Talk of rats, garbage cans, and tree trimming took up much of the Department of Streets and Sanitation budget hearing Wednesday, as well as an overhaul of the city’s recycling rules set to start next year. DSS saw a modest increase in its budget for next year, from $256.2 million in 2016 to $257 million in 2017. This includes funding for a new position, a Senior Policy Analyst, who will basically be a  go between for the department and Springfield, said Commissioner Charles Williams, "Thats currently a vacancy, that's going to be helping with issues involving ordinances, policies, laws, particularly with Springfield." 

For over two hours, aldermen pressed Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman on development plans for various corners of Chicago, the status of TIFs and if Special Service Areas (SSAs) have a conflict with the new Transit TIF created through state legislation this summer. Almost none of the discussion touched on how the agency plans to spend its $167 million 2017 budget.

Human Relations Commission Chair Mona Noriega breezed through an eleven minute hearing Tuesday morning for her agency’s $2.4 million 2017 budget, while Fleet and Facilities Management Commissioner David Reynolds worked through forty minutes of questions about garbage trucks, city-owned vacant lots and minority hiring efforts.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Commissioners Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-7) and Richard Boykin (D-1) scheduled a morning press conference today to announce a new jobs and anti-violence pilot program.

In a quick series of motions Tuesday, the City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way approved a resolution to remove the honorary “Trump Plaza” designation from the open space area along North Wabash Avenue, from East Illinois Street to the Chicago River. The designation was made in 2008, shortly after the completion of the Trump Tower at 401 N. Wabash Ave.

The Forest Preserve of Cook County introduced its $192 million FY2017 budget Tuesday. It includes $2.6 million in extra costs, driven in part by lowered Personal Property Replacement Tax receipts from the state, and a scheduled raise for unionized employees.

Cook County’s Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs committee passed minimum wage provisions along a divided party line and after sometimes-contentious debate between commissioners and members of the public. The vote came less than three weeks after the ordinance was introduced, and shortly after commissioners also voted to adopt paid sick leave provisions. Both mandates have the same start date: July 1, 2017.

Commissioners will face a full Board vote on the minimum wage (more in our report, above), a drug takeback program that received bipartisan support, three tax and procurement changes proposed by Comm. John Fritchey (D-12), and a possible overhaul of the county’s property tax incentive system. Committee meetings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.

Investigators at the Independent Police Review Authority will be offered an opportunity to apply for open positions at its replacement agency, but the overall job qualification criteria, selection process, and training for the new investigators are still being worked out, IPRA Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley told aldermen Tuesday.

The first traditional day of Early Voting in Chicago Monday broke previous presidential election year records by almost two thousand people as 17,493 people flowed to polls across the 50 wards for a total 39,725 early votes since polls first opened, reports the Chicago Board of Elections. Meanwhile, 31,077 residents have voted in suburban Cook County during the same period, according to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, which manages suburban Cook elections.

Pre-trial detention and bond court practices took center stage at a morning press conference with President Toni Preckwinkle and Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-7) Monday, and just after the press conference at a lengthy budget hearing with Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli. Both suggested the costs of bonds needlessly keeps non-violent offenders in jail, and should be reformed.  

Cook County interrupts its budget hearing marathon Tuesday for regular county business, including votes on a recently-introduced county minimum wage, and a long-awaited, much-amended pharmaceutical disposal ordinance. The minimum wage ordinance includes some key amendments, including penalties for companies that don’t follow the mandate.

Jet plane noise, a lack of minority contractors, rocky labor relations at O’Hare Airport and a $100,000 bonus for Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans dominated the discussion of the Department of Aviation's budget hearing Monday.

Private event management companies hired by local Chicago community groups to organize street festivals were accused of “fraudulent” practices at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events budget hearing Monday.  

Chicago won’t move forward on legislation to require that ride-share companies make at least five percent of their fleet wheelchair accessible until first reviewing Uber and Lyft’s internal studies on the matter, the Commissioner for the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities told aldermen Monday.