Privatize Your Problems Away

We're sure he's just shifting the hiring to connected firms, rather than keeping it "in-house:"

• Mayor Daley revived his failed plan today to outsource city hiring to cut costs and restore public confidence shaken by the hiring scandal that culminated in the conviction of his former patronage chief.

  The latest example of Daley's privatization frenzy will start with a request-for-proposals from firms interested in recruiting and hiring tradespeople in five city departments: Streets and Sanitation, Transportation, Water Management, Aviation and General Services.

  If it works to have an outside personnel firm recruit and hire carpenters, electricians, laborers and plumbers, City Hall will move to outsource all other hiring, the mayor said.

This includes public safety hiring? We heard that retired Superintendent Hillard's company is all set to do background investigations and such for police hires.

Aldercreature Joe Moore has the best quote in the article though:

• Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said he's “not a big fan of privatization,” especially after the parking meter fiasco.

  But he said: “Because the mayor has thoroughly failed to manage hiring in a legal fashion, he has no choice. He just received another scathing review by the inspector general on contracts. The monitor has continued to find fault with the mayor on his hiring. It's clear he's just not capable of managing certain aspects of the city.”

That's going to leave a mark.