The city will tap a federal tax credit to spread more than $12 million in subsidies among up to eight new low-income housing developments during the next two years, in a plan officials are billing as the first step toward implementing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s forthcoming housing agenda.

In the five years after Illinois implemented a pension overhaul law that required downstate police and fire pension funds to get on a path to being 90 percent funded by 2040, the overall funding level for non-Chicago police and fire pension funds had grown — at least until 2017, according to a new report from the sate’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Two dozen staffers for former mayoral candidate Amara Enyia defended their legal fight to claw back tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages they say they are owed from working for her chaotic and mismanaged campaign.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot was left “devastated and heartbroken” after spending Saturday with city crews working to clean up the Pulaski Corridor between the Eisenhower Expressway and Lake Street, an area where police routinely respond to drug overdoses and murders.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s initial attempt to roll back aldermanic prerogative significantly changed the way the city’s Planning and Development and Housing departments operate, according to a report from the mayor’s office detailing the changes.

The release of the report, pegged to Lightfoot’s 60th day in office, signals the end of the first phase of Lightfoot’s efforts to make good on her central campaign promise to root out corruption at City Hall, where at least three apparently separate corruption investigations are underway.

Read the full report.

Representatives of the mayor’s office promised that more changes to the way the city issues licenses and permits are on the way — and that officials have begun examining the city’s zoning code with an eye toward ending aldermen’s “unchecked vetoes” on development proposals.

Related: Zoning code reform to root out aldermanic prerogative coming, Lightfoot says

Department of Planning and Development

The creation of new tax-increment financing districts, redevelopment agreements and expenditures from the funds derided by critics as slush funds for aldermen no longer require a letter of support from the local alderman, according to the report prepared by planning officials after what they said was an “exhaustive investigation.”

In addition, aldermen cannot block or approve the sale of city property now that Lightfoot’s order is fully in effect — a move that has already drawn pushback from a handful of aldermen. That group is backing a resolution (R2019-593) introduced by Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) in July that calls for that power to be restored.

Lopez said the change — which includes the Dollar Lots program and Large Lots program could allow individuals and firms “not from the community or with no interest in preserving the rich history of the greater Englewood community” an “unfettered opportunity” to purchase thousands of lots.

In addition, planning officials will no longer get verbal approval for grants made from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, which had $168 million in it when Lightfoot took office. Until Lightfoot’s executive order, projects totaling less than $250,000 required verbal approval from aldermen, and projects totalling more than $250,000 no longer require a letter of support from the local aldermen — while city law still requires approval of an ordinance for those large grants.

The fund, filled by developers who want to build taller and more dense developments than allowed under city law, was created by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in response to criticism that the South and West Sides had been left behind by the boom in construction in the Loop.

In addition, a temporary system is now in place to track all “aldermanic input” received by planning officials, which also details when aldermen will be notified, according to the report.. That consultant will typically take place once an application is submitted and before a measure is submitted to City Council.

Other permits issued by the Department of Planning and Development that no longer require an alderman’s support include:

• Property tax incentive applications


• Demolition applications


• Landmark designation applications


• Landmark permit fee waiver applications


• Planned development applications that have not advanced


• Applications to the Plan Commission


• Small Business Improvement Fund requests from tax-increment finance districts


• Special Service Area commissioner appointments and budgets

Department of Housing

Lightfoot’s executive order — issued within hours of her taking office in May — significantly scales back aldermen’s ability to exempt the developers of large housing projects from the Affordable Requirements Ordinance.

No longer will the city give aldermen the ability to approve a “hardship” exemption from the ordinance, which typically requires developments of 10 or more units to set aside 10 percent of units for low- and moderate-income residents.

That power will now rest with Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara, who will also have the final say over whether developers will be able to fulfill that requirement by building units elsewhere in the city but not as part of the project.

Related: Aldermen advance Lightfoot’s pick to lead Department of Housing

Other permits issued by the Department of Planning and Development that no longer require the alderman’s support include:

• City Lots for Working Families applications


• Multifamily housing development financing


• Parade of Homes applications


• Preserving Communities Together.

Department of Streets and Sanitation

Aldermen can no longer order crews to remove 20 live trees per ward annually — a power that dates back to 1990.

In addition, the replacement of damaged or stolen black garbage carts — a perennial source of frustration for homeowners — can no longer be ordered by aldermen. 

