For the second time in a row, the boss of the Chicago Transit Authority avoided questions from City Council members because too few of them showed up to a required meeting.<\/p>\n
Wednesday was supposed to be the Transportation Committee\u2019s second special quarterly meeting this year, at which Council members can question CTA\u2019s interim President Nora Leerhsen. The Council has been\u00a0mandating quarterly appearances by the CTA\u2019s boss\u00a0since 2023, after then-CTA boss Dorval Carter repeatedly refused to show up voluntarily.<\/p>\n
Instead, this week\u2019s meeting was canceled because only six members of the 14-person panel showed up \u2014 one less than the seven-person quorum needed tostart the meeting.<\/p>\n
When the same thing happened at the March special meeting, when only five members showed, Transportation Committee Chair Gregory Mitchell (7th) promptly canceled the meeting before anyone else could speak.<\/p>\n
This time, however, Mitchell allowed public comment and remarks from Leerhsen, who used the roughly half hour to list her accomplishments as interim head of the CTA since early 2025.<\/p>\n
Ald. David Moore (17th), who attended the meeting virtually and did not count toward a quorum, told the Sun-Times he was disappointed so few members showed that they couldn\u2019t ask questions. Moore said he\u2019s generally supportive of Leerhsen\u2019s leadership, though he had\u00a0previously championed\u00a0Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s former chief operating officer John Roberson to lead the CTA.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should not only show up to ask questions but be there to hear what\u2019s going on\u201d so they can communicate developments in the CTA to their constituents, Moore said.<\/p>\n
In her remarks, Leerhsen touted a continued drop in overall crime, especially on the Red Line. A surge in police officers on trains, driven in part by funding threats from the Trump administration, has helped drive an 80% drop in crime on the Red Line over last year.<\/p>\n
Leerhsen also boasted about CTA ridership reaching its highest point in six years; a growth in bus ridership following an expansion of its frequent bus network; and a drop in smoking complaints by 40% since 2024. After the meeting, Leerhsen\u2019s office declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s second failed attempt to reach a quorum comes during a consequential time for Chicago transit.<\/p>\n
The newly formed\u00a0Northern Illinois Transit Authority is about to reshape the region\u2019s transit\u00a0and shift some power away from the mayor, who can no longer pick a permanent CTA leader without the new board\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n
A new NITA board also must be seated by Sept. 1. Johnson plans to announce his NITA board picks by early next week, mayoral spokesperson Griffin Krueger told the Sun-Times Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Those board seats are top of mind for Ald. Bill Conway (34th), who missed Wednesday\u2019s meeting but attended virtually.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot having the City represented [in the NITA board] would be the equivalent of one of the 13 original colonies not sending representation to the Constitutional Convention on Day 1,\u201d Conway told the Sun-Times. \u201cI\u2019m losing sleep over it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Panel member Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who missed Wednesday\u2019s meeting, told the Sun-Times he has among the highest attendance rates on the City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn those few occasions when I am absent, it\u2019s typically due to illness or family commitments that were scheduled prior to notice of the date for the missed meeting,\u201d he said in a text message.<\/p>\n
Six Council members attended Wednesday\u2019s meeting in person: Mitchell, Scott Waguespack (32nd), Samantha Nugent (39th), Michael Rodriguez (22nd), Michelle Harris (8th) and Andre Vasquez (40th).<\/p>\n
Also missing were Jason Ervin (28th), Jeylu Gutierrez (14th), Ronnie Mosley (21st), Jessie Fuentes (26th) and Desmon Yancy (5th).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the second time in a row, the boss of the Chicago Transit Authority avoided questions from City…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":226670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,27248,5386,1818],"class_list":["post-907320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-cta","tag-il","tag-illinois"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116849977967475020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}