Cook County Commissioners meet at 11:00 a.m. this morning for a subject matter hearing on new Industrial Growth Zones planned mostly for the southern part of the county, as well as a number of pending legal settlements. But there’ll be no vote on changes to how commissioners must communicate official government business to make FOIA compliance easier or on a pharmaceutical disposal ordinance that’s been on hold since March.

Aldermen are in for likely another lengthy subject matter hearing today, as they consider Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ordinance establishing the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and a new Public Safety Deputy position within the Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The main bones of contention: COPA’s budget, whether it or the new auditor could hire outside counsel, and how much power the mayor would have over appointing leadership positions. Council is expected to vote on the measure at a special meeting on September 29.

Public Safety Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30) confirmed that no vote will be taken at today’s meeting, only testimony and debate. He also said that two expert witnesses will be flown in to testify: Philip K. Eure, the Inspector General for the New York City Police Department, and Walter Katz, the Independent Auditor for the San Jose, California Police Department. Both have ties with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE), a non-profit national organization based in Maryland that’s focused on improving police oversight.

Corporation Counsel Steve Patton and Katie Hill, an attorney with the city’s Law Department, are also scheduled to testify, along with IPRA Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley, Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, and Adam Gross with BPI (Business and Professional People for the Public Interest).

The City Council’s Zoning Committee approved an ordinance that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the Elston Corridor, and a massive redevelopment plan for Navy Pier, among more than 50 other map amendment changes. And in a rare move, Ald. George Cardenas (12) bended to community concerns raised against two zoning changes he proposed for his ward and agreed to have the items deferred to October.

Despite a setback last week, a proposed $3.5 billion dollar bond offering for O’Hare Airport was approved by the Finance Committee without any debate or discussion. Only two aldermen–Leslie Hairston (5) and Pat Dowell (3)–asked to be recorded as no votes.

Attendance (includes non-members): Chair Ed Burke (14), Joe Moreno (1), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Leslie Hairston (5), Rod Sawyer (6),  Gregory Mitchell (7), Michelle Harris (8), Anthony Beale (9), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), George Cardenas (12), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Derrick Curtis (18), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie Cochran (20) Rick Munoz (22), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Danny Solis (25), Walter Burnett (27), Jason Ervin (28) Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Gilbert Villegas (36), Nick Sposato (38), Brendan Reilly (42), Tom Tunney (44), Harry Osterman (48), Deb Silverstein (50)

O’Hare Bonds

The swift approval of the bond deal was a surprising turn of events following Friday’s marathon meeting, where the Council’s Black Caucus successfully led the charge to temporarily block a vote on the item, essentially deferring it to Monday. Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans and Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown were in attendance for the vote, but did not testify because no questions were asked of them.

Ahead of the vote, the Council’s Black Caucus reached an agreement with Commissioner Evans that includes quarterly briefings on minority hiring and contracts for projects at O’Hare and Midway Airport. The agreement was made in response to a letter Ald. Dowell sent the Commissioner following Friday’s Finance Committee meeting.

Red Light Camera, Speed Ticket Ordinance

The O’Hare bonds were one of three items slated for the Finance Committee Monday. The committee also unanimously approved an ordinance from the city’s Law Department that authorizes the city to send out old red light and speed camera tickets to more than a million Chicagoans who never received second notice of a violation.

Ordinance from Law Department

The move is in response to a lawsuit filed against the city by two motorists who claimed the city failed to properly notify them of their ticket, because they only got one notice, not two.

The Council’s Zoning Committee will take up a substitute ordinance from Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) that would enable medical marijuana dispensaries or cultivation centers to set up shop in the Elston Corridor (Planned Manufacturing District # 2b).

A proposed ordinance to direct all of the city’s surplus Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue to Chicago Public Schools finally got a hearing in the Council Chamber on Friday, sparking a heated debate among aldermen that pitted the importance of needed local development against the needs of Chicago Public Schools.

