Noting that the criminal justice system failed two African-American men who died while in the custody of the Chicago Police, and in light of the subsequent $6.5 million payout the Council approved to their families, Finance Chairman Ed Burke (14) is calling for more accountability to make sure that police procedures are properly followed.

Ald. Burke introduced an ordinance at yesterday’s City Council meeting that would require the Police Superintendent to refer all cases involving the death of a suspect in custody to the Cook County State’s Attorney's Office.

According to the ordinance, an “officer involved-death” includes any death that results directly from “an action or directly from an intentional omission, including unreasonable delay involving a person in custody or intentional failure to seek medical attention when the need for treatment is apparent.” Any police-involved death that occurs while an officer is off duty would fall under this rule, as well, if that officer was “performing activities that are within the scope of his or her law enforcement duties.” The ordinance would take effect upon passage.

Public Safety Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30), Budget Chair Carrie Austin (34), and Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Chairman Walter Burnett (27) are listed as co-sponsors.

Ald. Austin’s constituent, Philip Coleman, was one of those victims whose family will receive a $4.95 million settlement from the city. After suffering a psychotic episode in which he attacked his mother and father, Coleman was taken into police custody where he was tased more than a dozen times before he was taken to a hospital and given an antipsychotic drug from which, according to the medical examiner’s report, he suffered a “rare allergic reaction.” The attorney representing Coleman retained an expert witness on the drug who argued Coleman’s death resulted from dehydration, stress, and physical encounters stemming from his time in lockup, according to testimony from Steve Patton, Corporation Counsel with the city’s Law Department.  

Ald. Burke also worked with Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) on a separate police-related ordinance also introduced yesterday that would require members of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) appear before Burke’s Finance Committee when police-related settlement cases are brought to the body for approval.

Under the measure, representatives from the city agency that reviews cases of police misconduct would be required to provide aldermen with a “written status report on any and all investigations involving department members who are named parties to said lawsuits or controverted claims.”

In recent Finance Committee meetings held post-Laquan McDonald in which legal settlements are reviewed, aldermen had asked the city’s Corporation Counsel to provide details on these IPRA investigations only to be told that the Law Department has limited information, and that their inquiries would be provided through the chair at a later date.

Last week, a Northwest Side attorney used a little-known city rule to directly introduce into City Council an ordinance that would create a recall provision for Mayor. The rule used by John J. Lag, who has offices in Jefferson Park, is seldom used, according to the Clerk’s office. Lag’s ordinance has been referred to Rules Committee, where it is unlikely to see the light of day without a Council sponsor.

Lag’s city loophole is approved by the City Clerk, and if correctly formatted, the Clerk will allow “just about anything” to be introduced as an ordinance or resolution to Council so long as Chicago citizens present their draft in paper form at City Hall Room 107.

“We vet it for correct formatting, not for content,” said Clerk spokesman Pat Corcoran.

In 2013 a sign company, GreenSigns, used the rule to directly introduce sign ordinances to Council. Since sign ordinances are typically passed out of Committee dozens at a time, Aldermen did not realize what they had passed until unfamiliar signs began going up in their wards. To stop the loophole, Council instituted a nine month moratorium on new small signs.

Lag says he learned of the process since he’s, “been around for a long time and as a community activist.”

He’s dabbled in politics a bit here and there too. In 1992, Lag ran for Cook County Circuit Court Judge and lost. Lag also says he prepare to file to run for 32nd Ward Alderman in 2007, but dropped out before the filing deadline.

Lag has used the citizen introduction rule before. On June 23, 2005, the Council’s Journal of the Proceedings mentions a, “proposed ordinance which would prohibit any elected city official from knowingly accepting, receiving or retaining any benefit, either directly, or indirectly of monies or services or in-kind political contribution, or any other valuable consideration from the Hispanic Democratic Organization” from a Mr. John J. Tag, which Lag says was a typo of his name.

Lag’s anti-HDO ordinance was shunted into Rules Committee, never to be seen again.

Chicago has a new 4th Ward Alderman, Sophia King, and a new Police Superintendent, Eddie Johnson, both of whom received unanimous approval by the City Council and were officially sworn into office yesterday.

Ald. Ed Burke (14) suspended the rules in the first ten minutes of the meeting so the Council could immediately appoint King to the vacant seat before getting back to the regular order of business.

In her address to the body after being sworn in, King alluded to the “grueling process” she went through to apply for the job, and spent most of her address to the Council thanking her family and friends who helped. A five-member mayor-appointed selection committee picked King from among 18 applicants. She was was one of three finalists sent to the Mayor this week for personal interviews.

“I am just ready and prepared to serve the Fourth Ward, and I don’t have any misgivings about what my role is. I am a servant leader,” King told her new colleagues on the Council.

King’s appointment to the City Council makes her one of twelve aldermen currently serving on the body to have been appointed to the seat by either Mayor Emanuel or Richard M. Daley.

King is the founder and president of Harriet’s Daughters, a “non-profit group of professional women” that works with related organizations to advocates for policy to help provide jobs and bolster wealth in African-American communities. She’s also the former president of the Kenwood Park Advisory Council, a position she held from 2008 to 2015.

The Council’s Rules Committee met prior to yesterday’s monthly City Council meeting to officially recommend her appointment before it advanced to the full council.

Asked why he selected King among the crop of applicants, Mayor Emanuel told reporters, “Because she is the right person for the job and she has deep roots in the community, not just in Kenwood, but she has worked on parks...she has worked on education...and I think she has the right background and motivation to do something now in public service. ”

Johnson Appointment

Without much debate but a significant amount of praise, the City Council unanimously approved in a roll call vote to remove the interim label and to install Eddie Johnson in a permanent role as the city’s new Police Superintendent. “Well, we can strike the word interim,” Mayor Emanuel joked after the vote.

One by one, aldermen stood up to express how they’re looking forward to Johnson cleaning up the Police Department and boosting morale among the department’s rank and file.  

“We’re all pulling for you, we’re relying on you to make the city safer, and also to bring back the trust and respect that office deserves,” Ald. Howard Brookins, Jr.(21) said.

