Napolitano is unbeatable but police council races chaotic

The paramount goal of any journalistic inquiry is sometimes to just get a “yes” or a “no” for an answer.

The paramount goal of a political candidate is to not directly answer vote-losing questions.

A fudged answer, encapsulated in a mumbled innocuous platitude, is the best answer.

Doing a lot of talking but not saying anything.

Take Paul Struebing, a Democrat and Edison Park lawyer who is running for 41st Ward alderman against 2-term incumbent Anthony Napolitano on Feb. 28. 

Struebing, who has lived in the ward for several years, is positioning himself as a pragmatic progressive.  None of that anti-police stuff for him, he said.

“We need more cops.” He said he will “focus on ward services” and does not have an ideological agenda.

“We need more affordable housing in the ward,” he said, raising concerns about an approved but not being built yet 51-home development behind the former Sisters of the Resurrection convent north of Talcott Avenue.

“They are over-priced.” He is right. They are going to cost an arm and a leg.

But what about the city-approved 297-unit project on Higgins Avenue by Glenstar Properties in the Marriott parking lot, with 59 affordable set aside units? Napolitano is against it. Are you for it, I asked Struebing?

“I am in favor of housing that fits into the fabric of our neighborhoods,” Struebing said. So much for a “yes” or a “no.” That’s evasive lawyer speak, which is just a bunch of mumbled platitudes. I should know. I was a lawyer for 43 years.

“I want to preserve the single-family character” of the 41st Ward, said Napolitano. “I oppose high-density (projects),“ he said, which impact schools and traffic. “It also lowers property values.” There are 8,500 apartments in the southwest Cumberland-Higgins sector, of which 600-800 are always vacant, he said. “That’s plenty of ‘affordable housing’,” he said. 

Because of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s attempt to strip aldermen of their “aldermanic prerogative” the Marriott project was approved and is pending but not proceeding. 

They can only offer their “opinion,” and certain projects get rammed through even against the alderman’s wishes.

Struebing is an associate at Amundsen Davis, a Loop firm that does corporate and medical tort defense.

“Napolitano missed 70 (council) committee meetings” since 2015, said Struebing. I asked: Will you be a full-time alderman? The job pays $130,000 starting this year.  And will you attend all your assigned committee meetings? Amazingly, I got a “No.” “I will be working at least 10 hours a week” for Amundsen, Struebing admitted.

“I have never missed a (council) meeting,” retorted Napolitano. There are many council committees, of which Napolitano serves on several, including committees on aviation,  budget and government operations, committees and rules, finance, housing and real estate, license and consumer protection, public safety, and workforce development.  “That’s where the real work is done,” insists Struebing. Not true, retorted Napolitano.

“I put people over politics,’ said Napolitano, a conservative ex-cop and firefighter-on-leave. “If I have a problem or event in the ward, I give it priority.” Besides, he added, committee input and testimony is usually meaningless and all ordinances are pre-written. “If I don’t like what comes out” of committee, “I vote against it when it comes to the council.”

Struebing attacked Napolitano for voting against abortion and LGBTQ rights, refusing to debate, opposing the 2016 and 2021 budgets and opposing the water rate hike, which funded the Municipal Employees’ pension. The business districts in Norwood Park and Harlem-Higgins are “hollowed-out,” Struebing said, blaming Napolitano.

This got the alderman fuming. “I voted against (Rahm Emanuel’s) 2016 budget because it contained a $500 million property tax hike. I voted against the 2021 budget because it was tied to the rate of inflation.” It now automatically goes up when the CPI goes up, with a 5 percent cap per year. And, continued Napolitano, “I voted against the water rate hike which doubled water bills,” noting that the ME pension won’t be fully-funded until 2052, if then. “It’s permanent,” he said. Napolitano also takes credit for renovations at Norwood Park, 16-18 blocks of curb-to-curb menu upgrades annually and Oriole Park water main replacements.

“There is a Democratic floor” in the ward of at least 40 percent, said Struebing.

Biden beat Trump 51.3-47.1 percent. Kim Foxx (D) got just 21.1 percent in 2020, and Tim Heneghan, then the ward committeeman (D), lost to Napolitano in 2019 (see chart), pulling just 29.7 percent and losing all 47 of the ward’s precincts. Napolitano won three precincts by more than 80 percent, 24 by more than 70 and 17 by more than 60. Those are blowout numbers. There is no indication that Napolitano’s popularity has diminished since 2019. If anything, it grew.

There is also no doubt in my mind that we need more lawyers in public office. We need more obfuscators and equivocators. We need more systemic cloggers, not cleansers. The last 41st Ward alderman who was an attorney was Joe Immel (1947-58). I vaguely recall writing an analysis of the 1958 Immel-Bell aldermanic race when I was in 2nd grade at Onahan School. I used a lot of crayons. In journalism, you gotta start early.

Napolitano will win with 67 percent, and again win every precinct.

POLICE DISTRICT COUNCIL (16TH DISTRICT): There will be 66 members elected in 22 police districts on Feb. 28, and those elected will have input into both local policing and submit a cumulative 14 names for appointees to the Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CPSA), of which the mayor picks seven, subject to council approval. The CPSA will have input into picking the police superintendent. The PDC job pays $6,000-a year.

Not unexpectedly, the FOP botched and bungled it. Instead of fielding pro-police slates of 3-per district, FOP (led by John Catanzara) did NOTHING. “It was a missed opportunity,” said retired CPD lieutenant John Garrido. It sure was.

Catanzara, incidentally, is being challenged by Bob Bartlett, a FOP VP under Kevin Graham, in the Feb. FOP election.

As Dave Feller, a 16th District (Jefferson Park) PDC candidate, put it: You’re either back-the-blue or hate/defund-the-cops. The haters will far outnumber the backers on the local PDCs and on the CPSA.

Feller, a protégé of state Senator Rob Martwick (D-10), is running as a “voice of reason,” meaning he’s straddling the fence. Feller may win one of the posts.

Not straddling are a bunch (6) of pro-policers who can’t get their act together but at least two of whom will win. They are Trisha Lynn Kannon Lloyd and John Marcatante, both from Gladstone Park; Daniel Martin, a committee staffer for alderman Nick Sposato; Colleen Dillon of Edison Park, along with Danel Butterworth and Colleen Murphy.

All are community activists of varying degrees, none have ex-CPD (who are banned from running) family, and none except Feller have the money for direct mail, which would be $15,000-a pop. Feller is using Martwick’s company for one mailer.

Feller’s very active in Dem politics. There are three Irish-surnamed women. Napolitano endorsed Dillon/Martin/Kannon, Sposato endorsed Martin/Dillon/Murphy, Garrido endorsed Kannon/Butterworth/Marcatante, and Alderman Jim Gardiner endorsed Dillon.

The 16th police district stretches from Cicero west and Belmont north to the city limits, measures 24.7 square miles and has 12 beats. It contains 98 precincts, 11 partial precincts, all of the 38th and 41st  wards, 2/3rds of the 45th, 1/3rd of the 39th, and pieces of four other wards. It has a population of about 180,000 and roughly 110,000 registered voters in 70,000 households.

Outlook: Voters know not for who they are voting. So what else is new?

Winners will be the three women, although Feller could sneak in.