Difficult years ahead but Reilly optimistic

Expect smaller city government, possibly fewer aldermen

30-Mar-11 – One thing is for certain. When you are $700 million to $750 million in the hole, there are no attractive options.

42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly painted a grim picture to River North residents on Tuesday evening of the city’s budget crisis, and explained what the city has to do to balance the budget. He told about 75 people attending a quarterly meeting of the River North Residents Association that some “very painful” cuts will be made to the city’s budget and the next four years will be “very difficult.”

But he believes he and mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel are on the same page. “He’s talking about doing many of the things that I’ve spoken…about over the past three years to make city government more responsive, more efficient, and frankly a bit smaller.” (Left) 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly at an event near the Chicago River in May 2010.

Programs will be cut and some city responsibilities may shift to the county and the state. The number of city employees, currently about 36,000, could get “dramatically” smaller and even the number of aldermen could get a trim – an idea both Reilly and Emanuel support.

Expect “major structural changes” to city government, says Reilly, “top to bottom.”

“I think that everyone in government, whether you’re a front line service worker, a middle bureaucrat, a commissioner, the mayor, or a sitting alderman, we all need to share in the belt tightening. We are beyond the days of the good times and allowing bloated government to move year after year. We have to make difficult changes now.”

New blood will help with those changes. On February 22, eleven new aldermen were elected and Reilly says he has spent time getting to know them all. “These are sharp, capable people. I’m very optimistic. I think we’ve already raised the I.Q. on the city council,” he mused, “probably by double.”

And more are on the way. 14 runoff elections will be held next Tuesday all over the city, and Reilly is helping in ten of the elections. “The idea is [to support] candidates that are going to support an agenda that helps grow the downtown economy, stabilize the economic environment for homeowners, and help us keep young families here to raise their kids.”

 Hear Alderman Reilly’s entire remarks (duration: 11:47)