Ricardo Muñoz was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and is currently the ranking Mexican-American member of the City Council. The youngest member of the City Council when he first joined the body in 1993, Alderman Muñoz has earned a reputation as one of the most serious and effective council members. His citywide leadership on education and labor issues has helped re-define the role of independents in the City Council.

Alderman Muñoz has been able to leverage his leadership on education to create dramatic improvements at the schools in his community. Since he took office, more new schools have been built in the 22nd Ward than in any other ward in the City of Chicago. His agenda includes construction of the first new high school built in the Little Village community in over ninety years. Community members stood side by side with Alderman Muñoz when a courageous group of mothers, fathers and concerned community residents went on a much publicized hunger strike demanding the construction of this school and dubbed their camp-site, “Camp Cesar Chavez”.

Known as a reformer within the City Council, Alderman Muñoz has challenged the city leadership to provide more educational opportunities for Chicago school children, to increase funding for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), to improve response times at the 911 call center and to end ethical abuses by city officials. Alderman Muñoz was one of the original City Council sponsors of the historic Chicago Living Wage legislation that requires city contractors to pay employees a salary that is high enough to support a family. He helped lead a citywide, multi-racial coalition of labor, community, and religious organizations to victory when the Chicago City Council passed the Living Wage Ordinance in 2002.

In his neighborhood, Alderman Muñoz is known as a committed public servant, who declined his 1995 and 1999 pay increases and instead has given more than $90,000 to charitable organizations throughout the ward. Alderman Muñoz is equally generous with his time, organizing block clubs and weekly clean-ups of streets, alleys and vacant lots. He also teaches classes on leadership at local schools.

A graduate of Northern Illinois University, he and his wife, Betty, own a home in the Little Village community. They are the proud parents of fifteen-year-old Ricardo Alejandro and eleven-year-old Angelica Maria.

Additional Resources: http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Ward22/Munoz.html