The City Council wore through three sets of ballots before ultimately electing Ald. Matt Sloan, District 13, as council president Tuesday night.
A plurality of 11 votes was required to elect the council president, but on its first attempt, the council came up with a 9-9 tie for Sloan and his opponent, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
A second endeavor produced a 10-8 vote in favor of Sloan, and on the third try, he nabbed the required 11 votes.
\I'm gratified by the support of the council,"" Sloan said, adding that as president he hopes mainly to foster collaboration among the council members so they can ""work together to face the really big issues like the budget crisis and housing.""
After the painstaking process of electing Sloan, the council swiftly elected Ald. Linda Bellman, District 1, as president pro tem.
Prior to electing Sloan and Bellman, the council unanimously approved the report of the Subcommittee on Committees, which was created to cut down on the city's bureaucracy of more than 100 committees.
Despite the unanimous endorsement, several council members complained that the subcommittee did not cut out enough fat.
""Good God, I would've hoped that we'd have been able to ax a few more [committees] than this,"" said Ald. Tom Powell, District 5.
Yet Alds. Cindy Thomas, District 7, and Judy Compton, District 16, defended the report to their colleagues.
""There's more to committees than just having committees'it's getting citizens' input,"" she said.
Thomas agreed, adding, ""The goals we had set of getting rid of surplus committees were not the will of the people.\
