By a vote of 47-3, the Chicago City Council approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $8.58 billion budget plan for next year.

Police accountability advocates raised their voices Tuesday, some striking a clearer note than others. Here are the highlights from the day’s action.

Today is Budget Day for the Cook County Board of Commissioners and Chicago City Council. Both bodies are scheduled to take a final vote on their respective spending plans for next fiscal year. Cook County had a rougher season, with a last minute $200 million hole due to the repeal of President Toni Preckwinkle’s sweetened beverage tax. Chicago City Council’s budget includes minimal tax and fine increases, but it lacks any major hikes unlike the past two spending plans. Subscribers can check out full budget coverage archives here.

Aldermen approved three referenda for the March primary ballot during a Rules Committee sandwiched between, and interrupted by, other committees that met Monday. Aldermen approved questions on healthcare coverage, opioid abuse, and bump stocks without any questions for referenda sponsors. Pending full City Council approval, they will be put to voters in 2018.

The only aldermanic amendments made to the city’s 2018 budget never made it to committee before Tuesday’s expected budget, leaving Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) to declare the situation “very suspect and I do believe politically motivated.” The two offices who handled the paperwork, the finance committee and clerk’s office, pointed fingers at each other.

Aldermen on City Council’s Public Safety committee just barely made up for last week’s lack of quorum, making it over the threshold by one member after starting nearly 30 minutes late. The group voiced strong support for Andrea Zopp’s appointment to the Police Board, despite criticism that Zopp could not act as an independent voice after her recent 18 months serving as deputy mayor.

Attendance: Chair Ariel Reboyras (30), Gregory Mitchell (7), Michelle Harris (8), Patrick D. Thompson (11), Ed Burke (14), Raymond Lopez (15), Matt O’Shea (19), Walter Burnett (27), Carrie Austin (34), Emma Mitts (37), Harry Osterman (48)

A group of police reform advocates said last week it was “a clear conflict of interest when a mayoral ally joins a police oversight agency,” and that it was “imperative that the Police Board, with its critical role in police discipline, be shielded from the influence of Chicago politics.”

After a lack of quorum and a no-show from Zopp last week, the committee recessed and rescheduled to Monday.

The nine-member board decides disciplinary matters involving police officers, nominates candidates for superintendent of police to the mayor, and proposes reforms to the police department. Its current president is Lori Lightfoot.

Members may collect a $12,000 stipend and the president can accept a $15,000 stipend. Lightfoot and three of the board’s members do not collect the stipend. All are appointed by the mayor and subject to City Council approval. Zopp was also recently appointed to serve as CEO of World Business Chicago.

Zopp was not present at Friday’s committee meeting, but was present Monday, and pointed to her time as an assistant U.S. attorney as her best qualifier for the board. “My history on police accountability proceeded knowing who Rahm Emanuel was, much less working for him,” Zopp said.

“I went to the U.S. Attorney’s office because I learned there were very few people that looked like me, very few women, very few people of color. I worked hard to make sure the justice system worked for everyone,” Zopp said. She ticked off high-profile cases she prosecuted, including the Ford Heights Four, Congressman Mel Reynolds’ sex abuse trial, and the shooting of an unarmed homeless man by Chicago police officer Gregory Becker.

“I advocated for Supt. [Garry] McCarthy’s resignation and for the Department of Justice investigation,” she continued. “Long before I came to work for Mayor Emanuel I have a track record of advocating for these issues. I’ve had several public roles… and stood up for what was right regardless of whether it’s popular.”

Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) agreed. “I’ve known Andy Zopp longer than most. She’s taken bad cops off the street. She’s prosecuted corrupt policemen. In addition to putting the real criminals, each and every day, out of the street, she’s been a voice for the underserved, the underrepresented, and we’d be lucky to have her.”

“We all believed the Police Board was just a pass-through board, but I have more confidence now with the board becoming a board of substance because you will be on the board,” Ald. Carrie Austin (34) affirmed Monday.

Just two members of the public spoke against Zopp Monday. Concerned citizen George Blakemore said there are “many other people in the black community who can do this job and do it better. She has been recycled from one agency to another.”

Karl Brinson of the West Side Chapter of the NAACP said Zopp’s appointment does little to instill community trust in the police reform process. “How is it looking like reform when we have the same people sitting on these same boards? We can’t continue doing this,” Brinson said. “People want to be served, protected, respected, represented. This is not going to work. This is not building trust. We have to do better than this.”

