Never Heard Of Mayoral Candidate Ald. Roderick Sawyer? Let Me Help

CHICAGO — Ald. Roderick Sawyer announced plans to run for mayor Thursday, and people in every corner of Chicago said, "Who?"

If that's you, let me help.

Ald. Sawyer is the son of a selected Chicago Mayor, the late Eugene Sawyer.

In 1987, after Harold Washington died in office, the City Council voted to appoint Sawyer to serve the rest of the late mayor's term. In 1989, Eugene Sawyer lost re-election to Richard Daley, who served as mayor for 22 years.

What does that have to do with the current 6th Ward alderman eyeing his late father's former City Hall office?

Not much. It's just a reminder that another son-of-somebody in Chicago thinks he deserves a promotion in politics — the family business.

"Another day, another man who thinks he can do his job better than me," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in response to the news.

But mayor, this isn't just any other guy.

We're talking about the Roderick Sawyer. His name first appeared in a newspaper clout list in 1987 shortly after his father was elevated from alderman to mayor in a backroom deal.

That's when Sun-Times readers found out then Eugene Sawyers son, Roderick, had an $18,500 job with "undefined" responsibilities at the CTA, according to the Sun-Times.

At the time, Roderick Sawyer was on leave from the CTA job to attend law school. He owned a tavern in the 6th Ward, and along with his uncle received "tens of thousands of dollars in no-bid city hauling business through two trucking companies" they purchased the year before, then-Sun-Times journalists Chuck Neubauer and Deborah Nelson reported in 1987.*

"Roderick Sawyer could not be reached for comment," they wrote back then.

Nearly a decade later, Roderick Sawyer made his first political power play.

In 1996, he tried to wrestle political control of the 6th Ward away from then-Ald. John Steele. He got "clobbered" trying to oust Steele as Democratic Party committeeman, Mark Brown reported for the Sun-Times.

In 2011, the same year Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor, Roderick Sawyer "ousted his father’s protégé, longtime Ald. Freddrenna Lyle" by less than one-percent of the vote, Lisa Donovan and I reported for the Sun-Times.

Ald. Lyle said she thought she was friends with Sawyer, and was shocked that he decided to challenge her. Sawyer told reporters it was Lyle's backing of the infamous deal to sell the city's parking meters, and the encouragement from friends, that led him to run. Nothing personal.

He faithfully served as Emanuel's "rubber stamp" in the City Council. Near the end of Emanuel's final term. Sawyer voted for the mayor's agenda 100 percent of the time.

He did protest Emanuel's position on City Council reform, which included a suggestion that the city's watchdog be allowed to investigate anonymous complaints filed against aldermen.

Sawyer told Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman that Emanuel's plan recommended by the Ethics Reform Task Force was “ridiculous,” “crazy” and a non-starter.

“That means anybody with any ax to grind against anybody can just send out an unverified, anonymous complaint,” Sawyer was quoted as saying.

The 6th Ward alderman also loudly decried the city's then inspector general's request to see time sheets for city council staffers and committee employees.

“This is beyond the scope of his authority. He’s overstepping his bounds. He’s going too far. This is not what he was placed there to do,” the Sun-Times quoted Ald. Sawyer as saying.

“A lot of aldermen are upset or at least confused about what he’s trying to do. We don’t think this is based on any verified complaint. This is just him fishing or making busy work. If he has an investigation, tell us what it is. If not, collect your check and get out of the way. I don’t see that includes asking for time sheets unless he has a verified complaint.”

Maybe that sounds like good government to the son of a mayor who scored a clout CTA job with undefined responsibilities, only to take a leave of absence to pursue a law degree and no-bid city trucking contracts on the long road to a City Council seat.

In 2016, Ald. Sawyer's assured his place in Chicago history. That's when he was credited for inventing a new way for city government to stick it to homeowners - the garbage tax. You'll still find it on your water bill — $19 every two months for a single-family home, $57 for a three-flat.

That year, the Sun-Times editorial board included Sawyer's name on its list of "aldermen who failed Chicago," for blocking an ordinance that would allow the inspector general to investigate members of the City Council and their staff.

In 2019, when news broke that former Ald. Danny Solis was a federal mole recording fellow City Council members as part of a massive public corruption probe, Ald. Sawyer was ticked off.

That is "not the way I was brought up," Sawyer was quoted as saying. "If I was caught doing something wrong, I'd just take my punishment, deal with the consequences … and keep my mouth shut."

That's the kind of loyalty Emanuel appreciated so much that the former mayor gave Sawyer a $20,000 going away political donation in 2019.

But Sawyer, despite siding with Rahm 100-percent of the time, apparently didn't want to be associated with the unpopular mayor's donation while running for re-election that year.

More On Patch: Foster-Bonner Makes Run-Off Against Rubber Stamp 6th Ward Boss

He gave the $20,000 to charity, and failed to win back his seat outright.

Sawyer, a two-term incumbent at the time, was forced into a hotly contested run-off against a neighborhood accountant who grew tired of watching the heart of the 6th Ward's business district in Chatham decline.

Fearing for his political life, Sawyer quickly replaced Emanuel's cash by accepting maximum contributions from the outgoing mayor's chief financial backer, Michael Sacks, Sacks wife and Sack's firm, totaling $17,400.

Sawyer amped up the activities of campaign street team members, which included stealing his competitor's campaign signs. The action was caught on video. Sawyer won re-election.

And now he's ready to be mayor. Why? Well, it sure sounds to me like his 2011 challenge of Lyle.

Sawyer, who starting out as a member of Lightfoot's leadership team, became disenfranchised with the Black woman in charge.

Sawyer told the Tribune the mayor's "combative leadership style" and "contempt for aldermen" played a factor in his decision to run for mayor with $26,000 in his campaign war chest.

He said he also was inspired to run because Lightfoot was too slow to implement campaign promises, including the creation of a civilian police oversight board, and her objections to the version of the law creating an elected school board in Chicago that passed in Springfield.

Now, the former clout worker, owner of no-bid city contract winning trucking company, who openly opined that fellow aldermen, even the crooks, should stick together rather than help the feds root out corruption, is asking voters — including the more than 50 percent in his own ward that didn't want him in 2019 — to elect him boss.

Maybe they will. In Chicago, it makes perfect sense.

*Links to archived stories are available with a library card.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.

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