The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) released video footage and police records of 101 active investigations into police misconduct and highlighted six specific cases believed to be of public interest. But none of those cases include victims whose families have recently received sizable settlements from the city for alleged police misconduct.

The release began with an on-background session for reporters that lasted an hour. No cameras or recording equipment were allowed while officials with the city’s Law Department and IPRA walked reporters through the database. Once complete, there was a 30 minute break for TV crews to set up cameras, followed by a brief, nine minute press conference with IPRA Chief Sharon Fairley, who took only a handful of questions from reporters.

These six cases are considered to be the most graphic of the roughly 300 video clips posted on the website:

• David Strong, Leland Dudley, John Givens (Incident #1053667) - This case stems from an April 30, 2012 incident involving a robbery at Mike’s Electronics on 24th and Western. Strong, Dudley and Givens were in the process of robbing the electronic store when police arrived at the scene. One video clip shows a black SUV barreling out of a parking lot in reverse, almost hitting officers on the sidewalk. Police open fire at the car. Strong died from a gunshot wound. Dudley and Givens were both shot but not killed and are currently serving 35-year prison sentences.

• Ishmael Jamison (Incident #1058573) - This case stems from a November 22, 2012 incident at 62nd and California. Jameson was on a CTA bus assaulting passengers and the driver. Video footage on the website shows Jamison pacing back and forth at the bus stop without a shirt on before being shot by an officer. He suffered two bullets, one to the stomach, the other to his foot.

• Michael J. Cote (Incident #1069721) - This case stems from a June 11, 2014 incident at North and Hoyne. At the time, Cote was driving a black SUV in Bucktown, hitting every parked car on the street, according to the 911 calls posted. This cases includes cell phone video footage obtained from two witnesses who recorded the event from their apartment window. There’s graphic audio with a lot of swearing, and the footage shows several officers approaching the car and opening fire. The witnesses scream that Cote is dead, but he didn’t suffer a fatal wound. He survived a bullet to the abdomen and is no longer serving time.

• Zainul Hussein (Incident #1076216) - This case stems from a July 20, 2015 incident at North and Clybourn. Officers arrived at the scene after receiving reports of a man hitting people with a baseball bat. The video footage for this incident came from a dashcam video from a squad car that arrived after Hussein was already shot by police. As the car approaches Hussein, you can see him shirtless and on his knees in the middle of the street with what looks like blood on the ground. He was shot in the leg. There was no footage from the squad car that was already at the scene, nor is there footage from the Bank of America across the street from where Hussein was shot.

• Lisa Simmons, Jeremiah Smith (Incident #1071320) - This case stems from a July 12, 2014 incident at a block party at 15th and Christiana. The video footage, which was captured from a cell phone camera after police had already arrived at the scene, shows officers arresting Simmons and Smith. Both were charged with resisting arrest.

• Terrence Clarke (Incident #1075692) - This case stems from a June 16th, 2015  incident at a Portillo’s on Clark and Ontario. Clark, a tourist from Canada, was at the restaurant watching the final game of the Stanley Cup. The incident occurred after the game was over, when the restaurant was closing up. Video footage shows an off duty officer who was working as a security guard for the restaurant get into an altercation with Clarke before escorting him out of the restaurant, telling him he will be arrested. It’s hard to tell from the video what sparked the altercation.

Under the new video release policy, first outlined in February, IPRA will regularly update the database, adding new cases that fit the criteria. This includes case materials involving officer-involved shootings, officer-involved Taser use “that results in death or great bodily harm”, and incidents of “death or great bodily harm (other than self-inflicted harm) that occur in police custody.”

IPRA will release all relevant case material within 60 days of the incident, including footage captured on a squad car dashcam, street surveillance cameras or “PODs”, cell phone video, and private security tapes from local businesses. Not all of the videos have audio, but some audio files will be included in the release, such as 911 calls, OEMC dispatch recordings, CPD radio calls and other third-party audio. Police arrest reports, original case incident reports, officer’s batter reports and tactical response ports are included. In some cases IPRA can request an additional 30 day delay before releasing the documents.

But within the portal, there’s little information on victims of police misconduct the City Council approved settlements for within the last year.

No records are provided on the database for Calvin Cross, a 19-year-old who was shot 45 times by police officers in 2010 during a foot chase. The Council approved a $2 million settlement to Cross’ family in June 2015. Nor are there records for Ontario Billups, Emmanuel Lopez or Ryan Rogers. Billups was shot by police in 2010 after police mistook a bag of marijuana he hand in his hands for a gun. The City Council settled that case for $500,000 in November 2015. Last month, aldermen approved a $2.2 million payout to Lopez’s family. The 23-year-old was fatally shot by police officers during a car chase in September 2005. A $1 million settlement for Rogers’ family was also approved last month. He was fatally shot by Chicago police in suburban East Hazel Crest in March 2013 during an undercover operation targeting stolen cell phones.

At that May 16th Finance Committee, Jane Notz of the city’s Law Department told aldermen the IPRA investigation of the Lopez case was still pending.

According to Mia Sissac, the Public Information Officer for IPRA, there are several reasons for cases not being listed on the website. Any IPRA cases completed or closed prior to the creation of the new transparency policy released in February 2016 or cases involving a juvenile are not included on the portal.

IPRA recently announced that it will make investigators available at various community centers and churches on a weekly basis for people to report cases of police misconduct. The announcement was made a couple weeks after the Mayor submitted an op-ed to the Sun-Times announcing he’d dissolve the agency. But Sissac tells Aldertrack it’ll be sometime before IPRA is replaced. Until then, the agency will continue to implement reforms suggested by the task force. Legally, an agency must be in place to investigate police, and a new oversight body would take some time to establish.

The Council’s Zoning Committee approved Chairman Danny Solis’ (25) request to downzone a nearly eight acre parcel of vacant land in Pilsen after residents said they were worried they wouldn’t get a say on what kind of development would be built.

Attendance: Chairman Danny Solis (25), Vice Chair James Cappleman (46), Proco Joe Moreno (1), Sophia King (4), Anthony Beale (9), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Walter Burnett (27), Deb Mell (33), Tom Tunney (44)

The ordinance the committee approved rezones a vacant parcel bounded by West 16th, South Newberry, South Peoria, and West 18th Streets from a Community Shopping District (B3-2) to a Limited Manufacturing/Business District (M1-2). The manufacturing designation will prohibit any residential development from being built on the site without a thorough community review process and corresponding zoning change.

Chairman Solis asked for the downzone, according to DNAinfo, because the site developer refused to comply with a zoning rule in Pilsen that mandates any residential project must include at least 21% affordable units. The developer, Noah Gottlieb of Property Markets Group, had originally planned a 500 unit apartment building for the site, then said he’d build something smaller that wouldn’t require a zoning change in order to completely forgo the affordable housing requirements.

At yesterday’s meeting, Chairman Solis argued that he still thinks residential, not industrial, is the best use for the property and that the zoning change was meant to prove a point. “Sometimes what the community needs, and what the community wants, isn’t exactly what a developer is proposing,” he explained. Solis said he wasn’t closing the door on the proposed developer or any other developer who wants to build on the site, but rather, he was addressing the needs of the residents he represents. And those needs are more affordable housing in Pilsen.

