Chance the Rapper brought his star-powered activism to City Hall on Wednesday, speaking out against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to spend $95 million on a new police training academy in West Garfield Park.

The Grammy-winning South Side rap artist delivered a casual speech during the public comment portion of the City Council meeting. Down in the lobby, he huddled with students there to protest a school closing. And he took to social media, making #NoCopAcademy the top trending topic on Twitter in Chicago for hours.

What impact did all of that have on aldermen? They voted 48-1 to pay $10 million for 30 acres of vacant land for the academy.

Emanuel defended the project at his post-meeting news conference.

“All the aldermen on the West Side voted for this, because they understand — they have felt forgotten from the type of public investments that can spur economic growth,” Emanuel said. “It will have its own value of safety for the entire city. It will have its own value of safety ... to the West Side. And it will be an investment in the kind of economic activity we want to see.”

Chance, whose nonstage name is Chancelor Bennett, offered his rebuttal to the mayor’s comments on Twitter: “THIS WHOLE THING IS ILLOGICAL. LETS JUST STEP BACK AND FIGURE OUT THE THINGS WE REALLY NEED.”

He also had some choice words for Ald. Walter Burnett, tweeting that the 27th Ward alderman “historically NEVER votes no” on Emanuel’s proposals, bookending the post with some laughing-crying face and thinking face emojis.

Still up in the air is how exactly the city will pay for the project. In addition to the $10 million for the land, Emanuel is planning to use $20 million from the sale of a city truck yard near Goose Island to a developer and another $5 million from the sale of a River North firehouse that will be rebuilt with a high-rise on top of it.

The mayor also hopes to get at least $23 million from the sale of a handful of other police and fire training buildings, according to David Reynolds, commissioner of the city Department of Fleet and Facility Management. That leaves a shortfall of around $37 million to build the training center.

Bennett noted that the city doesn’t have $95 million to cover the cost.

“What is y’all doin’?” he asked aldermen. “It doesn’t make sense. I’m very confused. But like I said, you guys have a lot of power, and that’s why I showed up at 8 a.m., because I feel like it’s — maybe if you guys just hear me say it. I’ll take pictures with everybody afterward if you want me to.”

The rap artist also noted that Emanuel, who runs the council meetings, had stepped out of the room. “It’s cool,” he said, adding that his goal was to persuade aldermen to vote against the project.

Asked about Bennett’s comments, Emanuel said he wasn’t snubbing the rapper and praised him for his work on behalf of the arts and his decision to speak up Wednesday.

“It’s not when he spoke that I stepped out. I stepped out beforehand. It was actually to call my mother,” Emanuel said. “And I had not called her in the morning, because we had the morning meetings. ... Don’t ever be late calling a Jewish mother on her birthday.”

The new academy would be in the ward of Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, who said it would provide a way for the department to try to fix some of the training inadequacies the U.S. Justice Department pointed to in a scathing January report detailing a pattern of constitutional violations by police against residents.

The training center also could be an anchor for economic development and give residents a sense of safety in a part of the city that has been beset by poverty and violence for decades, Mitts said this week, noting that the site has been vacant for more than 40 years.

Approval came after an impassioned speech from Mitts, who said she appreciates Bennett’s work in her ward.

“Give us $95 million, and come back and give us some more,” Mitts said before offering to meet with Bennett, who had departed the meeting, to explain her views on the project.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, who cast the lone vote against spending the money, contended that police training wasn’t going to solve the problems highlighted by the Justice Department report. That probe was triggered by the November 2015 release of a police dashcam video showing African-American teen Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by a white police officer who has since been charged with murder.

The officer didn’t need more training to know what he did was wrong, but “to be held accountable for his previous misdeeds,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “What he needed was the mental health to deal with the racism and the hatred that he felt in his heart. And Laquan McDonald, who was out that night with a knife slashing tires, what he needed was mental health services.”

Bennett has increasingly injected himself in public issues this year. In March he met privately with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to discuss Chicago Public Schools funding. In September, Bennett announced that $2.2 million raised by his nonprofit organization would be doled out to 20 schools for arts education programs.

hdardick@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ReporterHal