With new mayor on horizon, aldermen seek more power
Seizing on the lame-duck period between Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s election loss and the start of the next administration, a group of aldermen Wednesday called for a special meeting next week to consider a slate of rule changes they say would bolster the City Council’s independence from the mayor’s office and “improve city governance.”
The group is led by several current committee and caucus chairs, including Finance Chairman Scott Waguespack, 32nd, with support from Lightfoot’s floor leader, Rules Committee Chair Michelle Harris, 8th; Black Caucus Chair Jason Ervin, 28th; and Latino Caucus Chair Gilbert Villegas, 36th. Waguespack said at a news conference Wednesday that a majority of the current council supports the changes.
Proposals include the creation of an Office of Legislative Counsel to analyze legislation and serve as parliamentarian and the establishment of several new committees with council-selected leaders “to create more parity throughout each of the caucuses.”
The City Council has long had the power to choose its own committee chairs and members but has repeatedly ceded that power to the mayor in recent years. Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, attempted to fill recent committee chair vacancies but was thwarted.
“Ultimately, this will create a good balance of power between the legislative and the executive branch,” Ervin said at a news conference ahead of Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Responding to criticism that the changes are being made, in part, to insulate current chairs from potential changes proposed by a new mayor, Ervin said, “While many people have skepticism as to when and why and now, this is a time in which we are unprecedented in the history of our city. … It’s time for real leaders to stand up and take the ball and keep moving forward.”
Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, the chair of the powerful Aviation Committee, said at the news conference: “We’ve had more than 60 years of mayoral control of the City Council. It’s been too long. I believe it’s time to change and provide an additional check on mayoral power. To officially end what is commonly referred to as the rubber stamp.”
Other changes, according to a news release, could address some recent council flare-ups and concerns of good government reformers.
The group is proposing “additional transparency” around direct introductions of legislation, which are sometimes made in committee without public posting of the text. Direct introductions could only be made with an attached “statement of urgency explaining the nature of the emergency in detail.” They would also be posted “no less than 48 hours before” a committee vote and shared with “all members of the City Council along with an impartial and unbiased summary of the matter.”
No legislation could be directly introduced “when a substantially similar matter is currently pending before any other committee of the City Council,” the draft rules state. “Routine and repetitive matters” like parking permits, traffic signs or signals and the approval of legal settlements would be
exempt.
There are no proposed changes to the current rules about when two or more committees are called. Aldermen frequently sideline colleagues’ legislation as soon as it’s introduced by calling a different committee name as it’s read aloud to be referred. That banishes the proposal to the Rules Committee, where it can often languish.
The proposal creates several new committees and subcommittees, including Aging, Building Standards, Fire and Emergency Management, Tourism, Entertainment and Conventions, Sanitation and Waste Management, State and Federal Legislation, and Youth Services. The new subcommittees would include ones dedicated to the Park District, Surface
and Rail Transportation, City Colleges and Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Housing Authority, Veterans Affairs, Returning Citizens, and Reparations.
Both mayoral candidates have said they would support certain council reforms. In his response to the Better Government Association’s candidate questionnaire, Brandon Johnson pledged to add transparency to direct introductions. Asked about how council leadership would be chosen, he pledged to “reset the relationship between the Council and the mayor’s office, regain their collective trust, and work collaboratively and respectfully with alderpersons to determine committee leadership positions and composition.”
Paul Vallas’ ethics and accountability plan calls for creation of an Office of Legislative Council; allowing the council to pick its own committee chairs, calendars and agendas; and creating an independent budget office “to score major legislation and the annual budget.”
Harris told the Tribune she believes the changes will be successful as long as members remain united. “Aldermen have the right to come together and use their power to move issues forward, so I think this is a beginning,” she said. “And it’s the same message. No matter what group you’re in, it’s the same message.”
Another alderman picked by Lightfoot to lead a committee, budget Chair Pat Dowell, 3rd, was more reserved. Dowell had broken from the mayor and endorsed Johnson before Lightfoot was even knocked out of the running Feb. 28.
“I think that we need to have more discussion on what is being proposed,” Dowell said. “I’m concerned about not having the input of people who are coming into the Council in the next term. But I believe that we should be having that discussion now. We definitely need to have a more independent City Council.”
Waguespack said he had been in touch with incoming new aldermen about the proposals, but said discussions would continue.
Bryan Zarou, the BGA’s policy director, had several questions about the process, he wrote in a message to the Tribune. “The rushing of getting this to a vote next week” without input of newly elected aldermen “is poor practice.”
As for the vast expansion of committees, Zarou said, “We can barely support the ones that are in now, and many of the committees are not even meeting or haven’t met and done any substantive work in years. More committees does not mean a more efficient City Council.”
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, who also serves as the council’s president pro tempore, said he too needs more details before he can give his blessing, but he likes the spirit of the idea.
“I do think it’s a sign of good things to come when the City Council starts to flex its muscles,” said Reilly, who supports Vallas for mayor. “We haven’t shown any independence in decades, and so I think this is a great opportunity for us to change history.”
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, a member of the council’s democratic socialist bloc who is behind Johnson, said there are questions about diversity, transparency and overall structure that he wants answered.
“How do we ensure that the process is open and transparent, and importantly, includes the 16 alderpeople that are currently in runoffs?” Ramirez-Rosa said. “We don’t know who will be seated come May 15.”
Meanwhile, council maverick and Lightfoot foe Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, lambasted his colleagues in both the Vallas and Johnson camps for what he said was a “totally self-serving” ploy to hold onto power.
“Everybody that was up there basically have carried this administration’s water for four years, have never shown an ounce of independence in four years, have obstructed every movement that I have made in the last four years to make ourselves independent,” said Beale, a Vallas supporter. “Now all of a sudden, they’re at risk of losing their chairmanships and now they want to show independence? This is all self-serving, and it’s all selfish.”