Mayor Lori Lightfoot Puts Her Foot Down During First City Council Meeting

Mayor Lori Lightfoot took charge of her first city council meeting bringing the "light" to the old political system and naming new committee chairs.But, before any voting actually took place, Lightfoot had a face-off with Alderman Ed Burke who's recently been in headlines over federal corruption charges. The meeting started with public comments from residents who spoke their truth about issues in their communities. That's when Burke took over the meeting, to address something he had a problem with. Burke said it was shocking that city council rules, which were drafted by Lightfoot's administration, were not gender neutral given the fact that Lightfoot is the city's first openly gay mayor. His main issue was that the rules have a gender designation and not a "his or hers". Lightfoot responded to Burke by saying he should understand that under the law, whether the rules designate the role as his or her, are applied with equal force. The city council meeting continued as usual, voting on orders and resolutions, but then the meeting was interrupted by Alderman Burke again. After the meeting, Lightfoot said Alderman Burke's want to address gender equity was laughable. She even said Burke wanted to take her on publicly, but the mayor is not up for it.

05/30/19 10:23AM