The last full City Council meeting of the year was likely one of the most eventful ones of 2016: A federal indictment accusing Ald. Willie Cochran (20) of using a special ward fund to pay his daughter's college tuition and gambling habit was filed in federal court and made public less than an hour into the meeting as aldermen were in the midst of praising the Cubs. Mayor Rahm Emanuel officially announced the city’s new Clerk: Anna Valencia, his Director of Legislative Counsel and Government Affairs (LCGA). And aldermen spent hours discussing–and at times arguing over–two contentious ordinances that ultimately passed: a rollback of the city’s flavored tobacco rules and the formation of a $1.3 million legal defense fund aimed at protecting undocumented residents from the threat of deportation.

The Council Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events approved an ordinance Tuesday giving the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) the authority to produce public events and festivals for next year, such as the Taste of Chicago, an action the committee must take every year. Updated language concerning public art displays is expected to land next Spring.

A proposal to allocate $1.3 million in unspent money from the city’s property tax rebate program to establish a new legal defense fund for immigrants in Chicago advanced out of the Council’s Budget Committee. One alderman, Nick Sposato (38), voted against the plan, while some members of the Council’s Black Caucus urged the Administration to set up a similar fund for organizations that focus on anti-violence or legal services in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.

These are some of the items that’ll be up for consideration at today’s meeting:

• $9M in four legal settlements. The largest payout ($3.8M) settles a class action lawsuit brought by female Chicago firefighters in 2012. Another $3M settlement with the family of Cedric Chatman, a teenager shot dead by Chicago Police Officer Kevin Fry while fleeing an alleged car theft.

• $1.3M appropriation for a new Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants (Revenue Source: leftovers from the property tax rebate program)

• Resolution from Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) condemning hateful speech and violent actions directed toward Muslims, those perceived to be Muslims, immigrants, and people of color  

• Resolution from Mayor Rahm Emanuel reaffirming Chicago as a Welcoming City.

• Rollback of flavored tobacco rules from Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) that would lift the ban on selling flavored tobacco (including menthol) within 500 feet of elementary and middle schools. That 500 foot measurement is taken from the property line of the school to the property line of the retailer (not from door to door, as retailers would have preferred).

• New efficiency Rules for downtown development an ordinance that would eliminate the maximum allowable number of studio apartments (called “efficiency units” in the zoning code) within the Downtown (D-district) for projects located within 600-feet of a CTA or Metra train station. The city’s zoning code currently limits these efficiency units, ranging from from 50% of total units in a D-16 zone to 20% in a D-3 zone (the corresponding numbers provide for allowable density).

• Termination of three TIFs: the Calumet River TIF (established in 2010), Addison Corridor North (established in 1997) and the 69th/Ashland TIF (created in 2004).

• 2017 Special Events Ordinance for DCASE

• Class L designation for Tucker Development, which is rehabbing 11 buildings in Fulton Market to construct a commercial retail complex in the historic Fulton-Randolph Market area. The incentive will offset some of the $21M in rehabilitation costs needed for the project (The leasing plan and renderings of the planned upgrades.)

• The designation of Enterprise Zone 6, one of several city zones created to “stimulate economic growth and neighborhood revitalization by offering state and local tax incentives to companies expanding or relocating within depressed areas.” This special zone includes wards 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, and a portion of 4. View the boundaries here.  

• A bond inducement ordinance for $16 million for the John Pennycuff affordable housing project.

• Intergovernmental agreement with the CTA to disperse TIF funds for Ventra Machines. TIF revenue from two downtown TIF districts–Canal/Congress and LaSalle Central– will pay for 20% of the approximately $814,500 project. Most of the budget, $500,000, will pay for fare equipment along the new rapid bus route around the Loop.

• Appointment of Simon Gordon, a pastor at Triedstone Full Gospel Baptist Church in Roseland, to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, a board created in 2012 to enforce Chicago’s Human Rights Ordinance and the Chicago Fair Housing Ordinance. (Gordon’s Resume)

• Appointment of Cristina Matos, a CHA resident of the Southeast Scattered Site, to the ten-member Chicago Housing Authority Board.

• Three Class 6(b) property tax incentives for industrial properties in the 12th, 27th and 35th Wards. Companies that will get a reduced tax bill over the next 12-year incentive period include: Pioneer Engineering & Environmental Services (3101 S. California Ave.), Chicago Flyhouse Inc. (317 N Francisco Ave & 335 N Francisco Ave.), and H.M. Witt & Co. (3313 W. Newport Ave.).

• An ordinance adding the Uptown Square District to the city’s list of historical landmark districts. (Department of Planning And Development staff report.)

• Sale of city-owned land in Humboldt Park (1345 N. Rockwell St.) to The Puerto Rican Cultural Center. The property is valued at $1.53M and will be sold for $1.

• Sale of city-owned land in Chinatown to Sea Dog Ventures, Inc., a subsidiary of Entertainment Cruises for duck boat tours along the Chicago River. (Price: $191,000)

• The $1 sale of 32 city-owned vacant lots in the 6th, 17th, 20th, and 21st Wards in the Auburn, Gresham, and Woodlawn neighborhoods under the city’s Large Lots Program.

A proposal to designate a commercial strip in Uptown as a historic landmark district advanced out of Zoning Committee Monday. It was one of a few applications that moved out of the quick, hour long meeting, as nearly a third of the items on the agenda were deferred at the request of the local alderman or zoning attorney.

