#BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: Well, let me first say good afternoon and welcome to all of you. I’m Andy Shaw, President and CEO of the Better Government Association and this is a virtual good government town hall, a live stream. I want to thank the man who’s going to answer the questions today, the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel. Mayor, thanks for joining us.
[00:00:22] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Sure.
ANDY SHAW: As you approach the end of your first 100 days -- let me also thank the School of Communication at Loyola University for providing us with this beautiful, state-of-the- art arts studio, let me thank Wendy Citizen for helping us publicize this, and let me thank all of you out there who have submitted questions via Facebook, Twitter, email, and, of course, to our website, bettergov.org. We will try to answer, get in as many of those questions as we can, along with a few of mine.
[00:00:52] Let me start by giving a few words about the Better Government Association for those of you who may not be familiar with us. The BGA is a non-partisan civic watch dog that shines a lot on government and holds public officials accountable because, quite simply, better government is our right as citizens and taxpayers, and it’s their obligation as public officials. These are our tax dollars. They have to be spent wisely and prudently. So we have five simple goals that we’ll be talking about today. They are accountability, fairness, efficiency, openness, and honesty; sounds easy, maybe even harder to execute.
Mayor, let me start with honesty because corruption with a big and little C has bedeviled the city for so long and during the campaign when you filled out one of our BGA questionnaires you pledged to basically rewrite and give us a very powerful code of ethics with teeth to govern the behavior of public officials and to empower an ethics board that would really see that those principles were adhered to. So here we are approaching the end of the first 100 days. Where does that stand?
[00:02:03] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, as you know, I wasn’t even in my office two hours and I signed six consecutive orders dealing with ethics and reforms as they related to the mayor in City Hall, in City Hall. Second, with by the just recently and
1 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw about two weeks we signed the most comprehensive ethics reform for the city, six different items that specifically change and bring a level of transparency to the city. Now, as you know, every day, well, I’m trying to every day, bring a level of transparency not just so you can shine your light but the public can actually see through to city government.
ANDY SHAW: And I give you a lot of credit for the things you did visa-vie lobbying, contracts, salaries. There’s a little more to do that we’ll talk about but on transparency you’re really off to a good start.
[00:02:49] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, also, look, for the first time we made everybody’s salary public. Today we’re going to put on online everybody’s financial disclosure. You fill out a financial disclosure, it’s going to be not only online, it’s going to be easy to use for those of us who are technologically challenged. We won’t have to yell at our 12-year old to help us. You’ll be able to get online this financial disclosure information.
As you always say, I mean I respect with the BGA does. It plays an important role in our, the culture, in our conversation in our city. I don’t want government to be this thing that’s distant or force against people. Part of that you say is weeding out corruption and I’m all for that. That’s why within -- literally I didn’t even know what desk I was going to use when we signed six consecutive orders, we passed and ethics code, and I also got the city council to change something which I had done in in, as a member of Congress, two things that I think are very, very important.
[00:03:43] One, if you are convicted as an alderman, you used to be able to go on the floor when you got out of jail and lobby. You can’t get on the floor of the city council anymore. You’ve lost that right because you’ve violated the honor of being in office. I’ve also stopped with that’s very important and I did this within Senator Obama as a congressman what I call the revolving door, which is when you leave my administration your time in office wasn’t about building a rolodex for contacts, it was about serving the public; and you are banned for two years from coming back and lobbying that entity you worked with.
ANDY SHAW: Okay, so you got to be commended for putting
2 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw the ethics statements online. What about putting a little more content and a little more substance into those statements because they tend not to tell us as much as we need to know?
[00:04:24] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: First of all, I mean we’ve, I think, as you know, not just on good government but I’m proud of that, we’ve I think hit the ground running on a number of fronts. I’ll look at the content information if it’s inadequate. The first step was bringing a level of transparency to that process. But I want you to know how transparency works so people --
ANDY SHAW: Sure, of course.
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- as you’ve said, as you said earlier, Andy, we now have disclosure from lobbyists online, had not existed before. You had to kind of go find a contract, go find a, go, spend all this time working. That’s level but let me give you how else that transparency’s working.
[00:04:59] Facebook and Twitter. People are now using that technology that we’re making available. Actually, somebody the other day twittered about a bit pothole, that got right over to CDOT, and that pothole got filled. He was making technology the transparency and making city services something people could get their hands around and not just go through politicians or through department heads. Second, yesterday somebody listed something on the Facebook, City’s Facebook site, about their having difficulty with Chicago Public School. It was forwarded to CPS. They were called; the parent was called that day.
Now, that is a government understanding which is the bigger piece of this in my view, Andy, is I’m trying to not only make these tools but to get a culture where people know that the city government, all of us in public service, work for the people that pay the bills and expect the services; and that is a philosophic paradigm shift. I’m not done. But I think we’re starting to make an impact where people understand when a constituent asks for something -- just because they’re a constituent that nobody, nobody sent doesn’t mean they don’t get served because if they’re asking for it, they’re paying the bills, they get served.
ANDY SHAW: Well, two more transparency points. I know you have your IT guy here so he can listen to me, two that I’ve
3 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw mentioned before. One is why don’t you put the city’s checkbook online? By that I mean you anticipate revenues, you anticipate expenditures, you give us a budget, but then it takes months to find out how revenues and expenditures are flowing. Why not put that online the way we have a checkbook so that if I’m home in January and I want to know how the snow removal budget expenditures match what you budgeted or the sale usage expenditures. Instead of having to file a FOIA, or if I’m a news person ask your press secretary, I can go online and see that you budgeted 10 million for snow removal but whoops, you’ve already spent 15. I like to know that. What are you going to do about it?
