The Council’s Rules Committee is scheduled to meet an hour before today’s full City Council meeting to appoint Sophia King to the 4th Ward aldermanic seat vacated by Will Burns earlier this year.

The committee met briefly yesterday morning to give aldermen an opportunity to meet with King, but Committee Chair Michelle Harris (8) chose to recess the meeting, holding off on the official vote to confirm her to the seat until today. Harris said she wanted to give aldermen an opportunity to get to know her, so the vote would be quick.

After the Rules Committee confirms her appointment, it will advance to the full council, scheduled shortly after.
 

Highlights of Items Awaiting Council Approval

• An amendment to the municipal code that would give the mayor a one-time exemption to circumvent the Police Board’s jurisdiction to recommend interim Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to a permanent post, as well as Johnson’s actual appointment to the post.  

• $6.45M in two police-related settlements. The larger of the two settlements, a $4.95 million payout, would go to the family of Philip Coleman. The suit names 13 police officers and one detention aide, and alleges their use of excessive force, which included tasing Coleman more than a dozen times, and refusal to take Coleman, who was experiencing a psychotic episode, to a hospital, as the cause of his death. $1.5 million will go to the family of Justin Cook, who died from suffocation after officers allegedly failed to administer his inhaler to him during an asthma attack.

• Gate ground lease agreement with American Airlines at O’Hare Airport. The ordinance would allow the airline to begin construction on five new gates at the end of Terminal 3. The gates are known as the L Stringer Gates, with a total space of about 165,000 feet, comprised of new waiting areas and concession stands, among other amenities. The gates are scheduled to open in 2018, with the open bid for concessionaires scheduled for next year.

• Financial Transparency Resolution. The resolution from Ald. John Arena (45) that the committee approved requests that the council draft an ordinance that would require more transparency and oversight for the city when it tries to enter into risky financial agreements with banks. More details on the ordinance to be introduced as a result of the resolution below.

• Substitute Class 6(b) certification for Eli’s Cheesecake Company for the property located at 4350 N. Normandy Ave. and 6701 W. Forest Preserve Dr. The tax break would help support a roughly 38,000 sq ft addition to an existing 62,000 sq ft manufacturing and distribution facility in Ald. Nick Sposato’s 38th ward in the Read/Dunning TIF.

• Amendment of muni code concerning parking of pickup trucks of residential and business streets. The ordinance sponsored by City Clerk Susana Mendoza would eliminate the requirement that non-commercial pickup trucks get a special sticker from the ward office in order to legally park on residential and commercial streets.

• A $29 million sale of city-owned land (the former Malcolm X College CampusSite) for Rush University’s new medical academic village and a new training center for the Chicago Blackhawks. The sale is broken up into two ordinances - one for Rush (worth $17.5 million), and one for the Blackhawks(worth $11.7 million). The land sale didn’t make it to the floor last month, because two freshman aldermen–Gilbert Villegas (36) and Raymond Lopez(15)–threatened to use parliamentary procedure to block the item from a vote. The two wanted answers about City Colleges’ minority staffing and procurement.

• Lifting the prohibition on the peddling of flowers: This ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Ed Burke (14), would make it legal for someone with a peddler’s license to sell flowers out of their cart or vehicle. The ban was put in place in 1943.

Appointments

• Richard C. Ford II to the Chicago Emergency Telephone System Board; (Re-appointment of Benjamin Dieterich to the board)
• Andrea L. Yao to the Board of Local Improvements.
• Nicholas Delgado, Dwight Curtis, and Mae Whiteside to the Community Development Commission

Notable Expected Introductions

• Paid Sick Leave - Members of the Progressive Caucus including Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), the Earned Sick Time Coalition, and Aldermen Joe Moreno (1) and Ameya Pawar (47) will hold a press conference at 9:00 a.m. today voicing support for a paid sick leave ordinance that, “will guarantee paid sick days off to some 400,000 Chicago workers beginning in 2017.” The ordinance was crafted to reflect recommendations from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Working Families Task Force and was developed over eight months. According to the draft of the ordinance, a covered employee who works at least 80 hours within any 120-day period shall be eligible for paid sick leave, capped at 40 hours per year. Leave would kick in after the 180th day of employment for new employees. The ordinance would take effect 90 days after passage from the full City Council.

• Financial Transparency - This ordinance says the city can’t issue any bonds, note, or other non-fixed rate debt with a maturity of longer than 271 days without certain conditions being met. The city’s independent municipal advisor, Martin Luby, and the Council’s Office of Financial Analysis, headed by Ben Winick, would each be required prepare reports detailing the risks and whether issuing new debt is in the best interest of the city. City CFO Carole Brown would be required, 45 days before a City Council vote, to submit a plain-English summary of the issuance, and an annual report that describes the financial performance of each transaction.

