The mayor is expected to reveal his picks for the open aldermanic seats for the First and 29th wards during the 9 AM meeting of the City Council’s Committee on Committees, Rules, and Ethics on Wednesday. The committee is expected to sign off on the appointments and forward them to the full City Council, and the full council is expected to seat the new aldermen at its 10 AM meeting. In other words, if all goes as planned, the council will have about an hour to vet its newest members.
As the Reader first reported, last month the mayor’s office posted a help wanted ad on the city’s Web site inviting applications for the two aldermanic seats, left vacant when Manny Flores resigned to head the Illinois Commerce Commission and Isaac Carothers pleaded guilty to taking bribes from a developer.
By law the mayor gets to fill open council seats by appointment, and until this point Daley has made his selections behind closed doors in consultation with the departing alderman and the ward’s Democratic committeeman. But after the Carothers plea, Daley appeared sensitive to charges of backroom deal making and went with a more open process.
Never fear—hell hasn’t frozen over.