Ald. Ed Burke (14) wants to expand the city’s hate crime ordinance to include police officers, firefighters and other first responders to the list of protected citizens as part of the “Blue Lives Matter” movement.

Burke, along with several other former law enforcement officials on the Council, plan to introduce an ordinance that would charge a person who assaults an active or retired officer or other law enforcement personnel because of their uniform with a hate crime.

As the amendment is currently drafted, any person found unlawfully inciting a riot, or more specifically, a “clear and present danger of a riot or assault, battery or unlawful trespass against” a current or retired first responder would face fines between $25 and $500, and up to six months in prison.

And any individual who commits a “hate crime” as defined under the law, whether it be an assault or destroying personal property, against a first responder would face up to $2,500 in fines, up from the current $500 maximum.

“We need to extend to our first responders every possible protection,” Alderman Burke said in a press release sent yesterday. “Each day police officers and firefighters put their lives on the line to ensure our well-being and security. It is the goal of this ordinance to give prosecutors and judges every tool to punish those who interfere with, or threaten or physically assault, our public safety personnel.”

Last month, Louisiana’s Gov. John Bel Edwards signed similar legislation into law after it passed both houses of the majority Republican legislature.

At the federal level, Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado introduced similar legislation in March called the “Blue Lives Matter Act of 2016.” That measure would make an attack on a police officer a hate crime punishable with up to 10 years in prison or longer if there is a death involved.

Aldermen Willie Cochran (20), Nick Sposato (38), Anthony Napolitano (41), Derrick Curtis (18) and Chris Taliaferro (29), all of whom are former law enforcement officials, are listed as co-sponsors.

A spokesman from Burke’s office told Aldertrack yesterday that no decision has been made on when it will be introduced–or to what committee.

Thomas Ryan, President of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, which represents firefighters and paramedics, endorsed the measure in the press release. “This ordinance will provide added protection to first responders who risk their lives in service to others while also adding consequences for those who feel compelled to attack them in the performance of their duty.”

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 President Dean Angelo told Aldertrack that the union is “obviously thankful” for the ordinance. “It's an anomaly at this particular time with so much anti-law enforcement rhetoric,” he said, adding that they look forward to its passage with all the “anti-police legislation” currently being introduced by people he described as being unfamiliar with what police officers deal with on a daily basis.

Asked if the ordinance would further strain community police relations in Chicago, Angelo said no. “I don't see how it would be taken in a negative context.”

Activists and police reformers are strongly opposed to the measure, especially in light of recent events over police misconduct.

“This proposal is a distraction from the real conversation we need in Chicago about fundamentally reforming the policing system, which has failed the people of the City. Crimes committed against police because of their status as police are down, not up,” said Karen Sheley, Director of the Police Practices Project at the ACLU of Illinois, in an emailed statement sent to Aldertrack.

“Rather than diverting scarce resources to this non-existent problem, we need to focus sharply on the very real and pressing problem of how to reform policing in Chicago, including rebuilding the trust between the community and the police department. We are in the midst of a grave crisis regarding this trust, and we should be working to insure that the community knows that police will be held accountable when they act improperly. This is a real problem that needs addressing now.”

“It’s a disaster. The efforts to criminalize more people would not work at this particular time...It’s adding nuclear energy to an already tense situation,” said Anton Seals, Jr., an organizer on police accountability issues and a Community and Neighborhood Coordinator at DePaul University. Referencing the Independent Police Review Authority's recent public disclosure of over 300 video clips that are part of open investigations into police misconduct, Seals said police aren’t the ones who need protection. “It looks like the abuse is the other way around.”

Meanwhile, Chicago activist Rachel Williams of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100)said they’re not surprised by Burke’s efforts. “When Louisiana passed its bill, we knew that it would go across the board, that [similar measures] would be introduced across the country.”

County commissioners will meet at 9:15 a.m. today to consider clarifying rules on text messaging and emails from non-government accounts and phones, resolutions supporting more strict gun licensing rules, and a name change for the Office of Adoption and Child Custody. The Finance Subcommittee on Litigation will also meet in executive session to consider nearly a dozen pending lawsuits against the county.

Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee

New rules for texting and emailing for County Board employees, two resolutions supporting expanded gun regulations, a briefing on pending legislation in Springfield and Washington, and appointments to various agencies are on the agenda for today’s Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee meeting.

A resolution supporting a bill from State Rep. Christian Mitchell and State Sen. Don Harmon that requires all applicants for a gun dealer license and their employees to have a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) cards and a background check is up for consideration. The so-called Gun Dealer and Ammunition Seller Act would also require training for legal requirements and responsible business practices for gun sales. The preamble notes “between 2009 and 2013, four particular gun dealers, each located a short drive outside of Chicago, supplied 20% of all guns recovered from Chicago crime scenes.”

A similar resolution from Comm. Larry Suffredin urges the general assembly to institute statewide licensing and regulation of gun dealers and ranges, arguing the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has the resources to do so. "Lack of oversight makes it far too easy for gun dealers to turn a blind eye to 'straw purchasers,' and other traffickers,” the resolution reads. Commissioners are also due to be briefed on the status of lobbying efforts in the general assembly and in Congress.  

Comm. Suffredin first proposed this ordinance in March, saying all electronic communication by officials, board or commission appointees and employees regarding official government business must be through official government email accounts. Separately elected officials and their staffs (like commissioners) may use separate email accounts associated with their own offices, or personal email accounts, but must tell Board Secretary Matthew DeLeon those accounts are being used for government purposes.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has come under fire for use of private devices to conduct government business. The Chicago Tribune is currently battling the Mayor in court, alleging he violated the state's open records laws by refusing to release private emails and text messages about city business.

Three appointments are also up for committee consideration: Judith Hamill to the Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals, Dale Niewiardowski as a Trustee of the Northwest Mosquito Abatement District, and Michael Sullivan as Commissioner of the Weller Creek Drainage District Board of Commissioners. According to her LinkedIn, Hamill served in various roles in Chicago and Cook County government from 1975 until 2009. Niewiardowski is an Elk Grove Township trustee and Vice President of three local businesses: Nevarr Inc. Lawn and Construction Equipment Division, Nevarr Inc Public Safety and Homeland Security Division and Nevarr Property Management LLC.

Subcommittee on Litigation

The subcommittee on litigation will receive several updates from Don Pechous, a representative from the Cook County State's Attorney’s office, on pending litigation against the county, including:

• Debra Dyer-Webster v. Dent, et al., alleges excessive force by two employees of the Rapid Response Team at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center while escorting a minor out of a classroom. The plaintiff, Debra Dyer-Webster from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services claimed two employees slammed a minor’s face against a desk, causing him “to lose consciousness, sustain an abrasion to his chin and fracture his jaw,” then verbally abused him.

• Karkoszka v. Dart, et al., James Karkoszka, an inmate at Cook County Jail, was waiting for transfer from a holding cell after medical treatment for blood clots. He testified didn’t want to be handcuffed and “purposely struggled to avoid” it. Multiple officers came to the holding cell to try to handcuff him while he was “flailing around.” After he was handcuffed, the suit alleges, officers escorted him to a room where they handcuffed him to a wall, sprayed him with pepper spray, and continued to hit and kick him. Medical records from Cermak Health Services at the jail said he was "beaten badly to the head," and sustained intra-cranial hemorrhaging. 10 employees were named in the case.

• Dixon v. Cook County, et al., This case brought by Lula Dixon, mother of the deceased Kevin Dixon, alleges officers at the Cook County Jail were “deliberately indifferent” to her son’s medical condition–complications from cancer. Dixon says her son was at times paralyzed from the legs down in his cell and didn’t receive medical attention quickly enough. Judge Thomas Durkin dismissed the complaint in October 2013, saying the delay in care wasn’t deliberate indifference, and there were no specific deficiencies that may have existed in the County's policies for medical treatment.

