Chicago Mayor Lightfoot Promises Change and Reform
By streamlining administrative practices, the Executive Order will make it easier to open new businesses and grow the economy, particularly in the city’s south and west sides.
CHICAGO—At her inauguration on Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot spoke of four “guiding stars” of her administration and promised change and reform.
In her first act as mayor hours after being sworn in as the 56th Mayor of the City of Chicago she signed her first Executive Order that ends the practice of aldermanic prerogative in department processes where it is controlled by the mayor and city departments.
“This is a historic day for the city. In my campaign for mayor, I pledged to bring an end to aldermanic prerogative and ensure our government delivers equitable services to all of Chicago’s communities, regardless of their zip code,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Today, I have instructed city departments to begin to end the process of aldermanic prerogative as the first step in a comprehensive ethics reform package to reform the way government works in Chicago.”
The Mayor’s Office will work closely with the departments and the City Council to establish fair, objective criteria guiding all department decisions, the mayor noted. By streamlining administrative practices, the Executive Order is geared to making it easier to open new businesses and grow the economy, particularly in the city’s south and west sides.
“In neighborhoods across our city, Aldermen are committed to ensuring that our residents receive access to high quality services. The Executive Order will streamline service delivery, so that every neighborhood receives the same high-quality services as the next,” said Alderman Gilbert Villegas. “Working together with the Mayor’s Office, we will continue to ensure that all levels of government are held accountable to the needs of all of our residents, and that Aldermen continue to play a central role in developing policies that help grow all of our communities.”
The Executive Order is the first piece in what is being promised as a comprehensive package to reform Chicago government strengthen ethics, accountability and transparency throughout city government. In the coming months, the new administration will seek to work with the City Council to bring forward new legislation that increases transparency in city zoning processes and to strengthen ethics beyond aldermanic prerogative.
In her very positive inaugural address, Mayor Lightfoot spoke of four guiding stars of her new administration—safety, in every neighborhood, education, stability and integrity.
The mayor noted that the city faces many challenges including “gun violence that devastates families, shatters communities, buries dreams, and holds children hostage to fear in their own homes. It inflicts life-long trauma that spreads through our communities like a virus.”
She also promised to lay out a plan to stabilize the city’s finances and build affordable housing
“Stability also means that we must build housing that is affordable for more people, including families. Long term residents – whether homeowners or renters—should not be forced out of their neighborhoods when it goes through a period of transformation,” Mayor Lightfoot said. “And developers can no longer skip their responsibilities by taking tax dollars but leaving it to someone else to solve our affordable housing crisis.”
The newly installed mayor said the city ,which she described as the “economic engine of Illinois and the whole Midwest,” will look to cut the red tape and obstacles and promote the building of new units and have flexibility in the city’s building code so that innovative housing forms can come on line.
“We must also have a plan for expanding home ownership and converting vacant lots and abandoned buildings into new vibrant communities,” Mayor Lightfoot said. “Growth of housing that is affordable, all over this city, will be the charge of the new housing department under new leadership.”