Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has made quick work of appointing a new Chief of Staff. In a press release Monday morning, Preckwinkle announced former Illinois Department of Revenue Director Brian Hamer would be joining her team. Hamer has served as Revenue Director from his appointment to the slot by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2003 until January of 2015.

Since exiting his state role at the start of the Rauner administration, Hamer has been a columnist with State Tax Notes.

Hamer will take over for Tasha Green Cruzat, who announced her resignation February 24 to head up the education advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children. Cruzat served an eight month stint to replace Kim Foxx, who recently won the Democratic primary for Cook County State’s Attorney.

Hamer’s salary as state Revenue Director was $142,339 a year.

Prior to his long stretch at the Revenue Department, Hamer served as First Deputy in Chicago’s Department of Revenue from 1998 to 2003, where, according to his appointment from Gov. Blagojevich, he “oversaw policy for settling tax disputes and modernized the city’s tax code.”  From 1990 to 1997 Hamer was Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Tax Division of Chicago’s Law Department.

Hamer is a graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Columbia Law School. He also worked at Chicago mega-firm Mayer Brown.

It’ll be at least another month before the City Council takes up any of the plans that have been introduced to regulate room-sharing businesses like Airbnb in Chicago.

Two competing plans have been referred to a joint committee of the Council’s License and Housing Committees. Yesterday, Bob Fuller, a legislative aide for the Housing Committee, told Aldertrack it’s unlikely that meeting will be scheduled before April’s City Council meeting.

In January, Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced an ordinance on behalf of the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection that would regulate the industry by imposing a 2% surcharge on vacation rentals and shared housing units. It’s expected to bring in an estimated $1 million in revenue, which would go towards affordable housing and reducing homelessness. North Side Aldermen Ameya Pawar (47) and Joe Moore (49), chairman of the council’s Housing Committee, are co-sponsors.

The following month, Aldermen Anthony Napolitano (41), Pat O’Connor (40) and Marge Laurino (39), all of which represent heavily residential neighborhoods on the North West Side near O’Hare Airport, co-sponsored a similar ordinance. The main difference: Chicagoans living in residentially zoned areas would be prohibited from putting their homes or flats on Airbnb for rental.

Five other aldermen signed onto a third proposal introduced in March that is focused more on bed-and-breakfasts. Under the ordinance, anyone who knowingly operated this type of establishment in the last two years without a proper license would be prohibited from applying for the license in the future. The city defines bed-and-breakfast establishments as, “any owner-occupied single family residential building, an owner occupied, multiple-family dwelling building, or an owner-occupied condominium, townhouse or cooperative, in which 11 or fewer sleeping rooms are available for rent or for hire for transient occupancy by registered guests.” That ordinance is co-sponsored by Ald. Brian Hopkins (2), Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1), Ald. Pat Dowell (3), Ald. Michele Smith (43), and Ald. Tom Tunney (44).

Eleven of the 49 aldermen currently serving on the City Council were appointed to their position by either Mayors Rahm Emanuel or Richard M. Daley, making it a fairly frequent occurrence. But the process remains opaque to public. The Mayor’s Office isn’t releasing details on the search for Ald. Will Burns’ (4) replacement, nor are members of a five-member task-force he created to head up the search.

Aldertrack reached out to three of the five members on the search committee for the 4th Ward vacancy following Ald. Burns’ decision to step down from the Council after he accepted a job at Airbnb as of March 1.

But two of those members, Paula Wolff with the Illinois Justice Project and Bonnie Sanchez-Carlson of the Near South Planning Board, said all questions regarding the search process must be submitted to the Mayor’s Press Office, which in turn told Aldertrack, “We don't have any further updates to share at this time. Feel free to check back at a later date, though.”

One of the 18 applicants who applied for the position, Tracey Bey, who ran and lost against Ald. Burns in 2015, said she has yet to hear from the task force, adding that the only information she’s heard about the search since she applied two weeks ago is from a recent Hyde-Park Herald article. She said that the way she read it, candidates won’t be contacted or interviewed until three finalists are chosen.

Evonne Taylor, the treasurer for Sophia King, who filed a D-1 on March 9th to help support her candidacy for alderman, refused to provide any details on the status of King’s application, saying it was “inappropriate” to discuss the process until it’s complete.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to announce Ald. Burns’ replacement on April 29, and the new alderman will be sworn in at the May 18th City Council meeting.

The Mayor’s Press Office said it “anticipates” a final decision on who will succeed Burns’ as Chairman of the Council’s Education Committee will be released before the April Council Meeting. And that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be filled by the committee’s vice chair, Ald. Michele Smith (43).

In an email sent to Aldertrack, the Mayor’s press office wrote, “The Mayor is in the process of determining who will fill the vacancy. The Vice Chairman of a committee does not automatically succeed the Chair in cases of a vacancy.”

That appointment will be introduced in the form of a resolution to the full City Council for approval.

Aldermen who were appointed to their position (in ward order):

• 1st Ward Ald. Joe Moreno (2010) - appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley to replace Manny Flores, who resigned to chair the Illinois Commerce Commission

• 8th Ward Ald. Michelle Harris (2006) - Mayor Daley appointed her to fill Todd Stroger's seat after he won Cook County Board President. Prior to her appointment to the City Council, she was secretary to the Cook County Board under former President John Stroger.

• 22nd Ward Ald. Rick Muñoz (1993) - appointed by Mayor Daley to replace his former boss and mentor, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

• 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis (1996) - appointed by Mayor Daley to replace Ambrosio Medrano, who was convicted for accepting bribes as part of the federal Silver Shovel Investigation.

• 26th Ward Ald. Roberto Maldonado (2009) - appointed by Mayor Daley to fill retiring-Ald. Billy Ocasio’s vacant seat

• 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin (2011) - appointed to finish mentor Ed Smith’s term in January 2011, and was elected to the seat a month later.

