To the editors:
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At the top level of city government, Daley has now appointed 18 minority group members (Black, Hispanic and Asian) to head city departments–50% of the Cabinet. Minorities head an even greater share of the most important departments–7 of the 9 largest (a higher percentage than under either Sawyer or Washington), plus other key positions such as Budget Director, Commissioner of Personnel and Commissioner of Economic Development (who also chairs the Development Subcabinet). In terms of overall city hiring since Daley took office, substantially over 50% of the new hires have been minorities. All of these figures compare favorably to either the Sawyer or Washington administrations.
If you look at the remaining Shakman-exempt employees, the genuine “political appointees,” you find that under Washington and Sawyer these political appointees were overwhelmingly Black. The Mayor’s Office, for example, was about 75% Black at the end of the Sawyer administration, and there were many other employees on other department payrolls, also predominantly Black, who were doing political work for the Mayor’s Office. For example, there were a dozen Shakman-exempt employees on the payroll of the Public Works Department who the Commissioner (a hold-over from Washington and Sawyer) told me did absolutely no work in that department; these employees were all Black. (Of course, there were also white employees of this kind; for example, a white employee of the Streets and Sanitation Department devoted virtually all of his time to putting out a political newsletter.) There is nothing particularly surprising about the fact that both the Washington and Sawyer administrations drew the bulk of their political appointees from the Black community. Nonetheless, the predominance of Blacks in these political positions was a fact with which the Daley administration had to deal.
Former Chief of Staff to Mayor Daley
