A week before he’s inaugurated, Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson is pushing his own leadership proposal on Chicago’s City Council with allies helming key committees, but it remains to be seen whether his Unity Plan lives up to its name or sets an early discordant tone as he tries to avoid the acrimony that marked his predecessor’s relationship with aldermen.

Johnson’s move to switch up council committee leadership that 33 aldermen pushed through in late March is an early key test of the new mayor’s strength and savvy. Mayor Lori Lightfoot picked a fight with aldermen by proclaiming on her Inauguration Day in 2019 that she was going to clean up the council, then spent the next four years feuding with many members, which critics said needlessly hamstrung her broader agenda.

It has been rumored since Johnson was elected in early April that he would try to follow the lead of prior mayors in putting his stamp on council leadership, a move that would likely make it easier for him to pass his initiatives over the next several years.

The Johnson proposal sets the number of committees at 20. That’s one up from the current 19 but eight fewer than in the reorganization plan the council passed itself, when supporters said they wanted to usher in a new era of aldermanic independence by setting up the committees rather than waiting to see whether Johnson or his runoff opponent, Paul Vallas, got elected mayor.

Though leaders of the reorganization hailed it as an opportunity to bring “new focus” to issues aldermen had often ceded to the mayor, critics argued it was an attempt by current committee chairs to hold onto power by offering up new leadership roles — and the coveted budget and staff that come with it — to colleagues. Good government groups said the March vote was rushed, costly and brought no guarantees that committees that had rarely met during the past term would better serve the public.

Northwest Side Ald. Scott Waguespack is the highest-profile loser in Johnson’s proposed council shake-up. He stands to get deposed from his plum Finance Committee chairmanship in favor of South Side Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, a former ally of Mayor Lori Lightfoot who endorsed Johnson over Lightfoot in the mayoral race and has long wanted to helm Finance.

Black Caucus chairman Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, will take over as chair of the key Budget Committee from Dowell.

Waguespack, 32nd, joined the council in 2007 as one of its most progressive members, a reformer who beat machine Ald. Ted Matlak and who often took positions opposing Mayor Richard M. Daley’s policies and those of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Waguespack’s potential removal from Finance signals the leftward shift the council has taken over the last 15 years, a development that is expected to continue with Johnson, who ran on a progressive reform agenda, as mayor.

Democratic Socialist Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, a close Johnson ally on the council who has been working behind the scenes to rally support for Johnson’s council leadership proposition rather than the one aldermen already adopted, will be elevated to chair the powerful Zoning Committee under the mayor-elect’s plan. That post could set him up to push for more affordable housing units to get included in developments.

Waguespack, who chaired City Council’s Progressive Caucus during Emanuel’s term, told the Tribune he still considers himself a progressive: “I think I would continue along what we had always pushed for,” he said: ethics reform, good government and “being fiscally responsible stewards.”

But the definition of progressive within the council is changing, he said. “I think there’s a different brand of — what Carlos represents — and he’ll tell you is socialism.”

The new City Council will vote on its organization May 24, so there’s a chance the situation could still change in another deal that rounds up a majority of votes on the 50-member body.

But Waguespack seemed to bow to the inevitability of the new mayor’s plan carrying the day. He released a statement touting his work to clean up the Finance Committee after Lightfoot named him to the post when longtime committee chairman Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, was arrested on federal bribery charges. Waguespack also positioned himself as a longtime advocate for a strong City Council.

“Since my election in 2007, I have always been an insistent voice for aldermanic independence, from my early resistance to the parking meter deal, to the crafting of the plan for independent selection of council chairs that passed just last month, and at countless other points along the way,” Waguespack’s statement read. “While I am disappointed in this outcome, I will continue to serve as a voice for integrity, independence and reform in City Council, as I always have. I hope to forge a productive working relationship around those principles with the new administration.”

Ald. David Moore, 17th, notably condemned the council’s first pass in late March at reorganizing itself by likening those who cooperated with the plan in the hopes of maintaining power to being a “prostitute.”

Moore said Monday that he will oppose the new version too, arguing a lack of communication from Johnson and his allies soured him even though he approves of how the latest iteration restores the original, leaner number of committees. He added that transparency concerns over the March reorganization vote taking place before a new mayor was elected are just as pressing now, because aldermen like him were left aside during the latest negotiations.

“That’s a problem in itself,” Moore said about being blindsided by the latest plan’s rollout. “I want to be supportive of the administration in any way that I can, but I can’t be supportive of something that I wasn’t included in.”

In a statement, downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said he was “disappointed the City Council is abandoning its opportunity to operate independently of the executive branch for the first time in many decades.”

Reilly was slated to run a new Committee on Tourism, Entertainment and Conventions. It would have been the first time in 16 years on the City Council that Reilly would lead a committee.

Instead, Johnson’s structure eliminates that committee. Reilly’s statement congratulated his colleagues who would serve as chairs and offer assurances that he looked forward to working with them this term.

“During my tenure, I have consistently stood up for what I think is right: whether it was battling against Mayor Daley’s effort to allow development in Grant Park; or Rahm’s major tax and fee increases; or Lightfoot’s attempts to strip alderpersons of their legislative authority,” he said. “I will continue to uphold my commitment to remaining independent; staying true to my convictions; and always fighting for what I think is right.”

Ahead of the March vote, the good government advocacy group the Better Government Association supported the City Council asserting its own independence, but argued against adding new committees or voting on a new structure before new members had been seated. BGA Policy Director Bryan Zarou said Monday the weekend’s changes suggest the council is sticking to its rubber stamp reputation.

“The council took a big leap forward but 10 steps back over the last month or so,” Zarou told the Tribune. “I was hoping the council didn’t fold this quick.”

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

aquig@chicagotribune.com

ayin@chicagotribune.com