Fixing Illinois? Pritzker needs a New Chicago Way

Fixing Chicago’s outdated governance would benefit the entire state. Pritzker should use his new job – and the megaphone that comes with it – to help make that a reality.

“We are one Illinois.” This was a refrain from Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker during campaign season. It’s a nice sentiment. The state is short on pride and solidarity.

But now that campaign season is over, how can Pritzker actually bring Illinois together?

Take Chicago.

In parts of Illinois, Chicago bears the brunt of the blame for all the state’s problems. The blame game arises from many factors: cultural, political, economic, racial and historical. Sometimes the criticism is warranted. Other times, 2.7 million Illinoisans near Lake Michigan are just convenient scapegoats.

Either way, Illinois does not thrive when its largest city fails.

Chicagoans know well the problems they face. Chicago’s homicide rate is the highest among major cities. Its municipal debt per capita is the highest, too. When it comes to the city’s schools, parent and teacher unrest often boils over.

But oftentimes, Chicagoans are left powerless to bring about the structural change necessary to fix these problems.

That’s where the rest of the state comes in.

In a new book for the Southern Illinois University Press, my co-author and I spoke with dozens of civic leaders across the 15 most populous cities in the U.S., trying to figure out what Chicago can learn from its peers. A number of eye-popping comparisons jumped out immediately.

The biggest one, and maybe the simplest, is this:

Chicago is the largest U.S. city without a true city charter. In other words, the city lacks a constitution. Charters and charter revision are the normal way that big cities form and reform their government.

Since the Illinois Constitution lays out rules for local governments, creating a new city charter for Chicago probably will require some assistance from state lawmakers in the form of a constitutional amendment.

In other words, the 80 percent of Illinoisans who live outside Chicago city limits could help empower the 20 percent who do to finally turn their city around. One Illinois.

But why is a city charter so important?

In its absence, Chicago has become home to the last true strongman political system in the U.S. The mayor is the strongman. He or she holds all the cards. Checks and balances, the hallmark of American government, aren’t in the deck.

What follows is rash decision-making, enormous deficits, a rubber-stamp City Council, and other problems affecting both average Chicagoans as well as families throughout the state.

Forming a city charter commission, and giving Chicagoans a vote on that charter, could bring enormous change to Chicago and Illinois.

The New York City charter revision in 1989 provides just one example of what’s possible. Among other items, charter revision reformed the powers and size of the city council, the process for budget-making and banned elected officials from serving as party leaders. In 1999, Los Angeles voters passed a new city charter that changed the powers and duties of the mayor, city council, controller and city attorney, among other reforms.

Chicago needs all of that and more.

Fixing Chicago’s outdated governance would benefit the entire state. Pritzker should use his new job – and the megaphone that comes with it – to help make that a reality.