Divided by competing personal ambitions and ethnic caucuses once again, the Chicago City Council failed Wednesday to find its next Zoning Committee chair.
The latest instance of a key leadership vacancy dragging on under Mayor Brandon Johnson came as Ald. Bennett Lawson, the powerful committee’s vice chair and longtime interim leader, waited in the wings.
Lawson appeared hopeful early Wednesday that he would win the position, which has been vacant since Johnson ally Walter Burnett retired from the council in July. But as the North Side alderman tried to coax votes in the room behind the City Council’s chambers and met with Johnson’s top advisers, it became clear aldermen would remain stuck in an unproductive stalemate.
After a lengthy afternoon recess, Lawson announced he would hold the resolution to name him chair rather than let it face an up or down vote.
Meanwhile, the suspense over other Johnson appointments seems unlikely to abate as he nears his three-year mark, particularly with the city’s three sister agencies that have been rudderless for over a year.
The mayor sought Wednesday to move on one of those vacancies — the Chicago Housing Authority CEO — by introducing new board members who would support Burnett, his preferred candidate, for the post. But Johnson opponent Ald. Anthony Beale stalled the legislation.
Aldermen also became embroiled in a heated but symbolic debate about hemp after Johnson vetoed an ordinance approved by the council last month that would have broadly banned many intoxicating hemp substances. The effort to overrule the mayor’s red stamp fell short of the needed two-thirds supermajority as aldermen voted 26 to 20.
The council approved a plan to spend $29.2 million to settle four lawsuits that alleged misconduct by disgraced Chicago police Det. Reynaldo Guevara led to wrongful imprisonment. And the Foundry Park development slotted for the North Side land once set to become the northern half of the Lincoln Yards development also won aldermanic approval. The decision clears the way for construction of the mixed-use community with over 3,000 residences and new riverfront parks.
On Zoning chair, Johnson had said last month Lawson “has done an exceptional job over the course of my time as mayor to help continue to move business along in the city of Chicago” but indicated a final decision would be premature. He gave tacit approval for Lawson to multiple aldermen this week, sources said, but the Lake View alderman apparently did not have the 34 votes required to put him in the seat.
Lawson has served as interim Zoning chair twice, first for ten months after ex-Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa left the position, then in his ongoing six-month stint. In an effort to put pressure on Johnson and aldermen to find a permanent replacement, he publicly promised to stop holding Zoning meetings until a selection was made. He did not host a meeting in January, causing a minor delay to construction projects that would have been otherwise approved, but hosted the meeting this month.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Black Caucus Chair Ald. Stephanie Coleman sparked a recess just ahead of the planned vote to make Lawson chair. As he waited for aldermen to return from last-second negotiations, Lawson vented to a group of colleauges.
“No Zoning meetings until there’s a permanent chair,” he told them. “And I shouldn’t have done that last one.”
Ald. Gil Villegas, who has also expressed interest in the role, said it “depends on what my colleagues want” when asked whether he was still gunning for it. He suggested other council members had reservations about the two proposed vice chairs under Lawson’s measure, Alds. Walt Burnett and Ruth Cruz, because they are freshmen.
“I think it was a lot of resistance to that,” Villegas said. “It’s just the precedence around whole freshmen on one of the most powerful committees. … At the end of the day, if my colleagues want me there, I’ll go there.”
For her part, Coleman said the lack of a decision stems from aldermen wanting to make sure “we are not patch-working” with one-by-one appointments.
“We want to make sure it’s cohesive so we can move forward in 2026 with a very good, functioning governing body,” she said.
She argued competing caucus interests had not sparked the delay. “We believe that it should be a Latino Caucus member,” she said.
Johnson ally Ald. Jason Ervin demurred when asked whether he leaned toward Villegas or Lawson for the role, quipping “Anybody could be a possibility at this point.”
The Zoning Committee controls critical legislation related to development and other land use issues in Chicago, making the selection of its chair traditionally one of the most consequential. And like any City Council committee chairmanship, the position comes with a budget to hire staff.
The city’s tradition of strong mayors and weak councils has meant that choice has effectively rested with the chief executive capable of quickly filling vacancies, until now.
On the larger issue of vacancies facing the city, Villegas noted that the heads of CHA, Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Transit Authority, Department of Transportation remained unfilled.
“At the end of the day, this administration has failed to lead and put forward candidates for different positions,” he said. “I mean, it’s just on and on, and so that’s where we need to make sure that at some point these positions get filled.”
On CHA, Johnson has tried to install his ally Walter Burnett to helm the public housing agency for months now but CHA leadership has resisted his efforts, saying there are more qualified candidates.
The mayor can replace up to four board members whose terms have expired, which could get Burnett over the finish line, but the board could also call a meeting and approve a different CEO candidate by the time Johnson’s CHA appointments reach the full council floor.
Beale sending the mayor’s newest appointments to Rules on Wednesday will likely delay the final vote for about a month.
Johnson ally Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez derided Beale for his “obstructionist agenda” after the meeting adjourned, though he declined to opine on whether Burnett is the right person for the job.
“It just delays the process,” Sigcho-Lopez, Johnson’s handpicked Housing Committee chair, said. “I do think that the obstructionist agenda is really harming CHA residents in the city, and I hope that the council would rather focus on focusing on the solutions to these issues of housing.”
Beale, for his part, told the Tribune despite his respect for the elder Burnett, “if the board is doing their due diligence, who are we to just start stacking the board to go against” it.
“The mayor is trying to force people out in order to get more people in his favor to support Walter Burnett,” Beale said. “And that’s a power play by the administration.”
