Attorney Jacob Meister accused Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Cabonargi of a litany of ethical violations on Friday and urged the Cook Cook County Democratic Party not to back Cabonargi next week in the race for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk.

The deaths of six pedestrians on Chicago’s streets in July erased gains from the first six months of 2019, according to data compiled by the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The only Democrat to announce he will challenge State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s bid for re-election as Cook County State’s Attorney seat will do so without seeking an endorsement from the Cook County Democratic Party.

The Cook County GOP is looking for a few good Republicans to run in 2020 — and the push to find candidates will be led by the 31-year-old chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly.

The story behind a dramatic weekend gun confiscation Mayor Lori Lightfoot used to blast lenient judges during a news conference on Tuesday is more complicated than she or police Supt. Eddie Johnson let on.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot again blasted judges she said were too lenient on gun owners in her first remarks after the most city’s violent weekend this year.

The city will tap a federal tax credit to spread more than $12 million in subsidies among up to eight new low-income housing developments during the next two years, in a plan officials are billing as the first step toward implementing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s forthcoming housing agenda.

In the five years after Illinois implemented a pension overhaul law that required downstate police and fire pension funds to get on a path to being 90 percent funded by 2040, the overall funding level for non-Chicago police and fire pension funds had grown — at least until 2017, according to a new report from the sate’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Two dozen staffers for former mayoral candidate Amara Enyia defended their legal fight to claw back tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages they say they are owed from working for her chaotic and mismanaged campaign.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot was left “devastated and heartbroken” after spending Saturday with city crews working to clean up the Pulaski Corridor between the Eisenhower Expressway and Lake Street, an area where police routinely respond to drug overdoses and murders.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s initial attempt to roll back aldermanic prerogative significantly changed the way the city’s Planning and Development and Housing departments operate, according to a report from the mayor’s office detailing the changes.

The release of the report, pegged to Lightfoot’s 60th day in office, signals the end of the first phase of Lightfoot’s efforts to make good on her central campaign promise to root out corruption at City Hall, where at least three apparently separate corruption investigations are underway.

Read the full report.

Representatives of the mayor’s office promised that more changes to the way the city issues licenses and permits are on the way — and that officials have begun examining the city’s zoning code with an eye toward ending aldermen’s “unchecked vetoes” on development proposals.

Related: Zoning code reform to root out aldermanic prerogative coming, Lightfoot says

Department of Planning and Development

The creation of new tax-increment financing districts, redevelopment agreements and expenditures from the funds derided by critics as slush funds for aldermen no longer require a letter of support from the local alderman, according to the report prepared by planning officials after what they said was an “exhaustive investigation.”

In addition, aldermen cannot block or approve the sale of city property now that Lightfoot’s order is fully in effect — a move that has already drawn pushback from a handful of aldermen. That group is backing a resolution (R2019-593) introduced by Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) in July that calls for that power to be restored.

Lopez said the change — which includes the Dollar Lots program and Large Lots program could allow individuals and firms “not from the community or with no interest in preserving the rich history of the greater Englewood community” an “unfettered opportunity” to purchase thousands of lots.

In addition, planning officials will no longer get verbal approval for grants made from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, which had $168 million in it when Lightfoot took office. Until Lightfoot’s executive order, projects totaling less than $250,000 required verbal approval from aldermen, and projects totalling more than $250,000 no longer require a letter of support from the local aldermen — while city law still requires approval of an ordinance for those large grants.

The fund, filled by developers who want to build taller and more dense developments than allowed under city law, was created by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in response to criticism that the South and West Sides had been left behind by the boom in construction in the Loop.

In addition, a temporary system is now in place to track all “aldermanic input” received by planning officials, which also details when aldermen will be notified, according to the report.. That consultant will typically take place once an application is submitted and before a measure is submitted to City Council.

