Rahm Emanuel: ‘I’m energized as well as pinching myself’
By Fran Spielman City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com May 16, 2011 2:48AM
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel thinks about a question during an interview at the Atwood Cafe, 1 W. Washington St., Thursday, May 12, 2011, in Chicago. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times
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Updated: October 16, 2011 12:17AM
He’s been practicing his inaugural address before his harshest critic — his 14-year-old son — and getting some pointers about content and delivery.
No matter what black-tie dinners are going on in Chicago on Friday nights, he plans to skip them to be home to help prepare and enjoy Sabbath dinner with his family.
He also plans to have breakfast with his kids, take them to school at least twice a week and spend at least one weekend day with his family.
Rahm Emanuel is preparing for the moment of a lifetime — his swearing-in today as Chicago’s 46th mayor and the city’s first Jewish mayor.
He’s still, as he put it, “pinching myself that this is happening.” He’s not scared — just a little awed by the sense of “responsibility” he feels.
On the eve of his historic swearing-in, Emanuel, 51, sat down with the Chicago Sun-Times to talk about his family, his image and the vexing issues he inherits from Mayor Daley.
WHAT’S THE SENSE OF EXCITEMENT IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD?
“Amy and the kids are clearly excited. This is a big month. Ilana is also gonna be Bat Mitzvahed. I was just telling Amy I’m so excited for her because she seems to be handling both her Bat Mitzvah as well as her school with a level of poise sometimes her father doesn’t show. Zach has given me comments about the speech that only a teenager can give their father, since something their father does is never good. Leah came in over Passover to be with me. So, there’s an energy and excitement. They know how much I put into this, but also they put a lot because I miss them. Being separated. There was a sacrifice — not only by me, but by them not having their father around.”
WHAT ABOUT YOUR PARENTS?
“Given sometimes there were challenging periods growing up, they’re a little surprised. And also, this is the city that my mother’s father in 1917 fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe coming to not just America, but America’s city: Chicago. He came as a 13-year-old by himself to meet a third-cousin who he had never known. It was a typical immigrant story. My father immigrated to Chicago in 1959. My brothers knowing that this has been in all of my dreams of public service . . . to be the mayor of the city we grew up in.”
DID ZACH GIVE YOU ADVICE ABOUT THE SPEECH?
“He gave me some helpful pointers — mainly both about content and delivery. There’s no better critic than a teenager when they’re communicating.”
DID YOU PRACTICE THE SPEECH IN FRONT OF THEM?
“I did one run-through with Zach and with Amy.”
AND THEY SAID?
“They just gave me some helpful hints about style and order.”
ARE YOU SCARED?
“I don’t know if I would use scared. There’s two emotions that are simultaneous. I’m excited. I’m energized as well as pinching myself that this is happening . . . . I don’t say it’s frightening, but the sense of responsibility that I have. What comes down on me when I’m working out or swimming in the morning is the sense of responsibility that I have to the people and not wanting to let them down.”
YOU HAVEN’T WALKED INTO THE MAYOR’S OFFICE SINCE YOUR ELECTION AND YOU WON’T UNTIL YOU WALK IN TOGETHER WITH YOUR FAMILY. WHY?
“Because this is a journey and I wanted to share it with the people who mean the most to me. . . . The moment I walk in for the first time as mayor I wanted to do with Amy and the kids.”
ALD. ED BURKE (14TH) WAS ONCE QUOTED AS SAYING CHICAGO WOULD NEVER ELECT A JEWISH MAYOR, YET HERE WE ARE.
“The Jewish community is what, 7 percent maybe of the city vote? There’s a personal pride. But, I’m also very proud of the people of Chicago because people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds — clearly they didn’t vote for me to be the first Jewish mayor. They voted for me to be a mayor who’s effective in getting them the change they wanted. For me individually — for my parents individually — that’s a milestone. But it’s not the way I look at the job and the challenges.”
YOU’VE TALKED A LOT ABOUT THE CARICATURE OF YOU AS A FOUL-MOUTHED GUY WITH A HOT TEMPER. WHAT ARE PEOPLE GOING TO LEARN ABOUT YOU THAT THEY DON’T KNOW?
