In typical fashion, Mayor Daley sent top-tier staff to a Chicago City Council hearing yesterday on his $1 billion stimulus wishlist to make clear that they are “satisfied” with the plan and it’s not open for discussion. But that didn’t stop many of the assembled aldermen from pushing back.

At the joint hearing of the Finance and Budget committees called by Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), members criticized "stimulus czar" Pat Harney for the city’s initial secrecy about the list. However, he wasn’t exactly remorseful about how the process unfolded.  To the ire of the committee, he recounted how he spent a month pulling together the Daley administration’s wishlist without putting out a single feeler to any of the city’s aldermen. Then, in a half-hearted attempt at transparency, he told the committee members they could find more details on the city’s website, which will be updated again sometime in the near future.

“It might have been better if we called 3-1-1 for input,” quipped Ald. Tom Allen (38th Ward), who decried “this pattern of secrecy” that has been frustrating and emboldening some aldermen as of late.

Just last week, the TIF "sunshine" ordinance was vetted at a similar joint committee meeting, marking a major step toward exposing the mayor’s secretive ways (in this case, regarding his $555 million yearly slush fund). Unfortunately, Ald. Marge Laurino (39th Ward) inexplicably tabled the measure, leaving its future up in the air. Yesterday, one of the primary sponsors of the TIF ordinance, Ald. Manny Flores (1st Ward), expressed his frustration by noting that the city was apparently willing to put the details of the stimulus wishlist online -- but not the specifics of its tax increment financing agreements.

Elsewhere at the Finance and Budget hearing, aldermen took issue with Daley’s priorities and exposed some major shortcomings in his stimulus plan.

For instance, they questioned the mayor’s $9 million line item for police overtime to preserve Project Safe Neighborhoods -- a program that aldermen in the highest-crime wards believe isn’t working. They also noted that $17 million, or 20 percent, of all road repair projects are committed to the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park, when streets in less affluent wards are in desperate need of repair. They further asked why $6 million is being spent to tear down desperately-needed public housing, rather than build it up in this time of need.

Since the mayor is witholding the criteria for picking projects, the aldermen could only assume the worst about how they were selected. And they had a pretty good example to point to: The street repaving already underway around the proposed site of the 2016 Olympic stadium. To put this project in context, Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st Ward) noted that a gaping sinkhole in his ward has been protected by a temporary barrier “for years” but wasn’t getting a dime of the stimulus money.

“Aldermen, I selected that [project] because of need,” explained Transportation Commissioner Tom Byrne, who compiled the city’s $86 million list of shovel-ready road projects.

“Sir, what you’ve done is preferential treatment … and it’s about time it stops,” Ald. Ed Smith (28th Ward) responded.

Granted, the stimulus spending isn’t a done deal. Aldermen will have to pass an appropriations ordinance before any spending begins. But it remains to be seen how much leverage they’ll have in reworking the mayor’s priority list.

“I think there will be some give and take,” Dowell told us after the hearing. “Now at least we know what’s on the table.”