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Chicago Library Commissioner Tapped for City Reform DutyUnder mounting pressure to clean up corruption scandals rocking city hall, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has tapped Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey to become chief procurement officer for the city. Announced by the mayor February 4, the temporary appointment puts Dempsey in charge of a new management team in the Department of Procurement Services until the position, vacated by the resignation of Eric Griggs, is permanently filled.At a city hall news conference, Daley said, “We are going to clean up the procurement and contracting process in city government. It is simply unacceptable that people both in and out of government are using this process to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers. Whatever it takes to end the abuse, we’re going to do.” What it will take, apparently, is the integrity and strength of a library manager. “Mary Dempsey is a tough, detail-oriented administrator,” Daley said. “Simply put, she has demonstrated an ability to put long-term procedures in place that make a department work for the people.” “The mayor has asked me to take on this job because he believes that I am a tough manager and I follow the law. I wouldn’t take this on—I wouldn’t leave a job I love even temporarily to do this—unless I believed that he believed in me and was going to give me 150% support,” Dempsey said in the February 5 Chicago Tribune, promising a “total scrubbing” of city contracting practices, especially the minority contracting program. An attorney as well as a librarian, Dempsey has headed operations for city libraries at 79 locations since 1994 and said she hopes to return to the job after a six-month leave of absence. First Deputy Commissioner Karen Danczak Lyons will fill in for Dempsey during her leave. Deputy Commissioner of Administration and Finance Kathy Biel will also be on loan with Dempsey. A graduate of the DePaul University College of Law with a master’s degree in library science from the University of Illinois, Dempsey has honorary doctorates from St. Ambrose University and St. Mary’s University. In 2002 she received the Illinois Bar Foundation’s award for excellence. Posted February 11, 2005. |
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