There are a lot of set-asides which are essentially non-competitive within the set-aside group, and definitely not competitive outside the group. I don't think you believe that set-asides for race or gender aren't subject to manipulation and cronyism any more than I do.
My tongue-in-cheek point is that the direct nepotism of the mayor is worse than the usual set aside, but not entirely different. He has abused his power by essentially giving non-competitive contracts to his cronies. In set-asides, the law does it for us by limiting competition--sometimes to very small groups of non-competitive bidders. Both are anti-merit and anti-competitive, and both steal from the public pocket.
I suspect that the big difference here was that the Imam supporter seems to have been billing for stuff that wasn't done AND that his brother was given a contract he had no experience in handling. One has to be more subtle in one's contract awards. To be honest, I thought that John Street had learned how to play the game better. Instead, he seems to have fallen back into his street vendor day practices (maybe even farther).