Finance Chairman Ed Burke (14) is teaming up with Cook County Commissioner Richard R. Boykin to discuss the growing trend of heroin-related overdoses in Illinois. He’s holding a press conference this afternoon at City Hall to call for the creation of a joint City-County advisory task force to stem the epidemic. Donal Quinlan, Ald. Burke’s spokesperson, said Burke wanted to make sure the task force included the surrounding suburbs because the issue extends beyond the city’s borders.

Last year, 633 Illinoisans died from a heroin overdose, up from 583 in 2013. And according to a recent report from the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University, the Chicago metropolitan area ranked first in the nation for emergency room visits related to heroin use.

The press event comes hot on the heals of Boykin shutting down an ersatz campaign for U.S. Senate, which he ended earlier this week.

Jack Lydon, the 47th Ward Democratic Committeeman, stepped down from his post last Wednesday evening, September 2, and was immediately replaced by Paul Rosenfeld, a Springfield lobbyist who plans to run for the spot next spring. Rosenfeld was voted in by the 47th Ward Democratic Organization, who met in the back of O’Donovan’s Pub on West Irving Park Rd., as the organization has not had an official office since former Ald. Eugene Schulter stepped down from the post in 2012.

Rosenfeld says he plans for the organization, “to make decisions collectively. We’ve got a lot of really smart attorneys that live in this ward, I’m going to lean on them especially for vetting judicial offices.”

Rosenfeld, who says his run for committeeman already has the support of most elected officials living in the way, says he'll revitalize leadership in the ward organization, including naming Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer as president of the organization.

Rosenfeld, who currently leads Ald. Ameya Pawar’s Grow 47 public schools initiative, was also once a staffer for former Ald. Dick Mell (33) and a top fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rosenfeld was labeled “Lobbyist #2” in federal investigator phone tap transcripts of Blagojevich that led to the governor’s conviction and imprisonment.

Rosenfeld briefly ran for the post in 2011, but dropped out of the race in favor of an Mayor Rahm Emanuel-favored candidate, Peter Coffey, at the last minute. Emanuel lives in the ward.

Other political leaders in the ward say off the record that there are no other candidates openly passing petitions for the committeeman seat, so Rosenfeld may run unopposed. Candidates must file no fewer than 751 good signatures with the Chicago Board of Elections no later than November 30.

The Committee on Workforce Development and Audit has two items on today’s agenda: a mayoral appointment to the Human Resources Board and a collective bargaining agreement with unionized emergency phone operators.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has recommended the appointment of Karen Coppa to the Human Resources Board, a three member body that hears cases of alleged misconduct against city employees. Coppa is currently a principal at Clear Brook Consulting and does legal work for her own firm, Karen Coppa, LLC. Coppa was also a former Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel in the City’s Law Department. If her appointment is approved, she’ll join the board’s current members, Salvador A. Cicero and Samuel L. Evans, Jr.

In addition to confirming Coppa, the Committee is also scheduled to approve a collective bargaining agreement between the City and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union No. 700. The year-long agreement covers approximately 17 Supervising Police Communications Operators employed in the Office of Emergency Management and Communication.  (Here are the agreements for 2014 and 2013).

Ald. George Cardenas’ (12) says penny-an-ounce tax on sugary drinks he is proposing still has a chance to make it into Mayor Emanuel’s proposed budget scheduled to be unveiled next week, even though there was no vote on the ordinance after a lengthy two-hour hearing on the subject.

Members Present: Chairman George Cardenas (12), Vice Chairman Harry Osterman (48),  Brian Hopkins (2), Walter Burnett Jr. (27), Ariel Reboyras (30), Deb Mell (33), Tom Tunney (44).
Non-members: Emma Mitts (13), Raymond Lopez (15), Gregory Mitchell (17), Derrick Curtis (18), Ricardo Munoz (22).
Start Time: 10:17am

List of Affected Beverages, Other Press Materials

Beverage industry reps clad in branded polos packed the City Council Chambers Wednesday morning, as health experts and beverage industry lobbyists sparred over whether the proposed tax on sugary drinks would lead to healthier Chicagoans or reduced profits for city grocers.

