Jason Ervin, the Mayor's floor leader, saves the veto by one vote after asking the Council who gives away power

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) opened the biggest speech of his fall with a question. The City Council was deciding on Oct. 14 whether to override Mayor Brandon Johnson's veto of O2026-0026270, Ald. Marty Quinn's rule requiring 30 votes instead of 26 to issue City debt. Ervin, the Mayor's floor leader and chair of the Budget Committee, had voted no on Sept. 29 and now had to hold 17 colleagues.

"Who gives away their power?"

He answered with history: 14 Black members and no Latino members in the Council of the 1970s, Harold Washington's court fight for a Latino seat, and a rule that had been 26 votes "for as long as I can remember." The override got 33 votes and needed 34. The speech also set off the day's sharpest exchange. The Tribune reported that Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) told him to "blame the evil white people" outright, and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) said "This isn't about power, this is about good governance." Two weeks earlier, Ervin had been the loudest no on the $2.53 billion parking meter sale that 46 colleagues approved. He wins for the Mayor by arguing about power, and loses against the Council by arguing about money. His page is at /ward/28.

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Yea Nay Not voting

1Daniel La Spata: Not voting2Brian Hopkins: Yea3Pat Dowell: Yea4Lamont J. Robinson: Nay5Desmon C. Yancy: Yea6William E. Hall: Nay7Gregory I. Mitchell: Yea8Michelle A. Harris: Yea9Anthony Beale: Yea10Peter Chico: Yea11Nicole T. Lee: Yea12Julia M. Ramirez: Nay13Marty Quinn: Yea14Jeylú B. Gutiérrez: Yea15Raymond A. Lopez: Yea16Stephanie D. Coleman: Yea17David H. Moore: Nay18Derrick G. Curtis: Yea19Matthew J. O'Shea: Yea20Jeanette B. Taylor: Yea21Ronnie L. Mosley: Yea22Michael D. Rodriguez: Nay23Silvana Tabares: Yea24Monique L. Scott: Yea25Byron Sigcho-López: Nay26Jessica L. Fuentes: Nay27Walter R. Burnett: Nay28Jason C. Ervin: Nay29Chris Taliaferro: Not voting30Ruth Cruz: Yea31Felix Cardona Jr.: Yea32Scott Waguespack: Yea33Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez: Nay34William Conway: Yea35Anthony J. Quezada: Nay36Gilbert Villegas: Yea37Emma Mitts: Yea38Nicholas Sposato: Yea39Samantha Nugent: Yea40Andre Vasquez Jr.: Not voting41Anthony V. Napolitano: Yea42Brendan Reilly: Yea43Timothy R. Knudsen: Yea44Bennett R. Lawson: Yea45James M. Gardiner: Yea46Angela Clay: Nay47Matthew J. Martin: Nay48Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth: Nay49Maria E. Hadden: Nay50Debra L. Silverstein: Yea

O2026-0026270: the roll call, the timeline and the documents

Source: City Clerk · as of Oct 21, 2026

He argues about who holds the rule book

Ervin's floor speeches are about rules and who changes them. On Oct. 14 he said borrowing was not abstract.

"It's investment in our communities, the libraries, the streets, the affordable housing, the stores, the infrastructure."

He named Austin, Garfield, Lawndale and Roseland as places that money had missed for generations, then said the concern about checks on the executive had arrived with "three black mayors and every time the rules all of a sudden become an issue." A supermajority, he said, was "a veto with a better branding." At the Committee on Finance on Sept. 14 the same argument came without the history.

"Unfortunately, I don't believe in making permanent decisions for temporary situations."

He added, "This is democracy, and this isn't the U.S. Senate." On the parking meters on Sept. 29 he turned the rule-book argument against the deal's defenders, who said the 2008 contract bound the Council. One legislature cannot bind the next, he said, and the Council had been "trained to believe that we are powerless."

"When we have an opportunity to do something to solve that, we chose to cower down and sell out for $75 million."

