Items Awaiting Council Approval

• 
  

  Mayor Emanuel’s nearly $3 billion bond offering, including $650 million in general obligation bonds (down from the originally proposed $1.25 billion), $1 billion in Midway Airport revenue bonds, $200 in sales tax revenue bonds ($70 million of which will pay for the 2016 Aldermanic Menu Program), and three separate water and sewer bonds totaling $800 million. (Short powerpoint presented to aldermen from CFO Carole Brown)

  
  


• 
  

  Inducement authority to issue up to $98.4 million in tax-exempt special assessment bonds for the massive, 3,000-unit Franklin Point Development Project in the South Loop.

  
  


• 
  

  Ethics reform that would eliminate the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, which is currently vacant, and put the task of investigating aldermen and their staff in the hands of the City’s Inspector General. Ald. Michele Smith (43), andAmeya Pawar (47), are the lead sponsors.

  
  


• 
  

  Appointment of former Chicago Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruizto the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners

  
  


• 
  

  Appointment of Sharon Fairley to the Independent Police Review Authority

  
  


• 
  

  Appointment of Christopher M. Michalek, a partner at McGuire Woods, LLP, and Edward T. McKinnie, Sr., the President of the Board of Directors for Black Contractors United, to the Board of Local Improvements, the body that oversees infrastructure improvements prompted by new development projects.

  
  


• 
  

  Creation of a two-year curbside cafe pilot program. Permits would cost $600 and the season would last from Sept. 1st through December 31st, four months shorter than the sidewalk cafe season.

  
  


• 
  

  Expansion of a pilot program in the 1st Ward that lets nonprofits near residential streets buy daily parking permits (up to 150 stickers a month) for its employees. The ordinance introduced by Clerk Susana Mendoza would add the 43rd Ward (Lincoln Park) and 44th Ward (Lakeview/Wrigley) to the plan.

  
  


• 
  

  An intergovernmental agreement between the city and its sister agencies aimed at implementing recommendations of a Procurement Reform Task Force the mayor created last year. (Here is their full report)

  
  


• 
  

  An agreement with City Colleges of Chicago that transfers the old Malcolm X College campus to the City, so it can demolish the school building and sell the land to the Blackhawks and Rush University.

  
  


• 
  

  A land transfer deal with the charter bus company Megabus, so it can build a new bus stop under the Congress Parkway.

  
  


• 
  

  A transfer of $500,000 from the Canal/Congress TIF to Amtrak to help pay for construction costs associated with the Union Station Master Plan, a multi-year, multi-phase plan to increase capacity, modernize, and improve Union Station’s connectivity to other public transit. The City is paying for 8% of the $6 million plan.

  
  


• 
  

  A transfer of $4.6 million from the 24th/Michigan TIF to reimburse CPS for a new athletic field it built for Williams Jones College Preparatory High School andNational Teachers Academy, a public elementary school.

  
  


• 
  

  Two Class 6(b) property tax incentives that will save two South Side Companies a combined $2 million in property taxes over the next 12 years. Balton Corporation, a paper, plastic and dairy product distributor, and Takis Royal Foods, a wholesale foodservice supplier to restaurants, applied for the tax break.

  
  

Scheduled Pressers Ahead of Today’s Council Meeting

• 
  

  Immigrant Rights @ 9:30 a.m – The City Council’s Latino Caucus is holding a press conference this morning to highlight a resolution they plan to introduce at today’s full City Council meeting condemning the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids on immigrants from Central America. The resolution sponsored by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) condemns the federal agency’s practice of detaining immigrants, reaffirms that the City welcomes immigrants and offers refuge, and urges the Chicago Police Department to not cooperate with the raids. Ald. Rosa joined Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who is introducing a similar resolution on the County side, and theIllinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), a statewide coalition of more than 130 organizations committed to immigrants’ rights, against the raids at a press conference yesterday.

  
  


• 
  

  Campaign Finance Reform @ 9:30 a.m. – Another group of aldermen will convene to announce a so-called Fair Elections Ordinance that would create a small donor match campaign finance system, similar to New York City’s. The ordinance would establish a special election fund to provide candidates running for mayor, aldermen, city clerk, and city treasurer with $6 of public matching funds for every dollar raised up to $175. In order to qualify for the money, a candidate can’t accept any donations more than $500 from one individual source. Common Cause Illinois and the Reclaim Campaign helped draft the ordinance that Ald. John Arena (45), Michelle Harris (8), and Joe Moore (49) plan to introduce at the full City Council meeting today, according to a joint release from the two government watchdog groups