• Abolition of IPRA - Somewhat mirroring Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) recommendations leaked to the Chicago Tribune yesterday, Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) drafted an ordinance calls for the abolition of the Independent Police Review Authority. It would be replaced with a so-called, “Independent Citizen Police Monitor” that would open up police and misconduct data to the public, widen the scope of the Chief Administrator’s powers, and hasten the release of information and the conclusion of investigations. The Monitor’s office would maintain at least one full-time investigator for every 100 sworn officers in the Chicago Police Department. CPD has more than 12,000 sworn members, as of its 2010 annual report. The office’s budget would be roughly $21.7 million, more than double IPRA’s current appropriation.

• FAIR COPS - Ald. Jason Ervin (28) plans to hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. this morning to discuss an ordinance that would put the departments that investigate allegations of police misconduct under the jurisdiction of the city’s Inspector General. The ordinance he plans to introduce is modeled after a similar measure first proposed by the Community Renewal Society in December. The ordinance establishes a Deputy Inspector General for Police Functions to be appointed by a five-member selection committee chosen by current IG Joe Ferguson. The Deputy IG has 20 listed powers, including the authority to: review, audit, collect, analyze, propose recommendations, and investigate any police-related matters under IPRA, Police Board, or CPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau. The concept of a police inspector general was also mentioned in the leaked executive summary of the PATF report. Several off-limits areas would also be open to public inspection, including reports on use of body cameras, contact cards, citizen complaints, and misconduct investigations, which would all be published on the OIG’s website. Similar to Hairston’s ordinance, the office would be funded by a portion of the Police Department’s $1.45 billion appropriation–no less than one percent, or approximately $14.6 million. There would be one full-time employee for every 250 sworn officers in the department.

We give you the tick tock on the lead up to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to appoint Eddie Johnson to the position of interim Police Superintendent. Black and Latino aldermen form an alliance, and the infamous “Pirates of Lincoln Park” are put on the hot seat at a City Council hearing regarding illegal towing. And the week ends with a day-long strike organized by the Chicago Teachers’ Union.

Starting the day with a bang, the Illinois Supreme Court released their ruling on two Chicago pension reformation plans, finding them unconstitutional, saddling the city with increased pension payments and making another set of municipal tax increases a near certainty.

Link To Supreme Court Ruling

“Though disappointing, this ruling does not change my commitment to ensuring employees and retirees have a secure retirement without placing the full burden on Chicago taxpayers,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

While the decision was a unanimous 5-0 ruling, Justices Charles Freeman and Anne Burke did not participate in the decision. Their districts both entirely lie within the City of Chicago. Justice Burke is also married to City Council Finance Committee Chairman, Ald. Ed Burke (14). Ald. Burke did not respond to Aldertrack’s request for comment on the pension ruling.

The Mayor’s pension plan was to reduce annuity benefits for public employees, then ramp up pension payments and put both funds on a path toward financial stability.

But there was no guarantee state courts would find it constitutional, so the Mayor and City Council took a series of risky bets last October when they approved the FY2016 budget, and with it a record $543 million property tax increase.

The first risk was when the Mayor’s Office based projected Municipal Employees (MEABF) and Laborers (LABF) pension payments on the law being upheld. Second, Mayoral staff based projected Police and Fire pension payments on the bet that state government would enact a bill to amend that payment schedule. That hoped-for bill, SB777, has passed the legislature, but has languished in legislative purgatory for over a year, passed by the Assembly, but unsigned by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Amanda Kass, of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, called it a “fundamental misstep” and said that both laws were “very much up in the air” when the budget passed last October. “The city was hedging its bets on long shots,” she told Aldertrack yesterday, and that the record property tax increase was nowhere near what city pension funds needed.

During October’s budget process, several aldermen asked for worst case scenario plans, and suggested a bigger property tax hike might have been better. But the Mayor’s financial team, led by Budget Director Alex Holt and Chief Finance Officer Carole Brown, urged that their budgeted pension payments were safe bets for the time being.

At the time, the City Council’s newly formed Office of Financial Analysis, led by Ben Winick, agreed, concluding that the Mayor had little time to assess other options. “A number of other alternatives have been suggested [like a financial transactions tax, service tax, or commuter tax], and many of them warrant further discussion. But given the timing of when these liabilities are coming due, and the legal impediments to enacting them, the feasibility of assuming those changes to make the legally required pension contributions for 2015 and 2016 would not be a responsible course of action for the City to take.”

