The Zoning Board of Appeals held their first 2016 meeting on Friday with a new leader at the helm, Blake Sercye, and a relaxed schedule of mostly routine items which made for a quicker than usual meeting. All applications on the agenda, excluding those that requested continuances, were approved. With a 12-page agenda filled mostly with special use requests to open salons and allow for single- and multi-family home expansions, the board adjourned by 4:30 p.m., a stark contrast from the preceding months, when controversial medical marijuana proposals pushed the monthly meetings well into the evening.

There was one medical marijuana application on the agenda, which was approved without public or aldermanic opposition. Illinois Grown Medicine, LLC, (IGM) an Illinois-based marijuana cultivation company, got a special use permit to open a dispensary at a vacant laundromat at 8554 S. Commercial Ave. in the 10th Ward. Approval is based on the condition that a representative from their outside consultant, Denver-based Natural Remedies, remain in Chicago for at least two months while the dispensary gets off the ground.

IGM is the same company that tried for months, but failed, to open a dispensary in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side. Every time representatives with then-calledHarborside Illinois Grown Medicine showed up to ZBA to plead their case, which was about four times since last spring, dozens of Chatham residents, shuttled to City Hall by a vocal neighborhood coalition, made their opposition known, frequently heckling in the gallery, holding press conferences against the dispensary, and accusing local Ald. Michelle Harris (8) of wavering on the issue.

The company eventually withdrew that application, a decision they announced in November, found a new location, and fired their original operator, California-based Harborside, the biggest dispensary operation in the country. One of the repeated complaints lodged against the dispensary was the owner’s brother’s criminal ties.

“We have brought in a new operator...this is because, frankly, all of our different regulatory bodies, including this body, were having issues and concerns with our last operator,” Paul Rosenfeld, a minority stakeholder in Illinois Grown Medicine, testified, naming former ZBA Chairman Jonathan Swain, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Finance and Professional Regulations as those who expressed concern.

Brett Framson, with their new operator, Denver-based Natural Remedies, will help get the dispensary off the ground. “We set the standard for the industry,” Framson told the zoning board, explaining that since the company started six years ago, there haven’t been any issues. As a consultant, Natural Remedies will have someone work with the dispensary to set up “standard operating procedures”, including hiring new staff, about 10-15 employees, and implementing security plans with Silver Star Protection Group, a private security firm hired to provide around-the-clock security guards at the dispensary.

“It will be me part time, but there will be others,” he added. But Sercye and Sam Toia, another member of the Zoning Board, took issue with him being an out-of state consultant, especially after he described his job as part time.

“We’re trying to go to from the rhetoric to the substance,” Toia pressed, before asking, “Is [Framson] going to be a consultant from Colorado or a consultant from right here in the 10th Ward?”

It was because of this confusion, and later promise from Illinois Grown Medicine (IGM) to have someone from Denver stay for at least two months while the dispensary gets off the ground, that ZBA added that approval would be dependent on having someone from Natural Remedies stay in Chicago for at least two months.

Local 10th Ward Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza later testified that she and the rest of the local community supports the dispensary, especially because it will be located in an area “long forgotten” and the owners have promised to hire locally and use union labor for construction. Local residents and businesses are especially happy that the dispensary comes with beefed up security, bringing a “sense of safeness to a corner where security is needed,” she added. Noting that “there are some naysayers”, Ald. Garza dismissed the opposition to a “ problem with education.”

“I welcome them to the 10th Ward and I look forward to, you know, cutting the ribbon as they say...I’m fine with this,” Ald. Garza concluded.

Only one person signed up to testify. Andrew DeAngelo, the president of Harborside, the operator IGM cut ties with when they scrapped the Chatham plan. He argued that since the state awarded a medical marijuana license to the previous partnership, this new partnership shouldn’t get a special use permit, because they’re not officially registered with the state.

But the attorney for IGM argued that IGM owns a majority share of the company and is in the process of buying out their minority investors. Adding that ZBA, “doesn’t deal with that, you deal with property,” the attorney said they would deal with the licensing issue if and when it comes up with other regulatory bodies.

Sercye agreed, concluding the hearing on that application.

This was Sercye’s first time heading a ZBA meeting, after only having a seat on the board for less than half a year. “This is only my fifth meeting,” he noted at one point. He was joined by Sheila O’Grady and Toia, who occasionally took over the reins to grill applicants in the same fashion as the former chairman, Jonathan Swain. Swain vacated his position as chairman of the board, a job he’s had since 2010, to accept a commissioner seat on the Chicago Board of Elections.

Notable Continuances

• [38-16-S] An attorney for the Mark Twain Hotel, Sarah Barnes, with Sam Banks Law Offices, requested a continuance to March. The decision to delay the hearing, Barnes told ZBA, is at the request of local Ald. Walter Burnett, Jr.(27) He wants the the operators of the hotel to meet with one local resident to address some concerns they have over the project, Barnes said. There aren’t any major changes planned for the historic single-room occupancy hotel in the Gold Coast neighborhood and it will stay under its current use, Barnes told Aldertrack after the meeting. The hotel operators are just upgrading the doors to some of its rooms, and need a special use permit because it’s considered new construction, she explained.


• [397-15-S] Zoning Attorney, Mark Kupiec, said his client, Chinese-based Sheng Man De Investment Company, needs a continuance because they are still working with the city’s Department of Transportation on an “issue”. The company is building a new, five-story, 60-room hotel at 2010-20 S. Archer Ave. in Chinatown.


• [354-15-S] This is an application for a special use permit to establish a religious facility at Northside College Preparatory. Christ Center of Hope, Assemblies of God is the applicant. Tom Picarsic, their attorney, asked for a continuance to May. The Department of Planning and Development said parking was an issue, he told the board. The parking they found is across the street in a planned development, he added, saying they found a second location, and will have to amend or update the application.

