Indicted Ald. Carrie Austin gets head start on political retirement

CHICAGO - An extraordinary era in Chicago politics ended quietly in late November when indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th), the City Council’s longest-serving and most powerful alderperson, decided not to seek re-election to a record 15th term.

Now, the Council’s second-most senior alderperson has left quietly, getting a head-start on retirement.

Indicted Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) has resigned the seat she has held since Aug. 5, 1994, when she was appointed by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley to fill the vacancy created by the death of her husband, Lemuel, powerful chairman of the Council’s Budget Committee.

"It has been my honor to have serve [sic] the City of Chicago and the 34th Ward for over 29 years as it’s Alderman," Austin wrote in a letter to the city clerk dated Feb. 15, 2023 and posted on the clerk’s website.

"As of March 1, 2023, I will be retiring."

Austin could not be reached for comment. Neither could Bill Conway, newly-elected last week from the redrawn 34th Ward. Conway, son of billionaire William E. Conway Jr., finished second in the 2020 Democratic primary for state’s attorney.

"On military duty this week and next," Conway wrote in a text message to the Sun-Times.

Lame-duck Mayor Lori Lightfoot now has a choice. She can appoint a two-month caretaker to serve Austin’s existing ward on the Far South Side ward, a ward that for now includes West Pullman, Roseland and Morgan Park. Or, she can leave the ward without an alderperson until the inauguration in mid-May.

Part of the old 34th Ward will be inherited by Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), who has been reelected. But most of Austin’s old turf will be shifted to the 21st Ward, whose alderperson will be determined by a runoff for the seat being vacated by Ald. Howard Brookins.

Austin has pleaded not guilty to charges that she took home improvement bribes — including new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops — from a developer seeking her help in navigating a project through the City Hall bureaucracy. She is also accused of lying to FBI agents who sought to question her about the perks.

Three months ago, federal prosecutors argued FBI surveillance of Austin undermined her claim that she is medically unfit to stand trial on public corruption charges.

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In asking for U.S. District Judge John Kness to find her unfit, Austin’s lawyers have claimed she struggles even with the help of a portable oxygen concentrator. They further argue her deteriorating health reached the point that she could not pass a six-minute walking test last September.

The feds, however, say that while being surveilled on Nov. 19, Austin was seen walking in and out of a salon unassisted. After spending three hours at the salon, she was allegedly seen visiting a beauty store "again, unassisted."

"FBI agents did not observe her using oxygen at any time during the surveillance," Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Didwania wrote.

The only time the FBI saw Austin using an oxygen mask was when she left a medical facility Nov. 21, according to Didwania. "Afterwards, she dined-in at a restaurant in the south loop," Didwania wrote, and "walked into and out of the restaurant unassisted." staying there for about 40 minutes.

Didwania wrote that "nullifying a federal indictment is a grave outcome," and that Austin has provided "no medical opinion that a trial would jeopardize her life."

Last fall, Austin’s lawyers wrote that she has been "under the constant care" of specialists for serious health problems ever since her indictment. They pointed to her collapse during a December 2021 City Council meeting that led to her being taken by ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. They said doctors there found she had a condition caused by a partial collapse of the lungs.

They also said her breathing issues then worsened.

Austin’s decision to retire from politics rather than fight the new ward map has made it easier for the Black Caucus to accommodate the loss of more than 85,000 African-American residents over the last decade.

The move drew praise from Lightfoot, who came to office at odds with Austin, but has forged a surprisingly close alliance with her.

"Ald. Austin made the determination that she would give up her ward as part of this remap process, that’s a heck of a thing," Lightfoot, said months before her resounding defeat in last week’s mayoral election.

"Every time that I’m down there, anytime there’s a project there, any time that she’s talking about her community, she has a fire for them and advocating for people in the area that many people in the city don’t know much about and never been to. So I think that would be a big important part of her legacy."