• There is also a case involving Dr. George Cybulski, a neurosurgeon who became head of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System Division of Neurosurgery in 2004, but left in 2009. He is still medical staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, and Stroger Hospital. He is listed as a plaintiff against the County.

Business and Economic Development 

Three Class 8 property tax breaks are up for consideration by commissioners today. Properties that receive a Class 8 break are assessed at a lower rate: 10% of the market value for 10 years, 15% for the 11th year and 20% in the 12th year (instead of 25%).

• 2520 Lincoln Highway, Olympia Fields: This property, in a commercial strip mall, has been vacant for 19 months–short of the 24 months generally required for a Class 8 break–but commissioners can consider it vacant under special circumstances. The applicant, ES Realty Olympia Fields LLC, plans to provide 8 full time jobs at the site.

• 16823 State Street and 61 East 168th Street, South Holland: Simone Kapovich/ S&J Construction is interested in purchasing this property for Industrial-Warehousing and logistics purposes, in addition to adding 18 full time jobs. According to the application, the property is in need of substantial rehabilitation. According to Google Maps, it appears S&J is already located at 61 E. 168th St.

• 13820 South Marquette, Burnham: Five full time jobs would be created and 165 would be retained at this waste hauling operation in Burnham. National waste handling company Mr. Bult’s Inc. (MBI) is the applicant. Their headquarters are just around the corner from the proposed location.  

There is also an amendment to a previously passed item creating a special purpose fund to defray administrative and project delivery costs for the Broadening Urban Investment to Leverage Transportation (BUILT) in Cook Loan Program (funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). The program was created to allow the County to borrow money from private investors at reduced interest rates to “promote economic development, stimulate job growth and improve public facilities.”

Health and Hospitals Committee

A rename for the Cook County Office of Adoption and Child Custody is the only agenda item for the committee. The agency’s new name would be the Department of Adoption and Family Supportive Services, and will stay under the jurisdiction of the County Bureau of Administration.The change is due to recent amendments to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, which went into effect January 1, 2016. All references to "custody" were replaced by "parental responsibility allocation." The fingerprinting fee is being reduced from $50 to $15.

With far less than the 25 members needed for a quorum, aldermen on the Rules Committee advanced three non-binding ballot questions for the November election that would ask Chicago voters about strengthening penalties for illegal gun sales, if the city should issue municipal IDs for non-citizen residents and whether the state should provide “equitable” funding for Chicago Public Schools.

Attendance: Chair Michelle Harris (8), Pat Dowell (3), Howard Brookins, Jr, (21), Michael Scott, Jr. (24), Danny Solis (25), Ariel Reboyras (30), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), Marge Laurino (39), Pat O’Connor (40)

Ald. Scott Waguespack’s (32) proposed ballot question on whether an elected Independent Airport Authority should govern Chicago’s two airports, O’Hare and Midway, was not considered yesterday. It was the only ballot referendum proposed by an alderman not to advance to the Rules Committee. Instead, when Ald. Waguespack introduced the measure in May, at the same meeting the other three referenda were introduced, it was sent to the Aviation Committee.  

Further oversight at Chicago’s airports have faced major pushback in committee this year. In March, when Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41), whose ward includes O’Hare Airport, aggressively pushed for a hearing on his plan to put the City Council in charge of approving new runways, it got shot down with every member on the committee, with Ald. Napolitano voting against it.

The Mayor’s Office, the city’s Law Department and Aviation Department were vehemently opposed to that plan arguing it would disrupt day-to-day operations at the airport, hinder ongoing expansion plans and jeopardize millions of dollars in federal aid. Napolitano has also been publicly pushing to be included on the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, to no avail.

The referendum asking Chicago voters about establishing a new airport authority was drafted in consultation with SEIU Local 1, which represents some airport workers, and is supported by most of Ald. Waguespack’s Progressive Caucus.

After yesterday’s Rules Committee meeting, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) told Aldertrack that the goal is to have the Aviation Committee consider and vote on the plan in time for the June 22nd monthly City Council meeting. That could give the supporters of the referendum the opportunity to convince other aldermen why that question is more important than the other three advanced by the Rules Committee yesterday.

State law limits the number of ballot referenda to three per jurisdiction. In Chicago’s case, the City Council has until August 22 to adopt the three advisory questions that will go to voters in the upcoming November election. And petitions to file an advisory question must be filed by August 8 with 8% of the total votes for governor cast in the last election within that jurisdiction, or 52,519 signatures for Chicago. Once the three slots are filled, no further questions may be submitted.

The three referenda questions the Rules Committee approved advanced fairly easily, although Ald. Rosa raised concerns that Ald. Danny Solis’ (25) municipal ID question could hinder work Cook County is currently doing to setup a countywide ID system.  

The proposed question would ask voters: “Should the City of Chicago consider creating a municipal identification card that will expand access to city services for residents unable to access other forms of identification?”

“I’m a strong believer of a municipal ID... but I have serious concerns about this question and the way that we are bringing it forward,” Ald. Rosa explained, referencing how the New York City Council, instead of posing municipal IDs as a question on the ballot, made it official city law.

Rosa said the question, depending on the outcome, could step on the County’s efforts, a message he said was relayed to him by county commissioners. “They feel strongly that this timing is not opportune for their efforts at the county level.”

But there is no official measure pending in Cook County to create a countywide ID. It’s still in the idea stage and was recently proposed as part of recommendations from Cook County Health Care Task Force. One of the suggestions is to create a countywide ID for immigrants or others without the means of getting a state ID in order to help them gain access to state subsidized care at county hospitals.

Rosa planned to make a quorum call to block a vote on the referenda, but said he changed his mind after receiving assurances from Ald. Solis that the Mayor's Office would speak to and address concerns from county commissioners and local immigrant leaders, who he said are worried that the current political climate over immigration could lead to an unfavorable outcome.

Meanwhile, there was no pushback for the Mayor’s ballot question about illegal guns or Ald. Howard Brookins, Jr. (21) inquiry about the state’s school funding formula.

Police Commander Christopher Kennedy, who oversees the gang investigation division with the Police Department’s Organized Crime Bureau, testified on behalf of the mayor’s proposed ballot question, which asks voters: “Should the State of Illinois strengthen penalties for the illegal trafficking of firearms and require background checks for gun dealers and their employees?”

According to Commander Kennedy, since the start of 2016, the police department has seized approximately 3,900 illegal guns, or the equivalent of one gun per hour, making the collection greater than the combined total of illegal guns seized in New York and Los Angeles. “It’s critically important that we reduce the size of Chicago’s illegal gun market by holding the sellers of illegal guns accountable as well, by strengthening the penalties of illegal trafficking of firearms, and by requiring background checks for gun dealers, the state of Illinois would be providing additional meaningful tools in our efforts to reduce gun violence.”

The third referendum the committee approved, introduced by newly appointed Education Chair Ald. Brookins, would ask: “Should the State of Illinois provide full and equitable funding for Chicago Public Schools?”

Brookins said the question is aimed at putting pressure on the state to fairly subsidize Chicago Public Schools.  “We need a permanent solution, we need an equitable solution for funding of education in this state, particularly in the city of Chicago,” Ald. Brookins’ explained. “We believe that this resolution allows people of the city of Chicago to speak to that.”

And all four corrections to the Journal of Proceedings were approved together without discussion.

Health Committee

The Council’s Health Committee will meet at 10:00 a.m. this morning to conduct their annual hearing on ComEd’s progress report for 2015. Officials with the utility are also scheduled to discuss summer preparedness.

