Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th) is joining the growing list of Chicago City Council members calling it quits as she announced in a Facebook post on Monday that she will not be seeking a third term.
“After 31 years of working tirelessly for this ward, it’s time for me to take a step back and take care of my family and myself,” Sadlowski Garza said. “This has been one of the greatest achievements of my life and also one of the hardest.”
Sadlowski Garza was the first member of the Chicago Teachers Union to be elected to the City Council and the first woman to represent the 10th Ward — a position she’s been in since 2015. Her ward includes the South Deering, Hegewisch, Jeffery Manor, Slag Valley and East Side neighborhoods.
The Southeast Side alderperson is the daughter of the late steel worker labor leader Eddie “Oil Can” Sadlowski.
Sadlowski Garza touted her career in the City Council as a major success that brought millions of dollars in new sidewalks to her ward, along with new streetscapes and protected bike lanes, all of which beautified the Commercial Avenue shopping corridor.
She also is proud of the former Republic Steel/LTV property “returning to productive use,” which is “providing jobs for thousands and tax revenue to fund our roads, schools and infrastructure.”
“Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the 10th Ward is on track to a new future, reclaiming our former vacant brownfields for new jobs and development,” Sadlowski Garza said. “Steelworkers Park now has a rock climbing wall, Big Marsh Bike Park has the Ford Environmental Center, and Mann and Rowan parks have improved athletic fields.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed Sadlowski Garza to chair the Committee on Workforce Development in 2019. Sadlowski Garza has since ushered in major labor victories including the passing of the Fair Workweek Ordinance, which gives workers advance notice of work schedules and requires employers to pay employees additional wages for sudden schedule changes.
Sadlowski Garza also helped push through a $15 minimum wage ordinance two years ahead of the rest of the state.
“Throughout the pandemic, as Chairwoman of the Committee on Workforce Development, we have continued to look out for working families by passing the Worker Protection Ordinance, ensuring that laid off hospitality workers were given a right to return to their former jobs,” Sadlowski Garza said. “We established the first Wage Theft Ordinance establishing written contracts between domestic workers and their employers.”
Sadlowski Garza had long been thought of as a staunch progressive and a strong ally of Lightfoot but in recent years both of those ideas were starting to be questioned. She took a turn on Lightfoot and started criticizing her openly.
“I am sick and tired of being thrown under the bus and having the bus roll over my head. That’s what she’s done to me. That’s what she’s done to my ward. That’s what she’s done to the people that work here. I don’t have anything good to say,” Sadlowski Garza said of Lightfoot in February on Ben Joravsky’s podcast.
“I have never met anybody who has managed to p--- off every single person they come in contact with. Police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing,” she continued.
The built-up angst toward Lightfoot seemed to come to a boil after the mayor denied General Iron the permit it needed to open its already-built car-shredding operation in her ward. General Iron has faced steep opposition from the community to moving its plant to the 10th Ward from Lincoln Park.
The relocation of the metal-shredding plant to the Southeast Side never seemed to have the backing of residents who have been inundated with polluting industries for decades. A monthslong hunger strike by activists hoped to gain the attention of the mayor’s office and City Council members.
Sadlowski Garza for years wouldn’t commit to disavowing the relocation of the plant or supporting it, but earlier this year she put on a defense for the project.
Sadlowski Garza joins the exodus of City Council members that has unfolded within the past year.
Last week Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), Chicago’s first openly gay alderperson, announced he was retiring having said the City Council is “not a good place to work these days.” Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) resigned effective Aug. 12 — giving Lightfoot the chance to appoint a new Council member for the third time.
Lightfoot has already replaced convicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) with United Airlines director Nicole Lee — the Council’s first Chinese American — and she’s also replaced Ald. Michael Scott Jr. (24th) with his sister Monique.
Those also not seeking reelection are alderpersons Leslie Hairston (5th), James Cappleman (46th), Harry Osterman (48th) and indicted Ald. Carrie Austin (34th).
There are also three alderpersons — Sophia King (4th), Roderick Sawyer (6th) and Ray Lopez (15th) — who are giving up their seats to run for mayor. Ald. George Cardenas (12th) will also leave the City Council if he wins his bid for the Cook County Board of Review later this year.
