Aldermen Skip Vote on State Rep. Deb Mell's Appointment to Replace Dad

CITY HALL —Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he had to be fair.

“Others will say what they will, but while it would not be fair to appoint Deb just because her last name was Mell,” the mayor explained, "it would have been equally unfair to her constituents and the city to refuse to appoint her because her last name is Mell.”

So, in the name of fairness, Emanuel on Wednesday appointed state Rep. Deb Mell to fill the City Council seat left vacant by her retiring father, Ald. Dick Mell.

Emanuel told reporters that his aldermanic selection committee interviewed every qualified person who applied for the job, and he made the call.

Emanuel insisted Mell earned the job.

Ald. Nicholas Sposato (36th) thinks Deb Mell inherited the job.

“The whole process felt like a sham. The whole thing was a farce,” Sposato said. “Everybody knew what was going on. It was the worst-kept secret in City Hall."

So, when the time came for the City Council to rubberstamp Emanuel’s decision to appoint Deb Mell to the office her father had held since she was 6 years old, Sposato casually strolled out of the Council chambers.

"I’ve got no love lost for Mell, but I didn’t want to take it out on his daughter,” the 36th Ward alderman said. “It was easier to step out of the room than say something negative and rain on her parade."

Sposato isn’t looking to make enemies. He said Emanuel has the right to appoint whomever he wants to replace Dick Mell. But Sposato didn’t want to be part of some political "dog and pony show."

And he wasn't the only one.

Aldermen Ricardo Munoz (22nd), John Arena (45th) and Scott Waguespack (32nd) also didn’t vote when the clerk called their names.

Munoz said he likes Deb Mell just fine, but he couldn’t support the mayor’s decision to appoint a white alderman to represent the 33rd Ward, which has been home to a “supermajority” of Latino voters since 2002.

“I walked out on that vote,” Munoz told me after the City Council meeting. “The mayor wasn’t happy.”

By the time Deb Mell was confirmed by a 43-1 City Council vote, Emanuel seemed to have gotten over it.

The mayor calmly explained to reporters that Deb Mell assured him she plans to work hard to prove to 33rd Ward residents that he made the right choice.

“She’s not going to take this for granted,” the mayor said.

When a Chicago Tribune reporter asked Emanuel if picking Deb Mell was “the old way things were done in Chicago,” the mayor quickly said, “No.”

To make his point, Emanuel even pointed out that the Tribune editorial board twice endorsed Deb Mell for state representative, and she won both elections.

But just last week the Trib editorial board offered him this advice: Don’t “add Mell to the list of political power handoffs: Stroger, Lipinski, Zalewski, Steele, Beavers.”

Emanuel didn’t mention that.

But he did reassure reporters he’s certain Deb Mell, based on her record as an elected official, is the best choice to replace her father.

Ultimately, the City Council agreed.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) cast the lone "No” vote on Deb Mell’s appointment.

Fioretti said he didn’t agree with the long-standing Chicago tradition of keeping political power in the family by retiring midterm and getting your child appointed to your post, giving them a leg up in the next election.

“We are not a monarchy," Fioretti said on Council floor. "We are a democracy. So let's start acting like it."

After the meeting, I bumped into an old-timer who's been making a buck at City Hall since the '80s — an insider who knows how Chicago works.

He really got a chuckle out of Fioretti’s Council protest against such a time-honored tradition in Chicago politics.

“You hear that guy?” the old-timer said, raising his eyebrow. “He’s just mad.”

I could feel a punch line coming, but played along anyway.

“Mad?” I asked.

“Mad he doesn’t have a kid to get appointed as his replacement,” he deadpanned.

I know it's not that funny. Fioretti seemed serious about his objection and his vote.

Still, I couldn’t help but laugh.

It was just that kind of day at City Hall.