From left: Mike Fourcher, Brian Sleet, Greg Goldner and Victor Reyes at Wednesday's 1st Anniversary Celebration. Photo by Joshua Medcalf.

If you didn’t make it to the Aldertrack 1st Anniversary Celebration panels last Wednesday night at the University Club, you missed out some some big statements and some important insights. Demographer Rob Paral, on our first panel answering, “Is Chicago shrinking?” with Marisa Novara and Richard Wilson, encapsulated almost the entire conversation by suggesting a new hashtag, #stoptalkingaboutDetroitifyouliveinChicago.

Watch our panels: Panel 1 – Panel 2

Listen to panels.

While our first panel confronted the reality that Chicago is getting smaller, it was a hopeful conversation. Our second panel, led by a trio of political insiders, Brian Sleet, Greg Goldner and Victor Reyes, not as much.

Reyes, about halfway through made this bold statement, to which nobody argued with: “I think by 2019 you will likely have an elected school board.”

The enabling legislation raced through committee, 42-16, he said. “It’s a bill where if you put it on the board, it’s going to pass.”

But Reyes, probably one of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s best known directors of Intergovernmental Affairs and now founder and CEO of public affairs firm Reyes Kurson, doesn’t think an elected school board will absolve Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Council members from responsibility. “[The Mayor] has to care about who gets elected there. The aldermen, have to care about who gets elected. They’re going to held accountable for those property tax levies that schools make, which are bigger than anybody else’s.”

“Whenever property taxes go up, people blame City Council and the Mayor,” agreed Brian Sleet, the campaign manager for Cook County State’s Attorney Democratic nominee Kim Foxx.

Later, the discussion turned to funding Chicago Public Schools. At one point Greg Goldner, also a former Daley director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and founder and CEO of Resolute Consulting, perfectly illustrated the money problems CPS has.

Goldner: Where do we get the other $700 million for next year? Seriously. We’re talking about a $1.1 billion deficit for Chicago public schools, out a $5.6 billion budget… Under the Democrats plan [in Springfield], House or Senate, the [bailout] ceiling anyone is talking about is $400 million, and CPS’ authority to raise property tax is capped. You can’t go to the markets, you already paid 8.5%, maybe they’re open, maybe they’re not. If they are it’s going to cost a lot, and you gotta pay it back at some point. I don’t think you gotta wait too long to figure out what are going to be the dominant issues. What are the solutions, how are we going to track all that? That’s a big number. Is CPS going to get its cap lifted in Springfield? Probably not. Is the City of Chicago City Council going to vote to raise property taxes to give to CPS and how much?

Fourcher: I’ve been told that would be a disaster from a legal perspective, because it would open up the city of Chicago to legal liability by paying off another government entity’s bills. Bondholders would be angry about it.

Goldner: Someone in government would say, who cares? Because we cannot cut $700 million from CPS. And that’s if there’s $400 million [coming] from Springfield.

That second part, if you’re a bondholder, should be chilling to you. Goldner is no slouch. He ran Rahm Emanuel’s successful 2002 Congressional campaign and is the manager of Illinois Go, the super PAC associated with Gov. Bruce Rauner. While I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t talk out of school, he has personal knowledge of what Illinois’ top leaders are willing to do.

People who make a living listening hard to politicians, and staking their reputations on what they think they’ll do, like Reyes, Sleet and Goldner, think things are going to get much rockier this year. I think I agree with them.

Earlier this week, City Treasurer Kurt Summers sent letters to three of the fiveChicago employee pension funds recommending they join a growing federal class action suit against banks for selling them interest rate transactions, or so-called “toxic swaps”. Two other employee pension funds, those for teachers and the police, have already made moves to join the suit, with the police deciding to join just last week, according to the Treasurer’s Office.

[Read Teacher’s Pension Fund complaint.]

While the merits of a potential case are still to be decided by the courts, Summers’ support for suing the banks puts daylight between him, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city CFO Carole Brown, who told reporters last January that the city found “no evidence that would support a claim” against banks for toxic swaps purchased by city financial managers. But Summers is pushing a different angle than the city, his team says.

Summers, who sits on the boards of all city employee pension funds, also happens to be an oft-discussed 2019 candidate for Mayor.

It’s a highly technical, but important piece of daylight, since unions and aldermen in the Progressive Caucus have been accusing the city siding with banks first, ensuring bankers get paid while raising taxes and cutting city services.

A statement issued by the Chicago Teachers Union earlier this week lauded the Treasurer’s move. “Summers' letter confirms what the Chicago Teachers Union, parent and student activists, and community organizations have been saying for years—our city, our school system and our state must pursue the recovery of profits unjustly taken through Wall Street greed.”

This morning the Council Progressive Caucus also released a statement supporting Summers. “We are pleased to hear that the Treasurer has broken from the Emanuel administration’s position that suing the big banks over toxic swaps is impossible,” said Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22). “The banks have reaped historic and unjust profits in these deals.”

Treasurer Summers’ team contends there’s no political motive behind his recent promotion of a class action suit. “There’s no special timing to it other than he’s trying to do his job as a fiduciary,” said spokesperson Alexandra Sims. “He has a job to be transparent, that’s what he’s doing.”

The anti-trust suit Summers suggests pension funds join is in its early stages, months away from applying for class certification, and is vastly complicated, stretching over multiple jurisdictions. It hinges on the ability of the complainants, which is made up of city and state pension funds from across the country, to demonstrate that the banks were purposefully keeping swap transaction markets murky, so banks would always make money.

“You’d have to go directly to the banks, and these banks have worked together to keep the open markets from seeing the light of day. If you had a market platform, you would have had more efficient pricing, and you could have saved money on the whole transaction,” says Drew Beres, General Counsel for the Treasurer’s Office.

The potential defendant list is a mile long, including every big investment bank you’ve ever heard of, and the case, even if it does manage to win class certification, will likely take years to grind through federal court. But, if the pension funds win the case, because it’s an anti-trust case it could result in treble damages from the banks, equaling tens of billions of dollars. To give you a sense of the stakes, a similar, much smaller case was settled by investment banks for $1.87 billion in 2015.

But regardless of how the case goes, Summers may have just shot the first salvo in the 2019 elections.

The Illinois Supreme Court rules a state pension reform law is unconstitutional, forcing Mayor Emanuel to find a new way to fix its struggling Municipal and Labor funds. Aldermen with the Black and Latino Caucus call for public vetting of the three finalists for the city’s top cop vacancy. IPRA’s new chief orders an external audit of closed police involved shooting cases dating back to 2007. And the Chicago Teachers’ Union authorizes a strike. 

After some last minute wrangling with aldermen and an unusual placement of a roll call vote, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman successfully pushed their revamp of the density bonus system for downtown developers through the Council yesterday.

The so-called “Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus” will leverage money from downtown development through a formula that lets builders add extra square-footage in return for a fee that will help support private investment in some of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods.  

An aide for Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), who opposed the plan in Zoning Committee for what he said were glaring transparency issues over fund allocation, told Aldertrack ahead of yesterday’s full City Council meeting the alderman planned to use parliamentary procedure to block a vote for another month. On Tuesday, during the committee hearing on the plan, Ald. Reilly had a heated exchange with Commissioner Reifman and accused him of designing a “slush” fund with limited Council control.

Aldertrack also overheard Commissioner Reifman yesterday in the doorway to the chambers urging Ald. David Moore (17), another alderman who voted against the plan in committee, not to block the ordinance. Reifman told the Englewood alderman not to defer and publish, and said the bonus would be good for his neighborhood.

Making the entire event even stranger, when the Council’s committee chairmen reported out ordinances for the full body to approve, Zoning Chairman Danny Soliswent first. He only brought up the Mayor’s Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus for consideration, then yielded the floor. Usually Finance Chairman Ed Burke (14) reports out his ordinances first.

