Aldermen will consider a watered down version of Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) ride-share ordinance on Wednesday after a substitute ordinance drafted by the Mayor’s Office was discussed in a nearly two hour private briefing yesterday.

[Substitute ordinance briefing doc from Mayor’s Office.]

The substitute ordinance will be swapped in at Wednesday’s full City Council meeting, Ald. Beale told Aldertrack.

The substitute ordinance, which hadn't been drafted as of yesterday evening, according to multiple sources, would eliminate the fingerprinting and drug test requirement, and would let ride-share drivers undergo a background check conducted by Uber and Lyft.

Some of the provisions in the proposed substitute:

• Drivers would still have to apply for a public chauffeur’s license, paying a nominal fee to the city, but the city-administered background check portion of the license would be removed from the measure. Uber and Lyft would conduct their own background checks.
• The licensing change, depending on how it’s written, could also impact pedicabs, horse drawn carriages and livery cabs, which are currently required to apply for the same license.
• Ald. Beale said the city would still have the authority to order a drug or background check if a driver gets into an accident or displays “abnormal behavior.”
• Instead of requiring that Uber and Lyft drivers attend a one day class to obtain a special license, drivers would be able to take an online class or in person class.
• Drivers would be subject to semi-annual debt checks to find whether drivers owe any debt to the city. 
• An independent study on the role of fingerprinting would be conducted. It was argued during committee meetings and previous briefings that fingerprinting unfairly discriminates against minorities because it doesn’t give an accurate picture of someone’s background. Those opposed to the fingerprinting rule have said a person could be flagged for an arrest, even if the charges were dismissed. Depending on the findings of the study, fingerprinting requirements for city jobs and contracts could be done away with down the road.
• The mandate that requires at least 5% of all Uber and Lyft cars be wheelchair accessible would be temporarily waived. Under the substitute, Uber and Lyft would be given about six months to come up with a plan to improve accessibility, and another six months to implement the plan. Ald. Beale told Aldertrack that the two companies would be hit with exorbitant daily fines if the companies don’t comply.  

“We want to implement some studies to clear the air,” Ald. Beale explained, although he anticipates that the ordinance will be deferred and published at Wednesday’s full City Council meeting because the taxi industry and some aldermen didn’t get “100%” of what they were asking for.

The Illinois Transportation Trade Association "is not happy about some of the provisions,” Ald. Beale said when asked if the taxi industry supports the plan. “When you are negotiating, no one is going to be totally happy.”

Those who attended yesterday's briefing told Aldertrack that the discussion got somewhat heated, with Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) getting particularly “animated” about his opposition to Ald. Beale’s ride-share ordinance. Prior to attending the briefing, Ald. Moreno held a press conference on the second floor of City Hall to argue that the downsides of Ald. Beale’s ordinance far outweigh the benefits. Ald. Sophia King (4) was listed on the press release, but didn’t attend the press conference.

“We are coming up with a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” Ald. Moreno told reporters, suggesting that taking a ride with Uber or Lyft is safer than a taxi, because the platform lets the rider know the name of the driver, the type of car and the route taken. He also dismissed Ald. Beale’s previous assertions that he had the votes to get his beefed up licensing requirements through the council.

At the private briefing, which one source described to Aldertrack as “rather dysfunctional”, the Mayor’s Office provided a study by a the Frazier Group that discounts the need for fingerprinting. Aldermen present at the meeting were displeased that roughly five to six lobbyists with Lyft were allowed to attend the meeting. Aldermen asked them to leave, arguing it was inappropriate that they were allowed to sit in on a meeting about regulations for their industry, the sources said.

Two letters and a set of protests were announced as the Chicago Teachers Union and Local School Council leaders pressure Mayor Rahm Emanuel to find more funding for public schools, and Mayor Emanuel joined suburban mayors to pressure Governor Bruce Rauner to increase funding to school districts with high numbers of impoverished students.

Mayor Emanuel’s office released a letter signed by him and 16 other suburban mayors calling on Rauner, “to address the school-funding inequities that threaten so many Illinois public schools and their students.” Aldertrack first reported this letter was in circulation for signatures on Wednesday, June 15.

Meanwhile, over 500 Local School Council members have signed a letter to the Chicago Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypoolsaying, “legislative proposals in Springfield remain nebulous and, even if passed, would fail to solve the revenue crunch” for CPS. The letter provides specific requests for action, including:

• Declare an emergency return of surplus TIF funds;
• Cancel projects like Obama Prep;
• Allow CPS to initiate a Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) referendum; and
• CPS reduce non-classroom spending, including reducing the length of the school day, reducing standardized testing and stopping charter school expansion.

Finally, the Chicago Teachers Union announced five actions to take place at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 22, to protest “hypocrisy coming from the fifth floor of City Hall and Emanuel’s hand picked school board” as well as “to connect the dots between Governor Bruce Rauner’s notorious ‘turnaround agenda’ and the mayor’s refusal to fully support public schools.”

The protests include the offices of Gov. Rauner donor Larry Levy, Mayor Emanuel supporter and donor Ken Griffin, former Board of Education president David Vitale, as well as the Board of Education and City Hall.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s most recent Airbnb regulations will be introduced to a joint committee on Housing and Zoning today–leaving Ald. Michele Smith (43), the most vocal proponent of strict home sharing regulations, out in the cold, and mayoral alliesAld. Joe Moore (49) and Ald. Danny Solis (25) in charge. Smith is not a member of either committee. Unlike the last round of committee haggling, where she motioned to lay the regulations on the table and pressed repeatedly on testimony, she won’t be able to make procedural motions to stymy the latest round of proposed regulations.

