[Vito Marzullo raw #34]

Raw tape #34 for Vito Marzullo documentary. "City Council with Vito wired #4." Continuation of city council footage. Alderman Vito Marzullo, fitted with a wireless microphone during a city council meeting, provides an uncensored view of how Chicago politics actually work.

00:00Copy video clip URL “Killing a lot of time for nothing,” Marzullo remarks to an observer about that day’s proceedings, so far consisting mostly of resolutions honoring—and fawning over—various political figures (see tapes #32 and #33). Marzullo reads documents while the speaker reads a list of property auction results and local ordinances.

01:27Copy video clip URL The tape jumps, though Marzullo remains as before, reading documents. A speaker brings up an ordinance involving local transportation and the handicapped, particularly pertinent to Alderman Marzullo who serves as the chairman of the Committee on Local Transportation. A vote is taken and nearly all the aldermen, including Marzullo, respond with an “aye.”

03:40Copy video clip URL The tape jumps again, and another roll call vote is taken. The tape jumps a second time, and Marzullo gives a report from the Committee on Local Transportation calling for the construction of a bus shelter. Other committees give similar reports.

06:00Copy video clip URL While other committees report their business, Marzullo joshes with another alderman. “How the hell does [your wife] put up with a guy like you?” he says teasingly. The target of his joke doesn’t find it as funny as Marzullo. The tape jumps again.

07:19Copy video clip URL “You know what I’m gonna do before I get done in politics? I’m gonna move you to the 25th Ward and make you our alderman,” Marzullo says jokingly to a woman, who shakes hand with a few other aldermen.

07:39Copy video clip URL Marzullo stands to give a speech, but the tape skips over much of it. “We’ve got to have some guts to speak the truth and let the people know what this legislative body stands for,” he concludes adamantly, and disparages wayward young people, although the context is unclear. The council takes another roll call vote and Marzullo visits with some of his colleagues. “I feel sorry for the future generation, I tell you,” Marzullo tells one, in reference to the speech he just made.

10:42Copy video clip URL Done for the day, Marzullo leaves the council chambers. The tape cuts to Marzullo’s office before going black, and we hear audio of him talking on the phone.

13:34Copy video clip URL The image returns.

19:15Copy video clip URL Marzullo chats casually with the video crew for the rest of the tape. Director Tom Weinberg asks him about an ordinance passed unanimously in the meeting, which keeps children off playgrounds after ten o’clock. “They’d better get some laws on the statue books and enforce them, or else wild cats and animals will run the country,” Marzullo quips.

19:55Copy video clip URL Marzullo elaborates on the “wild” youth, explaining the phone call he just took. He said he was speaking with a woman whose 19-year-old daughter obtained a job from Marzullo but arrived drunk for work. “And they want you to feel sorry for them, but they don’t feel sorry themselves [about] what they’re doing to their children.”