The Chicago Law Department has requested a 4.1 percent budget boost this year, in part for the role city lawyers are playing in reforming the Chicago Police Department, Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel said Friday.

Aldermen had almost unanimous praise for Department of Streets and Sanitation staff during their nearly day-long budget hearing Thursday — lauding them for across the board improvements – despite recent headlines about the city's recycling program.

 

City officials found elevated levels of lead in 17 percent of metered homes they tested — acknowledging they first learned of the issue nearly six months ago.

Approximately 165,000 homes in Chicago have meters installed. Of the 296 homes where the water was tested before and after the installation of the meters, 51 had lead levels above the 15 parts per billion action level set by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Adam Collins, a spokesman for Emanuel.

Officials did not say how far above the 15 parts per billion measurement those homes’ water contained.

Homes with meters will have their water tested and will be offered water filters if lead is found, Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita told reporters at City Hall. Those filter sets cost $60 each.

When extrapolated to all metered homes, the initial results of the study — presented to city officials in June 2018 — mean 28,000 Chicago homes could have water tainted with elevated lead levels. Lead is a neurotoxin and can be especially damaging to children and pregnant women.

While there is no safe level of lead in drinking water, the EPA requires water agencies to act to reduce lead when more than 10 percent of tap water samples exceed the lead action level of 15 parts per billion. Chicago has met that standard annually based on a sample of homes tested by officials, a point Emanuel has repeated.

“There is no public health crisis,” Morita said, adding that lead levels in children have not risen. “People should not be panicked.”

Despite the findings, city crews will continue to install meters in homes where requested. Since 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aldermen have pushed the meter program as a cost-saving measure that would also help conserve water.

Department of Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner was pressed by reporters on whether that continued push is appropriate, since officials have linked the meter installation with elevated levels of lead.

“We’re still installing meters because the data that we have is showing a slight increase,” Conner said.

It is "probably still a good idea" for residents to get a meter, but only if a filter is installed, Waguespack said.

The "appalling behavior" shown by city officials who did not immediately announce its findings about the elevated lead levels could leave the city on the hook in a court case, Waguespack said.

The city changed the language on its website promoting the meter program — metersave.org —to include information about lead water testing and the offer of filter cartridges. Those who complete the water testing process will get a $50 Visa gift card, according to the website.

Morita and Conner could not answer questions about how long the elevated level of lead remains in the water of homes where a water meter has been installed.

The homes where water tested positive for elevated levels of lead are not geographically concentrated in any one part of the city, Conner said.

The Tribune reported in 2013 that EPA researchers found the installation of meters and the replacement of water mains be linked to high amounts of the toxin, because lead pipes that are disturbed by street or plumbing work can release the material into the water supply.

The number of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood has declined during the past 20 years to less than 1 percent, Morita said. The city’s water also meets or exceeds all state and federal standards for lead, and passed its U.S. EPA review last month, officials said.

No Chicago child who lives in a home where elevated levels of lead have been found in the water has subsequently tested positive for elevated levels of lead, Morita said.

“We still have more work to do,” Morita said.

Homes where water is discovered to have elevated levels of lead will be investigated by city crews to determine the precise cause of the lead, whether it be the meter, service lines or another source, Conner said.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) said the city must be more transparent about the issue of lead in the city’s drinking water supplies. He and other aldermen introduced a proposal to fund the replacement of the lead service lines by hiking taxes on the sale of properties worth more than $750,000. That idea was rejected Wednesday by Emanuel.

“Let’s just remove the lead water out of the system,” Villegas said. “Let’s stop burying our heads in the sand.”

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) said his attempts to craft a solution to the problem had been met with a "brick wall" thrown up by the mayor.

"We need an action plan now," Waguespack said. "The situation is dangerous and unacceptable."

Ald. Chris Tailaferro (29) said the Emanuel administration had "swept under the rug" attempts to tackle the issue.

If a faucet has gone unused for more than six hours, Conner recommended that Chicago residents let the water run from the tap before using it for drinking or cooking.

