The City Council is poised Friday to authorize another round of federal stimulus spending despite the political furor triggered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to spend $281.5 million on police payroll costs.
Lightfoot said she’s confident she’ll get her way 48 hours after two of her most dedicated City Council critics — deposed Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14th) and Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) — used a parliamentary maneuver to delay the stimulus vote.
“Our residents are literally still fighting for their lives every single day. What they want all of us to do is focus on the things that are important to them. To deliver for them,” the mayor said Friday hours before the meeting.
“That’s what we ought to be focused on and not a lot of political theater and drama. Nobody has any patience or time for that.”
The mayor advised those who want to protest the police spending to simply “vote no” instead of attempting to use “a series of procedural and, in my view, anti-Democratic processes” to delay the vote.
Friday’s vote authorizes $377 million in stimulus spending. That includes $68 million of federal coronavirus aid carried over to the 2021 budget; $79.8 million for emergency rental assistance; $179 million for the Department of Public Health to administer the coronavirus vaccine; and a $50 million increase from FEMA.
Earlier this week, Burke and Lopez exercised the right of any two aldermen to delay consideration of an agenda item for one meeting.
Lightfoot responded to the delay as she has before when things don’t go her way at a Council meeting: She summoned aldermen back into session late on a Friday afternoon to approve the stalled ordinance.
Lopez said he and Burke have legitimate questions about the mayor spending $281.5 million in federal coronavirus relief money on Chicago Police Department payroll costs and they won’t be silenced, no matter how often or how late the Council is summoned back to session.
“She is doing her usual pettiness. If she thinks that’s gonna be punitive that I have to come back to work on a Friday, she’s sorely mistaken. I’ll come back every day of the week if that’s what it takes to get the truth out of her,” Lopez said.
Last week, Lightfoot called the raging political debate about that spending “just dumb” and a “total head-scratcher.”
That didn’t stop Burke from questioning how CPD could possibly have wracked up $281 million in expenses between March and May of last year for performing well-being checks, screening air travelers for COVID- 19 and providing security at coronavirus testing sites and the barely used McCormick Place field hospital.
“The numbers don’t make sense. The answers that we were given seem to stretch reality far and wide. They did 15,000 well-being checks and all these other things that were described. It just begs for more clarification,” Lopez said Wednesday.
“Yes, they already spent it. But we can’t just keep giving them more and more money without having a better accounting of what’s going on with it.”
Lopez accused Lightfoot of “stretching” the boundaries of the federal coronavirus relief package.
“We are exaggerating and over-extending what is considered COVID-related to try and maximize the CARES Act dollars to cover our budgetary shortfalls,” he said.
The meeting also included a flurry of aldermanic introductions:
• A resolution from Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), Lightfoot’s former floor leader, calling for hearings on using the next round of federal stimulus funds for direct payments to needy Chicagoans, a form of universal basic income.
• An ordinance from downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) prohibiting illuminated high-rise building signs between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Lightfoot introduced a separate ordinance that could pave the way for larger high-rise signs.
• Lopez proposals to repeal the mayor’s emergency spending and contracting powers and hold City Council hearings on Police Supt. David Brown’s performance that, the alderman hopes, would trigger a “no-confidence vote” in the superintendent.
• Ald. George Cardenas’ plan to expand outdoor dining rules to allow BYOB.
• A resolution from Workforce Development Committee Chairman Sue Garza (10th) urging the city to include hotel and hospitality employees in Phase 1B of the coronavirus vaccination plan.
• A proposal from Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez to designate the first Monday in March as “COVID-19 Memorial Day.”
