Chicago News
-
Wednesday’s abbreviated meeting meant aldermanic introductions could not be read into the record or referred to committee, so the review below will stick to introductions from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, which were read before the chaos erupted. Our full council spreadsheet will be available on Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday.
-
A raucous day of dueling protests, high drama and impassioned pleas for about the future of Chicago ended abruptly when Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) and two allies moved to block funding for a police training academy. Follow the action in real time on Twitter @TheDailyLineChi.
-
The Board of Ethics ruled Wednesday morning that it “lacks jurisdiction” over a complaint filed by a former campaign worker against an alderman because it occurred before the city’s sexual harassment rules changed.
Members of the Chicago Board of Ethics gather for their monthly meeting on May 23, 2018. Credit – A.D. Quig, The Daily Line
-
MAY 24, 2018
Budget Committee Chairwoman Ald. Carrie Austin (34) and License and Consumer Protection Chairwoman Emma Mitts (37) declared war on two aldermen who moved to block a vote Wednesday to commit funding to the new public safety academy and Fleet and Facility Management yard in Englewood. The item passed through Austin’s committee Tuesday, and the new facility would be built in Mitts’ ward on a vacant lot.
-
-
MAY 23, 2018
While the spotlight will be on the protests expected to erupt at Wednesday at City Hall as the City Council meets, the Chicago Ethics Board could reveal the result of the first test of the city’s expanded sexual harassment ordinance and an alderman announces plans to run for his seventh term.
-
Protests over Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to build a $95 million training facility for Chicago police and fire departments did not stop Budget Committee Chairwoman Ald. Carrie Austin (34) from pushing through a measure (02018-3823) to earmark money for the Garfield Park project.
-
Ald. Brendan Reilly’s (42) threat to call a vote on a widely-sponsored ordinance giving more power to the council’s financial analyst succeeded, ending in a brokered deal where Reilly said he got 90 percent of what he wanted.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) huddles Wednesday with co-sponsors of his ordinance expanding required reporting from the City Council Office of a Financial Analysis. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line] -
It’s likely to be a long day for aldermen, protesters, and Council watchers, as a number of honorary and victory lap items are slated for the day’s agenda — while hundreds of police officers angry about what their union leadership calls “politically motivated reform” plan to pack City Hall.Ald. Mike Zalewski (23) will cap off his 42 years of city employment with his final City Council meeting Wednesday, with lengthy tributes from his colleagues likely to follow. Mayor Rahm Emanuel tapped a small group of Southwest Siders to choose his replacement from an almost equally small pool of applicants. The mayor must also select a new leader for the Aviation Committee. A spokesperson for the mayor said not to expect either replacement to be named Wednesday.
A rendering of the proposed Obama Presidential Center. [City of Chicago]
Aldermen are also likely to pay tribute to former Ald. Wilson Frost, who died earlier this month.
Members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 plan to converge on City Hall by the busload to protest lengthy contract negotiations, and recent Police Board, Civilian Office of Police Accountability disciplinary decisions about officers.
Members of the No Cop Academy coalition opposed to the city spending $95 million to construct a new public safety academy on the city’s West Side also plan to return to City Hall Wednesday in the hopes of convincing aldermen to hold off on earmarking $20 million for the Garfield Park facility.
Also on tap:- Obama Presidential Center (O2018-123) — The Obama Presidential Center is now one vote away from winning final approval from the city of Chicago. Expect many aldermen to follow the example of Ald. Michelle Harris (8) who voted “yes, yes, yes” at Tuesday’s zoning committee meeting. Also set for final approval are four transit-oriented developments Together, the new buildings would feature 92 units, but just 39 parking spaces for cars.
- Gender Pay Gap Fix for City Contractors (O2018-3981) – The Finance Committee is scheduled to consider this measure, which would enshrine the mayor’s executive order on pay history and equity into city law, and mandate that city contractors sign an affidavit affirming they will not ask new hires about past wages or salary. Our coverage.
- Throop Sale Proceeds for Police Academy, 3-1-1 (O2018-3823) – The budget committee quickly approved this ordinance to appropriate the $106 million the city gained from the sale of its Fleet and Facility Management property on Throop Street to help pay for the new 2FM facility in Englewood, the new Police Academy in Garfield Park and the modernization of the City's 3-1-1 system. It was met with protests from activists from the No Cop Academy coalition, who want to see the money spent on youth and educational programming.
