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Others could take issue with this line of thinking, but it appears to be widespread within the City Council. As 31st Ward alderman Ray Suarez puts it, “We don’t have much wiggle room.” And that’s the spirit that’s dominated the first week and a half of budget hearings. Aldermen have repeatedly expressed frustration at the city’s dire economic outlook and worried aloud about the impacts of slowed or reduced services. And they’ve asked lots of tough, informed questions of the commissioners of each city department, reducing some to awkward stammering while prompting others—the more experienced or savvy—to quickly dump the matter on an aide. Sometimes the aldermen even get answers. What’s largely missing from the budget hearings, though, is discussion about the budget.
Far more common, though, are exchanges about what the department has or hasn’t done right by the alderman this past year. Often these discussions offer telling insights about a given department’s management and priorities. At least as often, by my unscientific reckoning, they simply provide the aldermen with an opportunity to demand more attention—or just bitch.
“Absolutely, alderman.”
