Ex-Aldermen snubbed

Yesterday should have been a joyous occasion in the Englewood neighborhood because the new Kennedy-King College (a two year college that's part of the City Colleges of Chicago) was recently finished and there was to have been a ribbon cutting ceremony. Then I wake up this morning and find that the joyous occasion was disrupted by two ousted Alderman, Arenda Troutman, who many of you know was not only ousted in the first round in February but was indicted on corruption charges in federal court and there's Shirley Coleman, who was ousted in the runoffs in April.

Now unless you believe either the mayor or Montel Gayles director of the Public Building Commision, who were quoted in articles from the Sun-Times and the Tribune as saying that Troutman and Coleman were invited to the Kennedy-King ribbon cutting ceremony...

"We believe we sent you an invitation," he said to Coleman and Troutman as he stood on the stage near them. "Whether we sent it or not from my heart I apologize for you not receiving one, but we would not be here today if it wasn't for the work these two aldermen put forth. With no hard feelings and no regret, I am glad they are here. I am glad that they are here to share with us the success of this day. Now with that said, let's move on with our program."
...
"I would never, never ever slight any elected official or former elected official. They were invited," Daley said.

If this was true then why did Coleman and Troutman arrive at this ceremony in a huff? If Mayor Daley did snub the pair what could possibly be the reason for it?

That's when I saw this story at Clout City...

But Shirley Coleman? The mayor's people didn't invite her to yesterday's ceremony either, and she was one of Daley's most loyal council supporters. She provided one of the three flip-flop votes he needed to kill the big-box living-wage ordinance, and it probably cost her last April's election to Joann Thompson, who was backed by the unions.

Although, come to think of it, Coleman also voted against the Olympics, a desperate, last-ditch move to stave off defeat by showing she wasn't a complete Daley puppet. Maybe that's why the mayor snubbed her at yesterday's ceremony. He has a very long memory.

Any way you look at it, this should be a lesson for other loyalists thinking about the mayor's TIFs, taxes, and Olympics. Vote against him, even once, and you're exiled.

I wrote about this story minus the Clout City article this morning I said that while I'm not a regular reader of John Kass' columns from the Tribune, there was one thing I have gotten from them. That is when Daley has no use for you he eventually turns on you. Clout City might have clinched it for me.