‘REFORM IS HERE’
Lightfoot takes oath, becomes first black female, openly gay mayor in Chicago
As Lori Lightfoot completed her ascension Monday from a long-shot candidate to Chicago’s first black woman and openly gay mayor, the former federal prosecutor stood in front of thousands at a crowded arena and vowed to fundamentally transform a city government that for months has operated under the cloud of an ongoing federal public corruption investigation.
“Black and brown kids, low-income kids, every kid in this city should grow up knowing they can pursue anything, they can love anyone — that’s my Chicago dream.” Lori Lightfoot,
Moments after placing her hand on the Bible and taking the oath of office, Lightfoot bluntly promised to restore integrity to a city government and City Council that has at times been hobbled by allegations against some of its highest-ranking members. Her fiery speech drew numerous standing ovations from a raucous crowd, but also potentially set the stage for future conflict with aldermen as they prepare to jointly tackle some of the city’s other lingering problems — massive budget shortfalls and endemic violent crime.
“For years, they’ve said Chicago ain’t ready for reform. Well, get ready because reform is here,” Lightfoot said in her inaugural address. “I campaigned on change, you voted for change, and I plan to deliver change to our government. That means restoring trust in our city’s government and finally bringing some real integrity to the way this city works.”
During an approximately halfhour speech, Lightfoot drew from Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks and called for citywide unity in addressing public safety, education, financial stability and “integrity” — a reference to Chicago’s infamous corruption.
“Our challenges can only be solved if we face them together,” Lightfoot said. “We cannot fail. We will not fail. We are Chicago.”
Lightfoot also drew a standing ovation when she noted that the election of Melissa ConyearsErvin as treasurer and Anna Valencia as clerk marks the first time Chicago’s three citywide positions are held by women of color.
“Children who look like me and come from families like mine shouldn’t have to beat the odds to get an education, pursue their passions, or build a family,” Lightfoot said. “Black and brown kids, low-income kids, every kid in this city should grow up knowing they can pursue anything, they can love anyone — that’s my Chicago dream.”
In addition to the daunting challenge of cleaning up City Hall, Lightfoot’s administration will confront chronic gun violence, neighborhood disinvestment and segregation, and a first-year budget shortfall estimated by the outgoing administration at more than $700 million though it’s expected to be even worse.
City cops and firefighters need new contracts, and the Chicago Teachers Union already has threatened a strike in the fall. And the Chicago Police Department will navigate a federal consent decree aimed at overhauling how the city’s historically troubled force operates.
Throughout her speech, Lightfoot promised to confront the city’s toughest subjects and highlighted Chicago’s historical ingenuity.
On crime, Lightfoot said there’s “no higher calling than restoring safety and peace in our neighborhoods” and promised to develop a more proactive strategy against violence.
“People cannot and should not live in neighborhoods that resemble a war zone,” Lightfoot said. “Enough of the shootings. Enough of the guns. Enough of the violence.”
On Chicago Public Schools, Lightfoot said the city promises “a safe, relevant, and challenging education that prepares (students) for meaningful work, civic engagement and life-long learning.”
“But whether we deliver on that promise often depends on where you happen to live. It’s time to give every child and young person a good education, to prove through our schools that we believe in them, that we support them,” Lightfoot said. “No matter who they are or where they live.”
Previewing one of the bigger problems she will face, one that could lead to major tax increases, Lightfoot said the city of Chicago has “over many, many years dug itself into a giant financial hole.”
She also criticized the Affordable Requirements Ordinance, an Emanuel law that allows developers to pay fees instead of building affordable housing.
“Stability also means that we must build housing that is affordable for more people, including families,” Lightfoot said, and developers “can no longer skip their responsibilities by taking tax dollars but leaving it to someone else to solve our affordable housing crisis.”
As mayor, Lightfoot said, “We will continue to build this great city and leave it better, stronger, fairer, and more prosperous than when we found it.”
While much of Lightfoot’s speech focused on making Chicago a safer, more equitable city, it also evoked some of the most intense reactions during the portion dedicated to fighting public corruption — a topic she introduced with a joke.
“Putting Chicago government and integrity in the same sentence sometimes may seem a little strange,” Lightfoot said. “But, friends, that’s going to change. It’s got to change.”
Lightfoot, who personally prosecuted corrupt alderman Virgil Jones as an assistant U.S. attorney in the 1990s, criticized the city’s pay-to-play political culture, saying it hurts common citizens.
“The family with the bungalow, the lady who runs the hair salon, the guy who owns the store on the corner — they aren’t powerful or big or well-connected, but they end up paying when our government is corrupt,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot also put pressure on the city’s aldermen to support her reform proposals.
“These practices have gone on here for decades and this practice breeds corruption. Stopping it isn’t just in the city’s interest. It’s in the City Council’s interest,” Lightfoot said before turning to face the aldermen seated behind her onstage.