“And I won’t hold you today, but we’ve got a lot of work to do and if you just look at the report that came out on the task force, you know we have a lot to do, and everything is riding on you right now,” said Ald. Emma Mitts (37).  

“I don’t think there is anybody, anybody that has anything bad to say about you. That’s incredible. Keep that up, and I’m very proud to see you in that seat,” said Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41), a former police officer, prompting Mayor Emanuel to start laughing before interjecting, “Good luck” on keeping such high public support.  

Shortly after Johnson was officially sworn into his new role at the helm of the Police Department, Ald. Burke suspended the rules to allow Johnson to address the Council.

“I will do my best, my absolute best, to regain the trust and to resolve some of this violence that we have out here. If I succeed, that means the CPD succeeds and the city of Chicago succeeds,” Police Supt. Johnson told the body during his brief address that lasted almost as long as the standing ovation that followed. “I just want you all to know, I will give it 200 percent every single day. And my goal, my end game, is to leave this city in much better shape than when I got here.”  

Other Meeting Highlights

• Ald. John Arena (45) voted no on the appointment of Richard C. Ford II to the Emergency Telephone System Board.  

• Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) voted no to change the municipal code so the Mayor could forego the Police Board and appoint Johnson as Police Superintendent.

• Ald. Emma Mitts (37) and Ald. Danny Solis (25) used parliamentary procedure to block a vote and hold a strip club ordinance she introduced following news accounts that she was compensated for drafting the plan. The item will be held in Ald. Solis’ Zoning Committee.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced his plan to revamp the city’s zoning rules for the floor area bonus system, which allows downtown construction projects to increase their height and size in exchange for voluntarily paying into a fund that would help support commercial projects and job creation in the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Aldertrack will provide a more in-depth report on the ordinance tomorrow, but here are some of the highlights from our preliminary read of the measure.

The plan completely revamps the floor area bonus system, which currently gives developers up to 20 different ways that developers can add more density than is allowed under the zoning code. The Emanuel Administration anticipates the changes would net the city an additional $50 million over the “next several years.”

It replaces bonuses with three separate funds that developers would voluntarily pay into to build taller or bigger buildings in the city’s downtown area, and would simultaneously expand the boundaries of the downtown district by 25 percent. New projects in the expanded D-designated zoning district would be eligible to take advantage of the bonus system.

The formula the city would use to calculate payment is based on an existing formula the city uses to calculate the cost of each additional square foot of space added to a project:

Cost of 1 square foot of floor area = 80% x median cost of land per buildable square foot

Eighty-percent of the money collected through the new voluntary bonus would go into a Neighborhood Opportunity Fund. That pot of money would support projects within “underserved neighborhood commercial corridors,” and could include grocery stores, restaurants, and cultural facilities. The Department of Planning and Development would be in charge of administering the fund and all projects funded under the new initiative. But any project that costs more than $250,000 would need approval from the full City Council.

The remaining funds collected would be evenly split among a citywide Adopt-A-Landmark Fund and a Local Impact Fund. As the zoning code is currently written, the Adopt-A-Landmark bonus could only be used for a city-designated landmark located within 2,000 feet from the development site. The changes would make that money available to any city-designated landmark.

The money collected for the Local Impact Fund would help support improvements to local transit, streets, open spaces, river walks and other public amenities located within 2,640 feet of the development site.

Similar to the city’s affordable housing requirements, payment would be due upon receipt of a building permit, unless the project is designated a planned development to be constructed in phases. Phased projects would pay on a “pro-rata” basis for each new permit applied for.

Six aldermen co-sponsored the plan: Zoning Chairman Danny Solis (25), Pat Dowell (3), Emma Mitts (37), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Michelle Harris (8), andWalter Burnett Jr. (27).

A recently appointed member to the Chicago Plan Commission who was a vocal proponent of affordable housing has resigned from the board and will be replaced, according to an ordinance the Mayor introduced at yesterday’s full City Council meeting.

Juan Linares, the Executive Director of LUCHA, an organization on the city’s Northwest Side that focuses on affordable housing, resigned from the mayor-appointed land use board after serving for less than a year. He was appointed in July 2015, and spent the brief stint taking every opportunity to hold developers accountable for affordable housing requirements, often expressing disappointment when developers chose to pay the in-lieu cash fee instead of providing on-site affordable units.

When representatives from the CMK development team went before the body in November to present their proposed 2,699-unit residential tower in the 25th Ward, he asked the developers to explain why so many developers opted out of the on-site requirement.

In February, when the massive Lathrop Homes redevelopment plan went before the body, he took Related Midwest’s Jacques Sandberg to task, asking him to explain why they opted out of replacing all of the public housing units within the mixed-use development.

And in January he voted against Vequity’s seven-story, 44-unit residential building planned for a busy intersection in Wicker Park because none of the units would be affordable.

Contacted for comment on his decision to step down, Linares declined to speak on the record. Pending Council approval, Linares would be replaced with Lucino Sotelo, a Chief Marketing Officer at BMO Harris Bank, according to his LinkedIn. Sotelo will finish the remainder of Linares’ term, which is set to expire on January 25, 2019.

Advocates behind Wednesday’s introduction of a paid sick leave ordinancedescribed the move as a “baseline of decency” that will lift up close to half of private sector workers in Chicago currently working without leave: an estimated 400,000 employees. The measure has 40 sponsors and has been referred to the Committee on Workforce Development and Audit, chaired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s de facto floor leader, Ald. Pat O’Connor (40).

Its lead sponsors are new Economic, Capital, and Technology development chair Ald. Joe Moreno (1), Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), and Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) co-chair of the Working Families Task Force.

Ald. Ed Burke (14) and Ald. Carrie Austin (34) both signed on as co-sponsors, but missing from the list are Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), Ald. Brian Hopkins (2), and O’Connor.  

The ordinance amends the minimum wage chapter of the city’s municipal code. A covered employee who works at least 80 hours within any 120-day period shall be eligible for paid sick leave, capped at 40 hours per year. Leave would kick in after the 180th day of employment for new employees.

