Chicago
By ED McMANUS

Oberman's word for Byrne: 'erratic'

THE ISSUE, he said, is her personality — not her politics.

Martin Oberman, leader of Chicago's independent aldermen, was discussing Jane Byrne and the job she has done since her election as mayor last year, and he kept coming back to that point. "I have to be frank," he said. "Based on the way she has handled herself in the last year, it is my opinion that she has a serious underlying personality disorder. I really don't think she's psychologically fit to hold office. Her mind is so warped."

The words come from someone who has made a career out of criticizing the Democratic machine, so maybe they should be taken with a grain of salt. But Oberman has not always been a critic of Mayor Byrne; in fact, in the early days of her administration, she appointed him to the important job of chairing her committee on collective bargaining. And although other officials have not been as outspoken, Oberman claims that many of them agree with his appraisal.

In an interview at his law office, two blocks down LaSalle Street from City Hall, Oberman laid out his views on the mayor's first year in office and what he sees for the future.

"She's a bright person and she has political experience," he said, "but some things just defy common sense. For example, you don't go [take a trip] to Jerusalem and, before you've even talked to him, announce that you're going to make Tom Ayers president of the school board.

"I'm willing to believe that in some strange way she is still well-intentioned, but she is so erratic. There is no continuity of approach to anything. She insists on personalizing everything and attacking unnecessarily. She has made life difficult for herself and for everyone else, and it hasn't gotten her anything."

Oberman said he believes her husband and chief adviser, Jay McMullen, "is not well-intentioned — and she knows where he's coming from. But she is the one who is responsible. She is the mayor. It's obvious that she takes a lot of Jay's suggestions, but I think 90 percent of the problem would exist even if Jay weren't there."

One of Mayor Byrne's big mistakes, according to Oberman, has been that she raised people's expectations, including his own, and then failed to fulfill her promises, making everybody mad. "That's stupid," he said, "and it's made people much angrier at her than they ever were at Mayor [Richard J.] Daley. You know, you can say a lot about Daley, but you couldn't complain that he went back on his word."

Oberman said he went to visit Mrs. Byrne three days after her primary election victory. "I talked to her about my ideas for improving the budget system, and she said, 'You're absolutely right. I want to do that,' and I talked to her about changing the council rules, and she said, 'You're absolutely right.' But a couple of weeks later, it was obvious that she had changed her mind. She said, 'I want those guys out' (referring to Aldermen Edward Vrdolyak and Edward Burke), and two weeks later they were in. I met with her and I said, T don't understand why you haven't done the things you said you would,' and she just said, 'It couldn't be done, but I need your help.'"

Oberman said he thinks it's all a shame. "It may never happen again -someone being able to get elected by a huge public outcry," he said. "She was elected without help from the special interest groups, and she had flexibility. But instead of forming a working coalition with the reform-oriented political groups and community groups and blacks and Latinos, she immediately went over and became entwined with the Old Guard of the party — [John] D'Arco and so forth. She completely shut out everybody else."

Why?

"I think it was the easy way out. She just chose to let the people who had been pulling the strings keep doing it."

Oberman said he believes Mrs. Byrne's conduct of the office is damaging to the city, "but it hasn't been destroyed yet. In the long run, the city has a solidity. It could bounce back."

He said he believes the chances of recalling the mayor are nil. Even if the legislature were to pass a law allowing recall, he said, she would challenge it in court and her term would expire before the issue was resolved. "The only conceivable scenario for her leaving office before 1983 would be if there were enough public pressure, but I tend to think she wouldn't respond to it," he said.

When Byrne's four-year term expires, Oberman predicts the machine will slate someone to run against her.

In the meantime, Oberman continues his David v. Goliath role in the City Council. The council is much looser than it used to be, but 35 of the 50 aldermen still are under the control of the mayor.

"It will be a long process for the council to open up," he said. "It's much more frustrating for me now than it was in the first four years [when Daley and Michael Bilandic were mayor]. My expectations were greatly raised. To tell you the truth, it's getting tiresome. "

36/August 1980/Illinois Issues