Cook County officials charged with managing this year’s elections are more than miffed with accusations from Donald Trump that Chicago, in particular, is a bastion of voter fraud.

All this week, aldermen held hearings on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s nearly $10 billion budget for 2017. Fourteen departments met this week, and with no major taxes or fees, aldermen stuck to familiar pet peeves. This week we bring you a selection from week one of two budget hearings, where aldermen grilled department heads about their budgets, past accomplishments, or, in some cases, failures.

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The Chicago Plan Commission moved quickly through its full docket over three hours, unanimously approving three new residential towers, the rehabilitation of two towers into rental apartments the approval of a new planned manufacturing district to build new L cars and the rehabilitation of the Theater On The Lake. The meeting was conducted in Room 201A’s crowded quarters, to make room for the Council budget hearings, which continued in chambers.

While City Council prepares to answer a suit charging it violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act, two weeks ago, the Chicago City Council’s Sergeant-at-Arms quietly issued a document to aldermen and city officials detailing a new seating policy for the Council Chambers. “The public is admitted to the Gallery’s non-reserved seats on a first-come, first-served basis. Fifteen seats on the second floor and fifteen seats on the third floor shall be set aside for general admission and may not be reserved. The Sergeant-at-Arms reserves the right to seat visitors in the second-floor or third-floor Gallery based on seat availability,” says the document.

A Republican candidate for State Senate in southwest suburban Plainfield, Illinois, Michelle Smith has begun running broadcast television ads in Chicago, riling up 43rd Ward residents, demanding to know why Ald. Michele Smith (43) (one “L”) is running for State Senate, according to Smith’s chief of staff, Adam Gypalo.

Obviously, Michelle and Michele are not the same person. Michelle Smith (two “L”) is in a tight race near Joliet against Democratic State Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant with a ton of spending on both sides. One-L Smith is a North Side Chicago Alderman. Let’s not confuse the two anymore, OK?

A relatively quick day of county budget hearings featured talk almost exclusively on development issues, with officials from Capital Planning, Economic Development, Asset Management, and the Land Bank Authority taking center stage. The only major lines of questioning focused on tax incentive enforcement and addressing rumors Cook County’s Land Bank Authority (CCBLA) was making a “land grab” of lots in the First District.

A protester interrupted Thursday morning’s budget hearing on the Department of Buildings, loudly chanting, “16 shots and a cover up!”, marking the two-year anniversary of Laquan McDonald’s death. The meeting was otherwise routine, mostly focusing on the city’s large stock of vacant buildings. The issue was best summed up by Ald. Mike Zalewski (23): “The very, very, very frustrating issue of a house that has been sitting and sitting, vacant and abandoned, and dilapidated, and rat infested, and squirrel infested.”

A more than three hour budget hearing for the Department of Transportation was a near replica of last year’s hearing: many requests to amend the aldermanic menu program, and many questions on a long-delayed, but much touted, citywide lighting project.

No questions were asked of the Board of Ethics Thursday, as the Council’s Budget Committee concluded the Board’s hearing in less than five minutes. It had to be a record.

An ordinance establishing minimum wage in Cook County is expected to face a committee hearing next week, sponsor Larry Suffredin (D-13) told The Daily Line. The ordinance, co-sponsored by Finance Chairman John Daley (D-11), already has eight of nine commissioner votes needed. It closely mirrors Chicago’s minimum wage ordinance and would bring minimum wages up to $13 per hour county-wide by July of 2019. It appears to be on the fast track: the item was introduced October 5.

The Chicago Board of Ethics approved a staff opinion Wednesday, which does not yet have binding effect, that would limit city elected officials from receiving sports tickets at any price, unless the elected official were invited to the game to perform some “ceremonial duty or action.” The opinion was debated behind closed doors in executive session by the Board of Ethics and will not be be voted on until next month’s Board meeting, according to newly-appointed Chair William Conlon. The opinion will not take effect until voted on.

Three high rise apartment and condo buildings will be under consideration at today’s Plan Commission meeting, as well as a major new manufacturing facility in Hegewisch to build new L cars.

 

The Cook County Board of Review, the body responsible for property tax appeals, saw its highest volume of appeals in the board’s history, Commissioner Michael Cabonargi (D) said at a roughly 30 minute budget hearing appearance Wednesday: 476,000 parcels during the Chicago triennial this past year, beating the 2009 peak of 439,000. The 2015 appeal spike increase is directly related to the property tax increase enacted in Chicago, fellow Commissioner Larry Rogers, Jr. (D) said, and has been expected by appeal-watchers. 50,178 individual taxpayers appealed, and 64.1% were successful in 2015, according to Board of Review data.

Commissioners pushed President Preckwinkle’s Chief of Staff Brian Hamer and Budget Director Tanya Anthony yesterday to explain certain staffing and raises in the President’s Office, bringing up cuts some commissioners’ had made, but others hadn’t. Comm. Robert Steele (D-2) singled out a press position within the President’s Office that appeared to have a $40,000 jump in salary, demanding an explanation. It’s the second salary conversation in as many days, with complaints that the budget books don’t tell the full story of how commissioners’ offices spend their money.  

Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough, the subject of an upcoming binding ballot referendum that threatens the existence of her office, sat for a brief budget hearing Wednesday morning, as did Cook County Democratic Party Chairman and Assessor Joe Berrios.