Ald. Cardenas’ so-called “Chicago Sweetened-Beverage Tax” broadens his original proposal from 2013 to include a tax on sugary powders and syrups. A 12-pack of of soda would cost an additional $1.44 under the plan. Milk, liquor, coffee, tea-based beverages, as well as any drink with less than 5 grams of caloric sweetener for every 12 ounces would be exempt. The tax could bring an estimated $134 million in new revenue to the city’s coffers.

But before Aldermen can vote on the proposal, it needs an okay from the City’s Law Department, which could take about week or more, according to Ald. Cardenas. If Cardenas gets the green light from the City’s lawyers, he could schedule a last-minute vote before the City Council meets at the end of the month. There’s also the possibility Mayor Rahm Emanuel could stick it straight in the budget, he says.

Mara Georges, a lawyer with Daley and Georges and former corporation counsel for Mayor Richard M. Daley, brought up the potential illegality of the new tax when she testified on behalf of the American Beverage Association. She said she expects the ordinance would fail in a court challenge, because soft drinks are already taxed twice to the cap–3% for cans or bottles bought in retail stores, and 9% on syrup used in fountain drinks, and the city could not exceed either.

There was little questioning or testimony from aldermen in attendance at yesterday’s hearing, with the exception of Ald. Tom Tunney (44), who has owned Lakeview staple restaurant Ann Sather since his mid-20s. He came out in opposition to the tax, questioning the accuracy of Ald. Cardenas’ data, and said business owners have been squeezed enough. “I just really feel that we’re really pricing ourselves out of the middle class,” Tunney said, claiming Chicagoans are already heading across the Indiana border for gasoline, tobacco, and a lower sales tax.

Tanya Triche, with the Illinois Restaurant Merchant’s Association, lauded Ald. Cardenas’ intent, but said grocers on the city’s fringe would at risk of shutting down if the tax goes through. “Why would anyone near borders buy here when they could go a couple blocks away?” she asked. She said the tax would nearly double the price of a two liter. “At some point it becomes too much.”

But Ald. Cardenas and health officials who testified kept pulling the debate away from business and toward the obesity and diabetes epidemic. Money from the tax would establish the Chicago Wellness Fund and an oversight committee to manage it. 98% of revenue would go toward the fund, with 75% earmarked for health education and fitness programs at Chicago Public Schools. The Chicago Department of Public Health would pick up the other 2% of anticipated revenue for administrative costs for the rollout of the tax.

Malik Nevels with the Illinois African American Coalition for Prevention says minority Chicagoans already face several barriers to living a healthy life from targeted marketing by beverage companies to poor physical activity infrastructure in minority neighborhoods. He sees the ordinance as a way to support health initiatives in communities, rather than squeezing families’ spending, “[The Chicago Coalition Against Beverage Taxes] can’t say it hurts low income communities.”

Like most other revenue-raising options aldermen have come up with, Mayor Emanuel was non-committal in a separate event Wednesday. “The notion of a sugar tax is all about curbing behavior,” he told reporters. “Changing people’s behavior can be a big savings financially as well as improve healthcare outcomes, so I am encouraging all the aldermen to come up with ideas.”

Speaking to Aldertrack after the hearing, Ald. Cardenas said he was encouraged and optimistic that his co-chair, Ald. Harry Osterman (48), sounded open to the ordinance. At Wednesday’s hearing, Osterman said everything is on the table going into the budget process. “Taxing policies put on tobacco products I think has had a significant impact,” he said. “Maybe the taxing is not where it needs to be to get people to choose healthier choices.”

The Department of Planning and Development is on track to meet its affordable housing goal of 8,200 units by the end of 2015, but it remains behind on its goal to increase the number of first time homeowners, according to Deputy Commissioner for Housing Lawrence Grisham’s testimony to the Housing and Real Estate Committee. The hearing was a report from him and a review of highlights of the 2015 Second Quarter Progress Report of the city’s five-year housing plan. DPD is the lead agency for the City’s affordable housing, housing preservation, and homebuyer assistance programs.

Committee Members Present: Chairman Joe Moore (49), Vice Chairman Pat Dowell (3), Gregory Mitchell (7), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Deb Mell (33), James Cappleman (46).

Since the start of 2015, the City allocated over $151 million in funds to support more than 5,700 affordable housing units, representing 63% of the total affordable unit goal and 60% of the resource allocation goal for 2015. This includes the addition of four large-scale affordable housing projects the City Council approved funding for in the last quarter.