Instead, all requests for tree removals will “be considered on a case by case basis” by officials with the Streets and Sanitation Department and garbage carts will be delivered directly to homes that request them, rather than first to the ward office and then by aldermanic staff to the homes.

Department of Transportation

Transportation officials no longer require a green light from an alderman before moving forward with three permits: street or alley access for businesses or property owners; permission to create people spots and the location of Divvy bicycle-sharing stations.

However, permits for block parties still require a letter of support from aldermen, even though that is not required by the city code. A new ordinance governing block parties is under consideration, officials said.

Department of Buildings 

Aldermen will continue to receive nightly reports via email of building permits applied for and issued in their respective wards and have access to a password-protected website to access the same data, according to the report prepared by the Department of Buildings.

But those emails are a “matter of courtesy,” according to the report.

An overhaul of the city’s building code reform — passed just before Lightfoot took office —  removed a requirement to wait 10 days before issuing a variety of permits, including those for cell phone towers and large signs, according to the report.

While welcoming aldermanic input, the department’s aldermanic liaison, Earnestine Black, keeps a “log of aldermanic inquiries that are sent to her or to department employees other than the senior leadership team” which is made up of Commissioner Judy Fryland, her deputy and assistant commissioners, according to the report from the Department of Buildings.

According to the 14-count indictment filed against Ald. Ed Burke (14), the beleaguered alderman asked Fryland, as well as another unidentified administrator, to “figure out a way” to approve a permit requested by a Portage Park businessman who has been charged with bribing Burke by hiring his private law firm.

Fryland was not identified by name in the indictment, but she was commissioner at the time. 

Department of Fleet and Facility Management

Aldermen no longer have the power to block the lease of city property, or the purchase of property for city use.

Officials with the Department of Fleet and Facility Management will email aldermen twice during the process to solicit their feedback — first when the proposal is first considered, and again before the agreement is finalized, according to the report prepared by the department.

A similar process is now in place for proposals for the city to purchase or lease property, according to the report.

Those requirements are in place to ensure that a “clear process” is in place to incorporate aldermanic feedback, officials in Lightfoot’s administration said. 

Office of Budget and Management

Department officials who want to use funds from tax-increment financing district will no longer need a letter of support from the alderman whose ward includes the TIF district, according to the report prepared by Budget Director Susie Park.

Instead, aldermen will only have to be “notified,” according to the report. 

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

The city’s Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett said she will no longer allow aldermen to block efforts to convert traditional loading zones to commercial loading zones as part of a pilot program now underway, according to the report.

Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

Aldermen will no longer be allowed to block — or approve — special event permits issued by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, according to the report.

Department of Finance / Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

City code gives aldermen the authority to approve or reject disabled, industrial and residential parking permits, and the mayor’s order does not change that, according to the report from the Department of Finance.

In addition, aldermen will retain the power to approve permits for use of the public way required for signs, sidewalk cafes and awnings, according to the report from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Aldermen will also retain the power to impose or lift moratoriums on liquor licenses bans well as introducing bans on shared-housing units by introducing and passing an ordinance, as allowed by city code.

An exclusive deal allowing Lyft to operate the city’s Divvy bicycle-sharing system — inked at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s final City Council meeting in April — is a “backroom monopoly” that improperly “locks out” competitors, Uber alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday.

The suit, which seeks to void the deal, represents an escalation of the battle for bike-share and scooter supremacy between the two ride-hailing giants, and will force Mayor Lori Lightfoot to defend one of the last major accomplishments by her predecessor in court.

Read the full lawsuit.

“By locking out other competitors, former Mayor Emanuel’s backroom monopoly fails to bring bikes to all Chicago neighborhoods — particularly the south and west sides — where they are needed most,” said Uber spokesperson Kelley Quinn, who once served as Emanuel’s communications director.

City officials declined to comment, since the litigation is ongoing.

Representatives for Lyft could not immediately be reached for comment.

The plan (O2019-1434, O2019-1611) approved by the City Council in April requires Lyft to make a $50 million capital investment to modernize and expand the Divvy system to all 50 wards by 2021, adding 10,500 bikes and 175 stations.

Once Motivate, the Lyft-owned company that operates Divvy, completes the roll out, the expanded system would have a total of approximately 16,500 bikes, 800 stations staffed by 200 more employees.

The new bicycles are electric, with “pedal-assist” technology and the ability to be locked to a standard bicycle rack or a Divvy’s existing docking stations.

