Lightfoot names two more $165K-a-year deputy mayors for public safety, infrastructure

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday named two more top deputies, bringing the total number of $165,000-a-year deputy mayors to four.

The latest hires are Susan Lee for public safety and Anne Sheahan for infrastructure.

Lee is senior director of Safe Chicago Network at Creating Real Economic Destiny

“She’s terrific. We wanted to make sure that we had somebody who had a lot of deep experience in working with communities and working to bring people together so the city’s resources are focused on supporting law enforcement efforts to keep our communities safe,” Lightfoot said Tuesday.

CRED is a not-for-profit organization created by Emerson Collective, a social impact organization founded and run by Laurene Powell Jobs and former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO. Powell Jobs is the widow and heir of Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple.

The organization believes the best way to reduce gun violence is to recruit the men most likely to be shooters or shooting victims and train them for jobs that pay more than they earn in the “illegal economy.”

That’s the underlying philosophy Lee will bring to City Hall. She will try to move away from a “law-enforcement-driven solution” to the gang violence plaguing South and West Side communities and instead try a “more comprehensive” approach that includes a “prevention infrastructure” and a strong partnership between citizens and police.

“It’s true that relationship building takes a long time. But a lot of this infrastructure — particularly services targeting those at highest risk of violence — has been going on for several years,” Lee said.

“We’re not starting from scratch. There’s a lot of hope that we can build on what exists to move quickly toward seeing some real impact, hopefully very soon.”

Lee’s call for a “safety infrastructure” and a stronger bond between citizens and police is old hat—at least for her.

In 2007, she co-wrote a report calling for a similar solution to the “gang violence epidemic” in Los Angeles. The blueprint is credited with driving down homicides to 243 in 2018— levels Chicago hasn’t seen in years.

“That sustained, intentional investment and approach is what makes violence where it is in L.A. and New York. And I think that Chicago is poised to get there as well,” Lee said, noting that Chicago had more murders last year than New York and L.A. combined.

Will it take twelve years to get there?

“It’s hard to say whether it’s five years or twelve years. But, it’s time to start. And everyone in this process has to be held accountable to making real impact,” she said.

Sheahan, the new deputy mayor for infrastructure and services, is an Emanuel administration holdover who has held top jobs at the Departments of Streets and Sanitation, Family and Support Services and, most recently, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

As the new infrastructure czarina, Sheahan said her top priority is to deliver city services “more equitably” to all neighborhoods.

“A lot of the departments are very 311-driven and responsive to 311 requests, which is great. But I also want to be looking at the communities where perhaps it’s not peoples’ first priority to ... call in a pothole or a streetlight. We want to make sure that those folks are getting just as much service as every community in the city,” Sheahan said.

What about those new LED streetlights that, critics contend, don’t shine enough light on dark neighborhood streets?

“I certainly want to make sure that we’re being responsive, particularly in areas that have crime where it might be a public safety issue — that the light is sufficient for public safety needs,” she said.

Sheahan said she also plans to help devise a plan to replace lead service lines carrying water from the mains to an estimated 360,000 Chicago homes.

Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to help homeowners defray a cost that could approach $2 billion. Never mind that the city also faces a looming, $1 billion spike in pension payments.

The problem took on greater urgency after the Department of Water Management went public with the alarming news that 17.2 percent of tested Chicago homes with water meters had elevated lead levels.

“Lead service lines and lead in the water throughout the city is certainly something that’s a priority of Mayor Lightfoot. We are working to put together a plan — if we were to implement a lead service line replacement program, what that would look like and how much it would cost?”