Today is the monthly City Council meeting. The Rules Committee is expected to convene in the Council Chambers 45 minutes ahead of the full meeting to reconsider a ballot referendum question from Ald. Walter Burnett (27).

The resolution, which asks Chicago voters if the state and federal government should invest more money in city roads and public transit, ended in a rare tie vote (7-to-7) in committee last week.

Items Pending Approval

• A Property Tax Rebate Plan for Homeowners with a gross annual income of $75,000 or less.

• TIF amendments to aid a three-year City-County partnership pilot program aimed at spurring development in the city’s industrial corridors.

• A more robust recycling program from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, designed to bring large residential buildings into compliance with the city’s single-source recycling program.

• $4.72 million in legal settlements against police officers with the Chicago Police Department

• A more robust vacant building registration program, extending the registration requirement to foreclosed commercial and retail property.

• Repealing the $30 exam fee for the police and fire entrance exam to bolster minority recruiting.

• Appointment of Alicia Tate-Nadeau as the Executive Director of the Office Of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC).

• Appointment of Nancy C. Andrade as a member of the Board of Ethics, to replace Julia Nowicki, who resigned.

• Allowing alley access for motor vehicle repair shops with less than seven parking spaces, to make it easier for small businesses to build out a cheaper commercial driveway off the alley.

• A proposal to create a “Shared Street” on a portion of Argyle Street in Edgewater, as part of a new pilot program to make commercial corridors more pedestrian friendly.

• A substitute ordinance changing public way permitting, allowing the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation to issue those permits upon passage by the City Council, rather than only after “passage and publication.”

• Bid incentives for veteran-owned subcontractors or Veteran-owned small local businesses

• An expansion of the city's apprentice program to CPS graduates (the program is currently for graduates of City Colleges)

• A symbolic resolution on the Department of Homeland Security to designate Ecuador for temporary protected status and to provide temporary immigration relief to eligible Ecuadorians living in Chicago following a devastating earthquake there that resulted in 660 deaths and racked up about $3 billion in damages earlier this year.

• A new Animal Care and Control policy calling for humane treatment of urban coyotes.

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union will hold a press conference and rally starting at City Hall 9am Wednesday morning ahead of the last City Council meeting before the summer break. “Rahm wants to escape responsibility for our schools. Now that Springfield secured minimal, stopgap school funding he wants us to breathe a sigh of relief and go home,” a release reads. “But CPS still plans to cut hundreds of millions from schools. We say, Not One More Cut! Rahm talks ‘shared sacrifice,’ but teachers have already sacrificed billions. Rahm’s wealthy friends have sacrificed nothing. CTU has outlined ways the City can tax the rich to pay for great schools. Join us at the City Council meeting to demand it.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel returned to a familiar spot–Freedman Seating in the 37th Ward–to roll out a new initiative with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle that will cut through red tape and fast-track environmental remediation at old industrial sites. The aim is to sweeten the pot for developers and new businesses to move into low-employment neighborhoods that house old industrial sites.

The plan, dubbed the Industrial Growth Zones program, “is designed to address the two primary issues landowners and developers cite as obstacles to industrial site investment: vacant or unused land’s environmental conditions, and often-complex government regulations.” The pilot program will take place in 7 areas over the next three years.

A public hearing on Cook County’s fiscal year 2017 forecast will be held this evening in the Cook County Board Room, beginning at 6 pm. Those who wish to testify can fill out a form here. The preliminary budget forecast can be read here, and more on this and previous budgets can be found here. Board President Toni Preckwinkle has also appeared on Chicago Tonight and Politics Tonight to discuss the forecast.

Lobbying groups won a mid-meeting edit of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s update to the city’s recycling ordinance Monday. Chairman George Cardenas asked the Law Department to change the language on the spot to add a 30 day warning period for big buildings not in compliance. Chicago Association of Realtors lobbyist Brian Bernardoni called the changes “good public policy” that give landlords time to comply before facing steep fines.    

One proposed property tax break for a vacant warehouse located at the southern tip of Bridgeport is the only item on the agenda for the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.  

The applicant is Howard Wedren, the founder and principal of Dayton Street Partners, a “a niche commercial real estate investment and development firm focused on the acquisition and development of infill industrial, office and retail properties”, according to the company’s website.

