Voters last Tuesday overwhelmingly approved, 63-37%, a binding referendum that merges the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office into the County Clerk and eliminates the Recorder position by 2020. While the initiative was framed as a cost saving measure to combine two offices that do similar work, Cook County officials tell The Daily Line there’s no clear road map for how the merger should be carried out.

A vote already expected to advance on a razor thin margin was complicated at the Cook County board Thursday when it became apparent Comm. Robert Steele (D-2) was not in the building. Comm. Steele, who is recovering at home from a hospital stay earlier this week, threw an expected 9-8 committee passage of the President’s sweetened beverage tax out of whack, and ended up forcing President Toni Preckwinkle to play tie breaker. Cook County is now the largest county in the nation to pass a sweetened beverage tax.

The Cook County Committee on Finance meets today to consider President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed penny per ounce tax on sweetened beverages, as well as her proposal to halt tax hikes for the next three fiscal years. A similar tax freeze proposal from Comm. John Fritchey that was deferred at the request of his colleagues is also on the agenda.

Only one alderman, Scott Waguespack (32), introduced formal amendments to the annual revenue and management ordinances for the 2017 budget at Wednesday’s full City Council meeting.

The City Council’s Latino Caucus is sending a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel formally requesting that he select one of five Latino aldermen vying to replace Susana Mendoza as City Clerk, following her win Tuesday night in the heated state Comptroller race.

For months, members of the Latino Caucus have been quietly discussing the issue of who should replace Mendoza as Clerk. Those discussions picked up again Wednesday.

While many of us focused on national election results, a number of local races will have important impacts closer to home.

Last night’s election results will impact cities, and Chicago, in a major way. While President-elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign delivered a mixed message when it came to cities, calling Chicago a “disaster” while simultaneously promising to improve inner cities. However, one of President-elect Trump’s first promises in last night’s victory speech was to “fix our inner cities” and “rebuild our infrastructure”, which typically means big spending programs. Yet, Congressional Republicans, who took control of both houses of Congress last night, have campaigned on a message of cutting government spending and entitlements, most of which support big city infrastructure and social service programs.

The full City Council meets today for a quick routine meeting to defer and publish the various 2017 budget ordinances.

Three members of the Progressive Caucus voted against the Revenue Ordinance for the FY 2017 budget Monday, citing transparency concerns with the proposed Community Catalyst Fund. It was the day’s only roll call vote, and the item ultimately passed, 18-3. All other items, including the $1.35 billion property tax levy for FY2017, new parking meters and rates, and changes to the city’s plastic bag tax, also passed the committee. An expected direct introduction from Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11) loosening restrictions on flavored tobacco sales near schools was held.

Representatives from the pharmaceutical industry told the City Council’s Budget Committee that a proposed license for drug salespeople included in the 2017 budget is “onerous” and would do little to curb the epidemic of opioid abuse within the city.

Ald. Pat Dowell (3), along with the other 17 members of the City Council’s Black Caucus, sent a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel demanding that minority hiring be added to the list of criteria for an annual bonus Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans is entitled to every year.

Updated 6:34 a.m., November 8, 2016

Early vote turnout in both Chicago and suburban Cook County smashed previous records, with 683,426 early voted in both jurisdictions on Monday evening after many polling locations locations in Chicago stayed open long after 8:00 p.m. due to long lines. In 2008, 469,911 people voted by early vote.

Vote by mail numbers have also set post-war records, with over 105,000 applications requested in Chicago and 113,375 requested in suburban Cook County.  In Chicago over 62,000 vote by mail ballots have already been returned while in suburban Cook County over 69,000 have already been returned. The last time the numbers were higher were in 1944, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr.

While early voting continues through tomorrow, Chicago voters have already set an early vote total record and are on pace to surpass 2012’s 24% early vote share. So far, 284,506 people have voted in Chicago, while 315,875 have voted in suburban Cook County. The previous Chicago early vote total record was 260,378 for the November 2008 election.

The Committees on Budget and Finance meet today to consider a patchwork of ordinances concerning the 2017 budget, from the proposed seven-cent bag tax to the new commercial loading zone pilot program for the city’s Central Business District. As previously reported, there’s also a direct introduction up in Finance Committee from Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) to amend the city’s ban on the sale of flavored cigarettes near schools.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in over a century. Cubs mania has taken over Chicago, with a record five million people showing up to the victory parade that wound through downtown on Friday. That excitement spilled over into City Council again. But this week, we wanted pivot to take a deeper dive into a more pressing issue facing the city right now: the Department of Justice’s investigation into the Chicago Police Department. It’s been nearly a year since DOJ opened its pattern or practice investigation into CPD, and with a new administration on the way in, we wanted to give you a more in-depth understanding of what that investigation entails and what we can expect in the next few months (and years) ahead.

This episode was spurred by testimony from Corporation Counsel Steve Patton during his budget hearing. The city’s Law Department spent much of 2016 complying with DOJ document requests, and Patton anticipates the investigation will wrap “within the next few months.” This episode includes an extended interview with a former Special Litigation Section Chief at the DOJ from 2010 to 2015, Jonathan Smith. He worked on nearly two dozen police investigations, including probes in Ferguson, Seattle, Albuquerque, and Portland. He says it’s likely the Obama administration is working as quick as it can to finish the investigation before the new administration begins–whoever it might be.