Aldermanic candidate Pete DeMay (12th) introduces himself at a candidates’ forum organized by the McKinley Park Progressive Alliance. (The Gate/Sonya Eldridge)
Aldermanic candidates from the 12th and 25th Wards participated in a candidate’s forum Monday, December 8, 2014 at the McKinley Park library.
The forum, organized by the McKinley Park Progressive Alliance, gave residents an opportunity to pose questions to 25th Ward aldermanic candidates Byron Sigcho and Jorge Mujica and 12th Ward candidate Pete DeMay. Incumbents Ald. Danny Solis (25th) and Ald. George Cardenas (12th) were not present.
Mayoral candidates Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd), William “Dock” Walls, and Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia’s wife, Evelyn Garcia, showed up at different times throughout the event.
The candidates shared their strategies on a number of issues, including improving public education, crime reduction strategies and increasing civic engagement.
“Don’t forget, we’ve had pension holidays for ten years, twelve years, while these TIFs siphoned off all this money and we said we can’t find money,” Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) said. “We can’t find money for our people that work on our pensions, but we sure as heck can find money for DePaul stadium, Maggie Daley Park.”
Education advocate Byron Sigcho said if elected, he would work with residents to advocate for more resources to strengthen neighborhood schools instead of investing in new charter schools.
“We know how to make neighborhood schools great, but we choose not to do it. Certain public schools are top performers… but we don’t really do it for the African-American and Latino communities,” he said.
Aldermanic candidate for the 25th Ward, Jorge Mujica, spoke generally about the need for public school reform.
“As long as we keep paying for schools from real [estate] taxes from the neighborhood we are going to have poor schools. What we need is a different system for the allocation of budgets. You cannot spend $5,000 per student a year here and $12,000 per student in Lincoln Park,” he said.
Mujica, a strategic campaigns organizer for Arise Chicago also said local school councils (LSC) should have more say on important decisions about school administration.
Pete DeMay, who is challenging Ald. Cardenas, is a union organizer with the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).
DeMay supports the notion of an elected school board and said, “Our schools would improve markedly if parents had a real voice in how the educational system is run.”
DeMay also said he thinks a $15 minimum wage would positively impact education, citing families’ economic situations as an indicator for school performance.
On public safety issues, Mujica said more police is not the answer for crime reduction. Instead, police departments across the country need bottom-up reform. He also said he thinks all officers should be required to wear body cams to monitor their interactions with citizens.
“I think we feel threatened when we see more police on the street,” he said. “Why? Because of the criminalization of everybody. I think we need to redesign the whole police system completely.”
DeMay said he thinks more police officers should be hired from within each district or community.
“We do need more [police], but the right kind and with the right mayor picking the superintendent,” he said.
Sigcho, who is running for alderman of the 25th Ward and is a Lead Instructor at the UIC Center for Literacy, called for the development of a civilian oversight body to ensure police are doing their jobs. He also emphasized the importance of developing more youth programs to provide community-based alternatives.
Weighing in on civic engagement, DeMay said he would work to strengthen communication with his constituents and hear their points of view.
“Representation is going to be so much better when we seek out opinions, when we seek out folks and look for guidance from the people who elected us,” DeMay said.
Mujica proposed the creation of precinct councils, where ward residents make decisions on the most important issues. “I think precinct councils have to decide how the alderman votes in City Council,” he said. “You know, whether you go for the $13 in 2019 or you maintain your position and you vote for $15 now, that’s a decision that belongs to the people, it’s not a decision that belongs to one person only.”
Sigcho said, if elected, he would work to organize parents and students in community schools by teaching the importance of voting and community engagement.
“A lot of politicians rely on people not voting, that’s the bottom line,” he said.
Mayoral candidate William “Dock” Walls is a community activist and was a former assistant to the late Harold Washington.
“We have to unthink our economics,” Walls said. “We have to develop a smart economy that guarantees every Chicago resident a better quality of life because we have two Chicagos- we have a world-class Chicago, and we have an under-class Chicago.”
Bill Drew, an organizer with the McKinley Park Progressive Alliance reminded residents of the purpose of the group and the importance of strategic organizing.
“We are building something that has the potential of changing the politics in our neighborhood,” Drew said. “If we choose the issues, we can become more powerful and then everybody will see that there’s some benefit in coming together for these meetings, bringing out the issues and backing together a slate of candidates.”