Illinois Government Consultants Incorporated

Chicago is facing a whopping $635 million budget shortfall next year, and it will rise to $790 million by 2014 if City Hall doesn’t fundamentally change the way it does business, aldermen were told Friday. † Targeting the Chicago Police Department by eliminating “unnecessary layers of management” and supervisory benefits, reducing “chronic absenteeism” and redrawing maps of police districts and “strategizing beat staffing” based on the U.S. Census, 911 calls and relevant crime data.

 The jaw-dropping deficit figure wasn’t a surprise. Mayor Rahm Emanuel talked about it throughout the mayoral campaign and ever since he took office on May 16.

The question now is what the mayor intends to do about it. Chicagoans should know more after a mayoral news conference later today.

In an unprecedented move, Emanuel personally briefed some aldermen about the budget.

“Obviously, it’s a pretty daunting gap, but what I’m heartened to hear is that the mayor is not gonna engage in any more one time fixes or kick the can down the road temporary solution,” said Ald. Joe Moore (49th).

Asked what it would take to close the gap, Moore said, “A lot of sacrifices.”

Earlier this year, the Civic Federation offered Emanuel its road-map to financial stability for the city. It included everything from cutting the City Council in half and privatizing Midway Airport to doing away with the elected posts of city clerk and city treasurer and targeting the previously sacrosanct police and fire departments. Its suggestions included:

† Cutting the Chicago Fire Department’s $526.5 million budget by re-evaluating everything from minimum staffing requirements for fire apparatus and the number and location of fire stations to possible out-sourcing and ways to reduce disability absences. The review would be the first since the largely-ignored, 1999 report by the Tri-Data Corp.

† Developing a “water management plan” to accurately determine all expenses, including infrastructure needs, so rates can be adjusted to “recover the full cost of delivering water service.”

† Divide the city into “franchise areas” and hire a private waste hauler for each to service residential buildings and businesses that don’t get city garbage pickup.

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Source:  The Chicago Sun-Times

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s effort to tighten the city’s lobbying rules stalled Wednesday after aldermen suggested it could stifle democracy by scaring off volunteers who otherwise would get involved in their communities.

Whether the setback lasts long enough to be more than a blip on the mayor’s “reform and change” agenda won’t be known until Thursday morning. That’s when the City Council Rules and Ethics Committee meets again to consider a modified proposal being tweaked overnight.

Aldermen balked at a provision that would require anyone advocating city action on behalf of not-for-profit agencies to register as lobbyists if those agencies represent for-profit businesses. Local chambers of commerce were cited as an example.

After aldermen questioned the provision, a top lawyer for Emanuel’s administration agreed to exempt board members or unpaid directors of not-for-profit agencies. But it would still apply to paid employees of those agencies.

Under current city rules, those who must register are paid advocates such as attorneys and consultants, or unpaid advocates if they directly represent businesses. Registration costs $350, plus $75 for each for-profit interest represented, and quarterly reporting of lobbying activities is required.

“I’m afraid this could actually discourage participation in our community, with this kind of requirement and cost,” said Ald. Thomas Tunney, 44th. “With these volunteers, I just really feel it’s going to be a hindrance, rather than an enhancement, of democracy.”

Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said the city could be in the ironic situation of having paid directors of local chambers pay city fees after receiving significant government grants the council doles out to keep them financially afloat.

Emanuel’s proposal also would limit to $100 a year the value of gifts lobbyists could give to a single city employee or official and bar lobbyists from giving loans to employees or officials. And it would require lobbyists to report campaign contributions to city employees and officials.

Other provisions would require the Board of Ethics to create an online, searchable database of lobbyist reporting, much like the one the Cook County clerk established, and put into law a mayoral order barring city executives and mayoral appointees from becoming lobbyists until two years after leaving City Hall.

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Source:  The Chicago Tribune

The protracted, clout-heavy fight over a multi-million dollar contract to run the restaurants and stores in O’Hare airport’s international terminal moved a step closer to being resolved today.

The City Council Aviation Committee endorsed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recommendation by voting for a contract with Westfield Concession Management LLC, a subsidiary of multinational shopping mall and concessions developer the Westfield Group.

