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The Chicago City Council is the
legislative branch A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as ...
of the government of the
City of Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in Illinois. It consists of 50
alderperson An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members ...
s elected from 50
wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually monthly, to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues. The Chicago City Council Chambers are located in
Chicago City Hall Chicago City Hall is a 10-story building that houses the official seat of government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. Adjacent to the Richard J. Daley Center and the James R. Thompson Center, the building that includes Chicago City Hall hous ...
, as are the downtown offices of the individual alderpersons and staff. The presiding officer of the council is the Mayor of Chicago. The secretary is the
City Clerk of Chicago The City Clerk of Chicago is in charge of record-keeping for the city of Chicago and its elections. When the Chicago City Council is in session, the City Clerk serves as council secretary. This position is a citywide elected office, one of three ...
. Both positions are city-wide elected offices. In the absence of the mayor, an alderperson elected to the position of President Pro Tempore serves as the presiding officer. Originally established as the Common Council in 1837, it was renamed City Council in 1876. The Council assumed its modern form of 50 wards electing one alderperson each in 1923.


Composition

The most recent city council election was the
2019 Chicago aldermanic elections The 2019 Chicago aldermanic election took place in two rounds on February 26 and April 2, 2019, to elect 50 aldermen to the Chicago City Council. Each alderman represents one of Chicago's 50 wards. The elections are non-partisan and use a two-r ...
. The current term began on May 20, 2019. Aldermanic elections are officially nonpartisan; party affiliations below are informational only. Council members also self-organize into caucuses, or blocs that address particular issues. Active caucuses include the Progressive Reform Caucus, the Black Caucus, the Latino Caucus, the LGBT Caucus, and the Democratic Socialist Caucus.


Standing committees

The city council is internally organized into subject-specific
standing committees A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. Once proposed legislation is drafted, it is assigned to a specific standing committee. After a hearing and deliberation process, the committee votes on whether to report the proposed legislation to the full council, along with recommendations. The committees are created, and their leaders and members are selected, through a resolution passed by the whole council. Historically, mayors have played a central role selected committee chairs. As of May 2019, there are 18 standing committees in the council, whose chairmen and vice-chairmen are as follows:


History

Chicago has been divided into wards since 1837, beginning with 6 wards. Until 1923, each ward elected two members to the city council. In 1923, the system that exists today was adopted with 50 wards, each with one council member elected by the ward. In accordance with Illinois state law, ward borders must be shifted after every federal census. This law is intended to give the population of the ward equal representation based by the size of the population of Chicago. Chicago is unusual among major United States cities in the number of wards and representative alderpersons that it maintains. It has been noted that the current ward system promotes diverse ethnic and cultural representation on the city council.


Corruption

Chicago City Council Chambers has long been the center of public corruption in Chicago. The first conviction of Chicago alderpersons and Cook County Commissioners for accepting bribes to rig a crooked contract occurred in 1869. Between 1972 and 1999, 26 current or former Chicago alderpersons were convicted for official corruption. Between 1973 and 2012, 31 aldermen were convicted of corruption. Approximately 100 aldermen served in that period, which is a conviction rate of about one-third. Fourteen of the Chicago's City Council's nineteen committees routinely violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act during the last four months of 2007 by not keeping adequate written records of their meetings. Chicago City Council committees violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act and their own rules by meeting and taking actions without a quorum at least four times over the same four-month span. Less than half of the Council's 28 committees met more than six times in 1986. The budget for Council committees was $5.3 million in 1986. Over half of elected Chicago alderpersons took illegal campaign contributions totalling $282,000 in 2013.


Election

Chicago alderpersons are elected by popular vote every four years, on the last Tuesday in February in the year following national mid-term elections. A run-off election, if no candidate garners more than fifty percent of the vote, is held on the first Tuesday in April. The election is held on a non-partisan basis. New terms begin at noon on the third Monday in May following the election.


Authority and roles

The council, in conjunction with the Mayor of Chicago, hears recommendations from the
Commission on Chicago Landmarks The Commission on Chicago Landmarks, established in 1968 by a Chicago City Ordinance, is composed of nine members appointed by the Mayor and the Chicago City Council. It is responsible for presenting recommendations of individual buildings, sites, ...
and then may grant individual properties
Chicago Landmark Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, archit ...
status. The Council also has the power to redraw ward boundaries, resulting in the heavily gerrymandered map seen today.


Law

The ''Journal of the Proceedings of the City Council of the City of Chicago'' is the official publication of the acts of the City Council. The ''
Municipal Code of Chicago The ''Municipal Code of Chicago'' is the codification of local ordinances of a general and permanent nature of the City of Chicago. The Code contains original and new ordinances, adopted by the Chicago City Council, organized into eighteen title ...
'' is the codification of Chicago's local ordinances of a general and permanent nature. Between May 18, 2011, and August 2011, the first 100 days of the first term of Mayor
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...
, 2,845 ordinances and orders were introduced to the Council.


Aldermanic privilege

Chicago's alderpersons are generally given exceptional deference, called "aldermanic privilege" or "aldermanic prerogative", to control city decisions and services within their ward. This is an unwritten and informal practice that emerged in the early 20th century and gives alderman control over "zoning, licenses, permits, property-tax reductions, city contracts and patronage jobs" in their wards. Political scientists have suggested that this facilitates corruption. The system has been described as "50 aldermen serving essentially as mayors of 50 wards."


See also

*
Council Wars The Council Wars were a racially polarized political conflict in the city of Chicago from 1983 to 1986, centered on the Chicago City Council. The term came from a satirical comedy sketch of the same name written and performed by comedian and jo ...
, a period of conflict within the City Council *
Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...
*
Workingmen's Party of Illinois The Workingmen's Party of Illinois was an American political party established in the city of Chicago in December 1873. It was one of the first Marxism, International Socialist political parties established in North America. Founded in the afterma ...
* 11th Ward, Chicago *
Aldermanic elections in Chicago The City of Chicago has held elections to its City Council since its incorporation in 1837. Elections were held annually from 1837 through 1921, biennially from 1923 through 1933, and quadrennially starting in 1935. From 1851 through 1922 the Cou ...
*
List of Chicago aldermen since 1923 The Chicago City Council assumed its modern form on April 16, 1923, with fifty wards each electing one alderman. Here is a list of the people who have served as an alderman since that time. Since its incorporation as a city in 1837 Chicago had be ...


Notes


References


External links


Chicago City Council

Chicago City Council legislation
from the
City Clerk of Chicago The City Clerk of Chicago is in charge of record-keeping for the city of Chicago and its elections. When the Chicago City Council is in session, the City Clerk serves as council secretary. This position is a citywide elected office, one of three ...

Chicago City Council calendar
from the City Clerk of Chicago
Journal of the Proceedings
(c. 1981–present) from the City Clerk of Chicago
Journal of the Proceedings
(c. 1908) from
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

Chicago City Council meeting reports
from the City Clerk of Chicago
Map of Chicago Wards

''Your City Council: Who's who and what they can do''
from the '' Chicago Reader''
''The Untold Stories of Alderman Don Parrillo''
by Anthony DeBartolo, Hyde Park Media
Chicago City Council archive
at the ''Chicago Reader'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Council, Chicago City 1837 establishments in Illinois