A group of Chicago aldermen on Monday scheduled a rare special City Council meeting in an effort to push Mayor Brandon Johnson to further consider budget cuts.
The group is demanding the Ernst & Young consultants hired by Johnson’s administration to create a budget report testify during the meeting next Monday about their findings. The move marks an escalation in pushback against Johnson’s budget plan as City Hall looks to plug a nearly $1.2 billion spending gap.
Johnson has proposed “only a couple of small items” recommended by the report to cut costs, Ald. Scott Waguespack said.
“What we want to see as taxpayers, and what our taxpayers are asking for is transparency, openness and honesty by this administration,” he told reporters during a news conference. “And it starts with this EY report.”
Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza said the mayor’s administration hopes to instead hold a subject matter hearing on the report Friday, which would preclude the need for the Monday meeting the aldermen called.
Mendoza said the administration had been working with aldermen to schedule such a public briefing since last week.
Ald. Nicole Lee, one of the signees, said a Johnson lobbyist proposed private briefings with the consultants and aldermen that would have been held early this week, but did not follow up with her over the weekend. Lee added that she had advised the administration at the time to hold the briefings later this week and urged them to make those public.
The report, the result of an initial $3.2 million taxpayer-funded contract with the company, recommends roughly 100 pages worth of nitty-gritty changes to internal city operations that the firm said could generate between $530 million and $1.4 billion in cost savings or new revenue, ranging from consolidating or selling city-owned property to broader changes to benefits for city employees and staffing at the Police and Fire departments. Some, such as tweaks to fines and fees, could be implemented quickly, while others would take years and require collective bargaining with organized labor.
The document has become a flashpoint in budget negotiations after aldermen raised concerns the report would be “filtered” to exclude certain proposals before its release. Johnson’s team did not share the final report until the afternoon of the mayor’s mid-October budget speech.
“Those findings should not be sitting. They should be discussed, openly, questioned, publicly considered carefully as part of our budgeting process. Transparency builds trust,” Ald. Samantha Nugent said Monday.
The EY team also helped the mayor’s budget working group as it came up with its own recommendations. Those members were subject to a confidentiality agreement that barred them from discussing some internal city budget data. It is unclear if aldermen have the power to compel the consultants to testify or if Johnson’s permission will be required for their request to be met.
The group of 10 aldermen who signed on to compel the meeting, led by Waguespack, Nugent and Ald. Matt O’Shea, included three Progressive Caucus members, a sign of the broad pressure Johnson faces to publicly contend with the recommendations.
A City Council majority signed a letter last week calling for the consultants to testify. The letter also expressed “grave concern” over Johnson’s proposed $21-per-employee tax on larger companies and shared similar criticism of plans to borrow to pay for operating expenses.
More Top Picks Best Ergonomic Chairs For Long Hours
The city is at a “financial crossroads,” but Johnson’s budget is neither balanced nor forward-looking, O’Shea said.
“Instead it focuses on short-term patches that threaten our city’s ability to grow both its tax and employment base,” he said. “It’s more about borrowing, more taxes and more fees. The people we represent are fed up.”
Aldermen have been for two weeks attending daylong budget hearings, one department at a time, to mull line items and ask commissioners questions. Those public hearings are set to resume Tuesday.
But Waguespack argued Monday meaningful negotiations over the budget have yet to start. Johnson’s administration has shared too little information on some of its most noteworthy proposals, including its head tax and a novel tax on social media companies, for real debate to kick off, he said.
“Until we start getting those details, this is just a fluff budget that he’s throwing out there,” Waguespack said.
The planned meeting echoed efforts last year by aldermen to jump-start budget negotiations by proactively considering a $300 million property tax hike Johnson proposed. The council then offered a rare 50-0 vote to strike down the mayor’s plans, forcing Johnson to find money elsewhere.
Asked if aldermen were planning a similar vote, Waguespack said the goal of the special meeting was discussion and warned that Johnson hopes to have a final budget vote in two weeks. That timeline is too rushed, he said. “I think the mayor in this instance is putting the cart before the horse,” he said.
Johnson’s budget proposal include several recommendations made by the consulting firm. His team is counting on $12 million in savings from real estate consolidation and vacant land sales, $7 million by recouping more money from event hosts who require city street closures and police deployment, $3 million from modernizing its vehicle fleet and $10 million via changes to its procurement process.
The mayor’s administration also plans to save $50 million in a targeted hiring freeze.
baiduhai’s AD Quig contributed.