MR RADIO

Sounds of Government Spending & Accountability

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City of Chicago privatization

Parking meter privatization: aldermen lose urban-planning tool 4/21/09 • Click here to listen (length 4 minutes)

City of Chicago hiring

City Council considers creating its own inspector general's office 4/14/10 • Click here for a preview (.5 minute) • Click here to listen (length 9.3 minutes) • Summary: Chicago Public Radio's Richard Steele interviews Dave Glowacz about the City Council's proposed ordinance to create a legislative inspector general.

Inspector General says City of Chicago hiring practices still broken 1/29/10 • Click here to read the entire report • Summary: City of Chicago inspector general Joe Ferguson filed in federal court a report that concluded, “The dangers of political hiring remain real and constant”—despite years of court monitoring of city hiring. In his report, Ferguson called the city's hiring reform efforts “fundamentally inadequate,” resulting in a “shadow hiring system” that is still “easily exploited to hire clouted individuals.” Ferguson also blasted the beleaguered Office of Compliance as uncooperative and itself not in compliance with the law that helped create it—saying that the federal monitor's prediction that the office would fail have come true.

Employee charges City of Chicago with affirmative action fraud 1/27/10 • Click here to listen (length 4.8 minutes)
   • To read Theresa Hill's lawsuit click here
   • To read the City of Chicago's stated EEO/AA tasks click here
   • To hear an extended interview with Theresa Hill click here (length 12.5 minutes)
   • To hear an extended interview with attorney Bryan Wood click here (length 4.5 minutes)

Office of Compliance blasted in federal-court filings 10/20/09 • Click here to listen (length 6.8 minutes)
   • To read Michael Shakman's 10/6/09 filing click here; to read his 10/29/09 filing click here
   • To read Theresa Hill's lawsuit click here
   • To hear an extended interview with Michael Shakman click here (length 15 minutes)
   • To hear an extended interview with Tony Boswell click here (length 22.5 minutes)

Dept. of Streets & Sanitation's shady hiring practices outed by the Office of Compliance 6/24/09 • Click here to listen (length 5 minutes) • To read the Office of Compliance's entire report click here

For an organization chart of the Chicago Dept. of Streets & Sanitation click here

For an organization chart of the Chicago Dept. of Water Management click here

Cook County hiring

Report of the federal court's Compliance Administrator 9/14/09 • Click here to read the entire report • Excerpt: “An assistant manager who performs some HR [human resources] functions for the CORE [medical] facility told stories of multiple times when it took 7 or 8 months of persistent calls and memos to get open positions posted by the County's HR Bureau, followed by months of additional delay between the end of the posting period and when the facility would finally be sent a list of candidates to be interviewed. The assistant manager shared the belief expressed by many other county workers that postings are sometimes delayed to build a reservoir of desirable jobs for when politicians come calling.”