ZBA Chairman Appointed as New Chicago Board of Elections Commissioner
by Claudia Morell – [email protected]

Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Jonathan Swain will join the City’s Board of Elections, replacing Commissioner Langdon Neal, who resigned from the post effective December 31.

A majority of Cook County Circuit Judges approved the appointment forwarded by Chief Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy C. Evans. In a written statement, Evans said Swain’s appointment will ensure the city’s diversity is represented on the three-member board, “Swain, who is African-American, will join Marisol Hernandez, who is Hispanic, and William Kresse, who is Caucasian.”

Swain will forfeit his spot as Zoning Board chairman, a position he’s held since 2010, and finish out Neal’s three-year term expiring on November 30, 2017. He’ll receive an annual salary of $77,798.

Seven other candidates vied for the position, including Dick Simpson, a former alderman and Political Science Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Despite Calls For His Resignation, Mayor Emanuel Raised Big Cash in December
by Claudia Morell – [email protected]

In his first big fundraising push since the mayoral election, and despite the political fallout he has received from his handling of the Laquan McDonald case, Mayor Rahm Emanuel collected more than $100,000 in political donations last month. According to State Board of Elections’ filings, all of the 56 donation checks he collected were dated on the 11th and 21st of December, suggesting he held a year-end fundraiser with some of the city’s most prominent business leaders.

John Bucksbaum, founder of Bucksbaum Retail Properties, one of the firms behind the massive one-million-square-foot New City commercial retail complex on Clybourn Avenue in Lincoln Park, gave the maximum contribution of $5,400. His wife, Jacolyn, donated another $5,400.

Other notable contributions in the $5,000 range to the mayor’s personal campaign fund came from Scott Cochrane, president of Cochrane Enterprises, which operates several bars in downtown Urbana frequented by University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign students; New Congress, LLC, a private company created by Michael Moyer for the Congress Theater mixed-use redevelopment plan; and attorney Thomas Raines.

Five employees from the hedge fund firm Grosvenor Capital Management donated a total of $7,500. The company’s CEO, Michael Sacks, is a close ally of Emanuel, contributing regularly to the mayor’s personal campaign fund and super PACs. And as head of World Business Chicago’s board of directors, Sacks plays an influential role as a liaison between the mayor’s office and the city’s business community.

Several Chicago-area executives made donations in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, including Fred Eychaner of NewsWeb Corporation, George Moncada of Marquette Bank, John A. Canning, Jr. of Madison Dearborn Partners, Craig Duchossois of the Duchossois Group, Inc., Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners, Dean Harrison of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Larry Richman of The Private Bank, and Donald Wilson of DRW Trading Group.

But Emanuel’s fundraising boom fell short of Ald. Brendan Reilly’s collection. The Vice Mayor reported nearly $200,000 in political donations over the same month, and the 82 donations he gathered are also divided among two dates, the 9th or the 22nd, suggesting he held an end of the year fundraiser.

Ald. Reilly got significant support from the Melmans, the family that owns Lettuce Entertain You, a restaurant company that owns about a hundred high end and fast-food restaurants, mostly in the Chicagoland area. Reilly reported a total of $22,000 in contributions from the Melmans. He received a $5,000 contribution from the company, in addition to reporting $5,000 checks from the company’s CEO Richard Melman and his two sons, Robert “R.J” and Jerrod. Their attorney, Jay Stieber, gave $2,000. The younger Melmans operate one of the company's newer restaurants in River North,Hub 51.

South Loop Alderman Pat Dowell (3) also had a fundraising blitz at the end of 2015, reporting nearly $65,000 in new contributions in December alone.

Other Notable Contributions:

• Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $10,000 to the Leadership for Education Equity’s political PAC. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization is affiliated with Teach for America, and the local Illinois chapter uses its campaign chest to back former members running for office.


• Black Dog Corporation, a minority owned petroleum distribution firm, gave money to 4th Ward Ald. Will Burns ($1,000), 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke($1,500), and 34th Ward Alderman Carrie Austin ($1,000).


• The law firm that filed a class action lawsuit against the city for improperly issuing automated red-light and speed camera tickets, Cherry, Myron M. & Associates, donated $1,000 to Ald. Ed Burke (14). In the lawsuit Simpson v. City of Chicago, the company filed in 2015, attorneys claimed the city illegally collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from traffic violations caught on street cameras, because it failed to mail second notices to drivers.


• Former Cook County Assessor, Thomas M. Tulley, donated $1,500 to Ald. Brian Hopkins and $5,000 to Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. Tulley transferred the funds from his old political campaign, Citizens for Tulley, which according to his latest Quarterly filings is nearly $280,000 in the red, as all of the money in the campaign fund are personal loans.

