Aldermen have spent more than $325 million in menu funds over the past five years, with the bulk going towards traditional infrastructure: 77% on repairing roads, sidewalks, and alleys; and just over 17% to lighting. The other six percent of spending is devoted to parks, schools, trees, murals, installation of security cameras, and libraries.

Nine planned development applications are slated for review by the Chicago Plan Commission today, including a major expansion of the Lagunitas Brewery in Douglas Park, a controversial affordable housing development in Jefferson Park, and a 52-story office tower for downtown.

Two of the nine projects are likely to spark opposition: Praedium Development’s plan to build a 9-story, 197-unit residential build at the corner of Broadway and Wilson in Uptown, and Full Circle Communities’ 100-unit, mostly affordable, seven-story apartment building planned for Jefferson Park. A protest is scheduled at City Hall ahead of the meeting for the latter project.

Three property tax incentives to help the rehabilitation of dilapidated industrial properties in the 33rd, 37th and 9th Ward received unanimous approval by the Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development. Pending approval by the full City Council at the end of the month, the Class 6(b) tax incentives will reduce the amount of property taxes these companies would have to pay over the next 12 years.

Flanked by Police Board President Lori Lightfoot and members of a newly-formed Community Policing Advisory Panel, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson released what he described as a nineteen page “framework” that outlines the Chicago Police Department’s newest plans for accountability. Hours earlier, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans signed an order aimed at increasing access to attorneys for arrestees in Chicago.

Three reappointments to the Community Development Commission and three applications for property tax incentives for industrial properties in the 33rd, 37th and 9th Wards are up for consideration Tuesday by the Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.

Happy Saturday! While Chicago City Hall was generally quiet this week there was still plenty of big things happening in the city. Here are three big stories we think will set a trend in the coming months.

1. Chance’s Million Is Great, But Did It Do Anything?

This week started off with Chancellor Bennett, A.K.A. Chance The Rapper, giving $1 million to CPS schools, followed by another $100,000 spread out among ten individual schools. Chance’s gift was punctuated by a well-placed jab at Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to “do his job” to fund Chicago’s schools. Students will miss 13 instructional days if CPS doesn’t fill its $129 million hole this spring.

While the big gift is great, and Chance’s taunts got a lot of play in the national press, it seemed to move Rauner a bit, who responded that he would accept a CPS funding bill right away, but also leaked a memo suggesting Chicago could pay the $129 million on its own.

The CPS funding is closely tied to the State House’s “grand bargain” to pass the first state budget in two years and as has been widely reported elsewhere, that bargain seems to be on life support since Gov. Rauner sank some promising negotiations between Democratic and GOP state senators.

The Chicago Teacher’s Union, upset that CPS hasn’t fulfilled promises to fund the full school year – either by state or city funds, they don’t care – are now threatening a one-day strike on May 1 to make their point.

But really, time is on Rauner’s side in this case, since he has a well-professed dislike of Chicago’s unionized teachers, and he’s publicly said that he thinks Chicago’s schools are over-funded. It suits his purposes either way: more of CPS’ bills to be picked up by Chicago rather than the state, or for Chicago teachers to get whacked on their salaries.

Lost in this equation, of course, are the kids going to CPS schools.

2. BLM and FOP Have Totally Different Frame References

One of the biggest struggles for law enforcement today is that often, those who work in police departments have completely different frames of reference than the people they are policing. In other words, people who choose to work in policing, have usually done so, or want to adopt a particular set of cultural values that are often different from those they police, which affects the way they make decisions. The result is that many police officers see the world in terms of peaceful citizens and law breakers. Many of those policed, see more grey, since some of those law breakers might also be friends, family members, and neighbors.

Those two different frames of reference couldn’t be more clear than in the back to back interviews we released this week of my sit-downs with Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo and Black Lives Matter lead organizer Kofi Ademola. If you haven’t listened, both of these men are thoughtful, rational people who deeply care about the missions of their organizations, which sometimes seem diametrically opposed to one another. But the astonishing thing: they both seem to believe they are serving the same community.

