Chicago Aldermen Spend Secretive $5M on Website, Anti-Policing Efforts, and More
In Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2022 budget, she offered each of the city’s 50 alderman a $100,000 sweetener to spend in their wards almost any way they want, The Chicago Tribune reported.
The mayor billed the $5 million “microgrant fund,” as a flexible “tool” to meet the individual needs of the city’s diverse wards but it could also be seen as a bargaining chip for city council support for the $16.7 billion budget that they ended up passing.
How some of the aldermen spent that money is coming to light and some of it could have been better spent. But it was only discovered after The Tribune asked for the contracts, and only some were released.
The Tribune has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all existing contracts.
Freshman North Side Alderman Andre Vasquez is spending $23,000 for a new 40th Ward website, The Tribune reported.
The website designer will take least 50 to 80 hours per month for at least seven months, starting in June, to complete the website, according to city records.
That averages out to around $60 an hour, assuming it takes only 50 hours per month for seven months.
Vasquez told the Tribune that only two bids were submitted, and he selected the higher one because “it would provide the most accessibility to the most amount of people.”
He also paid an advocacy group $15,000 “to engage residents about their perceptions of how safe they are and 'think through' public safety solutions that don’t involve policing,” the newspaper reported.
Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality Northside, a progressive advocacy group, will send door-knockers to canvass neighborhoods until September to “engage 40th Ward constituents on what makes them feel safe and unsafe.” The door-knocking will target low-income renters and immigrants, as well as young people. The form also promotes thinking of solutions to crime beyond law enforcement.
“We are eager to think through public safety resources and new solutions with neighbors so that we can move beyond punitive, harmful ways of policing,” the program description says.
Vasquez also allocated $15,000 each to community groups Centro Romero and Indo American Center for similar door-knocking but specifically for Latino and South Asian communities, respectively.
Because of shortages in the Chicago PD, on the other side of the city, 19th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea is hiring private, unarmed security to patrol business corridors in the Beverly area.
The Beverly-area business associations that will hire private security groups from Moore Security, Security Logistics Group, and Law Dogs.
O’Shea said the plan was developed with input of the Chicago Police Department, security experts and the business community.
“In the face of troubling CPD staff shortages, we as a community must do all we can to support, appreciate and respect the profession if we expect people to seek the job‚” O’Shea wrote.
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