The [Tuesday] Papers

How much of Chicago is under investigation right now? Not enough!, I write for The Youth Project. Check it out, share, comment, etc.

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Krafty Kurt
"Earlier this month, City Treasurer Kurt Summers took to Facebook to laud a post that the Rev. Michael Pfleger had put up on the social media site blasting Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration. Was Summers' decision to draw attention to Pfleger's criticism a way for the treasurer to distance himself from the very mayor who appointed him to his current job?" Bill Ruthhart writes for the Tribune.

Here is that Facebook post:

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"At the time, Summers' office did not grant requests for an interview. But after Summers hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. event Monday, the treasurer took questions. Summers' answers showed he's trying to walk a fine line between not criticizing the man who helped him get his political start while also reacting to the public outrage and displeasure with Emanuel's response to the Laquan McDonald shooting by police."

Emphasis mine, because while Summers wasn't taking questions, and then when he was, he behaved with the typical cover, opaqueness and spin he decries here:

"We need REAL #transparency and #accountability from our public servants: elected, appointed AND sworn," Summers wrote. "Not the typical cover and opaqueness that is created by media/political spin and self-perpetuating system of governance without public engagement or representation."

To wit:

Asked twice Monday if he believed Emanuel mishandled the McDonald case, Summers was careful not to mention the mayor. Instead, Summers generally criticized public officials for couching on issues, even as he didn't directly address the question about the mayor's decisions in the McDonald case.

"I have concerns about the way that elected officials and politicians, in general, position information with spin and with couching and a way that's not the most transparent to the electorate and to the people that they serve. None of us are absolved in that," Summers said. "Fundamentally, this is bigger than one office and one person and one incident. It's pervasive, and it's a call for all of us to do better. It shouldn't be about spin, it should be about fact."

Kurt Summers, you are Today's Worst Meta-Person In Chicago.

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But wait, there's more:

Emanuel appointed Summers as treasurer in fall 2014, which gave the ambitious politician a leg up in running unopposed for the office last February. Summers previously worked as a senior vice president at Grosvenor Capital Management, a firm run by Emanuel's No. 1 campaign donor and close friend Michael Sacks. Summers has been mentioned as a possible mayoral contender in 2019.

On Monday, Summers held an event with several prominent African-American state lawmakers, aldermen and candidates for state's attorney and U.S. Senate to announce 11 financial literacy events across the city to help empower those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. McDonald's name was invoked by pastors who spoke at the event held at the Stone Temple Baptist Church in Lawndale, where Martin Luther King Jr. often preached during his time in Chicago.

None of the several speakers, including Summers during his two turns at the microphone, mentioned Emanuel during the hourlong event. Asked afterward if Emanuel was invited, Summers said yes, but that the mayor had attended a different interfaith event at the same church earlier in the day.

Emanuel had no events listed on his public schedule Monday.

Also, not mentioned in Ruthhart's report: On Friday, Summers attended both the mayoral's MLK breakfast and the protest MLK breakfast attended by pastors boycotting the mayor's event. (See the item Summers Time; he looked pretty chummy with Rahm.)

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See also: Item: Treasurer's Turkey Trot.

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