Fifty-three candidates filed ballot petitions yesterday with the State Board of Elections to run for Democratic, Republican, and Green Party Ward Committeeman for the first day of filing. While nearly half of the candidates who filed yesterday are incumbents (like Cook County Democratic Party Chairman and 31st Ward Democratic Committeeman Joe Berrios and 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan), there were a few newcomers.

After a marathon day of hearing applications for special use permits, most of which were for home expansion plans, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved zoning changes to relocate a medical marijuana dispensary from Fulton Market to Garfield Park, a new tech-focused, private elementary school for Lincoln Park, and a new transitional home in the Little Village neighborhood.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved several large scale housing and commercial developments to be built along the Lakefront and Chicago River, including the “supertall” Wanda Vista Tower project.

The Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development met briefly yesterday afternoon to approve a property tax exemption for EDE Corp., the only exhibition display company based in Chicago. The 35-year-old, family-run company sought a Class 6(b) property tax incentive to expand their operations to a neighboring, vacant 35,000-square-foot-industrial building at 3790 W. 74th St. in the 13th Ward. If approved by the full City Council tomorrow, the company would save approximately $254,000 in tax savings over the 12-year period, and could re-apply for the tax break when it expires.

With more than half of the items on the agenda awaiting approval from the Plan Commission, the City Council’s Zoning Committee spent a majority of the meeting approving aldermanic applications to downzone sections of their wards to prevent developers from building “whatever they want” without community input. Most of those zoning changes, pending City Council approval today, are in the 19th Ward on the far South Side of Chicago.

A joint Committee on Budget and Finance will reconvene this morning to vote on new regulations aimed at preventing the future sale of city assets and services without an extensive public review process and independent audit.

An ordinance aimed at making city privatization deals more difficult is the subject of a joint meeting of the Council's Finance and Budget Committees this afternoon.

The City Council’s Finance Committee approved $700,000 in legal settlements involving Chicago police officers, even as some aldermen questioned whether it would have been better to fight the lawsuits in court. An amendment to the recently passed e-cigarette tax and all other routine items on the agenda passed in committee and will be reported out to the full City Council at Wednesday’s meeting.  

The Council Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events approved an ordinance yesterday giving the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) the authority to produce public events and festivals for next year, an action the committee must take every year.

The Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation meets at noon today to take up an ordinance that sets the stage for next year’s public festivals, art shows, parades, and other attractions put on by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).

The City Council Committee on Finance is scheduled to vote on $700,000 in legal settlements against Chicago police officers, amend the recently passed e-cigarette tax, and terminate the first of four downtown TIF districts.

The Finance Committee meets today for another round of public hearings on proposed changes to three Special Service Areas (SSAs). Local residents and businesses will have an opportunity to express support or opposition to expanding the 71st St./Stony Island SSA (#42) and the 103rd St./Beverly SSA (#44), in addition to terminating the existing agreement for the State Street SSA (#1) and replacing it with a new plan with new boundaries.

The City Council’s Aviation Committee approved new regulations for drone operators in Chicago after more than two hours of public testimony and debate on the issue; a new fee for private shuttle services that take people to and from O’Hare and Midway Airports; and a new premium parking and reservation program.

Several freshman aldermen are circulating ballot petitions for Democratic Ward Committeeman ahead of the November 30th filing deadline. Aldertrack has confirmed Aldermen Brian Hopkins (2), Gregory Mitchell (7), Sue Sadlowski-Garza (10), David Moore (17), Chris Taliaferro (29), and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa(35) are vying for the political office.

One item on the Aviation agenda introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the summer would create a new premium parking service program at O’Hare Airport. The item made it on the July 28th Aviation Committee agenda but was held in committee.

The Committee on Finance is holding a public hearing this morning regarding the creation of a new Special Service Area for the Jefferson Park community and the renewal of the Lincoln Park SSA.

Timed for today’s celebration of Veterans Day, a joint committee on Finance and Public Safety approved an ordinance yesterday categorizing attacks against military personnel in Chicago as hate crimes.

The City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate met for more than three hours yesterday and approved Mayor Emanuel’s $12.4 million dollar parking lot sale, a land sale on the South Side that will pave the way for a new waste processing center that will produce renewable energy, and appointments to boards that oversee affordable housing. All lease agreements and land sales on the agenda were approved by voice vote. Ald. Joe Moreno’s (1) ordinance establishing height limits on exterior staircases to residential homes was re-referred to the Zoning Committee.