“Am I hard-driving? Yeah. Am I impatient to get results? Yes, because I had searing experiences growing up both in the Clinton White House and also when I worked and nearly died [cutting off part of his middle finger, leading to a bad infection] that have made me driven to get results . . . to accomplish something with the time I have. But not until now are people starting to write about my interest in the arts. Not until now are people saying, ‘We’re waiting for the Rahm that we wrote about [to surface].’ Well, maybe that was 30 years ago. Maybe we mature. Maybe children make you take a sense of balance that you never had in your life.”
HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR TEMPER IN CHECK?
“Let me talk about the education bill. The safer political thing to do was [to say], ‘I’m not the mayor. This is a very difficult thing to do.’. . . [But] I decided to throw myself in with political risk because, if it failed, you all would have said, ‘Emanuel on first go fails.’ No. I wouldn’t have failed. I would have failed the kids. So I was willing to spend the political capital.”
BUT BACK TO THE WHOLE TEMPER ISSUE.
“I would be calling [my staff] at 5:30 a.m. on the way to swim with an idea — how to move this bill forward. And when I got out of the pool and got dressed, I’d call ’em at 6:50 a.m. with another idea totally contradicting the one I told them at 5:30 a.m. It’s not anger. It’s drive to get results to do something with this. . . . I will drive myself harder than I drive anybody else to get the results for the people I feel I have a responsibility to.”
A FOOTBALL TEAM COMES IN WITH THE FIRST SERIES OF PLAYS SCRIPTED. WHAT’S YOUR FIRST SERIES?
“I gave you a 73-page [transition report] — the most detailed with not just ideas, but a timeline. . . . The timeline is risky. Knowing your DNA, [you may say] ‘He’s missed it! He only got seven out of 10 in the first 100 days. [You’ll] say, ‘That’s a C. You don’t get a smiley face.’ But I wanted a timeline to measure. It’s easy to get blown off course. . . . I’ve got to have a quality of life that starts with the safety of our streets because, in parts of our city, that’s not happening. . . . I’ve got to have schools that have the ability to teach kids, graduate ’em so they’re ready to go on with their careers — whether that’s college or training. And I’ve also got to put our fiscal house in order and reform our government because I want businesses to see a city that’s optimistic about its future and willing to tackle it so it harkens them to come and invest in this city. . . . That’s where my focus is.”
YOU’VE PROMISED TO CUT $75 MILLION FROM MAYOR DALEY’S FINAL BUDGET BEFORE TACKLING A $568 MILLION SHORTFALL IN 2012. WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU’RE GONNA CUT?
“I went through a list today. It’s my third meeting. . . . We have specificity, line-items that go beyond the $75 million. . . . You have to weigh the options. I took some things off.”
WILL YOU PUSH TO EMPOWER THE CITY’S INSPECTOR GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE ALDERMEN?
“I’m not allowing you to skip over an accomplishment. We did take 10 percent out [of the budget for City Council committees]. I took the committees down to the fewest since the 1950s. . . . And I’ve made the committees more focused on the priorities I think are important for the city. While you have other challenges ahead for me, I’ve got to get this through. The good news is, we have a clear majority who’ve signed on for this. But, there are other reforms I’m also gonna do. . . . So, we’re not stopping. There’s gonna be a level of transparency and ethics reform. I’m not gonna do it on Day One. I’m not gonna do it in Week One. It’s an ongoing process throughout the year. . . . I want to bring a level of transparency to no-bid contracts. If you ask me where I’d probably go next, it’s there.”
WILL YOU GO RIGHT INTO COURT AND ASK TO GET OUT FROM UNDER THE SHAKMAN DECREE NOW THAT YOU’VE PLACED AN ASSISTANT INSPECTOR GENERAL IN CHARGE OF HUMAN RESOURCES?
“No. . . . My ultimate goal is for people to have confidence because we spend millions of dollars a year to abide by something that’s close to 50 years old. It’s costing the city both in reputation and in money. . . . We have to prove we’re as good as I think we can be. I can’t put the cart in front of the horse.”
YOU CHOSE GARRY MCCARTHY AS POLICE SUPERINTENDENT BECAUSE HE CAN HIT THE GROUND RUNNING TO FIGHT THE TRADITIONAL SURGE IN SUMMER CRIME. WHAT WILL HIS SUMMER PLAN LOOK LIKE?
