Aldermen push back against Mayor Lightfoot over COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city employees, threat of no-pay status
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago is back open for business - masks are no longer mandatory, and the number of new COVID-19 cases is down dramatically.
But Chicago's vaccine mandate for city employees remains in place, and with the deadline having come and gone, thousands of city workers could be put on no-pay status.
Now, some Chicago aldermen are pushing back. As CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported, some are gearing up for a City Council showdown this week.
About a dozen aldermen are calling for a special City Council meeting to demand the mayor change vaccine-related requirements for city workers.
This is happening the same week that city employees who are not in compliance with the vaccination mandate are supposed to start going on no-pay status. But that deadline is again a bit fuzzy.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a dozen of her frequent aldermanic critics have butted heads before, and now they are about to do it again.
"It's really discouraging and depressing," said Mayor Lightfoot.
"We're going to push back too," said Ald. Ray Lopez (15th).
The Council Chambers showdown will come around Wednesday, after 11 aldermen sent a letter asking for a special City Council meeting to discuss a resolution challenging the mayor's vaccine mandate for all city workers.
In addition to Lopez, the signers included Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), Ald. Ed Burke (14th), Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th), Ald. Silvana Tabaraes (23rd), Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th), Ald. Felix Cardona (31st), Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th), Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), and Ald. James Gardiner (45th).
Specifically, the aldermen want to include natural COVID immunity as a reporting option for city employees, along with testing.
Right now, the mandate requires workers to report their vaccination status to a portal and be fully vaccinated.
"This is a stunt – as it happened before – but it's unfortunate that it's being done at something so serious," Mayor Lightfoot said.
"It's not a stunt," Lopez said. "It's a reaction to her own abrasive behavior and refusing to be collaborative."
All city workers were supposed to be fully vaccinated by March 13, or placed on non-disciplinary no-pay status. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said workers now have until April 13 to get their second COVID shot.
City data show more than 2,000 city employees are still noncompliant. One of those city employees is 12-year Chicago Fire Department paramedic Nikki Kiernicki.
"(Mayor Lightfoot) changed the rules in the middle of the game," Kiernicki said. "That wasn't something I was hired with. That also was not something that was in our current contract – so for me, that was a big part of it."
Another reason Kiernicki gave is body autonomy. She has been on no-pay status since October after being sent home when the first vaccine reporting deadline passed. It has been difficult.
"Limbo is the best word that I've been able to describe it as, because there is no other word," she said.
Kiernicki is holding firm, and so is the mayor.
"I don't want to see anyone separated from their job, but the rules are the rules," Mayor Lightfoot said.
Ald. Lopez hopes changing science and plummeting COVID cases encourage the mayor to tweak her current mandate. If she doesn't?
"It's with great, great reverence and heaviness that the answer would be that yeah, I will walk away," Kiernicki said.
So did the city go ahead and move to put any noncompliant city workers on no-pay status on Monday? A Mayor's office representative said various city departments will be providing those details in the coming days.
