Earlier this week, City Treasurer Kurt Summers sent letters to three of the fiveChicago employee pension funds recommending they join a growing federal class action suit against banks for selling them interest rate transactions, or so-called “toxic swaps”. Two other employee pension funds, those for teachers and the police, have already made moves to join the suit, with the police deciding to join just last week, according to the Treasurer’s Office.

[Read Teacher’s Pension Fund complaint.]

While the merits of a potential case are still to be decided by the courts, Summers’ support for suing the banks puts daylight between him, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city CFO Carole Brown, who told reporters last January that the city found “no evidence that would support a claim” against banks for toxic swaps purchased by city financial managers. But Summers is pushing a different angle than the city, his team says.

Summers, who sits on the boards of all city employee pension funds, also happens to be an oft-discussed 2019 candidate for Mayor.

It’s a highly technical, but important piece of daylight, since unions and aldermen in the Progressive Caucus have been accusing the city siding with banks first, ensuring bankers get paid while raising taxes and cutting city services.

A statement issued by the Chicago Teachers Union earlier this week lauded the Treasurer’s move. “Summers' letter confirms what the Chicago Teachers Union, parent and student activists, and community organizations have been saying for years—our city, our school system and our state must pursue the recovery of profits unjustly taken through Wall Street greed.”

This morning the Council Progressive Caucus also released a statement supporting Summers. “We are pleased to hear that the Treasurer has broken from the Emanuel administration’s position that suing the big banks over toxic swaps is impossible,” said Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22). “The banks have reaped historic and unjust profits in these deals.”

Treasurer Summers’ team contends there’s no political motive behind his recent promotion of a class action suit. “There’s no special timing to it other than he’s trying to do his job as a fiduciary,” said spokesperson Alexandra Sims. “He has a job to be transparent, that’s what he’s doing.”

The anti-trust suit Summers suggests pension funds join is in its early stages, months away from applying for class certification, and is vastly complicated, stretching over multiple jurisdictions. It hinges on the ability of the complainants, which is made up of city and state pension funds from across the country, to demonstrate that the banks were purposefully keeping swap transaction markets murky, so banks would always make money.

“You’d have to go directly to the banks, and these banks have worked together to keep the open markets from seeing the light of day. If you had a market platform, you would have had more efficient pricing, and you could have saved money on the whole transaction,” says Drew Beres, General Counsel for the Treasurer’s Office.

The potential defendant list is a mile long, including every big investment bank you’ve ever heard of, and the case, even if it does manage to win class certification, will likely take years to grind through federal court. But, if the pension funds win the case, because it’s an anti-trust case it could result in treble damages from the banks, equaling tens of billions of dollars. To give you a sense of the stakes, a similar, much smaller case was settled by investment banks for $1.87 billion in 2015.

But regardless of how the case goes, Summers may have just shot the first salvo in the 2019 elections.

At a day long, often boisterous City Council Joint License and Transportation Committee hearing on a plan to increase regulations for drivers of ride-hailing companies to “level the playing field” with the yellow taxi industry, executives of Uber and Lyft threatened that a regulatory crackdown would “end ride-sharing as we know it” in Chicago.

There was no vote, only debate and public testimony, on Transportation ChairmanAnthony Beale’s (9) ordinance requiring Uber and Lyft drivers apply for a public chauffeur's license, be subject to background checks and fingerprinting, and make 5% of their fleet handicap accessible. Uber and Lyft supporters and yellow cab drivers packed the gallery, often cheering and jeering at testimony. At one point, Chairman Beale threatened to clear the gallery if the disruptions continued.

The meeting was heated, with Uber and Lyft supporters often on the receiving end of fact-checking responses from pro-regulation aldermen, and pro-regulation aldermen receiving taunts from boisterous audience members. Most present agreed on the need for more wheelchair accessible cars, but could not agree on how to work that out. Division of opinions was especially prominent on the issue of requiring fingerprinting for ride-hail drivers.  

At one point Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1), one of the few vocal Uber sympathizers on the Council, said, “I have more security when I get out of Uber or Lyft than I do with the taxi cab,” a cab driver in the gallery stood up and yelled, “You lie!” City Hall security had to intervene to get the driver to sit down.

“This is the Jetsons versus the Flintstones,” Moreno continued. “I am all for an even playing field, but why are we taking a very entrepreneurial industry and trying to have them go back to 70’s regulations?”

Both Ald. Moreno and Ald. Joe Moore (49) asked whether easing regulations on the taxi industry was an option–a suggestion also pitched by Uber Chief Advisor David Plouffe. Moreno claimed that the taxi industry was only interested in “killing” Uber, not working with them, citing the new fingerprinting rule. “I’d rather have a discussion about what we can do to lessen the restrictions on taxi cabs...bring them at least into 1990.”

But Moreno seemed to be in the minority. More than half the City Council has signed up to support Ald. Beale’s ordinance for more strict rideshare regulations, and few sounded off in support of deregulating cabs. Ald. John Arena (45) and Chairman Beale suggested Lyft and Uber should conform to new standards or leave Chicago.

“It’s simply ensuring we are doing the best we can to protect consumers," Arena said, arguing proposed changes were reasonable, and could be completed in a day. "If the industry doesn’t want to meet a very low standard, then go somewhere else where those standards are acceptable.” Arena noted if Uber and Lyft drivers could take a day off to testify, they could do the same to take an expedited one day class to achieve their chauffeur's license. 

And former 17th Ward Ald. Latasha Thomas, now counsel for law firm Reyes Kurson, which represents the taxi lobbying group the Illinois Transportation Trade Association, the taxi lobby, said it didn’t make sense that beauticians jump through more hoops than Uber drivers to get a license. “There’s more risk to getting in someone’s car than doing my nails,” she said.

Joseph Okpaku, Vice President of Government Relations for Lyft, said there is a greater risk of Chicagoans losing citywide transportation access and a chance to make extra money if the regulations were approved. He said there was a “distinct possibility” the company would leave Chicago if their drivers had to spend time and money to conform to the new rules. Part time drivers represent a “critical mass” of the service, he said. Extra barriers to access might dissuade them from signing up in the first place.