[00:06:59] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay. Well, a good suggestion but let me tell you before we skip over things.
ANDY SHAW: Sure.
[00:07:05] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: One, we have over 200 data points already available to folks. This is just 93 days. Second, like our healthcare goals we set yesterday, we’re going to have a dashboard you can check on how we’re making progress monthly, annually towards it.
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:07:21] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Three, we’ve put contracts online. We’ve also instituted what we call the reverse auction, so no longer sealed bids. The goal is if somebody bids here and somebody bids lower, there’s a process actually to get it fair value for the taxpayers. Now your piece, I’ll look at it, and I’ll ask my people and they’re re, they’re here to take action, taking notes, because in all these processes we learn things. We had 35,000 people do chicagobudget.org and a conversation well over 1,000 ideas submitted. I called 10 people into individually to thank them and say keep, keep developing this, it’s promising. Like anything --
ANDY SHAW: What was the best idea? What’s the one idea --
[00:08:01] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well they, they give it -- they are into the budget all the time. There’s a guy developing apps so better information and use for the City of Chicago. It’s the first integrated system that has state and county available. They’re doing all that working on that right now.
4 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
The budget, to be honest I got to tell you, its daily changes.
ANDY SHAW: Sure.
[00:08:17] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I don’t want to evaluate any one but we’re using some of the ideas on making information available, delivering different services. I think that you know, the budget team I know with the communication staff goes through it regularly culling for good ideas. They may --
ANDY SHAW: Well --
[00:08:33] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- they may be even thinking of things we’re thinking about but they thought of them in a different perspective to find more savings.
ANDY SHAW: Well, you’ve gotten 35,000 ideas. I only had a few hundred questions for you. But among the ones that was asked the most frequently with regard to the budget was one that came up a lot during the campaign which is why not reduce the size of the city council. Now, you can’t do that unilaterally, of course. But what do you think of that conceptually? It’s a state legislative matter. But in point of fact New York with a population three times as large has the same council which means each council member is serving three times as many constituents. As you become more versatile and facile online, and deal with more things through Twitter and Facebook, doesn’t the need for the alderman and his or her staff become less important as you, as you --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
ANDY SHAW: -- as you do a better job with 9-1-1 and 3-1-1? Most of these functions become more centralized.
[00:09:25] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, first of all, the answer is in what you said. I can’t do. Springfield’s got to do it. That’s number one. Number two, I think the sentiment towards, I had the council which usually thinks about new ways to create committees, I had them spend their time before I was even sworn in office, so the first city council we have the fewest committees since 1951 because I said you got to focus on what was im, important. The idea of committees wasn’t to create a new chairmanship for the sake of making somebody happy. The idea --
5 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: Well, that was always the old way.
[00:09:57] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I understand. So we brought a new mindset. What could I do that’s in my power? I can go to Springfield and spend the time. No. What I did is I got an education bill in Springfield that gives our ability now to finally lengthen the day for a complete school day in a complete school year rather than half; and make sure that we also have tenure reform. So bad teachers aren’t in the classroom and the good ones are getting rewarded. That’s what I did in my time in Springfield. Here, what I could afford to do here, city council has the fewest committees since 1951 and I cut their sal, their budget by 10% in the same way that on Day 1 I cut our salary overall in the mayor’s office by 10%.
ANDY SHAW: You know, you put a lot of stock in making promises and keeping promises, and the one you’ve taken the most flack for in the last few weeks is what appeared to be a flip- flop on tax increases, the pledge that you weren’t going to support any tax increases, and then your support for the Board of Education tax increase. The board, of course, is under your jurisdiction, you appoint the members, and a lot of people say A, is that a broken promise; but B, why not go into this large pool of TIF dollars, tax increment financing dollars, many hundreds of millions of which actually came from schools and use some of that money to balance the school budget without raising taxes?
[00:11:12] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Four parts --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:11:13] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- again. One is the city school system cut four, in a short period of time, $400 million out of the central bureaucracy, $400 million. Sixty percent of the budget was closed with cuts.
ANDY SHAW: How can you cut -- there really was that much waste you can get rid of --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, you call it --
ANDY SHAW: -- 400 million?
6 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:11:39] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- all waste but there’s --
ANDY SHAW: I mean Arne Duncan and Paul Vallas spent a decade or more claiming to have done the same thing and yet there was this much fat left.
[00:11:46] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Now, wait. They’ve made major changes and major consolidations, and have done a very, very good job, and they’re not done. Now, in addition, because I do believe in investing, this has also got a mission. It’s called the classroom.
ANDY SHAW: That’s your first priority, obviously.
[00:12:02] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: From kindergarten all the way to community colleges, Andy, school systems around the country are, are cutting back their kindergarten service. We added 6,000 kids to our kindergarten, all day. Every other school systems near us, let alone you don’t have to go out of the state, are cutting it. We’re doubling. We’re adding it by 50% because I know both as a parent but also as somebody that does study, but also the sound of a pediatrician that early education years pay dividends.
[00:12:34] Two, we’re giving parents school choice. Twenty- five hundred more kids will now go to magnet schools. Four more charter schools will be available. Three more excellent teaching academies in the school of excellence will be available. That’s accumulative close to about four, five thousand more kids in better schools if parents choose those schools. And I’ve added 14 high schools to the list that are going to get the incredible camera system which we saw when we did a te, pi, pilot tested it at Fanger, a dramatic reduction.
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:13:08] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Now, let me --
ANDY SHAW: You got another one? Sure.
[00:13:09] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No, no. You asked me to go through it.
ANDY SHAW: The --
7 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:13:11] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: But I’m going to --
ANDY SHAW: Sure.
[00:13:12] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- I got it all.
ANDY SHAW: Got you.
