Lori Lightfoot presided Wednesday over what is expected to be her final City Council meeting as Chicago mayor, receiving tributes from friends and foes who praised her leadership over the past four years.
“Nothing is perfect, but you’ve done fantastic,” Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th, said. “And a lot of people who may not want to recognize the sunshine, they always want to recognize the shade. I want to recognize the sunshine.”
While Burnett may have been recognizing the sunshine, many of the 50 men and women on the City Council who praised her Wednesday were responsible for a considerable amount of the shade over the past four years, and Lightfoot remained mum throughout the proceedings.
Lightfoot’s relationship with aldermen started poorly in 2019 after she used her inaugural address to talk about rooting out corruption and then gestured for the council members sitting behind her to stand and applaud. Members of the City Council generally took the moment as an effort by Lightfoot to grandstand and impugn their integrity, an insult that never quite healed.
Over four years, Lightfoot publicly and privately bad-mouthed her coequal branch of government on a regular basis.
While negotiating her second budget, the mayor told aldermen who did not plan to vote for her spending plan, “Don’t come to me for s—.” In text messages, Lightfoot referred to one alderman as a “dumb, dumb person of color” being led astray by Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, who is white.
Other examples of her past epithets included remarks that Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, was “full of crap,” Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, was “bush league” and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, was a “jackass.”
Some of the aldermen Lightfoot had scrapes with were even former allies.
In a remarkable break, Lightfoot’s hand-picked budget chair, Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, endorsed Brandon Johnson for mayor. One of Lightfoot’s committee chairs, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, ran against her. At least three committee chairs and the council’s president pro tempore publicly supported other candidates in the recent election, which saw Johnson win earlier this month after Lightfoot came in third place in the first round of voting in February.
Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, 10th, went from exchanging “I love yous” with the mayor via text message to publicly declaring she would “absolutely not” support her for reelection. “I have never met anybody who has managed to piss off every single person they come in contact with — police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing, and that’s it,” Garza told the Chicago Reader.
But all of that history was water under the bridge during Wednesday’s City Council meeting, where aldermen paid respects.
“You’ve done more than any other mayor in this city,” Ald. David Moore, 17th, said. “And I say including Harold Washington, because he did not get a chance to do everything he wanted to do when we talk about investing in the South and West Side of Chicago.”
Many of the comments acknowledged Lightfoot often butted heads with many of the City Council members.
“I’ve always believed in looking past where I think someone did wrong,” said Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th. “I appreciate the help that you gave to the community. You came to that West Side more than any mayor that’s been in the city.”
Lightfoot’s work highlights included mentions of Invest South/West, extending the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line south and navigating Chicago’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Madam Mayor, I have, I won’t say enjoyed, but we have had a good working relationship and we have managed to accomplish some amazing things together,” said Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, who is retiring next month. “And that’s because of your leadership, that’s because you believe in the goodness of people. And that’s because you believe in being fair to everybody.”
Ald. Nicole Lee, 11th, whom Lightfoot appointed a year ago and who won reelection earlier this month, acknowledged the mayor’s role selecting her to serve the Bridgeport and Chinatown neighborhoods. Lee also made history when she became the first Chinese American member of the City Council.
“Thank you for your faith in me, choosing me, helping me to make history,” Lee said. “And on behalf of my community, the Asian American community in the city of Chicago, thanks for giving us our first.”
Even Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, her most vociferous critic on the council, shared kind words.
“Your presence made me become a better alderman. I think my presence helped you become a better mayor,” Lopez said. “At the end, together, we helped make this a better city. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
For her part, Lightfoot did not speak.
Since losing reelection in February, Lightfoot has largely avoided taking questions from the press, including canceling customary post-City Council news conferences. On Wednesday, she did not address the City Council.
Her predecessor, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, had used his final City Council meeting to thank colleagues and warn about the Chicago Teachers Union’s growing influence in government and politics — which manifested itself in the April 4 election with Johnson’s victory.