At one point, Lightfoot delivered a line that would seem obvious in most cities, but not Chicago, declaring: “No official in the city of Chicago elected or appointed should ever profit from his or her office. Never. Ever.”
The 50-member City Council will include a larger Progressive Caucus, and Chicago voters have sent six socialists to the body who have their own left-wing demands on the new mayor.
Implicitly acknowledging that she will need the council’s support dealing with the city’s issues, Lightfoot said her reform proposals won’t disenfranchise aldermen in their communities.
“It does not mean our aldermen won’t be able to make sure the streetlights are working or the parking signs are in the right place or any of the thousands of good things that they do for people every day,” Lightfoot said. “It simply means this — it means ending their unilateral, unchecked control over every single thing that goes on in their wards. Aldermen will have a voice, but not a veto.”
On her first day in office, Lightfoot signed an executive order limiting so-called aldermanic prerogative over matters such as permitting and licensing, which she said would be the first of many reforms.
As Lightfoot sets up on the fifth floor of City Hall, she will face deeply entrenched political interests that are eager to derail her reform agenda.
Lightfoot’s moves to shake up city government already have rankled some City Council veterans and other members of the political establishment.
On Friday, Lightfoot unveiled her recommendations for who should head the council committees tasked with passing her ambitious agenda. Aldermen will need to consider her committee recommendations at their May 29 meeting.
Most significantly, Lightfoot chose Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, to lead the powerful Finance Committee, a post held by Ald. Edward Burke for about 30 years until federal prosecutors charged him in January with attempted extortion.
The only alderman who endorsed Lightfoot in the first round of the mayor’s race, Waguespack is detested by some of his peers and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel allies, who view him as an obstructionist with the easy job of criticizing how Chicago operates.
Choosing Waguespack is practically a declaration of war against the way the City Council traditionally has done business, as he’s been an outspoken voice on everything from TIF reform to housing policies. Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, led a failed effort to block Waguespack from chairing the committee. In her own recommendations, Lightfoot proposed Beale lose his chairmanship of the Transportation Committee even though he supported her in the mayoral runoff against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Under Lightfoot’s plan, Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, also would lose her Budget Committee chairmanship. Austin is the second longest-serving alderman, behind Burke. Austin once said Lightfoot could go “straight to Hades” during a 2016 debate over police accountability and faced controversy over hiring her son to be ward superintendent. Lightfoot previously said her choices are meant to signal change, and she is looking for allies who can “make sure we have Mayor of Chicago a City Council that is aiding in restoring trust and confidence in city government.”
Beale criticized Lightfoot after the inaugural remarks, saying her speech struck the wrong tone.
“It’s almost like you’re trying to promote yourself on the backs of the people who are out here making hard decisions to move the city forward,” Beale said. “You can’t paint the entire City Council with a (broad) brush. We care about our communities. We are elected by our communities to do the right thing.”
Beale said he doesn’t regret attempting to organize the City Council, noting that the aldermen are the ones who are supposed to vote on their leadership.
“If I’m being penalized because I’m following the rules, what message does that send?” Beale said.
Other aldermen praised Lightfoot’s inaugural address and moves. Southwest Side Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, said Lightfoot sent a clear message about her priorities and noted that 30 aldermen have gone to prison in his lifetime.
“We’re going to work together,” O’Shea said. “We’re going to work for the taxpayers.”
Freshman Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, said she was pleased with the priorities Lightfoot listed.
“I’m excited that she’s wanting to work on mental health, that she’s focused on public safety as something that is not just police, but that we’re going to have to do a lot more than that in order to keep our communities safe, that she’s wanting to invest in education,” said Rodriguez Sanchez, one of five new socialists joining the council.
Fellow left-leaning Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, who was a top surrogate for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the mayor’s race, said Lightfoot’s speech gave him reason for optimism compared with the one Emanuel delivered at his 2015 inauguration.
“It was a powerful progressive speech, miles and miles and miles of difference between the speech I heard when I first joined the City Council under Rahm Emanuel and the speech that I heard today,” he said. “Promises around affordable housing, around fully funding our public schools, around reforming the city of Chicago to make sure that a rich and powerful few aren’t the ones that control all the opportunity in the city of Chicago.”
Near the end of her inaugural address, Lightfoot struck a compassionate tone.
“To those who are alone, we are with you. For those who need a home, we will shelter you. For those who have little, we will do much,” Lightfoot said. “We see you. We hear you. We are your neighbors. And so help me God we will not pass you by.”
She also tried to be optimistic, despite the looming challenges.
“But if we follow these four stars: safety, education, stability, and integrity, we can once again become a city that families want to move to … not run away from,” Lightfoot said. “No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter your circumstance in life, Chicago is now on a mission to join hands with you, to share power with you, and to give you reason to believe that we can all pull in the same direction to make Chicago, better, together.”