Chicago News
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JUL 26, 2017
Members of the Council’s Budget Committee Tuesday approved the disbursement of more than a million dollars in federal and private grants for the city Health Department’s ongoing efforts to track and combat sexually transmitted diseases, as well as this year’s One Summer Chicago program. New safety requirements for city contractors that use large trucks or vehicles also advanced and is part of the city’s ongoing efforts to reduce traffic fatalities.
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Aldermen and officials with the city’s Department of Planning and Development disagreed Wednesday as to whether the city had engaged in a “shell game” with TIF funds following a Crain’s investigation released Friday. Several aldermen argued DPD officials were not upfront with the way taxpayer funds were being used to accomplish redevelopment goals at McCormick Place and Navy Pier. DPD Commissioner David Reifman said though he wasn’t at the helm of the department, DPD achieved the goal of the city’s TIF ordinance, by creating jobs, spurring economic development, and boosting tourism.
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Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel fielded tough questioning from aldermen who sought to get to the bottom of who was to blame for the city’s red light camera boondoggle. Not only were aldermen dissatisfied they had to approve a $38 million payout, they wanted to know how the city managed to mishandle its notification system in the first place. In an odd comeuppance, a $20 million settlement from the red light camera vendor, Redflex, will go toward payouts owed to the 1.18 million people who received 1.9 million violations without proper notice.
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JUL 24, 2017
DPD Commissioner David Reifman, Zoning Chair Dally Solis (25), Finance Chair Ed Burke at joint committee meeting on North Branch.
After nearly four hours of grilling Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman, a joint meeting of the City Council’s Finance and Zoning Committees advanced an ordinance that would set the stage for mixed-use development along the North Branch of the Chicago River by repealing portions of the strict Planned Manufacturing District (PMD) designation that prohibited anything but industrial uses for the last 30 years.
DPD Web Page: North Branch Framework Plan and Design Guidelines
Only one alderman, Scott Waguespack (32) requested to be recorded as voting no. Though Ald. Michele Smith (43) has been a vocal critic of the plan, she isn’t a member of either committee, an issue she previously faced with the Airbnb ordinance. Another Alderman, George Cardenas (12), threatened to use a parliamentary procedure to block a vote on the ordinance, which could have delayed the rezone of North Branch for more than a month, since City Council typically does not meet in August.
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SEIU Local 73, the collective bargaining unit that represents 230 Aviation Security Officers (ASOs) at O’Hare and Midway Airports, filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging the city violated the terms of their labor contract. On Tuesday, members of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus plan to hold a press conference in support of the union and demand the city halt efforts to minimize their authority at the city’s two airports.
In the suit filed on July 20th, SEIU Local 73 argues that an ongoing effort by the Department of Aviation to strip ASOs of their law enforcement status by requiring the removal of “Police” monikers from their jackets and cars, as well as newly announced policies for emergency response that put the Chicago Police Department, not ASOs, as first responders to incidents at city airports violates the “Traditional Work” clause of their collective bargaining agreement with the city. That CBA was approved in 2011 and was extended in 2016 through the end of this year.
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Attorneys representing the Illinois Retail Merchants Association take questions from reporters after a hearing on Cook County's motion to dismiss their beverage tax suit on July 21, 2017.
Attorneys representing Cook County and retail merchants gathered again in Judge Daniel Kubasiak’s courtroom Friday afternoon to discuss whether the county’s beverage tax was applied uniformly and reasonably administered. Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1), who has called the tax “regressive”, used the day’s proceedings to again call the budget fallout from the stalled beverage tax collection and subsequent layoffs a “manufactured crisis” by the Preckwinkle administration.
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Monday begins with a joint meeting of the City Council’s Finance and Zoning Committees with one item on the agenda–the rezone of the North Branch Industrial Corridor. The item needs approval from both committees because it includes plans for new revenue streams linked to anticipated developments, all of which would be controlled by the Department of Planning and Development.
But the committees may have trouble gathering a quorum. Several aldermen are scheduled to attend a protest outside Navy Pier in the wake of a joint Crain’s and BGA investigation that suggests millions of TIF dollars were ported to the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) to cover the cost of a new hotel. Local Ald. Pat Dowell (3) has already demanded a hearing on the ordinance. City Council passed the ordinance authorizing the transfer of increment dollars from surrounding districts in October 2014.
A protest and press conference organized by community groups and aldermen is scheduled outside Navy Pier on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. The group will hold “golden hot dogs, signs and banners to symbolize what a $55 million renovation to the Navy Pier food court can get you.” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), and members of the group Grassroots Collaborative will attend.
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Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis joins CTU members and aldermen at a press availability on July 20, 2017.
Amidst uncertainty over the future of its funding while state legislators and the governor wrangle over state education funding, Chicago Public Schools gave principals some guidance Thursday morning, releasing per pupil spending numbers that are up $200 from last year’s rates. But CPS is not expected to release its full budget until August 7, and in a brief conference call with reporters, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool did not offer details on how the district is planning to address a projected $544 million deficit for Fiscal Year 2018.
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JUL 21, 2017
The Chicago Plan Commission approved a repeal of a majority of the Planned Manufacturing District designation for the North Branch Industrial Corridor, setting the stage for full City Council approval next week. It’s the first PMD to be repealed since the strict classification was first implemented in the 1990s as a way to protect Chicago’s manufacturing sector. Compared to other PMDs spread across the city, the North Branch Corridor has seen a sharp decline in industrial services, mainly due to lower costs elsewhere
The mayor-appointed land use body also approved several city-sponsored developments, including two CHA-partnered projects on the North Side that would provide affordable housing for seniors. These developments are particularly notable because it's the first time a developer has also partnered with the Chicago Public Library. Both developments include a public library on the ground floor.
Another city-led project, an amended PD for the Daley College campus initiated by the Public Building Commission, also advanced. The school plans to build a new academic building for advance manufacturing.
And Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) was unsuccessful in his effort to block a nearly 300-unit residential high-rise planned near the Cumberland stop on the city’s Blue Line. Though he claimed the neighborhood was absolutely opposed, not a single person showed up to testify against it, a point one commissioner raised before the vote. Only Ald. Tom Tunney (44) voted against that project, citing respect for Aldermanic privilege.
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Budget pressures continued to squeeze Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Wednesday. Not only did beverage tax opponents line up to testify for a repeal, but county workers hit with layoffs lobbied commissioners throughout the day to pass extra revenue measures, and Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1) accused her of manufacturing a budget crisis to pressure a judge to lift a restraining order on the county’s beverage tax.
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JUL 20, 2017
The Chicago Board of Ethics announced $38,000 in fines for seven individuals and companies it found in violation of the city’s lobbying rules, as well as fines for another 9 registered lobbyists who did not complete ethics training by a July 1 deadline. The announcement Wednesday afternoon followed over 90 minutes of closed door deliberations
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Attorneys at the Cook County Public Defenders Office represented by AFSCME Council 31 stand during colleagues' testimony on July 19, 2017.
AFSCME Council 31, which represents several county workers, including attorneys at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, is pitching commissioners on tax increases or borrowing to prevent layoffs as a result of the block of the county’s sweetened beverage tax. Those proposals include bumping up existing sales tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, hotel tax (1% increase), amusement (doubling to 6%), or parking taxes–or instituting a new $11 per employee head tax at employers with more than 50 workers.
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An ordinance that would formally remove the strict zoning boundaries around the North Branch Industrial Area and open the former manufacturing hub to residential and commercial development faces a preliminary vote today by the city’s Plan Commission. It’s just one of 14 items for the unusually packed monthly agenda.
