Chicago City Council is losing another member as Alderman Ariel Reboyras chooses retirement over a difficult reelection.
Amid a mass exodus from Chicago City Council, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is making it clear that if she's reelected, she has no plans to change.Another week, another member of the Chicago City Council who's "tired of this" and not running for reelection.
"Why now? Why not? Forty-four years in city government. I want to spend a little more time with my mom, who's very ill, and she's 92. That's No. 1 for me. And help out my brother. He's not doing too well, either," said Reboyras, 69. He's the very definition of what former Ald. Tony Laurino used to call an "alley alderman" - an old-school throwback more concerned about delivering city services to constituents than generating headlines and preening for the cameras.
As Public Safety chair, he was forced to carry the water on police reform for then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the furor that followed the court-ordered release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video. No wonder Reboyras told the City Club of Chicago at the time: "I feel like the walls are crashing in on me."
Reboyras denied he's walking away for fear of losing a rematch to Gutierrez, who announced her candidacy for 30th Ward alderperson on Saturday. But he hinted strongly he considers Jessica's candidacy with her father's backing a political betrayal by Luis Gutierrez. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley's former patronage chief, streets and sanitation commissioner and two others were convicted of rigging city hiring to benefit HDO and other pro-Daley armies of political workers.