Analysis: Some early Lightfoot missteps mirror those of predecessor

Four weeks after taking office, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has already stumbled in a way that might make it a bit more difficult for her to govern.

From going to war with a police union that didn’t trust her to begin with, to hobnobbing with Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Colbert during fundraising trips to both coasts, Lightfoot appears to be repeating some of her predecessor’s early mistakes.

Rahm Emanuel’s provocative missteps with the Chicago Teachers Union set the stage for a seven-day teachers strike that was Chicago’s first in 25 years.

That included cancelling a previously-negotiated, 4% teacher pay raise — a decision Emanuel would come to regret as one of his biggest mistakes.

For Lightfoot, it’s rank-and-file police officers whom she has alienated — not once, but repeatedly.

The latest example was her decision to publicly shame First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio for taking a family vacation to Aruba during the first week of June. Though authorized and paid for in October, it defied the mayor’s edict that no top brass take time off during the summer.

Lightfoot said Monday the controversy is “over for now” and she is “ready to move forward.” But her shoot-from-lip behavior — slamming Riccio before receiving his full explanation — is not likely to be forgotten anytime soon by rank-and-file police officers who have worked without a contract for two years.

That’s particularly true after an earlier insult: Lightfoot’s decision to choose retired U.S. Marshal Jim Smith to head a bodyguard detail that, for every other mayor, has been run by Chicago police officers.

The message, loud and clear, was that Lightfoot didn’t trust CPD officers to lead her palace guard.

That was followed by the new mayor’s inexplicable decision to repeat on a local cable TV channel an admittedly “unsubstantiated rumor” she claims to have heard from a “credible” source: that the Fraternal Order of Police had instructed its members to “lay back” and “do nothing” over Memorial Day weekend.

Lightfoot may well have been searching for a scapegoat after her decision to “flood the zone” to curtail Memorial Day weekend violence produced results tragically similar to previous years.

But repeating an unsubstantiated rumor was hardly the way to go about it.

The blame game with police officers is not the new mayor’s only early stumble.

Lightfoot also demonstrated a lack of grace during her May 20 inaugural address when she turned her back to the audience and almost demanded that aldermen get out of their seats and join the cheering crowd in a standing ovation for City Council reform.

It was more like a campaign speech than an opening speech to start governing the city. And it’s almost certain to be remembered by the same aldermen whose support the mayor needs for a painful post-election tax increase.

In a bizarre moment 10 days later, Lightfoot seized the chance to embarrass and humiliate her political nemesis, Ald. Edward Burke (14^th), while presiding over her first City Council meeting and delivering the votes for her hand-picked leadership team. Afterwards, the new mayor gloated about her triumph over a pathetic-looking Burke.

When Burke was hit with a 14-count racketeering and extortion indictment the following day, the mayor piled on by repeatedly demanding the alderman’s resignation.

The demand was ignored — and unnecessary. Lightfoot would have been far better off allowing Burke’s own words — recorded for posterity by FBI mole Danny Solis — to speak for themselves.

There’s also Lightfoot’s surprise decision to take fundraising trips to Los Angeles and New York City — with stops to have dinner with Oprah and to appear on Colbert’s late-night talk show. So what if she sprinkled in some city business — it still made this self-declared reformer look more like a Rahm wannabe.

Emanuel’s non-stop travel, fundraising and celebrity schmoozing, often on a Hollywood scene dominated by his super-agent brother, was one of the biggest pet peeves about his eight-year tenure.

What former Mayor Richard M. Daley knew in his soul, but Emanuel never took to heart, is that Chicagoans believe the sun rises and sets in Chicago. They want their mayor to stay home and focus on local problems.

Last week, Lightfoot acknowledged the obvious about the budget shortfall she inherited; it is, she claims, “north of 700 million.”

“There’s no question that we’re gonna have to come to the taxpayers and ask for additional revenue,” she said.

Talking about raising taxes without first cutting costs was yet another mistake. And it underscored the need for her to stay home and get to work.