As Lori Lightfoot rose in the polls against better known rivals two years ago, she pulled together nearly $300,000 to launch her first television ad.
In the commercial, first aired in January 2019, Lightfoot walked into a dark room, flicked on the lights and said, “I’ve prosecuted corrupt aldermen and held police accountable. Now, I’m running for mayor to finally make City Hall work for you.”
Speaking directly into the camera, Lightfoot said she supports an elected school board, “making all neighborhoods safe and reducing the unfair tax burden on working families.”
The ad, combined with intense fallout from the federal corruption case against Ald. Edward Burke, helped propel Lightfoot into a runoff against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
But in the two years since she won that runoff election, Lightfoot has not unveiled a plan to create an elected school board. Nor has she formally introduced a plan to create civilian oversight of police, a promise she pledged to fulfill during her first 100 days in office. Lightfoot also has not yet put forward a plan to end or significantly curtail the long-standing practice that allows Chicago aldermen to hold sway over zoning matters in their individual wards.
In a statement, Lightfoot’s office did not say when she would address those issues, but that her focus has been on COVID-19 and the civil unrest prompted by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
“Candidate Lightfoot’s resolve to change the way that Chicago does business, in a more inclusive and equitable way, remains her north star as Mayor, and we have made significant strides in doing just that,” the mayor’s office said in the statement. “But one cannot ignore the realities of governing in the midst of a global pandemic that remains an international crisis, and a succession of other crises such as the historic civic uprising following the murder of George Floyd, and a massive economic meltdown as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Of course, many challenges remain, as the Mayor works diligently to cultivate an economy that works for all residents, a city that feels and is safe, and a government that centers race and gender in all of its work as these systems have defined Chicago for generations,” the mayor’s office added. “The decadeslong wrongs that must be righted will not disappear overnight and certainly not without a focused determination to face them head on, as Mayor Lightfoot has and will continue to do.”
Lightfoot also has faced criticism for not following through on her vow during the campaign to hike the real estate transfer tax as a way to fight homelessness. Once in office, Lightfoot said she wanted to use that revenue to plug a budget deficit and her plan stalled in the Illinois General Assembly.
As a candidate, Lightfoot pledged to reform the city’s fines and fees structure, saying it was regressive and focused on generating revenue, not safety. But she’s faced criticism this year for her plan to close a pandemic-fueled shortfall in the city budget by lowering the threshold for having speed cameras ticket motorists caught driving above the speed limit from 10 mph down to 6 mph over the limit — a move she argued was made in the name of safety.
She also promised to bring back the Department of the Environment, but her first budget included funding to hire one person for the office, as previously reported by the Better Government Association. Some aldermen refer to it as the “Cubicle of the Environment.”
Among Lightfoot’s accomplishments, the mayor’s office noted she pushed through a $15 minimum wage increase and the landmark “Fair Work Week” ordinance requiring large Chicago employers to give workers at least two weeks’ advance notice of their schedules and compensate them for last-minute changes. In addition, the mayor pushed major legislation through Springfield allowing the creation of a Chicago casino, which eventually could be a boon to the city’s troubled finances.
Lightfoot’s office also noted she introduced ethics reforms strengthening the inspector general’s office and cutting back on outside employment by aldermen, though she also unsuccessfully attempted to undo a ban on elected officials lobbying Chicago that was unanimously passed by the City Council.
The inaction on some of her major campaign promises, critics say, reflects the mayor’s inability to marshal enough support for her plans or a lack of commitment to the issues.
Experts acknowledged that COVID-19 disrupted plans put forth by politicians everywhere. But they also noted there’s a difference between governance and campaigning that often leads to promises being dropped or significantly cut back.
“It’s great to generate votes, then she gets into office and realizes when you are a chief executive of a governmental body, you can’t just do whatever you want. You have to pick and choose your battles. The most effective governors and mayors of big cities and presidents are ones that narrowly focus their agenda,” University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor Chris Mooney said. “You can say your mandate is whatever you want, but if you are out to do 100 things, you’re likely not to get anything. The ones that say I’ll do these three things are more likely to get it done. They come off the trail, come into office, say I can’t do all this stuff.
“This happens all the time,” Mooney added, referencing former President Donald Trump’s failed attempt to construct a barrier along the U.S. southern border. “Where’s Trump’s wall?”