As she has at prior hearings on the O’Hare plans, Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino testified that Westfield – which runs concessions at several airports around the country — provides the most realistic revenue projections.

Aviation Committee Chairman Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd, read letters from officials at both United and American Airlines in support of the Westfield pact.

The 25-year Westfield proposal guarantees the city at least $5.1 million in annual rent as well as $26.2 million in renovations and new construction to the concession area.

If approved by the City Council next week, Westfield will replace Chicago Aviation Partners, the company with ties to former Mayor Richard Daley that has run terminal 5 concessions since 1993.

Aldermen were close to voting on the O’Hare contract near the end of Daley’s term, until Emanuel sent word he wanted a chance to review the proposals after taking office. Emanuel came out in support of Westfield early this month.

The committee vote was 14-1, with Ald. John Arena, 45th, the lone dissenter. Arena said aldermen didn’t have time to accurately assess the bids, because information on the plans was only released to them by the Emanuel Administration this week.

“I just wasn’t convinced the process was clear and transparent. The numbers just didn’t add up for me,” Arena said.

Both CAP and Westfield have City Hall connections.

Westfield’s lobbying team includes Tim Dart, brother of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, and Demetrius Carney, president of the Chicago Police Board.

Among CAP’s shareholders is Jeremiah Joyce, one of Daley’s closest political advisers. Former Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine lobbies for the group.

Joyce, a former alderman and state senator who has kept a low public profile in recent years, testified briefly. He urged aldermen to look closer at the proposals.

“You have this hocus pocus, mumbo jumbo numbers thing going on,” Joyce said. “And if I sat where you guys sat – or ladies – I would ask for some sort of a forensic audit on these projections and find out what the numbers really are.”

And Devine argued CAP’s $11.5 million annual minimum rent guarantee is far from the pie-in-the-sky promise Westfield supporters have said it is. But city officials have said CAP has always fallen short of revenue projections under its current contract.

As the high profile O’Hare contract moved toward a vote by the full City Council, Emanuel’s office also announced they will enact previously discussed initiatives the administration says will make contract bidding more transparent and competitive.

Open online bidding for city contracts will allow companies to repeatedly bid against each other, driving down costs, according to a news release from Emanuel’s office.

And contracts to be awarded without open bidding will be posted online before the city’s Non-Competitive Review Board votes on them, to allow public comment.

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Source:  The Chicago Tribune

As City Council heavyweights prepare to redraw ward boundaries in a once-a-decade exercise that will reshape Chicago’s political landscape, a group of independent-minded aldermen is raising money to pay for its own high-tech map room.

It would be outside City Hall — and not run under the rules of the power structure within it. Aldermen or their aides would be welcome to use the computers to arm themselves with demographic details, said Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, one of the leaders of the Reform Caucus, a loose affiliation of more than a dozen aldermen not beholden to regular Democrats.

“We just want to make sure everyone has free and unfettered access to this information,” said Moore, who contended that 10 years ago aldermen could peek just at their own wards and then only “with someone looking over your shoulder.”

The Reform Caucus isn’t the only group searching for a leg up as the remap gets under way. Both the Hispanic Caucus and Black Caucus plan to hire consultants, even as influential Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, sets up the official map room on the second floor of City Hall.

All that planning is a sign of the importance of redistricting, which takes place after every census to ensure fair representation. The obscure insider process can make or break individual careers based on a few clicks of a mouse. It can tip the balance of power, which makes it of keen interest to new Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Because Democrats run Chicago, remap debates are about race and ethnicity, not party affiliation. They’re often contentious.

Much changed in the ethnic and racial makeup of the city from 2000 to 2010, when the population dropped to just under 2.7 million. A loss of about 200,000 people will shrink the average size of each ward to about 53,900 people.

The biggest decline was among African-Americans, whose numbers dropped by about 182,000 as the city tore down public housing high-rises, the foreclosure crisis left swaths of South Side and West Side communities vacant and blacks moved to the suburbs. The white population also fell, by nearly 53,000.

Meanwhile, the number of Latinos rose by about 25,000. The Asian population grew by more than 20,000.

