Other than a lengthy discussion over opening a daycare center across the street from a manufacturing company in Ald. Scott Waguespack's 32nd Ward, it was a fairly uneventful Zoning Committee Meeting, with an abnormal number of applications for the construction of single family or multi-flat homes. According to testimony given at yesterday’s meeting, there is a “huge demand” for single family homes in the 11th, 35th, and 33rd Wards.

All items on the agenda that had previously been approved by the Plan Commission, including a new restaurant space for Pullman, a 138-unit apartment building for Logan Square, a new 190-room hotel for Old Town, and a new 190-unit residential apartment building for River West were approved at yesterday’s meeting. 

Attendance: Chairman Danny Solis (25), Joe Moreno (1), Brian Hopkins (2), Pat Dowell (3), Raymond Lopez (15), Marty Quinn (13), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), David Moore (17), Walter Burnett (27), Deb Mell (33), Brendan Reilly (43) Tom Tunney (44), Ameya Pawar (47).

Yesterday was the second time the committee heard testimony on a proposed two-story daycare center for 2611 N. Western Avenue, after the item was held at the May 17th meeting, because Ald. Waguespack wasn’t in attendance. Last month, aldermen present were very concerned about having tractor trailers coming in and out of Illinois Mechanical Sales, a heating equipment appliance parts supplier, at the same time parents would be dropping off their kids.

Red Cedar Partners, the applicant, sought a zoning change to build a two-story day care facility with a rooftop playground. Only five drop-off and five on-site parking spots are included in the plan, due to a rezone that would eliminate the parking requirement. Nick Ftikas, the attorney for the applicant, said the Windy City Fieldhouse would share its parking lot with the daycare facility to be operated by the Learning Experience.

Officials with the manufacturer, which is located across the street from the proposed daycare center, testified against the plan and brought in a traffic expert, Steve Corcoran, to explain the logistical issues at the May 17th meeting. At yesterday’s meeting, Corcoran and other planning experts hired by the company again testified against the zoning change, calling the triangle-sized subject site too small for a daycare center. Jack Foley, a representative with the manufacturing company, called the plan to put a daycare center at such a congested site “foolhardy, reckless, and dangerous.”  

“All we can do is put everyone on notice of the hazards, whether it be children run over by trucks, or first responders blocked from responding by traffic jams, or some other horrible event beyond our imagination,” said Foley.

Responding to those issues, Ald. Waguespack said a day care center near the proposed site has even less parking than proposed under this plan, and it has worked without issue. He also added that the nearby Target would pay for a new traffic light along Logan Blvd. to help with the traffic issue, and that he has been trying for more than a year to get the parking issue addressed. The item eventually passed unanimously by voice vote.  

Aldermanic Applications: 
All aldermanic applications, save for Ald. Proco Joe Moreno’s (1), were approved in committee. Moreno’s proposed rezone of a section of North Milwaukee Avenue by the Damen Avenue stop on the CTA’s Blue Line was deferred at Ald. Moreno’s request: 

• Ald. Pat Dowell (3) sought a rezone of a vacant lot at 3911-3915 S. Calumet from a M1-3 Limited Manufacturing/Business Park District to a RM-5 Multi-Unit District, which is predominantly for three-to-four flat homes. Dowell told the committee that she’s working with the city to help construct a “parade of homes” on the block, and that this lot, which she said was zoned inappropriately, was key to that plan.
• Ald. Gilbert Villegas’ (36) chief of staff, Magdalena Fudalewicz, testified on behalf of the alderman’s request to rezone a CVS and adjacent parcel of land at 3633-59 North Central Avenue from a B3-1 Community Shopping District to an RS2 Residential Single-Unit district. She said the application was intended to make sure that any large project planned for the site goes through a community approval process.
• Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) explained that he was sunsetting an old planned development (PD #709) at 330 North Clark Street and reverting the parcel to its underlying zoning: DC-16. A project by Freedman Development for the site, which would involve an addition to the existing Britannica building, is currently under review, said Ald. Reilly. He said that once complete, it’s likely that project would amount to a downzoning to a DC-12.
• Ald. Marty Quinn (13) explained that his request, to make a fairly modest zoning change for 5652-54 West 64th Place, is in response to concerns from neighbors. The site is currently home to a vacant tavern “serving as a nuisance to neighbors”, said Ald. Quinn. He sought a change from an RS3 Residential Single-Unit (Detached House) District to an RS2 Residential Single-Unit (Detached House) to make the lot “consistent” with the surrounding area.

Other Highlights

• Public Building Commission Appointment: The Zoning Committee approved the appointment of David T. Whittley, a pastor of the Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ in Garfield Park, to the Public Building Commission. The 11-member board maintains, acquires and facilitates the construction of city-owned buildings. Whittley replaces Albert Tyson III on the board, who transferred to serve on the Plan Commission. During his brief testimony to the committee, Whittley said he has served as a pastor in the West Garfield community for about 12 years. He replaced his grandfather, who served as the head pastor for 50 years. Ald. David Moore (17) had the most questions for Whittley, as no copies of Whitley's resume were provided to committee members.
• Six Business ID Signs Failed to Pass: Four business ID signs for 8312 South Chicago Avenue and two for 3402 North Kedzie Avenue failed to pass, according to Chairman Danny Solis (25), because the applications didn’t have the proper documentation. Ozco Sign and Lighting Company of Schaumburg was listed as the applicant for the permits.
• Withdrawal: One application was withdrawn at yesterday’s meeting: an amended planned development application of 155 North Wacker Drive in order to “re-stripe the existing parking garage” in order to reduce the required parking from 163 spots to 144.
• 8301-8333 S. Vincennes Ave (21st Ward): A rezone application from Chatham 8700, LLC to build a truck parking facility with 400 parking spaces. No buildings are planned for the approximately 16.5 acre site. Interestingly, no traffic study was conducted.
• 5501-5525 S. Harlem Ave (23rd Ward): This rezone, from a C1-1 Neighborhood Commercial District and an RS2 Residential Single-Unit Detached House District to a C1-1 Neighborhood Commercial District, would facilitate the construction of a new Aldi’s with a parking lot for 67 cars and a neighboring single family home. The 18,707-square-foot grocery store will be located at the southeast corner of Harlem and Archer.
• 2244 W. 23rd Place & 1902 W. Cullerton Street (25th Ward): These two items from Cloud Property Management are related. The first application for 23rd Place would facilitate the rehab and transformation of a vacant dance hall into a seven-unit apartment building. The hall has been empty for decades, according to Chairman Solis. “Right now it has pigeons living in it,” said the applicant’s attorney, Thomas Moore. The other application, for Cullerton Street, is considered a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) because of its proximity to the Damen Avenue stop on the CTA’s Pink Line. Cloud Property Management wants to renovate one of the two existing buildings on the lot by transforming the three-story, three-unit building into a six-unit building. The rear one-story building will remain as is for a total of seven dwelling units.  
• 3142 N. Racine Ave (32nd Ward): An application from Gibbons Construction proposes to rehab the existing Christ Apostolic Church into apartments. No commercial space is planned, and six units and one-for-one parking would be provided. The change request was from a C1-1 Neighborhood Commercial District to a B2-3 Neighborhood Mixed-Use District.

The Committee on Special Events and Cultural Affairs approved the reappointment of Martin Laird Koldyke to the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners, a plan to spend $395,000 on a new quarter-acre park for Nettelhorst School, and a one-year contract with Home Run Inn for beverage service at Millennium Park.

Most questions at yesterday’s committee meeting had to do with the beverage agreement with Home Run Inn for the concession stand adjacent to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, mainly because the restaurant was the only entity to bid on the public Request for Proposals (RFP).