No vote was taken on Ald. George Cardenas’ (12) Chicago Public Education Revitalization Ordinance, which would create an official mechanism for when the city would be required to direct all surplus TIF money to CPS. It was the last item considered during a nearly six-hour meeting, and most aldermen had left the chamber by the time it was called.

Members of the Council’s Black Caucus at Friday’s Finance Committee meeting successfully deferred a vote on a $3.5 billion bond offering for O’Hare Airport amid concerns over minority hiring and participation within the Department of Aviation and its outside contractors.

The motion to defer the bond offering to Monday’s Finance Committee meeting, called by Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), prevailed in 14 to 11 vote with two abstentions, following a long and heated debate over the Department of Aviation’s history of minority participation that Ald. Pat Dowell (3) on multiple occasions described as “appalling.”

Mark Kelly, the appointee to take over the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), will face his official confirmation hearing Monday afternoon. Kelly replaced Michelle T. Boone, who moved on to Navy Pier after five years at DCASE, and has been serving in an interim capacity since August 15.

Kelly carries a long list of arts credentials: founder and chair of Columbia’s Wabash Arts Corridor, artistic director of the Halloween Gathering (which launched last year), and member of the Arts Alliance Illinois Board, the Chicago Loop Alliance Board, and America’s Urban Campus Committee. He has been Vice President for Student Success at Columbia College Chicago for more than 30 years. He told Columbia’s student newspaper he was not on the market for the DCASE position, but “jumped” at the opportunity.

Overwhelming praise for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new pick for the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Board took up most of yesterday’s testimony at the Committee on Housing and Real Estate, as did monologues from Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27) about the importance of affordable housing and the need for local aldermen and city officials to push developers for more affordable units in new buildings.

Attendance: Chairman Joe Moore (49), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), David Moore (17), Michael Scott Jr. (24), Walter Burnett Jr. (27), Ariel Reboyras (30), Deb Mell (33)

Burnett and others strongly supported the appointment of LISC Chicago Executive Director Meghan Harte to the CHA Board. Harte served in the Richard M. Daley and Emanuel administrations, ultimately as Emanuel’s Deputy Mayor, and spent six years at the CHA, handling the agency’s voucher and relocation programs. She was greeted with a big hug and kiss before the meeting by Ald. David Moore (17), who was a CHA employee at the same time as Harte.

In relatively quick order, City Council’s License Committee passed new regulations on party buses, sports plazas and outdoor patios, and lowered fees from the City Clerk’s office on parking passes.

License Committee Attendance: Chairman Emma Mitts (33), Roderick Sawyer (6), Michelle Harris (8), George Cardenas (12), Marty Quinn (13), David Moore (17), Willie Cochran (20), Michael Scott Jr. (24), Jason Ervin (28), Chris Taliaferro (29), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Brendan Reilly (42), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45),  Deb Silverstein (50)

Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee Attendance: Chairman Walter Burnett Jr. (27), Brian Hopkins (2), Sophia King (4), Marty Quinn (13), Jason Ervin (28), Chris Taliaferro (29), Deb Mell (33), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Gilbert Villegas (36), Anthony Napolitano (41), Deb Silverstein (50)

Clerk’s Office Fee Reduction, Guest Pass App Pass Committees

Aldermen in License and Traffic Safety Committees approved a reduction in “outdated” sticker fees charged by the City Clerk’s office, and the first steps for a sticker-free guest parking app yesterday. John Gay, Chief Counsel and Director of Policy in the Clerk’s Office, outlined a series of fee reductions City Clerk Susana Mendoza proposed. Those fees were left over from what he called a “legacy of outdated policies.”

A former Daley administration and CHA fixture is up for confirmation in the Housing and Real Estate Committee today, in addition to a handful of small city land sales, a new medical center in the 7th Ward, housing in the Woodlawn neighborhood, and a bigger space for a North Side library shut down by a fire last fall.

