The View from Prospect Hill for December 14

Last week accusations of graft were shot at Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. The Patrolmen’s Union said he awarded a city job to the daughter-in-law of an alderman in exchange for a vote of support in his proposal to remove the police chief from civil service.

  This week the Patrolmen‚Äôs Union fired a second round at the mayor: Curtatone had stacked the supposedly impartial committee that would select a new police chief with supporters to do his bidding for him. Those supporters would make sure, said Patrolmen‚Äôs Union President Jack Leutcher, that Curtatone‚Äôs main man ‚Äì Acting Chief Robert R. Bradley ‚Äì gets pushed through to the final stage of the process where the mayor chooses from three candidates recommended by the committee.
   As for the first accusation, if Curtatone did use back door dealings to win a vote, it was a waste ‚Äì the home rule petition passed 11-0. Does anybody really think the mayor would waste a plum $50,000 a year patronage position on a single vote that is ultimately meaningless?
   The second accusation holds more weight. Several aldermen have said the deciding factor in their vote to support Curtatone‚Äôs plan to remove the chief from civil service was the creation of an impartial committee to narrow the field of candidates and give the mayor three to five options before his final appointment.
   But, as Leutcher pointed out, four of the nine people on the committee will be there because the mayor placed them on it. The city‚Äôs personnel director and director of multicultural affairs are hired by the mayor and will be on the committee. The ordinance also calls for two mayoral appointments of private residents to the committee. Is it possible these four individuals will be able to make honest, unbiased recommendations? Yes. But it isn‚Äôt likely.
   It will be hard for them to forget the agenda of the man who hired them, when they are beneath his portrait in the Aldermanic chamber debating the issue.
  Four may not be a majority vote on a panel of nine, but it will be enough to squeeze someone into one of the final five slots Curtatone can choose from.
  The mayor may be the single most powerful man in the city, but the police department is the most powerful unit. Only the police can take away our personal freedoms and remove us from the world.    The man who heads that unit should be there because of his expertise, not slick political maneuverings such as these.