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Nov 24, 2007 9:19 am US/Central
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Mayor Harold Washington: Reform And Rancor
The Mandate For Reform, The Battle In The City Council, And The Lasting Achievements
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
"Harold Washington, are the people of this city better off now that you're mayor?" former CBS 2 anchorman Don Craig asked.
"Definitely," Washington replied, "for several reasons – one, I think they've seen a look at government they wanted, anticipated, never got. Now they're getting it. Two, I think the controversy and the things we've done have opened people's eyes as to what can be done. Three, I think they have for the first time in my lifetime a legislative body named the Council which is working, they have a mayor who is living up to his responsibilities as a chief executive and trying to work with the council on the concept of separation of powers, not antagonistically, but in terms of oversight and accountability."
It was August 1983, and Washington had been in office for 100 days. He came to CBS 2 and sat down with Craig and CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery to talk about the issues that faced the city.
A Mandate For Reform Beirut On The Lake 'Our Mayor' A Mandate For ReformWashington had already begun to pursue his plan of reform. He agreed to the Shakman decree in U.S. District Court, which for all but a handful of positions prohibited political hiring or firing of city employees.
Some of his supporters did not agree with the decision. They argued that Mayor Washington should have maintained the patronage system and replaced the old machine guard with those who had supported him for the election.
"Black people wanted something that is so simple – fairness – and I used to get upset with Harold after he became elected because Harold was too fair. In fact, he would say in his speeches, 'I'm not going to be fair, I'm going to be more than fair.' I used to cringe when he would say, 'Not only am I going to be fair, but I'm going to be fairer than fair.' You don't have to go overboard," late journalist and activist Lu Palmer said on the public radio program "This American Life." He said some of Washington's supporters had hoped Washington would put African-Americans first, as past mayors had put Chicagoans of their own ethnicities first.
Mayor Washington agreed that African-Americans were entitled to move up to their own place in the city establishment, as had other ethnic groups in Chicago history. But he said he had promised to abolish patronage in city hiring, firing and promotions, and he was keeping the promise.
"Patronage is dead. I've stomped on its grave, and I assure you it's not alive, and it's never going to be resurrected during the 20 years I'm in office. It's gone. People asked me to get rid of it overwhelmingly – more than 70 percent," Washington said on CBS 2. "Many people who didn't vote for me – probably never would vote for me – were opposed to the patronage system. It's gone. There are no spoils. The right question to this mayor is what can you do to uplift the level of the human condition for the people of this city, and you can get all kinds of responses you want. The people who will work for this city will be people who have the qualifications to work for this city, be they black, white, male, female, Hispanic – across the board."
In addition to the abolition of patronage, Washington also drafted an executive order on freedom of information for city government, so reporters could probe the deep, dark recesses of City Hall. He severely limited the amount of money that city contractors could contribute to a political fund, and helped open the budget-making process.
In addition, he was ensuring that city services would be distributed evenly to every ward and neighborhood, as he had promised in his campaign.
"As you go through every neighborhood, you hear the same questions – what about our city services? We're going to improve them," Mayor Washington said. "We've already done so…. We have made it very clear that in terms of economic development, there will be balanced growth in this city, meaning that we will not eschew and overlook downtown. For the first time, we will incorporate into the governmental process of revenue bonds and general obligation bonds, neighborhoods."
In the summer of 1983, Chicagoans overwhelmingly said jobs and employment were the chief concerns they believed the mayor needed to address. Some had complained that while Mayor Washington had said during his campaign that 10,000 new city jobs would be created, he began laying off city workers upon taking office.
Washington told Flannery and Craig that the city staffers he had laid off were political hires by Mayor Jane Byrne, and they had to be let go because the city was suffering from a severe financial shortfall. He said his goal in employment was changing hiring practices as jobs were created.
"We've said that insofar as this city is concerned, it will balance the distribution of jobs equitably and fairly. For example, in the summer youth employment for the first time, instead of arbitrarily picking people to go to work, we had a lottery system, which meant that the jobs were fairly dispersed," Washington said. "We maintained that the existing jobs in the city, to the extent that we could afford those jobs, would be fairly distributed."
Washington was able to effect change in city departments, which fell under his direct control. But from his first City Council meeting as mayor, appointments and legislative initiatives were blocked and stymied, and a constant tone of rancor and hostility dominated the chamber.
Beirut On The Lake
Mayor Washington was fighting Chicago's old and still-powerful political system, and that system was not about to back down easily.
Ald. Ed Vrdolyak (10th) led a group of 29 aldermen that were allied to the old Democratic machine, compared with 21 who sided with the mayor. The "Vrdolyak 29" blocked Washington's legislative and appointments. Shouting matches broke out on the council floor.
In August 1983, a CBS 2/Sun-Times news poll found that overall, the public seemed to favor Washington. Forty-six percent of respondents sided with Washington, and 28 percent sided with the Vrdolyak 29.
