Meetings & Agendas
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The City Council on Thursday adopted new rules and chair assignments for 28 council committees expected to be used for the next four years after new aldermen and a mayor are sworn in on May 15.
Aldermen during a special council meeting approved the new rules (R2023-502) with a 34-10 vote and the committee chair assignments (R2023-503) with a 33-11 vote.
Thousands of supporters of Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson’s mayoral bid packed the Credit Union 1 Arena at UIC Thursday evening for a rally headlined by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders just five days before the April 4 runoff.
Surrogates painted his opponent, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, as an existential threat and Johnson as the candidate with better experience in education and a better vision for the city’s future.
Two independent groups are spending tens of thousands of dollars to back candidates for City Council in the upcoming runoffs. In some of the same races they’re on opposing sides.
The Illinois REALTORS Fund, an independent expenditure committee representing the Illinois Association of REALTORS, has poured more than $278,000 into support for candidates in at least eight of the 14 City Council runoffs.
The progressive Working Families for Chicago independent expenditure committee, meanwhile, has spent more than $132,000 since March 1 to prop up candidates as well.
Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas spent the last several weeks collecting nearly double the amount of donations compared to Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson (D-1) as Vallas has earned endorsements from across the political spectrum and from key labor groups.
A plan to revitalize downtown’s LaSalle Street Corridor and add virtually nonexistent affordable housing to the city’s center took one step closer to reality Tuesday as city officials unveiled three proposals as finalists to add more than 1,000 mixed-income apartments to the downtown corridor.
Ald. Sophia King (4), chair of the City Council Progressive Caucus who ran as a mayoral candidate in the Feb. 28 election, endorsed former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in the mayoral runoff. But a group of nine aldermen who are members of the Progressive Caucus issued a statement saying King’s endorsement doesn’t speak for the caucus.
An appointment has been made to replace former Democratic Rep. Fran Hurley of Chicago to represent the 35th House District in the General Assembly. Last month Hurley stepped down to accept a gubernatorial appointment to the Illinois Labor Relations Board after serving for 10 years.
All six members of a selection committee — made up of local Democratic committeepersons — voted to appoint Mary Gill, executive director of the Mt. Greenwood Community and Business Association.
Driver’s licenses for undocumented Illinois residents could soon look more standard after the House passed a bill that would remove a purple line identifying the person’s temporary status.