Individuals must remain seated.
Good morning.
The time is 10 a.m. and we will begin this morning session.
See how many we got today.
We will start with Rosanna Rivera.
Hello, good morning everyone.
My name is Rosanna Rivera and I am the economic developer for the Street Vendors Association
of Chicago.
I would like to thank the City of Chicago for bringing light to the safety, cultural
and economic impact street pushcart vendors have bring to this wonderful city.
I would also like to take the time to thank the Food Equity Council for your support towards
the equity and inclusion of pushcart vendors and recognition of them as small businesses.
The Street Vendors Association of Chicago has been fighting since 2015 to be included
in the economy under a basic human right to work.
We have organized and been compliant with your requests and established shared kitchen
models using models from across the country in Texas, LA, and New York, where there are
the most street vendors.
Commissary kitchens ensure the safety and preparation of food to date.
Only two licenses of our organization have been awarded.
due to the lack of education and discriminatory treatment.
We have video evidence of many of these interactions by inspectors who are supposed to be professionals and educate people on the law.
Street push cart vendors are required to register as businesses and have the same requirements as full-service restaurants
and are still being treated as criminals who are required to have a food safety and sanitation management certification,
the same as any full-service establishment.
They're being treated as criminals who don't have the right licenses to sell their food.
who sell street corn, cut fruit, natural fruit juices, and snow cones.
For the last nine years, our association has been educating street vendors on the processes
you have required, and in the last year, we have ushered over 50 people through the management
process. Number one, we are requesting municipal funds for the creation of shared kitchens in the
areas of high concentration of street vendors and in wards where alders do not allow street vendors
designated areas with commissary kitchens. These vendors bring clientele from all over the country
to the city to purchase their preparations. They are not only holding on to cultural food and
legacies, they are making a way to provide for their families in the sanctuary city to live the
American dream. Number two, we ask for a mass education of training and city licensing departments
in the area of street vendors or the creation of a department that services these areas who speak
Spanish who are knowledgeable and who do not have racial discrimination bias against these
hardworking people who are trying to make an honest living. Number three, we have a committee
that represents all the areas across Chicago that would like to be heard and included on these topics
as they are direct stakeholders on this issue. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Rivera. Next, we will have Blake Anthony Johnson, followed by George Blakemore.
Thank you. I'm a little taller. Thank you, Alderman Irvin and Councilmembers for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Blake Anthony Johnson, and I'm honored to serve as the President and CEO of Chicago Symphony Orchestra
and the co-chair of the Cultural Advisory Council for the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
I'm here today to share the incredible ways D.C.A.C.E. is under Commissioner Hetsmith and her team's leadership has championed arts and cultural across our neighborhoods.
Over the past year, DK's has truly been a lifeline for Chicago's cultural community, empowering artists and organizations that breathe life into our city.
Through over $8.5 million in grants, we've again reached all 50 awards by supporting 511 artists and organizations citywide,
addressing an incredible 51% increase in new applicants, proof of the need and demand of these resources.
Additionally, the agency's pandemic recovery programs directed $18 million to initiatives that supported new employment models for artists,
aided non-profits in long-term recovery, and fostered community collaborations, promoting healing and transformation.
Our DK's portfolio now reflects Chicago's diversity more than ever,
with 65% of our individual artist program recipients identifying as BIPOC,
up from 38% in 2016, and 60% coming from low- to moderate-income neighborhoods.
This shows our investments are reaching the heart of communities.
Public art is also flourishing, with nearly 80 projects in progress across 25 boards,
totaling combined $11 million investment.
19 of these projects are slated for completion in 2025,
bringing more beauty and cultural expression directly into our neighborhoods.
The film and television sector has rebounded tremendously,
generating over $600 million this year,
more than 90% of that impact benefiting Chicago residents and businesses directly.
With over 1,300 permits processed by October,
generating over $500,000 in revenue,
we're on track to surpass last year's numbers.
Looking to 2025, we'll launch into the Chicago Youth Media Initiative to mentor
youth Chicagoans as they step into growing industries, opening doors for
our next generation of storytellers. In partnership with the Chicago Public
Schools, we're broadening access to arts education so every child can experience
the transformative power of the arts. Initiatives like the Reverberate
Festival, among other CPS art programs, are laying a citywide foundation for
creativity and learning. Looking ahead, D-CASE is committed to sustaining this
level of support across the cultural sector. As we face new challenges, particularly with
dwindling recovery resources, we're proactively exploring new funding models to uphold our
commitment to Chicago's artists and communities. I want to thank Commissioner Hedspeth and thank
you for the time. Thank you. Next, Mr. George Blakemore, followed by Wendy Palak.
what is culture?
What is art?
It's your impression.
Everyone is an artist.
If you're a mechanic,
if you're in science,
because you're using your mind
and you're creating.
Now, it was very hard
for me to hear.
They didn't have the festival of art.
They would come from Africa,
homeland and all over the black people. Now I love the African people. I was listening
at that lady. She came up, this Hispanic lady, advocating for her people. Some of them have
these little courts and they don't have a license, but they don't arrest them. They get one license
and everybody work under that license. See, Mr. Blakemore is not your typical black.
Mr. Blakemore is not and also with the culture events when they have them in the streets
that they block off the streets these streets are open to the public these streets and the
the one who are giving these events try to bully the public and say you have to pay five dollars
before you can come to this
event that's given
in the street. I'm unique
and I'm informed
I'm educated and I want
to educate my people
that young man right here
is coming from my mind
I was trained for this
a black face in high
place. I can call you out
whenever they have any
event in the city of
Chicago on public land
People should be able to go there in the street.
If you want people to be cultured, you must expose them to culture.
You must educate our people.
Over in Europe, they have all kind of free events.
They want the people to know and to be cultured.
When you're cultured, you civilize.
It deals with the mind.
So they say when Mr. Blaymore gets up here and cursing you, all kind of language, you see I'm not cursing now.
But if you trigger something with me, all kind of venom will come out of me.
All kind.
Because this is a young lady, you represent your people very well.
I see them with these little push cards and they're under one license.
You're all about money.
Black people don't seem like they know how to get into this money.
the golden rule is he who has the goal rule you're too poor you're not cultured enough
and you're not sophisticated enough to know how to get this gold so again it's very important
for mr blakemore to speak at these meetings thank you mr blakemore next up wendy pollack
followed by Lou Kolder-Reyes.
Good morning, members of the Council.
My name is Wendy Pollack.
I'm the Director of the Women's Law and Policy Initiative
at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
I'm here today to speak on behalf of the recommended budget
for the Office of Labor Standards.
The Shriver Center fights for racial, gender, and economic justice,
and that is why we supported the creation of the Office of Labor Standards
and are here today to support the mayor's recommended budget for that office.
All workers deserve to benefit from their hard-won workplace rights
and to be able to rely on a city agency that has the resources necessary to protect those rights.
OLS does an excellent job in its role in enforcing the ordinance passed by this council
and ensuring that the rights of all people who work in Chicago are protected.
The vital role that OLS plays in protecting workers' rights will be even more important and more necessary beginning in January, when a new federal administration comes into power, an administration that will undermine federal laws and regulations that create and protect workers' rights and will dismantle the agencies and enforcement mechanisms that will have the responsibility of administrating those rights.
Therefore, we ask you to approve the OLS budget as requested in the mayor's budget with no cuts.
Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you, Ms. Pollack.
Next up, excuse my pronunciation, I'm having trouble reading your writing.
Lucolda Reyes?
Yes, good morning. It's okay.
Followed by Justin Miller.
My name is Huacolda Reyes.
I am the Chief Real Estate Development Officer of the Resurrection Project.
The Resurrection Project is a non-for-profit organization that has been provided affordable housing for more than 30 years, serving the communities of Pilsen Little Village and Back of the Yards.
I am here to provide my support to the Department of Housing 2025 budget.
TRP will not be around if it wasn't from the support of the Department of Housing.
TRP actually started it in early 1990 with a program of the Department of Housing called New Homes for Chicago.
I don't know if some of you remember that, but that gave the opportunity to several families, more than 100 families in Pilsen, to become homeowners.
Most of them today still are homeowners.
And recently, the Department of Housing has been an instrumental partner in helping us to put together the financing for the development of Casa Yucatan,
which is affordable rental housing desperately needed in the communities of Pilsen,
given that our long-term families are being pushed away.
So very briefly, I'm here to support the budget for the Department of Housing in the 2025 budget.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Next, Justin Miller, followed by Taiwan Sims.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Justin Miller, and I am Vice President of the Chicago Public Library Employee Union, AFSCME Local 1215.
Our members work at 85 branches around the city, and we are proud to offer our services as warming and cooling centers,
polling places, Narcan distribution sites, tutoring sites, and of course, we are also happy to help Chicagoans learn how to read,
bond over stories, and discover the world.
but CPL workers are also increasingly burnt out we have put on a happy face while doing story time
but we have been rattled by bomb threats as well as harassment and assaults on library workers this
year one major issue at CPL an issue that City Hall can address is understaffing in 2018 the
Inspector General released a report on the understaffing crisis at CPL,
and in 2019 followed up showing that CPL management had not implemented most of their recommendations.
Later that year, before addressing this issue, Mayor Lightfoot significantly expanded our hours of operation,
opening neighborhood branches on Sundays.
Local 1215 bargained with the city, agreeing to this expansion in exchange for a promise to increase our headcount
by around 120 full-time staff equivalent.
Our head count at the time was 908 full-time staff.
With the additional hires, we would be at 128.
Today, after a great deal of turnover,
we have a head count of 947 full-time staff
with a vacancy rate of around 20%.
We have upheld our end of the bargain for four years,
but the city has only fulfilled about 30 percent of its promise.
We have raised this issue at every single meeting with management,
pushed for a concrete timeline on hiring, and made compromises.
The city has not upheld their end of the agreement.
The budget before you today would cut 50 full-time vacancies at CPL, exacerbating the issue.
the current staffing also requires constant overtime to meet our operational needs it is
a wasteful use of city resources we understand that the city has been placed in a very difficult
position financially and we support the mayor's decision to not cut essential services but we
also want to say that the current situation is not sustainable for us and jeopardizes the long-term
health of Chicago Public Library.
We ask that the members of City Hall vote to reject cutting these vacancies at Chicago
Public Library for the good of CPL workers and for the good of the people we serve.
Thank you, sir.
Taiwani Sims, followed by Samantha Herrera.
Committee. First off, I want to say that the individuals who came in here all this year,
speaking about our issues and circumstances are not the enemy.
Though we had a gentleman sitting in there and saying about the speakers that what he is hearing
is vitriol and is racist, but for the American people to be speaking about what we're dealing
with. And that came from Daniel
Lespada, who sat
in council listening to people who are
suffering. I come in here,
I tell y'all about the case of my mom.
Right? I come in here, I tell
y'all how I'm being chased and abused
by the domestic relations.
I come in here and I tell y'all how I was attacked
in the streets. Menard Habinworth, you said yesterday,
you said that the most vulnerable communities
must be protected. But you weren't speaking
about Americans. You were speaking about the loss
that was taken from Ms. Harris or
whatever. But the president now
is Donald J. Trump, an American
who prayerfully will put
Americans first. And nobody in this council
hall has put Americans first because I've been
here for a whole year. The homeless man
in the room.
While we talk
to people who say that racist,
the American people have been
kind and generous more than that.
But we racist when we say enough
is enough. We become the enemy.
We become off-put.
Enough is enough.
enough black children dying in my neighborhood in Rogers Park. It's the north side of Chicago.
Enough is enough. I'm in Roseland right now. Enough is enough, Maria Haddon. Enough of you
chasing me down, sending your criminal cops at me. Enough is enough. You will be put in jail.
Enough is enough. Conway, enough is enough with the lion because you all have jurisdiction over
that, what, domestic relations. You all have jurisdiction over the clerk's office. Enough is
enough. I want the lady handled. I want my life back. I'm the man in the room who has been attacked
on every level.
You won't call us racist. You don't got the right.
You won't sit up here and try to
announce that, oh, if you're not doing something
that. No. Enough is
enough. We have given everything to
the point of detriment. A billion
dollars in debt, plus
a billion dollars in debt in our CPS
system. So much so that they've elected to
what? Invest in prisons?
Y'all don't want to teach our children,
develop our children. Y'all want to jail our children.
Enough is enough.
We're not ignorant or foolish.
We're not racist. Enough is enough.
I won't be had. I won't be dealing with you, you criminal.
Vasquez, immigration. Y'all had enough money. Y'all stole enough.
My children, my child's name is Ian Walter Oba Sims.
He is in Everson Township High School.
You all got to order protection against me. Enough is enough.
My child, Yasuke Roosevelt Sims, 23D79597.
That's domestic relations. That lady that's chasing me down.
Y'all use your automatic powers against me. Enough is enough.
And that should be billed to y'all, the citizens.
because we pay the taxes. They got no money. We pay them.
And they just doubled the 6%, $144,000 next year.
For what? To be abused and chased around? Enough is enough.
My name is Tyjuan Sims, and I won't be chased around by pencil pushes.
I told y'all once.
Thank you, Mr. Sims.
Our last speaker is Samantha Herrera, who's joined virtually.
Ms. Herrera, are you with us?
All right, you may proceed.
low-income black and brown young people. And so the funding that we've received has allowed us
to make these films. And the unique thing about the films that we make are their collaborations
between young people, Chicago public school students, recent Chicago public school student
alumni, and professional filmmakers and educators. And the idea is that we're really practicing and
grappling with what does it mean to work collectively and we're also building skills
we recognize in a collective that everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to
teach so um you know we're putting those skills into place using dk's money we've made two films
so far one of which premiered in Rogers Park this summer again that was funded partially through
money that dk's got one of our grantee or one of our collective members and we're really building
this capacity so some of the people in our collective have been in it since they were 15
and are now in their 20s and are taking on leadership roles and will be um will be teaching
other young people within the community we're based in lodgers park um how to use media tools
to tell stories that upset those mainstream narrative stories again that we hear of young
about young people and so by funding these projects we're really creating leadership at a
grassroots level and we're really saying we value the arts within the city of Chicago so
you know we also know the collective that resources are violence prevention
and we know that by building this collectivity these circles of support and care and by making
art we are making this city stronger we are you know making Chicago the world-class city that we
know it is and we need to continue to be. So funding within communities is so extraordinarily
important because, you know, this is able to start at this grassroots level and move
outward. So I really appreciate the funding. I hope that programs continue to be fully
funded because our programs would not be possible and would not have the scale that they have
without your support.
So thank you so much on behalf of myself
and with a respect to Media Collective,
we really appreciate the support
and hope it continues.
Thank you, Ms. Herrera.
That concludes public comment this morning.
Today we have before us
the Department of Cultural Affairs
and Special Events
with Commissioner
Kliné Hedspeth.
We will begin today's presentation
with a short
I'll call it a soliloquy or I don't know what to call it.
A short presentation from COFA.
Chairman Irving, Vice Chairman Lee,
all two persons and guests, good morning.
My name is Janice Soda-Gray.
I'm the director of COFA.
For their proposed budget, it's $73 million,
which is 11% higher than fiscal year 24.
For the FTEs budgeted, it's 81 FTEs budgeted for fiscal year 25.
That's one less than 24.
Their personnel expenses is $7.92 million, and their non-personnel expenses are $65.0 million.
Thank you for your concise presentation.
Good morning, Commissioner, and welcome.
If you would introduce yourself and the members here in the well, as well as those who are in the box, and after which you can begin with your opening statement.
Thank you, Chairman Irving and City Council members.
I'm Clint A. Hespeth, Commissioner for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, also known as DKs.
To my right, I have Tahira Begg, Commissioner for Finance and Development.
After her is Dr. Maida McNeil, Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Grants and Resources.
And then in the seating box, I have Jonah Ziegler, Deputy Commissioner for Chicago Film Office.
Bria Perdman, Deputy Commissioner of Marketing and Communications.
Lisa Loric, Assistant Commissioner of Human Resources.
Yesenia Motto, Program Director for Operations.
Sanginia Brambat, Deputy Commissioner for Programming, James Castillo, Program Director,
Public Art, Frayne Lewis, Policy Analysis, and Laura Trejo Lozano, Program Director, Cultural
Grants and Resources, and Melanie Wong, Program Director for Cultural Grants and Resources.
So I'll start with my opening statement.
Overall the past year, D-CASE has actively supported Chicago's cultural community through
grants, programs for individual artists and organizations, and by investing in neighborhoods
through place-based projects, public art commissions, and events.
We have enhanced our technical assistance in capacity building, initiatives, and established
new cross-agency collaborations.
A few highlights from this past year include celebrating the 20th anniversary of Millennium
the 40th anniversary of house music, and the remarkable career of blues legend Buddy Guy.
D-Case has launched innovative partnerships with Sundance Institute to Chicago, which has
attracted global attention and resources to support our independent storytellers and filmmakers.
During my tenure, I have quickly realized the access to resources remaining key as a key
priority. Our icon revenues welcomed a new group of Millennium Park organizations and residents
and expanded opportunities for artists at the Chicago Cultural Center through various programs
and events. In March, we introduced a streamlined application process for visual art exhibitions,
making our galleries more accessible to creators. This year, D-Case awarded over $8.5 million in
grants to 511 recipients. We saw a record thousand new applicants for our grant programs,
representing 51% of total applicants of 1900 over a little over almost 2000. The Individual Artist
Program received its highest ever number of applications. Community panels made funding
decisions resulting in grants across all 50 wards. Notable 54% of our grantees were first-time
applicants and 60% held from low to moderate income neighborhoods. Thanks to our ongoing
outreach during public community events, virtual and live info sessions and engagement efforts,
our grantees now better reflect the diversity of Chicago, with 65% identifying as BIPOC,
compared to 38% in 2016. Grants were awarded to artists and organizations in every ward,
a trend we've maintained since 2022, showing significant growth from 94% of awards
in 2021 and 66 percent of awards in 2016. D-Case's recovery program included Healing Arts Chicago,
Together We Heal, Creative Place, Chicago Arts Recovery, and a special ARPA-funded cohort of
our city arts programs. Our public art team is managing nearly 80 projects, totaling 11 million
investments across 25 wards with 19 projects set for completion in 2025.
After a challenging period marked by seven months of strikes, Chicago film and television industry
is back. The film and industry is expected to generate over $600 million this year, with more
than 90% of this impact benefiting Chicago residents and businesses in the form of wages
paid to film workers who are Chicago residents.
This year could be one of the highest performing years on record.
To create equitable pathways for youth entering the film and industry, D-Case is partnering
with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to launch the Chicago
Youth Media Initiative.
This initiative will provide funding, mentorship, and skills development opportunities for youth
media organizing and participants across the city.
While DK's continues to deliver impactful programs, we acknowledge the ongoing challenges
faced by artists and community members.
The effects of the pandemic are still healing, felt as organizers navigate uncharted territory
and work to maintain as resources that were once available start to decrease.
Now more than ever, we understand the necessity for fresh ideas, new approaches, and fresh
resources modeled for our communities.
In 2025, D-CASE is committed to sustaining equitable support for the cultural sector as recovery resources wane in finding new ways to support artists and organizations facing economic challenges stemming from the pandemic.
Amplifying awareness of exceptional events and world-class artists in Chicago while ensuring residents are informed about D-CASE and its offerings.
Updating D-CASE's special events ordinance to enhance transparency and streamline the application process for special events.
Collaborating across government to ensure neighborhood economic development continues to support arts and culture as integral components of thriving communities.
Thank you for your time, and I'm now happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Commissioner. First up, we'll have Alderman Riley. Any questions from—everybody's up? Cool. All right.
Followed by Alderman Dow. Chairman Dow.
Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, Commissioner.
Good morning.
It seems I don't have a response to my request for information through the chair.
Chairman, have you received a response to the memo that was sent to D-Case?
Not to my knowledge.
It was sent.
Email.
It was emailed yesterday, I think, to OBM.
To OBM.
Okay.
Well, Chairman.
And to you.
Chairman and I don't work there.
Okay.
I haven't seen it.
If you could resend it, that'd be very helpful.
so I won't ask those questions on the record.
To your budget submission, which I think we've all acknowledged,
this is a very hypothetical budget,
I'm looking at your full-time employee equivalents, 2024 to 2025,
and that number remains at 81,
but I'm seeing about $3.5 million
dollars in um in increases and and could you explain to me where that three and a half million
dollars is being applied across these 81 positions is there a standard cola or raised baked into this
or what are we seeing here with this extra three and a half million bucks so for the 2.8 of that
is just for continuing um our festivities and festivals um basically majority of that is to
maintain or get to back to pre-pandemic cost and activities so for example it has a lot to do with
labor and production costs so a stage to rent a stage for a special event costs about two thousand
dollars now versus 600 about two years ago and mostly it's contractual stuff personnel adjustments
and software licensing and going moving from the decrease that we saw in the during the pandemic so
for example we only have four events in millennium park to do with films and we're trying to get back
up to about 11 which was pre-pandemic amounts so the last all that activity that is reflected in
the 81 ftes or is that reflected in other grants with one fte at 28.7 million or so
so the increase has nothing to do with the um salary increases okay so i think it was in the
the memo. I'll review it,
but we did ask which
folks in non-union supervisory roles
are receiving those raises.
I'll review the memo.
Hold the time. Alderman,
the department did respond to
your memo. It was sent yesterday
about 4.30.
It was sent to your
Ward 42 account. If you want,
I can forward it to
if you got an email. I'll have my staff look for it.
Got you, but they did respond. I appreciate
that.
And how much of the work that your department's doing these days, you know, I know with the ARPA money and the pandemic and, you know, the disaster visit upon the arts community in Chicago, you know, a big departmental focus was shifted to pushing grant dollars out the door and ARPA funds out the door to support organizations, programs, and artists.
How much of the work of your department now is going to be focused on that, knowing that ARPA is trailing off and you're not going to have access to those big buckets of money you once did?
What does that mean for how you're prioritizing staff time in your department?
Thank you for that.
Well, first, we took the data that we saw that during ARPA, I mean, you know, we had over 1,000, almost 1,300 new applicants apply, and we were only able to give, at least with individual grants, 200.
Total, about 500.
So we recognize, I mean, Chicago artists and creatives need the support, thus the request for the million.
But, I'm sorry, what was the other question?
I was asking about your staffing priorities. So, you know, we obviously host lots of special events, and that's a tremendous resource allocation for you. But knowing we're going to have fewer grant dollars to push out the door, how many of your folks be focusing on grants and subsidizing various arts programs or artists themselves?
I would say a significant amount. I mean, the entire team does. But, you know, we are very much focused on that. I would say we have even, I mean, our programming director who has a background in development is looking at ways for us to increase that number.
So I would say, you know, we have two departments really kind of focused on making sure we're doing that.
I mean, Dr. McNeil, would you like to say how much time staff-wise you guys are placing on getting grants out?
Sure. Yeah.
So we have a team that runs, regardless of ARPA, runs four signature programs annually, and those will continue as they have previously.
And that's the 12 employees are managing that?
Is that about right, the cultural grants and resources?
No, a portion of that is directly running our grant programs.
And then we also have additional folks who are cultural resources, which was recently added to the division.
And that is non-monetary support.
So we're looking at professional development and technical assistance, which is something that is greatly needed across the arts and cultural sector.
so those are additional parts of the division's work and then we are also adding arts education
and so we will be supporting arts education and working with cps and arts providers
very good um where are we at with better calibrating reimbursement to the city of
Chicago for major special events. It's my understanding there are a number of events in
the city where, for whatever reason, we don't ask the event organizer to reimburse us for
things like police resources, police and fire, paramedic, traffic control. Some events spend
lots of money on those sorts of things like Lollapalooza for example yet other
events don't get charged these things how do you rationalize that well we
understand what where that question is coming from but coming for me yeah no but
the difficulty is that you know we are a processing we process the permits and
and we don't have the authority to charge or to deny or approve a special event.
Well, no, you actually do decide whether or not an event is approved, literally.
You decide whether the permit is issued, correct?
No, the city, other city agencies like CPD, any city agency that would be involved in making sure that a permit
or that an event can take place are the governing bodies that will say approve or deny.
So if an organizer comes to DKs, they go into the system, we upload it, everyone's notified, and I mean, that's how we process.
No, with all due respect, I mean, I've been here for 18 years, and we've been having lots of big events in my ward downtown as long as I've been here.
And yes, all those different departments get to weigh in on an event.
and, for example, if CPD is notified of an event application
and they see lots of issues, they'll object, right?
And then it's your department's decision, ultimately, on how to proceed.
And you can either re-engage CPD and address their concerns
and the event's approved, or you don't.
But ultimately, D-Case is the final arbiter on special events.
It's literally in the name of your department.
And so I don't know who I need to take this up with.
Maybe it's finance.
But I think there is a lack of equity in how we're charging special events for reimbursements to the city of Chicago.
And as a legislator facing a billion-dollar budget deficit and being asked to sock it to my constituents with more property taxes,
these are important questions to be answered.
because using police officers and paramedics to support large private
and oftentimes profit-making special events, that's not a luxury we have.
Bureaucrats may think this stuff is free, but our constituents, the taxpayers, pay for it.
And so that is a bigger discussion that needs to be had.
I don't look at D-Case as purely a processing department.
I think your department is far more important than that.
and as you have the unfortunate duty of hurting all these different departmental cats to review these events.
And so, you know, I want to make sure I say this clearly for the record, Chairman.
I think there is a tremendous amount of talent on the staff at DK's.
You have some really, really incredible people who work for you.
So in no way am I impugning the department here.
But we're in very, very dire circumstances right now, and we need to change the way we're doing business.
and we need to take a really good hard look at the bottom line.
And while I support the mission of the department, always have,
and have enjoyed a very good working relationship with the staff that interfaces with my office,
we have a duty now to pass a budget.
And the one that the mayor has proposed here is not going to pass.
And so I'm asking these questions now to set the table for a conversation about where we can find some efficiencies.
And so I like round two, Chairman, but the bottom line here is that we look to you to help us rationalize these different event fees and to make sure that the city is being properly reimbursed for these really large, disruptive, resource-sucking events.
So, Chairman, thank you for the time, and I'd like to be included in round two.
I have one question. What do you have for round two?
I have a few questions.
Okay.
I thought you may have just had one.
Excuse me?
I thought you may have just had one.
No, I usually have a few.
Okay.
No worries.
Go ahead, Commissioner, respond.
Yes.
I'm happy to continue to facilitate meeting with different alders to help with seeing how we can, you know, resolve exactly what you're saying.
And, you know, so far as it comes to permits, you're right, we do say more.
we do have a responsibility to weigh in and utilize our expertise.
I'm so happy to do that as we continue to process the permit part, but definitely open to doing that.
Thank you.
Just kind of following up on Alderman Riley's question,
what charges, if any, do large-scale events pay to the city beyond just the cost of the permit?
And if the permit fee includes other costs, how does that work?
Well, the permitting fee is about $100 to $200.
and again we don't have
because we don't provide the approval of denial
we aren't part of the process of how it's budgeted for like
CPD or Streets and Sand or CDOT
So do those other departments send bills to
the festival organizer
for services that they
perform on their behalf?
Yes, they do.
Okay.
Are you all aware of how much those fees are and what they're charged for?
No.
Okay.
All right.
Well, we'll take that up with the individual departments then.
Chair Dow?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Actually, that was the first question I was going to ask you as well,
commissioner related to reimbursements for not just CPD support, but also support from OEMC for
traffic managers and the like. And this concern is not just shared by Alderman Riley of the 42nd
Ward, but you'll probably would hear the same if they were here from Alderman Hopkins, from Alderman
Robinson from Alderman Conway. I think he is here. Myself. We need to figure out a way to
make sure that we get money back from these large events. And so I don't have a lot of questions
about your budget because you don't really impact the corporate budget. But I think you could be a
contributor to the corporate budget, more of a contributor to the corporate budget. And that's
something that we really do need to put a focus on. And I know that the CEO, John Roberson, or
Chief of Staff John Roberson is trying to look at this issue, but we should try to speed that up
because we definitely could use the resources in our 2025 budget. Thank you. Would you respond to
that? Yes, we are in conversations with that. I'm just so you know, we are looking at revenue
generating options outside of just the permits. So stuff that we're doing is even cultural at the
cultural center, making sure the rentals, we're going up 10% being more in line with industry
standard. We're looking at also different cost saving things so far as it comes to labor with
some of our subcontractors like TransWestern. But yes, we are definitely in conversations with
John Roberson and the chief of staff to explore those. Okay. I'd like to get a list through the
chair of the special events that you have scheduled for 2025. I'd like that list to include,
identify those events, which typically require CPD and OEMC participation. And for those that
require CPD or OEMC participation, how much money they paid in 2024? How much money did we
receive from those events and reimbursements for 2024. I also want to focus on the film industry.
I see that it's getting better, and I can tell that from the number of notices I get from
Betsy Grace and those that work in that office. Can we get more money for
are there opportunities to increase the revenue that the city gets from the film industry
i believe there is um and so that's why we were well you know i'll have uh deputy commissioner
ziegler talk about it i think he's can provide more details of of what you're looking for so
you hear me okay um yes thank you
Say your name again.
My name is Jonah Zeiger.
I'm the Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Film Office.
The film industry is on an overall upward trajectory in terms of economic impact.
We're hoping that this may be the third highest year on record, despite the labor strikes from last year, which paused it.
And that impact is primarily felt in terms of wages paid to Chicago residents who are film and creative workers.
about 60% of those we're looking at about anticipating $600 million in economic impact
for the current year. And the majority of that is wages. There are also invoices that are paid to
Chicago businesses. So location fees, studio rentals, equipment rentals, catering companies,
local businesses, dry cleaners, those kinds of things. So keep track of that information.
Yeah, the data is managed by the Illinois Film Office, the state that does the Illinois Film tax credits.
We don't have direct access to the production budgets, but these are tracked and the overall numbers are released by the state office.
Okay, so you don't track how much money they leave in our particular Chicago neighborhoods?
We're not able to track that directly, but we could try to get some additional requests
via voluntary disclosures from the film production companies.
I think that would be interesting to do maybe in 2025 so that we have a sense of whether
or not people in my community or businesses in my community are actually positively impacted
by the inconvenience, so to speak, of filming,
that would be some good information to have.
Yes, we can definitely look at that.
And I can say that definitely they are impacted positively
in terms of when a film production comes into a community.
The impacts, they create a lot of business
and income for the local residents and the wards.
Can I follow up really quickly?
Also, Alderwoman, we haven't, D-Case has not had an impact, economic impact report since
2016, and we're looking at that.
And that would have, we're going to try to grab that data.
And then two weeks ago, one of the initiatives we launched is pulling together an eight-person
panel of industry people to see about going through our best practices and see where we
can increase.
And so happy to make sure that all of the council's involved in knowing what their findings are.
Okay.
I just have two more items.
They're specific to my part of town.
Amanda Williams was supposed to do some work at a Washington statue at 51st and King Drive.
and as of August, there was some kind of contract edit that needed to be done.
I want to know if that's going to get done.
Has that been completed?
Are we going to see this improvement this year?
Because I'm tired of that gate around that statute,
which has been there for the last two and a half years.
For those details, I'm going to pass this to Deputy Commissioner Castillo.
Thank you. Yes, the project is the contract issues are being resolved.
It's being resolved. This has been going on for a long time. What is the problem?
I can give you a full update and report about the issues of the contract.
but it is still in progress and we're hoping to get it installed in 2025.
I'd like to know what the issue is because it's not seems like it's taking too long.
The last question I have is just to see if your department is thinking about any support
that can be given to the African Festival of the Arts.
That festival didn't happen this year.
It is a big event on the south side in Washington Park.
And just wondering if your department has any involvement in that.
Could you have some involvement in that?
Do you know what kind of support that they need?
It's one of my favorite festivals.
And it just, the fact that it didn't happen this year, I'm still crestfallen.
Yes.
Although it's not a city-sponsored event, we are definitely committed to ensuring that events like that still happen.
We had a conversation earlier to try to provide some support and allocate some funds.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to cover it, and there were also some other limiting factors from the organizers' standpoint,
but we are definitely going to continue conversations to provide support where we can,
including bringing sister agency like the Park District at the table to address some of those challenges.
All right. Well, if there's any way I can be helpful in that regard, please reach out.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the work of your department and look forward to working more with you in 2025.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Chair Dow. Next up, we have Alderman O'Shea followed by Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman. Good morning.
I'd like to start out by just thanking your staff, those here and those back in the office
for working with my staff on so many important events that go on in my community.
I wanted to echo and kind of follow up on what my colleague from the 42nd Ward mentioned
as far as permits or ticketed events.
And obviously we have many, many large-scale events that promote our great city and bring thousands of people, certainly in the Central Business District.
But many of those events also create other problems.
and what I'd like to get into a little bit is, you know, these events where we have to strip parking,
particularly downtown area, events that take over Columbus Drive and others.
When we strip parking, when we lose those meters, I don't have that figure,
and I'm guessing my colleague from 42 does, but when those meters are down,
that's tens of thousands of dollars in true-up costs.
we need to identify these events these ticketed events where a promoter or somebody is making
a significant profit between parking being stripped and first responders
because we're going to get into this next week police overtime
many of these events we're canceling days off we're paying time and a half double time
we need to do a better job of identifying where we need to charge more for these
which leads me into the next point we have several large-scale events on the same day
um i know i believe it was in august we had
air and water on the same day we had another large-scale event
hundreds and hundreds of police officers days off canceled double time pay
the cash register is ringing we need to do a better job of when
we're permitting these events we're looking at okay what are we doing to our overtime costs
both monetarily and the burden it puts on our first responders i think we need to have better
communication between the police department the fire department oemc and your office as far as
when we schedule them we need to make sure we're not putting too much of a drain on our resources
um and i know that's a lot but we need to have better communication and as um my colleague
pointed out at the end of the day you grant the permit so we need to have better communication
and to hear from those other department heads as to what we can safely
and what we should be doing and allowing or rescheduling.
In closing, it's great to hear that we are seeing a significant increase
getting back to pre-pandemic levels of filming.
I love it when I get a call that someone's coming to film in my community.
Thank you for your important work on that, and let's continue to show off our world-class city.
Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I am happy to continue to not only send out the emails, but to also
So work with the automatic offices to bring together those different approving and denying
agencies.
And although D-CASE does not manage any of the costs, again, we have a vital role.
And so happy to sit down with all of you, especially you or any of your colleagues,
to make sure that we're having those convenings and that even the non-city sponsored events
are more in line with scheduling.
Thank you.
And we have a new program called Experience D case where we plan on doing that strategically
because the permitting process, I think it's no less than 21 days that an organizer can
put something in.
And so we do have enough time to be able to reach out and make sure that everyone's at
the table.
And thank you for your support of the Beverly Arts Center, an important institution in my
community.
I know we've talked about that.
You're welcome.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning.
Sorry, forgive us.
Good morning, Commissioner.
A couple quick things, if I may, and I will send these to you via email as well.
But if you can provide through the Chair a list of all the permanent events by ward that we've seen in the last year,
and the associated departmental support that accompanied those events,
as we're talking about police, fire, streets, and sand, whatever,
just so that we can get a better sense of that.
If you would please provide sponsorship totals and breakdowns
for all city-sponsored events,
as well as all of their corresponding production costs,
cultural grants and amounts per ward,
the CPS engagements that are referenced by school and ward,
excuse me an itemized breakdown of your zero 150 funds expended uh by purpose and vendor
the 2023 and 2024 9225 funds spent by award program and ward and a list of all public art
projects and total spend by ward um and again i'll send that to you so you don't have to try to
keep up. But I do want to, one, thank you and the department. As you know, DK is formerly
part of special events, always has a special place in my heart. And I know how hard it is
doing what you guys do, having worked in that department myself. But I also want to just echo
some of the concerns that my colleagues have. But I do have one concern in particular, and that is
with the online permitting application process as a whole.
Especially now while we are still dealing with remote work
and things of this nature.
And as we see CDOT shifting away from,
or trying to shift away from Alderman being able to allow
for organizations to do those block pop-ups
like the play streets and things of that nature, the online process is exceedingly burdensome
when you're trying to do something, especially as organizations come up with an event in
a community within a few days' notice.
As you know, the application process is broken down in tiers in terms of time in advance
for applications.
Do you have any thoughts on how we can address this?
Should this be something that in those instances, in your opinion, doesn't necessarily require
us to do the full packet?
Or is there some happy medium in between?
Yes.
Thank you for that question.
Yes.
Recognizing the problems and the concerns that you just stated, that's why we launched
experience dk's where staff will go out to the wards and help people or you know do a webinar
and let people know how to complete certain um uploading processes and complete some of the
documentation that is needed also we are very aggressive in looking at do does every um instance
demand you know 50 pages to get something through especially like with grants and resources so um we
are looking at that. And like, again, I said, we are going out to the automatic offices and able to
do one-on-ones with organizers or with the automatic staff to help navigate the online process.
So allow me to say, while I have you and your entire team here to experience the 15th Ward in
five minutes, that process is overly redundant. And when it comes to the city-sponsored events,
I think as it relates to ones that are CDPH funded or like Play Streets is or those of those other kind of initiatives that deal specifically with like light in the night, again, Play Streets, or if all dramatic offices do something for like a pop up and we want to shut the street down.
I don't think that we should be subject to having to deal with that packet.
I believe there should be a way for us to be able to do that locally for those very limited parameters where it's not going to be a major event.
It might just be a three-hour event for students or for community.
But when we have to go through this process, it makes it almost impossible.
And as well, you're also charging organizations now $100 to get that permit.
unless you're able to get in touch with someone to try to waive it.
And I think that gets us into a very murky scenario
where now you've got Alderman trying to call to waive things for individuals,
which I don't think any of us want to be a part of.
It should just be very simple to put something together for play streets
or these type of events and move from there.
And I speak from experience because we had an event
where in order to get a street permit closure, I had to pay $100.
for something I was sponsoring through my ward office for the community.
And $100 is fine, but when you have some of our delegate agencies
through the other departments who only get paid X amount of dollars
to put these events on throughout the year,
that adds up to a significant portion,
which we are not budgeting for moving forward.
So I just want to make sure that you all here, while you're here,
that that specific outdoor event
has to be addressed immediately for next year.
Happy to do so, to sit with you and figure that out.
Absolutely.
Again, I gave you a long list.
I'll send them.
But I do want to also stress one last thing
since I've got a few minutes.
Appreciate all the work the department does
to try to reimagine Taste of Chicago.
I personally am a big fan of having bigger events
downtown. I miss those bigger events, but I think if we are going to keep it at, what is it now,
a four-day window? Three-day. Even smaller, a three-day window for Taste of Chicago.
I would like us to see a more robust neighborhood inclusion. I was one of the first communities
wards to have Taste of Chicago in West Englewood when it first was broken up back into the
neighborhoods, but I know many of our 77 communities have not yet had Taste of Chicago
come to their areas, come to those communities, and we've already now seen other communities have
it twice. So I don't know how we've gotten to the start of the line already when 80% of Chicago's
been missed. So I would gladly encourage you and your team to try and look at ways that we can
further make the community taste of Chicago much more robust and as well continue the same push
with some of the other events that we are doing as well when it comes to like the Jazz Festival
and some of the other things that we have. I know we're trying to bring more people into communities,
but I think that we have to put a little more effort and maybe include some of our sponsorship
packaging to be reflective of encouraging people to support neighborhood events or give them some
sort of opportunity to do both simultaneously. Thank you. And yes, we are looking at continuing
the pop-ups and looking at other neighborhoods also. And then so far as sponsorship, we just
created a new deck to ensure that people can understand the importance of supporting more
neighborhood activations. So and happy to send that to you.
Awesome. Yes, if you could actually include the new
sponsorship deck for the committee, I'd appreciate it.
And then I will just forgive me, Chairman, I will add on one
last thing. We have still an issue with murals. And as you
know, as your team will gladly attest to, when DK connects and
works with artists, I think all of us would appreciate inclusion
in these conversations. We've been going back and forth, as you know, with a huge mural at 49th
and Western by the Orange Line, which apparently was in agreement with CTA and DK, so it didn't
include the wards. And it's really caused consternation with residents and other folks.
We just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and supporting art that is reflective
of the community. Because in that instance, that was something that was clearly before your time,
actually goes back to when Mayor Emanuel was trying to welcome graffiti artists from New York
which was a huge mistake because they never left and they're tearing up the neighborhood
something wicked with all of their designs but I want to make sure that they're not going around
wards to get to you and your team to get approval for something that ultimately we're going to come
down with the graffiti blasters because we don't want it so I'll end on that note and absolutely
And so just so you know, the visual art, public art, and exhibition team, there is a new policy where we have to always, from the start, have automatic input and sit down with you guys.
Then if you could share that policy through the chair so we're all aware, too.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
The order, Alder Nugent, followed by Vasquez.
Scooting over so I can see you.
Good morning.
Good to see you.
I will just start off by saying I'd like to thank you for your partnership and your team's partnership.
We've had a very good working relationship with you and your entire team, and I think we've done some really exciting things over the past year.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention, since we're in a budget season, many of my colleagues had brought up we need to find ways to increase revenue.
And when we look to the permitting process for events, I'd actually encourage you to pursue the person being in charge of how we can do this.
I think you'd be a good leader with working with public safety partners and others to be the one perhaps to advise on how we could increase the revenue and be reimbursed for these events.
Because I think they're really, really important.
And I know that as commissioners, you have to get your sea legs in new roles.
But I think moving forward, you'd be a great person to sort of spearhead that with other partners.
Just some things I want to bring up with my ward in particular.
Through partnerships with your office and participatory budgeting, over the past year, we've brought four murals to Chicago Public Schools in our ward with your help.
So that's Solomon, Palmer, Volta, and Belding.
So thank you to your team on that.
We have a mural coming to Mayfair Library, and I know CPL is here today, but that is done through a really big partnership.
We've also benefited from grants like the Individual Artist Program and the Chicago Artist Recovery Grant.
We've had winners in our award, so thank you to you and your team for helping our community with that.
I also just want to bring up filming in 39.
It's actually been a really positive experience for our award.
Chicago PD and fire have been really in the community a lot. We've been excited about it.
The residents like seeing the bungalow belt on TV and it's, it's making people spend money to buy
lunch in the ward and people get excited about it. So I think that's, that's all really good
things for us. And I'm grateful for the notice and the partnerships. I think that's important.
