Skimping on Public Safety

Gee, we've been pointing out for over a year that Patrol is shorthanded like nobody's business. Now we see the Tribune found some more places Shortshanks has been "saving" money:

• Almost 70 percent of the city's elevators weren't inspected in the past year, despite laws that require annual inspections. Some city elevators have not been looked at since 2001.
  
  Perhaps of greater concern is that after an elevator fails an inspection, the city doesn't have a record of whether it was brought back up to code, according to the latest data obtained by the Tribune.

Of course, as soon as safety shortfalls like this are exposed, Daley promises instant reform:

• Mayor Richard Daley promised Thursday to dramatically increase the use of outside specialists to conduct elevator inspections after a Tribune story revealed that 70 percent of elevators in Chicago hadn't been looked at in the last year.
  
  By law, the city is required to inspect each of its 20,000 elevators every year, but a handful haven't been looked at since 2001, according to the Tribune report.

Ah yes, a "private" contractor (or outside specialist), probably appointed by some "emergency" powers the allow the contract to be awarded without a bid process that then bypasses various safeguards.

So which nephew suddenly got hired by Otis Elevators?