Ald. Matt Martin urges City Council to shake off rubber-stamp reputation

Ald. Matt Martin (47th) on Thursday urged the City Council to shake off its rubber stamp reputation and become the truly independent legislative body it was meant to be.

Last month, Martin introduced a resolution that calls for promoting himself from vice chairman of the Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight to chairman, replacing the now-retired Ald. Michele Smith (43rd).

Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded: “The process is the mayor makes the final picks.”

Lightfoot added she sees no “reason to break from that long-standing precedent.”

Martin strongly disagreed.

“When I came in 2019 ... and a quarter of the City Council was new, I thought that voters were declaring at that time that they wanted us to turn to a new page in Chicago’s history. Part of that new page would involve City Council putting away its rubber stamp and taking its legislative responsibility seriously,” Martin told the Sun-Times.

“So many folks were deeply frustrated with the parking meter deal. The fact that half of our city’s mental health clinics were shuttered. Our pensions were badly underfunded. Almost 400,000 lead service lines have yet to be replaced. For Chicago government to operate in the ways that our residents need and deserve, you need a City Council to act as an empowered, independent and energized legislative body.”

State law and Robert’s Rules of Order authorize the City Council to reorganize itself. Instead, it has long abdicated that power, allowing the mayor to dictate committee chairs.

That tilts the balance of power heavily in the mayor’s favor, Martin said.

“Committee chairs play such a critical role. They decide which legislation is gonna move forward to a vote. What issues are gonna receive public hearing. ... What matters committee staff are gonna spend their time on. Even things like holding hearings and briefings and introducing legislation around the … inspector general reports that we’ve come to view as so critical,” Martin said.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The Better Government Association has urged the Council to declare its independence from Lightfoot. So has former Inspector General Joe Ferguson, who has branded Chicago the “only major city in the United States” allowing its mayor to dictate committee chairs.

“Committees meet when the mayor says they can meet. Their agenda is, in significant part, determined by the mayor. Whether votes are had is largely determined by the mayor. And, in that sense, we don’t have true debate, dialogue and engagement between the peoples’ representatives ... and the chief executive,” Ferguson has said.

“The resolution by Ald. Martin — whether it is successful or not — plants an important flag for a bigger conversation that the city of Chicago needs to have about its municipal governance structure.”

With 15 of 50 Council members elected in 2019 having left already or declared they won’t seek re-election, Martin said he believes he has a real shot at charting a new path.

“City Council — like many other legislative bodies at the city level, state level, federal level—used to take the lead on writing the budget for the city. The first Mayor Daley took that away,” Martin said.

“Things in government in Chicago are never static. They’re always dynamic. We constantly need to be thinking about: Are things designed and operating in a way that reflects the needs of our constituents? … As we’re continuing to modernize city government, City Council itself needs to be modernized. Part of that is folks recognizing the power that they do have as legislators.”

Martin also turned up the heat on Lightfoot to honor her campaign promises to create a full-blown Department of Environment and raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end home sales to create a dedicated funding source to reduce homelessness and chip away at Chicago’s 120,000-unit shortage of affordable housing units.

“We already have about 66,000 people across the city who are homeless. Some institutions think that number could increase by 50% in the coming years if we don’t take bold action. With a looming recession that could have an even more detrimental impact on affordability, we need dedicated sources of funding,” Martin said.

“We have relatively few options to bring in revenue that reflects folks’ ability to contribute to the city. … Say that $20 million sale of the St. Regis, formerly the Radisson Blue Aqua. They are paying the same rate as someone who sells a bungalow for $250,000. That makes absolutely no sense to me.”