Former 45th Ward Ald. John Arena started Monday as a senior adviser in the Planning Department, four months after relinquishing his Far Northwest Side City Council seat.

Arena, who served two terms on the City Council, will be paid $123,996 annually to act as “a liaison between [the Department of Planning and Development] and other entities across the city focused on economic development,” according to a statement released by city officials.

Arena will also be charged with pushing initiatives in “in qualified investment areas” on the South and West sides where developments can qualify for grants from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, which is fueled by developers in and near the Loop that want to build more dense projects, officials said.

The former alderman is “uniquely qualified” because of his experience in championing developments designed to spur economic growth, officials said.

Arena, who will make more in his new position than he did as an alderman, was hired despite a citywide hiring freeze announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the end of August as she detailed the $838 million budget gap facing the city.

City officials had “been in conversation with the candidate since prior to the announcement of the hiring freeze,” according to the statement released by officials.

Arena did not return a phone message from The Daily Line.

Arena, who endorsed Lightfoot over Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, in the mayoral runoff, was considered by the mayor for a number of positions, officials said.

The former alderman will advise Maurice Cox, Lightfoot’s pick for planning commissioner who comes to Chicago from Detroit, in an effort to help him understand his new home, officials in the mayor’s office said.

Related: Lightfoot’s pick for Planning Commissioner carries a controversial legacy after 4 years in Detroit

If Arena stays on the city’s payroll for two years, his eight years as an alderman would qualify him for a city pension.

Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) said Arena — with whom he bitterly clashed over plans to build affordable housing on the Far Northwest Side — was the wrong pick.

“He shouldn’t be advising anyone on anything,” Napolitano said, adding that he believed Arena took the job with the city to “weasel” his way into a municipal pension. “He doesn’t work well with other aldermen and residents. He’s a bully.”

Arena is not the first ousted Northwest Side aldermen to land a job at the Planning Department. Former 41st Ward Ald. Mary O’Connor, who was defeated by Napolitano, earns $117,000 annually as a deputy commissioner in the department.

An ally of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, O’Connor was hired in 2015.

“It is aggravating,” Napolitano said. “I don’t think it is right.”

Arena lost his seat to Ald. Jim Gardiner (45) in February after a bruising fight over two housing developments that included affordable housing proposals in the 41st and 45th wards. Gardiner won 51.4 percent of the vote in a four-way race.

Napolitano, who is the only member of the City Council who is not a Democrat, supported Gardiner.

In 2017, Arena pushed through plans for a seven-story, 75-unit mixed-income complex at 5150 N. Northwest Highway in the 45th Ward. Napolitano and local neighborhood groups said the development would spur violent crime in Jefferson Park, which ranks among the city’s safest neighborhoods.

That project was ultimately approved by the City Council, and it won state tax credits on Arena’s last day in office.

Related: Jefferson Park affordable housing complex set to get state tax credits — on Ald. Arena’s last day in office

In the 41st Ward, Arena supported plans opposed by Napolitano to build a seven-story, 297-unit luxury apartment complex near the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station that would have included 30 units set aside for low- and-moderate income Chicagoans.

Those plans were dropped after other aldermen sided with Napolitano, in keeping with the City Council’s unwritten policy of giving aldermen the final say on developments in their wards.

Cox’s nomination to be planning commissioner is scheduled to be considered by the Zoning Committee on Oct. 15.

Leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union will meet this week to set a date to go on strike if a deal isn’t reached with city and school officials after 94 percent of CTU members voted to authorize a walkout. A pilot program that tested Chicago’s appetite for a free-floating car share system will end Dec. 31, and another member of the Democratic Socialists of America launched a bid for a leadership position in the Cook County Democratic Party.

On his way to a ninth-place finish in the race for Chicago mayor, Paul Vallas racked up bills totaling $885,357 sending unsolicited text messages to Chicagoans touting his campaign, according to documents filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

In addition, when the former Chicago Public Schools CEO closed his Paul Vallas for All Chicago campaign committee on Sept. 11, he still owed Link2Tek — the Asheville, North Carolina-based firm that sent the messages — $535,357 after paying the firm $350,000, according to state records.

Related: Mayoral hopeful Vallas hired firm behind mystery texts, but says poll was conducted by ‘independent firm’

Along with the outstanding debt, Vallas’s defunct campaign committee faces an ongoing lawsuit that claims the text messages violated federal law.

Related: Lawsuit: Vallas’ mayoral campaign broke federal law by sending unwanted texts

Because the campaign committee is closed, Vallas is not required to report when — or if — he pays off the debt, according to Matt Dietrich, the spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections.

“The debt becomes a private matter between the committee or those in charge of the committee and the creditors,” Dietrich said in a statement. “As far as the State Board of Elections is concerned, the committee is terminated and has no further reporting requirements.

Through representatives, Vallas declined to comment on his campaign’s use of text messages to reach voters or its remaining debt.

Link2Tek, which is also named in the federal complaint, did not respond to an email message from The Daily Line about the money it is owed by the Vallas campaign or its work for the campaign.

Vallas’ campaign amended his committee’s last quarterly report to reflect the debt to Link2Tek one day before officials filed paperwork with the Illinois State Board of Elections to close the committee.