[00:13:13] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Third I haven’t -- I’m 51 but the memory is still working when I need it.
ANDY SHAW: But wait ‘til you’re 63. You’ll start forgetting.
[00:13:21] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: The other day I will say -- can I sidetrack here?
ANDY SHAW: Sure.
[00:13:27] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I’m blaming this on the iPad. The other -- I went and got my eyes checked. Doctor said great. Your, you know, your, your eyes are perfect, you don’t have a problem, 20/20. I don’t know, it was like Tuesday at 9:30, boom, and I’m like this, and I cannot -- so I’ve now decided it was not my eyes and not my age. It’s all the technology and the reading I’m doing on the iPad.
ANDY SHAW: Oh, so you’re having trouble with the reading.
[00:13:51] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I’m -- it’s gone.
ANDY SHAW: Get yourself some reading glasses like every, every other (inaudible).
[00:13:55] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: All right, all right. The third thing --
ANDY SHAW: There you go.
[00:13:57] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- is I also took, as you know, one time -- savings, you know, I wasn’t going to take money (inaudible).
ANDY SHAW: Right.
8 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: The TIFs are a one time. They don’t solve the problem. They don’t deal with the 400 million. Next year we’d be back at it like Groundhog Day.
ANDY SHAW: So you could have done that but you didn’t want to do it like the parking meters.
[00:14:15] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I said -- no, but I said, but I said yeah, it’s like taking money out of what, what is a one-time and it’s not really, it’s not all there.
ANDY SHAW: And it’s not renewable.
[00:14:21] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Right. Number three or number four. As I said to the public as it relates to the city budget I was not going to ask them to pay more because the system needs to be reformed. That I’m not going to continue to put more money into a system that is inefficient. I can’t look the voters in the eye and say, as I do constantly to the taxpayers can we do it better, can we do it more efficient? We have found a better way to deliver healthcare saving $10 million at the same time and getting better healthcare results. We have found a better way to get our call center at the at the Water Department so people aren’t waiting 20 minutes and dropping 40% at a cheaper price with more responsiveness.
[00:15:04] I am trying to make sure every time that everybody whether it’s a million dollars, 500,000 dollars, or five million dollars, or ten million dollars, or bigger money like recycling, can I get a service at a better buck for the taxpayers. Because the change I’m trying to bring is that the city taxpayers are in the front seat, not the city payroll.
ANDY SHAW: Well, look. Everything you’re trying to do in schools makes perfect sense. Why didn’t you just say during the campaign, though, that you’re not going to raise the city tax but you might have to raise the school tax?
[00:15:34] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No. But what -- they looked at this and there, there’s other things we’re going to have to do with the schools, okay. We’re, we’re not done finding reforms here. In all those -- we also didn’t increase the class size. That was the other thing --
ANDY SHAW: Right.
9 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:15:45] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- we left off the list which is significant --
ANDY SHAW: Yeah.
[00:15:47] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and we are paying for that classroom and I said the classroom would be protected. Not only are we protecting it, we’re expanding the opportunities because the future of the City of Chicago is in that classroom and I have an obligation to that (inaudible).
ANDY SHAW: In speaking of doing that, I had a question this morning that came in on email just before you got here --
[00:16:03] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Can I ask a question? Can we vote on your, your questions versus the public’s questions to see which ones we like more?
ANDY SHAW: Well, I think you probably -- knowing my (inaudible) view I think I know the public.
[00:16:12] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah, I got some votes already.
ANDY SHAW: Brian Brady from the Micah Challenge, who you know, sent me an email suggesting that it’s time to reinstitute civics education in the high schools because too many young people have no sense of how your government and everybody else’s government works. I remember as a kid and maybe when you were in school as, as a youngster --
[00:16:34] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Constitution.
ANDY SHAW: -- Civics --
[00:16:35] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
ANDY SHAW: -- the Constitution. Now it seems to have disappeared. Should we bring it back?
[00:16:38] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: But, but -- yes.
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
10 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:16:41] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Let me say this. If I want that debate, I want a debate in this city about if we had a full day should our third and fifth be focused on the basics, our sixth through eighth more of math and science, our high school, more geography and history? I want our teachers and our principals involved in a high-quality debate which is about the quality of education. But we as a city can’t get there if we have the shorter school day and shorter school year on record. And you -- to fill that kind appropriately so the kids can go on to college and go on to compete, you have to have a day where they have time to learn and we don’t. It’s why I went out even before I was mayor and sworn-in in the transition, spent my politically capital on the thing that I thought was most important, getting the length of day and the length of year in the City of Chicago on a competitive price and competitive basis so the kids in New York, Houston, L.A., and Boston aren’t beating our kids before they graduate.
[00:17:42] And -- no wait. Now, I want an honest discussion. Where are we on math and reading? We just saw the test scores --
ANDY SHAW: Not good.
[00:17:49] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- on the Sun Times. Where are we on our science? Where are we on our history? Where are we on recess? That’s also part. Where are we? We are in the back --
ANDY SHAW: Yeah.
[00:18:00] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- because our kids don’t have the time in the classroom learning from excellent teachers, highly-qualified teachers, and motivated principals who aren’t scared of accountability; and I believe we got to structurally change that. And here’s the facts of this worst recession, while unemployment’s up at 9%, if you had a four-year college education, you’re -- the unemployment rate was 4%. It’s an era if you earn what you learn. We’re starting at kindergarten making sure we’re investing in our children. That’s why 6,000 more kids are going to get full-day kindergarten in the City of Chicago. We’re literally -- across in the suburbs and city they’re cutting it back. We’re doubling down on our kids because those kids, that’s our future, and I’m never backing off from those kids.
11 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: Okay, let me switch gears.