In the short-term, the city will actually need to make smaller pension payments, putting roughly $100 million less than originally planned for the FY 2015 payment into the Municipal Employee and Laborer Funds. Yesterday’s ruling means the city has to only make its statutorily required payment, based on a fixed multiplier, not the ramped up funding plan it pushed for in the law just struck down.

So what happens to the extra cash?

“The increased funding is set aside, and the City will make a final decision on how to utilize the additional funds once we’ve determined the next steps for the municipal and laborers pension funds,” Molly Poppe, a spokesperson for the city’s Budget Office told Aldertrack.

Explanation of Supreme Court Case & Ruling

The law the state’s highest court struck down, P.A. 98-641, would have increased city funding and employee contribution rates, while reducing annual increases for current and future retirees for the MEABF and LABF. The attorneys representing the city’s pension funds had argued the changes provided a “net benefit” to the beneficiaries by preventing the two funds from going insolvent in the next decade, and that in the long run, beneficiaries would benefit from a healthier and more stable pension fund.

Members of the two funds, which represent 79,000 city employees and non-teacher employees of CPS, argued the cuts infringed on their right to receive a pension, because under the Illinois constitution, public pension benefits cannot be “diminished or impaired.”

In their decision, the state’s highest court ruled that the city’s “net benefit” argument started from a “flawed premise,” because benefits are already protected under the state’s constitution. “The fact that some of its provisions are directed at improved funding cannot overcome the fact that constitutional rights of employees and retirees would be violated.”

The court also agreed with a lower court ruling that said the city’s argument didn’t hold up, because it had been warned, for years, that the current formula it uses to calculate its contributions was not sufficient to cover benefits, yet “the method of funding remained static.”

For example, in 2014, the city made a $180 million payment to the MEABF, which was based on that fixed multiplier of 1 or 1.25 times the total annual employee contributions. The “actuarially required” amount determined by the pension fund–the amount it needed to pay out owed benefits–was $839 million, a $659 million gap.

“The pension protection clause does not guarantee any particular method of funding, but, rather, guarantees the right to be paid,” the court opinion explained. The drafters’ original intent was to protect benefits, while giving the General Assembly the authority to take the necessary steps to fund the pension obligation.

Ruling May Hurt City Bond Ratings

The Civic Federation said the decision wasn’t a victory for anyone, because it doesn’t address the funds’ projected insolvency and “adds additional financial pressures to an already distressed City government.”

“The ruling also limits the options available to financially strained local governments throughout the State,” the Civic Federation said in an emailed statement, “and points to the need for a constitutional amendment to clarify the State’s pension protection clause. This should be yet another wakeup call to every member of the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor.”

There will likely be an immediate impact on the city’s credit rating. Credit agencies Moody’s and Fitch warned last spring that if the law was struck down, the city’s credit rating could take another hit. In a statement released Thursday morning, Moody’s said it "will continue assessing Chicago's actions to address unfunded pension liabilities, including any initiatives specifically aimed at the plans affected by today's court decision."

Cook County Government Took Action To Avoid Pension Problems

In the 2016 budget, Cook County opted to contribute more to its employee pension fund (County Officers’ and Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Cook County) than what’s required by law. Commissioners approved a 1% sales tax hike in the summer of 2015. In addition to the $195 million pension payment required by law, the county will put an extra $270.5 million in revenue from that sales tax hike toward pensions to hit actuarially required targets.

The county pension fund is currently 57.5% funded, with a $6.5 billion unfunded liability.

There is a one year intergovernmental agreement with the County’s Pension Fund that allows those extra payments starting in April, but ratings agency Fitch said the move leaves “the county vulnerable to potential litigation from taxpayers challenging the increased payments."

The first increased payment will be made April 29. As to whether the additional pension payments might open the county up to a lawsuit, Frank Shuftan, Communications Director for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said, “it is speculative and responding at present would be equally speculative.”

“Our finance staff is reviewing today’s Supreme Court decision to determine how it impacts efforts to ensure long-term fiscal viability for the Pension Fund that serves County employees and retirees,” Shuftan said. “The Court’s decision appears to settle some elements of the law while leaving others open. We will continue our collaboration with all stakeholders to identify appropriate, constitutionally sound measures to restore and preserve the Fund’s long-term solvency.”

