HELEN SHILLER GETS INTRODUCED AS A NEW ALDERMAN

April 9, 1987

Chicago Tribune

LUCKY 13 MAKE UP THE CITY COUNCIL`S CLASS OF 1987

Dean Baquet and Ann Marie Lipinski. Cheryl Devall, Jean Latz Griffin, John Kass and Patrick Reardon contributed to this report.

The Chicago City Council`s class of 1987 includes a former bodyguard, a postal worker, a librarian and a schoolteacher. They range from a woman who will rank as the council`s youngest member to a former deputy police superintendent who is known as the ``other Vrdolyak.``

While 8 of the 13 newcomers are expected to be squarely in Mayor Harold Washington`s corner and 3 are likely to join the dwindling council opposition, there are 2 wild cards, both of them lakefront independents.

Meet the freshman class:

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-- Helen Shiller, 39, is a longtime community activist in the 46th Ward with close ties to the Washington administration. She is president of a graphics firm and publisher of All Chicago City News, a pro-Washington newspaper. During the election, Shiller`s detractors tried to portray her as a loose cannon who is too close to Slim Coleman, the controversial North Side activist. But her supporters, including the mayor, said Shiller will work hard to keep the ward`s real estate boom from displacing the poor. Shiller said her key priorities include resolving parking headaches around Wrigley Field, housing and putting an end to the council`s obstinant opposition to the mayor. ``It`s important that the council be reorganized so the mayor can function as the mayor and the councilmen can be legislators,`` she said.

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