Board of Aldermen 8-11-2020 Page 13
So | mean | have full faith in the Departments that work on this and the contractors that we hire, but our job
is to make sure that these projects are being looked at with a fine tooth comb and that we can go back to
our constituents and explain what is going on with things. So | think anyplace that we can have
transparency, we need to have it.
The other thing | wanted to bring up is just a way of working in the Chamber that | think would help address
this. A lot of times there have been other Aldermen in the past who would either be the Chair of the
Committee that this went through or the person who was the sole sponsor would make the motion and then
they would speak to it and so they could quickly kind of give us a quick synopsis of what it was and maybe
nip some of these conversations in the bud because we already have that information; not just for us but
also for the constituents who are watching. So | think that could be a potential way of us just working
through it in the Chamber as we continue to work through all this stuff. So thank you.
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
OK first of all | kind of feel offended that someone would make the statement on this Board that a rubber
stamp — that really disturbs me — number one. We did look at this and | Know the Mayor said it was
probably last spring, but | was thinking in my mind, | said no it’s several months ago | know we did vote on
this in the Finance Committee, etc. etc. Ok? Once we were assured that nothing had changed, | feel as
though we should have had a different look at what Alderman Jette was speaking of ok? On the same
token | do feel as though he had one point that maybe we could have had one sheet that just said there’s
no changes in the scope of work, however, the price is better. We know we are going through a pandemic,
we know that people need to work. We know that companies are still trying to stay afloat of everything. So
with that said, | would expect that it would come back cheaper. Because | come from a market where | am
used to changes in the market really affects what people want to charge you for the work they are going to
do. So | didn’t think it was unusual on a personal note to see that the price was different given that we are
in a pandemic. | am definitely going to vote for this; we need to move on. The Health Department has
been waiting for years to get what they need to really be the best that they can be, which they are great
anyway. So! am going to vote for this and | think this is a great opportunity for all of us as Aldermen to
stand behind our Health Department for a change and vote in favor of this. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Anyone else? Alderman Lopez?
Alderman Lopez
Yeah just for some not-so-recent history, literally | think the first motion | endorsed as an Alderman was for
the Health Department and | made the mistake of not fully researching exactly what | was endorsing and |
got called out on it by Alderman Segal so | went back and | did the research so | was able to speak it. So in
deference to Alderman Kelly’s observation, we do have a process for this so if we are asked to endorse
something, either in our role as liaison or if we are the author of it, then we should also expect a little bit of
attention from the City departments that are relevant to it to make sure that we are fully briefed to answer
these questions, that way they don’t get put in the spotlight in the middle of a meeting which may be
something that is happening here.
And then also | wanted to point out | don’t have a lot of good senses, but hearing is definitely of the few that
remains intact. So for those of us who heard Director Cummings say that he had spoken to Alderman Jette
yesterday, while his phone was muted, | just want to remind everybody that he’s probably having
connection issues and probably was called by | think the Mayor it was unmuted at the time so that was
probably where that was coming from.
