Providing a reprise of her disjointed and disorganized testimony before the joint City Council committee on police accountability, Acting Independent Police Review Authority Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley held a brief press conference Monday announcing leadership changes, but offering few other details on transparency efforts at the embattled Authority, once again emphasizing her brief time at the helm.
At a podium filled with microphones, Fairley had was forced to step back to read from the prepared statement in her binder. IPRA’s Director of Community Outreach and Engagement, Larry Merritt, allowed just nine minutes of questions from reporters.

Merritt tried his best to maintain control after Fairley’s statement Monday, but reporters talked out of turn, pressing Fairley, in the job for a month, about how she can maintain the Authority’s independence in light of the recent e-mail dump showing former IPRA Chief Scott Ando’s close messaging coordination with the Emanuel administration, what will happen cases from fired IPRA investigator Lorenzo Davis, and what specific moves IPRA would make to increase transparency. Fairley instead attempted to emphasize that policy and procedure changes were still under development, that she’s blocking out her afternoons during the “entire month of January” to review IPRA’s police-involved shooting cases, and said she did not have time to read the email exchanges between her predecessor and officials in the Emanuel administration.

Perhaps the biggest change in policy Fairley announced is that IPRA officials will begin commenting on ongoing investigations. “We are no longer going to standing by a hard and fast rule that we will never discuss the details of an investigation until it’s complete,” Fairley told reporters. “I think that that position is now untenable in the world that we live in.” But she said while IPRA officials “will be on scene,” she stopped short of promising official comments at every crime scene. “I will release information if it’s appropriate,” she said.

Fairley announced restructuring changes previewed over the weekend, “to bring on strong leaders who provide fresh investigative and administrative perspective to IPRA coupled with knowledge and expertise that will aid IPRA in fulfilling its mission.” Two new hires: Chief of Staff Annette Moore, and Chief Investigator Jay Westensee were named Monday, but neither were present.

Moore is Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School, and “was instrumental in spearheading diversity outreach efforts and programming,” the IPRA press release says. Moore also worked for more than seven years as an associate at Sidley Austin LLP, where she represented “borrowers, lenders and financial intermediaries in connection with syndicated and structured loans,” according to her LinkedIn.

Westensee is slated to start as Chief Investigator at IPRA in mid-January. According tohis LinkedIn, he has worked at the Office of the Inspector General for more than a decade, where he’s currently Chief Investigator.

Fairley also worked at the OIG’s office as First Deputy and General Counsel, starting in April 2015. Shortly after her appointment on December 6, Fairley also referred theLaquan McDonald administrative investigation to the OIG.

Fairley says she’s also working to find a new First Deputy and General Counsel, fill an existing Attorney vacancy, and add Supervising Attorney and Attorney positions, but acknowledged adding positions and resources will require a bigger budget. IPRA will also establish “a dedicated community outreach team” and will maintain Larry Merritt, a holdover from Ando’s administration, as the Director of Community Outreach and Engagement, “supported by a coordinator who has yet to be hired.”

ZBA Chairman Appointed as New Chicago Board of Elections Commissioner
by Claudia Morell – [email protected]

Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Jonathan Swain will join the City’s Board of Elections, replacing Commissioner Langdon Neal, who resigned from the post effective December 31.

A majority of Cook County Circuit Judges approved the appointment forwarded by Chief Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy C. Evans. In a written statement, Evans said Swain’s appointment will ensure the city’s diversity is represented on the three-member board, “Swain, who is African-American, will join Marisol Hernandez, who is Hispanic, and William Kresse, who is Caucasian.”

Swain will forfeit his spot as Zoning Board chairman, a position he’s held since 2010, and finish out Neal’s three-year term expiring on November 30, 2017. He’ll receive an annual salary of $77,798.

Seven other candidates vied for the position, including Dick Simpson, a former alderman and Political Science Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Despite Calls For His Resignation, Mayor Emanuel Raised Big Cash in December
by Claudia Morell – [email protected]

In his first big fundraising push since the mayoral election, and despite the political fallout he has received from his handling of the Laquan McDonald case, Mayor Rahm Emanuel collected more than $100,000 in political donations last month. According to State Board of Elections’ filings, all of the 56 donation checks he collected were dated on the 11th and 21st of December, suggesting he held a year-end fundraiser with some of the city’s most prominent business leaders.