According to Deputy Commissioners Kenya Merritt and Matt Nielson of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Home Run Inn will provide only beverage services, no food, for night concerts and events at the Pavilion. Asked by Ald. Michael Scott, Jr. (24) why a pizza catering company was the only restaurant to bid on the opportunity, Nielsen said it was because the agreement is only for a limited time (night events).

The city will pay Home Run Inn a management fee of $72,000, in addition to a 1-2% bonus depending on sales. The operator would be allowed to serve draft beer, wine, premium low alcohol beverages, bottled water, soft drinks and coffee. Goose Island held the previous contract, but to due to their recent acquisition by Anheuser-Busch, the local beer operator could no longer provide the service and the city had to end the contract, said Nielson. Home Run Inn will start beverage service at Millennium Park this Wednesday, pending approval by the full City Council. As for food services, Nielson said the city is looking to “farm out” the contract to multiple food trucks.

According to Meg Gustafson, a representative with the city’s Department of Planning and Development, Nettelhorst School wants to take advantage of approximately $395,000 in so-called “Open Space Impact Fees” to support the construction of a quarter acre school garden, active play area and a small turf field. The kindergarten through eighth grade school of more than 900 students is located on the corner of Broadway and Belmont in the 44th Ward.

Chicago Public Schools owns the lot at 3252 North Broadway, which is where the approximately 32,000 square-foot park is to be located. The lot is currently made of asphalt, although most of the surface is cracked, said Chairman Tunney, whose ward includes the school. The city will cover the lot with a special material called “resilient acrylic surfacing”, similar to a tennis court surface, but students will be able to draw on it. The park will be open to the public when school isn’t in session.

And since Koldyke was being reappointed to the Park District board, he wasn’t present at yesterday’s meeting. Instead, Chairman Tunney supplied copies of his resume to everyone on the committee. Koldyke, a co-founder and managing partner of Winona Capital Management, was first appointed to the seven member board in 2011 by Mayor Emanuel.

Anabel Abarca, the Chief of Staff for Ald. George Cardenas (12) and spokesperson for the Council’s Latino Caucus (which Cardenas chairs) left her role on June 15 to attend law school. Abarca has been working for the Southwest Side alderman since 2013. Ald. Cardenas hasn’t chosen a replacement yet.

The Council’s Zoning Committee has a lengthy 15-page agenda ahead of today’s meeting, but most items are for small development projects, mainly the construction of single family homes or multiunit flats. A few big ticket items are listed on the deferred agenda, including several applications that received approval from the Plan Commission last week and in May.

Aldermanic applications:

• Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) has an application to modestly downzone a strip along North Milwaukee Avenue and Damen Avenue, a block away from the Damen Avenue stop on the CTA’s Blue Line. The change is from a B3-2 Community Shopping District to a B1-1 Neighborhood Shopping District. A B3-2 allows for destination oriented shopping, while a B1-1 allows for small scale retail. There are several bars and retail stores along the strip he’s seeking to downzone, including Double Door (in court today regarding its eviction) and Byline Bank. (Address: 1570-72 N Milwaukee Ave; 1551-59 N Damen Ave)
• Ald. Pat Dowell (3) has an application to upzone a vacant lot at the corner of South Calumet Avenue from a M1-3 Limited Manufacturing/Business Park District to a RM-5 Multi-Unit District, which is predominantly for three-to-four flat homes. The current zoning designation, manufacturing, doesn’t permit residential as of right, but the neighboring lots have homes. (Address: 3911-3915 S Calumet)
• Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) has an application to rezone a CVS and adjacent vacant parcel of property from a B3-1 Community Shopping District to a RS2 Residential Single-Unit district, which is the zoning for single family homes. (Address: 3633-59 N Central Ave)
• Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) has an application to sunset a Business Residential Waterway Planned Development (#709) to a DC-16 Downtown Core District at 330 North Clark Street, which is currently a surface parking lot.
• Ald. Marty Quinn (13) - This application is on the deferred agenda, and it makes a fairly modest zoning change for 5652-54 West 64th Place. Ald. Quinn wants to make a change from a RS3 Residential Single-Unit (Detached House) District to an RS2 Residential Single-Unit (Detached House). Both allow for single family use.

There are three items on the agenda for the City Council’s Committee on Special Events and Cultural Affairs, chaired by Ald. Tom Tunney (44):

• The reappointment of Martin Laird Koldyke to the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners: The seven member body, all appointed by the mayor, is in charge of setting policies, governing operations, and designing programs for the Park District. Koldyke, a co-founder and Managing Partner of Winona Capital Management, was first appointed to the board in 2011.
• Expenditure of Open Space Impact Fee Funds for Nettlehorst School: The ordinance from the Department of Planning and Development would use $400,000 of “Open Space Impact Fees” to support the construction of a roughly quarter acre park at 3252 North Broadway, next to the school. Open space impact fees are collected from residential developments that create new dwelling units “without contributing a proportionate share of open space and recreational facilities for the benefit of their residents as part of the overall development.”
• Agreement with Home Run Inn, Inc for Beverage Services at Millennium Park: This ordinance would allow for Home Run Inn Chicago 31 to manage beverage services at the concession stand adjacent to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The operator would be allowed to serve draft beer, wine, premium low alcohol beverages, bottled water, soft drinks and coffee. They’ll be required to submit a beverage plan and budget to the Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events before opening the stand.

In a quick, less than 10 minute committee meeting, aldermen on the Council’s License and Transportation Committees on Friday approved a controversial plan by voice vote requiring that drivers for ride-share companies apply for a city license and undergo a background check that includes fingerprinting.

Attendance: Chairman Anthony Beale (9), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Rod Sawyer (6), Sue Sadlowski Garza (10), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Roberto Maldonado (26), Scott Waguespack (32), Deb Mell (33), Anthony Napolitano (41), Tom Tunney (44), John Arena (45), James Cappleman (46), Deb Silverstein (50)

The item passed unanimously, as Transportation Chairman Anthony Beale (9), the main architect behind the ordinance, called for a voice vote, circumventing the possibility that the controversial plan would be voted down through a roll call. No objections were raised by aldermen present, even as more than a hundred Uber and Lyft drivers, many in matching t-shirts, watched the proceedings from the gallery.

No testimony was included during the brief meeting. Chairman Beale allowed only questions from aldermen who wanted clarification on the rules. Ald. James Cappleman (46) was the only one who took that opportunity, asking about the required drug tests for ride-share drivers. BACP Commissioner Maria Guerra Lapacek said the background checks would be the same for taxi and ride-share drivers under the ordinance.

“I don’t think we rammed this through,” Ald. Beale told reporters after the seven minute meeting, saying both sides had ample opportunity to state their case at a day long hearing held in May.

But Ald. Beale is still keeping the door open for possible changes, noting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is “very, very concerned” about his plan, especially as it relates to fingerprinting. Beale said he will continue to work with all sides in the days leading up to Wednesday's City Council meeting.  

“I feel real good about where we are today,” Ald. Beale said when asked if he has the momentum to get this through the full City Council this week. “You know in this city, anything can happen between now and Wednesday.”

The Mayor’s Office had tried to negotiate a difference in the proposed rules between part-time and full-time drivers. Full-time would have been defined as any driver who clocks in more than 30 hours a week for 12 consecutive weeks. But Ald. Beale said that’s not happening, because a majority of drivers for Uber and Lyft work part-time.

“So if we pass that ordinance [from the Mayor], it wouldn’t have any teeth. It wouldn’t affect any of them. So, that to me was not an option,” said Beale.