[Latest Draft on Airbnb Here]

The Law Department can provide counsel on which ordinances go to which committees, but clout-heavy aldermen can request assignments to be shifted. The last go-round, regulations were referred to a joint committee of Housing and License, co-chaired by Ald. Moore (50) and Ald. Emma Mitts (37). Smith will be allowed to ask questions, though.

Anabel Abarca, the Chief of Staff for Ald. George Cardenas (12) and spokesperson for the Council’s Latino Caucus (which Cardenas chairs) left her role on June 15 to attend law school. Abarca has been working for the Southwest Side alderman since 2013. Ald. Cardenas hasn’t chosen a replacement yet.

The Council’s Zoning Committee has a lengthy 15-page agenda ahead of today’s meeting, but most items are for small development projects, mainly the construction of single family homes or multiunit flats. A few big ticket items are listed on the deferred agenda, including several applications that received approval from the Plan Commission last week and in May.

Aldermanic applications:

• Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) has an application to modestly downzone a strip along North Milwaukee Avenue and Damen Avenue, a block away from the Damen Avenue stop on the CTA’s Blue Line. The change is from a B3-2 Community Shopping District to a B1-1 Neighborhood Shopping District. A B3-2 allows for destination oriented shopping, while a B1-1 allows for small scale retail. There are several bars and retail stores along the strip he’s seeking to downzone, including Double Door (in court today regarding its eviction) and Byline Bank. (Address: 1570-72 N Milwaukee Ave; 1551-59 N Damen Ave)
• Ald. Pat Dowell (3) has an application to upzone a vacant lot at the corner of South Calumet Avenue from a M1-3 Limited Manufacturing/Business Park District to a RM-5 Multi-Unit District, which is predominantly for three-to-four flat homes. The current zoning designation, manufacturing, doesn’t permit residential as of right, but the neighboring lots have homes. (Address: 3911-3915 S Calumet)
• Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) has an application to rezone a CVS and adjacent vacant parcel of property from a B3-1 Community Shopping District to a RS2 Residential Single-Unit district, which is the zoning for single family homes. (Address: 3633-59 N Central Ave)
• Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) has an application to sunset a Business Residential Waterway Planned Development (#709) to a DC-16 Downtown Core District at 330 North Clark Street, which is currently a surface parking lot.
• Ald. Marty Quinn (13) - This application is on the deferred agenda, and it makes a fairly modest zoning change for 5652-54 West 64th Place. Ald. Quinn wants to make a change from a RS3 Residential Single-Unit (Detached House) District to an RS2 Residential Single-Unit (Detached House). Both allow for single family use.

There are three items on the agenda for the City Council’s Committee on Special Events and Cultural Affairs, chaired by Ald. Tom Tunney (44):

• The reappointment of Martin Laird Koldyke to the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners: The seven member body, all appointed by the mayor, is in charge of setting policies, governing operations, and designing programs for the Park District. Koldyke, a co-founder and Managing Partner of Winona Capital Management, was first appointed to the board in 2011.
• Expenditure of Open Space Impact Fee Funds for Nettlehorst School: The ordinance from the Department of Planning and Development would use $400,000 of “Open Space Impact Fees” to support the construction of a roughly quarter acre park at 3252 North Broadway, next to the school. Open space impact fees are collected from residential developments that create new dwelling units “without contributing a proportionate share of open space and recreational facilities for the benefit of their residents as part of the overall development.”
• Agreement with Home Run Inn, Inc for Beverage Services at Millennium Park: This ordinance would allow for Home Run Inn Chicago 31 to manage beverage services at the concession stand adjacent to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The operator would be allowed to serve draft beer, wine, premium low alcohol beverages, bottled water, soft drinks and coffee. They’ll be required to submit a beverage plan and budget to the Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events before opening the stand.

In a quick, less than 10 minute committee meeting, aldermen on the Council’s License and Transportation Committees on Friday approved a controversial plan by voice vote requiring that drivers for ride-share companies apply for a city license and undergo a background check that includes fingerprinting.

Attendance: Chairman Anthony Beale (9), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Rod Sawyer (6), Sue Sadlowski Garza (10), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Roberto Maldonado (26), Scott Waguespack (32), Deb Mell (33), Anthony Napolitano (41), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), James Cappleman (46), Deb Silverstein (50)

The item passed unanimously, as Transportation Chairman Anthony Beale (9), the main architect behind the ordinance, called for a voice vote, circumventing the possibility that the controversial plan would be voted down through a roll call. No objections were raised by aldermen present, even as more than a hundred Uber and Lyft drivers, many in matching t-shirts, watched the proceedings from the gallery.

No testimony was included during the brief meeting. Chairman Beale allowed only questions from aldermen who wanted clarification on the rules. Ald. James Cappleman (46) was the only one who took that opportunity, asking about the required drug tests for ride-share drivers. BACP Commissioner Maria Guerra Lapacek said the background checks would be the same for taxi and ride-share drivers under the ordinance.

“I don’t think we rammed this through,” Ald. Beale told reporters after the seven minute meeting, saying both sides had ample opportunity to state their case at a day long hearing held in May.

