Cut city council by half and save a bundle

In the Sun-Times on Monday, a letter writer wondered: “What the heck is a ward?” So he looked it up. And he found that there are certain written guidelines for drawing the boundaries of Chicago’s aldermanic wards.

I then went to the website of the Illinois League of Women Voters and learned that the number of wards in Chicago — 50 — is “unusually large among major U.S. cities.” The League pointed out that each alderman represents fewer constituents “than in any of the other 10 largest cities.” Los Angeles, for example, has more than 1 million more residents but only 15 council members. When Chicago’s ward system was started in 1837, there were only six aldermen — two each for the North, South and West sides.

The League also noted that the Better Government Association has called for cutting the size of Chicago City Council in half. And I further learned, from the websites of the BGA and the Illinois Policy Institute, that Chicago’s aldermen last year averaged $115,442 in salary. The latest figure I could find for the entire City Council budget was $24.5 million — and that was for 2012!

Cutting the size of the Chicago City Council by half still would leave Chicago with 10 more aldermen than in Los Angeles. And wouldn’t the money saved —conservatively estimated to be at least $12.25 million — help those small businesses that are trying to recover or rebuild from the pandemic? The money could also fund more expressway cameras to deter expressway shootings.

Christine Craven, Evergreen Park