There is Still a Club

You are still not in it.

From "The Chicago News Cooperative" via that damn fine "Beachwood Reporter" site that all the kids are talking about:

Some City Council members on Wednesday questioned the high salaries that new Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is paying many of his freshly recruited Cabinet members.

The Chicago News Cooperative reported Tuesday that many top aides to Emanuel are being paid more than the 2011 city budget allocated for their salaries. (See the 100 highest-paid employees.)

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward) said he was unaware that new city officials often have higher wages than their predecessors in the administration of former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

“I think he better re-evaluate that,” Fioretti said. “We’re in a difficult budget time. He has told us over and over again that everybody has to share in the pain. Citizens are sharing in the pain, and the top officials should be sharing in the pain, too.”

Fioretti said he questions Emanuel’s commitment to making City Hall more transparent because his administration did not provide salary information to aldermen before releasing it to the public.

“We have a long way to go,” Fioretti said. “I’m hearing conflicting stories from some of my colleagues about how they’re being treated, and it doesn’t put things on the right foot immediately here.”
...

Every now and then I wander over to the brand new Fresnel lens that Da New Mare has mounted over the city government flea circus, just to see who's up, who's down, and how much everybody is making these days.

I can reliably (if anecdotally) report that most of the city workers I know remain hardworking civil servants laboring longer and harder than you would believe in a very demoralizing environment, punch-drunk from years of escalating furloughs, constant layoff threats, constant reminders that the new, MBA-driven regime (like the old, MBA-driven regime) thinks they are contemptible drones or expendable cogs, and the absurdly unrealistic expectations of bosses who know that the quickest route to their own unemployment is to say "No" to the next ludicrous demand from the 5th floor.

I can also reliably report that same useless, politically-shielded meat bags that were there 2, 5, 19 years ago are still there and drawing handsome salaries, while more than a few of those competent public servants have been driven out, burned out or laid off.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme clout.