Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a City Council meeting Monday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday unveiled her $16.4 billion spending plan for 2023, dubbing it her “stability budget” and touting a positive financial outlook as she and members of the City Council gear up for election season.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is pictured on the city council floor on Monday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot used her budget address Monday to announce plans to establish an executive office dedicated to overseeing the city’s climate and environmental policies. But the announcement seems to fall short of a promise the mayor made during her first campaign.

Lightfoot speaks during her budget forecast address in August. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will kick off this year’s budget season on Monday when she introduces her proposed 2023 spending plan in front of aldermen at City Hall.

Frank Chapman speaks during a news conference on Aug. 30, 2022 [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Longtime local advocates for police reform recognized Thursday as a “historic” moment as the city’s civilian police oversight commission met for the first time and elected a president and vice president, set its meeting schedule and announced an upcoming special meeting focused on the Chicago Police Department budget.

But some still urged the new commission to ensure it has an adequate budget and proper staffing level as it begins its work.

Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg speaks during a committee meeting in April. [City of Chicago livestream]

Chicago’s Inspector General found “shortcomings” in the city’s data collection on legal claims against the Chicago Police Department and its employees that resulted in more than $250 million in payments from 2017 through 2020.

Imperial Zinc Corporation's new building in Pullman. [City of Chicago livestream]

Aldermen sent a pair of property tax incentives for a Pullman zinc manufacturing company to the City Council for final approval but delayed a vote on another tax incentive until the local alderman can learn more about the proposal.

Cook County Comm. Donna Miller (D-6) speaks about a proposal to reduce property taxes for supermarkets which open in underserved areas during a board meeting Sept. 22, 2022. [Cook County Board of Commissioners Livestream]

A proposed property tax incentive class would attract and retain grocery stores in areas of Cook County that lack sufficient access to healthy food.

The Business and Economic Development Committee could take up the proposed ordinance as soon as its Oct. 19 meeting. If approved by the committee, it would still need the approval of the full Cook County Board of Commissioners. The item was referred to the committee during the Sept. 22 board meeting.

The above map shows locations of the city’s current special service areas. [City of Chicago]

A City Council committee on Thursday will hear proposals for three new special service areas across the city and consider a property tax incentive for a company that manufactures zinc in Pullman.

The council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development will consider the proposals and appointments to existing special service areas (SSAs) during its 2 p.m. meeting Thursday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference Aug. 29, 2022. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

The civilian commission tasked with oversight of the Chicago Police Department will hold its first meeting Thursday.

A car booting company has donated more than $11,000 to aldermen this year. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Aldermen last week delayed a proposal to legalize private car booting citywide but the only private booting company in the city has spent more than $11,000 on donations to aldermen and their campaign committees.

Cook County Comm. Kevin Morrison (15) speaks about the proposed elimination of the county wheel tax during a board of commissioners meeting Sept. 22, 2022. [Cook County Board of Commissioners Livestream]

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has eliminated the county’s wheel tax, a move that advocates and officials say helps taxpayers more than it hurts county coffers.

The amendment to eliminate the tax from county code (22-5295) passed during the Sept. 22 county board meeting with 16 unanimous votes in its favor. One commissioner had an excused absence.

A map of the new 34th Ward [Chris Kanich]

The Chicago municipal election is five months away and the race for the city’s new 34th Ward is already expensive with two candidates making large donations — $50,0000 and $12,000 — to their own campaigns.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference Monday.

Flanked by other city officials and downtown leaders, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday unveiled a new plan to offer city funding to revitalize downtown’s LaSalle Street Corridor and add virtually nonexistent affordable housing to the city’s center.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference last week. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Three aldermen last week proposed measures that would retool the salaries and pay raises for members of the City Council, but Ald. Greg Mitchell (7) sent two of the measures to the council’s rules committee, effectively placing the proposals in purgatory.

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) speaks during a committee hearing Thursday.

As a preview of budget discussions to come in the next few weeks, aldermen on Thursday prodded city officials on a potential new way to fill vacancies in the Chicago Police Department.