Vallas, who joined the board of the Museum of Broadcast Communications in April, could open a new campaign committee if he decides to run for elected office again, according to state law.

According to its website, Link2Tek “offers candidate organization, data analytics, voter modeling and voter communication, including texts and voice calls.”

The Vallas campaign began texting Chicago voters in August 2018 with cryptic messages that campaign observers told The Daily Line walked a fine line between polling and advertising. Many of the Chicagoans who got the messages took to social media to complain about texts.

The texts sent by the Vallas campaign included a link to a microsite that included information about Vallas’ campaign. For example, a message about the need to “win the war on crime” included a link to click for more information.

Texting campaigns to cell phones are perfectly legal, even without the voter’s prior consent, so long as the messages aren’t being sent through what’s known as an “autodialer,” according to FCC rules.

FCC rules also allow campaigns to make autodialed or prerecorded voice calls to landlines, even without the recipient’s permission. 

However, autodialed live calls and prerecorded voice messages are not allowed to be made to cell phones, pagers or other mobile devices without the recipient’s express consent.

The class-action lawsuit, filed by attorney James Vlahakis on behalf of Chicagoans Jake Campbell and Jeff Klueh, alleges the system used by Link2Tek is an autodialer “dressed in sheep’s clothing.”

Lawyers for Link2Tek urged a judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the texts did not violate federal law.

A date has not been set for a judge to rule on that motion to dismiss, Vlahakis said.

When the lawsuit was filed in January, Vallas called it a politically motivated “dirty trick.”

Alisa Kaplan, policy director for Reform for Illinois, said the price tag for the texts sent by the Vallas campaign was staggering.

“That’s a lot of money even in our super-charged environment,” Kaplan said. “I wonder if it raised enough stink to make other candidates think twice about sending texts like that.”

Vallas’ debt to Link2Tek is the largest amount owed to a single vendor by any of the 14 candidates who made the February ballot for Chicago mayor, according to an analysis of campaign finance records by The Daily Line.

Vallas also owes $19,000 to his brother, Dean Vallas, who helped run his campaign.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot forgave a $250,000 loan she made to her campaign committee, Lightfoot for Chicago, records show. That is allowed by state law as long as it is reported, Dietrich said.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley, who finished in second and third place behind Lightfoot, have no outstanding debt in their campaign committees, according to state records.

Willie Wilson, who used his personal fortune to fund his race and finished fourth, still owes himself $1.5 million for his 2019 bid for mayor, according to state records.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who finished fifth, owes four political strategy and law firms $228,778, according to state records. Mendoza’s largest debt is the $97,308 she owes to the firm of Adelstein & Associates.

Former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Jerry Joyce, who finished seventh, still owes his wife Jannine Joyce $2.26 million, records show. Joyce’s campaign also owes $150,000 to Bridget Smagala and another $90,000 to the Bizzieri Law Offices and the Shannon Law Group.

Gery Chico, who finished eighth and is now the chairman of the board for the nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corporation Chicago, owes $178,154 to his closed campaign committee, records show. Neal Sales-Griffin, who finished in 14th place, owes $10,600 to his closed committee, records show.

Former candidates Amara Enyia, Garry McCarthy, Lashawn Ford and John Kozlar have no outstanding debt, records show.

Judges will be discouraged from assessing fees or penalties to defendants who are sprung from jail by third-party bond payers under an ordinance passed by the Cook County Board of Commissioners on Thursday.

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A hearing to examine changes to the way Chicago awards $200 million in grants to nonprofit groups that educate low-income children younger than 5 will move forward, even after Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced she had reversed some of the biggest cuts.

Leaders of Cook County’s multibillion-dollar health system spent hours on Thursday defending the fiscal health of the county’s Medicaid insurance program and challenging the methodology of an independent watchdog’s report released in June that found CountyCare owed $701 million in unpaid healthcare bills.

County Commissioners took the unusual step on Thursday of rejecting a contract requested by Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, taking a parting shot at the under investigation executive as she heads for retirement.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot rallied Thursday with immigrant rights activists outside the Chicago offices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and announced new restrictions on how Chicago Police cooperate with federal agents.

Cook County’s public guardian asked a federal judge to stop state officials from changing the health care coverage for 36,000 Illinoisans currently or formerly in foster care, saying the move would violate a decades-old consent decree designed to improve care for the state’s most vulnerable kids. 

A diverse array of business, labor and transportation advocacy groups threw their weight on Wednesday behind county leaders who are calling for the three Chicago-area transportation agencies to converge on a plan to boost transit access on the city’s South Side and south suburbs.

The City Council’s Progressive Caucus urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday to partially close the city’s $838 million budget gap by taxing large corporations and imposing a sales tax on wealth management services.

An updated draft of the rules associated with the county’s Just Housing Ordinance inched closer on Wednesday to implementation, but at least one major sticking point remains before the controversial legislation can take effect.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot should settle a complaint filed against the city before she took office that alleges the city’s tradition of giving aldermen the final say over housing developments in their wards has created a hyper-segregated city rife with racism and gentrification, housing advocates urged Wednesday.

Federal agents on Tuesday took computers and other materials from State Sen. Marty Sandoval’s (D-Chicago) Gage Park home in addition to the senator’s district office in Cicero and his office in the state Capitol building.