One of City Council’s most influential aldermanic staffers is also working as a lobbyist for two of Chicago’s largest property holders, The Daily Line has learned. Madeline Hill, who acts as chief of staff for Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), is actually paid as a contractor for Citizens for Alderman Reilly and not a city employee. Hill’s consulting group, VX Consulting, is also a registered lobbyist for Wirtz Realty and M. Fishman & Company, two of Chicago’s larger residential landlords and developers.

“It’s unique, but not wrong,” Hill told The Daily Line Monday. “It’s not written, but obviously I keep a very far distance between the 42nd Ward, even the old 42nd Ward [boundaries], and other wards. That stuff I don’t do. Nothing in downtown Chicago. That’s a no brainer.”

According to city ordinances, Hill’s split relationship between being a senior staffer for Ald. Reilly, who has more development in his ward than any other alderman, as well as a consultant for two large real estate companies, is not illegal, nor is it officially unethical, according to advisory opinions posted by the Chicago Board of Ethics. However, Hill’s situation is unique among lobbyists and aldermanic staff, where she could attend to high-stakes policy for an alderman and a private developer in the same day, all while receiving payment from both groups.

Hill says that when she talks to city planning staff she keeps a clear line between when she is working on a 42nd Ward matter or a client. “What I always do, whenever I talk to them is make clear what I’m talking to them about. If it’s for an outside client, I’ll say it’s for a non-42nd Ward matter, I’ll say this is for X client. I’m always clear about what matter I’m on...I don’t mix conversation and I make sure keep things tidy.”

Since 2009, Hill or her consulting group has received $247,000 in payments from Citizens for Alderman Reilly, including $95,450 during 2016.

Contacted by The Daily Line, developer Marc Fishman was asked if he knew about Hill’s work for both Reilly and his company. He demurred, “I’m sorry, I’m at a construction site. I didn’t recognize the number,” and then quickly hung up.

The Daily Line also contacted Wirtz Realty for comment, but did not receive a response by publication.

Hill has received official city communications referring to both of her roles as aldermanic staff and lobbyist. For one development in July 2015, Hill acted as a representative for Wirtz Realty on a project in the 44th Ward, where she received a carbon copy from Zoning Administrator Patty Scudiero on her decision to provide zoning relief. On another occasion in March 2016, Hill was carbon copied as the 42nd Ward lead staffer on a request to Planning Commissioner David Reifman for a request to use a pocket park for private use.

The city ethics ordinance specifically bars employees (which includes aldermanic staff) from influencing decisions from which they have “derived any income or compensation” in the past 12 months, or the upcoming 12 months. However, the ordinance does not apply to contractors, providing Hill a loophole so she may work for both Alderman Reilly and outside clients simultaneously.

An analysis by The Daily Line found that while nine other aldermanic chiefs of staff did receive outside campaign payments by their bosses, they retained city employee status. Campaign payments for other aldermanic staffers were significantly less than Hill’s and was for campaign work done while not working on city time, conduct explicitly permitted by the Board of Ethics.

“It’s a lot of perceived power. I have a lot less power and influence that people think,” said Hill.

Voters last Tuesday overwhelmingly approved, 63-37%, a binding referendum that merges the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office into the County Clerk and eliminates the Recorder position by 2020. While the initiative was framed as a cost saving measure to combine two offices that do similar work, Cook County officials tell The Daily Line there’s no clear road map for how the merger should be carried out.

Last night’s election results will impact cities, and Chicago, in a major way. While President-elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign delivered a mixed message when it came to cities, calling Chicago a “disaster” while simultaneously promising to improve inner cities. However, one of President-elect Trump’s first promises in last night’s victory speech was to “fix our inner cities” and “rebuild our infrastructure”, which typically means big spending programs. Yet, Congressional Republicans, who took control of both houses of Congress last night, have campaigned on a message of cutting government spending and entitlements, most of which support big city infrastructure and social service programs.

Updated 6:34 a.m., November 8, 2016

Early vote turnout in both Chicago and suburban Cook County smashed previous records, with 683,426 early voted in both jurisdictions on Monday evening after many polling locations locations in Chicago stayed open long after 8:00 p.m. due to long lines. In 2008, 469,911 people voted by early vote.

Vote by mail numbers have also set post-war records, with over 105,000 applications requested in Chicago and 113,375 requested in suburban Cook County.  In Chicago over 62,000 vote by mail ballots have already been returned while in suburban Cook County over 69,000 have already been returned. The last time the numbers were higher were in 1944, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr.

While early voting continues through tomorrow, Chicago voters have already set an early vote total record and are on pace to surpass 2012’s 24% early vote share. So far, 284,506 people have voted in Chicago, while 315,875 have voted in suburban Cook County. The previous Chicago early vote total record was 260,378 for the November 2008 election.

