Powerful Chicago alderman defends hiring of troubled son for superintendent job

Carrie Austin--Richard M.
Daley Banner in Roseland

As the Jack Nicholson character in the 1989 Batman movie, "This town needs an enema."

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) on Tuesday defiantly defended her decision to hire her son Kenny as her ward superintendent, arguing there is nothing wrong with nepotism if the person on the other end of the favoritism does a decent job.

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The column [a Sun-Times article that brought this news to light] stated that Kenny Austin lacked a valid driver's license, which is one of the requirements to become a ward superintendent and drive around the ward surveying problems.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Secretary of State's office says the suspension on Kenneth Austin's license was lifted on Friday — the day after the column about him was published at suntimes.com and the same day the story appeared in the newspaper.

His driver's license had been suspended since December 2015 for failing to make child support payments, state records show.Ald. Austin said yesterday that she paid her son't delinquent child support payments.

According to the Sun-Times columnist, Dan Mihalopoulos, Austin quit his job--circumventing a dismissal that may have placed him on Chicago's "Do Not Hire" list--after he was involved in a truck accident while on the job for the city's Streets and Sanitation Department. His license was suspended at the time. Carrie says someone was driving the vehicle.

As they saying goes, in a democracy voters get the government they deserve.

Related post:

Problem child of powerful Chicago alderman back on city payroll