The first Asian American woman has been sworn into Chicago’s City Council, marking a historic moment on the heels of another aldermanic corruption conviction.

Aldermen gave their stamp of approval to Ald. Nicole Lee, 11th Ward, to represent the city’s Bridgeport and Chinatown neighborhoods, an area known as the political base of longtime former Chicago Mayors Richard J. Daley, and his son, Richard M. Daley. Lee replaces ex-Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, the nephew and grandson of Richard M. and Richard J. Daley, who resigned after being convicted of tax fraud.

Lee was flanked by her two teenage sons as she was sworn in Monday after a unanimous vote in her favor by Chicago aldermen.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot selected Lee out of a list of 27 people who applied for the job. She was one of just two people that a four-person committee recommended to Lightfoot.

Lee is a former director at United Airlines, a lifelong resident of Chinatown and introduced herself during a news conference last week as a proud product of Chicago Public Schools. She went to Whitney Young Magnet and said her experience there has prepared her to serve as the first Chinese American in City Council

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“It was there that for the first time I was often the only Asian American in the room. So that experience going into City Council won’t really bother me so much. I’ve done this before,” Lee said.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Lee also has ties to the Daley family. Her father, Gene Lee, a former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Lee — dubbed the “mayor of Chinatown” — was also convicted in 2014 for stealing from charities.

When asked about those ties, Lightfoot said she would not have picked Lee if she didn’t have the “bonafides” to do the job and told reporters to focus on “her, her life, her experience” and not her father’s.

Public documents viewed by WBEZ show Lee had her own financial troubles in the past. In 2016, as Lee was making $123,193 as a United Airlines director, she filed for bankruptcy saying she could not afford to pay more than $86,000 in debt, court filings show. That debt was made up primarily of student loans, but also included credit card bills, medical debt and a mortgage tied to a timeshare vacation home in Los Cabos, Mexico, according to court filings.

A U.S. trustee argued that Lee had misstated her expenses and finances in her filing, and that, had her finances been properly reported, they would have shown Lee was capable of paying off her debt. Lee’s attorney did not dispute the trustee’s motion to dismiss her request for bankruptcy and a federal judge granted the motion.

“[S]ignificant deductions can be made from the Debtor’s monthly expenses without coming close to depriving the Debtor of adequate food, clothing, shelter, or other necessities. The Debtor clearly has an ability to repay her debts,” Patrick Layng, the United States Trustee for the Northern District of Illinois argued through his attorney at the time.

In addressing reporters after she was sworn in on Monday, Lee said she did not object to the motion to dismiss her case because she got “advice from counsel that [bankruptcy] probably wasn’t going to be beneficial.” She added that all of the debts laid out in the case are “completely paid.” Lee said the fact that her case was dismissed due to allegations she misstated her own finances and expenses should not reflect on her ability to manage the finances of the 11th Ward.

“I’m glad that there are tools in place for people like me, who ran across financial hardship, to take responsibility for their debts,” Lee said. “I will lead the 11th Ward to the best of my ability in a responsible manner. … And I should be held accountable for everything that I do in representing the ward. I hope that the residents of the 11th Ward give me an opportunity to show them in my actions.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration did not respond to written questions Monday about whether the mayor was aware of Lee’s bankruptcy filing.

Lee will now represent a ward that is poised to become the first majority-Asian ward in the city of Chicago. That’s as aldermen continue to work to remap the city’s 50 wards based on new census data, which show a 30% boost in the city’s Asian population over the past decade. Two competing maps that are slated to be voted on by residents in June would both make the 11th Ward majority-Asian.

Lee has said she needs to take time to look at both maps in detail before throwing her support behind one.

On Monday, Lee told her new colleagues her first priority will be to set up a ward office and start delivering constituent services that may have fallen to the wayside, as the ward has been without an alderman for more than a month.

Mariah Woelfel and Becky Vevea cover Chicago city government at WBEZ. You can follow them at @MariahWoelfel and @BeckyVevea.