Political Patronage Can Be Dangerous To the Public

The Chicago Tribune reports:

A politically connected city truck driver who seriously injured a fellow worker in a 2003 accident has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury investigating corruption in Mayor Richard Daley's administration.

The subpoena seeks the testimony this week of Denise Alcantar, who has worked for the pro-Daley Hispanic Democratic Organization and is a friend of state Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago), the highest-ranking Latino politician in the Illinois House.


Federal authorities investigating an illegal city hiring scheme have subpoenaed records on HDO and interviewed other city workers affiliated with HDO.

Authorities subpoenaed Alcantar after the Tribune in June detailed her political ties and how she landed on the payroll as a garbage truck driver in December 2002 despite having no work experience driving a truck.

Six months after the Streets and Sanitation Department hired her, Alcantar's garbage truck pinned laborer Earceen Alexander against a telephone pole, causing severe injuries. Alexander is unlikely to ever return to work.

City officials found that Alcantar was at fault for that accident and two others.

The incident raised questions about the cost of patronage--the generations-old machine practice of hiring political allies.

Alexander, a grandmother of 10, is tethered to an oxygen tank because of lung damage suffered in the accident. The city has paid her more than $112,000 in disability income and also has covered her medical bills, estimated at as much as $1 million.

This could be a dry run for nationalized health care where politicians put their cronies in the medical system.