The Chicago City Council still has no new leader for its powerful Zoning Committee after a mayoral ally on Wednesday delayed a vote to install firebrand progressive Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez into the role.
Mayor Brandon Johnson had recently been attempting to shore up support for the outspoken Pilsen alderman and staunch Johnson supporter to fill the seat left empty for eight months after the mayor’s original pick resigned amid controversies over how he wielded the post. Johnson’s handpicked Rules Committee chair, Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th, opted not to call the item at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, however, without explaining why she was stopping a vote on the mayor’s choice for the key position.
But mayoral critic Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, fired a warning shot earlier during the meeting as he passed out fliers indicating the rules say Sigcho-Lopez would require 34 votes rather than 26 from the 50-member body given the rushed manner in which his appointment was presented to the full council.
The delay comes three months after several City Council members tried unsuccessfully to strip Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, of his Housing Committee chairmanship. He faced criticism at the time for speaking in front of a burnt American flag at a rally calling for unruly protests during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month and featuring blistering condemnation of the Israel-Gaza war.
Sigcho-Lopez maintained after his appearance at the rally in March that he did not see the burnt flag. A Marine combat veteran set the flag aflame to protest America’s support of Israel before Sigcho-Lopez arrived, the alderman said at the time. Nonetheless, Sigcho-Lopez’s stout criticism of the war in the Middle East has bristled pro-Israel advocates, including the Anti-Defamation League.
The Pilsen alderman has also fiercely derided gentrification in his Latino-heavy Southwest Side ward, often earning the ire of the real estate industry. Realtors and developers say that attitude has a chilling effect on development.
By seeking to tap Sigcho-Lopez as the influential Zoning chair — a role previous 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis held when he faced federal faced corruption charges — Johnson was signaling he plans to press ahead with his leftist agenda that the Zoning Committee has not made sweeping moves on. The more politically moderate Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th, is keeping the Zoning seat warm on an interim basis.
The Zoning Committee has been without a permanent chair since early November, when Johnson’s first pick, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, resigned amid bullying allegations. The stalemate reflects the slow pace Johnson’s administration has taken with vacancies as well as the rancorous tenor of this era in City Council.
Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, was accused of “manhandling” Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, after a video surfaced showing him standing in front of the council chambers door as she tried to enter the room for a vote on placing a symbolic question on the city’s sanctuary status on this year’s primary election ballot. Three other aldermen then accused him of threatening to use his Zoning power to scuttle projects in their wards if they went against him in a vote.
Ramirez-Rosa publicly apologized to Mitts, who cast the decisive vote saving him from censure, but has denied the “manhandling” and bullying allegations. For months, he has sought to regain the seat, but his bid to win over Black Caucus aldermen ultimately failed.
He has also done his own behind-the-scenes maneuvering to try to clear his name by commissioning his staff to do a legislative “analysis” of his Zoning chair decisions to prove that he adhered to aldermanic prerogative throughout his tenure, per the report that was obtained by the Tribune in a public records request. His office presented the findings to Johnson’s team in late May, but the mayor nonetheless opted for Sigcho-Lopez instead.
Johnson was also attempting to appoint Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, to replace Sigcho-Lopez as Housing chair, an olive branch to the Black Caucus following the flap between Mitts, the body’s longest-serving sitting Black woman, and Ramirez-Rosa.
Burnett, a political moderate in the body, endorsed Johnson’s 2023 runoff opponent Paul Vallas. Johnson nonetheless tapped Burnett to be vice mayor shortly after winning office in a bid to grow his political alliances. His appointment was delayed too on Wednesday.
Major votes withheld, but zoning board gets appointees
Many of the most anticipated pieces of legislation set to come up for a vote Wednesday were ultimately withheld, putting them on long runways for potential passage given the council’s August recess. Chief among the postponed debates was an ethics tiff between the mayor and progressive ally Ald. Matt Martin, 47th.
Martin’s ordinance would restrict lobbyist donations to Chicago mayors. A 2011 executive order from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel had already codified the rule, but the city’s ethics board determined it was unenforceable as the board tried to crack down on registered lobbyists improperly donating to Johnson’s political committee.
The ordinance merely stops “backsliding,” Martin said when he advanced it past the Ethics Committee that Johnson named him to chair. Two aldermen last month used a parliamentary tactic to delay a final vote on the measure.
Martin was unsure ahead of a meeting with the mayor Tuesday if he would bring the ordinance back up for consideration. He told the Tribune Wednesday he now intends to pursue final approval in September and said is considering additions to the legislation.
Aldermen held off on a vote to re-legalize additional dwelling unit construction in most parts of the city. The legislation to relax construction restrictions stalled as the mayor and sponsor Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th, continued to discuss how it should affect neighborhoods zoned for single-family housing.
Aldermen also did not consider a Lincoln Park development near the Chicago River that would break with the council’s tradition of aldermanic prerogative. The 615-unit development with a 25-story tower and 15-story tower advanced past the Zoning Committee with support from Johnson despite opposition from Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, who said the project was too big for the area.
But the council did approve two Johnson appointees to the Zoning Board of Appeals, filling the influential government panel for the first time in almost two years and adding another jolt to the mayor’s leftist housing agenda the same day as Sigcho-Lopez’s leadership advancement.
Former 46th Ward Ald. Helen Shiller and Swathi Staley, general counsel for YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, got the stamp of approval in voice votes.
The now-closed vacancies dogged Johnson’s progressive agenda when a proposed homeless shelter in that same ward failed earlier this year in a tie-breaker ZBA vote, while pro-development advocates complained that business was slowing down.
Ordinance targeting hateful flyering passes, bid to drop speed limit begins
Aldermen also passed an ordinance from Ald. Timmy Knudsen, 43rd, that cracks down on the distribution of hateful layering with new $1,000 fines. The legislation came in response to someone leaving antisemitic flyers attached to rat poison on 80 Lincoln Park cars.
The white supremacist group responsible for the flyering had been able to stay “a hair within the law,” but would face punishment now, Knudsen said.
Aldermen also approved nearly $22 million to settle lawsuits against the city, including an $11.2 agreement to end a lawsuit accusing the fire department of sexist hiring practices.
Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, introduced an ordinance seeking to lower Chicago’s citywide speed limit to 25 miles per hour from 30 miles per hour. The legislation would also launch a pilot program that would allow Chicagoans to take photos of cars obstructing bus and bike lines to 311, enabling the city to ticket the delinquent drivers.
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