But DPD has only committed $12 million to help 180 households achieve or sustain homeownership. That amounts to 37% of the $33 million DPD had anticipated spending on the initiative this year.

Grisham attributed the continued lag in the home ownership numbers to a lack of demand, availability and affordability of homes in neighborhoods that have yet to rebound from the recession. He said DPD kept the higher than expected target for the homebuyer programs because the department anticipates increased interest in the near future.

“We are, in fact, beginning to see an uptick in activity in both our loan programs and other programs related to home ownership,” Grisham said.

But the discussion on DPD’s affordable housing progress report was only a portion of the nearly two hour meeting, as time was set aside to discuss the city’s Troubled Building Initiative (TBI) after several public commenters criticized the program at the last quarterly briefing in June. TBI was designed to address problems with negligent landlords and crumbling housing stock. Through the courts, a judge can appoint a receiver (i.e. developer) to take over and rehabilitate the property. Critics say the process, which takes over a year, is too long, and local community groups were kept in the dark when receivers were chosen.

Several South Side aldermen at yesterday’s hearing echoed those concerns, saying they too would like to be kept in the loop when foreclosed or dilapidated buildings in their wards go through this process.

Bryan Esenberg, Assistant Housing Commissioner, said the city has had a hard time finding eligible developers, since they are required to front redevelopment costs totaling millions before getting reimbursed from the city.

A proposal to slap a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks will be the subject of today’s City Council Committee on Health and Environmental Protection.

Committee Chairman George Cardenas (12) is the architect behind the so-called “Chicago Sweetened-Beverage Tax”, which includes a tax on sugary powders and syrups sold at Chicago-area grocery stores. A 12-pack of of soda would cost an additional $1.44 under the plan. Milk, liquor, coffee, tea-based beverages, as well as any drink with less than 5 grams of caloric sweetener for every 12 ounces would be exempt.

Back in 2012, Cardenas introduced a resolution (R2012-172) that led to a lengthy hearing on the effects sugary beverages have on obesity and the implications of imposing a higher sales tax on these types of beverages. At the time, Cardenas was considering a 15 to 35-cent tax on sugary drinks to curb consumption and raise money for health programs, but that plan was never put into a written, draft ordinance.

If Ald. Cardenas' updated proposal is approved in committee today, and by the full City Council later this month, the ordinance would establish the Chicago Wellness Fund and an oversight committee to manage it. The Advisory Council for Health and Wellness would be made up of 22 members, including four aldermen, four representatives from designated city agencies, and 14 members appointed by the mayor.

Ninety-eight percent of the revenue generated through the tax would go toward the fund, with 75% of that money earmarked for health education and fitness programs at Chicago Public Schools. The Department of Public Health would pick up the other 2% of anticipated revenue for administrative costs associated with the rollout of the new tax.

Expect a lengthy hearing on the controversial tax. Ald. Cardenas has invited several expert witnesses to testify in support of the research cited in the preamble to his ordinance that suggests a tax on sugary drinks could result in a 23.5% reduction in consumption, a 9.3% reduction in youth obesity, and a 5.2% cut in adult obesity.

Speakers include: Esther Sciamarella, Executive Director of the Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition; Elissa J. Bassler, CEO of the Illinois Public Health Institute; Malik Nevels, Executive Director of the Illinois African American Coalition for Prevention; and Dr. Lisa Powell, professor of health policy and administration for the University of Illinois-Chicago’s School of Public Health.

The Chicago Coalition Against Beverage Taxes, a group created specifically to oppose Ald. Cardenas’ proposed tax, has said a tax on sugary drinks would burden businesses already paying special taxes on sodas and bottled water. The coalition, co-chaired by Rob Karr, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, lists nearly a thousand businesses, labor unions, and community groups as partners.

Former 2nd Ward Alderman and mayoral candidate Bob Fioretti plans to run for State Senate in the 5th legislative district, according to this D-1 Fioretti filed with the State Board of Elections. The seat is currently held by State Sen. Patricia Van Pelt Watkins, a West Side political activist who was elected to the state legislature in 2012, a year after she ran a quixotic fifth-place campaign for mayor of Chicago.

Watkins was supported by several West Side aldermen and ward organizations, including Ald. Walter Burnett, Jr. (27). Fioretti reported no funds for his new candidate committee, Bob Fioretti for State Senator, but his old aldermanic committee, which he used to fundraise for his mayoral bid, reported a balance of $8,461.70 as of June 30th.