[Note: Last night, we reported FOP union election results that will put Angelo in a runoff for reelection in the next 30 days.]

In our interviews, both Angelo and Ademola talk about how Chicago’s crime-afflicted neighborhoods are vastly underserved, lack opportunity and have not gotten the attention they need from government. Angelo believes the police are just trying to get the “bad guys” out so citizens can live good lives. Ademola believes the police’s presence and methods have corrupted the neighborhood, making it impossible for citizens to live good lives.

If you haven’t listened to these two interviews, please do. They are both remarkable people, and actually much more complex thinkers than past sound bites would lead us to believe. They are each good representations of how two important sectors of Chicago approach crime.  It would seem that if there’s any kind of solution all of Chicago can move forward with, the conversation would start between Angelo and Ademola.

3. Use of Force and No DOJ

Feeding right into our “frame of reference” problem is a new draft use of force model released by the Chicago Police Department earlier this week. The proposal requires police officers  to consider “sanctity of life” when using force, putting a priority on civilian safety, but it also requires officers to use de-escalation tactics only when it does not put the officer’s personal safety at risk.

Needless to say, this has been controversial. But not entirely in the way you might think.

No surprise, people like Kofi Ademola believe Chicago police already use too much force, and he would prefer a police force like in London, he says, where most beat cops don’t even carry guns, and are instructed to use de-escalation methods whenever possible. But on the flip side, police leaders like Dean Angelo, believe cops on the beat need more freedom to use force when necessary. Police advocates complain that the new proposed model still doesn’t give officers enough force and is written to, “pander to outside pressure from the media and special interest groups”.

And left in the dust of this controversy are the results of the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on CPD, which found Chicago police officers were already poorly trained in use of force models, and as a result used too much force too often. There was no mention of the DOJ report in CPD’s release of the new draft use of force model. And since U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announcement that “we're going to pull back on this” so police departments are unfettered by federal oversight, it seems that Chicago is already interpreting that to mean the DOJ report no longer requires consideration.

What exactly happens with the proposed use of force model at CPD will be a pretty good indication of whether or not Mayor Rahm Emanuel has shelved the DOJ report permanently.

FOP Lodge 7 President Dean Angelo has been forced into a runoff in his first re-election bid, FOP officials confirmed Friday evening. Angelo, serving his first term, garnered 34.8% of the vote. Kevin Graham came in second with 24.8% of the vote. Graham is an officer in the 19th district on the city’s North Side.

Six candidates were in the running. Former FOP President Mike Shields finished third. According to FOP bylaws, the runoff must occur within 30 days. FOP spokesperson Anne Kavanagh said that runoff date will likely be announced next week.

"We are in a runoff again, we were in a runoff last time," Angelo told The Daily Line on Friday. "We’re not surprised by the amount of people that threw their hat in the ring to challenge us this time around. We kind of expected it. 34% out of 6 candidates is very good."

"It’s one-on-one now, and my ability to do what I do compared to the ability to the person I’m running against is night and day."

[Listen to our interview with Dean Angelo on The Aldercast.]

Other candidates Angelo supported also lost in the election, including his choices for 1st and 2nd Vice Presidents, Ray Casiano (beaten by Pat Murray) and Tom McDonagh (beaten by Martin Preib). Here is the sample ballot for candidates Angelo supported.

Angelo cast aspersions on both Graham and Preib–both members of "The Blue Voice" ticket–in a call with The Daily Line. "Kevin Graham touts himself as the past 1st VP of the State FOP Lodge. The State FOP Lodge is endorsing me," Angelo said, arguing he's put Lodge 7 on the map nationally, and solidified relationships with the  Illinois Labor Council, the Illinois Trooper’s Lodge, and the Cook County Sheriff’s Lodge.

Angelo said Preib, the new 2nd Vice-President, ran with "zero experience, zero time involved in the organization... never participated in the committee, but has a blog."

