A key committee is set on Tuesday to consider eight appointments and reappointments to various Special Service Area commissions throughout the city. And aldermen moved to force a special City Council meeting in a push to get city health officials to consider “natural immunity” in its vaccination calculus.

Left: Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25) at a City Council meeting. Right: The Giant Penny Whistle in 2019. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago; Mauricio Pena/ Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

Pilsen’s alderman and neighbors are suing the city and the former alderman, alleging officials wrongly issued a liquor license to the Giant Penny Whistle despite city rules prohibiting taverns in the area.

Trump Tower in the city’s River North neighborhood

The City Council Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity is set on Monday to consider an ordinance that would bar people who are charged or convicted of crimes of treason and sedition from doing business with the city.

A map and timeline of road construction projects planned as part of the Elgin O’Hare West Access Project [Illinois Tollway Authority]

A $3.4 billion plan to open western highway access to O’Hare International Airport is set to vault forward on Monday as aldermen weigh a land transfer deal that would allow the Illinois Tollway Authority to begin construction on a new roadway along the outer edge of the airport.

A group of aldermen penned a letter on Friday demanding the city commit to not disciplining police officers who remain unvaccinated by a Monday deadline. And nearly 8,000 derelict properties were scooped up in the biennial Cook County Scavenger Sale.

Members of the Latino Caucus and other aldermen in December submitted paperwork for their map to be placed on the June 28 ballot. [Justin Laurence / Block Club Chicago] 

A group of aldermen who already submitted their proposal for a new ward map to be placed on the June 28 primary election ballot want to make tweaks to their proposal to accommodate a potentially powerful new ally as the campaign ramps up. But amending the map, which has already been approved for the ballot by the City Clerk’s office, will be virtually impossible without a complex web of legislative maneuvering. 

Police misconduct claims cost Chicago taxpayers more than $40 million in 2020, a tally that is likely to more than double for 2022, city records show. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Chicago taxpayers shelled out more than $40 million in 2020 for plaintiffs and their attorneys who alleged misconduct against the Chicago Police Department, according to a report published by the city’s law department last week. And early indications show the city’s police-related legal costs have only risen since. 

City and transit officials on Wednesday announced new efforts to increase private security and the presence of police officers at CTA stations and on buses and trains. City housing officials confirmed they will push to extend a demolition fee pilot in gentrifying neighborhoods. Aldermen will make appointments to the Advisory Council on Cultural Affairs and Special Events. And a watchdog office credited the Chicago Department of Transportation for improving its management of the city’s traffic signals but said the department still has more work to do. 

Aldermen have begun interviews applicants to serve on the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line]

A working group of aldermen has begun interviewing the dozens of people who applied to serve on the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, and a list of nominees could be sent to Mayor Lori Lightfoot for consideration in April, officials said Tuesday.  

From left: Frank Avila, Rick Garcia and Cristina Nonato are running on a slate together for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners. Elizabeth Joyce is also running on the slate for a two-year term.

An ousted commissioner of the $1.2 billion agency responsible for treating Cook County’s wastewater is leading an insurgent slate of candidates to reclaim seats on its board this year, setting up a test of the Cook County Democratic Party’s power in down-ballot races. 

The Congress Theater, taken Feb. 24, 2020. [Mina Bloom/Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

A plan to free up a big chunk of city funding for the long-delayed redevelopment of the Congress Theater is headed to the City Council for final approval.

City officials hope a new ordinance partnering with the Cook County Land Bank Authority will help speed efforts to rehab long-vacant and neglected properties. [Eric Allix Rogers on Flickr]

Chicago housing and planning officials are asking the City Council to sign off on a plan that would let them snag long-neglected properties off the Cook County tax rolls so they can turn the lots over to rehabbers. They say the ordinance is part of a longer-running effort to lure residential investors back to neighborhoods long plagued by blight. 

Chicago Public Schools plans to make masks optional in one week, district leaders announced on Monday. And dozens of county candidates hoping to get on the June 28 ballot for races ranging from Cook County Board President to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District filed their nominating petitions on Monday. 

Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33), left, and Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady speak during a committee meeting on Friday. 

Since it launched in late last summer, Chicago’s pilot program that has embedded mental health professionals in mental health call responses has made 134 emergency runs — and on none of those occasions did they make any arrests or use force. 

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office remains under the thumb of a monitor appointed by a federal judge to keep tabs on hiring policies. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]

As Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi faces a tough reelection campaign this year, the incumbent was on pace to escape court oversight of his office’s hiring regime in May, setting him up to boast of a major reform milestone in the final stretch before voters go to the polls.   

But a fresh delay last week will deny him that opportunity.