• 33rd Ward Ald. Deb Mell (2013) - appointed by Mayor Emanuel following the retirement of her father, longtime Ald. Dick Mell.

• 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin (1994) - appointed by Mayor Daley to fill the vacancy left by her husband, Lemuel Austin, Jr., who died of a heart attack.

• 37th Ward Ald. Emma Mitts (2000) - appointed by Mayor Daley to replace Ald. Percy Giles, who was convicted of bribery as part of the Operation Silver Shovel investigation.

• 39th Ward Ald. Marge Laurino (1994) - appointed by Mayor Daley to replace her father, Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Anthony Laurino.

• 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney (2003) - appointed by Mayor Daley to replace former 44th Ward Alderman Bernard Hansen. Tunney’s appointment over the non-Daley gay independent Rick Ingram was controversial at the time, although the appointment of the city’s first openly gay alderman was widely hailed as a step forward.

Comm. Larry Suffredin’s ordinance regulating pharmaceutical disposal won’t be heard at today’s Committee on Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs meeting, a staffer in Suffredin’s office confirmed. The issue will be held until before the April 13 Board of Commissioners meeting.

“Com. Suffredin is working with a variety of interested groups, including pharmaceutical companies, on an amendment,” Suffredin’s Chief of Staff, Brian Miller, told Aldertrack.

"The Chicagoland Chamber opposes the proposed County wide, unfunded mandate on pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan, set up, pay for, and administer a consumer drug drop off site program," the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce's Michael Reever told Aldertrack. "It is yet another costly mandate the County seeks to place on the employer community, without regard to the unintended consequences, which include potentially increasing the cost of prescription drugs for consumers and creating a patchwork of policies that make it harder for employers to grow their business and invest in our communities."

The ordinance is aimed at protecting the County’s waterways from “improperly disposed of prescription drugs passing through [the County’s] wastewater and treatment centers.” The ordinance cites Alameda County’s Safe Drug ordinance, which was passed and amended in 2012. The ordinance would establish a stewardship plan for the collection, transportation and disposal of covered pharmaceutical drugs, and would be managed by the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.

Covered drugs include prescription, non-prescription, brand name and generic drugs. Drugs not included: homeopathic drugs or vitamins; cosmetics, shampoos, sunscreens, or other personal care products; drugs already covered by a pharmaceutical take back program; ‘biological products’; or medical devices. The Stewardship plan could include drop-off sites at local pharmacies or mail-in programs for homebound Cook County residents. Drug producers would have to document collection and final disposal policies, as well as publicize collection efforts and pay for all administrative and operational costs related to their Stewardship Plan.

The ordinance also creates a Pharmaceutical Disposal Advisory Committee made up of the President Preckwinkle and six other government officials from the Board of Commissioners, the Department of Environmental Control, the County Department of Public Health, and MWRD. If the issue passes at the April 13 Board of Commissioners meeting, the ordinance would be in effect in mid-October.

The Committee will hear various appointments put forward by President Preckwinkle last month:

• Board of Ethics: Thomas Szromba - Principal Senior Counsel, Litigation at The Boeing Company
• Cook County Commission on Human Rights: Amber Smock - Director of Advocacy, Access Living
• Cook County Justice Advisory Council: Lisa Stephens - Chief Operating Officer, Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

Subcommittee on Litigation

The Litigation subcommittee, which regularly meets in closed door session, will discuss a number of recommendations from Deputy State’s Attorney Don Pechous, who regularly appears before commissioners.

Commissioners will be updated on:

• Monica Kogan v. Cook County, et al.: an equal pay case brought by female orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Monica Kogan, who was a contractor at Stroger Hospital. She alleges she was paid less than her male counterparts, but had more experience.

• Justin Washington v. Cook County: Washington, a dietician at Stroger, alleges the county failed to pay him and others “who engaged in military service the difference between the pay they would have earned while employed by Cook County and the pay they received while on active military duty,” and accrual of time off.

• Billie Jean Ammons v. Cook County Sheriff’s Office, et al.: Ammons, who at the time was a Deputy Cook County Sheriff, alleges she was diagnosed with a permanent spinal injury and was awarded leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The amount of time Ammons took leave made her ineligible for a promotion to sergeant. After she filed her suit, she alleged she was retaliated against.   

Workforce, Housing & Community Development Committee

Persistent youth unemployment will highlight today’s Workforce Committee public hearing. Commissioners are set to hear statistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute study: “Lost: The Crisis Of Jobless and Out Of School Teens and Young Adults In Chicago, Illinois and the U.S.” The report concludes: “the crisis of joblessness for young people of color is chronic and concentrated. The conditions in Chicago are among the worst, and evident when compared to the U.S., Illinois, New York, and Los Angeles.”

The report was commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network and paints some stark statistics:

• For 20 to 24 year olds in Chicago, joblessness in 2014 was 59% for Blacks, 37% for Hispanic or Latinos, and 26% for Whites

• In Illinois in 2014, 84% of Black 16 to 19 year olds and 72% of Hispanic or Latino 16 to 19 year olds were jobless. Employment rates decreased by 13% for Blacks and 20% for Hispanic or Latinos from 2005 to 2014.

• Joblessness was worse in 2014 than in 2005 in every group, when looked at by age, race or gender. But the crisis was most acute for Black males, especially in Chicago, where 88.5% of Black males 16-19 were unemployed. Hispanic males were close behind - 87.4% were jobless in 2014.

• The biggest decline of employment rates among 16 to 19 year olds in the U.S., Illinois and Chicago was among female Latinas in Chicago, with a 44% drop.

Jack Wuest, executive director of the Alternative Schools Network, called the statistics “pretty devastating” at a presentation last month with State Rep. Art Turner, Jesse Ruizof the Chicago Parks District, Cook County Commissioners Richard Boykin, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Ald. Chris Taliaferro, officials from the Urban League and other stakeholders.

Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership CEO Karin Norington-Reaves is expected to attend “to provide an update on available programming and services for Cook County youth.”

Labor Committee

The Labor Committee meets at noon today to vote on collective bargaining agreements with the House Staff Association of Cook County and the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 399.

Gun Violence Task Force

The Cook County Gun Violence Task Force will hold its second meeting today from 2:30 to 4:30 to discuss gun violence data and processes with officials from the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Illinois Department of Corrections. Members will also discuss the public health impact of gun violence and future strategies with officials from Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital and the Cook County Health and Hospitals System.

33rd Ward Democratic Committeeman Dick Mell still had not conceded to challenger Aaron Goldstein yesterday, according to his daughter Ald. Deb Mell (33), despite being down 42 votes following Friday’s vote-by-mail count by the Chicago Board of Elections. In the 1st Ward, Democratic Committeeman challenger Maria Teresa Gonzalez was down 191 votes to incumbent Proco “Joe” Moreno following Friday’s ballot count.

On Thursday morning, before the count, Gonzalez released a statement saying, “At this point, the election is too close to call.”

There will be another count of newly arrived vote-by-mail ballots tomorrow, and then periodically for the next week, according to the Board of Elections. Final, official results will be announced on Tuesday, April 5.

The Chicago Police Board named three finalists for the job of police superintendent, and City Council's Latino Caucus called the short list an "insult." Eleven Aldermen voted against the Mayor's plan to increase the smoking age to 21, in addition to setting price floors and raising taxes on cigars, cigarillos, dip, and loose tobacco. But a ban on dip at Cubs and Sox games got unanimous support. We also talk bonds and discuss the winners and losers of this week's primary.

In order to “improve efficiency,” the Department of Planning and Development is slightly changing the way it conducts monthly Plan Commission meetings.

From now on, the department’s project managers will be taking over the responsibility of presenting plan development applications to commissioners, instead of developers, their attorneys or architects, which was how meetings were conducted in the past.  

Newly-appointed DPD Commissioner David Reifman will also change the mayor-appointed land use board’s start time to 10:00 a.m., instead of in the afternoon. Officials with DPD say developers and their attorneys will still be allowed to speak and answer questions from commissioners, but project managers, who are tasked with writing official staff reports for each project, will take over a majority of the PowerPoint presentations.

And the changes made a noticeable difference. Yesterday’s meeting, which had eight zoning applications up for consideration, wrapped in about four hours, adjourning around 2:00 p.m. Last month’s meeting barely met its adjournment deadline, and that was only after Chairman Martin Cabrera’s repeated requests that developers keep their presentations concise.

At past meetings, DPD project managers introduced each application, detailing the zoning change requested and skeletal information of the project. The development team, usually the zoning attorney followed by the architect or lead developer, would then expound on the finer details. More often than not, this method led to drawn-out, marathon-long meetings.

Meeting Highlights 

Only one application on yesterday's agenda, LG Development’s proposed nine-story plus penthouse condo building, garnered significant opposition from the public, with more than a dozen residents, mostly from a neighboring condo building, voicing their opposition. The proposed development would be built on a surface parking lot at 111 South Peoria Street, across from Mary Bartelme Park.

Some opponents argued that the West Loop is getting too dense, and the local transportation infrastructure has not kept up with the building boom (“If I wanted tall, I would have moved to Streeterville,” one complained). Others warned of “dramatic safety concerns” of having such a large residential building, with people coming and going so close to a park where children play. Lighting issues and vehicle traffic worries were frequently brought up, too.

This group was especially organized, with handouts, zoning maps, and presentation boards supplementing testimony. Attorney Ron Cope and city planner Les Pollack were among them.

Even local Ald. Walter Burnett (27) warned fellow commissioners that the project was so controversial in his community, that it was “used against him” during his re-election campaign last year.

Despite the overwhelming opposition from the community, the application still passed unanimously. Speaking to Aldertrack after the meeting, one opponent, Richard Dees, a an attorney from McDermott Will & Emery, said that they may sue the city, alleging the zoning change is inconsistent with previous DPD master zoning plans for the neighborhood. “That is how fed up West Loop residents are,” Dees explained in an email. “The politicians have been picking neighborhoods off separately. We need to stop every upzoning in the West Loop until there is a plan to take care of the people already living there, and that means uniting to oppose every upzoning, no matter how attractive the project appears.”

The remaining seven applications went through mostly without a hitch, and commissioners were noticeably less vocal about affordable housing issues than in past meetings.

Only one development team caught flak for taking advantage of a “loophole” in the city’s old affordable housing requirements: SMATT, LLC, the applicant behind a 513 ft residential high-rise with 500 units planned for 1320 South Michigan Avenue in city’s South Loop.

Ald. Burnett accused developer John Murphy and his zoning attorney Jack George of taking advantage of a “loophole” in the zoning code, because they won’t be adding on-site affordable housing or making an in lieu cash payment into the city’s affordable housing trust fund to make up for those lost units.

Instead, they’re taking advantage of an affordable housing bonus, agreeing to make a $1.96 million payment into the affordable housing trust fund in exchange for the ability to increase building density (Under the new rules, a developer would have to pay per affordable unit not included on site, in addition to the bonus, should they select it.)

When Burnett asked them to explain why they chose not to include the units, Murphy said there’s still an opportunity for it. “I have had discussions with the alderman to integrate affordable housing on site. That has not been determined yet, because it’s something that more recently came up,” he explained.  

“You making a lot of money, man. You got a lot of stuff over there,” Burnett later responded, after it was revealed that the building’s largest apartments, which would be about 1,100-square-feet, are expected to go on the market for about $4,000 a month (about $2.95-per-square-foot), and that 45% of the parking spaces will be leased out to the general public.

