Mayor Daley has stepped in it once again and he's in full CYA mode. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
"Revenue Director Bea Reyna-Hickey was suspended for a day over the Aug. 10 memo that told police the city “will witness a dramatic decrease in annual revenues and not meet 2010 targets” if a slump in parking tickets and vehicle-compliance tickets continues.
“Stupidity. It was stupid. Just stupid. Some bureaucrat sent that out,” Daley said at an unrelated news conference. “The revenue department has nothing to do with the police department, period. They [officers] will determine whether you violated a law. No one else can. Especially revenue can’t.”
Questions for Mayor Daley: What administration does that bureaucrat belong to? Whose administration has a rep for cronyism, corrutption, and wasteful spending, and mismanagement?? You're not as slick as your old man, pal. We all know that everything in the machine is connected.
David Orr gets it right:
"Cook County Clerk David Orr and several aldermen said the memo sends the wrong message to the public. City Hall considers parking tickets a revenue-generating tool more than a public-safety tool, Orr said.
“I don’t think we put the citizens first enough in this town,” he said. “This is one indication of it. There’s been too much pressure [on officers] to write tickets.”
“I totally sympathize with the mayor because of the recession, but I also know how much has been stolen,” he said. “I would like to see City Hall fess up to the millions and millions of dollars that have been stolen over the years.”
This is another example of the ruling political class taking from the taxpaying class. They've been doing it forever, but it may be finally starting to catch up with them.
Lastly there's this from Mayoral Press Secretary Jacquelyn Heard:
"“The e-mail is backwards, given that the mayor is by no means encouraging police to write more tickets,” mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard said.
Reyna-Hickey was suspended “because she is responsible for what happens in her office,” Heard added.
The Bottom line: Safety and fighting crime may be the line, but it's all about the revenue. This is what municipalities that are strapped for cash are doing, not just in Chicago, but nationwide. It's also time to make Mayor Daley accountable for what's happened in his machine administration.
Background Reading:
Chicago Sun-Times: Daley suspends revenue director over memo saying police not writing enough tickets
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