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Aldermanic candidates across Chicago raised $7.2 million, spent $4.9 million, and ended 2018 with $15.7 million cash on hand, according to The Daily Line’s analysis of quarterly filings with the State Board of Elections.
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JAN 22, 2019
Elections officials are set to meet Tuesday morning to hear the challenges filed against mayoral candidates Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and tech entrepreneur Neal Sàles Griffin as well as those lodged against treasurer candidates Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) and Certified Public Accountant Peter Gariepy. Meanwhile, some high-profile candidates finally defeated the challenges keeping them off the ballot.
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For the first time in nearly 30 years, Ald. Ed Burke (14) will not gavel Tuesday’s meeting of the Finance Committee to order shortly after 11 a.m.
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Former Ald. Will Burns (4) agreed to pay a $5,000 fine to settle charges he improperly lobbied the city on behalf of Airbnb — his new employer — soon after stepping down from the Chicago City Council.
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JAN 22, 2019
A day after Ald. David Moore (17) blocked former 17th Ward Ald. Latasha Thomas’ appointment to the Community Development Commission over questions about campaign cash, Thomas amended her campaign finance reports. Meanwhile, aldermen will consider a scaled-back proposal from City Clerk Anna Valencia to waive the fee for a city sticker to all veterans who are honorably or generally discharged from the armed services.
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A Muslim woman who said a handful of officers assaulted her near a Downtown train platform in 2015 after assuming she had a bomb should be paid $160,000, city lawyers recommended Friday.
Police officers detained Itemid Al-Matar while she climbed the stairs of the State/Lake "L" station on July 4, 2015. CTA surveillance footage showed the officers tackling her from behind and ripping off her hijab and face veil.
Al Matar’s lawsuit claimed that she was taken to a nearby police station, where she was unlawfully strip searched. That federal lawsuit alleged excessive force, unlawful search, and a violation of her constitutional rights by the Chicago Police Department. She is being represented by Phillip J. Robertson, the trial attorney for the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Police charged Al Matar with disorderly conduct, reckless conduct and resisting police in connection with the incident, but was acquitted on all counts, according to the complaint.
City lawyers have also recommended paying $1 million to the family of Charles Edward Jones, who died in August 2015 while being held in the lockup at the Grand Crossing Police District Headquarters.
The lawsuit filed by Jones’ family said he asked for medical care and was ignored by officers.
In addition, aldermen will consider a recommendation from lawyers to pay $200,000 to former Chicago Fire Department Battalion Chief Ernie Pinkston, who claimed he was discriminated against because of his race and disability before being terminated in 2011.
The fire department has long faced allegations that racism is rampant within the department’s ranks, and that officials have not done enough to hire and promote African Americans.
The City Council's Finance Committee is scheduled to consider all of the settlements at its meeting set for Tuesday. The full council could approve the settlements Wednesday.
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Aldermen backed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s call to expand the city’s transit-oriented development ordinance to include developments planned near busy bus routes on Thursday, sending the proposal to the full City Council on Wednesday.
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Ald. David Moore (17) slammed the brakes on former 17th Ward Ald. Latasha Thomas’ appointment to the Community Development Commission, blocking a vote at least temporarily after asking Thomas about campaign cash.
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JAN 18, 2019
UNLOCKEDAld. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) promised to add an important bit of information to some of his window signs after a complaint was filed by his opponent with state officials. Former Cook County Clerk David Orr backed a slate of "independent" candidates and mayoral candidate Bill Daley saw a familiar face around the office Thursday.-
Sign complaint — David Mihalyfy, who is running against Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson in the 11th Ward, filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections, alleging that Daley Thompson’s campaign signs do not include a required notation that indicates what entity paid for them. “Everyone’s saying we can do better in the ward,” Mihalyfy said. “That’s about big picture stuff like youth and helping people with cost-of-living, but we also deserve an alderman who pays attention to everyday details, not to mention basic legal boundaries.” Daley Thompson said an error by the printer left off the notice on his campaigns’ English-language signs, and would be corrected immediately.
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Orr endorses slate of aldermanic challengers – Former Cook County clerk and 49th Ward alderman David Orr endorsed a group of aldermanic challengers at a City Hall press conference Thursday. Orr backed Rafael Yañez (15), Mike Rodriguez (22), Jessica Washington Gutierrez (30), Tara Stamps (37), Robert Murphy (39), Dianne Daleiden (40), Erika Wozniak Francis (46), Matt Martin (47), and Maria Hadden (49). Orr said he was encouraged by the group’s commitment to “efficient” government and said he expected them to pursue a long list of reforms – from TIF reform to police abuse, zoning scandals to school closures. “These candidates are independent, they’re proactive, and will demand change, accessibility, transparency and to make council a real legislative body,” Orr said.