“There is no evidence to suggest the water main replacement program is producing large changes in lead concentrations in water,” Conner said. “There is no need to alter the water main capital improvement program.”

However, the city has hired CDM Smith to outline a “multibillion dollar program” to replace the lead service lines that connect most Chicago homes to the city’s water system.

The study, expected to cost $750,000 and be completed in spring 2019, will give Chicagoans “confidence they deserve in their water,” Conner said.

For nearly 100 years, city law required that lead pipes be used to funnel water to single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Federal law banned the use of lead pipes in 1986, when it was discovered that they could cause brain-damaging toxins to leach into the water. The city considers water delivery pipes – or service lines – to be the responsibility of the property owner.

The Tribune reported in April of 2018 that the potentially brain-damaging metal had been found in water from nearly 70 percent of the 2,797 homes city officials tested during 2016 and 2017. The report created a political firestorm that Chicago’s elected officials have since been reluctant to address.

Adding to the issue is the fact that thousands of residents who have requested a lead testing kit have not received one from the city. The lead issue has touched not only homeowners, but Chicago Public schools students and parks facilities.

Health and government officials are especially concerned with children drinking lead-tainted water, as they’re more susceptible to its effects. Lead levels that might not harm adults can hinder mental and physical development in children, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, if a home tests positive for more than 15 parts per billion of lead, city water officials “will contact the homeowner to discuss the results and schedule a time to resample the water and inspect the home’s plumbing and electrical wiring to better evaluate possible causes,” according to the city’s website.

Lead can enter drinking water when service pipes that contain lead corrode.

Mayoral candidates Lori Lightfoot and Paul Vallas were quick to weigh in on the revelation.

“Once again, the Emanuel administration has shown it doesn’t care about the needs of everyday Chicagoans,” Lightfoot said in a release. “As a mother and a homeowner, it is completely outrageous to me that this administration did nothing to inform us of unsafe lead levels in drinking water.

"Furthermore, this administration has ignored countless opportunities to transparently discuss the problem—when discovering elevated lead levels in June, or long before, such as when beginning to replace aged water mains in 2011,” Lightfoot said, insisting Chicagoans can’t wait until spring for test results. “Even beyond denying us the opportunity to make key decisions about our health, this failure to act will likely result in multiple lawsuits against the City, meaning taxpayers will have to foot the bill for this crisis multiple times.”

Vallas has likewise sounded the alarm on lead since this summer, and compared the Emanuel administration’s response to that of the government in Flint, Michigan.

"Since June, I have been calling on the city to take more aggressive action to address our lead in the drinking water problem, but the Emanuel Administration has dismissed me as a panic peddler.

“Today's revelations show an unbelievable level of cynicism by the Emanuel administration that frankly smacks of the cover-up we saw in Flint, Michigan. Just yesterday, Emanuel stated, 'Chicago’s water is safe' and 'meets and exceeds federal EPA standards.' Chicagoans must know know who knew what and when. I am calling on federal and state environmental regulators, as well as Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to open an investigation and get to the bottom of this matter. The public has every right to know exactly what is in their tap water. This will be a priority from day one of a Vallas Administration.”

It was a happy day for all in the ceremonial board room on the 25th floor of the Dirksen Building Wednesday morning as Cook County Board Pres. Toni Preckwinkle, local government reform fixture Michael Shakman and Judge Sidney Schenkier took turns thanking each other for their sincere efforts to eradicate patronage hiring in offices under the president.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel Wednesday threw cold water on several competing proposals to raise the tax on the sales of high-value properties in Chicago, warning aldermen not to “treat homeowners as an ATM machine.”

A revised agreement that will allow the Obama Presidential Center to be built in Jackson Park — but acknowledges that the $500 million project could push long time South Side residents out of their homes — won final approval Wednesday from the Chicago City Council, 48-0.

Outgoing Chicago Treasurer Kurt Summers weighed in on the city’s pension outlook, the possibility of establishing a public bank and asked aldermen to free two of his ordinances from committee while defending his office’s budget Wednesday.