The Emanuel Administration got the approval it needs to borrow an additional $2.45 billion to pay off old debt and fund new capital projects in 2016. In a series of difficult-to-follow roll call votes at yesterday’s City Council meeting, aldermen signed off on all but one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s bond packages after last minute concessions were made from members of his administration.

But aldermen pushing a long-stalled plan to put the City’s Inspector General in charge of investigating Council members were less successful. Invoking a parliamentary procedure called “defer and publish”, two of the City Council’s most powerful aldermen blocked the IG ordinance from reaching the Council floor, adding at least another month to a years-long debate over who should be in charge of policing aldermen and their staff.

Divided Roll Call Vote on Bonds

After chipping away parts of Mayor Emanuel’s multi-billion dollar borrowing plan in committee earlier this week, aldermen that were still dissatisfied with what they called an expensive and bad deal for the city demanded and received further concessions from the mayor’s office ahead of yesterday’s meeting.

Following an agreement made Monday to slash administration's plan to issue $1.25 billion in general obligation bonds in half, and add provision to the authorizing ordinance requiring regular briefings from the city’s Chief Financial Officer and Comptroller on how the money is spent, the Mayor’s finance team agreed to hold one of the more controversial borrowing plans for at least a month.

A plan to issue $200 million in water revenue bonds (O2015-8873) was taken off the table temporarily. Half of the borrowed money would pay the Royal Bank of Canadaan approximately $100 million penalty fee to switch older variable rate water bonds to a fixed rate. The other half would pay off the cost of borrowing that money.

According to comments Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown made to aldermen, those variable rate bonds are the last remaining variable rate bonds the city needs to convert to a fixed rate in order to complete a financial plan Mayor Emanuel announced in May. His announcement came shortly after the city’s credit rating was downgraded to junk status. So far, the city has paid out more than $250 million in termination fees to realize that plan, Brown said.

But members of the Progressive Caucus didn’t buy Brown’s argument that it was the city’s only option to address its liquidity crisis. In addition to speaking out at the committee meeting, they held a press conference the next day to voice their frustration.

According to one member of the group, Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), the night before the vote, the Caucus made a flurry of calls to their colleagues urging them to look at other less costly options, like taking the banks to court.

Authorization for the other debt packages were passed by Council, but none received unanimous support. As was the case in the bond vote last fall, one alderman, this timeCarlos Ramirez Rosa (35), asked to suspend the rules to call for a roll call vote. But with all the commotion in Council chambers, and Ald. Ed Burke’s preference to identify the each item by agenda number rather than ordinance name, some aldermen had yet to cast their vote by the time Burke finished his committee recommendations.

Despite the confusion, Aldertrack verified the following vote counts with the City Clerk’s Office:

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  Authority to issue up to $200 million in bonds backed by sales tax revenue (Passed: 43-2) Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) and Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) were the two sole no votes on this bond offering, which would partially pay for the 2016 Aldermanic Menu Program. Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) invoked Rule 14.

  
  


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  Authority to issue up to $650 million in general obligation bonds (Passed: 40-4)Aldermen Chris Taliaferro (29), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Gilbert Villegas(36), and Anthony Napolitano (41) voted against the plan. Sawyer again invoked Rule 14 and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) wasn’t in the chambers when it was called for a vote.

  
  


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  Authority to issue up to $1 billion in Midway Airport revenue bonds (Passed: 42-2) Ald. Taliaferro and Napolitano voted no. Aldermen Ed Burke (14) and Patrick Daley Thompson (11) invoked Rule 14.

  
  


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  Authority to issue up to $400 million in wastewater bonds (Passed: 43-2) Aldermen Taliaferro and Napolitano voted no. Ald. Villegas invoked Rule 14.

  
  


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  Authority to issue up to $200 million in water revenue bonds (Passed 42-2) Aldermen Taliaferro and Napolitano voted no, while Aldermen Burke and Villegas invoked Rule 14.

  
  

Ethics Reform Blocked Temporarily

Two of the City Council’s most powerful aldermen, Finance Chairman Ed Burke (14) and Budget Chairman Carrie Austin (34), blocked a vote on a long-stalled effort to put the City’s Inspector General in charge of investigating aldermen and their staff. Burke and Austin “deferred and published” the ordinance, giving themselves an extra month to either amend the plan or propose an alternative.

The merger ordinance championed by Ald. Michele Smith (43) and Ameya Pawar (47) would have eliminated the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, which is vacant after the last LIG Faisal Khan’s term expired, and put the authority of investigating aldermen in the hands of the city’s Inspector General.

Shortly after Burke blocked the vote, Ald. Pat O’Connor (40), chairman of the Council committee that has been holding on to the ordinance since it was introduced eight months ago, announced plans to create a working group to “clean up” the ordinance. To expedite the process, O’Connor asked that the rules be suspended for the immediate consideration of the working group, so it could start immediately, and, “utilize the time that we have in this hiatus during the defer and publish period to ensure that if there are any concerns or anything that needs to be done, that we will be finished and prepared to move forward on this at the next Council meeting.”

The working group will consist of six aldermen: the two co-sponsors of the IG ordinance, Ald. Smith and Pawar; Ald. Will Burns (4), who sponsored, but raised concerns about the ordinance; Ald. Joe Moore (49), a vocal supporter; Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6), Chairman of the Council’s Black Caucus and a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus; and Ald. Rick Munoz (22), another supporter and Progressive Caucus member.

Speaking to reporters after the vote, O’Connor said in addition to “cleaning up” the language of the ordinance, the working group will have the opportunity to work out any changes with the Inspector General’s office. Should the ordinance be amended in any way, it would be introduced directly in his Workforce Committee, voted on, and reported out at the next meeting of the full Council.

