An ordinance approved on Monday will empower city workers to tow abandoned cars on privately owned vacant lots. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

A City Council committee advanced a proposal on Monday to let city workers tow abandoned cars and trucks that are left to rust on privately owned vacant lots, but at least one South Side alderman wants the crackdown to hit even harder.

The City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations also voted to push forward a near-total ban on water shutoffs, a measure empowering aldermen to help protect against flooding and an infusion of more than $14 million in new grant funds into the city’s budget. However, aldermen punted on a proposal to establish a long-awaited legal office for the City Council as two key aldermen said they had nearly converged on a compromise plan.