City Council remap talks break down, costly referendum looms
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com December 15, 2011 11:18AM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel listens to aldermanic comments while presiding over the Chicago City Council meeting, Wednesday, November 16, 2011, where council members voted 50-0 to approve the Administration’s 2012 budget. | Jean Lachat~Sun-Times
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Updated: January 17, 2012 8:18AM
Chicago appeared Thursday to be careening toward a repeat of the remap referendum that cost taxpayers $20 million in 1990 and could cost $30 million this time around.
Despite weeks of negotiations that nearly came to blows, talks broke down aimed at redrawing ward boundaries in a way that could attract the 41 votes needed to avoid a referendum.
The City Council’s Hispanic Caucus pulled the plug and filed its own map that includes 17 black wards, 17 white wards, 13 Hispanic wards and three Hispanic “influence” wards to reward Hispanics for their 25,218-person population gain in the 2010 U.S. Census.
African-Americans trying desperately to hold onto the 19 wards they already have despite a 181,453-person drop in Chicago’s black population would lose two wards in the Hispanic map.
That sets the stage for the Black Caucus to file another map on Friday preserving 18 black wards at the expense of the 11th Ward, political power base of the Daley family.
They were joined by three powerful Old Guard whites: Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd), Finance Chairman Edward Burke (14th) and Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s floor leader.
Mell and Burke represent Hispanic wards and, until Thursday, appeared to be lining up with the Hispanic Caucus.
After public hearings, the City Council would choose between the different versions — and possibly others.
If at least 10 aldermen unite behind an alternate map, Chicago voters would choose when they go to the polls in March. That could pave the way for an even costlier legal challenge.
But, first things first: a City Council showdown.
“There could be a vote in the City Council and those that prevailed would get the map they chose and those that were not on the prevailing side could accept that as the answer,” O’Connor said in a bit of wishful thinking. “Most members of the City Council understand that No. 1, a referendum is a very expensive proposition. It is a very divisive proposition if it moves forward.”
If the “coalition map” forged with the Black Caucus doesn’t pass, Mell said. “I would not be part of a referendum. I would hope some of my colleagues would do the same,” he said.
The mayor urged aldermen toward consensus.
“The differences are very small….Asking the taxpayers to spend $30 million is very big….I think the aldermen know that and…that will keep them laser-focused on getting things resolved,.” Emanuel said.
Ald. Danny Solis (25th), chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, appeared to be in no mood to throw in the towel, arguing that the Hispanic map is “fair and legal,” and stands the best chance of both attracting at least 26 votes and surviving a court challenge.
The Hispanic map already has the backing of all eight Latino aldermen and eight whites: Robert Fioretti (2nd); John Pope (10th); Jim Balcer (11th); Marty Quinn (13th); Scott Waguespack (32nd); Michelle Smith (43rd); John Arena (45th) and James Cappleman (46th).
Earlier Thursday, Mell described himself as the “Neville Chamberlain of our city” and appeared optimistic about a consensus. He argued that minor deviations in two wards — subsequently identified as the 18th and 23rd — were all that was separating 41 aldermen from uniting behind a new ward map.
The stalemate centered around the 23rd Ward.
Fioretti said he signed on to the Hispanic map because it would preserve his Near South Side ward. But, he also held out the possibility that yet another map could be filed that reduces the size of the City Council from 50 wards to 35.
During the transition, Emanuel broached the subject of cutting the City Council in half, a dramatic move that must either be approved by the Ill. General Assembly, or by voters in a binding referendum.
Rookie Ald. Nick Sposato (36th) said he does not expect to sign on to any specific map, since his ward would likely shift from 32 percent Hispanic to 67 percent.
“It appears that I was a goner in everybody’s map,” he said.
Contributing: Abdon Pallasch
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