Other permits issued by the Department of Planning and Development that no longer require an alderman’s support include:

• Property tax incentive applications


• Demolition applications


• Landmark designation applications


• Landmark permit fee waiver applications


• Planned development applications that have not advanced


• Applications to the Plan Commission


• Small Business Improvement Fund requests from tax-increment finance districts


• Special Service Area commissioner appointments and budgets

Department of Housing

Lightfoot’s executive order — issued within hours of her taking office in May — significantly scales back aldermen’s ability to exempt the developers of large housing projects from the Affordable Requirements Ordinance.

No longer will the city give aldermen the ability to approve a “hardship” exemption from the ordinance, which typically requires developments of 10 or more units to set aside 10 percent of units for low- and moderate-income residents.

That power will now rest with Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara, who will also have the final say over whether developers will be able to fulfill that requirement by building units elsewhere in the city but not as part of the project.

Related: Aldermen advance Lightfoot’s pick to lead Department of Housing

Other permits issued by the Department of Planning and Development that no longer require the alderman’s support include:

• City Lots for Working Families applications


• Multifamily housing development financing


• Parade of Homes applications


• Preserving Communities Together.

Department of Streets and Sanitation

Aldermen can no longer order crews to remove 20 live trees per ward annually — a power that dates back to 1990.

In addition, the replacement of damaged or stolen black garbage carts — a perennial source of frustration for homeowners — can no longer be ordered by aldermen. 

Instead, all requests for tree removals will “be considered on a case by case basis” by officials with the Streets and Sanitation Department and garbage carts will be delivered directly to homes that request them, rather than first to the ward office and then by aldermanic staff to the homes.

Department of Transportation

Transportation officials no longer require a green light from an alderman before moving forward with three permits: street or alley access for businesses or property owners; permission to create people spots and the location of Divvy bicycle-sharing stations.

However, permits for block parties still require a letter of support from aldermen, even though that is not required by the city code. A new ordinance governing block parties is under consideration, officials said.

Department of Buildings 

Aldermen will continue to receive nightly reports via email of building permits applied for and issued in their respective wards and have access to a password-protected website to access the same data, according to the report prepared by the Department of Buildings.

But those emails are a “matter of courtesy,” according to the report.

An overhaul of the city’s building code reform — passed just before Lightfoot took office —  removed a requirement to wait 10 days before issuing a variety of permits, including those for cell phone towers and large signs, according to the report.

While welcoming aldermanic input, the department’s aldermanic liaison, Earnestine Black, keeps a “log of aldermanic inquiries that are sent to her or to department employees other than the senior leadership team” which is made up of Commissioner Judy Fryland, her deputy and assistant commissioners, according to the report from the Department of Buildings.

According to the 14-count indictment filed against Ald. Ed Burke (14), the beleaguered alderman asked Fryland, as well as another unidentified administrator, to “figure out a way” to approve a permit requested by a Portage Park businessman who has been charged with bribing Burke by hiring his private law firm.

Fryland was not identified by name in the indictment, but she was commissioner at the time. 

Department of Fleet and Facility Management

Aldermen no longer have the power to block the lease of city property, or the purchase of property for city use.

Officials with the Department of Fleet and Facility Management will email aldermen twice during the process to solicit their feedback — first when the proposal is first considered, and again before the agreement is finalized, according to the report prepared by the department.

A similar process is now in place for proposals for the city to purchase or lease property, according to the report.

Those requirements are in place to ensure that a “clear process” is in place to incorporate aldermanic feedback, officials in Lightfoot’s administration said. 

Office of Budget and Management

Department officials who want to use funds from tax-increment financing district will no longer need a letter of support from the alderman whose ward includes the TIF district, according to the report prepared by Budget Director Susie Park.

Instead, aldermen will only have to be “notified,” according to the report. 

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

The city’s Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett said she will no longer allow aldermen to block efforts to convert traditional loading zones to commercial loading zones as part of a pilot program now underway, according to the report.

Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

Aldermen will no longer be allowed to block — or approve — special event permits issued by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, according to the report.

Department of Finance / Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

City code gives aldermen the authority to approve or reject disabled, industrial and residential parking permits, and the mayor’s order does not change that, according to the report from the Department of Finance.

