How Embarrassing

By Alicia Dorr in News on Apr 10, 2007 6:02PM

When City Clerk Miguel Del Valle was appointed by Daley, everybody made a huge friggin deal about how he wanted to stream City Council meetings live on the Internet. There was all sorts of ballyhoo about "forging ahead" and "shining a light" on city politics. Fancy dancy, underpantsy: Chicago's on the Information Superhighway!

What we didn't know is that when he said he wanted Chicago on "the cutting edge of transparency," he really meant that he would just show how inept its government could be — which must be why he forgot to pay the bill for the City Clerk website's domain. The clerk's office personnel hurried to get the situation resolved, and now it's back online.

This probably doesn't seem like a big deal to anyone who doesn't care about the metaphor. Nor do you probably care that this is the second year in a row this has happened. And if you're apathetic you may actually be the best example of why the whole thing is ridiculous: No one is watching the meetings. And those who go to them already know that you aren't missing much, unless you think it's amusing to watch at least half the aldermen wander around showing their grandchildren's pictures to one another (which we do). It's just the principle of the thing.

We know you were just making the big, honking deal about how you want to make the government transparent, modern and accessible in this city to appease people, Miguel, but you don't have to rub the lie in our faces. Geez.