Officials with Uber and Lyft have said that Ald. Beale’s regulations would kill ride-share in Chicago by creating onerous obstacles for their drivers, who they say generally sign up on a temporary basis to make some extra cash on the side. Uber doubled down on that in a statement released after the vote.

"We love Chicago. But the ordinance that advanced [Friday] would eliminate ridesharing as we know it here," said Uber General Manager Marco McCottry in an emailed statement. "By constructing costly and complicated barriers for drivers that will prevent most from joining the platform, this proposal would take away affordable rides from Chicagoans. There is no need to harm one industry to help another. We continue to urge aldermen to reject this ordinance and instead modernize taxi's rules to make life easier for their drivers."

A Lyft spokesperson told news outlets Friday that Lyft might pull out, "Because of this, we will be forced to cease operations in Chicago if this ordinance becomes law.” But Uber stopped short of threatening to pull out of Chicago in their statement Friday, as they and Lyft did in Austin, Texas after that city enacted similar regulations on ridesharing companies. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition from Uber against Ald. Beale’s ordinance.

Beale remains unphased by the threat, arguing Chicago is too lucrative of a market for the industry to abandon. “We’re not trying to run anyone out of the city of Chicago,” he explained, noting that under his ordinance Uber and Lyft drivers would go through an expedited licensing process, different from the process for yellow cab drivers, which can take up to a week. Ald. Beale said ride-share drivers could get fingerprinted, obtain a restricted chauffeur's license, and undergo a drug test and city debt check in one day. In the meantime, those drivers would be eligible for a temporary license from the city.

Ald. Beale wouldn’t specifically comment on what could be changed ahead of Wednesday’s City Council vote, other than he’s “willing to work with anybody to help strengthen this ordinance."

“This is not a fight between me and the mayor,” he told reporters, arguing it was about consumer protection. “Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree.”

Close to a dozen people signed up to testify on a proposed 12-story, 190 room hotel for Old Town at yesterday’s Plan Commission meeting, the only item to get a significant amount of testimony at the quick two hour long monthly land-use meeting. All items that went before the body were approved unanimously, although a few, as detailed below, were deferred; some “indefinitely”.

The Old Town hotel, a collaboration between Chicago-based Condor Partners and Chicago Development Partners, had gone through extensive revisions, according to Fernando Espinoza, a representative with the Department of Planning and Development, who detailed the plans.

Originally, the developers had sought to build a 21-story building at the corner of North Wells Street and North Weiland Avenue. The site is currently home to an old political hangout, O’Brien’s Restaurant, a two-story building which will be demolished, and a three-story mixed use building (retail and residential) and parking lot, which will also be demolished.

According to Espinoza, DPD worked with the applicants to get it down to 18 floors, then a month ago, it was reduced to 13 floors, and yesterday, it was finally brought down to 12 floors (with a mechanical roof on the 13th floor). Developers significantly changed the design of the hotel. Architects at Pappageorge Haymes added hanging pre-finished aluminum balconies to the left side of the building, and varying patios, giving the building a mixed hight. Under the original plan, the 21-story building was at uniform height.

But even with the reductions, several residents of the Old Town community lamented the density, saying it would further snarl pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area. One resident called it “grossly oversized”, another claimed “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of people opposed the plan, while a third complained that not enough residents were given proper notice, somewhat contradicting the previous speaker who had noted that the hundreds of people opposed the project.

None of the Commissioners had much to say about the proposed hotel, save for Ald. Tom Tunney (44), who said he didn’t think the metal balconies “age well”. The development team countered that they’re using “premium material”, not steel, which has been used on other hanging balconies, and often corrodes over time.

The remaining items on the agenda passed without debate or much public comments. The only other application to receive public comment was a 138-unit, six-floor mixed use building for 2328 N. California Avenue in Logan Square. Due to the building’s proximity to the California Avenue Blue Line stop, the developer, Savoy Development, will only provide 41 parking stalls. But there will be a significant amount of bike stalls: 138. Interestingly, all three members of the public who testified were former residents of the area, but moved to the suburbs.

Other Items that Passed:

• Developer John Kelly’s plan to build an 11-story, mixed-use building with ground floor retail and 175 apartments at 768 North Aberdeen Street, next to the Blue Line’s Chicago Avenue stop. The site in River West (27th Ward) is currently a parking lot. Kelly filed his application in September, before the new beefed up Affordable Housing requirements kicked in. But the developer has agreed to provide “a couple” affordable units on site, and pay out the rest in in-lieu fees, about $1.5 million.
• Developer Sterling Bay’s plan to build an approximately 207,000-square-foot office development at 1515 W. Webster Avenue, a block east of the Chicago River in the city’s 2nd Ward. The site is a vacant lot, formerly the home of the Gurmann Leather Tannery. Sterling Bay has already signed a 15-year agreement with CH Robinson, a transportation company, to be the sole tenant. They will be relocating from another location within the same industrial corridor, the North Branch Industrial Corridor
• Vermilion Development plans to construct a 10-story mixed use building at the site of an abandoned gas station (3901 N. Broadway Avenue). Amenities would include 3,200-square-feet of ground floor commercial retail, 100 dwelling units on the floors above, and parking for 59 cars. The developers told commissioners that they haven’t secured a tenant for the retail component, but they’re looking for uses “supportive of the neighborhood”, like neighborhood amenities. There’s not enough room for a restaurant. Under the 2015 ARO requirements, the developer is mandated to provide 10 affordable units.Vermilion will add three of those units on-site and pay-out the rest toward the affordable housing trust fund.
• A plan from the Park District that would expand the parking lot at the 31st Street beach. The item was held two months ago at the request of newly appointed 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King, who raised concerns that the added parking would only be available for people with harbor passes. King wasn’t at yesterday’s meeting, but she issued a letter of support.

Deferrals

The first four items listed on the deferred portion of the agenda were deferred “indefinitely”, while the fifth item, which relates to an amendment to an institutional planned development for the Illinois Institute of Technology was temporarily deferred to the July Plan Commission meeting scheduled for the 21st.

Two of the applications that will be deferred indefinitely, according to Plan Commission Chairman Martin Cabrera, are in the 20th Ward. One is a resolution recommending the acquisition of land from David Fleishman of Terrapin Investments, LLC. He had sought to put the parcels at 6013 South Calumet Avenue and 6048 South Martin Luther King Drive to construct homes. The other item in the 20th Ward, also from Fleishman for residential housing, sought the acquisition of city owned property at 6543-6549 and 6552 South Kimbark Avenue.

A planned development application from JKF Development to build a 24-story, 71-unit condominium building at 330 West Huron Street, which is currently a surface parking lot, was also deferred indefinitely. As was a plan to make a technical amendment to an existing planned development (#499) in the 3rd Ward.

Proposals to build a lime green apartment building for Logan Square, a riverfront office building in Lincoln Park, a transformation of the old main campus building at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a new 13-story hotel for Old Town are just some of the applications on the Plan Commission agenda for today.

Commissioners will also reconsider a plan from the Park District that would expand the parking lot at the 31st Street beach. The item was held two months ago at the request of newly appointed 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King, who raised concerns that the added parking would only be available for people with harbor passes.

Two of the development applications on the agenda are Transit Oriented Developments (TODs). One, to be located at 2328 N. California Avenue in the 1st Ward, went through significant revisions at the request of neighborhood groups. The developer, Savoy Development, had originally proposed building micro apartments. Now, they’ll be adding 134 units of varying sizes. About 9,000 square feet of ground floor commercial retail and an adjacent pocket park are also planned, as are 44 parking stalls. Due to the building’s proximity to the California Avenue Blue Line stop, the developer doesn’t have to include one-for-one parking.