“We have never operated in a city with requirements like that,” he said of the proposed chauffeur’s license rule. Both sides frequently mentioned the company’s withdrawal from Austin, Texas, after voters there approved a ballot referendum requiring fingerprinting for drivers a few weeks ago.  

Marco McCottry, a General Manager for Uber, agreed, saying Chicago already has some of the strictest regulations on the books. “If this ordinance were to pass, ride-sharing as we know it would no longer exist in Chicago," he said. Chairman Beale shot back, saying a multi-billion dollar company could eat the cost. He also chastised the representatives and accused them of spreading lies about his ordinance through “scare tactics.”

Uber and Lyft have both actively lobbied riders and drivers online, on the radio, and on TV, encouraging supporters to contact their local alderman to vote against Beale’s ordinance. Uber has claimed changes would nearly double the cost of rides.

Chairman Beale said the hearing was supposed to be about “increasing safety” and creating parity between the two industries, but race, the lack of jobs and transportation to the city’s South and West Sides were brought up frequently.

“The taxi industry had a monopoly in this town and they didn’t have to innovate.” Ald. Moreno said prompting cheers from the gallery. “And now here comes Uber, and Latinos and African-Americans are driving more cars because of Uber and Lyft than ever in the taxicab industry.”

Okpaku and McCottry said their platforms filled a void. 80% of drivers for Lyft drive less than 15 hours a week and most are full time students, retirees or in between jobs, Okpaku said. McCorry testified that Uber has led several recruitment efforts in neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, adding about 11,000 new drivers from those areas to the platform.

Both Okpaku and McCottry said requiring that their drivers get fingerprinted would unfairly impact communities of color where there are higher concentrations of arrests. But two former police officers on the Council, Aldermen Chris Taliaferro (29) and Anthony Napolitano (41) said it’s the only way to get an accurate portrayal of a person’s criminal history.

“One thing I don’t want to do, no matter what, under any circumstance, is compromise safety,” said Ald. Taliaferro. “There was a reason why we did fingerprinting with the police department. Fingerprinting tells us things you don’t want us to know.”

“I’m upset when I hear these arguments about discrimination, against workers, against people of color,” said Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35). He said he was offended that a multi-billion dollar company was pitting workers against each other and trying to evade regulations by claiming their companies help predominately low-income Chicagoans.

By the four hour mark, when it was the public’s time to testify, Ald. Beale employed a buzzer to prevent people from going over a two minute limit. Most of the public testimony came from Uber, Lyft, and cab drivers, with a handful of advocates for more handicapped accessible vehicles.

Ezzedin Abdelmagid, a member of Cab Drivers United, said, “the taxi industry is on the verge of collapse”, echoing previous testimony he made earlier this year at a previous License Committee meeting. “You must create a fair set of rules for all of us.” He said that deregulating the taxi industry was a “terrible” idea.

Parallel to Beale’s ordinance, the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection is working on its own compromise, spurred, in part, by a U.S. District Court decision that said the distinctions between regulations taxis and “transportation network providers” (TNPs) appeared “utterly arbitrary” and that “the requirements for taxis are far more onerous than for TNPs.” The decision allowed taxi interest to pursue equal protection claims against the city.

After the meeting, Chairman Beale said he plans to schedule a vote on his plan ahead of the next City Council meeting. Beale said he might tweak the plan, but “doesn’t scare easy.”

The Illinois Supreme Court rules a state pension reform law is unconstitutional, forcing Mayor Emanuel to find a new way to fix its struggling Municipal and Labor funds. Aldermen with the Black and Latino Caucus call for public vetting of the three finalists for the city’s top cop vacancy. IPRA’s new chief orders an external audit of closed police involved shooting cases dating back to 2007. And the Chicago Teachers’ Union authorizes a strike. 

Owners of burned cars will face new reporting requirements after the Committee on Public Safety approved its only agenda item–an ordinance aimed at reducing toxic car fires in the city, increasing coordination between arson investigators at the Chicago Police and Fire Departments, and stopping insurance fraud.

“This closes a loophole,” Ald. Matt O’Shea (19), the chief sponsor explained, saying it lets CPD and CFD investigators work together as soon as car fires are reported. “There were more than 900 vehicles burned last year in the City of Chicago. That’s an astronomical number.”

Attendance: Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30), Gregory Mitchell (7), Anthony Beale (9), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Matt O’Shea (19), Nicholas Sposato (38), Anthony Napolitano (41), Ameya Pawar (47)

“Yearly, the National Insurance Crime Board, they’ve seen about a doubling in the amount of auto fires that’s reported to them,” Michael Murphy of the Chicago Fire Department’s Office of Fire Investigation told aldermen, sometimes criminally, to cash in on insurance claims. He estimates while his office conducts upward of 1,200 fire investigations a year, only 15 to 20 are for car fires. “A gross number are going uninvestigated.”

Murphy says the new ordinance would require those who own a car damaged by fire to make an appointment at CFD’s Office of Fire Investigation. The car owner would meet with staff from CFD and a staff from CPD’s Arson Division, and file a report attesting to the accuracy of their claims. Interviews would be similar to those conducted for house or garage fires. Car owners would have to provide identification, proof of car ownership and insurance information to cross-check with city records. Based on that interview, CPD and CFD investigators would then be able to determine whether the fire required more investigation. “We’re going to coordinate very closely,” Murphy says.

Roger Krupp with the International Association of Arson Investigators said the ordinance would be “groundbreaking,” and he hoped it will work as a deterrent for would-be arsonists hoping to fraudulently cash in on insurance claims. “It makes people think ‘I’m not going to go through this, there’s too much to get this insurance money.’”

The Chicago Police Department’s Sgt. Richard Sliva told aldermen “There were 916 vehicle fires in Chicago in 2015. The Arson section responded to approximately 133 of those fires… that leaves a big gap of people we didn’t talk to.”   