Emanuel and his advisers touted the deal as a way to expand the bike-sharing program — now clustered Downtown and on the North Side — to the South and West sides at no cost to the city or taxpayers.

The plan approved by the City Council called for Lyft to pay the city $77 million during the nine-year term of the agreement to be used exclusively for transportation projects. In return, Lyft would bank all revenues from the bicycle-sharing system up to $20 million annually, with the city getting 5 percent after that threshold is met.

Chicago taxpayers would also receive $1.5 million a year in minimum guaranteed revenue from advertising and promotions under the plan.

Divvy, which launched in 2013, has lost as much as $700,000 a year, according to city data.

The proposal would give Lyft the right to raise bike-sharing rates by as much as 10 percent annually — with larger hikes subject to the approval of the Chicago Department of Transportation, but not the City Council.

But Uber — which owns electric bicycle-sharing firm Jump — urged the City Council to amend the deal negotiated by Emanuel to be a non-exclusive pact to allow it to offer 20,000 dockless bicycles and 2,000 scooters in all 50 wards immediately. 

In return for being allowed to operate alongside Divvy as city’s exclusive dockless bicycle share provider, Jump offered to invest $450 million in Chicago, including a $60 million “community investment” and $30 million “infrastructure investment,” according to its proposal. In addition, Jump claims it would add 500 jobs to the local economy.

That was a better deal, according to Uber lawsuit — which would have become clear if the Emanuel administration had gone through a public, competitive bidding process.

The deal was approved about a week after Lightfoot defeated Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle in the mayoral election.

“Chicagoans were distracted by the 2019 mayoral election” and not paying attention to the controversy, according to Uber officials. 

The Emanuel administration “chose to ignore transparency or proper vetting, and entered into another no-bid, exclusive contract with a private company,” according to Uber officials.

South and West Side community and business leaders called on aldermen to put the brakes on Emanuel’s proposal, and likened the deal to the much-loathed parking meter privatization.

The council rejected Uber’s proposal, which city officials said “would completely trash the existing bike share system instead of the Lyft partnership, which would build upon the beloved Divvy program.”

Lightfoot started the process of implementing the expanded bicycle-sharing system on July 22, launching a series of events designed to gather feedback on where the new Divvy stations should be located and to give residents a chance to try out the new electric bicycles.

Related: 

• Aldermen set to debate mayor’s plan to tap Lyft to run Divvy as Uber pushes proposal for dockless bicycles, scooters


• Aldermen question mayor’s plan to tap Lyft to run Divvy, reject Uber proposal


• Divvy contract, car sharing pilot renewal advance

The Chicago Water Department remains plagued by bias and discrimination more than two years after Inspector General Joseph Ferguson determined that an "unrestricted culture of overtly racist and sexist behavior and attitudes" infested the city department, six former employees suing the city said Thursday.

Chicago’s 138 tax increment financing districts claimed 35 percent of the property taxes collected by the city, according to a new report by Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough.

Demolishing the record set the previous year, $841 million poured into the city’s TIF funds in 2018 — approximately 35 percent of the nearly $2.4 billion in property tax revenue banked by city officials. In 2017, 31 percent of the city’s property tax revenue ended up earmarked for use in a TIF district.

Yarbrough was elected in November to replace veteran Clerk David Orr who made TIF reform a centerpiece of his 28 years in office. Yarbrough said she was “brushing up” on how the county’s special taxing districts operate. Chicago’s TIF districts are controlled by the mayor and City Council.

“Some elected officials use it like a piggy bank,” Yarbrough said. “As taxpayers, we should be concerned. We should pay attention.”

In all, Chicago’s TIFs took in $181 million more in 2018 than they did in 2017, a 27.4 percent increase, according to the report. That surge was driven in part by a 12.5 percent jump in the equalized assessed value of all properties in the city as part of the 2018 reassessment.

The jump was also fueled by the $588 million property tax hike approved in 2015 by the City Council to shore up the city’s police and fire pensions as well as a development boom in the Loop and North Side.

The burst of additional TIF revenue could ease the city’s budget crisis by allowing Mayor Lori Lightfoot to declare more TIF funds to be in surplus — returning them to the city, Chicago Public Schools and other taxing districts.

Related: Facing ‘significant deficit,’ Lightfoot gives her team another month to close gap

As part of Chicago’s budget for the 2019 fiscal year, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared a $175 million TIF surplus, which allowed $97 million to be redirected to CPS.

