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COUNCIL VOTE GIVES CUBS LIGHTS, 1990 ALL-STAR GAME

The Chicago City Council approved measures Thursday ending the six-year battle over night baseball in Wrigley Field and clearing the way for eight Cubs games under the lights this season and the major-league All-Star Game in 1990.

After more than two hours of heated debate and the defeat of a series of amendments to rewrite or stall action on the ordinance, which was supported by Mayor Eugene Sawyer, the council voted 29-19 to allow the 8 night games this year and 18 in future seasons.

Shortly before the showdown, Sawyer and aldermen supporting the controversial issue received reinforcement when R. Bartlett Giamatti, president of the National League, telephoned the mayor and announced that Chicago had been selected as the site of the 1990 All-Star Game, provided the council approved the lights measure.

Opponents of the ordinance, led by Aldermen Bernard Hansen (44th) and Bobby Rush (2d) contended that the agreement was ”stacked” in favor of the Cubs and failed to provide any firm commitments for community protections or citywide benefits.

Following the vote, angry Wrigleyville residents stormed from the council gallery, hurling charges that aldermen ”sold out” the community for promises of jobs and future key committee appointments by Sawyer. The charges were denied by mayoral aides, who conceded that the mayor had lobbied vigorously for passage of the ordinance.

”This is like the old days of patronage,” charged Mark Atkinson, former president of Citizens United for Baseball in the Sunshine (C.U.B.S.). ”They are all getting something from the mayor, I don`t know what, but we know who changed their positions.”

Charlotte Newfeld, a C.U.B.S. leader, echoed Atkinson`s charges and said the community will now turn to the courts to challenge the ordinance and begin a drive to vote the precinct around Wrigley Field ”dry” in a local option referendum that could bar beer and liquor sales in the ballpark and surrounding area.

Although both Newfeld and Atkinson said several aldermen shifted their positions in recent weeks, they said that in the tumult outside the council chambers they could not immediately name the targets of their charges.

Passing Hansen in the hallway after the vote, Sawyer congratulated the North Side alderman and opposition leader saying, ”Good fight, Bernie.”

Questioned about the charges of payoffs, Hansen responded: ”I think there was some very heavy, intense lobbying. Call it what you want, that`s what I call it. Rumors have been flying about a lot of things. I haven`t got any evidence.”

Sawyer intervened in the lingering dispute Tuesday when it became apparent that timing was becoming urgent if Chicago wanted to remain in the running as the site for the 1990 All-Star Game.

Mayoral aide Rob Mier said both he and the mayor had been apprised of the chances of getting the summer baseball attraction from Giamatti three months ago. Mier said he repeatedly stressed the need to adopt an ordinance by Thursday, when baseball owners were scheduled to gather in West Palm Beach, Fla., to make the site selection.

In an effort to deflect charges that the ordinance contained no assurances that the Cubs organization will not pull out of Wrigley Field before the agreement expires in 2002, Sawyer told reporters that he would not sign the ordinance until the Cubs agree not to move.

An amendment introduced by Ald. Lawrence Bloom (5th) to cover that specific issue was approved but later reversed by the council, as were several others, including an 11 p.m. curfew, specific parking restrictions and other community protections.

Under the measure, the city and Cubs management agreed to hold no more than seven games a year beginning at 3:05 or 3:35 p.m. and cut off beer sales by 9:20 p.m. or the end of the seventh inning, whichever is earliest.

The ordinance mandates city officials to resolve parking, security and traffic problems by June 1 and develop a permit parking plan in residential areas bordering Wrigley Field. Off-street parking, promotion of Chicago Transit Authority services and a program involving all six Chicago

professional sports teams with the city school system also will be considered. The first night game for the Cubs since the franchise opened on April 20, 1916, will be allowed after July 1. Baseball sources said the first night game most likely would be held July 18 because of current schedules and the ordinance restrictions.

Hansen challenged what he considered ”hasty” action. ”Are we going to vote for the Cubs because they got awarded an All-Star Game this morning or are we going to wait until after the March 15 primary when the people of Lakeview can express their views?” he asked.

”Is it need or is it greed?” Hansen asked in reference to pushing through the ordinance. ”It`s easy to see it`s greed.”

Cubs officials were unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact them. John Madigan, Cubs board chairman and Tribune Co. executive vice president, reached at the baseball owners` meeting, said ”it had been known for weeks” that today was the deadline for the All-Star Game decision.