But Ald. Beale is still keeping the door open for possible changes, noting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is “very, very concerned” about his plan, especially as it relates to fingerprinting. Beale said he will continue to work with all sides in the days leading up to Wednesday's City Council meeting.  

“I feel real good about where we are today,” Ald. Beale said when asked if he has the momentum to get this through the full City Council this week. “You know in this city, anything can happen between now and Wednesday.”

The Mayor’s Office had tried to negotiate a difference in the proposed rules between part-time and full-time drivers. Full-time would have been defined as any driver who clocks in more than 30 hours a week for 12 consecutive weeks. But Ald. Beale said that’s not happening, because a majority of drivers for Uber and Lyft work part-time.

“So if we pass that ordinance [from the Mayor], it wouldn’t have any teeth. It wouldn’t affect any of them. So, that to me was not an option,” said Beale.

Officials with Uber and Lyft have said that Ald. Beale’s regulations would kill ride-share in Chicago by creating onerous obstacles for their drivers, who they say generally sign up on a temporary basis to make some extra cash on the side. Uber doubled down on that in a statement released after the vote.

"We love Chicago. But the ordinance that advanced [Friday] would eliminate ridesharing as we know it here," said Uber General Manager Marco McCottry in an emailed statement. "By constructing costly and complicated barriers for drivers that will prevent most from joining the platform, this proposal would take away affordable rides from Chicagoans. There is no need to harm one industry to help another. We continue to urge aldermen to reject this ordinance and instead modernize taxi's rules to make life easier for their drivers."

A Lyft spokesperson told news outlets Friday that Lyft might pull out, "Because of this, we will be forced to cease operations in Chicago if this ordinance becomes law.” But Uber stopped short of threatening to pull out of Chicago in their statement Friday, as they and Lyft did in Austin, Texas after that city enacted similar regulations on ridesharing companies. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition from Uber against Ald. Beale’s ordinance.

Beale remains unphased by the threat, arguing Chicago is too lucrative of a market for the industry to abandon. “We’re not trying to run anyone out of the city of Chicago,” he explained, noting that under his ordinance Uber and Lyft drivers would go through an expedited licensing process, different from the process for yellow cab drivers, which can take up to a week. Ald. Beale said ride-share drivers could get fingerprinted, obtain a restricted chauffeur's license, and undergo a drug test and city debt check in one day. In the meantime, those drivers would be eligible for a temporary license from the city.

Ald. Beale wouldn’t specifically comment on what could be changed ahead of Wednesday’s City Council vote, other than he’s “willing to work with anybody to help strengthen this ordinance."

“This is not a fight between me and the mayor,” he told reporters, arguing it was about consumer protection. “Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree.”

Ald. Ed Burke (14) calls for a surprise vote that impacts millions of dollars worth of city contracts (and helps him look tough on business during a bad week of Donald Trump headlines), while Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) strict rules on ride-share companies passes through committee in about five minutes. Both signal the Mayor was having a tough week winning over aldermen. And after a nearly three year fight and despite pressure from business groups, workers win five days of paid sick leave. 

Correction: Yesterday’s preview of today’s Workforce Committee meeting incorrectly stated the effective date of the paid sick leave provisions. The correct date is July 1, 2017.

An ordinance mandating Chicago employers provide five days of paid sick leave to employees passed the Committee on Workforce Development and Audit without much of a fuss yesterday, though sources say a small undercurrent of backroom dealing was still swirling during the otherwise uneventful hearing.

Attendance: Chairman Pat O’Connor (40), Ald. Sophia King (4), Ald. Anthony Beale (9), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), Ald. Willie Cochran (20), Ald. Danny Solis (25), Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26), Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30), Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), Ald. Michele Smith (43), Ald. Tom Tunney (44), Ald. John Arena (45), Ald. Ameya Pawar (47), Ald. Deb Silverstein (50)

Proponents testifying in favor of the ordinance described it as hard fought, compromise bill crafted over nearly three years of negotiations with the city, labor groups, and businesses. But just before the hearing, committee members got wind that 11th Ward Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson wanted a substitute introduced regarding collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), based on concerns from local manufacturing companies. Ald. Ed Burke (14) was said to be crafting and introducing that substitute, sources close to negotiations said, in part because it would also benefit local airlines impacted by the new rules. But neither made an appearance at yesterday’s meeting.

Current collective bargaining arrangements won’t be impacted by the new rules until they expire, proponents said. The new rules would serve as a baseline requirement in future renegotiations. Construction jobs are treated differently. Construction employers would be able to opt out of providing paid sick days during renegotiations. In a nod to Ald. Thompson’s concerns, committee chair Pat O’Connor (40) asked why there was a carve-out.

Bridget Early of the Chicago Federation of Labor replied that it was because earned sick time doesn’t accrue for construction workers, who often work seasonally, the same way it would for a retail or low-wage workers. “Through this ordinance, when [construction] CBAs expire, they are not mandated to implement earned sick time, that is because the nature of their contracts vary by affiliate, by trade, what have you.”

Ald. O’Connor encouraged Early and UFCW Local 881’s Zach Koutsky to make sure to explain the construction carve-out and the impact on future CBAs to concerned aldermen.

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) were also lobbying the Mayor’s office for changes to the ordinance the evening before the vote. IRMA’s Tanya Triche testified she wanted to simplify paid sick leave provisions for small employers “who have to administer a complicated scheme of paid sick leave that entails multiple benefit start dates, accrual and separately banked and tracked hours to correspond with [family and medical leave].”