Union Concerns Raised at Planned McCormick Place Hotel (3rd Ward)

Draper & Kramer, the development team behind a proposed 22-story hotel and residential high-rise for the corner of Wabash Avenue and Cermak Road got some heat when it was revealed that the hotel wouldn’t employ unionized workers.

According to Larry Devito with Draper & Kramer, the hotel is committed to hiring locally and hosting job fairs, but employees won't be unionized. When Chairman Cabrera asked if “any effort was made to add unionized labor,” Devito’s partner, David Augusta, jumped in to explain that “select service hotels” or limited-service hotels, rarely employ union workers because it doesn’t make sense “economically and from a management standpoint.”   

Local Ald. Pat Dowell (3) later testified that she did “establish conversations” between the development team and Unite Here Local One.

The 144 room, ten-story hotel, which will be near the Cermak stop on the CTA’s Green Line, will employ 35 people when it’s built. The residential building, which will be 22-stories, will be located directly behind the hotel, with a setback along South Wabash Avenue. The development team plans to make ten of the 275 units affordable; those units will be distributed throughout the building. And of the total units, 37% will be efficency, 49% one-bedroom, and 14% two-bedrooms. Draper & Kramer will also take advantage of the adopt a landmark bonus, which lets them increase building density by paying about  $750,000 for building restorations at two landmarked neighborhood churches (Quinn Chapel AME and Second Presbyterian Church).

• Progressive Caucus Financial Transparency Resolution - The Progressive Caucus plans to work “closely” with the Mayor’s office to draft a Financial Transparency and Accountability Ordinance “designed to create oversight and transparency for untested financial arrangements like the so-called ‘toxic’ interest rate swap deals that have plagued the City in recent years,” a press release says. The goal is to impose more “rigorous” review for the city’s big financial transactions. A water revenue bond deal Progressive aldermen pushed against months ago for containing 'toxic swaps' passed City Council Wednesday.

• Commercial zoning for medical marijuana - Ald. Ed Burke (14) has submitted another ordinance loosening regulations for medical marijuana in the city. The zoning change would allow for medical marijuana dispensaries to set up shop in commercial districts if they receive a special use permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals. He and Ald. Willie Cochran (20) have previously teamed up to do away with 24-hour security requirements at dispensaries.

• More Bed and Breakfast Modifications - The ordinance from Ald. Brian Hopkins(2), Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1), Ald. Pat Dowell (3), Ald. Michele Smith (43), and Ald. Tom Tunney (44) would bar anyone who knowingly operated without a license within two years of the application from getting a Bed and Breakfast License. It’s the latest in a series of vacation rental and B&B ordinances introduced aimed at the shifting landscape of home and apartment rentals in Chicago, just before Ald. Will Burns (4) announced he’d be leaving City Hall to go work for Airbnb. Sources expect some kind of hearing on home sharing licensing and regulations in April or May.

• Student Loan Debt Hearing - Ald. Marge Laurino (39) and Ald. Ed Burke (14) teamed up to introduce a resolution calling for hearings on the “student loan debt crisis.” CFO Carole Brown, officials from the private sector, City Colleges, CPS, and other local colleges will be called to testify. The preamble says Illinois ranks 16th in the country for highest debt burden, and debt has doubled for students at Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois at carbondale and Western Illinois Universities.

• Mondelez Hearing - Mirroring similar legislation introduced by Cook County Commissioner Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia, Ald. Burke and Ald. Derrick Curtis (18) have introduced items examining Modelez, the parent company that owns the Nabisco plant on the city’s Southwest side slated to send 600 jobs to a new plant in Mexico. Burke’s resolution calls on Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman to detail how the department tracks redevelopment agreements and job retention for companies that benefit from deals with the city. Curtis’ resolution urges Mondelez to expand its operations.  

• Health In All Policies Resolution: Previewed by Chicago Department of Public Health at Board of Health meetings this winter, this resolution introduced by the Mayor Wednesday calls for applying “a Health in All Policies approach to the City's decision making,” essentially applying a health filter to all “policy development and implementation, budgeting, and delivery of services” decisions. The resolution calls appointment of a task force to examine health policies in housing, transportation, food access, environmental protection, safety and violence prevention.

• Lease Agreements for Cook County Mental Health Services - The city plans to lease office space at two of its clinics as part of the new behavioral health initiativeCook County Health and Hospitals Systems officials announced last month. One clinical office space, located on the first floor of the West Town Neighborhood Health Center at 2418 West Division Street, will be used by the Cook County Department of Corrections for mental health services to ex-offenders. The other, the new triage center for behavioral issues for arrestees, will take up 10,784 square feet of clinical office space, subject to expansion include the entire building, at the Roseland Public Health Center at 200 East 115th Street.

• Seven CPS Land Moves (O2016-2526, O2016-2507, O2016-2505, O2016-2504, O2016-2483, O2016-2472, O2016-2461) and two TIF Assistance Ordinances (O2016-2455, O2016-2434) were also introduced. The city will accept three CPS properties for "public purpose," and the Park District will accept one for "open space, recreational and park purposes." The TIF assistance includes no more than $760,000 for school improvements to Amundsen High School and no more than $287,000 for Hope College Preparatory School.

• Street Designation for Nancy Maldonado - Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26) submitted an ordinance calling for the stretch of Division between 2400-2850 as Nancy Y. Franco-Maldonado Way, in honor of his late wife who passed away around the Christmas holiday.

• Repeal of the ban of flower peddling - Just in time for spring, Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) ordinance strikes out the language that prohibits the sale of flowers, plants, or bouquets. The sale is currently only allowed inside “duly licensed” restaurants and taverns.

On Wednesday, we incorrectly tweeted that aldermen approved the $29 million dollar sale of City Colleges’ former Malcolm X campus site. But the story behind what actually happened is more interesting.

Aldertrack has learned that the land sale never made it to the floor, because two freshman aldermen–Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) and Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36)–threatened to use parliamentary procedure to block the item from a vote, because they want to hold City Colleges’ feet to the fire over minority hiring.