”We put our bid in some time ago (and) talked about this some time ago,” he said. ”The two pieces of timing dovetailed.

”The fact is, we`ve got an All-Star Game for Chicago and we`ve got lights in Wrigley Field. Those are two major accomplishments.”

Ald. Burton Natarus (42d) defended the Tribune Co. interest in the Cubs,

”The Chicago Tribune is part of Chicago whether we like power or not,” he said. ”They worked hard and earned it. They are part of the Chicago economy, and we are lucky we have industries, services, newspapers and businesses.”

Ald. Richard Mell (33d) declared his intention to vote for the Cubs ordinance but noted it was a ”tough” decision because of an editorial attack in The Tribune aimed at aldermen wavering on the proposition.

”Most of us who read that editorial weren`t very happy about that editorial and if it was up to us-based on that editorial-they wouldn`t get a vote,” Mell said in reference to the editorial referring to aldermen wavering in support of the lights issue as ”boneheads” and ”political bums.”

Several aldermen involved in the floor fight invoked the memory of the late Mayor Harold Washington in arguments both for and against lights in Wrigley Field. It was Washington who first introduced the measure to grant night baseball for the Cubs and was far less stringent than the ordinance adopted Thursday.

Rush, who chaired the committee overseeing the ordinance, complained during the debate that the Sawyer administration interceded in his efforts for a compromise and drafted a ”bare-bones” ordinance without community protection and citywide benefits to ram through an ordinance by Thursday.

In appealing for more stringent amendments that he had offered last week to settle the dispute, Rush warned, ”If these fail, The Chicago Tribune will win, the Cubs will finally win, and the neighborhoods and citizens of Chicago will lose.”

In a test vote on Rush`s amendments that foretold the eventual defeat for opponents to lights, the council rejected the changes by a 30-17 vote.

When passage appeared assured, Ald. Luis Gutierrez (26th) appealed to the council to delay the vote until March 30 to allow the council to witness the outcome of a referendum on the issue in 21 precincts in two wards neighboring Wrigley Field. The move was defeated by a 28-19 vote.

Bloom lost on two bids to tighten restrictions. One would have forced the Cubs to commit the teams to playing all ”home” games in Chicago through 2002 and a measure giving the right of the city to repeal the lights ordinance after 1988 if the neighborhood-improveme nt program in the agreement were not implemented.

Ald. Timothy Evans (4th) brought the gallery to its feet with a denunciation of the ordinance for ignoring the rights of ”self-

determination” in their community. It was not overlooked by Sawyer aides that Evans is now the mayor`s chief rival in any election for the city`s top post and that there are an estimated 20,000 votes at stake in the areas immediately surrounding Wrigley Field.

Ald. Edward Burke (14th) won cheers from the gallery as he chided the mayor and reminded the council of a questionable quote attributed to a youth who confronted ”Shoeless” Joe Jackson during the ”Black Sox” trial on fixing the 1919 World Series.

Noting a cartoon at the time referring to the fixed game, Burke said,

”There was a little kid looking up to him and saying, `Joe, say it ain`t so, say it ain`t so.`

”There are literally thousands and thousands of people living in the area of Cubs Park who are looking up to you and saying, `Gene, say it ain`t so, say it ain`t so.”

HOW THEY VOTED

A breakdown on the Chicago City Council vote to allow night baseball games for the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field:

For: Aldermen Roti (1st), Tillman (3d), Robinson (6th), Beavers (7th), Caldwell (8th), Shaw (9th), Huels (11th), Fary (12th), Carter (15th), Langford (16th), Streeter (17th), Kellam (18th), Sheahan (19th), Jones (20th), Jesse Evans (21st), Krystyniak (23d), Henry (24th), Soliz (25th), Butler (26th), Hagopian (30th), Mell (33d), Austin (34th), Kotlarz (35th), Banks (36th), Giles (37th), Laurino (39th), O`Connor (40th), Natarus (42d) and Levar (45th). Against: Rush (2d), Timothy Evans (4th), Bloom (5th), Vrdolyak (10th), Madrzyk (13th), Burke (14th), Garcia (22d), Gutierrez (26th), Smith (28th), Davis (29th), Figueroa (31st), Pucinski (41st), Eisendrath (43d), Hansen

(44th), Shiller (46th), Schulter (47th), Osterman (48th), Orr (49th) and Stone (50th).

Absent: Gabinski (32d) and Cullerton (38th).