The Committee on Zoning approved plans to build a new Whole Foods in Lakeview, Tishman Speyer’s proposed 53-story office tower in the Loop, a boutique Viceroy Hotel in the Gold Coast, and a new Half Acre brewery and beer garden in Ravenswood. But those big ticket items took only a fraction of the four-and-a-half hour zoning meeting yesterday.

Committee Members present: Chairman Danny Solis (25), Vice Chairman James Cappleman (46), Joe Moreno (1), David Moore (17), Howard Brookins, Jr. (21), Walter Burnett (27), Deb Mell (33), Marge Laurino (39), Brendan Reilly (42), Tom Tunney (44), Ameya Pawar (47)

Non-members present: Harry Osterman (48), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), Anthony Beale (9)

The committee dedicated close to an hour discussing an application to expand a 60-year-old community of manufactured homes along Wolf Lake in the 10th Ward.

The community has been around since the 1950s, and was reclassified into a Residential Business Planned Development in 2008 with the goal of removing the existing manufactured homes and replacing them with 953 detached homes, 30,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and 44.5 acres of open space. But the economic downturn stalled that project and the original applicant for the PD went into foreclosure. Harbor Point Venture, LLC bought the property in 2012 with the intent of expanding the number of manufactured homes from the current 190 units to 747.

The Zoning Committee approved Harbor Point Venture, LLC's proposal in January, but due to some confusion over building permits, the plan never advanced to the full City Council. Manufactured homes are an anomaly that don’t fit the zoning code because they are usually constructed off site and don’t follow the same zoning requirements as detached, single-family homes, Zoning Administrator Patti Scudiero explained after several aldermen expressed confusion over the project.

The application was being revisited at the request of freshman Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza. When she succeeded Ald. John Pope in office, she asked that the committee revisit the plan after she had time to get acquainted with it. After two community meetings and numerous talks with the developers, Ald. Garza said she was in favor of the project and asked that the committee re-approve the application. They did.

A significant amount of time was also spent on Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) application to rezone a vacant public elementary school in the Roseland community. Ald. Beale said reclassifying the site of the former John G. Shedd Elementary School from a residentially zoned area to a manufacturing district is a “routine land plan usage ordinance". The school has been vacant since 2013, one of the roughly 50 schools closed by CPS at the time. Last December, the Board of Education rejected two offers to buy the property because neither bid was high enough, according to DNAinfo. “The community is very concerned about the use of what this facility will be,” Ald. Beale explained. “It's an entire block, so we are changing the zoning for future land plan usage, so we can make sure that whatever goes there, the community has input on the development.” Residents who testified were mostly concerned about the impact the zoning change would have on their property values and if it would lead to more economic development in the community.

Changing the block into an M1-1 district would restrict the type of development allowed on site, and if CPS eventually sells the property and the new owner seeks rezone the site, it would have to go through a lengthy zoning process, as any downzone from a manufacturing district would require approval from the Plan Commission. Before the committee approved Ald. Beale’s request, Ald. James Cappleman (46) asked if any charter schools had expressed interest in the site. Beale said no.

Ald. Harry Osterman’s (48) application to sunset an expired Planned Developmentin Edgewater was also a point of contention, as the developers sought a one year extension to move forward on plans to build a residential building for seniors.

Ald. Osterman filed an application to sunset Residential Planned Development #1056 and revert the area back to a Community Shopping district. The PD expired in May, and Ald. Osterman said he wanted to bring the area back to its original zoning classification so the local community could have a say in any future development. But at the committee meeting yesterday, the lawyer for the owner of the PD, Barry Levin, accused accused Ald. Osterman of sunsetting the PD without notifying his clients and asked that the Committee grant a one year extension. He said this clients were planning to build a residential complex for seniors and downzoning the property would prohibit that kind of construction, forcing his clients to re-apply for a new Planned Development. Reapplying for a new PD would trigger the stricter affordable housing requirements the City Council approved last year. The committee approved the application, after Solis pulled up records proving notice was mailed to the community.

The Committee also approved nearly a dozen mayoral appointments, including:

• Gabriel Ignacio Dziekiewicz as member of Commission on Chicago. He is the president and principal of design for DesignBridge, an architecture, interior design and graphic design firm.


