Chicago News
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SEP 13, 2017
The Council’s Zoning Committee is meeting for the second time this week to consider a slate of mayoral appointments and reappointments to various land-use boards.
An ordinance that would penalize developers or homeowners who buy and flip properties near the elevated 606 trail made an appearance on the original agenda but was later cut.
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Wednesday could be a long day for County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and commissioners. Dozens are expected to testify in person on the day’s most controversial business–the introduction of the beverage tax repeal. Commissioners also have 151 pages of settlements and court cases to approve, millions in contracts to refer to committee, and President Preckwinkle is also headline speaker at a City Club of Chicago breakfast at 7:30 a.m.
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County drama Tuesday morning swirled around the expected introduction of a beverage tax repeal ordinance Wednesday: whether the ordinance would be referred to committee or whether repeal proponents would go for a vote on the floor; whether hundreds would come to testify before the board, which Democrats might flip their vote in support of a repeal, and how another vote on the tax might play in the 2018 elections.
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Interest groups fighting the sweetened beverage tax held a rally Tuesday morning outside the Thompson Building, with more than 200 waving signs and calling for a full repeal at Wednesday’s Board meeting. Commissioners Richard Boykin (D-1), Pete Silvestri (R-9), John Fritchey (D-12), Tim Schneider (R-15), Jeff Tobolski (D-16), and Sean Morrison (R-17) were all in attendance. Comm. Bridget Gainer (D-10) was expected to join, but did not.
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SEP 13, 2017
Two widely supported resolutions demanding swift action against the Trump Administration’s plan to dissolve current protections for some undocumented residents will be considered by the City Council’s Human Relations Committee.
Last Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his intention to retire an executive order President Barack Obama signed in 2012 that granted temporary relief to undocumented minors living in the U.S.
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September Event: How Transportation Will Change Chicago
Autonomous vehicles, the future of transportation, and how legislators should respond to the rapidly shifting transportation landscape was the subject of a Daily Line panel discussion Tuesday night at Hotel Monaco. You can hear the full conversation on this Friday’s episode of The Aldercast.
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After the morning’s consent calendar consideration, a group of commissioners backing a beverage tax repeal–Sean Morrison (R-17), Richard Boykin (D-1), John Fritchey (D-12) and Jeffrey Tobolski (D-16)–will join “hundreds of Cook County residents, consumers, retailers, restaurants, employees and business owners” at a pro-repeal rally in the Thompson Center plaza at 10:30 a.m.
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SEP 12, 2017
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The Chicago Board of Ethics announced settlements Friday with Ald. Howard Brookins (21) and the former Commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services, Evelyn Diaz. Brookins agreed to pay a $5,000 fine for failing to keep accurate employee timesheets–including for his Chief of Staff at the time, who was later convicted and imprisoned for bribery. The board fined Diaz $1,500 for negotiating for her current position as President of Heartland Alliance while still at DFSS, which had ongoing contracts with the non-profit.
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78 agenda items are up in City Council’s Zoning committee Monday. If that wasn’t enough to exhaust land users, the committee is scheduled to meet again on Thursday. Aldermen are expected to consider a new apartment building near O'Hare Airport that local alderman Anthony Napolitano (41) is opposed to, two new libraries in the 50th and 45th Wards, and the rezone of a building that's set off a lawsuit against Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) and the city.
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SEP 09, 2017
UNLOCKEDLast winter, it seemed for a time that maybe Chicago Public Schools wouldn’t start on time. The school district projected an operating deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars, state payments were half a year behind and the Illinois legislature seemed unlikely to kick forward the millions of dollars CPS needed to stay open. But this week CPS leadership took a victory lap, as classes started on time and the school district touted rising graduation rates and improving test scores.
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SEP 07, 2017
Wednesday’s City Council meeting was either a paradigm of consensual legislating or yet another episode of aldermanic logrolling, depending on your perspective. But either way, with little debate and a series of unanimous or near-unanimous votes, Chicago City Council approved a sweeping wage floor and labor peace agreement for 8,000 airport workers, one of the city’s largest police settlements, a new electrical construction code, and resolutions supporting abortion rights in Illinois and so-called DREAMer immigrants.
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Chicago’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF), designed to spur economic development in commercial corridors on the city’s South and West Sides, will get an influx of $3.5 million pending full City Council approval. Aldermen on City Council’s Budget Committee voted to increase the NOF’s funding limit to $6.5 million.
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City Treasurer Kurt Summers faced tough questions from aldermen Tuesday about the fate of $57 million in unexpected investment returns he touted this spring.
Ald. Rick Muñoz (22), who called for $25 million of that money to be spent on anti-violence programs across the city this past summer, accused Summers of lying about what funds were available and demanded to know where the money ultimately went.
