Is Johnson creating a 51st Alderperson?
Alderperson Burnett may be seen as an alderperson
In an attempt to take a highly unusual approach as to how the Chicago City Council is organized, Mayor Brandon Johnson opted to change the role of the vice mayor. Don’t be alarmed if you didn’t know the city had a vice mayor previously. It has been a ceremonial role with little to no visibility or authority. However, it is a role required by the city charter.
Mayor Johnson decided to name 27th Ward Alderperson Walter Burnett, Jr. to the post. In doing so, the mayor also heaped on several duties that Burnett will be expected to carry out. Burnett has been alderperson since President Bill Clinton’s first term in office. Burnett is the longest serving member of the council
.Besides presiding over council meetings in Johnson’s absence, Burnett’s new job description requires him to have a citywide presence. Shortly before the council approved the nomination, Johnson advisor Jason Lee told Crain’s Chicago Business “The vice mayor could be elevated to be that representative of City Hall, who can be in all 50 wards, attending community forums, community events, hearings for the public and working with the mayor's office to make sure that people feel like their government is truly listening.”
Apparently Team Johnson doesn’t see it, but such a move is a tempest in the making. Four years ago when former Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced the idea of restricting aldermanic prerogative; we saw fierce, heated battles with the council members determined to protect their “turf.” Lee’s line about “their government is truly listening” amounts to a verbal slap at the alderpersons. Residents engage with the people they elected at the ward level and to them that is government. Shoehorning Burnett into that scenario lays the groundwork for friction.
Of course in the meetings he attends, anything Burnett says will be viewed as him speaking on behalf of the mayor. When that runs counter to what the alderperson wants or has presented the conflict -an unnecessary one I might add-erupts.
In this expanded role, how does the vice mayor have a presence when four or five or six meetings are going on in different wards on the same evening? Yes, Burnett will have a staff, but what will they be able to do that a professional stenographer couldn’t do?
Burnett will face a steep learning curve as all of his council time has been spent on the West Side. To be effective in this new role, he will be required to recognize and learn the nuances and unique characteristics of all the other 49 wards. That can’t and won’t be an overnight process.
Johnson should expect to get push back, from council members and residents alike, that he is sending a spy to their wards-someone whose chief responsibility is reporting to the mayor comments and opinions he won’t like.