Uttering haikus, shedding tears and sharing hugs and anecdotes, members of Chicago’s City Council on Wednesday paid tribute to exiting colleagues and Mayor Lori Lightfoot during the council’s final meeting of the term.
But the most remarkable goodbye during the five-hour session was saved for the city’s longest-serving alderman in history, Ald. Edward Burke, who is leaving — like so many aldermen before him — under federal criminal indictment. Before leaving the council chambers, Burke offered a history lesson and an apology, drawing a standing ovation from fellow aldermen and the mayor, who was a frequent Burke critic.
Sporting an emerald green tie and trademark pinstriped suit, Burke entered the council chambers shortly after the opening invocation, in which Pastor L. Bernard Jakes of West Point Missionary Baptist Church noted the council’s coming sea change. In all, 12 sitting aldermen, including Burke, will not be returning for the next term that begins May 15: the vast majority stepped aside voluntarily.
Once known for frequently making speeches on the council floor, Burke had been largely silent over the past four years. He is facing down a November trial on a series of corruption charges that allege he used his position on the council to secure more business for his property tax appeals law firm. Burke has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, who replaced Burke as head of the council’s Finance Committee, kept his remarks brief but recited a Japanese poem to mark the day’s goodbyes: “The snow of yesterday/ that fell like cherry blossoms/ is water once again.”
Other exiting aldermen include Sophia King, 4th; Leslie Hairston, 5th; Roderick Sawyer, 6th; Susan Sadlowski Garza, 10th; Howard Brookins, 21st; Roberto Maldonado, 26th; Ariel Reboyras, 30th; Tom Tunney, 44th; James Cappleman, 46th; and Harry Osterman, 48th. Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th, who heads the council’s rules committee, presented the exiting members with a framed Chicago flag and the nameplate from their seat in council chambers as a parting gift.
Ald. Anabel Abarca, 12th, lost her bid to hold on to the seat to which Lightfoot appointed her. Lightfoot introduced 13 honorary resolutions congratulating outgoing aldermen on their service, including one for indicted Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, who quietly resigned last month.
Among political observers, Burke’s goodbye was the most closely watched. In his more than half a century on the City Council, he amassed considerable power, especially in the 1980s as a leader of the council revolt against former Mayor Harold Washington, and as the longtime Finance Committee chairman. He also was the council’s de facto parliamentarian who was often able to enforce his will using his superior knowledge of the council’s rules and idiosyncrasies.
Burke has been on the council since March 1969 when he replaced his late father, Joseph Burke as alderman of the 14th Ward on the Southwest Side. He was only 26, then the second-youngest alderman in city history. In May, Burke will be succeeded by Jeylú Gutiérrez.
In 1983, Burke joined Ald. Edward Vrdolyak and 27 other colleagues to seize control of the City Council — kicking off the contentious Council Wars that pitted defiant mostly white aldermen against Washington, the reform-minded first Black mayor of Chicago. As part of the takeover, the so-called Vrdolyak 29 created a new lineup of committee chairs, with Burke leading Finance. He would stay in that role until 1986, briefly lose it until 1989, and then hold on to it for another 30 years.
In the meantime, the property tax appeal legal practice Burke launched at his law firm, Klafter & Burke, flourished. He also became a prolific political fundraiser, with a swanky annual fundraiser and flush campaign committees holding millions more than his colleagues.
While other investigations — including accusations of ghost payrolling — failed to unseat him, a shocking raid on his City Council and campaign offices in November 2018 resulted in a 14-count indictment that included racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity. The charges outlined a series of schemes in which Burke allegedly tried to muscle developers into hiring his law firm to appeal their property taxes.
[ Ald. Burke under ethics board investigation for possible conflict of interest ]
His upcoming trial is one of several cases targeting powerful Illinois politicians.
Inside the council, Burke said he did not plan to pipe up during the proceedings but then stood to give the final aldermanic speech of the day. He noted first that his marriage to former state Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke had outlasted his city service.
