Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) is pictured during a City Council meeting in October. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Police and Fire will meet Monday morning to consider an ordinance that raises the retirement ages for police officers and firefighters and an ordinance establishing a comprehensive staffing analysis for the police department. 

The committee will also hold a subject matter hearing on a report on the city and police department’s progress toward consent decree compliance covering the first half of 2023.  

The Chicago Police Department emblem outside of Chicago's public safety headquarters is pictured in this file photo. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A judge ordered a stay of Chicago Police Board disciplinary proceedings on Wednesday following the City Council declining for the second week in a row to hold a second vote on a provision of the city’s new contract with the Chicago police union that would give officers facing serious discipline the chance to have their cases decided in private proceedings.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez speaks to reporters after giving her “State of the Clerk’s Office” address in 2021. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Incumbent Cook County Circuit Clerk Iris Martinez is facing a primary opponent who has more cash on hand and is outspending her despite the clerk’s campaign raising more outside money than her opponent in the last three months of 2023, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections last month. 

Chicago became the largest U.S. city to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza, as the City Council passed a resolution Wednesday with a tie-breaking vote from Mayor Brandon Johnson and despite a temporary delay of the proceedings due to public disruptions. 

“People have flooded aldermanic offices with emails, thousands and thousands of emails of people demanding that we take a stance on a ceasefire. That was what drove us to get this done,” Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33), one of the lead sponsors of the resolution and chair of the committee where the resolution received initial approval, said following the passage of the resolution. 

The council did not hold a scheduled vote on the option for union-represented police officers to have serious disciplinary decisions decided in private proceedings.

The Chicago Police Department emblem outside of Chicago's public safety headquarters is pictured in this file photo. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Workforce Development voted along the same lines as last month to reject a provision of the contract between the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police and city that would allow police officers accused of serious misconduct to have their disciplinary cases heard by private arbitration. The provision will go before the City Council Wednesday for the second time. 

DFSS Comm. Brandie Knazze speaks during a news conference on the migrant shelter limit policy Monday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A day after Mayor Brandon Johnson announced his administration would postpone a policy that limits temporary stays for migrants in city shelters to 60 days, the City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights held a subject matter hearing on the conditions and operations of the shelters. 

Related: Johnson announces another delay of 60-day limit for migrant shelter stays, evictions pushed back to March

During Tuesday’s hearing, Deputy Mayor for Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights Beatriz Ponce De León said the city was working in collaboration with the state and Cook County to develop “a shared strategy … to address this mission together, looking for ways that we can leverage our combined resources and expand shelter capacity outside of Chicago.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson gives a press conference on the fifth floor of City Hall Monday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The city will not evict any migrants from its shelters until at least March, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced at a news conference on Monday.

The 60-day limit for shelter stays for migrants had been set to go into effect Feb. 1 after it had been delayed previously due to freezing temperatures.

Ald. Andre Vasquez (40) chairs a meeting of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights in October 2023. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

A City Council panel will meet Tuesday for a subject matter hearing on the conditions at the city’s migrant shelters and the performance of an agency contracted by the city to operate the shelters. 

The Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights will meet at 9 a.m. in City Council chambers.

Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22) is the chair of the Committee on Workforce Development. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council’s workforce development committee will on Tuesday consider again the arbitration provision of the new contract with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police ahead of a City Council meeting and a court hearing on Wednesday. The committee is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. in council chambers.

New Cook County Comm. Tara Stamps is appointed on June 20, 2023 by local county Democratic committeepersons in Oak Park. Zerlina Smith-Members stands beside Stamps, to her right. [Cook County Democratic Party livestream]

Cook County Comm. Tara Stamps (D-1) remains ahead of her Democratic Party primary opponent in garnering outside financial support even though she has less cash on hand overall, according to recently filed campaign finance reports for the fourth quarter of 2023, which lasted from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

The mayor visited the teams that will undertake an annual count of the city’s unhoused population, and the City Council’s health and human relations committee will get a chance to ask the new public health commissioner questions at an upcoming meeting.

Flags fly outside City Hall in this file photo. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

An option for police officers facing serious discipline to have their cases decided in private arbitration will go back to the Committee on Workforce Development after it did not receive a vote at City Council as planned.

The City Council is pictured during a meeting in September 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council will take another vote Wednesday on a controversial provision of the new contract with the union representing rank-and-file Chicago Police officers a month after the provision was rejected by alderpeople. 

The council is also set to consider final approval of two expensive legal settlement agreements while a full council vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip will be delayed.

Ald. Maria Hadden (49) speaks about the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance during a news conference Tuesday. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

The mayor, a group of City Council members and multiple business and environmental advocacy groups alike are backing legislation, set to be introduced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, that would effectively ban the use of fossil fuels such as natural gas in newly constructed buildings. 

If passed, the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance (O2024-0007305) will set new indoor emissions standards for new construction, effectively requiring the use of electricity to heat new buildings and the use of all-electric appliances in most cases.

34th Ward Ald. Bill Conway is pictured during a City Council meeting in October 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Two Chicago alderpeople have introduced legislation to prevent large sums of the city’s federal pandemic relief funds from being used without City Council oversight and consent.

Alds. Bill Conway (34) and Scott Waguespack (32) said the legislation they introduced, which would require the City Council to approve any allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars if the allocation was larger than $1 million, was spurred by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s spending of nearly $100 million late last year without notifying the council.