A compromise ethics proposal primed for a vote on Friday would ban former aldermen from walking the City Council floor during meetings but would stop short of forcing aldermen out of the room when they recuse themselves from votes. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

A beleaguered legislative push to tighten ethics and lobbying restrictions on city employees is finally primed for a vote on Friday after months of negotiations that softened some of the proposal’s edges but left most of its core provisions intact.

The ordinance authored by City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight chair Ald. Michele Smith (43) and backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set for direct introduction and a vote in the ethics committee when it reconvenes at 3 p.m. on Friday. The compromise measure had been primed for a vote on Wednesday, but Smith recessed the meeting to give her staff and the mayor’s administration an extra 48 hours to come to terms on language.

The public safety committee is set to hear reports from the Office of Inspector General, helmed by Deborah Witzburg, left, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, helmed by Andrea Kersten.

Aldermen in the City Council’s public safety committee are scheduled to hear a slew of presentations Friday ranging from a 2021 public safety recap from the Inspector General to the fifth Independent Monitoring Report on the federal consent decree the police department has been under since 2019.

A drone video captured footage of the dust debris from a smokestack implosion that blanketed nearby Little Village homes in dust. [Alejandro Reyes/YouTube]

A City Council committee is poised to send a shot across the bow to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration on Friday by formally calling for the release of a city watchdog’s full report on the lead-up and aftermath of a botched April 2020 demolition that blanketed a nearby neighborhood in dust.

The City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Friday to take up four non-binding resolutions proposed by various aldermen. They include a resolution (R2022-73) proposed in January by Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22) calling on the city’s law department to “immediately release” a full disciplinary investigation undertaken by then-Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office on the city’s handling of the April 11, 2020 incident.

A vote on a proposed drag racing crackdown stalled in committee on Thursday. And the city released a draft of a citywide plan.

From left: former Chicago alderman Bob Fioretti, former Cook County commissioner Tony Peraica and fired former Cook County Board of Review staffer Todd Thielmann are looking to run as Republicans for top countywide posts.

Attorney and former Chicago alderman Bob Fioretti is turning to Cook County Republicans to stamp his ticket for his sixth political campaign in seven years as he tops a full slate of familiar faces hoping to work their way back into elected office.

An increasingly thin presence in solidly Democratic Cook County, Republicans are regrouping and hoping to seize on a favorable political environment this year to win back some of the territory they’ve lost over the decades. The effort includes fielding a full roster of candidates running in citywide and district-level positions across the county.

A vote on a proposal to overhaul the city’s ethics code was delayed until Friday. And a City Council committee is set to consider a plan to expand the city’s ability to impound cars involved in drag racing.

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), left, and Chicago Department of Housing Asst. Comm. Will Edwards speak during a meeting of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate Tuesday.

A $15 million loan fund pilot to help longtime South Shore condo owners stay in their homes won’t insulate most of the neighborhood from displacement pressure, but it will salve a nagging problem that has been festering for decades, city housing officials and the area’s local alderman said Tuesday.

A vocal group of local organizers is calling for more, saying the fund is well-intentioned but shows misplaced priorities by the city as South Shore faces a crush of real estate interest rippling from the coming Obama Presidential Center.

Aldermen on Tuesday approved a tax incentive for a Fatburger proposed in Chatham. [Department of Planning and Development]

Property tax incentives for a Fatburger restaurant location in Chatham and a behavioral health hospital in Uptown were teed up for final City Council approval when a key committee quickly approved the proposals on Tuesday.

Ald. Michele Smith (43), left, is working to push her proposed ethics package through the City Council this month. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A tweaked version of a proposal to update the city’s ethics code for the first time in nearly three years could go to the City Council for a vote this month if a key committee gives the measure an OK this week.

The City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight is scheduled to consider a reworked version of the proposal (O2022-1100) from the city’s Board of Ethics and by Ald. Michele Smith (43), who chairs the committee, to update city ethics rules for the first time since December 2019. But Smith’s office told The Daily Line on Tuesday that the alderman willgavel in Wednesday’s meeting and immediately recess until Friday, when a rescheduled vote on the overhaul is expected.

Residents of condo buildings including the Lake Terrace complex at 7337 S. Lake Shore Drive would be able to apply for grants or loans to renovate their homes under the South Shore Condo Preservation Pilot Program. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]

South Shore condo associations will be allowed to apply for city-backed grants for maintenance and repairs under an ordinance under consideration Tuesday that aims to protect longtime homeowners from displacement in the South Side neighborhood.

The proposal (O2022-2004) by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on behalf of the Chicago Department of Housing is one of more than a dozen ordinances set for consideration by the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate during its 10 a.m. meeting on Tuesday, including city financing for a new woman-centered supportive housing development in Uptown.

Montrose Behavioral Health Hospital has applied for a Class 7(c) tax incentive.

Aldermen on Tuesday could give an initial OK to tax incentives to boost construction of a behavioral health hospital in Uptown and a Fatburger restaurant in Chatham.

Cook County leaders laid the groundwork Monday for annual spending talks and late tax collections in an unusual budget year. And Chicago transportation officials unveiled plans to give away 5,000 bikes through 2026.

Aldermanic hopefuls have already begun fundraising and campaigning for the 2023 municipal election [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

With the Illinois Gubernatorial Primary Election in the rear-view mirror, campaign work is shifting to next year’s citywide elections, when voters will decide how to fill all 50 Chicago aldermanic seats as well as the Mayor’s chair.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office sent out reassessment notices this month to property owners in Norwood Park Township, which includes the villages of Norridge and Harwood Heights. [City of Chicago]

The first round of new assessments for the 2022 tax year hit mailboxes in Norridge and Harwood Heights last week, and they offer an early signal that landlords may be spared of the sticker shock that has confronted them the last three years.

But the timing of the new valuations — five months after they’re typically sent out — has set off warning bells that the delay could cascade into next year’s collections, extending a headache for suburban municipalities and school districts with no clear end in sight. Kaegi's office is downplaying the threat of a future delay, saying the same technology update that contributed to this year's pile-up will speed up assessments now that it's been implemented.

Second-installment property tax bills will be mailed out by Dec. 1 this year instead of in July per the usual schedule, officials said Thursday.

Cook County will launch a competitive fund offering loans of at least $20,000 each to suburban municipalities, school districts and other taxing bodies that are bracing for revenue shortfalls from an expected four-month delay in property tax bills this year, county President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration announced Thursday.

The county’s Local Government Bridge Funding Program, set for official launch by the county Board of Commissioners later this month, will make up to $300 million in “one-time…short-term operational cash flow” loans to taxing bodies most hurt by the late bills, officials said.