Response to Allegations about CCPSA Nominations
Date:
March 26, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 26, 2026
MEDIA CONTACT: Nicole Garcia Nicole.Garcia@cityofchicago.orgThe following statement is being issued in response to a letter to the Mayor and a press conference regarding the work of the District Council Nominating Committee, which is charged by city ordinance with nominating candidates to fill anticipated vacancies on the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.
CHICAGO, IL– The Nominating Committee developed and implemented an exceptionally detailed and fair process that resulted in the selection of six extraordinary candidates to fill three seats on the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. The same fair process led to the nomination of Commissioner Abierre Minor in 2024. This year, Commissioner Minor did not have enough support to be nominated.
The Nominating Committee used a meticulous process to ensure that every Commission applicant received fair and careful consideration. A publicly available 86-page process report released in 2024 describes the Committee’s community-informed rubric, methods to quantitatively assess applications, procedures to reduce bias in reviewing applications, communication norms for deliberations, and rules of order to govern decision-making. The Committee will release another process report later this spring. These reports demonstrate the Committee’s commitment to fairness, integrity, accountability, and transparency.
Commissioner Minor has made meaningful contributions to the Commission’s work. It is unfortunate that false and misleading information is being spread about the nominating process. Nominating Committee members—a diverse group of District Councilors representing each of the city’s 22 District Councils—spent significant time, care, and deliberation to ensure that the process was followed and every applicant received fair consideration. The vast majority of those Councilors stand strongly behind the process and the nominations it produced. The issue at hand is not the process, but an individual’s actions that fell outside of it. A now-former member of the Nominating Committee, Lee Bielecki from the 22nd District Council, unilaterally went to Commissioner Minor’s apartment building and asked a building employee to verify that she lived there, in order to confirm that she met a residential eligibility requirement for a Commission seat. These actions violated the Nominating Committee’s established procedures and their plan for an appropriate way to verify eligibility. The next day, Mr. Bielecki admitted to his actions and resigned from the Nominating Committee. He took no further part in the nomination process and had no impact on the selection of nominees.
Councilor Bielecki’s actions were completely unacceptable and entirely out of line with the nominations process. The Nominating Committee voted overwhelmingly at a public meeting to censure him and apologized to Commissioner Minor. That censure resolution, along with a list of supporting Nominators, is available online.
Councilor Bielecki’s inappropriate and unsanctioned actions did not have any effect on the final result. The Nominating Committee extended Commissioner Minor an interview and gave her application full consideration. In the end, Commissioner Minor did not have the support of two-thirds of the Nominating Committee—15 of 22 members—required by city ordinance for nomination. No member of the Nominating Committee moved to nominate her when it held its public vote to select nominees on March 7, 2026.
Six highly qualified candidates received the votes of at least 15 members of the Nominating Committee. These candidates include Anjanette Young, a woman whose name has become synonymous with police reform in Chicago, and Rebecca Levin, who has more than 25 years’ experience working to reduce violence through a public health lens.
This morning’s letter and press conference called upon the Mayor to reject these two exceptional candidates. But the demands go even further, calling on the Mayor to reject all nominees, including four youth candidates under the age of 25. If the Mayor rejects these nominees, all would be disqualified from serving on the Commission in the coming term, and Commissioner Minor would still need the minimum 15 votes required for nomination.
The Committee stands by the thorough and democratic process that produced an exceptionally qualified group of nominees to the Commission. The choice to appoint the next Commissioners from that group, or to disqualify them, now rests with the Mayor. Signed, Elianne Bahena, 10th District Councilor, Nominating Committee Southwest Side Liaison Angelica Green, 25th District Councilor, Nominating Committee Northwest Side Liaison Aisha Humphries, 6th District Councilor, Nominating Committee Southeast Side Liaison Sam Schoenburg, 19th District Councilor, Nominating Committee Northeast Side Liaison The four Nominating Committee liaisons chair the Nominating Committee process. ###
Media Contact: Nicole Garcia, Nicole.Garcia@cityofchicago.org