December, January and February in Chicago mean snow and ice, two contributing factors in the proliferation of potholes that seem to litter city streets by springtime.

Alderman have long controlled which residential streets and alleys get paved, but in a new audit out this week, City of Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson reiterated his argument that alderman should be stripped of that power. In the audit, a follow-up to a 2015 IG report, Ferguson argues that the status quo promotes inequity among the city’s 50 wards and is not cost-effective.

Morning Shift talks to Ferguson about why he thinks engineers in the Chicago Department of Transportation, not City Council members, should decide which streets get paved.

We also hear from WBEZ listeners on who they think should be in charge.