Daley says politics won't taint layoffs

Despite a history of political hiring, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is scoffing at a federal hiring monitor's demand for guarantees the threatened layoff of city employees due to a huge budget deficit won't turn into a political purge.

Daley said Tuesday that a layoff will be done according to union rules because most of the city's 38,760 workers are covered by labor contracts.

Federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan said she is aware of the potential for abuse, but is trying to find how that can be prevented from happening.

Brennan's demand for apolitical layoffs comes less than two weeks after she complained in a court filing that the city was failing to live up to its promise to implement a hiring and promotion system free of politics.