At Monday’s Housing Committee meeting, the project received unanimous approval by voice vote, and Committee Chairman Joe Moore announced before adjourning that, “All eight of these [agenda] items will be reported out at the City Council meeting on Wednesday."

But it stopped there. “I believe it was some type of issue related to the City Colleges, and I don’t know the full track of it,” Bob Fuller, a legislative aide for the committee told Aldertrack. Rather than have the matter deferred and published, Ald. Moore opted to hold the issue in committee until Ald. Lopez and Villegas received the information they requested, Fuller said.

Ald. Villegas confirmed with Aldertrack that he and Ald. Lopez previously requested data on Latino hiring and contracts at City Colleges’, but haven’t been satisfied with, among other issues, “the lack of a plan for diversity and parity.”

“The only reason why there’s been growth at City Colleges is because of the Latino community. 28% of Malcolm X students are Latino, enough to designate it as a Hispanic institution now,” he said.

Villegas has introduced a resolution Wednesday urging City Colleges to “hire Hispanic professors and staff, reflective of the student population.” City Clerk Susana Mendoza is listed as the sole co-sponsor. He asked the issue be referred to the Committee on Workforce Development and Audit because the Education Committee, which normally hears City Colleges-related issues, is still without a chair. After City Colleges “stalled and delayed” giving statistics to Villegas, the resolution says, “City Colleges produced data that seems suspicious to Alderman Villegas and the Latino Caucus of the Chicago City Council.”

Villegas says citywide, the message he’s receiving is “Latinos need not apply.”

Ald. Walter Burnett (27), whose ward includes the Malcolm X site, told Aldertrack he doesn’t understand why they’re using the land sale as “leverage,” because City Colleges no longer owns the property, the city does, and argued they’re just preventing the city from making money and hurting the Blackhawks and Rush.

The Rush portion of the 11-acre site is slated to sell for $17.5 million, of which $1.8 million will pay for education, scholarships, research, and health and wellness programs for the community. The negotiated sale price for the Blackhawks portion is $11.7 million. $3 million is dedicated to community hockey training programs, fitness and nutritional programs and group events.

A representative for the Blackhawks said, “This is a procedural matter between the city and City Colleges, not the Chicago Blackhawks. We are moving forward with our timeline in accordance with our processes.” The Mayor’s office told Aldertrack they expect the sale to pass City Council next month.

Chicago City Council’s Latino Caucus will hold a conference at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall to demand Mayor Emanuel appoint current Interim Police Superintendent John Escalanteas permanent superintendent. The press conference is in response to yesterday’s Police Board announcement that three finalists had been chosen to submit to the mayor for consideration: Dr. Cedric L. Alexander, Anne E. Kirkpatrick, and Eugene Williams. Williams and Alexander are both African American, and Kirkpatrick is White; the Police Board posted each nominee’s resume and essay responses on its website.

It is possible Emanuel could send Lightfoot and fellow members back to the drawing board. In 2007, Mayor Richard M. Daley rejected Police Board’s first round of nominations to replace Phil Cline. Eight months later, Daley appointed Jody Weis to take over.  

Lori Lightfoot, head of the Police Board and the Police Accountability Task Force (PATF), told reporters she would not discuss applicants who didn’t make the cut, but said the city should be “grateful for Escalante’s service.” The release of the finalists’ names was delayed by two weeks. So are the recommendations from PATF. Lightfoot says those should be coming around April 15.

The city officially opened up the bidding process for developers interested in transforming the Old Main Post Office Complex. Yesterday morning, the Department of Planning and Development issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the massive historic building’s planned redevelopment in the city’s West Loop. A pre-submittal conference is scheduled for April 14. Bidding closes June 10.  

The move comes a week after the city’s Community Development Commission, a mayor-appointed panel, gave preliminary approval for the city to acquire the property from its current owners through eminent domain. 

RFP respondents may choose to redevelop the site in accordance with the existing planned development parameters for the site (PD# 1065), or they can select to amend the PD, which “allows for a wide variety of commercial and residential uses,” the Mayor’s Office said in a release.

Once a developer is chosen, they will have to commit to purchase the property at full market value and pay “all related acquisition costs.”

The U.S. Post Office sold the historic building in 2009 to International Property Developers North America, Inc. (IPD) for $25 million dollars. In 2013, the same developer bought the neighboring annex property for an additional $14 million.

IPD had planned a $3.5 billion mixed-use development to be completed in phases, including three towers and 16-million-square-feet of residential, retail, entertainment and office spaces. In July 2013, the City Council approved an amendment to the planned development for an additional 2,100 residential units in the old post office building. Plans for a hotel and commercial retail space on adjacent land were also approved.

The first phase of the project was scheduled to get underway in early 2015, but according to DPD, no significant redevelopment work has been completed to date.

Opponents of a proposed nine-story condo development planned for a surface parking lot directly across the street from Mary Bartelme Park in the city’s West Loop neighborhood plan to hold a press conference at City Hall ahead of today’s Plan Commission vote on the future of the site.

LG Development is seeking to establish a planned development to build the residential high rise, which would include 95 units, a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units, ranging from 900-square-feet to 2,850-square-feet.   

After several back and forth meetings with the community and local Ald. Walter Burnett (27), the developer filed the zoning application with the city in September 2015, just before Chicago’s beefed up Affordable Housing Requirements took effect.

But the project has remained on the backburner, and some in the community, including one local neighborhood group, is strongly opposed. There’s even a website dedicated to the opposition.  One local resident, who spoke on background, said they’d rather construct a community center on the lot. Local residents have set up a fundraising campaign to get the money to buy the property from the Cacciatore family, the legal title holder.