Chairman Solis asked for a roll call vote on the Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus. And as the Deputy Clerk Carina Sanchez began the roll in rapid fire, before aldermen could move to their seats to vote, Steve Patton, the head of the city’s Law Department audibly called to her to slow down from his spot on the dais. “No, no, no, this is a real vote,” Patton could be heard on mic telling her, “explain to her this is a real vote.”

Once the roll call vote began again, and aldermen moved back to their seats, the measure passed 45-2. Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) joined Ald. Reilly in voting no, while Ald. Moore switched his vote to the affirmative.

Once the item passed, the meeting returned to the regular order of business with Finance Chairman Burke’s Committee reports, which included the sale of $600 million in general obligation bonds and $3.2 million in police-related settlements. Both passed unanimously without discussion, although Ald. Rod Sawyer (6) and Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) abstained from voting on the bonds under provisions of Rule 14.

A plan to make leaving pet waste on private property a finable offense didn’t make it out of Council yesterday. Four aldermen, Leslie Hairston (5), Brendan Reilly (42), Nick Sposato (38), and Raymond Lopez (15), deferred and published the measure. That plan from Mayor Emanuel and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) was originally introduced, Rosa said, because there is no law on the books allowing residents to complain about pet waste piling up in their neighbor’s yard.

“I don’t think citizens should be expected to be on poop watch 24-7,” Ald. Hairston told Aldertrack after she delayed the vote. Even though the ordinance provides that homeowners would be warned before getting hit with a fine of up to $500, Ald. Hairston said the regulations could use some fine-tuning so homeowners don’t get hit with a fine when someone else’s dog defecates on their lawn. “The fine doesn’t go to the dogs that are pooping, the fine goes to the person whose lawn they’re pooping on,” she added.

Introductions (Highlights)

• New City Comptroller - Erin Keane, the First Deputy Comptroller, will replace the city’s current Comptroller, Dan Widawsky, who has held the position since January 2014 and is stepping down from the job to “pursue other professional endeavors,” according to a press release from the Mayor’s Office. Keane’s appointment is subject to City Council approval, although she has been serving as the acting Comptroller since May 1st. In her prior capacity as first deputy, Keane oversaw day to day operations within the city’s Finance Department. Pending her appointment, the administration’s financial team will be all-female, as she will be working closely with Budget Director Alex Holt and Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown.

• Three Non-binding Ballot Referenda -  One proposed ballot referendum from Mayor Emanuel would ask Chicago voters who go to the polls this November whether the state should strengthen penalties for illegal trafficking of firearms and require background checks for gun dealers and their employees. Another proposed referendum from Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) would ask voters if an elected Independent Airport Authority should govern Chicago’s two airports, O’Hare and Midway. The airport referendum was drafted in consultation with SEIU, which represents airport workers, and has 27 signatures so far. The third referendum, introduced by newly appointed Education Chair Howard Brookins, Jr. (20), would simply ask voters: Should the State of Illinois provide full and equitable funding for Chicago Public Schools? State law limits the number of ballot referendums to three per jurisdiction. You can check out the schedule for submitting ballot referenda here (starting on page 23). All three ballot resolutions were forwarded to the Council’s Rules Committee.

• Easing Spray Paint Restrictions - Ald. Burke and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) want to lift a city ban on retailers selling spray paint, while increasing penalties on people found using the paint to deface buildings. Ald. Buke and O’Shea introduced an ordinance at yesterday’s City Council meeting that would let retailers sell the spray paint to consumers who are 18 or older. Under the plan, retailers would be allowed to only sell spray paint, broad-tipped markers and etching equipment if those items are behind a restricted area not available to the general public. Stores would also have to publicly display warnings that state, “Vandalism is against the law and punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 and incarceration for a term of up to 30 days.” As for the fines, minors found in possession of the paint would face fines of up to $500 per offense and be required to perform community service. Those over 18-years of age found in violation of the ordinance, which includes buying the paint or other “graffiti implements”, would face fines of up to $1,500 for each offense.

• Anti-Discrimination in Public Restrooms - Likely a response to the national attention over transgender rights in public restrooms, Mayor Emanuel and City Council’s recently-formed LGBT Caucus introduced an ordinance that would amend the municipal code concerning discriminatory practices in public restrooms. It amends the definition of “sex” 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.

• Hopkins Wants Finkl Steel Redevelopment Money for Local Development - Citing constant gridlock, poorly paved roads and limited river access in his ward, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2) introduced a plan that would commit 90% of the fees, funds and tax increment financing generated from the redevelopment of the Clybourn Planned Manufacturing District for local street and public transit improvements. DPD has yet to formally announce how and when it plans to decommission some of the city’s PMDs, which are large swaths of industrial areas protected by strict zoning rules that were put in place decades ago to protect manufacturing jobs in the city. But Hopkins wants to get ahead of the curve. During yesterday’s City Council meeting, Hopkins was speaking at the City Club about his vision for the Clybourn Corridor. “Public money that is generated by this private development should be used to establish public infrastructure to create open space and connective areas that can be accessed by the public.” He floated the idea of building new roads to connect to the portion of Armitage Avenue the city vacated for Finkl Steel, better access to the Kennedy Expressway, and a new bridge to ease gridlock. (Hopkins’ Full Speech)

The Council’s Housing Committee approved all items on yesterday’s agenda, including an affordable housing advocate’s move from the Chicago Plan Commission to the Low Income Housing Trust Fund Board, $1 lease agreements with three healthcare providers, and an $810,000 land sale in the “hot market” in the 27th Ward.

Attendance: Chairman Joe Moore (49), Vice Chair Gregory Mitchell (7), Pat Dowell (3), Sophia King (4), Leslie Hairston (5), Michelle Harris (8), Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), Patrick Daley Thompson (11), George Cardenas (12), Walter Burnett (27), Ariel Reboyras (30), Deb Mell (33), Carrie Austin (34), Tom Tunney (44), James Cappleman (46)

The top of the meeting was dominated with talk of affordable housing, and aldermen declaring their sorrow at the departure of Juan Linares, the Executive Director of LUCHA, from the Plan Commission after serving less than a year to move to the Trust Fund Board. Ald. Walter Burnett (27) wondered aloud whether Linares could serve on both boards, and thanked him for his vocal affordable housing advocacy on the Commission.

Linares often pressed developers about their plans for on-site affordable housing, which some other commission members reminded him was not part of their purview. As one of fifteen members on the Low Income Housing Trust Fund Board, Linares would decide whether buildings receive rental subsidies or interest-free forgivable loans to create more units for very low-income individuals or families.

Lease agreements for three city-owned clinics, in Lakeview, Englewood, and Pilsen, were approved by the committee. The city will lease those clinics until 2022 for $1 each. 6,400-square feet at the Lower West Side Health Clinic would be leased to the University of Illinois to deliver primary care, maternal health, and preventative medical services, according to the ordinance. Ald. Walter Burnett (27), whose ward borders the clinic’s home in the 25th, told fellow members, “whatever we can do to help this economic engine continue, I support.”

Ald. Tom Tunney (44) voiced support for lease of roughly 14,000-square-feet of clinical office space in the Lakeview Neighborhood Health Clinic to The Thresholdsfor mental health and substance abuse services, group therapy, and wellness classes. “This is an area that needs public health services. The ability to reinforce the city’s commitment to public health, plus the wraparound services, is really instrumental to my neighborhood,” Tunney said. He plans to use some of his menu money to upgrade the building’s facade.

