Politics
Yearslong Push to Make Chicago City Council More Independent From the Mayor Falters
City Hall is pictured in a file photo. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
A push to expand the power of the Chicago City Council to operate independently from the mayor and city attorneys failed to win the backing of a key city panel Monday, preventing the yearslong effort from advancing.
The City Council’s Rules Committee voted 18-24 to reject a measure crafted by Alds. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) and Anthony Beale (9th Ward) that would have created the City Council Office of Legislative Counsel and changed the City Council’s rules of order to allow any alderperson to request time to consult with the new office in the event of a disagreement over how the mayor and his hand-picked attorneys are implementing those rules and running City Council meetings.
Reilly and Beale, who have emerged as the loudest critics of Mayor Brandon Johnson on the City Council, said their measure was designed empower the City Council to act as an independent branch of the city’s government and accused Johnson of trying to kill a good-government reform push.
“This would be a giant step forward toward empowering this body to move toward independence,” Beale said. “This is about freedom, you all.”
Reilly and Beal first introduced a similar measure more than two years ago, while former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was in office and presided over a series of combative City Council meetings. A companion measure that would earmark city funds to expand the City Council’s Legislative Reference Bureau and the Council Office of Financial Analysis has yet to get a hearing or vote.
Reilly accused the Johnson administration of “spreading misinformation” about the measure, which the city’s Law Department urged alderpeople to reject as a violation of the state law that makes the city’s corporation counsel the city’s only legal representative.
“This empowers this body to do its job,” Reilly said.
The city’s lawyers routinely side with the mayor during disputes over the City Council’s rules or procedures, with Jeff Levine, the city’s chief assistant corporation counsel, frequently at Johnson’s elbow to help the rookie mayor navigate the confusing tangle of rules while alderpeople shout out objections.
Although Johnson is not a member of the City Council, he presides over its meetings.
However, two of Johnson’s hand-picked committee chairs — Alds. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) and Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) — said the measure lacked substance, since the City Council already has the power to overrule the mayor’s parliamentary rulings with a majority vote.
“This really changes nothing,” said Ervin, chair of the Budget Committee.
Dowell, the chair of the Finance Committee, agreed, warning that it would only “create more gridlock” and make the City Council’s already lengthy monthly meetings even longer.
The debate represented the latest skirmish in the so-far unsuccessful push to rewrite the rules for the City Council, which served as a rubber stamp for decades under Mayors Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel rather than a legislative body charged with setting policy for the entire city.
The vote by the Rules Committee did not break down along ideological lines, with some of Johnson’s staunchest allies defying his call to reject the measure and voting to advance it to the full City Council, while some of his harshest critics joined his call to reject the proposal.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