TIF districts capture all growth in the property tax base in a designated area for a set period of time, usually 20 years or more, and divert it into a special fund for projects designed to spur redevelopment and eradicate blight.

The leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union wasted no time Wednesday in laying claim to the additional funds — calling for “every penny” to be spent on neighborhood schools.

“If the mayor is serious about real equity for South and West Side neighborhoods and real educational justice for our students, she'll do what's right — and direct those funds to settle our contract demands to create the schools our students deserve," said Chicago Teacher Union President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement.

CTU was highly critical of Emanuel’s use of TIF funds, saying they improperly moved money from schools to private developments.

The new Transit TIF district formed by the city in the waning days of the Obama Administration to fund the renovation of the CTA’s Red and Purple Train Lines accounts for approximately one-third of the overall increase in TIF revenue, according to the report.

Of the $115.7 million generated in 2018 by the Transit TIF in 2018 — up from $40.2 million in 2017 — $60 million is earmarked for CPS under a unique provision of the state law that created the first, and so far only, Transit TIF district.

That is in addition to any funds CPS could get from the city or from a Lightfoot-declared TIF surplus, perhaps giving Lightfoot a pool to draw from to ink a contract with the CTU. The union’s leaders have been pressing for pay raises and additional investments in schools.

While most of Chicago’s highest performing TIFs are in or near Downtown, revenue collected by the Pilsen Industrial Corridor TIF increased 26 percent, adding $20.6 million to its coffers. City officials have been working to combat gentrification in Pilsen, which was once a primarily Mexican American neighborhood.

 Chance will depart the city as early as Thursday, according to Animal Control. He’s headed to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine (pictured on the left), Florida, which is actually a part of his species’ native range, unlike Chicago. [Facebook/City of Chicago]

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The final tab to save Humboldt Park’s beloved alligator from the murky depths of the lagoon was $33,649.17, city officials revealed Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Daily Line.

Frank Robb, the gator trapper who caught the alligator dubbed Chance The Snapper on July 16, was paid $2,500 for the work that made him a Chicago superstar, and reimbursed for $2,166.34 in travel and lodging costs, records show.

Chicago Police lieutenants in seven districts failed to check whether officers were following department rules by using their body-worn cameras between November 2017 through March 2018, a new audit by the city’s watchdog found.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Tuesday she would give her finance team another month to complete its annual financial analysis that will detail the “significant deficit” facing the city in 2020.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the shooting deaths of two women who volunteered for an anti-violence group that protected a corner in Auburn Gresham is “horrifying” — but should not deter Chicagoans from helping police fight crime.

“Today is a sad and devastating day,” Lightfoot said. “Sad and horrifying.” 

There is no evidence that 26-year-old Chantell Grant and 35-year-old Andrea Stoudemire were targeted by the shooters who fired from a car that drove by 75th Street and Stewart Avenue around 10 p.m. Monday night, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said. The intended target was a man who was recently released from prison and was wounded in the incident.

“It is critically important that we continue to push forward anyway,” Lightfoot said. “If we let people who don’t care about the sense of community, about civility, about the consequences of gun violence push us into the shadows and push us into our homes for fear of what will happen, we will never get a head of this tide. The Police Department can not fight this fight alone.”

Both women volunteered with Mothers Against Senseless Killings, whose members have sat on the corner every day during the summers since 2015 in a bid to stop shootings in the area. They often bring out neighborhood children, playing games and hosting barbecues.

An online fundraiser launched by group founder Tamar Manasseh to raise a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooters brought in nearly $10,000 by early Tuesday afternoon.

“We have nothing to suggest they were targeted because of their work with MASK,” Johnson said, adding that Chicagoans should not allow criminals to “hold us hostage.”

After 2 Moms Killed On Corner Patrolled By Anti-Violence Group, Women Demand Justice: ‘They Came For All Of Us’ [Block Club Chicago]

Block Club Chicago's Kelly Bauer contributed to this story.

Plans to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park will have an “adverse impact” on the park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to a federal review released Monday.

The finding could further delay the construction of the $500 million center designed by former President Barack Obama to house his presidential library. The foundation also promises to transform the South Side by attracting tourists — wallets at the ready — and creating hundreds of jobs.

The proposed center would include a four-building campus, underground parking facility, plaza, play areas, pedestrian and bicycle paths and landscaped open space. But the federal review under the National Historic Preservation Act found the Obama Presidential Center would diminish “the historic property’s overall integrity by altering historic, internal spatial divisions that were designed as a single entity” by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead to host the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. 

