By Steve Rhodes
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel is moving to take back the broad authority he gave one of the city’s top financial aides to buy insurance in the wake of his former comptroller’s federal indictment in an alleged kickback scheme tied to his old job in Ohio,” the Tribune reports.
“Shortly after taking office, Emanuel pushed a measure through the City Council allowing then-Comptroller Amer Ahmad to buy insurance without putting the business out to bid.”
Why?
*
“Now the administration will obtain coverage through a competitive bidding process overseen by the Department of Procurement Services, mayoral spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said Wednesday.
“Although Hamilton said the mayor has ordered the switch, it’s unclear whether Emanuel will move to change the city ordinance that gave Ahmad the power in the first place. The Emanuel administration also sought to pin on predecessor Richard M. Daley the idea of giving the comptroller more power over insurance purchases.
“It was proposed in March 2011 as a way to clarify the comptroller’s duties as a financial agent for the city,” Hamilton said. Emanuel took office in May 2011.
A) I have no idea what that means. How does giving the comptroller the ability to purchase no-bid insurance policies “clarify” his duties? Because it gives him sole authority to purchase insurance? Why would that be necessary? (Plus, we learn later in the story that the ordinance gives the budget director final approval.)
B) The ordinance change may have been proposed under Daley, but we learn later in the story that it didn’t actually pass the city council until November 2011 – six months into Rahm’s term.
*
The Sun-Times, by the way, reports that the Emanuel administration proposed the change.
*
You can click through to each papers’ stories to see that the change worked out in pretty much the way I’m guessing it was intended – until it was publicly exposed.
*
And:
“The successor to indicted Chicago comptroller Amer Ahmad has jumped to a private company that he may have helped extend and expand a lucrative city contract,” Greg Hinz reports for Crain’s.
“Earlier in the week, I reported that acting Comptroller Andy Sheils is moving to Florida to take a job at a Fort Lauderdale medical-services provider. What I didn’t know then was that the company, via a subsidiary, is a major vendor for Chicago, netting nearly $19 million since 2007 on a controversial contract that Mr. Sheils administered and worked on extending.”
–
Right Of Way
Maybe instead of a school there’s a street available.
Root Causes
Study Links Violence To Bars And Liquor Stores.
I link violence to dumb-ass studies.
Bears’ Glass Half Full (Of Something)
In The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report.
Spit Take
Rahm expresses his feelings about Chicago’s schoolkids.
–
The Beachwood Tip Line: Half empty.
Posted on September 19, 2013