The 80-20 rule of Public Service

The Tribune today published a story about a conviction in the case of a plumbing inspector accused of taking bribes to look the other way at a condo construction site. I posted a comment about the story: "This is dog-bites-man stuff. Find me the city inspector that's NOT on the take, and write a feature story about that person. If he or she exists."

Later, "Anon" posted a comment about the same story that partly responded to my comment. "Indignant, there are some great inspectors and honest people at City Hall. And then there's the slime. But don't paint everyone with such a broad brush."

True enough, Anon, and I apologize for using my broad brush. Look, I know 80 percent of the people in the world are either honest and caring or at least benign enough to not be overtly harmful. But the sheer greed, arrogance, stupidity and indifference of the other 20 percent is blinding sometimes.

The bald truth is that corruption is allowed to fester and infect an organization because it's accepted at the top, either openly (Cook County, the State of Illinois) or tacitly (the city of Chicago). From where I sit, at the table with the other everymen forced to watch the accelerating decay of the institutions through which we govern and serve, it's a sickening thing to read about another in a long line of corrupt officials more concerned with lining their own pockets than serving the public. And it's easy to forget the 20 part of the "80-20 rule."

So to all those public servants actually serving the public, and not expecting anything but gratitude and a government paycheck in return, thank you. To the Mario Olivellas of the world, go fuck yourselves.

The Indignant Citizen