I just want to, I want to touch on something that's a little unique and that's Expo Chicago,
which is the art fair at Navy fair.
And I'm hoping you could talk about it a little bit because it's my
understanding that it's not a DK sponsored event,
but can you kind of talk about that?
And I bring it up because I think it's a big deal.
I want you to talk about it and talk about the benefits the city gets from
events like that. And how do we get more events like that?
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
Expo was the largest art exhibition in the Midwest.
It was purchased by started here by Tony Carmen and then purchased by freeze, which is a London based organization.
So they're in L.A., Europe, now Chicago. Major impact economically.
I mean, people come here from all over the world. Oftentimes Expo, which will be known as freeze Chicago, is, you know, in our although it's not a city funded event.
event. We are definitely in partnership with them. And most recently, I met with the CEO of
Frieze to ensure that the city is actively involved in having experiences at the cultural
center. Also, historically, Expo has had small activations in communities. And with Frieze's
larger, more robust budget, we have presented the option of being of support to make sure
they're going out to other communities.
But the impact is big.
And this is very important to DKs, considering that our budget is heavily funded by the hotel
motel tax.
And so knowing that so many visitors globally come to Chicago, we'll make sure we continue
to develop that relationship.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
And I actually attended this year.
I thought it was incredible.
how do we how do we in Chicago attract more things like that what do we need to be doing
to attract these art and cultural type events that draw this type of a crowd like what should
we be doing I think one thing is using our social platforms and networks to really
highlight what we already have going on here and so very excited about our new kind of rebranding
of our comms and marketing team to do so and making sure we're having convening.
So next year, October, which October is Black Fine Art Month, we will have other commissioners
of major cities for their Department of Cultural Affairs to come here to Chicago at the Cultural
Center to meet.
And so making sure that we are constantly part of the conversation, if not leading the
conversation.
but so I think positive marketing and then also supporting the artists that do come here that are
from here that they want to stay so that that continues to attract others thank you I appreciate
that and I I think I'd encourage you and your team to to reach out to me and my colleagues when you
think that there's things we should be promoting that we should be talking about that we should be
using our social media platforms for I I every time I play around on your website I see and can
go down a rabbit hole and learn more things and see things. But sometimes we just need experts
like you guys to tell us, hey, we're going to focus on X, Y, and Z this month or this week and
just spoon feed us so that we can do a good job of helping advertise either the things we have
going on or the things we hopefully want to attract. Just also, Alderwoman, just so you
know, we have started, if you go to our website and I believe our social media accounts, we are
working directly with, you know, organizers of the institutions and direct artists to actually
have them speak directly to the people that go on there. So we've worked with the National Mexican
Museum. We're working with the Puerto Rican Museum. We're working with different museums and cultural
leaders to make sure that they have the ability to share their stories directly. That's great.
Well, thank you. Thanks for the partnership. That's all I have, Chairwoman. Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Nugent. Next we'll have Alderman Vasquez.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. One, thank you so much. I've always appreciate
D-Case's work. I think what you all do creates opportunities for folks who don't have them
in the city. When we talk about, you know, the black, brown, broke, poor, queer, disabled,
the folks that need to find opportunities art is how people are able to express and find those and
so it's incredibly critical for me that this department does well um i think generally i know
sometimes we've got everyone here that's articulating kind of numbers and stats i think
what i'd like to know from you commissioner is just like what what the vision and plan is for
the next year of d case like how do you how do you see what is possible and and what are the
action items and measurables for that yeah um thank you for that um i think um you know one
thing that's very important um that we have noticed like me and my team as we have talked
about our like strategy for for the remainder of this year and next year is to um work with
our artists directly um again uh making sure that they have involvement so utilizing even
the cultural center in different spaces that DK's manages to be able to activate it.
So having more events there that are open to artists to come in, that's something that's
really big and it's meaningful.
Also working with the visual arts team to make sure that we are providing resources
to them, to artists directly, and organizations that might not have the capacity to do so.
We are launching two traveling exhibitions that highlight Chicago so that other municipalities
or institutions can borrow.
And it's a small revenue generator, but it also allows people that don't come to Chicago
to experience some of the art created by our artists.
So those are two major things.
So also, I'm going to send this to our programming director to talk about how she plans on, how
we've talked about planning on to make sure that for the strategic plan we get more people
paying attention to Chicago. Hello everyone I'm Deputy Commissioner Sungini Brumbat.
You know while we're going to continue our successful festivals we're looking at ways to
enhance some of our programming looking at how are we activating youth youth programming throughout
our different festivals, throughout our different programming at the Cultural Center. We're looking
at how are we going to strategize professional development. You know, looking at, we have an
initiative Chicago Made. It was 10 years this year. These are artists directly from our communities,
directly from your wards. Getting that information out to you all to get that to your constituents.
um so we're activating our creative creative sector here and creating a platform pipeline
um and we are in the 2025 planning process so i you know for my team welcome you all to start
having these conversations and i'm happy to meet with folks yeah oh yeah to add to i know we've
been in conversation our office with your office the department your office to talk about ways of
also branding um Chicago um in a real way not just talking about it to actually have maybe like
contract an MOU that says um how we promote um Chicago so that is a major priority because a lot
of times we go to other cities and um we see the model already done and so being able to make sure
that we're captivating those things is something that's very very it's a priority yeah thank you
I know for a number of years I've kind of mentioned like merchandising and marketing and kind of really positioning the assets that we have as a city in a way that one brings people more on board, but may drive up some level of marginal revenue.
And so I think talking to you all plus talking to Choose Chicago and like figuring out the parity on there can get us to that.
So I do appreciate that.
I've got like two questions.
One, I'll add my name to all the other folks that are concerned about the events.
I think we want to see events. We do recognize that costs incurred, not only financially with like overtime, but also like officers being burned out.
I think the one example that strikes me or one of many is like the pride parade. Right.
So there was this big concern about the pride parade and having officers there during and shortening the distance, all of the things.
And I think the thing that most people knew and were able to see in real time and recognize is that the parade itself was never the issue.
It's the activity after the parade is over in the evening.
And so then to have officers there all day to then focus on what's happening in the evening, only one burns through more costs.
It burns to these officers that could be focused elsewhere in the streets to make sure things are safe and then come into the area.
And so, kind of as our colleagues brought up, identifying where the strength is in the permitting, right? What is the communication that you all have with the folks who would seek to reimburse once the different departments? How often do you all talk? Is there a way to flag if someone's not reimbursing to say you're just not getting a permit again?
Again, is there a way to flag proactively to say, hey, it's been this long.
We haven't been reimbursed.
You're not getting a permit next time.
What are those conversations like?
Yeah.
So, again, we don't see any of that.
The sister agencies, they actually send out like an invoice.
So we're not part of that.
But, again, happy to facilitate a sitting down and really understanding a little bit more.
Well, yeah, my question is separate from that.
Like, I know you're not the ones collecting it, but because they are sister agencies, you could very well be the one communicating it and having communication regularly or some level of reporting.
So, like, let's say, for example, it's Park District and they've not been reimbursed.
It would be having a regular email portal reporting spreadsheet, anything that you all would see on your end to then go, great, given that information, we're just not going to do it.
And the reason why I'm kind of putting it that way is that doesn't require a working group.
It doesn't require multiple meetings. It's, Hey, send me an email once a month.
And I just don't know who the point person is at D case to then make sure that
they are just doing that and holding it accountable.
Like I don't need six meetings to do that. I can tell you,
that's what we want now. Right.
Deputy Commissioner Bagley,
just kind of elaborate a little bit on how we can make this happen or be
supportive.
So unfortunately, CPD system, permitting system doesn't talk to the city's permitting system, which is something I know Commissioner and Alderwoman Taylor were talking about a few days ago.
But in terms of CPD talking to DKs, CDPH talking to DKs, Streets and Sand, we don't have those conversations with them.
But that's something we can open up to as the Commissioner mentioned.
One, I appreciate that. A couple things.
And I know this from multiple years now working with like 311, for example.
If it's about systems talking to each other, I guess we'll be talking about this next term and the term after because it takes years for that.
If it's about, hey, we in the departments aren't talking to each other, we're going to try to figure that out.
Again, it's pretty simple.
Who's the person at D case that is going to be point person to talk to these other departments or agencies?
Then who's the person at?
Over at Part District.
It's two people sending an email.
Who's the person at D case?
so we will the we have a whole division uh that's set up for permitting and it's our operations
division and the sisenya moda the deputy commissioner and hickey and they will be
they will be your point persons okay just through the chair if you could send a contact info for
everyone there because again that's not hard that's an email and i want to make sure at least
that's getting fixed so that we can have accountability in between figuring out to
your point, the larger systems communication, right? This is money left on the table. This is
things that we shouldn't even allow to go forward because then it relieves the pressure on having to
do multiple events, and it's an email. That would need to happen. I guess, last question I have,
which is kind of perhaps in the same kind of line, is we know that when there was a shift in
transition from commissioner to commissioner, as there was in a lot of different departments,
there was a little bit of a drain of some of the institutional knowledge,
but it seemed to happen more in D case and in other departments.
And so I was curious as to kind of what occurred that may have caused that.
And what do you do to account for it?
If you've got 14, 15 institutional heads that are now leaving,
what has that been like in transition?
Well,
four retired after doing 30 plus years with the city,
which I knew about early on.
And definitely before they,
the retirement we sat down and talked and still in some conversation with some of them but
I would say you know Lisa Loric is more better equipped to answer that but we still do have a lot
of folks on the team that are very much aware of how things have happened in the past so it's not
a total brand new team, but we are definitely working very aggressively to ensure that when
someone does move on for whatever reason, that we capture the knowledge that they do
have.
But I would like for Lisa Lurick to also weigh in on this.
Hello, Lisa Lurick, Assistant Commissioner.
As the Commissioner mentioned, we do transition documents with all of our employees that are
leaving.
It's okay.
You're good.
You can still answer.
No, you're fine.
I have time.
Right.
We do transition documents, and we have several meetings prior to a person leaving so that we can capture some of that institutional knowledge, some of the things that are going on, and so that we can work forward in making sure that our operations are efficient and continue.
Okay.
If through the chair you're able to make some of the, share some of those at the council as far transition, only because, again, a question as simple as who's the person who emails the other person is something I'd imagine is in a transition document.
And we definitely need to get that sorted out.
And like I said, it's not y'all in particular.
It's the amount of things that we need to do quickly as a government to them being told we're going to talk about it at a working group and do the thing.
We can't find solutions quickly if that's the answer to everything.
So thank you very much.
And thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Alderman Vasquez. I'm just going to pick up on the permit issue. I'm one of those
too. I think we all have this concern. In the permitting process today, and I know that
D-Case is responsible just for approving it ultimately. You're the certified. No, you're not.
No, we upload it. We send it out to the approval and denial departments, and then we get it back.
And then within that time, we notify all the agencies that will need to approve or deny
for a permit to be issued by dks okay but everybody all of those other sister agencies
have to approve or deny correct um so that you can take the action ultimately issuing doing the thing
so what does that process look like because sometimes some people might be slow in responding
right so i know that i've worked with community organizations um you know one of the things that
i wanted to bring up here is that um the the permitting process seems to be taking a little
little bit longer and I don't know that that's because there's you know holdups at CDOT or at
CPD or whatever that process is there someone within the case who is bird dogging those yeah
okay yes and yes and that's Yesenia Motu and so she can kind of walk us through that but again
we have we recognize the gaps that a lot of your colleagues are talking about and making sure so we
are long we have already launched the idea of going out into the alders offices and into the
community to make sure people really understand the permitting process but if yesenia could could
walk us through it hi everyone oh yes so the application is sent out once it's complete
so it has to be complete sometimes it's in complete for a few weeks and you know the
event's getting closer so we work with the organization to make sure their application
is complete we send it out and there's depending on what they're having at their event they'll
have between five to seven to even eight agencies that need to either review it and approve it or
deny it. We work with those departments daily to make sure that the application is moving forward.
Sometimes it takes longer because they're missing documentation or they have questions
or they're requesting a meeting, but the team is very efficient in working with the department and
the organization to make sure the application moves forward. And Yesenia, thank you, because
you've always been very helpful to us in the 11th Ward office. I did want to make sure that we
acknowledged you for that um I think overall you know there's a way for for us as a city and if you
can bring people together to to do that since ultimately you're the one at the end of the day
who issues the permit um that we look at what what we can bring back in terms of revenue just to make
up for all of the additional resources that are being drawn down um for these large-scale events
and then also um with and knowing that CDOT is the one that's approving some of these
permits. We've just seen a lot of things happening where there's CDOT work going on,
and then there's like filming going on a block away. That sort of thing, you know,
I'll talk to CDOT about it while they're here as well. But I don't know if my colleagues have seen
that in their wards. A lot of filming happens in the 11th ward. And I have a lot of street
resurfacing going on. And then you throw into that a regular street cleaning day. And then I have a
lot of angry residents coming in. So that is something I think we need to do a much better
job of coordinating um alderwoman hadden you're next on the list followed by alderman conway if
you're still in the room when he gets back thanks chair um good morning commissioner
um i've got a couple through the chair requests that um are related to questions colleagues have
asked so i'll just kind of reference the question i'm not looking for a response but they were just
some of the through the chair i think supplemental documents that might be helpful for us to have a
conversation so one of them is as we talk about the event management piece um the police over time
the cost and and i think the concern that we have around that i'm wondering if um you could provide
a list of all of the d case permitted special events that require the additional police resources
and then if you're able i know you're not in charge of the budget management for the whole event
but whatever cost information that you've got from what analysis you guys do so like you know
what what our revenue we're bringing in what we're charging basically on the permit fees
versus what the costs are and i'll say that i'll be asking for similar things from cpd i think just
to get the information so we can help to match some of that and then similarly a list of all
d case permanent events that require parking meter payouts
And again, I think just to help us get an idea of costs.
This is more related.
This is general.
But I know we've had a conversation as you are trying to support and still help the recovery efforts that a lot of our arts communities have taken.
And I know we've talked about kind of those arts orgs that are like million dollars or less in budget.
If you're able to provide through the chair a list of organizations that D-Case is funded, I'd say maybe 2023 and 2024, that fall into that category.
So organizations that are like a million dollars or under in their budget, that would be helpful.
I know that as we are spending down these ARPA dollars and grants that have been harder to come by to our organization, I'm imagining they're also harder to come by to the city.
So I just kind of want to see that comparison to get an idea of what the impact is.
I'll say we had a lot of fun with Taste of Chicago.
It was great.
So thank you to the whole team. We had a great time. And the only downside of that is my constituents immediately after were like, can we do this every year? To Alderman Lopez's point, I hope that we are, you know, giving every neighborhood their turn as much as I would love to have it in Rogers Park subsequent years. I think we should share the program.
However, I would love to talk to your team a little bit about kind of what went into it, what some of the costs were, because I think that, you know, if our community is really interested in it, I've got some new owners of the big Gateway Plaza, and they're interested in being a space for promoting some different cultural events.
So it would be great to see kind of like what did it cost the city to do something like this so that maybe it won't be a taste of Chicago.
But if we could find some community partners that could help support a smaller version or something that we could sustain.
So I would love to see those numbers and kind of engage in a conversation with your department about that.
And then my last question is really just kind of general plans for ARPA funds for the next year and how they relate to the cultural plan.
So if you want to speak a little bit to that now, just, you know, not a specific, just generally looking at what that looks like.
Yeah, so our ARPA funds by December 31st will be about $3 to $5 million that will roll into 2025.
Artists relief and funds programs will all be spent down.
And so the three to five that's being carried over is more for tourism and hospitality programs.
And they're already obligated just to continue the earmark programs that were already launched.
So some of them are Manufacturing Month, which is a youth-driven initiative where the youth get out and they get to see what the industries are actually doing firsthand.
And then some influential programs to highlight the neighborhoods, city assets, parks, cultures, centers, restaurants.
As you all may have seen, the 77 film series, which highlighted some of these neighborhoods, were really award-winning as well.
so not much that we're having in ARPA
leftovers but we could definitely send you some of those programs
for 2025 and 2026. That'd be fantastic and then the last
thing that I have this is an ask for just kind of help and brainstorming
because I know you're going to have a lot more brain capacity once today is over
right? You guys are you ready?
We have in the 49th Ward we have a
a venue called the New 400 Theater.
And the New 400 Theater is, I think,
the longest-running existing movie theater on the lakefront.
So there's a couple just fantastic physical buildings
that are like this, the Logan Theater.
But our theater's been closed for more than a year now.
So like a lot of businesses, right,
continuing to operate with changing consumer behavior
has been difficult.
but it's in a historic building. We've got a lot of community support and ideas around programming
and I just would love your support and meeting with you and your team to maybe help us think
through ways to support a kind of viable reopening of use of that space whether it's
a theater business or whether it's some other kind of interesting use. It's a four-screen theater.
It's had recent investments. After it closed its formal operations through community efforts, we actually had monthly programming of, you know, from silent films to community films. And as we think about how we support, especially independent artists and local groups around the film industry, I think there's something there.
we have met with members of both the state and kind of the city's film office in efforts um they
all live in my ward um in efforts to um brainstorm but i'm you know hoping we could come to the table
with d case as well and uh pick your brain a bit so happy to do that quickly yeah so yes after
today yeah after today thank you and thank you chair thank you alderman hadden uh next we have
Alderman Conway followed by Alderman Mosley.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
To piggyback on Alderman Riley's comments,
you said you had many talented personnel.
So I certainly have thank yous to my office.
Had a wonderful relationship working with Ann Hickey
and Yesenia Moto on our farmer's markets,
Janet Youngblood on our special events,
and Joe Fonzino with our parade.
So I want to thank those four people.
individually as members of your department.
A question I had, which also has sort of been asked differently by some of our colleagues,
but zooming out a little bit, was your budget is unusual in the sense it's getting a pretty
hefty increase of close to 11%, even still recognizing that it's not corporate funded.
What is, at a high level, driving that increase?
to maintain special events and festivals,
and then also recognizing that because ARPA funds
are being spent down and already allocated,
that the need to support artists is there.
So that's where it's coming from, the increase.
And then, you know, we're not on the corporate fund, as you said.
We're on the special revenue fund.
And as I was informed, that's not operating the deficit.
it now is that um so when you say the events are driving that increase is it like they like the
infrastructure that goes in those events or specifically more yes so most of it is like
contractual um obligations and then production costs for example um to rent a stage for an event
um i think in 2019 it was like 600 where we're seeing cost of like 2 000 now um and so it's
just production inflation um and that is there about 14 about 14 increase in inflation for just
producing what we have our anchoring into anchoring festivals for the city um great and i know um uh
all the woman hadden was asking about that about your arpa funds um so it look it it looks like
you have about 10.8 million of ARPA funds in the budget,
but I heard something about 3 to 5 million before December 31.
If you could just sort of maybe more broadly,
what's the 10.8 million going to be used for?
Yes. Do you want to take that, Tahira?
No.
So I think the 10.8 million you see is from the time the reports were ran,
and I believe that report may be until July.
But since then, there have been a significant number of expenditures,
which is where we're seeing the forecast of $3 to $5 million.
So it's $3 to $5 million as part of your budget in 2025?
That we rolled over to 2025, correct.
Okay.
And you said it's – when you said it was already obligated, is that –
do you get that information from OMB, told you that?
No, we know.
The POs were created two years ago,
So the funds were obligated long before we did the ARPA relaunch.
Is the $3 to $5 million part of, or what part of that is ongoing,
is part of programs that existed in 2024?
I would say about 90% of them are year marked for ongoing projects
that we started either in 22 or 23.
Okay, what's the 10?
What's the other part that's new?
So we're working with the mayor's office.
on shifting more towards youth programming and neighborhood programming in terms of tourism and hospitality.
And we're still formulating that with them.
Great.
Another question I had shifting a little bit to events was at the Taste of Chicago specifically,
do do our vendors do they pay like a fixed fee or is there an ongoing point of sale percentage or
something that we get so we're reintroduced in introducing the vendor commission so it was
halted during the pandemic the entire time during the pandemic i believe and so we're reintroducing
the the fees that were prior to the pandemic now as part of that an application fee also okay did
So as part of the percentage part, do they still control their own point of sale, or is there something that we put in as a vendor point of sale?
So the vendors control their own point of sale system, and that's what will change.
And what some of this increase will go towards is technology enhancements in a POS, city-operated POS system.
so the vendors, when we do impose the commission,
all of that revenue comes back to the city,
and then we're able to disperse back.
Yeah, because I would guess if they're their own point of sale,
you may get some off-the-books revenue.
So that was exactly what I was getting at.
So I'm glad that you're way ahead of me in thinking about that.
And Madam Chairwoman, I yield the balance of my four and a half minutes here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Conway, Alderman Mosley, followed by Alderman Laspata.
Thank you so much, Vice Chair Lee, and good morning, Commissioner.
Morning.
I want to start by saying thank you to you and your department.
I'm excited to go to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony this year as always, but even more
so excited to know that the tree is from Chicago.
And I think that's a very, very big thing when we look at what just different ways we
can help out residents.
So thank you all for that.
I've been impressed by your department's ability to tap into some of those just untold or
unknown stories throughout Chicago, whether it's the grant making that you've been doing,
the highlights such as the Margaret Burroughs event the other evening and so forth. And I'm
wondering when we have this conversation about increasing revenues, what's your viewpoint or
take of how that plays into it, that we are making sure that the stories throughout all of Chicago
are getting shined, that our neighborhoods are being destinations to bring in more folks,
to learn more about those stories and also contribute to our neighborhoods while there.
Yes, thank you for that. We're working closely with Choose Chicago so far as working with tourism
to make sure that we are telling the stories that you were just mentioning. Also, definitely
revisiting some of the contracts we have that are up to make sure that there is a understanding that
there needs to be more promotion and support of highlighting the city and neighborhoods.
with revenue also, I would say actually caught more cost savings, again, looking at labor
with these subcontractors to make sure that the city isn't, that's a little bit tighter to make
sure that labor, you know, when we really need some staffing that we're very clear at events,
so events in the park, meaning like if it's the Jazz Fest, Buddy, you know, even down with our
vendors down in, um, that are at the cultural center, like Buddy, the, the store. Um, so just
looking at just, um, overall cost, um, and then some of the activations, like I said, where we
are having even traveling exhibitions. So looking at that as revenue. Yeah. I've been appreciating
again, just how youth are being more and more, I'm sorry, we're going to add marketing strategy,
our new marketing strategy that we're working on also. Um, thank you. Uh, how you for just being
more and more involved in the process, putting them aside, these experts in the industry,
so that they can gain that knowledge and use it. Also, just very thankful for the partnership of
Major Taylor Trail. I mean, this is the city's first rail to trails program, and there have been
some others that have taken off, and I think the stakeholders of that are finally feeling like it's
being prioritized once again, so thank you for that. I want to ask particularly something that's
Dear for my ward, yesterday we just opened our yellow banana save a lot.
And at that same time learned that Aldi's down the street is going to close on Sunday.
We talked about farmer's market.
How can D case and farmer's market stand in the gap of our food deserts?
Yeah, I'm going to talk.
I have Deputy Commissioner Brombott talk about, you know, working closely with you guys to make sure that we can talk about the process of getting a farmer's market in communities.
especially those in need hello alderman um you know our farmers market we do have an open
application making sure that we're getting you know businesses people from your wards to our
market and then we're also happy to provide resources especially in wards that do have
food deserts and I'm happy to meet with you and your team and your staff to have those
conversations and talk about that process. Great I mean we we are surely going to need it
West Pullman itself is already a food desert and with disclosure there's not going to be a single
place that you can afford have affordable fresh groceries within walking distance or
just a quick way to get back home.
So thank you for that. And then lastly,
our ward has been pushing
very hard to reactivate and
modernize block clubs.
What resources are available from
D-Case to
give to these
block clubs,
whether it's coming down to your office
for different events
or sites and destinations
to how do we tell the stories
of the individuals who
live on those blocks?
Yeah, so again, Experience DKs is a really exciting initiative that we are working with your office to identify community members and organizers that you want us to meet with and to make sure that we are educating them and letting them know about the opportunities and then walking them through certain opportunities to see where an organizer might need assistance in activating.
and also making sure that, you know, if they don't meet the requirements, being a resource
and partnering them with other partners that can help support what they need to do.
Great. Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Mosley. We're going to go to Alderman LaSpada, followed by Alderman Sikho Lopez.
Thank you so much. Shout out first to Alderman Mosley. That question around farmers markets,
I think that's my favorite question of the day. I really appreciate you asking that.
Commissioner Hedgespeth, thank you for being here with us today.
Love what your team does, like particularly like the work of the film industry office.
With our office here in the First Ward, so responsive, really exciting.
I'm really glad that for whatever reason for productions, they like how Logan Square and Wicker Park look as communities to film in.
And we'll continue to take it as long as that responsiveness continues to be there.
This feels like an easier conversation than most because, like, your budget has zero impact on the corporate fund.
Should we talk at some point around whether the corporate fund should also be funding special events and cultural affairs?
Because the corporate fund is the best reflection of our values as a city.
That's a conversation to have in the future.
We don't have to have it today.
I have three quick questions. Number one, there's a bit of a reorg that I saw happening. So your overall head count flat 80 versus 80, but positions being pulled from different places towards the creation of this new like bureau or sub department of visual arts.
You may have talked about that before, but can you talk about that, that right sizing and reorg?
Yeah. So when I first, after my appointment, kind of looked at the teams and what, you know, workflow and productivity.
And so prior, visual arts was under programming.
And so I simply moved it out because programming has to do with our events.
And sometimes I think it can be very difficult.
It was a large portfolio for the deputy commissioner.
and so having visual arts just pulled out and for it to work so that includes public art and
exhibitions so that was that was just moved out and then I obviously to to make sure that we're
being responsible with sponsorship and revenue models pulled previous to my appointment
development was in comms communications and marketing department and I moved it back into
I moved it into finance. So those were the big org chart changes that you're seeing.
Okay, that feels helpful and sensible. Speaking of org chart, and I know some of my colleagues
have brought up notable vacancies. My understanding slash hope is that our hiring freeze was only
directed towards the corporate fund, I believe slash hope that it was not impacting as directly
your department. Can you confirm that? And can you also speak to where we are in the hiring process,
particularly for some of these positions that are higher up on your leadership tree?
Yes. Thank you for that. Yeah. We, since we're on a special revenue fund, the freeze didn't affect
us. I'm very happy that Lisa Loric works very diligently and in very organic ways of figuring
out how to make sure that not only we communicate openings to your office, but also to
institutions such as universities and colleges in the area. And so right now we are just
waiting for their referral list.
We do have a deputy commissioner selected already
for one position, and that's over visual arts.
I'm very proud to say she's coming from Smithsonian.
And so we're getting some really great candidates in.
Fantastic.
Glad to hear.
We'll continue to do so.
Yeah.
My third question is related to a cultural experience,
It's a reckoning, a reassessment that we've been going through related to our iconography, our statues, our public art.
The reassessment working group, and I know there's a specific title for it.
It feels like they concluded their work, put forward this report a couple years ago.
But in terms of the action steps that proceed out of it, I haven't seen that so much.
And I'm wondering, this is a non-budgetary question, but if you can give us a sense of where we are in that, if there's going to be a report back, a hearing, or what is the best way for alders, particularly those of us with statuary or monuments that are addressed by that report, the best way for us to engage with you and your team on those items?
It's our responsibility to report out to you, but I will have, I think Jimmy speak to the public arts and statue and monuments specifically on what we plan on doing moving forward.
Yes, thank you, Commissioner.
Yes, we-
Can you identify yourself just for the record?
Oh, I'm sorry. James Castillo, I'm the public art director.
Many of those monuments that were identified from the Chicago Monuments Project are being addressed through funding from the large grant that the City of Chicago received from the Mellon Foundation.
And so a lot of those are currently in progress.
We've recently got an extension on the grant so that we can continue to make that money do what it needs to do.
That money is going to a lot of the really larger kind of projects.
And so we have a portfolio of projects that we can provide to you a report on their status and everything.
So if you have any other questions about any particular monuments, any specific statuary, any kind of public art question, we're always happy to answer that and provide any kind of report.
I appreciate that.
Once, maybe let's get through this current season, but I would love to meet with your team that's doing that work to see how we can collaborate together.
Absolutely.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for all the hard work.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman Laspada.
We're going to go to Alderman Sergio Lopez, followed by Alderman Scott.
Thank you.
Thank you, Vice Chair, and thank you, Commissioner, and your team for being here.
I appreciate the efforts that your department has made in terms of working with our communities around the festivals.
I know that several of my colleagues have talked about that.
As you know, I represent one of the communities that has a significant number of festivals,
an increasing number of film companies that come to our community.
So I will do, just for the record, emphasize that although it is true that DECA is a process in body, there has to be accountability ultimately.
And that accountability includes every single one of us to ensure that this process is fair to our constituents and it is actually responsible with a budget that needs contributions.
so in terms of you know my commitment to work with you I think several colleagues have talked
about the changes that meet the need to happen on on city code uh so that the different agencies
and departments that are involved in the proving of these festivals actually result in better
outcomes I can tell you that the um for both I think for for festivals as well as the filming
office there's a lot of improvement and a lot of work to do and I know that we've been in
conversations with your team.
So I look forward to continuing those conversations.
My questions around some more specific budgetary items, you know,
happen with, especially when you work a lot with young people,
culture and arts, that is an important investment for the city.
I think that you have some programming with One Summer Chicago
and after school matters.
So can you kind of get maybe through the chair, like,
the number of slots that you have per district, per ward?
or if you have it available, how many of those do you have?
How does DKs work with their delegate agencies to increase the number of slots?
You know, definitely I think we will try to work more with young people,
and I think arts and culture and music is an important magnet for these young people.
And again, that can be done through the chair.
How does DKs work with CPS to notify unenroll the students?
I know that in our community we have a number of young people
that year after year would like to join,
and this department has possibly some programming
that they would like to be part of.
And in terms of just this question,
and then you feel free to add anything that you want to add
and specific questions that you don't have available,
you can give to the chair,
but the increases for a lot for elementary schools,
delegates that target elementary,
or what are the delegates that target elementary schools
and school-age kids, I think is important.
how many new agencies do we have in 2024 and how many do we expect in 2025?
I don't know. I just let you know that I ask quite a bit of questions.
You want to have a response generally. Any specifics, you can send it to the chair.
Yeah, so just we'll get that to you through the chair, the specifics, the other questions.
But just so you know, all of our programs and events have like a family family activities.
and we do have the new initiative we signed with BACP
for the Chicago Youth Media Initiative
and we are doing a lot of trainings with youth.
But yes, happy to get that information to you
through the chair.
Yeah, thank you.
I think Peel and Little Village are communities
that have and contribute to have a very rich cultural legacy
in the Mexican community and the Latino community.
So I would definitely like to have D.K.'s more involved.
You know, I think that there are efforts, but given that we have now,
and I think it's great to have an increase, I think, in private grants
and I think also some of the ARPA funding.
And I do think that that is an investment, that is an investment in our kids,
in our culture, in our history.
But I would like to see that that includes, especially at these times,
diverse communities, especially in different parts of the city of Chicago,
that have not seen the level of investment.
So I will challenge DKs to be more engaged with our community,
to be more present.
I think, I mean, throughout the year,
maybe I can recall maybe a few occasions
where I have participated as an office in events,
and I think that that, in such a vibrant community,
speaks of a need to more involvement.
For the processes, and I just go back to the filming offices,
I know there's a $600 million contract per se,
How can we mitigate? This was touched and I think discussed. Our community gets affected directly by this. I mean, there's an increasing number of filming companies that want to do even more. But the compensation, for instance, is, again, in terms of the revenue to the city, but also the compensation for, you know, CPD, traffic control, and even inconveniences to our neighbors.
the reimbursement is inconsistent.
Some companies do it.
Some companies just simply doesn't.
And I do think that we need to consider this,
especially when our community,
our taxpayers are actually contributing to the budget.
And I think these companies have signed a contract.
I want to make sure the contract is respectful
to the quality of life of our residents.
Yes, happy to work with you and your colleagues
to figure out how we can have that happen.
From an ordinance standpoint, I guess,
I would say. Thank you. Yeah. I don't know if there's any, what is the,
what is the standard of the contract for the filming? I mean, it's like a,
it's a long time contract. What is it?
And what are the terms that can be maybe discussed?
I know that we have a contract that's being lasted for quite some time.
Do you have any details of how it can be, is there any room for, I mean,
right now, I think, especially for companies that come and film, you know,
I do think that they can do a little bit more to compensate and reimburse the
city.
Yes.
I will pass this along to Deputy Commissioner for the Chicago Film Office.
Jonah Zeiger, Deputy Commissioner of Chicago Film Office.
Alderman, just to clarify, it's not a contract with the city.
We're talking about economic impact figures.
So this is the amount of money that film production companies are spending in the city of Chicago,
and that includes the largest chunk of that is wages to Chicago residents,
and then individual invoices that are paid to Chicago businesses for rentals and purchases, expenditures.
So it's going directly into the community.
We also do receive, you know, permit revenue directly, and that is about $500,000 a year.
This currently, that's the estimate, or it's $550,000 currently for 2024.
And those are the permit fees that the city receives directly.
So just to clarify a little bit more about what the expenditures and revenues are.
Thank you.
So do you see opportunity here for the city to kind of get more revenue reimbursements for the – I mean, I understand that there is an impact and a positive of having filming.
But there's also costs associated with this, the cost of the city and also the cost of inconvenience of lack of parking.
there are some businesses sometimes that don't have business because they're being
blockage of roads and so far so do you see opportunity there to to have a perhaps a
conversation around this sure we can absolutely have a conversation around it um there i'll just
to just address a couple of things that you mentioned um sometimes the companies do pay
inconvenience fees um often to you know local residents or businesses that you know might be
impacted by some of those things so that is one one piece of it um but in general you know these
are private contracts and relationships between the film production companies and the communities
and individuals. So the city's not directly involved in those, but of course, very open to
having a conversation about different strategies that we could consider and explore.
Yeah. Again, I will definitely encourage that. I think the city does engage in these transactions
in a way that we do have to use resources that could be used elsewhere. And I do think these
companies, even though, yeah, privately, sometimes engage in compensation, not always. It's very
inconsistent. I tell you, my experience, I directly have gone, it's very inconsistent.
And the more consistencies and the more, you know, the more that they contribute, I think that
the fair or the most fair will be seen in terms of this relationship. I think that so far,
I think the filming industry has fared very well. Chicagoans need a little bit more help.
Okay. Okay. Thank you for that input.
Yes, and finally, just for the record, I know that it's almost out of time. In terms of the collaboration between DPD, CPD, the DKs, Aldermanic offices, I know that we want to make sure that there is a process that does not engage with specific organizers or specific contractors or so forth.
We, I think, can all benefit by a process that engages all of us, including Aldermanic offices.
Again, we love festivals, but I know we want to make sure that the festivals don't become a huge inconvenience, and also that they are generated for the local economy, not for private organizers that take the revenue elsewhere.
So I do think that there's a lot of room here, and I look forward to working together with you, Commissioner. I appreciate it.
Looking forward to that, too. Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Sigcho Lopez. And I'll just echo the sentiment around the filming stuff.
i believe that there's a huge inconvenience to the people in the neighborhoods as as many jobs
and revenue that it's bringing to the city i think there's definitely room um to bring some
consistency because as you said you know there there might be a convenience fee that's paid
periodically but there's no uniformity around that so it's almost as if someone's complaining
loud enough about it then they might get something to you know quiet them uh it's completely unfair
to the residents of uh of the neighborhoods um so i'd like to see and be part of that conversation
because I do think there's opportunities for us to create some more consistent practices that
that give deference to the people who are inconvenienced the most. So thank you for that.
We'll definitely talk about that. One question I had about filming notices, you know, I'm in a
community, the 11th Ward is the first Asian majority ward in the city. I have a lot of
non-native English speakers, you know, and I want to ask about language accessibility. Can we do
something about um providing the uh filming notices in multiple languages um spanish english
traditional chinese for me in the 11th ward and probably um others uh for other um wards absolutely
we were definitely willing to do that and explore that very quickly that's great um next we're gonna
We're going to have Alderman Scott, followed by Alderman Wagesback.
Thank you, Vice Chair.
Thank you, DKs, for the service that you do for the city of Chicago.
I'll get right into my questions.
I was reading that Atlanta, the film industry in Georgia, generated $4.1 billion in 2023.
and we're worried about $300 million in property taxes.
That's $4.1 billion.
Now, I know that the tax incentive is controlled by the state,
but how much money does...
So we only permit, bring in $500,000 in permits.
What's the total cost that we bring in for the filming industry?
Yeah, I can take that again.
Jonah Zeiger, Chicago Film Office.
Yeah, just to clarify again, there's a big difference between expenditures, which is the economic impact.
That's the amount of money that film production companies and studios are spending in the jurisdiction.
And generally, these numbers are state numbers, although the large number, but 90% of that approximately is the city of Chicago.
So that's the big multimillion dollar number that we're talking about.
And the estimate for this year is $600 million.
Revenue, direct revenue to the city is the permit revenue that they pay for permits,
and that's $500,000 approximately for the current year.
So that's a big difference.
That's not enough.
Well, that's our currently approved permit.
So where we're scraping for $300 million and we have a—we're in a—
Alderman Scott, can you speak into your mic, please? Thank you.
Where we're scraping for $300 million, we have another state that is very insignificantly smaller than ours.
And their revenue is $4.1 billion.
And hear me out.
Hear me out.
What have we done and what can we do as a city to attract more dollars for the city of Chicago?
Because we're missing billions of dollars.
No, I understand your concern, but I just want to clarify again.
you're comparing economic impact numbers with city revenue numbers,
and those are completely different.
So the numbers that you're referring to with Georgia,
those are economic impact numbers.
They are not city revenue numbers.
Correct.
So how can we create additional city revenue numbers?
Do we travel to other cities, to Georgia, to New York, to California,
to see what they're doing?
Sure, yeah.
And our film office is very involved in those initiatives,
and we are promoting Chicago in partnership with the state
as a location. We are the fourth largest production hub in the United States,
but we're not as large as Georgia. Georgia's tax credit is uncapped for out-of-state residents,
so a lot of the money that the state gives back goes to out-of-state residents, and that's not
primarily the case here in Chicago and Illinois.
older woman if i may yes the answer is yes we do need to be doing more um and number two um that's
why we've already convened a group of experts outside of just chicago people in new york and
la in atlanta it's eight persons to actually explore that with us here that's and happy to
make sure that you and your colleagues are involved in that and understand what um how we can impact
it the way we should yeah so that that would include so what will that include recruiting for
new television shows, new movies. I mean, because all of that is important because
if we're just getting $500,000, and I do understand that it is the state that gets all the tax,
that that's the state that gets the tax incentive. But I think that speaking to
Center Space is still a $6 return on our investment. That's huge. And we're only
getting $500,000 just for permitting. So we're missing something. And I think that it's important.
for lost revenue on how we can make up something. This is a huge way
of how we can make up a huge dent in our
lack of what we're trying to find
right now. Point of clarification, go ahead,
Alderman Vasquez. Thank you. I think based on a line of
questioning, and this is definitely for you to ask, the way
figuring out the permit money comparable in other cities, so separate from economic
impact which is completely different what the actual permitting money coming in from other
cities so we can look at comparables it's kind of i guess through the chair would be a question to ask
for clarity that's all i got yeah so just to be clear through the chair we want comparable
permitting fees uh for filming and how many how many um permits is that based on the 550 000
About a thousand.
Thirteen, thirteen hundred.
And then I know that you said the Illinois Film Office is the one that tracks the economic impact.
If they can sort of give us what the actual tax revenue is for Chicago, that would be useful information for us to have as well.
Do you know what our tax revenue is for the state of Illinois?
I don't have those figures handy, but we can get you that information.
I bet if it was more than a billion, you probably would know.
I think that's important.
We're missing a huge chunk.
So the expenditures grow the tax base and put money directly into Chicago residents' pockets
and in Chicago businesses' ledgers.
So that's where the economic impact goes.
The permit fees are, you know, what's received by the city in order for permission and city services to be provided to enable the film production to happen in the city.
What the tax credits do are they incentivize companies to bring more production here, which we are working with all of our partners to bring production.
And we just recently landed a major new series here, $100 million impact series, the second season.
But we absolutely want to take your thoughts and want to work with you and come up for strategies to amplify this even more and look at how we can increase revenues.
And I'm willing to work on that.
Wonderful. I look forward to it.
Thank you.
I just did the math on the $550,000 at approximately 1,300 permits.
That's $423 per permit.
I think there's some room there.
