The Committees on Budget and Finance meet today to consider a patchwork of ordinances concerning the 2017 budget, from the proposed seven-cent bag tax to the new commercial loading zone pilot program for the city’s Central Business District. As previously reported, there’s also a direct introduction up in Finance Committee from Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) to amend the city’s ban on the sale of flavored cigarettes near schools.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in over a century. Cubs mania has taken over Chicago, with a record five million people showing up to the victory parade that wound through downtown on Friday. That excitement spilled over into City Council again. But this week, we wanted pivot to take a deeper dive into a more pressing issue facing the city right now: the Department of Justice’s investigation into the Chicago Police Department. It’s been nearly a year since DOJ opened its pattern or practice investigation into CPD, and with a new administration on the way in, we wanted to give you a more in-depth understanding of what that investigation entails and what we can expect in the next few months (and years) ahead.

This episode was spurred by testimony from Corporation Counsel Steve Patton during his budget hearing. The city’s Law Department spent much of 2016 complying with DOJ document requests, and Patton anticipates the investigation will wrap “within the next few months.” This episode includes an extended interview with a former Special Litigation Section Chief at the DOJ from 2010 to 2015, Jonathan Smith. He worked on nearly two dozen police investigations, including probes in Ferguson, Seattle, Albuquerque, and Portland. He says it’s likely the Obama administration is working as quick as it can to finish the investigation before the new administration begins–whoever it might be.

Chicago’s 2017 budget introduces over a dozen new and increased fees and taxes. To accomplish this, a revenue ordinance typically accompanies the budget appropriation. Here is an overview of the items in this year’s revenue ordinance.

The city’s proposed pharmaceutical licensing fee included in the 2017 budget appears to be focused more on tracking drug marketers than revenue. As detailed in the 2017 Management Ordinance introduced this week, the application process would require a significant amount of information aimed at tracking the doctors pharmaceutical reps are meeting with and what drugs they’re pushing.

“The devil is in the details,” they say, so for our second year The Daily Line has attempted to capture the devil in the Chicago and Cook County budget hearings. We attended (almost) every city and county budget hearing, gathered the handouts and boiled down each hearing to the most important discussions and issues. The result is 40 articles, the most comprehensive city and county budget coverage we’ve ever heard of. Click through each link for articles and handouts. If you're a subscriber and you'd like audio for any of the meetings, send us an email.

Aldermen echoed the concern and confusion some Cook County commissioners have raised about the nature and purview of the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership at a subject matter hearing Wednesday morning. The Partnership, established in 2012, is the designated recipient of federal workforce grants, and is one of the biggest workforce development entities in the country. Its total funding for 2016 is about $62 million, and it frequently works with city sister agencies to train and place people in in-demand jobs.

But aldermen expressed a disconnect. Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10) said she had never heard of, or from, the Partnership since taking office. Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) said the City Council had no role or oversight in the Partnership’s spending, and Workforce Chairman Pat O’Connor (40) suggested the city needed to “reassert” itself on some projects.  

Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11) confirmed he’s interested in changing to the city’s tobacco ordinance, likely next week. The Daily Line obtained a draft ordinance and summary that would mandate significantly higher fines on retailers that aren’t complying with existing city regulations on tobacco. But the changes would also exclude menthol cigarettes from the list of tobacco products banned from being sold within 500 feet of schools, something retailers would welcome but public health advocates are already gearing up to oppose.

Kicking off a nearly three hour long public hearing on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $8.33 billion 2017 budget ($9.81 billion counting grant funds), the Civic Federation’s Laurence Msall expressed concern over the city’s ambitious hiring plan for the police department, urged aldermen to oppose the statewide “lockbox” amendment, and suggested the city’s newly-imposed monthly garbage fee be increased annually.

The City Council approved a $2 million settlement with two police officers, Shannon Spalding and Daniel Echeverria, who accused their superiors of retaliating against them for whistleblowing. It’s a case that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had been called to testify on, but was ultimately spared from when the city’s Law Department announced a settlement on the eve of the trial.

Opponents to the beverage tax stood and sat wearing blue shirts, holding signs that read, “Don’t Tax Our Groceries”, “Protect Our Jobs”, and “Stop Taxing Working Families”. They were mixed with tax supporters in red shirts with signs that read “Fight to Keep Our Communities Healthy”. Support and opposition went back and forth among the more than 150 people who signed up to testify at a downtown public hearing Monday morning. It lasted well beyond its scheduled 11:00 a.m. wrap time, extending almost four hours.

Chief Judge Tim Evans defended judges’ discretion when setting bail at his budget hearing Monday, saying that while his office has embraced the use of a “cutting edge” assessment tool that has helped reduce the jail population from 10,000 to about 7,500 since President Toni Preckwinkle took office, he will continue to advocate for letting judges have the final say. 

Aldermen on the Council’s Finance Committee approved the $2 million settlement of a long-standing lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department filed by police officers Shannon Spalding and Daniel Echeverria. The two claim they were retaliated against for whistleblowing. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was called to testify for this suit earlier this year following his acknowledgement last December that a “code of silence” exists within the Chicago Police Department. He was ultimately spared from doing so on May 31, the eve of the trial, when the city’s Law Department announced its decision to settle.

The full City Council is scheduled to meet today to consider some non-budgetary items, such as a $2 million settlement of a cases brought by two Chicago police officers alleging retaliation by superiors for whistleblowing, an ordinance repealing the Trump Plaza street designation, and a new appointment to the Police Board.

Chicago’s early voting total has reached about 10% of the total registered electorate of 1.5 million people, putting it on pace to reach 2012’s early vote turnout, possibly 2008. As of Monday evening, 155,149 people have early voted in Chicago. 145,883 people have early voted in suburban Cook County during the same period.

Sheriff Tom Dart appeared before the Cook County Finance Committee for two hours Friday to answer questions about a dropping jail population, efforts to reduce bail for prisoners and the jail’s increasing role as a social service agency rather than just for housing prisoners. While Dart submitted letters with answers to written questions, he spoke extemporaneously rather than from a prepared text.