John Bucksbaum, founder of Bucksbaum Retail Properties, one of the firms behind the massive one-million-square-foot New City commercial retail complex on Clybourn Avenue in Lincoln Park, gave the maximum contribution of $5,400. His wife, Jacolyn, donated another $5,400.

Other notable contributions in the $5,000 range to the mayor’s personal campaign fund came from Scott Cochrane, president of Cochrane Enterprises, which operates several bars in downtown Urbana frequented by University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign students; New Congress, LLC, a private company created by Michael Moyer for the Congress Theater mixed-use redevelopment plan; and attorney Thomas Raines.

Five employees from the hedge fund firm Grosvenor Capital Management donated a total of $7,500. The company’s CEO, Michael Sacks, is a close ally of Emanuel, contributing regularly to the mayor’s personal campaign fund and super PACs. And as head of World Business Chicago’s board of directors, Sacks plays an influential role as a liaison between the mayor’s office and the city’s business community.

Several Chicago-area executives made donations in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, including Fred Eychaner of NewsWeb Corporation, George Moncada of Marquette Bank, John A. Canning, Jr. of Madison Dearborn Partners, Craig Duchossois of the Duchossois Group, Inc., Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners, Dean Harrison of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Larry Richman of The Private Bank, and Donald Wilson of DRW Trading Group.

But Emanuel’s fundraising boom fell short of Ald. Brendan Reilly’s collection. The Vice Mayor reported nearly $200,000 in political donations over the same month, and the 82 donations he gathered are also divided among two dates, the 9th or the 22nd, suggesting he held an end of the year fundraiser.

Ald. Reilly got significant support from the Melmans, the family that owns Lettuce Entertain You, a restaurant company that owns about a hundred high end and fast-food restaurants, mostly in the Chicagoland area. Reilly reported a total of $22,000 in contributions from the Melmans. He received a $5,000 contribution from the company, in addition to reporting $5,000 checks from the company’s CEO Richard Melman and his two sons, Robert “R.J” and Jerrod. Their attorney, Jay Stieber, gave $2,000. The younger Melmans operate one of the company's newer restaurants in River North,Hub 51.

South Loop Alderman Pat Dowell (3) also had a fundraising blitz at the end of 2015, reporting nearly $65,000 in new contributions in December alone.

Other Notable Contributions:

• Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $10,000 to the Leadership for Education Equity’s political PAC. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization is affiliated with Teach for America, and the local Illinois chapter uses its campaign chest to back former members running for office.


• Black Dog Corporation, a minority owned petroleum distribution firm, gave money to 4th Ward Ald. Will Burns ($1,000), 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke($1,500), and 34th Ward Alderman Carrie Austin ($1,000).


• The law firm that filed a class action lawsuit against the city for improperly issuing automated red-light and speed camera tickets, Cherry, Myron M. & Associates, donated $1,000 to Ald. Ed Burke (14). In the lawsuit Simpson v. City of Chicago, the company filed in 2015, attorneys claimed the city illegally collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from traffic violations caught on street cameras, because it failed to mail second notices to drivers.


• Former Cook County Assessor, Thomas M. Tulley, donated $1,500 to Ald. Brian Hopkins and $5,000 to Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. Tulley transferred the funds from his old political campaign, Citizens for Tulley, which according to his latest Quarterly filings is nearly $280,000 in the red, as all of the money in the campaign fund are personal loans.

Last week’s New Year’s Eve release of thousands of email messages between top Chicago administration staffers in response to multiple news organizations’ Freedom of Information Act requests provides an unprecedented look into the workings of the top levels of an active Chicago mayoral operation. The messages, related to the Laquan McDonald shooting, illustrate the extensive authority the mayoral press operation has within city government.

WTTW’s Chicago Tonight has provided an excellent reference to the messages released, and a volunteer group, led by data analyst Steven Vance, has created a catalogue of each email message in the FOIA dump.

While the huge volume of email communication provides insight into how Mayor Emanuel’s office operates, it is far from a complete picture. There are likely many other related policy discussions elsewhere, either in email, on the phone or in person. Indeed, several message chains end with “please call me”, suggesting many decisions were made offline.