The ordinance would take effect 90 days after passage from the full City Council and would be enforced by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP), led by Commissioner Maria Guerra Lapacek.

“Our country has a history of passing laws to protect worker health and safety. Getting sick or needing to care for family members is something that affects all of us. For these reasons, we must advance at least a minimum standard to ensure that everyone has access to earned sick time. This should not be left to individual employers, because some workers get good benefits and some get none,” the group Women Employed said in an FAQ distributed to reporters April 13. Anne Ladky, the group’s executive director, served as task force co-chair.

The ordinance already has some opponents in the business community, including the Chicagoland Chambers of Commerce and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. Both were represented on the Working Families Task Force who helped draft recommendations to inform the ordinance. But the pair issued a minority report saying the recommendations hit businesses already reeling from the city’s minimum wage hike and hikes in the local sales tax and property taxes.

The Chambers’ Mike Reever told Aldertrack he wasn’t surprised to see their concerns “basically ignored” in the ordinance. “For example, there is no exemption for small businesses. The aldermen we talked to over the course of the past year all talked of the importance of local economic development, but this will have a cost impact on their local businesses. Throw in the first $588 million, of potentially multiple, City property tax increases, and it is enough to give pause to any potential entrepreneur or existing small business owner of how they are going to survive in Chicago's current economic climate.”

The task force estimated implementing paid sick leave would lead to less than a 0.7-1.5% increase in labor costs for most employers. The Chambers and IRMA said “some of the data was not as recent as it could have been, and their cost model has biased assumptions.”

Provision Highlights:

• “Covered Employee” means any Employee who, in any particular two-week period, performs at least two hours of work for an Employer while physically present within the geographic boundaries of the City (some exclusions apply for youth and transitional programs

• Any Covered Employee who works at least 80 hours for an Employer within any 120-day period shall be eligible

• For every 40 hours worked after a Covered Employee’s Paid Sick Leave begins to accrue, he or she shall accrue one hour of Paid Sick Leave. Paid Sick Leave shall accrue only in hourly increments. There shall be no fractional accruals.

• For each Covered Employee, there shall be a cap of 40 hours on accrued Paid Sick Leave per 12-month period, unless his or her Employer selects a higher limit.

• At the end of a Covered Employee’s 12-month accrual period, he or she shall be allowed to carry over to the following 12-month period half of his or her unused accrued Paid Sick Leave, up to a maximum of 20 hours.

• If an Employer is subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act, each of the Employer’s Covered Employees shall be permitted, at the end of his or her 12-month Paid Sick Leave accrual period, to carry over up to forty hours of his or her unused accrued Paid Sick Leave to use exclusively for Family and Medical Leave Act eligible purposes

• If an Employer has a paid-time-off (PTO) policy that grants Covered Employees paid time off in an amount and a manner that meets the requirements for Paid Sick Leave under this section, the Employer is not required to provide additional paid leave.

In a post-City Council press conference April 13, Mayor Emanuel didn’t give the ordinance a ringing endorsement, but said he supports the “thrust” of the reforms, and believes it should be pursued statewide, but “I don’t have any delusion that they are going to move on anything since nothing else is happening down in Springfield.”

Pawar told Aldertrack last week he expects the Mayor to be “very involved” with the ordinance going forward.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a $600 million general obligation bond authorization yesterday, a retread of a January attempt, where an original $1.2 billion GO issue was chopped down to $650 million following Council concerns about growing city debt and unclear plans on how bond proceedings would be spent.

“We will come back to the Council when we have more details around the capital projects with a proposal to do general obligation new money capital later in the year,” city CFO Carole Brown told Finance Committee members on January 11.

The actual funds sought is about $100 million of taxable debt for settlements and judgements to be paid out in 2016 and 2017, $150.5 million of tax-exempt debt for “E-Note” or equipment purchases in 2016 and 2017 and $237.2 of tax-exempt debt for capital spending in 2016 and 2017. While the total comes to $487.7, the city is seeking authorization for $600 in spending to cover the cost of borrowing the money and issuance fees.

The bond issue is expected to be taken up in the next Finance Committee meeting.

Cook County Commissioners Bridget Gainer and Richard Boykin each introduced items Wednesday to address summer youth unemployment in the County, 70 days before the end of the school year.

“Violence is on the rise in Cook County communities and police departments are bracing for the worst this summer. Nothing stops a bullet like a job. We must act now to give young people a better way to spend their summer,” Gainer said in a release. She proposed bid incentives for Cook County companies who employ teens aged 16-19 and a challenge to elective county spending “not required for life, safety or health to be challenged and deferred to create funds for the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership, One Summer Chicago, Alternative Schools Network and the Chicago Urban League.”

A recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute estimates 87% of African-Americans, 78% of Hispanics, and 74% of White teenagers are unemployed in Cook County. Four students testified about their struggle to find work.

Commissioner Boykin also proposed a package of programs funded by a $0.04 per gallon gas tax, with revenues to be used for four separate and related Cook County initiatives “designed to strengthen and stabilize neighborhoods in Cook County with high levels of poverty and unemployment.” Those programs would include $45 million in spending on youth jobs programs, a Youth Jobs Council, a Parenting to Prevent Violence Initiative, establishment of a county Office for People with Disabilities, and a Community Policing Initiative. But programs wouldn’t kick in until 2017.

Cutting through both proposals, Commissioner Deborah Sims called for immediate action, and the possible re-establishment of the President’s Office of Employment and Training (POET). “I know we have a program between the state, the city, and the county, and I’ve said this to [head of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership] Karen Norington-Reaves: I don’t believe this program is working,” Sims said.

A member of the public in the gallery chimed in, “Say that.”

Norington-Reaves testified at a hearing on youth unemployment last month that the Workforce Partnership is “hamstrung” in its ability to create temporary summer jobs for youth. Grants guidelines from the federal government emphasize year-round employment and skills training.

