The Interim Alderman That Could Have Been
By Karl Klockars in News on Dec 9, 2010 7:00PM
The City of Chicago has posted the applications they've received from citizens who'd like to be the interim Alderman of their ward on their website. By and large it's pretty standard Chicago job-application boiler plate: I've served the neighborhood here, I've been a resident for X amount of years, my dad was the Alderman here for X amount of years. Two of those applications have been denied. One of them is awesome.
Michael Flournoy of S. Clydesthses (we think*) tossed his hat into the ring with the kind of flourish that few political minds can achieve. The requirements to be an interim alderman are slim - live in the ward for a year, no debt, no convictions, no other offices and the like. And yet, Flournoy's application SPECIMEN has been rejected on an address dispute, despite name-checking pols like "Oboma," "Rich Durbin," "Toni Pretwinkle" and the respective "Jessie Jacksons."
The interim terms expire on May 16, 2011. Chicago could probably survive 5 months with Flournoy holding 1/50th of the Council, and tell me that this guy wouldn't make a great short-time Alderman. Then again, he's no one's kid or sibling. So by that metric, how good could he be?
* Flournoy says he is registered to vote at an address on South Cu4estHouse.