Thirteen people signed up to testify on the project, eight of them in favor of Solis’ zoning change. But all sides seemed to agree on the same point: residential units should be built on the vacant land, eventually. Opponents argued changing the zoning would delay that development, leaving a blighted, and sometimes unsafe vacant lot undeveloped. Proponents said they wanted more time to decide what should be built, and that any new residential building planned for the area must go through a “thoughtful community process.”

Michael Grill, an attorney for Holland & Knight, testified against the zoning change on behalf of the developer, saying Pilsen’s commercial corridors would benefit from more density. “They need more residents living in that area who can spend their good, hard earned dollars on the good businesses that we have along those streets, so those businesses can continue to provide good jobs in this neighborhood,” he said.

“It’s strange to me that if the purported reasoning behind changing this is to provide more affordable housing–which is a laudable goal–changing it to an industrial use simply will not provide more affordable housing in this area,” he added, urging Solis to work with his client to bring a project that complies within the existing B3-2 zoning.  

Vincent Cook, an attorney representing the property owner, The Midwest Providence of the Society of Jesus, also testified against the zoning change. “We feel that the current residential zoning is a perfect use for that neighborhood, and we feel that a change to light manufacturing is not the best use of that property,” Cook said, adding that his clients are still interested in working with Solis toward a solution.

Most of the residents who supported the zoning change said they were lifelong residents of Pilsen and expressed worry that they would soon be priced out of their neighborhood if the zoning remained intact. Nineteen-year resident Walcolda Reyesargued that the site has remained vacant for more than a decade because no developer has brought forth a plan that “provides the community benefit that we believe is what needs to happen there.”

Julio Paz, whose family has been living in Pilsen since 1948, agreed. “We need time to find the best plan for that parcel of land. The community’s character, vitality, and culture are under threat.”

“I would like for all parties to work together,” Chairman Solis said before calling for a vote. “This is a strategy that not only I, but other aldermen have used, and if you look at the history, and if you look at the record of my ward and other wards, you’ll find that sometimes doing this gets the message across.” The zoning change passed unanimously.

Ald. King Receives On-site Affordable Housing In Two South Loop Projects

Newly appointed 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King also did her part to make sure two South Loop projects made a last minute change to allow on-site affordable units. Zoning Attorney Rolando Acosta said his client, developer Keith Giles, agreed to make 10 of his 320 units affordable for his proposed 26-story residential tower at 1136 S. Wabash, which is currently a surface parking lot. The developer originally wanted to buy out of the affordable housing requirement. Giles will instead enroll those units in the Chicago Housing Authority’s voucher program.

Oxford Capital Group, the developer behind a plan to rehab the Essex Inn and build an adjacent 57-story residential building, also agreed at the request of Ald. King to add on-site affordable housing. The developer’s attorney, Paul Shadle of DLA Piper, said his clients will make a $2.02 million payment to the affordable housing trust fund, in addition to providing on-site units. He didn’t mention the number of units.

“Affordable housing is a responsibility that the whole city should share in all parts of the city,” Ald. King argued.  

Ald. Moreno Rejects Plan Because It Lacks Affordable Housing

Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1), who often grandstands on affordable housing issues on the floor of City Council as he faces intense scrutiny in his ward about gentrification concerns, voted against a project in the neighboring 32nd Ward for its lack of affordable housing.

There have been protests in recent months, including one along the new 606 trail, calling for more affordable housing in Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square. The project Moreno rejected calls for the construction of three, four-story residential buildings for a total of 76 units. None of the units will be made affordable. The developer, Mark Kozlowski, has chosen to make an in lieu payment of $800,000 into the affordable housing trust fund.

Moreno took issue with not only the in lieu payment, but also local Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), who he did not mention by name: “We have elected officials that say they support affordable housing and CHA and don’t build them on site.” Moreno and Waguespack also faced off over on-site units at the massive redevelopment at the Lathrop Homes.

“I know I sound like a broken record on this, but it continues and continues to happen.”

Chairman Defers Public Building Commission Appointment

At the start of yesterday’s meeting, Zoning Chairman Solis announced he’d be deferring the appointment of David Whittley to the Public Building Commission, but didn’t explain why. He did  allow the committee to approve another appointment: Albert D. Tyson III to the Plan Commission.

Tyson was previously on the PBC and his vacancy would have been filled by Whittley. Tyson spoke for less than a minute at yesterday’s meeting, mostly to say that he was honored at the opportunity to serve on the Plan Commission. Ald. Walter Burnett (27) and Ald. Anthony Beale (9) said Tyson is a good fit for the land use board because of the development work he’s had a hand in on the city’s Near West Side.

Historical Landmark Designation for Old Town Gets Pushback from Residents  

Twenty-one people testified on a proposal to designate several residential buildings on West Burton Place as historical landmarks, 14 in support and seven against. The buildings are part of the Old Town Artist Colony, a group of 12 buildings and five coach houses, which were remodeled between roughly 1920 and 1940 by a group of artists, including Edgar Miller and Sol Kogen. The landmark designation would protect the buildings' exterior elevations, as well as select walls, fences, gates and sidewalks, from alteration or demolition. The properties include 150-160 W. Burton Place and 143-161 W. Burton Place.

Matt Crawford, a representative with the Department of Planning and Development, said the designation would protect and highlight the unique character of the neighborhood. “The artist colony that developed here became the home and workplace of numerous prominent artists and architects of national and international stature for over eight decades,” he said.  

The buildings are already listed on a national historic registry and the effort to landmark the area has been in the works since 2007, according to Ald. Burnett. The effort to make the residential block a Chicago landmark ramped up last year after a developer bought one of the buildings with the intention of demolishing it. But as the city’s Landmarks Commission began drafting the boundaries of the landmark district, several property owners reached out to Burnett asking that their buildings be excluded. The Landmarks Commission agreed with some of those requests. Only 12 of the 18 buildings in the area are included in the proposed designation, Burnett said.

One property owner who had made that request but wasn’t excluded from the designation, Penny Kurston of 143 W. Burton Place, called the entire process unethical gerrymandering. She said realtors and real estate attorneys told her the designation would have a negative impact on her insurance rates and property value. Kurston’s 12-year-old daughter testified at the meeting and relayed the trouble the family went through to get Ald. Burnett’s attention on the issue.

Ald. Burnett said he did make an effort to get her property out of the designation, but the landmarks commission denied the request. He then accused an unnamed resident of being “really aggressive on stalking” him and other commissioners on the landmarks committee.

“The last time she saw me, I was like ‘I may have to do a restraining order against you’, because she followed be all the way to my car,” Burnett explained, saying she also followed commissioners to the bathrooms, their offices or homes.

“After I just got hit by somebody, you know, I was like you better stay away from me, because I’m not ready to get hit again,” he joked, referring to a man who punched him outside his ward office two months ago.

It appears Zoning Chairman Danny Solis (25) will move forward with his plan to rezone a nearly eight acre plot of vacant land in Pilsen to prevent the development of a massive apartment building after a developer reportedly refused to comply with the neighborhood’s stringent affordable housing rules.