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The floor leader who never votes against the Mayor, and went his own way on the meters

In our record of this term Ervin has voted on 92 divided roll calls: 78 yes, 13 no and one not voting. On the 49 divided items the Mayor sponsored, he voted yes every time. His no votes went against Council majorities: both ShotSpotter measures in 2024, the curfew ordinance (27–22), the 25 mile-an-hour speed limit, the Council's alternative 2026 revenue ordinance (29–19) and management ordinance, and the debt rule itself, 32 to 15 on Sept. 29. He was also one of 23 no votes on the January 2024 resolution supporting the United Nations' Uniting for Peace resolution, which tied 23 to 23.

The parking meters were different: the deal was negotiated by alderpersons, not the Mayor, who CBS Chicago reported was not part of the talks. Ervin had filed O2026-0027464 in July to create a Chicago Public Infrastructure Trust that could buy the meters back; it went to the Rules Committee and stayed there. At the Finance Committee on Sept. 24 he and Ald. William Hall (6th Ward) were the only no votes, and after he asked why the City took a share of net rather than gross revenue, chair Pat Dowell told him "You've made your point. You don't like this deal. Let's move on," the Sun-Times reported. Dowell and Ald. Scott Waguespack moved the Council vote from Friday to Tuesday after learning he planned to stall it, according to CBS. He lost 46 to 3 and told NBC Chicago the $75 million was "just a pittance".

He is not reflexive on the Mayor's side either. On Sept. 23 he changed his vote to yes on a Guevara settlement "as a last and final favor" after talking with the corporation counsel, then answered Lopez's objection to the certificates of innocence.

"to say that these folks don't deserve settlement for their grievances, I think is totally off base and wrong."

Source: City Clerk · as of Oct 21, 2026

Non-routine matters introduced this term, by the Clerk's category. Source: City Clerk.

Budget chair in a Council that passed its own budget

Mayor Johnson made him floor leader on Jan. 8, 2025, after 14 months without one; he told the Sun-Times the title was "not a major thing to me" and that the goal was to brief colleagues early on city finances, the paper reported. Eleven months later his committee advanced a $16.6 billion budget written by the Mayor's opponents, 21 to 13, after he let the Mayor's finance team challenge their revenue assumptions, the Sun-Times reported; the Council passed its revenue package 29 to 19, according to CBS, with Ervin voting no.

This year's gap is $882.4 million. He told WTTW on Sept. 10 it was "probably the most honest interpretation of the city's financial condition" in his 16 years, that residents in his ward had seen assessments rise 30 to 60 percent and "I'm not in the position to support that as of today" on a property tax increase, and, of the opposition's $89 million debt sale, that it was a decision "20 of the top bankers in this country said no to," he told WTTW.

One matter has touched his office. The Tribune reported in October 2025 that City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, his wife, agreed to a $30,000 fine to settle two Board of Ethics cases, and that former aides had alleged she pressed BMO Harris for a mortgage tied to the building that houses his aldermanic office. She said she was helping a family friend and denied wrongdoing. The article reports no finding against Ervin and no comment from him.

Appointed by Daley, kept by three mayors

Ervin was appointed to the seat by Mayor Richard M. Daley in January 2011 after running Maywood as village manager, with an accounting degree from Southern Illinois and a public administration master's from Governors State, NBC Chicago reported. He names former Ald. Ed Smith as his mentor, he told the Sun-Times in 2019. He backed Lori Lightfoot in 2023 before switching to Johnson in the runoff, per the Sun-Times. The through-line is a Daley appointee who became the Johnson administration's floor leader without ever becoming its reliable yes on the Council's own fights: on the two biggest money votes of the fall, the meters and the debt rule, he was on the losing side of one and the winning side of the other, and made the same argument both times.

What to watch

• The 2027 budget. The Mayor's proposal comes to his committee this fall; he has said no to a property tax increase "as of today."
• His infrastructure trust, O2026-0027464, in Rules since July 22.
• Video gaming. His ordinance banning video gaming licenses in the 28th Ward, O2026-0023351, got a do-not-pass recommendation in March and was deferred and published; the Council's 2026 revenue package legalized video gambling terminals.
• Brooks Homes. The ABLA infrastructure TIF he presented on Sept. 22, SO2026-0027235, passed 50 to 0 the next day; he said the parking lots there "are still flooded."
• Feb. 23, 2027. We found no reporting on a challenger or on his plans. The next regular Council meetings are Dec. 8 and 9.