The scandal-plagued POET program was scrapped and streamlined under Board President Toni Preckwinkle in 2011, and placed under the Workforce’s jurisdiction. The move saved the county about $5 million and cut 23 positions.

Cook County Hospital Redevelopment

Two Cook County hospital related redevelopment proposals have been introduced to the Board of Commissioners. The Civic Health Development Group (CHDG) was selected to redevelop the abandoned beaux arts Cook County Hospital building in the Illinois Medical District. CHDG plans to “invest approximately $600M” in the redevelopment of the space for residential, retail, office, and hotel use, President Preckwinkle’s office says, and will pay at least $2M in annual rent to the County over the term of the lease. Redevelopment would begin in 2017.

The proposal will be referred to the Finance Committee, which will hold a special meeting on the issue May 10 at 1 pm. Finance Chair John Daley said 20% of the residential units in the building will be mandated as affordable housing, and CHDG will work to hire people that live within two miles of the project on Chicago’s near West side in the Illinois Medical District.

A proposal for a $108.5 million contract extension and budget for construction of CCHHS’ new outpatient Central Campus Health Center was also introduced Wednesday. A new building will adjoin Stroger Hospital. Three county buildings will be decommissioned as a result, replaced with one “efficient” building. The move will reduce the county’s real estate footprint by 680,000 square feet.

Cook County Home Loan Program to Run Parallel To City’

A Cook County-administered program to help qualifying home buyers get fixed-rate 30-year mortgage loans and assistance with down payments and closing costs passed the Board of Commissioners, after some substitute confusion in committee and some last-minute recess session tweaks on Wednesday. “I think what we have now is a much better product than we had an hour and a half ago,” Commissioner Larry Suffredin said at the item’s passage. He’d earlier said that the entry to the lending program was very “unorthodox.”

Commissioners wanted assurance the program would be open to city residents and to ensure the program would be administered at no cost to County. The Bureau of Economic Development will report on the program’s progress quarterly.

Michael Jasso, Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Economic Development said, “We will be working with housing counselors and lenders across the county to make sure that this product is known,” but could not project how many home buyers could be impacted by the program. He said the County’s program would run parallel to the city’s recently-launched Home Buyer Assistance Program, which has identified 30 lenders already.

Home Loans will be sold to and serviced by Austin, Texas-based 360 Mortgage Group, which does not charge fees. The county is also making USDA and Fannie and Freddie Mac grant funds available for closing costs and down payments of up to 3% of the final purchase price or the final mortgage loan amount.

Following a leaked executive summary of the the Police Accountability Task Force’s report in the Chicago Tribune yesterday, Task Force Chair Lori Lightfoot released statements late last night announcing a press conference at 2:00 p.m. today at Harold Washington Library to address the task force’s “recommendations for reform of the Chicago Police Department.” She said the summary reported by the Tribune was “incomplete.”

From Lightfoot’s statement: “The Police Accountability Task Force has not yet presented its report to Mayor Emanuel or the Chicago City Council, or officially released it to anyone and we are disappointed that incomplete accounts of a draft summary of the report are now online and in social media.”

Parents, teachers and neighbors of CPS elementary schools may vote for elementary school LSC representatives today. High schools hold elections tomorrow. Today is also elementary school report card pick up day, so parents can vote when they find out how Jack and Jane are doing in class.

LSCs set school discretionary budgets, determine some curriculum aspects and have the ability to hire and fire school principals.

Elementary school LSCs consist of 6 parent representatives, two community members, two teachers, one non-teacher staff member and the principal. High school LSCs also have an elected student representative. CPS reports 5,857 candidates and 774 seats that have no candidates across the city.

The Council’s Rules Committee is scheduled to meet an hour before today’s full City Council meeting to appoint Sophia King to the 4th Ward aldermanic seat vacated by Will Burns earlier this year.

The committee met briefly yesterday morning to give aldermen an opportunity to meet with King, but Committee Chair Michelle Harris (8) chose to recess the meeting, holding off on the official vote to confirm her to the seat until today. Harris said she wanted to give aldermen an opportunity to get to know her, so the vote would be quick.

After the Rules Committee confirms her appointment, it will advance to the full council, scheduled shortly after.
 

Highlights of Items Awaiting Council Approval

• An amendment to the municipal code that would give the mayor a one-time exemption to circumvent the Police Board’s jurisdiction to recommend interim Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to a permanent post, as well as Johnson’s actual appointment to the post.  

• $6.45M in two police-related settlements. The larger of the two settlements, a $4.95 million payout, would go to the family of Philip Coleman. The suit names 13 police officers and one detention aide, and alleges their use of excessive force, which included tasing Coleman more than a dozen times, and refusal to take Coleman, who was experiencing a psychotic episode, to a hospital, as the cause of his death. $1.5 million will go to the family of Justin Cook, who died from suffocation after officers allegedly failed to administer his inhaler to him during an asthma attack.

• Gate ground lease agreement with American Airlines at O’Hare Airport. The ordinance would allow the airline to begin construction on five new gates at the end of Terminal 3. The gates are known as the L Stringer Gates, with a total space of about 165,000 feet, comprised of new waiting areas and concession stands, among other amenities. The gates are scheduled to open in 2018, with the open bid for concessionaires scheduled for next year.

• Financial Transparency Resolution. The resolution from Ald. John Arena (45) that the committee approved requests that the council draft an ordinance that would require more transparency and oversight for the city when it tries to enter into risky financial agreements with banks. More details on the ordinance to be introduced as a result of the resolution below.

• Substitute Class 6(b) certification for Eli’s Cheesecake Company for the property located at 4350 N. Normandy Ave. and 6701 W. Forest Preserve Dr. The tax break would help support a roughly 38,000 sq ft addition to an existing 62,000 sq ft manufacturing and distribution facility in Ald. Nick Sposato’s 38th ward in the Read/Dunning TIF.

• Amendment of muni code concerning parking of pickup trucks of residential and business streets. The ordinance sponsored by City Clerk Susana Mendoza would eliminate the requirement that non-commercial pickup trucks get a special sticker from the ward office in order to legally park on residential and commercial streets.