Just one person testified on the third clinic up for committee approval: Marc Loveless, an LGBT civil rights and social justice organizer. He said Howard Brown, which would lease space at the  Englewood Neighborhood Health Clinic, is a North Side organization with a multi-million dollar budget. He said the city should have reached out to smaller grassroots organizations made up of constituencies still greatly impacted by HIV in the city: gay black men. “There is no agency that is led by African American LGBT men on the South or West Side. All of them have been cannibalized and re-contracted out by the major North Side organizations.” Ald. Burnett suggested Loveless not “player hate” against Howard Brown, and suggested Loveless speak with the chairs of the Black and Latino caucuses about his issues.

Ald. George Cardenas (12) questioned what he described as an “unusual” item, the $810,000 sale of a city-owned plot in the Kinzie PMD in the 27th Ward. The buyer, Peppercorn Capital LLC, offered $400,000 above the appraised value of the site. “Anything else we’re missing here?”  

Mary Benone, a representative with the Department of Planning and Development, responded, “This is good industrial property in the Kinzie industrial PMD,” which she described as a hot market, and the city decided to go with the highest bid. The administration submitted a substitute ordinance withholding the closing of sale, putting the money in escrow “until the grantee is ready to commence construction,” DPD’s Efrain Hernandez Diaz said.   

“We’re encouraging them to move with all deliberate speed to get the deal done,” Chairman Moore said.

A substitute ordinance changing nudity rules and allowing strip clubs to serve alcohol will be introduced by License Committee Chair Emma Mitts (37) in Wednesday’s Council meeting, following her move to defer and publish a previous version of the same ordinance at April’s Council meeting. The previous D&P of the strip club ordinance, which included Zoning Chair Danny Solis (25), allows Mitts to force an up or down vote on her latest substitute, which has gone through a number of revisions in the last month.

Under Ald. Mitts’ most recent substitution circulated on paper yesterday, strip clubs would be allowed to purchase a two-year $75,000 license for the privilege of serving alcohol and having their dancers perform topless. Excruciatingly specific language in the substitute would allow use of only g-strings in clubs that serve alcohol. Current zoning code bans alcohol, but allows BYOB (bring your own bottle), and dancers are required to cover parts of their breasts and buttocks.

“The problem is they bring their own bottle,” Ald. Mitts told reporters yesterday. “What is that? That means you can drink [there]. Why not regulate them...license that establishment, get some money for that liquor license.”

But opponents of the changes charge that selling more alcohol in the clubs will only fuel violence against the dancers.

“The level of nudity in the strip clubs is not the source of our opposition. It’s the introduction of alcohol,” said Lynne Johnson, Policy Director of Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE).

“As the night wears on, the patrons are getting drunker and drunker, [the dancers] are getting hit, slapped, called names. Many are in back rooms and no one can hear them because the music is so loud and they have very few people to protect them,” Johnson said at a press conference yesterday morning attended by Alds. Patrick Daley Thompson (11), Toni Foulkes (16), Matt O’Shea (19), Michele Smith (43) and James Cappleman (46).

According to the new version of the ordinance, all revenue derived from the new “live adult sub-use license” fee will be set aside in a special fund to support services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.

“Domestic violence providers are not interested in cash resulting from strip clubs. Allowing sexual exploitation in return from cash from strip clubs is not OK,” said Johnson.

An unusually eventful day at the Cook County Board brought vehement and vocal support of Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, approval for refinancing of roughly $330 million in county bonds, and deferral of a gas tax intended to go toward a youth jobs program.

Clerk Resolution

The day’s biggest drama was over a resolution Comm. Peter Silvestri (R-9) planned to introduce asking leaders in Springfield to change the position of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk–currently held by Dorothy Brown–from an elected one to an appointed one, starting in 2020. The change had the support of Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17) and Comm. Larry Suffredin (D-13).

“I am very concerned about the divisive nature of this resolution, especially taken out of context, as it has in so many different ways in the last couple days,” Silvestri said at the beginning of the Board meeting. The proposal came not long after Brown wrote to the Board requesting a raise, and after one of her staffers pled guilty in a pay to play investigation into Brown’s office. Silvestri said the resolution had been in the works for a while, and he waited to introduce it until after the primary election. Brown, despite a federal investigation into her office and a pulled endorsement from Cook County Democrats, won her party's nomination handily. 

“This had nothing ever to do with the current Circuit Court Clerk,” Silvestri continued. “I consider her a friend.” President Preckwinkle asked for quiet as some booed. After a short statement, he announced he’d withdraw the resolution. It drew cheers from the crowd that packed the board room.

President Preckwinkle again asked the audience multiple times to return to their seats and be quiet.

“But you didn’t respect Laquan McDonald,” a man wearing a Black Lives Matter tee shirt said.  Scattered chants of “16 shots and a cover up,” began.

Silvestri and his co-sponsors said the move wasn’t aimed at Brown, but at streamlining court operations. “We run the largest court system in the country, and possibly in the world,” Suffredin said. Creating efficiency and “the quality of justice” within the department was an important concern.

“This was personal!” someone in the crowd yelled.

“Efficiency doesn’t always cause justice,” Commissioner Robert Steele (D-2) told Silvestri, thanking him for withdrawing the resolution.

Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1) accused Silvestri of “putting politics ahead of the people when we have the most pressing gun violence of our lifetime… yet we want to get waylaid and sidetracked by these kinds of resolutions that seek to undermine the people’s will.”

Silvestri could be seen mouthing “Really?” to Comm. John Daley (D-11).

Others who planned to protest the resolution, a group that included activists like Jedidiah Brown, Ja’Mal Green, and Zerlina Smith, filed out of the board room and joined Clerk Brown in the lobby for a press appearance, where Brown defended her elected position, then left the building. All while some chanted, “Dump the machine!”

Bond Approval

Despite some disagreement, commissioners also voted to authorize the refinancing of roughly $330 million in Series 2006 bonds. County CFO Ivan Samstein said it was “just a re-issue” to take advantage of lower interest rates and save the county $27 million over the next decade. According to a briefing document from Samstein to Finance Chair John Daley, the county does not plan to restructure any debt, a practice used at the county, city, and CPS.

“Our intended long term target for debt service is to moderate the growth rate of debt service, including all anticipated new money needs in the 2016 Capital Budget as approved by the Board of Commissioners.” Samstein said the administration might look to refinance the Series 2006B bonds in 2017.

The county has not issued any new debt since Preckwinkle took office in 2011, Samstein says. And it doesn't plan to until September, when the administration expects to ask commissioners to authorize an issuance to pay for construction of a new Cook County Health and Hospitals System building in the Illinois Medical District. Samstein estimates legal and underwriting fees for this issuance will total around $2 million.

Administration officials will meet with the three credit agencies later this month to discuss the County’s position. Each has given the county’s general bond ratings a negative outlook, which “demonstrate a very real possibility of future downgrades to the County Bond rating over the next 24 months,” the briefing doc from Samstein says. But he notes both Fitch and Moody’s have said the county’s adoption of a sales tax and extra contributions to worker pensions should result in positive credit implications.

Comm. Larry Suffredin reminded commissioners yesterday’s vote was not to borrow more money. “This is refinancing the existing debt. This is a prudent thing to do to save us money over a period of time.”

Comm. Richard Boykin was not persuaded. He voted no, citing senior lender Barclays being named in a predatory lending suit. Commissioners Bridget Gainer(D-10), Stanley Moore (D-4), and John Daley voted present.

Bid Incentives Adopted, Gas Tax Dropped

Dueling youth jobs pitches from Comm. Bridget Gainer and Comm. Richard Boykin faced their fate today as well. Boykin deferred his ambitious but ill-fated plan to tack an additional $0.04 tax on gasoline prices. Revenues would go toward a legislative package including $45 million for youth jobs, new parenting against violence initiatives, and a county disability office.

He announced his Community Violence and Stabilization Act shortly after commissioners held a hearing on dire unemployment numbers for youth of color. Comm. Gainer, who called for the unemployment hearing, introduced her own multi-pronged approach, which included bid incentives for county employers who hire teens.

