ENTERED OFFICE: 1999, winning open seat
PREVIOUS LIFE: Bean counter in mayor’s budget office
M.O.: Approachable guy in historically sleazy ward (see former alderman Ed Vrdolyak) put into office by Daley operatives
CHALLENGE: Do something with shuttered steel mills, garbage dumps, and slag heaps
SOLUTION: It’s complicated, but while it’s being figured out someone is likely to get rich off subsidies from the city. Hello, tax increment financing!