Yesterday, outgoing alders were given the opportunity to say their good-byes, impart some words of wisdom to us and give us some words of advice. Across the board, the speeches were classy, well thought out and some of the best speeches I’ve heard from some of these folks. It was a moment where I was proud to be a member of the Common Council and despite our differences, proud to serve with these fine people. If you have time, it would be worth it to view their speeches on Channel 12 when they put them on the website or replay them on television.
Among the general words of advice, were several comments about being more civil to each other. Alder Golden urged us to remember a little practiced concept of “aldermanic courtesy”, where you give an alder the benefit of the doubt and allow them additional time or follow their advice in matters involving their district or policy issues they have worked on, instead of voting against someone because you disagree with their ideology or to retaliate for some vote that they took.
In talking with many of the new alders, it seems that they want to follow that advice. There have been several comments from people on the full spectrum of the aisle about how we need to work together better. There seems to be a strong desire to be colleagues, and not automatically retreat to various factions. There seems to be a strong desire to make sure that we learn together that we can disagree and not be disagreeable. You know, fight about the issues fairly without getting personal and then go grab a beer after the meeting. Which we did last night. Despite the desire of some to remain in our factions, the new Council President Mike Verveer and Pro Tem Tim Bruer, started a new tradition and we went to one “neutral” establishment that will rotate.
By all appearances, its seems that the Common Council is off to a good start. However, someone forgot to send the memo to the Mayor’s office. This spirit of cooperation and collegiality took an ugly turn yesterday.
On Monday, the Mayor called everyone on the council to give them their appointments to the committees they would be serving on. That is, everyone, except for me. So Monday night when we went out with the rookies and outgoing alders, everyone was talking about their assignments and I had to tell them all that the Mayor had not called me. I told people it was because he was mad at me, but I think many people didn’t believe me. On Tuesday morning, I called their office to talk to them about that. I was treated in the same fashion I have been treated in for about the last eight months.
9:00
BK: Is the Mayor there?
Wanda: No honey, he’ll be back around 10:00.
BK: Is George there?
Wanda: Sure, just one moment . . . . Oh, sorry, George has someone in his office. I’ll tell him to call you.
10:00
BK: Is the Mayor there? Or George?
Wanda: Sure honey, just one moment . . . . Oh, sorry, they seem to be in a meeting. I’ll leave them a message.
So, I call Debbie in the Council office, who calls Pam in the Mayor’s office and ask her to try to find out what appointments the mayor gave me. Pam informs Debbie that “George has emailed Brenda”. Debbie calls me, I check my email and sure enough, 10:21, I’m informed I’ll be on Landmarks, Early Childhood, James Madison Park and State St. Oversight (I’m automatically on the last two committees.) I never received a call from either George or the Mayor.
Now, obviously, the Mayor has apparently taken me off the plan commission, but since I hadn’t heard who was on the plan commission, I decided to wait until we got our appointments at the traditional time, the noon council meeting, but that didn’t happen. The appointments were not handed out. I went to lunch with the council after the meeting and went back to my office and then called to get the appointments to verify that I wasn’t on plan commission and find out when we would get the official assignments. Eventually, I was was able to get a staff person to send me a link to view them on-line, but you couldn’t find them linked to yesterday’s agenda. The Mayor had appointed Julia Kerr (who didn’t request plan commission) and Tim Gruber (who requested plan commission, but was expecting to replace Ken Golden, not myself).
By the time this all got sorted out, there was about 2.5 hours before the council meeting and the vote on the appointments. I talked to Alder Gruber who was pretty disturbed about this turn of events. I explained to him that in taking me off the Plan Commission, the Mayor also took me off the Inclusionary Zoning Oversight Committee, TIF Policy Committee, Long Range Transportation and the Demolition subcommittee. These committees are where about 3/4 of the issues I am working on are being dealt with. We agreed we didn’t want to make any decisions now and the best thing to do would be to refer this back to the mayor’s office while we sorted it all out. There would be no harm done since the appointments for Plan Commission don’t take place until May 1st and our next council meeting is on May 1st.
However, about 2 minutes before the meeting started, Alder Gruber was informed with the mayor about 2 inches from his face that “You will be on the Plan Commission” (i.e. don’t refer this back to my office). The meeting started. We took care of a couple items and then Alder Brandon requested a 5 minute recess while many of our guests left the room.
Then it got ugly. In a fine display of their shuttle diplomacy skills, with the Mayor standing on one side of the room and I on the other, after about 10 or 15 minutes Alders Verveer and Bruer “struck a deal” with the Mayor’s office and Alder Brandon to appoint me to the Housing Committee (Alder Verveer gave up that appointment) and create a new seat on the IZ Oversight and TIF Policy Committees. The Mayor promised to appoint me to those committees and got Alder Brandon to agree not to block those appointments.
Not our finest moment. A poor example of civility. It set a bad tone after all of the talk of working together. I may have more to say about this later. Meanwhile, I’d like to thank Alder Gruber and Alder Kerr for the sensitivity they showed in dealing with this matter. They showed that they are people of great character. I’d also like to thank Alds. Verveer and Bruer for their efforts.
And finally, I’m aware that in the world of politics, you win some and lose some. Not being on the Plan Commission is disappointing, but on the other hand, I have new challenges and opportunities to pursue . . . and about 15 extra hours every other week to focus on the goals I want to accomplish.