The review, formally known as a Section 106 Assessment of Effects under the National Historic Preservation Act, studied the center’s potential impact on three dozen historic properties, and found it would have “an adverse effect” on the Jackson Park Historic Landscape District and Midway Plaisance.  

“The combined changes diminish the sense of a particular period of time within the historic property and impact the integrity of feeling,” according to the review. “The changes impact how Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance reflect conscious decisions made by the Olmsted firm in determining the organization, forms, patterns of circulation, relationships between major features, arrangement of vegetation, and views.”

Those changes to Jackson Park would alter the “characteristics of the historic property that qualify it for inclusion in the National Register,” and require “deviating from the simple formality of open space that reflects the historic design principle of informal symmetry and balance in design,” according to the review.

The release of the report triggers a 30-day comment period, after which the findings will be finalized and an effort started to “resolve adverse effects,” according to a letter released by the Federal Highway Administration, which conducted the review. That process will likely result in a memorandum of agreement to resolve the issues, according to a statement from city planning officials.

“The city is committed to the long-term preservation of Jackson Park and mitigating adverse effects to area historic properties,” city planning officials said in a statement.

An open house to discuss the findings and gather feedback will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. In addition, feedback on the results of the federal review can be sent to [email protected] until Aug. 30.

In response to the findings of the federal review, the Obama Foundation released a statement promising to work with members of the community.

“Jackson Park is a majestic place with a rich history that we have embraced throughout our design process,” according to the foundation. “We look forward to hearing from the community about ways we can continue to work together to honor the history of Jackson Park and bring the Obama Presidential Center to Chicago’s South Side.”

The center had been scheduled to break ground next year and open in 2022. 

The City Council approved the master agreement, use agreement and environmental agreement between the Obama Foundation and the city in November. The agreement turns over 19.3 acres of city land to the foundation for 99 years for the nominal cost of $10. The city will own the center once it is built, according to the agreement.

That agreement includes plans to close the southern portion of Midway Plaisance Drive and Cornell Drive and widen south Stony Island Avenue and the northern portion of Midway Plaisance Drive. It also calls for the installation of barrier walls and stop lights on Hayes Drive.

The state budget approved in May 2018 included $172 million to cover the cost of closing the roads through Jackson Park to make way for the center.

The federal review found that the proposed changes to the Midway Plaisance, the development of the site for the center and certain roadway closures would have a “negative effect on the historic landscape.”

In addition, the reconfiguration of Hayes Drive and the changes along Marquette Drive and Cornell Drive “deviate from the historic design and have primarily negative effects,” according to the review.

The federal report also found that the design for the center would alter the park’s balance between open space and buildings, and plans for a play area on the Midway Plaisance would “alter the setting and feeling of the historic Cheney Goode Memorial."

“The size and scale of new buildings within the historic district diminish the intended prominence of the Museum of Science and Industry building and alter the overall composition and design intent of balancing park scenery with specific built areas,” according to the review.

The review also objected to the realignment of the intersection of Hayes Drive with Richards Drive, finding that it was not consistent with the Secretary of the Interior standards because “the new design of the roadway bypasses the Statue of the Republic that is the focal point of the historic intersection.”

“Rising above a circular traffic island, the statue marks the center of the triangular intersection of Hayes Drive and Richards Drive and commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in 1918,”  according to the federal review. “The historic design is arranged to highlight the statue as the central focal point of surrounding roads and position the monument to be viewed from vehicles or at a distance from walks. The relationship between viewers and the statue is balanced by distance and speed.”

Plans for a pedestrian plaza near the landmark statue alter “the historic character of the design,”  according to the federal review. “The realignment will introduce visual elements that diminish the integrity [of] the Statue of the Republic.”

However, the federal review found that changes proposed to Lake Shore Drive as well as plans for expanded paths for pedestrians and bicyclists, including refuge islands and underpasses, would not have adverse impacts on the park’s historic character. 

In addition, plans to close roadways within Jackson Park would not significantly increase traffic volumes along Lake Shore Drive, east 67th Street, east 56th Street, South Shore Drive and roads north and south of the Midway Plaisance, according to the federal review.

Plans to realign the intersection of Hayes Drive and Cornell Drive and change the route of Hayes Drive between Richards Drive and Lake Shore Drive is consistent with standards set by the federal government, according to the review. 