If the ethnic and racial makeup of the city mirrored its population, the council would have 16 whites, 16 blacks, 15 Latinos and three Asians. But the way wards get carved up — by politicians trying to maintain or grow power while not running afoul of federal and state voting protections for minorities — is far from that simple.

The council now has 22 white members, 19 African-Americans, eight Latinos and one alderman of Indian descent — a combination well out of sync with the makeup of the Chicago following the 2000 census.

Based on the 2010 numbers, many Latino politicians say they deserve more seats. They would come at the expense of whites and especially African-Americans.

“It’s a tricky problem, in that African-Americans don’t want to give up any seats, and Latinos are due four to five seats at a minimum,” said political science professor Dick Simpson of the University of Illinois at Chicago. “They have been treated as junior partners at best, and they ought to be full partners in this corporation running the city.”

Mell, who as chairman of the Committee on Rules and Ethics will lead the redistricting effort, said he’s been through three previous remaps but this one could “be as challenging as it’s ever been.”

Emanuel is expected to get involved, largely with the aim of avoiding the lengthy, expensive court battles that have resulted from earlier maps. “There will be disputes, maybe big disputes,” an administration source said. “We want to avoid having it spill into other matters.”

The mayor also could be looking to protect allies and even win greater support on the council in the years ahead.

The council has until Dec. 1 to approve a map, under state statute. But if any group of 10 or more aldermen endorse an alternative, the competing maps go to referendum in March.

The most contentious recent remap followed the 1980 census. The map ended up in court for half the decade, and the end result handed Mayor Harold Washington control of the council amid the racially tinged Council Wars.

The next map, based on the 1990 census, was picked by voters in an unprecedented referendum measure. It resulted in a six-year court case that cost taxpayers $18.7 million and gave African-Americans one more seat.

Peace broke out 10 years ago, when aldermen approved a map that maintained African-American representation, slightly boosted the number of Latino wards and cut the number of white aldermen, even as it protected the interests of some long-powerful white Democrats.

This year, the equation seems more complex, with Asian interests thrown into the mix and the significant black and white declines bolstering the idea that Latinos are under-represented.

Although Asians in sheer numbers merit three wards, their population is more diffuse, and they have not previously waged the same kind of voting rights battles as other minorities. This year, however, they are getting more involved.

In greater Chinatown, the Asian population now tops 27,000, and there are three times as many voters as there were a decade ago, said C.W. Chan, head of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community.

Chinatown and nearby Asian blocks are now split between Aldermen James Balcer, 11th, and Daniel Solis, 25th. The neighborhood would prefer to be in a single ward, but Chan conceded that having two influential aldermen responding to the community’s needs has worked well.

“Neither alderman appears to be interested in losing Chinatown,” Chan said.

There also are significant numbers of Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis and Koreans in the city’s Far North Side wards. The goal is to create one or more wards that are 20 to 25 percent Asian so aldermen have to take into account the community’s concerns, said Tuyet Le, executive director of the Asian American Institute.

“Whether the elected official is Asian-American or not is less important than whether that official is accountable or not,” she said.

Latinos, meanwhile, are increasingly spread out across the city, making it more difficult than before to create Hispanic voting blocs within single wards. Also complicating those efforts is a Latino population that has fewer citizens of voting age than the city’s other ethnic and racial groups.

“We have to look at … how many wards we should get out of redistricting,” said Solis, chairman of the Hispanic Caucus. “It’s going to require some discussion and negotiation.”

Another reason that the number of Latino aldermen falls well short of the group’s share of Chicago’s population is that several wards with Hispanic majorities continue to be controlled by powerful white political leaders.

They include Ald. Edward Burke’s 14th Ward; Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s 13th Ward, where his ally Marty Quinn is alderman; Mell’s 33rd Ward; and the Far Southeast Side’s 10th Ward, which is represented by Ald. John Pope.

Solis said there’s nothing wrong with that. “I think our job is to get a good representation of the people in the wards of the city, and who the voters want to represent them is up to them,” Solis said.

By contrast, African-Americans tend toward greater concentrations in particular neighborhoods, making it easier to draw districts with a majority of blacks, said Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, chairman of the Black Caucus. But he also acknowledged there may be fewer black wards in a new map.

