With a potential teacher strike scheduled for Tuesday, a coalition of elected officials and parents groups will hold a press conference at 9:00 a.m. on the second floor of City Hall to demand passage of an ordinance that would direct surplus TIF money to Chicago Public Schools.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST: Should TIFS support CPS? (July 29, 2016)

Ald. George Cardenas (12) and Ald. Sue Sadlowski-Garza (9), the main sponsors of the ordinance, will be joined by Cook County Clerk David Orr, State Rep. Will Guzzardi, and State Rep. Ann Williams. Aldermen Scott Waguespack (32), Matt O’Shea (19), and Ald. Harry Osterman (48) are also expected to attend.

The Finance Committee has already held two subject matter hearings on the so-called Chicago Public Education Revitalization Ordinance, which would create an official mechanism for the city to direct all surplus TIF money to CPS. Debate at those meetings highlighted a clear divide among aldermen: Supporters framed the ordinance as a way to come together as a city to the support the financially distressed school system, while opponents said “their” TIF money, which has taken years to build up, is too valuable to hand over for a “one-time” fix for CPS.

The Cook County Board approved a sweeping paid sick leave mandate yesterday, despite a divided party vote, dueling State’s Attorney memos on legality and some business opposition. Two commissioners doubled down on pro-worker reforms by introducing a mirror ordinance to Chicago’s minimum wage requirements that would bring the county up to a $13 per hour wage by the summer of 2019. A new tax on Uber and Lyft rides, extra procurement disclosure requirements, and a sales and property tax freeze were also introduced.

Snuck in as a late-day addition to the Board of Commissioners’ new items Wednesday was an ordinance hiking Cook County’s minimum wage. The ordinance (16-5768) calls for a hike to $13 per hour by July 1, 2019. It is co-sponsored by Finance Chairman John Daley and Comm. Larry Suffredin.  

“I realized that the city of Chicago has already raised it to $10.50. So if you are working on the Evanston side of Howard Street, you’re making $9.50. You get a dollar more on the other side. It seemed to me, crazy,” Comm. Suffredin told The Daily Line. “The business community has not challenged the City of Chicago’s ordinance, we might as well have the same minimum wage for everybody.”

While an audit function in the Inspector General’s office and expanded police oversight powers as part of a new Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) were passed at the end of Tuesday’s lengthy committee hearing, a civilian oversight board was not included in the new legislation. As Council pushed through the first two components of police reform, confusion and opposition over why civilian oversight was not included, as well as the proper pace of establishing the reform is beginning to form.

The Cook County Board meets today to vote on items approved in committee (previewed here), as well as new spending outlined below and a referral of new items to committee–including a new proposed tax on Lyft and Uber rides, a property and sales tax freeze, and adding a POW/MIA chair to the Board Room.

Committee Chairman John Fritchey and Republican commissioners had pointed questions for department heads on two contracts up for committee approval: one for software to track rabies vaccinations, and another for properties at the Recorder of Deeds office. A third contract for data sharing between the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff’s Department was deferred.

Cook County Commissioners will meet today at 8:45 a.m. for six committee meetings ahead of today’s full Board of Commissioners meeting. They are scheduled to vote on paid sick leave for employees across the county, changes to the consent calendar that could make board meeting days much shorter, a revamped Ethics Ordinance, and a drug disposal program that has been on hold for months.

Aldermen approved “a matter of housekeeping” during a brief Workforce Committee meeting in the middle of Tuesday's police oversight hearing. The substitute makes some corrections to the three parts of the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership agreement. Jim McDonald, Deputy Corporation Counsel explained that the initial federal department that funded the Chicago-Cook Partnership has changed.

In a divided 39-8 vote Wednesday, City Council approved the Emanuel Administration's plan to dissolve the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and replace it with two new police oversight agencies: a Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and a new Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety.

A proposed pilot program aimed at spurring stagnant retail corridors in some of the city’s struggling communities was called “politically motivated” by some aldermen yesterday because the pilot left out several neighborhoods in need. The program was the subject of two ordinances before the Budget Committee Tuesday.

The Council’s Finance Committee will reconvene this morning at 9:00 a.m. to consider an order from Chair Ed Burke (14) that would bar the city from doing business with Wells Fargo bank. The order is in response to revelations that the bank opened more than two million fraudulent bank and credit card accounts without customer consent.

Under the order, which is binding, the city would be prohibited from doing business with Wells Fargo for the next two years. Specifically, the city’s Chief Financial Officer, Comptroller, and Treasurer would be prohibited from engaging Wells Fargo as a municipal depository, an underwriter for bond deals, a trustee in any loan or redevelopment agreement, a broker to buy investments on the city’s behalf, a financial advisor, or “in any other capacity or relationship with respect to the city.”

According to a chart provided by Ald. Burke’s office, the bank has benefited from about $19.5 million in business with the city since 2005.