The Chicago Police Board named three finalists for the job of police superintendent, and City Council's Latino Caucus called the short list an "insult." Eleven Aldermen voted against the Mayor's plan to increase the smoking age to 21, in addition to setting price floors and raising taxes on cigars, cigarillos, dip, and loose tobacco. But a ban on dip at Cubs and Sox games got unanimous support. We also talk bonds and discuss the winners and losers of this week's primary.

The $29 million sale of city-owned land for Rush University’s new medical academic village and a new training center for the Chicago Blackhawks is up for consideration by the Council’s Housing Committee this morning.

The sale is broken up into two ordinances - one for Rush (worth $17.5 million), and one for the Blackhawks (worth $11.7 million). The new projects will be built at the now-vacant site of the Malcolm X City Colleges campus in the 27th Ward, represented by Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.

The Housing and Zoning Committees have swiftly approved a series of changes–including land transfers, an upzone, and demolition appropriations–to accommodate the redevelopment plan for the site since Mayor Emanuel announced the plan in July of last year. Students from Malcolm X moved to a new campus in January.

Rush University Sale

The city plans to sell 315,000 square foot vacant lot at a negotiated price for a new $500 million Rush University Medical Center academic village at the site of the former Malcolm X City Colleges site. The development will take place in four separate phases, and will include four LEED designed buildings: three mixed use buildings with educational office, community health, conference, meeting and restaurant spaces. A fourth building will house 300 student residential units. There will also be a green roof, a landscaped open green space, 800 parking spaces and 200 bike spaces.

The negotiated sale price is $17.5 million. A portion of that sum, $1,800,000, will pay for education, scholarships, research, and health and wellness programs over the course of ten years from the closing date of the sale. According to the Mayor’s Office, the project is expected to create 50 permanent and 100 construction jobs as part of its initial phase.

Blackhawks Sale

The new Blackhawks hockey team redevelopment will include a 127,000 square foot facility with full-sized rinks in a dedicated facility for the team and for community hockey training. The facilities will have with 122 parking spaces. The Blackhawks will buy the property for $8.7 million, and $3 million that will be spent on community hockey training programs, fitness and nutritional programs and group events. The fair market value of the property is $9.5 million.

In a press release, the city says “Chicago Blackhawks Charities, the team’s philanthropic arm, will oversee year-round programs and clinics at the training center for the city’s underprivileged youth, ensuring the project’s community benefits extend to those who would otherwise be unable to cover the costs of ice time, equipment and transportation.”

Other Items

• The Department of Planning and Development will present the 2015 Fourth Quarter Progress Report of the city’s five year housing plan to committee members today as well. Usually these presentations are made at a standalone meeting later in the month. You can read prior reports from the city here, and from the Chicago Rehab Network here.

• Three property sales through the Adjacent Neighbors Land Acquisition Program are up for a vote. The properties are in the 27th, 28th, and 4th Wards.   

• A series of right of way changes to accommodate construction of a parking lot for Sinai Health Systems in the 28th Ward is also up for committee consideration.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin will pay a visit to City Hall tomorrow to testify in favor of Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) planned direct introduction of an ordinance banning smokeless tobacco at Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field, and all sports venues–professional, collegiate, high school or at organized amateur sporting events–in Chicago.

A press release from Burke’s office says Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston have all implemented similar bans.

If it passes the full Finance Committee, the measure would join Mayor Emanuel’s slew of proposals raising taxes on tobacco products, instituting price floors, and hiking the smoking age in Chicago to 21. Emanuel administration officials have been lobbying aldermen ahead of the Council vote Wednesday. The measure was deferred and published by five aldermen last month, who argued it would hurt retailers (especially in border wards) and fuel the sale of loose cigarettes.

Other items on the agenda:

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  Three tampon tax related items from Finance Chairman Ed Burke: One is a resolution calling on the Illinois General Assembly to adopt legislation to reclassify tampons and sanitary napkins as medical necessities, so those products may be exempt from the state’s sales tax. Another calls on the Illinois Department of Revenue to do the same. The third item is an ordinance amending the city’s municipal code to exempt those products from the city’s 1.5% sales tax. Similar legislation exempting the same products from the county sales tax have been introduced at the Cook County Board. All three items on today’s Finance agenda note that feminine hygiene products such as tampons and sanitary napkins are currently taxed at the rate of 10.25%, which includes a 6.25% state tax; a 1.75% county tax; a 1.5% city tax; and a 1% Regional Transportation Authority tax. That’s because the Illinois Department of Revenue currently classifies tampons and sanitary napkins as “grooming and hygiene” products, not “medical appliances.”