But one provision in the ordinance, the ability for the IG to investigate anonymous complaints, was a non-starter for a handful of aldermen who feared it would open the floodgates to a flurry of unfounded allegations. It was a particularly sticky issue for Ald. Austin, who after the meeting said she wants a provision added requiring signed affidavits for all complaints. “If you gonna tell on me, how come you don’t want to swear to it?” she asked rhetorically, before adding, “That don’t mean that everybody needs to know you are the one who said it, but you need to stand behind what you say.”

Before the plan was tabled, it had 27 co-sponsors. Following Burke’s action, it gained 12 more sponsors, according to Ald. Smith.

Other Highlights, Introductions from Yesterday’s Meeting

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  Sharon Fairley’s appointment as Administrator of Independent Police Review Authority passed with little fanfare. It is common for aldermen to spend a significant amount of time praising the Mayor and congratulating his appointee, especially those being placed in executive roles. But after her fumbled four hour first encounter with aldermen during a Council hearing on police accountability last month, and her subsequent confirmation hearing earlier this week, aldermen had little interest in expounding. When Ald. Ariel Reboyras (31), Chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, brought Fairley’s appointment up for consideration, he gave a brief overview and opened up the floor for discussion. Only one alderman, Willie Cochran (20), stood up to speak. Giving more of a warning than praise, he reminded Fairley the stakes couldn’t be higher. “You will be playing a major role in how we turn this trust issue for the Independent Police Review Authority and the public around.”

  
  


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  Aldermen carved out some time to give an emotional tribute to Ald. Roberto Maldonado's (26) late wife. The meeting opened on a somber note with a reading of a Council resolution honoring Nancy Maldonado, who died over the the Christmas holiday, less than a month after Maldonado’s mother passed away. Yesterday would have been her 46th birthday. Rehashing painful memories of their own losses and recalling Nancy's history of community activism, aldermen stood up one by one to pay their respects to Ald. Maldonado and his sons, who joined him at the front of the room. “I lost my mother at the age of 15. It was the most profoundly painful experience I went through,” an emotionalJoe Moore (49) recalled. “I cannot imagine when the two most important women in our lives, our mother and our wife, pass away, the type of hurt that can be,”Ald. Danny Solis (25) said. After nearly a dozen aldermen offered their condolences, Maldonado, unable to fight back his tears, had the last word, before Mayor Emanuel called for a moment of silence, hugged Maldonado and his family and escorted them out of the Council chambers.

  
  


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  Among three other introductions aimed at criminal justice reform, Ald. Jason Ervin (28) introduced an item pushing Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Julie Morita to make swift changes in staffing, managed care, and outreach from the city’s “underutilized” mental health clinics. The ordinance has 29 co-sponsors. [Early draft here] It calls for Morita to "take whatever steps are necessary to ensure adequate staffing of psychiatrists at city mental health centers within four months,” begin managed care contracts to provide services to Medicaid patients within six months, and increase awareness of the city's mental health resources in communities disproportionately impacted by violence. Morita would also be required to update aldermen monthly on the status of changes.

  
  


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  Mayor Emanuel introduced a resolution yesterday appointing Blake Sercye as the new Chairman of the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals. Sercye was just appointed to the board over the summer. Sercye, a litigator for corporate law firmJenner & Block, also runs a pro-bono practice in the Austin neighborhood that focuses on fair housing, prisoner rights and criminal defense. He was appointed to ZBA shortly after his unsuccessful run in 2014 for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He lost the race despite high profile endorsements from Mayor Emanuel and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. He has served on the Illinois Medical District Commission and Chicago’sCommunity Development Commission. ZBA’s current Chairman, Jonathan Swain, has held the position since 2010, but will leave the post to take a job at the Board of Elections. He’ll replace Langdon Neal on the three-member board tasked with running, monitoring, and authenticating election results. Mayor Emanuel is asking the council to appoint Amanda Williams to fill the vacancy left by Swain. Williams is an Auburn-Gresham native and adjunct professor of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Design.

  
  


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  Aldermen introduced a handful of police-related ordinances aimed at reforming the embattled department. Ald. Jason Ervin (28) sponsored three of those plans, including a proposal to create a section in the municipal code detailing how video recordings should be released, guidelines for how to train officers to use tasers, and a change to the mandatory retirement age. A resolution introduced by Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) calls on CPD to “adopt a policy to establish research and institute procedures on [the] department's over-reliance of use of lethal force.” A shorter and more pointedly worded order Ald. Rick Munoz (22) introduced makes one request, “ORDERED, that no documents currently in the possession of or hereafter created by and/or maintained by any office within the Chicago Police Department be destroyed for any purpose or under color of any statute between the introduction of this Order and December 31.” More than half the council signed on to co-sponsor.

  
  


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  The twin, 60-story, corncob-shaped Marina City residential Loop high rises could soon become landmarks under an ordinance the Mayor introduced yesterday on behalf of the Department of Planning and Development. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks made their preliminary recommendation in November to designate the two buildings as official landmarks. The issue has been referred to the Zoning Committee.

  
  

While Mayor Rahm Emanuel got most of his new bond authorizations through Finance Committee yesterday, the Progressive Caucus and the Chicago Teachers Union say the city has not done enough to push back on banks over hundreds of millions of dollars of termination fees and other payments for swap deals. Meanwhile, taking an unusual step, Chicago’s Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown made herself available yesterday for a conference call with reporters to rebut those accusations.

CTU and the Progressive Caucus charge the city’s move to unwind its previous swap agreements for bonds is premature, and the $100 million in termination fees the city plans to pay for ending variable rate bond deals so they can move them to fixed rate deals is too much.

“The Mayor is voluntarily choosing the pay the termination fees,” says CTU spokesperson Matt Luskin. Instead, the city should be using political leverage and legal means to push banks into better deals.