Chair Ariel Reboyras (30) retorted after Brinson walked away from the microphone, saying the board was independent.

Brison returned to the microphone to say, “The true word for independent means separate and apart. It is appointed by the mayor and appointed by this City Council.”

 

The City Council’s Zoning Committee approved landmark status for the former Michigan Avenue headquarters of the Johnson Publishing Company.

The 11-story building located at 820 S. Michigan Ave. was recommended for historical landmark status by the Chicago Landmark’s Commission for the company's prominence as one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the country. The Commission provided their preliminary approval in October. Landmark designations require secondary approval by the Council’s Zoning Committee, followed by the full City Council.

A packed slate of committee meetings await aldermen today. Reconsideration of former Deputy Mayor Andrea Zopp to the Police Board, three ballot referenda for the March 2018 primary, and another round of committee votes on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2018 Budget are just some of the items awaiting committee action ahead of Tuesday’s full City City meeting.  

On Friday morning, President Toni Preckwinkle’s office released its solution to the county’s $200 million budget gap. The fix calls for the county to lay off 425 employees and eliminate 1016 positions, including more than 250 correctional and police officers. Two of Preckwinkle’s fellow Democrats, Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-7) and Comm. John Fritchey (D-12), were not signed on as cosponsors as of Friday morning.

[Preckwinkle’s original proposal]

The first budget vote will be in the Finance Committee meeting at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday. Following passage there, the budget will be ratified immediately after at a special board meeting.

The 44 pages of amendments have six parts:

• A repeal of the sweetened beverage tax and adjustment of revenue projections


• $164 million in expenditure reductions countywide, including position cuts and adjustments of benefits and insurance


• Special purpose fund and grant adjustments


• Changes to the capital equipment purchases


• General fund technical changes


• Health fund technical changes

[Amendments]

“The bulk of layoffs are middle management” in the Sheriff and Chief Judge’s offices, “though virtually all offices will have some reductions,” Preckwinkle spokesperson Frank Shuftan said Friday.

Preckwinkle’s budget office is banking on higher returns on investments, increased revenue from the treasurer, recorder, and registrar, and bigger tax revenue. The county is projecting $10 million more in property tax revenue, $5 million in tax increment financing (TIF) revenue, and $5 million from Medicaid payments in 2018.

According to The Daily Line’s analysis of the amendment, Sheriff Tom Dart’s office will lose more than 500 positions in the proposal. 181 are layoffs. 350 full time equivalent positions (FTEs) are cut from the Department of Corrections, 134 from the Court Services division, 89 from the Police Department, 54 from Sheriff's Administration, and 32 from the Office of Professional Review and Sheriff’s Merit Board. Close to 250 are correctional or police officers.

[Layoffs by department and union]

Chief Judge Timothy Evans will also be asked to make deep cuts, including 180 layoffs. Juvenile Temporary Detention Center staff were cut by 84, Juvenile Probation and Court Services lost 61 positions, the Office of the Chief Judge lost 38 positions, and Social Service lost 23.

The two offices charged with managing property tax assessment and appeals lost roughly 60 positions. Assessor Joe Berrios is facing 48 positions cut, of which 5 are layoffs. The Board of Review lost 19 positions. Eight are layoffs. BOR refused twice to propose its own cuts for several weeks, arguing any reductions would lead to a delay in tax bills going out.

[Budget questions and responses from departments]

There are no layoffs included in the President’s proposal for the public defender or state’s attorney. Both Amy Campanelli and Kim Foxx argued they had already made drastic cuts and anything further would end up costing the county more money in private attorney fees.

A packed slate of committee meetings await aldermen today. Reconsideration of former Deputy Mayor Andrea Zopp to the Police Board, three ballot referenda for the March 2018 primary, and another round of committee votes on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2018 Budget are just some of the items awaiting committee action ahead of Tuesday’s full City City meeting.


Public Safety – Zopp To Police Board

9:00 a.m. [Meeting Details]

With only three members of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee present for last Friday’s early morning meeting, Chair Ariel Reboyras (30) decided to hold off on consideration of the controversial appointment of Andrea Zopp to the City’s Police Board. The nine-member, mayor-appointed body recommends disciplinary action against Chicago police officers accused of misconduct.

