CITY HALL — Aldermen agreed to follow the city's "do-not-hire" list in a reform measure passed Tuesday by the Committee on Workforce Development.
Previously, the City Council had not been subject to the strictures of the do-not-hire list, which includes employees who were fired for just cause — such as for allegedly committing crimes or violating city policy.
But Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th), chairman of the committee, said there was no resistance among his colleagues to adding the council to the list of public bodies that won't hire someone on the list.
"There's overwhelming support," he said, and indeed his resolution passed without opposition Tuesday.
The subject came up anew when the city was recently released from the Shakman Decrees by a federal court. The federal monitor, in the final paperwork on the city's part of the case, suggested that aldermen had put up resistance to following the city's do-not-hire list.
O'Connor said he didn't know where that attitude came from, adding, "It was never asked" of aldermen, who were never subject to the Shakman Decrees in the first place.
O'Connor said it brings the council "into conformity with what the mayor's office does." It applies to all city hires.
Ald. John Arena (45th), of the Progressive Reform Caucus, said, "It makes perfect sense" and is really just a good-government initiative.
"I can't think of anybody who would defend hiring somebody who was put on a list that said, 'Don't hire because of past deeds,'" Arena said.
O'Connor said the only aldermen who might have "resisted this change" with complaints to the federal mediator were no longer on the City Council.
O'Connor pointed out there are no real teeth to observing the do-not-hire list. "It's basically a policy statement," he said. Yet he expected aldermen to submit to it and not draw attention to any potential violations.
The resolution now heads to the full City Council for passage next week.
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