Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CHICAGO, May 24 (UPI) -- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says political connections will no longer play a role in the city that clout built. Daley has reversed years of denial and acknowledged favoritism in city hiring. However, he vowed to end the city's entrenched patronage practices. Advertisement "The notion that the hiring process, a Chicago tradition, has been compromised -- it's been compromised ever since I knew," said Martin Oberman, a Chicago alderman from 1975 to 1987. "It strikes me as a little odd to suggest the mayor has been in office for 16 years and he just discovered this." Daley's admission, coming on the heels of a federal sweep of city offices in an investigation into allegations of promotions and other compensation packages in exchange for political support, is the result of Chicago's own internal investigation that found the city's hiring system was "compromised," the Chicago Tribune reported. "City hiring will be on the square," Corporation Counsel Mara Georges said at a City Hall news conference Monday. "We are putting in place a process where clout cannot enter into it."
