Cook County Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3), left, and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi.

The public battle between the two Cook County offices charged with measuring tax assessments reached a fever pitch on Wednesday, as Assessor Fritz Kaegi accused Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3) of “playing politics with the property tax system” and Rogers retorted by calling Kaegi “the worst Assessor Cook County has seen” and “worse than Covid.”

Deborah Witzburg served as Chicago Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety between May 2020 and November 2021.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has tapped former Chicago Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety Deborah Witzburg as the city's next Inspector General, ending a nearly six-month open question about who will become the next permanent leader of the watchdog office, city officials confirmed Wednesday. Witzburg worked as a legal adviser to former Inspector General Joseph Ferguson from 2016 to 2020 before being appointed to lead the wing of Ferguson's office that oversees police reform — a post she held for 18 months.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Caboargi (D-2) in 2019 [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Cabonargi (D-2) sent a fresh shot across the bow to Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi last week in the form of a letter to 80 elected officials across the county warning of a “new model” of assessments that will make appeals more important than ever.

Kaegi’s office has dismissed the warning as “scare tactics” that could end up skewing assessments, saying his own office is taking the same approach as in previous years to pinpoint property values for maximum accuracy and tax fairness.

Members of the Chicago Housing Initiative, ONE Northside and Access Living speak during a news conference outside City Council on March 23. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Expanding existing fees on demolitions, tacking on new penalties for apartment owners who leave their units empty, attaching new conditions to city-backed affordable housing subsidies and taxing high-end land sales to pay for anti-homelessness programs are among a suite of new legislative proposals housing organizers are looking to stake out in the City Council.

“We’ve got to figure out a way that we can do our part to really provide some relief,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said of high gas prices. [Mack Liederman/Block Club Chicago]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is working on a proposal she says promises to ease Chicago drivers’ pain at the gas pump this year. But following the cancelation of a Monday meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance, it will likely be at least another month before the tax break can take effect.

Nicole Lee will be nominated by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to be the next alderman for the 11^th Ward. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Less than a day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she needed “more time” to settle on a pick to succeed convicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) in the City Council, she announced she had settled on United Airlines executive and Chinatown native Nicole Lee as her pick.

From left: Ald. Felix Cardona (31), Ald. Howard Brookins (21), Ald. Silvana Tabares (23) and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) speak during a news conference Wednesday to promote their lobbying restriction ordinance. All four have endorsed Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The intensifying race for Illinois Secretary of State spilled over into the Chicago City Council on Wednesday as an alderman who support candidate Alexi Giannoulias rolled out an ethics proposal they acknowledged had been designed to draw attention to recent lobbying foibles by City Clerk Anna Valencia.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot presides over a meeting of the City Council on Wednesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Proposals designed to spur redevelopment of single-room occupancy apartment buildings and smooth the path for construction of a controversial semi-affordable development near O’Hare Airport were among the dozens of new ordinances and resolutions submitted to the City Council for consideration during its meeting on Wednesday.

A September 2021 City Council meeting [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

The City Council is set to take up dozens of rule changes, development approvals, resolutions and appointments during its monthly meeting on Wednesday — but none of them will be the confirmation of a new alderman to represent the 11th Ward on the Near South Side.

Ordinances codifying the city’s divestment from fossil fuel companies and extending the life of a controversial anti-gentrification measure are set to be among the first votes taken through a new electronic voting system being rolled out by City Clerk Anna Valencia’s office. Aldermen approved the change (R2021-1487) last month and were trained on the new system last week.

Related: Remote voting comes closer to reality

Chicago Department of Planning and Development Deputy Comm. Tim Jeffries shows a rendering of the “Salt District” theater makeover project at 1357 N. Elston Ave.

Alderman voted Monday to lend another two years to a controversial demolition fee package designed to slow displacement in two of the city’s most rapidly gentrifying areas, signaling that opposition to the measure has cooled since it went into effect a year ago.

R2 Companies and Blue Star Properties’ proposal to redevelop the Morton Salt shed near Goose Island into a concert venue received historic tax credits from the City Council last year. Aldermen are now set to approve $4.5 million in tax-increment financing for public infrastructure work around the site.

Aldermen are scheduled on Monday to slip in a last-minute bid to extend a controversial anti-gentrification measure in two of the city’s most rapidly changing neighborhoods.

The two-year extension of the city’s demolition fees in Pilsen and the Northwest Side area surrounding the 606 Bloomingdale Trail is one of multiple items set for consideration during a 10 a.m. meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance on Monday, including $3.5 million in tax-increment financing for public infrastructure around a prominent theater renovation project near Goose Island and another nearly $20 million for school-related infrastructure projects.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) has violated county ethics rules by hiring her first cousin Todd Thielmann as her chief of staff, the Cook County Board of Ethics ruled. [Facebook/LinkedIn]

A week after Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) was ordered by an ethics panel to fire her first cousin, whose employment as her chief of staff violates county anti-nepotism rules, the man remained on her payroll as of late Thursday.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle stands in front of the six finalist designs for the next official flag of Cook County. [Twitter/Commissioner Scott Britton]

Cook County leaders took a step on Thursday toward closing a years-long process to give the county its first new flag in more than half a century. It was one of dozens of actions taken by the county’s Board of Commissioners during its monthly meeting, including the approval of a controversial new contract for debt collection and authorization of tens of millions of dollars in additional American Rescue Plan Act-backed relief money.

A special meeting of the City Council designed to ease the city’s vaccination rules ended before it started due to lack of quorum. And aldermen advanced an ordinance to carve a loophole into the city’s stringent rules for food truck operators.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to approve more than $12 million in legal settlements on Thursday. [stock]

The Cook County Board of Commissioners is poised to approve payment of nearly $12.3 million in legal settlements during its monthly meeting on Thursday, including nearly $5 million each for two men who spent more than 20 years behind bars for a murder of which they were later cleared.

Department of Planning and development program director Maggie Cassidy shows a map of vacant or abandoned properties owned by the city of Chicago (in blue) and by the Cook County Land Bank Authority (in red) during a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday.

A City Council committee unanimously endorsed a proposal on Tuesday designed to make it easier for the city to breathe new life into abandoned properties — but only after aldermen pushed for assurances that they’ll be a part of the process.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference on Tuesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

The City Council is poised for an impromptu meeting at City Hall Wednesday afternoon as a group of about a dozen police-allied aldermen try to force open a path for the city to soften its employee vaccination requirements. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot will not attend the special meeting, which she called an act of bad faith, and it was unclear Tuesday whether enough aldermen would attend to make a quorum.

Aldermen are set to take up a proposal in committee on Wednesday to loosen rules for charity food vendors as well as a resolution calling on credit agencies to go easier on Chicagoans. And a City Council committee meeting was postponed on Tuesday due to a lack of quorum.

A key committee is set on Tuesday to consider eight appointments and reappointments to various Special Service Area commissions throughout the city. And aldermen moved to force a special City Council meeting in a push to get city health officials to consider “natural immunity” in its vaccination calculus.

Chicago Department of Aviation Comm. Jamie Rhee speaks to members of the City Council Aviation Committee on Monday.

Aldermen voted unanimously Monday to advance a land deal designed to smooth the path for a new expressway along the west edge of O’Hare Airport, a decades-in-the-making project one key official said has “national significance.”