Banning outside income and limiting campaign contributions — not ending aldermanic prerogative — is the way to stop the never-ending cycle of City Council corruption that continued Friday with the filing of bribery and racketeering charges against Ald. Edward Burke (14th).

That’s the bottom line from Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), a Burke ally and the most outspoken critic of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s executive order stripping aldermen of their absolute power over licenses and permits in their wards.

One day after Burke was accused of using the city of Chicago as a criminal “enterprise” to squeeze businesses to hire his private law firm, Lopez argued Lightfoot is making a mistake by focusing her reform efforts on ending aldermanic prerogative.

“The true nexus for where a lot of this corruption [begins and] ends is the outside employment by aldermen,” Lopez told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“There’s about a dozen aldermen who have outside employment. Our focus ... should be on representing our people. If that is our sole job, then people will believe that all we care about is the good of our community. Until we address that, the perception of constant corruption — whether it’s a 50-year incumbent or someone just fresh onto the Council — will never change.”

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), newly elected chairman of the council’s Black Caucus, agreed that if Burke was prohibited from practicing law, he would never have been accused of using his clout as Finance Committee chairman to muscle businesses to hire his law firm.

But Ervin favors a ban on outside income only when an alderman’s “business interests conflict with the fiduciary responsibilities that you have to protect the citizens.”

“Ald. Lopez was previously a skycap before becoming an alderman. How does being a skycap and being an alderman intersect?” Ervin said.

“If you’re doing something that has no conflict with the city, I don’t think you should have to give that up.”

On the same day that Burke was indicted, the Board of Ethics proposed sweeping reforms that included limiting campaign contributions from labor unions to $1,500 a year per candidate.

“It makes sense that unions be treated the same way as businesses,” Lopez said.

Ervin disagreed. His wife was just elected city treasurer with heavy union support.

“Unions represent a large group of people that are essentially working to pool their resources together to have their voice heard,” he said.

Within hours of taking office, Lightfoot signed an executive order stripping aldermen of their absolute power over licenses and permits in their wards.

She’s also promising to introduce an ordinance removing the virtually iron-fisted control aldermen have over zoning in their wards.

Lopez and Ervin said they still plan to communicate local concerns to city department heads even though Lightfoot has mandated written reports on those aldermanic contacts every 60 days.

“We need to say no [and] why. Not just no for the sake of saying no,” Ervin said.

Both aldermen said they were embarrassed to read Burke’s graphic quotes, captured either by a tap on his cellphone or by FBI mole Danny Solis, former chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee.

They reminded Ervin of convicted Ald. Arenda Troutman’s infamous claim that, “All aldermen are hos.”

“It just makes you cringe. ... It just fuels that perception once again that, `That’s how they all are. Now we know how they all talk when no one’s looking. That’s what I’ve got to do to get business done in any ward in the city of Chicago,’” Lopez said.

“If these quotes are true and the tapes are correct, it’s gonna be a hit and a stain on the city of Chicago — absolutely.”

The day before the sweeping indictment against him, Burke invited Lightfoot to humiliate him during an early skirmish on the City Council floor.

It happened after he inexplicably stood during her first council meeting to complain that the council rules her administration had drafted were not gender neutral.

Lopez called that classic Chicago moment a head scratcher.

“I have no idea what the endgame of Ald. Burke’s remarks were. A number of my colleagues even said, ‘Was this like a softball pitch to her to put him in his place early and just get it out of the way? To help her?’” Lopez said.

“I’m not of the mind that Ed Burke took one for the team to help Lori Lightfoot. But it definitely worked to her advantage more than it did his. And she went on a victory lap afterwards.”