Editorial: Calling out by name aldermen who failed Chicago

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Take a good, long look at the names listed below. These are the aldermen who Wednesday failed the city of Chicago and residents they are supposed to serve by gutting an ordinance that gives oversight over the City Council to Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

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He’ll have the power to investigate aldermen and their employees, but Ferguson won’t have the authority to look into how aldermen spend taxpayer money through the $66 million-a-year program that gives each alderman $1.32 million a year for neighborhood improvements or the $100 million-a-year workers compensation program administered by the powerful Ald. Ed Burke (14th).

We’re talking about a lot of dough. Oversight is sensible and decades overdue. Ferguson routinely conducts audits of other city departments to determine if they’re operating efficiently or wasting taxpayer money. That the inspector general doesn’t have such oversight over the Council is unconscionable.

By a 25-to-23 vote, the aldermen stripped down the ordinance. We’ll be sure to remind you when they run for re-election. They must be called out by name:

Brian Hopkins (2nd)

Will Burns (4th)

Leslie Hairston (5th)

Roderick Sawyer (6th)

Greg Mitchell (7th)

Michelle Harris (8th)

Anthony Beale (9th)

Patrick D. Thompson (11th)

George Cardenas (12th)

Ed Burke (14th)

Raymond Lopez (15th)

David Moore (17th)

Derrick Curtis (18th)

Howard Brookins (21st)

Ricardo Munoz (22nd)

Danny Solis (25th)

Walter Burnett (27th)

Jason Ervin (28th)

Ariel Reboyras (30th)

Gilbert Villegas (36th)

Emma Mitts (37th)

Margaret Laurino (39th)

Patrick O’Connor (40th)

Tom Tunney (44th)

Joe Moore (49th)

Two aldermen, Roberto Maldonado (26th) and Carrie Austin (34th), failed to vote.

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