Pressed by reporters on this issue yesterday afternoon, CFO Brown pointed to a 2014 outside counsel study conducted on behalf of the city to determine if there was a legal basis. The report, written by a pair of financial securities law experts, attorneys Dan Collins and James Kopecky, found, “no evidence that would support a claim that the City's swap agreements were procured by fraud or that any of the City's swap counterparties made any material misrepresentations or omissions of fact.”

Asked for examples of how the city has worked to reduce the fees it owes, CFO Brown said that bankers who work with the city appreciate how important a client Chicago is. There is no need to threaten to take away anyone’s business, she said.

“It’s not lost on anybody [working] on the transaction how important the City of Chicago is to business lines for the banks and to individuals,” said Brown.

Deputy Comptroller Jeremy Fine said, “In our estimate we were able to save $20 million or so with the help with our advisors.”

In CTU’s opinion, a great deal more could be done. “They have a whole range of options,” said Luskin. “They could rank banks, based on the impact they make on the community,” and threaten to take away city business if they don’t reach a certain threshold. Last September, Treasurer Kurt Summers proposed a similar ranking for determining if banks should be used as municipal depositories.

CTU also has their own expert, who claims the Emanuel administration's experts are wrong. Former Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC), an attorney who sat on the House Financial Services Committee and led passage of a number of consumer-activist federal measures, has been consulting for CTU and disputes the city’s 2014 study.

“The study does an excellent job of demolishing arguments never made,” said Miller, who says common law in Illinois has no statute of limitations on claims against banks. He says banks who underwrote bonds for the city made fraudulent representations on the variable rate bonds the city is now attempting to replace.

Illinois’ fraudulent concealment law says there’s a duty to disclose information about the risk of a deal and what could go wrong, says Miller. The banks who underwrote the deals Chicago made did not disclose they were the main buyers of the bonds, and that as soon as buyers lost interest in the bonds, the rates would spike and the market would collapse.

Deputy Comptroller Fine, who oversaw the variable rate bond sale and was interviewed for the city’s 2014 legal study, told researchers, “the City's debt management team was well informed about the risk factors associated with swap agreements.”

In other words, if the guy in charge of the city’s bad deal says he went into it with eyes wide open, you don’t have much of a legal case for fraud.

“Sure. This would be embarrassing,” responds Miller. “They would be played for chumps, and nobody wants to do this. [Attorneys suing the banks] would have to show they did not understand.”

Hundreds of Chicagoans packed the Kennedy King Auditorium in Englewood last night, where the Police Board, including head Lori Lightfoot, were addressed by a largely hostile audience who often questioned Board members' legitimacy. Community members voiced their frustration with “systemic racism” on the police force, a lack of community involvement in leadership decisions, and with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) contract. Dometi Pongo, a news anchor for WVON who acted as moderator, struggled to keep audience comments to the two-minute limit, repeatedly asking for civility.

Most members of the Police Board, including Claudia Valenzuela, William Conlon, Ghian Foreman, Rev. Michael Eaddy, Rita Fry, and Rhoda Sweeney, sat on stage with Lightfoot and Shari Runner, Interim President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League. Board members had a few opportunities to respond to mostly Black audience members, some who asserted that as mayoral appointees, they could not conduct the search for Supt. Garry McCarthy’s replacement fairly. The application period for the position, which has been filled by Interim Supt. John Escalante since early December, closes on Friday.

While both Lightfoot and Pongo characterized the night as a beginning of a series of conversations about change to the Chicago Police Department, audience members argued the community had already been shut out.

“Will somebody on this board explain clearly how what we say here translates into how you decide the next superintendent? We didn’t make the criteria up,” audience member Pat Hill said of the application. Hill is a former Chicago Police officer who said she’d attended Board meetings over the past 25 years. Hill said the Board did not listen to community objections to former Supt. Jody Weis or McCarthy’s recommendations, and she didn’t believe they would now.

Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, and one of few white attendees to speak, said this call for change was more of the same. “I’ve been going to Police Board meetings for more than 20 years,” he said, “I’ve seen a lot of Superintendents and Board members, and I’m not very impressed with another promise of reform.”

Lightfoot told Hill and others the point of the evening was, “to take specific feedback from the community before we interview candidates,” which, “will be integrated in the process we use to interview candidates and make our ultimate recommendations on who our choices should be.” Three candidates are expected to be presented to Mayor Rahm Emanuel by the end of February.

But most didn’t feel heard. Ja’Mal Green, a familiar face in the Black Friday and Magnificent Mile protests, said, “This meeting has made me sick to my stomach. All I’m looking at are the Mayor’s puppets.” He stopped mid-statement to note that Vance Henry, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Community & Faith Based Initiatives in the Mayor's Office, had left the room. “If I were a Black person on this Board… I would have stepped down.”

He and 15-20 others exited the meeting early after a heated exchange between Pongo and an audience member who repeatedly tried to ask Rhoda Sweeney, a white retired Cook County Judge now serving on the Police Board, how she felt when she watched the Laquan McDonald video.

“I think people are going to come out of here more unsettled than they came in,” an audience member named Lauren Taylor said, “Most of what needs to be done, you can’t do,” he said to the Board. He was one of a few who called for the resignation ofMayor Rahm Emanuel and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Several elected officials were in attendance, including several aldermen: Pat Dowell(3), Raymond Lopez (15), Toni Foulkes (16), David Moore (17), Willie B. Cochran(20), and Scott Waguespack (32), plus Cook County Board of Review CommissionerLarry R. Rogers Jr., and Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson. But just one spoke to the panel, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown, who read from a written statement. She said the next Superintendent should work to address subconscious racism and bias within the force, as well as over- and excessive use of force.

