John Pope is a former
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...
alderman from the
10th ward of the City of
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. He was first elected in 1999 and served four terms, the last of which ended in 2015 when he lost an election to Alderman
Susan Sadlowski Garza in 2015.
Early life
A lifelong resident of the 10th Ward, Pope attended
Mount Carmel High School.
He earned his undergraduate degree in Economics, from
Wabash College
Wabash College is a private liberal arts men's college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Founded in 1832, by a group of Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, the institution was originally named "The Wabash Teachers Seminary an ...
in
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
.
Career
Pope worked for several years in Chicago’s budget department, serving also as Director of Demolition in the Building Department and Director of Conservation, before later joining Mayor
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh ter ...
’s staff as Daley's assistant.
[
]
Aldermanic career
Pope was first elected in 1999 after defeating business owner Robert Wisz to succeed the retiring John Buchanan. Pope was elected to his second term in 2003, when he ran unopposed, and again in 2007.[ He was again reelected in 2011. Pope lost reelection to Susie Sadlowski Garza in ]2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
.
As an alderman, Pope served on a number of committees: Buildings; Economic & Capital Development; Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities; Housing and Real Estate; and Police and Fire.[
In January 2008, Pope hired a former Streets and Sanitation worker, using a payroll account available to aldermen with no scrutiny, who was on a list of employees who should not be re-hired, as he had resigned after the city recommended firing him for allegations of sexually harassing a co-worker. Pope defended the hiring, explaining that the worker had resigned without admitting guilt and that he was a hard worker with knowledge about the area. Pope also hired the mother of Al Sánchez, leader of the Hispanic Democratic Organization which helped get Pope elected.][ Sánchez was a former Commissioner of the City of Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation who in 2008 had been convicted for rigging city hiring so that Mayor Daley's supporters would be rewarded.]
Post-aldermanic career
In August 2015, mayor Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan, United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 ...
appointed Pope as a deputy commissioner in the city's Department of Water Management.
References
External links
City of Chicago
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, John (Alderman)
Chicago City Council members
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Wabash College alumni