An ordinance intended to jumpstart construction of a new North Branch riverwalk under the Addison Street bridge, a nearly $4 million dollar land sale to Near North Montessori School, and several appointments to the Community Land Trust Board are up consideration by the Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee this morning.

Property tax breaks for a bakery in the 12th Ward, a vodka distillery in the 25th, and three sites within Chicago’s Enterprise Zone No. 1 are up for committee consideration today. You can read more about each in this brief from the Mayor’s Office. All but one are new applications. The Class 6(b) classification, which is ultimately approved by the Assessor, is designed to encourage industrial development through the development of new industrial facilities, the rehab of existing buildings, and the reutilization of abandoned buildings. Properties receiving Class 6b will be assessed at 10% of market value for the first 10 years, 15% in the 11th year and 20% in the 12th year.

Ald. Ed Burke (14) is the only alderman with a non-routine item on today’s License and Consumer Affairs agenda (there are 13 other routine agenda items to allow or disallow liquor and package good licenses).

The Council’s Zoning Committee approved Nobu’s request to add an additional three stories to their proposed hotel for Fulton Market, which is currently under construction, as well as a plan to convert the former Graeme Stewart Elementary School in Uptown into 64 apartments. All appointments, including the reappointment of Blake Sercye as the chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals, passed without a hitch. (George Blakemore was the only public witness at yesterday’s meeting, and he testified on nearly every item.)

The Mayor’s intergovernmental affairs staff released to aldermen this week a new version of the administration’s police reform ordinance and various briefing documents explaining how it compares to two alternative aldermanic proposals.

On Monday, Corporation Counsel Steve Patton held a series of briefings with aldermen on the new reform plan, which includes the budget appropriation for the two new police oversight agencies.

Documents distributed to aldermen:

• Updated Police Accountability Draft Ordinance - This is the new version of the police reform ordinance which includes updated language on the budget for COPA and for the new Public Safety Deputy within the city’s Inspector General’s Office. Under the revised plan, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) will receive 1% of the Chicago Police Department’s annual appropriation, excluding grant funds. Based on CPD’s 2016 budget of $1.45 billion, COPA would receive about $14 million, nearly double what Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) received in 2016. (On Monday, we reported that enterprise funds, such as money from O’Hare and Midway Airport, would also be excluded, but according to the updated ordinance, that money would be part of the percentage.) The IG’s office will also get a funding bump, from 0.1% of the city’s corporate fund to 0.14%.

• Ervin (FAIR Cops) Ordinance Comparison - This document outlines which aspects of Ald. Jason Ervin’s (28) FAIR Cops Ordinance the administration included in their police reform plan. According to this chart, one recommendation–that the City Council be allowed to force the police department to implement a recommendation offered by the new Public Safety Deputy–was not included. The chart notes that the city reviewed practices in other jurisdictions and found that “the function of an IG is to identify issues and make recommendations; none use or recommend a mechanism that makes such recommendations binding or mandatory.”

• Hairston Ordinance Comparison - One provision in Ald. Leslie Hairston’s (5) police reform ordinance was not included, according to this chart. Ald. Hairston called for the creation of a selection process for the new chief administrator that involves community input. The chart notes that IPRA Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley will stay on as the interim chief administrator for COPA until the City Council creates a permanent mechanism for how her successor should be appointed. That mechanism will likely be drafted when the Council officially creates the Community Oversight Board, the third prong in the reform process, which is expected to be considered in the next six to nine months.

• IPRA/COPA Matrix - This chart compares IPRA’s current powers and duties with that of COPA, what Ald. Haiston had called for in her police reform ordinance, and what the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force recommended. One interesting point: the chief administrator of COPA may be a former CPD member (civilian or officer) or former employee of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office so long as it wasn’t within five years of the appointment. IPRA has no such restrictions, the PATF report recommended the five year cooling period, while Ald. Hairston’s ordinance specifically said a chief administrator can’t have had any prior employment with either agency.

• Public Safety Deputy/FAIR Cops Matrix - Similar to the above chart, this document compares the proposed role of the Public Safety Deputy,  the recommendations outlined in Ald. Ervin’s FAIR Cops ordinance, and the recommendations of the PATF report.

 

 

The Council Committee on Human Relations meets this morning to consider a slew of appointments and reappointments two city commissions that deal with monitoring and strengthening the city’s human and civil rights laws, as well as an ordinance that would strengthen protections for undocumented residents living in Chicago. There’s also a resolution calling on the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to change the name of the new McCormick Square neighborhood that cites the building’s namesake, Robert R. McCormick, and his alleged racist past.

