Your Feb. 3 editorial “Time for Shakman to evolve” is right that the court orders protecting the political freedom of City of Chicago employees are a positive force for good. It is also right that if the city identifies appropriate changes in the hiring procedures provided by the orders, they should be implemented.
But your editorial overlooks the fact that I and others involved in the Shakman case have repeatedly invited the city to make proposals to correct any legitimate concerns. Mayor Richard Daley and his corporation counsel have repeatedly declined our invitation.
It appears that Daley doesn’t want to correct any alleged difficulties with hiring procedures. He wants to dump the entire set of procedures that the Tribune, prior mayors and others agree have served the city, its employees and the public very well.
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Your editorial objects to the fact that temporary employees are covered by the 1983 hiring decree. There is nothing new about this requirement. It was clearly part of the rules from the beginning, and it needs to be. The federal court’s recent ruling found that about 1,800 temporary hires who the city claimed were “independent contractors” were really hired by the city as ordinary employees. Their hiring should have been subject to the public notice and other requirements of the 1983 order.
Plugging the loophole provided by temporary hiring is important. You apparently forget the ugly history of patronage abuse in Chicago (much of it documented in Tribune articles), based on “temporary” hiring of employees who were rehired every six months for decades. That system formed the backbone of the patronage system in Chicago. It was wrong, and Daley should not be permitted to reinstitute it under the guise of improving efficiency.
But I share your view that legitimate, short-term hiring for a single three- or six-month period should be exempted from the hiring procedures of the 1983 order. We have proposed exactly that to the court in the present proceeding. The city may not, of course, hire for those positions on the basis of politics. Daley has shown no interest in our proposal.
Suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Your editorial, in effect, invites Daley to do the responsible thing by raising any legitimate concerns. The fact that he won’t do so, and instead seeks to abolish the entire 1983 order, speaks volumes.