City hiring officials are doing a better job hiring Latinos, Human Resources Commissioner Soo Choi told aldermen Tuesday as she again faced questions about why numbers of Latinos on the city’s payroll continues to lag.

It may be 118 days until the municipal elections, but two candidates have already fallen afoul of the  Chicago Board of Ethics. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will head to court to take another step toward ending court oversight of hiring, and two groups will rally at City Hall to push their causes.

A measure that would add a 1 percent tax to the sale of any Chicago property worth $750,000 or more to fund an effort to replace lead pipes in Chicago homes is not dead yet, Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) said Tuesday.

The measure — which was hotly debated but not called for a vote at Monday’s Finance Committee meeting — will be back on the committee's agenda at its meeting scheduled for Nov. 13, according to Villegas’ office.

Even if approved by aldermen, the measure needs to win a referendum, which supporters are trying to include on the Feb. 26 municipal election ballot.

“The issue of lead in our pipes touches every Chicagoan,” Villegas said. “Putting a referendum on the ballot in February will give us all a voice.”

Read the text of the proposal.

The measure would establish a new transfer tax rate of $8.75 for every $500 of the sale price for properties sold for more than $750,000 to be paid by the buyer of the real estate, according to the measure.

The real estate lobby pushed back on the proposal, arguing anticipated revenues would fall short and sap equity from sellers.The funds raised by the lead abatement transfer tax would be earmarked for a special fund, which would pay to retrofit and remediate the city’s water delivery pipes and infrastructure, according to the measure.

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) estimated it would cost $4,000 to $7,000 per house to replace service lines that run from the water main to the home, and between $1.2 and $2.1 billion citywide.

The traditionally lengthy hearing for the Chicago Police Department was abruptly cut off after the lunch break, when Supt. Eddie Johnson announced he would need to exit for an emergency and all remaining questions would have to be submitted in writing. Police brass filed out of chambers en masse.

A revised agreement that will allow the Obama Presidential Center to be built in Jackson Park — but acknowledges that the $500 million project could push long time South Side residents out of their homes — is at the top of the agenda for Wednesday’s full City Council meeting.

The agreement requires the Department of Planning and Development to monitor “property values and other indicators and implement appropriate measures,” Commissioner David Reifman told aldermen.

The revised master agreement, use agreement and environmental agreement between the Obama Foundation and the city turns over 19.3 acres of city land to the foundation for 99 years for the nominal cost of $10.

Obama’s presidential museum will be part of a four-building campus that includes an underground parking facility, a plaza, play areas, pedestrian and bicycle paths and landscaped open space. It is scheduled to break ground next year and open in 2022. Those plans were approved in May by the City Council, and the city will own the center once it is built, according to the agreement.

The City Council will also consider a measure (O2018-7018) that closes the southern portion of Midway Plaisance Drive and Cornell Drive and widens south Stony Island Avenue and the northern portion of Midway Plaisance Drive. It also calls for the installation of barrier walls and stop lights on Hayes Drive.

The state budget approved in May included $172 million to cover the cost of closing the roads through Jackson Park to make way through the center.

Tribune redevelopment on tap

Aldermen are also expected to give final approval to plans to remake formerly industrial land along the Chicago River west of The Loop with a massive redevelopment of the Tribune printing plant.

The $2.5 billion project at 777 W. Grand Ave. will include 14 mixed-use buildings and nearly 4,100 residential units once completed. It could break ground in 2020, officials said.

The first phase between Grand Avenue and the Ohio Street feeder ramp includes four buildings, ranging between 12 stories and 50 stories, with 1,500 units between them.

Under the city’s affordable housing ordinance, 300 of the units in the first phase will be set aside for low- and moderate-income residents. The final three phases call for 3,600 more residential units to be built and 520 set aside as affordable on site, officials said.

The first phase will include a 1.6 acre riverfront park. Once the development is completed, it will have 12 acres of public open space, which will cover approximately half the site.

