Quote:
Originally Posted by Randomguy34
So even though I'm excited about the idea of a day one ban on aldermanic prerogative, via executive order, I'm still confused about how that would work in practice. Lightfoot recognizes that it's off the books, and is a little trickier to then get rid of. She says that banning the practice can be done "by hiring department heads and deputies who will be 'pledging allegiance to the new world order and good governance' and then train those people and their staffs — especially in agencies such as planning, zoning, buildings and housing where aldermen frequently deploy the practice. She then would direct Inspector General Joseph Ferguson to do spot audits to ensure compliance."
Is that really enough power to ban the practice, cause I can imagine city council ignoring the new heads and deputies anyway. |
The mayor has most of their power seated in control of administration and city council structural issues. She can control who the committee heads in city hall are and, if she installs chairpersons loyal to her, then she, not city council, controls what passes through those committees to a general floor vote. In other words, if she makes Alderman Michael Scott, one of the first people to endorse her, head of the Zoning Committee and tells him "follow only the recommendations of the zoning department" (who already issue their opinion on every zoning change btw, it just usually gets ignored if it doesn't line up with what the alderman wants) and he follows suit, then only zoning changes that line up with zoning department recommendations will see the light of day instead of only changes with a aldermanic support letter. If she stacks the zoning department with people committed to following the letter of the law (which actually says things like "zoning changes will be considered if they are consistent with nearby districts") then Scott will be handed a stack of recommendations from the zoning department each month. Scott will then get the committee (again stacked by Lightfoot) to approve the administration's recommendations and then those recommendations will be up for vote by the general city council the next month.
You see the gateway to aldermanic prerogative has always been the committee chairs. Look at who just went down in flames: Zoning Chair Solis, Finance Chair Burke. That's where the clout accumulates because it is the gateway to power in Chicago. If Lightfoot gets loyal reformers into those positions, the game is over. City council doesn't vote on each zoning change individually, they vote on the recommendation of the zoning committee. In other words, they vote on a whole batch of changes at once (or at least it's usually set up that way, I think PD's might get a special vote of their own like the 78 or LY did). Who determines what's in the batch? The zoning chair. Lightfoot can put city council in the position of holding up a whole bunch of changes they do want to see passed in order to try to stop one proposal some alderman doesn't want in his ward. A boycott like that would last maybe 3 or 4 months before the donors who got most of those aldermen elected so they could get their zoning change would drag them by the ear to get the changes that are being held up approved.
TLDR: the real fun starts when we see who Lightfoot gets on what committees.
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