“The devil is in the details,” they say, so for our second year The Daily Line has attempted to capture the devil in the Chicago and Cook County budget hearings. We attended (almost) every city and county budget hearing, gathered the handouts and boiled down each hearing to the most important discussions and issues. The result is 40 articles, the most comprehensive city and county budget coverage we’ve ever heard of. Click through each link for articles and handouts. If you're a subscriber and you'd like audio for any of the meetings, send us an email.

Chicago’s early voting total has reached about 10% of the total registered electorate of 1.5 million people, putting it on pace to reach 2012’s early vote turnout, possibly 2008. As of Monday evening, 155,149 people have early voted in Chicago. 145,883 people have early voted in suburban Cook County during the same period.

Sheriff Tom Dart appeared before the Cook County Finance Committee for two hours Friday to answer questions about a dropping jail population, efforts to reduce bail for prisoners and the jail’s increasing role as a social service agency rather than just for housing prisoners. While Dart submitted letters with answers to written questions, he spoke extemporaneously rather than from a prepared text.

Department of Family Support and Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison Butler sat for over two hours of questioning about her agency’s management of domestic violence shelters, requests for assistance for anti-homeless programs and increasing senior center programming.

A normally perfunctory Finance Committee hearing for creating Special Service Areas became contentious as dozens of Chinatown residents arrived to protest the creation of a new Chinatown SSA along Wentworth Avenue. A second new SSA, #71, in the South Calumet neighborhood that would merge SSAs #40 and #41, was approved without opposition. Opposition to SSAs at this late stage is unusual, as they are required to obtain at least 20% of property owners’ approval before submission to City Council for approval.

City Treasurer Kurt Summers registered a muted disapproval of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget team Thursday morning, after he testified that neither the Mayor nor his team consulted him on the city’s debt problems.

The Cook County Board Wednesday afternoon met to pass a countywide $13 minimum wage, and create a new pharmaceutical drop-off program (in addition to the items passed in our committee wrap). But before the meeting could begin, there was forty-five minutes of public comments opposing and supporting both the Living Wage Ordinance and President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed Sweetened Beverage Tax.

For over two hours, aldermen pressed Department of Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman on development plans for various corners of Chicago, the status of TIFs and if Special Service Areas (SSAs) have a conflict with the new Transit TIF created through state legislation this summer. Almost none of the discussion touched on how the agency plans to spend its $167 million 2017 budget.

Human Relations Commission Chair Mona Noriega breezed through an eleven minute hearing Tuesday morning for her agency’s $2.4 million 2017 budget, while Fleet and Facilities Management Commissioner David Reynolds worked through forty minutes of questions about garbage trucks, city-owned vacant lots and minority hiring efforts.

In a quick series of motions Tuesday, the City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way approved a resolution to remove the honorary “Trump Plaza” designation from the open space area along North Wabash Avenue, from East Illinois Street to the Chicago River. The designation was made in 2008, shortly after the completion of the Trump Tower at 401 N. Wabash Ave.

The first traditional day of Early Voting in Chicago Monday broke previous presidential election year records by almost two thousand people as 17,493 people flowed to polls across the 50 wards for a total 39,725 early votes since polls first opened, reports the Chicago Board of Elections. Meanwhile, 31,077 residents have voted in suburban Cook County during the same period, according to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, which manages suburban Cook elections.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane J. Larsen delayed ruling Monday morning on an Open Meetings Act injunction on the May 18 and June 22 City Council meetings, directing plaintiffs to file a new brief that takes into account a new seating policy issued by the City Council Sergeant-at-Arms on October 4. Plaintiffs Andy Thayer and Rick Garcia charge they and other protesters were kept from attending the meetings because city employees packed the Council gallery and prevented members of the public from going to the gallery.

The city’s Commissioner for Animal Care and Control ran into a buzzsaw of questioning from Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) Friday afternoon, as Lopez ran down a lengthy list of prepared questions charging shoddy management of the agency and a failure to fulfill requirements for a donor’s two million dollar gift.

A little over a dozen aldermen showed up for budget hearings Friday morning, which included swan song testimony for City Clerk Susana Mendoza, who is widely expected to win her campaign for State Comptroller on November 8. Aldermen in the Budget Committee, helmed by Vice Chair Jason Ervin (28) for the fourth day in a row, also lightly questioned the Public Library commissioners, mostly asking for further details on how they can obtain additional library services.

The Chicago Plan Commission moved quickly through its full docket over three hours, unanimously approving three new residential towers, the rehabilitation of two towers into rental apartments the approval of a new planned manufacturing district to build new L cars and the rehabilitation of the Theater On The Lake. The meeting was conducted in Room 201A’s crowded quarters, to make room for the Council budget hearings, which continued in chambers.