Under Gainer’s plan, which received unanimous approval, qualified Cook County bidders can earn an incentive of up to one-half percent on county funded projects, if they hire teenagers between 16 and 19. “This is not an unfunded mandate, but infrastructure that allows those that want to employ young people the ability to do so,” Gainer said in a statement sent after the vote. “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”  

Other Items Of Note

• Commissioners approved the interim appointment of a new County Medical Examiner, Dr. Ponni Arunkumar. She is the current Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, and will take over for Dr. Stephen Cina, who is leaving the position after achieving National Association of Medical Examiners accreditation earlier this year. When Cina was first appointed, the ME’s office was plagued by scandal, including coolers overcrowded with dead bodies.

• A resolution petitioning Springfield to “institute statewide licensing and regulation of gun dealers and ranges” was introduced by Comm. Larry Suffredin. The resolution cites the high price of one gun homicide “an average of $441,000 in direct costs (including law enforcement, medical expenses, court costs, and prison), of which 87% is paid by taxpayers.”

• Comm. Bridget Gainer, chair of the Pension Committee, called for a hearing to talk about the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions on pension reform, an update on actuarial valuations from last fiscal year, and information on payment of the sales tax into the county pension fund. The first sales tax payment–which goes above and beyond the statutorily required amount in state statute–was scheduled to be deposited at the end of April.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at a press conference on January 13, 2016.

On December 9, 2015, in a rare early morning speech to the City Council after protests against police brutality had engulfed the city, a teary-eyed Mayor Rahm Emanuel addressed growing demands for police reform, saying, “We can either be defined by what we failed to do or what we choose to do.”

“We have to be honest with ourselves about this issue,” Mayor Emanuel told a packed City Council Chamber ahead of the last Council meeting of 2015. “Each time when we confronted it in the past, Chicago only went far enough to clear our consciences so we could move on.”

On Friday evening, the Chicago Police Department released dash-cam videos and details of the 2011 police shooting and arrest of Tiffani Jacobs, an armed robbery suspect who had evaded police and whom police say tried to run down an officer. Aldertrack first reported the existence of the video on Wednesday, April 20, after receiving reports of the video from black pastors who had received courtesy calls from CPD about the video.

Watch dash-cam video.

Despite three days of requests to the Police Department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office, police and mayoral press relations staff would not confirm or deny the existence of the video until its release Friday evening.

According to police reports, Jacobs’ was spotted driving a car through a gas station in Lawndale on the evening of May 25, 2011. The automobile was a suspected getaway car from a recent armed robbery of a McDonald’s earlier that night. Believing Jacobs was bringing the car to a stop, Officer Matthew Brackenapproached the car on foot, then Jacobs sped up, attempting to run him down, according to police reports, but disputed by Jacobs who says she was just trying to avoid parked police cars. Bracken fired his gun at Jacobs through the windshield five times, hitting her in the chest. Jacobs then left the gas station in her car, and multiple police units pursued her.

Documents provided by CPD include a dash-cam video, with sound muted, showing the pursuit and stop of Jacobs’ car. In the video, she steps out of her car and is grabbed by her hair and thrown to the ground by a police officer, then tasered by another before finally being handcuffed.

Jacobs late pled guilty to the armed robbery charge and is now serving 12 years in state prison.

According to a statement released by police Friday evening, “The Superintendent found that the officers’ actions in apprehending one of the offenders – who is now serving time in jail -- concerning. As a result, [Supt. Eddie Johnson] has requested the use of force investigation to be reopened and has stripped two officers of their police powers pending the outcome of an independent review.”

On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 19, Aldertrack reporter Claudia Morell received a tip from an activist black pastor that Chicago Police Department representatives had been calling pastors with an update: They would soon release a police dash-cam video depicting a female armed robbery suspect getting shot by a police officer, then aggressively thrown down to the ground and tasered by an officer before her arrest.

The details of how Aldertrack interacted with city public relations staffers is a snapshot of how Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration interacts with the press: We will tell you what we want, when we want. The process does less to clearly inform the public, but instead treats reporters as adversaries that need to be manipulated to control the message of the day.

Despite the hazy details on why the woman was shot and how or if she resisted arrest, or even when the event happened, this was big news. Another police shooting video was potentially explosive, especially on the heels of the release of the Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) Report, which specifically calls out police behavior toward minority suspects.

Quickly, Morell found two other pastors that afternoon who confirmed receiving similar calls from CPD. We also received confirmation from someone familiar with the video that it definitely existed. But we could not pin down the name of the suspect or when the arrest happened. We did learn from our sources that the suspect had since pled guilty to armed robbery and was in prison.

Later in the afternoon, we called Chicago Police News Affairs to confirm the existence of the video and to ask when it would be released. We received no response back that day.

On Wednesday, April 20 we reported the story in our daily 7:30 a.m. email, “Sources: CPD to Release Police-Involved Shooting Video of Female Armed Robbery Suspect”.

Lacking a victim name or a date for the incident, we could not identify the shooting in court records or past news reports. We also lacked enough information to submit a Freedom of Information Act request.

Again, on Wednesday, Morell contacted CPD News Affairs to confirm the existence of the video and to ask when it would be released. That same afternoon, we contacted Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s lead press contacts, Kelley Quinn and Adam Collins, with the same questions.

We received no answer from the Mayor’s Office. But at 7:33 p.m., we received an unsigned email from a general CPD News Affairs account, “As you are probably aware by now, we will not be releasing any video's [sic] to the media today.”

Two days after first reporting a police-related shooting, we had neither an official confirmation or denial from the police or Mayor’s office.

On Wednesday morning, Mayor Emanuel had begun a rollout of his planned changes to policing policy in response to the PATF report. It dominated news coverage for the next two days.

On Thursday the 21st, we repeated the drill with CPD News Affairs. No confirmation, no denial.

On Friday the 22nd, again, we contacted CPD News Affairs in the morning. No response, until 5:46 p.m. when CPD Director of News Affairs Anthony Guglielmisent us an email, “In reference to the 2011 armed robbery incident you asked about, below is the video. We also included all the relevant documents and audio files.”

Five minutes later, CPD News Affairs sent the same information in a press release to all outlets in Chicago. Too late for the early TV news, but likely to be released on the 10:00 p.m. Friday evening broadcast and to hit papers on Saturday. The perfect time to bury a story.

Viewing the videos released by the Police Department, it appears the police shot the victim, Tiffani Jacobs, with cause. Police say she was attempting to run down Officer Matthew Bracken with her car, and he fired at her in defense, although Jacobs disputes that. Whether or not she was handled correctly by police by being thrown to the ground and tasered after the pursuit when she got out of her car, is less defensible. Jacobs had already been shot in the chest, but officers were likely charged up from chasing a suspect they’d been told was armed with a gun.

Early in my career, when I was working on the political side of things in Washington, D.C., and still learning how to talk to reporters, an old hand took me aside, “Remember, the press isn’t your enemy, but they aren’t your friend either.” It’s a complicated mix, that every politician and their staff has to constantly balance.

But Mayor Emanuel and his team has gone too far towards treating the press as enemies. It’s worth remembering: We love this city too. Yet, if Team Emanuel keeps manipulating the press and withholding information, the “cover up” will always be the first thing we report.

It’s clear that Mayor Emanuel is here to stay for at least a while. So take a chance, Team Emanuel. We won’t be your patsies, but if you can’t be wholly transparent, take us into your confidence now and then to explain why, so we can move past reports on how you withhold information. Your attempts to manipulate us are only holding the city back from greatness.

On Saturday an independent fact finder released a report on the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union bargaining process. Below are the basic details of what happened and the positioning of the two groups.

