Free and equitable access to City Council meetings is a basic bulwark of our civic democracy. Any changes to policy and procedures should be undertaken only with public input and due deliberation.
The BGA calls on the Sergeant-at-Arms and City Council leadership to publish clear and public rules, if any changes have been made to the policies currently posted on the City Clerk’s website, and to ensure that those rules apply equally to all attendees.
Recent visitors to City Council have been confronted with new and confusing procedures for public attendance. Seating areas on the open second-floor level previously available on a first-come, first-served basis are now blocked, with the general public directed to the glassed-in third-floor balcony.
The written rules for public attendance posted on the City Clerk’s website have not been updated, and still state, “The public is admitted to the Gallery’s non-reserved seats on a first-come, first-served basis.” Media reports and verbal responses from the Sergeant-at-Arms have indicated that second-floor seating is now invitation only, with no clear process or policy for how those invitations occur.
The Better Government Association opposes any division of public seating into invitation-only and general public sections. Personal relationships with elected officials should not be a determining factor in the public’s access to public meetings. Any new rules or restrictions should be applied equally to all attendees, with no carve-outs for aldermanic or mayoral invitations.
Despite pledges of greater transparency during his campaign and a “City Hall Open House” photo-op at his inauguration, Mayor Johnson has more significantly restricted access to the upper floors of City Hall – including aldermanic and mayoral office suites as well as the council chambers – than any of his predecessors. The public is not even allowed access to the stairs or elevators until shortly before public meetings, and the new, unpublished seating rules banish most attendees to the upper balcony, which offers more limited viewing and hearing, as well as suffering from overcrowding and overheating.
The Better Government Association is a 100-year-old civic watchdog that seeks better government through investigative journalism, policy reforms and civic engagement efforts that lead to more open, equitable and accountable government. The policy team and investigative unit operate independently of one another, while both seek to advance the cause of better government in Chicago and across Illinois.