• A $29 million sale of city-owned land (the former Malcolm X College CampusSite) for Rush University’s new medical academic village and a new training center for the Chicago Blackhawks. The sale is broken up into two ordinances - one for Rush (worth $17.5 million), and one for the Blackhawks(worth $11.7 million). The land sale didn’t make it to the floor last month, because two freshman aldermen–Gilbert Villegas (36) and Raymond Lopez(15)–threatened to use parliamentary procedure to block the item from a vote. The two wanted answers about City Colleges’ minority staffing and procurement.

• Lifting the prohibition on the peddling of flowers: This ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Ed Burke (14), would make it legal for someone with a peddler’s license to sell flowers out of their cart or vehicle. The ban was put in place in 1943.

Appointments

• Richard C. Ford II to the Chicago Emergency Telephone System Board; (Re-appointment of Benjamin Dieterich to the board)
• Andrea L. Yao to the Board of Local Improvements.
• Nicholas Delgado, Dwight Curtis, and Mae Whiteside to the Community Development Commission

Notable Expected Introductions

• Paid Sick Leave - Members of the Progressive Caucus including Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), the Earned Sick Time Coalition, and Aldermen Joe Moreno (1) and Ameya Pawar (47) will hold a press conference at 9:00 a.m. today voicing support for a paid sick leave ordinance that, “will guarantee paid sick days off to some 400,000 Chicago workers beginning in 2017.” The ordinance was crafted to reflect recommendations from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Working Families Task Force and was developed over eight months. According to the draft of the ordinance, a covered employee who works at least 80 hours within any 120-day period shall be eligible for paid sick leave, capped at 40 hours per year. Leave would kick in after the 180th day of employment for new employees. The ordinance would take effect 90 days after passage from the full City Council.

• Financial Transparency - This ordinance says the city can’t issue any bonds, note, or other non-fixed rate debt with a maturity of longer than 271 days without certain conditions being met. The city’s independent municipal advisor, Martin Luby, and the Council’s Office of Financial Analysis, headed by Ben Winick, would each be required prepare reports detailing the risks and whether issuing new debt is in the best interest of the city. City CFO Carole Brown would be required, 45 days before a City Council vote, to submit a plain-English summary of the issuance, and an annual report that describes the financial performance of each transaction.

• Abolition of IPRA - Somewhat mirroring Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) recommendations leaked to the Chicago Tribune yesterday, Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) drafted an ordinance calls for the abolition of the Independent Police Review Authority. It would be replaced with a so-called, “Independent Citizen Police Monitor” that would open up police and misconduct data to the public, widen the scope of the Chief Administrator’s powers, and hasten the release of information and the conclusion of investigations. The Monitor’s office would maintain at least one full-time investigator for every 100 sworn officers in the Chicago Police Department. CPD has more than 12,000 sworn members, as of its 2010 annual report. The office’s budget would be roughly $21.7 million, more than double IPRA’s current appropriation.

• FAIR COPS - Ald. Jason Ervin (28) plans to hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. this morning to discuss an ordinance that would put the departments that investigate allegations of police misconduct under the jurisdiction of the city’s Inspector General. The ordinance he plans to introduce is modeled after a similar measure first proposed by the Community Renewal Society in December. The ordinance establishes a Deputy Inspector General for Police Functions to be appointed by a five-member selection committee chosen by current IG Joe Ferguson. The Deputy IG has 20 listed powers, including the authority to: review, audit, collect, analyze, propose recommendations, and investigate any police-related matters under IPRA, Police Board, or CPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau. The concept of a police inspector general was also mentioned in the leaked executive summary of the PATF report. Several off-limits areas would also be open to public inspection, including reports on use of body cameras, contact cards, citizen complaints, and misconduct investigations, which would all be published on the OIG’s website. Similar to Hairston’s ordinance, the office would be funded by a portion of the Police Department’s $1.45 billion appropriation–no less than one percent, or approximately $14.6 million. There would be one full-time employee for every 250 sworn officers in the department.

The Council’s License Committee approved an ordinance from Ald. Ed Burke (14) that would make it legal for licensed peddlers to sell flowers from their carts or vehicles, while Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) received some pushback for re-upping 19 liquor moratoriums along streets in Logan Square.  

Attendance: Chair Emma Mitts (37) Rod Sawyer (6), Gregory Mitchell (7), David Moore (17), Matt O’Shea (19), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Mike Zalewski (23), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Roberto Maldonado (26),  Walter Burnett (27), Chris Taliaferro (29), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35), Marge Laurino (39), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), James Cappleman (46), Deb Silverstein (50).

According to Ald. Burke, the prohibition on selling flowers on the street dates back to 1943, when then-Finance Chairman JJ Duffy of the city’s 19th Ward championed a ban to eliminate competition to his floral shop, JJ Florals. “No, I was not there,” Burke joked, adding that he learned of the ban when someone went to him to get a peddler’s license to sell flowers but was told that it was illegal.

Under the municipal code, a peddler is defined as a person who moves from place to place and sells goods from some kind of vehicle or cart, according to Matt Link, a staff attorney for the Finance Committee, who was on hand for testimony. The item received unanimous approval.

The committee also approved Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa’s (35) nineteen ordinances renewing various liquor moratoriums in his ward. All of which, according to him, had either been put in place by his predecessor, Rey Colon, or were along streets recently incorporated during the ward remap. Ald. Ramirez-Rosa said he was renewing the moratoriums to give more local control to his community.

“In a number of instances I have heard from constituents and members of the business community that are concerned about the number of establishments that are pulling liquor licences,” Ald. Ramirez-Rosa testified. “So, placing these moratoriums back in effect will ensure that we have local community control, and that we have a level of accountability through me as the elected official of that ward.”

Ald. Ramirez-Rosa held one of those items, an ordinance that would have renewed the moratorium on North Milwaukee Avenue, from North Kedzie Avenue to North Kimball Avenue, at the request of Pat Doerr of the Hospitality Business Association, who testified at yesterday’s meeting. The decision to hold the item was made prior to the meeting, Ald. Ramirez-Rosa said, after he had a meeting with Doerr.

