Mayor Brandon Johnson won't veto ShotSpotter ordinance
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson will not veto an ordinance that would have allowed the city's top cop to negotiate a new deal to revive Chicago's controversial gunshot detection program.
While Johnson said last month that he had "no choice" but to veto the ordinance that sought to reinstate the city's ShotSpotter program by directing Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling to negotiate a new contract, a spokesman for the mayor's office said in an email Tuesday night that it was later "deemed unnecessary" to veto the measure, because the ordinance cannot be enforced.
"An attempt by the legislative body to compel the executive branch to enter into a contract with a specific contractor would violate the separation of powers. The authority to enter and administer contracts lies with the executive branch," a mayoral spokesperson said. "While the legislative branch has legislative authority, it cannot obligate the executive branch to execute a contract and certainly not under specific terms. The executive branch must retain discretion over matters such as contract terms, remuneration, and the duration of the agreement."
After Wednesday's City Council meeting, Johnson said aldermen stripping him of his contracting authority and placing it with each individual city department or office "is a dangerous precedent."
"Could you imagine if each entity had the ability, regardless of the executive authority, to just go into procurement with any entity? I mean you could have a second term with Donald Trump, and God knows we don't want that," he said.
The city's ShotSpotter system was taken offline late last month, and a majority of aldermen are trying to force the Johnson administration to reinstate the gunshot sensors, arguing they allow faster police response times to shootings, and might save lives.
During the 2023 campaign for mayor, Johnson vowed to end the use of ShotSpotter in Chicago, saying there was clear evidence the system is unreliable.
Johnson has stressed that his decision to end the ShotSpotter contract is final, but has said his administration has launched a process to find potential replacements for ShotSpotter.
"What I made a commitment to doing was to have other forms of technology to be in consideration, and that's exactly what we're doing," Johnson said.
Johnson, who has argued that ShotSpotter is unreliable, pointed to reports from both the Chicago Inspector General and the Cook County State's Attorney's office that the system is ineffective at leading to evidence of actual gun crimes or to arrests.
"What I've said is that we have to have technology that works, and we have opened up a process to give people an opportunity to weigh in on that," he said.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Garien Gatewood said earlier this week that a "request for information" (RFI) was issued in September to gather recommendations on reliable alternatives to the technology through Nov. 1.
"We have an opportunity to see what technology is across the sphere so we can get more technology into the city to get the results that we're looking for," Gatewood said Tuesday.
Meantime, some City Council supporters of ShotSpotter announced Tuesday that they had worked with Chicago business leaders to raise $2.5 million to help fund a new gunshot detection system contract as soon as possible.
"We're here today because people are dying in neighborhoods that were once served by ShotSpotter," Ald. David Moore (17th) said Tuesday morning at City Hall.
Moore said the process the mayor's office has set up for finding a replacement for ShotSpotter could take more than a year, and the city can't afford to wait that long.
"We're always asking the business community to step up, and we thank them for stepping up to offer $2.5 million towards this effort to keep ShotSpotter in place until this administration has something to replace it," Moore said.
Asked if the Johnson administration would accept the $2.5 million being offered to help pay to keep ShotSpotter in place for now, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Garien Gatewood on Tuesday said "this is not how contracts are negotiated."
"Negotiating contracts in the public sphere is just not the way that the city operates. It's just not the way contracts operate. So if folks are interested in working together, we've always offered the olive branch to work with that alderman and various others. We're happy to work together to continue to look for solutions, because that's ultimately what we're sent here to do," Gatewood said.
ShotSpotter supporters on City Council had arranged for a special meeting on Wednesday to vote on another ordinance that would require the city's Office of Public Safety Administration to work with Snelling and the city's Law Department to negotiate a contract extension, renewal, or new contract to keep acoustic gunshot detection technology in place for now. The ordinance would require the contract to last for a term of at least two years, and to be presented to the City Council for approval within 60 days.
However, in light of the mayors' decision not to veto the earlier ordinance authorizing Snelling to enter into a new gunshot detection contract himself, that special meeting was cancelled on Wednesday.
In protest of Johnson shutting down the system ShotSpotter, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) moved at Wednesday's regular City Council meeting to delay every piece of legislation that Johnson introduced by sending each measure to the Rules Committee. Beale's move will force the Rules Committee to meet to assign each item to the appropriate committee, and the full City Council must then confirm those assignments before any of those measures can move forward, which could delay those proposals for weeks.
Many of the items Beale delayed are routine city government matters that are typically approved unanimously by the council.
Budget Committee Chair Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) later tried to suspend the council's normal rules in order to immediately assign the mayor's measures to the appropriate committee. But his maneuver required a two-thirds majority vote by the council, or 34 votes, and only 31 aldermen supported him, meaning the mayor's proposals will be delayed.
At one point during the debate over Beale's bid to delay the measures introduced by the mayor, Beale threw a copy of the City Council's rules of order down on the floor.
"We don't even need this. You might as well throw this on out the window. We don't need the rules. We don't need the rules, and matter of fact, we don't even need 50 aldermen," Beale said. "You think I like deferring this stuff? You know what I don't like? Cancelling ShotSpotter when people are dying on the damn streets."