It’s a similar case for developer John Kelly’s plan to build an 11-story, mixed-use building with ground floor retail and 175 apartments at 768 North Aberdeen Street, next to the Blue Line’s Chicago Avenue stop. The site in River West (27th Ward) is currently a parking lot. Kelly filed his application in September, before the new beefed up Affordable Housing requirements kicked in.

Developer Sterling Bay is behind a plan to build an approximately 207,000-square-foot office development at 1515 W. Webster Avenue, a block east of the Chicago River in the city’s 2nd Ward. The site, according to Curbed Chicago, is the former home of the Gurmann Leather Tannery, and Sterling Bay has already signed a 15-year agreement with CH Robinson, a transportation company, to be the sole tenant.

Further north, about two blocks west of the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course near the border of Wrigleyville and Uptown, Vermilion Development plans to construct a 10-story mixed use building at the site of an abandoned gas station (3901 N. Broadway Avenue). Amenities would include 3,200-square-feet of ground floor commercial retail, 100 dwelling units on the floors above, and parking for 59 cars.

There’s also an application from Ghian Foreman to amend the parameters of an existing planned development agreement with the city for the Illinois Institute Technology campus in order to add residential units and “other minor site alterations” to the 6-story historic main campus building at 3300 South Federal Street, located in the 3rd Ward. According to the application Foreman filed in February, between 81 and 104 units are planned (the numbers on the agenda don’t match the application). Foreman is also the Executive Director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation and a member of the city’s Police Board.

Surprising many Council watchers, the Finance Committee approved an ordinance championed by Chairman Ed Burke (14) that would bar companies from doing business with the city if they include forced arbitration clauses in agreements with consumers and employees. Neither the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), Ald. Burke’s spokesperson, nor the Mayor’s staff were certain that a vote would be taken.

Attendance: Chairman Ed Burke (14), Pat Dowell (3) Sophia King (4), Gregory Mitchell (7), Anthony Beale (9), Marty Quinn (13), Raymond Lopez (15), David Moore (17), Derrick Curtis (18), Willie Cochran (20), Mike Zalewski (23), Jason Ervin (28), Ariel Reboyras (30), Scott Waguespack (32), Carrie Austin (34), Gilbert Villegas (36), Nick Sposato (38), Marge Laurino (39), Pat O’Connor (40), Brendan Reilly (42), John Arena (45), Harry Osterman (48)

"I don’t think anyone was expecting a vote today,” Tanya Triche of IRMA told Aldertrack after the meeting. “We were expecting for the subject matter experts to testify and sort of give the aldermen a good understanding of both sides of the issue and give the aldermen some time to ask the questions. My understanding is that it was going to be held.”

Administration sources tell Aldertrack they were not given advance notice of a vote. It is likely that the Mayor’s IGA staff, and Mayor Emanuel himself, may have been busy lobbying aldermen for changes to Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) ride-share ordinance to make the regulations friendlier to Uber and Lyft, sources tell Aldertrack. Which explains why mayoral attention may not have been on Burke’s ordinance. Another option: Chairman Burke had planned to call a vote and never notified the administration.

Following the meeting, in an emailed statement sent to Aldertrack, Molly Poppe, a mayoral spokesperson said, “The Administration expressed serious concerns to the Chairman regarding this ordinance, and he has agreed to hold it until we are able to address these issues.” The Mayor’s team wants to look at the potential impact the ordinance would have on current contracts, spending, as well as who the city does business with, since mandatory arbitration clauses are included in almost all contracts.

Burke’s ordinance was first introduced in November. It’s unclear, given the administration's concerns, if the proposal will be amended or held ahead of the June 22nd monthly City Council meeting. Burke’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Yesterday, the measure passed unanimously by voice vote and would take effect within 60 days of passage if approved by the full City Council.

Existing city contracts may be impacted. The main clause in the ordinance: “No business entity shall be eligible to do business with the city if such business entity or any of its affiliates enters into any pre-dispute arbitration agreement with any natural person after the effective date of this ordinance that requires arbitration or an employment or consumer dispute or a dispute arising under any law intended to protect civil rights.”

Matt Link, an attorney with the Council’s Finance Committee who helped draft the ordinance, said after the vote that those companies would be in jeopardy of losing their existing contract with the city only if they entered into any new agreements with forced arbitration clauses after the effective date. But there could be some wiggle room for those city contractors.

The city’s Chief Procurement Officer, Jamie Rhee, could carve out exemptions on a case by case basis. During the hearing, when asked to specify how it would be enforced, Link told aldermen that he didn’t want to speculate, but the language could be added to the statement of financial interest or affidavit, documents businesses are required to submit to the city when they compete for an RFP (Request for Proposal).

Unions would be exempt from the law, as most labor unions use mandatory arbitration as the only way to reach collective bargaining agreements.

The move is unprecedented, as virtually every major company and bank, as detailed in this New York Times investigation, uses forced arbitration clauses in their contracts for things like credit cards, cell phones, cable, internet and online purchases. It was an issue Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) raised when he expressed  concern that the city could potentially find itself unable to find private contractors, or lose competitive options for future bidding opportunities.

“What if, say, all the cell phone providers say we’re not going to do this. Do we then not get cell phone providers...I’m just trying to figure out, do we then lose competitive options or the ability to bid these things?” asked Ald. Reilly, who remained skeptical that multi-billion dollar international companies would change their business practices to comply with a city law.   

Michelle Weinberg, a Supervising Attorney at Legal Assistance Foundation, who testified in support of the measure, responded to Reilly’s concerns, saying, “I can only speculate, but I would guess that the benefit to the company of being able to do business with the City of Chicago...outweighs the negligible impact of eliminating the arbitration clause.”

Other proponents of Burke’s measure like David Seligman, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, and Joshua Karsh, an attorney with Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym, say forced arbitration unfairly stacks the deck against consumers by barring them from filing a class action suit or taking their grievances to court. They pointed to large class action lawsuits against the tobacco industry and Enron to argue that if those companies had the clause buried within their contracts, the plaintiffs would have never made it inside a courtroom. Forced arbitration also keeps lawsuits against companies from the public record and eliminates the right to appeal an unfavorable decision.

If approved by the full City Council, Chicago would be the first city in the country to impose the rule, though President Obama signed an executive order in 2014 directing companies with federal contracts of $1 million or more not to require their employees to enter into predispute arbitration agreements for disputes arising out of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or from torts related to sexual assault or harassment (except when valid contracts already exist).

“I think this is the way change starts. If government can start setting a good example, then I think that’s what we’re trying to do here,” said Ald. John Arena (45).

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce opposes the ordinance, citing the cost benefits of mandatory arbitration. The Chamber’s attorney David Ritter, a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg, explained that forced arbitration keeps legal costs low for companies, as court battles can go on for years with endless motions and appeals.

“The proposed ordinance would harm our already fragile economic climate by adding another unnecessary regulatory burden on businesses, and do very little to assist those it is attempting to protect,” said Ritter. “Who really wins with this proposed ordinance are the trial attorneys who receive significant legal fees from class actions, while the plaintiffs get very little in terms of relief.”

Hundreds of city contracts would be impacted, and even Chairman Burke expressed his surprise in learning “the extent and the breath” of how many businesses include the clause in employment and service agreements.

“The point is,” said Ald. Burke after reading off a lengthy list of companies that would be impacted, “We’re not going to solve all of the ills, but we can, I think, encourage companies that do business with us not to include mandatory arbitration clauses in their contracts if they want to do business with the city of Chicago.”

