Dr. Jay Shannon performed a balancing act during his more than five years at the helm of the Cook County Health and Hospitals system, whose nearly 6,600 full-time employees run the county’s two public hospitals and manage its growing Medicaid managed care program.

The CEO was forced to make several rounds of deep budget cuts while keeping the system’s services competitive enough to attract insured patients. Shannon was tasked with scoping out new revenues while relying on a shrinking pool of taxpayer dollars. And he oversaw a more than three-fold expansion of the county’s Medicaid services amid federal efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act.

But by Friday, when the health system’s independent board voted unanimously not to renew Shannon’s contract, the $2.8 billion health system also faced mounting financial and political pressures. Skyrocketing costs from unpaid debt and the county’s provision of care to uninsured patients, plus a contentious report on the health system’s fiscal stewardship, meant county officials peppered Shannon with tough questions this year.

A database of suspected gang members kept by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office lacked oversight, skirted federal guidelines and was used for “unauthorized purposes” before its 25,000-plus names were taken offline earlier this year, according to the county’s watchdog.

A coalition of housing activists on Friday called on city leaders to change the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance to keep “scofflaw” developers from skirting their commitments to build affordable housing.

Cook County commissioners on Wednesday narrowly approved a final set of rules governing the Just Housing Ordinance, ending a months-long intragovernmental dispute over how tightly the county should restrict landlords from searching potential tenants’ criminal conviction histories.

Twenty community activists, housing providers and real estate professionals will comprise a task force set to propose changes to the city’s evolving and controversial Affordable Requirements Ordinance, city housing officials announced Tuesday.

Aldermen dealt another victory on Tuesday to supporters of a proposal to build a 100-unit all-affordable apartment complex in Logan Square, blocking an effort by Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) to stall the project.

Cook County officials are counting on a nonprofit development authority to jumpstart new construction and attract new businesses to the county’s struggling south suburbs.

Members of the City Council’s Zoning Committee are scheduled on Tuesday to approve a proposal that would rehab and expand the historic Hollander building in Logan Square to include offices, retail and a fitness space.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30) defied county and state party leaders on Friday by wrangling the voting power of former State Rep. Luis Arroyo to appoint Peoples Gas official Eva-Dina Delgado as Arroyo’ successor in the legislature.

Cook County Comm. Jeffrey Tobolski (D-16) resigned on Thursday from his posts at the helm of seven county committees, citing “health issues” that have prevented him from attending any meetings since federal investigators raided his suburban office in September.

City zoning officials are set to conduct a lottery on Friday to decide which cannabis purveyors get dibs on the limited number of available spots city officials said recreational dispensaries can set up shop.

Members of the Zoning Board of Appeals will draw names from a list of 31 dispensary owners who are licensed by the state to sell cannabis across the Chicago region, including eight operators with city addresses.

Nearly a dozen Northwest Side Democratic Committeepeople are due to meet on Friday to pick a replacement for arrested State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) following his resignation from the General Assembly earlier this month.

But with Arroyo poised to indirectly weigh in on the process weeks after he was arrested in a bribery scheme, party officials were unsure this week whether anyone still wants the appointment.

A key city panel on Tuesday cleared the way for the city to subsidize a 100-unit all-affordable housing complex in Logan Square, knocking down yet another hurdle the proposal’s years-long run-up to groundbreaking.

The proposal by Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp. envisions a seven-story building on the site of a 1.43-acre city-owned parking lot at 2602-38 N. Emmett St.

Leaders of the Cook County Forest Preserves District will be forced to make “major cuts” to popular programs and ecological restoration efforts if the system doesn’t get an infusion of cash next year, they told members of the county’s Board of Commissioners last week.

If former State Rep. Luis Arroyo  — who resigned after being charged with corruption — helps pick his own replacement, the Illinois House of Representatives may not seat that person, House Speaker Michael Madigan warned Monday.

Cook County Democratic Party Chair Toni Preckwinkle acknowledged Friday she can not stop former State Rep. Luis Arroyo — who resigned after being charged with corruption — from leading the process that will pick his own replacement.

Aldermen on Thursday grilled Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s housing and planning appointees on how they plan to implement a centralized plan to build more affordable housing, while also asserting their individual power to call the shots in their own wards.

Some local Democratic Party leaders are vowing to boycott a meeting scheduled to fill a Northwest Side state house vacancy if ousted former State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) has any part in choosing his own successor.

Three developments — all approved within the last year — will nearly triple the number of affordable units produced under the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance since it went into effect in 2007, according to data released by the Chicago Department of Housing on Thursday.

Developers have yet to break ground on the River District, The 78 and Lincoln Yards mega-projects. But if the builders follow through on their commitments to the city, their projects are set to collectively create 2,700 units of on-site or off-site affordable housing, eclipsing the 1,046 affordable units whose construction the evolving housing ordinance has forced to date.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas asked the county’s Board of Commissioners to audit the Cook County Land Bank Authority, saying the agency has “made a shambles” of the treasurer’s semi-annual sale of delinquent properties.