To inform voters and to help the baiduhai Editorial Board make endorsements, the board posed a series of questions to the candidates running for alderman. See their answers below. See how other candidates answered here.
Name: Ed Bannon
Ward: 38th
Current job: Parent of three mostly well-behaved children
Previous political experience: Dever Local School Council since 2015; acting Commissioner, Northwest Home Equity Assurance Program since July 2021
Education: St. Philomena Elementary, Chicago, 1984; Gordon Tech High School, Chicago, 1988; University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, B.S. 1992
Spouse’s occupation: Senior Director, Discover Financial Services
Sources of outside income: None
The rise in violent crime remains a top priority for City Hall. Homicides, shootings and carjackings are all unacceptably high. Tell us how city government can be innovative in combating crime, and explain what measures you would propose if elected.
We need more public safety officials present on the streets to do a better job of going after the root causes of crime, such as poverty, substance use and addiction, and mental health issues. Investing in and ensuring quality jobs are created in historically impoverished areas will help divert many from a life of crime. According to the Chicago Crime Lab, many of our shootings are arguments being settled with guns. Violence interruption teams have successfully changed behavior, so we need to scale those up.
To improve on-the-ground service in our communities, the police department should be scouring its police force to find positions that can be performed by civilian union workers and get the officers back on the street. Too many civilian roles are being performed by police officers, which is both ineffective and inefficient.
By implementing a treatment-oriented, harm-reduction approach to public safety, we acknowledge that most 911 calls are for non-violent disputes or issues. When many of the city’s mental health centers were closed under Mayor Emanuel, those needing those services did not go away. They or people around them often called the police when they had a mental health crisis. This further burdens the police with too many emergency calls they are not trained for or equipt to handle. The Collaborative for Community Wellness, proposes to increase funding and expansion of a dedicated mental-health crisis hotline to dispatch mental-health professionals, thus freeing up Chicago police for actual criminal calls. Other major cities and even other Illinois counties have shown this can work and save money.
We must review the police data analysis program. It’s unacceptable that we can show a chart to explain a batter’s hitting trends or that we can get an analysis of our Spotify playlists, but the city can’t better communicate major crimes in our neighborhoods and how we are organizing to address them. The constant news of shootings without being able to fit them into an overall pattern adds to the fear of crime. I frequently attend my neighborhood beat meetings. The data they show is the top 10 crimes since the last beat meeting and compare them this year over last year. This narrow snapshot of local crime is another missed opportunity to communicate more effectively.
We can and should better utilize school buildings. Chicago has hundreds of school buildings that are close to the community after student dismissal. These buildings should remain open with a “second shift” education staff to provide a safe place, extracurriculars, and education support. We should expand the community schools Initiative to implement this program.
The CTA, one of the nation’s largest transit systems, remains a troubled agency grappling with issues ranging from violent crime and ghost buses and trains, to flagging ridership. Give us your thoughts on what specific measures CTA should take to make train and bus service safer, more reliable and more equitable for Chicagoans.
When CTA President Dorval Carter simply refused to show up for a City Council committee hearing, we saw how much respect he and this administration have for the City Council. I would change the culture in the City Council to hold the mayor’s office and sister agencies accountable. The City Council rubber-stamp culture needs to change. We need a City Council that offers constructive feedback and follows up to ensure the administration is doing its job.
Reducing violent crime on the CTA goes hand-in-hand with reducing crime everywhere. We need to address the root causes of crime. We need to scale up the violence-interruption programs that have proved effective in combating gun violence. Reduced-fare programs should be considered using means-testing or based on route locations within designated areas such as Enterprise Zones.
Ten years ago, enrollment at Chicago Public Schools was 403,000 students. In September, enrollment stood at 322,000 students. Enrollment at CPS has dropped for 11 consecutive years. What specific measures should CPS undertake to reverse the trend of ever-dwindling enrollment?
While decreasing family sizes and residents leaving Chicago’s disinvested neighborhoods has a large impact on enrollment, there are measures with CPS’s realm of control where it could focus its efforts. A greater emphasis on strong neighborhood schools over selective enrollment schools would help. Parents that I talk to at doors are concerned about high school options. CPS should be providing social supports in neighborhood high schools to bolster student performance. As a CPS parent and member of my Local School Council, I applaud the Chicago Teachers Union for fighting for better social services and school nurses in their last contract. I look forward to working with the elected representative school board to address these matters.
Disinvestment on the South and West sides is a decades-long problem with myriad causes. Give us at least one innovative idea that you believe could play a role in reversing South and West side disinvestment, and explain why the idea is realistic and feasible.
The city should start working with trade unions, CPS and City Colleges to launch apprenticeship programs in South and West Side neighborhoods to address job shortages in health care and to start training residents to work on the Red Line South expansion and the lead-pipe replacement project. This program is feasible and realistic because they are programs already have a need as well as funding sources. These training programs will create quality jobs in the neighborhoods where there the jobs will be located. The city should emphasize reducing transportation and time barriers for residents who can’t afford transportation or who have childcare commitments. Virtual training should be employed as much as possible.
Do you support giving Chicagoans property tax relief? If yes, please explain how you would accomplish it. If no, please explain why not.
I support property-tax relief while working to decrease its necessity. By reducing property taxes overall, the need for relief will be reduced. That’s the most straightforward way to create relief. Meanwhile, I support the Homeowners Exemption, Senior Citizen Exemption, the Assessment Freeze, the Longtime Homeowners Exemption, and the Illinois income tax credit for property taxes.