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47), a lead sponsor of the odinance, said the attempt was essentially a Hail Mary pass, since both the Chamber and IRMA had been part of the task force that helped draft recommendations. “I think negotiating an ordinance that has already been negotiated, especially when you’re at the table for the last year, I think is a little disingenuous,” he said, calling their complaints unfounded. “I think people like to catastrophize. New York’s doing a good job, businesses aren’t fleeing San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, L.A. That’s not to say there won’t be complications. That’s why we have the rule making process.”

As a consolation, of sorts, both business groups will be included in the rule making process, which will take place over the next year. The effective date of the ordinance is July 1, 2017.

Only one alderman voiced reservations. Local business owner Ald. Tom Tunney(44) said while “a world class city needs a world class environment for employees,” he agreed with Triche that small businesses need to be educated on how to implement changes, and that the cost of labor and complying with mandates was growing every year. He estimated labor costs at his own business, Lakeview’s Ann Sather restaurants, have grown from roughly 33% to 43% in recent years.  

“Companies get sick too. We’ve got an ailing small business climate in the city of Chicago,” he said. “This building needs to do a better job on listening to employers and their needs and how we can encourage businesses to open up in all areas of the city.”

Tunney was not present for the final vote. Other aldermen who typically raise concerns on behalf of the business community, Ald. Michele Smith (43) and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) also attended the meeting, but did not voice opposition.

Despite opposition from the business community leading up to today’s hearing, even the audience was subdued. The only applause came after testimony from Matt Brandon of SEIU Local 73. “I think it’s a shame when we sit here and we have business come in here and talk about plastic bags and cigarettes when we’re talking about the lives of workers who need to be taken care of,” he said, referring to business concerns about recent city mandates taxing tobacco products and requiring stores to provide recyclable plastic bags. “Of course there are costs associated with this type of ordinance, but there are also more serious costs associated with our people when they have to take off sick, go to an emergency room, and can’t afford it. Those costs are passed on to all of us.”

Most of the rest of the day’s testimony was overwhelmingly positive, describing the ordinance as an important baseline that would protect workers and benefit employers in the long run. After about an hour of testimony, Chairman O’Connor said the remaining pink slips were all in support of the ordinance, and asked if anyone in the audience objected to wrapping things up. With no objection, he called for a voice vote, and no one spoke up to oppose. Audience members, many in ARISE Chicago t-shirts, clapped and hugged.

“We feel real good about today,” UFCW’s Koutsky said after the vote. “For it to pass with that little rancor is pretty telling.”

Shelly Ruzicka from ARISE Chicago, a member of the coalition supporting the ordinance, said the focus will now be on informing employees about the new paid sick leave rules, and of the next minimum wage hike raising the city’s rate to $10.50 an hour. That hike kicks in July 1. “We need to make sure workers know their rights,” she said, explaining her organization was fielding calls about minimum wage non-compliance. “I think our office is maybe getting more complaints than [the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection]… We’re actually partnering with the city to see what else they can do to do it better. We think the city needs more resources in order to enforce the laws that they’ve passed.”

Public hearings on proposed reforms to the Chicago Police Department’s accountability systems will be held July 6 and 7, according to the chairs of City Council’s Public Safety and Budget Committees, Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30) and Ald. Carrie Austin (34). The two publicly released a letter sent to members of the Coalition to Follow Up on the Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) yesterday evening, saying with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, they have “collectively decided to provide opportunity for additional public comment” before introducing an ordinance on these reforms for the City Council July 20.

“It is our intention to work together to draft an ordinance that will fundamentally reshape our system of police accountability” that “will reflect the basic tenets of the recommendations made by the Police Accountability Task Force,” the letter reads. “We believe that taking this extra step to engage the public will ensure that the final ordinance language reflects the views, voices, and deeply-held beliefs of Chicago’s citizens.”

Last week, Police Board President Lori Lightfoot joined the Chicago Urban League’s Shari Runner and others from the Coalition to Follow Up on the PATF to call for more public engagement and transparency before any ordinance on police reform is presented to the City Council.

“We’re talking about fundamentally reshaping the entire local law enforcement structure,” Lightfoot told Aldertrack last week. “That is not something that can be done with a few people in the Mayor’s office. People are really interested in this topic. They are willing to give their time and talent to this issue. But you know, this is Chicago, so nothing is simple.”

The Coalition warned that any reform ordinance would lack legitimacy without a public, transparent process, and the city should develop a strategic plan for “prioritizing, further defining, and effectively implementing large segments of the Task Force recommendations,” which weren’t intended to be cherry-picked. “There is no need for this work to be cloistered in City Hall when people all over this City can and should be involved," the letter said. Lightfoot, the President of the Chicago Police Board also expressed interest in the Board drafting its own reform language for the CPD.

Hearing times have not been posted as of publication. Later yesterday, aldermen also received a letter from 12 community-based organizations asking them not to move on a mayoral proposal until they “heard the voices of the people in your community and can therefore fairly represent the views of your constituents.” Signees included ONE Northside, Action Now, Communities United, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Enlace Chicago, and the Community Renewal Society.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9), the main architect behind a contentious plan to require that Uber and Lyft drivers get a special license from the city and be fingerprinted by an outside contractor chosen by the Chicago Police Department, remains confident he has the votes to get his original plan through the Council, even as aldermen and mayoral staff held last minute meetings yesterday to propose alternatives.

