Department of Streets and Sanitation acting Comm. Cole Stallard answered questions during a budget hearing on Tuesday.

It now takes city workers a full year to respond to requests for trees to be trimmed, but a near-doubling of crews the city sends out to do the work is expected to shrink that lag time, leaders of the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation told aldermen on Tuesday.  

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection plans to dedicate $5 million from the American Rescue Plan to fund new “community farms” around the city. [Neighborspace]

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection will next year oversee spending of about $46 million of federally sourced money for a suite of programs aimed at improving neighborhoods’ food options, boosting first-time entrepreneurs, padding the budgets of local nonprofits and more, officials told aldermen Tuesday.

Chicago Fire Department Comm. Annette Nance-Holt is set to answer questions from aldermen during her first budget hearing at the helm of the department. [Mayor's Office/ Twitter] 

Aldermen are scheduled on Wednesday to examine next year’s proposed budgets the Mayor’s Office of People with Disabilities, Chicago Fire Department, Commission on Human Relations and the Office of Public Safety Administration during the ninth day of departmental budget hearings.  

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown responded to nearly nine hours of questions from aldermen during a Monday budget hearing. 

The city’s controversial contract with gunshot detection technology company ShotSpotter came under heavy scrutiny during a Monday hearing on the Chicago Police Department’s budget, even as police leaders deflected responsibility for the partnership to a different department.

Leaders of the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation are primed to field a barrage of questions and complaints from members of the City Council on Tuesday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Departmental budget hearings are set to push forward on Tuesday as aldermen interrogate leaders of the Chicago Department of Buildings, Departments of Streets and Sanitation and Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The departments represent three of the most public-facing corners of city government and rely on tight relationships with ward offices, promising hours of rigorous questioning by the City Council.

The Chicago Department of Water Management has so far only replaced 10 of the city's approximately 400,000 lead service lines, Comm. Andrea Cheng said during a budget hearing on Friday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

The share of contracts the city’s water department awarded to African American-owned companies in the past year has not met multiple aldermen’s expectations, they said Friday.  

Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications Executive Director Rich Guidice answers questions during a budget hearing Friday. 

Employees in Chicago’s 911 response center are “very excited” about a co-responder pilot program the city launched to send combinations of mental health professionals, paramedics, police officers and substance abuse clinicians to residents experiencing mental health crises, the office’s leader said Friday. 

Flight volume at O’Hare Airport was about 73 percent of pre-pandemic levels this summer, Chicago Department of Aviation Comm. Jamie Rhee said Friday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Domestic travel to Chicago’s airports — especially Midway International Airport — is steadily rebounding from its pandemic doldrums, but international travel will take longer to complete its comeback, the city’s top aviation official told aldermen Friday.

Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown is set to face questions during a marathon budget hearing on Monday.

The City Council is poised on Monday to kick off its final week of budget hearings by picking apart the $1.9 billion proposed budget for the Chicago Police Department, typically one of the longest and most contentious of departmental hearings aldermen attend to each fall.

Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady answers questions during a budget hearing on Thursday. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare a wide range of racial inequities among Chicagoans, and the leader of the city’s public health department hopes to address those issues as the city moves out of the pandemic, she said Thursday. 

Andrea Kersten, interim chief of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, answers questions during a budget hearing Thursday.

The city agency tasked with investigating police misconduct complaints continues to see an increase in the number of complaints filed, but for the first time in four years, the office has cleared a backlog of cases left behind by its predecessor agency, the office’s interim leader announced Thursday. 

Taste of Chicago, one of the signature events organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, is set to return in 2022 after being canceled two consecutive years. [Facebook/Taste of Chicago]

A parade of aldermen on Thursday rapped Comm. Mark Kelly, the outgoing head of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, for leaving them out of discussions on events being planned in their ward.

Ald. Michele Smith (43) said she plans to introduce an ordinance to further clarify the city's lobbying definition so ordinary citizens don't inadvertently cross ethics rules. [Colin Boyle/Block Club]

A key alderman on Thursday urged a revision in Chicago’s rules on lobbyist registration, saying the current definition of “lobbyist” could put a damper on small businesses soliciting help from their representatives in the City Council.

Leaders from the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications are scheduled Friday to brief aldermen on the office’s 2022 spending plan. [OEMC]

The City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations is scheduled on Friday to ask the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, water department and aviation department to defend their proposed 2022 budgets, which together come out to more than $1.6 billion. Friday’s three department budget hearings will close out day six of the 11-day marathon of budget committee hearings on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed spending plan.  

 

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) asks questions of Department of Assets, Information and Services Comm. David Reynolds during a hearing on Wednesday.

Chicago has already kicked the tires on a decade-long, $400 million endeavor to upgrade its outdated constellation of information technology — but the work isn’t moving fast enough, some aldermen said on Wednesday.