The two remaining candidates in the 43rd Ward aldermanic race had their say before residents at a forum held in Old Town earlier this week.

Hospital executive Tim Egan and the ward’s Democratic Committeeman Michele Smith spoke with neighbors at the Old Town Triangle Art Center on Monday night as the candidates both gear up for a runoff ballot to replace Ald. Vi Daley, who will be stepping down from her post in May.

In the first round of the general election, on Feb. 22, Smith took in 37.6 percent of the vote over Egan’s 28.9 percent, with the other seven candidates each coming in below 11 percent.

Topics of the night ranged from city-wide concerns over public safety and responsible budgeting to ward-specific matters such as upcoming development projects in neighborhood, funding gaps at area schools and the need for rat control in the alleyways.

Smith said that if she was elected, she would work to bring an end the “old culture of insider dealing and corruption that has plagued our city.”

“The city that I love is in trouble right now,” said Smith, a former federal prosecutor.

Throughout the evening, Smith repeated the mantra of smarter governing through transparency, stating that the need for additional staffing within the Chicago Police Department, for instance, could be remedied in part by stripping out “the 10 percent of the city’s budget that is estimated to be due to fraud, waste and inefficiency.”

Smith also spoke at length on her plans to address commercial and retail vacancies in the ward, specifically along Clark Street between Webster and Diversey Avenues, where she said she recently counted 36 empty storefronts. One possible solution to this issue, she said, would be to hire a broker to help attract new businesses to the area.

“Once I’m alderman, we’ll make that happen,” she said.

Egan’s main concerns in the ward and across the city ran along the same lines: he said that steep permit fees and numerous inspection processes have turned Chicago into a “business hindrance community.”

“We’ve done a very poor job of really hammering our entrepreneurs,” he said.

Second on Egan’s list was strengthening public safety in the city.

“Right now our police department is outgunned, they are underfunded and they’re outmanned,” said Egan, who has been endorsed by Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police and the city’s firefighters union.

Regarding Chicago’s current financial shortfalls, Egan took a page from the playbook of Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), who recently called for a zero-based budgeting system to be enacted in the city’s government.

Egan said that his experience as a leader at the Norwegian American Hospital made him an apt candidate to balance the city’s budget.

“I know how to go in and rip these budgets apart, line item by line item,” he said.

Both candidates spoke on the need for tax increment financing reform at the city council level.

No aldermanic forum in the ward would be complete without a discussion on the pending redevelopment projects at Lincoln Park Hospital and Children’s Memorial Hospital — the former having recently received an unexpected stamp of approval by Ald. Daley.

When asked by moderator Philip Graff how they viewed these projects moving forward, Egan and Smith both said that community inclusion into the planning processes for the redevelopments was key.

Regarding the Lincoln Park Hospital plan, Egan exclaimed that “the residential portion of this project is perfect.” He said he supported the retail piece of the plan, but said he didn’t approve of the way a proposed grocery store would have its goods delivered.

“I believe that it’s up to developers to convince you that what they want to do is terrific,” said Smith. “It shouldn’t be that you have to convince developers that what they want to is wrong.”

As she has stated in the past, Smith said that she her goal for the redevelopment at Children’s Memorial was to have the project win a national urban planning award.

Monday night’s forum was hosted by the Old Town Triangle Association.

This year’s race in the 43rd Ward is the third time Egan and Smith have butted heads; the two ran against each other and Daley in the 2007 race, which Daley narrowly won in a runoff against Smith. The two candidates then competed again in 2008 for the title of Democratic Committeeman of the ward; that contest was won by Smith.

The runoff election for the 43rd Ward aldermanic seat will be held on April 5, with early voting running from March 14 through the end of the month.

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By Jasper Salvecchio from 43rd ward
Posted: 03/14/2011 1:53 PM

Little known dish about Timmy: 1) his wealthy real estate mogul father-in-law Lee Miglin was murdered in his garage by a gay prostitute, 2) he published a book titled "Downtick" based on his experiences in the cocaine- and sex-fueled world of LaSalle Street stockbrokers, 3) he founded Irish Brotherhood perhaps modeled on the Muslim Brotherhood. Anything wrong here? - please post a correction. Thanks

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By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 03/12/2011 11:34 AM

Michele Smith is the far superior of the candidates. I will vote for her and hope others do likewise.

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By ChicagoPJS from Lincoln Park
Posted: 03/10/2011 11:58 AM

Let me know when a candidate that's worthy of a vote emerges. I guess I'll wait until 2015...

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By Robert Kirkwood from Old Town
Posted: 03/10/2011 10:13 AM

Heard from a credible source that Egan's campaign team has had another meltdown recently - including losing staff / volunteers from the ward who had seen enough and gave up on him (just as happened last year when his Campaign head resigned due to Egan leadership concerns and joined the Smith team). Egan has now hired an insider politico manager who plans to take the dialogue negative (as if that ever really works) and litter the ward with signs. We can do better folks.