The case against disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis has been tawdry from the start. It involved prostitution, free use of an Indiana farm once owned by Oprah Winfrey, doses of Viagra and illegal campaign contributions — all allegedly in exchange for official acts.
And the saga took an infuriating turn this week when prosecutors revealed that Solis, 25th, likely will one day see the case against him dismissed altogether. All he needs to do, prosecutors indicated in court, is testify truthfully and effectively against Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, former House Speaker Mike Madigan and perhaps others.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot is outraged and for good reason. She even has sought the court’s leave to file a victim impact statement on behalf of the city.
Normally, such statements allow the victim to inform the judge, and the public, about the impact a crime had on their lives. They affect sentencing and sometimes prompt shame or contrition by the criminal.
This would have little effect on Solis. Clearly, he is without shame. And with his case on the verge of dismissal, there would be no jail time or other penalty on the line.
Even so, Lightfoot has a point. Solis victimized Chicago. The allegations against Burke and Madigan suggest they did so as well. Those two say they did nothing wrong, but the federal cases against them show specific acts and patterns of conduct by which they enriched themselves financially and flexed their power corruptly — destroying their careers and besmirching the city they claim to love.
The cases of Solis, Burke and Madigan were extreme examples of undue influence in city government. They provided a backdrop for a more prosaic case, revealed this week, of Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.’s reversal on the issue of affordable housing requirements for a high-rise development in his ward.
Burnett, 27th, has a reputation as an affordable housing advocate, so it was no surprise in 2015 when he raised questions about a project where the Atrium Village once stood.
In 2015, as developer Onni Group sought exceptions to the city’s required set-asides for affordable housing; Burnett was a critic of the project. But by 2018, Burnett was pushing back against aldermen who challenged Onni’s plans.
“This is my ward,” Burnett told an alderman at a Zoning Committee meeting. “You are stepping too far. Don’t get involved in this.”
What changed in those three years?
Onni hired lobbyist and radio personality Mazonne “Maze” Jackson, a close friend and former political consultant to Burnett, paying Jackson more than $400,000 to help push the project. Jackson promptly organized a fundraiser for Burnett, the Better Government Association found.
Onni also pledged $25,000 to a nonprofit run by Burnett’s wife, Chicago Housing Authority official Darlena Williams-Bennett. That was followed by an $11,000 contribution to a political action committee Williams-Bennett chairs.
The developer ultimately agreed to include the required number of affordable housing units. But Onni lumped 70% of them in a refurbished, mid-rise building — leaving three gleaming new high-rises relatively free of low-income residents.
It would not have happened had Burnett not stood down.
The charges against Solis, Burke and Madigan stand as extreme examples of the corrosive effect of aldermanic prerogative, the source of so much corruption and undue influence in Chicago for so many years. Among other alleged misdeeds, Burke allegedly held up a Burger King driveway permit in order to shake down business for his law practice. And Solis, while wearing a federal wire, allegedly pressured a developer to give Madigan’s law firm business in exchange for a Zoning Committee approval for a project in Chinatown.
The case of Onni’s maneuvering for Burnett’s favor is a reminder in its own way, too. A developer like Onni spends so lavishly, in an effort to engineer influence, because the Chicago custom of aldermanic privilege grants aldermen virtually unfettered power over zoning decisions in their wards.
Needing to change just one aldermanic mind, developers sometimes do whatever it takes to get that done.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot knows the system is broken. And in a recent round of media appearances she made it clear she intends to fight to fix it. A reading of the Madigan indictment apparently rekindled a sense of outrage that animated her 2019 mayoral campaign.
The mayor says she intends to seek a City Council vote to squelch aldermanic prerogative once and for all. She likely would lose such a vote, but no matter: Even a loss could be useful politically. On the verge of a re-election campaign, a tiff with the City Council over the issue of aldermanic prerogative might help refresh the reformist credentials that helped Lightfoot win election in the first place.
Aldermanic prerogative can lead to outright corruption, as it did for Solis, and allegedly for Burke and Madigan. It can feed conflicts of interest, as happened with Burnett. It reinforces inequities and preys on corrupt intent.
Lightfoot is right to rail against the practice — even in the face of a likely City Council loss.
David Greising is president and CEO of the Better Government Association.
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