News in brief: CTA tests electric buses; Pritzker signs CTU bargaining bill

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown addressed the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old boy.

One week after police fatally shot a 13-year-old boy in Little Village, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday said she wants the Chicago Police Department to revisit its policy on foot pursuits “before the summer,” but neither she nor Supt. David Brown offered details on how the policy should change.

Lightfoot made the announcement from New Life Community Church in Little Village, representing her and Brown’s first in-person remarks on the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo that occurred March 29 in the same neighborhood.

News in brief: Emissions decline from large buildings, but schools lag; Chicago ‘probably will’ see delay in Johnson & Johnson vaccine: Arwady

Instead of fusing all their ideas together, proponents of two competing proposals to enact civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department struck a compromise last month by asking voters to chose which version they like better.

The new proposed measure, called the Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance, is endorsed by advocates of the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) and Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) proposals — neither of which is supported by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The chair of the City Council Committee on Public Safety abruptly canceled two consecutive monthly meetings after stating an intention at the beginning of the year to meet more frequently. Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) told The Daily Line on Tuesday he still plans to meet twice per month, but grappling with other committees to schedule virtual meetings has  presented more challenges than scheduling in-person meetings.

The committee responsible for considering significant new legislation on civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department and reforms to police search warrant procedures has not met since January.

News in brief: Two new mass vaccination sites to open April 5; City launches human trafficking awareness campaign

The City Council on Wednesday approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s industrial zoning ordinance and denied Ald. Maria Hadden’s resolution condemning religious violence in India.

During what may have been the Chicago City Council’s last all-remote meeting, aldermen approved a sweeping crackdown on new industrial development, voted down a non-binding resolution condemning religious violence in India and approved a demolition surcharge fee for some residential areas of the city.

Just before the meeting ended, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it is her "sincere hope" the City Council will be back to meeting in person at the April meeting. The mayor said aldermen will "receive a briefing in the coming days" and their feedback is welcome.

Aldermen approved a demolition surcharge for gentrifying areas on Monday, teeing it up for a full City Council vote later this week. Aldermen also approved a list of banks and lending institutions where the city and Chicago Public Schools will place their savings this year. 

The demolition surcharge ordinance (O2021-746), which passed with 20-11 vote during Monday’s City Council Committee on Finance meeting, would tack on a $15,000 fee to demolition applications for any single-family home, townhome and two-flat in the designated residential zones in Pilsen and near the 606 Bloomingdale Trail. Additionally, developers would be charged $5,000 for each unit demolished that was part of a multifamily apartment building. 

As Chicago gears up to redraw boundaries of its 50 wards, leaders of Chicago’s Aldermanic Black Caucus and City Council Latino Caucus have a goal to keep communities in their wards together and to retain or expand the number of council seats they currently hold.

The aldermen put a high priority on maintaining their power to shape policy in the City Council and ensure their constituents’ needs are met and their concerns are addressed. Using the 2020 census data to redraw the wards in such a way that keeps the communities they represent together gives the caucasus a better chance of ensuring they hold onto seats.

Advocates and aldermanic sponsors of a new compromise ordinance to enact civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department are mum on the details of the proposal they’re calling the Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance.

The coalitions behind the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) held a news conference on Friday announcing they had reached an agreement and demanding that Mayor Lori Lightfoot “stop getting in the way of progress.”

The city’s Streets and Sanitation commissioner agrees with some aldermen and recycling advocates that the department could use help from another city department to make sure large apartment and office buildings separate recyclables, he said Wednesday.

Members of the City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight and the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy on Wednesday grilled streets and sanitation department leaders, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson and Chief Sustainability Officer Angela Tovar on why the city’s recycling program for large buildings is not being properly enforced.

Aldermen are expected Wednesday to demand answers from leaders of the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation on reported gaps in the program used to pick up recycling from large buildings.

The subject matter hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. by the City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight and the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy comes out of a resolution (R2020-1071) introduced by Ald. Michele Smith (43) in December.

City Council committees held more than 20 so-called subject matter hearings in 2020, more than the number of no-vote public discussions held during all of the four previous years combined. 

Aldermen and experts surmise the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role, in a multitude of ways, in the uptick in the number of meetings that largely have not culminated in any binding legislative action. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and some aldermen have celebrated the extra meetings for the extra transparency they lend to governance, but others have taken the trend as a sign that the council is too hesitant to take decisive action.

News in brief: Vote on civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department could come this month, alderman says; Obama Presidential Center gets green light, construction could begin this summer

The candidates hoping to be appointed to state Sen. Heather Steans’ (D-Chicago) 7^th District seat following her resignation last month have different takes on the party-led process currently underway to fill her seat.

The six candidates weighed in on the process during a virtual forum hosted Monday night by 40th and 47th Ward Democratic organizations, who organized the event with the goal of making the appointment process more transparent. Candidates also weighed in on topics including workers’ rights, police reform and the state’s budget crisis.

News in brief: @chipubschools standoff intensifies as talks with @CTULocal1 grind to a halt; Chicago moves to Phase Four of reopening but indoor dining restrictions remain

News in brief: First Subcommittee on Reparations meeting canceled; Lightfoot, city file lawsuit against companies for selling and marketing flavored vape products

Michael Simmons was sworn in as Illinois’ newest state senator Saturday night after local Democratic Party officials appointed him to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of state Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago). 

Simmons’ appointment dealt a blow to state Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), who was considered a frontrunner to fill the position. Simmons, deputy director of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and a former senior official in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, received nearly three times the number of weighted votes Cassidy pulled in.

After aldermen on Monday continued a push to get library employees vaccinated sooner than scheduled, Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady left open the possibility it could happen in some areas of the city.

Arwady updated aldermen on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and answered their questions for three hours during a regular  meeting held by the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human to discuss the pandemic Monday.

A proposal to convert a vacant Jefferson Park firehouse into a brewery and taproom with upstairs apartments cleared one of its final hurdles Wednesday.

Members of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate unanimously voted during their Wednesday meeting to approve the sale of the property (O2020-5755) at 4841 N. Lipps Ave. to Ambrosia Homes for $208,000, which would be put in an escrow account to fund environmental remediation of the property.