  
  


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  A Resolution to Remove JP Morgan Chase Bank From City’s List of Municipal Depositories: (O2016-690) The ordinance from Ald. Jason Ervin (28) and Ald. Michael Scott, Jr. (24) that calls for removal of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as municipal depository for both the City of Chicago and Chicago Board of Education, because the bank plans to close a branch in West Garfield Park, which the ordinance says is “one of the most underserved communities in the city.” The closure goes against City Council’s encouragement that “municipal depositories... act as good corporate citizens by striving to increase access to banking services and catalyze economic development in low-income and underserved communities.”

  
  


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  Establishment of Homebuyer Assistance Program: Mayor Emanuel introduced this ordinance in February to “encourage homeownership” by providing downpayment assistance to low- and middle-income families. Under the program, which will be administered by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, qualified homebuyers could receive a grant for up to 7% of the total loan amount based on income. The city will invest $1 million toward getting the program off the ground.

  
  


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  A Redevelopment Agreement With Irving Park Property Holdings LLC: This ordinance makes available $2 million in TIF assistance for a mixed-use redevelopment of three vacant buildings in Portage Park’s “Six Corners” shopping district. The developer, Irving Park Property Holdings, LLC, managed by Charles Cui, an immigration lawyer, plans to purchase a vacant two story bank building (4901 W. Irving Park Road), the adjacent building (4925 W. Irving Park Road), a new construction site (4939 W. Irving Park Road) along with a parking lot behind the bank building. Once the TIF money is approved, Cui plans to undertake a $14.1 million dollar project that will transform the bank into a Binny’s Beverage Depot on the first floor, a fitness center on the lower level, and a 300-seat theater space on the second floor. The neighboring building will house an Elly’s Pancake House, and the third building will be a Culver’s drive-thru restaurant.

  
  


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  Legal Settlements: There are two legal settlements totalling $830K listed on the supplemental agenda. One suit brought forth by Caprice Halley, Tevin Ford, andWillie Douglas alleges illegal strip searches by eight Chicago Police officers. They’re seeking a $205K settlement. The other settlement for $625k was filed by Marlon Pendleton, who was wrongfully convicted in 1993 of a sexual assault. He was exonerated and released from prison in the fall of 2006, after DNA testing proved he was innocent. According to the Innocence Project, Pendleton “repeatedly requested DNA testing before trial, but Pamela Fish, a Chicago Police Department forensic analyst, falsely claimed that the amount of semen recovered from the victim was too small to yield a result.” Gov. Rod Blagojevich pardoned Pendleton in October of 2008.

  
  

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle used her post-Board of Commissioners press conference Wednesday to again blast Gov. Bruce Rauner for a stalled budget and announced she’s asked departments to institute holdbacks for personnel and spending. She says some of the state’s Medicaid payments to the County’s hospitals are lagging by $100 million.

“Bureaus, departments and elected officials must trim their spending on personnel by an additional half a percent, and non-personnel items by three percent,” Preckwinkle told reporters. “These measures will not fully plug the gap created for us by Springfield. It will not pay for the expenses we incur every day enforcing child support for tens of thousands of Cook County minors. We continue to assess our options on that issue, including all possible legal remedies.”

The cutbacks would run from March 15 through November 30, the end of the fiscal year.

The Cook County Board last month passed a resolution from Comm. Larry Suffredin asking the State’s Attorney to look into ways the County could recoup that money. The resolution calls for the SA’s office to “review and research all existing court orders and consent decrees related to the 2016 Proposed State of Illinois Budget to determine if either they cover payments to Cook County or could be amended to cover payments to Cook County. Further, the Cook County State’s Attorney should research any new cause of action that would cause a Federal or State Court to order payment owed to Cook County.”

Preckwinkle says the state is more than $100M behind on some Medicaid payments owed to the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS). “As a result of the failure of the state to pay its bills timely, [CCHHS is] running monthly deficits, and we’re going to have to take corrective action,” Preckwinkle said.

At a regular briefing during the Board of Commissioners meeting, CCHHS Chief Financial Officer Doug Elwell said the system was operating within “a fair amount of red ink as we continue to work through issues,” with enrollment in Cook County’s managed care Medicaid program, CountyCare. But Elwell anticipated the system would recover by the end of the fiscal year, as it had in 2014 and 2015. He said he’s getting advice from County CFO Ivan Samstein, and that the system is in negotiations with the state. “The state owes us $138 million,” Elwell said, though he characterized $68 million as a “normal lag.”

“We are now holding $31 million of their money and trying to negotiate with them to expedite the rest of the payments.”