Former firefighter Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) said the ordinance was long overdue. “Every year that we’re fighting auto fires, they’re getting worse and worse… they’re so toxic… they’re so combustible. You’re not just putting a car out, they’re exploding on you as you put them out.”

Aldermen are meeting with officials from the Mayor’s Office this week for briefings on the administration’s planned reforms to increase police oversight. Aldermen who attended those briefings told Aldertrack there was no ordinance language distributed, just a one page handout that mirrors the Mayor’s “next steps” for police reform outlined in an op-ed in the Sun-Times on May 13.

In that editorial, Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised to “have the final details worked out on a comprehensive plan to fundamentally reshape our system of police accountability” ready for introduction at the full City Council meeting on June 22, with input from the Department of Justice, experts in the field, and aldermen. The Mayor promised to scrap the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and create a new public safety auditor position.

According to the handout, the administration’s guiding principles for the new police accountability ordinance include:

• Civilian oversight "that is independent and more transparent"

• An independent Public Safety Inspector General with "authority to audit and monitor the entire discipline system"

• A Civilian Police Investigation Agency (CPIA) to replace IPRA

• A Community Safety Oversight Board (CSOB) to “give a voice to Chicago residents whose lives are affected daily by police practices.”

At public CSOB meetings, each discipline agency, CPIA and the Public Safety Inspector General, as well as the Chicago Police Department’s existing Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Chicago Police Review Board, would report on data and major incidents.

Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10), who attended one of yesterday’s briefings with a handful of colleagues, said there’s “nothing set in stone,” yet, “no language was distributed,” and said it was more of an “information gathering session,” with lots of questions from aldermen.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36), who was also briefed yesterday, said officials with the Mayor’s Office suggested a hybrid of elected and appointed officials to serve on the CSOB. Like Garza, he said there were no concrete proposals. “They wanted to hear ideas from us in order to incorporate it into the ordinance,” he said.  

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) seemed less than impressed with the briefing, telling Aldertrack in a text message, “Not much in it.”

Shown the handout given to aldermen at briefings, police reform watchers largely say the devil will be in the details, especially on how board members and leaders of new agencies can maintain independence from the political process, and whether IPRA’s replacement will have the funding it needs to investigate effectively.

“It looks good, but I think the devil’s going to be in the details on this civilian oversight thing,” said Anton Seals, Jr., a Community and Neighborhood Coordinator at DePaul University. He said those most affected by police misconduct should serve on the board. Picking truly independent leadership to serve as the Inspector General or head of the CPIA will also prove difficult, says Seals. “The trick there is because this is so political, how do you find an honest voice?”

Karen Sheley, Director of the Police Practices Project at the ACLU of Illinois said her initial reaction was generally positive, but “the real question is not so much on this page but what’s gonna be in the details of whatever ordinance gets proposed.” She says she’d like to know the scope of jurisdiction for IPRA's replacement, how the heads of each agency will be empowered to act independently, how long appointments will last, and whether there will be more funding for the new investigative agency. "Are they willing to tie a percentage of the funding to CPD?"

Richard Wooten, a retired police officer and Police Accountability Task Force working group member, said he’d love to see a percentage of the police department budget dedicated to CPIA. Investigative power without resources is “like putting a lame duck out there and saying go to work,” he told Aldertrack.

“Of course it’s not enough, with such a broken system,” activist Ja’Mal Green said. “They are steps towards changing things. But [Mayor Emanuel] just wants to try to win people over.” While the civilian board is “big” he believes bigger change is needed. “I want IPRA dismantled, the Police Board dismantled. I don’t want Rahm appointing anyone to any boards. We want something that is really independent.”

The Emanuel Administration has reached a tentative agreement to put the city’s Laborers pension fund, the smallest of the city’s four vastly underfunded retirement funds, towards a path to solvency, while a solution for another retirement fund for public employees remains unsolved.

A previous pension overhaul of both the city’s Laborer and Municipal Funds, which represent about 79,000 public employees, including non-teacher staff at Chicago Public Schools, was found unconstitutional in March by the Illinois Supreme Court. Yesterday, the city said it reached an agreement with one of those funds: The Laborers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago (LABF). That plan will need approval from Springfield.

During a late afternoon briefing with reporters yesterday, Budget Director Alex Holtannounced the city plans to dedicate all of the revenue from a 2014 increase in the 911 surcharge to make increased pension payments to the Laborers’ fund starting in 2018. That $3.90 surcharge the city approved in 2014, up from $2.50, was originally earmarked for increased pension payments due to both the city’s Laborers and Municipal funds as part of a funding ramp recently found unconstitutional. The surcharge brings in about $40 million in annual revenue. The remainder of the annual pension payment for Labor, about $15 million, would come out of property tax revenue.

Holt and city Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown said yesterday that “conversations are ongoing...and everything is on the table” as it relates to finding new revenue for the city’s contribution to the Municipal Fund, which represents a larger portion of city employees. Labor has roughly 8,000 members, while Municipal has about 70,000.

Both funds are expected to run out of money in about a decade. The net position for the Laborers’ plan as of Dec. 31, 2015 was $1.2 billion, a $149 million decrease from 2014. That decrease is largely attributable to a statutorily-defined multiplier the city uses to base its annual pension payments. The fund has had to annually liquidate about $130 million of its investment assets in the past two years to pay out benefits to retirees.

Under the agreement the city reached with the trustees of the Laborers’ fund, beneficiaries hired on or after January 1st, 2017 would be offered a choice: pay a larger share of benefits, about three percentage points more than current beneficiaries and retire two years earlier, or pay the existing 8.5% rate and retire with benefits at 67. Giving beneficiaries a “choice” will help the city get around a clause in the state constitution that prohibits pension funds from diminishing future benefits owed to current retirees.

Starting with the 2017 pension contribution, which will be made in 2018, the city would increase its payments to the Laborers’ fund by 30% per year over five years. By 2022, the city will achieve actuarially required contributions, with annual payments to the fund increasing by approximately $3 million to $5 million annually.

