LIGHTFOOT’S LONG TO-DO LIST
Though city’s problems are so intransigent, mayor-elect faces brighter outlook than Rahm did 8 years ago
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot has said the first thing she plans to do is summon Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson
to hammer out details of his plan to combat the traditional surge in summer violence.
But she’ll have a lot more than that to worry about once she’s sworn in May 20 as the first African American female and first openly gay mayor of Chicago.
The city’s problems are so intransigent, the solutions so painful, you might wonder whether to offer Lightfoot congratulations or condolences.
Still, it’s not quite the setup for a one-term mayor that Rahm Emanuel inherited before using a $24 million campaign war chest to win again in 2015.
“The good news is, she’ll have a sympathetic governor, which is much different,” said a veteran political strategist who asked to remain anonymous.
“She comes in without being on the precipice of financial disaster. Same with the schools. There’s a $1 billion pension payment that needs to be funded. But we’re not talking about being pushed off the cliff.”
Challenges the new mayor faces include:
Pensions and budgets
Lightfoot must find $276 million now and $1.2 billion by 2023 to bankroll the four pension funds for city employees. On top of that, the city’s corporate fund has shortfalls of $251.7 million next year and $362.2 million in 2021. And that doesn’t include the cost of new contracts and back pay for police officers and firefighters.
Lightfoot has acknowledged the need for a “conversation about revenue” that doesn’t put any more pressure on the city’s beleaguered and disappearing middle class.
She also has promised to “build the case” for new revenue with serious cost-cutting, including imposing a risk management system; reining in runaway settlements and judgments; consolidating the four city employee pension funds; making the city clerk and treasurer executive — not elective — offices; and eliminating redundant city services.
Until the city’s “broken” system for assessing property is fixed, Lightfoot has promised not to go back to Chicago taxpayers who already have endured more than $1.5 billion in tax increases for pensions and schools under Emanuel.
During the campaign, Lightfoot floated four possible tax increases under City Council control: tax high-end law firms and accounting services to generate money for pensions; raise Chicago’s 17.4 percent hotel room tax to increase grants
to artists; impose a graduated increase in the real estate transfer tax on the sale of high-end homes to ease Chicago’s affordable housing crisis; and abolish city stickers, replacing the $128 million in annual revenue with “dramatically higher” fees on ride-hailing vehicles.
Crime
Keeping a lid on summer violence won’t by itself solve the crime partly driving the black exodus from Chicago. Lightfoot also must boost the homicide clearance rate, rebuild shattered public trust between citizens and police, and boost rock-bottom police morale.
She’s talked about creating a Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention, treating crime as a public health crisis. But that will take years. Chicagoans won’t wait that long for signs of progress.
Teacher contract
There’s a reason the Chicago Teachers Union urged members to start saving 10 percent of their paychecks for a potential strike. The union endorsed Toni Preckwinkle and might be looking for a fight. CTU’s contract demands include a 5 percent pay raise; librarians and nurses at every school; more special education and bilingual support; smaller classes; and a counselor for every 250 students.
In 2012, Emanuel’s bullying missteps provoked a seven-day strike — Chicago’s first in 25 years. He avoided another in 2016 by using an $87.5 million tax-increment financing surplus.
Lightfoot has jokingly promised not to “lead with my middle finger” in dealing with the CTU.
“I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure we get those contract talks concluded before school starts in the fall,” she has said.
As for another strike, Lightfoot has said: “Not on my watch.”
Police contract
Emanuel punted to his successor — and who better to deal with it than Lightfoot? She co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability, whose scathing indictment of CPD prompted the U.S. Justice Department to do the same after a federal investigation triggered by the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald.
The Council’s Black Caucus has threatened not to ratify any police contract that continues to make it “easy for officers to lie” by giving them 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting and includes “impediments to accountability,” such as prohibiting anonymous complaints and allowing officers to change statements after reviewing video.
But an FOP that fought the consent decree and recently sued to stop the Civilian Office of Police Accountability from investigating fatal police shootings is unlikely to accept those changes. It might be best to go straight to arbitration.
