Lightfoot still fuming over feud with Preckwinkle

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has her 100 days and her initial "State of the City" address under her belt, but former mayoral rival Toni Preckwinkle is still getting under her skin.

The bad blood between the mayor and the Cook County Board president boiled over yet again on Friday in Lightfoot's meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board.

Lightfoot acknowledged she was "stepping into some hot water" when she spoke about a letter on bail reform she received from her former campaign rival in July. She jumped in anyway.

"Let me be clear, I have said 'Madame president, chief judge, sheriff, state's attorney, let's get together, let's put our data out for the public to be able to see it and let's work together towards solutions' and what I got back was not a 'yeah, that's a great idea.' I got back another nastygram from her," Lightfoot said.

"So other people who are part of this ecosystem have reached out and said let's have a conversation and I commend the chief judge and the presiding judge and Sheriff (Tom) Dart and State's Attorney Kim Foxx because I think all of us can … make some progress. And we will make progress."

What Lightfoot dubbed the "ongoing tussle in the media" over bail reform stems from a July letter Preckwinkle sent to Lightfoot, complaining that the mayor and her top cop were promoting a "false narrative" that portrays the county's bail reform efforts as "the root cause for gun violence."

The new mayor said Friday the issue isn't about bail reform but about not "returning people to the streets who are wreaking havoc in neighborhoods."

While the two haven't talked since the letter, there have been conversations at the staff level, Lightfoot said. "If President Preckwinkle is interested in having a productive conversation on any topic my door is always open," she said.

Later Friday, though, Preckwinkle said in a statement that "we've invited the mayor and Superintendent (Eddie) Johnson to the table several times in hopes of having a productive conversation based on identifying solutions. It is clear they are not willing to sit down as they have either been unavailable or declined those requests."

Of those who are arrested and who do enter the criminal court system, a recent report by the Office of the Chief Judge found that during an 18-month period that ended on March 31, only 0.6% of defendants who were released on bond were charged with a new violent offense - the number of "no bail" decisions county judges have entered has increased "nearly tenfold since we began instituting bail reform," Preckwinkle wrote.

• This report was produced in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. For related coverage, visit chicago.suntimes.com.