Others took a softer tone. Lisa Daniels said her son, Darren Easterling, was killed in a drug deal gone wrong. She wanted to see a cultural shift in the police department and the community, which she said she knew would take time. “Our community is divided. We’re afraid of our own people, of each other, and that’s where the changes need to be made,” she said, as one of the last speakers of the night. “We need a superintendent who can lead, who has compassion, and who has an understanding of the urban plight.”

Ald. Tom Tunney’s (44) proposal to create a two-year pilot program that would let restaurants put outside seating along parking lanes instead of sidewalks got the approval from the Council’s License Committee.

Committee Members Present (13/18): Vice Chairman Deborah Silverstein (50), Gregory Mitchell (7), Marty Quinn (13), David Moore (17), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie Cochran (20), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Walter Burnett (27), Scott Waguespack (32), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), James Cappleman (46).

The $600 permit is geared towards restaurants that want outside seating but don’t have room for a traditional sidewalk cafe because they’re located on “really old and narrow” sidewalks with a lot of foot traffic, co-sponsor Ald. Michele Smith (43) explained.

Unlike the sidewalk cafe season, which runs from March 1st through December 1st., the curbside cafe permit would run for five months, from May 1st to September 31st. The shorter time frame, according to Ald. Tunney, keeps the program affordable, because restaurants would have to pay for anticipated lost parking meter revenue.

The only concerns aldermen raised in committee had to do with safety, or more specifically, how to protect patrons from oncoming car traffic. Rose Kelly, with the city’s Law Department, and Tony Bertuca, with the City’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, addressed those concerns in their testimony, noting restaurants would have to construct a removable, physical boundary shielding the cafe from traffic lanes, as well as a removable, raised platform that would be even with the curb. But the exact measurements, required building materials, and other specific details have yet to be drafted, they said.

In order for a restaurant to qualify for the program, it can’t already have a permit for a sidewalk cafe or be located in the central business district (i.e. downtown). Curbside cafes are also barred from locating along a protected bike lane, 30 feet from a stop sign, 30 feet of a controlled intersection, or 1,200 feet (about 2 city blocks) from Wrigley Field. The restaurant must be located on a pedestrian designated street, which, according to the city’s zoning code, is defined as any street that meets the following criteria: a sidewalk width of less than 8 feet, a high concentration of existing stores and restaurants and a mostly continuous pattern of buildings that are built abutting or very close to the sidewalk.

While no one from the Illinois Retail Merchants Association testified at yesterday’s meeting, the group issued a statement supporting the plan when it was first introduced in July.

The Council’s Budget Committee met for less than five minutes yesterday morning, which was just enough time to pass two ordinances, one of which establishes new procurement reforms, without any departmental briefings or debate.

Members Present: Chairman Carrie Austin (34), Brian Hopkins (2), Ariel Reboyras (30) [Note: we recorded the meeting but were not present, those three aldermen were the only ones mentioned in the recording of the meeting.]

The intergovernmental agreement the Committee approved implements recommendations from a Procurement Reform Task Force the Mayor formed in 2015 to better coordinate, streamline and increase transparency in how the city and its sister agencies award contracts. Noting that the city and its various sister agencies–the Chicago Park District, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Transit Authority, City Colleges of Chicago, and Public Building Commission–award approximately $6 billion in contracts a year, the taskforce sought ways to reduce redundancies by creating a more centralized website to announce bids, take economic disclosure statements, in addition to creating a more uniform system to cut administrative costs. The 52-page report the task force released in November compares in exhaustive detail the procurement process for all city agencies.

The other proposal the committee approved transfers $10,000 to the City Council’s Committee on Education and Childhood Development, Chaired by Ald. Will Burns (4). Since no one testified and no corresponding record number for the ordinance is listed on the agenda, it’s unclear where that money came from or why the transfer was needed.

A plan Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled over the summer to sell the old Malcolm X Community College campus to the Chicago Blackhawks and Rush University Medical Center for a massive redevelopment project is one step closer to reality.

Members Present (11/16): Chairman Joe Moore (49), Ald. Pat Dowell (3), Gregory Mitchell (7), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Walter Burnett (27) Ariel Reboyras (30), Deb Mell (33).

Yesterday, the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate approved an intergovernmental agreement that would transfer City College’s Malcolm X College campus to the Department of Planning and Development and the Department of Fleet and Facilities Management. Once the City Council approves the transfer of the 11.15 acre site at 1900 W. Van Buren St., the City will demolish the academic building and remediate the land before selling part of it to the Chicago Blackhawks for a new training facility and youth hockey center, and part of it to Rush University for the expansion of their west side campus.

Last month, the City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Public Buildings’ Commission for the $10 million demolition of the school’s only building. Once that’s complete, DPD will need council approval to sell the property. Asked yesterday if the demolition cost will be added to the sale price, Mary Benone with Department of Planning and Development said yes.

An amended plan to transform the historic 20th District Police Station in the 40th Ward into a performing arts center, an agreement to transfer city-owned lakefront property on the far South Side to a private developer for the construction of a mini-park, and various ordinances authorizing routine land sales also got the greenlight from the Housing Committee.

The Griffin Theater Company bought the century-old police station from the city in 2011 with plans to construct a 55-seat black box theater and another 100-120 seat performing arts space. The building located on the corner of California and Pershing was designed by architect C.F. Hermann, built in 1908, and appraised at $1.2 million. When Griffin bought the property from the city for $1, it agreed to finish the $2.1 million redevelopment plan by 2016. But due to the “financial crisis and ensuing recession”, according to the amended agreement, the developer failed to raise the capital necessary to complete the project and now needs an extension.

Sarah Wilson, with the Department of Planning and Development, says the new agreement expands seating for the planned blackbox theater and designates a new construction timetable. Phase 1 one the project, consisting of interior and exterior demolitions, must be complete by September 2016. From then, developers will have 11 months, or until August 2017, to complete the final stages.

