Mayor Brandon Johnson will not veto an ordinance that directs his police superintendent to ink a contract for a controversial gunshot detection technology.In a statement to WBEZ, a spokesperson said vetoing the ordinance passed in September that aims to keep ShotSpotter was ultimately “deemed unnecessary.” This comes after Johnson said last month he was left with “no choice” and would issue the first veto by a Chicago mayor in 18 years.But Johnson’s office did not file a veto notification for Wednesday’s council meeting, and instead reiterated that the ordinance can’t be enforced.“An attempt by the legislative body to compel the executive branch to enter into a contract with a specific contractor would violate the separation of powers,” a spokesperson said.ShotSpotter was decommissioned in Chicago weeks ago, and Johnson’s decision not to veto the ordinance doesn’t change that.When asked whether Johnson’s administration would prepare for a court battle over the enforceability or legality of the ordinance, a spokesperson said the administration “will take whatever actions necessary depending on next steps taken by the authors or their advocates.”Ald. David Moore, 17th Ward, who has spearheaded the effort to keep ShotSpotter, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Alderpersons have already moved to convene a special City Council meeting late Wednesday afternoon to consider another ordinance that directs the Public Safety Administration’s executive director to enter into an acoustic gunshot detection technology contract for at least two years. But it’s unclear if aldermen will pursue the meeting now that Johnson isn’t vetoing the parallel ordinance.The ordinance that passed last month directed Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to renew or enter into a new contract for the technology. It was the second time a majority of the City Council passed legislation to try to salvage ShotSpotter. But this time, Johnson swiftly declared the measure “illegal.”“The thing that passed is in violation of the separation of powers act,” Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said last month after the ordinance’s passage. “Legislative branch cannot compel the executive branch to act.”It’s unclear what changed in the city's legal calculus, and whether they believe it still sets the city’s law department up to have to defend — if sued — what they believe is an unenforceable ordinance. But the political calculus of once again coming up against a contentious council may have outweighed the legal ramifications for Johnson.The ordinance’s passage was a stunning rebuke of Johnson’s authority and left the mayor on rocky footing with a City Council in which a majority of alderpersons have coalesced to defy him. The ordinance passed one vote shy of a veto-proof majority, and Johnson may have wanted to avoid risking another rebuke.The criticism of his governance has only grown — most recently on the mass resignation of his hand-picked Board of Education.With Johnson’s promised veto looming, the company SoundThinking said the gunshot detection technology’s contract with the city would end as planned. Real-time gunshot alerts ceased last month and the technology’s infrastructure began to be dismantled. SoundThinking has already indicated it plans to respond to a request for information Johnson’s administration opened to find a possible replacement.The last time a Chicago mayor vetoed legislation was in 2006, when former Mayor Richard M. Daley overturned an ordinance that would have required big box retailers, like Walmart, to increase workers’ pay. In that instance, the City Council ultimately failed to overturn Daley’s veto.While Chicago mayors have sparingly issued vetos in the 21st century, they have been tools that were frequently wielded by previous mayors. Mayor Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, heavily relied on his veto power to accomplish his agenda in the face of pushback by the Vrdolyak 29, a bloc of mostly white alderpersons, who bitterly opposed Washington.Per records maintained by the city clerk’s office, there have been over 1,800 mayoral vetoes dating back to 1851.In recent months, Johnson has faced pushback on everything from ending the ShotSpotter contract to unsuccessfully installing a progressive ally, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, as Zoning Chair. Johnson and his allies have likened the pushback to the opposition Washington faced during the infamous Council Wars era.“You have to start to raise questions of why now, in the interest of democracy, that now that you have someone who is firm in their values of investing in people, that all of a sudden we don't believe that that person should have the powers that every other mayor has had,” Johnson said last month after the ordinance’s passage.But Johnson maintained that the ShotSpotter vote doesn’t spell trouble for the passage of other priorities, like his upcoming budget.Asked if he was worried about getting majority support on other ordinances, Johnson simply responded with a one-word answer: “No.”Mariah Woelfel and Tessa Weinberg cover city politics for WBEZ.