First reported by DNAinfo, Ald. Solis introduced an ordinance that would rezone a vacant parcel bounded by West 16th, South Newberry, South Peoria, and West 18th Streets from a Community Shopping District (B3-2) to a Limited Manufacturing/Business District (M1-2). According to DNAinfo, the zoning application is in response to a plan by developer Noah Gottlieb of Property Markets Group to build a large apartment complex on the vacant parcel. Ald. Solis demanded that at least 21% of the units be designated affordable housing and refused to support the plan through the plan development process until that criteria was met.

But instead of complying with the affordable housing requirements Solis enforces in Pilsen, Gottlieb reportedly decided to build a smaller building allowed as of right under the existing B3-2 zoning designation. Solis introduced a map amendment, the first item on today’s zoning agenda, to upzone the property to manufacturing, preventing any residential development to be built on the site. Manufacturing is considered one of the most strict zoning designations, and in the past, aldermen have used it as a tool to restrict new development and affirm local control. Any rezone from a manufacturing district requires a community review process and, in some cases, the green light from the city’s Plan Commission.

The parcel received its current zoning designation of B3-2 back in 2013 when Ald. Solis sunsetted an existing planned development (No. 1012). The Midwest Jesuits, which bought the land in 2009, are still listed as property owners.

Ald. Solis’ change request would fit somewhat with the existing zoning of the surrounding area. Properties directly across the street of West 18th are currently zoned for manufacturing, as is a parallel section of land between Morgan and Peoria Streets. But a portion along Newbery Avenue, which is located on the same block as the vacant parcel of land Ald. Solis wants to upzone, is currently zoned for residential homes with under 20 units.

If Ald. Solis is successful in obtaining the zoning change, public, civic or commercial uses would be allowed as of right. Any residential uses would need a special use permit. Neither Chairman Solis nor Gottlieb responded to our request for comment by publication.

Other Items on the Agenda

• 2847-2937 W. Lawrence Ave (33rd Ward): Ald. Deb Mell wants to downzone a strip of vacant land a block east of the North Branch Chicago River from a Neighborhood Commercial District (C1-2) to a Neighborhood Shopping District (B1-1). Both zoning designations allow for a broad range of small scale business, retail or service uses. But they diverge in the range of uses allowed: a C1 district permits taverns and liquor stores by-right.

• Two Mayoral Appointments: The Zoning Committee will take up two mayoral appointments: one to the Public Buildings Commission (PBC), the other to the Plan Commission. The former is an 11-member board that maintains, acquires and facilitates the construction of city-owned buildings. The latter is a 22-member board that reviews applications for planned developments citywide and projects along the lakefront, like the recent controversial Lucas Museum plan. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is transferring Albert Tyson III from the Public Building Commission to the Plan Commission, and replacing his vacant seat on the PBC with David T. Whittley, a pastor of the Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ in Garfield Park.  
  
  Tyson has served Saint Stephen African Methodist Episcopal Church since 1985, in addition to holding a slew of city-run board positions, including a the Board of Trustees for City Colleges of Chicago. Tyson replaces another member of the cloth on the Plan Commission: Bishop John R. Bryant of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city’s Grand Boulevard neighborhood. Bryant, who was appointed to the commission less than a year ago in the summer of 2015, was vocal advocate of affordable housing, opposing a handful of applications for its lack of on-site affordable units.

• Two projects in Pullman (9th Ward): One project from neighborhood group Pullman Artspace will be an affordable artist live-work space, the other plan from non-profit Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives will be a cluster of restaurants to serve the increased number of tourists visiting the recently designated Pullman national monument. A team of art and neighborhood organizations are behind a plan to transform a 18,500 square foot parcel of vacant land and the two adjacent historic, three-story apartment buildings on South Langley Avenue into affordable housing for artists. All of the units in the Pullman Artspace Lofts will be made affordable.
  
  Thirty-eight units are planned for the site, six will be located in each of the existing buildings and 26 units will be located in the newly constructed building which will be designed to fit in with the surrounding historic landmarked buildings. The apartments will range from studios to two-bedrooms, or 750-square-feet to 1,100-square feet. Rents will range from $295 to $863 a month.
  
  The other project, a proposed multi-tenant restaurant, will be located at 720 East 111th Street, right off the expressway to the neighborhood. DPD Commissioner David Reifman helped get this project off the ground when he was a zoning attorney at DLA Piper. When the item went before the Plan Commission in May, David Doig, President of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, said the development team is moving forward with lease agreements for a Potbelly and Chipotle. Doig is a veteran of the city’s Housing Department, DPD and the Park District under the Daley administration. The two will be the first fast casual restaurants to set up shop on the far South Side in over two decades, Doig said. The organization is saving an adjacent parcel for a “Chicago restaurant” they plan to open at a later date.

• Three Proposed Historical Landmark Designations: The Stone Temple Baptist Church Building (3620-3624 W. Douglas Blvd.) in the 24th Ward; the Commercial National Bank Building (125 S. Clark St.) in the 42nd Ward; and a group of residential buildings in Old Town known as the Artists Colony (150-160 W. Burton Place) are up for landmark designation by the committee.
  
  Stone Temple Baptist in North Lawndale regularly hosted speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and served as a synagogue for Jewish immigrants fleeing anti-Semitism in Romania, according a release from the Mayor's office. The Commercial National Bank Building, once CPS headquarters, is the city’s oldest high-rise commercial bank building. Blue Star Properties Inc., the building’s owner, is spending $21 million to rehab the building. If the bank is given landmark status, it would qualify for a Class L property tax break from Cook County. Total tax savings would be approximately $13.9 million over the next 12 years, the Mayor’s office says. The Old Town Artists Colony, a group of 12 buildings and five coach houses, were remodeled between roughly 1920 and 1940 by a group of artists including Edgar Miller and Sol Kogen. The landmark designation would protect the buildings' exterior elevations, as well as select walls, fences, gates and sidewalks, from alteration or demolition.

• Proposed Hyde Park Hotel (5th Ward): The 90-foot, 100-room boutique smart hotel the Olympia Companies have planned for Hyde Park will be the second of its kind along 53rd Street. It’ll be located at the corner of 53rd and Dorchester, just two blocks away from the recently opened Hyatt Hotel. The Hyatt will share its parking garage with the new hotel. The project received the green light from the Plan Commission in May (1401 E. 53rd Street).

• Essex Inn Revamp (4th Ward): Already approved by the Chicago Plan Commission, Oxford Capital Group’s redevelopment plan for the Essex Hotel awaits consideration by the Council’s Zoning Committee. The developer plans to build a 57-story tower adjacent to the Inn at 800 S. Michigan Ave. It will replace the existing parking garage. The new building will include hotel rooms on floors two to six, a restaurant on the seventh floor, a pool on the eighth, and 476 residential units on the remaining floors. The Essex Inn will be rehabbed to include 290 hotel rooms. In May, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks recommended that the building be designated an official landmark. That designation has yet to advance to the Council. (800 S. Michigan Ave)

• Uptown Housing Development & Theater Restoration (46th Ward): The Wilson Avenue Theater would be restored as part of a plan by Cedar Street to redevelop the neighboring vacant parcel into a seven-story apartment building. Since the project is located a block east of the CTA’s Wilson Avenue Red Line stop, the project is considered a Transit Oriented Development (TOD). That designation means that the developers have to provide only 16 parking spaces for the 102 unit building. (1050 W. Wilson Ave.)