Another ordinance sponsored by the City’s Department of Transportation authorizes the exchange of two parcels of lakefront property the city acquired during construction over the summer on Lake Shore Drive’s outbound ramps to the Stevenson Expressway. The agreement the Council Committee approved transfers the land to Chicago Lakeside Development, LLC (McCaffery Interests) for the development of a public park on the city’s lakefront. Under the agreement, the developers will have to maintain the pocket park for the next 20 years.

Of the 13 mostly routine items on the agenda, only one got deferred: an ordinance authorizing a lease renewal with the Chicago Transit Authority for the use of vacant city-owned land in the 39th Ward. Ald. Marge Laurino asked her colleagues to hold off on approving the lease agreement for the property at 5975 N. Pulaski because she isn’t thrilled that bus drivers use the stop for bathroom breaks.

“Currently at this particular location, which is a lovely turnaround for the CTA with trees and grass, and is really, very nice…[but] right smack dab in the middle of it is a porta potty,” she explained, adding that she’s working out an agreement with the neighboring fire house to let bus drivers do their business there.

After a series of one-on-one meetings with aldermen following her contentious testimony in front of a joint committee on police accountability, Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) head appointee Sharon Fairley seems headed towards winning full Council approval. A month earlier, aldermen were visibly frustrated with Fairley, who struggled to answer pointed questions about IPRA investigations and policy. She’d only been appointed by Mayor Emanuel a handful of days before.

Even Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), who had previously distributed a draft ordinance that would dissolve the Authority, said he was pleased to see Fairley’s leadership shakeups, and he’d be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt until budget season rolls around.

Attendance (8/19 Committee Members): Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30), Gregory Mitchell (7), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie Cochran (20), Chris Taliaferro (29), Anthony Napolitano (41), Deb Silverstein (50)
Other Aldermen in Attendance: Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Derrick Curtis (18), John Arena (45)

Aldermen still questioned Fairley for roughly an hour on her resume, how she planned to improve public trust, what structural and policy changes she has in mind for the Authority, and whether she can maintain independence from the Mayor’s office.

While still emphasizing that she was new to her position, Fairley shared some changes she has made or is planning for in the near future:

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  IPRA recently reached an agreement with the Chicago Police Department and State’s Attorney’s office “for a more collaborative protocol,” Fairley says, where IPRA will be given “earlier, more equal access” to crime scenes. At a press conference earlier this month, Fairley said IPRA would have representatives available at some crime scenes to offer early comment. This could be in response to the backlash against FOP representative Pat Camden, a frequent source for crime reporting, who told reporters that Laquan McDonald “lunged” at officers before he was shot, which dash-cam video later contradicted.

  
  


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  New hires Fairley announced at that same press conference earlier this month will be starting in the next couple weeks. Fairley told aldermen yesterday that IPRA plans to hold a nationwide search to find her next First Deputy. Both Chief Investigator Elizabeth Lerner and General Counsel Eric Muellenbach, who served under Fairley’s predecessor, Scott Ando, are being replaced. Fairley announced last month that her new Chief of Staff would be Annette Moore, and her new Chief Investigator would be Jay Westensee.

  
  


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  Partly in response to criticism over IPRA’s firing of investigator Lorenzo Davis, who WBEZ reported was let go after resisting orders to reverse findings that police were at fault in six shootings, Fairley says she plans to meet with Davis, and for employees to have performance plans. “They weren’t being evaluated,” Fairley said of senior leadership when she started her role. She said there will be performance metrics for employees at every level, and and ethics officer who operates outside of investigations. “If someone feels they’re being asked to do something unethical, they can express it to someone outside of chain of command.”

  
  


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  While better case management will be a priority, Fairley also outlined some communications changes she plans to enact, including informing the Mayor’s office of case investigations that take longer than 6 months to conclude. Larry Merritt, IPRA’s Director of Community Outreach and Engagement, said the Authority had already dramatically reduced its case backlog. In his budget testimony in October, Ando said much of the same, showing a dramatic downward trend in the number of pending investigations.

  
  

The solutions for Chicago Public Schools’ growing financial crisis narrowed down by two today, as leaders from Chicago and the state rejected the possibility of direct aid to the school system any time soon.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday afternoon, Chicago CFO Carole Brownacknowledged that CPS has a pending financial crisis, but then said, “The city has no plans to directly, financially assist CPS.”

And, in an interview with CBS2’s Derrick Blakely yesterday afternoon, Gov. Bruce Rauner said the state won’t step up either. “Just raise taxes in the state and send us cash? That’s not going to happen,” said Rauner.

While CPS has not set a specific date for when it will run out of cash, a recent analysis by Aldertrack found that mid-February will likely be when the cash crunch arrives. Property tax receipts do not begin to arrive until February 20, according to the Cook County Treasurer’s office.

CPS’ ability to raise property taxes is capped: Last year’s maximum levy increase only raised $19 million last year. And because the city and state have both said a financial bailout is out of the question, CPS is left with choosing either conducting layoffs or borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars more to get through the school year.

A resolution calling on the Circuit Court of Cook County to appoint a special State’s Attorney to handle the prosecution of the officer charged with murdering Laquan McDonald narrowly passed the County’s Committee on Criminal Justice yesterday, with commissioners rehashing some familiar arguments on a hot-button issue.

 

Items Awaiting Council Approval

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  Mayor Emanuel’s nearly $3 billion bond offering, including $650 million in general obligation bonds (down from the originally proposed $1.25 billion), $1 billion in Midway Airport revenue bonds, $200 in sales tax revenue bonds ($70 million of which will pay for the 2016 Aldermanic Menu Program), and three separate water and sewer bonds totaling $800 million. (Short powerpoint presented to aldermen from CFO Carole Brown)

  
  


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  Inducement authority to issue up to $98.4 million in tax-exempt special assessment bonds for the massive, 3,000-unit Franklin Point Development Project in the South Loop.