Commissioners worried the delayed payments might impact CCHHS’ plans for new capital projects (including replacement of the outdated Fantus Clinic and CCHHS administrative offices), especially in light of lower-than-planned revenues from CountyCare and recent announcements of some possible competition: expansions at Rush University and the University of Chicago.

Elwell said the system is in talks with both Rush and U of C to ensure services wouldn’t be duplicative, and he’s confident issues with CountyCare will be worked out. “We just need to get our physicians to more often refer inside our system.” When asked, Preckwinkle didn’t express concern about CountyCare numbers at yesterday’s press conference.

Comm. Bridget Gainer asked that CCHHS brief the Finance Committee on enrollment in CountyCare and reimbursements to the system. “Those are troubling things. I want to make sure that before we make this enormous capital investment that we understand how people are using our system,” she said. Finance Chair John Daley agreed, and said he’d like an update on the impact of projects from Rush and U. of C.     

Other Items from the Cook County Board of Commissioners

Held:

• Litigation is still pending on Otero v. Thomas Dart, et al. The Litigation Subcommittee took up discussion of the case, which was slated to go to trial later this month. The two sides are instead pursuing a settlement. In 2011, Brian Otero was being held on Cook County Jail on a burglary charge, but was acquitted. Instead of going home, he was sent back to jail, told to put back on his uniform, and moved cell to cell for processing. He says when others found out he’d be going home, he was beaten, suffering torn ligaments in his hands and bruises on his face. Otero was released nine hours after his acquittal and is now lead in a class action lawsuit against the county for their post-acquittal detention policy. Commissioners requested monthly updates from the State’s Attorney’s office on the status of the settlement. A settlement on a similar issue in Los Angeles more than a decade ago cost taxpayers there $27 million, NBC Chicago reports.

Approved:

• A resolution from Comm. Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia urging Mondelez, the parent company of Nabisco, to continue its relationship with the South Side of Chicago, passed the board Wednesday. Garcia says 600 manufacturing jobs at the facility are “up in the air,” and the resolution “is simply imploring Mondelez and Nabisco to sit and continue to dialogue with affected workers, many of them residents of Chicago’s South and Southwest sides and suburban communities.” Comm. Richard Boykin, citing tax incentives Nabisco has received “reaching upwards of ninety million dollars” as well as an extended enterprise zone and $29 million in tax breaks over ten years, called for tougher legislation, or possibly penalties, for companies that leave the county after receiving tax breaks.

• Commissioners voted for a resolution calling for the U.S. Congress to pass the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act, which “would help disabled and older Americans live at home” by offering more resources and options to the estimated 40 million unpaid family caregivers in the country.

• A nearly $700,000 contract to Catalyst Consulting Group to make further improvements to applications on County Clerk David Orr’s website also passed the full Board of Commissioners. Catalyst has run the Clerk’s website since 2009, and developed 20 applications, according to the contract.

• An amendment to the County Code allowing licensed firearm instructors with current registration from the state to use replica guns for education, instruction, and training on firearm safety within a business or classroom setting also passed the full Board. Comm. Gregg Goslin introduced a substitute that corrected County Code language in committee Wednesday morning. “A couple items were left off,” Goslin said, the replica gun used as cell phone holder ordinance and a section on toy guns commissioners already approved last October. A similar ordinance in Chicago City Council was passed the month prior.

Introduced:

• An ordinance from Comm. Larry Suffredin that would create inspectors general for all municipalities and specialty districts, including Cemetery Associations; Drainage, Mosquito Abatement, River Conservancy, Sanitary, and Street Lighting Districts; and Water Commissions, was referred to committee yesterday. Comm. Jeffrey Tobolski requested the State’s Attorney verify whether the program is constitutional or enforceable, “before we spend taxpayer money.”

• Suffredin also introduced a pharmaceutical disposal ordinance aimed at protecting the County’s waterways from “improperly disposed of prescription drugs passing through [the County’s] wastewater and treatment centers.” The ordinance cites Alameda County’s Safe Drug ordinance, which was passed and amended in 2012. The ordinance would establish a stewardship plan for the collection, transportation and disposal of covered pharmaceutical drugs. The program would be managed by the Cook County Sheriff’s Department. It was referred to the Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

• The so-called ‘tampon tax’ has made its way to the Cook County Board, after also being introduced at the City Council. Commissioners Richard Boykin and Deborah Sims introduced an ordinance that would exempt feminine hygiene products from the Cook County Retailers’ Occupation Tax. “Feminine products, like many medicines, are a necessity and not a luxury. Given this fact, these products should not be over taxed,” Commissioner Sims said in a release. Feminine products are currently taxed at the rate of any common product in Chicago: 10.25 percent. The proposal has been referred to the Finance Committee.

