Members of the Latino Caucus and other aldermen in December submitted paperwork for their map to be placed on the June 28 ballot. [Justin Laurence / Block Club Chicago] 

A group of aldermen who already submitted their proposal for a new ward map to be placed on the June 28 primary election ballot want to make tweaks to their proposal to accommodate a potentially powerful new ally as the campaign ramps up. But amending the map, which has already been approved for the ballot by the City Clerk’s office, will be virtually impossible without a complex web of legislative maneuvering. 

Police misconduct claims cost Chicago taxpayers more than $40 million in 2020, a tally that is likely to more than double for 2022, city records show. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Chicago taxpayers shelled out more than $40 million in 2020 for plaintiffs and their attorneys who alleged misconduct against the Chicago Police Department, according to a report published by the city’s law department last week. And early indications show the city’s police-related legal costs have only risen since. 

City and transit officials on Wednesday announced new efforts to increase private security and the presence of police officers at CTA stations and on buses and trains. City housing officials confirmed they will push to extend a demolition fee pilot in gentrifying neighborhoods. Aldermen will make appointments to the Advisory Council on Cultural Affairs and Special Events. And a watchdog office credited the Chicago Department of Transportation for improving its management of the city’s traffic signals but said the department still has more work to do. 

Aldermen have begun interviews applicants to serve on the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line]

A working group of aldermen has begun interviewing the dozens of people who applied to serve on the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, and a list of nominees could be sent to Mayor Lori Lightfoot for consideration in April, officials said Tuesday.  

From left: Frank Avila, Rick Garcia and Cristina Nonato are running on a slate together for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners. Elizabeth Joyce is also running on the slate for a two-year term.

An ousted commissioner of the $1.2 billion agency responsible for treating Cook County’s wastewater is leading an insurgent slate of candidates to reclaim seats on its board this year, setting up a test of the Cook County Democratic Party’s power in down-ballot races. 

The Congress Theater, taken Feb. 24, 2020. [Mina Bloom/Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

A plan to free up a big chunk of city funding for the long-delayed redevelopment of the Congress Theater is headed to the City Council for final approval.

City officials hope a new ordinance partnering with the Cook County Land Bank Authority will help speed efforts to rehab long-vacant and neglected properties. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]

Chicago housing and planning officials are asking the City Council to sign off on a plan that would let them snag long-neglected properties off the Cook County tax rolls so they can turn the lots over to rehabbers. They say the ordinance is part of a longer-running effort to lure residential investors back to neighborhoods long plagued by blight. 

Chicago Public Schools plans to make masks optional in one week, district leaders announced on Monday. And dozens of county candidates hoping to get on the June 28 ballot for races ranging from Cook County Board President to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District filed their nominating petitions on Monday. 

Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33), left, and Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady speak during a committee meeting on Friday. 

Since it launched in late last summer, Chicago’s pilot program that has embedded mental health professionals in mental health call responses has made 134 emergency runs — and on none of those occasions did they make any arrests or use force. 

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office remains under the thumb of a monitor appointed by a federal judge to keep tabs on hiring policies. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]

As Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi faces a tough reelection campaign this year, the incumbent was on pace to escape court oversight of his office’s hiring regime in May, setting him up to boast of a major reform milestone in the final stretch before voters go to the polls.   

But a fresh delay last week will deny him that opportunity. 

A demolition site in Bucktown [Arvell Dorsey Jr. on Flickr] 

Last month, city housing officials were trumpeting the success of an experimental policy to make demolitions more expensive in two of the city’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, saying they hoped to extend the fees and potentially replicate them in other neighborhoods.  

Weeks later, city leaders are on the verge of letting the policy sunset.  

Advocates of the demolition fee policy say they’re still working to prevent the pilot program from ending on April 1 as scheduled, and housing officials say they’re committed to keeping it alive. But landlords and real estate groups are rooting for its demise, saying the fees have choked off construction and will only hurt the city’s affordable housing efforts in the long run. 

Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33) and Matt Richards with the city’s Department of Public Health speak during a September committee hearing. 

City health officials are set on Friday to update aldermen on the “co-responder” pilot program they launched in late August that sends different combinations of mental health professionals, paramedics, police officers and recovery specialists to calls of residents experiencing mental health crises. 

Sponsors of the so-called “Coalition Map” and the CHANGE Illinois-backed “People’s Map” held a press conference before the February City Council meeting [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

As ward remap negotiations among competing groups of aldermen have ground to a halt, a group of aldermen that has already filed paperwork to put their map to voters in a referendum wants to make modifications to the map they originally proposed to accommodate a new group of supporters. 

But legal teams representing multiple agencies and parties are discussing whether or how the proposed “Coalition Map,” which is backed largely by the City Council Latino Caucus and filed to be placed on the June 28 Primary Election ballot as a referendum question, can be legally changed, Chicago Board of Elections spokesperson Max Bever told The Daily Line on Wednesday. 

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

Chicagoans may be softening their pessimism on the city’s crime and other quality-of-life issues as the COVID-19 pandemic fades into a new lull, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot remains as unpopular as ever, a new Chicago Index survey found last month. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot rolled out the beginnings of a cross-department city strategy to snuff out crime. And Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said business leaders have been “on the sidelines” as crime has spiraled out of control.