cityhall
Aldermen demand meeting with Emanuel’s budget director
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is facing his first real push-back from the City Council — on his proposals to raise city sticker fees by $60 for soccer Moms and wield the budget ax on libraries, health care, police and fire dispatch and grafitti removal. Twenty-eight aldermen …
Mayor proposes self-certification for some restaurants
Chicago retailers that sell pre-packaged foods with little or no food handling would be free to “self-certify,” under a mayoral plan designed to free inundated inspectors to focus on “high-risk” establishments. Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Chicago to become the nation’s first major city to establish …
City says plans to buy land around Midway are for safety, not expansion
Four parcels surrounding Midway Airport — including a breakfast hangout for police officers and a drug store that’s been a neighborhood fixture for decades — would be demolished to make way for enhanced “runway protection zones,” under an acquisition authorized Tuesday by a City Council …
Aldermen: Emanuel talks tax relief while going after small businesses
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration was accused Tuesday of giving “head-tax” relief with one hand and taking it away with the other — by aggressively pursuing affiliated businesses with common ownership for back taxes dating back years. The City Council’s Finance Committee approved the mayor’s plan …
City official suggests the homeless take cabs
The head of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services had a Marie Antoinette moment on Monday — when she suggested that homeless Chicagoans who need overnight transport this winter “take a cab” to emergency shelters.
Cost of city hiring scandal hits $20 million
Federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan and her associates and consultants have billed Chicago taxpayers for $8 million since 2005 — bringing the running tab for the city hiring scandal to $20 million — aldermen were told Monday. For years, aldermen have chafed under Brennan’s iron-fisted …
Parents, librarians protest Chicago library cuts
Chanting “No More Cuts,” librarians delivered petitions bearing 4,000 signatures to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office on Monday to protest the mayor’s plan to reduce library hours and impose draconian job cuts that would impact library services at all hours. Stay-at-home moms and their toddlers, who …
Emanuel voices support for his fire chief — but not necessarily his budget concerns
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday made it clear he plans take a hard line in contract talks with Chicago firefighters — even though his own fire commissioner is “deathly against” closing fire houses or reducing the minimum staffing requirement on fire apparatus. Emanuel said he …
McCormick Place union deal reap rewards: Trade show, hotel work
Newly-negotiated union concessions at McCormick Place paid quick dividends on Friday when a major trade show locked in for 2013 and 2015, and a major hotel chain authorized $125 million in renovations.
Top cop McCarthy tells aldermen of plan to close three stations, redeploy officers
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy tried Thursday to sell skeptical aldermen on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to close three district police stations in 2012 and reallocate officers without realigning police beats. If the City Council agrees to close the Wood, Belmont and Prairie district stations, …
Emanuel ripped for cuts to Chicago human relations panel
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was accused Friday of taking a giant step back from Chicago’s 60-year-long commitment to human rights by making deep cuts to the commission charged with enforcing human rights and fair housing laws. The mayor’s proposed 2012 budget would cut spending by the …
Emanuel jokes, then endorses plan to ticket owners of unlicensed dogs
After ridiculing the question as trivial, a wisecracking Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday endorsed plans to ticket and fine more than 500,000 Chicago owners of unlicensed dogs.
Cops not distributed equitably across city, ACLU says in lawsuit
Chicago is a city of haves and have-nots when it comes to police protection, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois sued in Cook County Circuit Court, saying the city is failing to deploy cops equitably across the city’s …
House approves crackdown on pension abuses by union leaders
The Illinois House overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday designed to crack down on pension abuses by union leaders.
City plans to limit Jumping Jacks to block parties and other ‘public events’
The wildly-popular Jumping Jack program salvaged by Chicago aldermen just three years ago is back on the chopping block — sort of. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration plans to maintain the longstanding Chicago tradition of providing free moonwalks to neighborhood festivals and quadruple — to four …
