A visibly frustrated Mayor Lori Lightfoot amped up the pressure on the Chicago Teachers Union to reach a deal and avert a strike, while the results from Lightfoot’s budget survey make it clear that a property tax increase will be very unpopular with voters.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to chair the Chicago Housing Authority board (A2019-67) sailed through a hearing of the City Council Housing and Real Estate Committee on Monday, setting her up for final confirmation by the full council next week.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to lead the Chicago Housing Authority board, an architect from the South Side who has spent her career working to expand access to affordable housing, will face aldermen Monday.

Most homeowners in Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs learned this year that Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office determined the assessed value of their property spiked during the past year.

But the increases were a fraction of the potential tax hike faced by owners of office, apartment, retail and industrial buildings. And that likely means big changes for the way property taxes are collected while Kaegi is in charge.

Aldermen dealt Mayor Lori Lightfoot another setback Thursday as they refused to confirm her pick for health commissioner amid questions about whether the city should reopen six mental health clinics closed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011.

The City Council’s Budget Committee advanced a proposal Wednesday that will allow any alderman to request that the City Council’s Office of Financial Analysis examine a proposal’s impact on the city’s budget.

When Dr. Allison Arwady last appeared before the City Council, she repeatedly clashed with aldermen as she defended former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to close six mental health clinics in 2011.

When Arwady returns to the City Council Chambers Thursday, she will ask those same aldermen to confirm her appointment as health commissioner.

A scrum of city and federal officials gathered Wednesday morning to congratulate one another for reaching the official start-line for the Red Purple Modernization project, which is set to speed up service and expand rush hour capacity by more than half for the system’s busiest train line.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot Tuesday defended hiring former 45th Ward Ald. John Arena as a senior adviser in the Department of Planning and Development, saying current 45th Ward Ald. Jim Gardiner urged her not to hire the man he defeated at the polls in February.

Any alderman could request that the City Council’s Office of Financial Analysis examine a proposal’s impact on the city’s budget under a proposal set to be considered Wednesday by aldermen.

Jay Ramirez, the long-time Northwest Side organizer who announced his candidacy over the weekend for 1st ward Democratic committeeperson, wants to make it clear that former Ald. Joe Moreno has nothing to do with his campaign.

Ramirez whipped up votes and ran communications for Moreno’s failed re-election campaign earlier this year. He chaired the now-defunct 1st Ward First committee, which fundraised for Moreno’s bid.

And Ramirez spoke for Moreno one more time this week, telling The Daily Line that the former alderman and current 1st ward committeeperson — who did not respond to a request for comment for this story — declined to run for another term so that he could “focus on his family.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot sought to cast the act of being counted in the 2020 Census as “the ultimate form of protest” of President Donald Trump’s effort to target immigrant communities.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that Ald. Jim Gardiner (45) “overstates his ability” to block The Point at Six Corners, a huge development proposed for the busy intersection of Cicero Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue and Irving Park Road.

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is preparing to audit Chicago’s law regulating short-term rentals to determine whether all shared-housing units are registered with the city — and whether the city is using the fees generated by the rentals to help homeless Chicagoans and those suffering from domestic violence.

Former 45th Ward Ald. John Arena started Monday as a senior adviser in the Planning Department, four months after relinquishing his Far Northwest Side City Council seat.

Arena, who served two terms on the City Council, will be paid $123,996 annually to act as “a liaison between [the Department of Planning and Development] and other entities across the city focused on economic development,” according to a statement released by city officials.

Arena will also be charged with pushing initiatives in “in qualified investment areas” on the South and West sides where developments can qualify for grants from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, which is fueled by developers in and near the Loop that want to build more dense projects, officials said.

The former alderman is “uniquely qualified” because of his experience in championing developments designed to spur economic growth, officials said.

Arena, who will make more in his new position than he did as an alderman, was hired despite a citywide hiring freeze announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the end of August as she detailed the $838 million budget gap facing the city.

City officials had “been in conversation with the candidate since prior to the announcement of the hiring freeze,” according to the statement released by officials.

Arena did not return a phone message from The Daily Line.

Arena, who endorsed Lightfoot over Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, in the mayoral runoff, was considered by the mayor for a number of positions, officials said.

The former alderman will advise Maurice Cox, Lightfoot’s pick for planning commissioner who comes to Chicago from Detroit, in an effort to help him understand his new home, officials in the mayor’s office said.

Related: Lightfoot’s pick for Planning Commissioner carries a controversial legacy after 4 years in Detroit

If Arena stays on the city’s payroll for two years, his eight years as an alderman would qualify him for a city pension.

Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) said Arena — with whom he bitterly clashed over plans to build affordable housing on the Far Northwest Side — was the wrong pick.

“He shouldn’t be advising anyone on anything,” Napolitano said, adding that he believed Arena took the job with the city to “weasel” his way into a municipal pension. “He doesn’t work well with other aldermen and residents. He’s a bully.”

Arena is not the first ousted Northwest Side aldermen to land a job at the Planning Department. Former 41st Ward Ald. Mary O’Connor, who was defeated by Napolitano, earns $117,000 annually as a deputy commissioner in the department.

An ally of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, O’Connor was hired in 2015.

“It is aggravating,” Napolitano said. “I don’t think it is right.”

Arena lost his seat to Ald. Jim Gardiner (45) in February after a bruising fight over two housing developments that included affordable housing proposals in the 41st and 45th wards. Gardiner won 51.4 percent of the vote in a four-way race.

Napolitano, who is the only member of the City Council who is not a Democrat, supported Gardiner.

In 2017, Arena pushed through plans for a seven-story, 75-unit mixed-income complex at 5150 N. Northwest Highway in the 45th Ward. Napolitano and local neighborhood groups said the development would spur violent crime in Jefferson Park, which ranks among the city’s safest neighborhoods.

That project was ultimately approved by the City Council, and it won state tax credits on Arena’s last day in office.

Related: Jefferson Park affordable housing complex set to get state tax credits — on Ald. Arena’s last day in office

In the 41st Ward, Arena supported plans opposed by Napolitano to build a seven-story, 297-unit luxury apartment complex near the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station that would have included 30 units set aside for low- and-moderate income Chicagoans.

Those plans were dropped after other aldermen sided with Napolitano, in keeping with the City Council’s unwritten policy of giving aldermen the final say on developments in their wards.

Cox’s nomination to be planning commissioner is scheduled to be considered by the Zoning Committee on Oct. 15.