A DuPage County lawmaker introduced a measure Tuesday designed to strip Chicago aldermen of decision-making power over ward-level issues, saying state lawmakers should limit city officials’ ability to block new developments as part of an anti-corruption push.

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Westmont) told The Daily Line Tuesday the executive order issued by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to end aldermanic prerogative on her first day in office  is “a good start,” but that state oversight is needed.

“People should be able to come to Chicago and get a fair shake and not a shake down,” said Mazzochi, who is running for a second term representing the 47th District. “This is an opportunity for a fresh start.”

HB4484, which Mazzochi dubbed the End Aldermanic Privilege Law, would order city officials not to reject “any approvals under the Zoning Division … because of an aldermanic hold, objection, extra-judicial or extra-legal request.”

The proposed law would give the city a year to approve a development after first receiving the proposal.

If the measure passes, and an alderman blocks a proposal, the city could be forced to pay a “$5,000 civil penalty and other damages” as a result of a future lawsuit brought by the stymied development.

Mazzochi said she was moved to act by the 14-count indictment of Ald. Ed Burke (14), which alleges that Burke repeatedly — and brazenly — used his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm. Burke has pleaded not guilty.

The sort of “shady back room deals” Burke is accused of must be stopped, Mazzochi said.

“This is one very small step in protecting people’s property rights,” Mazzochi said.

While Mazzochi said she informed Lightfoot’s Springfield lobbyist that she planned to introduce the bill, she has not spoken with members of the Chicago delegation about the proposal.

A bill scaling back Chicago’s home-rule powers would be unlikely to pass without support from lawmakers representing the city.

Lightfoot’s efforts to root out aldermanic prerogative have advanced only in fits and starts during her first months in office, pushed to the back burner by a strike by a teachers strike, the search for a new Chicago Police superintendent and a massive budget deficit.

Lightfoot has said she remains committed to changing the city’s zoning code to strike at the heart of aldermen’s power.



The zoning code is the ultimate authority on what can be built on each street in Chicago. The code, which runs to hundreds of pages, is designed to set rules for developers and builders while allowing city officials to reject requests for changes that they decide are a bad fit for neighborhoods or could hurt property values.

Aldermen exercise their prerogative at every committee meeting and at every council meeting on items ranging from sign permits to liquor licenses. But most of aldermen’s historic clout comes from the fact that they alone have had the power to approve — or veto — proposals for new housing complexes or commercial developments.

Any proposal to change the zoning code would need the approval of the City Council.

Supporters of aldermanic prerogative tout it as the best way to ensure that Chicago residents live in neighborhoods governed by one of their own: someone who lives near them, understands their issues and is not only accessible — but also accountable to them on Election Day.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas will create space in her first-floor office to help residents respond to the U.S. Census, using her office to help people without computers be counted by the federal government.

The Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is set to witness a doubleheader of action in the sprawling corruption investigations that have roiled City Hall and the Capitol on Tuesday, with former State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) set to be arraigned hours after Ald. Ed Burke (14) could hear when he will face a trial.

Arroyo is set to appear before U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger at 1:30 p.m., when he could plead guilty to corruption charges. Arroyo was arrested and charged in October for allegedly offering to bribe to an unnamed state senator by paying him $2,500 per month for one year in exchange for the senator’s support on legislation that would benefit a client he was working for at the city level.

But that state senator was wearing a wire for the FBI.

Federal prosecutors filed a charging document on Jan. 17 known as an information, which typically indicates that a defendant plans to plead guilty.

According to the criminal complaint, Arroyo began paying bribes in August to a state senator who has been cooperating with the feds since 2016. That senator has been a cooperating witness for the FBI even before it was revealed he had filed false income tax returns. The unnamed senator’s cooperation began again afterward, but the complaint says he has not been promised anything in exchange for working with the feds.

State Sen. Terry Link (D-Vernon Hills), a 22-year veteran of the state Senate, has repeatedly denied being the FBI source.

However, there is no indication the case against Burke is anywhere near a final resolution.

U.S. District Judge Robert Dow could decide at a Tuesday morning hearing on whether to set a trial date in early 2021 for Burke, who is running for re-election in March as the 14th Ward Democratic committeeperson, and his two co-defendants, Peter J. Andrews and real estate developer Charles Cui.

Burke, Andrews and Cui are not expected to appear at the hearing. All three have pleaded not guilty.

The additional time before a trial would to allow both sides to sift through a massive trove of documents and recordings that could be used as evidence against Burke, Andrews and Cui.

The indictment released Thursday by the Department of Justice alleges that Burke repeatedly — and brazenly — used his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm.

Read the full timeline of allegations laid out by prosecutors.

Much of the timeline relies on wiretaps, direct quotes and recordings made by former colleague Ald. Danny Solis (25).

Burke pleaded not guilty, his attorneys said. Any allegations that Chicago’s longest-serving alderman “abused his position as a public official for personal gain is simply not true,” and the charges “are unfounded and not based on actual evidence,” according to his lawyers.

Three years after the city’s watchdog found that the Chicago Police Department wasted millions of dollars on overtime, fueling officer burnout, efforts to overhaul the system are a “work in progress,” a follow-up audit released Monday found.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s name isn’t on the ballot in March, but the changes he's made to how the county’s millions of properties are assessed is at the center of the race to win a position charged with checking Kaegi’s math.

Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin will hold four town hall meetings during the next several weeks as part of an effort to make the little-known office a resource for Chicagoans struggling to launch businesses or land investors.

Breaking from the behind-the-scenes path taken by her predecessors, Conyears-Ervin said she is determined to leverage her control of the city’s approximately $9 billion investment portfolio to help boost Chicago’s economically struggling communities by publicly holding the financial institutions the city does business with “accountable.”

Cook County leaders have a message for high schoolers across the region: We want your help designing a new flag to fly over our public buildings.

State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado (D-Chicago) took her seat in the Illinois House of Representatives on Wednesday, hopeful that the storm of controversy that greeted her appointment has passed — even as Gov. JB Pritzker vowed to crack down on the kind of corruption that prompted her appointment.

Scooters will return to Chicago’s streets this summer — but only as part of a second pilot program after city officials concluded that the first test run of the two-wheelers ended with “mixed results.”

 Chicago aldermen put off considering a measure calling for the city to take the first step toward decriminalizing magic mushrooms and peyote.

 A city-crafted proposal designed to prevent longtime residents from being pushed out of gentrifying parts of Woodlawn near the planned Obama Presidential Center does not go far enough, a coalition of community advocates said Tuesday.

Voters eager to cast an early ballot in the Democratic presidential primary and a slew of Cook County races may have to wait, elections officials said Tuesday.

Former State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) promised to “go balls to the walls” to protect the interests of a red-light camera company in exchange for $5,000 in monthly bribes, according to a plea agreement Sandoval signed as part of a guilty plea he entered on Tuesday.

Less than a month after Illinois lawmakers legalized marijuana, Chicago aldermen are scheduled to weigh whether to take the first step toward decriminalizing magic mushrooms and peyote.

Chicago voters on March 17 will come face-to-face with more than 5,000 new voting machines and ballot tabulators ordered as part of an effort to ensure votes are counted accurately and free of outside interference, city election officials announced on Monday.