Chicago News
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JUL 20, 2017
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Updated July 19, 2017, 10:50 a.m.
Cook County commissioners meet Wednesday morning to consider, among routine items, likely the first of several expensive legal settlements related to the arrest and conviction of four teenagers in the mid-1990s. A $5.6 million settlement to Terrill Swift, who was convicted of rape and murder but later released on DNA evidence, is on Wednesday’s Finance Committee agenda. Three other teenagers were also arrested and convicted, and say Chicago police and county prosecutors coerced their confessions. Board President Toni Preckwinkle will also make her first public availability since announcing last Friday that the county was laying off 300 people and eliminating 600 vacant positions.
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Commissioners voted to authorize two bond issuances and $8 million in spending, tacked onto an existing $104 million contract for energy conservation measures at county buildings. Both votes were divided. Delayed after a long morning of consent calendar items and more than three hours focused on the Assessor’s office, commissioners skipped consideration of the Technology and Audit committee agendas we previewed on Tuesday.
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Assessor Joe Berrios addresses the Cook County Board, July 18, 2017.
Cook County commissioners met for more than seven hours Tuesday, dedicating more than half of the day’s proceedings to discussing the inner workings of Assessor Joe Berrios’ office and the fairness of the property tax system. The line of questioning–and various presentations–were extremely dense, and ended without fireworks (save for one heated moment between Berrios and 7th District Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, in which Garcia repeatedly asked if Chicago area taxpayers were being “shafted”).
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JUL 19, 2017
No vote was taken on any of the three ordinances Ald. Ed Burke (14) introduced before a joint meeting of his Finance Committee and the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.
All three ordinances–two of which were directly introduced in committee–aim to make consumers of cell phone technology aware that most smartphones and associated apps are built to geolocate and track what a user does on their phone.
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The Council’s Public Safety Committee delayed a vote on a plan to address on carjackings at dealerships and car rental lots in Chicago, because businesses that operate around the airports want a carveout.
The ordinance would require all dealerships, showrooms and rental lots to store car keys and dealer plates in lockboxes to deter theft. One of the co-sponsors, Ald. Harry Osterman (48), said his local Police Commander for the 20th District, Sean Loughran, first brought the issue to his attention.
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JUL 19, 2017
10:30 a.m. – Special Events Committee
O2017-4842 - One ordinance is listed on the agenda: A proposal to use Open Space Impact Fees for a new public park in West Town. The nearly one acre park would be located on city-owned land at 642 N. Milwaukee Ave., adjacent to the Kennedy Expressway and Erie Street.
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JUL 18, 2017
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JUL 18, 2017
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The Committee on Human Relations quickly reappointed Human Relations Commissioner Mona Noriega and three members of the commission Monday morning, and approved two new appointees from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to the Advisory Council on Equity. Aldermen did not ask any questions. The positions are uncompensated.
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Cook County Commissioners will gather beginning at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday for their usual consent calendar gathering, followed by a packed day of audit and financial findings, hearings about fairness in property assessments from Joe Berrios’ office, issuance of new bonds, and a more than $8 million increase to a series of energy conservation contracts.
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JUL 18, 2017
UNLOCKEDThe Council’s Aviation Committee meets Tuesday to amend an ordinance approved in April that opened up the city’s airports for food trucks. It’s one of two items up for consideration by Chair Mike Zalewski’s (23) committee. Neither concerns the ongoing issue over the blurred roles of Aviation Security Officers and Chicago police officers stationed at O’Hare, despite a recent security audit released by the Department of Aviation (CDA) and a letter of no confidence in the department’s commissioner by the union that represents ASOs. Both the audit and letter were made public last week.
The fee change under consideration today gives the CDA Commissioner the authority to assess a fee of up to $200 a year, “subject to escalation at the the Consumer Price Index for tall Urban Consumers (CP1-U) on any operator of a mobile food vehicle” at O’Hare and Midway Airport.
While the city has found a staging area for food trucks at O’Hare, located at the taxi cab staging area, a location at Midway has not been determined. A representative from the Department of Consumer Affairs and Business Protection told aldermen that Midway was included in the plans, so staging of food trucks would be allowed pending the successful implementation at O’Hare. The representative also noted the food trucks will only serve taxi drivers, not the general public.
The committee approved the original ordinance on the same day they held a highly publicized hearing on proper security protocols at city airports days after a passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight. That day, the committee conducted regular business in Room 201A before moving to the City Council Chambers for the subject matter hearing with Airports Commissioner Ginger Evans and United Airlines executives.
The original ordinance provides two key exemptions for food trucks at city airports–the city-wide two hour time limit on parking and the restrictions on parking within 200-feet of the entrance to any “principal customer entrance or to a restaurant. Both rules were established in 2012, when the city made it legal for food trucks to do business in the city.
The second item on the Aviation Committee agenda concerns a transfer ownership of concession leases and subleases at Chicago O'Hare and Midway International Airports. Whenever a concessionaire plans to transfer ownership stake in its concession agreement with the city, aldermanic approval is required. This transfer concerns Dufry International AG, one of the companies in the corporate ownership structure of both the Hudson Entities and the Hudson Subtenant Entities. Dufry is seeking to transfer 100% ownership interest in Dufry Americas Holding, Inc. to a newly created company, Hudson LTD.
According to a press release from the Mayor’s Office, the lease change is part of a larger initiative to establish “a new, uniform rate structure for aeronautical real estate leases at O’Hare International Airport.” The release notes several cargo and hangar leases are set to expire in May of 2018. -
JUL 18, 2017
Renewed terms for two Police Board members and an ordinance that would require additional security measures for car dealerships in Chicago are under consideration Tuesday by the Council’s Public Safety Committee. The committee has also scheduled a subject matter hearing on the police department’s outstanding missing persons cases to get a better understanding of why a disproportionate number of unsolved cases concern African-Americans.
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JUL 18, 2017
Only one of the three items under consideration by a joint meeting of the Council’s Finance and Economic and Technology Development committees has been made public ahead of the Tuesday afternoon meeting. The other two items will be directly introduced in committee by sponsor Finance Chair Ed Burke (14). Neither committee was able to provide language or background information on the direct introductions. All three items appear to be related to privacy concerns and mobile technology.
One ordinance, introduced by Ald. Burke (14) and Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) would create a new section of the municipal code entitled the Mobile Phone Privacy Act. It would require all mobile phone retailers in Chicago to notify customers that smartphones come equipped with geolocation technology that could be sold to third-parties.
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JUL 17, 2017
The mayor’s procurement task force is behind schedule in instituting its own reforms, one of the co-chairs told aldermen Friday. Mayor Rahm Emanuel created the task force in 2015 to reform how the city bids out contracts, but the group is delayed, mainly due to technology constraints of creating a city-wide procurement database that would include all sister agencies.