“Though, it’s safe to say there’s tens of millions of dollars in city contracts that could be affected by this,” responded Ald. Arena.

“That’s the only way you are going to get their attention, through their pocketbook,” Ald. Burke countered.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) will ask members of his Transportation Committee and Ald. Emma Mitts’ (37) License Committee to approve his plan to strengthen regulations on the ride-sharing industry in Chicago this Friday.

The License and Transportation Committees orignally scheduled a joint hearing for 1:00 p.m. today to consider Ald. Beale’s proposal that would require drivers for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft apply for a special license with the city and get fingerprinted by an outside contractor chosen by the Police Department. Yesterday, Beale amended the notice, rescheduling the meeting for this Friday afternoon. Under the ordinance, at least 5% of all Uber and Lyft cars in Chicago would have to be handicap accessible.

Yesterday afternoon, Ald. Beale’s office told Aldertrack that he plans to advance the proposal without any last minute changes added. Since he introduced the plan in March, two-thirds of the Council have signed up as co-sponsors. And at a day-long subject matter hearing on the proposal held in May, it became quite clear that few aldermen, save for Proco Joe Moreno (1), are willing to defend the way Uber and Lyft do business. 

At that hearing, Ald. Moreno was in the minority when he argued that Uber helps Chicago because it has opened up and diversified the industry, while also providing ease and security for riders. A Yellow Cab driver, sitting in the gallery when Moreno made that comment, stood up to scream “You lie!” before Council security had the man take his seat. It’s unclear if Friday’s hearing will be as boisterous. Ald. Beale’s office says they don’t have a lineup of expected witnesses.

The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP), the city agency that would oversee the new rules, has opposed the plan in its current form, arguing that drivers for ride-sharing companies should not be subject to the same regulations as yellow taxi drivers, because most are considered part-time. BACP did not respond to Aldertrack’s requests for comment yesterday.

Uber has made a substantial local cable advertising buy in the wake of the upcoming vote, spending $203,855 on more than 4,000 commercials to air on 17 stations, including MSNBC, CNN, BET, ESPN, and the Food Network. The ads are scheduled to run through June 22, the date of the full City Council meeting. The Illinois Transportation Trade Association (ITTA), which represents the yellow taxi industry, has also ramped up its lobbying efforts, donating about $35,000 to aldermen on both committees.

As Chicago Public Schools calls for a dramatic increase of state funding to fill its projected $1.1 billion 2017 deficit, South Suburban school districts are keeping a close eye on the state’s response as plummeting home values make it harder for them to raise the cash needed to fund basic operations.  

In many ways, Chicago Public Schools’ calls for dramatically increased state funding is a precursor for an even bigger crisis for South Suburban Cook County school districts set to transpire next year, when the Cook County Assessor is scheduled to reassesses the value of those homes. Like CPS, many districts have maxed out their property tax caps, but South Suburban districts are also struggling with rapidly declining property values in their jurisdictions. In these communities, because property values are dropping, breaking the caps to raise local taxes would not be enough to provide basic educational services, making the need for state assistance more likely to make up for their growing property tax receipt shortfall.

School districts in South Suburban Cook County’s Bloom, Rich, Thornton and Lemont Townships, where property taxes make up roughly two-thirds of school funding, have seen overall property values drop significantly since they were last assessed in 2014. This has made it harder for these school district to tax the amount need to fund operations and has left districts to keep budgets lean.

These areas are faced with a multitude of challenges, from declining home prices to an exodus of commercial and industrial companies that typically relieve homeowners of swelling property tax bills.

But when the Cook County Assessor’s Office conducts its tri-annual assessment of South Suburban property values in 2017, the expected assessment drop will confront many school districts with the inability to tax properties at the rate necessary to provide basic funding for schools and local government services.

Depreciating home values especially impact property tax receipts for local school districts, because a district’s tax rate is based on an equation that divides the amount of money the district has requested in their levy by the total value of taxable property within each district, called the Equalized Assessed Value (EAV).

So when the denominator bottoms out due to depreciating home values, the tax rate increases, while total receipts continue to drop. This means homeowners are stuck with sinking home prices and higher tax bills. And school districts are left to cover operations with less money than they need.

One school district, Consolidated High School District 230, located about 25 miles southwest of Chicago and includes Orland Park, Orland Hills, Palos Park and Palos Hills, saw its EAV plummet more than $136 million between the 2013 and 2014 tax years, while its year-over-year tax rate increased by 4.88%.

Another district in Oak Lawn, Community High School District 218, saw its EAV drop roughly $109 million over the same time period, while its tax rate jumped 7.26%.

It’s the same case for Bremen Community High School District 228, a district covering parts of Oak Forest, Country Club Hills, and Hazel Crest, which saw its EAV fall roughly $81.4 million while its tax rate rose 8.63%.

“Cook County is the only county in the state of Illinois that has an upside down tax structure,” said Park Forest Mayor John Ostenburg. As the current president of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, a former member of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, and a one-time State Representative for the 80th District, Ostenburg has been following the debate over education funding for decades.

Ostenburg describes Cook County’s complex tax system as outdated, fashioned around a time when the South Suburbs had a thriving industrial economy. Unlike the rest of the state, Cook County is the only county where commercial and industrial properties are taxed twice as much as residential. At a time when factories were driving the economy, this helped relieve the property tax burden off of homeowners.

But times have changed, and when the factories closed their doors and relocated out of Illinois, so too did much of the retail economy that was dependent on workers spending their wages, and more and more, South Suburban homeowners are being saddled with ballooning property taxes that are outpacing actual receipts. “The South Suburbs had a ton of industry when the system was created, but when all the offshoring occurred, we lost jobs, then we lost retail, then we got stripped of virtually everything,” said Ostenburg.

For example, Thornton Township High School District 205 in 2015 received about $5.7 million less than what it requested in its 2014 property tax levy. For Lemont Township High School District, the shortfall was $7.6 million.

“Those of us who have been active in the South Suburbs over the year have been arguing the state needs to the change the way it supports schools,” said Mayor Ostenburg.

Like Ostenberg, the Community Relations Director for Lemont Township High School, Tony Hamilton, says the tax structure is unfairly burdening homeowners in their district, especially those located in a small pocket of the school district that lies within DuPage County. “When Cook County depresses property values, it puts more pressure on DuPage County taxpayers,” he said, explaining his office, in 2014, received calls from several DuPage residents from Woodridge, Downers Grove and a portion of Darien asking why their taxes rose at such high rates. “A larger portion of the burden is being put on a group that is only a quarter of the total size [of the school district].”

“So, we have two different tax rates for two different counties [that] don’t talk to each other when this happens...DuPage doesn’t know when Cook [County] is depressing its values,” he explained.

To remedy the shortfall in property tax receipts from the Cook County side, Hamilton says the district has been relying on its reserves. “But our goal is to make them last as much as possible...we’ve done more to limit expenditures. No extraneous staff.”

Hamilton said over the last five years, the district has closely monitored enrollment in elective classes to determine which teachers to keep on the payroll, added participation fees for athletics, and tried to keep student and enrollment fees flat.

Lemont Township School District is also heavily reliant on federal aid, as it benefits from a subsidy from the federal government for Argonne National Laboratory, part of the Department of Energy. Since federally-owned property is tax exempt, the federal government reimburses the school district for lost revenue. That money varies from year to year. According to Hamilton, the district could receive between $400,000 and $1 million. “We get about five cents on the dollar of what it would have been if it was residential land. But every year it gets zeroed out and then we have to fight for it.”

