Chicago Ain't Ready For Reform: The Award

It seems like only yesterday that Chicago alderman Ambrosio Medrano was convicted of bribery.

That's because it was fairly close to yesterday. He was found guilty about a month ago, just another in a long string of corrupt aldermen stretching back for decades. They were in office in 1889, when police detective Daniel Coughlin was working elections to put them in office, and some think they came through for him when he was arrested for murder.

So corruption in Chicago's City Hall is not news.

Joe "Disgruntled Employees" Moore

That Alderman Joe Moore has been having a nice, long talk with the FBI comes as no surprise to those who know how things work in the City That Works. He is being investigated for paying off a couple of employees he fired when they complained about illegal doings in his ward office. The FBI has been explaining to Mr. Moore that an employer cannot pay hush money to an ex-employee to buy their silence when said employer is breaking the law. And an employer can't use public funds to buy the silence of an employee by granting them a bonus for unused sick days that exceeds the number of unused sick days calling for compensation.

It's done all the time in Chicago, of course. What matters is not getting caught. Unfortunately, Mr. Moore failed on the first principle of corruption.

Which makes it a little embarrassing for the Obama administration to be giving him a Champions Of Change award today, in recognition of Alderman Joe Moore's work in creating an open government in his ward. 

Just a disgruntled employee, says Mr. Moore, and will you please pay closer attention to what's going on over at Metra with their scandal? It's bigger and juicier, and there's nothing to see here so move on.

This is not the best time to be handing out awards to a politician being investigated by the Feds, because it makes a mockery of the award's purpose. Maybe Joe Moore could be seen as exceptional for asking residents of his ward how they would like a portion of the budget to be spent, but he's not at all exceptional in using a different part of that budget to keep a lid on the corruption that is bubbling up in his office.

He's just another Chicago politician in a long line of politicians, a string that connects the City Council to the prison system.

Rewarding his good behavior in the middle of an investigation into his bad behavior isn't exactly the sort of press that the Obama administration could use these days. But pulling the award after announcing it wouldn't be any better.

Between a rock and a hard place. That's where Mr. Moore has put the Champions of Change award. It would have been nice if he'd mentioned the FBI investigation a little sooner, like when the award committee approached him.