 

A revised version of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s property rebate plan and $4.72 million in legal settlements against the Chicago Police Department are up for consideration by the Finance Committee this morning.

Monday’s Zoning Committee was fairly uneventful overall, as all proposed planned development applications were immediately deferred because those items have yet to go before the Plan Commission. A majority of the zoning applications approved were for small development projects, mostly to facilitate the construction of single family homes three-to-four floor, multi-unit residential buildings. A notable number of aldermanic applications were also deferred, as aldermen who had sponsored the zoning changes weren’t in attendance.

Attendance: Chair Danny Solis (25), Vice Chair James Cappleman (46), Proco Joe Moreno (1), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Matt O’Shea (19), Walter Burnett (27), Marge Laurino (39), Brendan Reilly (42).

In an attempt to fill all three referenda slots by next month’s filing deadline for placement on the November ballot, Ald. Walter Burnett (27) filed a letter with the City Clerk Monday that gives notice of his intention to call up his proposed question on infrastructure spending for a vote by the full body at the monthly Council meeting tomorrow.

Ald. Burnett’s proposed non-binding ballot question asks Chicago voters if they think the state and federal government should invest more money in city roads and public transit. Consideration ended in a rare tie vote (7-to-7) in the Rules Committee last Wednesday.

Under Robert’s Rules of Order a tie technically means a motion failed, but Rules Chair Michelle Harris (8) recessed the meeting and scheduled a second vote 45 minutes before the monthly meeting.

A proposed change to recycling regulations for large buildings is the big ticket item in the Health and Environmental Protection meeting today, followed by a stalled ordinance from Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) regarding the city’s policy toward urban coyotes, and the expansion of the city’s produce cart program.  

A proposal aimed at curbing massage parlors, a plan from Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the Elston Corridor, and changes to permitting for billboards are all on today's Zoning Committee agenda.

Similar to last month’s zoning meeting, today’s features a significant number of zoning applications for the construction of new three-to-four story residential buildings or single family homes.

The Council’s Rules Committee splits in a rare tie vote on a proposed ballot referendum question asking Chicago voters if they think the state and federal government should put more funding toward Chicago transportation infrastructure. The backstory? The Mayor’s Office crowding out a question about Chicago’s airports. Plus: CPS delivers school budgets to principals, while the district’s CEO calls for “creative budgeting,” and two north side activists sue the City Council for violating the state’s Open Meetings Act.

A mayoral office training document, found lying in an empty City Hall meeting room by a Daily Line reporter, explicitly describes the process of how a City Council meetings work and the important role Ald. Ed Burke (14) plays in the mechanics of Council operations.

Two North Side activists are suing the City Council for allegedly violating the state’s Open Meetings Act, claiming they were denied entrance to the May and June full Council meetings because preferential admission was given to government staff and “the Mayor’s allies.”

Andrew Thayer and Rick Garcia filed a complaint Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court. They are represented by attorneys with Loevy & Loevy and the Uptown People’s Law Center. Thayer is a member of the Gay Liberation Network and the Uptown Tent City Organizers Group. Garcia is a long-time gay activist and founding member of Equality Illinois.

The suit alleges that on May 18th, 2016, Thayer showed up to City Hall with several others around 8:30 a.m. to attend the monthly City Council meeting. That day, a joint meeting of License and Housing Committees was being held in the Council Chambers an hour prior to the monthly meeting, so aldermen could consider a substitute of the Mayor’s Airbnb regulations.

The Council’s Finance Committee is set to take up a proposed property tax rebate plan next Tuesday that “blends” several proposals from aldermen over the past year, following inaction in Springfield on the Mayor’s plan to double the homeowner’s exemption to $14,000.

The proposed rebate plan comes as the second installment of property tax bills are due August 1st. About a third of the city’s homeowners would qualify for the rebate plan, according to details released by the Mayor’s Office yesterday.

The plan would cost the city about $21 million to administer if everyone eligible applied for the rebate, which is unlikely, as was the case when Mayor Richard M. Daley rolled out a city-run rebate plan in 2010. That plan was aimed at offsetting the impact of the 2008 recession. About $35 million from the city’s parking meter fund was set aside for the program, but only 18% of eligible homeowners applied, so the city awarded only $2.1 million in rebates. It has also been said the Daley Administration did a poor job of publicly advertising the program.