How Chicago voters can remake City Hall
No matter how often some of them pretend otherwise, Chicago’s 50 aldermen aren’t elected merely to be the little mayors of their wards. They’re supposed to be a muscular legislature, a policymaking check on city government’s executive branch, aka the mayor.
But that’s not how it works. The little mayors strut about town but turn docile when they enter City Hall. Too many of them are accustomed to taking orders on how to vote — and pleading for favors in return — from the mayor’s office. A report this month from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s political science department that analyzes aldermanic voting behavior found that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has enjoyed a more rubberstamp City Council than Mayor Richard J. Daley and Mayor Richard M. Daley had. That’s right, the current council is even more rubbery — more pliable — than under the Daleys. Keep reading for the names of Chicago’s most obedient aldermen.
That indentured servitude should
end. In 2019, voters can elect a mayor and 50 aldermen who know and perform their respective jobs. Who pursue policy over politics. Who support transparency in City Hall operations. Who coalesce around new leadership in committee chairmanships. That starts by handing to human resources professionals the city’s $100 million workers’ compensation and disability program, not allowing Ald. Edward Burke’s clouted Finance Committee to run it. It also starts by allowing city Inspector General Joeseph Ferguson to regularly audit the program.
And that’s not all. Voters can break this cycle of rubber-stamp City Councils. They can strengthen the city’s budget and spending practices by empowering, and making truly independent, the council’s financial analyst. They can revoke aldermanic veto power in affordable housing decisions and other matters prone to abuse. They can give the city’s board of ethics the tools to investigate, uncover and prevent corruption.
How lame is the Chicago City Council? The UIC report from authors Dick Simpson (himself a former alderman), Marco Rosaire Rossi and Thomas Gradel focused on council votes that were not unanimous. And wouldn’t you know it? From April 2017 to November 2018, 11 aldermen voted with Emanuel 100 percent of the time.
Another 32 aldermen voted with the mayor 90 to 98 percent of the time. Some of those votes were on innocuous issues, such as appointments to boards and commissions. But many were weighty votes on city borrowing, budgets, and tax and fee increases. We don’t know whom to scold more — Emanuel for shameless armtwisting or aldermen for collapsing at his feet. Either way, it’s not representative government that best serves the citizens of 50 wards.
The 11 aldermen who voted with the mayor 100 percent of the time on divided votes during the last 18 months were Leslie Hairston, 5th; Roderick Sawyer, 6th; Michelle Harris, 8th; Burke, 14th; Howard Brookins, 21st; Daniel Solis, 25th; Walter Burnett Jr., 27th; Chris Taliaferro 29th; Carrie Austin, 34th; Emma Mitts, 37th; and Margaret Laurino, 39th.
The eight aldermen who voted with Emanuel the least, but still were with him 71 to 90 percent of the time, were David Moore, 17th; Scott Waguespack, 32nd; Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th; Raymond Lopez, 15th; Anthony Napolitano, 41st; John Arena, 45th; Nicholas Sposato, 38th; and Michele Smith, 43rd.
The remaining aldermen voted with the mayor 92 to 98 percent of the time. That doesn’t scream independence, does it? You’ll find the UIC report at chicagotribune.com/aldermen.
Maybe Chicagoans like employing aldermen who kowtow to a mayor. Or maybe, on Feb. 26, voters will pour into voting booths and say it: Enough.