Mayor Lightfoot calls out FOP at City Council meeting after being criticized about police reform process

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Growing tension between Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Fraternal Order of Police were on display at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

After calling to order her second City Council meeting, it did not take long for Mayor Lightfoot to prove that she will not stand for what she considers "unfair criticism."

"What you failed to do mayor is you failed to take and ask the FOP for our input during the public comment part of the meeting, said Patrick Murray, the 1st Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police, as he criticized the mayor for leaving the police union out of discussions on reform.

"Mr. Murray, any time that the FOP wants to do anything other than obstruct and object to reform I'd be more than willing to meet with you," Lightfoot replied.

Her response was followed by applause from the chamber.

"I wouldn't say I mixed it up with him," Lightfoot said after the council meeting. "But I'm not gonna let somebody stand there and say they've been left out, on the outside looking in, because that's simply not true."

Lightfoot's only interaction with Alderman Ed Burke, who she shut down during the last council meeting when he rose to object to technical language in a council proceeding, was polite as Burke welcomed the new Corporation Council Mark Flessner. This time Lightfoot politely thanked Burke for his comment.

Lightfoot's ethics reform proposals were introduced Wednesday, they include giving the inspector general the power to audit City Council committees. The mayor said she expects them to pass and she brushed off potential push back from aldermen.

"If you're not doing anything that's improper, transparency should be your friend. They should have no concern," Lightfoot said.

After the council approved Susie Park as the new budget director, Lightfoot floated what should be a concern to taxpayers.

"We have a lot of hard choices that we're gonna have to make regarding city finances and there's no question that we are going to have to come to the taxpayers and ask for additional revenue," Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot did not say exactly what she'll ask of taxpayers, because she said it's still not clear how big the deficit actually is.

The mayor did make it clear that work on the budget is underway.