• Juan G. Moreno as member of Commission on Chicago Landmarks. He is the president and founder of JGMA (Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects), a self-described progressive architecture and design firm founded in 2010 and based in Chicago.


• Carmen A. Rossi as member of Commission on Chicago Landmarks. He is a commercial lawyer and restaurateur and owns the Hubbard Inn in River North and Barn & Co. in Lincoln Park.


• Blake P. Sercye as member of Zoning Board of Appeals. He is a litigator for corporate law firm Jenner & Block and also has a pro-bono practice in Austin that focuses on fair housing, prisoner rights and criminal defense.

35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa and his staffers held a 45-minute teleconference Thursday with constituents to outline achievements from his first 100 days in City Council. Rosa’s office released a slick Progress Report and State of the Ward Report outlining more than 30 initiatives he's started.

Some of his initiatives are par for the course aldermanic activities, like testifying on school closings and talking with community leaders. Others are bigger picture, such as creating a senior citizen task force, spearheading a non-governmental (read: outside of the Mayor’s reach) immigration working group, and implementation of participatory budgeting in the next menu money cycle.

For data hounds, Rosa’s Ward Report includes some useful information on affordable housing, local chambers of commerce, area demographics, and other facts and figures. When stacked up against aldermen who have next to no online presence, it sets a high bar for constituent communication.

A day after the Chicago Board of Education’s unanimous approval of an unbalanced $5.7B budget, and days before 26,000 public school teachers head back to the classroom, Chicago Teacher’s Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey railed against Mayor Emanuel, the Board, and Bank of America at an appearance at City Club of Chicago Thursday.

Sharkey took the place of CTU President Karen Lewis, whom Sharkey said was having a “not-so-good” recovery week. Thursday’s audience included several state representatives and Board of Education staffers, including Vice President Jesse Ruiz.

Read Sharkey’s speech notes here.

In the midst of mediated CTU and CPS negotiations over teacher contracts, Sharkey set aside questions about another potential strike, and focused instead on the Board’s “dysfunctional” budget. “What is at stake right now really is the future of public schools as we know it in the city.” Sharkey likened the Board to a gambler at the end of a run, saying the state legislature and Governor Bruce Rauner are unsafe bets, and unlikely to fill the budget’s $480M gap.

He predicts that unfilled gap will mean more cuts for teachers in the middle of the school year. “It’s going to be a horror story. Mass layoffs of teachers and of the school staff, every school of the system will need to be reprogrammed, we’re going to eliminate maintenance and cleaning budgets, eliminate vital programs. Strip our schools to the bare bones.”

Sharkey’s solution is one CTU has previously called for: tax the wealthy. At Thursday’s event, he also called for a boycott of Bank of America and for B of A’s Illinois President, Timothy Malone, to return $274M in profits Sharkey says the company made off swaps. The Tribune recently detailed those deals and CPS has started a boycott petition.v He accused the board of being “insulated from public pressure” and dominated by “bosses” before making another pitch for an elected school board.

Such a change would take approval from Springfield, which is in the works in the form of HB 4268. The bill, which has 48 co-sponsors, also calls for the Board’s inspector general to be appointed by the Board, rather than the Mayor. It’s pending in the Illinois House Rules Committee.

Sharkey also expressed solidarity with hunger strikers hoping to keep Bronzeville’s Dyett High School open by turning it into the "Dyett High School of Global Leadership and Green Technology."

He called for CPS and Mayor Emanuel to suspend the request for proposal process and accept Dyett protesters’ pitch for a the green tech school. Mayor Emanuel gave no indication Thursday morning he’d halt the RFP process, and said schools nearby are still under capacity.

Development plans to turn a Wicker Park gas station into a chain hotel, a medical device facility into a catering business, and a vacant Humboldt Park church into a residential housing complex are just some of the many items slated for the City Council’s Zoning Committee today.