The Council’s Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation meets Tuesday at noon to consider the 2017 Special Events Ordinance, which details contracting requirements and caps on ticket prices for next year’s public events, like the Taste of Chicago.

An ordinance appropriating $1 million to establish a new legal defense fund aimed at protecting undocumented residents and refugees from deportation will be directly introduced to the Council’s Budget Committee today.

A proposed landmark designation for the Uptown Square District and eight Transit Oriented Development projects (TODs) for the city’s North and Near West Sides are on the Zoning Committee’s agenda today.

For the month of October, Susana Mendoza fund-raised $1.6 million, two West Side aldermen created their own PAC to support the betterment of their neighborhoods, and one aldermen neared a $100,000 limit on self-funding.

Spreadsheet: October 2016 Campaign Contribution Report

Aldermen Jason Ervin (28) and Emma Mitts (37) created a new political action committee in October to “support the efforts for the betterment of the westside of Chicago.”  The two aldermen filed a D-1 Statement of Organization with the State Board of Elections on Oct. 19th creating the “West Side Black Officials” PAC. The address listed is the same one Ald. Mitts uses for her personal campaign fund, Citizens to Elect Emma Mitts.

City Council Transportation Committee Chair Anthony Beale (9) will have to wait another month to get a vote on his proposal to crack down on the number of honorary signs aldermen can erect in their wards, amid concerns by his colleagues that the new rules are unreasonable.

All three proposed Class 6(b) property tax incentives on the Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital, and Technology Development received unanimous approval and will be reported out at the next full City Council meeting scheduled for next Wednesday.

Committee Chair Joe Moreno (1) added a last minute item to the agenda: a discussion of a new pilot program the Department of Streets and Sanitation is rolling out to incentivize recycling.

Three applications for property tax incentives for industrial properties in the 12th, 27th and 35th Wards are up for consideration today by the Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.

The Class 6(b) incentive gives companies a discount on their property tax bill over a 12-year period in return for a commitment to rehab and relocate to an existing, often dilapidated, vacant industrial property. The program is managed by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, and could soon be amended to include language allowing the Board, local municipalities, or Berrios to revoke tax breaks if companies fail to complete planned rehabs, upgrades, or job creation promises. Cook County Comm. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is leading the effort, and the ordinance could be taken up later this month.

New rules for honorary street designations and an intergovernmental agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority to provide tax increment financing (TIF) revenue for new Ventra fare machines around downtown are on tap for the Council’s Transportation Committee today.

For two hours, the Council’s Committee on Human Relations heard passionate public testimony from advocates, immigrants, and Muslim- and Arab-American residents who came out in full support of two resolutions–one reaffirming the city’s role as a “Welcoming City”, and the other committing to denounce any anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim policies that may be considered under a Donald Trump presidency.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel reported receiving nearly $400,00 in campaign contributions, including checks from 15 attorneys at the law firm DLA Piper, eight executives at Exelon, and $50,000 in two separate checks from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134 in September.

In response to president-elect Donald Trump’s past comments on immigration, the Council’s Human Relations Committee meets today to consider to symbolic resolutions reaffirming the city’s stance as a “welcoming city” for immigrants.

Meet all five candidates hoping to unseat 4th Ward Alderman Sophia King in a special election next February. Appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel this past Spring, Ald. King details how she plans to hold on to the seat at a time when her challengers try to label her as a flack for the Mayor. Education advocates and Chicago Public School officials blast Gov. Bruce Rauner for vetoing a bill that would have provided CPS with some much needed cash, $215 million, to make its next payment to the teachers’ pension fund. We’ve also got all the details on the massive new transit TIF the City Council approved this week. The largest TIF in city history, it’l levy a portion of property taxes from homes and businesses around the Red Line to help pay for a $2.1 billion modernization effort of the century old system. The federal government is pitching in half the cost.

The City Council unanimously approved a redevelopment agreement establishing a new transit TIF around a 5.3 mile stretch along the CTA’s Red and Purple Line, solidifying a local revenue source needed to capture a $1.1 billion grant from the federal government. The special TIF district, which has a 35-year term, will help pay for a portion of the CTA’s $2.1 billion plan to upgrade Chicago’s busiest and oldest train line, increasing capacity by 30%.

New downtown housing developments within a block of public transit would no longer be subject to limits on the number of studio apartments under an ordinance the Council’s Zoning Committee approved.

Ahead of a crucial full City Council vote Wednesday, city and Chicago Transit Authority officials detailed plans again on Monday to establish a new transit-oriented TIF along a northern section of the Red Line. The goal is to capture an approximately $1 billion federal grant to cover half the phase one cost of CTA’s Red and Purple Line Modernization Plan (RPM).

Monday’s City Council Finance Committee subject matter hearing was the second and final public hearing on the plan. Another Finance Committee hearing was held last Monday. The city, in conjunction with the CTA, has held 16 public hearings in impacted neighborhoods. No vote was taken at either Finance Committee meeting–the ordinance establishing these new 35-year TIFs will be directly introduced to the full City Council and subsequently voted on Wednesday. The TIF falls within a half mile radius of the CTA’s Red and Purple Line, from North Avenue to Devon Avenue.