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    Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference Thursday. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

    E-scooter companies officially got the greenlight on Thursday to come back to Chicago with the City Council’s approval of a citywide program for the controversial two-wheeled modes of transportation. 

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    Corporation Counsel Celia Meza answers questions from Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) during a budget hearing on Friday.

    Dozens of critical positions remain unfilled in the Chicago Department of Law, complicating the department’s efforts to fend off lawsuits that cost the city’s taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year. And uncompetitive salaries are making it harder to address the shortage, the city’s top lawyer told the City Council on Friday.

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    Harold Washington Library. “It would be wonderful” if the Chicago Public Library took on its own capital budget for building construction and maintenance, library system Comm. Chris Brown said Friday. [Facebook/Chicago Public Library]

    The Chicago Public Library system has no dedicated funding source for new construction or maintenance of its 81 citywide locations — and that should change, the head of the system and multiple aldermen said Friday.

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    CDOT Comm. Gia Biagi answers questions during a budget hearing on Friday. 

    A new division of Chicago’s Department of Transportation would oversee key transportation agreements starting next year, including the city’s growing contract for the Divvy bike share program and an agreement for a planned e-scooter program, transportation officials told aldermen on Friday. 

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    Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson addresses the City Council during a budget hearing Thursday evening. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

    Chicago departments have been slow or worse at fixing issues exposed by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office, threatening to put the watchdog’s work to waste, he warned aldermen during a Thursday evening budget hearing.

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    A coach house on Chicago’s Northwest Side. [Lichter Realty]

    Aldermen used the city’s Department of Housing budget hearing to prod housing officials on how new initiatives, like the legalization of coach houses, and ongoing recovery efforts are helping grow affordable housing and ensure Chicago residents can stay in their homes. 

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    Department of Planning and Development Comm. Maurice Cox answers questions from aldermen during a budget hearing on Thursday. 

    The tone of Thursday’s budget hearing for the city’s Department of Planning and Development was much less critical of department leadership than last year’s hearing, when the City Council complained of a closed-off relationship with city planners. But aldermen are still unsatisfied with months-long backlogs in the sales of city-owned lots, they said 

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    Comm. Gia Biagi on Friday will answer aldermen’s question on CDOT’s proposed 2022 budget. 

    Leaders of the Chicago Public Library system, the Department of Law and the Department of Transportation (CDOT) will defend proposed increases in their budgets on Friday during the final day of departmental budget hearings. 

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    Chicago Fire Department Comm. Annette Nance-Holt answered questions during a more than three-hour budget hearing on Wednesday.

    Updated 4:24 p.m. Oct. 7 The Chicago Fire Department is dominated by white men — but the department’s first-ever Black woman leader vowed on Wednesday to change that, thanks in part to a long-awaited new opportunity to bring on fresh recruits. 

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    The Chicago Human Relations Commission investigates claims of discrimination, including housing discrimination. [Facebook]

    Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations is an immensely important and often undervalued resource that needs sustained funding — possibly more than is allocated under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 spending plan — to continue its grassroots mediation and fight against ignorance and racism, aldermen told the commission’s chair during a budget hearing Wednesday.