George Nediyakalayil, President of Gas Depot, is behind a proposal to turn the Shell gas station he owns on the corner of Ashland and North Avenues (1551 West North Ave) into a seven-story hotel with 99 rooms and 50 parking spaces. Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) held a community meeting on the proposed hotel earlier this month, but according to DNAinfo, the freshman alderman will likely defer the plan until a traffic study is completed. (#02015-5308)

The proposal to turn a Drummond Industries plastic injection molding company on 2600-18 North Cicero Ave. into a catering company was filed by Swell Chicago, LLC. Jonadab Silva, the registered owner of the limited liability company, co-owns Cooked, a restaurant in Evanston that delivers fresh and healthy meals to customers in Chicago, the North Suburbs and the Northwest Suburbs. Drummond Industrieswill retain ownership of the subject property, and there isn’t any new development planned for the site. Silva has requested a zoning change from a Neighborhood Shopping District (B1-1) to a Neighborhood Commercial District (C1-1) so that he can transform the existing, two-story, 15,000 sq ft structure into a catering business that will serve liquor. (#02015-5310)

Michael Kaplun and Mikhail Skoulsky want to transform the vacant Sure Foundation Ministry Baptist Church on 1300 N. Artesian Ave. into a six-unit residential building. The church, located on the border of Humboldt and Wicker Park, was put up for sale in 2012.  Kaplun and Skoulsky will keep the structure of the mid-sized church intact, according to the zoning application they filed with the city under the name 1300 N. Artesian LLC. (#02015-5309)

One item on the agenda that will likely get withdrawn today is a proposed charter school on the southwest side of Rosehill Cemetery in the 40th Ward. Intrinsic Charter Schools applied for a zoning change for 5501-5525 N. Western Ave., so it could build an approximately 120,000 sq ft, 7-12 grade school with an adjoining athletic field and parking lot. But according to a letter Ald. Pat O’Connor sent to his constituents in July, the charter school network is no longer interested in the site and will look for another location on the Northwest Side. (#02015-4643)

And speaking of schools, Ald. Anthony Beale (9) has an application to reclassify the former John G. Shedd Elementary School from a residential zoned district to a manufacturing district. It was one of the schools the Board of Education voted to close in 2013. Beale reportedly sent out this letter and held a recent community meeting on the zoning change. (# O2015-4721)

Several large scale development items listed on the deferred agenda, like a new Whole Foods in Lakeview and an angular glass office tower in the Downtown Loop, got the green light from the Plan Commission last week and are expected to get a vote today.

There are also nearly a dozen Mayoral appointments and reappointments to the City’s various land use boards listed on today’s agenda, including:

• Gabriel Ignacio Dziekiewicz as member of Commission on Chicago. He is the president and principal of design for DesignBridge, an architecture, interior design and graphic design firm. Prior to joining DesignBridge, Gabriel worked for two Chicago architectural firms, Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Destefano+Partners, Ltd., where he worked on the design for One South Dearborn, the downtown office tower where law firm Sidley Austin, LLP is headquartered.


• Juan G. Moreno as member of Commission on Chicago Landmarks. He is the president and founder of JGMA (Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects), a self-described progressive architecture and design firm founded in 2010 and based in Chicago. Moreno was born in Bogota, Columbia and studied architecture at California State Polytechnic University Pomona.


• Carmen A. Rossi as member of Commission on Chicago Landmarks. She is a commercial lawyer and restaurateur. She owns the Hubbard Inn in River North and Barn & Co. in Lincoln Park.


• Blake P. Sercye as member of Zoning Board of Appeals. He is a litigator for corporate law firm Jenner & Block and also has a pro-bono practice in Austin that focuses on fair housing, prisoner rights and criminal defense. Sercye was unsuccessful in his bid for the Cook County Board of Commissioners last year, despite high profile endorsements from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. He served on the Illinois Medical District Commission and Chicago’s Community Development Commission.

Relying on nearly half a billion dollars from Springfield and more than $250 million in costly “scoop and toss” borrowing, the Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved the FY2016 budget for Chicago Public Schools Wednesday.

The $5.7 billion budget includes $200 million in what the Board called “painful cuts” that affect CPS’ central office and hundreds of teachers. The budget also calls for a property tax hike to the cap for Chicagoans, and draws on TIF surplus funds.

“There is no question that the budget approved today is not the budget we want for our schools this year, but it does reflect the District’s extremely challenging financial situation in the absence of pension reform and sufficient state education funding,” CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said in a press release hours after the vote. “We are pleased leaders in Springfield have acknowledged our structural deficit must be addressed, and we will continue working diligently with our partners to ensure a solution is reached that brings CPS the resources it needs to provide every one of its students with a high-quality education at the school of their choice.”

