Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady addressed aldermen during a hearing on Thursday. 

Aldermen largely focused their questions during a Thursday subject matter hearing with public health Comm. Allison Arwady on whether the city will mandate masks and vaccinations now that it’s fully reopened. 

The city is set Friday to shed almost all of the various health and safety precautions it put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. 

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi appears on track to break free of a 12-year-old federal monitor, spurring allegations from Clerk Karen Yarbrough’s office of preferential treatment.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office could be on track to shake loose a federal hiring monitor that’s dogged the office for nearly a decade, a potential breakthrough that could give Kaegi a boost ahead of a grueling reelection campaign. 

But a separate monitor spurred by attorney Michael Shakman’s 52-year-old anti-patronage lawsuit shows no signs of leaving county Clark Karen Yarbrough’s office, which came under the shadow of federal oversight last year. And a senior official in Yarbrough’s office is calling the purpose of the Shakman probe into question, saying the lawsuit has created a “cottage industry” for lawyers to squeeze money from county taxpayers. 

Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans president Ron Onesti (left) and Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) during a committee hearing on Wednesday

Proposals to designate October as “Italian American Heritage and Culture Month” and expand city resources for farmers markets both gained unanimous approval from aldermen on Wednesday.  

Members of the City Council Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation during its Wednesday meeting did not ask questions about Ald. Nicholas Sposato’s (38) resolution (R2021-525) to designate October as “Italian American Heritage and Culture Month,” but leaders from the Italian American community spoke in favor of the measure. 

More than a dozen top executives from ComEd are expected to be on hand for a subject matter hearing set to discuss the company’s relationship with Chicago on Thursday. [Facebook/ComEd]

Representatives of Commonwealth Edison are set to withstand a grilling from aldermen during a wide-ranging hearing on Thursday as the utility giant vies to remain the city’s sole provider of electricity.

The City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy is scheduled to host a subject matter at 10 a.m. Thursday to discuss ComEd’s “annual franchise report” and the company’s “summer preparedness” plans. The franchise report has not been publicly released.

The Department of Family and Support Services is working on a new mobile app to connect students with city programming for youth. And Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady will face aldermen on Thursday to give an update on the state of COVID-19 in Chicago. 

Chaundra Van Dyk [left] and Madeleine Doubek of CHANGE Illinois spoke about a new independent ward remapping commission during a news conference on Tuesday. 

The work of an independent commission hoping to draw a new ward map for City Council will officially begin its work this week after leaders named members of the 13-person commission Tuesday, saying they hope to gain aldermanic support in the coming months. 

Members of CHANGE Illinois on Tuesday touted the diversity of the new commission that aims to use community input to influence the decennial task of redrawing Chicago’s ward boundaries rather than leaving it up to aldermen in a largely closed-door process. 

Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) speaks during a Columbus Day event in October 2020. [Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans]

Aldermen are set on Wednesday to consider designating October as “Italian American Heritage and Culture Month,” as well as tightening regulations for some farmers markets. 

The discussion on the agenda for the City Council’s Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation comes weeks after Cook County hosted a robust county discussion on renaming its Columbus Day holiday, and just under one year after Mayor Lori Lightfoot had Christopher Columbus statues removed from Grant Park and Arrigo Park following police clashes with protesters. 

Two tax-increment financing districts are being lined up for extensions as dozens of others are on track to expire. And aldermen on Wednesday will consider launching a new city phone app.

Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin speaks during her “State of the Chicago Treasurer’s Office” address on Monday.

Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin wants to widen the city’s investment pool to include an array of smaller-community-based banks as part of an effort to juice loans in neighborhoods that have been overlooked by national banks, she said Monday. 

Making it easier for small banks to hold city assets is one outcome Conyears-Ervin hopes to draw from a forthcoming “municipal depositories task force,” she told The Daily Line in advance of a “State of the Chicago Treasurer’s Office” address Monday morning. The treasurer earlier this year said the task force, which would include Comptroller Reshma Sonni and members of the City Council, could devise strategies to upend entrenched patterns of systemic racism in the baking industry. 

Ald. Carrie Austin (34) and Bureau of Forestry Deputy Comm. Malcolm Whiteside during a virtual committee hearing on Monday

Aldermen on Monday approved the creation of an advisory board to boost the city’s tree-planting efforts, sending the measure to City Council for final approval later this month. 

Members of the City Council Committee on Finance also heard during Monday’s meeting from three city commissioners on how they handle and plan to reduce legal claims brought against their departments.  

An independent advisory committee is hoping to submit a new ward map to be considered by the City Council.

Members of an independent ward remapping commission hoping to submit their own proposed Chicago ward map are scheduled to be announced this week, days after Gov. JB Pritzker’s signing of new General Assembly, state Supreme Court and Cook County Board of Review maps.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) introduced a resolution last year calling on the City Council's finance committee to review strategies to reduce legal claims against the city.

Aldermen are set for discussion on Monday of how the city can avoid legal claims against the city. They’re also on track to approve the creation of an Urban Forestry Advisory Board, but a long-debated police transparency ordinance will remain on hold for now.  

The City Council Committee on Finance is set to meet at 10 a.m. Monday to take up the two agenda items. 

From left: Ald. Howard Brookins (21), Chicago Department of Transportation Comm. Gia Biagi and Ald. Michele Smith (43) during a hearing on e-scooters on Thursday

Representatives of e-scooter companies argued on Thursday that a permanent citywide scooter program would ease car traffic, reduce pollution, open new transit options and add a much-needed new stream of revenue for the city. 

But many aldermen aren’t so sure. 

Members of the Chicago Health Equity Coalition, including Jitu Brown, gathered outside City Hall last month to make demands of Mercy Hospital’s new owner.

The new operator of Mercy Hospital has signed onto covenants that appear to meet some of the demands of a coalition pushing to keep the Bronzeville hospital open for the foreseeable future, but community members remain concerned about the transparency and equity of the deal.

CTA president Dorval Carter, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Mike Quigley participate in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the second phase of the Red Purple Modernization project [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Chicago’s Far South Side is likely still about a decade and $1 billion in secured funding away from being able to claim a piece of the CTA Red Line, but state lawmakers brought the vision a step closer to reality this week, just as a similarly massive overhaul of the Red Line’s north branch takes a critical step forward.  

The Illinois General Assembly sent Gov. JB Pritzker a bill (SB1822) on Monday that would give Chicago leaders more legal leeway to establish a tax-increment financing district around the 5.6-mile path of new Red Line track planned between 95th and 130th streets. The city in 2016 created a similar “transit TIF” to open up funding for the $2.1 million Red Purple Modernization project now underway on the North Side.