Chicago News
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SEIU Local 73, the collective bargaining unit that represents 230 Aviation Security Officers (ASOs) at O’Hare and Midway Airports, filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging the city violated the terms of their labor contract. On Tuesday, members of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus plan to hold a press conference in support of the union and demand the city halt efforts to minimize their authority at the city’s two airports.
In the suit filed on July 20th, SEIU Local 73 argues that an ongoing effort by the Department of Aviation to strip ASOs of their law enforcement status by requiring the removal of “Police” monikers from their jackets and cars, as well as newly announced policies for emergency response that put the Chicago Police Department, not ASOs, as first responders to incidents at city airports violates the “Traditional Work” clause of their collective bargaining agreement with the city. That CBA was approved in 2011 and was extended in 2016 through the end of this year.
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Attorneys representing the Illinois Retail Merchants Association take questions from reporters after a hearing on Cook County's motion to dismiss their beverage tax suit on July 21, 2017.
Attorneys representing Cook County and retail merchants gathered again in Judge Daniel Kubasiak’s courtroom Friday afternoon to discuss whether the county’s beverage tax was applied uniformly and reasonably administered. Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1), who has called the tax “regressive”, used the day’s proceedings to again call the budget fallout from the stalled beverage tax collection and subsequent layoffs a “manufactured crisis” by the Preckwinkle administration.
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Monday begins with a joint meeting of the City Council’s Finance and Zoning Committees with one item on the agenda–the rezone of the North Branch Industrial Corridor. The item needs approval from both committees because it includes plans for new revenue streams linked to anticipated developments, all of which would be controlled by the Department of Planning and Development.
But the committees may have trouble gathering a quorum. Several aldermen are scheduled to attend a protest outside Navy Pier in the wake of a joint Crain’s and BGA investigation that suggests millions of TIF dollars were ported to the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) to cover the cost of a new hotel. Local Ald. Pat Dowell (3) has already demanded a hearing on the ordinance. City Council passed the ordinance authorizing the transfer of increment dollars from surrounding districts in October 2014.
A protest and press conference organized by community groups and aldermen is scheduled outside Navy Pier on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. The group will hold “golden hot dogs, signs and banners to symbolize what a $55 million renovation to the Navy Pier food court can get you.” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), and members of the group Grassroots Collaborative will attend.
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A $38.75 million red light camera settlement is surely the largest item up for consideration by Finance Committee Monday. The proposed payout is divided among two class action lawsuits filed against the city in 2015 and 2016.
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Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis joins CTU members and aldermen at a press availability on July 20, 2017.
Amidst uncertainty over the future of its funding while state legislators and the governor wrangle over state education funding, Chicago Public Schools gave principals some guidance Thursday morning, releasing per pupil spending numbers that are up $200 from last year’s rates. But CPS is not expected to release its full budget until August 7, and in a brief conference call with reporters, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool did not offer details on how the district is planning to address a projected $544 million deficit for Fiscal Year 2018.
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JUL 21, 2017
The Chicago Plan Commission approved a repeal of a majority of the Planned Manufacturing District designation for the North Branch Industrial Corridor, setting the stage for full City Council approval next week. It’s the first PMD to be repealed since the strict classification was first implemented in the 1990s as a way to protect Chicago’s manufacturing sector. Compared to other PMDs spread across the city, the North Branch Corridor has seen a sharp decline in industrial services, mainly due to lower costs elsewhere
The mayor-appointed land use body also approved several city-sponsored developments, including two CHA-partnered projects on the North Side that would provide affordable housing for seniors. These developments are particularly notable because it's the first time a developer has also partnered with the Chicago Public Library. Both developments include a public library on the ground floor.
Another city-led project, an amended PD for the Daley College campus initiated by the Public Building Commission, also advanced. The school plans to build a new academic building for advance manufacturing.
And Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) was unsuccessful in his effort to block a nearly 300-unit residential high-rise planned near the Cumberland stop on the city’s Blue Line. Though he claimed the neighborhood was absolutely opposed, not a single person showed up to testify against it, a point one commissioner raised before the vote. Only Ald. Tom Tunney (44) voted against that project, citing respect for Aldermanic privilege.
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Budget pressures continued to squeeze Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Wednesday. Not only did beverage tax opponents line up to testify for a repeal, but county workers hit with layoffs lobbied commissioners throughout the day to pass extra revenue measures, and Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1) accused her of manufacturing a budget crisis to pressure a judge to lift a restraining order on the county’s beverage tax.
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JUL 20, 2017
The Chicago Board of Ethics announced $38,000 in fines for seven individuals and companies it found in violation of the city’s lobbying rules, as well as fines for another 9 registered lobbyists who did not complete ethics training by a July 1 deadline. The announcement Wednesday afternoon followed over 90 minutes of closed door deliberations
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Attorneys at the Cook County Public Defenders Office represented by AFSCME Council 31 stand during colleagues' testimony on July 19, 2017.
AFSCME Council 31, which represents several county workers, including attorneys at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, is pitching commissioners on tax increases or borrowing to prevent layoffs as a result of the block of the county’s sweetened beverage tax. Those proposals include bumping up existing sales tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, hotel tax (1% increase), amusement (doubling to 6%), or parking taxes–or instituting a new $11 per employee head tax at employers with more than 50 workers.
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An ordinance that would formally remove the strict zoning boundaries around the North Branch Industrial Area and open the former manufacturing hub to residential and commercial development faces a preliminary vote today by the city’s Plan Commission. It’s just one of 14 items for the unusually packed monthly agenda.
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JUL 20, 2017
An additional ten voting precincts in the 13th Ward would ban residents from posting their homes or apartments on vacation rental sites like Airbnb following approval of the prohibited zoning classification by the Council’s License Committee.
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Updated July 19, 2017, 10:50 a.m.
Cook County commissioners meet Wednesday morning to consider, among routine items, likely the first of several expensive legal settlements related to the arrest and conviction of four teenagers in the mid-1990s. A $5.6 million settlement to Terrill Swift, who was convicted of rape and murder but later released on DNA evidence, is on Wednesday’s Finance Committee agenda. Three other teenagers were also arrested and convicted, and say Chicago police and county prosecutors coerced their confessions. Board President Toni Preckwinkle will also make her first public availability since announcing last Friday that the county was laying off 300 people and eliminating 600 vacant positions.
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Commissioners voted to authorize two bond issuances and $8 million in spending, tacked onto an existing $104 million contract for energy conservation measures at county buildings. Both votes were divided. Delayed after a long morning of consent calendar items and more than three hours focused on the Assessor’s office, commissioners skipped consideration of the Technology and Audit committee agendas we previewed on Tuesday.
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Assessor Joe Berrios addresses the Cook County Board, July 18, 2017.
Cook County commissioners met for more than seven hours Tuesday, dedicating more than half of the day’s proceedings to discussing the inner workings of Assessor Joe Berrios’ office and the fairness of the property tax system. The line of questioning–and various presentations–were extremely dense, and ended without fireworks (save for one heated moment between Berrios and 7th District Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, in which Garcia repeatedly asked if Chicago area taxpayers were being “shafted”).
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JUL 19, 2017
No vote was taken on any of the three ordinances Ald. Ed Burke (14) introduced before a joint meeting of his Finance Committee and the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.
All three ordinances–two of which were directly introduced in committee–aim to make consumers of cell phone technology aware that most smartphones and associated apps are built to geolocate and track what a user does on their phone.