The Board’s so-called “partners in Springfield,” have until August 31 to put a balanced budget in place. Without Springfield’s help, Board of Education officials have said they’ll hit a financial wall at the start of 2016.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis was scheduled to speak at a City Club of Chicago luncheon today, but Vice President Jesse Sharkey will be taking her place. The sold out event begins at 11:30 a.m.

A month after appointing Lori Lightfoot as the new president of the Chicago Police Board, the City Council Committee on Public Safety approved two new members to the Board, including a former Los Angeles police officer turned investment banker.

Committee Members Present: (8/19 members) Chairman Ariel Reboyras (30), Vice Chairman Willie Cochran (20), Gregory Mitchell (7), Ed Burke (14), Matt O’Shea (19), Chris Taliaferro (29), Anthony Napolitano (41), Ameya Pawar (47).

John Simpson, a partner at the investment banking firm Broadhaven Capital Partners, who also contributed $77,000 to Mayor Rahm Emanuel reelection, told the Committee that he got a job with the LAPD after graduating from Harvard Law School. He eventually moved to Chicago in 1989 and has worked in the financial services industry for the last 30 years.

If his appointment is approved by the full City Council next month, he will be the only person on the nine-member board with previous law enforcement experience. Former Chicago Police officers Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) and Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) had called for more police experience on the Board during the Lightfoot hearing, when they expressed concerns that relationships between police and the communities they serve are at an all-time low. They made similar remarks at yesterday's hearing, and were joined by two other former police officers on the city council, Ald. Ed Burke (14) and Ald. Willie Cochran (20).

But unlike Lightfoot's confirmation hearing, which consisted of a lengthy Q&A and a laundry list of concerns about strained community-police relations in Chicago and across the country, yesterday's nomination meeting was less of an interrogation and more reflective.

Committee Vice Chairman Cochran (20) gave what can only be described as a monologue about community policing following Simpson's testimony. "We see more bad than good in our communities," Ald. Cochran said as he went on to describe the difficult positions police face in the line of duty and the responsibility of the Police Board to keep the officers accountable. "We are counting on you to make us better."

In addition to approving Simpson's appointment, the committee also approved the appointment of Claudia Venezuela, an immigration lawyer with the Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center. During her testimony, Venezuela gave a brief synopsis of her resume highlighting her expertise handling policing issues in immigrant communities. The meeting went on somewhat of a tangent after that, as Ald. Burke asked Venezuela if she thought an ordinance he championed back in 2002 allowing Mexican immigrants obtain library cards and bank accounts with their Mexican issued ID was successful.

"I think it benefited many individuals forced to live in the shadows," Venezuela responded, adding that she worked with people who benefited from the program. The conversation moved from the Matricula Consular cards to a discussion of legislation in Springfield from Rep. Daniel J. Burke, Ed Burke's brother, related to detention centers. Burke eventually spiraled into an odd, exhaustive history lesson on James Shield, an immigrant who ended up serving in the U.S. Senate for three different states, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.

The third nominee, William Conlon, a partner at Sidney, LLP, was absent, but the Committee advanced his re-appointment to the board.

Bankruptcy for Chicago Public Schools would not only be a long and complicated litigation process, but could cause a “death spiral” for the district, according to a group of panelists at a City Club of Chicago event Monday titled, Chicago Public Schools: Is Bankruptcy Inevitable?

Governor Rauner floated bankruptcy as a potential fix for Chicago Public Schools’ financial problems in April, but CPS would have several legal hurdles to jump before it could declare it is out of cash.

For starters, a municipality like CPS couldn’t file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy without state approval, according to panelist George Panagakis, a lawyer who deals with reorganizations, debt restructuring, and insolvency. But even if the state allowed CPS to file for bankruptcy, Panagakis says the school district would have to meet three eligibility criteria.

First, it would have to be insolvent in near-term cash flow. “It would have to be really really out of money,” Panagakis explained. Whether CPS could raise more revenue or make more cuts would have to be hashed out in court.

Second, the district would need a plan for how to get out of bankruptcy, either by extending debt maturities, reducing the amount of principal or interest, or refinancing the debt by obtaining a new loan.

And lastly, CPS would have to negotiate with a majority of its creditors to get a consensus that bankruptcy is the best step forward.