And it looks like he’ll be getting what he wants. One source close to the ongoing negotiations told Aldertrack last night that after a five and a half hour private meeting with all parties yesterday, no changes were made to the original ordinance.

“I think we’re very far apart,” Beale told Aldertrack before the meeting yesterday afternoon, emphasizing he would still meet with taxi, rideshare, and administration representatives to find a compromise. But Beale touted a strong list of co-sponsors and repeated a familiar line: “I’m standing firm on my entire ordinance.” As chair of the Transportation Committee, he could potentially halt consideration of an introduction or substitution from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Beale is co-chairing today’s meeting with License Committee Chair Emma Mitts(37). He says he will not allow further public testimony today, limiting the meeting to only expert witnesses and a vote. The last hearing elicited raucous calls from the audience–a mix of Uber, Lyft, and taxi drivers–with some shouts at aldermen.

Uber has lobbied its drivers to come out in full force today, asking them to attend an 11:30 a.m. press conference, where they’ll provide food, t-shirts, and $25 for parking. The email to drivers warned, “Under [Beale’s] rules, you’d be required to take time off work to obtain a pricey chauffeur's license, go to class at Olive Harvey Community College, and pay hundreds of dollars in new fees just to get on the road.” The email links to eight steps drivers would need to take to receive a city license, which Uber says would take weeks and require hundreds in out of pocket costs for drivers. This afternoon, Lyft sent out a similar call to its drivers, and is planning an 11:15 a.m. press conference.

But Beale estimates support for his ordinance is stronger than anything the Mayor could drum up. “I’m very confident that I have a huge margin of votes,” Beale told reporters yesterday. As it stands today, 32 aldermen support Beale’s ordinance. 20 out of 29 joint committee members are sponsors.

One alderman, Brian Hopkins (2) requested to be removed as a co-sponsor of Beale’s ordinance on Wednesday. Hopkins didn’t return requests for comment about why he changed his mind. But Aldertrack has been told that Uber is actively lobbying aldermen to flip their votes. Beale’s co-chair, Ald. Mitts, in a rare social media statement on Facebook, wrote on Tuesday: “For the record, I am in support of Ride Share Companies such as Uber and Lyft. They provide jobs and service for the residents of the 37th Ward. I stand behind them and in favor for keeping them in the city.”

According to City Hall sources, Uber and Lyft had been pushing aldermen to amend Ald. Beale’s proposal so that the licensing requirement would only impact full time drivers. Representatives from both platforms have said that at least two-thirds of their drives are on the road only a few months at a time, usually when they’re strapped for cash.

Under the companies’ proposal, drivers who are on the road for 40 hours or more for 12 consecutive weeks would only be required to get the license, which they want to be in charge of administering, not the city. The Mayor’s office was rumored to want full time to be considered 30 hours. Neither company wants their drivers to get city-administered fingerprinting, drug tests, and a background check that would determine if the driver owes money to the city.

But it looks like Uber and Lyft have chosen not to push back on a requirement that would mandate that at least 5% of their fleet be wheelchair accessible.

If Beale is correct about his overwhelming support and the measures pass City Council, a veto from Mayor Emanuel might make him appear to favor his brother, Ari Emanuel, an Uber investor.

Close to a dozen people signed up to testify on a proposed 12-story, 190 room hotel for Old Town at yesterday’s Plan Commission meeting, the only item to get a significant amount of testimony at the quick two hour long monthly land-use meeting. All items that went before the body were approved unanimously, although a few, as detailed below, were deferred; some “indefinitely”.

The Old Town hotel, a collaboration between Chicago-based Condor Partners and Chicago Development Partners, had gone through extensive revisions, according to Fernando Espinoza, a representative with the Department of Planning and Development, who detailed the plans.

Originally, the developers had sought to build a 21-story building at the corner of North Wells Street and North Weiland Avenue. The site is currently home to an old political hangout, O’Brien’s Restaurant, a two-story building which will be demolished, and a three-story mixed use building (retail and residential) and parking lot, which will also be demolished.

According to Espinoza, DPD worked with the applicants to get it down to 18 floors, then a month ago, it was reduced to 13 floors, and yesterday, it was finally brought down to 12 floors (with a mechanical roof on the 13th floor). Developers significantly changed the design of the hotel. Architects at Pappageorge Haymes added hanging pre-finished aluminum balconies to the left side of the building, and varying patios, giving the building a mixed hight. Under the original plan, the 21-story building was at uniform height.

But even with the reductions, several residents of the Old Town community lamented the density, saying it would further snarl pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area. One resident called it “grossly oversized”, another claimed “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of people opposed the plan, while a third complained that not enough residents were given proper notice, somewhat contradicting the previous speaker who had noted that the hundreds of people opposed the project.

None of the Commissioners had much to say about the proposed hotel, save for Ald. Tom Tunney (44), who said he didn’t think the metal balconies “age well”. The development team countered that they’re using “premium material”, not steel, which has been used on other hanging balconies, and often corrodes over time.

The remaining items on the agenda passed without debate or much public comments. The only other application to receive public comment was a 138-unit, six-floor mixed use building for 2328 N. California Avenue in Logan Square. Due to the building’s proximity to the California Avenue Blue Line stop, the developer, Savoy Development, will only provide 41 parking stalls. But there will be a significant amount of bike stalls: 138. Interestingly, all three members of the public who testified were former residents of the area, but moved to the suburbs.

