Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough has been under the microscope of a court-appointed monitor since last April.

A legal spat is intensifying between Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough and a court-appointed monitor who found that her office is struggling to put in place some federally mandated reforms designed to prevent political insiders from being hired to government posts.

Cardelle Spangler, the “compliance administrator” assigned last year by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier to keep tabs on Yarbrough’s office as part of the decades-old lawsuit brought by anti-patronage attorney Michael Shakman, wrote in her latest public report on Feb. 16 that Yarbrough’s office has made “significant progress” on revamping some hiring policies. And the monitor has not unearthed any fresh allegations of clout-based hiring in the office, a point repeatedly emphasized by Yarbrough’s team.

Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady briefed aldermen on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic during a hearing Wednesday.

Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady struck positive notes on Wednesday, telling aldermen during a briefing on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that the city may be able to move to the next phase of vaccinations earlier than anticipated.

City health officials earlier this year set March 29 as the tentative date for when officials expected to be able to open up vaccines to the people in “Phase 1C,” including people over the age of 16 with underlying conditions and the next wave of “essential workers.”

News in brief: Discover opening call center in shuttered Chatham Target store; Commission takes step to landmark Morton Salt shed 

State Rep. Sonya Harper (D-Chicago) speaks at an Illinois Legislative Black Caucus press conference [Illinois House Democratic Caucus]

State regulators and lawmakers are vowing to charge ahead with a fresh round of pot dispensary licenses this year, even as disagreements remain over how to revive the state’s beleaguered efforts to ensure equity in the approval process.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced changes to the police department’s search warrant policy on Wednesday.

The Chicago Police Department rolled out a series of reforms on Wednesday aimed at adding guardrails around how police plan for, carry out and follow up on search warrants, more than two years after police erroneously conducted a raid on Anjanette Young’s home.

The proposed policy changes included restricting the number of police leaders who can approve search warrants. They would also require certain personnel to be on site during raids, and they chart out a process to hold officers accountable for botched warrant executions.

News in brief:  State leaders to testify at Cook County Cannabis commission; Advocates call on aldermen to consider COVID-related housing proposal

 

 

 

Cook County Independent Inspector General Patrick Blanchard and county Board of Review commissioners Larry Rogers and Michael Cabonargi during a meeting of the Board of Commissioners’ Finance Subcommittee on Litigation on Tuesday

Leaders of the Cook County Board of Review have one month to produce a point-by-point response to a watchdog’s finding of clout-based hiring in their office, county commissioners declared on Tuesday.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the order at the end of an hour-plus meeting of the county Board of Commissioners’ Finance Subcommittee on Litigation, which met Tuesday in an attempt to unlock a months-long stalemate between the Board of Review and county Independent Inspector General Patrick Blanchard over the board’s hiring policies.

News in brief: State leaders to testify at Cook County Cannabis commission; Advocates call on aldermen to consider COVID-related housing proposal  

Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady will face questioning from aldermen Wednesday during a regularly scheduled subject matter hearing on the city’s COVID-19 response.

Chicago bars and restaurants can now operate at 50 percent capacity, registration begins Thursday for COVID-19 vaccination appointments at the massive United Center vaccination site  and Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady is scheduled Wednesday to field questions from aldermen on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations’ regular check-in on how the city is responding to the pandemic comes one day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Chicago bars and restaurants can operate indoors at 50 percent capacity or with 50 patrons, whichever is less, and they and can stay open and serve liquor until 1 a.m. The Wednesday COVID-19 subject matter hearing is set to begin at 11 a.m.

News in brief: Lightfoot, CPS looks to high schools next as K-5 students return to class; Blanchard to make case on political hiring in Board of Review’s office 

City Council Reparations Subcommittee could meet this month after delay 

The City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations’ subcommittee on Reparations could hold its first-ever meeting in the coming weeks, more than four months after the group was launched and one month after its initially scheduled inaugural meeting was canceled.   

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6), chair of the health and human relations committee and a long-time proponent of creating a city commission to study reparations, said there was “some miscommunication” with the mayor’s office and the resolution calling for the subcommittee to meet in February “somehow did not get to the [Clerk Anna Valencia] like it was supposed to.” 

City leaders mull limited options to rein in racially discriminatory home lending as bankers snub hearing 

Aldermen are exploring the city’s options to disrupt entrenched patterns of discrimination in the banking industry that have made it nearly impossible for some people to buy homes in majority-Black neighborhoods. But until city leaders get banking CEOs and federal regulators on board, they may have few cards to play. 

That was one takeaway from a three-hour hearing of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate on Friday, when aldermen and Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin chewed over potential antidotes to the endemic lending disparities that WBEZ and City Bureau brought to the fore through a blockbuster investigation last year. Committee chair Ald. Harry Osterman (48) invited nearly a dozen housing advocates, researchers, struggling homebuyers and outside elected officials to highlight the decades-old injustice and consider how to climb out. 

City Council approves federal COVID relief funding after temporary delay; General Iron resolution blocked 

Aldermen approved allocating new and carried-over federal COVID-19 grant funding on Friday, overcoming aldermen who days earlier blocked the budget maneuver after saying they disagreed with spending on Chicago Police personnel. 

Friday’s City Council meeting picked up where a Wednesday meeting left off when it ended prematurely after aldermen used a parliamentary maneuver to temporarily block two measures. 

News in brief: United Center to open as vaccine site March 10

Guaranteed income program, demolition fees among new ordinances set for introduction 

New legislation scheduled to be formally introduced in City Council Friday spans a variety of issues including a call for the city to establish a guaranteed income program, a new fee tied to the demolition of homes in gentrifying neighborhoods and a call for the creation of a new office to provide independent legal counsel to the City Council. 

Aldermen are also pushing for the resignation of Chicago Postmaster Wanda Prater and for hotel and hospitality workers to be moved up in the city’s vaccination queue.