The agreement will need state approval, and Brown and Holt say a bill won’t be introduced until the late summer or fall. But Holt maintains that unlike the last pension overhaul plan, SB 1922, which the state’s highest court found unconstitutional and the pension funds opposed, labor will work with the city to get it passed.

Few details were provided on the call for how the city plan to address the soon to be insolvent Municipal Fund, which was included in the unconstitutional pension reform. CFO Brown said while they are not in a position to talk about what funding sources the city is currently looking at to make those payments, the agreement they made with Labor provides “a good framework.”

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee meets today and has only one item on the agenda: an ordinance from Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) requiring owners of recently burned vehicles to report the damage to the city’s Fire Commissioner.

Ald. O’Shea introduced the measure in February. It would require that the owner of record for the burned vehicle submit a “signed statement” detailing what happened to the car in addition to any other information the commissioner deems necessary to determine the accuracy of the statement. Violators would be fined between $200 - $1,000 for each offense. The ordinance would take effect 90 days after publication.

The Chicago City Council spends two days debating ever-evolving Airbnb regulations from the Mayor’s Office. The City Council approves a new zoning tool to link downtown development to some of the city’s most blighted and economically underserved neighborhoods–even as one alderman labels it a “slush fund.” And we recap the monthly Council meeting: bonds, settlements, and an attempt to curb dog poop from piling up on people’s lawns.

Another recently appointed, pro-affordable housing member of the Chicago Plan Commission, Bishop John R. Bryant, is being replaced. Bryant’s resignation from the 22-member land use board follows Juan Linares’ exit in April. Both were appointed by the Mayor last summer, and both were vocal about their affordable housing concerns.

Bryant is the Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Presiding Bishop of the 4th Episcopal District. His ministry is in the city’s Grand Boulevard neighborhood.

Linares is the Executive Director of LUCHA, an organization on the city’s Northwest Side that focuses on affordable housing. After his resignation from the Plan Commission, he was appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the council yesterday to serve on another body that might be more in his wheelhouse: the Low Income Housing Trust Fund Board. As one of 15 members on the board, Linares will decide whether buildings receive rental subsidies or interest-free forgivable loans to create more units for very low-income individuals or families.

But Bryant’s future is unclear. At yesterday’s City Council meeting, an ordinance was introduced requesting the Zoning Committee consider his replacement, Rev. Albert D. Tyson III, and noted Bryant’s resignation. Tyson has served Saint Stephen African Methodist Episcopal Church since 1985, in addition to holding a slew of city-run board positions, including a spot on the Public Building Commission and on the Board of Trustees for City Colleges of Chicago.

Although his attendance has wavered over the past few months, Bryant is best remembered for his concerns over minority hiring at the Wanda Vista Tower project, the lack of one-for-one replacement of public housing for the massive redevelopment of CHA’s Lathrop Homes, and a long soliloquy he gave questioning the purpose of TIF funds after the redevelopment team for the Cuneo Hospital site presented their plans.

In November, when the development team for the Wanda Vista project presented their plans for a “supertall” downtown skyscraper, an unusual debate about the lack of minority contractors, sparked by George Blakemore, a fixture at public meetings, unsettled a number of commissioners of the planning board. Saying Blakemore’s comments “struck a nerve,” Bryant, who was new to the board, demanded the developers respond to Blakemore’s questions about minority hiring.

“The underclass in this country is growing at an alarming rate, and [we’re] in a place where we can do something about it, so I really need to hear some response,” Bryant said. A representative from Magellan Development told him the company employed minority contractors, but didn’t track numbers.

“My spirit was not at peace with your answer,” Commissioner Bryant replied, prompting other members to more sharply question developers. At the Lathrop hearing in February, Commissioner Bryant voted “no,” after expressing concern about the divided testimony over the public housing component.

And when JDL Development went before the body in January to present their plans to build a massive housing complex with more than 600 units at the site of the former Cuneo Hospital and Maryville Academy Shelter in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, Bryant sided with the protesters who lamented a TIF subsidy made available to help support the project.

The Plan Commission doesn’t deal with TIF subsidies, it deals with zoning and city-owned land sales. But at that meeting, Bryant said he was “misled” when he accepted a spot on the board and “disturbed and upset” with the affordable housing issue. “My life has been speaking for the poor, marginalized, and oppressed,” Bryant began, “The unemployment rate is alarming. I’ve sat on this commission trusting those who invited me to serve, and I have acted on this committee with a great deal of trust from those who invited me.”

Two proposed hotels, one for Hyde Park the other for Michigan Avenue, and a live-work artist loft space for a historic mansion in the city’s Pullman neighborhood are on the Plan Commission agenda for today.

The body will also take up for the second time a plan from the Park District to expand a parking lot at the 31st Street beach. It was held at last month’s meeting following vocal concerns from newly-appointed 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King. King isn’t a member of the Plan Commission, but the parking lot and neighboring harbor are in her ward. In her first appearance before the land-use body, she expressed concerns that beach access has been difficult for her and residents in the community. Aldertrack spoke to Ald. King about her discussions with the Park District last week, and she said meetings have been productive.   

This week’s packed 13-item agenda is also noticeably less downtown-centric. Here are the highlights:

11127-29 South Langley Avenue; 704-06 East 112th Street (9th Ward) - A team of art and neighborhood organizations are behind a plan to transform a 18,500 square foot parcel of vacant land sandwiched between two historic apartment buildings in the city’s Pullman neighborhood to build lofts for artists. The so-called Pullman Artspace Lofts project has been more than five years in the making and calls for the rehabilitation of the two existing historic apartment buildings coupled with the construction of a new 34,000-square-foot, three story building to be located in the empty lot.

Pending zoning approval, the two rehabilitated buildings would have six units each, while the newly constructed masonry building will hold 26 units, with ground floor communal artist and exhibition space. “[The project] provides the opportunity to integrate historic preservation with cutting edge new construction and create an iconic group of buildings that anchor Pullman’s eastern boundary,” the project’s website notes.

