to Congress in 2002 with help from more than 500 foot soldiers commanded by now-convicted former First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak. and Streets and San deputy Dan Katalinic, who was also convicted in the hiring scandal.

Yes, Rahm is definitely part of the problem and if Judge Schenkier was really interested he could have looked no further than the mayor's control over the Chicago Public Schools and how CPS has become a wing of City Hall. The meting out of no-bid contracts to clout-heavy companies and politically-loyal organizations has more or less replaced hiring over at Streets & San as the new patronage and charter school operators like UNO and Gülen have become the main beneficiaries.

Second-best quote comes from Rahm himself.

"Chicagoans are not naïve enough to believe that attempts to influence city hiring will Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Judge frees Chicago from Shakman decree. Lets the fox guard the hen house.: