"Cold Shoulder - City Hall Stiff-Arms Inspector General to Root out Corruption", (Crain's Chicago Business, October 1, 2007)
Little by little, it has become obvious that the marriage between Mr. Daley and the tough-minded inspector general he appointed two years ago under pressure from federal prosecutors was of the shotgun variety. The inspector wants to inspect, but the mayor wants a team player. Neither party is happy. Their bedrooms aren't even on the same floor.
That's not good news for those who were hoping City Hall finally would make reform its top priority. As a key decision nears on the 2008 budget for Mr. Hoffman's office, the question is whether things will change or whether Mr. Hoffman will be the latest in a series of top mayoral aides who were brought in after political storms but ultimately had to choose between doing half a job and working elsewhere.
Mr. Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor who declined to comment for this column, gets good marks from one of the granddaddy reformers of them all, attorney Michael Shakman, author of the federal court decree that bans the use of political factors in most city employment decisions.