All 38 live/work units will be made affordable. Pullman Artspace, LLC filed a planned development application with the city in February 2016. According to the Economic Disclosure Statement, the LLC is made up of Minnesota-based Artspace Projects, Inc. (55%), Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (40%), and Pullman Arts (5%). The project is also designated as a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) due to its proximity to the the Metra. Plans call for 17 parking spaces and 25 bike stalls.

1050 West Wilson Avenue; (46th Ward) - Cedar Street Capital Partners filed an application with the city in September 2015 under the name “Halsted Commons, LLC” to rezone the former Wilson Avenue Theater and later TCF Bank building into a planned development. Plans call for the restoration of the century-old building and construct an adjacent seven story, dark grey brick mixed-use residential building that would include ground floor retail, 110 dwelling units, and 16 parking spaces.

The development team is represented by Paul Shadle and Katie Jahnke Dale of zoning law firm DLA Piper. According to the Illinois Real Estate Journal, Ceder Property bought the historic theater building for $625,000, and, according to DNAinfo, local housing advocates are not thrilled with the housing plans for the site. Four people are listed on the Economic Disclosure Statement for Halsted Commons, LLC: David Duckler (33.3% ownership); Alex Samoylovich (25.5%), Jay Michael (25.5%), and Tom Kim (10%). Due to the September filing date, the application falls under the old, 2007 affordable housing regulations. Michael, a well-known developer in Uptown, died in January from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

800 South Michigan Avenue (4th Ward) - This application is for the proposed residential and hotel tower planned for the parking garage next to the Essex Inn. The development team, which is a joint venture of Oxford Capital Group and Quadrum Global, is seeking to build an approximately 620-foot residential building that will include: 476 dwelling units, 100 hotel keys, and about 100 parking spaces.  

171 North Wabash Avenue (42nd Ward) - The applicant, RZR LLC Wabash, wants to amend an existing planned development (no.116) to allow residential use: 60 units in a seven-story building with ground floor retail and related uses. According to the Chicago Architecture Blog, the site was a long-planned office building, and is located a block away from the Experience 73 building.

5001 N. Kedzie Avenue (33rd & 39th Ward) - North Park University filed an application with the city to incorporate land it already owns into an existing planned development (no.707) for the construction of a surface parking lot. According to the Plan Commission agenda, the parking lot will hold up to 79 cars. The university is seeking a rezone of underlying zoning of the planned development to make that possible.

1730 West Wrightwood Avenue (32nd Ward) - The applicant, Broader 1730 WW, LLC, is seeking to establish a new planned development to construct three four-story residential buildings for a total of 76 residential units. Each unit will have a corresponding parking stall. The subject property, which is located near the corner of West Wrightwood and North Hermitage Avenue, is currently zoned for manufacturing (M2-3, which is a “light Industry district”).

The underlying zoning they are seeking is a Residential Multi-Unit District (RM-5). The property is located south of the Lathrop Homes, behind the Menards. It was a former outlet store for Tag Furnishings. According to Curbed Chicago, a previous plan had called for the replacement of the industrial facility with two masonry and glass buildings designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners.

6250 North Sheridan Road (48th Ward) - Convent of the Sacred Heart of Chicago filed an application with the city to transform a parking lot on their campus into a recreational field. Since the campus is already part of an existing Planned Development (No. 788), school officials filed an amendment to the PD.

5140-5190 North Northwest Highway (45th Ward) - Ald. John Arena filed an application for a map amendment to downzone this property from a manufacturing designated district (M1-1) to a neighborhood shopping district (B1-1). The agenda says there is no proposed construction included in the application.

1344-60 South Union Street; 700-14 West 14th Street; 701-13 W. Liberty Street (11th Ward) -  The applicant, PMG UV Investments, LLC, is seeking a planned development to construct an approximately 79-foot buildings with 99 residential units and accessory parking on a 26,000 square-foot parcel. The current underlying zoning for the site is limited manufacturing (M1-3)

1136-40 South Wabash Avenue; 26 E. Roosevelt Road (4th Ward) - The applicant is an LLC with the same name as the address. They’re seeking to establish a planned development by rezoning the subject site from a DX-12 to a residential business planned development. The proposal would establish two sub areas. One subarea would hold a 26-story mixed-use building with ground floor retail, 320 residential units, and accessory parking. The other subarea already has a one-story commercial building, which will remain unchanged.

After a month without a hearing or vote on paid sick leave, proponents are calling for Workforce Development and Audit Chair Pat O’Connor (40) to call up the ordinance, first introduced in April, but in the works for months. O’Connor said aldermen won’t hear it until after Springfield’s legislative session ends on May 31.

Several important Chicago issues, including school funding reform and SB 777, a bill reforming Police and Fire Pensions, await major moves from the governor and state legislators. And aldermen have been likewise occupied with big issues, including regulations on short-term rentals like Airbnb, police reform, additional licensing and background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers, and changes to the city’s zoning classification to create a neighborhood opportunity bonus.

But Ald. Ameya Pawar (47), the chair of the task force convened to research the issue, said paid sick and expanded medical leave is just as pressing. “There’s 460,000 people that don’t have access to paid sick leave, and quite frankly, a lot of us are tired of having to put their needs on the back burner for other issues,” Pawar told Aldertrack. “This issue is equally as important as reforms to the police department and CPS funding inequities, because they all impact the same people. We need a vote next month.”

Pawar stood with Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), lead ordinance sponsor Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38), Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), and paid sick leave proponents at a press conference ahead of yesterday’s City Council to call for a vote. The ordinance has 39 sponsors, and is the second attempt to pass paid sick leave since 2014. After a failed vote on that previous ordinance, the issue received overwhelming support in a 2015 ballot referendum. Mayor Emanuel convened a task force, the Working Families Working Group, to examine best practices shortly after, which took more than half a year to issue its recommendations.

