Chicago budget battle: Aldermen respond to Mayor Johnson's claims of dishonesty

with our political reporter Brandon Pope and now some aldermen are responding. So Brandon, you've got both sides on this. Let's break it down. Yeah, it seems these budget talks are really at a stalemate. Neither side wants to budge here. And what does that mean for taxpayers? It's going to be tough. Some alders are telling me and other media that Mayor Johnson and his office haven't reached out to negotiate. Here's how Johnson responded in our one-on-one yesterday. Some of these alders who are part of this block Say that your office hasn't been negotiating with them or they haven't heard from your office. What do you make of that? And they're not being honest, Brian. I'm just going to just just cut to it. They're not they're being dishonest, right? I've made multiple calls through several alders. Our team is working hard every single day to engage with the alders. This is unfortunate that we have some individuals that they're more interested in disruption and dissent than they are with actually making progress. Now two of those members of the city council opposition block are 39th ward alderman Samantha Nugent and 9th ward alderman Anthony Beal. The mayor's office shared screenshots with me of calls and texts to Nugent that went unanswered. Sources inside the mayor's office also say she told a representative of the mayor's team to stop calling her office. I brought this to Nugent and Beal. Here's how they're responding. The idea that we're non-communicative with the staff is just obscene. We see them every day in city hall and we chit chat. But until the mayor comes back with a responsible, thoughtful proposal, this is where we are. If we're talking about people being disingenuous, I've been in office for 28 years and I have met with every mayor except for this one when it comes to substantive issues. And so if he wants to say people are being dishonest, he needs to look in the mirror and decide who's being dishonest. Yeah, lots of tough words there. So here's where we are. The mayor says it's the council's job to pass a budget and come up with alternatives if they don't like it. Well, they say it's the mayor's job to present a budget that can pass city council. I got city council veteran Dick Simpson to weigh in on which side has the most leverage right now. We'll see what the election, what the real voter feeling is with real candidates. But Johnson is definitely weaker, and the city council is definitely stronger. And there are also very fraught feelings between some of the aldermen and the mayor. That is, they don't like each other, and they don't treat each other with the same sort of dignity and respect that would normally be the case or would be expected. We're talking about a $17 billion budget, and the argument's about $400 million. So finding a compromise for that amount of money is quite possible. The Illinois Municipal Code says it is on the mayor to submit a budget and the council can revise, but does not have to. And I'm told this block of 28, they do not want to do what they did last time and do their own alternative budget. So if no one can come to an agreement, Chicago could face its first ever government shutdown. That's something nobody wants because it would put a lot of city workers at risk. But I asked both Beal and Nugent, like, Are we getting there? Nugent says she's optimistic they won't get to that point. But once again, neither side is budging here. And not only would it put a lot of city workers' jobs at risk. There is an election in February. It put a lot of them, elected officials, at risk as well. Yeah, yeah, lots of calculations about who does that impact more. Dick Simpson thinks that it would be on the mayor and it would lose him, re-election automatically. But we have to see what the public says ultimately on that. But let's hope it doesn't get to that point. We're going to be following, but it's getting tight right now. Heat it, heat it. All right, a bold theft meets an even...