Members of the Chicago City Council, shown meeting earlier this year, must pass a new Council ward map by Wednesday — and even if they do, the map would still need to be approved in a city wide referendum, unless the winning map has the support of 41 Council members. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
After months on the sidelines, Mayor Lori Lightfoot jumped into the fray over the weekend, trying to “narrow the gap between the competing sides.” It didn’t work, and now the mayor sounds almost resigned to a referendum.
Chicago’s once-a-decade struggle to craft a new City Council ward map appears headed for a costly referendum after Mayor Lori Lightfoot tried — and failed — to forge a weekend compromise.
“I was invited by a number of different folks to get engaged — and I did. I convened a meeting over the weekend. We spent several hours putting issues on the table, trying to narrow those issues and get to some kind of consensus,” Lightfoot said Monday.
“Obviously, it was my hope that that would have happened over the weekend. Sunday at the latest. That didn’t happen. Those discussions continue. … It’s unfortunate that it’s coming down to the last minute. But there has to be transparency. People have to see a map.”
Lightfoot refused to say what she proposed, nor did she reveal whether she urged the Black Caucus to give up a second African-American ward to allow the creation of a 15th majority-Hispanic ward.
But she did sound almost resigned to a referendum — Chicago’s first in decades.
“They’ll either get something done or they won’t. Obviously, Wednesday is an important date. But it’s not gonna be the last word, I don’t believe, on a map that’s gonna dictate what the wards look like over the next decade,” the mayor said.
“The process … has been very tough. There’s a lot of emotions … built up on all sides. People need to come to the table, play the long game and get something done. Whether the Council is gonna be able to get themselves organized in a way that makes it happen — I don’t know the answer to that. I’m gonna try to keep listening and talking and pushing. But, ultimately, whether or not they get to 41 [votes] and a consensus is up to them.”
At the mayor’s insistence, the Council’s Rules Committee is expected to reveal its version of a citywide ward map shortly.
The unveiling sets the stage for a rapid-fire succession of votes — by the Rules Committee vote on Tuesday and the full Council on Wednesday just in time to meet a Dec. 1 deadline.
There is little doubt the map crafted by Mike Kasper, who served for decades as the election law expert for deposed Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, will have the 26 votes needed for passage.
But, it takes 34 votes to override a mayoral veto and 41 votes to avoid a referendum.
There appears little chance a map with fewer than 15 Hispanic-majority wards will reach the 41-vote benchmark.
“If the City Council doesn’t draw 15 [majority Hispanic] wards, then MALDEF or a court will…There will be potential litigation,” said Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), chairman of the Latino Caucus. MALDEF is the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, an organization that advocates for Hispanic interests.
“There’s data there to support the creation of 15 wards. The numbers are there,” he added, referring to the 2020 Census, which showed a growth in the city’s Hispanic population.
Villegas said he called off a special Council meeting scheduled for Monday “in the spirit of trying to come to a compromise” after a “good discussion” with the Black Caucus over the weekend once Lightfoot jumped in.
“She made some suggestions, I guess you can say. There were just some suggestions. She encouraged us to keep working at it. It was just kind of a simple encouragement message. That’s all it was,” said Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), former chairman of the Black Caucus.
“She did not say that we needed [to give up a second Black majority ward, possibly at the expense of Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th).] She did not make that suggestion to us. And if she would have, we would have not taken that positively.”
On Sunday, one day after the mayor got involved, Kasper put out a feeler to the Latino Caucus that may or may not have been blessed by Ervin: What if Coleman’s 16th Ward was redrawn in a way that increases its Hispanic population from 48% to 52%?
The answer was no, because 52% would not guarantee the election of a Latino.
Coleman, daughter of former Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th), could not be reached for comment. Sources said the freshman alderman went ballistic when she heard about Kasper’s offer, prompting the Black Caucus to reject the proposal.
Just days before the Dec. 1 deadline, two major roadblocks are standing in the way of an agreement.
First and foremost is the demand for a 15th majority-Hispanic ward — two more than now–to reward Latinos for their 5.2% population gain in the census.
The map drawn by the Latino Caucus would carve such a ward out of incumbent Ald. David Moore’s 17th Ward and make its population 68% Latino.
The second major stumbling block is how and where to accommodate an explosion of white population in the downtown area and along the lakefront.
Sources said Kasper’s version of the new downtown ward takes in “pieces of the West Loop and pieces of the South Loop above the 25th Ward” in an apparent effort to protect two veteran incumbent alderpersons: Walter Burnett (27th) and indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th).
“They don’t want Burke to go all the way up to Little Village. They want to keep Burke out of Little Village,” said a source familiar with the negotiations.
“Why they’re deferring so much to Burke. –I don’t get it. They say that it’s because he’s a 50-year Council member and why s–t on him?”
Even if those major issues were resolved, there are “smaller fires” to extinguish.
Take the demand that Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) be stripped of the Pullman community he has worked long and hard to rebuild in favor of the CHA’s Princeton Park complex.
Beale said there is “not a doubt in my mind” that Lightfoot is behind the move to punish him in retaliation for his outspoken opposition to the mayor.
The Black Caucus is also no fan of Beale, who has repeatedly called out his fellow African-American Council members for settling for crumbs.
“It’s a total vindictive, manipulative, under-handed tactic. That’s total destruction of a master plan that I have worked on for years,” Beale told the Sun-Times.
Beale applauded Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10th), his Council seatmate, for refusing to go along with the plan to strip Pullman out of his ward.
“I commend her profusely. I commend her for standing up for what’s right and for having integrity. Basically, we have an agreement and she is sticking to the agreement,” Beale said.
Sadlowski-Garza could not be reached for comment.