Those recommendations were lambasted by two members of the task force–the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. Both said paid sick leave is an added burden to businesses weighed down by rising property taxes and Chicago’s minimum wage.

“We’ve jumped through every hoop that the administration asked us to do, and now we’ve come to the end and we’re still waiting,” Ald. Foulkes said at the press conference. “It’s not fair for the working families of the city.”

Pawar wouldn’t speculate on the reason for the hold-up. “I think there’s a lot of moving parts in Springfield, and obviously the CPS issue,” he said, referring to Chicago Public Schools’ funding problems and Chicago interests in the stalled budget negotiations downstate.

Ald. O’Connor confirmed as much to Aldertrack. “We are looking at trying to see what happens in Springfield on a couple of the initiatives that the city has between now and the end of this month, which clearly would impact the city’s future and the city’s revenue picture. We don’t want to do anything that creates some kind of an excuse or some kind of a reason for Springfield to jump off some of the things we’re asking for,” he said. “If you harken back to the minimum wage, when we passed it, a lot of people in Springfield were pretty upset with us and pretty irate before they had a chance to say that we could do it or before they had a chance to pre-empt us.” 

“Springfield’s dysfunction shouldn’t be an excuse for working families not being able to take a day off to care for themselves or a sick child,” said Zach Koutsky, Legislative & Political Director for UFCW Local 881. “Working families can’t wait for the stalemate in Springfield to end to pass Earned Sick Leave. The time to do so is now.”

A resolution confirming new committee memberships for aldermen was introduced and immediately adopted at City Council yesterday, codifying shifts and new chairmanships that had been in effect for a few weeks. The reassignments reflect the hole left by Ald. Will Burns’ (4) exit to lobby for Airbnb. Some of his committee positions were simply filled by his replacement, Ald. Sophia King (4), including on Housing and Real Estate, Workforce Development and Audit, Pedestrian and Traffic Safety, and Transportation and Public Way.

King will also serve on Health and Environmental Protection, but won’t take Burns’ seat on Finance Committee. That position will go to Ald. Derrick Curtis (18), a self admitted “ward guy” who isn’t often spotted around City Hall. Ald. John Arena (45) will take fellow Progressive Caucus member Nick Sposato's (38) seat on Education and Child Development Committee, now chaired by Ald. Howard Brookins (21). Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) is now a voting member of the Zoning Committee.

Lopez will also serve on Budget and Government Operations, alongside new members Gregory Mitchell (7), and Nicholas Sposato (38). Both Deb Mell (33) and Harry Osterman (48) are now off that committee. Sposato has been named new vice chair of the Aviation Committee, taking Ald. Ameya Pawar's (47) spot.

Gregory Mitchell (7) is now vice chair of Housing and Real Estate, making him the only freshman alderman with a vice chairmanship.   

Another dysfunctional hearing on Airbnb regulations ultimately ended the way vocal North Side aldermen and Airbnb proponents hoped: in delay, with Joint Housing and License Committee co-chair Ald. Joe Moore (49) saying he would not move the ordinance to the full Council for at least a month so aldermen, who clearly had many questions about regulations, could “take a breath.”  

Attendance: Chairman Joe Moore (49), Chairman Emma Mitts (37), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Michelle Harris (8), Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), George Cardenas (12), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie B. Cochran (20), Michael Scott Jr. (24), Roberto Maldonado (26), Walter Burnett Jr. (27), Chris Taliaferro (29), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Deb Mell (33), Carrie Austin (34), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), James Cappleman (46), Ameya Pawar (47)

The meeting was called to order roughly 15 minutes late. Dozens of the same Airbnb hosts and supporters that packed the audience the night before had returned. Members of the joint committee told reporters they’d yet to see any new language reworked late the night before–the third substitute in three days. The ordinance was first introduced by Mayor Emanuel back in January, but has faced stiff opposition from aldermen from wards with the most bookings, and from Airbnb proponents who don’t want to see the service’s growth stifled.

A one page summary of the latest changes was eventually distributed to all aldermen, and Housing Chairman Joe Moore (49) called for consideration of a substitute ordinance. Aldermen Michele Smith (43), Scott Waguespack (32), and John Arena(45) all objected, saying they hadn’t received the substitute. The summary was missing details on one of the biggest changes: administrative relief for high rise buildings.

Ald. Moore pushed back, suggesting as a courtesy, administration officials should be able to testify on the changes while ordinance language was copied and distributed. Smith refused again, and the meeting was delayed further until language could be passed out. Stuck in a holding pattern, aldermen milled around chambers while the clock got closer the council’s scheduled 10:00 a.m. start time.

At about 9:25, Ald. Moore again called the substitute up for consideration. Ald. Smith immediately motioned to lay the substitute on the table until next meeting of the License committee, and asked for a roll call vote. Smith and Moore engaged in a somewhat tense exchange about courtesy. “Would it be in the public's interest to at least hear from the commissioner before the motion?” Moore asked.

Smith remained obstinate and asked for a roll, and began to explain why, but Moore cut her off, and called for a roll. Some confused aldermen who’d been coming and going from chambers voted “yes,” believing the vote was to consider or adopt the substitute. Ald. Moore had to talk above the fray, explain the motion, and re-start the roll.  

Vote to Table:

Yeas (8): Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), Matt O’Shea (19), Scott Waguespack (32), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45)

Nays (12): Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Michelle Harris (8), Michael Scott, Jr., (24), Roberto Maldonado (26), Walter Burnett, Jr. (27), Deb Mell (33), Emma Mitts (37), James Cappleman (46), Ameya Pawar (47), Joe Moore (49)

After the motion to table failed, the committee took up the substitute. Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) Commissioner Maria Guerra Lapacek was again pummeled with brand new questions about BACP’s enforcement capacity, the Department of Innovation and Technology’s (DoIT) ability to get a licensing database up and running within 150 days, and the mundane–like whether hosts could provide food or alcohol.

"I have a problem with voting on a 55 page document that I got five minutes ago," Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza said as questioning continued.

