"During both individual and mass-hiring sequences, departmental managers like Slattery and Sullivan would hold sham interviews and then falsify interview forms in favor of the pre-selected 'winners.' The interview forms were often filled out weeks after the interviews, with one pile for blessed applicants (to be given high scores), and another for everybody else (to be given low scores). Some positions, such as tree trimmer, required merit tests but the results were frequently ignored. Evidence showed that Sorich even pressured departmental managers to hire applicants with drinking problems for positions that involved overseeing workplace safety."

The Trib reminds us that Sorich, Slattery, and McCarthy have connections to the 11th Ward; Sorich was once John Daley's driver.

It turns out, though, that within the current city workforce, Sullivan comes from the true power base: Beverly.

According to city records, two of the six zip code areas with the most city workers are located on the far south/southwest corner of the city that includes Beverly, Mount Greenwood, and Morgan Park. Together the 60655 and 60643 zips are home to more than 5,000 of the city's 38,542 employees.

The three zips that make up most of the 11th Ward are way down the list at Nos. 15, 16, and 30.

Some of this is due to the Copland effect; since the biggest city department by far is police, the neighborhoods favored by officers are going to have the most city workers. But Beverly and other southwest-side neighborhoods are still the leaders when you only count traditionally patronage-heavy departments like Streets and San, Transportation, Water, and Aviation.

Here's the list of employee numbers in the top 20 worker-populated zip codes: