The Chicago City Council Latino Caucus Will Not Hold a Special Council Meeting about Redistricting on Tuesday, November 30, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 30, 2021

CHICAGO - Despite holding a four-hour virtual hearing to discuss the City's proposed map on Monday, November 29, the Chicago City Council Committee on Rules and Committees again failed to reveal its proposed map to the public or even to the City Council. The deadline to pass a map is midnight on Wednesday, December 1.

 We are disappointed that during the hearing, Committee leaders attacked members of the Latino Caucus who are advocating for Latinos with spurious scolding that we failed to advise the Committee about the needs of our communities. Nothing could be further from the truth. We announced our principles and our goals more than three months ago. We provided our maps and our electronic data six weeks ago. Since then, members of the Latino Caucus and our allies have been shut out of the City's mapping process through prevarication, distortion, and double-talk.

 The Chicago Coalition Map is the product of governance at its best. It protects and brings together Black, White, and Latino communities, preserves communities of interest, and satisfies progressives and moderates, all while following the data and the law.

 The lack of transparency is appalling and deeply damaging to public trust. According to the census, Latinos now make up 30% of Chicago’s population. We will not accept any map that creates less than 15 wards or that creates weak wards where Latinos will not be able to elect the candidates of their choice.

 Regrettably, we suspected the mapping process might be unfair to Latinos because from the start when we demanded 15 Latino-majority wards, a ratio that is consistent with the data and the law, Committee leaders and mappers refused to acknowledge the growth of the Latino community.

 The Latino Caucus will not support deals made in backrooms and behind closed doors that will disenfranchise Latinos, a protected class. The City's redistricting process has been the least transparent in Chicago's history. Although the Committee has not released its map and the people who control the process have created a septic atmosphere, we hold out hope that our colleagues in the City Council will do the right thing and will stand up for the Latino community.

 We have in good faith tried to negotiate but it is apparent that there is not a will to have true negotiations and serious compromise. We have cancelled the Special Committee meeting formerly scheduled for Tuesday, November 30. We will give the Committee another 24 hours to come clean, do the right thing, and meet the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.

 A referendum remains a real possibility. Sponsors of the Chicago Coalition Map continue to encourage the City Council to pass a legally defensible map. A map that disenfranchises minorities will require a referendum and will invite litigation that could cost taxpayers millions.

Members of the Chicago City Council Latino Caucus and Allies of the Chicago Coalition Map

• Chair Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th)

• Vice Chair Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd)

• Ald. Daniel LaSpata (1st)

• Ald. Anthony Beale (9th)

• Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10th)

• Ald. George Cardenas (12th)

• Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th)

• Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd)

• Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th)

• Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th)

• Ald. Felix Cardona (31st)

• Ald. Rossana Rodriguez (33rd)

• Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th)

• Ald. Andre Vazquez (40th)