The order also encourages the trustees of the city’s four pension funds to divest all of their investments with the bank and any of its subsidiaries. “At the very minimum, I think we can do this as a sign of our shock and displeasure about the conduct of a bank, and we don’t need to do business with a bank that has exhibited this kind of flagrant conduct,” said Burke when he directly introduced the order in committee on Friday.

On Monday, Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced the state suspended $30 billion in investment activity with Wells Fargo. The amount is higher than the state’s actual annual investment portfolio of $25 billion, because it includes dollars that go through Wells Fargo to pay off the state’s bills. The state treasurer’s office is involved in about $1 trillion in banking transactions a year, according to the press release.

And according to Bloomberg, City Treasurer Kurt Summers has also announced plans to divest $25 million the city has invested with the bank.

That meeting is expected to run quickly, because at 9:15 a.m. the Council’s Rules Committee is scheduled to continue deliberation on decorum rules for public comment, also known as “The Blakemore Rule”. The committee recessed without a vote on the issue last week after several Progressive Caucus and freshman aldermen expressed concerns that the new rules were subjective and limiting.

The ordinance would add a Rule 58 to the city’s Rules of Procedure. The rule imposes a three minute time limit for all members of the public and says they must be physically present and “refrain from using profane language or obscene conduct, or make irrelevant, repetitious or disruptive comments.”

Ald. Burke, the sponsor, and Jeff Levine, an attorney with the city’s Law Department, said that the ordinance only codifies what’s already standard practice at council committee meetings.

The Council’s Progressive Caucus drafted an amendment that eliminates the physically present requirement, as well as the rule that comments not be irrelevant, repetitious, or disruptive.

As Ald. John Arena (45) said in committee last week, “Those two things seem subject to interpretation. One person’s repetitious comment is another person’s emphasis of a point.” A similar measure is expected to be considered by the Cook County Board today.

Items Slated For Full Council Vote Today (Highlights) 

• Police Reform Ordinance (Details)

• Amendment to the city’s 2015 borrowing plan to add $25 million in general obligation bonds for 600 new cop cars over the next two years.

• A slew of procurement changes (Details)

• New Pilot Program to help spur development and business within depressed retail corridors in the following neighborhoods:  Austin, Back of the Yards, Bronzeville, Chatham, Englewood, South Chicago, West Humboldt Park, West Pullman.

• A new bid incentive program for mid-sized construction firms that would make them the exclusive bidder of contracts worth $3 million and $10 million.

• Amendments to the Welcoming City Ordinance to boost protections for undocumented Chicagoans.


• Several appointments and reappointments to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, Chicago Advisory Council on Equity, Chicago Community Land Trust Fund Board, and the Board of Ethics.

• The establishment of a new TIF district for the redevelopment of the Lathrop Homes.  The Diversey/Chicago River Redevelopment TIF is expected to generate about $17.5 million in over the 23-year life of the TIF. Unlike all other TIFs, this one will be automatically repealed once it achieves the funding goal. Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) voted against it in committee.

• A peddling ban in the 14th Ward added to the list of areas where peddling, even with a license, is prohibited. The ban does not include mobile food vendors.

• A resolution from Ald. Ed Burke (14) urging the Chicago Police Department to make QuickClot Combat Gauze available to all police officers trained in the department’s Law Enforcement Medical and Rescue Training Program (LEMART)

• New mobile food cart stands for downtown Chicago (Locations: 140 South Clark Street, 105 East Monroe Street, 300 South Wabash Street, 140 South Franklin Street).

• Five Class 6(b) Incentives which gives industrial properties as 12-year property tax break.

• Expenditure of TIF dollars for a transit study for Jefferson Park

• $3.6 million parking lot sale to Near North Montessori School

• 39-year Lease agreement with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) to construct the North Branch Riverwalk Under-bridge Connection. The proposed pedestrian and bike bridge will connect Clark Park and California Park through a path along the Chicago River under Addison Street, eliminating the need for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the busy intersection.

• Intergovernmental Agreement with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning (CMAP) for the execution of a “multi-modal” transportation study of the Riverdale Community Area, which includes the city’s Altgeld Gardens, Eden Green Golden Gate, and Riverdale neighborhoods. CMAP would lead the study in collaboration with the city’s Department of Transportation (CDOT).

 

 

After six hours of debate, which included a heated exchange between aldermen and a handful of activists in the gallery who were eventually escorted out by City Hall security, a slightly tweaked version of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s police reform ordinance passed a joint committee in a 21-4 vote last night. Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) Ald. Nick Sposato (38), and Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) voted against it.

Three non-competitive contracts for the Sheriff, Recorder of Deeds, and Animal and Rabies Control Departments are up for consideration in the Cook County Technology and Innovation Committee today, chaired by Comm. John Fritchey.

The City Council’s Budget Committee will consider five ordinances that would amend the city’s procurement process, most of which were introduced by Budget Chair Carrie Austin (34) in conjunction with the Department of Procurement Services. The amendments would add more incentives for minority- and women-owned (M/WBE) firms, and create a new incentive for mid-sized construction firms.

The Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee approved a substitute ordinance from Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) that would allow mobile food stands in certain parts of downtown.