Results tagged “cityhall”

During yesterday's City Council budget hearing with the Law Department, department head Mara Georges said the City plans to ask for an end to the Shakman decree early next year. Georges claimed the city is in "substantial compliance" in regards to laws forbidding political hirings and firings and that the city is no longer involved in such corrupt practices. It would also mean the end of the road for the city's hiring monitor, Noelle Brennan, with whom the city has long feuded. As recently as this summer, Brennan suggested that there could still be as many as 50 city employees that need to be disciplined or counseled for political hiring abuses. According to the Trib:

Yesterday City Council voted 27-11 approving an ordinance requiring anti-abortion activists to keep a distance of 50 ft. away from clinic entrances and medical facilities to create a protective zone for patients and employees. Within the so-called bubble zone, "no one could get closer than 8 feet to pass materials, display signs, protest, educate or counsel another person without their consent" according to the Sun-Times. Activists who violate the ordinance risk a $500 fine.

              

Almost 200 people picketed City Hall last night to voice their opposition to the 2016 Olympic games in Chicago. Protesters hoped to send a message to Copenhagen - Chicago just can't afford it. “We're spending more money than we have. The city is spending millions while leaving workers out in the cold” said one demonstrator. Another protester, speaking from a megaphone, said “we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on public displays of wealth that we can't access.” The boisterous crowd petered out around 7:00pm, leaving only a few stragglers behind. Later, six people were arrested for the banner burning, but, again, authorities have said they believe those six were not involved with the main protest.

Following a course similar to previous transparency ordinances that he's proposed, 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores, along with Leslie Hairston (5th), Eugene Schulter (47th) and Joe Moore (49th), introduced the long awaited Olympics oversight ordinance (PDF). City Hall introduced a competing proposal that would put two aldermen on the organizing committee for the games if Chicago wins the 2016 bid. Flores's ordinance establishes three levels of oversight, including a City Council oversight committee and authority for the city's inspector general to monitor the games. The Flores ordinance also requires Olympic committee members who earn more than $50,000 to publicly disclose their financial dealings with the games.

As the city looks hard to close a budget hole of more than $300 million, Mayor Daley is announcing plans to furlough more than 2,000 non-union employees in the park district, the public schools, the city colleges, the Chicago Housing Authority, the Public Buildings Commission and the CTA. The unpaid days are expected to save the city $18 million. "We must continue to demand more from every employee and do more with less," Daley said at a press conference Tuesday. The bulk of the cuts will happen at the management level, affecting those earning around $90,000 a year or more. "Those savings demonstrate that we, starting at the top levels of governments in Chicago, understand the need to be part of the solution during these very, very difficult times," he said. Last month city hall laid off more than 400 city workers, after they refused to take overtime reductions and 15 unpiad furlough days.

As the deadline passed for two holdout unions to agree to concessions with the City of Chicago, the Mayor announced over 400 layoffs of city workers Wednesday. "I don't want to lay anyone off. It could have been avoided," Daley said Wednesday. "I feel for the members and of course their families." Referring to the truck drivers, library and public health and safety employees that were laid off, he said that Teamsters Local 726 and AFSCME Council 31 "have failed to reach an agreement with the city to take unpaid furlough days for the rest of the year to help us address our budget deficit and of course save our taxpayers money."

Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has issued a statement in regards to the impending city job cuts coming from the Daley administration as a result of that union's refusal to make concessions with City Hall.

The woes of Mayor Daley continue. With the parking meter deal and the Olympic bid coming under extreme scrutiny, and his nephew's wheelings and dealings, the last thing he needs is another accusation of shady hiring practices, especially in the wake of this year's Hired Trucks trial. But that's what he's getting. Yesterday afternoon, Human Resources Commissioner Homero Tristan, the man Daley brought in to help the city avoid such scandals, resigned in the wake of accusations of lying by city Inspector General David Hoffman; Hoffman had called for Tristan's firing two weeks ago. In spite of the resignation, Tristan maintains his innocence, claiming it's now impossible for him to defend himself while also trying to serve the city. Tristan said (via the Sun-Times):

Well it's a good thing the City got short-changed on that parking meter deal, eh? Because today the City announced that they're going to have to cover a budget hole that could reach $300 million. The money will come from a "budget stabilization fund" set up following the $1.15 billion deal to privatize the parking meters. But that's not the end of the city's money woes as outlined by the City's Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold today. The City Council is also closing in on a deal to force non-union workers for the city to take 15 unpaid days off: six unpaid furlough days, six unpaid holidays, and three "reduced-service" days. Per The Trib's Clout Street:

A federal judge appointed Noelle Brennan to act as a monitor to address the Daley administration’s unwillingness to discipline employees who ignore rules banning political hiring. Brennan estimates that today there could still be as many as 50 city employees that need to be disciplined or counseled for political hiring abuses.

Amongst the many revelations in yesterday's unsealing of court documents relating to the indictment of Ald. Ike Carothers (29th) was the fact that Carothers had been helping investigators by wearing a wire for over a year, capturing public officials and real estate developers in recordings. Yet, it still wasn't enough for him to dodge the charges the U.S. Attorney levied against him. A motion from February and unsealed yesterday refers to the investigation against Galewood Yards developer Calvin Boender, also indicted yesterday, and to "Public Official A," who wore the wire. The motion says [via Chicago Breaking News]:

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day!

