Comm. Allison Arwady is set to return to the spotlight on Thursday afternoon as she presents the Chicago Department of Public Health’s budget proposal to the City Council.

The City Council Committee on Budget on Government Operations is set to probe a grab bag of city departments on Thursday, as the Board of Ethics seeks to maintain its modest budget and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events seeks a cash infusion to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

And on Thursday afternoon, the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability and Department of Public Health will defend new staff positions they hope to add to their teams.

Voters prepare to cast their ballots in November 2020 at Monroe Elementary in Logan Square. [Mina Bloom/Block Club Chicago]

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is planning to consolidate precincts and bring back ballot drop boxes to keep up with trends in the way people cast their votes, officials said Tuesday. 

Ald. Harry Osterman (48) asked Department of Human Resources Comm. Christopher Owen on Friday what the department is doing to speed up hiring to fill “critical” vacancies.

Under historic pressure to staff up Chicago’s workforce, the city’s human resources department is set to grow its own staff and put in place a series of procedural fixes in an attempt to speed up hiring, officials said during a budget hearing on Tuesday.

A Chicago Animal Care and Control worker returns a duck to the Chicago River. The department is called to round up stray animals. [Instagram/Chicago Animal Care and Control]

City Council budget hearings are set to continue on Wednesday with the city’s Department of Procurement Services, promising to resurface long-running complaints from aldermen about the city’s record on hiring minority-owned construction firms. Committee members are also set to quiz animal control officials on their efforts to round up and care for stray animals, as well as leaders of the Department of Assets, Information and Services about upgrading the city’s technology and public buildings.

Department of Family and Support Services Comm. Brandie Knazze (second from left) answers questions during a Monday budget hearing. 

Aldermen focused much of their time on Monday questioning the leader of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services on how the city is addressing homelessness and whether certain initiatives would continue beyond the life of the pandemic. 

Ald. David Moore (17) questions Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin during a City Council budget hearing on Monday.

Updated Tuesday, 3:20 p.m. Only about 40 percent of the money allocated from a long-dormant city fund to help businesses survive last year’s spring lockdown actually made it to applicants, Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin told aldermen during a budget hearing on Monday. The rest remains tied up with private intermediary lenders, in part due to a quirk in city rules, she said.

The City Council during its February 2020 meeting. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

The City Council is months away from adopting a system of electronic voting that could forever put an end to lengthy and confusing roll call votes, Clerk Anna Valencia said during a budget hearing on Monday.

Chicago Board of Election Commissioners chair Marisel Hernandez speaks to reporters during a March 2020 news conference. [The Daily Line/Alex Nitkin]

Tuesday will mark day three of the City Council’s departmental budget hearings as aldermen are set to hear from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners on its proposed budget swell to handle the 2022 primary and general elections and the implementation of a new ward map. Members of the council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations are also scheduled to hear from leaders of the administrative hearings and human resources departments on their proposed budget increases. 

City budget officials address questions from Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) during a Friday hearing on the proposed 2022 budget.

Aldermen spent part of the City Council’s first hearing on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2022 budget on Friday raising concerns over the sustainability of new programs proposed to be funded with the one-time federal stimulus dollars, probing city finance officials over whether the city has enough employees to carry out the programs.  

Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin are set to face questions during budget hearings on Monday.

Following the City Council’s all-day grilling of city budget officials on Friday, aldermen are set to begin drilling down into the city’s individual departments Monday morning as they quiz Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin about their expanded budgets for the 2022 budget year. And in the afternoon, the Committee on Budget and Government Operations will hear from the leader of the city’s License Appeal Commission and the chief of the Department of Family and Support Services.