Civilian police oversight
Yet another item on Emanuel’s list of unfinished business. He promised civilian oversight nearly three years ago but failed to deliver; he couldn’t figure out how to do it without undermining police brass or causing police morale to plummet even further.
Now, it’s Lightfoot’s problem. She already has embraced the more conservative compromise proposed by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability. And that was before a revised ordinance was introduced that eliminated two of the proposal’s most controversial elements: empowering that oversight board to fire the police superintendent and to be the final
arbiter on police policy.
Consent decree
Lightfoot is in a better position to see this through than anybody, having co-chaired the task force and served as Police Board president and head of the Office of Professional Standards before that.
But it’s one thing to write the recipe; it’s quite another to bake the cake. Now, she must implement the consent decree and, ultimately, get Chicago out from under the costly constraints of a federal monitor after proving to a federal judge CPD can be trusted to police itself.
Lightfoot has pointed out in detail how she believes the consent decree has fallen short. Now, she’ll get a chance to make those changes.
Ethics reform
Lightfoot has promised to end aldermanic prerogative, the unwritten rule that aldermen control zoning and licensing in their wards. She also wants to give the Council its own attorney, televise committee meetings, impose term limits for committee chairmen and limit the outside jobs aldermen can hold.
But there’s a reason Emanuel’s fifth and final stab at ethics reform stalled, even as the Council braces for more indictments. Reforms always face aldermanic resistance. Once again, Lightfoot is likely to have her hands full delivering on her campaign promises.
City Council reorganization
Lightfoot has said she’s not afraid of a stronger Council, one more like a partner than a rubber stamp. But she still plans to weigh in on key committee chairmanships.
She also has made it clear her longtime nemesis, Ald. Edward Burke (14th), will play no leadership role, let alone reclaim the Finance Committee chair that was his primary power base. Lightfoot denies offering Burke’s old job to Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) in exchange for Waguespack’s pivotal endorsement. But she needs to find somebody who knows the ropes to help get her programs through a Council that has taken a sharp turn to the left. Waguespack or Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) are prime possibilities.
“Managing the City Council will be incredibly difficult,” said one veteran political operative who asked to remain anonymous. “You have an emboldened City Council that will be even more unruly with unrealistic expectations and very little money to meet those demands.”
Remapping the wards
The black exodus from Chicago demands fewer African American wards. Hispanic population gains — they’re now Chicago’s secondlargest racial and ethnic group — demand more Hispanic wards. Something has to give.
Lightfoot wants to get the issue off her crowded plate by punting to an independent commission. But how many members? Who appoints them? What are their qualifications?
Ten years ago, aldermen approved a new map without a vote to spare. It included 13 Hispanic wards and two Hispanic “influence” wards, reflecting population gains. There were 18 black wards, down from 19.
It took 41 aldermen to avoid a referendum. Final vote: 41 to 8. A referendum this time may be unavoidable.
Obama Presidential Center
Former President Barack Obama had good reason to ignore pressure to endorse Toni Preckwinkle. He needs the next mayor to deliver the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
Lightfoot has criticized the Obamas for refusing to sign a community benefits agreement intended to prevent nearby residents from being priced out of their homes. Now, she needs to negotiate the agreement and get it through the Council. She’ll also have to deliver on Emanuel’s commitment to use $172 million in state funding to widen Lake Shore Drive between 57th Street and Hayes Drive to accommodate closing Cornell Drive.
All that assumes the $500 million project survives an ongoing court challenge.
Affordable housing
Lightfoot has promised to strengthen Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance to mandate that developers add more affordable units on site at their projects, instead of paying hefty fees to avoid it. She’s hoping a real estate transfer tax hike will generate up to $80 million a year to ease Chicago’s affordable housing crisis.
But that’s the revenue aldermen may use for police and fire pensions or to help pay for replacing lead service lines carrying water from the mains to an estimated 360,000 Chicago homes.
Once again, something has to give.
“SHE COMES IN WITHOUT BEING ON THE PRECIPICE OF FINANCIAL DISASTER. SAME WITH THE SCHOOLS. THERE’S A $1 BILLION PENSION PAYMENT THAT NEEDS TO BE FUNDED. BUT WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT BEING PUSHED OFF THE CLIFF.”
A veteran political strategist