Okay.
we won't belabor the point we're gonna go to the next person um alderman wagaspeck followed by uh
alderman taylor thanks chairwoman i moved back to my regular spot here um good good afternoon
actually uh first you know i want to reiterate too thank you for the effort that's been put out
by your staff on many different events um in the 32nd ward and surrounding areas and i know although
we're sometimes blindsided by some of the filming uh requests and you know a day before a few days
before we try to do our best to make sure that you know residents understand this this is for
the benefit of the city but um but i would also say that staff having to spend you know plentiful
time in the office responding to the last second requests also absorbs a lot of our day so that
that part of it I think uh your staff have to understand and the film crew uh you know the
scouts and the people asking for this also have to understand it's a burden on city employees to
have to take care of those responses um I do appreciate everything you're doing and what
you've said about creating more opportunities for kids and for local artists because for us that's
that's a huge thing and I think I'd like to see more local businesses you know maybe working
together with our artists to do more murals working around schools and and doing things
that really showcase a lot of what our local artists are doing I also want to give a shout
out to our SSAs because they expend a ton of money every year for artwork for sculpture for
murals and things that the city can't afford to do or pay into. So it's our SSAs that have really
done an excellent job funding a lot of those along with some of our, you know, our local banks or
businesses that have really kind of underpinned those opportunities as well. And, you know, when
we talk about the planning strategies for next year, I would really like, like a lot of my
colleagues like to see specifics around what you are planning to change in terms of these permit
fees and how we approach the events that are happening. I do like the fact that you put on
the front page of the website that you strongly, I think the word was strongly, discourage
these last-minute events, and that's very helpful. And also notice that if you're planning an event
in the uh first 18th 14th 19th districts those are heavily laden districts as i'm sure some others are
where the planning has to happen a lot earlier than these these last minute days that they come
forward with so hopefully that'll that will continue um you know and i think based on
looking at this budget as is it's um it's not moving forward so these ideas have to come to
the forefront immediately so we can start talking about how we're going to create more revenue for
this city based on a lot of these events coming through i just read an article a few minutes ago
about the true up costs for nascar being six hundred thousand dollars just for the parking
meters um so the impact from that is pretty serious um hopefully you will read it in a few
minutes after after this session but you know we when we're looking at the impact on the community
for each and every one of these events it is more significant than what is put into those special
events packages and i know we've been talking about this for a few years now and prior prior
to you coming in but this is where the staff need to step up to and i'd like to see somebody on the
the staff come up with these proposals that really incorporate all of the ideas that aldermen have
been bringing forward over the last couple years when we do events like a race it requires a police
officer at every corner along with the barricades which means those officers not only are doing maybe
they're doing overtime maybe they're doing some other um tasks that they they should be doing some
other task but it also hemorrhages through the system when they can't do other work that is
required by the city on another day just to take care of some special event package that
has been signed off on um so based on you know the position that we're in today
which is the mayor's budget proposal is looking like it's in dire straits
um we are going to need I think a lot more information so we can move forward
um before I go ahead with a couple of the questions could you provide through the chair
all the parking meter true-up specific to all events that your office approved in 2024.
this should be available in every event that was signed off on by the department including
what we heard today which was the 600 000 for nascar additionally could you provide through
the chair all the economic impact statements provided by any and all events approved and
operated in this past year and i know often it is you know some of our local universities that
provide economic impact statements on different projects and programs but if we're referring to
those those should be publicly available and i'd like every alderman to see what those are
the um i think the other thing that i'd like to see is now going back to a little bit of these events
i think we're trying to get more participation from our local businesses during events
so a lot of oftentimes the way events are set up our local businesses are kind of cut off from
a special event that might run down a major thoroughfare and we've been trying to figure
out ways to make sure that their input is appreciated and then also incorporated into
those special events so if there are ideas around that in the future that would be very helpful
but you know i think the bottom line for us is we we really want to see a lot more resources
come to your department you so you don't have to rely on just one or two revenue streams but can
create more of your own revenue stream to me it's important to see those permit fees go up
you know a hundred dollars at the early end for a permit fee could be doubled or tripled based on
what we're seeing the revenue coming in for particular events when i first started i had 19
major events in my ward because of the inability of the police to handle those events we whittled
it down over the years to a much more manageable amount and i recall at the beginning of those two
that the event special event companies weren't putting anything back into the local neighborhood
except maybe a five or ten thousand dollar check to say the chamber of commerce and so there was a
complete inequity there for what those special events were coming into the city those companies
coming into the city with their staff for the weekend and walking out with those funds so that
economic impact um it inures to those companies that are from out of town but it doesn't inure
to the neighborhood to the local businesses to the residents who bear that impact and of course
to your department which could be doing a lot more with an increase in the permit fees and an
increase in a return on those investments so um i think that was i know that's not really a whole
lot of questions that's more asked of you but i think it's important for us if we're going to move
forward in the city we need to be able to read through those economic impact statements the true
up cost for all these meter shutoffs which we as taxpayers pay for and that is hemorrhaging
the city treasury every time we do these events and it is not incorporated into the overall impact so
i'll hold there i'll let you respond to anything that you want but i just wanted to
make sure that you understand that we're all trying to do better by your department
but we need that information back to make sure that we can provide that in a way that's meaningful
and and see meaningful change thank you all right thank you and happy to work um to get you that
information and and work to explore other ways um that you addressed thank you appreciate it
thank you alderman max back uh next we're going to have uh chair taylor uh followed by alderman
hoppenworth and the hoppenworth thank you chairwoman hey commissioner how are you well how are you um
I'm great. It was good to see you and all of your team the other day honoring a sister, Dr. Margaret Burroughs.
That was, I really appreciate that because too often we don't get to celebrate the heroes in our own community.
A lot of my questions are around processes.
We had the conversation about you all working with the Park District.
Too often the Park District puts these events in our community, and let me say is a community that does not have a lot of festivals.
I don't have as many as some of my coworkers.
But for them to be able to hire private security and then call CPD, which ultimately we're paying for, is problematic.
And so I want to see a real process.
And let me say this.
When we sit here and we're asking for things, those are things that we're willing to work on.
So it's not me saying I need you to do A, B, and C without me taking some accountability.
And that's something that I want to work with you all with.
Because a lot of times you all might clear the permits, but there are so many issues.
And so I just had a conversation with Alderman Riley about NASCAR.
We have not received one update or anything around NASCAR.
and when it all comes down to it they are not coming out the dk's thing coming out the cpd
they're coming after alderman riley for something that he didn't sign up for for something he
absolutely didn't agree with and so what we don't want to do is put more strengths on the departments
and it's just not you you just happen to be here today but would you would you want us to write an
ordinance to say you can't get anything unless you talk to me first i don't got that type of time i
don't want to do that. And so let's think about it on the front end saying, let's have a conversation
with these wards and folks before we agree to have another festival and for us to evaluate
what we already have. Because sometimes I feel like we spend a whole lot of money and resources
for things that don't turn out well. I haven't been to the Taste of Chicago for the last three
years because the turnout has sucked. And so how much money did we spend out versus what we took in?
And I love being able to get all the foods I want to in the same place.
I'm a foodie, so it's where I want to be.
But I also want to be responsible with our dollars and how we spend.
To the gentleman who does film, y'all suck.
I'm just going to say it.
The Chi has been in the 20th Ward for I don't know how long.
They don't send out the notices on time.
They're very inconvenienced to my community.
I got seniors who got permit parking who they're asked to move.
And so they have not been, it has not been a convenience for us.
And then I don't see how it actually benefits my community.
I don't.
You ain't using none of my, and I don't have a lot.
So this is not me saying that I have all these things and I don't see them asking for local vendors.
I don't see them getting food from folks.
I got, I got people who cook.
I got, I got some businesses.
I have some stores.
they do not pay into the local economy so why are they allowed to be in the community and make money
and i want to see war per ward every show that we've had in the last four years what they've made
because this show is very popular and let me say this i don't watch it i live the reality so i'm
not looking at it but we have things like that that happen in our community that the community
does not benefit from also there is this big thing about festivals and all chair down talked about it
festivals uh sister clay your head in the way it's okay i know you're trying i'm sure i really
can't see um so universal soul circus the international african fest those fests have
been coming to our communities for 20 and 30 years why don't they get a break and i know that's just
not on you and so i'm gonna tell you right now to to alderman spazato we don't ask the happy
committee to bring the damn park district here because they what they do is point fingers
if we sit with them we talk to them we call them they will say oh no it's d case and then we talk
d case they'd be like no it's the park district i ain't in the going in between people and so i'm
i'm i'm gonna ask that we bring both of you all together to figure out how we make a dashboard
and how we do this different because it's actually wasteful as hell so y'all got these folks who have
to have their festivals and events in a park.
They pay for private security, and then we'll call CPD.
So then we're paying for overtime.
We're paying for officers who are supposed to be protecting
and serving our communities, but they're at events because things happen.
And so the math ain't math.
It's not math.
And this is, Commissioner, you know this is not on you.
This is definitely just on how we do things, how processes work,
how things happen.
It doesn't work well for our communities.
Even when it comes to traffic and those type of things, we bring out the traffic enforcement people.
How much does that cost?
And I know that comes from OEMC.
Everybody needs to be at the table when we're having events.
And so thinking about NASCAR, do you know how inconvenient it is not to be able to drive down Lakeshore Drive?
Especially when you got all this.
We do construction in this city on expressways and roads more than anywhere I've ever seen in the country.
and I've been out of the country literally but to not have access to Lakeshore Drive you know who
they cussing out Alderman Riley and so I'm doing a little vent really but I want y'all to hear me
talk about how we work together because this silo work is also the reason why we in a 300 million
dollar deficit because we don't we're not effective and so I want to see more than anything
you all working together and if that's something you want us to push i'm great with that um
ain't nothing for you really answer just be doing a little venting just that's what it is
when it comes to the film folks if you come waking me up i am not a morning person everybody in city
council know that that's why i'm eating and drinking everything i am not a morning person
but if you come waking me up at five o'clock with a bullhorn talking about moving my car
because you didn't put up the sand till late i'ma cut you out ain't no ifs and somebody and that
happens all of the time when it comes to the film folks they ain't that great with cleaning up their
community they ain't even nice to the people in the community whose house they putting on the thing
like come on like what what are we doing here it makes no sense and i don't ever want to see
my community loves the international african fest and they love universe universal so much
You know how much I got cussed out last year because they didn't retire?
Because of a mistake, because of process, because the park district praying the process of when you're supposed to sign up for that.
That is something they didn't communicate to me, and I know they didn't communicate to you.
And so we can't afford for y'all not to be working together.
It just don't work.
And somebody from CPD who works on special events needs to collaborate with y'all way more than this.
because literally when we have an EFEST and there's a problem,
they'll send almost half of the police district to that event,
which leaves the community kind of left out.
So if something happens outside of that EFEST, we're in trouble.
And I want us to look at through the chair,
how much do we charge these folks when they're doing films?
Because they're making billions of dollars.
They're getting Grammys.
They're getting all this.
We get a few dollars.
Wasn't really a question, just something I had to say.
I don't, and also I don't want to see us bring, and this happened on the last administration where we brought somebody, I think they came from Paris, to do a bridge installation and artwork in back of the yards.
Now y'all know daggone well some of us come out the womb with a pencil or a pen and can color in the draw.
Why would we ever in a million lives solicit anybody outside of our communities to do our murals?
And then we paint over what the folks who didn't get paid, didn't get a dollar, didn't get anything to put up.
We just paint over it without any conversations, without even asking, what did this mural mean to the community?
So in back of ER, there were some officers that got killed, and they made a mural on one of the walls there.
And it was all the officers that got killed.
They painted over it.
And it was never a conversation with me.
I wasn't talked to.
I wasn't informed.
I got an angry call from people saying, why would you do that?
And normally what you all don't understand is when these processes don't work, we the fall guy.
And so I'm not doing that because right now we're trying to fill this budget deficit.
And I want to nitpick and say, y'all got more money than a lot of people.
Because I understand what the arts does for my community.
I want to see us to make sure that the local artists get these responsibilities and we make that process a little bit better.
It's way too much paperwork.
Y'all might as well ask for my left leg and my firstborn.
The amount of paperwork, it ain't just D-Case, it's everybody.
And so we talking about cutting the tape.
Let's cut the tape for everybody.
But that's really all I got commissioner.
But them film people, we is going to fall out.
We are really going to fall out.
And they've been there.
they come every year they're there all the time the shy has been going what six seasons seven
seasons so for six seven years even before i got in there they've been coming to the community
and what have they done for my community i ain't seen them do a block club i ain't seen them bring
out a tater chip i ain't seen them take their old outfits and say we don't donate these to the
community the food that we didn't eat i got an organization or a school they ain't even visit
any of my schools in the community so you get to come in my community and film but you can't talk
to my young people? You can't talk to those artists?
No. Those days are
long over. Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank you,
Alderwoman Taylor, and
echoing with Alderwoman Scott
too. Absolutely.
I hear you, and we will
implement what you have
put forth, and not only
happy to sit with whoever you identify with
the sister agency, but happy to
facilitate that and lead that
charge. Thank you, Commissioner. I really
appreciate you
you putting stuff in our community because we know oftentimes it's on the north side and it's
downtown stuff really don't we have just some of the festivals that we had 20 and 30 years until
Aldermen Dow's point not having the African International um festival was very disheartening
because it's a time where we get generational folks to come out to a festival they shop
and I'm gonna say this for the record and people gonna take it personally but black people we spend
our money. We're a trillion
dollar spending industry. Bring some of those festivals
on the south side. We'll work with
you. We'll coordinate. And it's not to you.
So please don't be like Alderman Taylor
acting up on me. No, that's not what I'm doing.
Thank you, Chairwoman.
Thank you, Chair Taylor.
Alderman,
Manaha Benworth, I'm going to go back to the committee real quick here.
Alderman, sorry, Chair
Talia Farrell, followed by
Chair Sposato.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll be very quick.
Thank you, Commissioner, for joining us today.
I just had a quick question with regard to our festivals that we have throughout the city.
How does that work with regard to the need for law enforcement services, our police department, to be at these events?
Are we charging a flat rate fee or percentage for the added security that we provide with our police department?
For example, if we have a Lollapalooza or whatever event it may be, and our police officers are being pulled out of the districts to work downtown, are we charging a flat rate percentage fee for the services that we're providing that event?
Yes.
So, DK's does not.
We only charge the permitting fee.
CPD, for example, CPD would work with the organizer and then send them an invoice or charge them.
Okay.
That's where it is currently.
Okay.
Now, at what rate and how are they charging?
Or is that a question I need to ask them next week?
I think it's best to ask them specifically since they're the ones after the permit is uploaded.
They'll see if the organizer says it's going to be an event that they believe is going to have 400 people.
people, CPD will then create some kind of matrix, I'm assuming, to then say, well, it's
going to cost this amount with this many officers there.
Are they, in fact, paying this?
Pardon?
Are these vendors paying the amount?
Yeah.
As far as I know.
Are they paying up front, or is this after we assess how many officers are needed for
that event?
It's reimbursable.
Yes.
Okay.
So I'll ask CPD, are we getting reimbursed and at what rate we're getting reimbursed?
Okay, that's all I have.
Thank you, Commissioner, for all the good work.
And I'd like to talk to you offline about something else as well.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Chair Talia Farrell.
Chair Sposato.
Madam Chair, just so everybody knows, I was not disrespected by the chair.
I did ask to go last, but I had to jump up front a little bit more because I have a minor emergency interview at 1 o'clock.
So I appreciate it.
Commissioner, thank you.
Thanks for all you do.
I didn't really have any prepared questions, but I have to say there was a boatload of good questions and points brought up today.
So I'm sure your staff has taken oodles and oodles of notes about things we could do today.
I haven't called you much lately.
I apologize for not communicating with you a little bit better more often.
But I just want to let my colleague from Oliver and Taylor, we did plan on bringing the park district in, Jeanette, so I'll make sure we get them in this year at the end of the winter or beginning of spring.
That was a very important thing to us, but I didn't push them enough to come here, so I don't blame anybody other than myself for that.
Just the one main thing, the one thing I hear is something we have to figure out, and that's using the police resources.
I don't know how, but we have multiple major events at the same time.
it's just straining the police too much.
So I don't know who, between you and me, the mayor's office,
to figure this out a little juggly act and whatever.
But there is a reason I call it the happy committee, everybody,
because they do all kind of happy and good things.
So look at all these people with smiles on their face.
And now that I say that, you all do an awesome job.
So I hope you just keep doing what you're doing,
and I'll make a better effort to call you more often.
But thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Next, we're going to have Alderman Momenon.
Sorry, Lenny.
I'm going to hop in.
That's okay.
Thank you, Chair Lee.
Hello, Commissioner.
Hello.
Hello, team.
I'm glad that we're having this conversation.
You know, when we're talking about cuts, too often the arts are first on the chopping block, especially in our schools.
I appreciate this conversation very much as it relates to how it impacts our neighborhoods and also our,
um our police department I mean the DNC pulled a lot of resources from our neighborhoods um and
the festivals that we could do um and so I would like to have more conversation around that and I
hope the chair um for police and fire could consider more conversation around how we're
deploying because this is really a public safety issue so Edgewater uh 48th Ward is also encompasses
Asian Argyle. And when I think about the festivals that are in neighborhoods, which thank you to
Chicago for highlighting all of our 77 neighborhoods and, and what we do in each of them, Asian Argyle
and the Thursday night markets are product of the neighborhood coming together, wanting something
better for their business quarter, which is, you know, very culturally significant in, in our
neighborhood and also in Chicago. And so it was a public safety initiative, working with the police
and also chambers of commerce and D case to have these Thursday festivals, positive loitering is
what they call it. And everybody in the neighborhood wants it now because we're having a spike in in
in gun violence. But I just wanted I wanted to thank you for all your work that we have done
together in the short time that we've been together and your receptiveness to the ideas
that we have had, especially coordinating around libraries and what can we do together.
So that can kind of consolidation is not only cost beneficial, but also it's beneficial
for the whole city.
I wanted to say thank you to Alder Taylor for just talking about processing.
I think it is also helpful for us to understand your processes around, and I know that you have been going through revisions of your programs.
So can you just clarify when you will be getting back to awardees about the Chicago Presents grant?
And that's also related to our Chambers of Commerce of Town United, who is also working really hard year round to make sure that the Argyle Night Markets on Thursdays are successful, but they haven't heard back yet.
So if you could just get back to me about that, that would be great.
Okay, will do.
Maida, do we have any information, though, about, you said Chicago Made, Alderwaite?
Yeah, the Chicago Presents grant.
That is one of our current programs.
We are looking at budget for next year to see if we're able to continue it.
That's where we are.
We hope we can.
Thank you.
And again, a lot of the festivals that we have in our neighborhood are reasons why people stay.
And Edgewater is losing population.
We want to give them reasons to stay.
And these kinds of festivals are really important to us.
not only for quality of life, but also for safety.
So please let us know about that.
Can you, through the chair,
and we've been talking about the impact of this department,
and again, I'm really excited for this opportunity
because there's just so much growth that can happen from here,
and I want to be partners with you, whatever we need to do together.
But can you just provide through the chair as you're giving us this information, what's the threshold for success for hosting big citywide events?
Is there kind of a formula for net revenues?
You know, what is the determination that DCASE goes through, you know, backing up huge events like this?
And what are the qualitative measures that you consider as well?
And I know that there's a difference between, and thank you for your explanation, like what is it that we can actually do to create revenue and also what's an economic impact.
I would like to understand that a little bit better.
And I'm sure that you have maybe a lot to say on it.
But again, I look forward to working with you because I think that this department can really contribute so much to the city.
But we would like to work together towards that end.
Yes, thank you for that, Alderwoman.
and we'll definitely follow up through the chair and continue to work with you one-on-one.
Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Manah Hoppenworth. We're going to go to Alderman
Lawson and then back to you, Alderman Riley. Great. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I'll be
pretty quick. I know it was a tough summer for a lot of us that have a lot of events and the
juggling with DNC that took place. I think we all look forward to a return to a little bit more
normal. And then the ability to plan. You know, we made significant changes to the Pride Parade.
Air and Water Show was the same weekend as Market Days. And, you know, I think we all rolled with
the punches, but we're ready to have some more stability there. I think it's important that we
look at economic impact for all of our events. You know, I talk about Market Days constantly.
You know, our hotels are full. People are traveling from around the country and the world for that.
and it draws a lot of people
and those happen in other neighborhoods
not just downtown
so I just want to echo that
one of the things I wanted to ask
we had an issue this year with capacity
where a festival booked a performer
that was huge
and it got to the point
where it was somewhat dangerous
have we ever looked at putting
a capacity on our street fests
there's so many people per block
per square footage
you know the one I mean
you know, because then that, you know, they have their private security with minimal police
presence, but once there's a need or a problem, then the police have to be called from wherever
they are on a busy weekend. We have not, as far as I, I believe we have not, but definitely
willing to look at that. Yes. Great. So we don't have repeats of what has happened. Right. So part
of it too, is when they're charging for a festival on the street, it has become optional to the point
where anyone can come in and do everything.
They don't have skin in the game in the same way.
And I know that's a bigger issue,
but it's tough to control capacity
when you have people paying, you have people not paying,
or people coming in different ways.
But we need to find a way to tighten that up,
especially if we're going to charge them more.
They need to be able to charge
and actually get something from every head.
I'm glad to hear that grants are up.
I was curious, and you can do this through the chair
or just ballpark,
sort of what's the percentage of our grants
that are federal, state, private.
yeah
hi uh so our federal grants account for about 30 35 percent um of our
grants budget excluding ARPA and the remaining is um federal not federal sorry uh private
private foundational grants um and so that those numbers account for the remaining so when I say
federal though I mean federal state and local government entities okay so 35 are government
grants and then 65 is private yes that's great um because I think we need to lean into more
private grants, right? I think we all know that. And so that you're successful at getting them is
really, really important. The other side of this too, and you can do it through the chair, is when
we're giving our local grants. I know, I think you've committed, we're going to get a breakdown
by ward or community area, but I'm also interested in what types of grants, whether that's community
based programming, youth programming, visual arts, performing arts, you know, I think it's important
to have everything in every community, as do most of my colleagues. And we've seen that impact when
it comes to public art, when it comes to supporting our performing arts that really took the hit
during the pandemic.
You know, our theaters, our dancers, our musicians.
So I want to make sure we're continuing to support them as best we can.
And I'll just close with this.
It would be great to see another really big citywide arts initiative.
I'm not talking about the cows, but we did.
It was the year of public art.
It was the year of dance.
and post-pandemic, it would be good to get back to something
that every neighborhood participates in,
every neighborhood can have a stake in,
can highlight something that's local to them.
So that's my big idea for next year.
We want to work with you to find ways to increase revenue
from some of these festivals
and to increase traffic to every neighborhood.
And so we're a partner in that.
And like Eldon Wagaspack said,
we probably have to find some of those in short order.
So thank you for everything you do
and we appreciate your partnership.
Thank you.
I'll add to that.
through the chair request, can we also get a breakdown of all of the special event permits
that have been issued and how much revenue we've gotten? I'm just thinking to, you know, something
like the Full Town Arts Festival. We get a lot of artists that come in from out of town,
and all we're getting from them is a fee for the space, and they may sell tens of thousand dollars
of artwork. I don't know if they're subject to Chicago City sales tax or anything like that,
But, you know, it's an interesting conversation to have. So if we can have that through the chair, I think that'd be great.
Just so I'm clear, you want to break down if like, so we issued 571 special permits and then how much how much permitting fees are we collecting from them?
Yeah. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Alderman Lawson.
Just raise another question, because I know obviously we're talking about liquor taxes and alcohol taxes, too, which drive a lot of profit from these festivals.
So I think that might be a significant revenue generator to look at as well.
I'm not sure if it's just the straight per barrel or the sales tax as well.
But yeah, sales tax on what's being sold.
We need the sales tax.
Great.
Thank you.
Cruz is not back.
Alderman Riley, round two.
Thank you, Chairman.
Good afternoon, Commissioner.
I just have a few more questions for the record.
um in looking through your narrative you did mention a few programs that the department
coordinates and supports in conjunction with or to the benefit of cps
um without getting into a lot of detail could you give the city council here a ballpark figure
on the costs associated with those programs that you administer in conjunction with or to the
benefit of CPS. You don't have those at your fingertips. We don't accept those through the
chair. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And then, you know, speaking of Grant Park, it's come up a lot
today. And I'm glad folks did bring up the parking meter true up issue. It's a real one. And it's a
budget buster for the city year in, year out, not just because of D case, special events, just
Generally, construction project displaced these meters. We're having to write these massive checks to the meter company, and it's very frustrating. So getting that information is very helpful. But because Grant Park is the city's front yard, it's obviously prime real estate for any big special event.
and all the organizers would love to be there.
I don't blame them.
It's a beautiful place to do a concert or a special event.
But what we've seen over the years,
because of its popularity as a venue,
we're seeing it being cordoned off
for ticketed private special events regularly.
Do you guys keep track of how many actual days of the summer
Grant Park is not programmed with ticketed events
where it's literally truly a front yard open to the people of Chicago, free of charge.
I got to figure that number is getting smaller.
And again, no fault of yours, but it's something we should be mindful of.
We're happy to get that information and give it to the chair, through the chair.
Absolutely.
Very good.
And, you know, back to there was some discussion about neighborhood festivals and art fairs
and these sorts of things.
And sadly, we don't have a lot of that in the ward I represent.
but we did at one time have the the Gold Coast Art Fair although called the Gold Coast Art Fair
was actually typically staged in River North and this was for many many years and when I first got
elected back in 2007 we had to process their their event application and they applied for
dozens and dozens of city blocks of river north to to do their their really big art fair and they
brought in nearly a thousand vendors and the event organizer out of the suburbs north shore i think
um we did we found out was walking away from these events making two or three million dollars a year
in profit and i asked cdot to give me the price schedule for shutting all these streets down with
barricades and removing the parking and having off-duty cops securing intersections etc
and at the time the fee was a simple i think a few hundred dollars to literally rent out every
street in river north for three days and to stage uh art tents in front of art galleries
that had nothing to do with the fair um bottom line is long story short i think we need to take
another look at our right-of-way fees for all of these different events. And again, special events
that support, truly support nonprofits or a neighborhood association is one thing. We should
not be looking to sock it to those folks, right? Often these events help with the annual operating
costs for the local neighborhood association or chamber of commerce. That's a good thing.
But what I've seen is over the years, the special event companies that actually profit from these things, they're the ones who set up the live entertainment and the vendors for food and drink, etc.
They partner with nonprofits knowing they're going to be treated a little bit better by the city.
Some fees are waived.
They pay a lower scheduled cost for right-of-way fees, etc., etc., when in fact it's really not supporting a nonprofit.
The nonprofit will get a de minimis amount of proceeds from the event,
and the vast majority of the proceeds from the event are used to offset the cost of the private special event company.
And there are only a handful of these companies that do this work in the city of Chicago.
I wouldn't say it's a monopoly, but it's darn near close.
And so many of these nonprofits have no choice.
And we've seen these fees that the nonprofits are charged by the special event companies go up and up and up and up and up.
And it's not because our right-of-way fees are going up.
So the city is not raising the baseline cost for these events.
It's the event organizers and these for-profit companies that run them.
We're being gamed.
We're being taken advantage of.
And right-of-way is valuable.
And these are disruptive events.
And they do, again, put a lot of pressure on city resources.
We need to better rationalize that.
And so we also need to, I think, apply a better and thicker filter on what is truly a nonprofit organization and what is not, because I see that being abused, not just here at D-Case, but also at the Park District.
And so I just wanted to flag that for you as something, an area we can button that up.
And I think we can also save some money on the cost side of the ledger, but also bring in some additional revenue that's much needed, which could be added to help with your operating budget.
Good. Do you have one more?
I have one more chair and then I'll shut up.
Go ahead, please.
You know, the one thing that's been front of mind for me
is we've been having this really public debate
about the future of Soldier Field
and whether or not the Bears continue to call that home
or if they pack up and head out to one of those suburbs out west or whatever.
Whether they stay or not,
the Bears use that stadium in a good year nine times.
Otherwise, that stadium is not being used that frequently. And I can tell you the English Premier League, English Premier Soccer League, these are the best English soccer teams there are. Liverpool, Arsenal, all these folks, they are dying to grow their fan base in America.
and they did an event just about two months ago
with the Park District in Lincoln Park
in Alderman Knudsen's ward.
And it was wildly successful.
I have met with representatives from EPL
and they are really, really, really interested
in doing more events here in Chicago.
They think it's a great city to do events.
It's beautiful.
It's the middle of the country, et cetera.
I think we need to make it a real priority
to be securing these big international sporting events here.
You know, rugby games, huge rugby audience in the Midwest, folks that will actually drive here for a weekend to go see these things.
And we've done some of them.
We need to really ramp that up.
These big sports organizations have massive multibillion-dollar budgets, and they're willing to spend money here.
And the economic multipliers are huge.
The opportunity for local businesses, minority and women-owned businesses here, are gigantic.
So I would just ask that you put this high on your priority list.
work closely with choose on these things the sports commission is doing fantastic work
cara bachman is a tremendous asset to the city let's leverage these relationships so i would
just ask that let's you know let's let's go for the gold let's go for world cup let's go for copa
you know let's get the rugby games let's get the australian football um let's fill that stadium up
so that's just a comment chair a woman and i appreciate the time thank you no problem thank
Alderman Riley. We're going to wrap up with Alderwoman Cruz. Thank you, Vice Chair. I'll be
fast. Hello, Commissioner. Just want to say, you know, your team has been always, you know, so,
so fast, you know, reaching out back to my office when we have questions. But I have one question,
it's a two-part question, and it comes to public art and public art to every community. And I think
this is something my office has been working with your department since day one, is how
do we bring our public art to the 30th Ward? So we're excited to see that you're getting
an increase in your budget for this year, and it was not through corporate funds. So
now that you will have extra funding, I'm just wondering, you know, how will your department
distribute these funds, in particular to support emerging local artists, small culture organizations?
But again, how do we make that happen in other neighborhoods or wards like the 30th Ward?
Yes, thank you for that question.
Well, we will continue utilizing our panel that we have of experts and community-based people and artists,
And then also working with your Aldomatic office to kind of identify certain people that we might not be aware of, but would like for Dr. McNeil to also weigh in on how we will disperse those funds.
There we go. All right. Yeah, so with our signature annual programs, we are hopefully
with this increase able to maintain our level number of grants that we've had for the past
couple of years and not take a decrease. And so that is how we will continue to support
both individual artists and arts organizations. Again, we have now a cultural resources part to
our division, so we will be doing a lot more in terms of application assistance,
info sessions, and getting the word out about those opportunities to make them available to
artists and arts organizations. Again, I think you have a great opportunity having
an increase in your budget and there's so many other you know local artists um they're so talented
and you know they're not part of the you know city list yet but how do you know for me it's like
how do we create a program where we still we are starting to attract those um local artists to this
um whether it's through a marketing initiative whether it's through a program how do we bring
them to be part of it because they're so active in the community and they're like look i have the
talent as well as others but you know again how do we get an on board i think that's you know
giving everybody the opportunity and again spreading that creativity across the words
it's something that you know i will continue to advocate you know not only since my last year but
this year and i will continue to bring to your department to make sure that we have a strong
collaboration and we see public art coming to the 30th floor so yeah can i just add that like we also
partner a lot with kind of community orgs to be co-hosts and ambassadors to their networks
to draw them into our program. So we are always open. And, you know, if there are more organizations
at the community level that want to partner with us to get the information out, reach out,
you know, we're happy to help. Thank you all. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Adam Cruz. I just got a couple items for you. Number one, on the film side, I know that the department is charged with managing that effort. Do we keep track of the impact that certain productions are having on communities?
if it's a case in point, if, you know, the first day, oh, it's great. Oh, we got such and such as
filming over here. Everybody's happy. Oh, looking for stars, all that type of stuff. You know, day
two, a little bit of day three, man, when are these guys leaving? Day four, they're calling the office,
right? So do we like keep track of places where, where they're going and trying to mitigate impact
on neighborhoods that continuously see filming.
We have an anecdotal kind of experience,
but Jonah, would you mind stepping in?
Sure, yes.
That's one of our highest priorities
at the Chicago Film Office.
My team works day in and day out,
coordinating impacts and trying to make sure
that they are as minimal as possible on the communities.
And I think, but all aldermen are welcome
to express directly, you know, any concerns that you're experiencing from your constituents
to the Chicago Film Office. And we take all that into account and try to make sure that,
you know, impacts are minimized. We encourage the production companies to, you know,
give back or try to, you know, make sure that they're being very conscientious in terms of
what their impacts are. So if you're experiencing things, we, you know, we can try to make sure
that they're managed and very occasionally we try not to have moratoriums but very occasionally if a
if a ward is having you know quite a bit of filming for a certain period of time we can
occasionally do you know put into place a moratorium that can have a chilling effect
on the industry so we only want to do that when it's um you know you know really serious impact
but we are very conscientious of trying to make sure that we're asking them to you know make sure
sure that what we are permitting is just the bare minimum that's needed for them to, you know,
conduct their filming and nothing additional. But again, we're always open to your input. Please do
reach out and we'll do everything we can to help facilitate, you know, that the filming can take
place with the minimum impact on your constituents. I'll follow this up with, we've heard what the
council has said here and look forward to implementing and having some major raw data for
you too. Secondly, the location fee. So you go on a block, you go to a house, that person whose
house it is gets this huge check, but everybody else suffers through that. Have there been any
conversations when you start thinking about a block to include other affected parties in part
of the location fee that the production company is paying? Do you follow the logic of that?
Yes, there might have been conversations. Currently, we do not have any input there, so that's an opportunity for us to grow.
Okay. And if, I mean, I know that's a private transaction, but we do have a level of control over the streets to, I guess, encourage more community participation.
and I would hope that we would exercise a little more of a,
I get that the person who's, the location, of course,
needs to be compensated, but the other people
that are impacted by that also,
we need to make sure that everybody's participating
in the largest of the film and activity.
I know what it brings to the city.
I see the economic activity that it brings.
Quite frankly, it's the second largest employer in my ward behind Mount Sinai Hospital.
And I see what it can do and it has done for the city and transformed some areas.
It was the first billion-dollar deal that happened on the west side, I think, ever.
And so I know that it does have great power on the economic side.
Just need to make sure that the economic impact for those that are people that are impacted get a little better taste of the economics of the situation.
The final point is around the festivals and support that we may be able to provide for on a community basis.
We know that these festivals do take up resources, but what supports can the department provide to local organizations for community festivals and the like?
City festivals or just organizers
Into the communities that are asking for festivals
I mean I see that we have
Budgeted for city festivals
Right which you know
Like Taste of Chicago and various
Festivals I know that Chairman
Dallas asked for a list of those festivals
What about the festivals that are very local
In you know the
Summerfest West or the
Westside Music Fest or
Community driven activities
For festivals
Yeah, sometimes, I mean, if we're unable to provide support in a financial capacity, it's sometimes pairing them with a sponsor or helping them complete a grant opportunity that's not necessarily through the city, but happy to explore other ways to do so.
But that's why we have the division of resources to actually help them fulfill whatever they're trying to do so far as the special events in a community.
I think ultimately that's all we have.
It is now 1 o'clock.
Committee will stand at ease until 1.45.
Thank you for your presentation today.
We do reserve a right to recall.
However, I don't think that will be necessary.
And thank you for your time.
And you guys keep up the work you're doing.
Thank you.
Hmm?
Thank you.
How we got here, I don't know.
Man, you want to see him go.
Twisting the night away.
He's dancing with the chicken slacks.
She's moving up and back.
Oh man, there ain't nothing like twisting the night away.
And I'm not twisting the night away.
I'm not feeling good.
Ladies and gentlemen, please clear the chamber.
For sanitation purposes, clear the chamber.
Thank you.
Okay. Welcome back.
We will begin this afternoon session with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.
We've been joined here by Commissioner Cap-Thal.
Cap's pronounced it.
Cap-Fali.
Commissioner Kappa Folly. I even call him Commissioner Kappa Folly.
I'm going to open with a quick presentation from COFA, followed by Commissioner, the introduction of himself and his team, members in the well, and his opening statement, and then we'll proceed to questions.
Director Gray.
Chairman Irving, auto persons. My name is Janice Oda Gray, and I'm the director of COFA.
Okay, so the proposed budget is $87.1 million. For those aldermen that are looking in the books on page 47, $87.1 million, and it's 5.7% higher than 24.
the ftes budgeted is 212 they're down nine ftes from fy 24. it's corporate funded 26.8 percent
personnel is 20.7 million and non-personnel is 66.3 million there's a clarification in the
paragraphs on the side the third one it says the personnel services line item is 36 percent less
that should read the contractual services line item is 36% less. And as you go through the book,
it's correct on the subsequent pages, but I wanted to point that out. That's it.
Commissioner? Good afternoon. Chairman Jason Irving, Vice Chair Nicole Lee,
and members of the Chicago City Council. I am Ivan Capifali, the Acting Commissioner for the Chicago
department of business affairs and consumer protection also known as bacp i am here today
to share our progress and vision for a fair and thriving economic environment that focuses on
inclusive growth and resilience for chicago's businesses workers and consumers i am joined
by my member by members of my team lothika pai managing deputy commissioner and chief small
business officer to my right christopher jessup assistant commissioner of intergovernmental affairs
to her right. And in the box, Shannon Trotter,
Local Liquor Commissioner, Miguel Campos, Director of Labor Standards
from the Office of Labor Standards, Rupal Babat, Deputy
Commissioner of our Public Vehicle Licensing Bureau,
Max Budovich, Deputy Commissioner of Small Business Center and Licensing and Public
Way, Dennis Guillermo, Deputy Commissioner of
Business Compliance Enforcement, Gerald Dawson, Deputy Commissioner of
prosecutions, and adjudications, Maurice Phillips, Director of Economic Recovery,
Small Business Advocacy, Elisa Slidzinska, Deputy Commissioner of Outreach and Communications,
AJ Lee, Assistant Commissioner of Finance and Administration, and James Harris,
Assistant Commissioner of Small Business Advocacy. First, I would like to express my
appreciation to Mayor Brandon Johnson for his guidance and unwavering support during this
budget process. I also want to commend all of you for your relentless advocacy, for your communities,
and for driving legislation that enhances the lives of Chicago's businesses, workers, and consumers.
BACP plays a pivotal role in our city. The Department's core functions include
licensing businesses, supporting small businesses, regulating the public passenger vehicle industry,
and protecting the rights of workers and consumers.
BACP focuses on initiatives that provide value to the people of Chicago.
Our work sustains a thriving business community for the whole city.
I would like to share a few BACP 2024 highlights.
The BACP Small Business Storefront Activation Program
successfully activated over 50 storefronts
with the help of 17 community-based organizations,
maintaining the program's impressive trajectory.
The BACP Good Food Fund provided 41 grants and coaching to over 200 food entrepreneurs
to address our city's longstanding food access issues.
We hosted over 90 business education, 9-0, business education webinars,
reaching more than 10,000 attendees.
We hosted two in-person expos and one remote expo that reached over 1,600 attendees.
We partnered with Chicago Public Schools for the first-ever Chicago Youth Business Expo,
engaging over 200 students with a panel featuring youth entrepreneurs, interactive workshops, and exhibitors.
Under the Johnson administration, we passed the historic One Fair Wage Ordinance,
which will phase out the TIP wage credit over five years, providing TIP workers with greater income stability and equitable pay.
We implemented the Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance, guaranteeing up to five days of paid leave and five days of paid sick leave for most workers who meet the criteria, effectively doubling their guaranteed paid time off.
We launched the Art is Labor campaign to support creative workers, offering them the tools and knowledge needed to navigate their industry.
We've secured over $2.5 million in restitution for more than 7,200 workers.
BACP issued over 5,300 citations to more than 1,600 businesses, including 1,000 businesses for unlicensed operations.
Our active compliance program conducted over 3,100 proactive investigations, providing
non-disciplinary consultations to help businesses maintain compliance.
Since January, our Neighborhood Business Development Center program grantees, which are chambers
of commerce and business service organizations, supported over 5,000 small business owners.
to bridge the opportunity gaps for underserved entrepreneurs
bacp continued overseeing eight chicago business centers that provide hyper local in community
business licensing support and serve as an extension of the small business center here at
city hall to bring awareness to the work done by our mbdc partners for the small business community
bacp launched a new video series called behind the business license each episode details a business
owners sharing their experience of working with the City of Chicago and their local business
service organization with a focus on resources available to current and future business owners.
Throughout city initiatives like Cut the Tape, we helped new and existing businesses save time
and resources, enabling them to grow and create jobs. BACP issued over 6,000 new licenses,
helping new businesses get their start in Chicago.
We recorded a 33% reduction in in-person wait times
and a significant decrease in the time required for obtaining a license.
We will continue to invest in businesses, workers, and consumers.
We are embracing new business ideas with business-forward initiatives
to help small businesses support workers and maintain Chicago's reputation
as a hub of innovation and growth.
We are collaborating with key stakeholders
for Chicago's major developments
like SiteQuantum,
the Obama Presidential Center,
and others to support new
and emerging small business ecosystems.
With your support,
we will continue to build a future
that is better, stronger,
and safer for all.
I want to thank you,
members of the Chicago City Council,
for your time and ongoing partnership.
And my team and I are happy to answer
any questions you may have.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Questions?
Everybody's got questions.
Since you were here first
and we were here by ourselves,
we will have Alderman Taylor go first.
Oh, well, how special I feel.
Everyone is special.
Yeah, in a whole lot of ways,
we won't admit.
Um, so I first of all want to say thank you all for the work that you do.
Um, I'm, I have a community that does not have a lot of businesses and a lot of those
businesses that are in my community been there 20, 30, 40 years, and ain't always the best
players.
And so I want us to have a work together and have a real conversation about, uh, cannabis.
Um, I had an incident with a store in my community where they sold cannabis to two young ladies
and those young ladies were high for three days.
And while I appreciate the store being closed, yes,
they were high for three days
because they bought something with, I think it was Delta A,
but the thing about it is it's packaged as candy.
It's hanging up in the stores.
And this is not the first time.
They say they got hookahs, they sell pipes,
and it's openly hung up in their stores.
And so I want us to have a real conversation
about not being able to sell those in convenience stores.
I want us to put together some legislation to say you can only sell that in the smoke shop.
Because buying blunts and cigarettes, that's one thing.
But to actively allow children, we already know they don't do a great job at carding people.
Because, of course, young people look different these days.
They look a lot older than they have.
And so you do have stores that don't card.
but to send my child to the store and they come back with something of course
the kids know what they buy we don't and so they bought it and the thought that they i do appreciate
that they were closed all of that time but this is also a store that's a repeat offender i've lived
in that community for 14 years i've seen three people three people get shot and that business
die and then literally maybe six hours later they open back up and so I want us to talk about
regulation of when a shooting or something happens in those stores there be two to three days and let
me say this while it's a convenience store we don't have that many stores in the community
we just literally we got an Aldi's and we got a Jules up the street in that part of the ward
and other parts of the ward, we have nothing.
And so I want us to have a real conversation and do some work to hold these
businesses accountable and we not keep slapping the hand.
And so there's also another incident where I got two grocery stores that are
on the same, like they're in the same little strip mall.
You close one, they go to the other business and open it up another.
And they still do, they do back and forth too often.
That's been happening at least 10 years that I know of.
why we continue on allowing those people to re-register for their licenses
and not just saying you lose your business license.
I appreciate the comment.
And for the Delta aid, I remember having that conversation with you
and working with police.
I remember that they actually, our vice unit, Chicago police vice unit,
which we work very closely, we're attached to the hip with them,
got a positive on that business.
So when it comes to Delta 8, I am very aware that some municipalities are taking, because Delta 8 is not regulated, there's a lot of unknowns around that particular product.
Municipalities are taking their own initiatives to regulate it.
So I would love to have that conversation with you, have the sit down.
It keeps coming up.