Getting legislation in place, then convincing a judge the district meets all three requirements would take a year or more to prove, Panagakis said, adding that filing for bankruptcy can be a useful way to create a forum as a last ditch effort to try to straighten out finances. He said talking about Chapter 9 is a good thing.

But Charles Burbridge, a deputy chief financial officer at CPS 20 years ago, called talk of bankruptcy a red herring, saying education policy and pension funding are the real issues.

“It’s reprehensible that the state would even consider bankruptcy,” he said, to applause from the crowd. “CPS is a creation of the state, the state controls almost every aspect of education… the state needs to step up and take responsibility for it.”

In an interview with the Tribune about the source of CPS’s budget woes, Burbridge, now head of the Chicago Teacher’s Pension Fund, talked about his part in contributing to the problem back in 1995. “We felt that we made good calls on the priorities…History may judge that we didn't. Certainly good pension funding shows that we didn't. But we thought we were doing good things." He told today’s crowd the pension fund survived through World Wars and a Depression, but can’t survive without full employer contributions.

Panelist Troy LaRaviere, the principal of Blaine Elementary School, a self-described passionate defender of public schools, didn’t partake in the City Club’s lunch in solidarity with the hunger strikers for Dyett High School. He argued emotionally that blame shouldn’t rest entirely on Springfield’s shoulders, and read a prepared statement saying Mayor Emanuel’s allowed poor financial decisions to continue well into his administration.

“Pensions are not the source of our problem. This administration consistently misappropriated pension funds and then attempts to convince us that pensions themselves are the problem. That’s like a thief stealing your rent money and then attempting to convince you that the landlord is your problem.”

LaRaviere said reckless and corrupt city borrowing, a “parasitic private sector,” and state legislators that create a climate for “this kind of nonsense to happen,” are taking all of what little teachers have.

And then there was Jesse Ruiz, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, who bypassed bankruptcy talk altogether and instead blamed Springfield for the district’s financial woes. “The fact of the matter is, state support for public education has been in decline,” he said. Chicago schools have taken a $100 million hit in this past fiscal year alone, Ruiz added.

Ruiz is now tasked with voting on CPS’s proposed budget, which includes a $450M gap that the district hopes Springfield will fill. CPS CEO Forrest Claypool has said there’s no Plan B in place if Senate President John Cullerton doesn’t pull through on the bill he is championing in Springfield to help give the district a break.

Just after the panel, the Civic Federation issued a press release urging the Board of Education to reject CPS’s budget, calling it irresponsible for the same reason one member of the crowd brought up: there’s no Springfield rescue yet. “This budget is yet another financially risky, short-sighted proposal and fails to provide any reassurance that Chicago Public Schools has a plan for emerging from its perpetual financial crisis,” the release said. You can read Civic Fed’s full report here.

Former CPS CEO Paul Vallas might’ve summed things up most succinctly when he said bankruptcy would be “the kiss of death for CPS,” not only because kids and teachers could flee to private and charter schools, decimating per-student funding. “The legal obstacles, the implications, the fact that the courts are going to force you to demonstrate that you’ve done everything that you could normally do in a normal political environment to resolve the issues before they declare bankruptcy, it’s just not an option just for those reasons alone. But it’s also not an option because who wants to send their kids to a bankrupt school district?”

City Treasurer Kurt Summers hired former Illinois Tollway executive Kristi Lafleur and the former Chief Investment Officer for the New York State Insurance fund, Miriam Martinez, to help manage the city’s $7 billion investment portfolio.

Lafleur will take over the role of Deputy Treasurer, Chief Operating Officer with a starting salary of $113,898, according to 2015 Budget numbers. Lafleur will oversee day-to-day operations and help Treasurer Summers implement several key initiatives he unveiled when he first took office in December 2014. This includes his neighborhood and infrastructure investment plan he dubbed “Invest in Our Chicago”, as well as his proposal to streamline fees the city pays financial service firms that handle the city’s 11 public pension funds.

As head of the Tollway Authority in the Pat Quinn Administration, Lafleur was widely credited with reducing patronage at the agency and helping to make it more efficient, following the excesses of the Blagojevich years.

Martinez will serve as the Treasurer’s new Chief Investment Officer and will carry out the same duties she had in her former job as the fiduciary of the $16 billion fund for New York state public employees.

In addition to hiring Lafleur and Martinez, Summers also named Alexandra Sims the new Director of Programs and Intergovernmental Affairs.