As soon as I read about Bill Daley’s call for a referendum on reducing the City Council from 50 to 15 aldermen, I had three questions: Would it pass? Would I vote for it? And what does this have to do with Ratgate?
Chicagoans have a schizophrenic attitude toward aldermen. By and large, we despise the full council but like our individual alderman. How else to explain why we bitch and moan about every dumb, rubber-stamping thing the City Council does, then turn right around and reelect the aldermen who, you know, voted for those dumb, rubber-stamped projects. On the grounds that—hey, man, at least he or she returns my calls.
Quinn said a binding referendum takes precedence over an advisory one. And he’s still in court fighting lawyers for Rahm and the board of elections on this matter, though November’s election has come and gone.
Putting aside Daley’s motives, you can make a compelling argument for cutting the council. In comparison with other cities, we sure have a lot of aldermen. New York City has 51, but it has a population of over 8.5 million. So it works out to about one alderman for every 166,666 residents. Los Angeles has 15 council members—with a population of over four million, that’s one for every 266,666 residents. In Chicago, we have 50 aldermen—earning as much as $117,333—for 2.7 million, or one per 54,000 residents.
So, would I vote to cut the council? As always, I’m sort of blowing in the wind on this one.
And Alderman Rod Sawyer: “If I was caught doing something wrong, I’d just take my punishment and deal with the consequences.”