So I understand it's a problem for the community, and I would love to have that conversation.
when it comes to problem businesses
we have many tools in our toolbox
to deal with problem businesses
starting with a basic
citation from our enforcement team
all the way to license revocation
which is the highest form of enforcement
in between those two
there's many tools that we use
community meeting processes
pre-discipline meetings
there's plenty of things that we can talk about
I would like to
ask our liquor commissioner
actually shannon to talk a little bit about what happens when there is an incident that results in
violent violence and there is a nexus to that business that's when uh the police actually
moves to close the business there is a cooling off period uh after the incident happens if shannon
can talk a little bit about community meeting i'm sorry about summary closures sure uh shannon
trotter local liquor control commissioner um so the summary closure process um i'm sure you've
heard us speak about it at budgets before it is a police closure it is the police superintendent's
authority it can occur when there is a violent incident that occurs at a business which violent
incident is a defined term and it must have a nexus or a connection to that business and then
there must be a continuing ongoing threat to the public caused by that incident and so that's
something that the police department will when the violent incident occurs
sort of the order of operation with police are that the detectives are there
investigating the actual crime so if it's a shooting they're there you know
investigating the crime vice is in the background they are doing the license
check they are working with the local commander to try to get that business to
stay voluntarily closed why this superintendent determines if the summary
closure is appropriate. How it's determined if the summary closure is appropriate is that Vice
works very closely with the law departments to vet it for those three elements that I just mentioned
and if it does meet the qualifications for a summary closure then the superintendent can
issue that closure which would close the business for up to six months.
You all do one of the things that I found out when I got in office is that CPD has these business
officers, why is it not mandatory that every business attends those meetings? Because I
understand that BACP is at those meetings, building might come to those meetings, things that could
help their business, especially for communities or businesses that we know have problems that
we need. And I know that's legislation, but I want you to talk about why it is not because
the officers, and I work more with the third district than anything,
they have those businesses actually show up to those meetings.
And so it should be made that if you got a business, you got to automatically.
It ain't optioned out because I had store owners tell me I didn't know nothing about it.
Yes, I appreciate that.
They're not mandatory, but they're very encouraged.
But one thing that we're trying to do, so every district does not have a business liaison officer,
but they do have somebody in their district that deals with business that is familiar with the business community.
But what we're trying to do about that, and actually Shannon is a regular now at the police academy,
is she's training outgoing classes of lieutenants, captains, and detectives on what to do when there is a problem business in a community.
So she started as a pilot program.
Now she's a regular at the academy, attending those graduating classes and talking about liquor, talking about problem businesses and all the tools and the reporting requirements, things that need to be captured to be able to start a discipline, you know, and take a business through the revocation process, which is the ultimate enforcement tool that we have.
I want us to go look at, because they're there. So I represent parts of back of the yard of New City. And a lot of those folks that had business 20, 30, 40 years, they're generational stores. They're not they're not coming to the police. And not to say that they have problems, but they're not coming to those meetings. They all know the opportunities that the city had for them to get their building done.
So I had the gentleman who owned the blues thrift store in my ward.
It just recently caught on fire.
But he was not a person that was, he was not ready for, he is not ready for social media.
He's not ready for any of that.
But it's a disservice because he does provide a service.
And so how are you all, and I had this conversation with Mary O'Connor.
Shout out to Mary O'Connor.
She does some amazing work when it comes to small businesses.
but us going out in the neighborhood together with CPD and BACP to let those business owners,
oh, you haven't registered your business.
We need to talk to you.
We want to know what's available.
We also want to know what issues or problems you are having.
And so it's us looking at what we kind of got and then us doing a way better job of new business coming to the community.
So I had a new business that moved in.
And because it was they moved into a mall that was previously done,
is it was a vegan restaurant that moved on 63rd
was 62nd and Maryland. I came to an event that I didn't even know it was
there and I'm the older person. And so sometimes it's and I get y'all email
us stuff, but let's have conversations. Let's coordinate because when it comes to business
that's very important to me in my ward because I don't have a lot. And so those businesses
because we do a piss poor job and it needs to be
put in writing that it happens. Those businesses fail and
they close and they do that because the community doesn't know they exist we don't know their offer
and the thought that you all give out business license and there's never a conversation with me
to say they ain't really a good business owner or those folks was inside another business and
they do after our parties and so i want us to do some better coordination when it comes to having
those conversations you have you have my my entire uh i i not a problem i will work with you on that
So a couple of things that we can do just to start.
Why don't we go ahead?
And I know we have a meeting coming up in January
where we're going to present to the community.
So that's looking forward for that meeting.
I would like to propose another business walk in your area.
I know you attended, you guys did a tour in the area.
I'd like to have another one, but more enforcement,
with an enforcement approach.
I want to work also with the Woodlawn Chamber of Commerce.
I know that's the one that serves as your community
to start promoting the businesses in the area
a little better. So they're one of our delegated agencies. So let's work with them and coordinate
better between the Chamber of Commerce, your office, and BACP. We have my commitment on that,
other woman. Thank you so much. Thank you. I just had one more little question. I want you all to,
don't do that. I want you all to start a youth part of BACP. There are a lot of young people
who advertise on social media and Facebook, and when it comes to those festivals, they can't afford
to pay those fees to be out, but they also are not insured.
And so I want you all to think about us because we have a lot of young people
who the sweater I got on, this was a young man who went to the school,
and it's good looking out.
That's something we say in the community.
But he does not have a space or a platform,
and he never could afford to go to any of the fests that come in my community
because they're way too high.
And so I want us to have a base of BACP that's youth-driven,
that's tailored just toward youth, and I would love to work with you all with that.
Oh, that would be awesome. Just to let you know, we're getting very youth-friendly right now.
We just launched our first-ever youth business expo that I mentioned in my statement.
200 kids showed up, all of them, with amazing entrepreneur minds.
So we definitely have to bank on that because there's a lot of talent out there.
So thank you for that. I will definitely connect with you.
Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, ma'am.
You're welcome. Chair Dowell.
Okay, I'll come back to you.
Alderman Riley, of course, you're chewing. Take your time.
I can do this. These awesome cookies from upstairs.
Good afternoon, Commissioner.
Good afternoon, Alderman. How are you?
Good. How are you?
I'm doing well. Thank you.
Good. And thank you for returning the answers to my budget memo questions to the chair and also for hand delivering them.
So I appreciate that very much as well.
I'm just going to spare you probably half of my grilling.
I wanted to talk to you about a couple kind of macro level issues rather than get into the weeds.
And one thing that I noted in your budget submission is that you have nine total positions,
vacant positions that you're planning to cut in your 2025 submission.
And in reviewing those nine positions, it appears to me that six of them are related to business compliance investigations.
Four of them are investigators or inspectors, and then two are administrative assistants.
I assume those positions are to help the investigators process their paperwork, their reports, et cetera.
These are revenue-producing positions.
and you know sadly we don't have a lot of those in city government and so you know for now 18
years i've been advocating that when we make cuts and i'm one of the folks around here who advocates
for cuts that we make them in a smart way so that we're not removing positions that more than pay
for themselves and you know not all of us have super vibrant business districts like the one i
represent. And I think I'm fortunate to have that responsibility. But when you have thousands of
businesses in a small geography, the bad actors stand out. And unfortunately, while 99% of the
business community works very hard to be compliant, they're good business operators, they're good
neighbors, we have an element here in the city that don't play by the rules. And a frustration
that you guys have heard over the years,
this is through several administrations,
is that you don't have the investigators
we need to get the job done,
and you don't have them when we need them.
Guess what?
All the scofflaws in the city know
when your inspectors go off duty.
And until recently, and it's sporadic now,
they also know that at night, anything goes.
In CPD, they've got their plates full.
And while they can help with enforcement
on provisions of the code that you all enforce, they're too busy.
So as a result, the word on the street is downtown.
If you can make it past 7 p.m., you can do whatever the heck you want
and get away with it.
That's unacceptable.
And so could you explain why you're cutting investigator jobs
in a department that has lots of folks that don't do investigations?
Sure, thank you.
Well, thank you for the question.
So let me just clarify.
we lost five positions in our business compliance enforcement team,
four are investigator positions, one is a staff assistant for administrative support.
Those four vacancies have been vacant year after year, right?
Every time we have a vacancy, we hire.
We're very good at hiring.
We don't sit on vacancies.
But then there is a retirement, and there's another vacancy.
So every year after year, we carry those vacancies.
We've never had bodies in those vacancies.
One thing that helps us is, because I like to think that our team is very good at planning for crises, we have a nights and weekends team that operates Thursday through Sunday from 1 p.m.
Sorry, from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Thursdays and Fridays, they overlap with our day investigators, but then they continue working until 2 a.m.
Okay, and how many of those do you have?
We have 15 investigators assigned to the night team and 24 investigators to the day team.
So the night team, 15 investigators?
Yes.
And are those for the Central Business District or is that the entire city of Chicago?
They're citywide.
They are citywide.
They are citywide, but then they're responding to complaints all throughout.
Well, 15 could handle maybe half of the 42nd Board.
So they are cross-trained.
So this is another area that we do very well because we always like to plan for difficult times.
Our investigators are cross-trained.
So if I ever need to pull an investigator, for example, from a public vehicle license team, because our tobacco team is short, I can always pull an investigator here and put it there.
Understood.
How many total investigators do you have across the different divisions that you have?
Right now we have 39 investigators.
39.
What's the high watermark for the number of investigators you've had historically in the last 20 years?
So we're losing four vacancies, but we have two that were not lost.
So we're going to continue with the hiring process when that's allowed.
And did you decide to eliminate those vacancies or did the budget office?
They, like I said, they're saying they.
I'm sorry.
As part of the exercise that we all went through, these were vacancies that were carried over a year after.
I understand that.
Yes.
But who made the decision to include them in your.
We haven't received a final budget yet, so it's not.
Well, you certainly haven't.
No.
It's not set on stone, so we don't know if we're going to lose them yet or not, but they are slated to be reduced.
Okay.
Well, again, I would encourage the administration to revisit that idea.
I appreciate that.
I'm the first guy to say if these are vacant positions that are carried year over year that can't be filled, get rid of them.
but maybe the the better question is if we've got four positions that you haven't been able to fill
why not collapse them into two and pay them better i mean if it's a compensation thing
again these are investigators these folks produce revenue they're not a drain on revenues so they
pay for themselves and then some that's an investment that that's not just filling a
a vacancy yeah and so anyway i appreciate the advocacy for this and i and i'm sure that the
department wasn't seeking desperately to get rid of these positions i get that um thank you for
for getting me the data on enforcement actions predisciplinary hearings etc i wanted to talk
really really quickly about liquor license renewals one of the things that i asked you for
was a list of all the liquor licenses that were renewed in 2024 as of November 5th.
383 liquor licenses were renewed.
And you sent me the list, and I really do appreciate this.
This is great information.
And obviously, the vast majority of the businesses on this list, liquor licensees, are great,
cause no issues, no complaints with the neighbors.
There are a handful that absolutely do.
and Alderman Wagesback and I have taken different runs over the years at changing the code to
trigger some additional review when these liquor licenses are up for renewal and that was shelved
by the previous administration we really haven't taken it up with this one yet it's coming so
prepare yourselves what goes into your review of a license when it's up for renewal and I don't
need a long answer because I'm pretty sure I know the answer. And how extensive is that review and
how lengthy is that review and how much do you lean on their disciplinary history?
Sure. I am going to actually ask that question, I mean pass that question to our great
Laker Control Commissioner. Shannon Twotter will give you an exact, exact answer.
Thank you, Alderman. So most renewals are automatic. I think you know that. They are
required to ensure that there has been no change in any of the owners or operators and they must
not have any holds to renew their licenses. Some of the processes that you've proposed before
sort of abut the Liquor Control Act, which says basically that a non-renewal of a license is
entitled to the same due process as the revocation of a license. So I don't know that not renewing
licenses would achieve the results that you're seeking because basically then they're still
entitled to the hearing the hearing would just be before the licensed appeal commission
as opposed to the mayor's license commission that we have at bacp so there still needs to be a basis
for the non-renewal and if there are violations in in that are directly attributable to that
licensee, then we need to be bringing those through the discipline process.
Okay. So, and I appreciate the answer. The frustration, I think, is that our disciplinary
process is a joke. There's a bar that's now infamous, doesn't exist anymore, but it was
brought to us from Arizona called Bottle Blonde. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that name.
They literally wreaked havoc on the River North neighborhood for years while they were in our
interdisciplinary process laughing at us. They made millions of dollars and killed one of their
employees on our watch because that employee was allowed to drink tequila directly from a bottle
all night on camera. And this is while these guys were in revocation hearings. The process is broken.
And for those of us that have a lot of hospitality licenses and late hour licenses,
they literally are ruining neighborhoods. We have some that are still operating in River North today.
that for lots of reasons are getting free passes around here.
So what are we going to do to crack down on bad operators and shorten this process?
Sure.
Because I'll tell you, the judges aren't doing us any good with all their continuances.
But the city doesn't fight back very hard.
And I'm frustrated.
I know what Alderman Wagaspak is.
And the reason we wanted to talk about renewals and triggers for an additional review of a renewal
is to find some way to have a checkpoint with these people,
to have them cut the bs out in ruining these neighborhoods um and so status quote on work
it's not this administration's fault but it's been this way long before i got here
so what are we going to do to make that work the neighbors have had it it's gotten so bad i have a
liquor moratorium in the entire 42nd ward block by block so that we can make sure if they if
wants to open one of these places they got to come see us without those it would be the wild
West downtown. So how do you react to that? No problem. Yes, I hear the frustration and I'm with
you 100%. So just to let you know, we're not sitting idle with that issue. We're working very
closely with our partners in the Department of Law to minimize delays. We just recently updated
our rules and regs around disciplinary hearings, working with our hearing officers to minimize
delays and continuances. And some of the, actually the training that Shannon is working
and providing to CPD is around report writing to make sure that we're capturing those violations
and that we have those, that evidence so that we can have strong cases that can flow through
the revocation process.
I heard the buzzer. Round two?
Round two, please.
No problem. Chair Dahl, are you ready?
Not really, Chairman.
I can come back.
I'll go.
Okay.
First of all, Commissioner, thank you very much.
I appreciate a lot of the work that gets done with your department.
I work a lot with Mr. Jessup and the Liquor Commissioner over there.
Hello.
I wanted to ask you about the Good Food Fund.
Sure.
Can you just give me an update of where that is?
We don't hear too much from that, but I just want to see how you're thinking about it.
Not a problem.
I'm actually going to ask our chief small business officer to give you information about that.
She's managing that program.
She's very, very involved in it.
No figure.
Bye.
Managing Deputy Commissioner.
Thank you for the question.
Hold the microphone closer to your mouth.
There you go.
Thank you.
So the Good Food Fund is part of the ACB's
food equity initiatives, which are funded by ARPA.
The program is actually-
How much is, how much ARPA money is in that?
The total amount of funding is about 7 million.
The program sunsets end of 2024.
So we actually wrapping up the entire program
by end of this year.
The goal of the Good Food Fund really is to provide
food businesses in communities that have inequitable access
to food and poor health outcomes because of that,
with access to funding so that food entrepreneurs
in those neighborhoods, especially on the south
and the west side, can build their businesses
and scale their businesses.
We've had three aspects to this entire program.
One is direct grant funding.
Second is technical assistance, but it's highly specialized technical assistance by food industry experts.
And then the third piece of it is really low interest loans through CDFI, Allies for Community Business.
So food entrepreneurs are getting up to 3% interest loans through the CDFI.
And round one of this grant funding, we supported 41 businesses.
and the total amount of grant funding was about 2.4 million.
And the second round of grant funding,
which we will be releasing by end of November, early December,
is about 3.3 million.
And that supports around 108 food entrepreneurs.
And we've seen really good outcomes
because we've been tracking outcomes for businesses
that we've actually given grant funding to.
we have
you know there's a business called contemporary
farmer which is you don't have to go
through all that can I just get a list from you
of the grants and loans
that you have
provided to those establishments
in round one the 41 businesses
yes just so I can just see
how the distribution has
gone we can provide that to
the chair all right
the
The clothing collection bins, who's responsible for that in your department?
We are, Chairwoman.
I know.
We license them.
Who was the person, the staff person, responsible for the clothing collection bin program?
Oh, sure.
Max Budovich, our Deputy Commissioner of Licensing in the box.
if you find that a clothing bin store has been put in without any kind of license are those
companies fined yeah so the uh collection bin uh it's a permit it's it's a permit it's not a
license it's a permit it's uh it's similar to a public way permit for private property
so they have to go through the public way permit process it's it's a hundred dollars for a
collection bin. If we find that a collection bin was placed
on a property without a permit, then our enforcement team will actually
follow up on that and issue a citation. Can you tell me the total number of fines
collected citywide in 2023 and 2024?
I'll take that through the chair. No problem.
And total number of where these collection bins are?
Total number of collection bins and where they are
in the city.
By ward.
By ward, please.
By ward, okay.
I have some questions.
I think I'm not going to ask them here,
but I have a concern about
the public place of
amusement
license and the
extent to which
cigar lounges can
take advantage of that
license. Can they?
I'm going to actually, Shannon, can you talk about PPAs and the connection with tobacco,
please? I don't see them on the list of, the list here.
Are you talking about the clean air ordinance list? I can't hear you.
Are you talking about the clean air ordinance list? No, I'm talking about the PPA license.
okay so the question about um what can go with on-premises consumption of um tobacco is really
governed by the clean air the state and the city clean air ordinances um so it would really depend
on the type of activity but I think um generally if someone wanted to have something like a DJ that
would be permissible to issue a PPA license. But then there are different types without having the
clean air ordinance in front of me, Alderman, I apologize. There are some activities that would
be considered PPA activities that would be will fall under the clean air ordinance. So we would
have to look at the specific amusement activity that they were seeking to know if it's permissible
under those restrictions.
I'll be calling you, Shannon.
Sure.
I think that's it for now.
I might want a round two.
Thank you, Chairman.
Next, we're going to go to Alderman O'Shea.
Chair O'Shea.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Alderman.
you have served as interim commissioner for how long now since july 1st sir
are you interested in this position full-time actually yes i i have been uh with the city for
close to 29 years the last eight years have been with uh bacp in many different capacities
deputy commissioner of enforcement managing deputy uh first deputy and as first deputy i'm in the
acting role um working with this tremendous uh group of professionals and subject matter experts
that i actually had a hand to put together i was involved in their selection um we're doing amazing
work right now i would love to continue doing that i of course i uh depend on the mayor and
this body for something like that to be solidified but if given the opportunity the answer the answer
is yes i would love to lead this team from the front thank you for the question well i've um
i've been in this body now for almost 14 years and uh usually in the past when i've been talking
you on the phone it's because i got a problem sure in the 19th ward and i need help and you've
always been very responsive. I hope to continue to work with you. I hope that this title becomes
permanent. I also enjoy working with many of the people in the box here today. I don't know if they
would say the same about me, but also some many of the people that are out there, particularly
those that are out there in the middle of the night, when I have a problem in my community.
um one business in particular 1929 west 87th street your staff has been very helpful and
for the last five months that's been quiet um
but i appreciate uh the efforts there um
when we talk about you know rebounding here from the pandemic and um supporting
our small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality industry.
It's been difficult, and many of my small business owners, my restaurants, my taverns,
and my community, those are the people that support the civic and the charitable organizations.
Those are the people that do the heavy lifting.
um many of those businesses continue to struggle and although this is not something you have any
to do with i think it's important to note that um some of the legislation this body has has
supported in the past few years has made it even more difficult for small business owners
we're starting to see that now we're seeing more and more restaurants
that have been parts of communities going back generations close their doors
and included in this budget is a very significant increase in the liquor tax
and i think that's we're going to see that city-wide be a problem but in a community like
mine a border ward with neighboring suburbs that are always always trying to pick my successful
restaurants this is only going to make it more difficult
we spent a lot of time this last nine days talking about this massive property tax increase but I
think we also have need to have discussions about this very significant liquor tax which I believe
and I'm concerned is going to chase restaurants chase taverns out of the city closing their doors
and probably reopening in neighboring suburbs
that are much more supportive.
In closing, Ivan,
I hope that I get to continue to work with you.
I appreciate that.
And just to follow up on what you said,
we have to keep those businesses here in Chicago.
So we have to tap into the resources that we have right now
and continue to uplift those neighborhood businesses
because they're the backbone of Chicago
and the heart of the community.
So thank you for bringing that up.
We do have some programs that are coming up.
And I actually want to ask Lotika to talk about the small business grants.
I was just going to go there, so thank you.
So, Lotika, and they're part of our RIP program.
They sunset, but there are some monies right now that are actually slated for that.
So, Lotika, can you talk about the small business grants?
So in 2025, early 2025, we're going to be launching a small business and not-for-profit grant program.
So it's a total allocation of $21.5 million, and this is probably the last tranche of grant programming, direct grants for small businesses through the ARPA funding.
And the program is actually being designed right now.
So we will definitely keep you in the loop and keep you informed when the program rolls out.
Thank you for that. That will certainly be helpful to all of us. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Chair O'Shea. We're going to go to Vice Mayor Burnett next.
Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Good morning, Commissioner. Good morning, liquor Commissioner.
Thank you all very much for all your help. Both of you all have been very responsive.
I know I call you all times of the day and night
Even liquor commissioner called me when she's on vacation
I apologize for that those couple of times
But we really appreciate your help
As you know, we just try to respond to our constituents in our ward
Try to take care of our business
You know, one of the things that do concern me
is the
Airbnbs
right you know
and I still think
like on my block where I live
I have about
four or five buildings that are
Airbnbs
I know we limit
how
many units you can have
vertically but we don't do
anything horizontally
it seems like there should be a limit on
how many
can be on a block
without putting a moratorium in
to stop them all.
You understand what I'm saying?
Because
I'm going to tell you what happens
is
they take up all the parking
on the street.
They take up all the parking from the people who live
on the blocks.
I don't know if we've taken that into consideration
when we did these Airbnbs,
but a lot of these
places, in some instances
they have a baby shower in them or whatever.
I don't know if that's legal or not, but those kind of things go on.
They park all on your block, and then you come home and you can't park on your block
because you got five or six Airbnbs on your block.
Have there been any consideration on the limitation of how many can go on a block?
Well, thank you, first of all, to this body for the leadership on share housing.
That license was created and passed a few years ago.
It was one of the very difficult licenses to implement.
I don't know if you guys remember that.
Sharehousing is a vital part of Chicago's tourism.
It's very well regulated by us.
I mean, we have investigators that are constantly responding to issues associated with Airbnbs,
which is how people colloquially refer to.
Even though we have three licenses, we have Airbnb, we have BRBO,
and we have booking.com, our part of the share housing realm.
We did some work around when COVID hit, you know, and everything was closed.
People were rushing into Airbnbs and, you know,
I don't know if you guys remember when they were talking about the so-called Airbnb parties
that were going up all night.
We changed legislation to stop that and we were very successful to do it.
I am going to, and then again, taking in consideration that this is part of Chicago tourism, I want to pass it on to Max Budovich to see if there's anything that has been proposed, Max, to limit the amount of Airbnbs per block.
I don't know if, oh, there we go.
Max Budovich, Deputy Commissioner at BACP.
Thanks, Alderman, for the question.
And to answer it in brief, we have two forms that you alluded to, two ways to prohibit additional shared housing registrations, whether it's in a geographic area or in a building.
So there's a restricted residential zone, which restricts it by geography, which I think you alluded to.
And then there's the prohibited building, and that's where it's a multifamily building.
The owner or the condo association can essentially list themselves as a prohibited building, no more shared housing registrations.
So those are the two restrictions we have on the books. As the acting commissioner alluded to, this body has offered a lot of leadership in that regard in terms of legislating and codifying a very effective ordinance around shared housing.
And we're happy to continue to work with you and your colleagues on other ideas.
Yeah, because I think, so coincidentally, I live at a United Center.
I'm sure the same thing goes on by Wrigley Fields.
I'm sure the same thing goes on by the Aon Center.
I'm sure it goes on by White Sox Park, that folks tend to just batter buildings to Airbnb them, you know.
And you begin to have hotels on your street.
You know, you have a whole bunch of strangers coming down the street, all that kind of stuff.
And I don't, me, because who knows, I may want to do mine as an Airbnb one day, right?
But my challenge is I'm always afraid of the fact that what if the whole block became an Airbnb?
Then what?
The whole block, right?
There needs, I think there needs to be some, I'm not anti-Airbnb.
I'm anti a lot of Airbnbs on one block.
right i think that there needs to be a some type of restriction on how many buildings on a block
can have an airbnb sure and so max can you talk a little bit more about the restrictions and then
another thing that i was going to add before max jumps in we have to be aware of the big
developments that are coming to chicago and the amount of tourism that is coming to chicago when
the presidential, what the Obama Center opens, the 1901 and everything. So we anticipate more
Airbnbs opening as we bring in more tourism to Chicago. But the tools that we have in place right
now, can you expand a little bit more about the prohibited buildings? Sure. And the steps to
actually get to that point? Sure. So again, to review, there are two ways to restrict further
issuance of shared housing registrations. The first is what we call a restricted residential
zone that's by precinct, and it's established with 25% more signatures, 25% or more of the
registered voters, their signatures from that precinct, and that allows the local alderman to
introduce an ordinance establishing. I know about that, and I didn't want to hire Marty Quinn to do
that for me but uh because he's an expert at that but marty's an expert at that my thing is i don't
want the whole precinct closed down right because i don't want to close down a precinct i just don't
want a block with 10 houses on a block and right now it's five of them on a block get our airbnbs
you know what i'm saying i don't want nine of them to be airbnbs on a 10 house block right
So go ahead.
Max, I was going to say, please, can you touch on the approval of residency as primary residency?
Yeah, we also, as part of the current ordinance, there are primary residency requirements for buildings that are four units or fewer.
So 432 and also single family residences.
So that's another method of restriction that's on the books right now.
so i i would appreciate it or maybe i need to introduce an ordinance maybe i need to introduce
an ordinance to limit how many how many airbnbs can be on a block because i think i mean you know
the old lady live on a block she got a house by herself all her young neighbors done airbnb
their houses she can't even park in front of her house you know what i'm saying and i think that's
very inconsiderate we changing we changing a residential street basically to a commercial
street and i don't think that's right and it's not fair for the people who live in the neighborhood
without them and i'm not trying to and i do want people to have the options to be able to have an
airbnb but i don't want i i don't want it to be abused you know it gets to be abused you know i
i got a neighbor that bought she got three buildings now on the block right and two of
got airbnbs in them you understand what i'm saying so i mean it become a it's a it's a i mean and god
bless her i'm cool with my neighbor right but then now other neighbors are doing the same thing
right and and then would have two more of them do that you know it's just it's just challenging
for folks and i won't give them parking passes you know because i'm like they don't live here
you know i mean and you find yourself in a little spat right with your neighbors
it's like no i ain't giving no you know parking passes for your customers you know this is a
residential parking pass right but anyway uh we'll be happy to work with you uh in whatever
you propose all right thank you vice mayor thank you vice mayor uh we're gonna go to uh
Chair Sosato next.
Sure.
Good afternoon, Ivan.
Hello, Chair.
How are you?
I can call him and everyone.
We've been longtime friends, so knew him before I was an alderman.
So thanks for all your due, buddy.
You know, I too, like my colleagues, hoping good things happen for you
if that's what you really want.
I think it's always easier to be number two than number one, but, you know,
I know I bother you less now as number one than when you were number two.
So usually I bother the same three people as over when Ken was here.
it was you, Shannon, and Max.
So I appreciate all you guys have done for me
and certainly the quick responsiveness,
even when I'm not in a hurry to get an answer.
But yeah, I don't have many budget questions.
I mean, it's kind of a budget question,
but back to the liquor tax thing,
I know it's not you that has the ultimate say about this,
but we're just killing these businesses.
I, too, am a border ward, as you know.
You're very familiar with my ward.
I'm surrounded by four suburbs in my West End.
People don't want to come here because of that.
They're going across the street.
They're getting beat up.
you know, between the tip tax credit and then, you know,
raising the tax again on them.
So it's just something I know I'm just saying this because the powers to be
are listening, I'm sure.
So they're just listening to it.
And us people on the, you know, border wars, you know,
we're the ones that are really getting hurt.
And I didn't have this before,
but since my colleague over here talked about the Airbnb thing,
Airbnb is not remotely a problem in my ward,
but maybe something to think about kind of almost like the handicap parking
where maybe you can only have so many on a block.
Maybe we can institute something like that where, you know, once you have an Airbnb on one block, that's it.
You're done, you know.
So maybe that might be something for us to work on, you know, in the future.
Like I say, it's not a problem for me, but I know some of my colleagues, the real problem.
So, but that's about it.
Just want to thank you for all you do.
And hopefully you get what you wish for.
And I appreciate everything from you and your staff.
So thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Chair Sposato.
We're going to go to Chair Haddon next.
just down in that water bottle, but thankfully I was not caught chewing.
How's it going? How's it doing? I'm doing well. Thank you,
how are you? I'm doing well. You know, I'll start off. It's hard to have my computer here
and my microphone, but that's my fault. I'll start off just by echoing some of my colleagues'
sentiments. I've just very much enjoyed your leadership and working with you. You know,
of course, we get to work a lot with Chris as well. Very much appreciate the level of service
that you and your team bring to this role.
So, you know, thank you for serving as interim
and, you know, hope we can keep you on board.
Thank you.
Couple rapid fire questions.
One, this is a through the chair request.
Wondering if you could share a list of programs
that the ACP funds, you know,
through delicate agencies, right?
you know who who are the administrators if any and any of the demographic information of who takes
advantage of those programs so just through the chair that would be fantastic um yeah just wanting
to make sure um me my community but all of us are kind of aware and refreshed about the different
services that the department's offering um for our small businesses and potential small business
owners you got it thank you um
A question about ARPA funds.
So I think you guys have about 30 million in ARPA funds kind of for 2025.
Just wondering, and this could be through the chair as well, what are kind of the spending
plans for that?
So what kind of programs they're funding?
I think I see there are seven positions in the recovery team that are there.
Could you talk a little bit now about what the plan is for how long that team will be?
Are they going to be around all the way through 2025 or when's the sunset date?
And are you looking to find some other funds to maintain or retain them?
They are sunset for December 31 of 2026.
But actually, Lothika, I want to ask Lothika to talk about the feasibility study that we're working with OBM with some of these ARPA projects.
And, you know, of course, we work with them and whatever they have in mind to keep in the future.
But can you talk about the survey that you completed?
Lothika Pai, Managing Deputy Commissioner, BACP.
Thank you, Alderwoman, for the question.
we have two programs that are sunsetting in fiscal year 2024.
We have the storefront activation program that is sunsetting in fiscal year 2025,
and we have four additional programs that are sunsetting in 2026.
So that includes the grants, the not-for-profit capacity building,
the small business back office support program,
and the community growers program that BACP runs under its food equity umbrella.
and our goal really is to see the completion of all these programs through, spend down the funds
and at this point we have submitted to the OBM team the sustainability study that they had requested for
so outcomes and spend downs and risk assessments of each of the programs has been provided to them
and they're working with their consulting team and their internal partners to figure out across the city
which programs are sustainable through corporate funds going on forward.
And I believe the sustainability study is going to be published in fall of 2025.
Gotcha.
If you could provide what you have so far or what you provided to OBM through the chair,
I think that would be very helpful.
We can absolutely do that.
Thank you.
And then my last question kind of goes with what Alderwoman Taylor started off with
and talking about concerns around some of the hemp-derived products.
Mine is not so much around the concern or enforcement,
but do we currently have any special tax that the city levies on these products?
Can you repeat the question about the...
Sure, on hemp-derived products.
So the Delta-A CBD, so non-cannabis-derived products,
but that are currently now, I think, fully unregulated in the state.
So does the city have any special tax that we levy on those?
Not that I know of, Chairwoman.
There's a question for our friends in finance, but I will follow up on that.
Okay.
Because Delta-8 is unregulated.
I don't think there's a tax that exists, but I'm going to double check on that and get back to you.
One of the things I'm interested in, and again, this is following up on what Chairwoman Taylor had to say,
as she wants to work with you guys on this,
you know, I'm thinking, of course,
of the revenue implications.
So it would be great through the chair
if you could share with us, you know,
what a potential permitting process could look like
for businesses as we think about safety,
but of course, as we think about revenue.
So would love to see that.
And, you know, I'm going to request some similar things.
To our friends at LRB over there,
I've got an email that's being drafted, just FYI,
requesting some support from them as well on, you know, we should permit it and, you know,
see if we can put some regulations on it and we should tax it because people are selling it all
over the place. I believe there was some state legislation that didn't go through this last
session. I don't know where that's at, but my bigger question, if you could get this through
the chair and, you know, maybe consult with our law department is, do we have to wait for the state?
Okay, no problem. That's it for me. We'll get back to you. Thank you.
Thank you, Chair. Alderman Mosley.
Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair, and good afternoon, Commissioner.
What a great team you have. Chris is golden, golden, golden, really true embodiment of the Chicago spirit, so thankful for there.
There's a couple issues that we're working on, and I want to make sure that we prioritize these,
because there's some issues not just in my war but other wars as well.
When we talk about peddling that's happening at expressway,
entrance and exits, major or busy business corridors,
whether it's folks just soliciting food or money
or they're selling items and so forth,
we'd love just support around that.
when we talk about businesses that do excessive advertisement.
We just need better cooperation.
It always seems to go back and forth between BACP and zoning
when we're looking at the stores, convenience stores, corner stores
that give items that they sell in a store.
And it's almost like a menu board that's on the windows and so forth
and advertisements of all the different forms of payments
that folks have talked about.
when we talk about the pop-up auto repair shops,
whether it's them blocking an alley,
them taking over a vacant lot,
them taking over parking on the street and so forth.
We've got to have better enforcement around those things.
And when you talk about some of the ingenuity
like those pop-up auto repair shops,
I think I want to see more from your department
about how we give a path forward to those folks.
You know, I think you have done some things around small business development centers throughout the city of Chicago. Definitely want to see more. I think Far South CDC is the one in my ward.
But what's going to happen when we do the sunset on the storefront activation?
What programs and support resources are we going to be giving to local entrepreneurs, small business owners, and hopefuls who threw up right in those same communities and want to serve in those same communities?
If I can take it from the top and talk about the pillars.
So BACP has been dealing with peddlers and working around this situation for a while.
They've always been around.
In the past two years, we've seen a huge increase in the amount of peddling that's happening,
street bending, all throughout the city, especially around the high tourism areas.
Central Business District, 19th Ward has seen a huge uptick.
Chinatown.
I mean, you have to give it to them that great entrepreneurial minds.
But we've taken a three-pronged approach when it comes to that.
We have been – our first approach was education.
We're working with them, trying to teach them how to become permitted,
passing out a lot of information.
Our enforcement team kind of like took a different role when it came to that,
and we were just working with them and teaching them what's allowed, what's not allowed,
how to get permitted, what's permitted, things like that.
Collaboration has been our second approach,
working with a lot of the alderman offices and stakeholders around that issue,
and then we moved to an enforcement approach.
There are some areas where you cannot peddle at all.
It's prohibited.
So working with CPD, identifying those areas,
and then moving to a more enforcement approach, like I mentioned, writing citations.
Recently, we did a couple of missions where we were able to invent a reasonable of the equipment
to send a strong message, but it is something that we're seeing all over the place.
There's a lot of challenges when it comes to that.
ID is one of them.
When we approach this group, sometimes they don't want to give us an ID.
sometimes they don't have an ID, making it very difficult for us to be able to issue citations.
And then the resources.
I mean, it takes a lot of resources because when we send investigators to respond to a vendor area,
we clear the area, we go to take care of other complaints, they come right back.
Our investigations are up 89% and our citations are up 122%,
so we are actively enforcing and responding to complaints.
but it just continues so uh we have to start thinking outside the box and that's where our
our collaboration approach is because we have to enforcement alone is not going to solve the
problem right it's just they keep coming back um so this is just ongoing it's going to continue
until we find we have to start thinking outside the box like i mentioned and and with your
leadership and your and your vision uh we're just hoping to continue to make some changes there but
It is a big deal.
When it comes to ARPA, the storefront activation program,
which is actually one of our favorites,
was part of the sustainability study that Lothika mentioned.
Can you expand a little bit on that?
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
So we have submitted the sustainability study
for the storefront activation program.
Your question more was around what are we going to do
to support the businesses in communities on an ongoing basis
we're taking a three-pronged approach to it.
We have one very long-standing program,
which is our Neighborhood Business Development Program
here in the city of Chicago,
which we have actually reimagined.
We have redefined the program a little bit.
And the RFP for that is currently live,
and it's closing next Friday at noon.
And we've had, right now, over 125 applications
that are active on our platform for us to review.
And the goal of the redefinition was really to make this program more outcome focused and also to include a lot of transparency into what our delegate agencies are doing from an economic impact perspective in various communities.
So we can share that data out.
You know, it's completely transparent with this new reporting platform that we are rolling out in the beginning of 2025.
And we are also making it easier for our delegate agency to work with city government.
Our reporting is not the easiest and the simplest, and it's our effort to make them focus more on the work that they do, and they do really well, if we can make our processes simpler.
The second thing that we are doing is we are collaborating very closely with DBD, Small Business Development Bureau.
We meet with them biweekly, and the intention behind that right now is once ARPA funding dies out,
When we think of direct grant programs for small businesses, most of that funding comes through DPD, whether it's through your Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, your CDBG, you know, the Community Development Grants, whether it's through your SPF grants, all of that comes through DPD.
But our Neighborhood Business Development Center delegate agencies are what we consider our boots on the ground in communities.
So we expect them to do two things for us.
We expect them to make small businesses in their communities be aware of these programs that the city is rolling out, but then also, if it's right for that small business, really hold their hand and help them get prepared to access some of this funding.
And then we also have, the third thing is we also have our Chicago Business Center Initiative, which is these eight geographically dispersed, you know, delegate agencies that are across Chicago, which are our arms of small business center that does licensing here in City Hall.
These are arms in community to provide small businesses who really don't want to come down to City Hall with pre-licensing and post-licensing support.
So we're really trying to be very sustainable in terms of our approach in helping small businesses across Chicago.
And that's phenomenal. I mean, to one, just have that so close to businesses, I think, makes a really big impact when they're always pressed for time.
I would love to see more of how we can develop marketplaces, incubators throughout our communities and wards where businesses can begin there, learn their systems, learn their processes, adapt best practices, and then move out into our vacancies throughout our corridors.
You know, that's something that Far South CDC has been doing really well.
The marketplace that we have on 115 and hosted, eight vendors or so that are there doing that.
But I'm so inspired by like the Chris Kendall market that's getting ready to open up across the street from us and wondering how we can create that type of environment.
similar to that in Foxville and other places, just more throughout the city to give our budding entrepreneurs, business owners, a really good opportunity, environment, foundation to thrive and be their best.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Mosley.
Just on the issue of peddlers, you know, Ivan, you and I have talked about this a lot, and we have our own challenges.
I have everything from guys that drive up with trucks full of produce that set up a table and a tent on the parkway to little grandmas who have planted vegetables in their gardens and are sitting on the sidewalk just trying to make a couple bucks to the tchotchkes at the busiest places.
And, you know, we've got a good plan in place that we're getting ready to implement.
I just wonder if there's some more thinking that we can do around this, to Alderman Mosley's point.
I would love to see sort of like a marketplace.
This is one of the things that I'm trying to figure out.
It's like how we can designate an area, make sure that people are licensed.
We want people to do this safely and to make sure that everybody's doing things sort of
above board and being fair to all the business owners that are paying really high rents.
I don't know what the rents are in other places, but I know in Chinatown, at least, they're
paying really high rents.
I just want to add to that.
Those conversations are happening right now.
I mean, we're working closely with mayor's office policy and trying to find ways to think about the whole food on the street issue.
A lot of that activity is actually licensable.
Selling whole fruit on the street, it's a merchant produce license.
You know, people don't know they can apply for that license.
So a lot of the education that we're doing to these vendors is to let them know, hey, what you're doing, there's a license for it.
When it comes very tricky is when they start cooking on the streets.
that's not allowed there's never going to pass a health check to cook on the street uh so
you know education is a big part of this like i mentioned you know if they have a lot of great
ideas these vendors i mean they come up with uh we've seen uh uh video recording where you stand
in the middle there's a camera that goes around you like a 360 uh recording like you can mark
that you're partying, things like that.
So they're coming up with a lot of great ideas.
And we're learning from everything that we're seeing.
And yes, I mean, talking to the mayor's office policy,
working with city council,
and we're open to anything that you can recommend.
So again, this is an issue that we're not just sitting idle about.
We're trying to tackle it.
Thank you for that.
Is there some training around that for you that y'all could do with our offices?
Sorry, can you repeat that?
Is there some training that you all could do with us in our office?
Not a problem. Let's talk about that.
Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to...
Actually, Chris is going to add something about it.
Chris Jessup, Assistant Commissioner.
Alderman Taylor, I wanted to give Chair Vasquez and his team a shout-out
because we have started doing training around peddlers and what's legal
and where they can and can't be.
And so I think the intention is to implement that kind of citywide.
And I just wanted to acknowledge that we are doing that with him.
Question over here.
No, not yet.
Just I'm going to give you the run through here.
We're going to go to Alderman Lawson next.
He's been waiting very patiently.
He was one of the first people that was back in.
Then we're going to go to Alderman Vasquez and Alderman Lopez in that order.
Thank you, Vice Chair.
I do appreciate that.
And I doubt I'll take 10 minutes.
But I want to say thank you, Commissioner, Acting Commissioner, to you and your team.
Obviously, I've worked with most of you for a very long time.
I won't name everybody who you are.
And I know that I'm taken seriously when I call.
I have a ward that is full of businesses large and small, and our issues kind of run the gamut there too.
I think I want to echo what Alderman Riley said about a reduction in investigators, because that's really where we need you maybe the most, right?
It's that late night and we've gone through these issues, but, you know, it's the one getting away with it.
You know, the police are only so good at some of these very specific business things.
So I would say that that maybe concerns me.
Did you make a comment, though, investigations were up 122%?
For vendors.
For vendors, yeah.
For vendors specifically.
Maybe if you're not off the top of your head or through the chair, sort of what that investigation universe year over year looks like.
because I certainly would hate to see a reduction in investigators
if your calls for service are going up.