• Another South Loop Parking Lot Turned Residential High Rise (4th Ward): Developer Keith Giles is seeking to establish a planned development to build a 26-story mixed-use residential building with ground floor retail and 320 apartments. Ten of those units will be made affordable. Plans also call for a rooftop pool. The measure passed the Plan Commission in May. Giles has been involved in several other historic and high rise developments. (1136 S. Wabash Ave.)

• New Parking Lot for North Park University (33rd & 39th Wards): North Park University filed an application with the city to incorporate land it already owns into an existing planned development (no. 707) for the construction of a surface parking lot. According to the Plan Commission agenda, the parking lot will hold up to 79 cars. The university is seeking a rezone of underlying zoning of the planned development to make that possible. (5001 N. Kedzie Avenue)

As police reform, yawning budget deficits and pensions take center stage in City Council, and as lobbyists work feverishly behind the scenes on city regulations to sharing economy platforms like Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft, we wanted to check in on some items that once generated excitement and attracted attention only months ago, but have fallen into the darker recesses of Council’s consciousness.

Paid Sick Leave - Despite a two year fight, paid sick leave legislation looks subject to the whims of Springfield, according to Workforce Committee Chair Pat O’Connor(40). Even though Chicago has the power to implement labor reforms like sick leave, O’Connor told Aldertrack last month he’s waiting for some key issues to be resolved in Springfield, “which clearly would impact the city’s future and the city’s revenue picture.” Ald. Ameya Pawar (47), one of the ordinance’s main sponsors, pointed to uncertain reforms for CPS funding as a possible contributor to the delay, but said it was no excuse. “This issue is equally as important as reforms to the police department and CPS funding inequities, because they all impact the same people. We need a vote [in June].”

Two business organizations with a strong presence in Springfield and Chicago, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, have come out strongly against the ordinance, writing a dissenting report about paid sick leave findings from a task force hand picked by Mayor Emanuel. But proponents argue the latest ordinance is much more business friendly than the first ordinance

Property Tax Rebate Plan - Property owners anticipating an unwelcome hike in their second installment property tax bills in July still don’t have hope for a break from city or state lawmakers. Despite several aldermen–Michele Smith (43), John Arena(45), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), and Proco Joe Moreno (1)–proposing their own ordinances for a city-run rebate plan since October 2015, none have had a hearing, or have a hearing scheduled, in committee. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed doubling of the current exemption from $7,000 to $14,000 has gone nowhere in Springfield, either (there are even some doubts the exemption would be workable given the County’s outdated tech).

Officials from the city’s Budget Office told Aldertrack this time last month they’d be looking at aldermanic proposals in May, and would stay “true to the Mayor’s goal of protecting low- and middle-income families that can least afford it.” Aldermen and aides Aldertrack spoke to in recent weeks said the budget office is still crunching numbers. The budget office didn’t respond to requests for an update.

Municipal Deposits - This ordinance requiring financial institutions to submit reports on employee data, community involvement, and loan data has been held up for nearly a year, despite backing from City Treasurer Kurt Summers and progressive aldermen like Roderick Sawyer (6). One source close to negotiations said the final product is likely to be a pared down cleanup bill, short of what Treasurer Summers advocated for last June.  

Proponents of the measure argue banks that hold up to a billion dollars in city money should be accountable for reinvesting in local small businesses, non-profits and entrepreneurs. Treasurer Summers, who recently announced support for joining a class action suit against big banks for bad swap deals, wanted to use extra reporting required in the ordinance to create a Banking Scorecard “to ensure Chicagoans can identify if and how frequently their local banks are investing back into their communities.” The city’s 18 current municipal depositories include big banks like U.S. Bank, Citibank, BMO Harris, Chase, and PNC.

Keeping the Promise - Since a tense, day-long hearing four months ago on oversight of the Chicago Housing Authority, there’s been no movement on Ald. Proco Joe Moreno’s (1) “Keeping the Promise” ordinance, according to the alderman’s legislative aide. The ordinance, drafted with the Chicago Housing Initiative, mandates regular reporting from CHA on unspent city, state, and federal funds; progress and plans for replacement housing, outstanding “Right to Return” contracts and vouchers; and one for one replacement of affordable housing units.

At the February subject matter hearing on the measure, then-newly appointed CHA head Eugene Jones said the new requirements would be overly burdensome. While the agency closed out the books in 2015 with $221 million in surplus, Jones said, it’s expecting to end 2017 in the red because of committed projects planned over the next two years. Critics accused the CHA of diverting money that’s supposed to be used for housing vouchers and building or rehabbing units toward padding its cash reserves and shoring up pension payments instead. An analysis of CHA’s spending from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) found on average, the CHA annually issued 13,534 fewer housing vouchers than the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funded, while more than 30,000 people waited for vouchers.  

Hearings on CPD surveillance of protestors, political groups - A resolution Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) filed in mid-October 2015 has similarly gone nowhere. It’s one of a few CPD-related ordinances filed before the video release of the Laquan McDonald shooting, and has yet to face a hearing. Waguespack introduced the resolution in response to an investigation by the Sun Times’ Mick Dumke into surveillance practices of the Chicago Police Department over the past six years.

Dumke’s report said even after the police department disbanded the so-called “Red Squad” that spied on activists, “the police still are allowed to gather information on demonstrators as long as they establish a ‘reasonable law enforcement purpose.’... interpreted by the department as including efforts to prevent future crimes, even when there’s no evidence any law has been broken yet.”

Video Gambling - Ald. Raymond Lopez’s (15) ordinance opening up video gambling in Chicago got immediate pushback from the Mayor when it was first introduced in November. Mayor Emanuel said he’d prefer Chicago to have one land-based casino. But Lopez would still like to see movement, saying he’s got nearly half the Council (mostly border aldermen) on board, and each would have control over where new machines are allowed in their ward. The ordinance calls for a $1,000 licensing fee per year on video gaming terminals, which Lopez says could net the city tens of millions of dollars.

“I think that with whatever’s coming down the pike, we should not leave any revenue option off the table,” Lopez told Aldertrack last week. Gold Rush Amusements, one of the largest distributors of video poker gaming machines in Illinois, has donated money to several aldermen, including a $1,000 check in November 2015 to Ald. Lopez. The company has also contributed to Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) 31st Ward Ald. Milly Santiago ($2,500) and 40th Ward Ald. Pat O’Connor ($300). The 33rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization, run by the ward’s former Democratic Committeeman Dick Mell, received a $10,000 donation from the company.

Fair Elections - First introduced in January, the proposal from Ald. Joe Moore (49), Ald. John Arena (45) and Ald. Michelle Harris (8) would create a small donor match campaign finance system, similar to New York City’s. The ordinance would establish a special election fund to provide candidates running for mayor, alderman, city clerk, and city treasurer with $6 of public matching funds for every dollar raised, up to $175. In order to qualify for the money, a candidate can’t accept any donations more than $500 from one individual source. Since its referral to the Rules Committee, which Ald. Harris chairs, the ordinance hasn’t seen the light of day.