In addition, the developer of the project plans to pay $67 million into the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund in return for permission to add more units than city law would otherwise allow. Eighty percent of those funds are then used for grants designed to spur investment on the West, Southwest and South Sides.

That would be the largest contribution to the fund in its history, topping the $22 million set to be paid by the developers of 110 N. Wacker Drive by more than 200 percent, officials said.

Because the project is on formerly industrial land, the developer will also pay $13.7 million into the Industrial Corridor System Fund, its first significant contribution, officials said.

Aldermen will also consider plans for the redevelopment of Union Station — long a priority for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42.)

Plans call for a one-story 400-room hotel to be built above the station’s head house, which contains the station’s iconic great hall. Several floors of office space currently used by Amtrak would be replaced, per plans from Riverside Investment & Development and Convexity Properties.

The second phase of the project features a 50-story office tower and 2.3 acre public park at the site of an existing Amtrak parking garage across the street from the station.

Aldermen will also consider a new five-year contract with AFSCME Council 31, which represents 3,375 employees in various job classifications throughout the city. The agreement, which runs through July 2022, includes 10.5 percent raises during the life of the agreement, while employees will pay slightly more for healthcare.

However, Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) will not force a vote on his demand for a hearings on the failure of Chicago Public Schools officials to properly investigate and report sexual abuse complaints filed by students as exposed by the Tribune’s “Betrayed” investigation. Instead, Joanna Klonsky, a spokesman for Waguespack, said Education Committee Chairman Ald. Howard Brookins (21) agreed to hold a hearing Nov. 28, removing the need for a vote.

Waguespack, the chairman of the Progressive Caucus, Women’s Caucus Chairwoman Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6), Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Latino Caucus Chairman Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36), Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) and Ald. Harry Osterman (48) first called for the hearings in June — but the demand has been stalled since then.

Before the City Council meets at 10 a.m., the Finance Committee will meet at 9 a.m. to consider two items left over from its marathon Monday meeting.

• Housing discrimination based on immigration status ban — This measure from Ald. Ed Burke (14), Ald. Danny Solis (25), and Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30) would prohibit landlords from discriminating against undocumented immigrants when choosing tenants (O2018-6071). The ordinance noted the Illinois General Assembly “approved a bill which would protect alienage in housing, and has yet to be signed by the governor.” It would add the word “alienage” to the city’s list of protected classes.
  

 

• Commuter train study — An intergovernmental agreement (O2018-7070) with the Illinois Department of Transportation and METRA to develop methods to improve the flow of train traffic into and out of Union Station. The bulk of the $6 million cost for the study will be funded by the federal and state government, but the agreement calls for the city to contribute $1 million. Alds. Leslie Hairston (5), Roderick Sawyer (6) and Toni Foulkes (16) voted against the measure because it was not clear what percentage of the work would go to firms owned by Blacks, Latinos or women. Finance Committee Chairman Ald. Ed Burke (14) asked that aldermen be provided additional information about contracting set asides before the item is considered by the full City Council.

 

Other developments slated for approval:

• O2018-7759 — A $1.1 billion project to build three towers set to rise 85, 50 and 40 stories tall along Lake Shore Drive south of Wacker Drive. The towers from developers Magellan Group and Lendlease and designed by bKL Architecture will include 1,700 residential units, officials said. Related coverage


• O2018-7749 — A 41-story, 356-unit tower with shops on the ground floor at 353 W. Grand Ave. The $90 million project will contribute $5.8 million into the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund and include 36 units on site for low- and moderate-income residents.


• O2018-7754 —  A 42-story tower will replace the Engine Co. 42 firehouse at 444 N. Dearborn St. that will include a new Chicago Fire Department facility.


• O2018-4930; O2018-5006 — An eight-story building with 197 units at 1505-35 N. Dayton St. along with 56 parking spaces on what is now the nonprofit Menomonee Club community center in the Clybourn Corridor. The $45 million project will include five affordable units on site and pay $1.93 million into the Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund, officials said.

