The current Chicago City Council serves as a “rubber stamp,” approving almost any legislation the mayor proposes, Simpson says in a report he and his research team are publishing next month.

Spanning from May 2007 to April 2008, Simpson’s study will disclose few divided roll-call votes—about 14. “Most City Councils in the history of Chicago have averaged 50 to 100 divided roll-call votes per year. Under Daley, they average 15 to 20,” Simpson says. “Today’s aldermen vote unanimously with the mayor 95 percent of the time on, say, the thousands of pieces of legislation that come before the council.” In the current council, Simpson says, 25 of the 50 aldermen have thus far voted with the mayor 100 percent of the time.

Simpson says the new report’s numbers reflect a less independent City Council when compared with his previously published study that looked at votes from May 2003 to November 2006.

The council has weakened, Simpson says, partly because Daley’s appointees (there are currently 16) tend to be loyalists. Additionally, the mayor distributes to dutiful aldermen in-kind campaign contributions, providing a monetary boost for things like signs, office space and radio advertising. In turn, these aldermen seldom bite the hand that feeds them. “An example would be [48th Ward Ald.] Mary Ann Smith, who comes out of the independent movement but was [initially] appointed by the mayor and on key votes has tended to vote with the mayor,” Simpson says.

So what does it mean for our city government to have a virtually unchecked chief executive? “A government that doesn’t have checks and balances is likely to make bad mistakes,” Simpson says. He, as well as editors at the Tribune and Sun-Times, already have placed a Grant Park Chicago Children’s Museum into the “mistake” file. In this instance, though, the council, including Ald. Brendan Reilly, who represents the 42nd Ward of which Grant Park is a part, has a good reason to fight: the defense of aldermanic privilege, the informal precedent in which council members have final say on development in their wards. But history shows that Daley likely will have his way, even if he has to step on aldermanic privilege to get there.

“My guess is that he’ll persuade enough aldermen [to] win,” Simpson says. “The mayor has dug in his heels, and once he’s done that, it’s over.”