Other Items that Passed:

• Developer John Kelly’s plan to build an 11-story, mixed-use building with ground floor retail and 175 apartments at 768 North Aberdeen Street, next to the Blue Line’s Chicago Avenue stop. The site in River West (27th Ward) is currently a parking lot. Kelly filed his application in September, before the new beefed up Affordable Housing requirements kicked in. But the developer has agreed to provide “a couple” affordable units on site, and pay out the rest in in-lieu fees, about $1.5 million.
• Developer Sterling Bay’s plan to build an approximately 207,000-square-foot office development at 1515 W. Webster Avenue, a block east of the Chicago River in the city’s 2nd Ward. The site is a vacant lot, formerly the home of the Gurmann Leather Tannery. Sterling Bay has already signed a 15-year agreement with CH Robinson, a transportation company, to be the sole tenant. They will be relocating from another location within the same industrial corridor, the North Branch Industrial Corridor
• Vermilion Development plans to construct a 10-story mixed use building at the site of an abandoned gas station (3901 N. Broadway Avenue). Amenities would include 3,200-square-feet of ground floor commercial retail, 100 dwelling units on the floors above, and parking for 59 cars. The developers told commissioners that they haven’t secured a tenant for the retail component, but they’re looking for uses “supportive of the neighborhood”, like neighborhood amenities. There’s not enough room for a restaurant. Under the 2015 ARO requirements, the developer is mandated to provide 10 affordable units.Vermilion will add three of those units on-site and pay-out the rest toward the affordable housing trust fund.
• A plan from the Park District that would expand the parking lot at the 31st Street beach. The item was held two months ago at the request of newly appointed 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King, who raised concerns that the added parking would only be available for people with harbor passes. King wasn’t at yesterday’s meeting, but she issued a letter of support.

Deferrals

The first four items listed on the deferred portion of the agenda were deferred “indefinitely”, while the fifth item, which relates to an amendment to an institutional planned development for the Illinois Institute of Technology was temporarily deferred to the July Plan Commission meeting scheduled for the 21st.

Two of the applications that will be deferred indefinitely, according to Plan Commission Chairman Martin Cabrera, are in the 20th Ward. One is a resolution recommending the acquisition of land from David Fleishman of Terrapin Investments, LLC. He had sought to put the parcels at 6013 South Calumet Avenue and 6048 South Martin Luther King Drive to construct homes. The other item in the 20th Ward, also from Fleishman for residential housing, sought the acquisition of city owned property at 6543-6549 and 6552 South Kimbark Avenue.

A planned development application from JKF Development to build a 24-story, 71-unit condominium building at 330 West Huron Street, which is currently a surface parking lot, was also deferred indefinitely. As was a plan to make a technical amendment to an existing planned development (#499) in the 3rd Ward.

Proposals to build a lime green apartment building for Logan Square, a riverfront office building in Lincoln Park, a transformation of the old main campus building at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a new 13-story hotel for Old Town are just some of the applications on the Plan Commission agenda for today.

Commissioners will also reconsider a plan from the Park District that would expand the parking lot at the 31st Street beach. The item was held two months ago at the request of newly appointed 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King, who raised concerns that the added parking would only be available for people with harbor passes.

Two of the development applications on the agenda are Transit Oriented Developments (TODs). One, to be located at 2328 N. California Avenue in the 1st Ward, went through significant revisions at the request of neighborhood groups. The developer, Savoy Development, had originally proposed building micro apartments. Now, they’ll be adding 134 units of varying sizes. About 9,000 square feet of ground floor commercial retail and an adjacent pocket park are also planned, as are 44 parking stalls. Due to the building’s proximity to the California Avenue Blue Line stop, the developer doesn’t have to include one-for-one parking.

It’s a similar case for developer John Kelly’s plan to build an 11-story, mixed-use building with ground floor retail and 175 apartments at 768 North Aberdeen Street, next to the Blue Line’s Chicago Avenue stop. The site in River West (27th Ward) is currently a parking lot. Kelly filed his application in September, before the new beefed up Affordable Housing requirements kicked in.

Developer Sterling Bay is behind a plan to build an approximately 207,000-square-foot office development at 1515 W. Webster Avenue, a block east of the Chicago River in the city’s 2nd Ward. The site, according to Curbed Chicago, is the former home of the Gurmann Leather Tannery, and Sterling Bay has already signed a 15-year agreement with CH Robinson, a transportation company, to be the sole tenant.

Further north, about two blocks west of the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course near the border of Wrigleyville and Uptown, Vermilion Development plans to construct a 10-story mixed use building at the site of an abandoned gas station (3901 N. Broadway Avenue). Amenities would include 3,200-square-feet of ground floor commercial retail, 100 dwelling units on the floors above, and parking for 59 cars.

There’s also an application from Ghian Foreman to amend the parameters of an existing planned development agreement with the city for the Illinois Institute Technology campus in order to add residential units and “other minor site alterations” to the 6-story historic main campus building at 3300 South Federal Street, located in the 3rd Ward. According to the application Foreman filed in February, between 81 and 104 units are planned (the numbers on the agenda don’t match the application). Foreman is also the Executive Director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation and a member of the city’s Police Board.

A years long fight for paid sick leave regulations culminates in a committee hearing at 10:00 a.m. today, led by Workforce Development and Audit chair Ald. Pat O’Connor (40). The regulations, first introduced in 2014, were the subject of a non-binding ballot referendum in the 2015 election, a months-long examination from a blue ribbon task force, and were further delayed when Ald. O’Connor said he wanted to wait until the end of the legislative session in Springfield. The rules would mandate that Chicago employers provide up to five days worth of earned sick time to their employees.