The rest of his speech was classic Burke: combining a tribute to police and firefighters who died in the line of duty to the historic, tragic tale of Chicago attorney Horatio Spafford. Spafford was known for writing the Christian hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul” following several personal tragedies: the death of his son, the Great Chicago Fire and the deaths of his daughters on a trans-Atlantic ship.
“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know, it is well, it is well, with my soul,” Burke recited. “As I leave here today with the other members who will retire, it is my hope that the 243 families of those brave police officers and firefighters whose funerals I have attended will be well and it will be well with them,” and that God would protect them going forward, he said.
[ Burke’s panel hit again in pay probe ]
Burke then recycled an oft-used quote: “ ‘In politics, there are no permanent enemies, no permanent friends, only permanent interests.’ Those words are wise, are they not? And should be a goal for all who are in government. Madam president and ladies and gentlemen with whom I’ve been proud to serve, if I have failed during these past 54 years in achieving that goal, please permit me to apologize,” he said.
“Indeed, indeed, Chicago is and will always be the most American of American cities. May God bless America, may God bless Chicago,” he said before receiving the standing ovation.
Earlier, several aldermen paid Burke direct tribute, thanking him for his advocacy, his handwritten notes of congratulations, and the help he’s provided to many of them over the years.
Ald. Jim Gardiner, 45th, was one of Burke’s strongest defenders during the session Wednesday, describing Burke as a “gentleman,” and thanking him for his wisdom.
“I’m sure there’s many people in here who want to say the same that may not,” Gardiner said.
“You’ve been here longer than I’ve been alive,” Gardiner continued, to laughter from other aldermen and a wide smile from Burke. “You are a walking encyclopedia. … I think we should all pay homage for the work that you have done. It is much appreciated and it is not forgotten. I will proudly say it: You have done this city a favor. Thank you for your service.”
[ Ald. Edward Burke indicted on expanded federal racketeering, bribery charges ]
Without a hint of irony considering Burke is retiring under the cloud of a coming federal trial, Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, recalled Burke warned him that aldermen can exit one of three ways: the “ballot box, the pine box or the jury box … don’t let those take you out of here,” Ervin recounted Burke saying. “It is through that we have to remember that this job, while it is a job, there’s life after this.”
Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, credited Burke for his donations to fellow politicians, helping Black business owners and individuals under the old, now illegal, patronage system, and “our colleagues who made mistakes. Some of them got jobs right now, Ed Burke helped them get those jobs. … All races.”
After the meeting, an affable Burke briefly spoke with reporters and reiterated his apology. Asked for his thoughts on the incoming council and Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, Burke said the city “always met challenges with dedication and with talent. That will be the case again.”
In addition to lauding Burke, aldermen also heaped praise on colleagues Sawyer and Osterman for their work on the Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, which created new civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department and the first elected representatives in the city’s 22 police districts.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, thanked Tunney, who was elected as the first openly gay alderman in 2003, for “paving the way for openly gay members of this body.” Next term, the LGBTQ caucus will have nine members. Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, also thanked Tunney, the longtime owner of Ann Sather restaurant, for his commitment to the city’s small business community.
Dowell also thanked Cappleman for his dedication to those experiencing homelessness, while others said they would miss his sunny disposition and his anecdotes about his time as a social worker and in the seminary. King was commended for her efforts to rename Congress Parkway after pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells.
Tributes to Sadlowski Garza centered on her work as chair of the Workforce Development Committee, where she oversaw an increase to the city’s minimum wage, passage of the Fair Workweek ordinance, protections for domestic laborers, and a new measure related to labor peace agreements at nonprofits that work with the city.
“You have made your father proud,” Ramirez-Rosa said, a reference to Garza’s father, the late and legendary Edward Sadlowski, a local and national leader with the United Steelworkers union.
Hairston, the third longest-serving current member of council after Burke and Burnett, noted she’d survived three mayors and the COVID-19 pandemic and that she would not miss serving on the council.
“It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve loved most of it,” she said. “It has been an experience.”
