WTTW News Explains
WTTW News Explains: What Exactly Does a Chicago Alderperson Do?
Every four years, residents of Chicago’s 50 wards pick their representative on the City Council.
They are officially known as alderpeople. They earn between $115,000 and $150,000 a year. Not too shabby for a job that allows for nearly unlimited side-hustles.
But what exactly does an alderperson do?
Their official job can be divided into two big buckets: citywide duties and ward services.
Your alderperson works with their 49 colleagues to set policy on big citywide issues like public safety, housing and transportation. They also decide whether to raise – or lower — taxes, and how to spend those bucks by passing a budget, which they negotiate with the mayor, who isn’t a member of the City Council but presides over its meetings.
The mayor gets to pick who serves as chairs of the City Council’s nearly two dozen committees. Those alderpeople have some real power, and get to decide which ordinances and resolutions get a piece of the City Hall spotlight and stand a chance of becoming law.
Life outside of City Hall can be much less glamorous. Alderpeople are in charge of providing direct city services to the nearly 50,000 people in their ward. (That’s about the population of a well-sized suburb.)
And unfortunately for them, those 50,000 Chicagoans want that pothole filled – NOW — and a new garbage cart — NOW — and want that tree in the parkway trimmed — NOW.
But in return for dealing with the nitty gritty details of city government, alderpeople are free to function like mini-mayors of their small part of the city under a decades-old tradition known as aldermanic prerogative.
Fueled by the deference of the other members of the City Council, each alderperson gets to decide much of what should — and should not — happen in their ward.
That means if, for example, you want to open a unique, super-niche specialty cafe, you best get the local alderperson on board — before you slap the first coat of paint on the walls.
While many alderpeople are dedicated public servants, more than a few have let that nearly unchecked power go to their heads — and ended up becoming the mini-mayor of a much smaller piece of real estate: a prison cell.
And if you think it’s hard to get that pothole filled with your alderperson busy serving the community, you’ll find that it’s a lot harder … when they’re serving time.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