In addition, aldermen will retain the power to approve permits for use of the public way required for signs, sidewalk cafes and awnings, according to the report from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Aldermen will also retain the power to impose or lift moratoriums on liquor licenses bans well as introducing bans on shared-housing units by introducing and passing an ordinance, as allowed by city code.

An exclusive deal allowing Lyft to operate the city’s Divvy bicycle-sharing system — inked at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s final City Council meeting in April — is a “backroom monopoly” that improperly “locks out” competitors, Uber alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday.

The suit, which seeks to void the deal, represents an escalation of the battle for bike-share and scooter supremacy between the two ride-hailing giants, and will force Mayor Lori Lightfoot to defend one of the last major accomplishments by her predecessor in court.

Read the full lawsuit.

“By locking out other competitors, former Mayor Emanuel’s backroom monopoly fails to bring bikes to all Chicago neighborhoods — particularly the south and west sides — where they are needed most,” said Uber spokesperson Kelley Quinn, who once served as Emanuel’s communications director.

City officials declined to comment, since the litigation is ongoing.

Representatives for Lyft could not immediately be reached for comment.

The plan (O2019-1434, O2019-1611) approved by the City Council in April requires Lyft to make a $50 million capital investment to modernize and expand the Divvy system to all 50 wards by 2021, adding 10,500 bikes and 175 stations.

Once Motivate, the Lyft-owned company that operates Divvy, completes the roll out, the expanded system would have a total of approximately 16,500 bikes, 800 stations staffed by 200 more employees.

The new bicycles are electric, with “pedal-assist” technology and the ability to be locked to a standard bicycle rack or a Divvy’s existing docking stations.

Emanuel and his advisers touted the deal as a way to expand the bike-sharing program — now clustered Downtown and on the North Side — to the South and West sides at no cost to the city or taxpayers.

The plan approved by the City Council called for Lyft to pay the city $77 million during the nine-year term of the agreement to be used exclusively for transportation projects. In return, Lyft would bank all revenues from the bicycle-sharing system up to $20 million annually, with the city getting 5 percent after that threshold is met.

Chicago taxpayers would also receive $1.5 million a year in minimum guaranteed revenue from advertising and promotions under the plan.

Divvy, which launched in 2013, has lost as much as $700,000 a year, according to city data.

The proposal would give Lyft the right to raise bike-sharing rates by as much as 10 percent annually — with larger hikes subject to the approval of the Chicago Department of Transportation, but not the City Council.

But Uber — which owns electric bicycle-sharing firm Jump — urged the City Council to amend the deal negotiated by Emanuel to be a non-exclusive pact to allow it to offer 20,000 dockless bicycles and 2,000 scooters in all 50 wards immediately. 

In return for being allowed to operate alongside Divvy as city’s exclusive dockless bicycle share provider, Jump offered to invest $450 million in Chicago, including a $60 million “community investment” and $30 million “infrastructure investment,” according to its proposal. In addition, Jump claims it would add 500 jobs to the local economy.

That was a better deal, according to Uber lawsuit — which would have become clear if the Emanuel administration had gone through a public, competitive bidding process.

The deal was approved about a week after Lightfoot defeated Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle in the mayoral election.

“Chicagoans were distracted by the 2019 mayoral election” and not paying attention to the controversy, according to Uber officials. 

The Emanuel administration “chose to ignore transparency or proper vetting, and entered into another no-bid, exclusive contract with a private company,” according to Uber officials.

South and West Side community and business leaders called on aldermen to put the brakes on Emanuel’s proposal, and likened the deal to the much-loathed parking meter privatization.

The council rejected Uber’s proposal, which city officials said “would completely trash the existing bike share system instead of the Lyft partnership, which would build upon the beloved Divvy program.”

Lightfoot started the process of implementing the expanded bicycle-sharing system on July 22, launching a series of events designed to gather feedback on where the new Divvy stations should be located and to give residents a chance to try out the new electric bicycles.

