Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25), chair of the housing committee, is pictured at a council meeting Sept. 18, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate on Tuesday delayed a vote on proposed changes to the requirements for economic disclosure documents from people seeking city action but approved various ordinances related to the sale and purchase of land by the city.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), chair of the police and fire committee, is pictured. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Police and Fire will vote on four appointments to the Chicago Police Board Wednesday. The committee will meet at 10 a.m. in council chambers at City Hall.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25), chair of the housing committee, is pictured at a council meeting Sept. 18, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate’s first meeting of the new year on Tuesday will include proposed changes to the requirements for economic disclosure documents from people seeking city action and the sale and purchase of land by the city. The committee is slated to meet at noon in the council chambers.

Chicago Board of Education members listen as the members of the Acero charter schools community speak during public participation at a special meeting of the board at Colman School on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. [Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune via Getty Images]

The days before winter break provided no vacation from the conflict and drama engulfing Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

On the Friday before Christmas, the Chicago Board of Education voted to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. But Martinez will stay on the job he’s held since 2021 until at least June. Martinez has taken the school board to court to try to reverse his firing. In addition, a judge granted a temporary restraining order on Christmas Eve that preserves Martinez’s powers as CEO — for now.

City Hall is pictured in this file photo. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

An amended version of a measure to improve the city’s budget process through the institution of mid-year reports, regular updates and data access was approved as part of the wider city budget last month. But several good government groups called it a watered-down version of what it could have been.

The responsible budgeting ordinance, passed as part of the city’s annual Management Ordinance (SO2024-0013673), institutes a number of changes aimed at improving budget process transparency and efficiency for members of the City Council. Changes include setting an earlier deadline for when budget recommendations must be presented to the council; giving more power to the Council Office of Financial Analysis (COFA); and making budget information more easily available to the public and alderpeople alike.

Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over a City Council meeting Dec. 16, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Following the narrow passage of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 budget in the middle of last month, a number of shake ups hit local government in the last two weeks of the calendar year, a year that included an increasingly independent City Council and multiple personnel-related scandals and controversies within the mayor’s office. 

Several high-profile city departures were announced, and new, appointed Chicago Board of Education members voted to fire embattled Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez just weeks before a new hybrid elected board is set to be sworn in, prompting legal action by Martinez. 

Related: Council approves revised $17.1B city budget, though opponents warn it delays necessary cuts, structural reforms

Pictured: Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois. [Stephen Hogan / CC BY 2.0]

While acknowledging comments from loved ones of dead Cook County Jail inmates during a Cook County Board committee meeting on Wednesday, commissioners a day later passed several larger sheriff’s office agenda items – among others – during their last meeting of 2024.

Those agenda line items included approval of a corrections staff consulting services contract renewal – amounting to a total of $234,000 after a requested $117,000 increase, according to county board documents. 

Commissioners also deferred a $2,500 proposed legal settlement in an alleged civil rights violation case involving the sheriff’s office to the county board’s finance committee. In addition, board members passed a resolution requesting the sheriff’s office to regularly testify before the county board’s criminal justice committee starting next month, which would touch on the status of changes made in operating the county’s electronic monitoring program.

Pictured: Seal of Cook County, Illinois. [Daniel X. O’Neil / CC BY 2.0]

Clarifications Published Dec. 19, 2024: Includes clearer definition of Class 3-18 split-class property assessment classification and clarifies location of identified affected properties.

After Cook County officials recently reclassified the county’s Class 3-18 tax assessment definition for mixed-use buildings, the assessor office’s chief-of-staff testified before county board commissioners on Wednesday about how the office corrected the language to ease mounting property owner and tenant concerns.

The city’s Class 3-18 property split-class classification was part of County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s efforts to close “apartment loopholes” allegedly allowing some commercial properties to unfairly get tax breaks, according to a 2022 report from the county’s Office of the Independent Inspector General (OIIG). In turn, the reclassification resulted in more properties’ assessed values skyrocketing and, in some cases, their tax bills doubling, according to public commenters during Wednesday’s meeting.

At a press conference, Governor JB Pritzker is comparing real nerds, with those containing THC (provided via X)

Governor JB Pritzker announced his support for House Bill 4293 at a press conference on Friday. The bill would regulate hemp derived THC in a method similar to cannabis. Back in May the Illinois Senate passed the bill 54-1 which would have limited hemp-derived intoxicating THC sales to state-licensed cannabis dispensaries. The accompanying House Bill 4293 didn’t find any traction and the session ended without a vote.  

“Over the past five years an unregulated and unsafe market has been developing fueled by companies circumventing legislation and exploiting loopholes.” said the Governor, he compared two products advertised as “nerds” one that contains THC and another that does not claiming that hemp derived THC companies are “using deceptive advertising tactics to market them directly to minors.”

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) speaks in opposition to the mayor's 2025 budget plan during a City Council meeting Dec. 16, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

By a slim 27-23 margin, the Chicago City Council approved a $17.1 billion budget for 2025 on Monday.

The narrow vote helped the city avoid an unprecedented government shutdown nearly two weeks before a deadline and after weeks of negotiations between the mayor and alderpeople. It concludes a budget process that already began late but sets up a potentially similar contentious fight next year, multiple council members said. 

“With this budget, we put yet another down payment toward a better, stronger and safer future for the working people and families who call this city their home,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a news conference following the council meeting. “While the budget process may have been different from the past, it included truly unprecedented levels of collaboration and input from the City Council.”

Pictured: Chicago City Hall from Daley Plaza at Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois. [Lucas Livingston / CC BY 2.0] 

Just before the Chicago City Council at last passed its contentious fiscal year 2025 budget, its members passed on Monday a substitute ordinance that would make sure all recipients of lawsuit settlements from the city would first be subject to an indebtedness check by the comptroller. 

The action was one of several additional matters brought forth to the City Council from its finance committee, including the passage of and extensions to tax increment financing (TIF) districts. 

Pictured: City of Chicago seal. [Screenshot, COC]

Following contentious talks surrounding the City of Chicago’s 2025 fiscal year budget two weeks before its filing deadline, the city’s mayor and alderpeople will reevaluate progress made on the revised budget 1 p.m. Monday.

The update comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson – who anticipated not getting enough votes to pass the upcoming fiscal year’s budget during the Friday City Council meeting – confirmed the council will reconvene on Monday. As of Sunday, news outlets reported recent budget revisions no longer including a controversial $68.5 million property tax hike and cuts to city middle-management types of jobs.

The Chicago City Council approved zoning changes Wednesday that will allow the Chicago Transit Authority to extend the Red Line to the city’s southern border at 130th Street.

A rendering of Sterling Bay's proposed 615 apartment building at 1840-1866 N. Marcey St. in Lincoln Park. (Provided)

A two-tower development that would bring more than 600 apartments to Lincoln Park will have to wait for approval, as it was neither approved or rejected by Chicago’s City Council Wednesday despite a council committee voting against it earlier in the week.

Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over a City Council meeting on Oct. 9, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Finance by a narrow vote approved one half of the city’s budget on Tuesday, a revenue ordinance that includes $256 million in new revenue from sources such as a $68.5 million property tax hike, along with increased taxes and fees on checkout bags, rideshare trips downtown, streaming services, vehicle license transfers and garages and valet parking. 

Later Tuesday, the council budget committee also narrowly approved the mayor’s revised 2025 spending plan, setting up a likely-close final budget vote.

The revenue ordinance (SO2024-001367), approved 14-12, and the appropriation ordinance (SO2024-0013682), approved 17-16, will next go before the City Council for final consideration, which likely will happen Friday after an expected deferral Wednesday.