“The Chicago Way”

There was a brouhaha in the Chicago media earlier this week about whether Chicago Alderman Edward Burke had violated the City Council’s ethics rules.  A resolution was introduced in the City Council by almost two dozen aldermen (out of 50) to get the City to try to increase the assessed valuations (and, therefore, the real estate taxes) on seven big commercial buildings in Chicago.  Two of these properties had previously gotten their assessments lowered in tax appeals handled by Klafter & Burke, a law firm that does property tax appeal work and that Alderman Burke is a partner of.

The potential conflict of interest arose when, after the resolution was introduced, Alderman Burke said the resolution should be sent to the Finance Committee, of which he is the chairman, instead of the Housing and Real Estate Committee, whose chairman had agreed to give it a hearing.  By saying the resolution should go to his committee, Alderman Burke created a disagreement, which apparently means the resolution will go to the Rules and Ethics Committee.  According to the Chicago Tribune, the Rules and Ethics Committee is known as “the place where controversial legislation often withers on the vine.”

Alderman Burke shouldn’t have done this, according to the alderman who introduced the resolution, because the resolution involves “a matter that directly affects him financially”; i.e., because his firm handles property tax matters for two of the buildings.  By doing this, Alderman Burke had potentially violated the City Council rules on conflicts of interest.

I don’t know if Alderman Burke violated the conflict of interest rules, but that technical question is really irrelevant.  The bigger question is why public officials, like Alderman Burke, have law firms that make money handling property tax appeals in the first place.  And why the Cook County Assessor, Joseph Berrios, who assesses the property in Cook County, is also the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. 

The whole system is so bad that to make a big deal about what Alderman Burke did is almost laughable.  While I realize that the system doesn’t violate any rules, the idea that the system is proper would be almost incomprehensible to anybody who didn’t live in Planet Chicago.  It is all so sad.  Because it shows how bad “the Chicago way” is.  And because of what it does to the sense of propriety of people who live here.