[00:18:47] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: And for too long -- no. This -- Andy, for too --
ANDY SHAW: You can’t --
[00:18:51] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- no. Please.
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:18:53] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: For too long this system was about the adults and not the children.
ANDY SHAW: I know that well.
[00:18:59] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay. For too long the public, the public school system, it was always about either elected officials or the adult --
ANDY SHAW: Or contractors, or --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- Or someone else --
ANDY SHAW: -- (inaudible), or whatever.
[00:19:09] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and the kids got left on the side of the road; and I will not be a party to that. I’m going to get them a lengthened day. I’m going to have a high- quality discussion about math, reading, writing, history, geography. Then our kids, because they have good teachers and good, and good principals, then our kids can compete, and win, and shape a future that will make Chicago and make them better citizens.
ANDY SHAW: Okay. Let me switch to another ethics issue that came up during the campaign, the inspector general. Now, from where I sit I think the concept of an inspector general is perhaps the single most important way to enforce good government principles because an independent empowered IG can do things that public officials may not. You may do many of them but an IG has a little more latitude. You said during the campaign that the IG’s mandate should be expanded, perhaps to the Park District, perhaps to the Public Building Commission. He should
12 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw be staffed adequately. And I’m told that none of those steps have taken place yet.
[00:20:10] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Let’s do, let’s break this down. First of all, over the years, as you know, the city payroll, natural staffing, has dropped about 4,000, 5,000. The IG started with 54 people. Today they have 53 people. While everybody else is getting cuts, they’re not. That’s number one.
ANDY SHAW: So they have enough now?
[00:20:33] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No. But the point is while -- I -- when I first got there not only is the city council’s budget committees been cut and their budget been cut, my salaries have been cut. We’re consolidating departments, 200 positions that are open have been frozen. We have middle- management positions. We’ve eliminated those. They have not in the in the time of frame they’re stagnant where they’ve been where everybody else has been dramatically reduced.
Number two, I did say those things. But, you know, all of us take a sense of what our priorities are. In the same time, I signed executive orders on ethics. I made the city council -- as you said, we have a history in the city; passed one of the strongest ethics law in the first 100 days. And number three, let me also say this, we passed an education bill. We’ve also went through line-by-line through the police department and put 750 more officers on our street. We got 50 officers going to be specially trained now just for our public transportation system where we’ve seen some increase in crime but now where we put more of the officers in wolf pack operation some reduction.
[00:21:40] I just -- this is just 94 days. I’m going to get there but I, if I said that’s most important, expanding the IG or is it finding 750 officers on our streets? And I was just announcing today, as you know, a policy on foreclosure, my second one. A couple officers in the back on the other side of the street, so I walked over and I asked them, and this is Auburn Gresham, and I said how, how’s it going? They go want to thank you for the extra resources. Now, I don’t know if we, we got more work to do in Auburn Gresham. We got some gang bangers that are terrorizing honest citizens. But I know this, nowhere in the time in which I was campaigning did an officer say, you know what, we got a lot of resources. Don’t worry about us.
13 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
For the first time now we’ve seen -- I’m saying to an officer, I say how’s it going? They said I want to thank you for the additional -- I think it was 53 but I can be wrong on the number. But officers where they say they now have what it need, they need as comrades to deal with the problems they have, the challenges they have to keep the city’s streets and their neighborhoods safe. And I have a commander who has now the resources that I, that Gary McCarthy and Al Weisinger can keep accountable.
ANDY SHAW: On that subject of police and let’s --
[00:22:54] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Now, I want to just (inaudible). What I say is look, I got a full --
[00:22:56] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I got -- no.
ANDY SHAW: -- so you’re entitled to that.
[00:22:58] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I understand what there’s but I said a lot of things and I put a 100 day report together. I’m going to go out and do my report card to the public A, because I can hold my commissioners accountable, the public then can hold me accountable; and on the one goals I set was more police on the street. One of the goals I set was to do something with our cities and our, our city schools, and our community colleges. I’m going to get, I’m going to get the things I laid out and I laid out a report, I made pledges in the campaign because I want to be accountable --
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:23:26] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and I want to hold the people that work for the public and the taxpayers accountable; and we’re making progress. I didn’t say I was doing it all in the first 100 days. I said first 100 days, here’s what I’ll get done, first year, here’s what I’ll get done, first term, here’s what I’ll get done; and I’ll get to it.
ANDY SHAW: And in terms --
[00:23:41] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: And if not, people will hold me accountable.
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ANDY SHAW: And it’s fine if a priority for be, beefing up the IG’s Office comes after police. I’m not quarreling with that. Let me ask you about the relationship between your office and the IG’s Office. Within the last couple of weeks you had a recommendation from the IG to fire 54 members of the Fire Prevention Bureau who were scamming all of us taxpayers on mileage reimbursement to the tune of at least $100,000 one year and I haven’t spoken to you personally about this but I see you quoted as suggesting that it’s more costly to terminate them than it is to keep them. And I’m wondering why you begin --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No.
ANDY SHAW: -- to place a price tag on honesty and integrity? Should Patrick Fitzgerald not be indicting corrupt politicians because it’s expensive to try them?
[00:24:25] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Now, that’s, that’s not -- you’re extrapolating a point that’s --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:24:28] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- that’s not relevant. No disrespect to your show --
ANDY SHAW: That’s fine.
[00:24:30] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- but that’s extrapolating a point that’s --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:24:33] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- apples and oranges. That said the Commissioner Office is dealing with that right now.
ANDY SHAW: so the question is not a matter of cost.
