Jobs and sex: Where else but in Chicago?

Everybody knows that it helps to have friends in high places if you want to get a job with the city of Chicago or Cook County. Notwithstanding some federal court decrees in recent years, patronage still exists to a considerable extent. And George Dunne, county board president and county Democratic chairman, freely admits that he hires his friends for county jobs.

But now — where else but in Chicago? — the concept of patronage has been stretched to the limit, and Dunne is accused of rewarding women who sleep with him by giving them jobs. The interviews, says Better Government Association (BGA) director J. Terrence Brunner, were conducted in bed.

There's no real dispute about the facts: Dunne, a 75-year-old widower, admits he had sex with several women and that they subsequently got jobs with the county. But he denies that the one had anything to do with the other. (He even goes so far as to say that he hired them as part of an effort to promote "equal opportunity" for women!) The argument made by the BGA and WMAQ-TV is that government officials, under the federal sex-discrimination law, are prohibited from mixing sex and jobs in any way. Dunne claims that the women's activity with him was voluntary, but Brunner points out that all of the women are lesbians. "These women had no interest in having sex with him or any other man," Brunner said.

The BGA called for Dunne's resignation, but hardly anyone else did, and after a few days the noise died down. That's not surprising in Chicago, where, as Newsweek magazine pointed out the following week, people who support "good government" reforms are scornfully referred to as "goo-goos." But Brunner is frustrated.

"We have shown that Mr. Dunne used taxpayers' money to put these women on the payroll to satisfy his personal sexual needs," Brunner said at a press conference several days after the disclosure, expressing amazement at the public's apathy concerning the issue. "We have shown you that this is the ultimate abuse of an inherently abusive system of patronage — the manipulation and exploitation of human beings for sex."

There are several reasons why Dunne was able to slither out of this controversy virtually unscathed. One is his age and marital status. "At that age, he deserves a medal," said one wag. Another is the public's hostility toward the news media. Dunne played this to the hilt, denouncing his critics as "the scum of the Earth" in an explosive press conference. The media, as they often do, came off as bloodthirsty jackals stalking their prey. But the central reason for Dunne surviving this controversy is simply the Chicago public's tolerance of the activities of its government officials.

Mayor Richard J. Daley ran a "city that worked," or at least this was the perception. Liberal mayors of other cities failed, but in Chicago, the trains ran on time, the garbage was picked up, the blacks were kept in their place and the press was treated with disdain. Chicago liked that kind of government. If there was a bribe here, an indiscretion there, it didn't really matter. The city worked — it was something to be proud of — and the goo-goos had better not try to upset that.

Daley has been gone for 11 years and a lot has changed. His political machine has been weakened and blacks have taken over City Hall. But a great many people have those old-fashioned values. The attack on Dunne was, to them, no different than the attack on his friend, Daley, in the early 1970s for steering city business to his sons.

This public tolerance is even reflected in the media itself. The Sun-Times editorialized strongly against Dunne, but the Tribune's criticism of him was subdued, and the paper said the BGA ought to be concentrating on more serious patronage

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abuses. (One could make that argument about almost anything: If we weren't spending so much time fighting poverty, we'd have more time to concentrate on preventing a nuclear war.) Contradicting its editorial, the Sun-Times' political editor, Steve Neal, wrote two sappy columns glorifying Dunne and savaging the BGA, and Sun-Times managing editor Ray Coffey gave a speech sticking up for "rogues" and berating journalists who attack them. Charges of discrimination are hard to prove in court, so the key to stamping it out is often public sentiment. The ease with which Dunne put out this fire indicates that even though there has been a federal law on the books for 24 years banning the kind of conduct he engaged in, Chicago hasn't gotten the message yet.

A footnote: One of Neal's columns in the Sun-Times listed numerous prominent people who made "supportive calls" or sent "letters of support" to Dunne following the disclosure, including Joseph Cardinal Bernardin; Bishop Timothy J. Lyne, pastor of Holy Name Cathedral; and columnist Ann Landers. I called Dunne and asked him if this meant they are taking his side in the dispute, and he said, "Yes, they are."

But when I contacted the cardinal and the bishop, they said they were upset about the column. Both said they called Dunne as a pastor calls a parishioner in a time of trouble, to express concern.

The cardinal's spokeswoman said, "There was some truth and some twisting. The context of the column at the least overstated things. The implication seemed to be of an overarching endorsement of George Dunne."

The bishop said, "I certainly don't approve of what he did. I'm a Catholic priest!"

Ann Landers didn't return phone calls, so we'll probably never know whether Dunne was exaggerating about her support. But maybe we could write her column and ask for tips on how young working women can go about getting jobs in public service these days.□

Ed McManus is now our award-winning columnist. He received a Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club in the commentary/column category for his Illinois Issues "Chicago" column, "Protecting child from danger that wasn't," published in the August/September 1987 magazine.

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