More than 175 companies have RSVP’d for a pre-bid conference on Chicago’s renewed efforts to build an express train connecting the Loop to O’Hare Airport. That’s the number the Mayor’s office is touting six days after the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT), a private public partnership Emanuel created in his first year as mayor, released the invite.

As credit card companies and banks increase their promotion of cashless services by encouraging mobile apps over bills, the most influential member of the City Council suggests the practice “threatens to marginalize significant numbers of Chicagoans.”

Lake County Judge Mitchell L. Hoffman granted Chief Judge Timothy Evans a temporary restraining order in Evans’ case against the county Tuesday afternoon, arguing Evans “has the right to control the manner in which the County’s budget appropriation is applied to the function” of the court.

Cook County’s crowded 7th district race thinned somewhat, as Cook County Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s (D-7) hand-picked successor, longtime ally Ald. Rick Muñoz (22), filed roughly 1,000 signatures Monday morning, then withdrew them before the end of the day. He threw his support to Garcia’s director of administration, Alma Anaya.

Some familiar names from elections past reappeared Monday, the final filing day for anyone interested in getting on the March 2018 primary ballot. Aaron Goldstein, the attorney who replaced long-time 33rd Ward Democratic Committeeman Dick Mell, is running for Illinois Attorney General. He, Sharon Fairley and Jessie Ruiz, president of the city’s Park District Board, now enter a lottery for the last spot on the ballot, the second most coveted placement.

Late Thursday, Chief Judge Timothy Evans filed a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Treasurer Maria Pappas seeking to halt layoffs included in the fiscal year 2018 budget. On Friday, the judge assigned to the case issued a continuance until Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will be in her home turf, the 4th Ward, to accept the endorsement of several faith leaders Monday morning, while county watchers wait for the final word on who will be challenging her, and who is jumping into the race for Illinois’ 4th Congressional district.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect a contested race in the 17th district. 

Angeles “Angie” Sandoval filed a D-1 Thursday for a potential run in Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s district. Sandoval listed her address in the Southwest corner of the 7th District, but did not specify which board seat she was running for.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) announced a new charter school for Grand Crossing while closing another one in Washington Park. CPS said the Architectural Construction and Engineering Technical Charter High School will shutter at the end of the school year due to “poor academic performance.”

Art in Motion, operated by Distinctive Schools, was selected to provide more arts education to high schoolers on the South Side, “providing families with a performing arts school that leverages personalized learning curriculum and rigorous instruction.”

“To ensure students receive the high quality education they deserve, CPS is recommending closure of a poor performing charter, as well as opening a high quality school to meet demand for a performing arts education in the Greater Grand Crossing area,” said CPS CEO Forrest Claypool. “Our priority is ensuring that schools deliver a high quality education and meet a need in the community, and we are confident these decisions are in the best interest of our students.”

The clout-heavy team includes Pastor John F. Hannah With New Life Covenant Church, a one-time member of the city’s Human Relations Board, the Lynn Group, a nonprofit operated by rapper Common, and Whole Foods. Hannah was a member of the city’s 2012 school-closing commission and his church. Since then, his church has purchased several city-owned lots, including the site where the new charter school will be built.

[Art in Motion's Full Application]

Art in Motion’s application offered two potential sites on opposite ends of Grand Crossing Park for the new middle and high school, grade seven through 12.

One is 7600 S. Greenwood Ave., formerly city-owned land the church purchased in 2013 to build a 100,000-square foot mega church with a 4,000‐seat performing arts center, and gallery space. The other option is sharing space at Hirsch Metropolitan High School.

Pending approval by the Board of Education on Monday, the school would open during the 2018-19 academic year with full capacity by 2022-23.

CPS issued a request for proposals for new school operators in December of 2016. [Details of the RFP]. Though nine proposals had been submitted, seven withdrew their application before Thursday’s decision. The completed application from Chicago Classical Academy was denied.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel tapped a veteran of the Department of Streets and Sanitation to head to the department that manages street cleaning, garbage and recycling pickup, while County Assessor hopeful Fritz Kaegi picked up a major progressive endorsement.