“We respect aldermanic prerogative,” Doerr explained that he was speaking more as a point of information, than as a witness in opposition to the tavern licenses. He thanked Ald. Ramirez-Rosa for holding off on the moratorium on Milwaukee Avenue, which he said would have prevented a new woman-owned business planned on that commercial strip.

But Doerr requested that the aldermen revisit the issue, arguing the new tavern prohibitions would prevent the ability to open new craft breweries and tasting rooms, which he called a “pretty popular asset.”

Most of the other liquor license items on the agenda lifted moratoriums on tavern licences, including one on North Clybourn Avenue in the 2nd Ward to allow brewpubs on Goose Island.

“We are the Napa Valley of craft brewing,” Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) said of the growth of craft breweries in the area. The ordinance he sponsored, which the committee approved, would give those breweries the ability to serve alcohol on site at breweries along the west side of Clybourn Avenue, between Willow Street and Cortland Avenue.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners convenes at 9:45 this morning to consider items in the Technology, Workforce, Finance, Zoning, Rules, and Roads Committees, before the full Board of Commissioners meets at 11:00 a.m.

Finance Committee

Cook County’s Finance Committee will vote on whether to approve a $1.2 million settlement to Brian Otero, who alleges he was sent back to Cook County Jail after he was found not guilty of robbery charges. Otero was told to put back on his uniform and sent from cell to cell during his processing. In a suit against the county, Otero said when others found out he’d be going home, he was beaten, suffering torn ligaments in his hands and bruises on his face. He was released nine hours after being found not guilty.

According to CBS Chicago, there are 60,000 others found not guilty or had charges dismissed or dropped, but still had to wait up to 30 hours for their release.

A settlement on a similar issue in Los Angeles more than a decade ago cost taxpayers there $27 million, NBC Chicago reports. Otero’s attorney, Mike Cherry (of Myron M. Cherry & Associates), told WBEZ in 2013 he hoped this case would be expensive enough to force Cook County to update the County Court System’s reliance on carbon copies of files that can slow down processing for acquittals.

The committee will also vote on approval of a $120,000 settlement for Billie Jean Ammons, a former Deputy Cook County Sheriff, who alleged after she was diagnosed with a permanent spinal injury and put on leave, she was made ineligible for a promotion to sergeant. Ammons alleged she was retaliated against by colleagues after she filed suit.

There’s also a $175,000 settlement to Justin Washington and James X. Bormes (of the Law Offices of James X. Bormes) over a Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) violation up for consideration. Washington, a dietician at Stroger Hospital, alleged the county failed to pay him and others “who engaged in military service the difference between the pay they would have earned while employed by Cook County and the pay they received while on active military duty,” and accrual of time off. There’s also a $200,000 settlement to the family of Rex Johnson. Johnson’s family sued Sheriff Tom Dart after Johnson’s death. They claimed the jail had records of the medication he needed from his previous stints, but didn’t administer them.

Workforce, Housing & Community Development Committee

The Workforce, Housing & Community Development Committee will call up an item Board President Toni Preckwinkle first introduced in January to initiate and administer a County Down Payment Assistance Program with the County’s Department of Planning and Development and Bureau of Finance. The program is supposed to help qualifying home buyers get fixed-rate 30-year mortgage loans and assistance with down payments and closing costs. More info here.

Loans will be sold to and serviced by Austin, Texas-based 360 Mortgage Group, a home loan lending company. Borrower income may not exceed 115% of the County median income for FHA, VA, USDA loans and up to 140% of the County median income for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, regardless of family size. Grantees would have to participate in a homeowner education program. The county is also making USDA and Fannie and Freddie Mac grant funds available for closing costs and down payments of up to 3% of the final purchase price or the final mortgage loan amount.

The County will act as the required government sponsor for the program, and will assist in marketing and working with local housing counseling agencies and local lenders to implement the program. It would only be available for purchased or refinanced homes in the County, and must be an owner’s primary residence. The program will focus on suburban Cook County, since Chicago recently passed its own Homebuyer Assistance Program.

Pressers, Odds and Ends

Supporters of All Kids Illinois, a program dedicated to uninsured low-income children in Illinois, is set to expire July 1, 2016. Members of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Healthy Communities Cook County (HC3), and a group of commissioners will introduce a resolution supporting HB 5736 in Springfield to extend the All Kids program to October 1, 2019.

Community activists with IIRON and National People’s Action will also hold a demonstration this morning calling for the passage of the Cook County Responsible Business Act. Comm. Robert Steele introduced the ordinance in October, but held it in committee over concerns from the State’s Attorney’s office that the language could not withstand a court challenge. Co-sponsors included Commissioners Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia, Joan Patricia Murphy, Luis Arroyo, Larry Suffredin, and Jerry “Iceman” Butler.

When it was introduced, the ordinance outlined a hike in wage rates, which would climb every year: wages would start from a base of $10.00 in December 2015, climbing to $11.25 in December 2016, $12.50 in 2017, $13.75 in 2018, and will be tied to the “Cook County Living Wage hourly rate” every year after. Employers would be required to tally the average wage for each full- and part-time employee. If more than 750 employees are paid less than the minimum wage rate set for that year, they’d face a $750 penalty per employee, per dollar below the required amount. Religious organizations and governments are exempt. IIRON and National People’s Action have staged similar events before, targeted at Finance Chair John Daley and Wal-Mart.

Full Board Meeting

In addition to the items outlined above, the Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on:

• A resolution calling for the City of Chicago to rescind the $0.05 bottled water tax, in light of the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. The resolution, which says “many Chicago and Cook County residents with low and moderate household incomes rely upon bottled water as their cleanest source of drinking water,” is sponsored by Comm. Richard Boykin.

