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From WBEZ.

Hi, my name is Lauren Chulgin, and I cover Chicago City Hall for WBEZ.

And that means I'm well suited to tackle this question from Juanita Ballark.

She asks, why do aldermen always vote with the mayor? And to be clear, Juanita is not so sure that's a good

thing. Think back to elementary school. Can you remember all those lessons about checks and

balances and the different branches of government? The legislative branch, so the alderman, are supposed to serve as a check on the executive.

And the Chicago City Council was actually built to be a strong council, weak mayor system.

But that's not really how it works.

Well, except for the so-called Council Wars of the 1980s, but that's a story for another day.

In Chicago, aldermen have a reputation for being rubber stamps on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's agenda.

Here's a sampling of the kinds of things they say during city council meetings.

I want to begin by commending the mayor for his leadership.

And Mr. Mayor, like I said in the beginning, I'm voting yes.

This is a courageous thing that you've done.

I will be supporting this today. Thank you.

But before we get into why this happens, we first need to tackle the always part of Juanita's question.

Do aldermen really vote with the mayor every time?

Well, so far, the alderman don't always vote with the mayor.

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