In what kind of world is a referendum on spending more than $50 million on flood relief not considered “any more out of line” than a referendum on spending no more than $500,000 on combating O’Hare noise and pollution? 

In the wacky world of Ald. Don “Air Marshall” Bach (3rd Ward), that’s where. 

At Monday night’s City Council Committee of the Whole (“COW”) meeting, Bach actually made that argument in a vain attempt to get support for his flood control bonding referendum proposal that has appeared from its first mention to be more of a political stalking horse than a legitimate referendum question.  Which is why, in our post “The ‘Dog Giveth, And The ‘Dog Taketh Away” (06.25.10), we retracted the kudos we had given him when we thought his flood control referendum proposal was legit. 

Apparently because he operates in his own wacky world, Bach actually voted for the O’Hare referendum resolution after opposing the inclusion of the $500,000 spending limit, and despite criticizing it as providing not nearly enough funding to do “the job,” without ever explaining what “the job” actually is – other than to spend however much of the taxpayers’ money he can get away with in trying to control this region’s number one economic “engine” that has monolithic county, state and federal support. 

But given how kooky Bach can be, we wonder whether he cast that “yes” vote only so he could be in a position to call it for a reconsideration vote, which only an alderman who votes in favor of a measure is permitted to do. 

We raise that question because the Council passed the $500,000 limit proposed by Ald. Tom Carey (6th Ward) only with the tie-breaking vote of Mayor Schmidt, as the aldermen present that night were deadlocked 3 “yes” (Sweeney, DiPietro and Carey) to 3 “no” (Bach, Allegretti and Wsol) – in the absence of Ald. Robert Ryan (5th Ward), who would have been expected to vote “no” on capping O’Hare expenditures at $500,000. 

[This appears as a “voice vote” – without explanation – at Page 6 of the Draft Minutes [pdf] of that meeting, even though it required a show of hands when the voice vote did not produce a clear winner.  You can see it for yourself on the City’s website, at 1:42:50 of the 6/21/10 meeting video] 

So a reconsideration vote to nuke that referendum question taken when all seven aldermen are present could result in a 4-3 reversal, which could be followed up with a 4-3 passage of a new O’Hare referendum question without any dollar limit, the kind that Bach, Allegretti, Ryan and Wsol seem to prefer. 

If that is to occur, City procedures require that it come at this coming Monday night’s Council meeting, which is the first meeting subsequent to the one where the action was taken for which reconsideration is sought.  

That could be entertaining.  And if “Air Marshall” Bach has anything to say about it, it also might be wacky.