Mayor Lightfoot Expects To Appoint New 11th Ward Alderman By March 23
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday she hopes to appoint a replacement for convicted former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson in the 11th Ward within the next month, as she begins the formal search process.
"I'd like to be able to present a new person to the City Council in time to be confirmed by the March meeting. That's certainly the goal," Lightfoot said after Wednesday's council meeting. The next meeting of the City Council is scheduled for March 23.
The mayor has set up a search committee to interview applicants for the open 11th Ward seat. Candidates for the seat must have lived in the 11th Ward for at least one year before being appointed as alderman.
Rules Committee Chair Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) will chair the search committee. Its members will include Cicero Law Group principal Salvador Cicero, Coalition For A Better Chinese Community executive director Grace Chan McKibben, and Lumpen Radio producer and co-host Jamie Trecker.
The mayor said she wants a group of local residents "to be the first line of screening" for candidates for the 11th Ward seat.
"Some of these folks are very well-known, they do a lot of great work in that community," Lightfoot said.
Daley Thompson was forced out of his seat as alderman of the 11th Ward last week, after he was convicted of federal tax fraud charges.
Lightfoot has a big decision in appointing a replacement – with potential political ramifications.
The 11th Ward has been the home base of the Daley political dynasty for decades. Mayor Richard J. Daley lived on Lowe Avenue south of 35th Street and raised his family there – including son Mayor Richard M. Daley. While the younger Daley moved to the South Loop while in office, the dynasty remained in Bridgeport – and Ald. Thompson, the senior Mayor Daley's grandson and the younger Mayor Daley's nephew - was elected alderman of the 11th Ward in 2015.
But now, with Ald. Thompson required to leave the seat, some are calling for the mayor to name an Asian American to serve in the ward.
However, Lightfoot would not commit to appointing an Asian American for the seat.
"I don't know who's even applied yet. Nobody's even applied. So I think it would be remiss for me to get out ahead of the process. I'm going to take each of the people that apply, and review their applications with great seriousness," she said. "I understand and I get that there's a lot of interest in picking someone who is Asian. I'm going to pick someone who I believe is going to serve that community best."
Lightfoot said she is looking for "somebody who really cares deeply about the community, and is committed do doing the hard work of being an alderman, and is somebody that I believe really is representative of the community.
Last week, before being named to the search committee, Chan McKibben said the request for an Asian American aldermanic appointee follows the coalition's call for a first-ever majority Asian American ward.
Right now, 40 percent of the residents of the 11th Ward are Asian American.
"Very often, Asian Americans are ignored and invisible – and we don't want to be anymore," Chan McKibben said.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), the head of the Latino Caucus, is also urging Mayor Lightfoot to appoint an Asian American to finish out Thompson's term. As the ward remap battle wages on – headed for a possible referendum in June – Villegas points out the Latino Caucus' proposed map also creates a 50 percent-plus Asian American ward.
"It would be hypocritical of me as the chairman of the Latino Caucus – and a member of a protected class under the Voting Rights Act - to not advocate for another protected class community," Villegas said.