As an acting commissioner for the Northwest Home Equity Assurance program, I helped form a program that helps homeowners save their properties from the clutches of Tax Scavenger Sales, so I know there are times when property-tax relief is necessary. First of all, the City Council’s rubber-stamp culture needs to change. We need a City Council that offers constructive feedback and follows up to ensure the administration is doing its job. Doing this would provide a smarter city government and thus reduce the need to increase funding through property taxes.
Also, I would fight for relief by shifting and doing a better job at economic development than the incumbent. As the Executive Director of the Six Corners Association, I worked with many business owners and developers to fill vacant properties. Many vacant properties in the 38th Ward could contribute to the tax base with the right booster in the alderman’s office. The harm that vacant properties do to a neighborhood is not properly priced in to the property tax system. Past abuses of vacant property assessment have been tightened up, but not enough. Of course, assessments are a county function, but there’s an opportunity there.
Give us your take on the city’s use of tax increment financing districts. Do you feel they have been useful, or do you feel that the problems associated with them outweigh their usefulness? What if any reforms would you want to apply to the city’s usage of TIFs?
TIFs need tighter control to make sure they are serving their stated purpose. The diversion of funding away from Chicago Public Schools, the park, and the county government undercuts their abilities to provide vital services. Thus, we need to have better assurance that TIFs are investments that actually have a positive return. To do this, TIF subsidies need more transparency and clawbacks if developers stated “but for” needs do not match actual finances. Furthermore, any TIF redevelopment agreement should require labor peace agreements. Finally, the mega TIFs such as Lincoln Yards and “The 78? are impossibly large for the city to analyze the finances of. Thus, the size of TIF projects should be limited by either ordinance or state legislation.
In the 38th Ward, there is one TIF — the West Irving Park TIF — that the incumbent has not used at all to spur development in the neighborhood. The TIF expires next year, so if he’s re-elected, this opportunity will likely fade away. TIFs are a good tool when used in a targeted way. This lack of using available resources is another example of a missed opportunity to develop commercial properties that can take the property tax burden off of homeowners.
Lead in drinking water is a major health concern for the city. It is estimated that in Chicago there are roughly 400,000 homes and small apartment buildings with lead service lines. So far, the city has replaced less than 300 lead service lines. Do you feel the pace of lead service line replacement should be expedited, and if yes, what is the best, most feasible way to accomplish that?
This problem gets back to the matter of accountability. Mayor Lightfoot announced her plan in 2020. Two-plus years later, we are basically nowhere, and there have been no checks and- balances coming from the City Council. Having chairs of committees that weren’t beholden to the mayor for the chair positions would help. A stronger City Council could work with the mayor’s office to develop an effective plan. The need to replace lead pipes and the fact that lead pipes are concentrated in disinvested neighborhoods seems like an opportunity to create quality plumbing jobs for residents of underserved areas. The mayor should work with the plumbers union, CPS, City Colleges, and the Water Department to expand the workforce tackling this problem. We should look to the federal Drinking Water Revolving State Funds and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill for funding.
If you are an incumbent, please explain what is it about your service on the City Council that makes you most qualified for the job. If you have never served on the council, please explain what is it about your background that makes you most qualified.
I have already served my neighborhood as a private citizen and want to increase my impact as a public servant. I have extensive community development, economic development, and volunteer experience in my community. I have served on the Dever Local School Council.
When it came time to select a new principal, I was entrusted to chair the Principal Selection Committee. I was a reporter for the local Lerner Community Newspaper, covering the NW Side in my early career. I worked for almost 15 years in local economic development, taking an approach that involved collaborating with community stakeholders. In addition to the above-mentioned roles, I also helped run the Hiawatha Park Youth Basketball League, organized clean-ups at Dunning Library, started a Dunning neighborhood bike-ride event, helped bring more resources to the Dunning Read Conservation Area, and made sure the 38th Ward participated in a citywide art program. My proven track record of helping our community speaks for itself.
What is the most pressing issue facing the people of your ward, and how would you address it?
I hear at the doors that there is a lack of leadership in our city. The residents have no confidence that the mayor or alderman have a plan to address public safety, ever-rising property taxes or economic development. I have stated above how I would address public safety and property taxes. I’ll elaborate here on economic development. I served for 10 years as the executive director of the Six Corners Association. During my tenure, I helped convince the city to spend match a federal funding for infrastructure improvements. I ran a collaborative, stakeholder-driven economic development program. I managed an SSA that did not increase the property tax levy for those 10 years. The 38th Ward has one neighborhood with a chamber of commerce that I look forward to helping revive and another neighborhood with no chamber at all. The alderman should be a neighborhood booster to make sure the city is supporting local business. Again, this lack of leadership needs to be addressed.
Sum up why should voters elect you and not your opponent(s)? (Please limit this to policy and approach, not a biography recitation.)
My contributions to the neighborhood as a private citizen shows I can do the job and will do the job to benefit my neighbors. The incumbent has been in office for 12 years. It’s time for a change and new ideas. One of my opponents is already collecting three public pensions — Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, CTA, and Chicago. We don’t need yet another Chicago alderperson seeking office for personal gain.
My policies are to hold the Mayor’s office accountable, push for a clear plan to bring down crime, and lead on budget policies to reduce burdens on the middle class. The incumbent has not done this for 12 years. In fact, he recently voted for Mayor Lightfoot’s plan to automatically increase property taxes with the rate of inflation. He has also allowed more red-light cameras to be installed in the ward—finally, Ald. Sposato boycotted a City Council meeting to merely discuss the Bring Chicago Home plan to fight the homeless. At the same time, two months prior, he removed a bus shelter, so a person in his ward experiencing homelessness could not use it to avoid the elements. And recently, another person who was homeless died in our ward during the December cold snap. This lack of concern for the life and well-being of our neighbors, I take very seriously. I will be proactive, collaborative, and empathetic when approaching any challenge in the ward.