Lapacek said the giant loophole Ald. Smith took greatest issue with had been reworked. The new ordinance would cap the number of Airbnb rentals allowed in high-rises at six, and offer a guide to the commissioner when deciding waivers. Single family homes could only be listed if it is "the owner's primary resident [sic] AND the owner is present for the duration of the rental." Homeowners associations and condo boards could opt out, rental buildings could enforce their own rules, and renters would have to get permission from the apartment owner to list on Airbnb.

But unsatisfied, the questions continued from Ald. Arena, Smith, Tom Tunney (44), and Patrick Daley Thompson (11). Five minutes before 10:00 a.m., Ald. Carrie Austin (34) grew exasperated. “Roll call!” she yelled from the back row, telling colleagues around her the opponents could delay the vote another way, and Tuesday's hearing had been long enough. Ald. Michelle Harris (8) joined Austin’s calls. Chairman Moore wrapped testimony and called for a roll on the substitute.

Final Vote:

Yeas (17): Chairman Joe Moore (49) and Emma Mitts (37), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Greg Mitchell (7),  Michelle Harris (8), George Cardenas (12), David Moore (17), Willie B. Cochran (20), Michael Scott Jr. (24), Roberto Maldonado (26), Walter Burnett, Jr. (27), Ariel Reboyras (30), Deb Mell (33), Carrie Austin (34), James Cappleman (46), Ameya Pawar (47)

Nays (9): Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), Matt O’Shea (19), Chris Taliaferro (29), Scott Waguespack (32), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45)

After the failed vote, Smith told reporters, “I don’t think that this is good for democracy, to introduce an ordinance with this many changes at the last minute. We should consider this more. This is typical of the tactics that Airbnb has used in other cities around the globe. I’ve never been involved in regulating anything where we actually don’t know what we’re regulating.”

Ald. Marty Quinn (13), not normally one to make waves, voted both to delay and vote down the substitute. “We have some work to do on it. 95% of the 13th Ward are single family homes. I have some concerns about giving authority to supersede the zoning rules concerning home share, concerning room share,” he told Aldertrack after the vote. “I have some real concerns about turning single family home blocks in the 13th ward into areas that have a lot of transition.”  

With minimal public testimony and few questions from commissioners, the Chicago Plan Commission breezed through its 13 item agenda at its monthly meeting Thursday, approving all proposed map amendment and new planned development applications, including two projects planned in an up and coming neighborhood on the city’s far South Side.

The Plan Commission approved two applications in the city’s Pullman neighborhood located in Ald. Anthony Beale’s 9th Ward; one will be an affordable artist live-work space, the other will be a cluster of restaurants to serve the increased number of tourists visiting the recently designated Pullman national monument.

A team of art and neighborhood organizations are behind a plan to transform a 18,500 square foot parcel of vacant land and the two adjacent historic, three-story apartment buildings on South Langley Avenue into affordable housing for artists. Twenty-six affordable units are planned for the site, six will be located in each of the existing buildings and 26 units will be located in the newly constructed building, which will be designed to fit between and mirror the design the surrounding historic landmarked buildings. The apartments, which include studios, one, and two-bedroom units, range from 750-square-feet to 11,000-square feet. Rents will range from $295 to $863 per month.

Sarah White, director of property development with Art Space, said her organization worked with Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), a local non-profit, and Pullman Arts, a local art organization. “[The project] was driven by Pullman Arts’ strong desire to shore up Pullman’s reputation as an arts community. It has been many years in the making. Artists have really flocked to Pullman and their vision is an arts space to really cap off the really strong artists community that’s there and help it flourish and continue to grow,” White testified.

“Alderman Beale, this is pretty far out there, how will people get here?” Ald. Walter Burnett, Jr. (27) joked, adding, “Uber or a taxicab?”

Beale, who is behind a controversial plan to regulate the ride-share industry in Chicago, retorted, “Actually, we’re going to take Divvy.”

Two public witnesses, a husband and wife who live on the same street as the proposed development, testified against the project, saying they first moved to Pullman 47 years ago, when they were “young, foolish newlyweds.” They called the density “ludicrous” for the neighborhood, but they still said they “loved” Ald. Beale–a rare moment of affection from a resident opposing a zoning project at a Plan Commission meeting. Insults and screaming are common.   

The proposed multi-tenant restaurant building for Pullman will be located at 720 East 111th Street, right off the expressway to the neighborhood. DPD Commissioner David Reifman helped get this project off the ground when he was a zoning attorney at DLA Piper, so he abstained from voting.

According to testimony from David Doig, President of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives and veteran of the city’s Housing Department, DPD and Park District under the Daley administration, the development team is moving forward with lease agreements for a Potbelly and Chipotle. They’ll be the first fast casual restaurants to set up shop on the far South Side for the first time in over two decades. Doig said they’re saving an adjacent parcel for a “Chicago restaurant” they plan to open at a later date.

“We know we’ve had a lack of restaurants on the far south side, and this is going to be the first of many addressing that concern,” Ald. Beale testified.

Beale said once they get the third restaurant underway, work will begin on building the first hotel chain for the neighborhood. He noted that with the monument and the Walmart, which he said sparked other retail development in the area, overall crime in that neighborhood is down 24% and violent crime is down 44%. “Because we have been able to bring opportunity to an area that has really been neglected over the past few decades,” he said.

Michael Shymanski, president of the Historic Pullman Foundation, said the restaurants will fill a huge void. “Since Pullman has been designated part of the national park system, we are significantly increasing the number of visitors. And having two restaurants that are committed to the area already. This project is very vital to have convenient walking distance for visitors.”

The Plan Commission also approved three hotels: two planned for downtown and one in Hyde Park.

The 90-foot, 100-room boutique Smart Hotel planned for Hyde Park will be the second of its kind along 53rd Street. The recently opened Hyatt Hotel, located two blocks away, will share its parking garage with the new Smart Hotel. Due to its proximity to public transit, the new Smart Hotel will have only 15 on site parking stalls.