“That’s his job. . . . I hired him for his expertise — not for mine. . . . It’s his responsibility to lead that Police Department to develop that plan. The good news is Terry [Hillard, acting police superintendent] has already been working on it. I’m sure Garry will have his thoughts about that. But, that’s his job. My job is to make sure I got the best person to develop it . . . to make sure we hit the summer and hit it hard.”
HOW QUICKLY WILL WE SEE THE 1,000 ADDITIONAL POLICE OFFICERS YOU PROMISED HIT THE STREETS?
“It’s a goal of mine. He knows about it. We talked about the changes. It’s reforms within the Police Department to better organize because they exist there. . . . It won’t be the first day. I know what I pledged. I know what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to get him in there. He understands his charge.”
YOU PLAN TO CUT GARBAGE COLLECTION COSTS BY AS MUCH AS $65 MILLION THROUGH A FOUR-STEP PROCESS THAT COULD END IN AT LEAST PARTIAL PRIVATIZATION.
“First, I want to say, ‘What is the average [cost] of the 10 cities we compete against and what’s ours?’ Then, I’ll say, ‘Employees and management, come back to me. Close this number. You know it best.’ If not, we go to a grid or a zone. If that doesn’t close the gap, then we go to managed competition.”
GETTING BACK TO YOUR FAMILY, YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT YOUR WIFE’S ARTS BACKGROUND. WHAT ROLE DO YOU ENVISION FOR HER?
“The first thing Amy will do . . . is make sure our kids move back home, they have a routine and they feel settled. We’re not doing anything else [until then]. My mayoralty will not rise or fall on Amy doing anything. It will rise and fall if I don’t feel our kids are taken care of. She’s the mother of our children. That is where she has dedicated all her energy and time and there will be nothing else [until the kids are settled]. Once we both feel that the kids have a sense of security and they feel settled, she’ll look into other things because she is a very bright woman. That’s why I married her. She’s a very committed woman. If she wants to get involved, that’s her choice. If she doesn’t, that’s her choice. She always has been. She’s been involved in arts things. [But], I’m not saying that’s what she’ll do.”
MAYOR DALEY CARVED OUT SUNDAYS FOR BALANCE. WHAT WILL YOU DO TO KEEP BALANCE IN YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR FAMILY?
“I set up the boundaries. I’m taking my children to school [at least twice-a-week]. I work out near the home so I can come home to have breakfast with them and then take them to school. I will be done Friday so I can be home for Sabbath dinner and to help prepare. So, Fridays you can have whatever black-tie events you have in the city, it doesn’t matter to me. Our Sabbath dinner is our Sabbath dinner. . . . And we’ll pick [a family day on weekends] based on kids’ or family activities. Sometimes, it’ll be Saturday. Sometimes, it’ll be Sunday.”
MAYOR DALEY HAS MADE A REQUEST FOR ROUND-THE-CLOCK BODYGUARD PROTECTION AND CARS. IT’S A COSTLY ONE. WHAT IS YOUR GUT FEELING ABOUT THAT?
“The Police Department with the Secret Service came up with security needs. They evaluated all of us. This is limited in time. The mayor knows that. But, my priority is not to think about that. I’ve got to think about the security and safety of our kids. I’ve got to make sure do we have a plan for the summer. I can either focus on Mayor Daley’s detail or I can focus on that. I know what my priorities are.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SINCE THE ELECTION?
“I am energized by the passion the public has brought to this moment in time. When I was at Wishbone [Restaurant] weeks ago and I happened to go to the restroom, a guy stopped me and he said, ‘I didn’t vote for you, but I really like you.’ I said, ‘Why is that?’ And he said, ‘This length of school day.’ People know this is a special moment. They’re excited about it. They’re ready to be part of something because this is their home. I don’t see the divisions in the city that we’ve had in the past. I believed that when I won the election. I saw where I was getting votes across the city. And it’s only been reaffirmed since.”
HOW LONG DO YOU HOPE TO SERVE AS MAYOR? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SERVE MORE THAN ONE TERM?
“The voters will decide that — not me. . . . I don’t look at it that way. I look at it as, can I get the results for the public so this city continues to be a world-class city.”
WILL YOU EVER RUN FOR PRESIDENT?
“Please. Forget it.”
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