As much as Chicago mayors would like them to, City Council meetings don’t always follow a political script. In fact, they can get downright hairy.
That’s what happened Wednesday — and it had nothing to do with the controversy over renaming Lake Shore Drive in honor of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, which never even came to a vote.
Instead, the City Council meeting came off the rails — and got cut short– after Lightfoot went out of the regular order of business to allow Budget Committee Chairman Pat Dowell (3rd) to deliver her committee report first.
That paved the way for immediate consideration of the mayor’s appointment of Celia Meza as the first Hispanic woman to serve as Chicago’s corporation counsel.
But the meeting descended into chaos when Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), one of Lightfoot’s most outspoken City Council critics, moved to delay consideration of the Meza appointment.
The motion was seconded by Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), who said she was doing it on behalf of Anjanette Young, the woman who was forced to stand naked as an all-male team of Chicago police officers raided her home as she pleaded with them that they had the wrong address.
Last week, Meza filed a motion to dismiss Young’s lawsuit against the city after Young refused to accept what her attorneys viewed as a “low-ball” offer from the Lightfoot administration to settle the lawsuit for $1 million.
After Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) moved to adjourn the council meeting and reconvene at 11 a.m. Friday, Lightfoot called for a recess.
The mayor then walked off the rostrum, onto the City Council floor and toward the back of the chambers where Taylor was seated behind a pillar.
The two strong-willed women who have clashed repeatedly over the last two years then engaged in a heated argument that clearly did not go well. Lightfoot looked disgusted as she walked slowly back toward the rostrum.
After another private conversation with her floor leader, Rules Committee Chairman Michelle Harris (8th), Lightfoot gaveled the meeting back to order and recognized Public Safety Committee Chairman Chris Taliaferro (29th).
That allowed for immediate consideration of the mayor’s appointment of Annette Nance-Holt as the first Black woman to serve as Chicago’s fire commissioner.
After that, Sposato withdrew his motion to adjourn.
Meanwhile, Meza took her seat at Lightfoot’s side on the rostrum. The corporation counsel is normally seated at the mayor’s side during Council meetings to serve as parliamentarian.
Meza was Lightfoot’s counsel and senior ethics adviser when the mayor promoted her to replace Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner, who was forced out in the political fallout from the police raid on Anjanette Young’s home.
At the time, Lightfoot claimed not to know about Flessner’s attempts to block WBBM-TV (Channel 2) from airing bodycam video of the raid, which showed a crying, naked Young repeatedly asking officers what was going on as they continued to search her home. Police, it turns out, had raided the wrong address.
After Holt’s appointment was confirmed and another death resolution was considered, Harris moved to adjourn the meeting and reconvene at 1 p.m. Friday.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) rose to object, but Lightfoot overruled him.
Indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th), the resident expert on Roberts Rules of Order, rose to defend Beale and say Beale’s motion to table Harris’ motion to adjourn was “not debatable.”
“Standing up and yelling without seeking recognition is not something that’s appropriate,” the mayor told Burke, her political nemesis, as Burke pointed his finger at the mayor from his seat.
“I have considered your appeal, and I’ve denied it.”
The Council then voted on Harris’ motion to set the date and time of the next meeting for 1 p.m. Friday.
The vote to adjourn was 31-18. Harris moved to adjourn one of the more bizarre City Council meetings in memory. Beale rose to table the motion. Lightfoot ruled that the motion to adjourn “takes precedence.”
Another roll call was taken. The second vote to adjourn was approved by the much-closer vote of 27-22. Lightfoot banged the gavel. The meeting was adjourned.
An anticipated showdown vote on the proposal to rename Outer Lake Shore Drive in honor of DuSable will just have to wait until Friday — maybe. So was final City Council approval of Lightfoot’s sweeping pandemic protection plan, including business reforms, worker protections and a revised midnight curfew on the citywide sale of alcohol.
After the meeting, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) tweeted, “Mayor Lightfoot is our presiding officer. It’s clear she needs to take a training on Robert’s Rules and how to properly chair a meeting. She consistently abuses of her chair position to ignore or block motions that are in order.”
