Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has created a new section in the city’s 2020 budget to consolidate coronavirus expenses and give her the ability to eventually move money around to cover the costs without needing City Council say-so.
It’s part of the extraordinary powers the mayor has granted herself to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The executive order she issued earlier this month declared a state of emergency and gave her budget director the authority “to establish new funding lines, consolidate funding lines, and transfer or otherwise reallocate currently appropriated funds, including making fund transfers between City Departments, all as needed to maximize effectiveness of the City response to the Emergency.”
It also allows the city’s procurement department to “negotiate and execute contracts for emergency supplies and services” up to $1 million, up from the $500,000 cap on such emergency contracts that’s usually in place.
The higher ceiling on those deals is set “so that the city can swiftly secure supplies or services as needed to aid in the citywide response to COVID-19,” mayoral spokesman Patrick Mullane said.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle also took on added powers to respond to the crisis. But after Preckwinkle issued a disaster proclamation for the county, she got the county Board of Commissioners to pass a resolution extending her authority to issue executive orders, procure some contracts and conduct other business.
Lightfoot mentioned in a March 17 news release announcing the delay of the March City Council meeting that she was taking “several emergency executive actions over the next few days to allow for the continuance of government before the next City Council meeting.”
“These actions will increase procurement authority, ensure employees are paid while on extended leave, and allow for the City to appropriate money from the federal government to pay for costs incurred in the response to the spread of COVID-19,” Lightfoot’s release reads.
On Monday, the mayor said the city is keeping a close eye on the expenses.
“We have been keeping a tally, really since January, on what the various costs are related to the response to coronavirus, whether it’s at our airports, now more recently the public health response, first responders, making sure we’re getting equipment out,” she said at her daily news conference about the pandemic. “So we’ve been tracking those expenses pretty rigorously. It’s our hope that we’re going to get a substantial reimbursement from the federal government.”
In an interview last week, Lightfoot alluded to further steps she might take to grapple with the emergency. “We’re looking at a lot of different measures that we will socialize with City Council at the appropriate time. What I need mostly right now is public health authority, which we have,” she said.
Finance Department spokeswoman Kristen Cabanban said no money has been moved within the city budget to pay for virus-related spending.
“Right now, we have the new line and we will re-balance the accounts later, but want to be able to track the expenses as they are coming in, many of which will be reimbursable,” Cabanban said.
Lightfoot has enjoyed a comfortable council majority for most of her major initiatives, as evidenced by her 2020 budget passing by a 39-11 margin. But she also has angered some council members with various moves to centralize authority they’ve long enjoyed at the ward level.
Questions remain about parts of her $11.65 billion 2020 spending package, which counts on $163 million in federal reimbursements that have yet to arrive for the cost of Fire Department ambulance services.
And Lightfoot also has been stymied at the state level in her calls for a graduated real estate transfer tax so she can start charging more for sales of high-end residential and commercial properties.
baiduhai’s Gregory Pratt contributed to this article.
Twitter @_johnbyrne