Proposed changes to Stony Island Avenue also do not create an adverse effect in the area around the park by adding traffic noise, according to the federal review.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot tapped equal numbers of men and women to serve on citywide boards and commissions and head up city departments during her first 100 days in office, according to an analysis by The Daily Line.

In addition, the 20 appointments Lightfoot made between her inauguration and the City Council’s August recess that must be confirmed by aldermen were nearly equally divided between white appointees and people of color.

Eleven of the appointees are white, four are black, three are Latino and two are Asian, records show.

“Whether it is in her cabinet or across her staff, Mayor Lightfoot is committed to ensuring that those working in city government speak to the different backgrounds and experiences of our communities as we strive to make Chicago a stronger, safer and more equitable city for all residents,” mayoral spokesperson Lauren Huffman said.

However, Lightfoot made more than 60 percent fewer appointments in her first 100 days than former Mayor Rahm Emanuel did after his 2011 inauguration. Emanuel submitted 53 appointments to the City Council for consideration by Aug. 1, 011, city records show.

Emanuel, who avoided a runoff, had an 83-day transition period to prepare to take office, made 53 appointments in his first 100 days in office. Lightfoot’s transition was 48 days. Emanuel also presided over four meetings of the City Council during his first 100 days, while Lightfoot presided over three sessions where she could introduce appointments.

Related: Emanuel appointees to boards, commissions mostly black, mostly male during 2nd term

TDL’s analysis does not include hundreds of appointments to neighborhood commissions, including those that oversee Special Service Areas, because those picks are traditionally sent to the mayor by aldermen. In addition, the analysis does not include appointees to advisory councils, which have no voting power.

Seventeen members of the mayor’s 25-person senior staff are African American, Latino, or Asian, including Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett, Huffman said.

That team is designed “to ensure that diversity actively informs the daily decisions made by our government,” Huffman said.

Before taking office, Lightfoot named Candace Moore, a Black woman, to launch the Office of Equity and Racial Justice, which Lightfoot charged with making “government more fair and transparent for all residents.” In addition, Lightfoot tapped Tamika B. Puckett, a black woman, to serve as the city’s first chief risk officer and lead the new Office of Risk Management. Neither appointment required City Council confirmation.

Lightfoot has also named an Asian man, a Black woman, a white woman and an Asian woman to serve as deputy mayors, whose appointments do not require City Council confirmation.

In addition, Lightfoot tapped Andrea Telli, a white woman, to lead the Chicago Public Library, replacing former Commissioner Brian Bannon, and Nubia Willman, a Latina, to lead the city’s Office of New Americans. Neither post required City Council confirmation.

The mayor’s office “will continue in its commitment to prioritizing the appointment of highly qualified candidates representing diverse backgrounds and experiences to serve in staff and cabinet roles,” officials said.

Chicago’s population is approximately 32.6 percent white, 29.7 percent Latino and 29.3 percent African American, according to the most recent Census estimates.

In 2016, Latinos officially became Chicago’s second-largest ethnic or racial group, surpassing African Americans, according to Census estimates. 

Chicago’s African American population is continuing to drop, according to an analysis by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, a regional organization.

Related: The Daily Line’s Aldercast: Demographer Rob Paral on Chicago’s reverse Great Migration, Chicago without immigrants, and the growing ‘zone of affluence’

Lightfoot has yet to replace several commissioners and department heads who departed along with Emanuel, and acting commissioners still lead the Department of Transportation, the Department of Planning and Development and the Department of Health.

Some of the city’s highest profile leaders appointed by the mayor do not require City Council confirmation, and are not included in this analysis. Those positions include the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools and the members of the Chicago Board of Education.

Lightfoot has said she plans to keep CPS CEO Janice Jackson, appointed by Emanuel, in place permanently. Lightfoot asked for and received the resignations of all of the school board members appointed by Emanuel, replacing them with one white woman, one Latina, one Latino, one black man, one black woman, one Asian man and naming Miguel Del Valle, a Latino, as president.

Lightfoot has also not moved to replace Chicago Police Department Supt. Eddie Johnson, City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado; Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter, Chicago Park District CEO Michael Kelly and Chicago Housing Authority CEO Eugene Jones.

An outside auditor will examine billing and accounting practices of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System after a disputed watchdog report found the health system owed $701 million in unpaid healthcare liabilities.