While City Council’s police reform hearings have continued to grind on, exactly what Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to introduce in September remains a mystery. Other than the non-profit Community Renewal Society, The Daily Line has not been able to identify any other thought leaders or aldermen that have been briefed on the Mayor’s plans or seen draft language. Yet, keeping pressure on the system, Mayor Emanuel has said he wants reform passed in September before the October budget process begins.

At a Council hearing on police reform at City Hall yesterday, the fifth of seven meetings, Mayor Emanuel and aldermen were urged to make the process–including possible ordinance language and how it’s being drafted–more transparent.

Applications for three new hotels, including one on Navy Pier, are up for consideration today by the Chicago Plan Commission, as is a plan to add additional floors to an already-approved luxury condominium in the Gold Coast. (Agenda)

Citing a trending decline in the number of school-aged children in Rogers Park, 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore has proposed a two-part consolidation plan for local schools to stave off tumbling enrollment and funding, and to address overcrowding at a nearby selective enrollment school in West Ridge.

In an email newsletter sent to residents Tuesday, Moore proposed children who attend Joyce Kilmer Elementary School’s K-8 program and New Field’s K-4 program would continue to attend their respective schools. But Kilmer, rather than Eugene Field, would become the new feeder school for New Field’s graduating fourth graders. The schools are within a half mile of each other.

Roughly a hundred people attended a City Council committee meeting on reforming the Chicago Police Department at Westinghouse College Prep last night, with a majority of the crowd again calling for some type of civilian-led board to oversee the Chicago Police Department. Behind the scenes earlier that day, members of the Community Renewal Society (CRS), a faith-based social justice community organization, met with members of the Emanuel administration to discuss the administration's proposed police reforms, which CRS members say are largely based on the FAIR COPS ordinance drafted by CRS and introduced earlier this year by Ald. Jason Ervin (28).

Attendance: Chair Jason Ervin (28), Rod Sawyer (6), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Rick Munoz (22), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Emma Mitts (37)

The City Council’s Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Budget Director Alex Holt requesting how the Emanuel Administration determined the dollar amounts needed for its plan to increase the city’s Water Usage Fee over four years to shore up revenue for the city’s Municipal Pension fund.

Ald. Rick Munoz (22), on behalf of the Progressive Caucus, is convening two additional City Council committee meetings on police reform to gather comments from expert witnesses ahead of the Mayor’s self-imposed deadline to draft and approve reforms for the Chicago Police Department by the September 14 City Council meeting.  

The two meetings are part of an effort by the Council’s Progressive Caucus to receive expert witness testimony to supplement the public testimony from the past few weeks. Meetings have already been held in South Shore, Little Village, and Edgewater. The fourth is scheduled for tomorrow at Westinghouse College Prep on the West Side and the final hearing will be in Hermosa next Monday the 22nd.

City Council is officially on summer break, but trouble is brewing, especially for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who’s battling two big issues. On the one side, he’s got well-organized reform activists demanding he give over police oversight to citizens. Their numbers are growing by the day. Then there’s the Chicago Teachers Union, which refuses to pick up more pension and health care costs, and is threatening to strike, despite what public school officials say is a good faith effort to cut costs on their end. All of this leads into a blockbuster fall, when school funding, police reform, and the city’s annual budget process will collide, leaving aldermen with a lot of tough decisions to make.  

 

Less than a dozen people testified at last night’s City Council hearing on reforming the Chicago Police Department at Little Village Lawndale High School, many of whom came out, again, in strong support for CPAC, the proposed ordinance for a Civilian Police Accountability Council .

Attendance: Co-Chair Rick Munoz (22), Co-Chair George Cardenas (12), Patrick Thompson (11) Ariel Reboyras (30), John Arena (45)

The second joint committee hearing on police reform, held this time on the North Side in Senn High School’s auditorium, drew a crowd of more than 200, and another strong showing from supporters of CPAC. Those testifying overwhelmingly spoke against any board or agency head that was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Police Department, or members of the City Council.

Attendance: Rick Munoz (22), Tom Tunney (44), Ald. James Cappleman (46), Harry Osterman (48), Joe Moore (49)

Half a dozen testifiers within the first hour told aldermen to reject any oversight board that included any board members or leaders appointed by the mayor. “We reject all appointments,” activist Mike Elliot said. “Your appointments throughout the decades have proven to be total failures.”

The city’s Department of Planning and Development is holding another public meeting on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to modernize the North Branch Industrial Corridor, which would potentially remove the long-standing manufacturing designation of the area and allow for residential and commercial development.

Former State Representative candidate Jason Gonzalez filed a 39-count federal lawsuit yesterday against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and numerous allies, alleging that Madigan and his “minions” deprived Gonzalez of his rights under the First, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. In addition, Gonzalez charges the Prison Review Board defamed him by releasing his records to a reporter, which they had no standing to do.

Chicago Public Schools released a proposed $5.4 billion fiscal year 2017 budget Monday that relies on the assumption that the Chicago Teachers Union will approve contract terms it rejected last January. Complicating matters, neither CTU or CPS would publicly state what the anticipated deficit would be for the upcoming school year if the contract fails in negotiations, and CTU President Karen Lewis committed to rejecting the current terms.

“If the Board of Education imposes a seven-percent slash in our salaries, we will move to strike. Cutting our pay is unacceptable. And for years, the pension pickup, as the Board has called it, was part of our compensation package. This was not a perk,” said CTU President Lewis shortly after the tentative spending plan was released.  

A pair of Uptown activists who sued the City Council for allegedly violating the state’s Open Meetings Act filed a preliminary injunction last week to force the Council to follow the state guidelines. The activists claim the violation stems from when they were denied entry at the May and June City Council meetings.

Last Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Diane J. Larsen ordered that a hearing be held on the motion two days before the September 14th City Council meeting. The hearing on the preliminary injunction will be held at 10:30 am, September 12 at the Daley Center, 50 W. Washington Street in Room 2405.

To shore up revenue for the city’s largest pension fund, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces a new tax on water bills to a group of investors, but not all aldermen are sold. City Council holds the first of five public hearings on police accountability, and supporters of a Civilian Police Accountability Council come out strong again. Race issues flare at the Cook County Board meeting over a consolidation plan that would merge two offices.

Roughly 150 people attended a joint subcommittee of the City Council’s Budget and Public Safety Committees held at the South Shore Community Center Thursday night. The meeting, the first of five scheduled for August, was an attempt by aldermen to receive public comments on their plans to reform the Chicago Police Department and its oversight agencies, including the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA).

Attendance: Chair Leslie Hairston (5), Co-Chair Willie Cochran (20), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Rod Sawyer (6), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), David Moore (17), Rick Munoz (22), Ariel Reboyras (30), John Arena (45)

As has been the case in similar public forums on police reform, a significant number of those present came out in strong support for CPAC, a Civilian Police Accountability Council, which would be comprised of one elected official from each of the city’s 21 police districts. Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) of Logan Square introduced a CPAC-inspired ordinance in July, before the Council’s summer break.