Compass Media Group

It’s easy to get jaded in this business and forget why we do this.

But then a leader steps up and reminds us what honesty, guts and public service are about.

We’re proud of our client Alderman Tom Allen for leading the charge in the Chicago City Council this week against a budget that raids hundreds of millions of dollars from what was promised to be a “perpetual” reserve fund. The 75-year fund was set up last year as part of a lousy deal rammed through by Mayor Daley to sell-off all the city’s parking meters to a private company.

The Mayor wants to sell off some of Chicago’s major public assets piece-by-piece to big corporations– he did it with the Chicago Skyway and tried to do it with Midway Airport.

Alderman Allen is one of my favorite elected officials because he fights passionately for real people in real neighborhoods and speaks truth to power. He’s always on the side of the little guy.

In a City Council that usually rubber stamps the Mayor, Tom Allen led the opposition with a smart, clear argument against the City’s budget shell game. He demanded the City start telling the truth and stop skimming property taxes for TIF slush funds that give millions in sweetheart deals to developers.

The budget passed but there were 12 NO votes— more than ever before in Mayor Daley’s 20 year tenure.

Tom Allen is standing up for real Chicagoans struggling to make ends meet.

Maybe they can’t fight City Hall, but it’s good to know gutsy leaders like Alderman Allen can.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Conversations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.