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But last fall the Daley administration, needing votes for its package of tax and fee increases, agreed to boost the 2008 expense accounts to $73,280 apiece, at an additional cost to taxpayers of $2 million total. And now aldermen don’t want to go back to the old days of nine months ago. “That’s money you use to add more staff or help your constituents,” 25th Ward alderman Danny Solis told the Sun-Times.
Solis is right on this one—at least, he could be right. One of the many reasons the City Council rubber-stamps the mayor’s agenda is that most aldermen don’t have the resources to be fully engaged legislators—they and their staffs spend most of their time dealing with neighborhood housekeeping such as parking regulations, business signage, and zoning requests. On the council floor aldermen merely say yes or no to the mayor’s proposals; coming up with their own takes extra research, legal expertise, and time that most simply don’t have—even if they were willing to use it.
Alderman 1
PHONE
$ 10,234.40
COMPUTER CONSULTING
$ 7,200.00
RENT
$ 4,612.94
COMED
$ 4,117.64
CAR PAYMENTS
$ 3,718.96
GRAPHICS
$ 2,518.33
MISCELLANEOUS
$ 2,385.80
OFFICE SUPPLIES
$ 1,886.97
CAR GAS
$ 1,700.53
INTERNET
$ 1,310.42
LIGHTING FIXTURES / ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES
$ 884.21
BOTTLED WATER
$ 746.69
PEOPLES GAS
$ 720.39
NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTIONS
$ 482.35
PARKING TICKET
$ 40.00
$24,275.59
$ 4,667.84
$ 4,292.14
$ 2,111.81
OFFICE EQUIPMENT RENTAL
$ 1,710.54
$ 1,443.13
$ 1,235.90
ALARM SYSTEM
$ 203.70
$17,655.80
$ 3,518.99
$ 3,233.56
$ 2,175.82
$ 1,728.33
$ 1,625.33
MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES
$ 1,220.87
OFFICE EQUIPMENT
$ 332.00
AIR CONDITIONING
$ 302.00
GRAPHICS / PRINTING
$ 247.00
RUBBER STAMPS
$ 34.00
