In a divided 39-8 vote Wednesday, City Council approved the Emanuel Administration's plan to dissolve the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and replace it with two new police oversight agencies: a Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and a new Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety.

A proposed pilot program aimed at spurring stagnant retail corridors in some of the city’s struggling communities was called “politically motivated” by some aldermen yesterday because the pilot left out several neighborhoods in need. The program was the subject of two ordinances before the Budget Committee Tuesday.

The Council’s Finance Committee will reconvene this morning at 9:00 a.m. to consider an order from Chair Ed Burke (14) that would bar the city from doing business with Wells Fargo bank. The order is in response to revelations that the bank opened more than two million fraudulent bank and credit card accounts without customer consent.

Under the order, which is binding, the city would be prohibited from doing business with Wells Fargo for the next two years. Specifically, the city’s Chief Financial Officer, Comptroller, and Treasurer would be prohibited from engaging Wells Fargo as a municipal depository, an underwriter for bond deals, a trustee in any loan or redevelopment agreement, a broker to buy investments on the city’s behalf, a financial advisor, or “in any other capacity or relationship with respect to the city.”

According to a chart provided by Ald. Burke’s office, the bank has benefited from about $19.5 million in business with the city since 2005.

The order also encourages the trustees of the city’s four pension funds to divest all of their investments with the bank and any of its subsidiaries. “At the very minimum, I think we can do this as a sign of our shock and displeasure about the conduct of a bank, and we don’t need to do business with a bank that has exhibited this kind of flagrant conduct,” said Burke when he directly introduced the order in committee on Friday.

On Monday, Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced the state suspended $30 billion in investment activity with Wells Fargo. The amount is higher than the state’s actual annual investment portfolio of $25 billion, because it includes dollars that go through Wells Fargo to pay off the state’s bills. The state treasurer’s office is involved in about $1 trillion in banking transactions a year, according to the press release.

And according to Bloomberg, City Treasurer Kurt Summers has also announced plans to divest $25 million the city has invested with the bank.

That meeting is expected to run quickly, because at 9:15 a.m. the Council’s Rules Committee is scheduled to continue deliberation on decorum rules for public comment, also known as “The Blakemore Rule”. The committee recessed without a vote on the issue last week after several Progressive Caucus and freshman aldermen expressed concerns that the new rules were subjective and limiting.

The ordinance would add a Rule 58 to the city’s Rules of Procedure. The rule imposes a three minute time limit for all members of the public and says they must be physically present and “refrain from using profane language or obscene conduct, or make irrelevant, repetitious or disruptive comments.”

Ald. Burke, the sponsor, and Jeff Levine, an attorney with the city’s Law Department, said that the ordinance only codifies what’s already standard practice at council committee meetings.

The Council’s Progressive Caucus drafted an amendment that eliminates the physically present requirement, as well as the rule that comments not be irrelevant, repetitious, or disruptive.

As Ald. John Arena (45) said in committee last week, “Those two things seem subject to interpretation. One person’s repetitious comment is another person’s emphasis of a point.” A similar measure is expected to be considered by the Cook County Board today.

Items Slated For Full Council Vote Today (Highlights) 

• Police Reform Ordinance (Details)

• Amendment to the city’s 2015 borrowing plan to add $25 million in general obligation bonds for 600 new cop cars over the next two years.

• A slew of procurement changes (Details)

• New Pilot Program to help spur development and business within depressed retail corridors in the following neighborhoods:  Austin, Back of the Yards, Bronzeville, Chatham, Englewood, South Chicago, West Humboldt Park, West Pullman.

• A new bid incentive program for mid-sized construction firms that would make them the exclusive bidder of contracts worth $3 million and $10 million.

• Amendments to the Welcoming City Ordinance to boost protections for undocumented Chicagoans.


• Several appointments and reappointments to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, Chicago Advisory Council on Equity, Chicago Community Land Trust Fund Board, and the Board of Ethics.

• The establishment of a new TIF district for the redevelopment of the Lathrop Homes.  The Diversey/Chicago River Redevelopment TIF is expected to generate about $17.5 million in over the 23-year life of the TIF. Unlike all other TIFs, this one will be automatically repealed once it achieves the funding goal. Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) voted against it in committee.

• A peddling ban in the 14th Ward added to the list of areas where peddling, even with a license, is prohibited. The ban does not include mobile food vendors.