The ordinance has 38 co-sponsors, the backing of a coalition of labor and interest groups, local state legislators, and support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Credit where credit’s due, the Mayor’s office has indicated that this is something they truly want,” Zach Koutsky, UFCW Local 881’s Legislative & Political Director told Aldertrack yesterday. “Despite the Chamber and IRMA furiously trying to derail it, I think we’re feeling good.”

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), both participants in the Working Families Task Force convened by the Mayor to issue recommendations on sick leave, have blasted the ordinance. In an minority report issued the same weekend as the 40 page Working Families Task Force report, the business groups said the recommendations hit businesses already reeling from the city’s minimum wage hike, increased local sales and property taxes, and used “biased assumptions” when calculating the cost to businesses. The working group estimated instituting paid sick leave would lead to less than a 0.7-1.5% increase in labor costs for most employers.

The recommendations are more conservative than the ordinance first pitched in 2014.

Employees will have to work 40 hours to accrue one hour of sick leave (up from 30 hours in the original paid sick leave ordinance), new hires will have to wait twice as long to utilize a paid sick day, and the total number of sick days available would be capped at five, down from nine.

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) told Aldertrack in April this ordinance isn’t as progressive as he would have liked, but his job was to reach consensus. “I think we came up with a very balanced, and a more pro-business proposal [than the first ordinance]. My own personal politics would lean further to the left on this.”

Last month, Pawar said the issue held as much importance as school funding or reform to the police department. “There’s 460,000 people that don’t have access to paid sick leave, and quite frankly, a lot of us are tired of having to put their needs on the backburner for other issues.”

Ladky, Pawar, and Koutsky have pointed to the Illinois Restaurant Association’s neutral stance on the issue as proof. Sam Toia, the Association’s President and CEO, sat on the task force.

If the ordinance passes the full City Council June 22, it would go into effect on September 20, and would be enforced by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Important provisions:

• Any covered employee who works at least 80 hours for an Employer within any 120-day period is eligible to accrue leave time.
• Every 40 hours worked will equal one hour of accrued paid sick leave.
• Every year, employees can carry over half of their accrued leave to use the next year (since leave is capped at 40 hours per year, the maximum would be 20 hours. Employers can set their own higher caps). If an employer is subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), covered employees can carry over up to 40 hours of unused paid sick leave exclusively for FMLA purposes.
• Employers would not have to pay out unused sick days.
• Benefits that are negotiated as part of a collective bargaining agreement are exempt.

Tanya Triche, Vice-President and General Counsel for IRMA, told Aldertrack she has been meeting with ordinance sponsors and the Mayor’s office to lobby for changes, even meeting with the Mayor’s staff yesterday evening. While she’s near certain the ordinance will pass today, she hopes there will be changes added to the ordinance before the June 22nd meeting that would simplify the process for employers.

“I think [the Mayor’s Office] has probably learned through Airbnb, through Uber, all these last minute attempts to pass something, if you just take the time to make sure that you’ve heard all the issues, make sure you figure out how to serve both communities… It should at least be written in a way that the employers can at the very least comply and comply without the fear of having a bunch of lawsuits filed against them.”

IRMA would like the city to drop the provision that allows employees to carry over accrued sick time to use for FMLA. Instead, they’d like employees to get all five sick days upfront, and for employers to choose their benefit start date. “When you start accruing, carrying over, banking time separately, that makes things very complicated.” Triche said throughout task force working groups, employers said the city rarely gives them tools to carry out mandates, leaving small HR operations to figure out benefits themselves and leaving businesses vulnerable to lawsuits–a nuance she says is likely lost on aldermen who might have trouble voting against such a popular policy.

"I think what needs to be emphasized is that there’s no doubt that a number, dare I say the majority of aldermen want some kind of employer paid sick leave mandate. And dare I say, the majority of these aldermen don’t really know what’s in this ordinance."

UFCW’s Koutsky argues IRMA and the Chamber are just using scare tactics, and the ordinance is a good, hard fought compromise. “We’re just making sure we get a quorum for the committee. Attendance is always a struggle. If everybody shows up on the committee, even the folks that are just co-sponsors, we’ve got it,” he said yesterday.

Nine of the 18 members of the committee are co-sponsors of the ordinance: Vice Chair Roberto Maldonado (26), Ald. Ed Burke (14), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), Ald. Derrick Curtis (18), Ald. Danny Solis (25), Ald. Carrie Austin (34), Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Ald. Emma Mitts (37), and Ald. Deb Silverstein (50).

Surprising many Council watchers, the Finance Committee approved an ordinance championed by Chairman Ed Burke (14) that would bar companies from doing business with the city if they include forced arbitration clauses in agreements with consumers and employees. Neither the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), Ald. Burke’s spokesperson, nor the Mayor’s staff were certain that a vote would be taken.

Attendance: Chairman Ed Burke (14), Pat Dowell (3) Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Anthony Beale (9), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Derrick Curtis (18), Willie Cochran (20), Mike Zalewski (23), Jason Ervin (28), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Carrie Austin (34), Gilbert Villegas (36), Nick Sposato (38), Marge Laurino (39), Pat O’Connor (40), Brendan Reilly (42), John Arena (45), Harry Osterman (48)

"I don’t think anyone was expecting a vote today,” Tanya Triche of IRMA told Aldertrack after the meeting. “We were expecting for the subject matter experts to testify and sort of give the aldermen a good understanding of both sides of the issue and give the aldermen some time to ask the questions. My understanding is that it was going to be held.”

