Rahm's got some cleaning up to do in city hiring. Shortshanks was famous for giving convicted felons all sorts of chances to get city jobs as long as they produced votes for the Machine. That appears to be the case here:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he has ordered Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne to tighten supervision to prevent a repeat of the Gold Coast accident that saw a city laborer accused of driving drunk and plowing into a crowded sidewalk, injuring seven people.
Emanuel noted that termination proceedings have already begun for 61-year-old laborer Dwight Washington, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when the accident occurred Saturday, according to prosecutors.
Of course, if anyone had looked at Dwight Washington's criminal history, they might have seen a rap sheet running back decades with convictions for Armed Robbery and assorted other offenses. Anywhere else, the hiring process is designed to catch these things before they become issues, preventing the hiring of persons with a propensity for law breaking.
Anywhere else isn't Chicago though. We imagine we're going to be hearing about many of these types of hirees slipping through the cracks in the coming years. It's like Shortshanks left us all these little surprises to remember him by for years and years to come.
Anywhere else isn't Chicago though. We imagine we're going to be hearing about many of these types of hirees slipping through the cracks in the coming years. It's like Shortshanks left us all these little surprises to remember him by for years and years to come.