Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Here's the right message: It's time to flunk test rigger
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Here's the right message: It's time to flunk test rigger
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
February 1, 2007
It was bad enough when Mayor Daley bent over backward to praise former patronage chief Robert Sorich and three others convicted last year for their roles in rigging city hiring, and then denied what is apparent to anyone else -- that such praise sent a mixed message about his commitment to reform. Now he's refusing to fire an official who admitted he rigged the hiring of a politically connected teenager as a building inspector because -- get this -- it would send the wrong message.
What message would that be? In the mayor's view, firing Christopher Kozicki from his $130,000-a-year post would deter other city workers from cooperating with investigators. That's because Kozicki made his admission at the Sorich trial, where he testified for the prosecution under a grant of immunity. You can't judge people after they've cooperated, the mayor said.
Excuse us, but yes you can.
On the witness stand, Kozicki, then a deputy commissioner in the Buildings Department, said he falsified the job interview scores of 19-year-old Andy Ryan so that the unqualified son of a top union boss could make the hiring cut in 2004. He said he was pressured by his boss, Commissioner Stan Kaderbek, to make sure Ryan was hired.
It's worth noting, however, that prosecutors treated him as a hostile witness, alleging that he changed his testimony to exaggerate the role of Kaderbek -- who was not on trial -- and take the heat off the four men on trial, including his friend Tim McCarthy. They maintained that in earlier grand jury appearances, Kozicki had testified that the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, the office at the center of the hiring fraud investigation, played a greater role in Ryan's hiring.
City Inspector General David Hoffman late last year recommended that Kozicki, who comes from Daley's power base in the 11th Ward and who now works for the Planning Department, be fired because his actions put public safety at risk. As was made obvious by the 2003 porch collapse in Lincoln Park that killed 13 people and injured 60, inspectors play a critical role in making sure buildings are built and maintained in a safe manner. It's no job for the inexperienced and unqualified.
That seems to us like a pretty good reason to fire someone. But Daley thinks Kozicki deserves a pass because he cooperated, apparently forgetting that Kozicki already had caught a break for coming clean, when the feds gave him immunity from prosecution. That shouldn't also give him immunity from being fired from his six-figure job, which is paid for by the very taxpayers whose lives were put at risk by his actions. Keeping him on the payroll sends yet another mixed message.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
February 1, 2007
It was bad enough when Mayor Daley bent over backward to praise former patronage chief Robert Sorich and three others convicted last year for their roles in rigging city hiring, and then denied what is apparent to anyone else -- that such praise sent a mixed message about his commitment to reform. Now he's refusing to fire an official who admitted he rigged the hiring of a politically connected teenager as a building inspector because -- get this -- it would send the wrong message.
What message would that be? In the mayor's view, firing Christopher Kozicki from his $130,000-a-year post would deter other city workers from cooperating with investigators. That's because Kozicki made his admission at the Sorich trial, where he testified for the prosecution under a grant of immunity. You can't judge people after they've cooperated, the mayor said.
Excuse us, but yes you can.
On the witness stand, Kozicki, then a deputy commissioner in the Buildings Department, said he falsified the job interview scores of 19-year-old Andy Ryan so that the unqualified son of a top union boss could make the hiring cut in 2004. He said he was pressured by his boss, Commissioner Stan Kaderbek, to make sure Ryan was hired.
It's worth noting, however, that prosecutors treated him as a hostile witness, alleging that he changed his testimony to exaggerate the role of Kaderbek -- who was not on trial -- and take the heat off the four men on trial, including his friend Tim McCarthy. They maintained that in earlier grand jury appearances, Kozicki had testified that the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, the office at the center of the hiring fraud investigation, played a greater role in Ryan's hiring.
City Inspector General David Hoffman late last year recommended that Kozicki, who comes from Daley's power base in the 11th Ward and who now works for the Planning Department, be fired because his actions put public safety at risk. As was made obvious by the 2003 porch collapse in Lincoln Park that killed 13 people and injured 60, inspectors play a critical role in making sure buildings are built and maintained in a safe manner. It's no job for the inexperienced and unqualified.
That seems to us like a pretty good reason to fire someone. But Daley thinks Kozicki deserves a pass because he cooperated, apparently forgetting that Kozicki already had caught a break for coming clean, when the feds gave him immunity from prosecution. That shouldn't also give him immunity from being fired from his six-figure job, which is paid for by the very taxpayers whose lives were put at risk by his actions. Keeping him on the payroll sends yet another mixed message.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 6:58 AM
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