Appointments and reappointments

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s former Deputy Chief of Staff, Meghan Harte, now executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Chicago office, is a new appointee to the Chicago Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. LISC is a national nonprofit that works with local leaders to “invest in housing, health, education, public safety and employment” using “loans, grants, equity investments and on-the-ground experience in some of America’s neediest neighborhoods.”

Harte also worked as a deputy in Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration and as a managing director of resident services at the CHA from 2001 to 2006. Between administrations, Harte was Vice President of AECOM, a Fortune 500 infrastructure engineering firm.

The Preckwinkle administration is beginning to map out its budget calendar. Board President Toni Preckwinkle's spokesperson, Frank Shuftan, confirmed the following dates are being discussed to hash out the FY2017 budget, but cautioned “no meeting is formally set until it is officially noticed.” 

• Friday, October 7, 2016: Planned introduction of the Cook County Budget


• Monday, October 17, 2016: Testimony from department heads begins


• Week of November 14, 2016: Final Vote

Preckwinkle released the preliminary forecast for the County budget at a press availability in late June, projecting a $174.3 million operating shortfall, a hike in expenditures, and declining revenues. She told unions at the time that layoffs were possible, and that cuts would come before revenue. “Our focus always is trying to figure out how we can reduce expenses,” she said, but everything, excluding a property tax hike, would be on the table.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to establish and hike up over the next four years a new water-sewer tax to shore up revenue for the city’s largest pension fund advanced out of Finance Committee yesterday in a divided 26-6 roll call vote.

No Votes: Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Ald. Willie Cochran (20), Ald. Rick Munoz (22), Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), and Ald. John Arena (45).

The new tax’s passage was despite vocal concerns from aldermen, and confirmation from the city’s finance team, that the new tax won’t be enough to fully cover pension payments required to the get the Municipal pension fund on a path to financial stability. With liabilities hovering around $18.6 billion, the MEABF pension fund is currently only 20% funded.

Attendance (includes non-members): Chairman Ed Burke (14), Joe Moreno (1), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Leslie Hairston (5), Rod Sawyer (6), Michelle Harris (8), Anthony Beale (9), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), George Cardenas (12), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), Toni Foulkes (16), David Moore (17), Derrick Curtis (18), Matt O’Shea (19), Willie Cochran (20), Howard Brookins, Jr. (21), Rick Munoz (22), Mike Zalewski (23), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Danny Solis (25), Roberto Maldonado (26), Walter Burnett (27), Jason Ervin (28), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Deb Mell (33), Carrie Austin (34), Gilbert Villegas (36), Emma Mitts (37), Nick Sposato (38), Pat O’Connor (40), Brendan Reilly (42), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), James Cappleman (46), Harry Osterman (48), Joe Moore (49), Deb Silverstein (50)

An ordinance that would create an official mechanism to annually provide surplus Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue to Chicago Public Schools is on the Finance Committee agenda today. Although, according to Finance Chair Ed Burke (14), there will be only a subject matter hearing, no vote. It’s one of two controversial plans that will finally get their day in the chambers. The committee also is scheduled to take up a year-old ordinance from City Treasurer Kurt Summers that would require banks that hold the city’s money provide annual reports on their neighborhood lending and investment practices. There’s also approximately $2.7 million in legal settlements and up to $3.5 billion in new bonds for O’Hare Airport slated for committee approval.

In an email sent to aldermen Wednesday, Intergovernmental Affairs staffer Samantha Fields provided briefing documents revealing elements of a plan from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to fund 90% of the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF) liabilities by 2057. The plan involves creating a new “Tier 3” of employees hired as of January 1, 2017 with a later retirement date and ramping up payments over the 40 year period, ultimately reaching $2 billion a year.

The email from Fields lacks a complete narrative of the plan, sticking to accolades as to value of the Mayor’s plan. Instead the reader is forced to understand the program through a series of background documents.