Breaking into the U.S. Capitol should preclude people from breaking in with the City Hall workforce, a key City Council panel decided Wednesday.
Jan. 6 rioters who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election result — more than 1,500 of whom have been pardoned by President Donald Trump — could soon be barred from city employment under a proposed resolution that sailed through the Council’s Workforce Development Committee.
The city human resources commissioner would be directed to reject job applicants who took part in the 2021 insurrection because “you should not be allowed to work for the same government you are attempting to overthrow,” said Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), who sponsored the measure.
“There is a misalignment in values there, an incompatibility that we must acknowledge, even if Donald Trump’s administration will not,” said Villegas, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “Let us stand firm in this together as a body.”
The resolution hinges on city hiring code that gives officials leeway to disqualify applicants with criminal convictions or “who have engaged in any act or conduct prohibited by state or federal law or municipal ordinance.”
A mob of about 2,500 people broke into the Capitol in the unprecedented attack, injuring almost 200 police officers and causing almost $3 million in damage, according to FBI estimates.
Trump distanced himself from the rioters in the insurrection’s aftermath, but within hours of retaking office Jan. 20, he pardoned more than 1,500 people nationwide convicted in connection with the attack.
Gov. JB Pritzker barred Jan. 6 rioters from state employment through an executive order handed down soon after Trump’s inauguration.
Ald. Matt Martin (47th) said the resolution he co-sponsored comes “a few months too late,” but called it “important to reiterate how common-sense this is.”
“We shouldn’t have to say it but sadly, it’s important to reaffirm the fact that no one who is convicted of participating in a violent insurrection should be on a government payroll,” Martin said. “We are in a position where we have to reaffirm that because we have people who are looking to whitewash history.”
The only committee vote against the resolution came from Northwest Side Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th), one of the most conservative Council members.
“It was a protest that turned into a riot,” Sposato said. “Why not, then, the Black Lives Matter riots? Why not the attack on the Columbus statue?”
Sposato said he thought the 2020 election was fair and condemned the Capitol riot, but “I just think we’re we’re we’re cherrypicking here, saying you could do certain things that were just as bad or equally as bad.”
At least 53 Illinois residents from across the state faced Jan. 6 charges, including a Chicago police officer who was later fired.
The city employs more than 32,000 people. The full Council will vote on the resolution April 16.