“I think the jury is still out on how this affects us,” Brookins said. “There is a possibility that there is a loss of a seat — at least.”

The 10 wards that lost the most people between 2000 and 2010 all are represented by black aldermen.

“I think everybody wants to do what’s fair and what’s legal, and no one wants a protracted court case,” Brookins said. “We’re going to go into this without our eyes wide open in an attempt to do what’s fair, legal and respectful of everyone’s rights.”

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Source:  The Chicago Tribune

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has quietly disbanded the $3.6 million-a-year Office of Compliance that former Mayor Richard M. Daley created in 2007 to get around an inspector general who had embarrassed him.

Last year, oversight over city hiring was transferred from the Office of Compliance to Inspector General Joe Ferguson to bolster the city’s case to get out from under the Shakman decree banning political hiring and firing.

A few months later, Compliance chief Anthony Boswell — the Denver attorney hired to oversee city hiring — resigned.

Federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan and attorney Michael Shakman, the original plaintiff in the long-running Shakman patronage case, had accused Boswell of ignoring blatant violations, covering up hiring irregularities he’s supposed to correct and failing to discipline employees who refuse to toe the line.

Now, Emanuel has dispersed the functions that remained in the Office of Compliance — internal audit, minority contracting and certification, employee education and training, legal compliance and safety administration — to five city departments: Human Resources, Procurement Services, Streets and Sanitation, Finance and the Board of Ethics.

The re-organization — like several other departmental mergers proposed by the new mayor — has not yet been authorized by the City Council.

Daley created the Office of Compliance in 2007 — and hired an outsider to run it — because he didn’t trust then-Inspector General David Hoffman to oversee hiring after a series of investigations that embarrassed the mayor.

But, it wasn’t long before Boswell himself became an embarrassment to Daley.

Ferguson targeted minority contracting fraud and Shakman violations under Boswell’s watch. At the inspector general’s recommendation, Daley suspended Boswell for 30 days for allegedly mishandling an intern’s sexual harassment complaint against a 911 center deputy.

Boswell filed a lawsuit that contained the explosive allegation that then-Corporation Counsel Mara Georges led a “retaliation campaign” that culminated in the “illegal” suspension after Boswell blew the whistle on her efforts to manipulate hiring and promote her predecessor’s unqualified daughter.

The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed. Boswell resigned before Daley could act on another Ferguson recommendation — that Boswell be fired for accepting two years’ worth of Spanish lessons from a consultant over whom he had “contracting authority” on city time at taxpayers’ expense.

Chicago aldermen have long complained that Daley made a mistake taxpayers could not afford when he created the Office of Compliance in an end-run around the inspector general.

Ferguson said the same thing Wednesday, albeit more diplomatically.

“This office has issued numerous reports — investigative and program reviews — highlighting both the structural and operational problems of that office. That’s in addition to multiple federal and state criminal prosecutions of IGO-initiated matters, most notably related to the long-troubled minority business program,” Ferguson said.

“I don’t know whether the office should have been created in the first place. I wasn’t here. I don’t know what global concept Daley might have had in mind. But, you don’t dismantle something that’s working.”

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Source:  The Chicago Sun-Times

Weeks after he slowed down City Council consideration of a long-term lease to run concessions at O’Hare Airport’s international terminal, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he now wants aldermen to approve the leading bidder without further delay.

Emanuel said he was satisfied the proposal by Westfield Concession Management LLC would be the best deal for the city. If the City Council agrees, Westfield would oust Chicago Aviation Partners, the clout-heavy company that has had the contract at Terminal 5 since 1993.

Among CAP’s shareholders is Jeremiah Joyce, one of former Mayor Richard Daley’s closest political advisers. Both CAP and Westfield have strong City Hall connections, presenting the first major contract issue for Emanuel, who vowed to end insider deals at City Hall.

Westfield was selected earlier this year by a committee chosen by Airport Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino. Emanuel said he was impressed by the firm’s proposal and track record in Miami, Boston, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.

“Those are all places they run and they run them efficiently and effectively,” he said.
Since aviation officials already approved Westfield’s proposal, Emanuel said, the city quickly take advantage of the group’s guarantee to boost city revenue immediately.

