Aldermen Show Independent Streak, Delay Some Of Emanuel's Financial Proposals
CHICAGO (CBS) -- In what might be a new posture for the Chicago City Council, aldermen closely questioned just about every financial proposal the Emanuel administration brought before them at a Finance Committee meeting on Monday.
Aldermen were anything but blindly approving Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposals to borrow more money, use tax-increment financing to build a park in the South Loop, and other matters at Monday's meeting. They put some plans on hold, and demanded more information on them before voting.
There have always been some aldermen who routinely question the city's mayors in general, and even Emanuel, who has enjoyed overwhelming support for most of his programs up to now; but Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), a frequent Emanuel critic, noted more aldermen who normally side with the mayor are asking tough questions of the administration.
"I think that's a good thing. I think they've been burned before on some of these bond offerings, and we haven't seen our rates go down, so I think they're just … getting more heat from the constituency, saying you need to ask more questions," he said.
Podcast
Asked if that means aldermen have become more emboldened by the mayor's ongoing problems with police misconduct in the wake of the Laquan McDonald police shooting scandal, Ald. John Arena (45th) said no; there are long-standing questions about city finances that are just as troubling.
"That's as big a problem for our neighborhoods as police brutality is. How we spend taxpayer money, and where we invest it – or how we invest it badly – creates problems for every neighborhood just as well as other things that we could do wrong," he said.
Look for questions of the Emanuel administration to continue as new tax proposals come to the City Council floor in the future.