Administration sources tell Aldertrack they were not given advance notice of a vote. It is likely that the Mayor’s IGA staff, and Mayor Emanuel himself, may have been busy lobbying aldermen for changes to Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) ride-share ordinance to make the regulations friendlier to Uber and Lyft, sources tell Aldertrack. Which explains why mayoral attention may not have been on Burke’s ordinance. Another option: Chairman Burke had planned to call a vote and never notified the administration.

Following the meeting, in an emailed statement sent to Aldertrack, Molly Poppe, a mayoral spokesperson said, “The Administration expressed serious concerns to the Chairman regarding this ordinance, and he has agreed to hold it until we are able to address these issues.” The Mayor’s team wants to look at the potential impact the ordinance would have on current contracts, spending, as well as who the city does business with, since mandatory arbitration clauses are included in almost all contracts.

Burke’s ordinance was first introduced in November. It’s unclear, given the administration's concerns, if the proposal will be amended or held ahead of the June 22nd monthly City Council meeting. Burke’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Yesterday, the measure passed unanimously by voice vote and would take effect within 60 days of passage if approved by the full City Council.

Existing city contracts may be impacted. The main clause in the ordinance: “No business entity shall be eligible to do business with the city if such business entity or any of its affiliates enters into any pre-dispute arbitration agreement with any natural person after the effective date of this ordinance that requires arbitration or an employment or consumer dispute or a dispute arising under any law intended to protect civil rights.”

Matt Link, an attorney with the Council’s Finance Committee who helped draft the ordinance, said after the vote that those companies would be in jeopardy of losing their existing contract with the city only if they entered into any new agreements with forced arbitration clauses after the effective date. But there could be some wiggle room for those city contractors.

The city’s Chief Procurement Officer, Jamie Rhee, could carve out exemptions on a case by case basis. During the hearing, when asked to specify how it would be enforced, Link told aldermen that he didn’t want to speculate, but the language could be added to the statement of financial interest or affidavit, documents businesses are required to submit to the city when they compete for an RFP (Request for Proposal).

Unions would be exempt from the law, as most labor unions use mandatory arbitration as the only way to reach collective bargaining agreements.

The move is unprecedented, as virtually every major company and bank, as detailed in this New York Times investigation, uses forced arbitration clauses in their contracts for things like credit cards, cell phones, cable, internet and online purchases. It was an issue Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) raised when he expressed  concern that the city could potentially find itself unable to find private contractors, or lose competitive options for future bidding opportunities.

“What if, say, all the cell phone providers say we’re not going to do this. Do we then not get cell phone providers...I’m just trying to figure out, do we then lose competitive options or the ability to bid these things?” asked Ald. Reilly, who remained skeptical that multi-billion dollar international companies would change their business practices to comply with a city law.   

Michelle Weinberg, a Supervising Attorney at Legal Assistance Foundation, who testified in support of the measure, responded to Reilly’s concerns, saying, “I can only speculate, but I would guess that the benefit to the company of being able to do business with the City of Chicago...outweighs the negligible impact of eliminating the arbitration clause.”

Other proponents of Burke’s measure like David Seligman, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, and Joshua Karsh, an attorney with Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym, say forced arbitration unfairly stacks the deck against consumers by barring them from filing a class action suit or taking their grievances to court. They pointed to large class action lawsuits against the tobacco industry and Enron to argue that if those companies had the clause buried within their contracts, the plaintiffs would have never made it inside a courtroom. Forced arbitration also keeps lawsuits against companies from the public record and eliminates the right to appeal an unfavorable decision.

If approved by the full City Council, Chicago would be the first city in the country to impose the rule, though President Obama signed an executive order in 2014 directing companies with federal contracts of $1 million or more not to require their employees to enter into predispute arbitration agreements for disputes arising out of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or from torts related to sexual assault or harassment (except when valid contracts already exist).

“I think this is the way change starts. If government can start setting a good example, then I think that’s what we’re trying to do here,” said Ald. John Arena (45).

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce opposes the ordinance, citing the cost benefits of mandatory arbitration. The Chamber’s attorney David Ritter, a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg, explained that forced arbitration keeps legal costs low for companies, as court battles can go on for years with endless motions and appeals.

“The proposed ordinance would harm our already fragile economic climate by adding another unnecessary regulatory burden on businesses, and do very little to assist those it is attempting to protect,” said Ritter. “Who really wins with this proposed ordinance are the trial attorneys who receive significant legal fees from class actions, while the plaintiffs get very little in terms of relief.”

Hundreds of city contracts would be impacted, and even Chairman Burke expressed his surprise in learning “the extent and the breath” of how many businesses include the clause in employment and service agreements.

“The point is,” said Ald. Burke after reading off a lengthy list of companies that would be impacted, “We’re not going to solve all of the ills, but we can, I think, encourage companies that do business with us not to include mandatory arbitration clauses in their contracts if they want to do business with the city of Chicago.”

“Though, it’s safe to say there’s tens of millions of dollars in city contracts that could be affected by this,” responded Ald. Arena.

“That’s the only way you are going to get their attention, through their pocketbook,” Ald. Burke countered.