Which goes into sort of my next question is,
I think this is revenue producing.
I know that's not the goal.
The goal is compliance,
but your department ultimately does produce a decent amount of revenue.
And do we have a picture of what that looks like
between fines, fees, licensing?
Sure, I can actually get that to you through the chair
because we have fines assessed.
I can give you a number for fines assessed.
or fine slavity is a different number.
Sure, sure.
If you allow me to get that through the chair to you,
I can definitely.
That'd be great.
You know, because I remember when we did
the license consolidations under Mayor Emanuel,
that was probably about 10 years ago.
I don't think we've changed any of the license fees since.
Not that I'm advocating for a higher fee for a business,
but, you know, after 10 years, maybe we should.
And maybe some go down, some go up,
or get right size.
But it's probably an exercise worth looking at again,
because I think every revenue producing exercise is worth looking at right now.
Thank you for that.
I felt like I've been cutting a lot of ribbons throughout the summer,
and I hope my colleagues have as well.
Do we have a sense, though, sort of year over year,
what our new business starts are looking like this year?
I can tell you that we welcome 6,000 new businesses in 2024.
Our renewal numbers are steady all throughout,
and the number of businesses that we have is close to 55,000 right now.
So, yeah, 6,000 new businesses, and that's good to hear.
And I hope that's a citywide phenomenon.
Obviously, I've got a lot of great business districts, but I want to make sure that's happening all over the city and that I can be helpful there.
The Neighborhood Business Development Centers, what's their funding looking like for next year?
It has been reduced slightly.
The Delicate Agency line for BACP has gone down a little bit.
So we will try to make it work within the allocation that we have.
Because it's generally not very much anyway, right?
I mean, it's $50,000, $100,000 tops, is that?
Yes.
So the total funding in fiscal year 2024 was $3.2 million for our delegate agencies, but we did have three drop-off.
So we can make up the delta there.
And typically the funding ranges between $20,000 to about $85,000.
Right. I mean, it's to supplement what they're doing already in most cases.
And they're doing more for the city than we're paying them for.
So I certainly feel bad for paying them any less because we're definitely getting our money there.
I made a statement last year that I hope not to see an increase in the Office of Labor Standards,
but I feared you would need one because we added a lot of new labor rules.
at least to see I don't see a big increase here,
but it makes me concerned that are we on top of all the new rules?
What have the complaints been like on paid time off
or elimination of tip credit?
Sure.
So I want to give a chance to our Director of Labor Standards
to talk a little bit about that.
We did not lose any positions in OLS.
The vision continues to thrive.
So if Miguel can – actually, I can give you a little bit of that.
So 155 complaints in year 2024,
the fines have been around $4,000.
This area is not heavy on fines,
it's more on restitution to workers.
So we can get your numbers on that.
But Miguel, can you talk a little bit about
what we're doing with Officer Labor Standards
and how our outreach and how all the things
that we're doing in your shop?
Yes. Good afternoon. I'm Miguel Campos. I'm the Director for the Office of Labor Standards.
As you're all well aware, the Council passed two pieces of legislation last year. They
both went into effect on July 1st of this year, so we're four months in. We have our
tipped weights credit phase out, the first step,
that is the 155 complaints that Acting Commissioner
Capifali referenced.
Out of those, a small percentage of them
self-identified as tipped workers,
but with regard to paid leave and paid sick leave,
as promised, during last year's budget hearing,
We did engage in a robust educational and outreach program.
We developed brand new educational resource material
with regards specifically to small business owners.
We drafted and created model policies for them
so that they don't have to go out and hire HR
or accounting firm to develop a paid time off policy for them.
There's detailed fact sheets, there's employer checklists,
cross-jurisdictional comparison charts.
We engage in our robust rulemaking process.
We add open, large, open public comment period.
Rules were published and finalized two months
before they went into effect.
18 webinars, like we've-
I'm gonna cut you off with a compliment
because my time is winding down.
You guys do a great job on outreach.
I said it earlier, things that are on video,
all of the sheets that are out there and it goes a long way.
And that's why you have, you know, probably less complaints.
And so I really do appreciate that.
I think, you know,
I was just more curious to see sort of what had come in and I'll ask you
again next year once we've had a full year of the program.
Real quick, just to vice mayor Burnett's point,
you're going to have a summary.
I introduced some changes to the house share ordinance that I think a lot of
our colleagues are going to be able to get behind around transparency and
accountability for these problem operators, making sure that this actually is someone's
primary residence.
And so I look forward to working with you and your team on that, Commissioner.
I agree that, you know, if you want a whole block full of Airbnbs, then why not just build
a hotel, right?
We need apartments for Chicagoans too.
And some of this contributes to our housing crisis.
And if they're not good operators, we need better tools.
Also, on the cooking and the vendors, I, you know, I appreciate your help so far.
I think maybe I need to, you know, I mentioned this to public health yesterday.
I have an ordinance in specifically on the propane.
But this idea that, oh, I don't have an ID.
I can't be arrested if I'm doing something illegal.
Is I GA here?
We need a little help with that.
And because, I mean, to what level are we allowing this to happen?
It sounds like it's a 50-word problem.
I know that's not a directive from you.
But the mayor's office needs to be a partner with us on this.
Whatever we're putting together, we have to do that.
I guess a question that comes up with problem businesses,
and you can get this through the chair,
what sort of the percentage of new or existing businesses have plans of operation?
Because we do that as routine.
Any new liquor license in 44 is going to have a plan of operation,
and then it just keeps us all on the same page.
Now, an existing business, you need a reason.
But do you have a sense of what that percentage would look like citywide?
Or liquor?
Liquor specifically.
I know it's hard when it's not liquor.
It's unusual.
We'll get that through the stairs.
We'll give you an exact number.
I'll break it down by word, too.
I'll say, oh, I'm sorry?
I'll break it down by word.
Okay, perfect.
I know we're working on salons that we'll have to go back to the state
and get back with my friend, Alderwoman Harris,
but I appreciate your help there as we cut the tape
and stand to be a resource for whatever you guys need.
I have a thriving business community.
I think every community should,
and all the tools that we can work together to help promote.
I love when a business in my ward opens and someone else's.
I don't steal them.
I usually help them expand.
So thank you for all that you do every day and look forward to being a partner.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thanks.
Thank you, Alderman Lawson.
Chair Buskis.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you all for the tons of work.
I think my first question would actually be through the chair.
So I know a number of members have mentioned, like, there's different fees, permit costs, licenses that go through your department.
I'd like to share a list of all of those and a list of the last time they've been changed.
Because I think as we're looking to either catch up to inflation or see where we could actually increase some levels of accountability, that's a good place for us to look.
So if you could send that, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for mentioning kind of the work we've been doing.
By being chair of the committee on immigrant and refugee rights and seeing the uptick of vendors and also people peddling, trying to find a way to address it in a way that solves a larger problem.
We've got a whole bunch of folks who can't work because they don't have work authorization, and they're trying to figure out the best way to actually survive out here.
And so I think that, you know, talking to some of our colleagues, what I definitely understand is people don't know where they can do what.
And if they don't have that designated, they're going to set up wherever they can. And then that leads to larger problems when you have communities that don't want that in the area, when you have designated places for other businesses, and now it's infringing upon them.
But when we talked to the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and there are parts of town where that's actually part of the draw, right? If you go to Pilsen, you're a little village, you're a Chinatown, there's places where you want to go get some things that you're not going to get anywhere else.
And so I think some of the approach, aside from what we've been talking about, about informing the populations that are doing it, about informing vendors or other businesses who to reach out to, is maybe a conversation around designating spaces where they can be, right?
To say, hey, it's not in proximity to other competition in a way.
It's something that maybe the alders have some input because of community to identify what those areas could look like in a way that allows for not necessarily being punitive, but being able to direct people to go somewhere else.
Because my fear is if it becomes punitive in that manner and it's deterring people to find a way to make their own means, you're just going to double or triple the amount of people that are peddling by your local grocery stores.
So I definitely want to make sure that you all, I guess my question is, do you all feel you have the capacity and resources needed to engage in that conversation and implement something in a reasonable amount of time?
I love the idea of finding designated areas.
I pitched that to our DPD colleagues at a meeting recently.
there's a little bit of difference when it comes to peddling and and and vending and no peddling
areas where it's prohibited there's no way around this so that you cannot do it right so that's where
our enforcement is coming in uh culturally you know areas like pilsen little village is part
of their culture right they we've interviewed some of these vendors they don't want to become
brick and mortar owners they want to continue to vent it's been in the family they want to
continue doing that the idea of finding locations uh it's great i'm happy to continue having that
conversation uh your your team it's it's amazing by the way that uh diana and and puka puja puja
yeah thank you great i mean talking about the great drive so i'd like to continue working with
you on that yeah because i think but educating where you know we're peddling is allowed and
it's not allowed we have to make that distinction yeah because definitely you know i it's we're in
between yeah it's and also so along that line i think one to tell people where they can't be is
one thing if they don't know where to go they're just gonna find another place where they're being
told not to be right um but i think to your point about the difference between peddling and vending
there have been challenges in folks who want to become vendors and it's a cultural one yes right
the way somebody could prepare a hot dog is something they already know there's ways to
check but when you're talking about people making other cultural food from their country the standards
aren't the same and can be
they're not the same
and in some regard can be inequitable.
If you've got language barriers
to even figure out what the rules are
and then you have a different way of preparing food
that might not be feasible in the way somebody does
what we already know.
We've been approached by some street vendors
who have that concern
and so wanted to know
as we're seeing a reality of
for example 38,000 folks
that have come from another country trying to figure it out
what have y'all done to kind of look at the how you make sure somebody can become a vendor
in ways that are more permissive for folks that have different cultural
identities, knowledge, and language? It's all wrapped up in our educational approach right now.
We've seen different groups and so two years ago what happened, right? I mean the arrivals of the
new chicago has happened everybody went to the streets everybody's trying to make a buck
uh in addition to that was covid recovery and then changes in consumer trend uh all of that
drove people into the streets to start vending we we saw it coming we started adjusting our
enforcement team moved from a punitive approach to more educational approach and then progressively
we have been kind of like moving away from from education to a little bit more uh enforcement
driven but i think education is the key here sure um i like the idea of uh finding locations but
another option would be to promote more shared kitchens yeah uh ultimate six show is promoting
that because when you cook food uh and you pre-package it at a licensed shared kitchen
now this is something that you can sell on the street so a combination of that you know promoting
the use of shared kitchens uh and then locations where that they can they can set up and then
coexist with brick and mortar businesses you know that's might be a solution here so thinking outside
the box with this problem with with this issue you we have to think outside the box i i love that
appreciate it because i think even when we think about some empty storefronts that could be pop-ups
right maybe they don't have the blacktop to kind of create that but there might be a way for
government to find a way to like hey we can create a pilot on this knowing that we get some return
yes off of the basically the cut of whatever they sell in a way that might make it cost neutral or
maybe gain something and it doesn't have to be a shared kitchen it could be a restaurant too
so connecting with restaurants that are maybe trying you know on their way to close maybe
give it a one last hey are you willing to rent your kitchen space for vendors to cook
and package their food it's it's another option so that'd be great we have a lot of
good ideas we just need to start working together yeah we're happy to noodle on it with you um
i guess a question i've got you mentioned and this is related to kind of some of the delta
eight work because we've been looking at delta eight and beverages right in a way that allows
you to regulate that so it legitimizes it and maybe allows you to cut out potentially the vape
or some things that aren't have done don't have a quality standard um if it's in beverage there
already are models of like alcohol liquor and everything else would it just be basically copy
pasting and making a couple adjustments i mean i'm being simple simplifying it so in that world
and I know part of your answer was you talking to Department of Finance.
How is that relationship to identify other places in what you see as business
and how it affects business and maybe ideas that they can actuate
through the Department of Finance?
I have to be honest with you.
I don't know the answer to that question.
If you allow me to dig a little deeper into that, we'll get back to you.
Alderman, I just want to maybe give a shout-out to your colleague.
Alderman Hopkins did introduce an ordinance in the past looking to regulate Delta-8
And we worked really closely with him on that.
So happy to continue that conversation.
I just want to give him a plug because he has been working on this for the better part of two years.
Yeah, I know.
Well, we were talking to him recently, and he was looking to outright ban the thing.
And so I think when you start talking the beverage as opposed to the smoke, I think that's when you can find some compromise.
And so, yeah, absolutely.
And also researching other jurisdictions to see how they're dealing with that, right?
So a last question I've got is kind of similarly the relationship between you all and the Office of Labor Standards, right?
So we go to you all when we have a problem business.
Sometimes we might hear something from an employee, but maybe not.
But it might be something someone investigating might have found information and then go to Office of Labor Standards.
Is there kind of a workflow or a way that the two departments kind of interact?
So the Office of Labor Standards is a bureau of BACP.
Yes, thank you.
They have their own type code complaint, just like our enforcement team responsible complaints, the Office of Labor Standards does the same.
So along that, because we kind of worked to beef it up a little bit, if you could, any through the chair information as to like what the results have been, as far as who's being cited, who's those kind of things would be helpful for us.
So we can see the impact of that because we all value it.
It's why we beefed it up.
And I think for some of the members who may not have been in the weeds, to understand that the results are actually improving and good would be, if that's what the numbers show, I'd appreciate that.
So thank you for all the work that you've done.
You know, we're looking forward to the time where maybe we don't have interim in front of your title and look forward to those future conversations.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Chair.
Next, we're going to have Alderman Lopez, followed by Alderman Wagesbeck and Alderwoman Cruz.
Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, members of the committee. Good afternoon, Commissioner.
I was actually going to make an animal care and control joke, but I figured it's too late in the afternoon for my humor to be truly appreciated.
I don't want to repeat, and forgive me for not being here, but I do want to first and foremost start with saying thank you to the Department for working with my office.
so diligently to address both the situation with the migrant vendors on 47th Street, as well as a
lot of the illegal vending going on on 43rd Street, straddling the two wards 12 and 15.
My community appreciates and understands how delicate a balance that was. But I think that
we're seeing a larger push regionally to work with our police and coordinate with you to have
more cohesive and consistent standards for enforcement, which I think is critical and
makes your job so much easier.
But I want to just thank you for all of that because I know it wasn't easy.
Seeing some of the bad actors and some of the bad businesses that were also engaging
in some of that illicit activity, threatening our own residents with violence has come to
an end, but that requires your due diligence, your continued due diligence.
So I just want to say that first and foremost.
Again, if this has been said, Chair, please cut me off at the pass.
But how much money does your department generate for the city of Chicago?
How much revenue we generate?
So I –
And have we touched on that?
Not specifically for the entire department.
So we like – so I'll give you specific dollars if you allow me to get back to the Chair.
But we like to think, and this is based on previous data, that for every dollar that we spent, we generate four.
So our business compliance enforcement team, of course, is revenue generating.
Our business license bureau is revenue generated.
Our public vehicle licensing team is revenue generated.
So that's the return on investment, so to speak.
and affordable. For every dollar that we spend, we bring in four. So rough approximation,
what would that equal? Actually, Assistant Commissioner of Finance, AJ Lee, can you,
do you have any information? And if you could share that through the chair for all units,
but I just, I'm just curious for the, for the sake of conversation in the moment,
what does that roughly equal? Testing your math skills right now.
AJ Lee, Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration.
About $80 to $85 million.
That's what it should be for this year.
So we spend $20 on enforcement and generate $80, roughly, give or take, or whatever your units.
Okay.
Along the same lines of that questioning is every once in a while we see management ordinances that –
increased fees and things of that nature.
Can you share when the last time
all of these revenue generating sectors have been updated?
So that request was already made through the chair.
For all?
For all fines and fees.
Fine success or fine leaving.
But I think you're referring to
when was the last time that we updated
our licensing fees and fines and penalties?
Correct.
Is that what you're asking?
Yes.
It has been a while.
But through this revenue management, which there will be hearings forthcoming, one of the things that we pitched and presented was our whole food license versus our retail food license.
Our whole food license is a set fee of $650 versus our retail food license, which is a similar license.
is a fine rate. It's a
fee range that is based on square footage.
But when you look at wholesale
food licenses, we're talking about
warehouse, right? So
a company that has a lot of
square footage pays a flat
fee of $650
versus, say, a small
restaurant that has a retail food license
can pay up to $1,300.
You see this connection there? So we're
promoting and we're presented
to our revenue management
a balance on both licenses because they're similar to bring up the uh the wholesale food
license to a flat fee of 1300 do you also find the potential value in not only differentiating
the licensing based on space but also on the length of time for example where we see when i
think back to the greater southwest development corporation that does pop-ups on a six-month or
three-month rental, if you want to license a business that you're only going to be in a pop-up
facility for six months, do we have that option now? Or is that something that we can look at
moving forward so that I'm only going to have a brick-and-mortar space for six months? Because I
know you referenced in your remarks about the storefront initiatives. It doesn't make sense to
license have someone pay for a year if they're only going to be there for six months yeah so
the store activation uh uh the storefront activation program that i refer to my statement
is part of our arpa program but i think you're referring to a pop-up license or pop-ups uh if i
can have max budovich from licensing because there is a pop-up license and there's a fee for that
you can talk a little bit about that sure how the man max budovich deputy commissioner of licenses
So the pop-up license is, there are different fees associated with different time periods, everything from five-day up to a full year.
So the answer is yes.
But does that also apply to some of the other ancillary fees that would be associated with a pop-up?
So, for example, public way use, that public way use is not covered under a pop-up license, correct?
But a public way use would be a full year.
So if you have somebody who wants to make the most out of their storefront for six months, is that something that is being explored?
Alderman Lopez does amazing.
We can look at it.
Oh, yes.
Very good idea.
Because I think that if we're trying to create more revenue options, we have to tailor make some of these permits and fees to fit the needs of the current climate.
Have we talked about taxis at all?
Taxis?
Yes.
remember those of course uh uh rupe obama deputy commissioner of public vehicle licensing
it's uh so but let me get to my question before you hand it off um what do we need a medallion
licensing unit for how much they cost right now no no what do we need them for so we moved away
from the medallion now it's it's it's a sticker um right but we spent four hundred and twenty
four thousand dollars in a budget on a medallion unit within your department when we're not really
doing medallions anymore and a sticker could quite literally be something that is
done as as alderman lee and i can attest to and i'm sure alderman lawson can attest to
if it's just a sticker stickers for socks cubs other things locally we don't need to spend
respectfully nearly half a million dollars on something that no longer exists
so there were there were savings when we moved from a metal medallion to stickers uh there were
there but it is important because those are identifiers and when i invest when we are
responding to an investigation and get on it for example a complaint about a fake taxi the first
thing that investigator is going to look is to make sure that that decal that that sticker is
legit. So it is important if you have something to add, Rupal, please.
Hello. It's on. Okay, I'm sorry. Hello, my name is Rupal Boppett, and I'm a Deputy Commissioner
with BACP. Alderman, are you talking about the public passenger vehicle licensing unit
specifically what so the licensing team it's not strictly taxis it's um liveries charter buses
private ambulances it's medicars um it's pedicabs it's um water taxis and tour boats so it and it's
also you know we also license the ride hail industry so we license the chauffeurs and also
So it's not a taxi license unit.
It's all of the, anything that's chauffeur-driven in the city of Chicago, even on water, captained,
or either even motorized or not, like pedicabs, all of those are licensed in the unit.
And we look at insurance.
There's a lot of paperwork involved.
There's background checks on licenses.
So that's what that unit does.
It's not taxi licensing.
Strictly taxi.
Okay.
How are we doing with our public way use licensing in terms of the speed in which we are?
Oh.
Go ahead, Rick.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
In terms of our response time and our ability to move forward quickly, and not just public way, because that's the big one, but a lot of the business licensing issues that I know the previous administration tried to circumvent this body with, have we seen the anticipated gains in terms of quickness?
Yes. So thank you for that question. About 33% improvement. This is an area, a big area for cut the tape for us. Our licensing and one of the areas that we've identified a lot of efficiencies and the goals for 2025 is to continue to process those licenses faster.
we see a lot of the bottleneck when it comes to our zoning review.
And this is something that Max and their team is constantly working with our partner departments
and identify ways to circumvent some of those bottlenecks.
So right now, we've improved our time to 33% for online processing and in-person processing.
And then I heard the buzzer, but I just want to make one last comment so I don't have to say anything else.
language access remains an issue for this department and for this city.
So I would just stress the need for us to be able to have our,
especially as we do a lot of things online to make sure that our online
applications and pages and FAQs are all accessible in multiple languages,
as well as our in-person,
because I have gotten residents who've come back very disgruntled from
visiting City Hall being told that no one here speaks their language. I learned yesterday from
one of our departments that we have a service that has a hundred languages at our beck and call.
So I want to make sure that that is not lost on this department that interacts with so many
residents not just in my ward but across the city who do not have English as their first language.
I appreciate that and we heard this body very loud last time. We've made an investment on
language accessibility, BSCP speaks 16 languages.
Are any of them at the front desk?
That's usually the issue that we have, and I hate to say it.
I appreciate that.
I will leave it at
the first point of contact seems to be where the main issue is, so that needs to be addressed.
No problem. Thank you so much for the comment.
Alderman Lopez, you took all my questions. Thanks.
uh sorry uh alderman wag is back
thank you chairwoman um commissioner thanks uh first to all you and your staff and especially
all those still out doing the work and in the field that we don't see every day in here um
you know I know what you guys appreciate working with the small business community as much as do
our larger corporations and you know mid-size um you know and i think all of us in here understand
that we have to continue to improve um improve on our processes you know whether it's changing some
of the ordinances or laws to kind of fix things that we've put in place 10 20 years ago or being
innovative and especially on the the new things that are coming out or new ideas that people come
up with every day to make sure that those can kind of come to fruition if they are something
viable for the city. Because that, you know, a lot of us understand that it is these companies
that are creating the jobs that then create the revenue so that we can actually do the things
that we need to in the city. So I appreciate, first of all, just want to say that, appreciate
everything you and your staff do to help us build that economy. I would, I also want to thank just
chris real quick because he's been helping us on a few different issues and max with some
constituents who've been uh working through some uh quirky issues i think with trying to open
businesses like the shared kitchen issue with um the health department kind of uh i wouldn't say
inserting itself but sort of uh not knowing whether a new business owner and certain applications
should go ahead of health or to BACP first.
So it's been kind of a mishmash there,
but I appreciate everybody's efforts
trying to fix those particular issues.
And then just going back to what Alderman Riley
was talking about, you know,
I just have to reiterate my desire too
on the one or 2% of the bad businesses
that we have in this city
to continue to work to rein them in.
I mean, they absorb, I think, in some cases,
90% of the effort that the police have to undertake to respond to them.
And having a late-night license inspection
and just more robust way to really just, I mean,
I'd hate to see any business closed,
but when I have a business whose staff shoots somebody
and I have to end up going to court to testify, and it burns through, you know, not just hours,
but hundreds of hours of our staff time and your staff time, it really gets to the point where,
you know, Alderman Riley and I had submitted this ordinance maybe three years ago now,
and it has to come back to the forefront so we can rein in these bad actors, who, again,
are a very small percentage and do not represent uh the vast majority of our great businesses in
the city so i just kind of wanted to get that out there and you don't have to respond because i know
it is an issue that you're concerned about as well and our liquor conditioner um the uh i think um
looking at a couple of other areas question on this sort of gray gig area of apps that are out
there in terms of parking i don't know if you've had discussions with anyone on this but we hear
about these different businesses that are using applications that don't they're not licensed
say parking where they have their own app for a particular parking garage or a parking lot
how do you address those types of businesses as they're kind of offline in this gray area
they could be potential licensees for creating revenue how do you how can you address that so
i appreciate that because this is some conversation that i've been having with my
with my team around e-commerce and app-based services yeah uh this is this is what the future
is right and and we do not have a handle on that yet so we have to get better at that so i will
ask this body to actually work with us to come up with solutions on that and find ways
create legislation around that and see how can how can we bank on that because we
say for example turo and this is a turo is an app based it's a peer-to-peer car sharing
business that we get complaints all the time yeah uh it's in a gray area because car rental
it's a it's it's regulated by the state so you know we of course we go we check uh there's a
license if there's a limited business license some of these tour own operators they have 10 15 cars
parking on the street taking up all the parking they're going to uh private lots and using private
lots for parking and we're not getting anything out of it so i am actually um happy to work with
any of you that is willing to open conversations around app-based services to find ways to actually
capture that. Okay, that sounds good. I know there might be some ways to do that, and maybe we can
bring in the IT folks that are... It's a lot of new ideas that people are coming up, and everything
is on an app now. Right. Happening very fast, and of course, we have to continue to be aware of what's
happening to start thinking outside the box. So please, if you have any ideas,
reach out to us. We'd like to have a sit down and discuss it.
Okay. We'll work through you with that on you.
On the other issue of shared housing, Alderman
Lawson put in a new ordinance. I just put in something to expand it in
M zoning in particular areas. But one of the areas
that I'd rather, and I don't want to speak for all my colleagues, but that I'd rather
not see um i'd rather see some change is in this appeal process where your department has denied
a particular location and this goes back a few years that this was this uh appeal process was
kind of put in and i think for the most part when i read through the denial i agree with you on how
you've approached that and I often don't see the need for that additional appeal process.
So I don't know if that's something that you've looked at over time to say, hey, this is the
red line, we've drawn it and we don't need to kind of put the position out there that
the alderman can override us because, you know, often you don't want to hear from us
about these issues, but I think, I don't know if that's something that you've looked at
in adjusting the shared housing.
Commissioner adjustments, yeah, they come through my desk all the time.
I work closely with our prosecutions and adjudication team, and Gerald, can you, I mean, I know
we're seeing less of them, but it's a very good tool to keep people honest.
Can you, Gerald, can you talk a little bit about that process?
Yes, this is Gerald Dawson, Deputy Commissioner for Prosecutions and Adjudications.
Hi, Alderman Wegesbach.
The commissioner's adjustment process really turns on a demonstration of hardship, which we look at very closely.
And as you're well aware, we also solicit feedback from the local alderman in that process.
So we take your feedback, we really scrutinize what the applicant is telling us, and most of them are denied.
So it's kind of where things stand.
So the input that you get prior to the denial or approval really is meaningful input from the alderman?
That's what you're saying?
You kind of accept that?
Absolutely.
It is meaningful.
We take every piece of feedback we get from an alderman, from you and your colleagues, into consideration in that process.
And then on the denial end of it, I guess what I'm saying is if you've already had that input and we're saying it's denied, do you have to go through that separate appeal?
I guess we have to do it by code, right, that they do have the opportunity to appeal it?
We do have to grant them the opportunity to challenge our decision.
It goes before the MLDC, and we work with our colleagues in the law department to really affirm the decision we've made if it was a denial.
Okay.
And I'm just going to put you on the hot seat for a second, but trying to prove up a hardship when we get those, that's one of the most, I wouldn't say mind-boggling things,
But, you know, it's interesting to look at the claim for a hardship often, you know, when they don't provide the right information.
I'm assuming you really scrutinize those.
Yeah, we've made a concerted effort this year to update forms so that we can address one of the major problems we see in evaluating these applications, which is people don't follow instructions.
and part of that is our fault
and not making it as clear as we probably could.
So we've really worked to clarify the forms
and make it clear to people
what they're supposed to submit to us
so we can properly evaluate their application
and really determine whether they have demonstrated
the hardship that the code tells us
we have to look for or not.
Okay.
So you put your lawyer hat on
and really dove into that, I'm assuming.
I'll talk to you offline about it.
I'd like to hear how you kind of made those adjustments,
but I appreciate that because that was something,
a longstanding issue, I think,
from the time it was first implemented until now
that we've been kind of looking at,
trying to figure out what those criteria are
beyond the scope of what you originally provided.
So I appreciate you answering that question.
Of course.
With that, again, I appreciate all the work that you guys do.
I really, my priority is what Alderman Riley and I were talking about, is just clamping down on the worst actors that really shed a bad light on or create a bad light for everybody else.
And we don't want to see that in this city.
We want to be hands off of all our businesses, all our liquor licensees, so they can just thrive without intervention.
but it's really those bad actors that we'd like to see reigned in to really allow everybody else
to continue to do business in the way we want so thank you commissioner thank you alderman thank
you thank you alderman whack us back we will have alderman cruz then alderman lasbada and
then alderman sexual lopez thank you chairman um hello commissioner i just want to start by saying
also thank you your team it's outstanding you you're also responsive to our questions
um you commissioner ivan have been great answering you know my calls guiding me through some
difficult times that we have had with some other businesses but i also want to um thank chris
chris is outstanding he's always there for for my team always answering questions sometimes
repeating some of the answers has given us, but he has, again, because of your support,
we have been able to do good strides to some of the businesses that we have been working with.
But things that I want to bring up, it's about the liquor license renewal.
I know that us as other men don't have any input. It goes through your department,
but can you walk me through that?
Through the application renewal, do you all contact or do any logs of service requests
if this business is a problem business or is just an automatically you receive the application
and you approve it, or do you go the extra mile to see if this is a good business or good neighbor?
Thank you, Alderman.
This is the question that Alderman Riley was asking as well.
So license renewals in general are mostly automatic.
There are a series of questions that have to be answered prior to renewal.
They are mostly attestations that there's been no change in ownership or no change in corporate officers.
The account also has to be free of hold, which can be from multiple departments.
that we do not look at any other exterior factors such as police input
because, as I was explaining, if there are violations,
what we should be doing is bringing those violations against the existing licensee
in terms of license discipline.
A non-renewal is, by case law and by the Illinois Liquor Control Act,
the statute that controls alcohol, a non-renewal is the equivalent of a revocation, and it is
subject to due process. So if I was to issue a non-renewal, that non-renewal still has to go
through the courts to determine whether it was valid or not, and there has to be the legal basis
and a nexus to whatever that business is doing wrong. Whereas if we already have that, we shouldn't
have to wait for the renewal to come up two years later. We can already bring those charges.
So, you know, this is, I don't know if you were here, Commissioner Capofale mentioned what I have
been working on personally is really to do a train the trainer program with our police department
because what frustrates me so much is when I hear from an alderman or a police commander that there
is this problem business in their ward that they want shut down and we are completely unaware of it
because we're not getting the reports that we need or the reports are not memorializing what's going on around that establishment.
So I have been teaching at the academy, sergeants, lieutenants, detectives.
I've trained over 250 officers just this year on report writing for license violations
so that we can start to address some of the problem establishments that Alderman Wagesbeck, Alderman Riley, and you.
but I don't know if I even know about your problem establishment, so please contact us,
because we do have resources to go in and seek those violations so that we're getting them memorialized on paper
and we can start the disciplinary process.
Other women, if I may add to that, we also partner with other city agencies that have closing authority.
so if there's a reason
or this is a referral that you want us to
let me break it down for you
if we go to a location and we don't find
enough, say for example to close it
down, we can always call one of
our partners, Department of Buildings which is
a department that we value very
much, they do a lot of good work
for us and partners
very well with
BACP and find ways to
maybe put it through
their process
to stop any problem activity.
So we have tools.
Yeah, no, I appreciate the answer,
and I think that is a way to review it.
I think it's unique for me because of the timing of coming into the new position,
the problems that I've been having with this business prior to me,
then me coming in and trying to go through the right process
of getting this business into following the rules.
And by the time their license application came about, it was just really bad timing and off timing.
But if there would have been a tighter structure, probably this wouldn't happen.
It wouldn't be just on me to make sure that, you know, we work with the departments because we were.
But it was just the timing were off.
So just, you know, again, it seems that it's something that happened not only in my ward, but in other wards as well.
and something that
you know again just wanted more
common than anything it is also
with you know with a vice mayor was
saying with the Airbnb it has
there are becoming
a lot it has been coming
you know in some areas
you know residents are against
it and you know because there's just so
many at times in one block as well
and you know they're not good
neighbors
some of these rest the owners don't live
there and they're just renting these
houses and creating chaos within the communities. I think we do have to re-evaluate the process.
But I want to ask clarification point. I was here but didn't catch it. There is two items for,
there is a prohibited building which the owners of the business can put a restriction that
they can use these apartments for Airbnb but there was a second one it was restricted something but
I didn't catch it can one of you clarify those two hi Alderman Max Budovich Deputy Commissioner
over licenses and permits so the second restriction regarding shared housing that you're referring to
we call the restricted residential zone RRZ for short and a restricted residential zone can be
put in place with the signatures of 25% of all registered voters in the precinct and
then per ordinance introduced by the local alderman.
Okay.
Thank you.
Other than that, I just wanted to, again, take the time to thank your department for
all the work that you're doing and how responsive you are to my team.
So thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Alderwoman.
and I'd like to revisit the conversation we had in the hallway about that problem business.
I'll follow up with you separately. Thank you. And you're doing a wonderful job.
Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Alderman Cruz. We have Alderman
Laspada followed by Alderman Sigcho Lopez. Thank you very much, Chair. Commissioner,
with you, much thanks for your whole team. There are probably too many shout outs that I could go
through here I'll I'll just specifically say Gerald Ellison I know I'm a
consistent disappointment to you but yes I will at some point make it to trivia
night in terms of actual questions looking at 0100 contractual services and
you may have addressed this already in case I'll just review the tape but in
In terms of the cutting in half of about the advertising budget, and then I think I'm looking
at about $55,000 increase in lease and purchase agreement.
Could you speak to both?
I actually find the BACP advertising I see on the CTA really relevant and helpful.
AJ, are we talking about our vehicles?
is that the line can you can you explain that line please it's that's that's the lease of vehicles
and uh uh and equipment sure uh aj lee assistant commissioner finance and administration uh those
two changes uh that you're referencing the advertising reduction is not about the advertising
that you're uh complimentary of thank you uh or at least it says thank you uh from next door here
but we changed an ordinance in last year's revenue management that reduced our requirement to do
advertising for liquor license applications in newspapers and so that's the reduction is that
we don't need to pay for it anymore we don't need to budget for it anymore. To Ivan's point on the
second part we lease vehicles for our enforcement team and some of those leases expire and the cost
for renewed leases is much higher than the existing lease cost.
And so some of those things, like we can't, we have to be prepared to make those transitions
whenever they might need to happen.
So that's the reason for just reallocating some more funding into that particular area.
So the advertisement of the newspaper, that's, you know, for legal licenses, we went from
print to online.
That's where you see the reduction.
That's a bona fide efficiency if I ever heard one.
I appreciate that.
I wanted to ask, and again, you may have covered this, but the funding that we see from the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Fund, this $8.4 million allocation, I don't see in previous budgets.
Maybe it was represented somewhere else.
But I'm wondering if you can shed light on what that program means for BACP.
I'm going to give you a quick overview that I'm going to actually ask Deputy Commissioner RuPaul Bava to explain it. So in 2014, the city added a fee for every TMP, Uber, Lyft, rides, 10 cents.
They created the fund to improve and facilitate wheelchair accessibility for people with disabilities on public vehicles.
So WayFund means wheelchair accessibility vehicles.
So it's $0.10 for every ride that when you take an Uber or Lyft, you pay $0.10.
and it's $22 per taxi for taxi companies,
per taxi that are not wheelchair accessible.
So that fund goes into a fund
that pays for reimbursement programs,
supplies and equipment, and for some staff salaries.
And RuPaul, can you expand a little bit
on the Way Fund, please?
Hello, this is RuPaul Boppet
with the Deputy Commissioner of Public Vehicle.
The BACP has a program where we actually help increase the number of wheelchair accessible taxi cabs.
And we also increase the number of wheelchair accessible trips through Uber and Lyft or any ride-hailing platform.
So there's incentive programs for adding, subsidizing the conversion costs from a minivan to a wheelchair accessible vehicle for taxi cabs.
Also maintenance.
And just to not only increase the numbers, but to support the vehicles and the trips when they're added to the fleet.
So we've seen a tremendous growth in wheelchair accessible service in Chicago for people that use wheelchairs.
Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
So that number that you see there, it's the anticipated fiscal year 25 collections and spending for that program.
That's fantastic. I really appreciate the explanation.
I think everybody gets one, at least one policy related question, and I will ask mine.
I know that for a while, BACP has been tracking and regulating TNPs, transportation network provider vehicles, particularly around passenger delivery.
I'm wondering if we as yet define, categorize, regulate TNPs from the perspective of not the delivery of people, but the delivery of goods, the DoorDashes, Uber Eats, et cetera, et cetera, of the city.
So we do regulate third-party delivery services. It's a little different from people. Do we have somebody? So Rupal can expand on that also.
Hello again, this is Rupal Boppet.
Just the state of Illinois distinguishes transportation,
paid transportation of passengers versus paid transportation of goods.
So the state actually regulates like moving companies.
It's the Illinois Commerce Commission.
So there's a lot of state regulation on movement of goods.
and we have home rule power over transportation of people.
So that's why we have very strong regulations on any movement of passengers.
All the safety, background check, insurance requirements,
we don't have as low as a municipality.
We don't have the strength to regulate movement of goods.
I don't mean in terms of commercial vehicles.
I mean the use of passenger vehicles for these kinds of small delivery purposes.
You know what I mean?
You're referring to Uber Eats.
Yes, and the like, yes.
Things like that.
We do not regulate those.
We don't have the strength right now, but we can talk to the law department to expand that.
So this goes to Alderman Wagespac was talking about app-based services and everything is on an app right now.
Yes.
So there's some areas of BACP that we don't regulate, you know, those things.
But we would love to have a conversation about that as a revenue-generating idea.
Are they even defined within the city code?
General, are they defined in the city code?
Not that I'm aware of.
We can talk to the law department. So food is a good versus, you know, it's just transportation of merchandise. So you can talk to the law department of strengthening Chicago regulations. But right now we have a lot of authority for all the regulations we have moving the movement of people.
so that's what the distinguish distinguish uh that's how this law the state law distinguishes
the movement of goods versus movement of people would love to continue the conversation on that
with you duly noted thank you i mean my last point i'll just join the sizable chorus saying if there
are if there are vacancies that i would push to keep it it feels like the minimal savings that
we achieve from eliminating your business inspection positions you know and i i will say
to clarify on that like there's a lot that i find we're able to do through a strong plan of
operations your team is great for working on that um the process that we've been able to do the
community meetings process administrative hearings fantastic work but anything that we can do to
support you in proactive later hour, evening hour inspections, particularly businesses with PPA and
tavern license. I would wholeheartedly work to find the revenue for you to be able to fund those
at the competitive salary that makes it easier to fill those vacancies. Appreciate that. So just
to remind everybody here, we do have late night shifts. So Saturdays and Sundays, Thursdays
through Sundays, we're out till 2 a.m.
And later if we have to.
So just make sure that that service,
that you know that that service is available for you.
Appreciate it.
For your communities.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you, Alderman LaSpada.
And yeah, I mean, could you use more staff
on the late night teams?
Wow.
I mean, we can always.
Thanks for all of the yeses out here.
um i you've heard several of us um talk about being willing to fight for your positions i mean
you're these are revenue generating these are all things that i think contribute positively to the
businesses um and the well sort of just community well-being in our in our ward so um we'd love to
help make sure that you're staffed up enough um to be able to do all the things that you're tasked
with doing and all at the same time um generate the revenue that we need thank you um okay uh
Next, we have Alderman Sigcho Lopez, followed by round twos for Alderman Riley and Alderman
Dell.
Go ahead, Alderman.
Thank you, Vice Chair, and thank you, Commissioner, and your team for joining us.
Thank you.
Good to see you.
I wanted to start with just the bulk of your budget is advocacy.
I think about 52% or so, $42 million, and the work that you're doing with Chambers of
commerce, in particular with the storefront activation program. Can you just talk a little
bit more about the program, you know, geographically, maybe in my ward, how is it working?
I see that with good eyes. In fact, we discuss potential, you know, areas of expansion, 18th
Street, 26th Street areas where, you know, I think we have vibrant corridors and can use
a little bit of help. So maybe you can maybe by work and share the numbers through the chair,
but, you know, maybe just a little bit of the program and how you're looking,
the evolution of this program.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So we spoke about that earlier
before you arrived.
So I'm going to actually ask Lothika
to revisit that.
Sorry, I missed that part.
It's one of the programs
that we really, really like.
It brings a lot of value
to empty storefronts.
It brings food traffic
to the neighborhood.
It's great.
So Lothika, can you follow up
on the ultimate?
Lothika Pai,
Managing Deputy Commissioner.
So I just want to actually break up
the funding that you mentioned
the 44 plus, out of that only 4.2 million is in the corporate budget for delegate agency funding.
The remainder is all ARPA funding. And the storefront activation program is funded under ARPA
and it's actually sunsetting by mid next year. So right now we are on our second round of our
storefront activations and it's about, we funded 14 delegate agencies. In the first round of storefront
an activation that started 2022 and wrapped up in 2023.
We had funded 17 delegate agencies, and we had 40 activations and supported over 192
small businesses across the city of Chicago.
And we have that breakup by ward, and we can provide that to you through the chair.
And this current program, which is active right now, is about $2.7 million, and we've
funded 14 delegate agencies, and we have continuously, we are continuously doing storefront activations
just on 23rd Street and Wentworth. We had Canal Pop, which is in its second version right now.
We've had, we actually have an opening alderman in your ward next week for a cafe. So, you know,
it's across the city, and we are happy to provide you with that information by ward. We have it
broken out and ready to submit through the chair.
Yeah, I think
it would be helpful, you know, and as I mentioned
to the Commissioner, it would definitely be good to know
the equity part of it,
you know, I think that it's good that we're in our
neighborhood, and I think it would be good to continue
participating and sharing
that, you know, I'm glad to hear about Oakley,
and like I said, we look into expansions
on 18th Street and other areas
that desperately need it for store
front activation.
The other one is around, I think that you already
covered the, I don't
want to repeat the good food funds, I think that you already kind of shared that. So definitely
interested in discussing how that is working within the 25th Ward. I'm particularly really
interested on commercial kitchens. You know, I don't know if there's a specific item on that.
I know there's discussions around helping street vendors to obtain their licensing. I think that
is the right step. I do think that we can do both, help our small businesses and support
people obtain their licensing and their licenses. I do think that that is a good way of doing it,
but we need to provide a path. So I think commercial kitchens provide that path, and I
don't know if there's a specific line item. I know that we've been working together, and maybe that
can be helpful for other colleagues to understand a little bit more how this could be working.
and i appreciate that and and i actually gave you a shout out earlier because your idea
to promote shirt kitchens is great we visited uh the small pieces this uh the street vendor
association shirt kitchen that's housed in in 24 they did an amazing job so if we can we can
continue to expand on that and promote that that system i think that's going to actually help
tremendously the the food vendor uh phenomenon that's happening right now in addition to that
I think restaurant kitchens.
