City Council confirms Corporation Counsel Celia Meza

Celia Meza will become the first Hispanic woman to serve as Chicago’s corporation counsel — in spite of the political controversy stemming from the Law Department’s handling of a lawsuit triggered by a botched police raid on the home of social worker Anjanette Young.

The City Council made certain of it Friday during a meeting that, despite a few clashes, was a stark contrast from Wednesday’s political chaos.

Earlier this week, Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) joined Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) in using a parliamentary maneuver to delay Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s appointment of Meza.

La Voz Sidebar

Lea este artículo en español en La Voz Chicago, la sección bilingüe del Sun-Times.

The maneuver was their way of protesting the Law Department’s treatment of Young, who was forced to stand naked while an all-male team of Chicago police officers raided her home by mistake.

Meza last week filed a motion to dismiss Young’s lawsuit against the city after Young rejected what her attorneys viewed as a “lowball” offer from the Lightfoot administration to settle the lawsuit for $1 million.

“You can’t settle a case with somebody who doesn’t want to settle,” the mayor said Friday.

“We went to a mediation paid for by the city in good faith and her attorney walked away. ... When the lawyer walks away, there’s nothing much to do. I know he denies that, but there’s a record. The record will speak for itself. He walked away.”

The mayor’s allies have also refused to hold a hearing on an ordinance championed by African American female aldermen that includes more sweeping search warrant reforms than the general order proposed by Lightfoot and CPD Supt. David Brown.

Lightfoot was so furious about Wednesday’s confirmation delay, she marched to the back of Council chambers and engaged in an angry confrontation with Taylor.

Friday’s meeting began with always-outspoken Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) admonishing her colleagues — and the mayor — for the lack of decorum Wednesday.

“We should love and respect one another. ... The Lord said, `Love your enemy.’ And we are not enemies. But we disrespected one another. We used words that we wouldn’t ordinarily use. We shook fingers and talked to each other like we were all children,” Austin said.

“We’ve got to come back to the respect that we all deserve. My husband said at one time in the Council, `I ain’t got to like you to do business with you. But we have to respect one another if we don’t do anything else.”

Austin was applauded by everyone — including Lightfoot.

Prior to Friday’s vote confirming the mayor’s appointment of Meza, the first mention of Young and the confrontation between Taylor and Lightfoot was made by Lopez, who rose to support Meza.

“What we did Wednesday with the defer and publish of this nomination was not about her credentials. It was not about her qualifications. To be perfectly honest, it wasn’t about you,” Lopez told Lightfoot.

“It was about a Law Department that was re-victimizing Anjanette Young and about calling back to the forefront that situation that so horrified the entire city of Chicago. A situation where a Black woman had to stand naked because the wrong house was raided. ... What we want to see is resolution. ... Ms. Young made whole and. ... to also have an order directing the department to address this matter. You will be the one, Ms. Meza, to carry that out. To bring resolution that is appropriate to Ms. Young.”

When Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) bemoaned the split between Blacks and Hispanics, Taylor rose to defend herself and say the deferral had “nothing to do with Ms. Meza.”

“I’m not gonna apologize — ever — for standing up for a Black woman. This was not a disrespect to the Hispanic community. Not at all,” Taylor said.

“The fact that I’m attacked for it speaks volumes about who you are. ... And the thought that you thought it was OK to stand up and attack a woman again — so Black women are expected to fix it and make it right, but we get attacked for it — you’ve got a lot of nerve.”

For most aldermen, there was only praise for Meza, the groundbreaking nature of her appointment and the tough work that lies ahead.

“This is a historic moment,” said Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th), former chairman of the City Council’s Hispanic Caucus.

Like Meza, Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) is a former federal prosecutor. Smith cited Meza’s “strong commitment to ethics and doing what’s right.”

During her confirmation hearing last week, Meza vowed to improve the Law Department’s dismal record of minority hiring and speed compliance with a consent decree guiding federal court oversight over the Chicago Police Department.

Still, there is support for Taylor and her demand for a mayoral apology that has not yet been offered.

“I respect my colleague’s actions the other day in recognizing Ms. Anjanette Young. I believe the mayor owes my colleague a sincere apology,” said Ald. Sophia King (4^th), who joined her fellow Black female aldermen in co-sponsoring the Anjanette Young ordinance.

“There are rules of order and … tools that we have to speak our minds. She did that. She shouldn’t have been reprimanded like a child. We are peers. I don’t know when a mayor has left the rostrum to reprimand a city councilman. I think she should apologize for that move.”

Asked if she has any plans to meet with Taylor, Lightfoot said, “I am talking with any member of the body.”

Meza was Lightfoot’s counsel and senior ethics adviser when the mayor promoted her to replace Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner, who was forced out in the political fallout from the botched raid on Young’s home.

At the time, Lightfoot claimed not to know about Flessner’s attempts to block WBBM-TV (Channel 2) from airing bodycam video of the raid, which showed a crying, naked Young repeatedly asking officers what was going on as they continued to search her home. Police, it turns out, had raided the wrong address.