• The report, authored by neutral party negotiator Steven Bierig, was released Saturday morning, it largely endorsed the offer to teachers put forth by CPS January 29 and rejected by CTU.

• The fact finding plan (download here) recommended:

  • A four year contract.
  • Varying wage increases between zero and 3.75% over four years.
  • A resumption of “step and lane” wage increases, but not until second year.
  • Phase-out of 7% pension contribution over two years.

• The Chicago Teachers Union immediately rejected the fact finder plan (download here) arguing that the plan effectively reduces teacher pay.

• Teachers have been demanding:

  • A two year contract.
  • A 2% salary increase each year.
  • No change to step and lane wage increases and pension contributions.

• CTU says the schools are “broke on purpose” and as a result, CPS “simply cannot afford to sign a contract” because of the debt it carries. In CTU’s opinion, the negotiator should be allowed to take into consideration the school system’s need to seek additional funding, not merely its current finances.

• CTU points out the school system will have a negative cash position of -$846 million by June 30 through short-term borrowing. Including long-term borrowing, CPS will be $6.7 billion in debt.

• CTU claims the problems stem from CPS refusing for years to “secure stable… funding” for operations, and that problems are compounded by “Governor Rauner's jihad against CPS”

• CPS concurred with fact-finder plan (download here) rejected CTU demands, saying it would cost $140 million more over two years

• CPS projects it will have only $24 million cash on hand at the end of the school year, two days of payroll.

• CPS says the “root of the problem” is with the state and Gov. Bruce Rauner who has committed “treachery” by subverting last January’s bond issuance.

• CTU leaders have said they are preparing to strike. They may legally strike 30 days after the release of the fact finding plan, beginning May 16. CTU must provide a 10-day notice before striking. The school year is scheduled to end on June 21.

The Cook County Democratic Party yesterday unanimously re-elected Joseph Berrios to a sixth two-year term as its chairman.

While the event lacks much of a surprise today, this time a year ago, Berrios’ leadership seemed to be in doubt, as the alderman he backed in his 31st Ward was defeated by political newcomer Millie Santiago, despite millions of dollars available to the campaign and a vaunted ward organization at his disposal.

Since then, Berrios seems to have mended fences with fellow Northwest Side pols, affording him a bit more breathing room.

In addition, the party unanimously re-elected its eight other officers – Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, executive vice-chairman; State Rep. Lou Lang, executive vice-chairman; Cook County Commissioner Tim Bradford, first vice-chairman; Ald. Carrie Austin, city vice-chairman; State Sen. Don Harmon, suburban vice-chairman; Norwood Township Comm. Robert Martwick, Sr., secretary; State Sen. Antonio Munoz, treasurer, and County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough, sergeant-at-arms.

Releasing what is likely the most forceful Chicago city-sponsored document on race and criminal justice ever, Police Accountability Task Force Chair Lori Lightfootdelivered a 45-minute, unflinching presentation at the Harold Washington Library yesterday afternoon with her fellow Task Force members, recommending a wholesale overhaul of Chicago Police Department training, the police union bargaining agreement, personnel discipline and a significant increase in civilian oversight of the department.

Download 18 Page Executive Summary – Download Full Report

Few sacred cows went untouched by the report, beginning with the opening sentence, “A painful but necessary reckoning is upon us. That is what these times demand.”

Originally scheduled to be released today, according to a source familiar with the task force, the report release was moved up a day to respond to the leaked executive summary reported by the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday afternoon. There were few differences between the leaked version and the final release: some softening of language and a few more bullet points added.

Lightfoot personally wrote most of the 200 page report, the Aldertrack source said, especially the executive summary–the part that packs the most punch. While there were 39 people on the task force, the main contributors were Lightfoot, Deval Patrick, Joe Ferguson, Randolph Stone, Sergio Acosta, Victor Dickenson, Maurice Classen, Alexa James and Sybiil Madison-Boyd (bios here).

Quoting the four most poignant findings:

“We arrived at this point because of racism.

“We arrived at this point because of a mentality in CPD that the ends justify the means.

“We arrived at this point because of a failure to make accountability a core value and imperative within CPD.

“We arrived at this point because of a significant investment in human capital.”

The majority of the executive summary builds a careful case, using data and testimony from the four community meetings and three youth meetings, that change to Chicago’s criminal justice system is long overdue.

The final portion of the executive summary contains 25 specific recommendations that run the gamut from recommending creating a Community Safety Oversight Board, replacing the Independent Police Review Board with a different system, expanding body cams and to create an anonymous hotline for police officers to lodge complaints.

When Lightfoot released the report yesterday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., she was still scheduled to deliver the report to Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the first time at 4:15 p.m., so she could not speak to the Mayor’s level of support. For his part, Mayor Emanuel said in his 1:00 p.m. press briefing yesterday that he had not looked at any part of the report, so he could not comment on it.

Asked during the question and answer session of her presentation yesterday how she expected the recommended changes to be implemented, Lightfoot said, “We call upon all of you to not be on the sidelines, but to roll up your sleeves and be champions of change.”

Last week, a Northwest Side attorney used a little-known city rule to directly introduce into City Council an ordinance that would create a recall provision for Mayor. The rule used by John J. Lag, who has offices in Jefferson Park, is seldom used, according to the Clerk’s office. Lag’s ordinance has been referred to Rules Committee, where it is unlikely to see the light of day without a Council sponsor.

Lag’s city loophole is approved by the City Clerk, and if correctly formatted, the Clerk will allow “just about anything” to be introduced as an ordinance or resolution to Council so long as Chicago citizens present their draft in paper form at City Hall Room 107.

“We vet it for correct formatting, not for content,” said Clerk spokesman Pat Corcoran.

In 2013 a sign company, GreenSigns, used the rule to directly introduce sign ordinances to Council. Since sign ordinances are typically passed out of Committee dozens at a time, Aldermen did not realize what they had passed until unfamiliar signs began going up in their wards. To stop the loophole, Council instituted a nine month moratorium on new small signs.

Lag says he learned of the process since he’s, “been around for a long time and as a community activist.”

He’s dabbled in politics a bit here and there too. In 1992, Lag ran for Cook County Circuit Court Judge and lost. Lag also says he prepare to file to run for 32nd Ward Alderman in 2007, but dropped out before the filing deadline.

Lag has used the citizen introduction rule before. On June 23, 2005, the Council’s Journal of the Proceedings mentions a, “proposed ordinance which would prohibit any elected city official from knowingly accepting, receiving or retaining any benefit, either directly, or indirectly of monies or services or in-kind political contribution, or any other valuable consideration from the Hispanic Democratic Organization” from a Mr. John J. Tag, which Lag says was a typo of his name.

Lag’s anti-HDO ordinance was shunted into Rules Committee, never to be seen again.

Chicago has a new 4th Ward Alderman, Sophia King, and a new Police Superintendent, Eddie Johnson, both of whom received unanimous approval by the City Council and were officially sworn into office yesterday.

Ald. Ed Burke (14) suspended the rules in the first ten minutes of the meeting so the Council could immediately appoint King to the vacant seat before getting back to the regular order of business.

In her address to the body after being sworn in, King alluded to the “grueling process” she went through to apply for the job, and spent most of her address to the Council thanking her family and friends who helped. A five-member mayor-appointed selection committee picked King from among 18 applicants. She was was one of three finalists sent to the Mayor this week for personal interviews.

“I am just ready and prepared to serve the Fourth Ward, and I don’t have any misgivings about what my role is. I am a servant leader,” King told her new colleagues on the Council.

King’s appointment to the City Council makes her one of twelve aldermen currently serving on the body to have been appointed to the seat by either Mayor Emanuel or Richard M. Daley.

