Today is the monthly City Council meeting. The Rules Committee is expected to convene in the Council Chambers 45 minutes ahead of the full meeting to reconsider a ballot referendum question from Ald. Walter Burnett (27).

The resolution, which asks Chicago voters if the state and federal government should invest more money in city roads and public transit, ended in a rare tie vote (7-to-7) in committee last week.

Items Pending Approval

• A Property Tax Rebate Plan for Homeowners with a gross annual income of $75,000 or less.

• TIF amendments to aid a three-year City-County partnership pilot program aimed at spurring development in the city’s industrial corridors.

• A more robust recycling program from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, designed to bring large residential buildings into compliance with the city’s single-source recycling program.

• $4.72 million in legal settlements against police officers with the Chicago Police Department

• A more robust vacant building registration program, extending the registration requirement to foreclosed commercial and retail property.

• Repealing the $30 exam fee for the police and fire entrance exam to bolster minority recruiting.

• Appointment of Alicia Tate-Nadeau as the Executive Director of the Office Of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC).

• Appointment of Nancy C. Andrade as a member of the Board of Ethics, to replace Julia Nowicki, who resigned.

• Allowing alley access for motor vehicle repair shops with less than seven parking spaces, to make it easier for small businesses to build out a cheaper commercial driveway off the alley.

• A proposal to create a “Shared Street” on a portion of Argyle Street in Edgewater, as part of a new pilot program to make commercial corridors more pedestrian friendly.

• A substitute ordinance changing public way permitting, allowing the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation to issue those permits upon passage by the City Council, rather than only after “passage and publication.”

• Bid incentives for veteran-owned subcontractors or Veteran-owned small local businesses

• An expansion of the city's apprentice program to CPS graduates (the program is currently for graduates of City Colleges)

• A symbolic resolution on the Department of Homeland Security to designate Ecuador for temporary protected status and to provide temporary immigration relief to eligible Ecuadorians living in Chicago following a devastating earthquake there that resulted in 660 deaths and racked up about $3 billion in damages earlier this year.

• A new Animal Care and Control policy calling for humane treatment of urban coyotes.