- Nursing Home Safety Zones (SO2017-3910) – Former CPD officer Chris Taliaferro (29) introduced this ordinance to imposes harsher penalties on those caught with assault weapons, high capacity magazines or shotgun extensions, and silencers within 500 feet of a senior or nursing home. Fines range from $1,000 and 120 days in jail to to $20,000 and six months in jail, and mirror school safety zones. Our coverage.
- Retry of condo owner rules (O2018-3239) – Downtown aldermen went back to the drawing board on this ordinance, which prevents homeowners’ associations from sharing unit owners' personal cell phone numbers and email addresses unless a two-thirds majority of the association votes to allow for the sharing of that personal information. It loosens the rules to allow voting members of condo boards’ mailing addresses to be released, preventing a "chilling effect on Democracy," Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) said. Our coverage.
- Mobile Merchants Pilot Extended (SO2018-3467) – After aldermen expressed concern mobile merchants would steal business from brick and mortar and that food truck operators would revolt, aldermen opted to keep the status quo for mobile merchants for the next year.
- Low Income Housing Trust Fund Appointments (A2018-37, A2018-36, A2018-38) – The mayor’s appointments of Barry A. Chatz, Warren C. Flowers, and David Wells to the 15-member board that provides rental subsidies and loans to affordable housing developments easily passed the Housing committee.
- Board of Ethics Appointment (A2018-22) – Stephanie Cox-Batson is Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pick to serve on the city’s Board of Ethics. She is the chief medical officer of the Near North Health Service Corporation. Our coverage.
- Vet Small Biz Benefits (O2018-3204) — This establishes a program authored by former Marine Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) that would launch a pilot setting city contracting goals for firms owned by veterans. Contracts of more than $10,000 would set aside 1 percent for veterans, if there are more than three firms certified by the city to do the work.
- New park for old Edgewater Hospital (O2018-3195) – The redevelopment of the old hospital in the 40th ward continues, with the city agreeing to spend no more than $960,000 to purchase property at 1628-30 W. Hollywood Ave. and 1619-25 W. Edgewater Ave. and hand it over to the Chicago Park District. MCZ Development plans 141 units on the site. The funds will come from the Edgewater-Ashland Tax Increment Financing District. Our coverage.
- New park in Pullman (O2018-3197) – At the site of a city-owned, vacant parcel at 10440-10444 S. Corliss Ave.
- Former Hayes Administration Building Sale (O2018-3354) — The building at 6530 S. Harvard Ave. and 6529-33 S. Stewart Ave., an old Chicago Public Schools’ administrative building, will be sold to the Greater Southwest Development Corp. for $75,000.
- Industrial Tax Breaks (R2018-415, R2018-416) – Two 12-year property tax breaks for businesses in Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) ward passed unanimously. The beneficiary, Pullman-based Dutch Farms, distributes meat, eggs and cheese from a four-building complex where 393 people work. Our coverage.
- Borrowing Authority(O2018-3409) — that would allow the city to reimburse itself for up to $800 million in expenses related to projects set to be funded with borrowed money, including the city’s planned capital budget for 2018-19.
- Solis Double Parking Carve-Out (SO2018-3228) – An amendment to Ald. Brendan Reilly’s (42) crackdown on double parkers in and around Downtown Chicago provides a carveout in Ald. Danny Solis’ (25) ward. Our coverage.
- TIF for Gotham Greens Warehouse (O2018-3792) — An agreement to spend $3.35 million from the North Pullman Tax Increment Financing District to fund a Gotham Greens commercial greenhouse facility at 720 E. 111th St. in the 9th Ward.
-
Nearly a year after the contract for rank-and-file police officers expired, progress on a new deal has been slow, the union president said. The authors of a police reform proposal drafted after two years of meetings are frustrated that their proposal has failed to gain traction. Aldermen will take another crack at a new permit for mobile merchants, and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson is coming to a cable television program near you.
FOP Lodge 7 Pres. Kevin Graham, Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6), Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30), and Ald. Harry Osterman (48) take varied questions from the audience on civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department at a City Club of Chicago event on May 21, 2018.
-
The Obama Presidential Center is set to move one step closer to winning final approval from Chicago officials, when the council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards considers the massive $500 million project at its meeting set for 11 a.m. Tuesday.
-
Ald. Brendan Reilly’s (42) multi-year effort to beef up the financial reporting available to aldermen is up for discussion in Budget Committee today. Reilly filed a Rule 41 motion last week to discharge the ordinance, forcing a hearing today.
-
Finance Chair Ed Burke (14) held two of the committee’s biggest agenda items Monday – a sweeping measure aimed at protecting Chicagoans’ digital data and enshrining a recent mayoral executive order on pay history and equity into city law.