Related: 

• Aldermen set to debate mayor’s plan to tap Lyft to run Divvy as Uber pushes proposal for dockless bicycles, scooters


• Aldermen question mayor’s plan to tap Lyft to run Divvy, reject Uber proposal


• Divvy contract, car sharing pilot renewal advance

The Chicago Water Department remains plagued by bias and discrimination more than two years after Inspector General Joseph Ferguson determined that an "unrestricted culture of overtly racist and sexist behavior and attitudes" infested the city department, six former employees suing the city said Thursday.

Chicago’s 138 tax increment financing districts claimed 35 percent of the property taxes collected by the city, according to a new report by Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough.

Demolishing the record set the previous year, $841 million poured into the city’s TIF funds in 2018 — approximately 35 percent of the nearly $2.4 billion in property tax revenue banked by city officials. In 2017, 31 percent of the city’s property tax revenue ended up earmarked for use in a TIF district.

Yarbrough was elected in November to replace veteran Clerk David Orr who made TIF reform a centerpiece of his 28 years in office. Yarbrough said she was “brushing up” on how the county’s special taxing districts operate. Chicago’s TIF districts are controlled by the mayor and City Council.

“Some elected officials use it like a piggy bank,” Yarbrough said. “As taxpayers, we should be concerned. We should pay attention.”

In all, Chicago’s TIFs took in $181 million more in 2018 than they did in 2017, a 27.4 percent increase, according to the report. That surge was driven in part by a 12.5 percent jump in the equalized assessed value of all properties in the city as part of the 2018 reassessment.

The jump was also fueled by the $588 million property tax hike approved in 2015 by the City Council to shore up the city’s police and fire pensions as well as a development boom in the Loop and North Side.

The burst of additional TIF revenue could ease the city’s budget crisis by allowing Mayor Lori Lightfoot to declare more TIF funds to be in surplus — returning them to the city, Chicago Public Schools and other taxing districts.

Related: Facing ‘significant deficit,’ Lightfoot gives her team another month to close gap

As part of Chicago’s budget for the 2019 fiscal year, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared a $175 million TIF surplus, which allowed $97 million to be redirected to CPS.

TIF districts capture all growth in the property tax base in a designated area for a set period of time, usually 20 years or more, and divert it into a special fund for projects designed to spur redevelopment and eradicate blight.

The leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union wasted no time Wednesday in laying claim to the additional funds — calling for “every penny” to be spent on neighborhood schools.

“If the mayor is serious about real equity for South and West Side neighborhoods and real educational justice for our students, she'll do what's right — and direct those funds to settle our contract demands to create the schools our students deserve," said Chicago Teacher Union President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement.

CTU was highly critical of Emanuel’s use of TIF funds, saying they improperly moved money from schools to private developments.

The new Transit TIF district formed by the city in the waning days of the Obama Administration to fund the renovation of the CTA’s Red and Purple Train Lines accounts for approximately one-third of the overall increase in TIF revenue, according to the report.

Of the $115.7 million generated in 2018 by the Transit TIF in 2018 — up from $40.2 million in 2017 — $60 million is earmarked for CPS under a unique provision of the state law that created the first, and so far only, Transit TIF district.

That is in addition to any funds CPS could get from the city or from a Lightfoot-declared TIF surplus, perhaps giving Lightfoot a pool to draw from to ink a contract with the CTU. The union’s leaders have been pressing for pay raises and additional investments in schools.

While most of Chicago’s highest performing TIFs are in or near Downtown, revenue collected by the Pilsen Industrial Corridor TIF increased 26 percent, adding $20.6 million to its coffers. City officials have been working to combat gentrification in Pilsen, which was once a primarily Mexican American neighborhood.

 Chance will depart the city as early as Thursday, according to Animal Control. He’s headed to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine (pictured on the left), Florida, which is actually a part of his species’ native range, unlike Chicago. [Facebook/City of Chicago]

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The final tab to save Humboldt Park’s beloved alligator from the murky depths of the lagoon was $33,649.17, city officials revealed Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Daily Line.

Frank Robb, the gator trapper who caught the alligator dubbed Chance The Snapper on July 16, was paid $2,500 for the work that made him a Chicago superstar, and reimbursed for $2,166.34 in travel and lodging costs, records show.