[A copy of Zopps’ Biography Provided to Aldermen]

At Friday’s Public Safety meeting, only Reboyras, Ald. Gregory Mitchell (7), and Ald. Willie Cochran (20) were present. Zopp was absent. Reboyras told reporters after the meeting he could have passed the appointment without the needed 10 members present if he wanted to.

“If I wanted to rush it, I would have done it with two members,” he said.

Lack of a quorum is rarely used as a reason to delay committee action, as most City Council committees rarely have more than half of members present. Since The Daily Line began covering the City Council in 2015, a quorum call in committee has only been made by members, never the chair.

In the past year, it’s been used twice. Ald. Ed Burke (14) used the procedural move to delay a Zoning Committee vote on a storage facility in Jefferson Park, and Ald. Rick Muñoz (22) threatened a quorum call at and Education Committee meeting to send a message to the administration: if you want aldermen to approve your appointees to the City Colleges Board of Trustees, have Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool testify on the district’s financial issues.

The ACLU of Illinois and the Chicago Lawyers Committee, two local legal organizations that have been following the city’s ongoing police reform efforts, criticized the Emanuel administration for what they considered a “rushed” appointment of a “city hall insider.”

Zopp, formerly Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Deputy Mayor for Neighborhood Development, was appointed to the board this month shortly after leaving the administration to head World Business Chicago.

 

Rules Committee – Ballot Measures

9:15 a.m. [Meeting Details]

Chicago allows three non-binding questions on the ballot for a given election. The questions are usually decided by the administration and introduced as resolutions by a mayoral ally on the City Council. The following questions are proposed for the March 2018 primary ballot:

• R2017-907 – Ald. Ariel Reboyras’ (30) referenda question asks: “Should Governor Rauner support Illinois legislation to ban firearm bump stocks and strengthen penalties on illegal gun traffickers?” A bill in the state legislature banning bump stocks recently failed in the House over concerns that current gun owners would be penalized for gun modifications.  


• R2017-914 – Ald. Pat O’Connor’s (40) question asks, “Should the State of Illinois develop a comprehensive strategy to address the recent rise in opioid-related and heroin-related deaths including committing additional state resources for addiction treatment and requiring health insurers to cover opioid alternatives and limitations on prescription length?” Both CDPH Commissioner Julie Morita and Cook County Medical Examiner Ponni Arunkumar outlined the staggering impact of opioid deaths locally at their recent budget hearings.


• R2017-906 – Ald. Marge Laurino’s (39) question asks: “Should Governor Rauner act to protect the 650,000 Illinois residents who obtained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act by supporting legislation amending the Illinois Insurance Code to preserve important benefits like pediatric services and maternity care, and by investing in outreach campaigns to encourage residents to sign up for health insurance?” Rauner has drawn criticism for not being more vocal on the impact an ACA repeal or overhaul would have on the state.

 

Finance Committee – TIF Financing & SSA Budgets

10:00 a.m. [Meeting Details]

Another round of Special Service Area (SSA) budgets with corresponding property tax levy requests await Finance Committee approval, along with various ordinances authorizing TIF dollars for Chicago Public School and Chicago Park District projects

This includes TIF dollars to construct athletic fields at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and Schurz High School via O2017-7959 and O2017-7971. TIF dollars for Park District construction at Portage Park will also be considered under O2017-7813.

Noticeably missing from the agenda is a controversial city financing agreement that would give Presence Health, the state’s largest Catholic hospital system, about $5.5 million from a TIF district in the Loop. The agreement is more than a year old and has stalled in the past over the hospital system’s policies on birth control. The Community Development Commission approved the TIF agreement at their monthly meeting held last week.

More than half a dozen county staffers said in the final hours before budget amendments were posted that a majority of the board, including all four Republican commissioners, have lined up to co-sponsor President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed fix for the budget’s $200 million gap.

That ensures the budget’s passage next week, but at least one Democrat, Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-7), confirmed Thursday not he is not a co-sponsor.

Garcia is normally a staunch Preckwinkle ally. From the beginning of the budget process, he suggested that some revenue measures should balance the drastic cuts needed. Preckwinkle’s proposal includes the elimination of 1,000 currently vacant positions and roughly 500 layoffs. More than 300 of those positions are union, according to the draft proposal distributed to commissioners on Monday.