 

• Local Sanders Group Endorses Kaegi – Kaegi, candidate for Cook County Assessor against incumbent Joe Berrios, received the endorsement of the Illinois Chapter of Our Revolution, the group continuing the mission of the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign on Wednesday. Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-7) and Cook County Clerk David Orr, who have both already endorsed Kaegi, were both on hand, as was Executive Director Clem Balanoff at the Hotel Allegro, a location Hotel Allegro, a symbolic location for old Chicago power. On Monday at petition filing, Kaegi hinted such a big name endorsement was on the way. “People are grabbing our petitions out of our hands to sign them, including in the 31st ward,” said Kaegi. Ward 31 is Berrios’ own political home base. Kaegi said he turned in more than 22,000 signatures for verification. “Fritz will fight for the working families of Cook County, vows to eliminate the regressive and racist ‘Berrios Tax’ -- and will work tirelessly to correct the current unjust property tax assessment system,” Our Revolution IL’s Facebook announcement read. It’s the first Illinois endorsement the group has made.
  
  


• Leadership Shuffle At Streets And San –  Emanuel announced Wednesday morning he appointed “John Tully, a 23-year-veteran of the City of Chicago, as the new Commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS).”  Tully will replaces Charles Williams, “who plans to retire,” effective immediately. Williams, a former police officer, oversaw the city’s switch to grid trash collection, “which accounts for nearly $30 million of operational savings each year” and freed up crews to work on graffiti, tree trimming, and rat complaints. Tully first joined Streets and San as fiscal administrator in 1994, then through a series of positions at the Bureau of Sanitation, and most recently as first deputy commissioner. Tully's appointment is subject to City Council approval, but he serve as interim in the meantime.
  
  


• Beverage Tax Opponents To Celebrate – The “Can the Tax” coalition, a group of business interests who worked to repeal Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax, will “toast the end” of the tax at a press event this Friday. The penny per ounce tax pushed up the price of a 12 pack of soda by $1.44. Revenues from the tax “With the beverage tax gone, the group will declare ‘Cook County is open for business,’ and urge county residents and consumers to come back to Cook County to shop and eat in their stores and restaurants,” a release sent Wednesday says. The event will take place at Food Market La Chiquita in Cicero. Shop owners said the combination of the sales tax, bag tax, cigarette and gas taxes, and beverage tax were pushing customers outside the county for their shopping. 15 of 17 Cook County commissioners voted in October to sunset the beverage tax at the end of the 2017 fiscal year, Nov. 30. Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1) and Comm. Peter Silvestri (R-9), who both voted for the repeal, will attend.
  
  


• A Battle Begins In Cook County’s 7th District –   Alex Acevedo, a pediatric nurse and the son of former State Rep. Eddie Acevedo, turned in signatures for Cook County’s 7th District race Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after current Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia formally announced he’d be running for Congress. Acevedo, who according to his LinkedIn directed Latino outreach for Gov. Pat Quinn’s 2014 race and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2015 race, lost his own bid to replace his father as state Representative for the Second District to Theresa Mah in 2016. His father expressed interest in taking on Sheriff Tom Dart in the 2018 Democratic primary, and has received a $5,000 donation from the PAC that represents correctional officers at the jail, but has not yet submitted his petitions.
  
  


• Council’s Econ Committee Cancels Meeting – City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development meeting set for today has been rescheduled for Dec. 11. The agenda included four resolutions in support of four property tax breaks in the 34th, 25th, 23rd, and 11th wards. On Tuesday, Committee Chair Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) of Wicker Park announced plans to challenge Garcia for U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s seat. Moreno, and everyone else vying for the seat, has until Monday to file signatures to get on the ballot.  

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is advancing a ten year old plan to build an express train from the Loop to O’Hare Airport. The total cost of the endeavor is unknown, but Mayor Emanuel announced Wednesday that no taxpayer money will be used to achieve the city’s goal of shaving 20 minutes off commute times to its busiest airport.

“Express service to and from O'Hare will give Chicagoans and visitors to our great city more options, faster travel times, and build on Chicago’s competitive advantage as a global hub of tourism, transportation and trade," said Mayor Emanuel in a release.