King is the founder and president of Harriet’s Daughters, a “non-profit group of professional women” that works with related organizations to advocates for policy to help provide jobs and bolster wealth in African-American communities. She’s also the former president of the Kenwood Park Advisory Council, a position she held from 2008 to 2015.

The Council’s Rules Committee met prior to yesterday’s monthly City Council meeting to officially recommend her appointment before it advanced to the full council.

Asked why he selected King among the crop of applicants, Mayor Emanuel told reporters, “Because she is the right person for the job and she has deep roots in the community, not just in Kenwood, but she has worked on parks...she has worked on education...and I think she has the right background and motivation to do something now in public service. ”

Johnson Appointment

Without much debate but a significant amount of praise, the City Council unanimously approved in a roll call vote to remove the interim label and to install Eddie Johnson in a permanent role as the city’s new Police Superintendent. “Well, we can strike the word interim,” Mayor Emanuel joked after the vote.

One by one, aldermen stood up to express how they’re looking forward to Johnson cleaning up the Police Department and boosting morale among the department’s rank and file.  

“We’re all pulling for you, we’re relying on you to make the city safer, and also to bring back the trust and respect that office deserves,” Ald. Howard Brookins, Jr.(21) said.

“And I won’t hold you today, but we’ve got a lot of work to do and if you just look at the report that came out on the task force, you know we have a lot to do, and everything is riding on you right now,” said Ald. Emma Mitts (37).  

“I don’t think there is anybody, anybody that has anything bad to say about you. That’s incredible. Keep that up, and I’m very proud to see you in that seat,” said Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41), a former police officer, prompting Mayor Emanuel to start laughing before interjecting, “Good luck” on keeping such high public support.  

Shortly after Johnson was officially sworn into his new role at the helm of the Police Department, Ald. Burke suspended the rules to allow Johnson to address the Council.

“I will do my best, my absolute best, to regain the trust and to resolve some of this violence that we have out here. If I succeed, that means the CPD succeeds and the city of Chicago succeeds,” Police Supt. Johnson told the body during his brief address that lasted almost as long as the standing ovation that followed. “I just want you all to know, I will give it 200 percent every single day. And my goal, my end game, is to leave this city in much better shape than when I got here.”  

Other Meeting Highlights

• Ald. John Arena (45) voted no on the appointment of Richard C. Ford II to the Emergency Telephone System Board.  

• Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) voted no to change the municipal code so the Mayor could forego the Police Board and appoint Johnson as Police Superintendent.

• Ald. Emma Mitts (37) and Ald. Danny Solis (25) used parliamentary procedure to block a vote and hold a strip club ordinance she introduced following news accounts that she was compensated for drafting the plan. The item will be held in Ald. Solis’ Zoning Committee.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a $600 million general obligation bond authorization yesterday, a retread of a January attempt, where an original $1.2 billion GO issue was chopped down to $650 million following Council concerns about growing city debt and unclear plans on how bond proceedings would be spent.

“We will come back to the Council when we have more details around the capital projects with a proposal to do general obligation new money capital later in the year,” city CFO Carole Brown told Finance Committee members on January 11.

The actual funds sought is about $100 million of taxable debt for settlements and judgements to be paid out in 2016 and 2017, $150.5 million of tax-exempt debt for “E-Note” or equipment purchases in 2016 and 2017 and $237.2 of tax-exempt debt for capital spending in 2016 and 2017. While the total comes to $487.7, the city is seeking authorization for $600 in spending to cover the cost of borrowing the money and issuance fees.

The bond issue is expected to be taken up in the next Finance Committee meeting.

Cook County Commissioners Bridget Gainer and Richard Boykin each introduced items Wednesday to address summer youth unemployment in the County, 70 days before the end of the school year.

“Violence is on the rise in Cook County communities and police departments are bracing for the worst this summer. Nothing stops a bullet like a job. We must act now to give young people a better way to spend their summer,” Gainer said in a release. She proposed bid incentives for Cook County companies who employ teens aged 16-19 and a challenge to elective county spending “not required for life, safety or health to be challenged and deferred to create funds for the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership, One Summer Chicago, Alternative Schools Network and the Chicago Urban League.”

A recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute estimates 87% of African-Americans, 78% of Hispanics, and 74% of White teenagers are unemployed in Cook County. Four students testified about their struggle to find work.

Commissioner Boykin also proposed a package of programs funded by a $0.04 per gallon gas tax, with revenues to be used for four separate and related Cook County initiatives “designed to strengthen and stabilize neighborhoods in Cook County with high levels of poverty and unemployment.” Those programs would include $45 million in spending on youth jobs programs, a Youth Jobs Council, a Parenting to Prevent Violence Initiative, establishment of a county Office for People with Disabilities, and a Community Policing Initiative. But programs wouldn’t kick in until 2017.

Cutting through both proposals, Commissioner Deborah Sims called for immediate action, and the possible re-establishment of the President’s Office of Employment and Training (POET). “I know we have a program between the state, the city, and the county, and I’ve said this to [head of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership] Karen Norington-Reaves: I don’t believe this program is working,” Sims said.

A member of the public in the gallery chimed in, “Say that.”

Norington-Reaves testified at a hearing on youth unemployment last month that the Workforce Partnership is “hamstrung” in its ability to create temporary summer jobs for youth. Grants guidelines from the federal government emphasize year-round employment and skills training.

The scandal-plagued POET program was scrapped and streamlined under Board President Toni Preckwinkle in 2011, and placed under the Workforce’s jurisdiction. The move saved the county about $5 million and cut 23 positions.

Cook County Hospital Redevelopment

Two Cook County hospital related redevelopment proposals have been introduced to the Board of Commissioners. The Civic Health Development Group (CHDG) was selected to redevelop the abandoned beaux arts Cook County Hospital building in the Illinois Medical District. CHDG plans to “invest approximately $600M” in the redevelopment of the space for residential, retail, office, and hotel use, President Preckwinkle’s office says, and will pay at least $2M in annual rent to the County over the term of the lease. Redevelopment would begin in 2017.

The proposal will be referred to the Finance Committee, which will hold a special meeting on the issue May 10 at 1 pm. Finance Chair John Daley said 20% of the residential units in the building will be mandated as affordable housing, and CHDG will work to hire people that live within two miles of the project on Chicago’s near West side in the Illinois Medical District.

A proposal for a $108.5 million contract extension and budget for construction of CCHHS’ new outpatient Central Campus Health Center was also introduced Wednesday. A new building will adjoin Stroger Hospital. Three county buildings will be decommissioned as a result, replaced with one “efficient” building. The move will reduce the county’s real estate footprint by 680,000 square feet.

Cook County Home Loan Program to Run Parallel To City’

A Cook County-administered program to help qualifying home buyers get fixed-rate 30-year mortgage loans and assistance with down payments and closing costs passed the Board of Commissioners, after some substitute confusion in committee and some last-minute recess session tweaks on Wednesday. “I think what we have now is a much better product than we had an hour and a half ago,” Commissioner Larry Suffredin said at the item’s passage. He’d earlier said that the entry to the lending program was very “unorthodox.”

Commissioners wanted assurance the program would be open to city residents and to ensure the program would be administered at no cost to County. The Bureau of Economic Development will report on the program’s progress quarterly.

Michael Jasso, Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Economic Development said, “We will be working with housing counselors and lenders across the county to make sure that this product is known,” but could not project how many home buyers could be impacted by the program. He said the County’s program would run parallel to the city’s recently-launched Home Buyer Assistance Program, which has identified 30 lenders already.

Home Loans will be sold to and serviced by Austin, Texas-based 360 Mortgage Group, which does not charge fees. The county is also making USDA and Fannie and Freddie Mac grant funds available for closing costs and down payments of up to 3% of the final purchase price or the final mortgage loan amount.