Mental Health Clinics - Ald. Jason Ervin’s (28) ordinance, introduced with fanfare and a press conference with stakeholders like AFSCME Council 31, and mental health self-advocates in February, has not surfaced in the Health and Environmental Protection Committee. Chair George Cardenas (12) told Aldertrack that Ald. Ervin has not been actively advocating for the item, which would require the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to join three managed-care networks that reimburse for mental health care, and work to hire psychiatrists at the city’s six clinics. Six others were closed in 2012.

The ordinance was filed in the wake of Quintonio Legrier’s death at the hands of Chicago police. Supporters like AFSCME’s Jo Patton said at the time the political will might be enough “for the mayor to put a little bit of money into mental health instead of [policing].” As part of police reforms suggested by the Police Accountability Task Force, CDPH is partnering with mental health practitioners to design a community education campaign to help “residents recognize the symptoms of mental illness and inform them how best to respond to mental health crisis.”

Odds and Ends:

Legacy Businesses - Ald. Brian Hopkins’ (2) pitch to create a property tax break for older, established small businesses that would “allow any Alderman or the Mayor to nominate a longstanding business deemed an economic or cultural fixture to the community for at least 30 years” hasn’t moved since it was introduced to the Finance Committee in February.

Redevelopment Agreement Hearing - Despite Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) sponsorship and introduction to his own committee, the resolution calling for Mondelez to testify about some Nabisco bakery jobs exiting from Chicago hasn’t moved. The company has faced criticism from city and county officials for shorting local governments who gave the company tax breaks after announcing plans to move 600 jobs from its factory on the Southwest Side to Mexico. The resolution also calls on the city’s Department of Planning and Development to report on how it tracks redevelopment agreements between the city and its corporations, how many jobs were retained because of redevelopment agreement, and the success of the Enterprise Zone program.

COFA CPS Revenue - A resolution asking Council’s independent financial analyst, Ben Winick, to look at potential revenue sources for financial aid to Chicago Public Schools has stalled since its February introduction. The resolution, introduced by Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) has 34 sponsors, including new Education Committee chair Ald. Howard Brookins (21). Similarly, aa resolution spearheaded by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) on using TIF surplus funds to give CPS a financial leg up was re-referred to the Budget Committee and hasn’t surfaced since.

Workers Comp Re-Examination - A steep uphill battle is likely in store for this introduction from Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) calling for a closer look into Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) Finance Department and its $100 million per year workers compensation program, described by critics as a “fiefdom” run by “political hacks.” Ald. John Arena (45) is the sole co-sponsor. The item calls for Budget Committee hearings to examine the “legal, administrative, and financial benefits of control and authority of workers' compensation claims,” currently not subject to "full, independent and transparent audits of programs, processes, and instance of claims."

From left: Mike Fourcher, Brian Sleet, Greg Goldner and Victor Reyes at Wednesday's 1st Anniversary Celebration. Photo by Joshua Medcalf.

If you didn’t make it to the Aldertrack 1st Anniversary Celebration panels last Wednesday night at the University Club, you missed out some some big statements and some important insights. Demographer Rob Paral, on our first panel answering, “Is Chicago shrinking?” with Marisa Novara and Richard Wilson, encapsulated almost the entire conversation by suggesting a new hashtag, #stoptalkingaboutDetroitifyouliveinChicago.

Watch our panels: Panel 1 – Panel 2

Listen to panels.

While our first panel confronted the reality that Chicago is getting smaller, it was a hopeful conversation. Our second panel, led by a trio of political insiders, Brian Sleet, Greg Goldner and Victor Reyes, not as much.

Reyes, about halfway through made this bold statement, to which nobody argued with: “I think by 2019 you will likely have an elected school board.”

The enabling legislation raced through committee, 42-16, he said. “It’s a bill where if you put it on the board, it’s going to pass.”

But Reyes, probably one of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s best known directors of Intergovernmental Affairs and now founder and CEO of public affairs firm Reyes Kurson, doesn’t think an elected school board will absolve Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Council members from responsibility. “[The Mayor] has to care about who gets elected there. The aldermen, have to care about who gets elected. They’re going to held accountable for those property tax levies that schools make, which are bigger than anybody else’s.”

“Whenever property taxes go up, people blame City Council and the Mayor,” agreed Brian Sleet, the campaign manager for Cook County State’s Attorney Democratic nominee Kim Foxx.

Later, the discussion turned to funding Chicago Public Schools. At one point Greg Goldner, also a former Daley director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and founder and CEO of Resolute Consulting, perfectly illustrated the money problems CPS has.

Goldner: Where do we get the other $700 million for next year? Seriously. We’re talking about a $1.1 billion deficit for Chicago public schools, out a $5.6 billion budget… Under the Democrats plan [in Springfield], House or Senate, the [bailout] ceiling anyone is talking about is $400 million, and CPS’ authority to raise property tax is capped. You can’t go to the markets, you already paid 8.5%, maybe they’re open, maybe they’re not. If they are it’s going to cost a lot, and you gotta pay it back at some point. I don’t think you gotta wait too long to figure out what are going to be the dominant issues. What are the solutions, how are we going to track all that? That’s a big number. Is CPS going to get its cap lifted in Springfield? Probably not. Is the City of Chicago City Council going to vote to raise property taxes to give to CPS and how much?

Fourcher: I’ve been told that would be a disaster from a legal perspective, because it would open up the city of Chicago to legal liability by paying off another government entity’s bills. Bondholders would be angry about it.

Goldner: Someone in government would say, who cares? Because we cannot cut $700 million from CPS. And that’s if there’s $400 million [coming] from Springfield.

That second part, if you’re a bondholder, should be chilling to you. Goldner is no slouch. He ran Rahm Emanuel’s successful 2002 Congressional campaign and is the manager of Illinois Go, the super PAC associated with Gov. Bruce Rauner. While I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t talk out of school, he has personal knowledge of what Illinois’ top leaders are willing to do.

People who make a living listening hard to politicians, and staking their reputations on what they think they’ll do, like Reyes, Sleet and Goldner, think things are going to get much rockier this year. I think I agree with them.

Uber and Lyft faced tough questioning from aldermen at a joint committee hearing this week over tighter regulations for rideshare drivers. Both companies say those regulations would keep part timers from signing up, and effectively end rideshare as we know it in Chicago–and a lot of aldermen seem fine with that. Plus, we preview some of the most fascinating bits from our one year anniversary panel: on Chicago’s shrinking population and how the shifting political landscape might affect municipal elections in 2019.

The city’s Department of Planning and Development has spent only 11% of this year’s resource allocation goal for affordable housing, while it added 42% of its unit goal, according to the department’s first quarter affordable housing report for 2016.

Attendance: Chairman Joe Moore (49), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), David Moore (17), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Ariel Reboyras (30), Gilbert Villegas (36).

For 2016, DPD has projected commitments of over $250 million to assist more than 8,000 units of affordable housing. In the first quarter of 2016, from January to March, DPD committed almost $27 million of those funds to support 3,300 units of affordable housing.

At the City Council’s Housing Committee’s regular hearing on the department’s progress towards bringing more affordable units to Chicago, aldermen pressed DPD staff to explain the funding status of a special trust fund the city has in place to collect money from downtown developers for affordable housing.

