Department of Family and Support Services Comm. Brandie Knazze (second from left) answers questions during a Monday budget hearing. 

Aldermen focused much of their time on Monday questioning the leader of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services on how the city is addressing homelessness and whether certain initiatives would continue beyond the life of the pandemic. 

Ald. David Moore (17) questions Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin during a City Council budget hearing on Monday.

Updated Tuesday, 3:20 p.m. Only about 40 percent of the money allocated from a long-dormant city fund to help businesses survive last year’s spring lockdown actually made it to applicants, Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin told aldermen during a budget hearing on Monday. The rest remains tied up with private intermediary lenders, in part due to a quirk in city rules, she said.

The City Council during its February 2020 meeting. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

The City Council is months away from adopting a system of electronic voting that could forever put an end to lengthy and confusing roll call votes, Clerk Anna Valencia said during a budget hearing on Monday.

Chicago Board of Election Commissioners chair Marisel Hernandez speaks to reporters during a March 2020 news conference. [The Daily Line/Alex Nitkin]

Tuesday will mark day three of the City Council’s departmental budget hearings as aldermen are set to hear from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners on its proposed budget swell to handle the 2022 primary and general elections and the implementation of a new ward map. Members of the council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations are also scheduled to hear from leaders of the administrative hearings and human resources departments on their proposed budget increases. 

City budget officials address questions from Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) during a Friday hearing on the proposed 2022 budget.

Aldermen spent part of the City Council’s first hearing on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2022 budget on Friday raising concerns over the sustainability of new programs proposed to be funded with the one-time federal stimulus dollars, probing city finance officials over whether the city has enough employees to carry out the programs.  

Nearly 8,800 people as of last week were either incarcerated in Cook County Jail or confined to electronic monitoring, about a 10 percent jump from just before the COVID-19 pandemic. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Changes could be coming to Cook County’s controversial home surveillance programs designed to pigeonhole pre-trial defendants who have been released from jail.

Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin are set to face questions during budget hearings on Monday.

Following the City Council’s all-day grilling of city budget officials on Friday, aldermen are set to begin drilling down into the city’s individual departments Monday morning as they quiz Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin about their expanded budgets for the 2022 budget year. And in the afternoon, the Committee on Budget and Government Operations will hear from the leader of the city’s License Appeal Commission and the chief of the Department of Family and Support Services.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot plans to use $46 million in federal recovery funds to plant 75,000 new trees in Chicago during the next five years.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pitch to add 75,000 new trees to the city’s canopy during the next five years could have little impact unless the city also works to maintain existing trees and ensure new trees receive proper care, according to one conservation group.

Cook County Comm. Kevin Morrison (D-15) talks to Comm. Bridget Degnen (D-12) during a hybrid meeting of the county Board of Commissioners on Thursday

Cook County would sever all ties with companies that financially support anti-abortion legislation under a resolution proposed by a county commissioner on Thursday.

Chicago Budget Director Susie Park briefed aldermen on the city’s 2021 year-end balance sheet during a committee meeting last month.

The Chicago City Council’s expedited two-week round of budget hearings is set to kick off on Friday with a high-level overview from city finance officials, promising to offer an early look at aldermen’s appetite for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to pair a mild property tax hike with a panoply of new federally backed spending.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners granted full authority to President Toni Preckwinkle over the appointment process for the advisory group of the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. [Facebook]

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will now have sole power to appoint members to the advisory board for the county’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, subject to the approval of commissioners.

Attorney Michael Kasper gives a presentation on ward remapping during a public hearing on Wednesday.

The City Council’s inaugural public hearing on its decennial ward remap lasted less than one hour, fielding questions from only a handful of aldermen and comments from six members of the public. 

Nubia Willman (left), director of The Office of New Americans, and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) speak during a committee meeting Wednesday.

City officials need to work more closely with aldermen, hold additional hearings and provide resources as Chicago is set to resettle at least 500 refugees from Afghanistan, aldermen charged Wednesday during a City Council committee meeting.

County mapmaking consultant Peter Creticos presented the final version of the new Cook County district map on Wednesday.

Cook County commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a new district map they called a paragon of fairness and transparency, but at least one good government group says their self-congratulations are overspun.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget proposal includes the addition of a new “full-time recruitment team” to swell the ranks of the Chicago Police Department, she said. [Colin Boyle/Block Club]

Chicago’s sharp rise in violent crime this year has forced Mayor Lori Lightfoot into the center of a debate over whether the city should work to beef up the ranks of the Chicago Police Department or invest in alternative programs like mental health supports and antiviolence intervention.

With the rollout of her $16.7 billion budget proposal, she gave her answer: both.