In a move that can most kindly be described as off-brand, reform-minded Mayor Lori Lightfoot has decided to hire a former alderman, John Arena, to a $124,000-a-year City Hall job. And, in a move that is increasingly on-brand, she defiantly defended her decision despite the eyebrow-raising message it sends to constituents who bought into her campaign image as a swamp-draining crusader.

The depths of that swamp are well known: City Hall has been a bastion of patronage and insider dealing for decades. One especially time-tested exemplar of the grift is the hiring of defeated aldermen to comfy departmental posts, justified on the theory that there just isn't anyone nearly as qualified to fill the gig.

So the news that the recently vanquished 45th Ward alderman as of Sept. 30 is a senior adviser in the Department of Planning & Development rang faintly familiar.

"John's background as a former alderman and longtime advocate for thoughtful planning and housing development make him uniquely qualified to serve the department as it develops comprehensive strategies to invest in and grow Chicago neighborhoods," the department said in a memo announcing the move.

Another detail that has the ring of familiarity: Arena has reportedly accepted nearly $50,000 in campaign contributions over the years from Chicago real estate developers—people whose livelihoods could be affected by the decisions he makes in his new Planning Department job.

The news raises a few questions.

Such as, what happened to that hiring freeze the mayor implemented as she wrestles with an $838 million budget deficit? The department assures us the Lightfoot administration was in talks with Arena about the role before that freeze was put in place in August.

So there's that.

Here's another: Why exactly does the Department of Planning & Development need a senior adviser when it already has a commissioner, a deputy commissioner for communications and outreach, a deputy commissioner for finance, a first deputy commissioner, a bureau chief, a managing deputy commissioner and a zoning administrator, to name just a few of the positions laid out on an October organizational chart for the department? Team Lightfoot says Arena, in keeping with the administration's neighborhood focus, will zero in on the South and West sides where investment has been scarce and implement projects that help achieve neighborhood goals.

So there's that.

If these justifications don't entirely add up to you, you can ask the mayor about it—just make sure you aren't Jim Gardiner, the alderman who knocked Arena out of his 45th Ward seat in the last election. He's made noise about the Arena appointment, calling Lightfoot's decision "a rude awakening"—and, as the Chicago Sun-Times reports, he was promptly put in his place by a mayor who was simply not having it.

"With due respect to the freshman," Lightfoot said pointedly, "I make my decisions based upon the merits. . . .I'm not going to have somebody who defeated somebody in an election dictate to me how or when or under what circumstances somebody gets hired."

She continued: "If we start a precedent of somebody who's a winner basically banning somebody from employment, where does it end? What Gardiner should focus on is what matters to his ward. He doesn't have a say over my hiring decisions."

Got that? The mayor is in charge, everything's on the up-and-up, and if you think maybe it isn't, you can get back in your lane.

Whoever said change is the only constant has never spent a day at Chicago's City Hall.