In the fall of 2015, stricter metrics took effect requiring developers to provide up to 20% affordable housing units or pay an in lieu fee that, depending on where the project is located, ranges from $50,000 to $175,000 per affordable unit not added on site or within a mile of the new development. There was a rush of applications filed before the October 2015 cut off date before the new Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) would take effect. And since payment is due when the developer applies for a building permit, not when the zoning application is approved by the city, it will be a while before the city starts recouping some of that money, DPD staff told aldermen.

DPD’s Tracy Sanchez said the Affordable Housing Opportunity Trust Fund currently has collections from payments made between September 2014 to September 2015. “To date, I don’t think it is impacting it very much yet, because they just became effective, the 2015 ARO. So we will probably see more effects of it going forward, like later on in the year or next year,” she said.

Cary Steinbuck, Executive Director for the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund, added that the fund relies on two sources of revenue: money collected through the Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund, which she said came in higher for 2016, and state funds.

“Unfortunately we have received no state money. We are tied up in the state budget, and even though our court case was successful there’s back money owed to the trust fund,” she said. Steinbuck said once the department is successful in recouping that money, the fund’s board of directors will decide how to spend it.

“This will be the first time we have new units in more than five years. Only thing we have been funding is relocation of subsidies, and those are mostly selected by the tenants themselves as to where they want to relocate or to move,” she said.

The Mayor’s new Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus the City Council passed this month was briefly brought up during the hearing. The plan, which takes effect in June, will leverage downtown development by collecting fees from developers in exchange for the ability to add extra square footage to their buildings. Eighty-percent of the money collected will go into the new Neighborhood Opportunity Fund. DPD will grant out that money to spur development in the city’s most blighted neighborhoods.

Kevin Jackson with the Chicago Rehab Network, an organization that regularly analyzes DPD’s quarterly affordable housing reports, said they’ve determined the new fund “will not result in any meaningful loss of affordable housing funds.”

But Jackson had some suggestions for how to improve transparency, such as creating a scorecard for evaluating competing projects and “better defined avenues for community control.” Jackson said one example of more local control would be to create advisory groups similar to the Pilsen Land Use Committee to publicly vet proposals. He’d also like DPD to hold hearings on its progress, similar to how the Housing Committee holds quarterly reports on its efforts to reach its affordable housing goals.

Earlier this week, City Treasurer Kurt Summers sent letters to three of the fiveChicago employee pension funds recommending they join a growing federal class action suit against banks for selling them interest rate transactions, or so-called “toxic swaps”. Two other employee pension funds, those for teachers and the police, have already made moves to join the suit, with the police deciding to join just last week, according to the Treasurer’s Office.

[Read Teacher’s Pension Fund complaint.]

While the merits of a potential case are still to be decided by the courts, Summers’ support for suing the banks puts daylight between him, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city CFO Carole Brown, who told reporters last January that the city found “no evidence that would support a claim” against banks for toxic swaps purchased by city financial managers. But Summers is pushing a different angle than the city, his team says.

Summers, who sits on the boards of all city employee pension funds, also happens to be an oft-discussed 2019 candidate for Mayor.

It’s a highly technical, but important piece of daylight, since unions and aldermen in the Progressive Caucus have been accusing the city siding with banks first, ensuring bankers get paid while raising taxes and cutting city services.

A statement issued by the Chicago Teachers Union earlier this week lauded the Treasurer’s move. “Summers' letter confirms what the Chicago Teachers Union, parent and student activists, and community organizations have been saying for years—our city, our school system and our state must pursue the recovery of profits unjustly taken through Wall Street greed.”

This morning the Council Progressive Caucus also released a statement supporting Summers. “We are pleased to hear that the Treasurer has broken from the Emanuel administration’s position that suing the big banks over toxic swaps is impossible,” said Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22). “The banks have reaped historic and unjust profits in these deals.”

Treasurer Summers’ team contends there’s no political motive behind his recent promotion of a class action suit. “There’s no special timing to it other than he’s trying to do his job as a fiduciary,” said spokesperson Alexandra Sims. “He has a job to be transparent, that’s what he’s doing.”

The anti-trust suit Summers suggests pension funds join is in its early stages, months away from applying for class certification, and is vastly complicated, stretching over multiple jurisdictions. It hinges on the ability of the complainants, which is made up of city and state pension funds from across the country, to demonstrate that the banks were purposefully keeping swap transaction markets murky, so banks would always make money.

“You’d have to go directly to the banks, and these banks have worked together to keep the open markets from seeing the light of day. If you had a market platform, you would have had more efficient pricing, and you could have saved money on the whole transaction,” says Drew Beres, General Counsel for the Treasurer’s Office.

The potential defendant list is a mile long, including every big investment bank you’ve ever heard of, and the case, even if it does manage to win class certification, will likely take years to grind through federal court. But, if the pension funds win the case, because it’s an anti-trust case it could result in treble damages from the banks, equaling tens of billions of dollars. To give you a sense of the stakes, a similar, much smaller case was settled by investment banks for $1.87 billion in 2015.

But regardless of how the case goes, Summers may have just shot the first salvo in the 2019 elections.

At a day long, often boisterous City Council Joint License and Transportation Committee hearing on a plan to increase regulations for drivers of ride-hailing companies to “level the playing field” with the yellow taxi industry, executives of Uber and Lyft threatened that a regulatory crackdown would “end ride-sharing as we know it” in Chicago.

There was no vote, only debate and public testimony, on Transportation ChairmanAnthony Beale’s (9) ordinance requiring Uber and Lyft drivers apply for a public chauffeur's license, be subject to background checks and fingerprinting, and make 5% of their fleet handicap accessible. Uber and Lyft supporters and yellow cab drivers packed the gallery, often cheering and jeering at testimony. At one point, Chairman Beale threatened to clear the gallery if the disruptions continued.

The meeting was heated, with Uber and Lyft supporters often on the receiving end of fact-checking responses from pro-regulation aldermen, and pro-regulation aldermen receiving taunts from boisterous audience members. Most present agreed on the need for more wheelchair accessible cars, but could not agree on how to work that out. Division of opinions was especially prominent on the issue of requiring fingerprinting for ride-hail drivers.  

At one point Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1), one of the few vocal Uber sympathizers on the Council, said, “I have more security when I get out of Uber or Lyft than I do with the taxi cab,” a cab driver in the gallery stood up and yelled, “You lie!” City Hall security had to intervene to get the driver to sit down.

“This is the Jetsons versus the Flintstones,” Moreno continued. “I am all for an even playing field, but why are we taking a very entrepreneurial industry and trying to have them go back to 70’s regulations?”

Both Ald. Moreno and Ald. Joe Moore (49) asked whether easing regulations on the taxi industry was an option–a suggestion also pitched by Uber Chief Advisor David Plouffe. Moreno claimed that the taxi industry was only interested in “killing” Uber, not working with them, citing the new fingerprinting rule. “I’d rather have a discussion about what we can do to lessen the restrictions on taxi cabs...bring them at least into 1990.”

But Moreno seemed to be in the minority. More than half the City Council has signed up to support Ald. Beale’s ordinance for more strict rideshare regulations, and few sounded off in support of deregulating cabs. Ald. John Arena (45) and Chairman Beale suggested Lyft and Uber should conform to new standards or leave Chicago.

