City Comptroller

But what I did was surround myself with the best and the brightest [for Harold Washington's mayoral transition team]. Nothing ecumenical about this committee I had. I had the best folks that, that, that were in the business. Didn't care whether they were white or black, I didn't care whether republican or democrat. I didn't care whether they were Chicagoans, suburbanites. And we did it. And, and we got it from academia, from the law firms, from the investment bankers, from the commercial bankers. Basically, the general consulting fields, folks who really understood the dynamics of local government, and we put the, put 'em together. And they had this great big, you know, Harold Washington [former Chicago, Illinois mayor], he had a couple hundred people doing something. I took one look at that, and I says--I took my group aside, says, you know, I'm not reporting up to any steering committee, which is a committee I was on. And I was vice, vice-chairman, I mean co-chairman of it. And I met Ed Berry [Edwin C. Berry] from the [Chicago] Urban League. I said, well, I'm not, I'm not gonna be--you know, my effort is gonna be subjected to all this scrutiny and I don't want to be encumbered by any of the, the issues that Ed Berry and his group were looking at. And we published this report. And they came in, and they came from all around the country looking at the, this report. And we sent them out of town with their tails between their legs. I was very proud of that. Harold Washington says, you know, Clark, please, come work for me. I'll give you whatever job you want, because I need somebody to help me form this government and administer this--the dynamics of this, this organization. And I told him in all sincerity, which I hadn't planned on saying, because I didn't think he was gonna be serious about offering me the job. But at this time, I'm at the bank. I'm making three times what, you know, I was making when I was CFO [Chief Financial Officer] or more, and not including bonuses. And I told him, I says, you know, Mayor, I'm so proud of you. And I knew him, you know, back when he was a state legislator and a congressman. I says, I'm so proud of what you've done, but you need to understand, you simply can't afford me, you know. I'm too much money. But what you can't afford to pay for, I'll give to you, free. And I was in his office and I--. The initial ninety days, I practically ran the government. But don't forget, I've got twenty five years of experience to draw on. And so I did, you know, and I loved every moment of it, you know. And, matter of fact, I had a meeting with him, scheduled with him, seven minutes before he--after he died. And he died and I was on my way over there, and I got the word that he had died. And--Chicago will never forgive you for doing this, Harold, you know. And I was so, I was very proud of him, you know.$Tell me this. Do you think that because of the intense kind of racial discrimination in the private sector that a lot of very, very talented black professionals end up working in the public sector? And when you--?$$That's not a thought. It's not that I think it. It's a fact. I know it, you know. Not just for me, because of my experience of going, you know, carrying a gun down in Albuquerque [New Mexico]. But you didn't, you didn't have opportunities to, to work in the private sector at, at significantly high levels of position. Let me, let me explain that to you. At the bank, you know, I was a manager, and I was a senior-level manager. And I mentored a lot of my minorities. And we have something called the First Scholar Program where we bring the real bright kids, youngsters in from the better schools. And we call them First Scholars. 'First' for the First National Bank and 'Scholars' because of their achievement at a young, young age. And we had, I remember we had two, an Irish kid from Chicago [Illinois] suburbs who went to University of Chicago [Chicago, Illinois] graduate school, doing extremely well. We had a young African American, same age, who went to Harvard [University, Cambridge, Massachusetts], was at Harvard doing graduate, doing graduate--no, undergraduate work and going into Harvard for his combination law and MBA [Masters of Business Administration]. And after, you know, four, five--four, five, six months, I had to bring--I was very disappointed in the young African American. I brought him in and told him that, you know, we brought the two of you in. You're both really on a fast track, and here is Vince, who was the young white, white youngster who was just, you know, taking chances and making recommendations and going all over the place, you know. And here's this little African American who said that, who was doing well, but moving at a snails pace compared to the horse race rate that Vince Kelly was--excuse, take the names out--the young white, white youngster was doing. And I explained to him, how disappointed I was, and told him, "you have to--if you want to go into, to move up, you've got to assume risks, you know, and take a chance, you know, and, and move on, you know, because you've got to catch up with these other fastrackers," you know, according to the young man to the young man that is peer of the young white fellow. And he listened very intelligently, and articulate. When I finished, I says, "now you go out there, you know, and full speed ahead." And he says, "Mr. Burrus, may I say something." And I said, "of course." "You need to understand, sir,"his words to me, "that when Vince takes a chance and he's wrong, it's chalked up as a learning experience." And I says, "that's absolutely, you're correct. That's right." He said, "when I take it, it's career threatening. I can't, I don't--. I have a chance to succeed just as much as Vince does. I don't have a chance to fail and survive." I fumbled around a few words and dismissed him because--and I thought about it. I mean he's absolutely right. You know, even in, you know, over the past century, the century before the past century, blacks had opportunities to succeed because you can look at the George Washington Carvers and, you know, Booker T. Washingtons and so forth. You can look at World War II, you had Jews who survived and prospered. Jewish scientist who was trying to a-bomb. What we don't have and what we need in terms of achieving parity and equality is opportunity, not to succeed, but opportunities to fail and survive. That we don't have. And you're absolutely correct. And, and it's more so in the private sector, even as we speak, than in the public sector, although it exists in the public sector also now.