Reviewing the email trove, other news organizations have reported that Scott Ando and the Independent Police Review Authority coordinated closely with the Mayor’s office, that the McDonald family attorney threatened to reveal evidence of a “cover up” if there was no settlement and that the release of the McDonald video produced an “all hands on deck” response from Mayoral staff. There are likely to be more reports stemming from the email dump.

Early in my career, I served on personal staff for a pair of Cabinet Secretaries during the Clinton Administration. While these kinds of communications are familiar to me, a few things stand out.

Primarily, the communications between Emanuel staffers are extremely disciplined and process-oriented. There’s little personal talk, or references the usual familiarities that litter email between people in constant communication. Especially after the release of the McDonald video, when things are moving quickly, the team remains highly focused on the facts as they understand them and oriented towards delivering the message of the day.

This sort of message and process focus is no small feat, especially when so many average citizens are vilifying your boss on the outside. It is natural for even small challenges to the goal to come up (e.g. someone asking, “Is this the right thing to do?”), but the Emanuel team consistently seems to have its eye on the ball: Do everything possible to ensure Team Emanuel’s message wins the day.

After the release of the McDonald shooting video, the Emanuel team seems taken aback at the virulence of the protests and the extent of the national response to the video. At one point, Communications Director Kelley Quinn says about a relatively tame December 1 New York Times Editorial suggesting Emanuel has lost credibility, “Well, I knew it'd be bad but this is ridiculous.”

To ensure message consistency, the emails show the Emanuel press team to be in regular, close communication with other city agencies, including the heads of communications from the Police Department, Chicago Public Schools and the Independent Police Review Authority. While it’s not surprising that former IPRA Executive Director Scott Ando and Chief of Staff Larry Merritt were in contact with the Mayor’s communications team on an issue that involved them, the level of guidance they received is surprising. Rather than setting an independent communications strategy for IRPA, on multiple occasions Ando and Merritt checked with Mayoral staff to see if they should even respond to press requests for interviews and for guidance on specific reporter requests.

In April, Mayoral Deputy Communications Director Adam Collins writes, “I found out a bit ago that IPRA's PIO talked to Monica [Davey from New York Times] about the structure of IPRA and how they operate without checking in with me (and despite the fact I had already reached out to coordinate earlier in the day).”

Some other observations from the New Year’s Eve FOIA dump:

• 
  

  Prior to the video release, there was a great deal of discussion between the press office and Law Department about how to honor FOIA requests. While freelancer Jamie Kalven was moving for the video release in court, Sun Times columnist Laura Washington and Tribune crime reporter Jeremy Gorner were pressing Emanuel staff for details on the circumstances surrounding the McDonald video and shooting as early as January 2015.

  
  


• 
  

  A few local politicians are referenced as clear friends of the Mayor’s office in attempts to influence reporters: Ald. Will Burns (4), Ald. George Cardenas(12), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) and Ald. Carrie Austin (34) as well as State Senator Kwame Raoul. Austin at one point goes so far as to run proposed press release language by Mayoral staff.

  
  


• 
  

  Early every morning Mayor Emanuel receives an email with top press issues of the day and suggested talking points. While not unusual, this sort of message guidance is not typical. Many top politicos resist a “message of the day”, preferring to speak more extemporaneously. Clearly not Emanuel. Anyone who has watched Emanuel’s press conferences can see evidence of his strong message discipline.

  
  


• 
  

  Mayoral communications staff seem to pay much closer attention to television reporting than other outlets. The emails suggest they closely monitor morning and evening broadcasts and respond with much more urgency to TV than to a print or digital media request.

  
  


• 
  

  Mayoral staff put an enormous amount of energy into the December 2 Politico Q&A with Mike Allen, clearly thinking the event would be an opportunity to shape national thinking. Instead the event was overtaken by Emanuel’s anger over Allen revealing his Cuba holiday vacation plans.

  
  


• 
  

  Deputy Mayor Ken Bennett and Mayoral Deputy Chief of Staff Vance Henry seem to be the point persons to gather information on protestors and organizers.

  
  


• 
  

  When protests really began to roll, Vance Henry, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications and other Mayoral staffers attempted to track the when and where of every protest. One email chain on December 7 with Dep. Chief Operating Officer Lisa Laws seems to suggest she was monitoring the protests using city surveillance cameras at the OEMC control room.