“It’s simply ensuring we are doing the best we can to protect consumers," Arena said, arguing proposed changes were reasonable, and could be completed in a day. "If the industry doesn’t want to meet a very low standard, then go somewhere else where those standards are acceptable.” Arena noted if Uber and Lyft drivers could take a day off to testify, they could do the same to take an expedited one day class to achieve their chauffeur's license. 

And former 17th Ward Ald. Latasha Thomas, now counsel for law firm Reyes Kurson, which represents the taxi lobbying group the Illinois Transportation Trade Association, the taxi lobby, said it didn’t make sense that beauticians jump through more hoops than Uber drivers to get a license. “There’s more risk to getting in someone’s car than doing my nails,” she said.

Joseph Okpaku, Vice President of Government Relations for Lyft, said there is a greater risk of Chicagoans losing citywide transportation access and a chance to make extra money if the regulations were approved. He said there was a “distinct possibility” the company would leave Chicago if their drivers had to spend time and money to conform to the new rules. Part time drivers represent a “critical mass” of the service, he said. Extra barriers to access might dissuade them from signing up in the first place.

“We have never operated in a city with requirements like that,” he said of the proposed chauffeur’s license rule. Both sides frequently mentioned the company’s withdrawal from Austin, Texas, after voters there approved a ballot referendum requiring fingerprinting for drivers a few weeks ago.  

Marco McCottry, a General Manager for Uber, agreed, saying Chicago already has some of the strictest regulations on the books. “If this ordinance were to pass, ride-sharing as we know it would no longer exist in Chicago," he said. Chairman Beale shot back, saying a multi-billion dollar company could eat the cost. He also chastised the representatives and accused them of spreading lies about his ordinance through “scare tactics.”

Uber and Lyft have both actively lobbied riders and drivers online, on the radio, and on TV, encouraging supporters to contact their local alderman to vote against Beale’s ordinance. Uber has claimed changes would nearly double the cost of rides.

Chairman Beale said the hearing was supposed to be about “increasing safety” and creating parity between the two industries, but race, the lack of jobs and transportation to the city’s South and West Sides were brought up frequently.

“The taxi industry had a monopoly in this town and they didn’t have to innovate.” Ald. Moreno said prompting cheers from the gallery. “And now here comes Uber, and Latinos and African-Americans are driving more cars because of Uber and Lyft than ever in the taxicab industry.”

Okpaku and McCottry said their platforms filled a void. 80% of drivers for Lyft drive less than 15 hours a week and most are full time students, retirees or in between jobs, Okpaku said. McCorry testified that Uber has led several recruitment efforts in neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, adding about 11,000 new drivers from those areas to the platform.

Both Okpaku and McCottry said requiring that their drivers get fingerprinted would unfairly impact communities of color where there are higher concentrations of arrests. But two former police officers on the Council, Aldermen Chris Taliaferro (29) and Anthony Napolitano (41) said it’s the only way to get an accurate portrayal of a person’s criminal history.

“One thing I don’t want to do, no matter what, under any circumstance, is compromise safety,” said Ald. Taliaferro. “There was a reason why we did fingerprinting with the police department. Fingerprinting tells us things you don’t want us to know.”

“I’m upset when I hear these arguments about discrimination, against workers, against people of color,” said Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35). He said he was offended that a multi-billion dollar company was pitting workers against each other and trying to evade regulations by claiming their companies help predominately low-income Chicagoans.

By the four hour mark, when it was the public’s time to testify, Ald. Beale employed a buzzer to prevent people from going over a two minute limit. Most of the public testimony came from Uber, Lyft, and cab drivers, with a handful of advocates for more handicapped accessible vehicles.

Ezzedin Abdelmagid, a member of Cab Drivers United, said, “the taxi industry is on the verge of collapse”, echoing previous testimony he made earlier this year at a previous License Committee meeting. “You must create a fair set of rules for all of us.” He said that deregulating the taxi industry was a “terrible” idea.

Parallel to Beale’s ordinance, the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection is working on its own compromise, spurred, in part, by a U.S. District Court decision that said the distinctions between regulations taxis and “transportation network providers” (TNPs) appeared “utterly arbitrary” and that “the requirements for taxis are far more onerous than for TNPs.” The decision allowed taxi interest to pursue equal protection claims against the city.

After the meeting, Chairman Beale said he plans to schedule a vote on his plan ahead of the next City Council meeting. Beale said he might tweak the plan, but “doesn’t scare easy.”

The Illinois Supreme Court rules a state pension reform law is unconstitutional, forcing Mayor Emanuel to find a new way to fix its struggling Municipal and Labor funds. Aldermen with the Black and Latino Caucus call for public vetting of the three finalists for the city’s top cop vacancy. IPRA’s new chief orders an external audit of closed police involved shooting cases dating back to 2007. And the Chicago Teachers’ Union authorizes a strike. 

Owners of burned cars will face new reporting requirements after the Committee on Public Safety approved its only agenda item–an ordinance aimed at reducing toxic car fires in the city, increasing coordination between arson investigators at the Chicago Police and Fire Departments, and stopping insurance fraud.

“This closes a loophole,” Ald. Matt O’Shea (19), the chief sponsor explained, saying it lets CPD and CFD investigators work together as soon as car fires are reported. “There were more than 900 vehicles burned last year in the City of Chicago. That’s an astronomical number.”

Attendance: Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30), Gregory Mitchell (7), Anthony Beale (9), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Matt O’Shea (19), Nicholas Sposato (38), Anthony Napolitano (41), Ameya Pawar (47)

“Yearly, the National Insurance Crime Board, they’ve seen about a doubling in the amount of auto fires that’s reported to them,” Michael Murphy of the Chicago Fire Department’s Office of Fire Investigation told aldermen, sometimes criminally, to cash in on insurance claims. He estimates while his office conducts upward of 1,200 fire investigations a year, only 15 to 20 are for car fires. “A gross number are going uninvestigated.”

Murphy says the new ordinance would require those who own a car damaged by fire to make an appointment at CFD’s Office of Fire Investigation. The car owner would meet with staff from CFD and a staff from CPD’s Arson Division, and file a report attesting to the accuracy of their claims. Interviews would be similar to those conducted for house or garage fires. Car owners would have to provide identification, proof of car ownership and insurance information to cross-check with city records. Based on that interview, CPD and CFD investigators would then be able to determine whether the fire required more investigation. “We’re going to coordinate very closely,” Murphy says.

Roger Krupp with the International Association of Arson Investigators said the ordinance would be “groundbreaking,” and he hoped it will work as a deterrent for would-be arsonists hoping to fraudulently cash in on insurance claims. “It makes people think ‘I’m not going to go through this, there’s too much to get this insurance money.’”

The Chicago Police Department’s Sgt. Richard Sliva told aldermen “There were 916 vehicle fires in Chicago in 2015. The Arson section responded to approximately 133 of those fires… that leaves a big gap of people we didn’t talk to.”   

Former firefighter Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) said the ordinance was long overdue. “Every year that we’re fighting auto fires, they’re getting worse and worse… they’re so toxic… they’re so combustible. You’re not just putting a car out, they’re exploding on you as you put them out.”

