City Council goes over the top in confirming Zopp for Police Board

The City Council went a little over the top Tuesday in ratifying Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s appointment of World Business Chicago CEO Andrea Zopp to the Police Board.

“This is a wow appointment. If you would have appointed Jesus Christ, you couldn’t have done better,” Zoning Committee Chairman Danny Solis (25th) told the mayor.

Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14th) read what then – First Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Zopp said on Sept. 28, 1995, the day then-Congressman Mel Reynolds was sentenced for sex crimes.

The remarks mean even more today, now that the Hollywood sex scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein has spread to politics, the culinary world and the news media.

“He has a complete inability to take responsibility for his own conduct,” Zopp said of Reynolds on that day.

“He preyed on the fact that she was messed up, that she was open to the idea of sex. He turned her into a hooker. He had her in his office, handing her money, parading her around in lingerie. This man has a sexual interest in teenagers. That’s what the evidence showed. And he will do it again. It’s him. He’s the problem. You have to say to this defendant and to this community, ‘This is wrong. It’s terribly wrong.’”

To Burke, those “prescient” comments show the backbone of a former state and federal prosecutor whose integrity and independence has been questioned because she spent eighteen months as Emanuel’s $185,000-a-year deputy mayor and chief neighborhood development officer before being appointed last month as the new, $375,000-a-year CEO of World Business Chicago.

“We should all be proud to stand up and unanimously vote to approve this appointment. It’s one of the best appointments you’ve made. And she is one of the finest lawyers we have ever had the privilege of knowing,” Burke said.

Turning to Zopp, who was seated in the VIP box, Burke said, “Congratulations and don’t ever let these people get you down. Because they do not represent what you represent. You’ve been there. You’ve done it and we’re proud of you.”