“If we started again, that means the taxpayers were losing $200,000 a month,” Emanuel said, explaining that’s the dollar difference between what the current CAP contract provides the city versus what the Westfield offer promises.

The Daley administration was trying to get the 25-year Westfield contract approved in the administration’s final days but Emanuel sent signals he wanted aldermen to slow down. Both Westfield and CAP flooded City Hall with powerful lobbyists.

CAP hired former Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine, while Westfield hired Tim Dart, brother of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, and Demetrius Carney, who Emanuel just re-appointed to the Chicago Police Board. The private law firms of House Speaker Michael Madigan and Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, also have represented suburban Westfield shopping malls.

“Everybody’s got somebody,” Devine said. “It really comes down to the question of what is best for the city and you have some very concrete numbers here showing this isn’t the best deal for the city.”

But Andolino said CAP’s proposal came with strings attached and it has always fallen short of its revenue promises under the current deal.

“If you are going to guarantee something you are going to have to produce the sales to support it,” she said.

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Source:  The Chicago Tribune

Chicago kids under the age of 12 would have to be in the house by 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. on weekends, under a curfew crackdown proposed by three South Side aldermen Wednesday to rein in “unsupervised” children.

Public Safety Committee Chairman Michelle Harris (8th) joined Aldermen Toni Foulkes (15th) and Lona Lane (18th) in proposing the revised curfew ordinance, the second in three years to turn back the curfew clock.

Several parents told the Chicago Sun-Times Wednesday that the proposal is just what’s needed at a time when some moms and dads aren’t taking their responsibilities seriously.

“We’re at a point where we have to be more conscious of where our children are,” said Toseima Jiles, 33, of Hyde Park, who has two boys, ages 6 and 5. “When I was growing up, your parents knew where you were, the neighbors knew where you were. … I think we’re getting away from that.”

But parent Karen Hobbs dismissed the proposed curfew as a case of governmental meddling.

“It’s an attempt for the City Council to parent,” said North Sider Hobbs, 47, mother of a 3-year-old. “It’s up to parents to parent. I don’t think setting an arbitrary curfew at different ages is going to solve the problem.”

Two years ago, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley turned back the curfew clock by 30 minutes — to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends for Chicago’s 730,000 kids under the age of 17.

At the time, Daley contended that the 30-minute rollback would “save many, many lives” and that, even if it saved just one life, it was “all worth the criticism.”

On Wednesday, Harris and Foulkes made that same argument to justify rolling up the sidewalks even earlier for kids under 12.

“I grew up in a community where the standard rule was children had to be in by the time the street lights came on. I’d be lucky if my parents let me out of the house when dinner was over,” Harris recalled. “It wasn’t that our communities were so terrible. It’s just that our parents knew how to protect us. This gives police another tool to help those parents who, maybe, don’t have the best parenting skills or understand that pulling a child off the street at a certain time is a protection. Many times, children are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That child should be in the house.”

Foulkes argued that “kids in our neighborhoods are out at all times of night” and it’s high-time that the City Council protect younger children.

“What happens to the eight-year-olds? They had the same curfew as the 17-year-old. If they’re walking on the street at night, they can be recruited by gang members,” Foulkes said.

Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields welcomed the curfew crackdown for younger kids.

“It’s about time we start pointing the finger back at the parent, instead of blaming the school teacher or the police,” Shields said.

But some parent groups questioned whether a tougher curfew really was getting to the heart of the matter.

“The city needs to give children more things to do rather than force them into confinement,” said Julie Woestehoff of Parents United for Responsible Education.

A stricter curfew must be coupled with programs that teach better parenting skills, said Philip Jackson, executive director of the Black Star Project.

“I can live with a lower curfew for children under 13 as being part of a comprehensive fix,’’ Jackson said. “But if all you’re talking about is a tougher curfew for 12 year olds, that’s not going to fix anything.’’

Chicago’s curfew law has gotten progressively tougher for parents over the years.

In 1996, aldermen empowered police officers to seize vehicles driven by kids caught cruising after curfew to punish parents who turned over the keys.