The commission also approved a residential tower to replace the parking garage next to the Essex Inn on South Michigan Avenue, in addition to rehab of the existing hotel, which will to hold 290 rooms. The 46-story residential tower will sit on top of a newly constructed 8-story parking garage base and will include 467 residential units at an average size of 800-square-feet.

The other downtown hotel by Akara Partners will be located at 100 W. Huron. It will be 17-stories with 200 rooms.

There were 1,050 introductions at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Here’s a resolution-heavy look at some we didn’t include in yesterday’s newsletter, including more ballot referenda. The deadline for City Council to adopt up to three advisory questions for the November ballot is August 22.

• $7.4 Million for Whole Foods Distribution Center in Pullman - An ordinance seeking authorization to issue $7.4 million in city notes to help fund the construction of a 140,000-square-foot Whole Foods Distribution Center in the North Pullman TIF was introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel Wednesday. It’s the latest in a slew of developments in Anthony Beale’s 9th Ward. The project is expected to cost roughly $8.1 million, the ordinance says. The $7.4 million in assistance for construction was designed to lure Whole Foods away from its current distribution center in Munster, Indiana. The Mayor’s office says the move will create 150 jobs in Chicago, and the center is expected to open its doors in early 2018. Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI) was named developer of the site. CNI was also master developer of the mixed use Pullman Park site, and is developing a community center in the neighborhood (more on CNI’s involvement in another project below). The city is authorized to use $500,000 from the North Pullman TIF, and could also choose to accept a transfer of up to $500,000 from the neighboring Roseland/Michigan TIF. The total note issuance costs and debt service reserve fund are estimated to be roughly $1 million.   

• Security Camera Expansion - A resolution calling for the expansion of “Operation Virtual Shield”, a program first initiated under Mayor Richard M. Daley to place surveillance cameras on every other block. It was described as “the most extensive city surveillance system in the country,” and funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Private companies have already linked their street facing exterior cameras to the system, which is managed by the Office of Emergency Management and Control (OEMC). Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) says he’d like homeowners with private security systems to be able to opt in to Operation Virtual Shield as well, so OEMC can access their private security cameras live during emergencies. New surveillance cameras cost $27,000 on the aldermanic menu fund. Instead, Lopez wants to offer $200 rebates to homeowners who link with the city’s system. The resolution requests OEMC and the Office of Budget & Management to “work together towards creating a video surveillance rebate pilot program funded by aldermanic menu funds at limits set by the local alderman.”
• Full Press for Free Meals for CPS Students - A resolution from Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), the only Chicago Teachers Union member on the council, and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) calls on CPS, Local School Councils, and principals to ensure all qualified students are offered breakfast and lunch “in order to access the $14.3 million in federal reimbursements not currently received by Chicago Public Schools.” Garza tells Aldertrack there’s a great gap between students eligible for free meals and those who actually take them. Last year in the 10th Ward, schools like Gallistel, Clay, and Thorp Elementary, where 100% of students are eligible for free or reduced meals, less than 60% of the students took advantage of the program. Garza says that because there are so many kids across the city not eating breakfast, more than $14 million in federal reimbursements have been “left on the table.” The high concentration of poverty among CPS students qualified the district for full federal reimbursement from the US Department of Agriculture for breakfast and lunch. The district started participating in 2014.

• Vacant Property Registration - An ordinance amending rules for upkeep and registration of vacant properties. The proposal from Ald. Ed Burke (14), citing the difficulty in tracking down mortgagees of properties in default, puts mortgagees or their “designees” in charge of maintaining properties. The ordinance would mandate that all vacant properties, not just residential ones, be registered and maintained (e.g. free of tall grass, dead trees, broken windows, snow on the sidewalk, etc.).  

• Referendum on City-Issued IDs - A resolution from Ald. Danny Solis (25) and 29 other sponsors calls for a ballot question on the creation of municipal IDs “that will expand access to city services for residents unable to access other forms of identification.” The city’s language access ordinance, passed in April of 2015, called for the creation of a task force to look into the development of municipal IDs, which could be used to connect Chicagoans with city programs, regardless of immigration status, homeless status, or gender identity. Mayor Emanuel established the group in July of 2015, and was supposed to report its findings in September of 2015, in time for the release of the FY 2016 budget. One of its members, Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told Aldertrack “The city's municipal ID group had been scheduled to meet a couple of times over the past few months, but those meetings were postponed.  We are still interested in the concept and are continuing to explore possibilities.” New York, Oakland, San Francisco, and New Haven have created their own municipal IDs, with varying degrees of success.

• Expanded Health Coverage for City Employees - A resolution from Budget Chair Carrie Austin calls on the Finance Committee, led by Chair Ed Burke (14) to draft a request for proposal (RFP) to providers of supplemental insurance products–like accident insurance, short-term disability insurance, hospital confinement insurance, or cancer coverage insurance–as part of the health benefit package for city employees.

• Hearings on 911 Call System - A resolution from Ald. Emma Mitts (37) calling for hearings on OEMC’s “general protocol and procedures for intake of emergency 9-1-1 calls and the timely dispatch of first responders in response to requests for emergency assistance.” Mayor Emanuel recently announced new leadership at OEMC - Alicia Tate-Nadeau, Assistant Adjutant General of the Illinois National Guard. She was appointed to replace Gary Schenkel, who had held the post since 2011. Schenkel faced lengthy and tough questioning from aldermen during last fall’s budget hearings over the proposed privatization of 311 services. Tate-Nadeau has not yet been confirmed by the City Council.

• WWII Lake Michigan Search -  A resolution calling on United States government “to conduct extensive search of Lake Michigan off Navy Pier to locate remains of airmen lost during World War II training exercises.” The preamble says an estimated 22 airmen were killed in crashes over Lake Michigan and 228 aircraft still lay at the bottom of the lake. Lead sponsor Ald. Ed Burke (14), all other members of City Council’s veterans caucus, and Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30) say a plaque should be placed at Navy Pier commemorating “the sacrifice of those airmen.”