Chicago Building Inspector fired after girl died is back on job

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

When a 9-year-old Chicago girl fell to her death last year after a porch railing snapped, city officials were quick to blast a city building inspector.

The inspector, Charles Walker, admitted filing a false report that he had checked out the railing, the builder commissioner alleged.

Mayor Daley vowed to fire Walker.

But now, Walker is back on the city payroll, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. And he's inspecting buildings.

"I'm back working with the city," Walker said in a brief interview, before referring questions to his lawyer, who declined to comment.

He appealed the firing, and last year, the city quietly signed off on an agreement that resulted in Walker's suspension without pay for more than four months, a City Law Department spokeswoman said.

But Walker kept his job making about $74,000 a year.

Critics of the Daley administration's hiring and firing practices blasted the decision to let Walker keep his job.

"It's unbelievable," said Frank Coconate, a political activist who has exposed alleged waste and corruption in the Daley administration. Coconate is a fired city worker who contends he lost his job because of politics. He has been fighting the city for more than a year over allegations he falsified work reports.

If you expect the government to provide safety guess again.The Chicago Way is overpaid patronage workers.