Mayor Daley takes a break from public appearances while we reflect on a bizarre new Mayoral proposal, a bizarre Mayoral proclamation and a highly entertaining John Kass column

REMINDER: We will always welcome your thoughtful and honest feedback on any post, but this will be the last reminder to direct it here.

DALEY NEWS 

Mayor Daley took some time to smell the roses today and didn't venture out in front of any reporters.  Then again, roses aren't exactly in season so we cannot vouch for what exactly he might be smelling.  We, however, are smelling something extremely foul with stories like this one.

DALEY CHATTER

• The City Council Budget Committee has signed off on the latest Mayoral proposal designed to make Chicago "the nation's most accessible city."  Businesses owned by people with disabilities would, under this initiative, receive preferential treatment in the bidding process to win city contracts.  Some dissent, though irrelevant, did surface:

Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said Mayor Daley would be better off rewarding companies where more than half the employees are people with disabilities. Instead, the mayor has targeted firms owned by people with disabilities.

“You’re not going to be helping the disabled. This is all window-dressing,” Stone said.

• Mayor Daley plans to fight hard for funds from President-elect Obama's eventual stimulus package to go straight to Chicago.  In other words, now that Daley and the Illinois Governor aren't exactly on speaking terms, the Mayor wants to ensure that he's the one to decide how and where federal money will be spent.  There seems to be just one minor wrinkle in the Mayor's plans:

Daley would not say how a city with a major budget shortfall will come up with the matching funds needed to qualify for federal grants.

Last week, Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe acknowledged Chicago finished 2008 $31 million deeper in the hole than previously thought...

• Today's John Kass column was enjoyed by us tremendously.  Here is but a brief glimpse:

...there is another expert on [Rahm] Emanuel's political rise, the world's foremost authority in the field:

Don Tomczak.

Unfortunately, Mr. Tomczak, a top political operative for that other famous reformer, Mayor Richard Daley, is indisposed.

Tomczak will be indisposed until July 3, 2010, when he is scheduled to get out of federal prison, where he was sent after pleading guilty to taking $400,000 in bribes for city trucking contracts in that department Daley still doesn't know anything about.

Photo by WBEZ

What did you think of this post?

To start your own Chicago neighborhood or topical blog on The Windy Citizen, write to us at editor@windycitizen.com.