  
  

Elections attorney Perry Abbasi, representing an objector to State Rep. LaShawn Ford’s ballot petition to run for 29th Ward Committeeman, says the Chicago Board of Elections will remove Ford from the Committeeman ballot when it meets on Tuesday. Abbasi, who is representing long-time West Side operative Tommy Simmons in the objection, and is paid by Ald. Chris Taliaferro, says a Board of Elections Administrator shared a draft of his report on the Simmons objection, and will sustain it.

Ford turned in 2,229 signatures, but after Simmons’ objection only about 404 were sustained, says to Abbasi. 759 are needed to stay on the ballot. Ford could file a “Rule 20” request to appeal the ruling directly to the Board of Elections, but as of Friday afternoon he had not yet done so.

Ford also filed an objection to Taliaferro’s Committeeman ballot petition, but Abbasi reports the Board of Elections did not sustain enough objected signatures to knock Taliaferro off the ballot.

Ford says he’ll be talking with his attorney, Mike Kasper, to decide whether or not he’ll be filing a Rule 20 before Tuesday’s Board of Elections hearing. “I focused on making sure I had my State Rep. stuff and I relied on someone else to get my Committeeman signatures. I think he screwed me.”

If the Board of Elections removes Ford from the ballot and keeps Taliaferro on, Taliaferro will run unopposed for 29th Ward Democratic Committeeman. Former 29th Ward Ald. Deborah Graham, the incumbent, did not file for reelection.

Ald. Michele Smith will not be running for reelection as 43rd Ward Democratic Committeeman, according to a statement her office provided to Aldertrack last week. Instead she will be supporting Lucy Moog, a former Congressional staffer for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and wife of successful internet entrepreneur Matt Moog.

Dashcam video of a second October 2014 fatal police shooting is sitting in legal limbo. Two sources that work with the Chicago Police Department, as well as documents from a suit against the Department, and the Department’s response, confirm dash-cam video captured portions of the police shooting of 25-year old Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson III in the Washington Park neighborhood just eight days before the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.

The 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and its horrific circumstances are adding fuel to a steadily growing fire of anger and discontent with the city’s criminal justice system among Chicago’s Black community, according to African American activists, pastors and aldermen Aldertrack spoke with yesterday.

Fifty-three candidates filed ballot petitions yesterday with the State Board of Elections to run for Democratic, Republican, and Green Party Ward Committeeman for the first day of filing. While nearly half of the candidates who filed yesterday are incumbents (like Cook County Democratic Party Chairman and 31st Ward Democratic Committeeman Joe Berrios and 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan), there were a few newcomers.

After a marathon day of hearing applications for special use permits, most of which were for home expansion plans, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved zoning changes to relocate a medical marijuana dispensary from Fulton Market to Garfield Park, a new tech-focused, private elementary school for Lincoln Park, and a new transitional home in the Little Village neighborhood.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved several large scale housing and commercial developments to be built along the Lakefront and Chicago River, including the “supertall” Wanda Vista Tower project.

As election season draws near, Chief Judge Timothy Evans has turned to Professor Fraud to fill one of two vacancies at the Chicago Board of Elections. Professor William Kresse, an attorney, certified fraud examiner and professor at Governors State University, will be sworn in this morning to replace the late Republican Commissioner Richard A. Cowen, who passed away in April. While Kresse says the new job falls at the nexus of his professional interests – fraud, elections, and law – he says the appointment is bittersweet.

The City Council approved new regulations for privatizing city assets and services, “no-fly” zones for recreational drones, $700,000 in police settlements, an amended e-cigarette tax, a new airport parking program and fees for parking operators around city airports.

Cook County’s $4.5 billion budget passed the Board of Commissioners by a 12-to-5 vote after hours of haggling over a series of technical amendments.

The Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development met briefly yesterday afternoon to approve a property tax exemption for EDE Corp., the only exhibition display company based in Chicago. The 35-year-old, family-run company sought a Class 6(b) property tax incentive to expand their operations to a neighboring, vacant 35,000-square-foot-industrial building at 3790 W. 74th St. in the 13th Ward. If approved by the full City Council tomorrow, the company would save approximately $254,000 in tax savings over the 12-year period, and could re-apply for the tax break when it expires.