How suite it is to be Council Finance chief

When times are tough, most people forget about remodeling. If the carpeting has holes and the paint is peeling, they live with it.

Not Chicago's most powerful alderman. Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) is freshening up his third-floor suite at City Hall.

New carpeting is being installed to eliminate the need to cover holes with duct tape. Walls are being re-painted. A "small number" of chairs and cubicles are being replaced.

Acting General Services Commissioner Mark Maloney offered no cost estimate on the Finance Committee project.

"I was not aware that we were doing any work down there," he said.

Finance Committee spokesman Donal Quinlan also provided no budget. But he insisted that the touch-up was justified -- even after an early '90s remodeling that created a giant conference room in the suite.

"The Finance Committee was last re-carpeted in 1993-94. We have at least seven areas of carpeting that are torn. Many of them are patched over with wide, unsightly silver duct tape so people don't trip," Quinlan said, after taking a reporter on a tour of the office suite.

"See all these spots -- these taped wide areas. . . . And as you can see, some stains just won't come out."

No matter what the cost, the touch-up comes at the worst possible time from a public relations standpoint. Most of Chicago's unionized employees have been forced to take unpaid days off and make other cost-cutting concessions.

Source: suntimes.com