A pared-down ordinance giving the Inspector General oversight of City Council passes by a thin margin, while a hike in cigarette taxes and a hearing on a one shot cash infusion to CPS get tangled up by procedural maneuvers. Plus, aldermen sing Kumbaya and say goodbye to Ald. Will Burns (4), who is leaving City Hall to work for Airbnb.

Aldermen say the phone lines were burning up last night, as Council members and Mayoral staff whipped votes on three contentious issues due for a vote this morning: acceptance of the O’Connor Working Group’s Inspector General substitute ordinance; passage of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed tobacco tax that was delayed from Monday to a special Finance Committee meeting called for 9:15 a.m.; and a previously tabled $200 million bond issuance to pay for swap termination fees.

Two sources last night counted 25 “no” votes for the IG substitute, but as the night wore on, one source said some of those “no” votes may be wavering.

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) a co-sponsor of the original ordinance merging the Legislative Inspector General’s office with the City’s Inspector General’s Office, told Aldertrack yesterday afternoon that while the working group ordinance was still a work in progress and he believes the one he crafted with Ald. Michele Smith (42) is “the right ordinance,” he’s content IG Joe Ferguson will be empowered to oversee City Council after two years fighting for reform. “You don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” he said.

Per Rule 41, 26 votes are needed to discharge Pawar’s original ordinance to the floor. A substitution or amendment, like the working group’s proposed changes, can be introduced at that time as well, Pawar says. It will come down to a simple up or down vote during the “Unfinished Business” portion of the meeting.

The Council’s Finance Committee is also meeting this morning, an hour before the full City Council meeting, to vote on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to raise the city’s smoking age to 21 and increase taxes on tobacco-related products. On Monday, a marathon-long hearing on the ordinance revealed that a significant number of aldermen oppose the plan for fear of how it will impact local businesses and crime.

Aldermen who represent wards along the city’s borders had expressed worry that the changes would drive out business to the surrounding suburbs and Indiana, where smoking products are cheaper. Others, predominantly from the city’s South and West Side, had expressed concern the high price of cigarette packs would fuel what they described to be a “booming” underground market of loose cigarette sales.

Members of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus don’t like the ordinance either, because the $6 million in expected revenue from the new tax would go to a CPS-run summer orientation program for new high school freshman, instead of anti-smoking programs. Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) said he would prefer the money pay for anti-smoking programs in elementary schools. It’s possible, one source said, a substitute may be introduced today that would divert some of those funds to smoking cessation programs so the Mayor will have enough votes to pass the ordinance.

Items Awaiting Council Approval Today (Highlights)

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  Legal Settlements: A $3.1M settlement with the U.S. DoJ over a hiring practice no longer in use that allegedly discriminated against foreign-born candidates. Ald. Nick Sposato (38) voted against it in committee. Also up: a $220,000 settlement with Tiffany Hondras, who filed a lawsuit against the police department alleging unlawful search and seizure, and a $200,000 settlement toJonathan and Jesse Hadnott, Kevin Hunt and Brandell Betts, who filed a joint lawsuit against the police department also alleging unlawful search and seizure.

  
  


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  Bond Offering: The Second Lien Water Revenue Project and Refunding Bonds, Series 2016a ($200M) are listed on the Finance Committee’s list of ordinances awaiting a vote, but according to Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), it’s supposed to be held for another month. Chairman Ed Burke (14) tabled the bond deal at last month’s City Council meeting after the Progressive Caucus pushed back, because it would pay for swap termination fees on existing debt. The PC wants to sue the banks instead. An ordinance calling for legal action against banks just got re-referred from the Budget Committee to the Finance Committee yesterday.

  
  


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  Zoning Changes for the old Malcolm X City College campus for the newBlackhawks ice rink and Rush University Medical Center academic campus.

  
  


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  Fee Waivers for all city permits and public way use permits for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority

  
  


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  Anti-Discrimination Protections for vets as it relates to finding and securing housing in Chicago. This ordinance also provides anti-retaliation measures to protect tenants who file complaints against their landlords.

  
  


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  Sale Of City-Owned Land for $1 to the University of Chicago for a new campus for their existing Woodlawn Charter School. Ald. Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10) and Ald. David Moore (17) voted against it in committee.

  
  


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  The BACP Top Cabbie Award Ordinance: sponsored by Mayor Emanuel, would create an incentive program to find “Chicago’s Top Cabbie”. Top prize is a free taxicab medallion.