Seven years later, the City Council agreed to put the financial squeeze on parents — by imposing fines of up to $500 after a third curfew violation within a year.

In 2006, the noose for parents got even tighter. They faced fines after even one curfew violation whenever their kids committed crimes after curfew. The following year, 398 fewer kids under 17 were victims of crime.

That was followed by Daley’s 2008 curfew rollback and a more lenient twist.

Instead of being slapped with citations and hauled off to the police station, violators of the city’s annual summer curfew crackdown in three high-crime districts were taken to Park District field houses. The idea was to connect them with recreational programs, social services, mentors and community organizations that offered positive alternatives to just hanging out on the streets.

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Source:  The Chicago Sun-Times

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing another round of ethics reforms — this time to “reign in the influence” of City Hall lobbyists and lift the veil on their influence-peddling activities.

“I want to re-establish the ties that have been frayed between the public and those of us in public service,” Emanuel told a news conference at the city’s Board of Ethics, 740 N. Sedgwick.

“Part of that is giving them a sense of confidence that we are conducting ourselves in a professional and ethical way. This is another building block or another brick in that foundation that, I think, is so important.”

During his first few hours in office, Emanuel signed a series of executive orders that, among other things, slammed the “revolving door” that has allowed city employees and mayoral appointees to lobby City Hall. They are now banned from doing so for at least two years after leaving their jobs.

Emanuel also swore off campaign contributions from city lobbyists and insulated city employees from pressure they had felt to give gifts or make political contributions to the mayor, department heads or city supervisors.

More recently, the mayor also posted an unprecedented amount of information about city lobbyists on the internet.

Now, he is prepared to go even further to minimize influence peddling.

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, the mayor will introduce an ordinance limiting — to $50 per gift and $100 per calendar year —the value of gifts lobbyists can give to city employees.

City employees would also be prohibited from getting loans of from individual lobbyists or their businesses. Twice-a-year, lobbyists would be required to report their campaign contributions to city employees and elected officials.

Emanuel’s plan would also create, what the mayor’s office calls the “most comprehensive lobbyist disclosure database in the nation.”

Lobbyists would literally be required to disclose who they lobby and what they are lobbying for and post those disclosures online in “real-time,” so voters can access the information before legislation is approved.

It’s not clear what precipitated the ban on loans or borrowing from city lobbyists, a similar controversy arose more than a decade ago under former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association reported on mayoral pal Oscar D’Angelo’s backstage maneuvering at O’Hare Airport.

The newspaper reported that D’Angelo, an unregistered lobbyist, had collected at least $480,000 to broker a 10-year contract extension for British bookseller W.H. Smith.

The 1996 concession deal put two friends of Daley’s wife, Maggie, in business at O’Hare: Economic Club President Grace Barry and public relations maven Barbara Burrell.

D’Angelo had earlier embarrassed Daley by making $10,500 worth of interest-free loans to the mayor’s deputy chief of staff.

Although Emanuel has focused heavily on ethics reform since taking office, he is not prepared to push the City Council — either by empowering Inspector General Joe Ferguson to investigate aldermen or by pressuring aldermen to fill the job of legislative inspector general they created more than a year ago, but still have not gotten around to filling.

“I appreciate that, that position may be open. That doesn’t mean we won’t address it. . . . I’ll look into this. I’ll talk to the City Council about it. But, it doesn’t take away from what we’re doing today,” he said.

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Source:  The Chicago Sun-Times

The Civic Federation is offering Mayor Rahm Emanuel a road-map to financial stability that includes everything from cutting the City Council in half and privatizing Midway Airport to doing away with an elected clerk and treasurer and targeting the previously- sacrosanct Police and Fire Departments.

Emanuel himself broached the subject of shrinking the City Council from 50 to 25 members during private meetings with aldermen, only to settle for a ten percent cut in City Council spending.

Now, the Civic Federation is renewing the call for a change that can only be made by the Illinois General Assembly or by Chicago voters in the form of a binding referendum.

“Chicago’s Council is the second largest of the 15 largest American cities, exceeded only by New York’s 51-member legislative body. The average council size for the top 15 municipalities is 18,” the report stated, pointing to the $25.8 million annual budget for City Council expenses.