• A resolution from Ald. Ed Burke (14) urging the Chicago Police Department to make QuickClot Combat Gauze available to all police officers trained in the department’s Law Enforcement Medical and Rescue Training Program (LEMART)

• New mobile food cart stands for downtown Chicago (Locations: 140 South Clark Street, 105 East Monroe Street, 300 South Wabash Street, 140 South Franklin Street).

• Five Class 6(b) Incentives which gives industrial properties as 12-year property tax break.

• Expenditure of TIF dollars for a transit study for Jefferson Park

• $3.6 million parking lot sale to Near North Montessori School

• 39-year Lease agreement with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) to construct the North Branch Riverwalk Under-bridge Connection. The proposed pedestrian and bike bridge will connect Clark Park and California Park through a path along the Chicago River under Addison Street, eliminating the need for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the busy intersection.

• Intergovernmental Agreement with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning (CMAP) for the execution of a “multi-modal” transportation study of the Riverdale Community Area, which includes the city’s Altgeld Gardens, Eden Green Golden Gate, and Riverdale neighborhoods. CMAP would lead the study in collaboration with the city’s Department of Transportation (CDOT).

After six hours of debate, which included a heated exchange between aldermen and a handful of activists in the gallery who were eventually escorted out by City Hall security, a slightly tweaked version of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s police reform ordinance passed a joint committee in a 21-4 vote last night. Ald. Leslie Hairston (5), Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) Ald. Nick Sposato (38), and Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) voted against it.

The City Council’s Budget Committee will consider five ordinances that would amend the city’s procurement process, most of which were introduced by Budget Chair Carrie Austin (34) in conjunction with the Department of Procurement Services. The amendments would add more incentives for minority- and women-owned (M/WBE) firms, and create a new incentive for mid-sized construction firms.

The Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee approved a substitute ordinance from Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) that would allow mobile food stands in certain parts of downtown.

A plan to borrow an additional $25 million to pay for 600 new police cars over the next two years advanced out of the City Council’s Finance Committee Friday, even as some aldermen expressed concern that the city was bonding for short term assets.

Vice Chair of the City Council’s Housing Committee, Ald. Gregory Mitchell (7), raised skepticism yesterday in how the Department of Planning and Development appraises city-owned property before advertising bids for sale.

A plan to codify the City Council’s policy on public comments into the official Council Rules of Procedure was held in Rules Committee Thursday amid concerns raised by several Progressive Caucus and freshman aldermen who called the rules too “subjective” and “limiting.”  After about an hour of debate on Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) and Rules Chair Michelle Harris’ (8) ordinance to add a new Rule 58 to the Council’s meeting guidelines, Chair Harris announced she’d hold the item and recess the meeting until Oct. 5th at 9:15 a.m., about an hour before the full City Council meeting. 

The Emanuel Administration will ask the Council’s Finance Committee to issue an additional $25 million in general obligation bonds this year to pay for part of the Mayor’s public safety agenda. Specifically, the money raised will pay for the purchase of 600 new police cars over the next two years. This comes as Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Eddie Johnson last week announced a two-year plan to hire over 500 new police officers and promote hundreds more to the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant and detective.

The Committee approved all five applications Class 6(b) property tax breaks for industrial properties that plan to expand their operations in the city, including relief for for a bakery in the 12th Ward and a vodka distillery in the 25th.

The City Council’s License Committee approved an ordinance that would include the entire 14th Ward on the list of prohibited areas for peddling in the city.

The City Council’s Human Relations Committee advanced an amendment to the city’s so-called “Welcoming City Ordinance” that adds further protections for undocumented Chicagoans who have run-ins with the police. The changes also protect undocumented Chicagoans from any coercion or verbal abuse, both of which are defined in the ordinance, by a city employee.

Among the dozens of pages of routine transportation items up for consideration today by the Council’s Transportation and Public Way Committee is a proposed intergovernmental agreement that would aid in the drafting of a comprehensive transportation plan for Committee Chairman Anthony Beale’s Far South Side 9th Ward.

An ordinance intended to jumpstart construction of a new North Branch riverwalk under the Addison Street bridge, a nearly $4 million dollar land sale to Near North Montessori School, and several appointments to the Community Land Trust Board are up consideration by the Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee this morning.

The Council’s Zoning Committee approved Nobu’s request to add an additional three stories to their proposed hotel for Fulton Market, which is currently under construction, as well as a plan to convert the former Graeme Stewart Elementary School in Uptown into 64 apartments. All appointments, including the reappointment of Blake Sercye as the chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals, passed without a hitch. (George Blakemore was the only public witness at yesterday’s meeting, and he testified on nearly every item.)