Hamilton says the district will be able to open next fall by depending on reserves should the state fail to pass a budget in time. But the district is watching the debate between CPS and the state over the school funding formula. Hamilton’s district receives about $700,000 in state aid every year, about 6-8% of the annual school budget. “That’s a significant amount of money we would be losing...if the formula was changed. What happens at CPS is unfortunately tied to us.”  

Meanwhile, Park Forest has been slow to recover since the Great Recession, says Mayor Ostenberg, as it was one of the hardest hit regions. The village of about 22,000 people saw roughly 700 homes go into foreclosure, he said. Some of those homes, about 70, fell so far into disrepair that they had to be demolished, and the village is working with Habitat for Humanity to repair some of the more livable foreclosed properties.

This has left the tax burden on a smaller share of homeowners. According to Cook County Clerk David Orr’s property tax update for 2015, residents of the Village of Park Forest have the second highest property tax rate in Cook County at 36.834%. “There are not enough dollars to go around. The [property tax] rate keeps going up and up and up,” Ostenburg explained. “I know people spending more on taxes than their mortgage.”

Ostenburg has been trying for years to push the state legislature to use state income tax revenue to fund schools as a way to provide some relief to smaller school districts where property values have been on the decline.

“The only solution to the problem of school funding in Illinois is to take the dependence off the property tax and take it from the income taxes,” he said. “If funding was based on income, then if I make more I’ll pay more.”

Ostenburg is pushing for the state to create a pilot program that focuses on alleviating the financial burden of local school districts, especially at a time when state and federal assistance has been unreliable.

“The critical thing in the South Suburbs is that we need to attract more business and industry in the area. The burden falls on homeowners, and there are fewer people participating,” he said. “Homes can’t fund the entire burden of schools and municipalities.”

The pilot program Ostenburg envisions would incentivize businesses that relocate to struggling townships or villages to offset the property tax burden by lowering the tax rate for those businesses.

Ostenburg called Gov. Bruce Rauner’s suggestion that CPS declare bankruptcy “outrageous” and has signed a letter drafted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Office calling for a more equitable share of school funding. The letter, Ostenburg said, was brought up at last week’s meeting of the Metropolitan Mayors Conference. Mayor Emanuel’s press office tells Aldertrack that the letter hasn’t been made public yet, because they are still gathering signatures.

An intergovernmental agreement between the city and the agency that oversees McCormick Place and Navy Pier to employ off-duty police officers for security at private events received a significant amount of pushback from a few aldermen on the Public Safety Committee as they expressed worry that the city would foot the bill for any police overtime incurred.

While the agreement between the city and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) eventually passed in committee, with Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), a former police officer, as the sole no vote, Committee Chair Ariel Reboyras (30) had to temporarily recess the meeting to iron out some of the issues with aldermen, MPEA officials and the police department.

MPEA was seeking approval to reinstate and amend an agreement first approved by the Council in 1996 that lets the agency hire off-duty Chicago police officers for private events or conventions at Navy Pier. Currently, MPEA employs about 35 plain clothes police officers, but not all work at the same time. The amended agreement would give those officers the option of wearing their uniform while providing security, in addition to extending the terms to McCormick Place.

Michael Merchant, Director of Governmental Affairs for the MPEA, said officers working at Navy Pier are considered MPEA employees, paid by the pier authority at $30-an-hour and hired under a 1099 form as “independent contractors”.

According to Merchant, customer advisory boards, which organize shows and conventions at McCormick Place, requested the extra security. “They asked us if there was something we could do to engage the Chicago Police Department to be present at some of the shows. They are willing to pay these officers for their services,” he explained, adding that the convention operators would pay MPA. In turn, MPA would compensate the police officers.

But Ald. Willie Cochran (20), a former police officer, took issue with the fact that the city would bear the cost of compensating an officer for overtime incurred for court appearances should the officer arrest anyone while working security for the pier. “The city should not have to take the burden of paying any expenses associated with officers working in the capacity for the Pier Authority. Why would our budget have to be challenged on that when you have a budget of your own?” Ald. Cochran asked.

Police overtime has been a huge sticking point for aldermen during budget negotiations, as the police department has, at least in the past two years, underestimated overtime expenses by tens of millions of dollars.

Ryan Nelligan with the Chicago Police Department said the bill would go to CPD, because once an officer has “taken police action”, they’re on-duty and covered under the police contract. That Fraternal Order of Police contract includes a clause detailing how much officers must be compensated for court appearances. Merchant added that the agreement aligns with CPD’s secondary employment policy, although Ald. Cochran questioned why no one from the FOP was on hand to testify.

Nelligan explained that the agreement between the Pier Authority and the police department is unlike other intergovernmental agreements the department has with the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority, mainly because MPEA will have to take out a $10 million liability insurance plan to cover uniformed police officers. The City and CPD are listed as co-insurers. But as soon as any of those off-duty police officers takes police action, whether it be an arrest or firing their gun, city liability kicks in, Nelligan explained.

Ald. Cochran, Ald. Taliaferro, and Ald. Carrie Austin (34) also expressed concern that hiring preference would be given to officers in the First Police District, where Navy Pier is located. A former police commander from that district, George Rosebrock, heads security at Navy Pier. But aldermen questioned the fairness of giving those officers priority. Ald. Taliaferro, who had to go to another committee meeting, requested that Chairman Reboyras defer the item until that issue was clarified. Reboyras, instead, chose to recess the meeting for five minutes so aldermen could convene privately with Merchant and Nelligan.

When they returned, Merchant clarified that officers from around the city would be invited to apply. He added that they had specifically mentioned the First District because of its proximity to Navy Pier.

Meanwhile, Eva-Dina Delgado’s appointment to the Police Board went through mostly without a hitch, as Chairman Reboyras made a point to bar any discussion on specific police reforms or the mayor’s task force.

Although, Ald. Harry Osterman (48), more than once, urged Chairman Reboyras to make sure the ongoing discussions over police transparency remain open to the public and asked for him to hold another hearing similar to the one held last December in the wake of the Laquan McDonald video release.

Referencing a press conference Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, who is also the chair of the Mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force, held last week calling on the Emanuel Administration to do a better job of including the public in the ongoing debate over police reforms, Ald. Osterman asked that Reboyras invite members of the Task Force to the Council Chambers for a public hearing on their report.

“I strongly believe this committee needs to take a leadership role in these efforts in a very open and transparent way,” Osterman said. “Reforms that do not have a lot of transparency or conversation and back and forth with members of the bodies that have to vote on this, I think, will lead to bad public policy.”

And Delgado, a registered lobbyist for People’s Gas and a longtime Daley administration fixture, was still asked to weigh in on the ongoing debate over police reforms, as she’ll be sitting on a Board in charge of making recommendations of disciplinary action for officers found of misconduct.

“You’re right that we are at a critical juncture at the city where there are going to be lots of conversations about what police accountability should look like, and I think that’s a conversation that has to happen, of course, here in this chamber as part of your roles, obviously. And having some community input on that,” she said.

Both items are expected to be reported out at the June 22 monthly City Council meeting.

The City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development approved a designation of blight and a property tax break for a parcel of land near McCormick Place to facilitate the construction of a new 466-room Hilton Hotel.

According to Brad McConnell, a Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Planning and Development, the site at 111 East Cermak Road had already received a designation of blight in 1999, when the 24th and Michigan TIF district was created. But the Cook County Assessor’s office requires that a property can only qualify for a Class 7(b) tax incentive if that designation was made within the last ten years.

Behind closed City Hall doors, aldermen are meeting to put more regulations on home sharing sites like Airbnb–we talk about possible next steps. And a committee passes a new amendment to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance that aims to prevent discrimination against transgender people, even though some worry about “knuckleheads” abusing the new rules. Plus we dive into Cook County’s pension woes and a "stable" outlook from ratings agencies.

