City Council proving it’s ready for reform

Via the Chicago Tribune

One of Chicago’s best-known and most reprehensible aldermanic quotes is that “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” Then-Ald. Mathias “Paddy” Bauler’s (1935-1943 and 1947-1967) legendary resistance to cleaning up city government stamped the City Council as the place where initiatives for clean government go to die. All too often, Bauler’s quote has proved to be prophetic.

As longtime members of the council, however, we have seen strong evidence over the past three years that Chicago is ready for reform. In fact, the current council has played an important role in bringing critical reforms to a host of city operations.

Rahm Emanuel made government reform and transparency a central focus of his 2011 mayoral campaign. He followed through by appointing an ethics reform task force, charged with reviewing and recommending changes in the city’s ethics rules and guidelines. Based on those recommendations, the council passed two major ethics reform ordinances early in the Emanuel administration. Those ordinances strengthened the ban against giving gifts to city officials and aldermen, tightened the rules for financial disclosure by officeholders, eliminated honoraria for speeches or other appearances, and added a “reverse revolving door” restriction for those moving from the private sector into city government.