New policy: Revelation or mirage?

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Updated: March 22, 2012 8:12AM

If you live long enough, or if you work a long time in the news business, you think you’ve seen or heard about everything. Not that, as a journalist, you can actually report on all of it.

But then along comes something that you thought you’d never see in your lifetime, such as a Mars landing. Or, in this case, an anti-nepotism hiring policy for Chicago Heights.

The city’s first-term mayor, David Gonzalez, pledged during his campaign last spring to push for an ordinance that would prohibit the hiring of relatives of elected officials, paid appointed officials and department heads.

He followed through. Gonzalez persuaded the city council, historically anything but a reform-minded group, to unanimously pass the ordinance last week. Impressive.

True, the new law applies only to future hires, with current employees and officials being exempted. That’s understandable. Expecting Chicago Heights officials to force family members to lose their jobs because of the ordinance probably is unrealistic.

Gonzalez rightly realized soon after becoming mayor that if he were to have any credibility on this issue he would need his daughter, Leticia, a full-time employee in the city building department, to resign.

And she did.

We’re pleasantly surprised that Gonzalez and aldermen have taken this commendable stand, but considering the city’s history of corrupt bare-knuckle politics, we’ll adopt a wait-and-see attitude. After all, this is a city that for decades was controlled by organized crime and has SRO in its political Hall of Shame.

And before becoming mayor, Gonzalez, formerly head of the Bloom Township Democratic Organization and the Chicago Heights Park District, didn’t have an image as a political reformer.

So we hope this new rule isn’t gradually ignored, with city officials slipping some kinfolk on the payroll. Chicago Heights committed to reform? Has the Abominable Snowman been captured?