Seven days after receiving a letter from former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holderdenouncing his plan mandating that Uber drivers in Chicago get fingerprinted, Ald. Anthony Beale (9), chair of the Council Transportation Committee, responded.

Holder, who left Obama Administration in 2015 and now works at law firm Covington & Burling, sent Ald. Beale a letter earlier this month telling him his efforts to strengthen background checks on drivers for ride-hailing services actually disenfranchises minorities.  

“Requiring fingerprint-based background checks for non-law enforcement purposes can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color,” Holder told Ald. Beale in the letter, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Yesterday, Aldertrack obtained a copy of Ald. Beale’s response to the former Attorney General. In it, Ald. Beale maintains his efforts to require fingerprinting for all Uber, Lyft and other ride-share drivers is about equity. “There is no reason why Uber should be exempted from the rules that every cab driver, bus driver, business owner and city employee follow,” Ald. Beale writes, before accusing Holder of bias.

“I understand that your firm has a member serving on Uber’s Safety Advisory Board,” Ald. Beale says. “Perhaps, this is from where your opinion calling for Uber’s exceptionalism is derived.”

Holder had told Ald. Beale that when he served as U.S. Attorney General under the Obama Administration, he had asked Attorneys General in every state and Cabinet officials to “consider how they could eliminate policies and regulations that impose unnecessary burdens on individuals reentering society.”

Holder claimed Ald. Beale’s proposed regulations counter those goals. Holder also noted that the FBI’s database, which Ald. Beale hopes to tap into with the fingerprinting requirement, was designed to help law enforcement officials during investigations, not to “determine whether or not someone is eligible to work for a company.”

Noting that the database, referred to as the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), is “incomplete and lacks information about the final outcomes of a significant percentage of cases”, Holder said a person could be flagged for an arrest, even if it never lead to charges.

But Beale counters that all taxi drivers and city employees are already required to get fingerprinted, so exempting Uber and Lyft drivers from the requirement gives them an unfair advantage.

City Council has held one subject matter hearing on Ald. Beale’s proposed ride-share regulations. Ald. Beale’s office told Aldertrack yesterday that he still plans to hold a joint Transportation and License committee vote and advance the plan out of committee in time for the June 22nd monthly City Council meeting.

The ongoing saga over regulating Airbnb rentals in Chicago may not be over, according to City Council Housing Chairman Joe Moore (49), who tells Aldertrack that there is a “50/50” chance there could be another committee hearing to consider yet another revision to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed regulations.

“I think there are some changes as we continue to make sure that people are comfortable with the ordinance and have an opportunity to have their concerns aired and addressed,” Ald. Moore said Wednesday of the ongoing talks.

Any additional changes won’t be favorable for Airbnb, aldermen tell Aldertrack. One pointed to Airbnb’s recent tv ad blitz against the Mayor, mayoral staff’s criticism over the ads, and concerns from neighborhood aldermen about rentals of single family homes to signal the majority of aldermen want more, not less regulations.

A joint meeting of the Council’s License and Housing Committees approved the Mayor’s proposed regulations minutes before the May 18 City Council meeting, after conducting a lengthy hearing the day before. Since introducing an outline of regulations in January, the Mayor has received stiff criticism from downtown and North Side aldermen who represent wards with the most bookings, and from Airbnb proponents who don’t want to see the service’s growth stifled.

The language has since gone through multiple revisions–it underwent three re-writes before a committee vote on the plan was called. Even then, the vote to consider the proposal passed committee in a tight 12-8 vote. The actual vote to approve the measure passed 17-9. At the time, Ald. Moore, citing ongoing concerns about the ordinance, chose not to report out the ordinance to the full Council for a vote that day.

Yesterday, Moore told Aldertrack that downtown and North Side aldermen who represent areas of the city with the highest concentration of Airbnb rentals still don’t think the regulations go far enough. He cited concerns over reporting requirements, whether the city has the ability to effectively regulate Airbnb, and whether owners of single family homes should be required to remain on the premises when they rent out a room.

A working group of aldermen have been meeting regularly since that May 18 committee meeting to discuss how the ordinance could be improved. They’ve already held two meetings and have another scheduled for this Friday, Aldertrack has learned. One alderman who has attended those meetings tells Aldertrack that while no new language has been drafted yet, Airbnb has “the most to lose” from the ongoing talks. That source said several aldermen who represent wards zoned mostly for single family homes want more local control, not less, an argument that seems to contradict Airbnb’s ad campaign against the Mayor.

As the law currently stands, it is illegal for anyone in a residentially zoned district to rent through Airbnb without first obtaining a special use permit from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals. That allows the local alderman and neighbors to have a say in the matter. Those controls, which are rarely enforced, are done away with in the Mayor’s plan, the chief reason Ald. Marty Quinn (13) voted against it last May in committee. After the vote, Quinn told Aldertrack that 95% of his Southwest Side ward is made up of single-family homes. “I have some real concerns about turning single family home blocks in the 13th Ward into areas that have a lot of transition,” he said.

“In a perfect world, they’d like to have a hearing and a vote, but I don’t know yet,” said Ald. Moore. If any changes are made to the current ordinance, Ald. Moore and License Chairman Emma Mitts (37) would have to hold another joint committee hearing and vote.

Despite the recent flood of TV ads funded by the Internet Association criticizing the Mayor’s proposed regulations for being unduly burdensome for lower income homeowners–the ads argue the Mayor sided with the Gold Coast and the “1%” in drafting the measure–Ald. Moore said he hasn’t heard any concerns from aldermen saying the ordinance is too strict.

“I think Airbnb folks, who seem to be pretty tone deaf, need to realize that,” Ald. Moore said of the commercials, which he said he hasn’t seen personally.

“If the Mayor was looking for the easy, most politically expedient way out, he would listen to the concerns expressed by Ald. [Brendan] Reilly and Ald. [Michele] Smith,” Ald. Moore explained, suggesting they’re the ones who want to “kill all Airbnbs.”

Ald. Smith’s office confirmed with Aldertrack yesterday they are continuing to negotiate with the Mayor's office for stronger regulations and protections for their ward to be included in further revisions. The Mayor’s Office and the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection declined to comment.

Aldermen will schedule a hearing “in the upcoming months” on two competing ordinances to dissolve and replace the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), the agency in charge of investigating allegations of police misconduct.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30), Chairman of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, and Ald. Carrie Austin (34), Chairman of the Council’s Budget Committee, sent out a vaguely worded press release yesterday to explain a hearing will be held, eventually. No date was mentioned. "We believe that we are at an incredibly important moment in our city's history as we work to revamp Chicago's police accountability structure," the press release states before referencing Ald. Leslie Hairston’s (5) proposed ordinance to abolish IPRA and replace it with a stronger agency run by a new Independent Citizen Police Monitor, and Ald. Jason Ervin’s (28) plan to put IPRA under the control of the city’s Inspector General.

Noting that those ordinances have "started the conversations for structural reforms", Reboyras and Austin add the two ordinances will "become part of the larger framework for the final ordinance."

“Building on that, we will continue to work with our colleagues and members of the public in order to ensure the ordinance reflects the input of a wide range of stakeholders," the release said.

Last month, the Mayor’s staff held private briefings with aldermen to discuss a replacement for IPRA. But those conversations have somewhat waned, according to Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29). He told Aldertrack yesterday that he hasn’t heard of any meetings since, while also raising doubts that IPRA will even be replaced. He expects the changes will be superficial, and that most of the staff, including new IPRA Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley, will stay on the payroll.