Asked the headcount of sponsors of the budget omnibus at the close of business Thursday, Preckwinkle’s spokesperson Frank Shuftan said the situation was “dynamic.”

Budget amendments will be uploaded to Legistar and the budget website Friday morning after 9:00 a.m., a spokesperson for Finance Chairman John Daley told The Daily Line. Amendments will be considered in the order they are posted tomorrow. If the budget amendment is approved in the Finance Committee, the full Board will meet immediately after Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting to affirm the vote.

Any amendment must be budget neutral.

Chinatown residents packed a small hearing room at City Hall Thursday to testify on a new Special Service Area designation for the neighborhood. Past and present residents and business owners complained the process has lacked transparency and that the tax burden is already too high. But local Ald. Danny Solis (25) said there were a lot of misconceptions from detractors and affirmed he will support it.  

Chicago has more than 50 of these special taxing districts, officially called Special Service Areas (SSAs). They are funded through a special property tax levy imposed on all property within the set boundaries. The Chinatown levy would be no more than 0.8%, with a first year estimated rate of 0.31%.

One block was removed from the map. Chinatown Square, the mall along Archer and Wentworth avenues, “is perhaps the most heavily trafficked area of Chinatown,” observed DNAinfo..Their story was also about opposition to the SSA. The fight has been brewing for close to two years.

Property taxes for the square were forfeited between 2010 and 2015 by the Chinatown Square Association. A third party bought the delinquent tax lien. That area will be excluded from the proposed SSA until the tax issue can be resolved, Department of Planning and Development (DPD) officials said Thursday.

A spokesperson for DPD did not respond to an additional request for comment about how excluding those properties might impact the SSA’s budget. The new SSA 73 would cover more than 250 properties, 99% of which are zoned commercial or mixed-use. The SSA projects a first year budget of $161,755.

SSAs generally cover neighborhood commercial strips and support public amenities or beautification efforts in addition to those provided by the city. This could be anything from more trashcans and street lighting to snow removal and private security. Proponents of the Chinatown SSA said that money could go toward trash pickup, sidewalks maintenance, and signage to draw more tourists to the neighborhood’s businesses and attractions like Ping Tom Park and the new Chinatown Public Library.

[Proposed Chinatown SSA MAP]

There have been four community meetings on the SSA, which is being pushed by the Chamber of Commerce in Chinatown. It has drawn vocal opponents, including many who argued they were already facing growing taxes. They said they could not afford to push rising tax costs at their restaurants or stores to customers. The median cost per property per year is $382, according to this FAQ from proponents.   

Robert Hoy of the United Chinatown Organization, spoke at length against the taxing district, saying Chinatown does not need an SSA for growth, and that the Chamber could take on the duties itself.

“There’s nothing that they’ve said that is concrete and measurable. There’s no milestones. The only thing that you’re going to get from this SSA is language. We need accountability and we’re not getting that.”


Each SSA is governed by a delegate agency and board of commissioners whose appointments are approved by the City Council’s Finance Committee. The slate of Chinatown Advisory Board members is hosted on the advisory board’s website, but does not identify which organizations each member represents.

With Solis’ support, the issue could come before City Council before the end of the year.

The other SSA public hearing on the reconstitution of Cottage Grove SSA No. 47 in Ald. Sophia King’s (4) ward drew only positive testimony.

King said the manager, Quad Cities Development Corporation (QCDC), has been a “known quantity and have just done numerous activities in the community” and “have provided stability” along the commercial corridor.  

 

Civil rights organizations and police reformers are expressing outrage against Mayor Rahm Emanuel for what they say is a rushed appointment of an administration insider to the city’s Police Board.

As The Daily Line reported last week, Emanuel appointed his deputy mayor, Andrea Zopp, to the board shortly after a valuable promotion to the city’s public-private economic development board, World Business Chicago.

On Wednesday, Public Safety Committee Chair Ariel Reboyras (30) filed a notice with the city clerk, setting a Thursday meeting for 9:45 a.m. to consider Zopp’s appointment to the board. That notice was filed one week from the day the appointment was filed.

The nine-member, mayor-appointed Police Board plays a critical role in the city’s police accountability structure. Once a month, the board meets to recommend disciplinary action against police officers accused of misconduct. The board reviews evidence gathered by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) or the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs.