[00:24:42] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No, no. There is a cost factor when you got -- you also have a contract. I’m not -- no matter how much I would like sometimes to play Zeus, godlike, where I get to throw thunderbolts I don’t get to. There’s contracts, there’s collective bargaining, there’s grievances built in.
15 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:24:55] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- as you know that and they have costs. Now --
ANDY SHAW: But you’re not simply dropping this matter.
[00:25:00] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No. Oh, no, no. What I said I will say it. First of all, if anything, I think people have, over the last 95 days indicate, I have no tolerance for the waste of money.
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:25:08] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: These are hard-earned dollars by the taxpayers. Two, Commissioner Hoff was making the decision, it’s his to make, and he knows it but I told him no no, in no uncertain terms, roots and all, I want this because this is not just the people there now, it’s a culture; and if I don’t change the culture it will be like Groundhog Day because it’s happened before. This is just the nes, next set of fire inspectors who have repeated the same mistake so moving the chairs around doesn’t solve the problem. I want to solve the problem.
ANDY SHAW: But people do need to be held accountable.
[00:25:44] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: And they will be and Commissioner Hoff knows that. It’s -- the responsibility lies with him.
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:25:49] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: He knows my position. I want this dealt with where people are accountable. People will understand the cheating, or cheating the taxpayers and cheating the system in their -- and it’s not -- it’s A, most importantly, the taxpayers. Let me say one --
ANDY SHAW: Of course.
[00:26:00] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- other thing. It’s also their colleagues and I’ll say why I say this. So they’re going to deal with it, roots and all, and that’s where responsibility is but let me give you an example. You know I stop by fire
16 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw stations. Today I stopped by on the way from Auburn Gresham the announcement at the Streets & Sanitation Office, the little town hall with the workers there, and I went in and I answered -- we talked. Garbage men and women, people doing the streets and sanitation work. And I told them then, I said in the department you got close to about a 30% absentee record. And I said you -- we all know this. Some, there’s some bad apples ruining the reputation for all you good people. And when you have problems where people are abusing the vacation days, the holidays, the sick days, and abusing the system and gaining it everybody gets affected and that’s wrong and those people are going to be held accountable. And the biggest problem -- so it’s A, the taxpayers, but it’s to your colleagues who aren’t following the rules, who aren’t trying to look at the contract to figure out how many more sick days I can take and gain my vacation days to my sick days. And there’s people that are in the workforce that are regularly, regularly, with frequency six sick on Mondays and Fridays with a regular, summer or winter.
ANDY SHAW: And you’re going to root that out.
[00:27:21] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: And but I’m, I’m getting -- yes because what it is, it’s unfair to the taxpayers, it’s unfair to the constituents who rely on the work, and it is truly unfair also to your colleagues who are doing what they’re responsible, they are public servants delivering a service.
ANDY SHAW: Two very quick contract questions. One, you’ve recuesed yourself from because your brother is connected with the Lollapalooza --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
ANDY SHAW: -- extravaganza.
[00:27:41] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, he’s connected to Live Nation.
ANDY SHAW: Right, and they’ve been enjoying a tax break on the amusement tax for a number of years. You want that looked at and that’s, that’s commendable. What I wonder is why not just let the IG do that?
[00:27:53] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, what I said and let me be --
17 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: Sure.
[00:27:55] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- well, first of all, I didn’t come here so any member of my family could make money. Now, that all existed in the past.
ANDY SHAW: Right, of course.
[00:28:03] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: So what I said in the campaign was I think the appropriate thing. I want this totally independent. I want either the Park District or City Council set-up a third-party to deal with it. I don’t want to be near it.
ANDY SHAW: Does it mean the IG or --
[00:28:14] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Nothing would make me happier to make Ari pay more money since he had the top bunk when we were growing up. So you know, that said I don’t -- this is for, this is -- Lollapalooza does a contract with with the Park District.
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:28:28] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: They should set-up -- and I, and I told him because I, obviously people there, and I have a board, and I appoint. Set-up a -- you’re the entity. You pick a third-party but I’m not going to be involved for the appropriate. I’m not waiting for you to do a report about this. I set it up. I’m arm’s length. I told everybody Ari sits on the board of Live Nation; therefore, I can’t be anywhere close to it.
ANDY SHAW: Of course.
[00:28:53] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: So City Council look at it or Park District but some -- not just look at it but basically deal with a third-party to structure.
ANDY SHAW: Final contact question, this is in litigation so you can claim it’s a lawsuit, you won’t comment. But just --
[00:29:04] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: It’s a lawsuit. I can’t comment.
18 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: -- but on principle --
[00:29:06] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: You are really good (inaudible).
ANDY SHAW: -- you worked hard --
[00:29:08] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Should I give the question?
ANDY SHAW: -- you -- you’d be fine (inaudible). You worked hard to pick a concessionaire at O’Hare, you know, in which you can consider to be the best way for the revenue stream and yet the loser in that claims that you left millions of dollars on the table by picking the wrong company. Are they wrong or who’s right here?
[00:29:30] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, first of all, I think you had the answer. You were really good at the answer because you used the word loser --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:29:38] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- being sore. That’s my view. Here’s the deal. CAPS has had that contract on a month- to-month basis, number one. Number two, when you look at what they said they were going to deliver the taxpayers have been cheated, or not cheated but had been short revenue, $39 million. I do not believe, this is me, I do not believe you get rewarded with another contract for 20 years or 10 years because you were so bad for the last 10. Westfield put a bid in, CAPS put a bid in.
ANDY SHAW: CAPS promised more.
[00:30:13] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, right. No, and they eval, got evaluated apples-to-apples --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:30:17] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and Westfield is better and more resources. Around $2.2 million more --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
19 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:30:21] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- for the city; and it was not just a good deal, it was fully transparent, vetted, and in the process also ended-up reducing a -- because the process is one thing. At the end of the day I want the product to be better for value for the taxpayers and that’s where we ended.
