LOGAN SQUARE — Cook dinner County Commissioner Anthony Quezada has been confirmed by the Metropolis Council as the following thirty fifth Ward alderperson, changing outgoing Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa.
Quezada, born and raised in Logan Sq., was formally nominated final week by Mayor Brandon Johnson to fill the emptiness left by Ramirez-Rosa, who was appointed CEO of the Chicago Park District this winter after a decade spent representing components of Logan Sq., Avondale and Hermosa at Metropolis Corridor.
Alderpeople voted 32-11 Monday to approve Quezada’s nomination. He was sworn in instantly after.
Quezada, 29, beforehand served as Ramirez-Rosa’s constituent service director and thirty fifth Ward Democratic committeeman. He was one among two candidates interviewed for the job final week by a search committee arrange by the Johnson administration.
Six individuals utilized to exchange Ramirez-Rosa final month, though Quezada’s appointment was extensively anticipated.
Whereas working below Ramirez-Rosa and as a neighborhood organizer with United Neighbors of the thirty fifth Ward, Quezada helped constituents get metropolis providers, oversaw infrastructure tasks, advocated for reasonably priced housing within the ward and led a lease management referendum that acquired main assist within the space, he beforehand informed Block Membership.
He has additionally been a vocal supporter of the neighborhood’s protection committee to guard immigrant households from deportation threats below President Donald Trump.
As alderperson, Quezada stated he’ll proceed to assist the thirty fifth Ward’s neighborhood zoning course of, go property tax reforms and work to enhance town’s public transit system, amongst different priorities.
“I’ve at all times believed that the tenet of presidency should be to do the best good and to enhance the well-being of everybody, particularly essentially the most weak in our communities,” he stated Monday in ready remarks.
In 2022, Quezada was the youngest and the primary brazenly homosexual Latino commissioner to be elected to the Cook dinner County Board of Commissioners.
He’s anticipated to be a dependable supporter of Johnson’s agenda at a time of elevated friction from each longtime opponents of the mayor in addition to a few of the Council’s Progressive Caucus.
Jessica Vasquez, zoning chair and beforehand chief of employees for Ramirez-Rosa, intends to hunt Quezada’s place as Cook dinner County commissioner of the eighth District, she informed Block Membership final week. An appointment course of might be overseen by Democratic committeepeople within the space.
Alderpeople on Monday additionally authorized assigning Quezada to serve on the council committees Ramirez-Rosa had served on.
Whereas Quezada’s aldermanic affirmation was in the end authorized, Monday’s listening to was dominated by dialogue over a social media submit he made a decade in the past.
Shortly after Quezada’s announcement that he supposed to hunt the aldermanic nomination, a 2014 tweet containing a racial slur circulated on social media. He posted the tweet when he was in highschool and deleted it two years in the past.
Quezada has apologized for the submit, saying it “doesn’t mirror my values or character.”
“I wish to take this chance to precise once more my deep remorse for making that mistake as a highschool scholar and take full accountability for my tweet,” he stated in an announcement posted March 7.
Ald. David Moore (seventeenth) on Monday spoke out in opposition to the tweet, saying he discovered Quezada’s apology to be insufficient.
“Phrases matter,” stated Moore, who took subject along with his use of the phrase “remorse” as a substitute of “I’m sorry” in his assertion.
“It wasn’t a lot what you stated as a lot as how the apology or lack of an apology, in my view, got here out,” Moore stated.
Talking after Moore, Ald. Walter Burnett (twenty seventh) stated Quezada had known as him to debate the submit and that he had accepted his apology. Alds. Lamont Robinson (4th) and Angela Clay (forty sixth) each known as the tweet and its fallout a “teachable second” earlier than vocally supporting Quezada’s nomination.
“We don’t want extra of us to derail our motion of Black and Brown of us. We want individuals which can be going to face up and transfer this metropolis ahead for 2 disfranchised communities,” Robinson stated. “So Anthony, I look ahead to working with you to maneuver our communities ahead.”
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