A 2006 report CTA commissioned on the feasibility of express train service to O’Hare determined Express Service would be “substantially more capital intensive than implementing the Direct Service.” It estimated the costs could surpass $1.5 billion.

The financing structure would be similar to how the city funds operations at its airports. Both O’Hare and Midway International Airport are financed through segregated enterprise accounts that are funded through fees and lease payments.

The O’Hare Express System (OES) Project would be “funded solely by project-specific revenues (like fares or advertising) and financed entirely by the concessionaire,” the press release explains.

Emanuel put the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT) in charge of finding a designer, contractor, and concessionaire to oversee the project. The public-private partnership (PPP) Emanuel created early in his first term to leverage private dollars for city construction was recently named as the lead collaborator on the new police and fire training academy planned for West Garfield Park. The City Council approved the necessary zoning changes and land purchase for the public safety academy earlier this month.

CIT issued a Request for Proposals (RFQ) Wednesday. A pre-submittal information session is scheduled for Dec. 20 at the Chicago Cultural Center in Millennium Park. RFQ responses are due Jan. 24, 2018.

[Request for Qualifications To Design, Build,

Finance, Operate & Maintain O’Hare Express System]



In 2016, Chicago’s Department of Aviation began soliciting engineering firms to “analyze and develop conceptual designs as well as an overall timeline for the project.” At the time, it had received three proposals, but did not identify the firms. Previous project plans for an express train to O’Hare were unrealistic, the solicitation said, because they were reliant on existing, overly burdened rail-lines. CDA sought creative solutions to address those obstacles.

On a given day, some 20,000 commuters travel between O’Hare and downtown Chicago, according to city estimates. That number is expected to reach 35,000 by 2045.

The CTA’s Blue Line is the quickest transit option to the airport, a ride that can take between 45 minutes to an hour depending on train delays. And adding an express train on the Blue Line is an unlikely alternative. Chicago’s public transit system is one of the oldest in the country. Its parent agency, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), estimates the CTA will need about $20 billion just to cover maintenance.

Lack of a state capital budget and declining federal aid, coupled with decreased ridership, has put a financial strain on the CTA. This is why Emanuel had aldermen approve a modest increase on Uber and Lyft rides over the next two years. The additional $16 million generated from the hike will be handed over to the CTA, and independent agency with its own budget and voting board, in perpetuity.

CIT has worked with the CTA. In 2015 it partnered with T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to bring 4G mobile data service to the city’s subways.

In 2012, with President Bill Clinton by his side, Mayor Emanuel unveiled the idea of creating a separate agency to finance costly “transformational infrastructure investments” through advantaged financing. The press release from that event explains the structure: “each project to customize a financing structure using taxable or tax-exempt debt, equity investments and other forms of support.”

Though the City Council approved the authorizing ordinance a month later, and a slew of board members throughout Emanuel’s two terms, most projects stalled.

CIT’s inaugural project, which Emanuel detailed at that press conference with President Clinton, took years to initiate. Retrofit Chicago, a plan to convert approximately 85% of the City’s lighting fixtures to LEDs, reduced its scope and is behind schedule.

 Chief Judge Timothy Evans, as promised, has filed a complaint against Cook County for the 161 layoffs imposed in his office as part of the 2018 budget, as well as a general administrative order that orders the clerk and sheriff to fully perform all their office's respective duties.

Dozens of candidates for county positions lined the lower level halls of 69 W. Washington to turn in their signatures to Clerk David Orr in hopes of making it on the March 2018 primary ballot. One-foot tall stacks were heaped on to folding tables set up by the clerk. The Cook County Democratic Party boasted more than 120,000 signatures for slated candidates. Political teams for incumbents waited overnight in folding chairs to have the coveted first spots in line, in some cases, swapping out for fresh faced candidates before doors opened at 9:00 a.m.

Chicago’s Law Department and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit against Uber Monday for concealing a 2016 data breach that exposed more than 57 million users’ personal data.

The rumor mill was swirling late Monday night after the revelation that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Chicago) is nixing his re-election bid after serving in congress for 24 years. One Chicago alderman who had canvassed for Gutierrez as recently as this weekend said he was “in the dark” when the news first broke.