Other items up for approval:

• O2018-3286 — A measure to create the Office of Labor Standards, which will be charged with investigating companies that do not pay minimum wage or violate the city’s paid sick leave policy. Related coverage


• Agreements to settle three lawsuits for a combined $745,000 alleging misconduct by members of the Chicago Police Department. Related coverage


• O2018-8052 — A redevelopment agreement that will bring a new Shop & Save market to 71st Street and Jeffery Avenue in the 5th Ward to replace a former Dominick’s grocery store that closed in 2013. Related coverage


• O2018-5006 — A measure to create a registry of Chicago murals that requires the Department of Streets and Sanitation to check before painting over or blasting away after a graffiti complaint. Each mural on the registry would get a three-dimensional “medallion” that would mark a mural as a registered and permitted piece of art to serve as another warning to crews to leave it alone. Related coverage


• O2018-7004 — New rules for high-rise signs as part of a proposal from Mayor Rahm Emanuel designed to convince tech giant Salesforce to make its home in a new riverfront skyscraper. Related coverage


• SO2018-7767 — An affordable housing program backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel dubbed the Building Neighborhoods and Affordable Homes program that would use $5 million in funding from the city’s Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund to help a maximum of 100 low- and moderate-income Chicagoans purchase newly-built affordable homes in Garfield Park/Humboldt Park; North Lawndale; South Lawndale; Englewood Square; and Woodlawn by offering up to $60,000 in assistance to support the purchase of homes built through the City Lots for Working Families program, which sells vacant, city-owned lots to developers of affordable single-family and two-flat homes for $1 each. Related coverage


• O2018-7783 — An agreement to allow the Single Room Housing Assistance Corp. to purchase the former Melody Elementary School site at 412 S. Keeler Ave. for $80,000.


• O2018-7793 — An agreement to allow VLV Development and Financial Services to purchase the former Yale Elementary School site at 7025 S. Princeton Ave. for $65,000 and transform in to the Climate Leadership Innovation Center.


• O2018-7768 — An agreement to sell seven city-owned parcels at Roosevelt Road and Richmond Street for $1 each to A Safe Haven Foundation. The project, located across the street from Douglas Park, will include 90 affordable residential units, including 75 earmarked for Chicago Housing Authority residents.


• O2018-7776; R2018-999; R2018-1000 — Recommendations for three property tax breaks in the 11th, 14th and 47th wards.


• O2018-7020; O2018-7738; O2018-7739 — Three measures that would ban new home-sharing sites in the 28th, 30th and 41st precincts of the 13th Ward.


• O2018-7758 — A measure to use $48,500 from Open Space Impact Fees to purchase a vacant plot of land at 4546 N. Kedvale Ave., near Mayfair's border with Old Irving Park and Portage Park, and transform it into a park.


• O2018-7272; O2018-7263; O2018-7276 — Three measures to create a new 116th and Avenue O tax increment financing district in the 10th Ward.

Appointments up for approval:

• A2018-104 — Angeles “Angie” Sandoval to the Chicago Community Land Trust


• A2018-105 — Michael Eaddy, Rhoda D. Sweeney and Ghian Foreman to the Chicago Police Board


• A2018-100; A2018-101 — Elvin Charity and Eduardo M. Cotillas to the Chicago-Gary Airport Authority


• A2018-103 — Darrell Williams to the City Colleges of Chicago Board of Trustees


• A2018-97 — James Sweeney and Elizabeth G. Coolidge to the Chicago Infrastructure Trust

Aldermen resoundingly rejected a proposal Monday to create an elected body that would replace the oversight structure of the Chicago Police Department.

A move to force a hearing about why it will cost suburbanites less this winter to heat their homes than city dwellers is expected to finally emerge from limbo and questions about the Chicago Police Department's budget will take center stage at City Hall.

Aldermen clashed Monday over a measure that would add a 1 percent tax to the sale of any Chicago property worth $750,000 or more to fund an effort to replace lead pipes in Chicago homes that could be polluting water, but took no action.