Washington's backers said the opposition and hostility Washington faced in the City Council was clear evidence of racism. Others said it was simply an issue of majority rule.
"City government finally has democracy," said Ald. Edward Burke (14th), who voted with Vrdolyak. "We have a real balance of power, a system of checks and balances. We have give and take between the executive and legislative branch of government."
"I think it has been a very exciting, very interesting, sometimes frustrating, but nevertheless progressive three months," said Ald. Danny Davis (29th), a Washington supporter.
Mayor Washington himself told Craig and Flannery that he did not want a rubber-stamp City Council.
"I don't have control of the City Council. I don't want control of the City Council. That's what the fight was all about," Washington said. "That was the reform that ushered in Mayor Byrne, and she wouldn't institute it, so I'm sitting in her place instead. We're going to have a reform City Council. It's going to come about. I don't want to control the City Council. I want the city fathers – all 50 of them – to do their job as this chief executive is doing his job. I want oversight, not obstructionism, not standing in the way, but cooperation, and we're getting it."
He also said it was not true that the vitriol in Council Chambers was grinding government to a halt.
"I can only recall one instance in which the council, with malice of forethought, blocked something. I was there last week, with their sign-on for the ChicagoFest, which I thought was important. We can't afford to just give festivals $450,000," Washington said. "Members of the Council didn't show up. Strange thing happened in the media – I was blamed because the Council didn't show up. I didn't elect these people. I didn't pay them. They were AWOL; they didn't show up, and I was blamed for it."
But the deadlock in the City Council continued to make headlines, and overshadow everything else that happened in Chicago municipal government at the time, and the effects were felt by Chicago residents.
"The 29 not only blocked his appointments, but never brought them up for consideration. They blocked most of his legislative initiatives, and dedicated an enormous energy to looking for ways to embarrass him; thwart him," host Ira Glass said on "This American Life." "It was mayhem; a battle so divisive and chaotic that it sustained the animosity and suspicion between black Chicago and white Chicago for years."
Meanwhile, Washington blocked the Vrdolyak 29's initiatives by veto, which the opposing group of aldermen were one vote short of overriding. The conflict between Washington and Vrdolyak led a national publication to call the city "Beirut on the Lake."
The term "Council Wars" came from a one-man parody of "Star Wars" by comedian Aaron Freeman, in which Mayor Washington was presented as "Luke Skytalker" and Vrdolyak as "Lord Darth Vrdolyak." In an excerpt played on "This American Life," Darth Vrdolyak tells Skytalker that to succeed, he must use "the dark side of the Clout."
But the participants themselves did not see the battle as so funny. The feud between Washington and Vrdolyak spilled into a national forum during the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.
At the convention, CBS News' Ed Bradley tried to get Washington to talk with Vrdolyak on television. Washington was not pleased.
"You have no respect for people at all, and you think you can intrude upon people just to get a few lines in the press," the mayor said to Bradley. "That is totally and completely bad, and I'm stunned at a man of your high caliber."
'Our Mayor'
The mayor eventually won Council Wars. Ward boundaries were changed by court order, and special elections were held in certain wards in 1986. The 25-25 split between supporters and opponents of Washington's policies allowed Washington to pursue his agenda unimpeded.
A year later, Washington was reelected, defeating former Mayor Byrne in the February primary, and winning 53 percent of the vote in the general election against Republican Donald Haider, and Vrdolyak, who had left the City Council and was running with the Illinois Solidarity Party. The hostility and racial tension that had divided the city four years earlier was not seen.
Washington is remembered by many for the lasting change his reform plans did achieve. He set up requirements for minority- and women-owned contractors that were to do business with the city, began the modernization plan at O'Hare International Airport, and worked toward the construction of a new central public library, which ultimately bore his name. He also established the first Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues, and was the first mayor to headline a gay rights rally.
What Walter Jacobson characterized as perhaps the mayor's proudest achievement came late in his second term. That was Chicago's first ethics ordinance, setting forth a code of conduct for city employees and officials.
Ultimately, the mayor was not above the wheeling and dealing he needed to help those who championed his election. But as he had promised, he brought change to City Hall, and gained admirers among those who had been hostile to him when he ran for office.
Hyde Park community activist Sam Ackerman worked on Washington's campaigns. In a 2001 column in the University of Chicago paper the Chicago Weekly News, he noted how Chicago had changed.
"Harold's 1987 reelection was the springboard to even higher levels of achievement," Ackerman wrote. "His mandate extended to all parts of the city – with surprisingly new segments of the citizenry starting to speak of him as 'our mayor' – all because of his style of reaching out and including everyone in city government and standing for what was right, rather than what was just expedient."
"Across the county and around the world, we've made it clear -- there's a new Spirit of Chicago, building on the old," Mayor Washington said in his 1987 inaugural address. "Chicago is not simply the 'City that Works.' The word is out -- Chicago works together."
But just seven months later, Washington's hope to serve in office for 20 years was cut short.
Continue To PART III: A City In Mourning
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