[00:30:37] And number three -- let me also do this. We’re now putting up a, another RFP because here’s the deal. Nobody used to show up on concessions for the City of Chicago but CAPS because everybody knew in the past and this was discussed at --
ANDY SHAW: (Inaudible.)
[00:30:53] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- it -- why put a bid, why put, spend $200,000 preparing a bid when the end of the play --
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:31:00] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- it’s like a Sartre play, no exit, you knew what happened, okay. Here people knew what was going to happen beforehand so this is the contract that was heard across the city and everybody now knows the fix is in, you got to be competitive on the pricing; and that’s why the airport now has another bid ready to go and they’re going out and we’re going to start now getting fair value for the taxpayers and people because the airport is an economic opportunity of value for the taxpayers.
[00:31:32] That’s why also one of the reforms I brought to transparency, when you do a bid from now on some, certain things, we’re going to do the reverse auction. It’s going to be transparent. And if somebody can bid lower than the lowest bid, then we’re going to get value for the taxpayers.
ANDY SHAW: On another thing that relates to economic development --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
ANDY SHAW: -- forget about the politics between you and the governor on casinos. That’s my old job. Here I’m more concerned with something that relates to good government. Do you have enough statistics and enough hard data to convince you that a casino in Chicago is good economically, that it won’t drain from other resources, other restaurants and entertainment
20 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw venues? And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, that you can keep it clean in a city with a, with a strong tradition of mob influence and corruption?
[00:32:17] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Sure.
ANDY SHAW: This is from Windy Citizen, one of our online partners.
[00:32:21] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No, that’s a very, no, that’s -- look. Let me back up and couple points here. I’m actually going to answer more than was in the question.
ANDY SHAW: So what else is new?
[00:32:30] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah, well -- wow, you’re beginning to sound like a Jewish mother --
ANDY SHAW: Like me.
[00:32:35] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- but that was really good. That was your, that was a really good accent there for a second, Andy.
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:32:39] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: First of all, I want everybody, Andy is a grandparent for the first time and you’re a couple months away from being number two.
ANDY SHAW: You’re not going to soften me up that way --
[00:32:47] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No, I’m --
ANDY SHAW: -- but thanks anyway.
[00:32:47] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- but since you went Yiddish I was going to go mazel tov to you, okay.
ANDY SHAW: All right, all right.
[00:32:50] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: All right. Here’s the thing, I took a wide lens view of a Chicago-owned casino. I said in the campaign I was of it because I could not continue to allow Hammond, Indiana, to be the Chicago casino --
21 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:33:09] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and we lose $20 million a month to Hammond, Indiana. That’s what’s happening. I don’t come into this, as I’ve always said, the biggest enthusiast but it’s an opportunity of economic growth for the city.
[00:33:22] I also then evaluate and said that the casino would create somewhere around 7,000 to 10,000 jobs. Somewhere around 20 to 25 million dollars a month, okay, it would generate for the city.
ANDY SHAW: And that’s not 25 million coming off of other venues?
[00:33:37] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No, no, and --
ANDY SHAW: And it’s not -- it’s in a net 25?
[00:33:39] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah yes, and --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:33:40] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- people people -- you know, remember, this has been debated and discussed for 25 years.
ANDY SHAW: But times change and economics change.
[00:33:47] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay. I understand but evaluate it --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:33:49] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and where you put it will be a key part.
ANDY SHAW: And where would you like to put it?
[00:33:52] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No, no, no. I’m going to get through --
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
22 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:33:55] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- the online question and I’ll get to yours.
ANDY SHAW: Okay.
[00:33:59] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: But I thought that more than the 7,000 jobs that are permanent I wanted to create to 15 to 25, 20,000 jobs building the city’s economic competitiveness. We -- our schools, I want to build 25 new schools, modernize them. I want to build 45, modernize 45 new CTA stations, our old ones to modernized. I want to refurbish 40 miles of water system, 30 miles of CTA rail where we have slow zones. I want to and we can do 40 miles of new arterial roads, not counting the bridges and viaducts. That’s 15 to 20,000 jobs. We can do all the good government and ethics and we should, there should be integrity around this, but that’s not in juxtaposition to this.
[00:34:50] But I evaluated this and I said should I leave Chicago’s future to the log jam in Washington? Three years behind on a highway infrastructure bill. I said no. Should I leave Chicago’s future to a city in Washington that has not produced an FAA bill that used to be like that for our airports? I say no. Should I leave Chicago’s economic future and competitiveness to a state that repeatedly over the last 10 years has actually continued to reduce its commitment to Chicago’s infrastructure out of our General Obligation account? Five years ago we used to spend $135 million on, on infrastructure. We now today spend about 32 million. That --
ANDY SHAW: So this is mostly jobs and infrastructure.
[00:35:31] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Jobs and infrastructure -- but it’s, it’s jobs today for Chicago’s economic competitiveness of tomorrow.
And the second thing that’s very, very important -- so 15 to 20,000 jobs today keeping Chicago economically competitive for the future. I -- every red cent will go into infrastructure. I’m not paying past bills, I’m not paying past mistakes, I’m building the future today. And while we have a 9% unemployment, the building trades and construction industry is at 15% unemployment --
ANDY SHAW: Can you guarantee that if it’s not successful,
23 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw the taxpayers won’t be stuck holding the bill since the city would own it?
[00:36:07] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yes, we have to structure it accordingly and that’s --
ANDY SHAW: You’re going to make sure of that.
