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TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Richard J. Veenstra
Corporation Counsel
DATE: September 25, 2023
SUBJECT:
An Ordinance Creating Section 2-65 of the Code of Ordinances pertaining to Aldermanic Initiative Funds.
PURPOSE:
To restate, amplify, amend and codify existing procedures governing the use of funds appropriated by the City Council for disbursement by individual aldermen and to provide additional authorization and guidance pertaining to their uses.
BACKGROUND:
In the 1990s, the City Council began to appropriate a portion of the City's Gaming Tax Fund for use by the ward alderperson (then only 8 in number) to disburse at their discretion on capital programs within their respective wards. Over time, the City Council supplemented these appropriations with contributions from the Capital Improvement Fund and authorized the alderpersons at-large to disburse these funds as well, but in small amounts than it authorized for their counterparts. By tradition, the City Council permitted ward alderpersons to "carry over" a portion of their unspent funds to be used in subsequent fiscal years.
Although the City Council from time-to-time did adopt a resolutions that 2/3 of an alderman's annual budget be devoted to capital purposes, it never incorporated this rule as part of the Code of Ordinances. It also did not appear to confer any authority upon an individual alderperson to direct the disbursement funds appropriated for his or her use. Under Illinois law, individual aldermen ordinarily must act collectively while assembled as the City Council (or one of its duly-established committees) to exercise governmental authority - thus, it is unclear what authority an individual alderperson possesses to contract on behalf of or otherwise bind the City or to direct City staff to release such funds. In many instances, the City Council addressed this question by adopting resolutions authorizing specific programs on behalf of a requesting alderperson, but did not adop...
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