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.

Aldermen on the Council’s License Committee spent nearly an hour yesterday wrangling over the details of Ald. Ariel Reboyras’ (30) plan to make it easier for motor vehicle repair shops to allow vehicular access from an adjacent alley.

The ordinance eventually passed by voice vote, but it took some slight tweaks and clarification from the city’s Law Department.

Under Ald. Reboyras’ original plan, motor vehicle repair shops with less than seven parking spaces would have the ability to allow access to their shop from the alley, instead of the main street. He introduced the ordinance as a way to make it easier for small businesses to build out a cheaper commercial driveway off the alley.

Chicago Public School principals received their budgets for the upcoming school year yesterday. The budgets project a per-pupil spending rate of $4,087, an amount based on reductions made in February, when the district was anticipating a $1.1 billion deficit for the 2016-17 school year.

But according to CPS CEO Forrest Claypool, who briefed reporters at Coleman Elementary School in the South Side’s Grand Boulevard neighborhood, the district has cut the deficit by about $600 million thanks to anticipated money from Springfield and a new $250 million property tax levy for teacher pensions. Details for how the district plans to relieve the remaining $300 to $330 million hole are expected to be released in the full budget next month.

Dozens of supporters of Comm. Robert Steele’s Responsible Business Act showed up to Wednesday’s Cook County Board meeting to press non-sponsoring commissioners like Bridget Gainer and John Daley to support the ordinance. The same group staged a protest at a West Loop Wal-Mart in early June that led to arrests.

Comm. Steele introduced the ordinance in October of 2015, but held it in committee over concerns from the State’s Attorney’s office that the language could not withstand a court challenge. The ordinance outlined a hike in wage rates, which would climb every year: wages would start from a base of $10.00 in December 2015, climbing to $11.25 in December 2016, $12.50 in 2017, $13.75 in 2018, and would be tied to the “Cook County Living Wage hourly rate” every year after.

A proposal to make a portion of Argyle Street a so-called “Shared Street” as part of a new pilot program to make commercial corridors more pedestrian friendly is up for discussion at today’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Department of Transportation (CDOT) are requesting approval from aldermen to create the city’s first shared street on Argyle between Broadway and Sheridan in the 48th Ward.

A “final police accountability ordinance” that combines and “makes stronger the tenets” of two introductions from West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28) and South Side Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) is being drafted, according to a release sent yesterday, but won’t be introduced until five or more community meetings are held to solicit public input on what the ordinance should contain.

“Ald. Ervin and myself will look at our outlines and figure out what we should add and where we can improve our final ordinance,” says Hairston. The two plan on attending the community meeting at Malcolm X College next Thursday, July 21, arranged by the Progressive Caucus, of which Hairston is a member. The Malcolm X meeting was announced after two public hearings at City Council were decried by police reform groups and members of the public as a “sham” and “waste of time.”

The Council’s Human Relations Committee will take up a symbolic resolution from Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (25) and Ald. Ed Burke (14) calling 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. The resolution follows a devastating earthquake there that resulted in 660 deaths and racked up about $3 billion in damages earlier this year.

A full, early day for Cook County Commissioners includes introduction of a plan to overhaul the county's transportation systems, a $33 million contract from the county's Homeland Security department, an audit of several county agencies, and new appointments to the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. Here are some of today's highlights:

A proposed ballot question on infrastructure spending ended in a rare tie roll call vote, leaving aldermen unsure if the motion carried or failed. The stymied motion called for creating a referendum to ask Chicago voters this November whether state and federal government should invest more money in local road repairs and new infrastructure projects.

After months of considering contested regulations, from Uber to Airbnb, the Council’s License Committee has a fairly light agenda for today. Most of the items are related to expanding liquor licenses and booting of vehicles on private property.

An ordinance up for consideration today by Chair Emma Mitts (37) would let booting companies charge an additional convenience fee to remove boots from vehicles when those car owners pay with credit or debit card.

Despite its quick introduction, consideration of a paid sick leave ordinance at the Cook County Board will be put on hold for at least a month, sponsors and interested parties tell The Daily Line. Two competing ordinances were introduced last month–one from Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, co-sponsored by Luis Arroyo Jr., Deborah Sims, and Richard Boykin; the other from Comm. Bridget Gainer–but neither are a finished product.

The Council’s Rules Committee meets this morning in the Council Chambers to consider an appointment to the Board of Ethics and two potential ballot referenda for Chicago voters this November, although one of those ballot questions had yet to be drafted as of yesterday afternoon.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has appointed Nancy Andrade, legal counsel for the Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities, to finish out the unexpired term of Judge Julia M. Nowicki to the Board of Ethics. First appointed in 2012 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Nowicki has since resigned. Her term, which Andrade will complete, is set to expire on July 31, 2017.

The Council’s Public Safety Committee approved a new Executive Director for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC), even as several aldermen raised concerns about long 911 response times and the proliferation of illegal guns on city streets.

The ban on chewing tobacco and other smokeless tobacco products at Chicago ballparks takes effect today. The ban includes players on the field. The City Council approved the the ordinance championed by Ald. Ed Burke (14) and Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11), whose ward includes U.S. Cellular Field, in March. Violators will face a minimum $250 fine for the first violation, a $500 fine for the second violation, and a $2,500 fine for each additional violation that occurs within one year of the first offense.