It doesn't have to be a shared kitchen.
It could be any licensed kitchen.
So identifying restaurants that are maybe not performing well
and see if they're willing to allow vendors to cook from their kitchen,
I think it's another idea.
So I thank you for your advocacy when it comes to street vendors.
I mean, it's an issue that needs to be resolved.
So by putting our brains together, we can definitely find a solution.
Thank you. And I was very impressed, and I really commend Alderman Monique Scott for her leadership.
I visited her work with the Commercial Kitchen, and it's really something that I think I encourage everybody to see.
It will help not only with licensing to street vendors for catering and other things.
I saw a beautiful thing when many people from the community were participating, and it was very diverse.
I really commend Alderman Scott for that.
is really very vibrant.
I think it has a lot of long hours too.
So I thought something was very active
and I really, really appreciate the leadership.
Really good solution.
I like what you discussed around young entrepreneurs.
I'm not sure.
I mean, I don't want to repeat.
I know I was coming a little late,
but in terms of particular programming
related to the 25th World as well,
really interested on how this program
can help activate young entrepreneurs
and specific paths that you may have.
I do think that I'm concerned about young people in particular
and providing pathways are really important,
entrepreneurship being one of them.
I know that you mentioned that in your,
you have a good number of young people participating already,
but what is the connection with Chicago Public Schools?
How is the recruiting?
If you can maybe describe a little bit more,
Without repeat, I know that I can get the notes from before, but maybe in short, I don't want to repeat what we already discussed.
So this is our first time promoting and actually hosting a youth entrepreneur expo.
And the partnership was with CPS.
We hosted over 200 high schoolers.
It was great.
I mean, the vibe was amazing.
I was going to actually point to our deputy commissioner, Elisa Sledzinska, our communications and outreach.
I have to give a big shout out to her and her team because they do a lot when it comes to represent and promote BACP in the community.
But, Elisa, can you talk about the experience through the Business Youth Expo?
Absolutely.
Good afternoon, Alderman.
Elisa Slidinska, Deputy Commissioner of Communications and Outreach.
Thank you for noticing our first ever Chicago Small Business Expo for the youth.
We partnered with CPS, who identify business track students, to attend the expo.
We had exhibitors.
We had a workshop.
They were able to take professional headshots as well.
But actually, all of our programming can be geared for students and the youth as well.
We host webinars.
We have an entrepreneur certificate program.
So these are things that are already available to the youth as well, and happy to continue programming for them.
Thank you.
you know, we'd definitely love to collaborate if there's any way to engage our local schools in
those efforts. You know, I do think that it is in line with what we like to see, encourage
different pathways for young people. I'd just like to end with an akron in some of the comments
around. I know that there are some positions cut, even though the budget has, you know,
has not been cut, but there's especially around, I think, like some of the inspectors,
we just want to make sure that that doesn't impact
the operation of the department.
I know that you have a department that does enforcement
but also produces opportunities, as you can see.
So anything that we can do to make sure that there's equity
in those decisions, I think are welcome,
especially with the budget constraints that we have.
It'll be good to discuss if there's any possibilities
to, in an equitable way, as we regulate and we want to enforce, be mindful of the small
business, right, versus, as other colleagues mentioned, those small bad actors, as well
as companies that perhaps have a little bit more to give.
You know, just before we talk about the whole filming industry, there's a huge industry.
I do think that it's important for us to discuss ways to bring revenue without hurting the
small business, the small homeowner, or the most vulnerable. So I appreciate the work of your
department and looking forward to host most events for the young people, for store activation,
and many others. I commend you for your work. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair Sikshul Lopez.
We've got one more round one with an older woman, Manaha Benworth, and then we'll go to round two
with five-minute round twos, please. Go ahead. You can go ahead. Okay. Thanks, Chair. I wanted
to say congratulations uh um commissioner stepping up um at this moment and i you know wish you well
as you lead this team they've been very important to me in the 48th ward edgewater and uptown and
we have relied on you for many things and i i also want to add my voice to the choir of people who
want you to have the number of inspectors that you need.
It's a matter of public safety.
So I appreciate your work on that end.
And I wanted to shout out to, of course, a few on your team, Letitia and Marisol, who've
been really important to us.
And also Chris Jessup, if no one has mentioned him already.
so thank you chris for for being available um and that was my comment right now um thank you
thanks uh okay we're gonna go to round twos uh alderman riley thank you chairman good afternoon
commissioner a couple other questions i want to cover since we spent a lot of time on peddling
I'm not going to go too heavy on that
but just wanted to draw a distinction
while I do applaud efforts by my colleagues
to find ways for people to get properly licensed
and participate in that part of our economy
it is critical that we are enforcing our no peddling zones
no peddling zones long predate this administration
I inherited a number of them when I was elected
in 2007
all of them are still in place
and they are seldomly enforced.
And that's frustrating.
Most of what we're supposed to do in this chamber is write laws.
And when we take the time to draft and pass these laws
and to see them then selectively enforced is very frustrating.
So I do want to call out the good work that your team has done
in recent months in redoubling your efforts to enforce no peddling zones.
But the education component, I think, only gets us so far.
Teaching folks where they can and can't do these things is one piece.
But we have a big segment of this particular community that isn't interested in education.
Repeat offenders who continually go back to the exact same location they've been coached out of.
Those folks need their things confiscated and inventoried, and they need to be fined.
They're not interested in being good actors.
So we don't need to get them licensed.
We need to get them off the right-of-way.
So that's what I've got to say on peddling zones.
with valets another section of the code i've spent a lot of time amending over the last
decade and a half how often is bacp doing audits to ensure that these valet operators have current
in effect off-street parking contracts as you know the code requires valet companies to have
a certain number of their parking spaces cared for in private lots or garages and based on the
number of cars i see stowed on the right-of-way in front of these valet operations especially on
hubbard street tells me they don't have parking lot okay uh leases in place because they're
parking all the cars on our street in tow zones um and so if you could through the chair i'd like
to know the last time you did a full audit um i'm going to request officially on the record right
now that you do another one.
And that should be a regular occurrence.
That should be a quarterly exercise
because these guys are playing games.
And it's serious
because that's why we have real serious
traffic issues downtown on the weekends.
Double, triple parked cars in traffic.
Ambulances can't get through
certain hospitality quarters.
And I'll say Hubbard Street out loud
because that's probably the chief among them.
So I'd ask for some increased attention there.
You mentioned that, you know,
with all of the reforms
that Mayor Lightfoot put in place,
I'll say that with quotes,
to, quote, you know,
streamline the approval process
for permits and license applications.
You mentioned a bottleneck in zoning review.
Yeah.
What is the bottleneck?
There's a couple of things
that I'm going to be actually...
I need the quick answers
because I only got a couple minutes.
No, no, this is going to be quick.
Max, if you can talk about
the zoning review process,
building permits,
and...
Sure. Max Budovich, Deputy Commissioner of Licenses and Permits. So the zoning review process is complex, and the reason it's a bottleneck is there's several components to it, and the components also can vary based on business activity and use type in the zoning code. So that's the short version of the answer. We're looking at plans, permits, working with Department of Buildings and CDOT and others. So that's essentially what's going on.
And the zoning review, is that conducted by DPD or buildings?
it is conducted by us for license applications yes it's an internal uh zoning review okay it's
part of the application so that's something you're going to fix no we're looking into efficiency
there okay uh and and can you give the example of our partnership with cdod and how um for the uh
sure so yeah we're looking at ways to make it more efficient actually this body passed an ordinance
I believe it was two years ago now to implement an upfront $25 fee on license applications that are made online that go into the zoning review process because we were seeing a lot of churn, people just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what would stick.
We were spending a lot of time doing our reviews, and then they would just drop off.
So that's actually been one of the main things led by this body that's really helped us out there.
Very good.
Thank you for answering that question.
And while we're talking about valets real quick, the other thing I'd like you to talk with CDOT about, and I had a conversation with Commissioner Carney about this.
There is this interesting magical phenomenon that occurs in the central business district, not just in my ward, but Conway's, Hopkins, Dowell, Robinson, where loading zones, especially valet loading zones, grow overnight.
night. So we'll sign off on a 20 or 40 foot long loading zone for a valet, and within
weeks suddenly it's 120 feet long. So it turns out drills are really easy to buy in Chicago,
and they work really great on our loading zone signs. We need to make sure we're auditing
those as well. As you know, we charge a fee for private usage of loading zone spaces we're
used to and there are big fines for altering them uh and i'm pretty sure we haven't written
one in a long time probably because it's hard to catch folks but you know my guess is if a loading
zone is being used by a valet company and it mysteriously grows in size the prime beneficiaries
can be that valet company so that's probably who should be held responsible um so we can talk about
that offline that that is i appreciate that for rampant abuse and it falls into one of those weird
regulatory holes where it's kind of a jump ball between CDOT and BACP.
So let's all get on the same team and go stop this because it's insane.
I will follow up with Commissioner Carney and our enforcement team.
Thank you.
And then my last question, and you may not have the answer,
we haven't really touched the issue since the last administration.
Where do we stand?
Have we made any progress at all?
Talking about cannabis now.
with this idea of a consumption on premise license.
Municipalities throughout the state have been kind of slow to adopt this.
But it is now a billion dollar economy here in Illinois as well.
And we are selling a lot of cannabis in Chicago.
Yet we give no lawful place for the visitors to Chicago to consume it.
And so what we now find is people are just smoking it on the sidewalk
in alleys and parks places would probably rather them not be doing that so we're making tremendous
revenue off of this industry yet we're giving the folks who purchase the product nowhere lawful to
consume it have we made any progress on that front we so since since the consumption on premises uh
conversation a few years back we have not moved on that but uh yesterday actually we're having
a conversation and shannon uh may have some uh information about that but i think we are ready
to start those conversations and we welcome uh any advocacy from from from this body around that
because yes now cannabis is you know a few years back it was a new thing but now uh it's it's
becoming more and more prevalent and i think we're ready to have that conversation again
Shannon, any ideas in there?
Sure.
I think it's, as you know, cannabis consumption lounges are authorized if a local municipality
chooses to authorize them.
We did present an ordinance under the Lightfoot administration, and generally the body was
not satisfied with it because our piece is so small in cannabis.
That was at a time when the social equity licenses were held up within litigation.
So I think what the Lightfoot administration was looking for was a piece to put forward equity to those impacted by cannabis and those locations where people cannot smoke it in their homes, including renters or people in public housing.
So that was the ordinance that we put forward now that the social equity licenses have been released.
I think it's something that will certainly be explored by this administration, but there hasn't been a proposed ordinance yet.
Okay. Well, I mean, and the preference would be for the administration to put something forth. Clearly, members of this body could do that. But I'd like you all to fast track that because, one, there's some revenue opportunities there, some business opportunities for folks as well. And we have vacancy issues, right? We have retail vacancy rates through the roof, a lot of empty storefronts.
and again um this is to give folks a lawful place to consume a lawful product in the state of
illinois um so look forward to working with you on that um that's all i've got share and i'll um
i'll follow up offline on my other issues with the department thank you sounds good thank you
thank you don't see chair doll we're gonna go to uh alderman lopez for his round two if we can have
five minutes on the clock i'll take alderman dolls as well thank you
she has the consent
Alderman Lospata was touching on the Uber Eats
folks and all of that
and I know there's questions about safety and all of that as well
but we don't license them correct
not the Uber Eats and the food delivery service
and you don't have to repeat because I heard it
is there any money that is made on that service
tax money?
I'm not sure about that.
Other than sales tax from the items purchased?
Other than that, I don't think there is any other tax
associated. Is it within our
jurisdiction
to license the entire
platform the way we do
Airbnbs and other
platform services in the city
of Chicago? So we don't
have right now specific
jurisdiction on that. I would love to have that
conversation with all of you. And is that
because it's a state issue or is that just because we haven't enacted that can you repeat the second
option is it because of state prohibition or is it because this body hasn't pursued that because
we haven't had that conversation here so the city of chicago can if it so chose to do so in this body
enact some sort of city-wide usage to the platform itself grubhub uber eats what have you yeah so
it's it's it's it's a state i i don't know the answer to that i i have to i don't want to say
something incorrect here okay if you give me a minute uh a chance to research a little more i'll
get back to you if you want to provide that through the chair that's fine but i think that gets to
another uh yes generation a revenue generator that we have allowed to fall by the wayside and
a missed opportunity where we've seen that has truly taken off in ways that most of us never
really imagined post-pandemic. That's something that's stuck around. So I think definitely it
would behoove all of us to see what we can do to make full usage of licensing the platform the way
we do when I think of everything that's online now. And I would actually ask, have we ever done
any kind of comprehensive study to see what services are all made by apps that we are not
in any way, shape, or form licensing or putting any fees attached to them?
We have not.
That's my goal for 2025, to look at app-based services and e-commerce.
Okay.
I want to just stress that as something that if it's possible,
that that's what we need to focus on.
And I would actually suggest that your department make that
a first-quarter priority as we move forward,
because I think that's one of those issues where we could have huge gains.
The other thing I just want to briefly touch on is there are a number of taxes, particularly as it relates to alcohol, that this budget is based on, and the impact on business as it relates to the bag tax and things of that nature.
Have we touched on any of that up to this point?
No.
Were you asked by this administration what the impact of any of those fees or tax changes would be?
No, I have not had that conversation.
So we have increased our already high alcohol taxes and now taken the two cents per bag away from merchants without any consideration of what the impact is.
What happens if that has a negative impact on those revenues?
Is there a backup that's in the works to address when those revenues are not materialized?
Or if the underground markets kick into a fuller swing to avoid those taxes altogether?
Yeah, so those are our conversations that are forthcoming.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Lopez.
I have just two quick questions and then we're going to allow Chair Rodriguez to close out.
And thank you all for, this has been a really good hearing and so many of my questions were
already covered. I have a particular interest in language accessibility. I know I joked when
Alderman Lopez asked the question, but I want to get a little bit more specific around the new
legislation that was enacted this year with the, you know, one fair wage and the paid time off.
What languages are those materials made available in for businesses?
Yeah, I can list them up for you.
Great, thank you.
For OLS, we have English, we have Spanish, Polish, Mandarin, Korean, Tagalog, Hindi,
nepali thai ukrainian
wudu urdu and vietnamese and this is twice as uh 2023 that's great that's great to hear so
this material is then distributed to the the business owners based on their self-identified
need for in language correct and then they're posting in their places of business i'm assuming
that what the workers rights are and all of that in the appropriate languages that's correct and
then when we do we ever do um business checks where we go and make sure that people are actually
adhering to those um regulations make sure that those those types of listings are are those types
of information are posted in a visible place that's correct okay great um and then do we have
any policies around bad actors i know a couple of my colleagues talked about this i've talked to you
guys recently about a business that uh you know we're in the process of shutting down but they've
literally moved across the street um do we keep records of like people who are the business owners
who let's say they have violations they're closed down and they they reopen another business under a
different name but with the same purpose are we tracking who the bad actors are and are there
repercussions for them yeah so we have a a checks and balances systems in place to identify that
um so max can expand a little bit of that but what we try to do is we try to follow the money
uh so max can you explain when a best business leaves a location and then somebody else pops up
in there sure so max butovich deputy commissioner over licenses and permits we do track that um in
our license database we track obviously all the license information including who owns it and the
officers involved. And so when there is a business that opens under the same ownership or involving
ownership from the previous business, even if there's new ownership added in, then based on the
code, there are repercussions of that in terms of our review and ability to approve such an
application for a new license. And are there matching fines to go along with that for the
bad actors. Let's just say that this person moves across the street and has the same types of
repeat violations. Can we find them more? Does that exist today? Or is that something that we
can look at? I'm so sorry. I thought you were still talking to Max. My apologies. Can you
please repeat the question? No. And thank you, Max, for the answer on that. I'm glad to see that
we're tracking it. My question was, do we have commensurate fines that are sort of ramping up
as the bad behavior continues, if that is...
Oh, absolutely.
So we have fine ranges for all of our violations
that's traditional in the municipal code.
So it is progressive enforcement.
And our attorneys, when they adjudicate these cases at AH,
they go with, you know, first offense, minimum fine,
and then they continue up like that.
And then we start building a case.
Is that based on the registered business
or the person that's associated with it?
Like it's the same person, different company.
It's a lot of factors.
Okay.
It's a lot of factors.
Occurrences and severity of the violation, things like that.
Great.
I'm done.
I'm going to hand it over to Chair Rodriguez to close us out.
Oh, Chair.
Well, thank you so much.
You've done a-
Give it a number for him, please.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, fellow dolphin.
Okay.
Got it.
So I want to thank all my colleagues for the conversation today.
The fact is I've been listening intently as a chair of workforce development.
given that this department is the single most important department that interacts with my committee,
with our Committee of Workforce Development.
And I think there's a lot of interest that I've gathered on a couple of different topics
that I kind of wanted to summarize, give some thoughts and some context to.
First, you know, the issue of language access is a critically important issue that I think year after year I've been talking to this group about here at the budget meetings.
And I must say we have made great strides.
Only last year we added a number of positions at the Office of Labor Standards, and each of those positions did have a requirement to be multilingual.
So folks at this table should know that that issue has been addressed.
It's not exactly where we want it to be, but in collaboration with the advocate community, we fought for those positions and we won those positions and we fought to keep those positions this year.
And I'm so glad that OLS and this entity has been able to keep those positions.
So I did want to stress that effort that's happened in the past.
I expect in subsequent budgets we'll come back to this.
But I do believe that we do have expanded capacity here, and I'm glad that that's happened.
Could you just outline a little bit more if I've missed anything or if I got it exactly right?
You got it right.
I mean, there's a lot of conversation today, very, very smart conversations.
I really enjoyed my time here.
I would like to highlight what Alderman Foggespag and Alderman Lopez said about opportunities for revenue, looking into app-based services, trying to bank on that, trying to get information, try to look into the e-commerce area to see where we can tax and bring in some revenue.
Other areas that I would like to look at are streaming services.
So revenue generating is something that is going to be forthcoming in 2025 for us.
The Office of Labor Standards, under the leadership of Miguel Campos, continues to thrive.
He's doing amazing work.
We just added one attorney from our prosecutions and adjudication team on loan to that area
just to make sure that everything that's coming out of OLS is all that legal jargon
and all the legality of all the paperwork and the conversations that he's having with some of the respondents.
It's on point.
So we don't lose any cases.
We continue to promote, you know, fair wages and worker protection.
So thank you for the opportunity today.
I want to continue the conversation with all of you.
So if there's anything else that you guys want the ACP to look at, please follow up with us.
Yes.
That sounded like an ending, but I've got some time here.
You're not done, buddy.
A couple other things.
I think given the changes on One Fair Wage and PTO, we have added data collection and analytics positions there with your department as well.
And I'm wondering if you could talk specifically about those positions and illuminate this body as well, about what those folks are doing now as well.
So two new positions for 2024, I'm sure they're going to add, ask Miguel to follow up on that.
He's working.
They're actually working directly under him.
So, Miguel, can you talk about what our new program analysts are doing in OLS?
Miguel Campos, Director for the Office of Labor Standards.
And yes, thanks to the work of this council last year, this body, we added two program
analysts.
So they started in August of this year, and they're assisting with our complex for workweek
cases.
assisting in investigations. They're doing research in support of other pieces of legislation
that our workforce development committees working on. There's a transportation network provider
driver protections, worker protections that is being worked with with our relevant stakeholders.
so they're doing research into assisting with that effort whenever it is that the committee
is ready to present that ordinance. But yeah, they hit the ground running. They both started.
Yeah, Jalen and Jennifer, they're great and thank you for giving us that opportunity and
those positions in order to do research and see and study what the effects are of the one fair
wage ordinance and the expanded paid leave and paid sick and safe leave ordinance. Great segue
that I will get to about the rideshare ordinance that we're working on. I expect to call that in
committee very soon after budget is done. I saw a lot of ringling over there, but we're going to
make that one happen. The fact is the ride-share drivers deserve more safety. They deserve to have
a fair reactivations process. And Jesus Christ, they deserve to take home more money. So we're
going to be working on that. And I know there's a real commitment from my colleagues who, from a
diverse spectrum, ideological spectrum, have been involved and supportive on this effort for a
number of different reasons, and for this administration being supportive as well. We'll
get the doubles in the details, but friends, you know, that'll be next for us. But back to
the staffing. The fact is that advocates have also asked, Chairwoman, regarding proactive
inspections. We're not going to be able to get there expanding the budget this year, but we do
want to do that in the next subsequent years, and I'd encourage my colleagues to join me in this
effort. The fact is we know there are specific industries more prone to taking advantage to
low-income earners, migrants, et cetera.
And being a little bit more proactive
and inspecting in those spaces
would potentially look and find those bad actors
ahead of time so that we can make
our residents of our city whole
when it comes to their work.
And I'm just curious if someone would opine
on that perspective efforts.
Again, I don't think we're going to be able
to expand on it this year,
but the potential for that expansion and the potential for that kind of work?
Well, proactive inspections is something that it's definitely in the horizon.
The addition of those two program analysts actually is helping investigate.
It's taking away some of the work that the investigations have to do when it comes to reviewing numbers and things like that.
So I believe, and Miguel can testify to this,
that we have now a vision for proactive inspections
coming in 2025.
And we're doing this actually in partnership
with some of the advocates too.
So Miguel, can you expand on that?
Yes, so that's some of the additional work
that we're hoping the program analysts
will be able to help us identify
and look at specific subsectors and manufacturing areas
or even breaking down by specific zip codes
or specific boards and go after repeat offenders
and have proactive investigations.
We're also seeing an increase just in general complaints.
So I do appreciate,
and I think I speak on behalf of Acting Commissioner Capifoli,
the staffing level that we're at now,
but we have seen an increase of 29%
in complaints received year-to-date by workers.
So as this council passes new worker protections
and we are providing outreach and education,
it is having an effect.
People are stepping up.
People are following complaints.
But we do hope, as Acting Commissioner Cabi Fowley stated,
to start doing proactive investigations
and not just spend all of our time responding to complaints.
and just two other lines of thought, I do want to opine on the peddler issue.
This is a massively nuanced issue.
I happen to be one of the foremost supporters of small business owners looking to earn a wage.
you know most of these folks that we are upset with are not getting in their Lexus vehicles and
traveling back to their homes in Nutriere these are folks who are very working class very working
poor we're trying to make ends meet and are not finding a space in the formal economy
to conduct their work however I would agree with some of the frustrations of all of my colleagues
You know, we had a no peddling zone enforced in my ward.
It was a zone that was absolutely overrun and causing public safety issues, etc.
I am not against enforcement.
I'm actually for enforcement.
But there needs to be long-term solutions and real solutions.
We can't, I couldn't agree with you more, Ivan.
we can't or forgive me interim director capofale we cannot just enforce our way out of this issue
that is a road to nowhere the fact is we need to find one pathways to the formal economy
for all of our workers two we need to figure out ways where we can provide legal opportunities
and expand the definition of what's legal to the extent that it makes sense i don't want to
put at risk public health. I couldn't agree with you more. Live cooking on the street
is not okay by me. Sorry, but it's just not. I will publicly say it. If you're cooking on the
street, it's not okay. And we've made a number of calls for enforcement there. But third,
the fact is that we need to be smart about addressing our economy and be realistic about
our economy. So just enforcing will not resolve this matter. So, you know, I don't know what the
solution is, but I know we're working on one. And I don't think we're ever going to come up with the
perfect solution, but we got to keep on working on it to make the situation better. That's my point.
And I think we have the commitment of your department to do so. And I do believe that there
could be some happy mediums here. I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and try and figure that out as
I appreciate that.
Last but certainly not least, Madam Chair, I hope I haven't been much more than 10 minutes.
You're good.
Thank you so much.
It's called dolphin time.
That's not a compliment, Ray.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, I must say that it is an absolute pleasure working with this group of folks.
Thank you.
You know, I'm not going to name any names, but the fact is that you know who you are and you've been already addressed by Matt O'Shea 45 times.
But the fact is, is that I think you do the good work of the city of Chicago.
And I'm very proud to work with you day in and day out.
We don't always agree and we do butt heads at times.
But the fact is, I know your hearts are in the right place.
And to be quite honest, who better to lead this institution than someone who's rose throughout the city, someone who's been in this department for a number of years.
We need to take that interim tag off very soon.
Ivan, you have my full support, and I believe you have the vast majority of this council's full support.
I thank you very much for your efforts.
And I will give leave to the other 20 minutes that you're going to give me, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Chair Rodriguez.
Thank you.
Interim for now.
Thank you, everyone.
Commissioner Capofelli.
And every member of your team who's here on the dais and in the box and who's every day answering every single one of our calls.
You don't have to just answer from one of our offices.
There's 50 of us and then multiple people in our offices.
So I thank you.
I apologize to you, but I thank you profusely for everything that you all do.
do with that. The committee is going to stand at ease for let's 10 minutes, 10 minutes.
Thank you. And then we'll start back here with the Department on housing.
It is just about five o'clock.
We are on our third hearing for the day,
the Department of Housing,
and we have with us Commissioner Castaneda and her team.
I'm actually just missing the folks from COFA.
I'm sorry, I got started too early.
Why don't you go ahead and do introductions
and then we'll let COFA do their thing
before you get into everything here.
Good evening, looking at the time.
Good evening, everyone.
To my right here is managing Deputy Commissioner Tamara Collins.
And in the box, I have Deputy Commissioner for Neighborhood Preservation, Will Edwards.
Deputy Commissioner for Multifamily Finance, Esther Sorrell.
Assistant Commissioner for Implementation and Evaluation, Matt Stern.
Deputy Commissioner for Homeownership, Irma Morales.
Assistant Commissioner for Construction Services, Dan Rico.
assistant commissioner for igam budget mike weber deputy commissioner for finance um alexandra
budnik assistant commissioner for asset management asia bonner assistant commissioner for the chicago
housing trust jenny fronzak and city planner five diana beltron over aro thank you so much
Commissioner, we're now going to have a brief presentation from our friends at COFA.
Ms. Oda Gray, please.
Thank you.
Vice Chairman Lee, outer persons, and guests.
Department of Housing, you have a proposed budget of $238,000.5 million.
You have FTE budget of $123,000.
That's five FTEs up from $24,000.
we have personnel cost of 15.9 million and non-personnel 226.2 i'm sorry 222.6 million
thank you thank you um since we still have housing and dpd and chicago public libraries to go we're
going to go ahead and forego the reading of the opening statements and just go straight to questions
are there questions in the room
oh this is going to be quick
department of housing okay
wait we're we're on department of housing just for the record
okay let me just get names down lasbada conway wagas back taylor
uh colleagues are either of you interested in asking questions so the department of housing
I'm just taking down names right now no pressure Alderman Dahl you're okay for now okay okay
uh we'll uh we'll start with uh we will start with uh Alderman LaSpada
number one gets to go number one in this one hey it's like an old-fashioned roll call
go ahead i love it um it's 503 we have two departments to go after you uh we were able
to have a conversation about your budget offline but i'll ask online on mike the the question for
which your response i found most intriguing and exciting and came directly from first word
constituents. Commissioner Castaneda, in the bond ordinance, we talked about green social housing.
The mayor and his budget address talked about green social housing. Can you speak more into
what this looks like for Chicago? What makes it green? What makes it social? And what does this
look like in 2025? Absolutely. Thank you for the question. So as the mayor addressed during the
budget address. We are making an investment from the housing and economic development bond for
green social housing over the course of the next five years. In 2025, we plan on launching the
program, which would be launching the first couple of projects. Ultimately, what green social housing
looks like in Chicago will be different than it maybe has looked in other places. The green aspect
of it is the fact that everything that we are building is built decarbonized to electric
standards that is actually currently the case both through our decarbonization work and through the
standards that we ask all developers to build through at the um with the architectural and
technical standards manual so what we hope over the course of the first five years of implementation
will be 600 units of affordable housing through mixed income developments that have tenant
councils and are within the full control of the city not relying on other resources i'm excited
for it. I have a world of respect for your team. Together, we're working to make rental housing
more affordable. We're working to make homeownership more affordable in the ward. We're working to make
housing more plentiful in the ward. And I know over the next year, two years, we're going to also
work to bring down those costs and bring down the timelines. And I wouldn't say those things if I
didn't deeply trust your commitment to that work and your team's commitment to that work.
So thank you so much.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman Laspata.
Let's go to Alderman Conway.
Perfect.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.
First question I'd like to ask is just your general take on how we're doing on the LaSalle Street reimagined, they don't want me to call it that anymore, loop revitalization program.
That's what it is. And how you feel that and how you feel that's going, noting that 79 West Monroe has gone through, which I know you did a lot of work on.
And it looks like 135 South LaSalle is proceeding and other projects in the pipeline.
So I just want to get some update on you from you on that, because I know we're rating that TIF pretty hard in this budget.
Yeah, we're really excited about 79 West Monroe being the first project that's ready to go.
We do expect that to close by the end of the year and are really looking forward to working with the rest of the developments to close in 2025.
In the loop community area alone, this will increase affordable housing by 1,000%.
So for us, it's a no-brainer that this is an important investment that we should be making, particularly as we see more of these office-to-residential conversions.
and do um and you are you still uh it sounds like yes but full throttle that we should continue with
the rest of the program going forward yes absolutely we wholly are in on la salle street
projects great we'd love to hear it so as i as i look at your budget um it and i'm trying to pick
pick it through and i couldn't quite figure it out so it looks like you're taking a pretty
pretty significant cut in terms of 10% less, but more, you know, but you're getting a fair,
a fair increase with regard to the corporate fund. And I couldn't quite figure out what was
driving that. So I thought I would ask that question, if that makes sense. Yes, absolutely.
So I may not be asking it right. So feel free to answer the question that you think I asked
with regard to that. Got it. Yes. So we are, we did do some cuts from the corporate fund. We
did meet the three percent goal set for us by the office for budget management in addition to that
though we are having new positions we were granted five new positions and so part of what we did was
move some of the positions off of corporate onto other funds in order to meet those targets for
anything that was previously in the corporate fund that we wanted to keep going are things that we
have moved over to the bond most of the increase that you see in the corporate funding is actually
due to just scheduled increases and to the union COLAs that they will be receiving.
Nice.
All right.
And as I look through the corporate fund numbers, it looks like the administration positions
increased, but housing finance and housing preservation disappeared entirely from page
114.
And is that a change in mission, or is that sort of a change in allocation?
Like, I'm sure you still care about preserving and financing housing, but I just didn't know what was responsible for that change.
Yeah, so those positions were moved in consultation with OBM to a different fund in order to, again, meet some reductions in the corporate fund.
Okay, great.
That's all the questions I had about your budget, and I appreciate the hard work you're doing to not only just increase affordable housing.
I firmly believe that something that I think you understand, but I'm not sure a lot of people in this chamber do,
is that if we want to make housing affordable, we just have to increase the supply of housing, too.
Not necessarily affordable housing, but the supply of housing.
And I greatly appreciate your effort to not only the specifically affordable housing, but also increase the supply generally, which should have a free market effect of lowering the cost of housing or the price of housing.
So, Madam Vice Chair, that's all I have, and I hope I yield my efficiency.
Thank you, Madam Commissioner.
We're always learning something from you, Alderman Conway.
Thank you.
We're going to go to Alderman Lopez next, please.
Thank you, Chairman.
and good evening members of this committee,
good evening commissioner and everyone here.
A couple questions.
First off, how much of our housing bond capacity is available?
So I think that in terms of specifically like bonds
that have been sold and all of that,
I would defer all of that to the CFO.
I can say that for the Department of Housing by the end of the year we will have spent 12.9 million dollars across the various buckets that we allocated in the bond.
And how much was the total bond for?
So DOH's allocation of the Housing and Economic Development Bond is $625 million over the course of five years.
And so next year we do expect to spend our full allocation of $125 million.
Okay. Can you provide a breakdown of what last year's was by Ward and what the anticipation of 2025 is by Ward?
Yes, this year and next year. Yes, we can provide that through the chair.
Thank you. One of the things that we see often in this chamber, especially when we're dealing with government-assisted housing projects and developments, is an ever-growing per-unit cost, particularly with our not-for-profit partners.
We recently just saw, I believe, and anyone can correct me, at one of the last, I think it was the last finance committee meeting where we had a refurbished building with a nearly $1 million per unit cost that was funded either partly through housing and or TIF money.
What are we doing to ensure that as we are dealing with both our bond sourcing and other grant sources, to ensure that we are bringing down that per unit cost?
Because I think that, to Alderman Conway's point, yes, building capacity drives down costs.
But we also know that there is a huge disparity in the per unit costs, and every one of the last three finance meetings we've seen where a one-bedroom unit costs double what I paid for my house, which is 2,000 square feet.
How is that possible?
And what steps are you taking as a department to address that?
So I'll talk about the steps we're taking and then I will let our managing deputy commissioner talk about what's driving some of those costs.
Cut the tape is not primarily meant to cut costs, but it is one of the things that we expect that once we have gone through a full development cycle and are able to evaluate the implementation of cut the tape ideas onto the development process, that we will see some savings there.
Part of what costs development is time.
And so we know that the more that we can cut down on time to ensure that we're getting through things faster, that GCs are holding their pricing, we know that that will help to at least hold cost steady if not actually bring them down.
In addition, I will say that any developer will tell you that we push them very hard on value engineering and on making sure that anything that they're including in the project is necessary for life and dignity and making sure that at the end of the day, the units are good livable units, while still making sure that there are not extra things in the unit that perhaps we don't actually need to pay for.
And again, there's some things that just generally drive the high cost of housing when you are building with federal resources.
Thank you. Tamara Collins, Managing Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Housing.
I know I've talked about this a number of times when I've come down.
There are a couple of distinctions that I would like to make.
So in general, costs are up. Development costs are up.
You see some of the projects at higher costs than other costs.
When I've looked at the numbers, on average from 2019 to 2020, when we were seeing the average affordable housing costs at about $450,000 a unit, we've seen that increase.
So you'll see some projects that are higher, closer to the $800,000, but some are also lower, closer to the $300,000 to $400,000.
So on average, what we've seen is that total the per unit costs across the projects for 2024, on average, is about $578,000 a unit.
That's up a bit from 2023, which was $568,000 a unit.
So we've seen about a $10,000 per unit increase.
But when we think about projects that have higher costs, the things that play into it are economies of scale.
So if you have a larger project, it's going to have a smaller per unit cost.
The sweet spot for the Department of Housing is about 50 to 60 units.
But we've done projects as much as 25 units up to 100 units.
So you're going to see the variance there.
But there are other things that are outside of our control.
So, you know, supply chain demand, things of that nature that are outside of our control that we can't control.
So what we try to do internally is value engineer if it means, you know, reducing.
We want to build more affordable units.
That's obviously the goal.
So, and forgive me because I know I got the Jeopardy clock behind me.
And I get all that.
And when you are comparing between not-for-profit or city-funded projects, to say it's only gone up 10% or whatever is fluctuating it is, you're comparing that.
But when I look at what for-profit development costs are, they are wildly different.
And we are, in essence, building the same product at almost two to three times a higher price, which I don't understand why.
and that is what i'm trying to get to the bottom of because i believe um commissioner we all share
the desire uh to build housing for people that need it that don't have options or quality options
because i don't think any of us want to build crap housing we want to build housing that we want to
be a part of absolutely but i don't but i want i have a hard time processing the fact that
what we are being charged, what we are paying out to those who are building this housing
is the best use of our resources to get the most bang for the buck.
When if a private developer can build a 50 unit building, which you said is our
sweet spot, that's our optimum building for the best pricing.
If they could do it for $100,000 a unit, I'm just guesstimating, and we're doing it for
$500,000 a unit.
That tells me that we could have built
five times as much if we just let
a private developer do it and then bought it
for them, from them, as
opposed to if we did it in the way that we've been doing
it up until this point. So that's
where I'd like to see a deeper dive
from your department,
because the overall
housing bond, I think, is $1.6 billion,
and we're really shortchanging
our taxpayers
and those who need housing
if we are not
making sure that those dollars are being used to get the most best deal for our taxpayers.
I personally believe that we've seen so many developers who've never been challenged,
never been questioned, and never been audited to see what is it that you're spending all of this money on
has got us to a point where since we've never asked,
we just keep adding and adding and building from what has just ballooned to the point where it is now.
And it far outpaces what private sector can do.
I understand that there will be some things that we add on to it because we're not the private sector, but to be so far off of what it takes to be able to build the same four walls is something that gives me pause because that means so many missed opportunities by what we're doing.
I look forward to seeing what you do as your department grows.
I think there are good options for us to be able to move forward.
I would also ask and be curious if you could provide through the chair who your delegate agencies are and what the nearly $7 million goes for.
If you want to elaborate high level what that equals or what that's for, feel free to do that now.
But through the chair, the specifics I'd appreciate.
And how they're broken up and how they connect by ward and community.
Oftentimes we see individuals who just take the zip code checkmark and say they're working with the community to address housing issues.
And I don't think that's necessarily a productive use of our time or dollars.
So if you could provide that, but if you want to give us an overview of what housing looks like.
So we can provide the entire list through the chair.
Big picture, we have several housing counseling agencies which work with folks to help buy homes or some do rental counseling.
We have agencies that also do technical assistance for the community, which means connecting them to resources.
In some cases, one of our delegate agencies, for example, is the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, which helps folks when they are facing evictions or any other legal issues like that.
And one of our delegate agencies is the Chicago Bungalow Association that works with homeowners to help make updates to their homes.
Thank you. Awesome. And then if you could just add, if you could provide through the chair what coordination you do with the Chicago Land Bank and their preservation unit.
The Cook County land bank. Yes, the county land, excuse me, and their preservation unit. Okay, in terms of rehabbing the properties that they have as well. Yep. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're going to go to Chair Dowell and then to Chair Vasquez. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes. The point point of clarification. Ray kept talking. Sorry.
on the point um that uh alderman lopez stated you said that you all use how much bond money
out of the 1.25 in 2024 we will have it we will have spent 12.9 okay because the cfo was here
wednesday and she said that we haven't used any of the bond money and that they were using cash
on hand. So how are we using bond money that hasn't been bonded yet? So has it been bonded or no?
So I would defer to the CFO's answer about where the money is coming from, right? So for us,
we are counting it against our bond allocation. And I believe that the CFO's response was about
how the money actually goes out the door, which is that they will sell bonds at some point and
reimburse themselves. So we're counting for what we have already spent of that.
Okay, so I'm just confused on how are you saying we're using bond money, but yet we don't know if it's bond money. Is it cash on hand? And you're saying that it's bond money. I think that's a conflict. You guys need to get on the same page and find out if it's bond money. Because she said that we were not using bond money yet. We're using cash on hand.
Right. I would defer to the CFO on that, but my understanding is that what that meant was that they have not yet bonded out on that money, and they will, and they will reimburse themselves against the bond. So again, for us, the way that we spend as a department will be different than the way that the CFO counts it, because again, they will at some point sell the bonds and reimburse themselves against the bond. So I would defer to the CFO for further clarification on what the accounting looks like on that.
yeah if we have anybody from iga um can we please make sure we get that answer from the cfo please
i'm sure she's listening there's anybody from the cfo's office or if the cfo is around to answer the
question we'd be happy to have them here otherwise i would like iga to provide the answer to that
question um sorry about that thank you um chair dowell uh thank you madam chair good afternoon
Commissioner. It's a long day for everyone. One and two, the 10.5 million that you're setting
aside for the shy mortgage program. Can you give us a preview of how you're thinking about that?
Absolutely. So the 10.5 million will be coming from the housing and economic development bond.
And we are thinking about it roughly. And again, we'll have more details as we're ready to actually
launch the program. There will be an RFP that will go out by the end of the year. We will have an
administrator who will be giving out grant funding for down payment assistance for homeowners.
We are looking at two zones so that there will be higher amounts for those that are trying to buy
in more expensive zones versus those that are trying to buy in less expensive zones. But the
idea is that we will be able to make a significant impact on what a homeowner needs to bring to the
table. And this will be on income limited? It will be. We're looking roughly at, I will ask Deputy Commissioner Morales to answer that.
For the record, Irma Morales, Deputy Commissioner for Department of Housing. We are going to be providing the grant down payment assistance in a sliding scale.
So the lower the income, the higher the grant.
And zoning A will be breaking down someone getting 80% and below their income.
Up to 101 to 120 will get the lower grant, which is we're looking to look at $40,000 versus someone in 80 and below getting $70,000.
All right. And how many people do you think this would benefit over the course of a year?
This is for one year, right?
So it will be a two-year program and over the course, or it will be launched for two years, at least initially.
And in the two years, we expect to serve about 300 people.
Okay. The Build Illinois money, you had $20 million in 2024 that you're carrying over in your budget for 2025. What happened? Why didn't we use it? And what's that money for?
So that is a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority that is going towards our neighborhood preservation work, specifically towards Rebuild 2.0.
We were awarded the money in the middle of this year, and so part of the reason we're carrying it over is simply we haven't vouchered against it quite yet.
And I will let Deputy Commissioner Edwards talk a little bit about Rebuild 2.0.
For the record, Deputy Commissioner Will Edwards, Housing Preservation.
So Rebuild 2.0 is really our housing preservation kind of go-to.
We're using that money to rehabilitate vacant and abandoned homes in historically disinvested communities around the city.
It's used as gap funding where after rehab value cannot be penciled out because of comps in the area and the overriding cost of rehabilitation and acquisition.
Thank you.
I also noticed that you have approximately a nine plus million dollar loss under your special revenues.
Can you explain what happened there? What accounts for that decrease?
In special revenue?
Special revenue funds.
I will. Okay, so that is actually our AHOF money. So the affordable housing opportunities fund
is where developers operating under the affordable requirements ordinance
would be paying into. We are seeing far less of that these days because of the incentive
that the state passed in 2021. Now you have a program called the TIF rehab program,
which I believe allows for the rehab of mixed-use buildings, commercial and residential.
And I think the requirement is that if you have commercial,
that you have to have five residential units as part of the deal.
but sometimes in important corridors or corridors where you might have former Invest Southwest sites,
maybe across the street, you might have a building that needs to be rehabbed,
but that building doesn't have, it has a commercial,
but it doesn't have the requisite five required units of residential.
