But after weeks of negotiations to tweak who would chair the committees after it became known Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson won the fifth floor, the entire structure is being upended with Waguespack, the chair of the influential Finance Committee, and others being tossed aside and the number of committees again being shrunk.
Waguespack will be replaced by Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, an early backer of Johnson. Dowell will be replaced as chair of the Budget Committee by Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, who also endorsed Johnson in the runoff after backing outgoing Mayor Lori Ligthfoot in the primary.
Dowell had led the Budget Committee for four years under Mayor Lori Lightfoot, but broke with the mayor to endorse Johnson in February.
She said she had “no comment” when reached by phone.
A spokesman for the Johnson transition team also declined to comment on the story.
In another major shakeup, Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa, 35th, the chair of the city’s Democratic Socialist Caucus and influential Johnson backer will take over the powerful Zoning Committee, according to two sources familiar with the plan.
“There has been ongoing dialogue and collaboration between veteran City Council members, the mayor-elect, and those conversations have been fruitful and positive,” Ramirez Rosa told Crain’s.
Final details of the plan may change before they are up for a vote in roughly two weeks, but aldermen have been told Johnson weighed in on the proposal and his transition team helped whip votes for the overhaul and believe they have at least 26 votes to adopt the resolution, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
Other changes include Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, being replaced as chair of the Licence Committee and Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, who voted against the reorganization resolution in March being brought on as a committee chair.
Johnson had publicly taken a hands-off approach to negotiations, but in recent days either he or his transition team engaged with aldermen to seal the deal.
An aldermen involved in the negotiations, but unwilling to speak on the record until they were finalized and shared with colleagues, said the new proposal will continue to have aldermen who backed Johnson opponent Paul Vallas as committee chairs, but the changes, “bring the council organization more in alignment with the mayor elects agenda.”
Waguespack told Crain’s on Sunday he was told by Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th – who had been leading negotiations as chair of the Rules Committee – that there were enough votes to adopt a new committee structure that left him without a committee entirely.
Waguespack said he was “hoping to at least get the decency of a phone call” from Johnson himself, but was instead told by Harris as aldermen began to learn the details of the overhaul.
“I haven’t had a call from Johnson or anybody,” he said. “All I heard was he got the votes and that I wasn’t the Finance Chair anymore.”
The North Side aldermen, just reelected to his fifth term after running unopposed, gave an interview to the Sun Times in April saying Johnson should not undermine the City Council’s independence push, an interview that angered progressives involved in the until-then tight-lipped discussion.
Waguespack also said in the interview he was not a supporter of Johnson’s progressive tax policies, a position that would put the mayor-elect in the difficult spot of trying to push revenue proposals against the wishes of the chair of the committee which must approve them.
Waguespack was often the independent voice in the wilderness for his first 12 years on the City Council, but was rewarded for his early backing of Lightfoot, who ran as a reformer, with the chairmanship of the committee that for decades provided indicted Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, the resources to maintain his grip on city government.
The transition from Burke to Waguespack was a veritable reform-minded coup d’etat sparked by a federal raid on Burke’s office that turned up evidence of his alleged corruption and even shotguns in the committee safe.
Ervin, the chair of the Black Caucus and another Johnson supporter, is set to take over for Dowell as chair of the Budget Committee. With Dowell at Finance and Ervin at Budget, Johnson will have two backers atop the two most influential committees, but both aldermen are more moderate than the progressive coalition that put Johnson in office.
Waguespack was a loyal ally to Lightfoot even as her popularity waned and her reform credentials were questioned. As younger progressives pushed for independence, including trying to install Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, as chair of the Ethics Committee, Waguespack only joined the call after Lightfoot was denied a second term in the February 28 primary.
Then, he joined Harris and Ervin, themselves key Lightfoot allies, to begin mapping out a framework of the City Council independence push that would keep themselves and other veterans in power and expand the committee structure to 28 committees.
Progressives pushed their way into those discussions and a 12-member working group was formed to hammer out the details, leading to a chaotic March special City Council meeting that saw the current body approve an overhaul of the body and name the chairs of 28 committees while it was unknown who would be elected days later.
