Matthew J. O'Shea is the

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

of the 19th ward of

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, serving since 2011.

Early life and education, and career

O'Shea is a lifelong resident of the 19th ward. O'Shea attended Christ the King elementary school and Mount Carmel High School. He received a degree from

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota (SMUMN) is a private Catholic university with its primary campuses in Winona and Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It comprises an undergraduate residential college in Winona; graduate and professio ...

. In his career, O'Shea worked as a social worker, and later became the director of a community center. He also served as an aide to his 19th ward aldermanic predecessor Virginia Rugai. O'Shea has sat on several boards in the Beverly neighborhood, and has been a volunteer and board member for the

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Chicago.

Aldermanic career

O'Shea was first elected alderman in 2011. He has been reelected in

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and

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. He was supportive of

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, and has claimed to have made safety a top priority for his ward. Among the committees O'Shea has served on are Aviation, Budget and Government Operations, Committees and Rules, Economic, Capital and Technology Development, Education and Child Development, Finance, Health and Human Relations, License and Consumer Protection, Health and Human Relations, Public Safety, Transportation and Public Way and the joint committees on Committees and Rules/Finance, Health and Human Relations/Workforce Development, Public Safety/ Education, as well as the Special Legislative Committee on the Census. In June 2018, mayor

appointed O'Shea as the chairman of city aviation committee. He also has served as the vice chair of the Committee on Committees and Rules and the Joint Committee on Committees and Rules/ Finance.

Participatory budgeting Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. These processes typically begin ...

is a Chicago democratic process in which community members directly decide how to allocate part of a public budget. The 19th Ward does not participate in participatory budgeting with O'Shea opting to keep the menu budgeting decisions to his office. In the

2019 Chicago mayoral election The 2019 Chicago mayoral election was held on February 26, 2019, to determine the next Mayor of Chicago, Mayor of the Chicago, City of Chicago, Illinois. Since no candidate received a majority of votes, a runoff election was held on April 2, 2 ...

, O'Shea endorsed Jerry Joyce in the first round of the election and endorsed

Lori Lightfoot Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American politician and attorney who was the mayor of Chicago#List of mayors, 56th mayor of Chicago from 2019 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she ...

in the runoff. His endorsement of Lightfoot has been credited with securing her strong support in his ward in the runoff vote.

References

External links

1969 births 21st-century Illinois politicians Chicago City Council members Illinois Democrats Living people Saint Mary's University of Minnesota alumni {{chicago-stub