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HALF OF
CITY ALDERMEN DON’T SHOW UP FOR CHICAGO BUDGET HEARINGS
Illinois Policy Institute
Each year, the City Council holds hearings
for every city department to justify their annual appropriation. These
hearings are sparsely attended and rarely touch on spending. This year,
more than half of Chicago aldermen skipped budget hearings.
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 Each fall, the Chicago City Council meets to plan the budget for the coming year
– trouble is, half of the aldermen don’t bother showing up. That’s a major
problem for a city struggling with billions of dollars in debt.
For two weeks each year, every city department takes its turn justifying its
appropriation for the coming year. With an $8.2 billion budget containing a $136
million shortfall, aldermen should be more discerning in their attendance and
questioning. Instead, this annual practice turns into a “love fest” with
aldermen thanking and congratulating city employees on a job well done.
This laissez-faire attitude toward budgeting is indicative of how the city
chooses to do business. The mayor provides the heavy lifting by making decisions
in the annual budget. In return, he simply asks the City Council for its
approval. By deferring to the mayor’s wishes, the City Council cedes power to
the point of making Chicago a “strong mayor-weak council” governmental
structure. It’s time for City Council to build on its work over the past two
years and stand up to the mayor and his handpicked department heads.
Attendance breakdown
Senior staff from the city’s 34 departments, including the budget director,
chief financial officer and comptroller, prepare for their turn to speak and
answer questions from inquisitive aldermen during budget hearings. These
meetings vary greatly in length with some as short as five minutes, some more
lengthy, stretching well into the afternoon. In past years, budget hearings
occasionally stretched late into the evening, even as late as 9 p.m.
Accordingly, aldermen come and go as they see fit. This results in lower
attendance numbers. Reporters from The Daily Line attended each of the hearings
and compiled daily attendance.
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 Traditionally, most aldermen attend the first day of hearings as
the budget director, chief financial officer and comptroller provide
an overview of the annual budget and city finances. This year, 45
aldermen were in attendance the first day. From there, numbers begin
to decline. By the third day, only 11 aldermen were in attendance
for the Fire Department. A paltry three aldermen were present for
the Commission on Human Relations and the Department of
Administrative Hearings, two departments that appeared three days
apart.
Over the course of the 10 days of hearings, each department
averaged under half of all aldermen present, or 24 aldermen. The
first day with the budget director, chief financial officer and
comptroller (45) and the Business Affairs and Consumer Protection
(38) heavily skew these numbers. It should be noted that many
aldermen send staffers in their place to attend and track these
budget hearings. However, one of the fundamental roles of an
alderman is to properly vet the city budget. This includes being
present to question each department on their requested allocation.
How to fix Chicago’s budgeting process
City Council needs to make changes to how it handles the budget
hearing process. Similar to how the Cook County Board of
Commissioners is considering changing its rules to limit
congratulatory resolutions, the City Council needs to focus on the
matter at hand. Budget hearings should focus specifically on
questions or concerns regarding the 2017 budget. Aldermen are free
to thank or congratulate employees outside of these hearings.
Similarly, aldermen should be contacting each department on an
ongoing basis regarding specific ward services.
These common sense changes must be enacted in the name of government
efficiency. Not only would it cut into the length of the individual
hearings, it would allow aldermen to pinpoint problems with budget
allocations. Considering the city has had a budget shortfall every
year for the last decade, it is crucial that credence is given to
the budget process. Anything less is a failure of city government.
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