Ald. Nicole Lee (11) speaks during a news conference on Tuesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

The City Council coalition supporting a new ward map proposed by the council’s Committee on Committees and Rules beefed up its ranks on Wednesday when the council’s newest member, Ald. Nicole Lee (11), became the 34th aldermen to lend their support for the map.

Aldermen are set on Wednesday to vote on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal to give away $12.5 million in gas and transit cards. [Mack Liederman/Block Club Chicago]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal to give away $12.5 million in prepaid gas cards and transit cards is set to face a City Council vote on Wednesday, nearly one month after the mayor announced her so-called transportation relief plan. Lightfoot’s proposal has undergone a barrage of changes in an attempt to ease aldermen’s qualms about equity and spending taxpayer money on gas.

But it’s unclear whether the tweaks will be enough for Lightfoot’s proposal to gain the required 26 votes the ordinance needs to pass following a tight committee vote last week.

Left: An example of a “stick-built” and modular home built as part of the Reclaiming Chicago Communities initiative in North Lawndale. Right: Ald. Michael Scott (24) speaks during a meeting of the City Council Zoning Committee on Tuesday. [Department of Planning and Development / City Clerk’s Office]

A City Council committee took a step toward implementing an ongoing city program to build 100 affordable new single-family homes on vacant lots in North Lawndale. But that’s just the beginning, said Ald. Michael Scott (24), who set a moonshot goal of “hopefully” seizing on grant funds and partnering with nonprofit builders to put up 1,000 new houses in the hollowed-out neighborhood.

The Cook County Board of Ethics re-upped a finding of a violation against a Board of Review commissioner. A city watchdog office found the Chicago Fire Department has made some progress toward snuffing out sexual harassment and discrimination, but more work remains. Cook County court officials say eviction orders are lower than they were before the pandemic, a sign they see as a result of government interventions. And a working group of aldermen on Tuesday released the names of 14 finalists for the interim civilian commission tasked with oversight of the Chicago Police Department.

From left: Ald. Tom Tunney (44), CFO Jennie Huang Bennett and Deputy Mayor Samir Mayekar speak during a committee hearing on Monday.

Aldermen did not hold back in pelting city officials with their questions and concerns on all three of the potential locations and proposals for a potential Chicago casino, and all agreed that future casino employees need to be allowed to unionize.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), right, and Chicago Department of Water Management Deputy Comm. Joel Vieyra during a City Council finance committee meeting on Monday

Aldermen seized on a technical change meant to save money on water infrastructure projects to lash officials on Monday over what they called an unacceptable slowdown in water department projects. The department is slated to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on pipe replacements this year — but they’re already tempering expectations among procurement hurdles and regulatory red tape.

Ald. Michele Smith (43), left, and Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) speak during a press conference on Monday.

Two days ahead of the last regular City Council meeting before the final deadline to reach an agreement on a new ward map, supporters of the map drawn under the Rules Committee leadership took a new approach calling the opposing map a “protection plan for Alderman Ed Burke.”

It was the latest push by the rules committee group to prevent an effort by the City Council Latino Caucus to force a vote that would allow its updated “People’s Coalition Map” onto the June 28 ballot.

Clockwise from top-left: Cook County Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3), Comm. Frank Aguilar (D-16), Comm. Kevin Morrison (D-15), county Bureau of Technology chief Tom Lynch and Assessor’s Office chief of staff Sarah Garza Resnick speak during a committee meeting on Monday.

The Cook County Board of Review will try to temporarily claw back some retired staffers to try and catch up from a months-long delay in property tax assessments, officials said Monday. But there’s no telling whether that will be enough to get bills pushed out by December, which is seen as a critical deadline to avoid a financial headache for thousands of taxing bodies and millions of property owners.

A rendering of the 187-unit affordable housing campus being built near the western end of The 606's Bloomingdale Trail. [Chicago Department of Planning and Development]

Chicago’s Near Northwest Side is set to see a surge of new residential development as at least three significant major new developments in the area are lined up for zoning approval on Tuesday. A 40-story Fulton Market tower, a pair of Goose Island industrial warehouses and an addition to the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Southwest Side campus are also on the agenda for Tuesday’s 11 a.m. meeting of the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards.

Ald. Michele Smith (43) during a City Council meeting.

A new ethics package set to be introduced during Wednesday’s City Council meeting would expand the city’s conflict of interest reach, hike fines for flouting the ethics code and end former aldermen’s City Council floor privileges.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), and Streets and Sanitation Deputy Comm. Michael Lacoco speak during a committee meeting on Friday.

Following unanimous approval from a key committee on Friday, a proposal that would ensure victims of car theft are no longer required to pay towing and storage fees incurred while their cars are stolen is set for final City Council approval on Wednesday.

A lawsuit up for settlement on Monday calls on the city to end its practice of allowing Chicago police to “cover up the misconduct of their fellow officers.”

A lawsuit filed earlier this year called on a judge to order more decisive action to snuff out the Chicago Police Department’s endemic “code of silence” that protects officers from repercussions for their misconduct. Instead, a City Council committee will likely approve a $200,000 payment from taxpayers to make the lawsuit disappear.

The $200,000 payment to settle the lawsuit brought by Esael Morales is one of three police misconduct settlements up for approval by the City Council Committee on Finance during its 10 a.m. meeting on Monday. The committee is also scheduled to approve more than $6 million in tax-increment financing payments for new infrastructure projects at a bundle of schools and parks around the city.

A rendering of Related Midwest and Rivers Casino’s plan to build a casino at “The 78” [Related Midwest]

A special City Council committee designed to vet proposals for a Chicago casino is set to hold its first-ever meeting on Monday. And while the timeslot is billed for an informational review only, it will likely put a magnifying glass on the local opposition that has gathered against all three locations — including from the aldermen who represent them.

Developer Jeff Shapack shows renderings of his proposed mixed-use tower at 170 N. Green St. before and after it took feedback from the Chicago Committee on Design.

A new 40-story tower approved by the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday could set a new precedent for open space, affordable housing and sheer size in the city’s fast-growing Fulton Market District, the city’s top planning official said.

An ordinance introduced by former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) weeks before his forced resignation from the City Council that aimed to protect car theft victims from towing fees is set for a second life on Friday. And aldermen advanced the appointment of a disability advocate to the Chicago Transit Board.