Chicago Ald. Leslie Hairston says she turned down Mayor Lightfoot’s request to serve as ethics chair: ‘I am not a product of the machine’

Retiring Chicago Ald. Leslie Hairston revealed Tuesday night that she rejected Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s request to serve as chair of the still rudderless ethics committee, in another sign that a streak of independence is brewing within City Council.

Speaking at an event centered on the “Punch 9 For Harold Washington” documentary and the notorious Council Wars underscoring that era, the alderman of the 5th Ward disclosed the offer when asked why she has never chaired a committee despite serving on the council since 1999.

“I am not a product of the machine. I am the product of an independent, proud community that works, that has values, and that’s who I represent,” Hairston said at the monthly “First Tuesdays” political discussion forum.

But, she added, “I was offered, recently, a committee, which I turned down.”

Hairston said that body was the ethics committee, which has been vacant since 43rd Ward Ald. Michele Smith retired, effective Aug. 12. Since then, ethics committee vice chair Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, has tried to get himself appointed, to no avail.

A spokesperson for Lightfoot did not immediately return a request for comment.

Another committee — education — has similarly been without a chair since 24th Ward Ald. Michael Scott stepped down in June. That is despite the vice chair, 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King, who is running for mayor against Lightfoot, seeking to succeed Scott in that role.

Hairston did not go into much detail on her reasons for declining beyond clarifying the offer was extended after she had announced at the end of August that she would not seek reelection in 2023.

“I don’t even think about stuff like that, I mean, because it’s nuts,” Hairston said.

Also in attendance Tuesday was 33rd Ward. Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, a member of the ethics committee who chimed in regarding Martin, a fellow progressive: “He is completely capable of doing it, and he has the support of the committee of ethics. Most of us are good with him doing it.”

Martin introduced legislation in September appointing himself as chair of the ethics committee, but it has languished in the rules committee that is controlled by Lightfoot ally Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th.

Rodriguez Sanchez went on to argue that committee chairs don’t truly control their bodies, the mayor’s intergovernmental affairs team does as they coordinate the schedule of meetings.

“If the mayor doesn’t want something to be heard, it’s very likely that it is not going to be heard,” Rodriguez Sanchez said. “You have to fight like hell to have something heard.”

To that, Hairston quipped, “The thing about that is, where are the balls in this council? I mean, if you’ve got a candidate, let somebody try to take that committee away from you. At some point you have to say, ‘This is my committee, I want this heard and you may not like it, but we’re going to do it.’ ”

A mini-revolt of that sort did happen in October, when aldermen rejected Lightfoot’s unexpected choice to chair the education committee. Council members voted 29-18 against the mayor’s elevation of outgoing 46th Ward Ald. James Cappleman to the spot, in an embarrassing rebuke of Lightfoot, who vowed to try advancing the pick again in the future.

King, the vice chair and a Lightfoot challenger in the mayoral race, rose to accuse her administration of not being transparent and playing politics. Cappleman later told reporters that King as the education chair would be “awkward” given that she’s running against Lightfoot.

The education committee, like ethics, still remains without a leader. But Hairston noted that Cappleman’s rejection is “a perfect example of how we need to use our power as aldermen to make some things happen. We can do it, and it feels so good when we do.”

Still, the veteran council member did not have much faith that her colleagues could attempt a true rebellion of mayoral control and begin selecting their own chairpersons: “There are a lot of open seats, but I think they’re going to give in and do what a lot of other people do. They jump right in line. They’ve been doing it for years. I mean, I keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.”

ayin@chicagotribune.com