Chicago's police union has made good on a threat to protest contract negotiations by picketing City Hall the day the International Olympic Committee comes to town for their final on-site visit for their 2016 evaluation. The Sun-Times is reporting that the Fraternal Order of Police will bus off-duty officers to City Hall for the 90 minute protest. FOP President Mark Donahue said, "[Hurting the city's Olympic chances is] not our problem. We’re trying to get the mayor’s attention." The Sun-Times compares the timing of this protest to a similar one in 2000 when police picketed City Hall four days before the U.S. presidential election; Mayor Daley's brother William headed candidate Al Gore's campaign in Illinois and the FOP had endorsed George W. Bush. [Sun-Times]

Amongst all the Blagojeviching, Mayor Daley has announced his new Chief of Staff: the city's chief financial officer, Paul Volpe. Volpe replaces Lori Healy who is leaving the position to take over as president of Chicago 2016. Daley also recently named Patricia Scudiero as the first commissioner of the new Zoning and Land Use Planning Department.

] From the Trib:

Developers, contractors and homeowners often hire private individuals known in City Hall parlance as expediters to apply for and obtain permits from the city...Some expediters argue that their reputations have been unfairly tarnished by the expediter-turned-government spy and another expediter who last year admitted bribing city workers to speed up the permit process.

Block 37 is a black hole where money and plans go to die, and when you combine those forces with the CTA's money-guzzling abilities, well, it's the financial equivalent of a a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. Time to call City Hall for a bail-out.

Even before Chicagoland got its first 70 degree day of the year, area beekeepers were preparing for spring. Beehives—like the ones on the roofs of City Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center, in Garfield Park Conservatory, and the 100-plus hives in a North Lawndale co-op community— have already been checked to make sure the bees have survived the winter and have enough food to last them until the first dandelions, willows, and soft maples bloom. Keepers have cleaned and medicated the hives as necessary and might have ordered a few more thousand bees or a new queen, which are shipped through the U.S. Postal Service.

Just months after the city's Human Resources Commissioner, Jacqueline King, resigned her position following a scathing report by federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan, Chicago has awarded over $150 million worth of consulting contracts for "examination, administration and security" of employee selection tests, "executive talent identification and recruiting" and operation of "assessment centers" to a group of contractors.

John Kass doesn't want us to think about his "Mediterranean back hair," which pretty much guarentees that's ALL we're going to be able to think about for, oh, ever, but he's really writing about what's he's dubbed "Showergate": City Budget Director Bennett Johnson III has installed a shower in his City Hall office. It's at his own expense, and City Hall spokesfolk say he wants it because he bikes to work sometimes and wants to rub a dub dub when he gets to the office.

Former Chicago mayor Eugene Sawyer has died, following a long illness. Sawyer was 73 years old.

In politics, when you see an opening, no matter how small, you take it. And Jay Stone, son of 50th Ward Alderman Bernie Stone, is really reaching here.

The thousands of Chicagoans who have received citations for refusing to wear an ugly head set while driving may feel a bit at ease today. The Law Offices of Blake Horwitz is filing a class action lawsuit against the city, Mayor Daley, and several police officers for illegally ticketing thousands of drivers in violation of the cell phone ban since its inception over two years ago.

It was twenty years ago today that Mayor Harold Washington collapsed at his desk in City Hall. He died of a massive heart attack. In 1983, Washington surprised Chicago by winning the Democratic Primary for Mayor. He won with 36% of the vote, beating out incumbent Mayor Jane M. Byrne and Richard M. Daley. In the April 1983 general election, Washington received 52% of the vote to become Chicago’s first black mayor, trumping Bernard Epton...

The "nation's report card" for public schools came out yesterday, and Chicago ranks behind other urban areas on reading and math for 4th and 8th graders. about 16 percent of the 2,400 4th graders who took the reading exam showed proficiency, compared with an average of 22 percent in cities as a whole. In math, 16 percent of Chicago pupils were proficient, compared with an average of 28 percent in other cities. About 17...

The City Council passed Mayor Daley's insane budget with a vote of 36-14. Only in Chicago is that "a departure from the overwhelming victories" of years past. The tax package was a closer call, but still passed 29-21. The approved plans include doubling the phoneline surcharge to $2.50 per month to support the city's 911 centers, raising the tax on wine and beer, a 5-cent tax on bottled water, higher parking tickets, and dozens of...

Business Week has launched its latest title: BW Chicago. And the first story heralds Mayor Daley as "The CEO of City Hall." At Business Week, this is high praise. According to story, Mayor Daley is hugely popular with business leaders because he gives them huge tax breaks and privatizes city operations. Quoth Charles P. Carey, vice-chairman of CME Group (CME), parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, "[Daley] takes a...

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist...

We already know we're under surveillance ... well, pretty much all the time. But it looks like the City may be adding some more robot overlords in the near future: City Hall is looking for companies to provide high-res cameras to be attached to street sweepers to photograph illegally parked cars. The cameras would capture a pic of your license plate, and you'd get a ticket in the mail. Most street sweeping tickets are $50....

Tribune columnist John Kass has been on a roll this week. He started it by discovering the existence of "freegans" and ends it by suggesting His Elective Majesty (in his more animated, apoplectic moments) bears a frightening similarity to horror film icon Chucky. Kass's observation was a casual and humorous toss-off in an otherwise serious column about City Hall's continuing efforts to wrangle themselves a casino. It's an informative read, and if you - like...

Former WKQX-FM 101.1 radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller filed a lawsuit Tuesday against his former employer, saying radio officials disparaged his show and blocked him from getting other work. We are getting pretty sick of the cell phone drivers, but we are always amazed at the cell phone bikers (not in a good way). Yesterday, an 19-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a garbage truck on the Northwest Side, was apparently talking...