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Daley joins Daley — Thursday was John R. Daley’s first day as the political director for Bill Daley’s campaign. Bill Daley, the brother of John R. Daley’s father, Cook County Comm. John P. Daley (D-11), the uncle of Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11), the brother of former mayor Richard M. Daley and the son of former mayor Richard J. Daley, denied the existence of a family business in his interview with the Tribune’s editorial board. “Yes, my brother, my father were career politicians,” he said. “Yes I was a political advisor and ran Rich’s campaigns, but I never had any business at City Hall.” Bill Daley pledged in October that if elected, he would bar family members from benefiting from his position — including bidding, lobbying, or managing public pension funds at the city or its sister agencies. John R. Daley said his role will be in a “small advisory capacity” and “as was stated in the ethics roll out, I will not lobby a Daley administration.” John R. Daley is on leave from his lobbying role at Reyes Kurson, where he abstained from lobbying the county.
- Vallas focuses on pensions — Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas held a jam packed press conference Thursday to offer a blueprint to end the city’s pension woes. Vallas said he could find the roughly $300 million that the city will owe in 2020 by cutting the, including a 5 percent reduction in base expenditures. Vallas also pledged to cap property tax increases, “depoliticize” pension fund investment decisions and pursue a state legislative agenda that reverses the hundreds of millions of dollars he says the city is being “short-changed.” Vallas’ statements Thursday echo many he made in a speech about his financial plan in at the City Club in October.
- Preckwinkle and Mendoza applaud Pritzker — Mayoral candidates Toni Preckwinkle and Susana Mendoza praised Gov. JB Pritzker for signing SB 337, which requires gun dealers to be licensed by the state. Former Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the bill, which had been championed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This bill will have a tremendous impact in the city of Chicago, as strengthening gun dealer licensing requirements will reduce the number of guns that come into the wrong hands,” Preckwinkle said in a statement. Both Mendoza and Preckwinkle said they looked forward to working with Pritzker on future gun control bills. “It is so incredible to finally have a governor who recognizes the effects of gun violence on our communities and has the courage to sign the Gun Dealer Licensing bill,” Mendoza said.
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Sign complaint — David Mihalyfy, who is running against Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson in the 11th Ward, filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections, alleging that Daley Thompson’s campaign signs do not include a required notation that indicates what entity paid for them. “Everyone’s saying we can do better in the ward,” Mihalyfy said. “That’s about big picture stuff like youth and helping people with cost-of-living, but we also deserve an alderman who pays attention to everyday details, not to mention basic legal boundaries.” Daley Thompson said an error by the printer left off the notice on his campaigns’ English-language signs, and would be corrected immediately.
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Seventeen employees failed to complete the city’s required online ethics training course on time — and six have yet to do it all, the Chicago Board of Ethics announced Thursday. About a month after the first charter-school strike took place in Chicago, another looms.
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Some seniors displaced by renovations or rehabilitations in large affordable housing buildings are on their way to receiving more notice and coordination from building owners, after the Housing Committee unanimously endorsed the Chicago Relocation Plan Ordinance.
Members of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus dressed in blue pack the Housing Committee hearing. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line] -
The new Jewel-Osco under construction in Woodlawn would be allowed to sell alcohol under a measure that cleared the License and Consumer Protection Committee Wednesday, clearing the way for the full City Council to act next week.
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JAN 17, 2019
With petition challenges finally drawing to a close, early voting will start 11 days late, officials said. Meanwhile, a dozen challengers won the backing of a national progressive organization, and the ad wars in the mayoral campaign continued full speed ahead.
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JAN 17, 2019
Chicago and Cook County’s watchdogs released their regular reports this week, with one finding an abuse of the city’s family and medical leave policy, and the other tallying up the cost to taxpayers for a Recorder of Deeds staff team building retreat in Wisconsin.
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Aldermen will weigh Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s call to expand the city’s transit-oriented development ordinance to include buildings planned near busy bus routes.
Under a new proposal, developments near busy bus lines could qualify for transit-oriented development benefits from the city.
ALISA HAUSER / BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO
