Newly elected Mayor to preside over 1st City Council Meeting

Chicago’s newly elected Mayor Lori Lightfoot will be presiding over her first City Council meeting. She will preside over the meeting on Wednesday. She has already made big changes before her first City Council meeting. The biggest decision has to be signing an executive order which laid out a process which will end aldermanic privilege. This privilege had allowed individual members of City Council to block city ordinances within their own wards.

She had also laid out her intentions on Tuesday in which she reiterated her intent to curb aldermanic power and push for long-deferred ethics reforms. She was giving a speech before City Club of Chicago on Tuesday. In that speech, she said that she and her administration will push for reforms in the City. These reforms will prevent officials from personally profiting off their elected positions.

She also said that she wants to give more strength to city’s inspector general’s office. She also wants to raise penalties for ethics violations, among other measures as well. She also raised her concern for the need to reduce Chicago’s gun violence.

She has concrete reason for this need. The streets of Chicago were full of violence even during Memorial Day weekend. About seven people were killed and 34 were wounded during the weekend despite 1,200 police officers on the street. Lightfoot was also surprised at what had transpired despite so many cops on the streets.

She says that she doesn’t have a magic wand which she can wave to make things all better. All the trends can’t be reversed due to their magnitude and duration. The City Council meeting was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at City Hall. There was no specific agenda given that will be addressed in this meeting.