April 09--Mayor Rahm Emanuel's interim pick to run the Chicago Police Department would become permanent without being subject to scrutiny from the city's Police Board under a one-time fix aldermen will consider next week.
City code currently requires the mayor to appoint the police superintendent from a group of finalists vetted, interviewed and approved by the Police Board, a nine-member panel that is appointed the mayor.
But Emanuel rejected the three candidates the board presented to him last month after a three-month nationwide search.
Instead, the mayor named the department's chief of patrol, Eddie Johnson, as interim superintendent. Johnson had not applied for the top cop job, saying he wanted to support previous interim superintendent John Escalante, who just months earlier had promoted Johnson to his chief position.
In selecting Johnson late last month, Emanuel directed to Police Board to return to the drawing board to conduct another national search. This time, Johnson said he would apply for the job.
But soon after, the Tribune reported that some Police Board members privately expressed that they had little interest in conducting another exhaustive search when its main purpose would be to allow the mayor's favored candidate to formally apply.
Instead, aldermen and top City Hall officials began considering two options that would allow Emanuel to appoint Johnson to the post permanently without the Police Board having to conduct another search.
The first option would have involved passing an ordinance amending the city's selection process for a police superintendent, allowing the mayor to reject the Police Board's finalists and name his own candidate for the job, so long as the Police Board and City Council approve the nominee.
The second option would have the City Council sign off on an ordinance that would create a special one-time exemption and allow Emanuel to appoint Johnson to the job permanently without any involvement from the Police Board.