Kent Redfield, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said no politician ran in 2018 or 2019 expecting to lead during a pandemic. But the argument that dealing with the pandemic might have prevented an official from fulfilling specific campaign promises, however, can backfire depending on the public perception of how they handled the crisis.
“She needs to be perceived as (doing) a good job (on COVID-19) and we’ll cut you some slack,” Redfield said. “But if it’s an unmitigated disaster, then you didn’t deal with the schools, you didn’t deal with police accountability and you’ve made a mess of COVID response.”
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Aldermanic sway on zoning issues
On her first day in office, Lightfoot signed an executive order limiting so-called aldermanic prerogative over certain bureaucratic processes but hasn’t substantively returned to deliver on an issue she has repeatedly emphasized.
Lightfoot’s promise to strip aldermen of what she has said is too much control over zoning matters in their wards has always faced an uphill battle because it would require members of the City Council to vote against their own power.
But Lightfoot has repeatedly said she would try.
Days before she was sworn in, Lightfoot disputed news reports that her administration would allow aldermen to keep power over zoning while limiting their influence on permits and other administrative functions. Changes to how zoning is handled will require legislation, she said at the time.
“We can’t really successfully change aldermanic prerogative but say carte blanche when it comes to zoning,” Lightfoot said. “We’re not going to do that. We’re going to drive change there as well.”
During a May 2020 interview marking her first year in office, Lightfoot said discussions over aldermanic prerogative were put off as the administration focused on COVID-19. At the time, she said she had recently resumed her efforts. She said her ideas wouldn’t be “ripe” until maybe June or July but hasn’t introduced any wholesale reforms since.
“We continue to hear from folks about their concerns about the different sets of rules for zoning depending on what ward you’re in, so having some uniformity in the way in which we address those issues, and yes of course we’re going to have to touch the electrified rail of aldermanic prerogative,” Lightfoot said then. “That’s necessary for businesses, developers, just mom and pop individuals and organizations who want to get things done for the betterment of their communities but are daunted, particularly now, by the number of different bureaucratic hoops one has to jump through.”
In a more recent interview, Lightfoot said the plan is years away.
Lightfoot’s hand-picked zoning committee chairman, Tom Tunney, 44th, said “depending on what proposals she has in mind, she still needs 26 votes to pass legislation, and what 26 aldermen are going to cede their primary, one of their primary responsibilities, to control development in their wards?”
“Campaigning and governing is two different things,” he added.
Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, whose ward includes parts of downtown and the North Side, said “there isn’t sufficient support in the City Council for aldermen to voluntarily yield their authority and give it to the mayor.”
“I am one of the voices who argued from day one that vesting more power in the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch was utter folly,” Hopkins said. “I’m glad most of my colleagues have since come around and have recognized that we’re a coequal branch of government, and the natural checks and balances that exist informally and formally are delicate and you don’t want to tamper with that without solid justification.”
Police oversight
Lightfoot has a long, complicated history in the local police reform movement. She’s a former federal prosecutor who headed the board that oversees police discipline and chaired the Police Accountability Task Force formed by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel after white police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed Black teenager Laquan McDonald. But she is often criticized by activists as being pro-police.
During the 2019 campaign against Preckwinkle, Lightfoot often expressed her support for a civilian oversight plan she now rejects.
After a live interview at the Hideout, for instance, a bartender flagged down Lightfoot and asked her if she would support the Civilian Police Accountability Council, a proposed elected group that would have power to appoint and fire the police superintendent, investigate all police shootings and alleged misconduct, and overhaul the current disciplinary process.
“I support the GAPA proposal,” Lightfoot said, referring to a competing plan pushed by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability. She said she supports police oversight but thinks the GAPA plan would create a “more inclusive” board and is the ordinance “that’s currently viable.”
As mayor, she has supported neither and has been in a dispute with GAPA over who would have final say on police policy decisions. Lightfoot publicly said she was moving on from GAPA last fall but has insisted she’s committed to civilian oversight, and claimed “civilian oversight is something that I started the conversation in this city about almost five years ago.”
Still, Lightfoot last month said she is held responsible for combating violence in the city and “(wears) the jacket” for crime.
