Anti-administration aldermen filed suit Monday to try to block the 25 appointments approved by the Chicago City Council last Friday in the first session since the special aldermanic elections gave Mayor Harold Washington a razor-thin control of the body.
The suit filed by 24 aldermen in the bloc led by Aldermen Edward Vrdolyak (10th) and Edward Burke (14th) claimed that the appointments to various boards and commissions, including the Chicago Transit Authority and the Regional Transportation Authority, were passed in violation of council rules. During the council session, Burke plodded through a lengthy series of legal objections to each appointment as it was confirmed. In several cases, Washington cast a tie-breaking vote, even though Burke said that only aldermen could vote on such matters.
The suit asked for a temporary restraining order to halt the
appointments, pending a hearing and final ruling on whether they were confirmed legally.
A court hearing was scheduled before Circuit Judge Arthur L. Dunne later in the day.
The suit also challenged the council`s withdrawing appointments from committees, where they had languished for several months, without a two-thirds vote. Washington supporters had said that only a majority vote of the body is required to withdraw appointments from committees, an argument rejected by Burke.
Judson Miner, acting city corporation counsel, said the court challenge to the appointments was a ”last gasp” by former majority-bloc aldermen to block the Washington administration from proceeding with the mayor`s programs in the last 10 months of his first term.
Miner said that since aldermen, in effect, interpreted the council rules and upheld Washington`s rulings on challenges to them on the council floor, the courts had no jurisdiction.
Not included among the plaintiffs in the suit was Ald. Bernard Hansen
(44th), whose lakefront ward has a large number of independent, pro-Washington voters.
Hansen had previously been a solid member of the Vrdolyak-Burke bloc, but last week he declared his independence, saying he would vote issue by issue and not with any side in the continuing ”Council Wars” struggle.
Hansen exhibited that independence by voting several times with the 25 aldermen aligned with Washington. He was joined on several votes by others who had been identified as Vrdolyak-Burke stalwarts in the council.
Although Washington described the council session as a victory and a turning point in his administration, Burke and other anti-administration aldermen said court challenges could dull that victory.
Burke also noted that three years ago, a court challenge to the council rules passed by the anti-administration forces lasted for more than three months. The court ruled in favor of the majority bloc at that time, saying that the aldermen had the right to adopt their own rules and structure the powerful council committee system.
The first use of the new mayoral power in the council focused on the more than 50 appointments that had been held up in committees. Washington forced the confirmation of nearly half of them.
