Mayor of Chicago

The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.

Appointment powers

The Mayor appoints the Commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department and Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. He or she is also responsible for appointing the heads of city departments, the largest of which are the Water Management Department (formed by the consolidation of the former Water Department and Sewer Department under Richard M. Daley) and the Streets & Sanitation Department. He or she additionally appoints members to the boards of several special purpose municipalities including the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, et al. Under Richard M. Daley, the Illinois legislature granted the mayor power to appoint the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools and subordinated the district under the mayor's authority; the district had long been an independent political field.

The Chicago City Clerk and City Treasurer are elected separately, as are the fifty aldermen who form the City Council. The mayor is empowered, however, to fill vacancies in any of these fifty-two elected offices by appointment. In turn, the City Council elect one of their own in the event the mayor's office is vacated.

Election

The Mayor of Chicago is elected by popular vote every four years, on the last Tuesday in February. A run-off election, in the event no candidate garners more than fifty percent of the vote, is held on the first Tuesday in April. The election is held on a non-partisan basis. Chicago is the largest city in the United States of America not to limit the term of service for its mayor.

History

The first mayor was William Butler Ogden. Two sets of father and son have been elected Mayor of Chicago: Carter Harrison, Sr. and Carter Harrison, Jr. as well as Richard J. Daley and Richard M. Daley. Carter Harrison, Jr. was the first of the mayors to have been born within city limits. The first, and only woman to hold the office was Jane Byrne. The first Black mayor was Harold Washington. As an interim mayor, David Duvall Orr has the shortest mayoral term. Richard M. Daley was originally elected in 1989 and re-elected for the sixth time in 2007. In September 2010, Daley announced he would not seek a seventh term re-election as mayor. On December 26, 2010, Daley became the longest serving mayor of the city, surpassing his father's record.^[1] Rahm Emanuel is the current Mayor, having won the 2011 election with 55% of the votes to 25% for his closest opponent, Gery Chico. Emanuel was sworn in on May 16, 2011.

List of mayors

The mayoral term in Chicago was one year from 1837 through 1863, when it was increased to two years. In 1907 it was again lengthened to four years, the present duration. Until 1861, municipal elections were held in March. In that year, legislation changed them to April. In 1869, however, election time was changed to November, and terms expiring in April of that year were lengthened. In 1875, the election day was moved back to April by the city's vote to operate under the Cities and Villages Act of 1872.

¹ Rahm Emanuel is a Democrat, but he and all other candidates in the 2011 election officially ran as nonpartisans. Under a 1995 Illinois law, "candidates for mayor . . . no longer would run under party labels in Chicago."^[2]

See also

• Law and government of Chicago

References

• "A Chronology of Chicago's Mayors". Chicago Public Library. http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/mayors/mayorlist.php. Retrieved May 26, 2010. 

External links