Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday shelved the city’s new policy curtailing public audience seating in City Council chambers, following outcry over the chilling effect the restrictions could pose on the openness of government proceedings.
The city clerk’s website abruptly removed guidelines that had been posted since last week and replaced the link with the message, “Implementation of the public seating policy dated 12/7/2023 is postponed until further notice.”
Johnson spokesman Ronnie Reese said in a Tuesday statement the reversal comes after “feedback provided by various stakeholders” on whether the rules “allow the Council to best conduct the business of the people.”
“Mayor Johnson is fully committed to leading with accountability and transparency,” Reese wrote. “Our administration is also mindful of the very real concerns that alderpeople have regarding their safety and the ability to conduct meetings without disruption. That is the balance we must strike — the balance between democracy and decorum — and it is imperative that we have a policy that accommodates both.”
Government transparency advocates and aldermen had been pressuring Johnson for days to halt the rule change that would have limited how many members of the public could sit directly behind aldermen in chambers, and increased the number of hoops they would have had to jump through to secure those seats. They said removing such public access would water down government access and allow powerful elected officials to operate in greater secrecy.
The policy was put forth by the council’s sergeant-at-arms Alvin Starks, who was appointed by Johnson’s Rules Committee chair Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th. Harris deferred comment Tuesday to the mayor’s office.
Harris initially proposed the changes after several loud demonstrations in chambers during recent meetings, centered around the city’s handling of the migrant crisis and the Israel-Hamas conflict. Johnson has ordered audience members removed from chambers after they disrupted proceedings with shouting or chanting.
Current procedure has allowed the public to observe City Council meetings from the back gallery behind where the aldermen sit in the 2nd floor chambers.
The short-lived rules instead placed the first 70 audience members in third floor seating, with a restricted view behind windows overlooking the chambers. Members of the public were permitted to line up for those spots no more than one hour before the meeting began.
The 2nd floor seats were to be set aside for city government staff, disabled individuals and those who have reserved a seat at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting on a first-come, first-served basis. Everyone had to show a form of I.D. before being admitted. Only if the third floor filled up and there was room left on the second would some overflow seating have been made available in the chambers’ public gallery.
The rules also moved public commenters ahead of the meeting from a microphone on the floor of the 2nd floor chambers to the 3rd floor, preventing audience members from directly addressing public figures in the same room.
The policy was meant to last at least four months, but the sudden reversal signaled the mayor’s team was responding to mounting pressure from some aldermen, advocates of open government and other critics who said it was a far cry from candidate Johnson’s vow to be a transparent mayor.
David Greising, president of the Better Government Association, said his team had been involved in talks with the Johnson administration and other concerned City Council members over the changes and “we’re pleased to see that our concerns were heard and acted on.”
“As someone who has covered City Council meetings going back to ‘Council Wars,’ I know the importance — and I have seen it ― of open contribution to council meetings by members of the public, and I’m glad that is being protected,” Greising said.
Though the policy was officially dated to last Thursday, warnings from BGA and others about access to the second-floor chambers stretched back to the start of this month, when the sergeant-at-arms was seen moving public commenters and other observers to the third floor.
That tension has been months in the making, after several council meetings under Johnson were disrupted by boisterous audience members who had times needed to be escorted out, particularly following their outbursts over the amount of money Chicago is spending on migrants.
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, cheered on the reversal Tuesday and said that in the future, “The Council does not need to change these rules. They can simply enforce existing rules for decorum in the chamber.”
“One should not need VIP status or navigate complex rules days in advance to watch government at work in Chicago,” he wrote.
ayin@chicagotribune.com
