Looking for a patronage job

“Can your Alderman get my son a job as a janitor in the Chicago Public Schools?” a building inspector inquired, as we stood in the corridor outside of Housing Court one day.

He was a precinct captain in another ward, and I thought it very odd he would approach me about something like that. 48th Ward Alderman Marion Volini (who I worked for) did not traffic in that sort of thing.

“Sorry,” I told him. “We can’t get jobs for anybody. Why don’t you just go to your Committeeman?” I asked. That was his political boss, the person he should have approached in the first place.

 Oh, he just cares about the next woman he can get to bed,” the guy disappointedly remarked.

That explained a lot.

His Ward Committeeman, who served simultaneously as the Alderman, was taking care of personal business, not political business. He did not appear to be respected by his allies, or, apparently, even by members of his own organization. Now, I knew why.

He was a minor player in City Council affairs, and it became obvious that he was vulnerable at the polls. He was defeated in the next Committeeman election and when the new city ward map was adopted, he was redrawn into a neighboring ward and lost a re-election race there, too. 

Exerpted from “An Inside Job: A Frank Recollection of 48th Ward Happenings” at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/992452