Chicago’s $838 Million Shortfall: Hard Choices Ahead

Scott Waguespack is the alderman of Chicago’s 32nd Ward, which includes parts of the Bucktown, Logan Square and Wicker Park neighborhoods. Since his election as alderman in 2007, Ald. Waguespack has been a leading independent voice in the City Council, often challenging both the Daley and Emanuel administrations on issues of transparency, finances, public safety and public education. Since 2015, Ald. Waguespack has served as chair of the 11-member Progressive Reform Caucus.

In 2008, Ald. Waguespack was elected as the 32nd Ward’s Democratic Committeeman. In that role, he has worked to register, educate and mobilize voters to elect more progressive leaders in the Northwest Side corridor.

Ald. Waguespack graduated from Colorado State University and Chicago-Kent College of Law. After college, he served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Kenya, where he worked with UNICEF and various women’s groups to build health clinics and water supplies, and provided training in primary health. He remains active with the Chicago Area Returned Peace Corps Association.

Ald. Waguespack has worked with the U.S. State Department, the American Bar Association, and various governments in the Balkans working to assist the War Crimes Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia, establishing a rule of law, and working on economic development. He served as an advisor to the President of Kosovo and the interim government after the end of the Kosovo War.

Ald. Waguespack sits on the City Council Committees on Finance; Budget and Government Operations; Committees, Rules, and Ethics; Education and Child Development; License and Consumer Protection; Human Relations; and Special Events.

He lives in Bucktown and his wife, Jade, and two young sons, Marc and Brandt.

Carol Spain is a director in the U.S. Public Finance group at S&P Global Ratings and is based in the Chicago office. She leads S&P Global’s public pension team, managing related thought leadership, outreach, training and criteria projects for government and enterprise sectors. In addition, Carol is a member of the states and transportation ratings team. She currently serves as the primary analyst for the states of Illinois, Florida, and Wisconsin and is the primary analyst for the city of Chicago. She also serves as a subject matter expert on state credit enhancement programs and works on related criteria projects. As a lead analyst, Carol is a mentor to more junior analysts, works to increase collaboration across teams in US Public Finance.

Carol started at S&P Global in 2010 in the local government group, where she analyzed and evaluated municipal credits across the Midwest, including cities, counties, and school districts. She transitioned to the U.S. States group in 2015 but remains active in local government credits.

Prior to her experience with S&P Global, Carol worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools. 

Carol is a recipient of the 2016 Bond Buyer Rising Star Award. She is a board member of the Chicago Municipal Analyst Society and currently serves as secretary. She previously served as a board member of the Women in Public Finance Chicago Chapter, serving as Education Chair in 2016. Carol is a member of the external advisory panel for the Government Finance Research Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Carol attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, where she received her master of public policy degree.  She also has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame.

Ted is the President of Wirepoints. Ted’s knowledge of finance, policy and government stems from his 16-year international career in finance and management. As the Head of Corporate Banking and a management member of Citibank in Poland, he advised the government on financial restructurings that continued the liberalization of the nation’s economy. In his Treasury roles in both Mexico and Poland, Ted managed multi-billion-dollar balance sheets and Sales and Trading businesses, which gave him hands-on experience in budgeting and crisis management.

After returning to the U.S., Ted shifted to public policy, where he spent six years as Vice President of Policy and Spokesman at the Illinois Policy Institute.

Ted received his master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago, an MBA in finance from the Wharton School, and his bachelor’s degree in management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Much of Ted’s inspiration to fix Illinois comes from the experiences of his parents, who immigrated to Chicago from Poland and Ecuador to pursue the American Dream.