• Establishment of the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation For Job Creation, Workforce Development, Entrepreneurship, Community Revitalization, and Industrial Development. The move is aimed at creating solutions to economic problems in “inner city” and “Southland Chicago.” The commission would be tasked with creating “novel solutions to social problems which are more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just compared to current solutions,” and “ideas that promote public, private, and philanthropic collaboration in order to create positive effects on areas with economic challenges.” It could have as many as 27 members, with Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia as chair.

• Creation of a County crane operator’s license. The ordinance would make it illegal to operate a crane without a license in the County, and is likely intended to beat the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s national deadline mandating all crane operators be certified by Nov. 10, 2017. The ordinance establishes a new, three member Board of Crane Operator Examiners made up of the County’s Building and Zoning Commissioner, Timothy Bleuher, and two other experienced crane operators, and has been deferred and amended multiple times.

The following will be referred to committee:

• Old Cook County Hospital Redevelopment: The Civic Health Development Group (CHDG) was selected to redevelop the abandoned beaux arts Cook County Hospital building in the Illinois Medical District. CHDG plans to “invest approximately $600M” in the redevelopment of the space for residential, retail, office, and hotel use, President Preckwinkle’s office says, and will pay at least $2M in annual rent to the County over the term of the lease. Redevelopment would begin in 2017. The redevelopment proposal will be referred to the Finance Committee.

• North Carolina/Mississippi Boycott: Comm. Luis Arroyo Jr. and Board President Toni Preckwinkle will propose two resolutions “banning any use of County monies in doing business with the Governments of the State of North Carolina and Mississippi and with any businesses headquartered in these States,” based on both states’ adoption of acts criticized as anti-LGBT because they restrict the definition of sex, “forcing all government-controlled facilities to maintain single-sex bathrooms matching an individual's biological sex at birth only, regardless of the individual’s sexual identity,” a release from Arroyo says.

• Paid Sick Leave: Commissioners Larry Suffredin, Luis Arroyo Jr., Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, and Richard Boykin are introducing a paid sick leave provision that would apply to public works construction, maintenance, and repair contracts. For every 30 hours worked, employees from county bidders “shall earn one hour of paid sick leave, up to 7 days per year,” which would be limited to employees of the prime contractor, but not subcontractors. Sick days could be used for physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition; a doctor’s visit; care for a child, spouse, domestic partner; or to deal with domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The County’s Department of Procurement would serve as enforcement arm, and the effective date would be June 1, 2016.

• Stop Bullets With Jobs Fund: Pivoting from an earlier introduction, Comm. Bridget Gainer is proposing an “emergency” plan to create jobs for youth this summer. The three-pronged plan will challenge to all elective Cook County spending not required for life, safety or health to instead “create funds for summer jobs programs at partner organizations such as the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, One Summer Chicago, Alternative Schools Network and Chicago Urban League,” give qualified Cook County bidders an incentive of up to 0.5% on county-funded projects if they hire local teens, and offer a job pool of County youth to local Chambers of Commerce and small businesses. The call is in response to a recent county hearing on the negative impact of youth unemployment.

• New Hospital System Buildings: A proposal for a $108.5 million contract extension and budget for construction of CCHHS’ new outpatient Central Campus Health Center will be introduced to commissioners, according to a release from the System. A new building will adjoin Stroger Hospital. The developer, Clayco (which has already been approved by the Board and is in the first phase of the project) “will shift to... finalizing design and construction for the clinical and office spaces in the new facility,” a release says. Three county buildings–an administrative building on Polk, the Fantus Clinic, and the Hektoen Administration Building–will be decommissioned as a result, replaced with one “efficient” building and reducing the county’s real estate footprint by 680,000 square feet. The Hektoen site will be part of the old Cook County Hospital site redevelopment, detailed above.

• A number of introductions from Commissioner Richard Boykin including a Gas Tax Special Use: A $0.04 per gallon gas tax, with revenues to be usedfor four separate and related Cook County initiatives “designed to strengthen and stabilize neighborhoods in Cook County with high levels of poverty and unemployment:

  • Cook County Jobs Council: a nine-member council tasked with crafting “a plan to expand employment opportunity for that area’s residents... to finance partnerships with private sector employers, and with an emphasis on incentivizing the hiring of unskilled labor in order to provide work opportunities for individuals without high school and / or college diplomas or trade certifications.” Boykin wants to spend $45 million on youth jobs programs.

  • Cook County Parenting to Prevent Violence Initiative: a $2 million “parent enrichment” grant program run by the Justice Advisory Council to “strategically [invest] County resources in programs that attack the root cause of violence in our communities.”

  • Cook County Office for People with Disabilities: a $1 million appropriation to establish a three member office that would be tasked with researching and making recommendations “to all departments and offices of the County in matters affecting concerns of people with disabilities” and to “promote the full integration and participation of people with disabilities into all areas of economic, political, and community life.”

  • Cook County Community Policing Initiative: The $2 million initiative would add 15 additional Sheriff’s Police Officers to work alongside Chicago Police to work in Cook County neighborhoods with high levels of violence “to more effectively and cooperatively combat gang violence.”

• Cleanup language to several of the County’s taxes: President Preckwinkle’s office has proposed amendments to a slew of the county’s taxes, including on alcoholic beverages, gambling machines, gas, new car sales, parking lot and garage operations, amusements, and tobacco. The changes will “clarify, simplify and maximize enforcement efforts,” Preckwinkle spokesman Frank Shuftan says. “This happens from time to time and it is easiest to do all at once and avoid a piecemeal approach.

Aldertrack has learned that Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to officially introduce legislation today to overhaul the city’s density bonus system and create a new Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus in today’s full City Council meeting. Specific details are embargoed until the ordinance is introduced, sources tell us, because the Department of Planning and Development was still working on final changes as late as yesterday afternoon.

Aldertrack sources say the ordinance would completely revamp a section in the city’s zoning code that lets developers build bigger and taller buildings in the city’s downtown area in exchange for money that would help support investment opportunities in the city’s poorest neighborhoods. DPD has been holding meetings with aldermen for the past several weeks, and sources say told “big changes” should be expected.

