Other elected officials are registered to lobby the city, including retiring Senate President John Cullerton, state Rep. Jaime Andrade and Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin. Former Ald. Mike Zalewski, 23rd, was also registered to lobby the state before his retirement from the City Council. Gyata Kimmons, a village trustee for suburban Flossmoor, is also a registered lobbyist.



“We are surrounded by impropriety at the state level, at the county level and in this body. The feds are all around us. We need to send a message that this BS is over with,” O’Shea said, asking how many times he had to wake up to news of another scandal. “We need to send the message to the people we represent in our communities that the buck stops here and the bullshit’s gonna stop.”

The ordinance was tweaked since its initial introduction. It stipulates that “no elected official or employee may lobby the State, the County, or any other unit of local government in the State, or derive any income or compensation” from it, unless that person is working in their official capacity for the government they represent.

It also says no “elected official of the state or a unit of local government in the State may lobby the city, the City Council, or any city agency, department, board or commission” unless they’re acting in their elected capacity for constituents, representing a legal client in “quasi-judicial, administrative or legislative action,” or engaging in political activity.



“Nothing in this proposal would prohibit or inhibit government officials or employees of the city from lobbying on behalf of your constituents or performing official government responsibilities,” Steve Berlin, the executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics, told aldermen. “Everybody in this room is in no way inhibited by this proposal from doing your job.”



“If you’re an elected official, you should not be lobbying the city of Chicago. If you’re an elected official in this city, you should not be lobbying anybody else,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa, 35th, said in support.

Berlin said “approximately six” elected officials from outside the city lobby Chicago government currently and would be prohibited going forward.

While the measure passed unanimously in a voice vote, some aldermen, including Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11th), Ald. David Moore (17th) and Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), said they worried about how the legislation might hurt well-intentioned people who serve in elected office and lobby as well.

“If you are from your community and you want to be involved or engaged and you want to be on the library board of Alsip and your primary position was a lobbyist with X, Y, Z company, now you have to choose that you can’t help your community?” Thompson asked.

“I think we’re throwing out the baby with the bathwater on this one,” Moore said, adding that there were great elected officials that have employment in real estate and law that lobby.

Burnett suggested aldermen were acting too quickly and were governing by the media. “I want to know how it will affect other folks. It will look good in print,” he said. “ ‘Hell yeah, everybody’s corrupt,’ all that great stuff.”

Smith countered that regulations are meant to have adverse impacts to deter conflicts of interest. “It isn’t because it’s fashionable, it isn’t because it’s popular, it’s because it’s needed, and we have the power to make these changes now.”