Mayor Holds Facebook Town Hall, Talks Burke Bodyguards, Recycling
UPDATED 07/01/11 9:22 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- At Mayor Rahm Emanuel's first Facebook town hall meeting on Thursday, everything from his ultimatum to organized labor to Ald. Ed Burke's bodyguards came up in questions from the social-network-public.
The questions were submitted and voted on by the public, according to the mayor's press office, and moderators read them to Mayor Emanuel.
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Steve Miller reports
Podcast
Among the questions Emanuel addressed on Thursday was: "The situation with Alderman Burke's bodyguards and if we're going to see any reduction."
"Wow, these are great," Emanuel said.
The answer, basically: "That's an issue. And I have the police superintendent at the counsel's office looking into it."
And there were questions about jobs, and Emanuel's vow to lay off 625 city workers if unions don't accept work rule changes now.
"I have my own ideas that don't require their working with me, and I'm going to make those as part of the solution. But I need them to get over there," Emanuel said.
The mayor also touched on the city's curbside recycling program and how some wards have it and some don't -- and how even some wards that have recycling don't have it throughout the ward.
"We can't have this kind of weird thing called half the city has recycling, the other half doesn't," he said. "Either we do it, or we don't, and if we do it, we should do it right."
He says the city's failure to have a recycling plan is a disgrace.
"As a city that's known for the most LEED-certified buildings - green roofs - it is an oxymoron, given our environmental standards, that we do not have a comprehensive recycling plan," Emanuel said.
And he heralded a new day for the Chicago River, which is under federal pressure for cleanup.
"I'll be making an announcement for trying to see the river developed... as the next recreational frontier of the city."
The mayor spent an hour taking questions.