  
  


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  Mobile Food Vendor Restrictions for Lincoln Park to restrict food cart vendors on nine separate stretches of restaurant-heavy sidewalks, including roughly quarter-mile spans of Armitage, Lincoln, Clark, Fullerton, and Halsted.

  
  


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  Expenditure of Open Space Impact Fee fund for Julia Burgos Park: The Logan Square Park would receive $235,000 in “Open Space Impact Fees,” which are taken from new residential developments to help expand and improve local park space. The money would help pay for environmental remediation costs at an adjacent vacant plot of land the city acquired.

  
  


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  TIF Money For Belmont Cragin Elementary School: transfers $287,000 in TIF funds for the construction of a new playground with rubber surfacing.

  
  


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  Changes To The City’s Procurement Goals For M/WBE Businesses: Would increase all city-funded contract goals from 24% to 26% for minority businesses and from 4% to 6% for women owned businesses. The ordinance originally called for 30% and 10%, respectively.

  
  


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  Divvy Expansion To Evanston And Oak Park: includes revenue sharing with Chicago. The City will pass through $320,000 to Evanston and $480,000 to Oak Park. Evanston will pay $80,000 in local matching funds, Oak Park will pay $120,000. Costs and revenues will be shared

  
  

Appointments

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  Julio Rodriguez as a member of the Commission on Human Relations; Reappointment of Naderh H. Elrabadi, Stephanie A. Kanter, David J. Mussatt, and Nabeela Rasheed as members of Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

  
  


• Designation of of Blake P. Sercye as Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals. The former chairman, Jonathan Swain, took a position on the Chicago Board of Elections. Sercye has been on ZBA for only a few months. Swain replaced Langdon Neal on the three-member board of commissioners.

Expected Intros: Ald. Moreno Demands Hearing on Prop. Tax Relief Plan, Hopkins Wants Legacy Buildings Protected

Ald. Joe Moreno (1) will be introducing a resolution demanding a hearing on an ordinance he introduced in September that would provide property tax relief to some homeowners whose homes are valued at $250,000 or less. The ordinance was introduced last fall in response to the Mayor’s historic property tax hike. “This [property tax increase] was approved with the caveat that the City would consider a citywide rebate program, if the state could not provide relief. As of this date, state action to provide relief to low- and middle-income homeowners has been stalled,” Ald. Moreno said in a release.

Moreno’s rebate plan is intended for households earning less than $100,000 a year. Homeowners would apply for the program with the Department of Finance, and the City’s Chief Financial Officer would establish and administer it. The CFO could call on the Office of Compliance to conduct eligibility audits.

Read the formula with an example here.

The dollar amount homeowners would get back is multiplied by the difference in the City’s real estate tax assessment rate from last year to this year, then multiplied by the equalized assessed value of the home. Which basically means a home with $50,000 a year in income worth $250,000 could be eligible for a rebate just over $208, delivered by check. The Chicago Tribune estimates that if Emanuel’s proposed increases were in effect this year, the total bill on a $250,000 home would go up by $342, to $4,504. About 270,000 Chicago households would be eligible to apply for Moreno’s program.

According to Ald. Moreno’s count, there are six co-sponsors: Ald. Pat Dowell (3), Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6), Ald. Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Ald. Danny Solis (25), Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30), and Ald. Joe Moore (49).

Ald Brian Hopkins (2) also plans to introduce an ordinance that will “allow any Alderman or the Mayor to nominate a longstanding business deemed an economic or cultural fixture to the community for at least 30 years,” to become a so-called “Legacy Business.” The designation is aimed in part to help longstanding businesses survive rising property tax rates.

Up to 300 legacy businesses could be nominated per year. A business has to have operated in Chicago for at least 30 years, contributed to the neighborhood's history or identity, and committed to maintaining its, “physical features or traditions that define the business.” To be included on DPD's list, businesses would pay a $50 administrative fee. Those fees and across the board business licensing fee hikes (most by $5), would help fund the program.

Legacy Businesses could apply for a special grant from DPD awarding $500 per full-time equivalent employee. Landlords with 10+ year lease agreements with Legacy Businesses could also apply for a grant, at $4.50 per square foot, maxing out at 5,000 square feet per location.

In this week's episode we breakdown the stalled contract negotiations between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers' Union, accusations that Gov. Bruce Rauner tried to tank CPS' bond deal, a $1 land sale for a new charter school campus in Woodlawn, and potential changes to the city's remaining mental health clinics.