  
  


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  Ethics reform that would eliminate the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, which is currently vacant, and put the task of investigating aldermen and their staff in the hands of the City’s Inspector General. Ald. Michele Smith (43), andAmeya Pawar (47), are the lead sponsors.

  
  


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  Appointment of former Chicago Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruizto the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners

  
  


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  Appointment of Sharon Fairley to the Independent Police Review Authority

  
  


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  Appointment of Christopher M. Michalek, a partner at McGuire Woods, LLP, and Edward T. McKinnie, Sr., the President of the Board of Directors for Black Contractors United, to the Board of Local Improvements, the body that oversees infrastructure improvements prompted by new development projects.

  
  


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  Creation of a two-year curbside cafe pilot program. Permits would cost $600 and the season would last from Sept. 1st through December 31st, four months shorter than the sidewalk cafe season.

  
  


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  Expansion of a pilot program in the 1st Ward that lets nonprofits near residential streets buy daily parking permits (up to 150 stickers a month) for its employees. The ordinance introduced by Clerk Susana Mendoza would add the 43rd Ward (Lincoln Park) and 44th Ward (Lakeview/Wrigley) to the plan.

  
  


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  An intergovernmental agreement between the city and its sister agencies aimed at implementing recommendations of a Procurement Reform Task Force the mayor created last year. (Here is their full report)

  
  


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  An agreement with City Colleges of Chicago that transfers the old Malcolm X College campus to the City, so it can demolish the school building and sell the land to the Blackhawks and Rush University.

  
  


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  A land transfer deal with the charter bus company Megabus, so it can build a new bus stop under the Congress Parkway.

  
  


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  A transfer of $500,000 from the Canal/Congress TIF to Amtrak to help pay for construction costs associated with the Union Station Master Plan, a multi-year, multi-phase plan to increase capacity, modernize, and improve Union Station’s connectivity to other public transit. The City is paying for 8% of the $6 million plan.

  
  


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  A transfer of $4.6 million from the 24th/Michigan TIF to reimburse CPS for a new athletic field it built for Williams Jones College Preparatory High School andNational Teachers Academy, a public elementary school.

  
  


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  Two Class 6(b) property tax incentives that will save two South Side Companies a combined $2 million in property taxes over the next 12 years. Balton Corporation, a paper, plastic and dairy product distributor, and Takis Royal Foods, a wholesale foodservice supplier to restaurants, applied for the tax break.

  
  

Scheduled Pressers Ahead of Today’s Council Meeting

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  Immigrant Rights @ 9:30 a.m – The City Council’s Latino Caucus is holding a press conference this morning to highlight a resolution they plan to introduce at today’s full City Council meeting condemning the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids on immigrants from Central America. The resolution sponsored by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) condemns the federal agency’s practice of detaining immigrants, reaffirms that the City welcomes immigrants and offers refuge, and urges the Chicago Police Department to not cooperate with the raids. Ald. Rosa joined Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who is introducing a similar resolution on the County side, and theIllinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), a statewide coalition of more than 130 organizations committed to immigrants’ rights, against the raids at a press conference yesterday.

  
  


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  Campaign Finance Reform @ 9:30 a.m. – Another group of aldermen will convene to announce a so-called Fair Elections Ordinance that would create a small donor match campaign finance system, similar to New York City’s. The ordinance would establish a special election fund to provide candidates running for mayor, aldermen, city clerk, and city treasurer with $6 of public matching funds for every dollar raised up to $175. In order to qualify for the money, a candidate can’t accept any donations more than $500 from one individual source. Common Cause Illinois and the Reclaim Campaign helped draft the ordinance that Ald. John Arena (45), Michelle Harris (8), and Joe Moore (49) plan to introduce at the full City Council meeting today, according to a joint release from the two government watchdog groups

  
  

Everyone in Springfield takes shots at CPS, while the school system lays off administrative staff. Plan Commissioners get upset about lack of city support for affordable housing. Police Board Chair Lori Lightfoot bigfoots policing policy.

Former Chicago School Board Vice President Jesse Ruiz easily won approval to head up the Chicago Parks Board, marking a big political transition in his long career in education statewide. "I would have preferred to see you serving at the Chicago Board of Education a while longer," Ald. Milly Santiago (31) told him to laughter from the room before she was chided by Chairman Tom Tunney (44).

Attendance (13/20 Committee Members Present): Chairman Tom Tunney (44), Brian Hopkins (2), Leslie Hairston (5), Roderick Sawyer (6), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Marty Quinn (13), Derrick Curtis (18), Michael Scott Jr. (24), Walter Burnett (27), Milly Santiago (31), Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35), Michele Smith (43), Ameya Pawar (47)
Other Aldermen Present: Marge Laurino (39)

Ruiz fielded congratulations and tame questions on privatization, underutilized parks, and allocating the department’s $458 million budget, which Ruiz says largely goes to programming.

He told aldermen he’d work to increase ties with Chicago Public Schools and Libraries to, “have more seamless programming between winter breaks, summer breaks, and just year round,” and that he would “always take a marketing and customer approach to serving the constituents of the City.”

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) said he’d like to work with Ruiz on two parks in his ward where the private sector has offered to help with capital improvements: Seneca Park and Lake Shore. His appointment won unanimous approval and will be reported out at Wednesday’s full City Council meeting.

The committee also approved the use of up to $191,000 in Open Space Impact Fee funds to help pay for the construction of bridges associated with North Branch Trail Extension in the 39th ward. The 18-mile-long hiking and bicycling trail starts north at the Chicago Botanical Gardens and ends at the Cook County Forest Preserve in Edgebrook. The City and the Forest Preserve are working on a four mile long extension south, and hope to complete the second stage of the project by the fall.

