It’s been a rough start to 2016 for the heirs of Chicago and Springfield’s veteran Latino power players.
Retiring state Rep. Eddie Acevedo dropped the baton, failing in an effort to bequeath his seat to son Alex in the Democratic primary last month.
Meanwhile, records show the son of state Sen. Tony Munoz — Acevedo’s longtime buddy in South Side Democratic machine politics — resigned his spot on the city payroll.
There was a time when the offspring of state lawmakers and aldermen were like those born to the manor in feudal Europe. Those not ambitious enough to get elected themselves could always find room at the troughs of local government.
Once in those plum payroll spots, it seemed nothing could dislodge them.
OPINION
As an alderman once explained, clout should be about much more than just doling out government jobs and promotions to allies. Another important function was using influence to absolve friends on the payroll from the consequences of their errant actions — or of their inaction at work.
Alas, such was not the gentle fate of the aristocratically named Antonio Munoz IV.
The son of the Illinois Senate’s assistant majority leader landed nicely when Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Aviation Department hired him as a security officer in January 2014.
In an era when many college-educated kids without clout beg to work free internships, the younger Munoz got a starting annual salary of $46,656, increasing to $48,924 six months later, after he “attained career service status.”
He was 26 then.
But Munoz IV found trouble swiftly. Within a year, the city suspended him three times, for three days, five days and 10 days.
About two weeks after he became a career service employee, on July 29, 2014, he didn’t show up for work.
“He called at approximately 0530 hrs and stated he had car problems and that he would call back,” according to his personnel file, which I obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. “Officer Munoz did not call back or show up for work.”
The next two days, he “failed to call in advance or show up for work. Attempts to contact him by phone were unsuccessful.”
On the fourth day of his unscheduled vacation, he finally called to say “he was having personal problems” but would return the next day.
Before that incident got him a three-day suspension — and even before he achieved career-service status — Munoz IV’s “tardiness or absenteeism” had resulted in “verbal counseling” in June 2014 and a written reprimand on July 2, 2014.
Chronic tardiness and further failures to show up at all led to the longer suspensions again in June and July of last year.
Jan. 25 was his last day at the city. A Human Resources Department official said she didn’t know why he quit his job, which by then paid him $51,216 a year. And the man who answered Munoz IV’s cell phone Tuesday declined comment and hung up.
His father didn’t return calls. Sen. Munoz was an unknown when he unseated Chuy Garcia in 1998 with the help of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s corrupt Hispanic Democratic Organization.
As his son struggled at his city job, the legislative leader appears to have fallen out with Emanuel, coincidentally or not. Sen. Tony Munoz helped the mayor’s re-election last year. In the March primary, though, the senator fended off Ald. George Cardenas’ challenge for his 12th Ward Democratic committeeman’s position by sending out campaign mail linking Cardenas and Emanuel.
“George Cardenas stands with [Gov. Bruce] Rauner and Emanuel,” read one Munoz hit piece.
I don’t know what Munoz’s son is doing now. At this point, the best bet for Munoz IV might be to work for his father or form a lobbying firm with Alex Acevedo in Springfield, where at least one of their dads still has clout.
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