One issue of contention, according to two sources at those briefings, is the issue of how the fees levied would be allocated and which agency would administer them. It’s likely that issue will be left to be determined in committee.

Back in February, Mayor Emanuel announced that he would work with newly appointed DPD Commissioner David Reifman, who was recruited from national law firm DLA Piper, to update the zoning bonus system by eliminating outdated bonuses.

At the time, the Mayor’s Office said the money collected from the new Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus would help support, “business development and job growth in neighborhoods facing poverty, high unemployment and other indicators of underinvestment by the private market.”  

According to statistics provided by DPD, since 2012, approximately 24 projects took advantage of 37 bonuses for an additional 1.49 million square feet of space. That includes:

• 14 Affordable Housing Density Bonuses  
• 11 Upper Level Setback Bonuses  
• 1 Arcade Bonus
• 2 Green Roof Bonuses
• 1 Concealed Parking Bonus
• 1 Underground Parking Bonus
• 1 Lower Level Planting Bonus
• 2 Adopt-a-Landmark Bonuses
• 2 Transit Bonuses
• 1 Plaza Bonus
• 1 Sidewalk Widening Bonus

Despite reservations that they were setting a concerning precedent, aldermen on the Council’s Public Safety Committee overwhelmingly approved a one-time exemption to city law, giving Mayor Emanuel the authority to appoint interim Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to a permanent post. They then spent more than two hours vetting him before unanimously recommending his appointment.

Attendance: Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30), Joe Moreno (1), Brian Hopkins (2), Pat Dowell (3), Leslie Hairston (5), Rod Sawyer (6), Gregory Michell (7), Anthony Beale (9), Sue Sadlowski Garza (10) Patrick Daley Thompson (11), George Cardenas (12), Ed Burke (14), Raymond Lopez (15), Toni Foulkes (16), David Moore (17), Derek Curtis (18), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie Cochran (20), Rick Munoz (22), Danny Solis (25), Roberto Maldonado (26), Walter Burnett (27), Jason Ervin (28), Chris Taliaferro (29), Scott Waguespack (32), Deb Mell (33), Carrie Austin (34), Emma Mitts (37), Nick Sposato (38), Marge Laurino (39), Anthony Napolitano (41), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), Ameya Pawar (47) Harry Osterman (48), Deb Silverstein (50)

The ordinance the Public Safety Committee approved would temporarily suspend the Police Board’s role in the police superintendent search process, so the Mayor could immediately appoint interim Police Supt. Johnson to the post without having to assemble a new search.

According to the city’s Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeff Levine, the ordinance, if approved by the full City Council today, would take effect immediately. After a month, the municipal code would revert back to the status quo, putting the authority of searching and vetting for a new police superintendent back in the hands of the Police Board.  

But several aldermen expressed that they were essentially setting precedent by giving the Mayor the ability to change the rules whenever it suits his needs.

“I don’t think this was transparent. Everything was thrown out the window. And we did everything we wanted to do anyway,” Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10) said, adding that “rules were made to be followed,” not “tweaked.”

Nearly all of those aldermen who took issue to changing the law said it was the process, not the individual, they had issue with, explaining they, too, think Johnson is the best man to lead the department, especially at a time when crime rates have spiked and morale among rank and file is at an all-time low.

To address those concerns about precedent, Levine told aldermen that it was an “extraordinary time,” and this law would not “set a trend.”  

“What’s the purpose of amending this order? Are we saving money? Shortening the process?” Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), a former police officer, asked Levine, expressing confusion over the legal implications of keeping Johnson as an interim until proper protocol is followed. In response, Levine said it wasn’t “ideal” to keep the position occupied on an interim basis for an indefinite period of time.

He also said it was “conceivable” that the appointment of Johnson to the permanent position without changing the law would be perceived as “not legally proper.” But he dismissed concerns that possible legal action could be taken against the city, and said this was just a matter of making sure “all the legal i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.”

Only one alderman, Patrick Daley Thompson (11), voted against the law change and pushed back harder than anyone else on the council. “What is the urgency, and why can’t we follow that process?” he asked. He said Johnson did not go through the same vetting as the candidates who submitted applications and were interviewed by the Police Board.

Levine said interim Police Supt. Johnson went through “the same level of scrutiny and review” as the rest of the Police Board finalists, but couldn’t name who specifically conducted that vetting.

Several aldermen who were strongly in favor of the change argued it was an opportunity to finally get the search over with and suggested they use this meeting to vet Johnson. Committee Vice Chair Willie Cochran (20) called it was a “unique opportunity.”

Others said they were tired of the “charade” over the police search and wanted to get someone in the post and move on before crime gets worse.

“This is a unique situation and it requires unique ideas,” Ald. Nick Sposato (38) said, echoing a common phrase used by proponents of changing the law. “We need to stop the charade here, we don’t need to go on and act like we’re doing another search. The mayor has who he wants, the council’s happy with him. We need to move forward, get somebody in there.”

“The reason we need somebody to take over this department right now is because overtime is running amok, crime is running amok, the Police Department morale is down, and we need someone to get ahold of this ship and turn it around,” Ald. Anthony Beale (9) said. “And we don’t have another three or four months to do that.”

But as the meeting was laid out, aldermen couldn’t vet or ask Johnson questions until they approved the law change. That’s because Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30) chose to hold separate votes on each item–the amendment to the municipal code and the appointment of Johnson to the superintendent position. One couldn’t move forward until the other was approved, which Ald. Jason Ervin (28) said didn’t make sense. “Why not have that conversation first?” he asked.

When aldermen were finally given the opportunity to question Johnson, police overtime was the most common issue brought up. Aldermen urged him to get it under control, complaining that year after year, during every budget season, former Police Supt. Garry McCarthy promised to rein in overtime spending, only to bill more than the year before.

Yesterday’s meeting was also Johnson’s first opportunity to outline his goals for the department, even if most of them have yet to be worked out.

Among those plans include increasing foot and bike patrols and police presence at schools, and working on a legislative agenda in Springfield that would include cracking down on straw purchasing of guns and stronger sentencing for people found with an illegal gun.