May 20--Chicago aldermen on Wednesday finally ended a deadlock on naming someone to give them analysis of big-ticket proposals coming out of the mayor's office, picking a onetime budget aide to former Gov. Pat Quinn.
The selection of Ben Winick to head up the City Council independent budget office comes almost 18 months after aldermen voted to fund it and put old-school aldermen Carrie Austin, 34th, and Edward Burke, 14th, to run the selection committee to find the analyst.
Winick served as chief of staff for Quinn's budget office before going to work as vice president of the non-profit think tank Innovation Illinois after Bruce Rauner was elected governor.
Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, who was a sponsor of the legislation creating the independent budget office, applauded Winick's selection. "Ben is respected by both sides of the aisle in Springfield and brings a lot of experience in working with the executive and legislative branch in Springfield," Pawar said.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel also approved of Winick's hiring, saying it's symbolically important that the office will be up and running as a new City Council begins its term. Emanuel played a big hand in selecting the new City Council's power structure.
The Winick pick led to a comic digression at Emanuel's post-council meeting news conference when a reporter asked why a budget analyst is needed when aldermen could conceivably analyze the mayor's financial proposals themselves.
"Wait, isn't it for a year-and-a-half you guys wanting it, and now you want to ask why we did it?" Emanuel asked.
The mayor then recited a joke he said is often told by rabbis about a kid who comes home from college to find his mother bought him a blue sweater and a green sweater.
"Kid comes downstairs wearing the blue sweater, his mother looks at him and goes 'What's wrong with the green sweater?' " Emanuel cracked. "It's kind of like heads you win, tails I lose."
