News in brief: CPS, union reach ‘tentative’ reopening agreement; Austin to challenge ethics ruling; Arwady to face grilling from aldermen

News in brief: Englewood aldermen blast feds over mail delays; Aldermen, Chicago Public Library employees want library workers moved up in vaccination plan

Thousands of laid-off Chicago hotel workers are redoubling their push for an ordinance they say would ensure that companies do right by employees who lost their livelihoods last year after decades of loyal service.

But hotel owners are pushing back hard on the proposed “Hotel Worker Right to Return to Work” ordinance (O2020-5777), saying its requirements would create a “logistical nightmare” that slows down hiring, potentially hurting the same workers the union is trying to protect.

Advocates and some Cook County officials are pressing for better data collection and more efficient scheduling in the county’s mammoth court system, saying reforms could help wind down the county’s unique backlog of defendants languishing in jail for years while they await trial.

The longstanding delays in the nation’s second-largest court system grabbed county commissioners’ attention in November, when Sheriff Tom Dart shared data during a budget hearing showing that more than one-third of the jail’s detainees have been locked up there at least a year, and 150 defendants — about 3 percent of the jail population — have spent more than five years awaiting trial.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has respectively appointed Ald. Michelle Harris (8) and Ald. George Cardenas (12) as her new floor leader and deputy floor leader, putting them in charge of advancing her agenda in the City Council, she announced Tuesday.

Lightfoot revealed the changing of the guard via news release hours after Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) said he would step back from the floor leader role — which he has held since May 2019 — so he could focus on his other City Council work.

Chicago briefs: Suburban Cook County moves to Phase 4, keeps dining restrictions; City partners with Zocdoc for an online COVID-19 vaccination booking platform

Property owners filed more than 223,000 appeals to their tax assessments to the Cook County Board of Review since last year, a historically heavy volume of requests that nevertheless fell far short of the record number of appeals submitted to the board during the 2019 tax year.

A city employee violated the city’s ethics ordinance by entering into a private subcontract with the Public Building Commission on a project being furnished by city funds, the Chicago Board of Ethics ruled on Monday.

Board members voted to stick the employee, whose name they did not publicize, $500 — the minimum allowed under city rules for the violation incurred.

Any proposal to create an elected Chicago school board must include a “safeguard” to ensure that at least some members of the board have children in the school system — otherwise, Mayor Lori Lightfoot won’t get behind the plan, the mayor’s top lobbyist said Monday.

Tens of thousands of Chicago Public Schools educators mourned the death of former Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis on Monday as they faced a critical choice over whether to accept a plan to gradually return to in-person learning beginning this week.

When the day was over, the union’s house of delegates voted overwhelmingly to endorse a reopening agreement with the school district, kicking the final decision to a full vote by the union’s approximately 25,000 members. About 85 percent of delegates voted in favor at a Monday night meeting, according to a union official.

Aldermen on Thursday will consider granting a $51 million, 12-year tax break for the rehabilitation of a downtown office tower alongside a handful of smaller tax credits for new industrial proposals around the city.

A new 99-unit mixed-income apartment complex proposed next to the 43^rd Street CTA Green Line station in Bronzeville is among the largest of five projects set for consideration by the Chicago Plan Commission during its 10 a.m. meeting on Thursday.

The Illinois State Board of Elections moved toward issuing a fine against Rep. Terra Costa Howard (left) after a complaint was filed by a supporter of Republican Peter Breen (right), who unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent Democrat last year.

The Illinois State Board of Elections on Tuesday moved toward issuing fines against Rep. Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) after she faced a complaint over alleged misreporting of campaign contributions from committees controlled by former House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) and Planned Parenthood.

Nearly 30 percent fewer Cook County property owners filed appeals with the Cook County assessor’s office last year than in 2019, even as the county’s Board of Review braces for a familiar surge of taxpayers contesting their assessments.

County Assessor Fritz Kaegi lauded the sharp downward trend in requests to his office as a sign that more homeowners than ever trust the accuracy of his team’s valuations. But some real estate professionals believe the opposite: that disillusioned property owners have lost faith in Kaegi’s methods and are simply taking their chances with the more binding Board of Review instead.

Aldermen and advocates behind two proposals that would formalize civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department are hoping the most recent versions of their plans will finally make it to a City Council vote early this year.

The City Council Committee on Public Safety during its Tuesday meeting accepted modifications to proposals for a Chicago Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and another from Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), with committee hearings on each proposal expected later this month, according to Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), chair of the committee.

Aldermen and advocates behind two proposals that would formalize civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department are hoping the most recent versions of their plans will finally make it to a City Council vote early this year.

The City Council Committee on Public Safety during its Tuesday meeting accepted modifications to proposals for a Chicago Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and another from Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), with committee hearings on each proposal expected later this month, according to Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), chair of the committee.

For the business leaders and property owners who were already sour on Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and his wave of sweeping changes to the county’s tax assessment system, 2020 did little to put them at ease.

In April, Kaegi shocked property owners and other county officials when he announced his office would send new valuations to millions of property owners all across the county that took into account the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaegi pitched the overhaul of the office’s typical assessment system as a way to give property owners a more accurate read on how much they should owe in property taxes in 2021.