“The notion that we’re gonna outsource that to someone else and have no responsibility, no ability to impact this, I don’t know anybody who thinks that’s a good idea,” Lightfoot said.
Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, is working with other members of the City Council to push a civilian oversight ordinance.
“I don’t know if the mayor’s going to have a plan or not. We haven’t seen it. But we aren’t going to sit around and wait,” Sawyer said. “Whatever the mayor’s trying to do, God bless her, but we’ve been working hard (to get) legitimate oversight.”
Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, who helped draft the federal consent decree while working at the state attorney general’s office, said Chicago’s institutions and leaders historically have shown they aren’t up to the task of single-handedly dealing with all police matters, which is why the federal consent decree is necessary.
“I think it puts to rest the notion that any single person in our city of 2.7 million people should be the person who (is) given the task of creating policy, enacting it and fixing it when problems invariably arise,” Martin said.
The fight over civilian oversight mirrors the mayor’s ongoing dispute with activists and police accountability experts over reforming the Police Department. Lightfoot has publicly rejected calls to defund the police and privately girded against such efforts. In September, Lightfoot emailed a news story to police Superintendent David Brown about activists calling to cut the Cook County sheriff’s office and said, “Fyi. Some version of this will invariably come our way.”
In a separate email, Lightfoot forwarded a Block Club Chicago story to Brown about Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, headlined: “Alderman Wants More Mental Health Workers, Not Police — But Neighbors Want More Cops After Shooting Spike.”
“FYI. Seems like residents in the 17th district are frustrated with the shootings and perceived lack of police resources,” Lightfoot wrote. “But the Alderman is an ardent #Defunder.” Rodriguez Sanchez, a first-term democratic socialist, campaigned on a platform of diverting police resources into social services.
Asked about Lightfoot’s email, Rodriguez Sanchez said it’s “part of (Lightfoot’s) personality to mock things that she disagrees with and to dismiss things she disagrees with.”
“The mayor knows exactly what we mean when we say defund. We are saying we spend a ridiculous amount of money on police and we should instead fund initiatives that are going to make people whole and satisfy the needs of the people, be it material things like housing or mental health support or family services and all the things that can help communities do better,” Rodriguez Sanchez said.
Elected school board
Lightfoot’s first campaign ad included one explicit promise: support for an elected school board. She also regularly expressed her support for an elected board during candidate forums, while other rivals said they support hybrid models or oppose having any elected members.
The state legislature gave Chicago mayors full power over the board in the 1990s, which the Chicago Teachers Union and several activist groups have opposed as undemocratic.
Chicago is the only school board in Illinois without its own elections.
Lightfoot has repeatedly criticized a bill championed by state Sen. Robert Martwick and CTU. She also has highlighted the importance of mayoral control, particularly after the fight earlier this year to reopen Chicago schools.
In a New York Times interview earlier this year, Lightfoot said the CTU is trying to take over the entire city government and said schools wouldn’t have reopened without mayoral control.
She has also said Martwick’s proposal, which would create a 21-member board, is unwieldy.
“What we don’t want is what we’ve seen from other locations across the country, for example, in California, where a single school board race was a million-dollar race. That excluded lots of voices, and it will exclude if that’s the kind of model and dynamic that is set up here,” Lightfoot said earlier this year. “So we’ve got to be very thoughtful and careful about what form of governance that we push forward. And we’ve got, as I said, and I’ve been very clear on this, parents have to have a genuine pathway to sit on that school board.”
CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said growth in the city’s downtown and North Side has been driven in part by investment. An elected school board can create more involvement for families that live in other parts of the city, she said.
“Being able to have folks from the South Side and the West Side weigh in on school policy means we are investing in their comfort, we are investing in their longevity in the city. If we want to have Black families and brown families reside in the city, one part of that is investing in their voice, trusting and elevating in their voices,” Davis Gates said. “For so many people, that is what an elected school board represents to them, is an opportunity to make Chicago better and to make the public schools better.”
Others have expressed disappointment in the mayor for not yet following through on her campaign promise.
Roderick Wilson, executive director of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center and a Chicago Public Schools parent who is involved with the campaign for an elected school board, said he’s disappointed by the mayor’s opposition to the Martwick bill as well as her failure to put something forward.
“People do what’s important to them,” Wilson said. “If It was a priority, it would’ve been there.”
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