An ordinance merging the Council’s Office of the Legislative Inspector General with Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s office cleared its committee hurdle Monday, but sponsors and co-sponsors cautioned that it was far from a done deal. “As you heard in some of the discussion this afternoon, there’s some aldermen who think we still might not have it right, but this is a legislative process, it’s not a legislative finality,” Workforce Development and Audit Chairman Pat O’Connor (40) told reporters after the vote.

Attendance (10/18 Committee Members Present): Chairman Pat O’Connor (40), Will Burns (4), Raymond Lopez (15), Derrick Curtis (17), Danny Solis (25), Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35), Marge Laurino (39), Brendan Reilly (42), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44)

Other Aldermen present: Michelle Harris (8), Sue Sadlowski Garza (10), George Cardenas (12), Matt O’Shea (19), Rick Munoz (22), Walter Burnett (27), Ariel Reboyras (30), Milly Santiago (31) Deb Mell (33), James Cappleman (46) Ameya Pawar (47), Joe Moore (49)

Chairman O’Connor kept the meeting brief, refusing to replay last month’s marathon subject hearing on proposed changes to the Office of the Legislative Inspector General. The plan the committee advanced today would eliminate the Legislative Inspector General’s Office, which is currently vacant, and put the responsibility of investigating aldermen and their staff under the jurisdiction of the city’s other Inspector General who is already in charge of monitoring the rest of city hall. Under the plan, the 2016 budget the council approved for the OLIG’s office would be transferred to the IG.

A few aldermen, including Ald. Tom Tunney (44) and Ald. George Cardenas (12), said they wanted Board of Ethics Director Steve Berlin to again outline changes. But Chairman O’Connor refused, saying aldermen had already been briefed and should return to the Finance Committee, which was into its fourth hour of debate on billions of dollars in bond issuances. “I’d like to cut everybody loose and get them back there,” he said. The meeting lasted just under half an hour.

Ald. Will Burns (4), a co-sponsor of Ald. Michele Smith (43) and Ald. Ameya Pawar’s (47) ordinance to merge Council’s watchdog office with the City’s, was the sole alderman to voice concern about changes to the office.

"I raise these questions because as a member of the 2011 Ethics Reform Task Force, there were a number of concerns about the very political nature of our job,” Ald. Burns said, "Sometimes when you tell people ‘no’ and you make difficult decisions over land use, over TIF funding, over public subsidies, CDBG, whether someone can purchase a vacant lot, you could anger those people and they could file complaints and use, or abuse, unfortunately, the ethics process to harass and to seek retaliation."

Burns said he’d like to see more protections against false claims against aldermen, and perhaps a special City Council committee, similar to the State Legislature’s bicameral Legislative Ethics Commission, to “have some sort of oversight over whether or not the Inspector General conducts an investigation… as a check or protection against what can be fairly sweeping powers.” He said he worried that it would be politically difficult to amend provisions of the ordinance in the future without it looking like aldermen were “watering it down.”

Ald. Joe Moore (49) and Ald. Cardenas both said they understood Ald. Burns’ concerns, as they were both targets of former LIG Faisal Khan. “You know what? I survived,” Moore said, “It’s important not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I think we really need to send a very strong message to our constituents that we don’t believe ourselves to be above the law.”

Ald. Pawar, a co-sponsor of the ordinance, said there were certain checks granted to the Committee on Committees, Rules, and Ethics, that he believed addressed Burns’ concerns. After the successful vote, Pawar compared the focus on Khan and Ferguson to the three year long fight over the establishment of a Council Office of Financial Analysis. “I think for too long, people focused on personality rather than structure. I think it’s the same thing here,” he told Aldertrack, stopping short of calling Monday’s vote a victory.

Shortly after the committee meeting, Ald. Burns and Ald. O’Connor were spotted in the doorway to Council Chambers with their heads together.

Last month, during the subject hearing on the IG ordinance, O’Connor refused to bring the item for a vote because the city was in the midst of hiring a new Legislative Inspector General. O’Connor reasoned that it wouldn’t be appropriate for the Council to eliminate the office until a new LIG candidate was found. But late Friday, following a closed door meeting with representatives from the Mayor’s office, O’Connor reversed course and told the Sun-Times that Ald. Smith’s ordinance would be the only item under consideration.

A conference call organized by a pair of Black pastors late last night resulted in dozens of high-profile activists and pastors from across the city agreeing to boycott Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Martin Luther King day breakfast at McCormick Place and to begin planning protests of the event.

The call, organized by Rev. Jedediah Brown and Bishop James Dukes, included dozens of callers, confirmed by an Aldertrack reporter who was able to hear the closing minutes of the conference call. Brown later confirmed for Aldertrack that the call included pastors such as James Meeks, Ira Acree, Bishop Larry Trotter and activists such as Ja’Mal Green and Ameena Matthews.

“We’re not going to dishonor Dr. King by having breakfast with a man that has not delivered justice to our community,” said Brown. “I’ve never seen the clergy have such a rebellious nature to do something.”

The group agreed to boycott the breakfast, encourage other pastors and activists to boycott the breakfast, and to organize a small protest at McCormick Place next Monday. In addition, the group will hold a press conference before Wednesday’s City Council meeting and hold an organizing meeting on Thursday.

Brown has also been leading a push to organize a group of activist leaders, The First Fifty, to help plan an agenda and list of demands to present to the Mayor. The group, which is close to completion, Brown says, requires a time commitment and a $1,000 contribution to management of the group. Brown says it includes not just activists and pastors, but a few high profile African-American celebrities. Their first meeting is set for January 21.