Daley holds out hope of gay set-asides if past bias can be proven

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 7/17/2003 | Fran Spielman

[Utah Girl]

Mayor Daley on Wednesday opened the door to contract set-asides for businesses owned by gays and lesbians--provided they can prove they were frozen out of city contracts because of past discrimination.

Daley kept the volatile issue alive, one day after Chicago's first openly gay alderman took the first step toward a gay agenda that will start by extending ethics rules to the live-in partners of gay and lesbian city employees and could end with contract set-asides.

"You have to look at it. You have to have an open mind. There's nothing wrong with that," the mayor said.

Daley said he has no idea whether gay- and lesbian-owned businesses could meet the rigid burden of proof--a documented history of past discrimination--that a U.S. Supreme Court decision demands to justify contract set-asides.

Chicago's 25 percent and 5 percent set-asides for minorities and women are under fire in federal court.

"Other groups have shown that. They'll have to show that. That will be the test. We are already being sued in the federal courts, and we're contesting it. But you have to have an open mind. Let's look at it," Daley said.

The mayor kept hope alive for Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) after an action-packed City Council meeting that saw aldermen approve a new eight-year contract for Chicago firefighters, higher fines for city sticker scofflaws and a curfew crackdown that includes hefty fines and community service for parents.

Daley got the ball rolling on his piecemeal expansion of O'Hare Airport by introducing $993 million worth of airport bonds. And Chicago aldermen kicked up some dust of their own, with proposals to hold City Council hearings on Daley's midnight closing of Meigs Field and ban "motor-driven cycles" on Chicago streets, as well as prairie dogs and other exotic pets accused of spreading the monkeypox virus.

To prevent a repeat of the Lincoln Park porch collapse that killed 13 young partygoers, Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) introduced an ordinance that would require the Department of Buildings to assign "maximum load limits" to Chicago porches at least three stories tall. Building owners would be required to post signs on every other floor.

The most intriguing debate of the day centered around the mayor's controversial plan to impose $90 fines against motorists caught blowing red lights by surveillance cameras to be installed at 10 accident-prone intersections.

Despite expressions of fears about the city's plunge into the "Age of the Machine," the ordinance was approved 42-4.

[txzman]

OK I am ready.. Every gay person can choose - California or Illinois. Just stay out of my face please - I have had it!

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[dts32041]

But daley wouldn't do this for a jew, prejudice runs in the family or if your name was meigs.

BTW do you realize that chicago is the only major metropolitain city without a police chopper.

Of course, you don't need it, casue the city of the big sticnk is not interested in owning something that wasn't manufactured by boeing.

[First Amendment]

"You have to look at it. You have to have an open mind. There's nothing wrong with that," the mayor said.

This man is criminally stupid. When he says "open mind" he is really saying a mind devoid of all rational thought, natural morals, or historical reality.