Down the road, Chicagoans will bear witness to two landmark corruption trials featuring a pair of political behemoths — Ald. Edward Burke and former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The dates have yet to be set. But we can expect the trials to showcase something else — the oft-abused practice known as aldermanic prerogative.
Aldermanic prerogative is like etiquette — without the politeness. It’s not codified anywhere, and yet its adherents — the 50 members of the City Council — historically have guarded its existence as if it were the U.S. Constitution. It’s easy to see why. Aldermanic prerogative turns each alderman’s ward into a fiefdom. Aldermen get largely unchecked power over zoning and regulatory approvals in their backyards.
While some measure of authority over a ward is needed to represent the interests of constituents, in practice aldermanic prerogative has often been co-opted by less scrupulous council members as a means to pad their bank accounts, dole out favors in exchange for campaign contributions, or abuse the public trust in countless other ways.
In the case of Madigan, aldermanic prerogative emerges in connection with the relationship the former longtime state lawmaker had with then-Ald. Daniel Solis, whose 25th Ward included the Chinatown neighborhood.
According to the federal indictment, Madigan allegedly solicited business illegally for his property tax law firm during talks to turn a state-owned parking lot in Chinatown into a commercial development. Aldermanic prerogative came into play in the deal because Solis, who was secretly cooperating with federal investigators at the time, was a local alderman who allegedly used his authority to try to facilitate the land deal, in part by clearing up any zoning issues that stood in the way. At the time, Solis was also chairman of the powerful Zoning Committee.
Zoning decisions are a prime way aldermen can abuse their aldermanic prerogative. They can hold back a zoning change until a developer agrees to donate to an alderman’s campaign fund, or set aside contracts or jobs for the alderman’s relatives and friends. In some instances, aldermen have used aldermanic prerogative to prevent affordable housing from coming into mostly white neighborhoods. That particular abuse recently became the subject of a U.S. Housing and Urban Development investigation into Chicago’s use of aldermanic prerogative, aka aldermanic privilege.
In Burke’s case, aldermanic prerogative ties into the accusation that the powerful 14th Ward alderman tried to hold up a driveway permit approval for a Burger King restaurant in order to coerce its franchise holders into retaining his law firm. Both Burke and Madigan have pleaded not guilty to the charges they face.
When she campaigned for mayor, Lori Lightfoot pledged to rein in aldermanic prerogative. The Burke and Madigan indictments giver her ample ammunition to make that reform happen. At a meeting with the Tribune Editorial Board last week, Mayor Lightfoot said she read the 106-page Madigan indictment “with great interest, but also with alarm.”
“If you don’t come away feeling a sense of urgency to do everything possible to make sure nothing like that can ever happen again, then you don’t truly value good government as I do,” Lightfoot told us. Developers and companies looking to do business in Chicago should “have confidence that our processes are fair and transparent, and on the square. We don’t have to kiss the ring of anybody, no mayor, no alderman, to get basic services done in the city of Chicago.”
Predictably, aldermen wince at giving up their role as ward overlords. Their argument: They know what development works best in their wards. “Honestly, this is what the community demands,” Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, who chairs the Zoning Committee, recently told WBEZ. “They want the alderman to be their representative.”
Indeed, wholesale elimination of aldermanic privilege could dramatically weaken an alderman’s ability to serve constituents on ward-specific matters. But reform doesn’t have to entail eradication of the practice. We think Lightfoot is right to take a hard look at reforming aldermanic prerogative as it relates to zoning issues — a prime source for abuse. And, we think the practice should finally be codified into law, with clear, unambiguous borders for what is and isn’t allowed.”
It’s not going to be an easy sell at the City Council. For many aldermen, serving in office necessitates accumulating more power — not less. What they forget, however, is that every time corruption gets exposed in the City Council, it further erodes the trust that Chicagoans have in city government. And no amount of power will compensate for that loss of trust.
“I’m very clear-eyed about the steep mountain that we’re about to climb,” Lightfoot told us, referring to the resistance she expects in the City Council to aldermanic prerogative reform. “But I feel confident that we’re going to make some progress. Because that’s what the circumstances demand.”
Aldermen should be enablers for that reform, rather than roadblocks. How many more corruption indictments will it take for them to see that?
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