“If most of the populous cities in the nation can operate successfully with smaller councils, it is difficult to understand why Chicago should be such an outlier.”

The proposal to revive the $2.5 billion privatization of Midway, a deal that collapsed for lack of financing, flies in the face of candidate Rahm Emanuel’s pledge to steer clear of that deal on the heels of the parking meter fiasco. A Midway deal would also have a difficult time winning City Council approval for the same reasons.

The 115-page report includes other cost-cutting ideas. They include:

◆ Eliminating ward-based service delivery.

◆ Closing city health clinics to focus on “core health functions related to infectious disease prevention and control.”

◆ Centralizing inspections and reorganizing the city’s infrastructure departments into three new departments: Infrastructure, Water Supply and Environment and Sanitation.

◆ Turning two other citywide elected officials — the clerk and treasurer — into mayoral appointees, another change that would require legislative approval. The appointed clerk would work directly for the City Council. The appointed treasurer would work in the Finance Department under the city comptroller.

◆ Consolidating pension funds, increasing contributions by the city and its employees, reducing benefits “not yet earned” by current city employees and creating a separate retiree health care trust fund. An agreement that covers the issue expires in 2013.

◆ Targeting the Chicago Police Department by eliminating “unnecessary layers of management” and supervisory benefits, reducing “chronic absenteeism” and redrawing maps of police districts and “strategizing beat staffing” based on the U.S. Census, 911 calls and relevant crime data.

◆ Cutting the Chicago Fire Department’s $526.5 million budget by re-evaluating everything from minimum staffing requirements for fire apparatus and the number and location of fire stations to possible out-sourcing and ways to reduce disability absences. The review would be the first since the largely-ignored, 1999 report by the Tri-Data Corp.

◆ Developing a “water management plan” to accurately determine all expenses, including infrastructure needs, so rates can be adjusted to “recover the full cost of delivering water service.”

◆ Divide the city into “franchise areas” and hire a private waste hauler for each to service residential buildings and businesses that don’t get city garbage pick-up.

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Source:  The Chicago Sun-Times

The $4-a-month employee head tax despised by Chicago businesses would be phased out over four years, depriving the city of $19.6 million in annual revenue, under an ordinance quietly introduced by a North Side aldermen.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), owner of Ann Sather restaurants, has been on the warpath against the head tax since he was appointed to the City Council by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2002.

Two years ago, Tunney and downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) proposed a four-year phase-out to stop an avalanche of private-sector layoffs, only to have Daley reject the idea.

Instead, Daley proposed waiving the head tax for two years, but only for newly hired employees.

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Tunney re-introduced the ordinance, turning up the heat on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to honor a campaign promise.

Tunney said he’s well aware that Emanuel inherited an annual operating deficit approaching $700 million — and $1.2 billion when unfunded pension liabilities are factored in.

But, the alderman argued that $5 million a year should not be hard to find.

“Eliminating this tax is important to business. I think it can be done. In our search for cost-efficiencies and savings, we can find time to send a signal to the business,” he said.

“We’re gonna bring in businesses to hear what a negative impact it has on their ability to hire new workers. The most important thing we can do is to provide every incentive for people to add to their payrolls. This could be a job creator, which would help the business climate and, ultimately our budget issues.”

Pressed to identify cuts that could be made to offset head tax relief, Tunney could not come up with any “off the bat.” But, he said, “The mayor is aware I’ve submitted this. He campaigned on reducing the head tax. We all have the same goal. I’m gonna try to help him in every way I can to find new revenue.”

Daley’s father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley, proposed the head tax in 1974 to ward off a city income tax. It has been a giant thorn in the side of business every since.

In 1994, Richard M. Daley lopped a dollar off the head tax, excused businesses with fewer than 50 employees and said it would be the first step toward a gradual phase-out.

It never happened. Three years later, union leaders agreed to a series of pension reforms intended to free up enough cash for a $20 million property tax cut, a $200 million bond issue for neighborhood improvements and another round of head tax relief.

Once again, the head tax promise was broken.
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Source: The Chicago Sun-Times