Daley: Leading by Example

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 15, 2009 2:00PM

Among the mayor's more quixotic statements, his declaration yesterday that he is "leading the way" on ethics reform is at the top. At a press conference where he outlined his wishlist from state lawmakers (including more education funding, better gun control laws and property tax reform), he left out ethics reform. When asked why, he announced that Chicago is "more transparent than any other government." Said the mayor: "We've done everything here. We're leading the way with our inspector general, office of compliance, all the things we've done." Adding that "we're doing a tremendous job here, we lead by example," he noted that he hasn't finished reading Governor Pat Quinn's reform commission's recommendations. "I haven't completed reading it yet," he said.

After lecturing the media on why Chicago is a model of ethical cleanliness, he suggested that the state look to leasing state assets to fund his initiatives. "We did it years ago. Why didn't anybody else think of this? At least they can start thinking about this thing," Daley said. "Markets are gonna come back. I'm confident this country will come back. We came back during the Depression. But you have to start thinking outside the box, because government is not gonna be run the same way [as it has] in the last 50 years after this deep, deep recession. It's gonna change. And unfortunately, the private sector is gonna change." He made no mention of his fears that the economy will continue to slump for a few more years, his justification for demanding that city workers take nearly a month of unpaid days off to balance the city's budget.