Is there a possibility you could put together some guidelines?
I'd like to see some guidelines that would give a waiver for buildings of those types so that we can get the rehab done.
We would be definitely open to engaging in conversation with you, and that's something that Deputy Commissioner Edwards and I can do.
Well, Deputy Commissioner, would you like to just opine on that?
Absolutely. We're actually looking at that and trying to examine how we can make those changes.
Those are not changes that we believe have to be done through statute.
So these are programmatic changes that we can do at our level, and we're happy to look at it.
All right. And I know Alderman Laspata asked about the green housing, green social housing program. I still don't understand that. You mentioned something about it's government managed.
Right. So this would be created out of a revolving loan fund that we will have the money for out of the housing and economic development bond. So that is going to be under the purview of the city. Yes.
Right. But the management of the housing is going to be done by private entities, right?
So there will be, well, first of all, there'll be further conversations about exactly what the model looks like early next year as we sort of make the rounds with all of you and your colleagues, just to ensure that we're all on the same page.
But generally, the idea is going to be that there is going to be a residential investment corporation that will be a separate 501c3 that will manage and be responsible for the properties.
a separate 501c3 to manage city-wide. So this program is going to be all over the city of
Chicago? There are some markets that will work better for green social housing than others,
and we're still in the early stages of exploring that. So what would be some criteria? I know you
haven't done it yet, but I just would like to get a sense of how you're thinking. Where would this
work? Yeah, so we're looking at
mixed income developments, and so
part of what you need in
mixed income development is some cross-subsidization,
and so you need to make sure
that, again, that the lower rents are supported
by the higher rents, and so that's part of what we're looking
at.
And I saw up to $2.5 million
for B&AH grants.
What's that?
B&A.
BNAH grants.
Oh, BANA. It is, so we currently have an existing down payment assistance program that is only
applicable to lots that the city used to own, to our city owned lots.
So what does the acronym mean?
Building neighborhoods and affordable homes.
All right. Well, you know, like I told you before, I am happy to see you in that seat.
I feel comfortable and I know you're passionate about housing and I look forward to working with
you. Oh, I do have one last question. Tiny homes. What's going on with that? I want to build some
in the third ward. We continue to explore the possibility with the mayor's office. This is
something that we're also excited for because we know that we need all the tools in the toolbox.
We need to stop exploring and figure out how to get this done because we've been exploring this
for a couple of years now and the market is growing in this area. It's being built all over
the country and we need to see it in Chicago. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Chair
Dahl. We're going to go to Alderman Mosley next. And then to, I'm sorry, Alderman Vasquez and then
Alderman Mosley. Apologies. Vasquez is not in the room. Okay. Mosley. Vasquez when he gets back.
Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair. Good evening, Commissioner. Let me just start by saying that
thank you for helping me with my greatest challenge in the 21st Ward, which is housing
security. I mean, we are going everywhere from building a youth shelter to building supportive
housing, 100% supportive housing, to affordable and mixed units finally getting a real rental
market in the 21st Ward because you either buy a home or rent a home there, and then all the way
to just home ownership at multiple levels. So thank you, your team, Esther, Tamara, Will, Irma,
I mean, Meredith and I were together last night having another community meeting.
So thank you so much.
I want to talk a bit about homeownership and what are we doing to make sure that we are doing a lot of the infield housing,
filling in those vacant properties and those vacant lots that are on our blocks that are the eyesores, the missing teeth to the smell.
Absolutely. The greatest asset that we have for that is our City Lots for Working Families
program. And I'm going to let Deputy Commissioner Morales talk a little bit more about that.
Good evening. Irma Morales, Deputy Commissioner. In regards to the City Lots for Working Families
is a program designed to work with small developers to build development for sale on
making lands. So we provide them for a dollar and at the same token we'll marry that with
building affordable homes, down payment assistance for the buyers. So it allows the developer
to build homes at 120% AMI and then because of the income being at the self-price being
set at that price then we will provide the down payment assistance to the buyer to reduce
that and make it affordable. So we work with DPD to use the platform of Chai Block and we meet with
every alderman to first understand where does that make sense. So we encourage the partnership with
the elders so that we can get guidance and where do they like to have see some single family
development for sale. Whitney has been phenomenal on that too. My team is connected with her and
I don't know if that's what my colleague next door to me in the NIFOR has been using with
Revolution Workshop, but I mean seeing young folks being able to work on homes and then
buy them, the alumni of the program, buy them is something I want to make sure we expand.
What I don't want to expand is our families losing their homes. What is the Department of
housing doing to make sure that our seniors or just folks in general are able to stay in their
homes and not lose them for taxes, that they're able to pass down this wealth-generating tool to
their legacies and other folks and their families? Yeah, the single greatest way in which we're
helping folks stay in their homes is through our home repairs program. It ensures that folks are
able to fix up their homes and maintain their homes and pass them on to the next generation.
In fact, in this last time that we opened the wait list for the home repair program, we started in helping folks because we can't help all 3,000 plus people that applied, but we started by helping people who had been in their homes 50 years plus to ensure that we're helping our older adults and that we're helping with wealth preservation and with generational preservation.
I'm glad you brought that up
and I just want to shout out the Black Caucus
for the socially economic
disadvantaged areas being prioritized
expanding the program scope
and prioritizing some funding
there
when you talk about
home repairs
I'm not too sure, do SARFs live
in your apartment?
A lot of seniors
are on the waiting
lists. It seems like an endless waiting list. We got more seniors that need the assistance
of small accessible repairs programs that is needed. But also just throughout the years,
we've seen a decrease in a physical location in the far south region for folks to go to.
I know seniors in the 21st floor don't like to do the application by computer and so forth.
they want to go in and sit down with someone. So our offices, our automatic offices, become those.
Can we get, we need one back in the far south region. I think Great Auburn Gresham Community
Development Corporation was the last one in the far south region, but will we see
a program office back in the far south? Part of the efficiencies that we're making is actually
including the scope of SARFs in our regular home repair program in order to ensure that seniors
aren't having to do multiple applications, that they can access everything through one place.
For the home repair program, part of the way that we have set it up is that we have worked
with aldermanic offices to ensure that your staffs are also able to help us do some of that.
And we would certainly love to talk to you more about what else we can do to have a presence
in the far south side to ensure that those seniors are also gaining access to that.
Great. Well, you know, I saw you a tour of the 21st ward and looking forward to having you
and the team down.
And particularly, I mean,
Morgan Park Commons is a game changer
for the entire region there.
So thank you for the commitment
for taking 12 acres of land
that has been vacant for almost 20 years
and finally bringing something
that's going to strengthen,
not just give folks a place to live
and shelter to be proud of,
but desirable businesses,
increasing the strength of our economy,
being a destination,
and, I mean, keeping businesses there.
So thank you for that work.
Thank you, Alderman.
All right.
With that, I'll pass it back to you.
Thank you, Alderman Mosley.
We're going to go to Chair Vasquez next.
Chair Vasquez.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I apologize for earlier.
Hi there.
Love you guys.
In the interest of time,
I'm just going to get into questions.
So through the Chair,
can you send a list of all program cuts this year
from this year since all the program cuts this year from last.
In particular, for purpose of discussion,
it looks like there is $117.9 million reduction in rehabilitation spending
and $9.5 million reduction in the Affordable Housing Density Program
and the total elimination of the housing assistance appropriation.
When you guys are coming to decisions on what to cut,
why were these on and who do you believe it will impact?
Yes, one clarification just now is that the Affordable Housing Density
city program is just it's what a half shows up under in the budget so a half being the affordable
housing opportunities fund that is not a program that is where in lieu of fees from the affordable
requirements ordinance get paid into but for everything else yes we can provide that through
the chair perfect um cha has had obviously uh they're going through their shake up up in
leadership how is the city planning on working better with cha and new leadership coming in
to get the outcomes that we need from them uh what coordination from the mayor's office are
you looking for in this endeavor of setting expectations with CHA? We've had a lot of
conversations with the mayor's office to talk about what we would like to see. And I think
more than anything, we want to see greater coordination with them as we think about how
we're prioritizing the work that needs to be done. CHA's crisis is not separate from ours,
right? It is along with what is happening in the city. And we want to make sure that we can use
both the resources of both agencies to the very best of our ability. Perfect. Thank you.
The next one is about proactive building inspections.
So we believe it's directly a housing issue.
We know that it's Department of Buildings that does the investigations,
but that a lot of stuff that they find can actually help inform where some of the programs could be focused,
where we can identify who's in the most need of help and who are in the worst conditions.
We were trying to have a hearing about how hard it is to come up with policy to address some of these things
and just kind of wanted to get an understanding of what challenges you see, for example,
and I'll just say for purposes of the question, like migrant issue, right?
We're transitioning away from the shelters.
We're downsizing the beds.
So trying to identify folks that need help and knowing that if they've got concerns,
they don't even know where to complain.
So I guess part of the question is the interplay with Department of Buildings to help inform
where need is and also how to address the challenges of folks who are trying to find
places to live and even the only people that amanda was take the least care of their buildings
i will say that we do a lot of work directly with the department of buildings um you know we do have
a trouble buildings initiative with which we work very closely with commissioner hopkins and her team
through our rebuild program as well there is a whole aspect of that that is about bringing back
troubled buildings into productive use and so we understand that this is a huge need uh in terms of
sort of the future focus and like policy, we're always open to policy ideas and things that could
be administrative and certainly in a year like this that have minimal budget impact. Yeah,
definitely. Thank you. Can you talk about DOH's current Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund,
just to give a little more context for folks? Yeah, the Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund
gets their pass-through money through the Department of Housing from the state.
They are funded from the state recordation fees.
We do have an allocation that we have given them.
It is part of our corporate fund of $5 million.
They have also traditionally received money from our AHA fund, which, of course, has seen some drastic hits this year.
And so Clift is looking at new revenues that they are trying to bring in.
They are an independent 501c3, so they are able to do some fundraising, but they are also looking at some cost-cutting measures.
Awesome.
I wanted to shout out a bunch of folks from your team.
Meredith Muir, Brian Rogers, Alicia Oliora, Matt Stern, and the folks for the Haven on Lincoln.
So for some of the members who may or may not know, in the 40th Ward, we were able to grant funding to begin with, identify a motel that we were able to acquire.
We're going to rehab and it's going to become non-congregate shelter with services on site.
We're talking a clinic, mental health services, substance use disorder services, and where folks get their own unit to have the dignity of going on their journey as they find more stabilization.
Can you talk about how the city can figure out how to move money or what we can do to maybe scale that up?
Because my hope and belief is that as it does well, to be able to talk to our colleagues about other opportunities allows for, I think, what are better long-term solutions to help transition people to more permanent housing.
Yeah, I think we're really proud of the Haven and of that partnership with the Department of Public Health. And we're really looking forward to being able to do some evaluation of the program and seeing how well that works and to really be able to make the case for further funding and for finding new sources of funding for that kind of model.
Yeah, I think, you know, something that's kind of looming over this budget ever since two days ago is identifying what funding might be coming, what might not be coming.
My hope and belief, again, is that there is shared interest across parties to try to figure out how to address this and that there might still be funding.
But I think as things develop, getting those kind of updates to see what it's looking like and what help you might need from us would be greatly appreciated.
The next question I got is I know we've got the ARO and we try to identify a way to increase affordability. Sometimes the level of subsidy ends up costing like tens of millions of dollars to just to get certain level of housing and it becomes challenging.
So, for example, we had a TIF over on Lawrence and Western where we might have had the opportunity to convert that to more affordable housing, but the TIF ultimately expires at the end of the year.
And something that we've been pushing on, and to be honest, part of my vote for the bond that we did as far as the infrastructure bond, was to be able to do property acquisition.
And so to date, I haven't really seen a lot of conversation or momentum towards that.
I think there's similar motels in 40, for example, that rather than subsidizing units, you could acquire the property and then have developers who can do more aggressive affordable housing actually RFP for it.
And so wanted to kind of get your take and see if you're willing to partner up on opportunities like that, where acquisition might lead to more affordability in a way that could be cheaper than subsidizing.
Yeah. As was stated earlier, the Department of Housing is getting new positions, and two of those positions are city planner positions.
And it really goes directly to this question of how can the Department of Housing be more proactive instead of reactive, right? The entirety of the way we are set up right now is that developers bring us projects and we say, okay, here's how we can shift this and here's how we can fund this project.
And really what I'm looking forward to in the new year is being able to have planners on board to really help us be proactive to go out into the community to work with the alders and say, hey, this is the thing that is really necessary here.
How can we make this work and bring that back in-house so that we can also then say, okay, if we have this source of funding, maybe we can do this.
You know, if there's anything that Department of Housing is good at is we can finagle things.
I like that answer because it was like, okay, those are two positions we're not going to be looking at when we're trying to save some money out here because we need to increase that.
But I guess separate from that, just to kind of get more direct and get your take on it, where do you stand on doing the kind of like property acquisition to get there?
Because in wards like the 40th where you're trying to identify affordability, I think those are one of the few opportunities to kind of increase it in that way.
Yeah. Again, I think that we are often looking to developers to bring us projects.
And I think in terms of property acquisition, it can happen.
It has happened in other wards and in other projects.
and I think if someone brought us a project and said, hey, there's a really great property that
I want to acquire in 40 and I think that this is what the project would look like, we have a whole
process set up for intake and what that can look like for us to evaluate the projects and so we
would be really open to that. Awesome, that's great. Thank you for that. That's actually all
I've got and I really do appreciate the work that you do. I think given the challenges we have now,
given what the market could do to housing over here, again, the presidential election, we want
to make sure we're increasing affordability to prevent homelessness, and I think the work that
you all do should be commended. So thank you. Thank you to the whole team and all the work
they've helped us do through the last couple of years, and thank you for your work. Thank you,
Chairwoman. Thanks. Next, we're going to have Chair Haddon.
Thank you so much, Chair, and hello, Commissioner, and to your team. It was nice to get to chat with
you guys for a little bit and hang out in the evening, so thank you for providing me with
conversation and a break and also just want to say I've enjoyed working with everybody over this
last year or two and I know we have a lot of work to do together the rest of this year and in the
next couple of years so appreciate the partnership with your team. Thank you. My couple of questions
are really going to be about some of the carryovers and so I guess I'll say if this has already been
ask or there's some through the chair requests just like let me know and i can follow up um
since i had to step out but looking through um through some of the grant detail looking at the
home investment partnership programs the emergency rental housing assistance um you know we've got
about almost seven million kind of carried forward for emergency rental assistance um is that like
when will we see another issuance i know that program's been kind of ongoing through
our pandemic funds, when will that open up again? Yeah, so the ERAP program, those funds actually
expire September of this year, and I'll let AC Stern talk about that. Thank you. For the record,
Assistant Commissioner Matt Stern, the two programs that you mentioned are both COVID-era
one-time grants that we have multiple years to spend down. So the Home Investment Partnership
carryover of 27 million that is a portion of the home arp grant which was collaboratively
handled by dfss and doh it's a large grant i don't remember the total dollar amount but this
is doh's only portion of it which is to build permanent supportive housing we have that money
available to us through 2029 and will be used primarily by the multi-family team to subsidize
PSH development. The ERAP funding, almost $7 million, as the Commissioner mentioned,
that expires at the end of Q3 of this coming year. This was the very large amount of money,
over $100 million originally from Treasury, to fund a combination of emergency rental assistance
directly, as well as some rental support and stabilization programs, including the Right to
council program. So the remainder of this money is earmarked for right to council. Um, and we're,
uh, spending as much as we can, uh, between now and, uh, its expiration at, uh, quarter three of
next year. Um, just a follow-up clarifying question then. Sorry. I, you said it expired
quarter three of this year. Next year. Sorry. Sorry. I'm like, no, my mistake, Matt. Yeah. Okay.
So, um, so 3 million of the almost 7 million is going to the right to council program and the rest
is going to fund another round of, is this just kind of the monthly emergency rental assistance?
That's right.
That is, okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Helpful.
And then I had two lines in here on the home investment partnership.
So that is the home funding that is formula funding that we get from the federal government.
And so one line is for the new funding that we get every year.
And one is for the program income.
So sometimes we put home into deals as loans that then get repaid.
Gotcha.
Okay.
And what I heard was for the ARPA-funded piece, we have until 2029, and this is being used for the development of multifamily housing.
And the other piece?
Particularly permanent supportive housing.
Permanent supportive housing.
And do you know how many units of permanent supportive housing you think could be built, or is it kind of based on the project, or is there a goal?
It will be based on the project.
Right now, every one of our projects is asked to set aside 5% of the total unit count as permanent supportive housing, and one of the tracks in the QAP has been 100% permanent supportive housing.
Fantastic.
And then my next questions are around the Prairie District Affordable Housing, but also the South Shore Homeownership Preservation Program.
program so the two million in each of those I I know the South Shore home ownership one I think
this is two years of carryover um at this point I'm just wondering if anyone could speak to what
is happening with that program we can talk generally about the program I will say that
specifically the two million that you see in the budget is actually a federal earmark and so part
of it is just the time that it takes to be able to access that money and I will let um uh Deputy
Commissioner Edwards talk about the South Shore program.
Thank you for the question.
The South Shore Preservation Ordinance is specific to revitalization support for those
units, those condo units.
And the $2 million that we've identified there isn't exactly that.
The federal money that's come down, it was a federal earmark.
We're using that money to be able to support repairs for common areas for those buildings
to allow seniors mostly to age in place.
I think my question is, why hasn't it been used,
and why is this the second year that it's been carried over?
So the first year it passed through,
it was actually passed through council so that we could accept the money.
We're just going through the process to get it on board,
going through the DRGR process for the feds, for HUD,
to get it on board to actually use the money,
and it's reimbursement on top of that.
So we've got to have that money to spend to be able to utilize it
because it's reimbursable.
Gotcha.
All right, so that makes sense.
So now we have the money.
If we pass this, we'll have the money to spend.
You guys will be able to reimburse.
Because what I'm understanding is since nothing's been spent,
we have not submitted reimbursements, so we don't have the federal funds yet.
We will not be.
We have them.
They're being lined up actually in the budget, in the city budget.
And the next step is to actually have some expenditures to be able to reimburse against.
Okay.
And is there a general maybe quarter timeframe for when you guys think you'll—
Like you two of next year, we should have an assessment of the buildings we want to actually put on board on that particular account, and we should be at a point in which we can reimburse.
Fantastic.
Thank you for that.
And I think I've just got one other.
I think that's it for me.
So, you know, thank you for all the work that you guys do.
I know we have a lot of projects to keep going on.
So thank you, Chair.
I appreciate you.
Thanks, Chair Haddon.
Alderwoman Scott.
I don't have any questions, but I do thank the Department of Housing.
I know that we're working together on a lot of projects, so just more to come for 2025.
Landale is destined for some great things.
You know, we're working on the missing middle and some of the thousand homes, and so I thank
you, and I thank you all for Irma.
Thank you.
I know we have some challenges, but I appreciate the entire Department of Housing.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank you so much, Alderwoman.
Thank you, Alderwoman Scott.
We're going to go to noncommittee members, Chair Taylor.
Thank you, Chairwoman.
How are you doing, Commissioner?
Hello.
So, of course, I meet with you all on a consistent basis.
So the questions that I'm asking are really for kind of the public and kind of to for us to think about it.
So there are two young ladies that come to city council, Zoe Lee and Miss Jessica Jackson, and most recently Christina Powell.
These folks have owned their properties.
Well, I could speak more to Miss Christina than the other one.
Her family has owned her property since 1950.
and there was it seems like there was not enough support for her when some way the mortgage got
changed over from FAH to something else at either rate during COVID her home was taken from her
and now she's fighting to get her home back what are the resources and things available for
host people home getting taken and then once that happens because I think there is some room now
for her to get the property back,
but she needs some type of financial backing to help it.
And these are people who've invested in our cities,
ran businesses.
Ms. Christina Holm had a 300-year-old tree
in her backyard that they're literally knocking down
or trying to knock down.
She opens her home up to the community.
She's had these events,
and she hasn't even charged folks.
She's just doing them, but she loves the community.
What are we doing pre and post to help homeowners who, and of course I'm in a gentrifying community, footsteps away from the Obama Presidential Center.
And we know that when large development happens to a community, it displaces the people that are already there.
And so I know some of the work that you're doing, but through the chair, and I want you to talk about it a little bit, what is the city doing different?
Now, of course, this didn't happen on Yotin.
You was nowhere to be found.
neither was I but seeing Miss Christina um fight to try to keep her home and really not having any
help not even having any lawyers and let me say this for Zoe Lee and Miss Jackson I've called
around myself trying to get lawyers and lawyers wouldn't take those cases on but there has to be
something that we're doing different and I don't know if it I'm sure it's on the state and local
level because sometimes it's not always taxes where people lose their home a lot of times
they can't afford the upkeep. And I know the building department does some things,
but I want you to talk about a little kind of how we helping these families who we say
generational wealth is the way to pass it down, but it keeps getting snatched. And a lot of times
when you look at it, it's happening to black families. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the
question. I think among the things that we have, right, we have a great network of housing counseling
centers that we are, that we fund. That was one of the, through the question, through the chair
questions earlier about just a list of those delegate agencies that we fund. And a lot of
them have really great resources. There is, you know, often a limit to what we directly can do,
but these organizations have connections, have information, and have the ability to be able to
help folks really attack these issues and have the support that they need. And so that's part
of what we do through the, again, through our home ownership space. In addition to that, I think
that, you know, even in our neighborhood preservation space, we're talking often with a lot of our
partners, like the Community Investment Corporation, depending on like how big the building is, and just
for the particulars of the situation, where we can make some connections and say, okay, if this is your
situation, then perhaps like this is the right person to help you. I think if there's one thing
that I'm particularly proud of is that this team is one that has a lot of connections in the community,
and has a lot of ability to connect back to the community organizations that are on the ground and doing that work.
Thanks for that.
Through the chair, can you send to all of us?
Because I think sometimes a lot of the work that we're doing is to either work on stuff that is already there,
that we're already in pipeline, not currently really thinking about what is already existing and how do we help save it.
And we did a CBA just for a wood lawn that helped wood lawn in some ways.
And I'm going to tell you right now, we got to do a citywide CBA because it's us today.
It's another community tomorrow.
And what was disheartening to me is Miss Christina is there for everybody in her community to the point it was that she had a three-flat building.
and she was renting to folks under what she could actually get from the community and honestly she's
paying for it now so for her being able to afford rents to people affordably she's paying for it by
losing her generational wealth and so i want us to have some real conversations and look
look like what's on the books because i also felt like well what i see is folks they sending out
these cars to say I'm interested in buying your home I want your property like it's so excessive
to the point I have folks going to have their grandkids and kids come say if you come by this
house one more time to try to to ask about and these people are not interested in their properties
but then what they turn around to do is they'll call 3-1-1 and say it's something wrong with the
roof or it's something wrong and I live that I lived in Bronzeville I lived in Alderwoman Dow's
ward and the family that owned my building became my family. But literally because they wanted that
property, they would call 311 so much. And we know what happens when inspectors come out.
They take the property. We know they're going to find something wrong. And so I want us to look at
better what's on the books because a lot of this legislation that we created around housing is old
and it's outdated. And so I'm asking y'all to look and see what we could do to these homeowners.
And you talked about preservation early.
That home was built in the 1940s and 50s.
Like, why is there, after a certain amount of years, we're not sending out someone to say, hey, you had your home for over 50 years.
Can we help you preserve it?
Can we help keeping the community?
Because the thought that she got a tree that that old, and it's a huge tree, and they're chopping it up as we speak.
And so we need to have some real conversations about we have that.
and the city-wide CBA gonna come.
I'm looking in the book.
This is page 118.
Let me put my glass on.
Let's see.
It says multifamily trouble business initiative.
You went from $175,000 to 51.
Why would we cut that program?
And the one that says micro market recovery programs.
Why are we cutting those programs?
So when we were asked to make,
for the exercise from OBM,
to make 3% reductions in the corporate fund,
We chose those because we could move them to the bond.
So actually the amount that we will spend will remain intact, but instead of spending it out of the corporate fund, we will be able to do it out of the housing and economic development bond.
How are you all using technology to upgrade and to make sure we get out the programs?
Because, Mr. Edwards, we talk all the time about programming.
A lot of our folks that are in my community, especially in my Washington Park back in the
city, they're older owners.
They're not going to this.
And every year, a postage goes down, and I laugh because it's like, who's still sending
letters of mail?
But to those families, we have to.
And so I want you all to look at a dashboard, and I'm saying that to every department, look
at by creating a dashboard so that people kind of explain to um when are their property taxes due
because a lot a lot of times when people lose their home they miss the deadline for paying
their property taxes and i know that's that's that's fiscatee's office and kind of maria pappas
and that leads into my next question how are you coordinating with those two entities to make sure
that people have an understanding too because a lot of these these seniors they don't they're not
getting their exemptions. They're missing a lot. And so when the property taxes go up,
they wind up just selling or wanting to be out because they can't afford it, not knowing,
A, they're either old, and I learned that from Maria Pappas, they owe money or they qualify
for these credits where their taxes go way down. Yeah. Again, that's something that we rely heavily
on, our partners at the housing counseling agencies to help us do education and to do work
in the communities to ensure that folks are aware of what is necessary. We do know that there is
still a huge need, and that is something that we are continuing to look at. Transfer on death
instruments are something that everyone should have, again, to ensure also that part of what
happens in property taxes is you had the home and maybe someone else was paying on it and then they
died, and now you're scrambling, right? And so we want to make sure that our agencies are equipped
to do more of that because we know that this is a huge issue in many communities.
what are we doing to protect homeowners from these scams?
So now I have one in my community where people are entrusting these different organizations
to say that they want to buy a home from them.
They pay the money and then you can't find a company of LLCs.
What are we doing to inform people around kind of those scams
and what to look for when purchasing a home?
Yeah.
We all of our housing counseling agencies do homeowner education, both pre and post purchase.
And so that allows folks to have access to resources to be able to identify things like scams and to know where are those trustworthy places and where are the places where perhaps you might be getting scammed.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Taylor.
We're going to go next to Alderman Wagesbeck and then to Alderman Beal.
Thank you, Chairwoman.
Commissioner, thank you for answering a lot of these questions.
I wanted to go back to the rebuild 2.0 that Deputy Edwards was talking about, and if I could get a couple questions in on that.
So what is the average rehab cost of those, I believe you said, homes that are vacant that you're rehabbing?
Will Edwards for the record.
The average cost of rehabilitation on these vacant abandoned homes for full-gut rehab is about $170,000.
We're looking at, with prevailing wage, a little over $200,000 for full-gut rehab.
And has that number stayed relatively low over the last, I don't think we had the same program 10 or 15 years ago, but we had similar programs that I know, was it NPS about 15 years ago?
Okay, if you don't remember, that's fine.
But how much has that cost gone up over the last few years in terms of rehabbing single family homes?
Alderman, over the last couple of years, just post-COVID.
that number has skyrocketed skyrocketed because of labor costs it has skyrocketed because of
material and supply clause so um when we're buying or we're buying into these are we buying um
we're buying basically vacant homes and rehabbing them and these are city-owned properties no the
city doesn't own uh very many properties at all uh definitely not you mean we don't own many homes we
We do own thousands of vacant lots, though.
That's exactly right.
Okay.
But single-family homes, absolutely not.
And so we're partnering with the land bank to get closer to lower prices so that that reduces the overall cost, the TDC, and we can get to some after we have value.
Many of these properties that are vacant and abandoned are in underserved communities.
They're eyesores, but they have city fines and fees on them.
They have tax debt on them.
So huge encumbrances.
So we've gone through the process to try to create ordinances to eliminate the encumbrances and to work with the Cook County Land Bank to eliminate taxes where it's appropriate, where we can't just buy it out, where it doesn't make sense.
But the idea is to try to get to as low an acquisition cost as we can because we can't move the cost associated with rehab.
Right. Well, actually, you're talking about $170,000 average rehab.
that's really not that bad for a rehab that's on average for any home in the united states i think
when you go in and uh basically buy a buy a home and rehab it and that's that sounds like a
relatively stable amount over the last 10 to 15 years and it is just because we're using we're
not using city dollars to actually do that we're working with cdfis to do that it would be
increasingly more if we had to touch it with city dollars.
Okay.
And how many are you averaging per year?
To date, we've got about 80 that we've acquired.
Over the next two years with the $200,000, depending on the cost associated, using prevailing
wage, which we haven't done yet, we're still trying to figure that out, but we're hoping
to be in the range of around 100 units.
the low would be about 60 or so if we had to max out the subsidy and the high would be close to 130
140 okay and if you um if you were able to get more funding in that program what is the potential
beyond 140 oh wow what a great question uh the potential is huge because there's vacant and
abandoned buildings sitting in communities and neighborhoods all over the place, not to mention
buildings that are currently on the demo list that are able to be rehabilitated. And so with
the dollars to be able to use for this specific purpose to right-size those properties, to create
value, to build local wealth with local developers, the opportunity is exponential.
if you were able to tap into more of the housing and economic fund you know the one the 1.25
billion is that an area that you could go to to get some of those funds i think we already have
an allocation of about 71 million which is a really good starting place we have a really good record
of attracting other funds from other organizations state funds and feds and we're excited about that
opportunity. So this is really a good test case for us to move from actually rehabilitating
buildings to having an aggregation strategy so that our public funds can really fuel private
dollars behind that initial kind of jumpstart or ignition, if you will.
So $71 million would get you at an average of $200,000. It would get you 355 units.
Really good.
That's what I got. That's what I calculated.
That's about right. And 71 will be spread out over a couple of programs, but around 200 or so is where we're looking to target.
Okay. So if we were to push more funding into that, we could see the potential.
And you're using, I'm assuming, local contractors.
That's it.
With prevailing wage.
local developers, BIPOC developers, developers of color, developers who are actually working
and have a history of operating in the communities and neighborhoods of disinvestment.
That is the focus and the goal of the program.
Okay.
And I know you've kind of explained it to us before, I think, in other committee meetings.
I know you've testified on either similar projects or the same one.
um the the point I'm trying to make I guess is that when I look at what Alderman Lopez brought
up and what we've been uh hearing from uh Department of Housing um project coordinators
when we do these um in the Committee on Finance we're seeing a three unit and I think that's what
Alderman Lopez was referring to come in at a million dollars or a one unit coming in at
between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars which just seems absurd when you can look at the
program that you're operating and get a family into a single family home at two hundred thousand
and let's say a little bit more if you have to do additional work or acquisition but it just
seems like we're getting ripped off in terms of what we're paying out for a lot of these other
units and that cost has really been driven up post-covet i i get it but um the material issue
where it's we can't acquire materials that that seems kind of on the wayside that supply chain has
come back to scale um but thank you mr edwards for answering that commissioner um a question on
the green social housing you brought up uh that we're going to use a 501c3 is that a um to manage
the city-wide program um are we creating the 501c3 or um we're letting somebody are we are we running
the whole 501c3 are we having some other agency do that uh it'll be it'll be city run um and we
will have more details on that as sort of as we firm up exactly how we're going to move forward on
that in the in the 2025 year okay and how did you guys come up with that plan so anything that we've
been doing on green social housing we've been doing in conjunction with um uh with consultants
that are working across the country and other cities that have launched uh green social or social
housing um uh programs uh montgomery county has been the largest and most successful one to date
and we are using the same consultants that they are okay and how much does that cost them uh
annually to run that or operate that so everything will be coming out of the revolving loan fund and
we set aside between 120 and 130 million dollars from the bonds for social housing
so you don't know how much it would cost to operate the 501c3 right now we're still in
preliminary stages and we will have more to share we're just not there yet okay i would i would
strongly recommend that you share it as soon as you can because i don't think at any time in any
of the documents that i have from the housing economic bond that it was um stated i know it's
not that we were going to create a new 501 c3 for that um last question uh if the budget doesn't go
through on wednesday if it gets voted down what are you prepared to cut in your budget
to help make ends meet in this budget i know you were told
three percent or something but if it comes to ten percent what are you prepared to cut
i think that what we've done to this point is that we have shifted everything that we can off
of the corporate fund which is facing the most pressure onto things like the bond and so um
Certainly, if there is more that needs to be done out of that, we would look at that, but we would not want to actually cut any programs because we know that there's a limited amount of things that we are already able to do with the money that we have, and we would want to find a way in which we could keep those things going.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Chairman.
Speaking to your last point, what have you shifted from corporate to the bond?
So the main things that we shifted were the work in the neighborhood preservation program. So again, MMRP and the TBI work. And we did make a couple of cuts completely, including just some work that we had budgeted for a build out of the office space.
And we also made cuts to a study that we were planning on doing this year that actually the development cycle is not far enough for us to do.
So we'll do that instead in 26, hopefully.
When you say MMI and other programs, just in my mind, when people say bond, I think capital.
I think long-term assets.
I don't think programs.
So help me to understand when you say MMI, what are you actually shifting from corporate to bond funding?
Yeah, I'll let Deputy Commissioner Edwards talk about the MMRP program and TBI.
So, Alderman, those programs still touch assets.
They still touch the preservation of assets, the repair of assets, the rehabilitation in many cases of those assets are actually building in the case of rebuild.
That is putting a new home on the market.
It is putting a building or preserving a building through repairs.
So our understanding is that that is a way in which we are using the bond in the way that, to answer your question, the program actually preserves units or creates units.
Are these capitalized costs?
Yes.
So one, you wouldn't categorize or could one find or believe that these are quote-unquote operational costs being shifted from the corporate fund to the bond fund?
they're not operational because at the end of the day they are going to be uh capital funds right
and i actually will let matt stern talk a little about how we look at the bond yeah thank you uh
for the record assistant commissioner matt stern we work hand in hand with obm cfo's office and the
law department uh with any of these programs to make sure that we're adequately using and complying
with relevant laws related to any given funding source. And so this effort particularly has been
one that over the last few years we've gotten more experience with because of the Chicago
Recovery Plan bond in terms of identifying programs that do produce capital outcomes that
can be fairly shifted onto a capital funding source. Other programs that we run certainly,
like the delegate agencies that the commissioner has spoken about, certainly would not be
capitalizable, would more be in this operations bucket you're talking about. Those are things
that are a better fit for sources like CDBG?
But if what you're doing is,
I would get, for example,
if we used, I'll use road building for an example.
If we took CDOT staff, capital lot,
accumulated all of those costs
and put them on a bond
because we were building a road
that had a lifespan that was going to match up with the amortization of the bond.
What I'm trying to understand is what you're doing,
how does it meet the criteria of the long-term ability for capitalization, number one?
And number two, how does that work with the timing of the bond?
Because my understanding, if this is the economic development bond, those are going to be paid out over several years.
I don't know how they've been categorized in tranches under IRS regulations, but it helped me to get comfort that we're not shifting operational costs onto a bond.
So, Alderman, the way that we count outcomes for the programs that we just identified that we are switching over are preservation of affordable homes or the creation of affordable homes.
And so either of those two, as we see it, are capital expenses.
That's how we've always counted it.
And nothing is changing as we switch over from the former funding source to bond.
what tied then is there to the outcome which i'm assuming is an asset
to some governmental purpose
will you repeat the question i say how do you how do we tie back to an outcome
that is a governmental purpose?
For example, is there permanent affordability?
Is there something that runs with this asset
that ties us back to some governmental purpose
that we are theoretically capitalizing?
Absolutely.
So all of our programs,
and the programs we're talking about specifically,
especially the Trouble Building Initiative,
tries back to a piece or portion of affordability,
especially where you're talking about rehabilitation or repair or support
for housing that's in disrepair and just invested communities.
There's an affordability covenant tied to many of the projects
or repairs, if you will, for senior housing and things like that.
And it's one of the ways we tie back to, in our outcomes,
meeting the requirements, because these were formerly CDBG programs.
All right.
I get that.
I don't think it may meet the legal muster of that.
I don't think I 100% agree with that because that means that the TBI program has an expiration with the funding that has been set forth in the bond.
But I understand the legalese that you're going through.
I just maybe don't agree with the operational aspect of that.
So any other I think I had Alderman Bill up next.
This is your second round, right?
OK, this is your first round.
Go ahead, Alderman.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good evening, Commissioner.
Good evening.
I just got a couple of quick questions, you know, because actually the chairman dove into a little bit of what I was going to ask.
are there any programs that are going to be hurt by shifting those personnel over to that bond as far as what that bond would have been used for?
So we're not shifting any personnel to the bond. The bond does not allow for that. It was not contemplated as part of the bond.
So the only thing we are moving over are the programmatic costs that are eligible for the bond.
And so the personnel remains in other funding sources in order to make sure that we can keep the personnel on to have the programs.
Okay. And I understand that, you know, in my colleague's ward, which is a great project and initiative, you guys are putting in $90 million in TIF in the LaSalle Street program?
I would have to look at the exact numbers for the LaSalle Street program, but there are several projects across which each of them have a different amount.
And I will pull that up.
I think the latest one that was approved, I think it was approved for $90 million.
One second, Alderman.
About my time, brother.
Alderman Conley.
Yeah, so in the press release, I know it was $88 million for 135 south of Sal, and that press release was yesterday.
I can't remember the unit count off the top of my head, but I can at least verify the number and the address.
Okay.
Thank you, sir.
How many units and how much per unit are we looking for with that development?
So I believe that 135 is looking at 116 units, and that is 30% of the total number of affordable units that they are building.
And a dollar amount per unit?
I would have...
Tamara Collins, Managing Deputy Commissioner.
So the one that we're closing now, 79 West Monroe, that cost per unit is about 548,674 unit.
And one.
Is that for the affordable units?
That's the total unit cost per unit cost.
There's a total of 117 units in that project.
And 34 units are affordable.
All right.
Well, let me see.
You know, that's a great project.
And, you know, I recommend my colleague for that.
But I'm trying to figure out, you know, how your department denied a developer in my ward for 150 units.
And it's a they're purchasing purchasing the building for 37 million and they're putting 20 into it to rehab.
and that'll bring 150 units online and your department denied that application.
Help me understand, how do you deny when we're looking to put affordable housing
in communities like mine?
I just don't understand how we can deny one project,
but we give $90 million to a project downtown,
but we're all trying to do affordable.
And this is 100% affordable, which would have helped your portfolio.
So help me understand that one.
I can start and I'll let Tamara jump in.
But I think big picture is that we have different sources of funding available in different projects.
And it does matter where the project is located because of things like TIFFs.
And there is a broader calculus that we're making, not just at the moment that or of the project itself,
but also at what else is in the pipeline at the moment that the project is brought in.
And because there is a limited amount of resources that we have, and depending on how much of each resources it would need, it is sometimes not possible for us to take on a new project.
And I'm assuming this is a project that came through the funding round?
Yes.
They were looking for tax credits.
Right.
So we got about 34 applications through our tax credit funding round.
There are a lot of criteria in the QAP that determines how a project moves forward.
and in particular for 2023, we were looking for specific things such as permanent supportive
housing set aside. We were looking for energy efficiency. We were looking for a transit,
possible transit subsidy, how that would play out. It's not just that the units were affordable,
but the project also has to pencil out financially. So if we did an assessment on it,
on the project and we reviewed it, it still has to pencil out financially. The tax credits are
super competitive. So we're reviewing them, you know, any one project against, in this particular
case, 34 other projects. So, you know, it just becomes, you know, it's just a competitive process.
I mean, I totally get the competitiveness, but at the same time, but instead of just denying an
application. I mean, how come we didn't try to find some additional avenues to, you know, help
the funding gap? So it would pencil out. I mean, you guys have a whole host of programs, whether
it be tax credits, you know, you got the bond issue that hasn't even been touched yet. You know,
I mean, you got all kinds of funding sources. So we're talking about 150 units. It's a massive
building in my ward and when you have somebody willing to put you know 52 million dollars into
a project to get all these units up to par i don't see why we would not be trying to do something
to try to help get this um project to pencil out instead of just denying the application
uh i think some i don't know who it was but somebody told them to go to the state to try
to get tax credits um you know but the state told them the city's got plenty of tax credits
And so I'm just trying to figure out, you know, you know, why a project like this, which is great for my ward and the city of Chicago, that we're not trying to jump through hoops to try to get it over the finish line.
I was going to say there's a limited amount, again, that we can award per tax credit round.
That's just part of the reality of the resources.
However, all of the developers are encouraged to come back and meet with us after the applications are denied
so that we can talk through what the issues were with the application,
perhaps what made them less competitive than the ones that were chosen,
so that they can come through a future round, either with the state or with us.
Okay. Well, I'm going to personally get involved with this.
So I would like to meet with you and the developer and see what we can do to make sure that, you know, hopefully there's, you know, no hanky-panky going on in order to get a project like this done in my ward.
So I look forward to working with you on this.
And I also want to commend Mr. Will over there, who is helping me tremendously through you all's efforts with some housing that we've had some problems with, some rehab stuff.
So I'm looking forward to making these things happen in the very near future.
So thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Appreciate you, Alderman.
Thank you, Alderman.
Bill, Alderman Hayden.
Thank you, Chair.
I had one more question, Commissioner, that I forgot because my brain's a little foggy.
This is just a question about how the department manages your MBE, WBE, and so forth initiatives.
So do you have staff committed to this monitoring for non-housing projects?
So the Department of Housing's construction and compliance team does monitoring for the Department of Housing and for the Department of Planning and Development.
However, this is a fully staffed team that is very adequately staffed in order to be able to do the monitoring in both the places.
The thing with construction compliance monitoring is that it is more of receiving information and literally monitoring than it is an active role, like, say, the one that the project managers take up front where they're, like, leading and working with a developer to close on a project.
So you would say most of their work is done after a project has been approved, worked with through DPD, when they have identified contractors and things, and then your team or the construction compliance team works on making sure that those teams are, like, those guidelines are being met?
Correct.
And there's a little bit of work at the front end there to ensure that they have a plan to meet the WBE and MBE goals.
We don't want to set them up for failure.
We want to make sure we're setting them up for success and for actually meeting those goals.
And so the team does do some work at the front end to make sure that there's a plan and that there is a way in which they are going to reach that goal.
And then they continue to work with the entities to monitor that they are reaching that goal.
And then is there any crossover in kind of duties or work on these with construction compliance and work that happens under our Department of Procurement?
Or how is it different?
