On May 20th, Lori Lightfoot took office as Chicago’s 56th Mayor. While Lightfoot’s term is just beginning, preparations to ensure her success kicked into high gear immediately following the runoff election on April 2nd.

There was much to do in the six short weeks between the runoff and Lightfoot’s inauguration, as the new administration prepared to take over government operations while strategically infusing Lightfoot’s values into the work of the transition.

Civic Consulting Alliance responded to the Mayor-elect’s request to provide support to her transition team during this critical time, utilizing our project management expertise and our diverse, cross-sector network of partners to accelerate a smooth transition and ensure effective government from day one.

Together with 20 partners, Civic Consulting Alliance helped to manage four components of the transition work:

1. Team Transition Management: Establish, manage, and dismantle a transition team to drive the transition forward.

Pro Bono Partners:

Jaime Cleghorn, Meghan Shehorn

____________

2. People: Develop recommendation’s for the city’s organizational structure and process for sourcing and screening potential leadership.

Pro Bono Partners:

____________

3. Policy: Develop first-term, first-year, and first 100 days operating plans.

Pro Bono Partners:

____________

4. Transition Committees: Gather and synthesize input from more than 400 Chicagoans on 10 committees across policy areas, and producing a transition report.

Pro Bono Partners:

Rohan Mascarenhas, Soledad McGrath, John Ramirez

____________

The engaged, collaborative spirit of our city and the hundreds of stakeholders with whom we worked with over the past month-and-a-half has inspired our team.

As Mayor-Elect Lightfoot said at Civic Consulting Alliance’s Board meeting in April:

“We have a lot of work to do. Our biggest challenge is getting people to recognize that we are standing at the threshold of a historic moment to transform our city. Our time is now, and all of us need to work together to help make the most of it.”

Read the transition committees’ report, available in English and Spanish.