Editorial: Enough already with that ‘Chicago way’

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Yes, there is a “Chicago way,” but we would like to believe it is curable.

When yet another Chicago alderman is charged with sleazy crimes, such as shaking down a liquor store owner, we are tempted to shake our heads and laugh it off as the latest chapter in Chicago’s colorful history of political rogues. We so often mythologize our local elected crooks, the whole lot of them, making sure to always quote former Ald. Paddy Bauler: “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.”

But when an absurdly high percentage of Chicago aldermen are taken down by federal prosecutors decade after decade, we might better ask what exactly Chicago is doing wrong but could get right. The Chicago way, a culture of semi-sanctioned public larceny, is not impervious or immune to reform, whatever Paddy said.

Chicago might begin by reducing the power of aldermen to call the shots on matters best left to City Hall staffers who have the real expertise.

Among the shoddy crimes for which Ald. Willie B. Cochran of the 20th Ward was indicted on Wednesday, he is accused of extorting money from an attorney seeking federal funds to rehab vacant and foreclosed homes. Why would the final decision on who gets such funds even rest with a single alderman, as opposed to housing specialists at City Hall? Over the years, many basic powers that aldermen have abused for political and personal gain, such as how to collect the city’s garbage, have been shifted over to mayoral control. The same could be done here.

Cochran is accused, as well, of taking a $3,000 cash bribe to arrange for a new owner of a liquor store to get a package goods license. That actually strikes us an appropriate job for an alderman. Who would know better whether a neighborhood can handle a liquor store? But the entire history of Chicago shows that many aldermen cannot be trusted on even such basic matters. Not for nothing did former Mayor Richard M. Daley dramatically reduce the number of liquor licenses and assume greater control over them.

Or consider Cochran’s third alleged scam, stealing thousands of dollars from a charitable fund he set up in his ward for, supposedly, the benefit of children, the poor and the elderly. It’s hard to know how much of the charity’s money went to, say, picnics for kids or St. Valentine’s Day parties for the elderly; but Wednesday’s federal indictment says Cochran believed charity begins at home, or maybe at a casino. He withdrew some $25,000 from ATMs in or near his favorite casinos.

That would be your classic Chicago way, right? An alderman squeezes money for a loosely defined charity from lobbyists and businesses looking for a friend at City Hall, then spends it in an equally loose manner, putting himself at the front of the line. But our city and state can write ordinances and laws that better control and monitor how funds from 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) charities are raised and spent.

The charities need not be a black hole, and we need not give in to the Chicago way.

A more dramatic reform, pushed for the last five years by the Civic Federation, would be to cut Chicago’s City Council in half, from 50 members to 25. That might result in fewer of those highly accessible “alley alderman” we always hear about who know every corner of their wards, but it could result in greater accountability and professionalism. And, to be honest, we’re not sure how many hard-working alley aldermen there really are.

What we do know is that the Chicago City Council kicks and screams whenever pressured to reform its ways — and it always will. Earlier this year, the Council killed an effort to fully empower an inspector general.

And we know that 31 aldermen, enough to fill a prison bus, have been convicted of corruption since 1973.

There is nothing cute about the Chicago way. And we can end it.

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