Chicago-area business leaders and aldermen gathered Monday morning on the 2nd floor lobby of City Hall to announce a committee to “combat Chicago’s unfriendly business climate,” and the “onslaught of taxes, regulations and mandates that are crushing neighborhood small businesses.”

Rob Karr and Theresa Mintle, the president/CEOs of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, respectively, both attended, as did Ald. Tom Tunney (44), Ald. Michele Smith (43), Ald. Brian Hopkins (2), and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19). Business owners Neil Byers (Horse Thief Hollow Brewing) and Michael Kozlowski (Fairplay Foods) were also present. Mintle, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s former chief of staff, kicked off the press conference by saying there was an “anti-business agenda” coming from City Hall.

Comm. Joan Murphy was honored at a special meeting of the Cook County Board yesterday, with family, fellow commissioners, and suburban colleagues remembering the late 79-year-old as a fiercely loyal people’s politician who built bridges and treated colleagues like family.

“To me she was always Murph,” Comm. Deborah Sims, one of Murphy’s closest friends on the board said. “We talk about how short in stature she was, but she could walk among giants. ...She will be missed, but she will never, ever be forgotten.” Black bunting was hung over the entrance to Cook County offices on the 5th floor, and her desk was covered in flowers.

Plans to transform an Uptown elementary school into apartments, an application to add three more floors to the Nobu Hotel currently being constructed in Fulton Market, and a new residential community for the city’s Glenwood/Dunn neighborhood are on the deferred agenda for today’s Zoning Committee meeting.

All three projects received unanimous approval from the city’s Plan Commission at their September meeting and now need approval from the Council’s Zoning Committee before the projects can advance to the full City Council for a vote.

It should be a fairly short meeting. There are only 10 zoning applications scheduled, and all had been previously deferred.  

The committee is also scheduled to consider three appointments to two major land-use bodies. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is requesting the Council reappoint Blake Sercye as chairman of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals. His term would expire July 1, 2021.

Chicago Public Schools announced a 3.5% student enrollment decline for the 2016-17 school year today, for a total of 13,804 fewer students than last year. The numbers are drawn from the 10th day of attendance, a date used by CPS and the state to determine formula funding amounts for schools. Last year, student enrollment dropped by 5,588. In 2006, CPS enrolled 420,925 students, 42,444 more than this year.

The city’s Law Department proposed a budget amount tied to the overall Police Department budget for the new police oversight agency that is expected to replace the Independent Police Review Authority. Under the proposal, that agency will be allowed to hire outside counsel, according to aldermen The Daily Line spoke to who were briefed Monday.

Corporation Counsel Steve Patton held multiple briefing sessions yesterday with aldermen on revisions his office has made to the police reform ordinance, according to aldermen present. The ordinance is scheduled for a Joint Budget and Public Safety Committee hearing on October 3, followed by a full City Council vote on October 5.

If you opened up Facebook last week, you may have noticed a post from the company urging you to register to vote, and an option to help you find a way to register to vote. If local anecdotal evidence is worth anything, the Chicago Board of Elections seems to think Facebook might have resulted in a temporary registration surge.

City worker pension funds board members learned last week that retiree healthcare plan costs will be going up hundreds of dollars a month in 2017 now that the city has completely phased out its annual retiree health plan subsidy. According to a presentation made by Comptroller Erin Keane to pension fund boards, individual retiree plans will go up almost $600 a month to $1,466. Family health care plans for retirees will go up almost $1,400 to $3,622 a month.

Cook County Commissioners will gather at 11:15am today to honor the late Comm. Joan Patricia Murphy, who died last Sunday after a private battle with breast cancer. Murphy, a Democrat, represented the Southland for 14 years. Her wake and funeral were held on Thursday and Friday last week.

Comm. Murphy’s replacement will be chosen by the democratic committeemen of the 6th District, based on the number of votes she received in the 2014 general election (weights below). Rich Township's Tim Bradford will serve as chair of the selection committee, Thornton Township's Frank Zuccarelli will serve as vice-chair. The vote has not yet been scheduled.

The city’s Budget Office on Friday created a new webpage to guide residents through the city’s property tax rebate program that the City Council approved to help alleviate the burden of the Mayor’s property tax hike for the police and fire pension funds.