Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to use unspent property tax rebate money for parks, crime-fighting technology and other ideas hit a roadblock Tuesday as several aldermen said he should be focusing the cash more directly on anti-violence efforts.
The City Council budget committee did not vote on Emanuel’s proposal for the nearly $15 million, at least temporarily holding the plans up a day before the full City Council had been set to vote on them. Committee Chairman Ald. Carrie Austin, a mayoral ally, said his intention to earmark part of the money for tree planting was particularly a problem.
The mayor already has made announcements about how he will spend millions of dollars of the unused money. That could complicate his ability to make major changes to his proposal to appease aldermen who say many of Emanuel’s ideas don’t do enough to fight the violence epidemic they say should be the city’s highest priority.
Aldermen from the council’s Latino Caucus worked with the Emanuel administration on a compromise Tuesday. And such seemingly intractable fights between council members and the mayor often can work themselves out before they come to a head in a rancorous public debate on the City Council floor. If a deal is reached before the council meets at 10 a.m. Wednesday, a committee of aldermen could quickly vote to move it to full council.
But veteran Southwest Side Ald. Ricardo Munoz, 22nd, said Tuesday afternoon that the negotiations weren’t going anywhere. "That’s a slap in the face to the Chicago City Council," Munoz said. "(The mayor’s administration) must be tone deaf to what’s going on in the neighborhoods."
Mayoral spokesman Matt McGrath released a statement leaving open the possibility of "more discussion" before the council meeting Wednesday.
Alderman: Emanuel dropped F-bomb at me over property tax rebate proposal Hal Dardick
Since becoming mayor in 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the most part has ditched his famous affinity for combativeness and profanity — at least in public.
Not so much in private, according to multiple accounts the past six years, perhaps the best known of which came early in Emanuel’s tenure during…
Since becoming mayor in 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the most part has ditched his famous affinity for combativeness and profanity — at least in public.
Not so much in private, according to multiple accounts the past six years, perhaps the best known of which came early in Emanuel’s tenure during…
(Hal Dardick)
"Investing in public safety is the top priority. That’s why this package supports police work, expands youth services, creates jobs and invests in our neighborhoods, all of which are vital to improving public safety," McGrath said in an email. "Some aldermen have follow up questions on the proposal, so the Committee is recessing until tomorrow morning to allow for more discussion. We’ll have more in the morning."
Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, who rankled the mayor by introducing his own alternate plan for the money, said he would be willing to compromise on most of his ideas. But Lopez said a final package needs to address the crime besetting many West Side and South Side neighborhoods.
"Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a more collaborative proposal introduced in (the budget committee) to discuss," Lopez said after huddling with Deputy Mayor Andrea Zopp in the room behind council chambers.
"This is very urgent for me, and I think for that reason I’m willing to sit down and hear what the mayor’s team has to say," Lopez said, pointing out 12-year-old Kanari Gentry-Bowers was fatally shot last week while playing basketball in his ward.
Latino Caucus Chairman Ald. George Cardenas, 12th, said Emanuel needs to better understand what residents are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. "All the things we do for parks and recreation and all that will be for naught if you can’t walk the streets safely," he said.
Munoz said Emanuel’s plan would have failed in the budget committee "if he had tried to ram it through" on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, it’s possible enough allies of the mayor would be on hand for it to pass.
Munoz predicted the mayoral version would get at least 18 "no" votes in the full council. That wouldn’t be enough to defeat Emanuel’s ordinance, but it could be an embarrassment if a significant number of aldermen oppose him as he tries to show he is prioritizing anti-violence efforts.
The council dust-up focuses on how to spend money left over from Emanuel’s plan to give property tax rebates. Most eligible homeowners didn’t bother to take advantage of the program, leaving a large pot of cash not otherwise spoken for in the city budget.
The mayor’s proposal calls for the bulk of the nearly $15 million to be used to upgrade city park infrastructure, equip all police officers with body cameras by the end of the year, rehab vacant homes and support after-school programs. Smaller amounts would be spent on a new cybersecurity training program at City Colleges, a test program to create crime-fighting intelligence centers, planting 1,000 trees, setting up a small-business incubator on the West Side and creating a call center on the South Side.
Lopez says the city’s violence epidemic necessitates the extra money be spent strictly on programs that have a more direct bearing on the situation. His plan calls for all the money to be spent on youth jobs, street-level violence prevention programs like CeaseFire and mentoring for fifth- and sixth-graders.
Lopez said he removed a proposal from his list to use some of the money to connect private security cameras to the city’s emergency surveillance system, which he said some of his colleagues opposed. "I’m willing to discuss all of it," Lopez said.
Also Tuesday, the budget committee advanced the mayor’s nomination of Edward Siskel to be appointed corporation counsel. Siskel replaces Stephen Patton, who stepped down Feb. 14.
After the meeting, Siskel refused to say whether the mayor’s office is currently negotiating with the Justice Department on a court-enforceable consent decree to govern Chicago Police Department reforms.
Siskel repeated that Emanuel was intent on following through on reforms recommended by federal investigators, and he said Chicagoans should have confidence that the mayor intends to make sure the reforms stick, unlike prior efforts to fix the relationship between the Police Department and residents.
Siskel, 44, is a former federal prosecutor and deputy White House counsel under President Barack Obama.
"My good fortune will continue if this body appoints me corporation counsel," Siskel said Tuesday.
He spent three years in the White House before leaving for the private sector. While with the Obama administration, Siskel handled internal investigations and ran point on congressional investigations into the solar technology company Solyndra and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
Aldermen hit Siskel at the committee meeting over how he will do a better job than his predecessors in providing data that aldermen seek. "Who is your client?" Munoz asked.
Siskel said he was committed to provide legal services to both the mayor’s office and the City Council, though aldermen said there have been problems in recent years with city lawyers failing to give aldermen information they seek on deals the mayor is working on.
The full council is set to consider his appointment Wednesday.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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