Chicago City Council

The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The Chicago City Council is gaveled into session regularly (usually monthly) to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes traffic code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues. The council, in conjunction with the Mayor of Chicago, hears recommendations from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks and then may grant individual properties Chicago Landmark status. The presiding officer of the Chicago City Council is the Mayor of Chicago. The secretary is the City Clerk of Chicago. Both positions are popularly elected offices.

The Chicago City Council Chambers are located in Chicago City Hall. Also located in the building are the downtown offices of the individual aldermen and staff.

Chicago City Council Chambers has long been the center of public corruption in Chicago. The first conviction of Chicago aldermen and Cook County Commissioners for accepting bribes to rig a crooked contract occurred in 1869. Between 1972 and 1999, 26 current or former Chicago aldermen were convicted for official corruption. Between 1972 and 2009, a total of 30 Chicago aldermen were indicted and convicted of federal crimes such as bribery, extortion, embezzlement, conspiracy, mail fraud and income tax evasion. Three additional aldermen were indicted for similar offenses but two died before federal prosecutors could bring them to trial and one, Anthony Laurino (39th) was too sick to stand trial. Between 1973 and 2012, 31 aldermen were convicted of corruption. Approximately 100 aldermen served in that period, which is a conviction rate of about one-third.

Fewer than half of the Council's 28 committees met more than six times in 1986. The budget for Council committees was $5.3M in 1986.

14 of the Chicago’s City Council's 19 committees routinely violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act over a four-month period, the last four months of 2007, by not keeping adequate written records of their meetings. Chicago City Council committees violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act and their own rules by meeting and taking actions without a quorum at least four times over the same four-month span.

Between May 18, 2011 and August, 2012, the first 100 days of the first term of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, 2,845 ordinances and orders were introduced to the Council. About 95% involved administrative and ward-level matters like permit applications, fee waivers, street signage, parking regulations, and sewer rebates; just 5 percent pertained to citywide matters such as air pollution standards and parking regulations for trucks. 51% passed in the first 100 days. All but two of the passed ordinances were approved unanimously, a dissension rate of about 0.1%. Only four dissenting votes were cast in the first 100 days of the 2011 Council.