Unable to attract a quorum, Mayor Brandon Johnson has abandoned plans to interrupt the Chicago City Council’s summer recess to install Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) as Zoning Committee chair.
“We never meet in August. August has traditionally has been the month off for all of the City Council. I know many of my colleagues are traveling. I’m getting ready to go to a family reunion,” said Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell (3rd).
“I’m not surprised that we’re not meeting in August. I would be surprised if we were.”
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said Johnson's inability to convince 26 aldermen to return in August could spell trouble for Sigcho-Lopez's prospect for getting confirmed.
“If people were supportive, they would come back. If you can’t get 26 to come back for something you want done, it means people are not supportive of the decision,” Beale said.
“You’ve got a business community that’s uneasy. ... This is someone who was standing in front of a sign that said, 'Boycott the DNC.' He claims he wasn’t there when an American flag was burned, but it was at your feet.”
Sigcho-Lopez said he’s disappointed by the delay, but he's confident he'll be confirmed at the September meeting.
“There will be a block of the 'New Vrdolyak 29' that is opposing anything and everything that we try to do. … That minority of the Council will continue with the tactics of the past. But I’m confident that the majority of the City Council will come together,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
“This is a small minority of special interests that have found in a small number of Council members an excuse to delay and disrupt. But, I am confident that a majority of the City Council understands the importance of advocating for working-class people and I think that, eventually, we’ll get it done.”
Sigcho-Lopez accused Southwest Side Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), who’s leading the charge against the mayor's choice, of “carrying the water for his political boss, Michael Madigan." “Instead of trying to continue to create chaos in the city, they should be worried about the charges that are pressing upon them,” Sigcho-Lopez said of the sweeping federal corruption charges pending against Madigan, former Illinois House speaker.
Quinn, who could not be reached for comment, has branded Sigcho-Lopez a “voice of conflict” and raised concern that Sigcho-Lopez will ram through an accessory dwelling unit ordinance allowing units "that aren’t owner-occupied. Investors, two-houses-per-block-per-year. No aldermanic oversight.”
Sigcho-Lopez vowed to push through an accessory dwelling unit ordinance this fall before the start of what is certain to be a difficult budget season over Quinn’s strenuous objections.
“We are talking about transparent public policy that works for the majority of the city of Chicago and not for corrupt politicians with a habit and track record of shaking down small businesses and residents,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Last month, Johnson spared himself what would have been an embarrassing defeat by calling off the confirmation vote for Sigcho-Lopez, a progressive firebrand who survived an effort to remove him as Housing Committee chair for appearing at a City Hall rally after an American flag was burned to protest U.S. support for Israel.
It happened after the business community’s staunchest Council supporters insisted 34 voters were needed to suspend the rules to consider a mini-reorganization that had not first been approved by the Rules Committee.
At the time, Johnson described Sigcho-Lopez as “someone who believes housing is a human right” and that economic development should be “focused in the neighborhoods for people who have been harmed the most.”