[00:36:10] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Right, and, and again, I want to be clear, jobs and proper oversight go hand-in-hand, economic opportunity. They’re not at logger heads and it’s one of the things that, for all of us who are big environmentalists used to prove, that if you do good environment policy, good conservation, you’re going to create economic growth.
ANDY SHAW: Do you have a favorite location?
[00:36:29] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: First of all, I would set-up an independent group to look at and make recommendations. I want the experts looking at this right and I don’t, it’s not going to be my choice. It’s going to be really evaluated, fully transparent for the public. I believe in that. I think I’ve shown in 94 days I believe in the transparency --
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:36:46] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- I believe in bringing quality people into serving with a spirit of public service, not self-enrichment, and I want that process.
Now, I come to this saying it can’t just be 7,000 jobs but we can have a multiplier of 15 to 20,000 jobs, and we can build Chicago’s economic future putting the people that our hardest hit unemployment working today.
ANDY SHAW: Let me see if I can get to two more things.
[00:37:10] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: And I, and I, and I want everybody to know I want the right oversight because I want the integrity of this, and it can be done, it’s not impossible.
ANDY SHAW: One of the other questions that I got repeated the most is something you heard frequently over the past couple of months, police bodyguards for public officials. Don’t -- you took a number of important steps to reduce the bodyguard
24 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw situation, 600,000 in savings, so you don’t need to repeat it. I will give you credit for taking some major steps.
But let me ask you about the last piece because this came in with several questions. What do you do about the ex- mayor who still enjoys a regular police detail and a couple of cars? The Wall Street Journal looked at this and determined that Chicago is the only big city in the country that protects and ex-mayor. I’m wondering if that’s something that’s going to change as the other security measures have in the past couple of months?
[00:37:58] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, I know you don’t want me to say it but I’m, I’m going to say it, okay. First of all, I cut my detail.
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:38:06] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I cut the superintendant of the Police Department’s detail from four to two. I cut City Hall’s security system and put it from City Hall to the community. So I’ve gone, I’m going through this.
ANDY SHAW: You cut Alderman Burke from regular policeman -
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Right.
ANDY SHAW: -- to retired policeman.
[00:38:19] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Right. So we are going through this.
ANDY SHAW: Right.
[00:38:22] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: The former mayor’s is transitional and temporary, and he knows it and I made that commitment, and that’s what it will be.
ANDY SHAW: So when does that shift?
[00:38:32] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: In, in short order.
ANDY SHAW: And does it shift to retired police off -- is, is the Burke model the likely model for Mr. Daley?
25 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:38:38] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I don’t want to pre, I don’t want to pre-judge because everybody gets all sensitive but, you know, we have some models out there and but the main thing for everybody to know is it’s transitional and it’s temporary. It is not going to be the way it’s always going to be.
ANDY SHAW: Let me ask you about privatization. The last major privatization in this town was popular with almost no one except for the company that bought the parking meters. Let me ask, are the people of Chicago stuck with that deal ad infinitum because some of the questions that came in --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
ANDY SHAW: -- people was can Mayor Rahm do anything about this bogus deal?
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well --
ANDY SHAW: Can he do anything about the exorbitant -- the real issue is no cap, no structure, no time-table for the increases so that overnight they doubled and tripled. Are we stuck with this permanently?
[00:39:26] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well maybe we can do a food drive and I can raise the billion plus dollars on here to get out of it. We took the -- here’s --
ANDY SHAW: The contract is is --
[00:39:36] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: The contact was --
ANDY SHAW: -- iron clad.
[00:39:37] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Look. There’s a couple of things here. Let me walk through this and I and I know you have a limited amount of time. There’s a contract, there’s a 99-year contract, and people are upset about the length, they’re upset about the technology, they’re also very upset that we did -- and one of the things I want to talk about, what I’m also about is, they took a one-time je, revenue and paid current bills rather than investing in the future. One of the things I’m trying to say is if we do get the Chicago casino, would you have debated for 25 years? I’m going to invest in the future. I’m not going to pay bills.
26 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: And at one time, the one-time revenue stream was part of what creates your $600,000 million hole.
[00:40:12] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: And it is and --
ANDY SHAW: There’s nothing to fill it with.
[00:40:13] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- and that’s why I’m, I don’t want to play gimmicks with people. We’re going to deal with this by roots and all and we have to because the days of, of basically pushing off the future, avoiding it, hoping it takes care of itself are over.
ANDY SHAW: But what’s a lesson for --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: So --
ANDY SHAW: privatization from this one?
[00:40:28] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- there’s two different -- I mean, well, first of all, the lesson is I mean --
ANDY SHAW: Much more transparency by the process.
[00:40:33] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Well, transparency is part but look, I’m, I’m against privatization but I said in the campaign, I’ll repeat, there’s other ways to monetize an asset to generate revenue so we can invest in our future; and privatization was one tool and it doesn’t mean that’s what you do.
[00:40:50] Now, let me take this to another example which I think one of the things I’m most proud about that we’ve done, if I can. This is where I’m going to do a little editorializing. I don’t know how much time we got left. But is --
ANDY SHAW: Well, maybe your people will let you stay a couple extra --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: No.
ANDY SHAW: -- minutes and we can get a couple more --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay.
27 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
ANDY SHAW: -- questions in.
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay. Now --
ANDY SHAW: If I take citizen questions rather than mine, you’ll, you might be more --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay.
ANDY SHAW: -- amenable.
[00:41:10] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: But -- well, here it is -- well, I think we’ve done pretty good on the questions.
ANDY SHAW: You’re fine.
[00:41:13] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Okay. Boy, I complement you for being a grandfather and that is our manage competition. That’s where I thought you were going about privatization but I’ve been clear, we’re not doing privatization. We’ll evaluate monetizing assets for value for the taxpayers.
