When Ike Carothers pleaded guilty a few weeks back to taking bribes from a developer, he gave Mayor Daley a two-for-one deal. Not only would Daley get to pick a new alderman for the 29th Ward—he’d also get to choose a new chairman for the City Council’s Committee on Police and Fire, potentially one of the more powerful jobs in the council.
Daley has already appointed former state rep Deborah Graham as Carothers’s replacement on the City Council, but the mayor still hasn’t picked anybody to lead police and fire, and that has some members of the City Council’s Black Caucus feeling a bit nervous.