Joe Moore is a voice for ethics and reform in the City Council and successfully sponsored a Whistleblower Ordinance that gives taxpayers the right to recover damages on behalf of the city against corrupt city contractors. The ordinance is the first of its kind in any large city. Moore also sponsored an ordinance giving the City’s Inspector General the power to investigate wrongdoing among alderman and the Accountability in Privatization Ordinance, which calls for greater accountability and transparency in the privatization of city services.

Moore gained national renown as the lead sponsor of a “Big Box Living Wage Ordinance,” that would require large retail establishments to pay their employees wages of at least $10 an hour and benefits equal to at least $3 an hour. The ordinance passed successfully over Mayor Daley’s opposition, and while it did not survive a mayoral veto, the living wage ordinance is given credit for pushing the Illinois General Assembly to increase the state minimum wage.

Today Moore is leading the charge for a Chicago Clean Power ordinance that would clean up Chicago’s two coal-fired power plants and open the door for a move toward renewable energy.