- The Chicago City Council today appointed an attorney from New York today to investigate accusations of wrongdoing by aldermen -- but not before several council members dismissed the watchdog as essentially toothless.
About an hour after all 50 aldermen voted in favor of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 2012 budget, a relatively acrimonious debate broke out as they considered whether to name Faisal Khan as the city's first legislative inspector general. - Under standards set by the City Council, Khan will only be able to initiate investigations after he gets the go-ahead from the obscure city Board of Ethics, a body that has not found a single instance of wrongdoing by an alderman in 24 years. More than 20 aldermen have gone to prison in that time.
And accusers would need to sign complaints against aldermen, opening them to retribution. Aldermen said Khan, 38, will work part-time for his $60,000 salary. And he will be reliant on the Board of Ethics staff to help him with investigations.
$60,000 for a part time job where he won't be able to investigate a thing. That's more than a full time copper makes starting out, and the cop probably arrests more criminals in a year than this guy will do in a career.