Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed a new tax on residents’ and businesses’ water bills on Wednesday to generate additional revenue to prevent the city’s largest pension fund from going insolvent within the next decade.

At an investor presentation held at the Chicago Symphony Hall, Mayor Emanuel outlined his plan for the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF), the last of the city’s four pension funds without a stable revenue source to pay out benefits to retirees. A previous plan to amend the city’s payment schedule was found unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court earlier this year, because it would have reduced benefits owed to existing retirees.

In addition to routine County business (including more than $1 million in settlements and a slew of property tax incentives), a packed calendar of new items also awaits committee assignment at today’s Cook County Board meeting. Those new items include the continuation of the consolidation battle that divided the Board along racial lines and a glimmer of hope for those tired of delays because of the Board's often lengthy honorary resolutions.

 

The Chicago Teachers Union and the Board of Education are scheduled to resume contract negotiations this Thursday, according to CTU’s lawyer, Robert Bloch.

CTU has been without a contract since June 30, 2015. Previous attempts to reach an agreement have failed and resulted in a one day strike in April.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Budget Director Alex Holt returned to a familiar refrain on the Monday morning property tax bills were due: Chicago’s booming economy played a key role in helping to haul the city out of its financial mess. At a City Club event featuring Holt, Mayor Emanuel again touted the city’s overall fiscal picture–educational investments, corporate relocations, foreign investment, and tourism–similar to an address he gave to municipal bond analysts in May.

A Chicago Inspector General report released to aldermen today finds that prior to 1995, the Independent Police Review Authority had “inaccurate and incomplete” reporting of use of force incidents by the Chicago Police Department and that the Authority “could improve its reporting procedures to provide meaningful transparency.” In all, the OIG found that between September 2007 and September 2014, IPRA overreported 4 hit shootings, underreported 49 non-hit shootings, and underreported 119 uses of pepper spray by Chicago police officers.

In this week’s episode we discuss a plan introduced in the City Council to divert surplus TIF revenue to CPS. It’s second time an alderman has introduced such a plan to help the financially burdened school district. Meanwhile, the city’s Pullman neighborhood gets a Whole Foods distribution plant thanks to some TIF support. 

 

 

 

Friday afternoon the Chicago Budget Office released its 2016 Annual Financial Analysis revealing an expected $137 million gap between expected revenues and spending for FY2017 and that $898 million of the city’s total $3.7 billion corporate fund budget will be devoted to pension payments next year. But hanging over it all, was that news that to get the Municipal Employees Pension Fund back on track, Chicago may need a new property tax hike as large as the ones put into place last year for the Police and Fire Pension Funds.

Two Chicago aldermen are pressing members of the Chicago Board of Education to support their plan to use surplus tax increment financing (TIF) revenue to plug CPS’ budget hole for the upcoming 2017 school year.

At yesterday’s monthly meeting of the full Board, Ald. George Cardenas (12), of Brighton Park, and Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) of Wicker Park and West Town, urged BOE members to support an ordinance they introduced in City Council last week that would create a mechanism for the city to annually assess the district’s financial needs and use surplus TIF money to help fill the hole.

More than 1,600 individual donations were made to Chicago’s elected city officials and Ward Organizations in the month of June, making it one of the biggest fundraising months since the 2015 election.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel alone brought in approximately $525,700 in individual donations. A significant number of those donations, about 15, came from lawyers with Kirkland & Ellis.

[Full Spreadsheet]

A big chunk of that money, about $161,700, came in the form of three checks of $53,900, the maximum allowable amount a political action committee can give to a candidate in one election cycle. Those donors are all trade labor unions: the Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC, Engineers Political Education Committee, and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399.

Two plans to raise additional revenue for Chicago Public Schools, a roadmap for the creation of a civilian oversight board of the Chicago Police Department, and restrictions on party buses were all introduced by aldermen at the July monthly City Council meeting. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has also made a slew of appointments, including a new Commissioner for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and two ordinances related to existing bond offerings for O’Hare Airport: (Ordinance #1/Ordinance #2)

One day after nearly 300 people attended a public hearing on police accountability hosted by the City Council’s Progressive Caucus, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Office announced its timeline for reforms, including when the City Council is expected to vote to replace Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) with a “civilian investigative agency,” create a Public Safety Auditor, and a new element: the creation of a Community Oversight Board.

The announcement, which landed late Friday afternoon, included a schedule of five public hearings throughout August for aldermen to gather input from residents. A vote on IPRA's replacement and the new Public Safety Auditor position are expected as early as September. 

Nearly a year after approving a historic property tax hike to shore up revenue for the city’s Police and Fire pension funds, the City Council approves a modest rebate plan for homeowners who make $75k and less. We finally learn what happens when there’s a tie in committee. And demands for a civilian oversight board for the police department builds.

After a nearly seven month investigation, attorney Dan Webb has issued his report reviewing the city’s Law Department. Webb, with the firm Winston & Strawn, “did not find evidence establishing a culture, practice, or approach in the Division of intentionally concealing evidence or engaging in intentional misconduct relating to discovery practices or other obligations,” but did turn up several areas of improvement, and provided more insight on how the city’s Federal Civil Rights Litigation Division (FCRL) operates.

Webb’s report says the division is overburdened, understaffed, and makes discovery errors because of miscommunication “with CPD/OEMC; not having full knowledge of or training in certain CPD systems or documents at issue in the case; apparently not performing sufficiently diligent analysis regarding document production, such as by cross-referencing certain materials; or not following up on outstanding discovery requests completely or timely.”

The FCRL is the division within the City’s Department of Law (DOL) that defends the city and the Chicago Police Department in civil suits brought over allegations of CPD misconduct or civil rights violations. Webb was called in after Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared the Law Department should not be part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the CPD. The Mayor reversed course after a judge accused a city attorney of hiding evidence in a fatal police shooting case, and that attorney resigned.

More than 300 people packed a conference room at Malcolm X College last night to listen and testify at the first of a handful of police accountability town hall meetings hosted by City Council's Progressive Caucus. The turnout was much larger than expected–enough that Malcolm X officials had to disassemble a wall in the conference room to double the size of the meeting space.

  The Chicago Plan Commission approved a zoning change to facilitate the construction of McDonald’s new headquarters in the Fulton Market District, land-use plans for a second TIF district dedicated to the massive Lathrop Homes development, a plan to turn the historic Old Main Building on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus into apartments, and a new residential housing complex for Wicker Park, along with several other large-scale residential developments and one hotel at its monthly meeting yesterday.

McDonald’s Headquarters for Fulton Market District (27th Ward)

Sterling Bay, the developer behind McDonald’s new downtown office, plans to build a nine-story office building with ground floor retail at the Harpo Studios site, the former home of the Oprah Winfrey Show. The site at 110 N. Carpenter contains a surface parking lot and the adjacent, vacant production studio building.

McDonald’s anticipates that a significant number of the 2,000 employees who currently work out of the Oak Brook office will be transferred to the new Chicago location. A minimum of 300 parking spaces will be provided, along with shuttle buses that will drive to downtown METRA stations.