Lightfoot urges Black Caucus chairman to back off threat to delay legal weed sales

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday likened the chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus to a child who doesn’t get everything he wants for Christmas and continues to “rail against Santa Claus.”

Lightfoot said Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office “obviously has a process they have to go through” before two of five medical marijuana dispensary licenses — in Hyde Park and Chinatown — can be awarded to social equity applicants.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the Black Caucus, on Thursday threatened to revive an effort to delay recreational marijuana sales in Chicago by six months after the governor’s office walked back what seemed to be a promise of two licenses for African American and Hispanic operators.

Ervin contended the promise led seven or eight aldermen to change their votes. The Council voted 29-19 to allow weed sales to begin Jan. 1.

“When the governor’s team puts something in writing, I think we have an obligation to rely on that,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot was apparently referring to the email Illinois weed czar Toi Hutchinson sent Tuesday to a top mayoral aide promising that five remaining medicinal dispensary licenses “will not be let until there is proper equity language attached to the rules governing how the licenses can be awarded.”

“It is our intention ... that the equity provisions attached to adult use dispensaries match those for medical dispensaries,” Hutchinson wrote.

Lightfoot discussed Ervin’s concerns about dispensary licenses after a groundbreaking ceremony for BMO Tower, 320 S. Canal St.

“In government, you take people at their word. When you have, in effect a handshake and a commitment, that should be good enough. And it’s good enough for me,” the mayor said.

“Nobody is able to able to wave a magic wand and have things magically appear instantaneously. But there were many members of the Black Caucus who saw it, heard it and were satisfied and are relying upon the representations that were made by the governor and his team. ... I can’t account for every single person who didn’t get everything they wanted under the Christmas tree and is gonna continue to rail against Santa Claus.”

Lightfoot urged members of the Black Caucus to “accept what is possible and move forward and build upon it.”

“You’ve got to take the long view here. This is not the only thing that we will need to negotiate with our friends in Springfield,” the mayor said, obviously referring to pension help and her failed request for a casino gambling fix and a graduated real estate transfer tax during the fall veto session.

“There’s a lot of other things that we have on the agenda going into the spring session. ... We’ve got to reach out our hand in partnership and not something else.”