FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Jay Stewart, Executive Director (312) 427-8330

Statement of BGA Executive Director Jay Stewart on the Sorich Verdict

Today is a victory of common sense over political myopia. Twelve jurors have found Robert Sorich, Tim McCarthy, and Patrick Slattery guilty of fraud, and John Sullivan guilty of lying to the FBI. The four defendants engaged in a massive and complicated scheme to reward Mayor Daley’s political foot soldiers, regardless of competency, with taxpayer funded jobs and promotions.

Despite the wailing and moaning of Chicago’s ruling political class, the everyday citizens that made up the jury had no difficulty in determining that the relentless political intervention, sham interviews and records manipulation that epitomize the “City that Works” are nothing more than criminal conduct. Machine politicians and their courtiers are undoubtedly perplexed to learn that gaming the system for their benefit is illegal. But taxpaying citizens, who ultimately foot the bill for enriching cronies, understood this inherently corrupt ethos of Chicago’s politics and rejected it.

Today’s verdict means that Chicago’s worst kept secret, that politics determines city employment, can no longer be denied by our willfully blind and deaf City officials. Even a stunningly uncurious politician such as Mayor Daley and his woefully lax legal watchdog Corporation Counsel Mara Georges must come to terms with the ethical wasteland that is Chicago’s hiring system.

The corrupt system exposed by the trial has existed for one reason only: to further Mayor Daley’s political might. It did not serve to make the City more efficient, nor encourage diversity or any of the other flimsy excuses offered by the Mayor’s apologists. It is now incumbent on Mayor Daley to do the one thing that no Chicago politician likes to do, act in the public interest at the expense of their political machine.

The illegal hiring scheme was the inevitable result of the Daley Administration’s willful efforts to undermine the Shakman decree. The decree prohibits political hiring and firing of most City employees. Because it is one of the few independent constraints on the Mayor's power, it naturally has been attacked by the administration.

For years, members of Daley's administration have maintained a straight face as they argued in federal court that the City could be trusted to hire fairly and the Shakman decree should be thrown out. In light of the damning testimony in the Sorich trial, one might think that the administration would abandon its efforts to scrap the decree. Sadly, loyalty to the machine trumps accountability and hiring based on mere qualifications, so the fight against Shakman endures.

In light of the administration’s cynical view of Shakman, is anyone actually surprised that the contempt the administration holds towards Shakman has morphed into corrupt criminal conduct?

Leadership starts at the top. The Mayor’s disregard for Shakman, and his ignorance of a glut of ethical misdeeds in his administration have been the example by which Mr. Sorich and the others modeled their behavior. After all, we cannot forget now that after 29 months and more than 30 guilty pleas and convictions, our notoriously engaged and micromanaging mayor still can’t figure out who hired ex-gang member Angelo Torres to head up the City’s Hired Truck program.

Given Mayor Daley’s seventeen year record of failing to keep City hiring clean, he must do more than just blame others. He must finally accept personal responsibility for this ethical implosion. A good first step would be to stop fighting the Shakman decree and instead agree to make it tougher and easier to enforce. It is the least he can do for the people that pay his salary.