As a new city council prepares to take office Chicago Documenters reflect on a "City Council 101" event hosted by the Better Government Association
By Chicago Documenters
Photo credit: Louise Macaraniag
On Monday, May 15, a new mayor and 13 new alders were sworn into office, the largest group of new City Council members since the 1950s. These newly elected officials will have to hit the ground running by setting up their offices, building relationships, advocating for policy and balancing community needs with city-level priorities.
For folks in our Chicago Documenters community — many of whom take notes on or live-tweet City Council meetings — this means a lot of new names and faces to get to know, not to mention unique personalities, catchphrases and fashion choices. With the departure of many longtime alders and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, City Council’s structure and power dynamic with the mayor are already in flux.
To prepare for these changes, a group of City Bureau staff and Chicago Documenters took a field trip to “City Council 101,” an event with City Hall insiders at the Harold Washington Library and hosted by the Better Government Association (BGA), a civic advocacy and investigative news organization.
In the first panel (starts 10 minutes into this recording), former Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson spoke with former alders Dick Simpson and Michele Smith about City Council’s legacy of corruption and how it’s changing. During the second session (skip to the 1:33:00-mark), City Clerk Anna Valencia and current alders Matt Martin, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Jason Ervin discussed the more practical challenges and limitations of City Council’s work.
We asked Chicago Documenters and City Bureau staff who joined our outing to share their takeaways and what questions they still have as City Council changes. Here’s what they had to say (responses have been edited for clarity).
What did you learn? what surprised you?
Pachina Fletcher: I learned that there are 50 wards in the city of Chicago. I was surprised to learn that this is the first time since the early 1970s that City Council has no one under indictment and that 37 alders have been to prison for corruption since then. Also, this is Chicago’s youngest City Council in history.
Shabaka Verna: I learned how tough it is to prepare to be a first-time alder and how older incumbents don't exactly have structure placed within their committee duties and responsibilities.
It’s funny, but I was surprised that I never thought about the fact that the City needs to accommodate our elderly, who may struggle with the digital divide and new systems that younger constituents want put in place. I was even more surprised that there aren’t well-designed, user-friendly portals or City systems to keep track of bills, policies, or decisions.
Nora Bryne: There is no onboarding for new alderpersons. There used to be a one-day orientation with Alder Ed Burke, which sounded more like a welcome lunch than an actual onboarding day. Given the super-bureaucratic nature of so much of local government, it’s surprising to learn that new alderpeople are left to fend for themselves.
Chicago is one of the only major cities without a city charter, a document that would heavily guide and streamline government procedures. Several advocates and organizations, including Chicago’s former Inspector General Joe Ferguson, are calling for Chicago officials to craft a city charter.
Thomas Leonard, Jr.: Alder Carlos Ramirez-Rosa basically admitted that he got elected [in 2015] as a firebrand promising to shake things up but quickly had to fall in line with how the council wanted him to operate.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST CURIOUS ABOUT AS A NEW MAYOR IS SWORN IN AND A NEW CITY COUNCIL SESSION STARTS?
India Daniels: Anna Valencia mentioned that this summer, the city clerk’s office plans to roll out a new platform for organizing information about public meetings, proposed legislation, votes — pretty much all the information that City Council needs to keep track of and make available under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know the tricks and limitations of the current Legistar database for Documenters. I’m curious about when this change will happen and what the learning curve will be for alders and members of the public; will the immediate impact be more or less transparency?
Nora: What policies and discussions are going to get lost in the shuffle of a new City Council session? Because there are so many new alders, will some policies be set to the back burner? I am also really curious about the dynamics between the established alders and the new ones. Who is going to get along and who is going to give their colleagues a cold shoulder?
Thomas: How will the Democratic Socialist caucus wield their influence in the new council and with Mayor Johnson?
Shabaka: Will progress be made, and where? Is Johnson fighting against impossible headwinds, and where can he bring City Council together?
WHAT DO YOU WISH MORE PEOPLE COULD KNOW ABOUT CITY COUNCIL?
Nora: I wish it were easier to make the connection between what City Council does and what’s happening on the ground in communities. People often say what happens in Washington, D.C., doesn’t affect them in their city, and I think the same could be said about City government. I also wish it were clearer how to make changes or access government assistance.
H Kapp-Klote: As Documenters, we talk a lot about transparency in government. But beyond transparency, it’s often hard to contextualize how things get done in Chicago local government in practice. City Council holds a lot of power, but there’s lots of nuance in this power, from Robert’s Rules to when and why something might go to Rules [Committee] (probably things that don’t have the word “rules” in it, too).
I really appreciated how thoughtful City Clerk Anna Valencia, current alders Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Matt Martin, and former alder Michele Smith were in describing the internal mechanisms of the council, especially when it comes to the very real limitations of capacity and who might be the best advocate for a particular ordinance. I found this particularly helpful as a former organizer and digital strategist for many organizing groups — it's hard to know how to support alders in passing certain ordinances or taking on particular issues without this context.
India: Many of us agreed with Natalie’s observation that this event wasn’t “City Council 101” for the average person. It was geared toward recently-elected folks and others in journalism, organizing and government spaces. I wish that more of City Hall and the clerk’s office recognized how complicated, arcane processes limit members of the public from accessing, making sense of and providing perspective on issues and policies that directly affect them.
Shabaka: I think if people knew what it was like to tackle both city issues and ward issues as an alder, they’d be able to gauge what was being done for them and how in a comprehensive way. Deeper understanding could even inspire new community members to engage with or create mechanisms and groups that aid their alder in staying accountable.
What’s next for us? Join City Bureau for our Documenters Community of Practice on May 31st.
As our own follow up to the BGA event, Chicago Documenters Community Coordinator Natalie Frazier and BGA/Illinois Answers Project reporter Alex Nitkin will be remixing these learnings and questions into a Chicago Documenters Community of Practice (CoP) event. CoPs are a monthly space for Documenters and community members to come together for co-learning, skill-sharing and dialoguing on topics that build civic power.
Natalie and Alex will facilitate discussion of the inner workings of City Council on a more introductory level, including what alders do, the mayor’s role in City Council, and how these power dynamics are changing.
It’s all happening Wednesday, May 31, 6 p.m., at City Bureau’s office. Learn more and register for the CoP here.
Contributors
Nora Bryne: I am the Documenters Network Resource Coordinator at City Bureau. In my role, I support and engage Documenters sites across the Network. I have lived in Chicago for roughly eight years and lived in Ukranian Village for five years.
India Daniels (@indiawho): I have been coordinating the Chicago Documenters program since fall 2018. In my current role, I report on local government via the Newswire, a twice-weekly email that summarizes Chicago Documenters’ public meeting coverage and explores civic power.
Pachina Fletcher (@FletcherPachina): I have been a Chicago Documenter for almost a year and a half.
Natalie Frazier: I facilitate learning and connection as Community Coordinator for the Chicago Documenters program.
H Kapp-Klote (@pizza4justice): I’m a writer, digital strategist, Documenter and City Bureau fellowship alum.
Thomas Leonard, Jr.: I am a native Chicagoan with a lifelong interest in politics. As a young student council member in 5th grade I attended my first meeting of the Chicago City Council, presided over by then Mayor Richard M. Daley. I am a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and I have lived in four states besides Illinois. At all of my stops, I have tried to engage in the local political scene and compare and contrast these government bodies to the one I have always known here in “The City That Works.”
Shabaka Verna: I’m City Bureau’s operations coordinator. As a long time Chicagoan and Documenter, I am often interested in how City Council meetings affect the change I see in my community and throughout other parts of Chicago.