Preib is the author of The Wagon and Other Stories from the City, a book which "chronicles the outer and inner lives of both a Chicago cop and the city itself," and has a blog called "Crooked City", where he “explores his doubts about the exoneration of convicted killers in the wrongful conviction movement, concluding that the movement is rife with corruption and that the offenders were guilty of the murders.”

“We have an organization at risk here,” Angelo said. “We are still in the process of repairing the damage that was done by several of the people–some of which got re-elected, some of which got elected since the last debacle. We can ill-afford that slide again.”

Angelo says he believes members will ultimately see him as the best man at the bargaining table when the city and the FOP renegotiate their contract this summer. "We had a good contract last time, ⅔ of membership ratified it. It's the first time we were able to get that done in almost 20 years. That was under my watch. I got retroactivity back on the table, that was lost at the hands of some of the same people that are touting all their expertise that were running in this past recent election and are trying to run against us again."

Below are the winners, per the FOP.

For Office of 1st Vice-President: Pat Murray

For Office of 2nd Vice-President: Martin Preib

For Office of 3rd Vice-President: Jay Ryan

For Office of Recording Secretary: Greg Bella

For Office of Financial Secretary: Mike Garza

For Office of Treasurer: John Capparelli

For Office of Sergeant at Arms:

• Michael Mette


• Willliam Burns


• Jim Jacsotazich

For Office of Trustees

• Ken Hauser


• Mark Donahue


• Bill Dougherty


• Dan Trevino


• Sergio Escobedo


• Carlos Salazar


• Ron Shogren


• Joe Gentile


• Andrew Cantore


• Fernando Flores


• Rick King


• Dan Gorman


• Pat Duckhorn


• Mark Tamlo


• Mike Underwood


• Harold Brown


• Frank Quinn

Police and prison abolitionist, philosopher, and Black Lives Matter Chicago organizer Kofi Ademola sits down with our publisher, Mike Fourcher. In a broad-ranging discussion, Ademola describes his views on economic development, gentrification, prison, poverty, and violence–and responds to our interview with FOP President Dean Angelo, who suggested police are under attack and care more about black lives than black politicians.

Got comments, questions, or suggestions? Please send us an email: [email protected]. 

Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s office has whittled down its candidate pool for the new deputy tasked with auditing the city’s police accountability system and will have an appointee to introduce at the next City Council meeting, a spokesperson for Ferguson’s office confirmed to The Daily Line. The new division is also rolling out its website Friday, which will include data on the number of CPD officers on the force and which divisions they work in.

Business at the Cook County Board flew by Wednesday, with all the action–including President Toni Preckwinkle’s post-meeting press conference–wrapping before 2:00 p.m. Commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance adding “immigration status” to the list of protected classifications in the Cook County code, an extension for an electronic monitoring contract for the Cook County Jail, and a resolution condemning hate speech and actions.

Since the city’s beefed up Affordable Housing Requirements took effect in October of 2015, Chicago has collected more than $41 million in in-lieu fees from developers, representing a third of total ARO funds raised since the program’s inception in 2003.

A $36 million contract for electronic case and docket management services in the offices of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown is on today’s new items agenda at the County Board. A resolution urging the governor and the general assembly to approve a property tax freeze is also up–though whether it’ll be debated on the floor or quietly referred to committee is unclear.

 

The county’s Bureau of Asset Management has a new leader: Ann Lata P. Kalayil, whose first day was yesterday. She is a longtime Obama supporter who has been active and influential in local Asian political circles for decades.

Just two Cook County Committees meet today. One meets in executive session and the other only features two appointments from President Preckwinkle. While Tuesdays are normally reserved for consent calendar items, none were posted online. Several other committees meet tomorrow, and again on March 22.

The question of how and why Chicago Public Schools are not fully funded was laid at Gov. Bruce Rauner’s feet Monday afternoon by a newly-minted Grammy winner, Chancellor Bennett, more widely known as Chance The Rapper.