A normally perfunctory Finance Committee hearing for creating Special Service Areas became contentious as dozens of Chinatown residents arrived to protest the creation of a new Chinatown SSA along Wentworth Avenue. A second new SSA, #71, in the South Calumet neighborhood that would merge SSAs #40 and #41, was approved without opposition. Opposition to SSAs at this late stage is unusual, as they are required to obtain at least 20% of property owners’ approval before submission to City Council for approval.

City Treasurer Kurt Summers registered a muted disapproval of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget team Thursday morning, after he testified that neither the Mayor nor his team consulted him on the city’s debt problems.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told aldermen Thursday that he wants to make the Chicago Police Department a “model” for the rest of the country when it comes to training, professionalism and diversity.

The Cook County Board Wednesday afternoon met to pass a countywide $13 minimum wage, and create a new pharmaceutical drop-off program (in addition to the items passed in our committee wrap). But before the meeting could begin, there was forty-five minutes of public comments opposing and supporting both the Living Wage Ordinance and President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed Sweetened Beverage Tax.

Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1) walked away from the Cook County Board with a couple victories, but he earned the ire of one colleague Wednesday. A youth jobs program he had been calling for since the Spring is coming to his district, with funding and political support from Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and a new task force to study the relationship between social media and violence he proposed won unanimous approval from his fellow commissioners. But his ask for a roll call on a procedural matter related to a proposed tax freeze rubbed Comm. John Fritchey (D-12) the wrong way.

With the Chicago Cubs advancing to the World Series for the first time in over 70 years, aldermen spent a majority of Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s budget hearing griping about a new ethics rule barring them accepting face-value tickets to any of the home games from the team. Even though it was the Board of Ethics who drafted the advisory ethics rule, not the Inspector General, Ferguson was left holding the bag, sounding like a broken record as he continuously told aldermen that he had no part in drafting the rules, and he had no opinion on them.

Improving and expanding behavioral health services throughout the city of Chicago is one of the Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) biggest priorities right now, Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita told aldermen Wednesday, as she fielded questions about a supposed privatization of one of the city’s mental health clinics on the far South Side.

Talk of rats, garbage cans, and tree trimming took up much of the Department of Streets and Sanitation budget hearing Wednesday, as well as an overhaul of the city’s recycling rules set to start next year. DSS saw a modest increase in its budget for next year, from $256.2 million in 2016 to $257 million in 2017. This includes funding for a new position, a Senior Policy Analyst, who will basically be a  go between for the department and Springfield, said Commissioner Charles Williams, "Thats currently a vacancy, that's going to be helping with issues involving ordinances, policies, laws, particularly with Springfield." 

For over two hours, aldermen pressed Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman on development plans for various corners of Chicago, the status of TIFs and if Special Service Areas (SSAs) have a conflict with the new Transit TIF created through state legislation this summer. Almost none of the discussion touched on how the agency plans to spend its $167 million 2017 budget.

Human Relations Commission Chair Mona Noriega breezed through an eleven minute hearing Tuesday morning for her agency’s $2.4 million 2017 budget, while Fleet and Facilities Management Commissioner David Reynolds worked through forty minutes of questions about garbage trucks, city-owned vacant lots and minority hiring efforts.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Commissioners Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-7) and Richard Boykin (D-1) scheduled a morning press conference today to announce a new jobs and anti-violence pilot program.

In a quick series of motions Tuesday, the City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way approved a resolution to remove the honorary “Trump Plaza” designation from the open space area along North Wabash Avenue, from East Illinois Street to the Chicago River. The designation was made in 2008, shortly after the completion of the Trump Tower at 401 N. Wabash Ave.

The Forest Preserve of Cook County introduced its $192 million FY2017 budget Tuesday. It includes $2.6 million in extra costs, driven in part by lowered Personal Property Replacement Tax receipts from the state, and a scheduled raise for unionized employees.

Cook County’s Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs committee passed minimum wage provisions along a divided party line and after sometimes-contentious debate between commissioners and members of the public. The vote came less than three weeks after the ordinance was introduced, and shortly after commissioners also voted to adopt paid sick leave provisions. Both mandates have the same start date: July 1, 2017.

Commissioners will face a full Board vote on the minimum wage (more in our report, above), a drug takeback program that received bipartisan support, three tax and procurement changes proposed by Comm. John Fritchey (D-12), and a possible overhaul of the county’s property tax incentive system. Committee meetings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.