The City Council’s Human Relations Committee approved an amendment to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance that would make it possible for transgender individuals to use public restrooms associated with the gender they identify with without the threat of having to show a government issued ID. While the ordinance introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Council’s recently created LGBT Caucus, and Ald. Ed Burke (14) received a significant amount of public support yesterday, a few aldermen on the Council raised concerns about abuse, or what Ald. Nick Sposato (36) dubbed the “knucklehead effect.”

Attendance: Chair Pat Dowell (3), Brian Hopkins (2), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Toni Foulkes (16), David Moore (17), Willie Cochran (20), Danny Solis (25), Chris Taliaferro (29), Scott Waguespack (32), Deb Mell (33), Nick Sposato (38), Anthony Napolitano (41), Michele Smith (43), Tom Tunney (44), James Cappleman (46), Joe Moore (49)

“I grew up with a lot of knuckleheads. I was a knucklehead, so I did stupid things. I see knuckleheads being knuckleheads. Guys saying now they want to go into the girl’s bathroom,” Ald. Sposato said, giving the example of a hypothetical boy named “Johnny” who everyone knows identifies as a guy and has a girlfriend. “And now he wants to be a funny guy...go into the girl’s bathroom.”

Like Sposato, Ald. David Moore (17), Ald. Willie Cochran (20), Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) and Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) expressed confusion over how the ordinance would be enforced, bringing up hypothetical situations of people taking advantage of the law. Ald. Napolitano asked what would happen to a man who went to the locker room of a health club to watch women shower. In another hypothetical situation, Ald. Thompson referenced long lines at public restrooms at White Sox games, inquiring what would prevent a non-transgender person from picking which bathroom to use based on wait times.

When administrative and legal officials with Chicago Public Schools testified in support of the ordinance–yesterday’s item was mirrored after recently announced CPS guidelines–Ald. Cochran questioned how CPS deals with students who abuse the rules.

What if I am a student “feeling like a girl” one day, Ald. Cochran asked, echoing Ald. Sposato. “If I want to be funny or offensive that day [...] how is this going to be balanced?” An official with CPS said the school would take disciplinary action only if “there was misbehavior in the bathroom.” Ald. Napolitano said it was concerning that regulations seemed to be enforced through “an honor system.”

Ald. Sposato requested that officials from the police department, who were present in the chambers in case their testimony was needed, clarify CPD policy on dealing with complaints made by people who see someone of the opposite sex in a public bathroom.

Police Commander Sean Joyce responded that, “depending on the circumstances”, an officer would respond to the scene and “conduct an investigation.”

“As you know, we don’t police comfort and uncomfort of people...” Commander Joyce began to respond, “If a crime has taken place–”

“I’m not talking about a crime,” Ald. Sposato interrupted. “A woman says a man is in the woman’s bathroom, they call the police. Let’s say we’re here at City Hall, police are all over the place. One of these ladies says–I’ll just use myself as an example–Nick Sposato is in the bathroom, [the police] come to me. What are they supposed to tell me? ‘Why were you in there?’”

Joyce responded that it’s not police policy to arrest someone for using the wrong bathroom unless a crime has been committed, but that an officer could stay on the scene if the complainant requested it.

Only Ald. Napolitano and Ald. Moore (17) voted against the measure. Sposato gave a vocal “no” when the voice vote was taken, but he’s not on the committee.

Prior to the vote, Ald. Moore wondered aloud if the item should be held until someone could properly address the mechanism for penalizing predators and those who falsely identify as transgender. But he was quickly shot down by Chairman Pat Dowell (3) and Ald. Joe Moore (49), who in echoing a famous quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. on the arch of progress, told his colleagues that it would be a shame for them to look back at this vote and see they were on the wrong side of history.

A majority of those present at yesterday’s meeting praised the ordinance. One of the sponsors, Ald. Tom Tunney (44), the first openly gay person to get elected to the Chicago City Council, noted the amendment was an “evolution of where we’re going as a culture.” Ald. James Cappleman (46) recalled the bigotry he faced when he first came out, adding that to this day he’s still the recipient of homophobic epithets. Public witnesses included representatives from the local chapter of the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Howard Brown, a network of affordable health clinics geared toward LGBT Chicagoans.

Chicago filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, who is best known for directing The Matrix series, showed up to testify in support of the ordinance. She recently came out as transgender. “When I go about my daily life, I get snickered at, ogled, given the stink eye, or even am the subject of the odd, not so surreptitious phone snaps,” Wachowski testified. “It’s a sensitivity that all trans people share in our majority enforced, binary gendered society.”

The amendment now heads to the full City Council for a vote.

The Council’s Committee on Human Relations meets today to consider an appointment to a city-run board on human rights and a proposal from Mayor Rahm Emanuel that aims to prevent discrimination against transgender individuals in public restrooms.

This will be the committee’s first meeting under Chairman Pat Dowell (3), who was selected to replace Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1) as committee chairman during the leadership shuffle prompted by 4th Ward Ald. Will Burns’ resignation. Moreno now oversees the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.

Under Mayor Emanuel’s anti-discrimination measure, which he introduced with the sponsorship of City Council’s recently-formed LGBT Caucus, public accommodations like hotels, restaurants or grocery stores would be barred from requiring that patrons show a government ID when that person requests to use the restroom. It’s a response to the national attention over transgender rights in public restrooms, first initiated by a controversial law passed in North Carolina.

The ordinance amends the definition of “sex” within the city’s Human Rights Ordinance to include “both biological category and gender identity” and states that “Each person determines his or her own gender identity; no proof shall be required except his or her expression of his or her gender.” The measure follows new guidelines recently issued by Chicago Public Schools.

The members of the LGBT Caucus are Ald. Tom Tunney (44), Ald. James Cappleman (46), Ald. Deb Mell (33), Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15).

Mayor Emanuel has also requested that the committee appoint Ryan Dunigan, a litigation associate at the Chicago law firm Winston & Strawn, to the city’s Commission on Human Relations.

The Mayor created the 19-member board in 2012 to enforce the city’s Human Rights and Fair Housing ordinances. Under city law, the Mayor is allowed to appoint 14 of those 19 members. They serve without compensation but can be reimbursed for their “reasonable expenses” incurred while on the job.

Dunigan will serve out the remainder of Curtis J. Tarver, Jr.’s term. Tarver, the co-owner and brewer for the Vice District TapRoom, was appointed to the board in 2014 and has since resigned.

Health Committee Chairman George Cardenas (12) tells Aldertrack that he’ll be scheduling a second committee meeting ahead of the June 22nd monthly City Council meeting so aldermen can vote on an ordinance calling for more humane handling of wild coyotes in Chicago.

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) introduced the measure calling on the city’s Department of Animal Care and Control to “utiliz[e] education and humane hazing methods as primary methods and using lethal force only in the event of an accident or attack” when dealing with coyotes in the city.

The Health Committee already held a hearing on the ordinance last month. And Ald. Hopkins brought in two subject matter experts–Stan Gehrt of Ohio State University and Chris Anchor with the Cook County Forest Preserve–to elaborate on Cook County’s growing coyote population. But Chairman Cardenas held the measure. At the time, Hopkins’ office said the hold was to ensure there was no conflict with the state’s Animal Welfare Commission.

Prior to yesterday’s meeting, Cardenas made a request with the Clerk’s office to amend yesterday’s agenda to include the item, but the notice was filed too late. After yesterday’s meeting, which was a lengthy two-hour briefing on ComEd’s annual progress with only four aldermen present, Cardenas told Aldertrack that he’ll schedule a second meeting to hold a vote on the coyote item before the June monthly City Council meeting.