Want Change Chicago? Vote Out Absentee, Rubber-Stamp Aldermen

Chicago’s rubber stamp City Council has failed us. Our city’s “weak mayor/ strong council” form of government has been hijacked by wimpy ward bosses who rarely disagree with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Look where that’s gotten us: Chicago is broke, corrupt and severely divided by class and race.

Today you can do something about it. Start by voting out Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 100-percenters — eight aldermen seeking re-election who voted with the mayor every single time they showed up to vote.

Most of the city has been focused on the hotly contested mayoral race, and rightfully so.

But Chicagoans who have been forgotten and disregarded by the City Hall status quo should make this Election Day historic by kicking out entitled ward bosses, and filling the City Council with fresh faces.

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This year, a handful of aldermen who staunchly support Emanuel publicly confirmed that politics here is practiced under a code of silence that fosters corruption thanks to federal mole Ald. Danny Solis.

It’s worth remembering that Solis wore a wire for the feds for two years after allegedly getting caught government trading favors for Viagra and happy endings at Chinatown massage parlors.

He recorded conversations with Ald. Ed Burke, who faces criminal charges for allegedly shaking down a Burger King owner for a $10,000 donation to mayoral contender Toni Preckwinkle, the Democratic Party boss who gave Burke’s son a six-figure, do-nothing county government job.

That bombshell flipped the script on a mayoral contest that pits a collection of outsiders and reformers against the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” — Bill Daley, Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza and Gery Chico — who never would have dared to run for mayor if Rahm Emanuel didn’t decide against running for a third term because they’re part of the same crooked political machine.

When the news broke, several aldermen — including Rahm's faithful supporters — also exposed themselves as supporters of a City Council no-snitch code.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), who’s in a hotly contested race, told the Sun-Times that wearing a wire to catch dirty ward bosses is “not the way I was brought up.”

Sawyer is a legacy alderman. His father, the late Eugene Sawyer, was the 6th Ward boss, too, and served a short stint as mayor after Harold Washington died.

“If I was caught doing something wrong, I’d just take my punishment, deal with the consequences . . . and keep my mouth shut,” Sawyer said.

When Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) heard Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman reported her reaction: “You don’t do that. You just don’t.”

To add some perspective, Austin last year told a room full of protesters to take their objections outside because, “I guarantee you ain't seen no gangsters like this city's aldermen,” according to the Chicago Reader.

And Ald. Michelle Harris — the 8th Ward boss appointed by former Mayor Richard M. Daley to replace Todd Stroger, who was appointed to replace his late father, John Stroger, as Cook County Board president — was so taken aback that Spielman noted her comment seemed to paraphrase a line from The Godfather: “Don’t take sides against the family.”

Here’s what Harris said: “I try to think that we’re a family down here and we all work together. So, I got to say it’s probably a little disheartening for me. I’m a little stunned because he and I worked together. … It kind of makes you feel a little . . . uncomfortable about working with people.”

Burke, Solis, Sawyer, Austin, Harris and six other aldermen have an interesting bit of trivia in common: They all voted in favor of measures supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel 100 percent of the time, according to a University of Illinois study of city council votes.

Alds. Leslie Hairston (5th), Howard Brookins (21st), Walter Burnett Jr. (27th), Chris Taliaferro, Emma Mitts (37th) and Margaret Laurino round out the list of Rahm’s 100-percenters. Solis and Laurino aren’t running for re-election.

Another 22 aldermen voted with Emanuel more than 90 percent of the time.

Some of those aldermen don’t care enough to show up when business is conducted at City Hall, according to a report published by WBEZ that's worth reading before you vote.

Hairston, who faces two challengers in her re-election bid, attended fewer than half of City Council hearings between 2015 and 2018, the WBEZ report found. She didn’t show up to the April 13, 2015, finance committee meeting when a “voice vote” rubber stamped the Emanuel administration’s $5 million settlement with Laquan McDonald’s family that aimed to keep video of the police shooting that killed the black teenager.

Austin, who former Mayor Daley appointed to replace her late husband as alderman in 1994, also recently made news for her City Council stats. Austin leads all aldermen in City Council absenteeism. She only attended 34 percent of City Council meetings, the WBEZ analysis shows.

“I don’t really have to show up,” Austin told WBEZ.

Brookins attended only 35 percent of City Council hearings. Alds. Roberto Maldonado (26th), George Cardenas (12th) and Patrick O’Connor (40th) each made it to fewer than 50 percent of council meetings, the report found.

Why is Chicago's legislative branch a joke? It's because absent-prone, rubber-stamp aldermen carry on a long Chicago tradition of allowing so-called “weak mayors” strong.

That “undermines representative government and subverts democracy,” the UIC report found.

For that, Chicago, a city of Democrats, is the least democratic — and most corrupt — city in America.

Today you’ve got a chance to do something about it.

Vote ‘em out. Make Chicago’s city council strong, again.

See Also:

• A Vote For Daley, Preckwinkle, Mendoza, Chico Is A Vote For Rahm
• 'Empire' Actor Doesn't Fib As Well As Chicago's Clout Candidates
• Is Chicago Crazy Enough To Elect Bill Daley, The Rahm Candidate?
• Don't Believe CTU Hype: Undecideds Could Shock Mayoral Status Quo
• Mendoza Rapid-Fire Tweets Sling Mud On Clout Candidates, Herself
• Chicago Mayoral Race Is Absurd And Nightmare If You Don't Wake Up
• Did Rahm's Failure, Solis' FBI Wire Make Chicago GOP Relevant?
• Mayoral Candidate Susana Mendoza Can't Be Taken Seriously Anymore
• Facts About Pay-To-Play Preckwinkle Help To Voters To Form Opinion
• Chicago Needs To Elect Bunch Of Snitches To Kill Code Of Silence
• Rahm's Podcast Isn't Practice For TV Gig; He Stinks On TV (VIDEO)
• Are You For 'Cockroaches' Or Reformers In Chicago Mayoral Race?
• Cash Connects 'Independent' Preckwinkle To 'Good Ol' Boys Club'
• Hmm, Mayor Candidate Bill Daley Doesn't Want To Dis Rahm Anymore

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the Chicagoland series on CNN.