The project has also gone through numerous revisions. In August 2014, when the project was first presented to the community, LG had planned a 13- story, 173-foot building with 469 single room occupancy units, a roof deck, and 328 parking spaces, according to this letter from the West Loop Community Organization (WLCO). A month later, LG offered an amended plan that cut the building height to 133 feet, reduced the number of units to 210, and downsized parking to 141 spaces. Still unsatisfied with the changes, LG submitted a third proposal in May 2015, that kept the height at 133-feet, but changed the unit breakdown and increased the square-footage of the units.

The Plan Commission will vote today on the fifth version of the original plan. The West Loop Community Organization is still opposed, even after the developer agreed to decrease the number of balconies facing Peoria street, add more glass and stainless steel to balconies, and enhance the main entry of the building. Their objection, according to the letter, is due to the fact that “the developer has not submitted updated renderings as agreed on September 1, 2015.”

LG Development’s application is the last item on the agenda, according to the latest version of the plan commission agenda. Two days ago, it was the fourth item.

Meanwhile, plans for three other residential high-rise towers, two hotels, and a redevelopment plan for Irving Park’s Six-Corners shopping center also await Plan Commission approval today.

• Proposed Hotel Near Fulton Market (27th Ward): Jeffrey Shapack, manager of 200 Green Developer, LLC, filed an application with the city to build an 11-story-story plus penthouse hotel with ground floor retail, restaurant and accessory parking on the corner of Green and Lake Streets. The site Shapack wants to develop at 820-850 W. Lake Street is a block north of the Soho House Hotel that he helped develop in partnership with Chicago-based A.J. Capital Partners. According to the Chicago Architecture Blog, the hotel would include between 167 and 171 guest rooms, a fitness center, and a rooftop pool overlooking the city’s downtown.

• Proposed Hotel-Residential Building for McCormick Place (3rd Ward). Developer Draper & Kramer wants to build a 22-story hotel and residential high-rise with 275 units on the corner of Wabash Avenue and Cermak Road. According to the renderings in the application the developer submitted in September 2015, the hotel and residential tower would be connected on the bottom nine floors, with a service elevator separating the residential side from the hotel. Floors 10 through 21 will be only residential. Other amenities would include a hotel roof deck and and residential sky deck. This is one of three hotels planned for McCormick Place.

• Proposed 38-Story Residential High-Rise for West Loop (42nd Ward) Gray Cardiff, from California-based Gray Cardiff & Co., wants to build a 38-story residential high-rise building with 373 dwelling units, 145 parking spaces (41% of dwelling units), and 77 bike spaces at the site of an old train car storage field located between Union Avenue and Green Street.  According to the application he filed with the city in January, Cardiff plans to take advantage of the city’s affordable housing bonus, which allows for a greater floor-area-ratio by paying into the city’s affordable housing trust fund. The building would be located near the K2 Apartments and its newly-opened half-acre dog park, the biggest in the city, according to DNAinfo. Ald. Brendan Reilly and the Neighbors of the West Loop (NOWL) held a community meeting on this project in November. According to the slideshow presentation he provided to residents, a typical residential floor plan would include 13 units per floor: three studios, seven one-bedroom apartments, and two two-bedroom apartments.

• The National Museum of Mexican Art (25th Ward) is seeking to amend an existing planned development (No. 639) to construct a surface parking lot for 50 cars. According to the application the museum filed with the city, in January, the lot will also serve as an outdoor exhibit space.

• Sinai Health System (28th Ward) is seeking to amend the boundary of their existing planned development (No. 49) to include two additional city-owned parcels of property (1341 and 1345 S. Fairfield Avenue) they’re in the midst of purchasing. The Mount Sinai Hospital campus is located in North Lawndale on the city’s West Side and is undergoing a $100 million investment: the Sinai Tomorrow Project. The hospital intends to use the subject property for the health care related uses that were previously approved with the original PD: hospital, day care, government-operated health center, and wireless communications facilities. The amended PD adds new uses, including retail. The property is two blocks from the hospital campus, in a predominantly residential area.

• Irving Park Six-Corners Development (45th Ward): CSD Six Corners, LLC, an entity with close to twenty stakeholders listed on the economic disclosure statement, filed a planned development application to build a retail center for the site of the former Bank of America building in Irving Park’s Six-Corners. The four-story “vertical retail center,” will have stores on the first and second floor, and parking on the third and fourth. The applicants include Bixby Bridge Fund II, LLC, managed by David Colburn, and Blackfriars Corporation, owned by Keith Colburn, Richard Colburn, and Carol Grigor. Collins Family Limited Partnership is also listed as a stakeholder. The center will contain about 196,000-square-feet of retail and 473 parking spaces.

11 No Votes on Mayor’s Tobacco Plan, First Vote of the Day 

Ald. Ed Burke (14) made an unusual move by suspending the rules early in the meeting, introducing a substitute ordinance, holding no debate, and calling for a vote on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tobacco reforms. The substitute ordinance is the third iteration of the Mayor’s tobacco package. It still increases the city’s smoking age to 21, sets new tax rates on tobacco products, eliminates the use of coupons for those products, and strengthens enforcements on the illegal sale of tobacco. But the tax rates for some products were brought down slightly from the original introduction. The threat of jail time for people caught selling loose cigarettes is gone, and retailers with existing stock won’t have to charge higher rates yet.

When Burke asked the Council to consider the amendment, he said changes had been made to the tax rates on other tobacco products (OTP), existing inventories will be exempt from the new tax rates, and employees over the age of 18 can sell tobacco (even if they can’t buy it). Price floors will be slightly lower on some products. There were also various changes to provisions on factory packaging.

Burke called for a roll call vote, after a brief consultation at the podium, the Mayor skipped debate, going straight to the vote. The measure passed 35-11.

The ordinance slightly amends the set minimum price floors for various tobacco products:

• $11.50 for a pack of cigarettes, or a pack of little cigars

• $1.36 per large cigar (down from $1.70)

• $4.56 per ounce of pipe tobacco

• $11.29 per ounce for a pouch of roll-your-own tobacco (down from $11.50)

• $4.94 per ounce of smokeless (chewing) tobacco (up from $4).

