An effort by ethnic and other activists to bolster their influence on a restructured Human Relations Commission was trounced Tuesday by Mayor Richard Daley`s council leaders.
Daley, who failed to generate enough votes to pass the ordinance at the last City Council meeting, flexed his muscles at a council joint committee meeting designed to amend the ordinance to make it more amenable to gays, Hispanics, blacks and women.
During Tuesday`s joint meeting of the Budget and Human Rights Committees, Daley`s council whip, Ald. Patrick Huels (11th), beat back all efforts to substantially amend the mayor`s plan, sending a signal that the administration is prepared to fight for the ordinance.
The ordinance would place eight ethnic and special-interest advisory councils under the umbrella of a 23-member Human Relations Commission.
”We would like to have more impact as to who the chairmen of the advisory councils are,” said Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th), who has broken with the mayor on this issue.
Under the current proposal, the mayor would appoint the chairman of the advisory councils as well as the 15 at-large members of the new Human Relations Commission.
One of the amendments proposed by Hansen would have allowed the advisory councils to choose a chairman from among their membership.
”We did it in Nicaragua. Why can`t we do it in Chicago?” complained Ald. Larry Bloom (5th), who added that he could not understand why Daley opposed each advisory council selecting its own chairman.
But each time Hansen proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would strengthen the independence of the advisory committees or ensure direct access to the mayor, Huels moved to kill it. He successfully killed six of Hansen`s amendments on votes of 13-10 and 14-11.
Among the amendments killed were one that would require each advisory committee to have two members on the umbrella commission instead of one, and another that calls for the appointment of a task force of former Human Relations Commission members that would monitor and report as to how the new commission was doing.
Clarence Wood, Daley`s choice to be chairman of the new commission, defended the administration`s decision not to incorporate Hansen`s amendments, saying they would be ”unnecessarily cumbersome and would create more problems.”
Hansen was able to pass one amendment, but it had no teeth and would simply permit each advisory council to report to the commission ”the specific needs of its community.” The eight advisory councils represent women, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, blacks, gays and lesbians, veterans, immigrants and refugees.
The ordinance was given final approval by the joint committee in an 18-5 vote and is scheduled to come before the full council on Wednesday. But opponents are expected to use a parliamentary maneuver to delay consideration until next month and try to organize community opposition to it.
Gay, Hispanic and women activists have vociferously objected to the new ordinance since Daley first proposed it in October. The groups were successful in beating the ordinance back at the last council meeting with an unusual coalition of anti-Daley aldermen and lakefront council members who have generally been with the mayor.
But Daley and his staff have been playing hardball with many of the latter aldermen, and his staffers are confident they will be able to pass the ordinance the next time it comes up.
One of those whom the opposition has been counting on is Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), who has been lobbied heavily by the administration. She said following Tuesday`s meeting that she will vote for the ordinance even though no changes were made.
