No payoffs

When my parents built a room addition to their home in the 50th ward, the Building Department approved everything except the zoning compliance. The builder said that wasn’t unusual and advised them to ask the Alderman to “take care of that” for them.

They had no intention of doing that. They weren’t going to ask for a “favor” or offer the Alderman anything to do that for them.

Instead, my mother took the paperwork to City Hall and showed it to the person in charge of zoning compliance.

She said, “this wasn’t approved, and I don’t know why.”

The city worker looked at the paperwork, looked at my mother, looked back at the paperwork, and said, “I don’t know why, either.” He then approved the zoning compliance and the room addition could be built.

The builder was surprised that approval would be granted without the Alderman’s intervention.

To my mother, it was simply proof that people didn’t have to pay off a politician to get services.