The ordinance sets fixed tax rates for these products: 20 cents per cigar, $1.80 per ounce of chewing and loose tobacco, and 60 cents per ounce for pipe tobacco. “To accommodate small businesses that do not cater to youth, the revised ordinance will exempt new taxation on existing inventory, applying the floor only to new inventory,” the Mayor’s Office noted in this press release.

Enforcement penalties remain mostly unchanged. Those caught selling individual cigarettes, colloquially known as “loosies,” will get slapped with a $1,000-to- $5,000 fine for the first offense, and upwards of a $10,000 fine for each subsequent offense. An earlier substitute draft included penalties of up to six months in jail for being caught selling loose cigarettes.

Retailers will also be added to the list of those who could be punished if one of their employees or “other agent of the retail tobacco licensee” is found selling loosies or violates the new regulations, noting, “such licensee shall be punishable in the same manner as if said act had been performed by the licensee personally.”

Licensees who violate the new price floors, coupon prohibition, or package size violations could face fines up to $2,000 for the first offense, up to $3,500 for a second offense within a five year period, and up to $7,500 for the third offense occurred within the same time frame. If a retailer commits two or more violations within a 48-month period, the city can revoke its license.

Under the new tobacco regulations passed, the Commissioner of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection will also be required to provide annual reports detailing enforcement of the new rules to the Council’s License and Consumer Protection Committee on June 1st.

Most of the revenue generated from the tax will still support a universal, one-week orientation program for incoming high school freshman at Chicago Public Schools. The program will, “help them form good study habits, learn the ropes at their new school and get to know their teachers and peers,” the press release from the Mayor’s Office notes. Revenue from the new taxes will also help fund a “more intensive, mandatory two-week summer program” that will provide “remedial academic support and social emotional learning” for 8th graders at risk of dropping out of school.

No votes: Leslie Hairston (5), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), David Moore (17), Matt O’Shea (19), Howard Brookins, Jr. (21), Mike Zalewski (23), Jason Ervin (28), Chris Taliaferro (29), Nick Sposato (38), Anthony Napolitano (41), and Tom Tunney (44).

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), a vocal opponent of the ordinance, was absent. He was one of five aldermen to use parliamentary procedure to block a vote on it at the last City Council meeting.

The Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), which led the charge against passage of the ordinance alongside Ald. Ervin and other border ward aldermen, maintained it had a compelling case to sue the city for overreaching its taxing authority. “I think that we will look into all of our options at this point,” Tanya Triche, general counsel for IRMA, told reporters after the vote. “The city has always taken the position that the state law didn’t grant the authority to have [an OTP tax]. They have recently taken a different read, but that law hasn’t actually changed.”  

$200M in Water Revenue Bonds Passes with Little Fanfare

After chipping away parts of Mayor Emanuel’s multi-billion dollar borrowing plan earlier this year, aldermen approved the last in a series of bond offerings the administration has said it needs to convert its remaining variable rate debt into a fixed rate.

Without any debate or discussion, or even much notice, Ald. Burke, Chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, asked aldermen to approve an ordinance that would authorize the city to issue $200 million in water revenue-backed bonds.

The bond offering, originally introduced in December as part of a roughly $3.7 billion dollar borrowing plan for this year, was tabled at the January City Council meeting, following vocal objections from aldermen who said the city shouldn’t borrow money to pay banks hundreds of millions of dollars in termination fees.

The revenue from the bond proceeds would pay the cost of restructuring outstanding debt from water bonds issued in 2000 and 2004 by converting those bonds to a fixed rate. The borrowed money will also pay for the cost of terminating the swaps, and the cost of borrowing the money. According to comments Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown made to aldermen in committee, the water bonds are the last remaining variable rate debt the city needs to convert to a fixed rate in order to complete a financial plan Mayor Emanuel announced in May at the Civic Federation. That 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.

Authorization for the other bond offerings were passed by Council at that January meeting, but none received unanimous support, even after the administration agreed to halve its planned offering of $1.25 billion in general obligation bonds, and added a provision requiring regular briefings from Brown and City Comptroller Dan Widawsky on how the money is spent. The administration has yet to come to the council to get the remainder of the bond offering deal through.

But since that agreement to hold off on the borrowing plan, the water bonds were never brought up again in the Finance Committee, which is likely the reason it went through without a hiccup. Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson and Burke abstained from voting on the deal under provisions of Rule 14.

Meanwhile, at yesterday’s City Council meeting,  Council’s Progressive Caucus introduced a resolution calling for more oversight and transparency in how the city makes “untested financial arrangements” like this bond offering. The resolution calls on the City Council to draft a “Financial Transparency and Accountability Ordinance” that would impose “rigorous review standards for extraordinary financial transactions.”

Other Highlights from Yesterday’s Council Meeting

• Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) and John Arena (45) voted against a massive redevelopment plan to transform the city’s Lathrop Homes, one of the oldest public housing communities, into a mixed-use residential community with more than 1,200 units, which will be a mix of public housing, market rate, and affordable.

• Another D&P: Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) and Ald. Michele Smith (43) used parliamentary procedure to block a vote on an ordinance that would authorize the demolition of a historic landmark building at 1938 W. Augusta Blvd., located in the city’s East Village District. In a 6-2 vote at their meeting in November, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks gave preliminary approval of the demolition.

• Ald. David Moore (17) voted against a zoning change that would allow Noble Network of Charter Schools to build a new high school in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood. Zoning Chairman Danny Solis (25) said he was “voting no on charter school expansion in the 14th Ward.” Noble plans to build the new school on a vacant lot at the corner of 47th Street and California Avenue. The site was once home to the an RC Cola bottling plant, which was demolished in 2013. The school would accommodate 1,000 high school students and would cost about $20-30 million to build.