Aldermen are meeting with officials from the Mayor’s Office this week for briefings on the administration’s planned reforms to increase police oversight. Aldermen who attended those briefings told Aldertrack there was no ordinance language distributed, just a one page handout that mirrors the Mayor’s “next steps” for police reform outlined in an op-ed in the Sun-Times on May 13.

In that editorial, Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised to “have the final details worked out on a comprehensive plan to fundamentally reshape our system of police accountability” ready for introduction at the full City Council meeting on June 22, with input from the Department of Justice, experts in the field, and aldermen. The Mayor promised to scrap the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and create a new public safety auditor position.

According to the handout, the administration’s guiding principles for the new police accountability ordinance include:

• Civilian oversight "that is independent and more transparent"

• An independent Public Safety Inspector General with "authority to audit and monitor the entire discipline system"

• A Civilian Police Investigation Agency (CPIA) to replace IPRA

• A Community Safety Oversight Board (CSOB) to “give a voice to Chicago residents whose lives are affected daily by police practices.”

At public CSOB meetings, each discipline agency, CPIA and the Public Safety Inspector General, as well as the Chicago Police Department’s existing Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Chicago Police Review Board, would report on data and major incidents.

Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10), who attended one of yesterday’s briefings with a handful of colleagues, said there’s “nothing set in stone,” yet, “no language was distributed,” and said it was more of an “information gathering session,” with lots of questions from aldermen.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36), who was also briefed yesterday, said officials with the Mayor’s Office suggested a hybrid of elected and appointed officials to serve on the CSOB. Like Garza, he said there were no concrete proposals. “They wanted to hear ideas from us in order to incorporate it into the ordinance,” he said.  

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) seemed less than impressed with the briefing, telling Aldertrack in a text message, “Not much in it.”

Shown the handout given to aldermen at briefings, police reform watchers largely say the devil will be in the details, especially on how board members and leaders of new agencies can maintain independence from the political process, and whether IPRA’s replacement will have the funding it needs to investigate effectively.

“It looks good, but I think the devil’s going to be in the details on this civilian oversight thing,” said Anton Seals, Jr., a Community and Neighborhood Coordinator at DePaul University. He said those most affected by police misconduct should serve on the board. Picking truly independent leadership to serve as the Inspector General or head of the CPIA will also prove difficult, says Seals. “The trick there is because this is so political, how do you find an honest voice?”

Karen Sheley, Director of the Police Practices Project at the ACLU of Illinois said her initial reaction was generally positive, but “the real question is not so much on this page but what’s gonna be in the details of whatever ordinance gets proposed.” She says she’d like to know the scope of jurisdiction for IPRA's replacement, how the heads of each agency will be empowered to act independently, how long appointments will last, and whether there will be more funding for the new investigative agency. "Are they willing to tie a percentage of the funding to CPD?"

Richard Wooten, a retired police officer and Police Accountability Task Force working group member, said he’d love to see a percentage of the police department budget dedicated to CPIA. Investigative power without resources is “like putting a lame duck out there and saying go to work,” he told Aldertrack.

“Of course it’s not enough, with such a broken system,” activist Ja’Mal Green said. “They are steps towards changing things. But [Mayor Emanuel] just wants to try to win people over.” While the civilian board is “big” he believes bigger change is needed. “I want IPRA dismantled, the Police Board dismantled. I don’t want Rahm appointing anyone to any boards. We want something that is really independent.”

The Emanuel Administration has reached a tentative agreement to put the city’s Laborers pension fund, the smallest of the city’s four vastly underfunded retirement funds, towards a path to solvency, while a solution for another retirement fund for public employees remains unsolved.

A previous pension overhaul of both the city’s Laborer and Municipal Funds, which represent about 79,000 public employees, including non-teacher staff at Chicago Public Schools, was found unconstitutional in March by the Illinois Supreme Court. Yesterday, the city said it reached an agreement with one of those funds: The Laborers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago (LABF). That plan will need approval from Springfield.

During a late afternoon briefing with reporters yesterday, Budget Director Alex Holtannounced the city plans to dedicate all of the revenue from a 2014 increase in the 911 surcharge to make increased pension payments to the Laborers’ fund starting in 2018. That $3.90 surcharge the city approved in 2014, up from $2.50, was originally earmarked for increased pension payments due to both the city’s Laborers and Municipal funds as part of a funding ramp recently found unconstitutional. The surcharge brings in about $40 million in annual revenue. The remainder of the annual pension payment for Labor, about $15 million, would come out of property tax revenue.

Holt and city Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown said yesterday that “conversations are ongoing...and everything is on the table” as it relates to finding new revenue for the city’s contribution to the Municipal Fund, which represents a larger portion of city employees. Labor has roughly 8,000 members, while Municipal has about 70,000.

Both funds are expected to run out of money in about a decade. The net position for the Laborers’ plan as of Dec. 31, 2015 was $1.2 billion, a $149 million decrease from 2014. That decrease is largely attributable to a statutorily-defined multiplier the city uses to base its annual pension payments. The fund has had to annually liquidate about $130 million of its investment assets in the past two years to pay out benefits to retirees.

Under the agreement the city reached with the trustees of the Laborers’ fund, beneficiaries hired on or after January 1st, 2017 would be offered a choice: pay a larger share of benefits, about three percentage points more than current beneficiaries and retire two years earlier, or pay the existing 8.5% rate and retire with benefits at 67. Giving beneficiaries a “choice” will help the city get around a clause in the state constitution that prohibits pension funds from diminishing future benefits owed to current retirees.

Starting with the 2017 pension contribution, which will be made in 2018, the city would increase its payments to the Laborers’ fund by 30% per year over five years. By 2022, the city will achieve actuarially required contributions, with annual payments to the fund increasing by approximately $3 million to $5 million annually.

The agreement will need state approval, and Brown and Holt say a bill won’t be introduced until the late summer or fall. But Holt maintains that unlike the last pension overhaul plan, SB 1922, which the state’s highest court found unconstitutional and the pension funds opposed, labor will work with the city to get it passed.

Few details were provided on the call for how the city plan to address the soon to be insolvent Municipal Fund, which was included in the unconstitutional pension reform. CFO Brown said while they are not in a position to talk about what funding sources the city is currently looking at to make those payments, the agreement they made with Labor provides “a good framework.”

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee meets today and has only one item on the agenda: an ordinance from Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) requiring owners of recently burned vehicles to report the damage to the city’s Fire Commissioner.

Ald. O’Shea introduced the measure in February. It would require that the owner of record for the burned vehicle submit a “signed statement” detailing what happened to the car in addition to any other information the commissioner deems necessary to determine the accuracy of the statement. Violators would be fined between $200 - $1,000 for each offense. The ordinance would take effect 90 days after publication.

The Chicago City Council spends two days debating ever-evolving Airbnb regulations from the Mayor’s Office. The City Council approves a new zoning tool to link downtown development to some of the city’s most blighted and economically underserved neighborhoods–even as one alderman labels it a “slush fund.” And we recap the monthly Council meeting: bonds, settlements, and an attempt to curb dog poop from piling up on people’s lawns.