“At this critical moment – when the Chicago police are in dire need of reform – selecting an insider in a rushed process does not advance public confidence in the police,” said Karen Sheley, Director of the Police Practices Project at the ACLU of Illinois.

Sheley’s organization is party to one of three federal lawsuits filed against the city that demand court-enforced police reforms to ensure full implementation of the recommendations outlined by the Department of Justice.

Zopp landed a job at City Hall two months after losing the March 2016 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois). As the Deputy Mayor and Chief Neighborhood Development Officer, Zopp’s position was created so she could head the administration’s “neighborhood strategy.”

“By creating a second Deputy Mayor position, the city will now have one individual specifically responsible for making sure every city project and every city dollar expands opportunities for Chicagoans,” reads a mayoral press release from May 12, 2016. The appointment came at a time when Emanuel had record low approval ratings for his handling of the politically cataclysmic shooting of Laquan McDonald by Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.

The board is responsible for nominating Police Superintendent candidates. Last year, however, Emanuel temporarily changed that law after being unsatisfied with the candidates the board offered to replace ousted Supt. Garry McCarthy. McCarthy was fired within days of the court ordered release of dashcam footage showing police officer Van Dyke firing a 16 rounds at McDonald as he walks away.   

Last month, Emanuel named Zopp the new CEO of World Business Chicago, a public private partnership to spur economic development and bolster the city’s business community. The board is made up of the city’s most prominent business executives and powerbrokers. The annual salary is $375,000.

An Oct. 24 press release said the post is nearly identical to Deputy Mayor’s. In that position Zopp “will build on the Mayor’s efforts to drive economic growth in neighborhoods throughout Chicago.”

Zopp would replace Rita Fry on the Police Board. Fry is president & CEO of her own consulting firm, RAF Consulting, Inc., and was first appointed to the board in 2012. Her term expired in August.

If confirmed by the full City Council, Zopp would serve until Aug. 10, 2022.

The Council’s Finance Committee is holding a public hearing Thursday on a proposal to create a new business improvement district for Chinatown and renew an existing one for the Cottage Grove neighborhood.

Chicago has more than 50 of these special taxing districts, officially called Special Service Areas (SSAs), which are funded through a special property tax levy imposed on all property within the set boundaries. Most SSAs cover neighborhood commercial strips and support public amenities or beautification efforts in addition to those provided by the city. This could be anything from more trashcans, street lighting, snow removal, and private security.

[Proposed Chinatown SSA MAP]

[Existing Cottage Grove SSA MAP]

The Chamber of Commerce in Chinatown is leading the effort to establish the boundaries in conjunction with local Ald. Danny Solis (25), who represents one of three wards that divide the neighborhood. According to this recent letter from Solis, Chinatown Square was removed from the proposed boundary because of a “delinquent tax lien.”

The new SSA 73 would cover 263 properties, 99% of which are zoned commercial or mixed-use. Under the proposed tax rate of 0.31%, the SSA projects a first year budget of $161,755.

Each SSA is governed by a delegate agency and board of commissioners whose appointments are approved by the City Council’s Finance Committee. The slate of Chinatown Advisory Board members is hosted on the advisory board’s website.

Meanwhile, the Cottage Grove/47th Street SSA, first established in 2008, is renewing its authority. Quad Communities Development Corporation, the SSA’s service provider, is leading the effort, along with local Ald. Sophia King (4). The SSA covers the neighborhoods south of Navy Pier along the lakefront, and had a 2017 budget of about $346,000.

The full City Council met for a quick session Wednesday to procedurally defer and publish the package of ordinances composing the city’s 2018 Budget. This was also an opportunity for aldermen to introduce their own amendments. Only one was filed and it concerns the intergovernmental agreement with the Board of Education included in the 2018 revenue ordinance.

[Spreadsheet of Introduced Items.]

The amendment, O2017-8391, removes a provision authorizing the city budget director to disburse money from the city’s general fund to Chicago Public Schools. This is the first intergovernmental agreement with CPS that allows for the transfer of city funds to the financially troubled school district. The aldermen who introduced it, Brendan Reilly (42), Scott Waguespack (32) and Gilbert Villegas (36), said it sets a dangerous precedence.

A City Hall source told The Daily Line the group of aldermen filed an amendment removing a similar IGA to transfer funds to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) but the city clerk’s office didn’t include it in the introductions because it wasn’t filed on time.