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| (José M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune photo / January 29, 2011) |
Oh dear lord. Just a couple days after we posted about the handsome $88,445 annual pension former alderman Helen Shiller receives, there's news that she wants to give it up for a $130,000/year four-year appointment doing expert budget oversight for the City Council. We'll assume that the lobbyist gig with Lakeview Strategy doesn't provide the thrill that city government did.
The Sun-Times reports: "Former independent Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) is lobbying her former colleagues to become the new $130,000-a-year City Council Financial Analyst. One day after the City Council created the $485,000-a-year office to provide expert advice on mayoral spending, programs and privatization, aldermen disclosed that Shiller was angling to run it."
In the article, Helen Shiller is described as, among other things, "a budget guru," "rambunctious," "a thorn in Daley's side," "as close to Marxist as you’d ever find at City Hall," and "co-opted by Daley." The entire article is here.
An alderman who asked not to be identified said he doubted she would get the job, due to the fact that the current aldermen created the position because they needed expert help, and that it would look wrong for a former alderman to fill that need.
Well, this is Chicago, so anything is possible. Helen Shiller's home is located in the 47th Ward, and her own alderman, Ameya Pawar, was the one who pushed for the creation of the position she's angling for. We wait with bated breath.
Well let's see. She would have to stop taking her pension, but after four years her pension would likely be boosted about $20,000 a year based on the higher salary. About a "wash" for the city financially maybe a bit of a benefit to Saint Helen of the Strip Club lobbyists depending on when the grim reaper decides to visit her. I believe her mom lived well into her nineties which means Mister Reaper may be waiting for two decades plus for that one way trip to the lower regions of the afterlife.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Shiller's version of hell would be. Probably something like living in a completely gentrified Uptown with nothing but yuppies, buppies, guppies and one former YICCUP--Young Irish Catholic College Education Urban-Warrior Gentrifier Professional. Not a meth clinic or Intentional Community in sight. There would be an invisible wall separating Shiller from a nearby community that was identical to Uptown circa 1975, but she could only see it and never travel there.
She's a noted budget expert? Yeah and my ass smells like red red roses after one of my 80 mile bike rides on a sunny Sunday in July.
She must really miss being a player. Here's a better idea. Run for 46th ward alderman, Helen. It may mean moving a few blocks south, but you can do it. Uptown needs your vision, your hard work, and frankly I need the laugh at the potential of the campaign.
Perhaps Denice with a "C" would refuse to drop out and we could have a real circus on our hands. Littleton would probably end up in some kind of manic convulsions as he jumped up on a table at meetings and started twerking while reciting his ABC's for the bemused and horrified crowd.
Now sixteen of the current aldermen never served with Helen. Including Alderman Pawar who's a decent guy, but needs to get his head out of his anus on this issue. Perhaps he was just being polite, but if he picks Saint Helen I will move to the forty seventh and run against him. Unlike that Schulterian hack he ran against last time I will win. I have strong family ties to the "Twelve Step House" at the SW corner of Damen and Sunnyside. Belch.
This is for you Helen. Turn your speakers to "medium" for that one, folks.
Shiller could not be reached
ReplyDelete... typical
OMG. No Shiller is not a budget expert. Please no. I haven't bashed her as much as other's on this site, I don't believe in personal attacks. But please, no no no. If she is a budget expert then I am a NASA rocket scientist!
ReplyDeletePirate, what Uptown needs is more places like the "12 step House". It has helped many former drunks to a better sober life. Instead Uptown takes the approach of methadone clinics and homeless shelters.
ReplyDelete