The Mayor’s intergovernmental affairs staff released to aldermen this week a new version of the administration’s police reform ordinance and various briefing documents explaining how it compares to two alternative aldermanic proposals.

On Monday, Corporation Counsel Steve Patton held a series of briefings with aldermen on the new reform plan, which includes the budget appropriation for the two new police oversight agencies.

Documents distributed to aldermen:

• Updated Police Accountability Draft Ordinance - This is the new version of the police reform ordinance which includes updated language on the budget for COPA and for the new Public Safety Deputy within the city’s Inspector General’s Office. Under the revised plan, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) will receive 1% of the Chicago Police Department’s annual appropriation, excluding grant funds. Based on CPD’s 2016 budget of $1.45 billion, COPA would receive about $14 million, nearly double what Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) received in 2016. (On Monday, we reported that enterprise funds, such as money from O’Hare and Midway Airport, would also be excluded, but according to the updated ordinance, that money would be part of the percentage.) The IG’s office will also get a funding bump, from 0.1% of the city’s corporate fund to 0.14%.

• Ervin (FAIR Cops) Ordinance Comparison - This document outlines which aspects of Ald. Jason Ervin’s (28) FAIR Cops Ordinance the administration included in their police reform plan. According to this chart, one recommendation–that the City Council be allowed to force the police department to implement a recommendation offered by the new Public Safety Deputy–was not included. The chart notes that the city reviewed practices in other jurisdictions and found that “the function of an IG is to identify issues and make recommendations; none use or recommend a mechanism that makes such recommendations binding or mandatory.”

• Hairston Ordinance Comparison - One provision in Ald. Leslie Hairston’s (5) police reform ordinance was not included, according to this chart. Ald. Hairston called for the creation of a selection process for the new chief administrator that involves community input. The chart notes that IPRA Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley will stay on as the interim chief administrator for COPA until the City Council creates a permanent mechanism for how her successor should be appointed. That mechanism will likely be drafted when the Council officially creates the Community Oversight Board, the third prong in the reform process, which is expected to be considered in the next six to nine months.

• IPRA/COPA Matrix - This chart compares IPRA’s current powers and duties with that of COPA, what Ald. Haiston had called for in her police reform ordinance, and what the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force recommended. One interesting point: the chief administrator of COPA may be a former CPD member (civilian or officer) or former employee of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office so long as it wasn’t within five years of the appointment. IPRA has no such restrictions, the PATF report recommended the five year cooling period, while Ald. Hairston’s ordinance specifically said a chief administrator can’t have had any prior employment with either agency.

• Public Safety Deputy/FAIR Cops Matrix - Similar to the above chart, this document compares the proposed role of the Public Safety Deputy,  the recommendations outlined in Ald. Ervin’s FAIR Cops ordinance, and the recommendations of the PATF report.

The Council Committee on Human Relations meets this morning to consider a slew of appointments and reappointments two city commissions that deal with monitoring and strengthening the city’s human and civil rights laws, as well as an ordinance that would strengthen protections for undocumented residents living in Chicago. There’s also a resolution calling on the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to change the name of the new McCormick Square neighborhood that cites the building’s namesake, Robert R. McCormick, and his alleged racist past.

Plans to transform an Uptown elementary school into apartments, an application to add three more floors to the Nobu Hotel currently being constructed in Fulton Market, and a new residential community for the city’s Glenwood/Dunn neighborhood are on the deferred agenda for today’s Zoning Committee meeting.

All three projects received unanimous approval from the city’s Plan Commission at their September meeting and now need approval from the Council’s Zoning Committee before the projects can advance to the full City Council for a vote.

It should be a fairly short meeting. There are only 10 zoning applications scheduled, and all had been previously deferred.  

The committee is also scheduled to consider three appointments to two major land-use bodies. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is requesting the Council reappoint Blake Sercye as chairman of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals. His term would expire July 1, 2021.

The city’s Law Department proposed a budget amount tied to the overall Police Department budget for the new police oversight agency that is expected to replace the Independent Police Review Authority. Under the proposal, that agency will be allowed to hire outside counsel, according to aldermen The Daily Line spoke to who were briefed Monday.

Corporation Counsel Steve Patton held multiple briefing sessions yesterday with aldermen on revisions his office has made to the police reform ordinance, according to aldermen present. The ordinance is scheduled for a Joint Budget and Public Safety Committee hearing on October 3, followed by a full City Council vote on October 5.