ANDY SHAW: But competition like between Streets & San, and --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah, but --
ANDY SHAW: -- and a private person --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- but I said that --
ANDY SHAW: -- so you can do it better.
[00:41:34] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: -- I said that today when I met with the, with the, with the workers in Streets & San there on Auburn Gresham which is look -- and I’m glad that the Chicago Federation of Labor has adopted that model. This is a C change of radical proportions in the city. I mean it’s a whole paradigm shift and the notion now is we have put the taxpayers as the driver on value, not the city workforce, not the bureaucracy, and the resident receiving that service.
[00:42:04] The fact is I used to say, I used to propose this. I proposed it in the campaign. Manage competition and
28 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw people. Their eyes would roll over and, you know the press didn’t want to hear much more about it. I understand that, but we now are going to adopt throughout the city services that model and I wrote about this in the the other day in the Tribune. How to better get value for the taxpayers and make sure they’re getting a good service. It’s how we did our public health, our community healthcare clinics. We’re going to save 10 million bucks and we’re going to get better service. The Water Department’s call center, cleaning of the airports, recycling --
ANDY SHAW: Thos will now be competitive.
[00:42:45] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Competitively bid and I believe city workers can win it. They have to come in at good value price and I believe they could do it. They actually know and I told them today when I was sitting there you guys know where the inefficiencies are. You know where the absentee record is. You know how to do this. You can win. I have all the confidence. Don’t tell me the people in Charlotte where the public employees beat the private companies in three of the four zones are smarter or better than you. Don’t tell me. You can do this.
[00:43:13] But we have to get that value. I’m not going to over, ask the taxpayers to overpay for a service that they don’t need to, and here’s the deal. Like in recycling Waste Management is represented by Teamster’s and Laborer’s Union, Streets and Sanitation, Teamster’s and Laborer’s. It will be a union workforce. The question is will the taxpayers get the best value and whoever has the best price will win.
ANDY SHAW: This may be the last question. I may get in two. But if I don’t ask this one from Scarlett at Windy City --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Scarlett.
ANDY SHAW: -- I mean (inaudible) next time. It’s a very, it’s, it, it plays off of things you’ve been talking about all throughout. It’s a technology question. You like me are new to the technology world because we’re a little bit older than the, the techno experts that are around us. Where do you see technology going in city government to the betterment of your, your, your product: more efficient, more effective, more transparent, more honesty?
29 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
[00:44:07] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: More -- look. I want transparency, that’s a goal. I want more examples, though, of the responsiveness. Look, I believe -- I’m a progressive. I believe government is a, a formative force in people’s lives like education, like infrastructure, picking up garbage or doing its service. It plays a role, public safety. You can’t privatize public safety. You can’t privatize your libraries. These are great things that we can provide to each other as a community.
[00:44:43] But I want a government with technology that empowers its own citizens. They need to find information, totally legit. Most importantly or equally important, we spend a little too much time and, well it is BJ and that’s okay with me, about the transparency for finding value. But to me if a mother is having problems with CPS and po, posts something on Facebook and that day is getting a call from CPS, I don’t know if I get her an answer that she wanted, but I got her a shot where she didn’t feel the system was unresponsive that she pays for. Let me --
ANDY SHAW: Your bottom line is technology as a tool for power --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Of government.
ANDY SHAW: -- in government --
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
ANDY SHAW: -- not simply for information.
[00:45:22] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Whether from information but also responsiveness. I want you to understand, somebody Tweeting about a pothole that is responded in that day means the neighborhood, not just the person that Tweet, everybody on that block now knows hey, I can get my government to pay attention to me, my needs, my services. That doesn’t mean I’m going to do it every time but there’s going to be enough hits of success where people know they can give information, get a service. It can be part -- Election Day is not when your role in government ends. And technology is a tool of empowerment where people do not feel powerless to a nameless, faceless bureaucracy; and the bureaucracy which is one of the things I’m now, we’re getting
30 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw across like CPS and like Department of Transportation, those are just two of many examples that that taxpayer, that resident is the boss. We do have a boss still in Chicago, it’s called the taxpayer, and we owe them the government that they’re paying for.
ANDY SHAW: And speaking of technology it’s where we live right now and on that note I think we’re about out of time. Mayor Emmanuel, want to thank you for spending --
[00:46:28] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Thank you very much.
ANDY SHAW: -- time with us.
[00:46:29] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Appreciate it.
ANDY SHAW: Let -- I don’t, I won’t pin you down to do this in a few weeks but let’s do this another time and catch-up and see where all these ideas and thoughts have gone. I want to say --
[00:46:38] MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: This is the second time I’ve done kind of a, a process of interaction and I’ve enjoyed when I did it, and we’ll do it again.
ANDY SHAW: Look, it’s obviously a new thing for me having spent all those years in the television studio but I think this feels like one and I think it’s really a wonderful venue for letting people not just ask the Mayor questions, but listen to him in a different format, a format that, of course, represents the future.
I want to thank all of you who submitted questions, all of you who followed us today at bettergov.org, and I want to encourage you, if you have a little extra time today or later, to noodle around a little bit on bettergov.org and see what we’re up to. The content is terrific. And this goal, to give us a better government, this goal is not just something we deserve. It’s something we can actually achieve if we are, if we’re all in this together.
[00:47:26] The Mayor told us today that he is all in on that and let’s all be in on it together. Let’s all be eyes and ears. Let us know what you see, feel, and hear. And thank you very much. I’m Andy Shaw. I appreciate you following us today.
31 #BGALive, Aug. 17, 2011: Mayor Rahm Emanuel & BGA’s Andy Shaw
Check us out on bettergov.org in the future and have a great Wednesday.
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