The man in charge of counting votes for new Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first major City Council initiative – his $6.3 billion taxing-and-spending plan for 2012 – spent much of the last week before the final budget vote on vacation along Mexico’s Pacific coast with his wife and friends.
Patrick O’Connor, Emanuel’s unofficial council floor leader, acknowledged Monday that when he jetted off to Puerto Vallarta, he already was confident of success in his latest and most important mission on behalf of the new mayor.
“If it was not going to pass, I would have stayed home,” said O’Connor, the 40th Ward alderman, after returning to Chicago ahead of Wednesday’s budget vote.
Despite lingering concerns about some cuts outlined in Emanuel’s plan, relatively few aldermen have expressed that they are even undecided on whether to vote for the budget at Wednesday’s council meeting. O’Connor and other Emanuel allies are predicting a clear majority for the mayor’s budget, if not unanimous support from all 50 aldermen.
Among the aldermen who said they were still on the fence on the budget this week: Robert Fioretti (2nd), Roderick Sawyer (6th), Walter Burnett (27th), Scott Waguespack (32nd) and John Arena (45th).
Under Emanuel’s predecessor, Richard M. Daley, the council many times voted unanimously to support the mayor’s budget proposals, with zero “no” votes recorded between 1998 and 2003. Daley’s first plan, for 1990, was approved 38-8, but the dissenters grew in numbers in recent years, after the recession dried up City Hall’s revenue streams.
While Daley was prone to becoming irate at the most seemingly minor outbreaks of back-talk, aldermen say they appreciate that the new mayor has proven more willing to hear their feedback and has adjusted his plan in response to the public pressure in some cases.
Emanuel might even appreciate a few “no” votes on the budget, one mayoral ally suggested, since he then could point to them as proof that the new council is no longer the “rubber stamp” that it was during the second Mayor Daley’s era of executive-branch dominance.
O’Connor, who was close to the previous mayor also, said tales of Daley seeking vengeance against the minority of uncooperative aldermen were exaggerated. He said he doubted Emanuel would try to settle the score with any council members who might oppose his budget.
“If you vote against it, that’s your choice,” O’Connor said. “It doesn’t mean streets won’t get cleaned and garbage won’t be collected.”
Not every alderman sounded so sure that they could break ranks on the budget with impunity.
“This is a new mayor,” said Ald. Daniel Solis (25th), who will vote for Emanuel’s budget. “I don’t know what he’s capable of doing or not doing. We have a sense. He seems to be a very bright and tough guy.”
Fioretti, who bore the brunt of one of Daley’s more bombastic tirades from the lectern of the council chamber, said he was mindful of Emanuel’s reputation for dealing harshly with the legislative branch as White House chief of staff.
“I only know what I read from the books and newspaper articles on congressmen who ran errant ways from the president,” Fioretti said.
So far, however, many aldermen say they have been treated gently, especially compared to the rough reception that Daley and his top aides frequently gave their questions about his budget proposals.
“His style is very different,” Solis said of Emanuel. “I call him and text him. He calls and texts me back, and it’s not like I’m a favorite. I think he does that with a number of aldermen.”
Burnett said he believed the mayor’s lobbyists reached out more to council members than in the past because of the election of 13 new aldermen this year.
“They’ve got more wild cards because of the new guys,” Burnett said. “They don’t know what they’re going to do, whether they’re team players or not.”
He said he doubted that Emanuel would try punishing rebellious aldermen. Burnett cited Emanuel’s reaction to a letter that he and 27 other council members sent to the mayor’s office detailing their budget concerns.
“He didn’t try any revenge,” Burnett said. “He worked with folks.”
After the letter became public, Emanuel quickly announced a series of tweaks to his budget plan, including reducing the scale of cuts he originally recommended for library hours and staff. In announcing the deal, he highlighted the changes as proof of his willingness to work with the council. But the mayor also suggested that some of the changes were in the works even before aldermen sent him the letter.
Emanuel and the council must close a projected $636 million deficit in next year’s budget, the latest in a series of shortfalls that were due in large part to rising personnel costs and falling revenues. Daley used proceeds from privatization deals to help maintain high levels of city spending, but Emanuel primarily would balance the books through cuts as well as some fee increases.
Arena and Waguespack said this week that they still hope to avoid any cuts to libraries. The closures of mental health clinics and three of the city’s 25 police stations are other aspects of the Emanuel budget plan that have drawn complaints.
City Clerk Susana Mendoza remains opposed to raising fees for vehicle stickers, even after Emanuel adjusted his initial proposal to lessen the impact on some sports-utility vehicle owners. Instead, every car owner would see a slight increase in sticker fees next year.
Ald. Joe Moore (49th), one of the more outspoken Daley critics, said he will vote in favor of Emanuel’s budget partly because he engaged the council in the budget process more than Daley did. Moore said he did not believe Emanuel would care if a few dissenting votes were cast on Wednesday.
“I don’t think it will ruin his day if he gets 48 votes instead of 50,” he said. “If it was a ‘my way or the highway’ budget, then you would see more people voting against it.”