• Moreno Talks Committeeman Race: With one precinct yet to be counted, Ald. Joe Moreno (1) had a slight 211 vote lead over challenger, Maria Teresa Gonzalez, for the 1st Ward Democratic Committeeman race Wednesday morning, and said he remained “very confident” the votes are in his favor. “It’s never been easy going up Joe Berrios, ever. And eight mailers against you, and all that kind of stuff. I’m just glad I have a good organization,” Ald. Moreno told Aldertrack. He later declared victory on his Facebook page.

• Cardenas talks of “tough” election: Ald. George Cardenas (12) was unsuccessful in his effort to unseat State Sen. Tony Munoz for 12th Ward Democratic Committeeman. “We have a strong base, but the fact is that these one-time voters came out because [the Munoz campaign was] pulling them from different directions [in order] to keep the seat,” Cardenas told Aldertrack. Losing by more than 400 votes, Cardenas chalked up the loss to the flood of negative mailers State Sen. Munoz sent out against him, and suggested foul play may have occurred. “There was a lot of stuff that was done. Machines were broken, tapes were not given out, my people were shut out.” Cardenas did, however, get one win last night: the candidate he backed in the 2nd State House District, Theresa Mah, defeated incumbent State Rep. Alex Acevedo. “Theresa won. We had to split the resources. It was tough on both ends,” Cardenas explained. “So I don’t mind the fact that I didn’t win this time. We’re going to keep at it. I think we have a good message of machine politics of the past, and I think that we won from that standpoint of having the seat that had been under HDO’s [Hispanic Democratic Organization] control for 20 years to a progressive.” As for his relationship with State Sen. Munoz, Ald. Cardenas told Aldertrack “we were never actually friends..[Munoz’s organization] helped my campaign initially...there’s politics in everything...I think we disagree on a lot of things.”

• Ken Dunkin’s Future in Politics: Commenting on State Rep. Ken Dunkin’sdefeat to Juliana Stratton, Ald. Walter Burnett (27) suggested that Governor Bruce Rauner might find a place for him in his administration. “Maybe the Governor will give him a job in the state, who knows. The Governor’s folks gave him a lot of money, so I would assume that they are concerned about him.”

According to a copy of a City Inspector General report expected to be released today and of which Aldertrack obtained an advanced draft, lobbyists might soon have to re-up their registration online and face harsher fines for late registration if Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s latest recommendations are heeded by the Board of Ethics (BOE). The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited how well the BOE conducted lobbyist registration, and suggested the board take “small steps to make major gains” in lobbyist disclosure, which is key to enforcing campaign finance restrictions and revolving door rules for former city officials and employees.

Download copy of report obtained by Aldertrack.

The seven members of the Board are unpaid mayoral-appointees who serve four year terms and render advisory opinions on ethics rulings. The Board’s budget of $845,937 pays for eight full time staff who, among other duties, oversee the hundreds (anywhere from 525 to nearly 700 over the past ten years) of lobbyists registered in Chicago.

But the IG audit, which looked into annual registrations and quarterly reports filed in 2013 and 2014, notes that staff–which processes registrations, provides ethics training and takes care of administrative duties–doesn’t launch its own investigations into whether all lobbyists are properly registered, or if registration is accurate. “Instead, BOE relied on public complaints to alert it to any lobbyists who did not comply with the Ethics Ordinance,” the report says. “BOE did not attempt to confirm the veracity of lobbyist disclosures or to ensure that everyone required to register as a lobbyist in fact did so.“ BOE told the OIG they didn’t have the legal authority to do so without a complaint.

There were 45 lobbyists who failed to meet the board’s January 20 deadline for annual registration in 2014, but just two were penalized - a loss of $197,000 in potential fines. Those fines could cover nearly a quarter of the Board’s budget, the IG report argues, “Overall in 2014, BOE fined a total of ten late-registering lobbyists... a total of $58,000.” The OIG didn’t calculate how much the BOE was missing out on for late filings of quarterly reports.

Waiving or reducing fines are at the discretion of the Board’s Executive Director, Steve Berlin. Fines for late registration are $1,000 a day until the filing is fixed. Berlin can impose an accumulated fine seven days after a lobbyist is told he or she is in violation, and that lobbyist can contest or explain the late filing.

In response to the OIG’s report, BOE said it would pursue an electronic-only filing system, doing away with hard-copy registration that sometimes led to process gaps and clerical errors, which it conceded, might “cause consternation or frustration” for some lobbyists. But said the report’s quality assurance recommendations “are not required, unless empirical research is performed into whether additional lobbyist or lobbyist-client/employer information that might be gathered from amending the Governmental Ethics Ordinance as described in the Report would provide significant added value,” and that BOE “levies the full amount of fines allowable.” Most recent fines levied can be found here.

The Board says its monitoring of lobbyists’ filings is ‘sufficient’, pointing to its open data portal and its designation from the Sunlight Foundation as having some of the country’s “strongest lobbying disclosure practices.” BOE still plans to do its due diligence and research suggestions to determine whether it should propose amendments to the City Council.

This report, coincidentally, came to Aldertrack on the same day the most recent amended Ethics Ordinance came into effect. Council approved the changes in July, and Mayor Emanuel signed it on September 30, 2015. Berlin told aldermen the changes (Legislative Reference Bureau Summary), which included tweaks to financial disclosure of stock ownership, submission of reports to the now-defunct Legislative Inspector General, and prohibitions on city employees from participating in decision-making that could benefit a former employee, were minor and added clarity to the existing code.

Last night’s 33rd Ward contest for Democratic Committeeman ended up with two precincts still uncounted and an undetermined number of vote-by-mail ballots uncounted. According to his daughter, 33rd Ward Ald. Deb Mell, Committeeman Mell has not conceded to challenger Aaron Goldstein and is awaiting final results. Unofficial results this morning showed a Goldstein with a 143 vote lead.