So in the department, so all the rules that we are following are essentially the rules set forth by DPS, right? All of our policies are set forth based on the policies of DPS. And so the reason that we do this outside of DPS is because we have our own contracting authority, as does DPD, right? We have our multifamily rounds. We have the contracts that we execute that way. DPD has the RDAs that they do when there is a TIF involved and things like that.
And so because that is already not going through DPS, it makes sense for us to sort of continue the path and not add another department or more bureaucracy into the monitoring of the project.
And the last question, and thank you, these are helpful for me to understand.
I guess the last question is, has it always been this way?
So I'm assuming if, I know like last term we brought back, right, your department and separated it out from DPD.
but I'm wondering
has the department always had their own contracting authority
is that set up for some type of efficiency
and this is just you know if I'm thinking about it generally I'm thinking
wouldn't it be more efficient or save us money if all of that was through
procurement services but is there a reason why it's not
yeah I think that this is the most efficient way because it means that we
have staff that are already versed in this contracting work
that are part of the department that are already doing the work.
Again, we're not going through DPS when we are working with a developer
on their LIHTC deals or on their 4% deals.
We're already doing that ourselves.
And so it makes sense for us to be able to continue that path
through the end on our own, again, following guidelines
and working very closely with DPS if there are any issues.
but it just essentially it is having our own staff does make this process go faster and it is my
understanding that it has historically mostly always been this way I could not speak exactly
to how far back but certainly for many years and again because it is the nature of both DPD and DOH
that we have contracting authority because this is how we execute TIF RDAs and other contracts
okay thank you for that thank you thank you chair thank you Alderman Hedden
um I get to ask questions now most of them have already been asked but I have a particular interest
in SROs um can you talk about um what the Department of Housing is doing around SROs
I feel like I've got some folks that have created SROs in the ward that uh didn't maybe talk to you
it or the appropriate people about it um so if you can talk about what the what the process is
for applying to be an sro um and just enforcement you know i've got a great concern around about
people being vulnerable people being taken advantage of um in these situations so there
are two main ways in which we work with sros it is through the sro preservation ordinance which
was passed in 2012 and in addition to that we have the sro preservation fund that we have funded in
other ways previously and will be in the future continuing to fund with the housing and economic
development bond i will let assistant commissioner bonner talk a little bit more about our efforts
around sros it's on a little bit of a delay try it now all right good evening for the record again
My name is Asia Bonner, Assistant Commissioner of our Asset Management Division, and the
single room occupancy work does fall under my division.
As the commissioner introduced, we touch SROs in a variety of ways, one with the enforcement
of the SRO preservation ordinance, so that is ensuring that when an existing SRO owner
operator is considering selling the property that they comply with required noticing requirements to
either you know provide adequate notice to tenants and allow for adequate relocation
but then also potentially to offer a window of time for other affordable
operators to take over the sro building and then therefore preserve it
So in addition to enforcing the SRO preservation, the other way that we touch this work is through the loan or the preservation fund, more aptly described, that the commissioner mentioned.
And so this is a partnership that we have with the Community Investment Corporation, whereby we are trying to work with existing SRO owners and assisting them with financial resources so that they can make needed improvements in the property, another, you know, path for preserving the property and ensuring good, strong quality of life for those tenants.
Right. And then who authorizes new SROs? Or what's the permitting and licensing?
Good question. And it can feel a little convoluted, but that is technically issued by the BACP department, whereby owners will register or become licensed SRO operators.
And they're required to if they meet the SRO definition that's established in the municipal code. But a lot of times owners don't know to do that.
got it so I'd love to sit down with you and BACP and maybe the buildings department to
talk about um some places that I've gotten reports about in my ward that are suspected SROs that I
believe are acting illegally certainly we want affordable housing but we also want people to be
treated fairly and to have all of the the minimum requirements um to the letter of the law for a
room occupancy building. So that was the core of my question. I saw a hand with Alderman
Manah Hoppenworth and she'll be our last one for this evening. With DOH. Sorry, there's
two more to go, folks. Thank you, Cher. Hi, Commissioner. Thank you for being here. Thank
you to your entire team. I want to shout out to Asia who came to the ward. I really appreciate
Your presence actually helped calm a lot of nerves, especially in the instance of receivership.
You know, people are very nervous, and it was really helpful for you to be there.
I want to thank you for that.
I am so glad that we're talking about SROs.
And you mentioned in your opening statement about $5.2 million to preserve SROs.
And I just wanted to clarify, when will those funds be available?
I will let Assistant Commissioner Bonner talk about the timeline and the work with CIC.
Thank you for your interest and your support and all the work that we're doing in your
ward with SRO and SRO-like buildings.
So as a part of the SRO Preservation Fund program that we're doing in partnership with CIC,
we allocate $5 million annually as a part of the assistance that we're trying to provide
to existing SRO owner operators.
So those funds are available
and have been since the program has been enacted,
I believe in 2022, 2023.
And we do have projects in our pipeline currently.
Okay, so I can reach out to you
about those specific ones
and if they're related to the 48.
Happy to talk more.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
I lived in an SRO at some point, and I know what a good SRO is and a not-so-good SRO is.
So I appreciate that work that you're doing.
I'm really glad to know that the right to counsel, you mentioned that in your opening statement, and it was pilot.
And I just want to clarify that it's going to be under the Department of Housing as a program.
Is it a permanent program?
We were able to shift some funding so that we could add in the last $750,000 that we
needed to keep the program running in quarter four of 2025.
Part of this also allows us to bring a staff person back on board for that program so that
we can talk about ways to keep the program running beyond 2025.
It is still an incredibly important program.
Over 70% of the users are women.
Over 70% of them are Black.
West and South Side communities have been hardest hit, and we understand how important this is.
Thank you. Can you just speak a little bit more about it and how you are measuring success in this program?
Yeah. So soon, I don't think already or soon, Stout will be releasing a study talking about the success of the program.
And so one of the big numbers that stood out to us is that for every dollar that the city invested,
the city also realized about three dollars in savings right it is folks that are not accessing
homelessness systems that are not becoming homeless and thereby needing other interventions
and so for us we understand how important this is we also know that certain communities like
south shore have been particularly hard hit and again being able to continue to ensure that people
can remain in their homes is of the utmost importance to us and this program has been
phenomenal for that. Thank you for that. Because I am speaking to building owners and the last
thing that they, and you know, the last thing that they want to do is go through an eviction process.
It's actually very expensive for them. It takes a very long time. So appreciate your work on that
too. I had a specific question about speaking of receiverships in the Portland portfolio.
We have two buildings, one in Uptown, two in Uptown, the San Miguel and the Leland.
And I just wanted to confirm that there's funding in the budget to help preserve both of those buildings, which are very important to my community.
Yes, we have been very committed to preserving all of the Heartland properties as affordable housing as they currently are.
Out of the 14 buildings that Heartland lost control over when they went under in May of 2023, four of them have already been turned over to new owners that will be keeping them affordable.
And another seven will be doing the same by the end of the year.
The Leland and the San Miguel will still be with us in the new year, but we are committed to preserving them as affordable.
And we know that the funding for that will come from the normal funding that we have for preservation in our multifamily pipeline.
We don't know what it will take, but as I promised One North Side, whatever it takes.
Thank you.
Yes, shout out to One North Side.
And thank you, Katrina Collins, for keeping us updated on that progress.
And again, you're very appreciated across the city.
We absolutely are ready for more development across the city for density.
We want more people here in Chicago.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right.
I look to my left, and these boys over here have a couple of questions.
Alderman Lamont Robinson is still on round one, so we'll let him go first, and then Alderman Conway.
Thank you, Chairwoman.
Commissioner, good to see you.
We've been talking a lot about affordable housing, and I'm just curious, where are we with the state?
I know a lot of times Ida has resources.
Has that been helpful to us at all?
And are there any other programs that we can lean in on?
As we all, as Alderman Bill mentioned, we're all trying to figure out ways to bring affordable housing into our wards.
Just curious on your insight at the state.
I know that at the federal level it's a pass through the state, but what could we be doing with our federal folks?
what could we be doing with our folks at the state level to get more funding for affordable housing?
So I think there's two separate answers there.
One is, yes, Ida runs its own LIHTC round every year,
and that is one of the ways in which some of the projects get funded.
In many of those instances, they will do the tax credits and maybe some soft funds, some cash,
and then they'll come to us to help fill in the gap.
And so they continue to do that.
I do know that the state, like all of us, is facing the end of certain COVID-era programs, and they are also looking to new sources of funding for themselves.
However, one of the things that we have found very helpful from both federal and state partners has been earmarks.
And so one of the things that is in the budget that you will see is a Prairie District for $2 million.
That is a federal earmark that Congressman Danny Davis was able to get for that project.
And so that is a very helpful resource to us because they can fill in some of the gaps, again, putting less pressure on the limited amount of funds that we have.
And I've had this conversation with some of your colleagues about just any ways in which we can help you advocate with the folks that you have working in the districts in your ward.
We are more than happy to participate in those conversations because that helps us be able to do more.
And then lastly, I think Alderman Mosley asked this question, but it wasn't clear on what are we doing around first-time homebuyers?
I know there's a lot of grants.
Do we have any resources in our budget, Commissioner, to be able to get that information out?
A lot of times we're coming out, we're coming out, requesting that information because folks have asked us for it.
But it'd be great to figure out a way that we can publicly get that out to folks as another option to get particularly middle class folk into housing.
Yeah. So we use all the traditional avenues, right? We use a lot of social media.
We do put the information out to all of the alders whenever there's a new round or a new program and things like that.
And we can certainly talk about like there are some gaps that you're particularly seeing about where we could fill in some of that. For things like shy mortgage that we will be launching next year, we actually will be doing that through an administrator and so they will also be doing some underground work and being out in the community to make sure that people are aware of this resource and taking advantage of it.
Commissioner, thank you so much. Chairwoman, thank you.
You're welcome.
Alderman Conway followed by Alderwoman Geary.
Yes.
So in response to some of the questioning from Alderman Wagespac and Chairman Irvin,
you said you shifted some programmatic costs to the housing bond.
Could you expand upon what that is and how much we're talking?
Yes.
And so let me pull up my budget here. So again, and this is perhaps my own word choice. So to be clear, anything that we're shifting onto the bond is bond eligible as the program costs themselves can be capitalized and are, again, there are units that will be held at the end that have some sort of a regulatory agreement or affordability restriction that thereby makes them eligible.
And I can tell you, so we shifted over for our Troubled Buildings Initiative Program and for our Micro Market Recovery Program, both of which are programs that at the end of the day result in units that are preserved long term.
How much did you shift? What kind of dollar amount are we talking on both of those?
So for the Micro Market Recovery Program, we reduced it by $123,302.
And for the – no, I'm sorry.
That was for the Multifamily Troubled Building Initiative.
And for the Micro Market Recovery Program, we reduced the money in the corporate fund and shifted it to the bond by $348,000.
dollars and with that um uh so that give or take a little less than half a million dollars is that
um personnel or was that no it is the personnel yeah i guess i don't know what the definition
of programmatic right so personnel um cannot go onto the bond we did not put any bond any
uh personnel onto the bond so personnel all remains within other lines of the budget
and so the programmatic costs are like the cost to actually do the rehab in some of these cases to
do the actual work within the buildings
that's that's all i have thank you very much appreciate it um just i heard from iga uh response
to the request from the cfo you were absolutely right uh your description of it the um we're
to reimburse ourselves when the bonds shoot thank you okay um alderman beal i just want to make sure
you heard that um we got a response back from iga from the cfo's office regarding the question that
you asked earlier and it was as the commissioner described uh the funds have been expended and the
they will reimburse themselves from uh the bond once it's issued yeah yeah correct
yeah i think that's a fair statement okay uh last call and i'm not looking anywhere else
yeah that's it put the dollar woman two tears that's it thank you thank you commissioner and
thank you to your team for the great work that you guys are doing uh just quick two quick questions
um there is funding in 2025 for green social housing can you share with us what this is and
how it's addressing our housing challenges in the city? Yeah, so Green Social Housing is a new
initiative we will be launching in 2025 with money from the Housing and Economic Development Bond.
The goal of this is over the course of five years to bring on about another 600 affordable units
because we need new tools in the toolbox to continue to address the affordability crisis.
Do you happen to know where will these projects be built and how will these be determined?
we don't have locations yet and in early 25 we expect to have conversations with you and all of
your colleagues about what the program is going to look like thank you so much thank you chair
we have come to the end of our time together i know you're so sad so sad it's so sad um thank
you so much commissioner thank you to everybody for all that you do for hanging in there with us
tonight um and you are i don't want to dismiss you like it's a bad thing but i'm sure you'll
be glad to get out of here uh we're gonna stand at ease we're gonna take a 10 minute break uh and
we will start at 7 with the department of planning and development thank you thank you so much
Isn't there a bathroom upstairs?
I mean, what?
okay uh good evening everybody we're back it's seven o'clock uh we are here tonight with uh the
department of planning and development uh we have all these people stay just for you um good evening
commissioner boatwright um will you please introduce the folks that you have with you and
folks in the box so here sitting with me i have my first deputy pardon me um here sitting with me i
have my first deputy patrick murphy and assistant commissioner paul moody in the box i have deputy
commissioner alex butnick deputy commissioner kathy dickett deputy commissioner commissioner
jim harbin managing deputy commissioner tim jeffries deputy commissioner mary o'connor deputy
commissioner Cindy Rubick managing deputy commissioner David Scully assistant commissioner
Noah Sopranik and assistant commissioner Chris Chang right um give given the hour we're going to uh
we're going to forego the reading of your statement um if there are highlights later that you want to
mention please go ahead and mention them in your comments did you there has a few emotion oh thank
you thank you there there was a motion was it seconded all in favor any opposed okay thank you
for that now um give me something to throw at you please okay um
Okay, we're going to have Vice Mayor Burnett and then Alderman Dowell.
Thank you.
And that's because of seniority, not age, right?
Correct.
So anyway.
I'm not bad at all.
Well, you got to go last then.
Short people first.
We've been here too long, guys.
Yes, welcome to the chamber.
Okay.
Okay, so first of all, Commissioner, I want to thank you and all your people.
I don't need to say all their names.
I work with them all the time, so I really appreciate all their help.
They do a great job with helping me in my ward and my ward helping the rest of the city of Chicago.
So thank you all very much.
But anyway, just wanted to ask, Commissioner, I know that folks are saying that because they don't see a whole lot of cranes up in the air,
that there's nothing going on in the city of Chicago.
Can you give us an idea of what's happening in the city of Chicago
and let us know if that's true or not?
Yeah, no.
I'm happy to let you know.
Our pipeline is actually growing in the city of Chicago,
and I'll speak specifically about our PD pipeline
because many of us are familiar with our plan development pipeline.
Those are our larger projects throughout the city.
Year to date, and I want to remind us, this is just year to date.
I have planned commission next week, which will add additional projects, but we have over $5 billion in projects approved.
Now, how does that compare to prior years?
And so when we think about prior years, we're actually up 25% from last year and 40% from 2022.
So ultimately, those pipeline projects will lead to more cranes in the sky.
In addition to our pipeline growing, I just want to highlight that our timeline to get projects approved is shrinking.
And so I mentioned the growth in our pipeline, our team.
We've dedicated a team specifically for PDs so that we can be more efficient.
So I created a PD division, and that's led to a reduction in our timeline to get projects to plan commission from 131 days to 79 days.
And so I'm proud of the growth of our pipeline and proud of the efficiency with getting projects approved.
But again, I think it's going to lead, I know it's going to lead to more cranes in the sky.
So, Commissioner, and I think that is fantastic.
I don't know why that's not in any of the print.
I know Justin was here.
Justin, you heard that.
That should be in Crane, man.
I don't know why that's not in Crane.
But maybe we should fight about it or something that would be in Crane.
But anyway, I know that Mary O'Connor and you all have been working real hard.
on getting the bid done in Springfield. Can you tell us about that? And a lot of us don't know
where the bid is. Sure. I'll do a high level overview and I'm going to pass it to Mary
because Mary's worked so hard on the bid. When we think about all the development and opportunities
throughout our city, we recognize post COVID we've experienced some challenges and it's not
just here in Chicago. These are national challenges, vacancies for retail, vacant office
space. And so now when we really think about a holistic development strategy throughout our
city, including downtown, it's going to require us to be a little bit more creative and bring
new tools to the table that we did not have before.
And I think bid is an example of us making sure that we're maximizing the resources that
we have available so that we can activate storefront, support existing businesses, and
bring much-needed resources to those businesses that are in the loop.
And so I'm going to pass it to Mary to do just a high-level overview on where we are
with the bid and next steps on the bid.
So one of the aldermen just asked, what was bid?
But go ahead, Mary.
Mary O'Connor, Deputy Commissioner with the Department of Planning.
BID stands for Business Improvement District.
It's another economic tool that we are bringing to the businesses that has a lot of similarities to SSA.
However, one of its biggest advantages is the assessment.
And it's not based on the EAV, but it's a fixed assessment that is voted on and agreed upon by the property owners.
so as the commissioner mentioned we have been working on this model for over three years to
get it passed in in springfield and it was passed in may of 2024 we the current status of it now
is that we are hoping to launch it early next week or by the end of the month and
law is reviewing our application process but by the time i mean it's very similar to ssa's and
the process to go through it with getting
a consultant and looking at what the assessments
would be, the boundaries, what the
value and what you're going to spend the bids on, it won't be in effect
until 2026. So basically the bids
would give us an opportunity to do what they do in the SSAs in areas where we can't
have an SSA. Yes. So I just want to be really clear
This is an additional economic tool.
This will be not replacing SSAs.
But a bid is an advantage where you'd see, like, on Michigan Avenue where there's high density.
And so often in those areas, it's hard to agree upon and assess EAV.
And what the levy will be, where bid is, there's a flexibility of you can do it by linear, square footage, ground floor.
It's not like the whole property is being assessed.
Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Keep up the good work.
Thank you. Thanks, Vice Mayor. Next, we're going to have Chair Dowell.
Thank you, Chairman. Hey, Commissioner. I don't have this one of my favorite departments of the
City of Chicago, so I only have positive things to say about the department. I think everyone on
your staff is excellent and looking forward to more work being done in my area next year.
I wanted to ask you to maybe speak to your thoughts or give us a preview of how you're
going to spend the $25 million on the Missing Middle program.
Sure.
So for those of you that may be a little less familiar with our Missing Middle, our Missing
Middle is an affordable home ownership initiative that we just rolled out on October 1st as part
of the Chi Block Builder Round. Our focus areas for Missing Middle are areas in the city of Chicago
that have the majority of the city-owned vacant lots, and so it's a strategy to get the vacant
lots back in productive use and get them back on a tax roll, create density in the wards that have
lost density, create affordable home ownership, thereby building wealth, and create some naturally
occurring affordable units. Missy middle ranges from single family homes up to six units. And so
the funding set aside is actually part of our housing and economic development bond, where we're
able to help to subsidize the costs for development. Our first round was launched in
Alderwoman Scott's ward. And it's an opportunity for us to take 44 vacant lots that are clustered.
So that means we have a couple contiguous vacant lots together and put those back in productive
use. We're taking a block-by-block, node-by-node approach to create that affordability. Our goal
is to bring developers to the table that recognize that our neighborhoods are viable markets,
that recognize that it's important to invest in our communities, and recognize the importance
of those investments leading to commercial investments, ultimately. And so we've had over
just under 900 registered attendees for two webinars that took place before the launch,
And so I'm excited to see how many proposals we get when this round closes.
This is our first pilot, and we're looking forward to launching another pilot either on April 1st or next October 1st with award to be determined.
Okay, well, I understand that the building department has come up with the codes for tiny homes.
and so could this project be, could Tiny Homes be married with the Missing Middle program?
Is this?
There's an opportunity to explore some flexibility.
I'm excited by the fact that we did a design competition to come up with some designs for
those developers that are less experienced.
It reduces some of the barriers for access, if you will, where we want to make sure that
the designs complement the existing architecture.
We want to make sure that they're thoughtful, and we want to make sure that they are, in fact, creating density.
And so while I won't say, yeah, we absolutely can go with tiny homes, I also recognize a big push behind missing middle is to create density.
And so creating density, we want to move towards not just single-family homes, but more multifamily development opportunities as well, which is why we have that range from single-family up to six units.
We want more units.
We want more people.
We want to increase the population in a tax base.
All right.
My other question is that Alderman Burnett and I went to an event recently where someone stood up and said, oh, it's so expensive to develop in Chicago.
You were there, too, Alderman Lee.
It takes a long time.
And so I'm wondering if you could speak to the cut the tape components in the DPD that you're working on and what you've been able to accomplish.
Yeah, cut the tape is it should be music to everyone's ears in Chicago, not just developers, investors, residents, because it allows us to move faster and move more efficiently.
So I gave an example a little bit earlier on ways that we're working to proactively cut the tape using a PD example.
One more concrete example is we've gone from three design reviews to one design review.
I recognize, coming from the development space, that time kills deals, and it's important
for us to value beautiful architecture, because that's what Chicago is surrounded by, beautiful
architecture.
But we can be efficient with reviewing and approving deals.
And so that was one of the reasons that we've gone from three reviews to one.
It's making it more efficient for those developers, and it doesn't require them to spend as much
on architectural costs.
Another thing that we're doing is making sure that we're bringing all the necessary departments
at the table together when we're reviewing projects.
That way the departments can give feedback to the developers to reduce the timeline.
There's additional process improvements that we're making internally.
Those are larger projects, but even on smaller projects, it's making ourselves available
to almost act as a developer concierge, if you will, where we're answering questions
in real time. We're providing resources to help remove some of the barriers, if you will,
to move projects forward. Another thing I think is really important that we're doing, it has to do
with the city's vacant lots, is we're far more efficient with our disposition strategy for those
vacant lots. So we have ChiBlock Builder, which is a far more transparent platform in place that
allows us to cut the tape to get those vacant lots back on the property tax roll. I'm going to pass
to Patrick to touch on a couple
additional concrete examples
from Cut the Tape that I think is working
well for us. Cut the Tape
is a fairly newer
executive order by Mayor
Brandon Johnson, but we're seeing the
results already, and I think our developers
are seeing the results. In fact, I know
our developers are seeing the results, but
we're certainly able to become more efficient
with more. I'm interested in hearing
about more. I will say, however,
that the land sale process to me
is still
quite lengthy.
And I think I'm going through the first
shy block builder that I've really been focused on.
I'm looking to see how long that's going to take.
I think the applications came out in August.
So I'm counting.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'll just anecdotally tell you
when we think about cut the tape, at one point, over 90% of our, excuse me, our shy block builders,
over 90% of the lots that were marketed were marketed for side yards and open space.
We've now flipped that to having a go of 80% of our lots being marketed for vertical construction
because that allows more economic investment in our neighborhoods.
The thing with the side yards that we're noticing is side yards used to take approximately a year and a half
to two years to get these properties sold just for open space and side yards. Right now,
Kathy can tell you, we're aiming towards a six to nine month time frame. And so while many of
our alders don't see that yet, we're working towards efficiency with our land disposition
strategy. Before Patrick talks, sorry, Patrick, do you know how many city-owned lands we have,
city-owned parcels we have in the city of Chicago right now?
Just under 10,000.
I mean, excuse me, just over 10,000 city-owned vacant lots.
I can give you the exact number, actually.
We have 10,556 city-owned vacant lots, to be exact.
Do you know how many we had last year?
I don't, but I can submit that through the chair.
Okay.
10,556.
Okay.
All right.
All right, Patrick, you're on.
Thank you, Alderwoman.
So I'll just kind of follow up on a few things that the commissioner said.
So specific to development, there were a handful of initiatives that we were able to realize with the help of council to move some ordinances through, one being allowing projects that need additional relief on top of a type 1 map amendment in the form of administrative adjustments or variations.
those would normally take a process either through our staff in the zoning bureau or through the
zoning board of appeals all of those approvals can be wrapped into a city council ordinance approved
at one time by council saves time and the expense that goes along with pursuing additional approvals
through through a particular process so that's been one very effective uh means of moving
development along faster in the city a second one that was just implemented this past november 1st
was taking all of the zoning board applications used to be a myriad amount of paper applications
and putting them in an electronic form digestible and searchable for the general public and
applicants and interested community members information about the applications the ability
to apply online streamlines the process to get people through to the zoning board faster it
allows us to move more of those projects through faster so then again taking cutting into the time
that it takes for development for people to move ahead on projects.
Thank you.
And can we charge a little more for that service?
We did not propose any fee increases in this year's budget.
Okay.
All right.
Something for consideration.
Thank you very much, Commissioner.
I wish you and your staff the best in 2025.
I enjoy working with your team.
Thank you, Chair Dow.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Chair Dow.
Just a follow-up on that.
Can we get through the chair list of all of the fees that we charged today and the last time that they were raised?
Sure.
Thank you.
I have Alderman Mitchell next.
Do you want me to come back to you?
Okay.
Alderman Lopez.
Good evening, chair, members of the committee, commissioner, everyone here.
first off if we can expand on what my colleague Alderman Doll asked for
the current list of the vacant lots by ward also and I just want to say a few years ago it was
nearly 13,000 so the fact that we've been able to get you know 2,500 back on the tax rolls is a
great thing. But I do want to touch on a couple things. First off, the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund.
If we could get a breakdown of where we are with projects associated with that by district,
the various NOF districts that are out there. But I have a question about when this was created
under the manual administration, there were only 10 NOF districts.
Are we looking at doing any expansion of these districts? Because I know, even though I think
I'm the only one from the southwest side here, we have often discussed how there are areas where we
want to be able to create and support our economic corridors where we don't have financial
options available to us like TIF or other things. So is there any discussion on expanding beyond the
current 10 to include things like Archer Avenue and other locations throughout the City of Chicago?
Yeah, I think as Commissioner, I do have the authority to expand and I would want to do that
in close collaboration with our auditors to find the appropriate places and places to expand. So
So that can be something that we can absolutely explore.
I think it's important to understand that we have to continue to have development at scale in order for NOF to be successful as a program.
Eighty percent of our NOF, as you know, goes towards our neighborhood development.
And so it's got to be a both-and strategy.
We can certainly explore opportunities to explore more NOF areas, but we have to be mindful of the importance of having more development move to feed those NOF areas.
So yes, I would be willing to sit down and have a conversation about the appropriate spaces to explore.
And to that end, Commissioner, what type of revenue drop have we seen to the NOF funds?
Because for everyone's edification, those are the allowances for people to build higher and bigger.
but in the absence of people building beyond what they are confined to that would mean we're getting
probably next to nothing at this point no it's it's growing because our pipeline is is growing
and so i'm going to actually pass it to noah who can speak specifically on um the growth of nof
over the last couple years um just to give you direct numbers sure uh noah safranek assistant
commissioner of planning development so alderman yes let all of 2023 for the plan developments that
were heard the commitments that came in were 47 million dollars in nof money this year to date
we're already at 66 million dollars committed for the year so with the increase we expect more of
these projects to come to fruition and then more money to sort of fill that off pot to be able to
to be dispersed across the city.
And has that fee for the NOF changed since its inception?
No.
How much would a 50%—so we theoretically, with regards to the issue of creating revenue,
we could actually increase that fee?
We could.
But I would just want to be cautious of implications that they may have, that may have on our development pipeline continuing to grow.
And so I think when we think about increasing the revenue, we should just be strategic.
We've had a hard time with the growth of our development pipeline over the last, between this administration, excuse me, the prior administration.
We now are seeing an increase in our pipeline.
And I want to make sure that we continue to be a development-friendly administration and a development-friendly city so that we continue to attract developers.
And so could there be a conversation for an increase?
I think there absolutely could be.
I just would want to kind of have a holistic approach to how we think about increasing revenue across the board for our department.
Okay.
Well, we know that inflation has kicked in since this came in, so I think that I'm not saying like a 300% increase, but even if it was 25%, that's still something marginal considering where it started off at.
under the previous administration, DPD was very instrumental in creating various
task forces and projects in wards that created various public spaces and things of that nature
in coordination with CDOT and other departments. How many of those kind of projects are still out
there. Can you provide a specific example? Are you referring to our pop courts? Are you referring to?
So I, so my good friend, Jim Harvin, and many members of your team will know, for example,
like in back of the yards where we would create like outdoor plazas that were funded through DPD
things, or we've seen other kinds of initiatives like that. There was a big push to try and make
some of those things throughout the city of Chicago.
It's now been about four years, and many of those temporary setups are falling to the
wayside.
How many of those are out there?
Do we know how many are still out there throughout the city?
What is our long-term goal to address them?
Because I know that now it seems the departments are switching gears a little bit, putting
it on putting the onus on CDOT as opposed to DPD. So I'd just like to know, are we changing
departments or what's the plan for those? Yeah. So I'll pass that very specific example you gave
to Jim. I don't need it from me. I'm just, that's the example that I know relates to the question,
but just overall citywide. Sure. So overall citywide, we have examples, recent examples,
actually our public outdoor plazas are an example of ways that we activate city-owned land
to create outdoor amenity space for residents.
We had ARPA dollars that allowed us to fund a lot of pop courts throughout our city.
We currently do not have any more dollars tied to those pop courts anymore,
but I think you're right in that this is an opportunity to continue to explore areas
where we can activate outdoor spaces, specifically our large lots
that want to remain outdoor spaces for community residents.
I would like to pass the specific question, though, that you have to Jim Harbin, as he may be slightly more familiar with the relationship between CDOT and those outdoor activations from prior administrations.
Can you hear me? Yeah. I'm not familiar with the name, the name of that program where we had the...
Can you say your name for the record? I'm so sorry.
Yeah, what is the name of the program?
Oh, I'm sorry. Jim Harbin, Deputy Commissioner.
It's late. It's okay.
It's late.
No, you're talking about the domiciles that was done by planning
where we had small businesses use those as pop-ups.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah.
And are you referring to the domiciles that we built?
Yeah.
The small businesses that use as pop-ups.
That program was decommissioned.
I know some of those structures are still in place.
CDOT is now managing that process now.
Okay.
Thank you.
I do want to echo
the gains that are being made for the shy block builder.
I'm glad that we're moving in the right direction on those.
And I know much to your chagrin, I said I wanted all of mine to be side lots first.
But I think definitely some coordination with your department
and housing and the local law aldermen to try to do the clusters
many of us have talked about.
But one of the things that I will say to you that I said to Commissioner Castaneda is that price per unit makes me nervous because we're seeing an extraordinary amount of money going towards housing, where the per unit cost is anywhere between $500 to almost a million dollars per unit, which is really sucking the life out of a lot of these programs that we're doing.
So I would just be mindful as we look forward towards expanding those opportunities between the two departments that we're trying to bring the costs as close to what for-profit development is in the not-for-profit.
Lastly, my favorite topic that gets my goat at every time, and Tim Jeffries can answer for this in finance, TIFFs and TIFF spending.
and the lack of clarity on what our priorities are,
as well as what we are doing to answer local aldermen's concerns
and questions about what we're doing in terms of neighborhood projects
for investment in infrastructure and things of that nature.
I think all of us had a collective shudder when we heard there's a TIF sweep
and we don't know what programs and proposals are being swept.
I know we were told it was everything over 10 years,
but if you could provide through the chair a list of all outstanding
TIF project applications that you are aware of by
ward and their value that are still under consideration
and considered live in the hopper I would appreciate that. Sure just for
clarity for the through the chair response are you referring to our sister
agencies as well as infrastructure projects or just private development projects using
TIF or all of the above? All of the above. I'll provide through the chair.
Yes. Thank you, Alderman Lopez.
Oh, nice hair.
Thank you. Alderman Mitchell.
It's late, guys.
First of all, let me echo the same sentiments of that. Chairman Dow,
your department is an absolute pleasure to work with.
I've got to always give a shout out to Patrick.
He is Encyclopedia Britannica at the other end of the phone.
So I appreciate all the time, Pat, always answer my questions, help me with my constitution.
I appreciate it.
David and Tim, I stopped there because I don't want to miss everybody.
Just everybody.
Noah, Commissioner, extremely excited when you came aboard.
The biggest thing is you've seen both sides.
you've seen the neighborhood side and then the corporate side, so to speak.
So I feel that that brings sexual insight into the problems that you and I talk about in my community all the time.
I'm encouraged about all the things that's happening in both 7 and 10.
And the thing I always talk about is what's going to happen to the West.
75th, 79th, 83rd, and my 95th.
Kind of give me an idea of the direction that you're going to take with respect to the West, and specifically in my work, as it relates to my issues in working with BACP, Department of Buildings, because I have property that, forget vacant, they're abandoned.
We don't know who own them, and that's holding up a lot of development.
So I know you can't get to kind of give us an idea on what you bring into the table.
Sure.
Collaboration with you and really understanding what your priorities
and what your constituents' priorities are, planning with you, not planning for you.
I think a couple areas that you just mentioned is the importance of not just collaborating with you,
but us collectively working with those departments that you just named.
And so it's all hands on deck approach to really addressing some of the challenges, challenges A, with existing buildings, challenges with vacant buildings, challenges with the vacant city land and vacant private land.
So we're not taking a one size fits all approach, but we're really thinking about land use planning across those corridors.
And so they're appropriately zoned to bring the type of uses that your residents and that you desire to see.
You know, with this robust development that you both, you reference just to the east of both of you all's wards, I think this is a generational opportunity for us to really think strategically about how do we ensure that the investment that's happening at that site goes west.
And so it doesn't just stop on the mega site that you're referencing.
And I think it's going to happen with collaboration.
It's going to happen with us leveraging every tool in the toolbox to help not just incentivize investment and development,
but to attract developers to the area to say, hey, the ward remains open for business, but through a collaborative effort.
Understanding what those priorities are, again, I think is first and foremost.
Our team stands committed to working really closely.
We've already started working really closely together about just land use plans for your specific corridors.
And there's so many opportunities.
Yes, there are some challenges, but so many opportunities in your ward to really have catalytic investment and development to start to prime the pump more.
Not just your commercial corridors, but even your residential areas.
Opportunities for infill development.
We talked a little bit about senior housing.
Lots of different robust development and investment opportunities that I'm excited to work with you on.
Yeah, likewise.
You just mentioned inviting other developers because that's one of the things that I talk about with, you know,
it's no secret, Related is buying the USX site.
That's one of the conversations we have with them about how you're attracting other developers to come join you.
How can you guys help with that?
I think we start with land use planning is really important.
Zoning is important.
We need to really understand the power of land use plans and really shaping these corridors to ultimately become what you envision and your residents envision.
We talk a lot about how certain corridors, certain wards just lack retail.
The reality is retail always follows rooftops.
And so we need to focus on repopulating certain areas in the ward that have lost population.
Like the missing middle piece.
That's right. The Missing Middle and other kind of multifamily housing developments that then makes it easier for us to attract commercial development opportunities.
There's opportunities for us to leverage our new housing and economic development bond, whether it's a formal RFP or us doing what we did for the Missing Middle,
is creating this incentive to come to areas that some of our developers maybe didn't come to, not because they don't recognize that they're viable development markets,
but because they lack some of the resources to be able to move these developments forward.
And so I think we're just bringing all the twos to the table to move things forward.
But again, it goes back to collaboration and me not saying, hey, I think this is what's best for your ward.
But you're really saying these are the priorities. These are the challenges.
These are the opportunities. And this is the priority site that I'd like to get things going on.
OK, that's I know she'll get to talking more.
Thank you. Again, I'm looking forward to continue to work with you.
Thank you, everybody, because I have a very challenged ward, and the effort that you guys put in with me is much appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you, Audemars.
We're going to go to Chair Haddon and then Alderwoman Scott.
Thank you, Chairman.
All right. I don't have too many questions for you, thankfully.
So Juan, I'll echo my colleagues' praises of your department.
Patrick, Paul, thank you for answering all of our random questions all the time.
And similar to, I mentioned this to Commissioner Castaneda, I know that we've got a lot of work to do.
It's been exciting to be able to collaborate with your department.
And I look forward to, you know, finishing out some ideas and programs this year and what we have to look forward to in 2025.
You know, for me, I think my biggest questions are, you know, maybe just giving us an opportunity or giving you an opportunity to share more about kind of our bond program, what's happening there.
I know as we've caught each other in the hallways here, you're always quick to remind me, you don't have to wait until next year, Alderman, right?
You know, if there are projects, if there are, you know, kind of groups and things that are happening, please come to us.
So just wondering if you could share a little bit about what that's looked like for you so far.
So maybe what kind of projects might be in the pipeline and what that process looks like for those of us who have some ideas but maybe don't know quite what to do.
Sure.
So to answer your last question, for those in the room that have ideas and don't know kind of where to go or you have a development or a developer in mind and they're looking for a way to fill a gap that they may have in mind.
Or they have a development in mind and they may not know with their capital stack.
I encourage you to bring them to the table.
We will happily sit down and talk with them.
We will be happy to strategize with them and talk.
If there is a gap, to explore different ways to fill gaps when and where appropriate.
I always encourage applicants, you don't have to wait until the project is fully baked to come and sit down with us.
We are perfectly fine sitting down when projects are in a conceptual basis, and we actually prefer that, especially for larger projects.
When it comes to our Housing and Economic Development Bond in particular, we've actually
advanced $50 million to date of our Housing and Economic Development Bond, and this is
across three projects at $5 million each, as well as $25 million as pending for a CDBG
application round that will be announced before the end of this year, and also $10 million
for our missing middle. So that's an example of kind of our holistic approach to getting the
dollars to move towards these important catalytic projects in our neighborhoods. And so that's kind
of our commitment to date on our bond. But again, as a reminder, we want to make sure that we're
doing that outreach early so that your residents, your businesses, your development partners know
when we have funding rounds open, what are eligible projects?
What are limitations or restrictions? We want to keep an open
door policy so that we are in constant communication with you.
Another thing that I want to offer is the Housing and Economic Development Bond is a newer tool.
But there are other funding sources that exist. So our universal funding
application doesn't force a developer to say, I want to use NOF
or I want to use TIF, if you will, or I want to use the New Housing and Economic Development
and bond. Instead, our preference is, tell us what the project is, tell us what the impact is,
tell us where the project is located, so we can review project feasibility, project readiness,
and understand what the overall financing gap is, so that we can figure out the appropriate tool
to fill the said gap. And so I can't emphasize enough the importance of just ongoing collaboration
and communication, and my team will always make themselves available to talk ahead of time to your
local chambers or your businesses or residents to make sure that they know when we have funding
rounds. And that's not specific to our housing and economic development bond. That's for every
round that we have. For Mary's team, for Tim's team, for Kathy with the vacant lots, we stand
committed to ongoing engagement to make sure that the word is spread widely.
Thank you for that. Only two more questions. So one, I will say, do you feel
do you feel confident with the 2025 recommendation for your budget that you guys can continue to do
i'll say we very much enjoy working with our neighborhood planners and i think having that
regional planning team has um it's really changed the game for how we get to operate in the ward
for the better um and so you know i'd like to see that that's able to continue and that you've got
enough staff and they have enough time. And so just wondering, you know, do you feel like
that type of work can continue as well as the other initiatives with what you've got budgeted
in 2025? Yes, it has to continue. I think we've made a lot of progress. We've pushed to get new
tools, financial tools to the table, like the Housing and Economic Development Bond,
our newish
shy block builder, our disposition
our land disposition platform
to be more efficient with how we get the vacant
lots back in productive use. We've got some
amazing planners that have
done some amazing work in you all's
corridors. And so we
can't afford to stop. We absolutely
will continue and the engagement
will continue. That's something that we pride
ourselves on, authentically engaging with
our aldermen and residents so that we
know how to plan with
you all in your respective wards. We're talking over 390
engagements to date. That will not slow down next year. We recognize
yes, we've had to make some sacrifices, but we
feel confident that some of the cuts that we made will not
negatively impact the services or the
programs. I'm excited that we have a new housing and economic
development bond that certainly is going to allow us to continue to make
the impact from a grant standpoint in our neighborhoods, but no, we will not slow down.
In fact, just to be a little bit more specific, some of the cuts that we made had to do with
professional services and consultants, approximately $1.4 million in corporate cuts.
And so it's important to know those studies that we had to basically say, hey, consultant,
we can't move forward, it's not enough to say that the study won't move forward.
We're doing it internally.
And so we've kind of just shifted the priorities so that we can continue to move these important programs, studies, and projects forward without any negative impact on your awards.
That's fantastic to hear.
Catherine and her team have been fantastic.
So I feel like they've spent a lot of time with us, and I don't know how they find the time to do that with everybody.
But I appreciate it.
Two more things from me.
One, I know we've spoke about this before.
I just want to point out the kind of bird-friendly design piece.
You knew this was coming, right?
Bird-friendly design.
I know that I think this took effect in July.
So just a flag that, you know, certainly as we get into 2025, we'll want to hear things.
And if you've got any through the chair, if you've got any, maybe as you get to end of
the year numbers, I know, you know, you needed some time for things to take effect, but would
love to see what the impacts of that have been on development.
and as we look to maybe evaluate that next year
to see if there are any improvements we can make.
Sure.
So just for clarification further through the chair,
are you interested to know how many developers
are implementing birthworms?
Yes.
As part of their development?
Yes.
And I know since July, I know it just started.
But yeah, just how many people
are actually implementing these designs
based on the new rubric that's been set up?
Will do.
Thank you.
And then my last question is about historic preservation.
So, the historic preservation team has also been a great, great resource for us. And I know, in some recent conversations, I think they told us there hasn't been a historic survey of buildings in the city, maybe since the 80s. So right when we look at like orange rated buildings, there haven't been updates to this since I've been alive.
and so wondering is that something that could be contemplated I know this isn't something you can
probably answer right now but you know is that something you guys that's come up or something
that maybe could be contemplated as planning to do some type of updated survey as we look for
historic preservation in the future yes I'll answer that yes that is something that we would
love to do I just want to acknowledge there's cost implications tied to that and given this year's
budget challenges, I would want to explore other tools that maybe we can tap, grants,
et cetera, that will allow us to explore how that can move ahead in future years or years.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Definitely would like to work with the department on that and explore what kind of funding we
have.
I know it's important.
So many of our buildings and our structures have great meaning to the city.
and it's a helpful tool, especially for those of those who aren't immersed in planning 24-7
to have the department and the city be able to kind of pre-identify buildings like that
so that we can better preserve our history, but also think creatively about development projects.
Yeah, thank you for that, and thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair Haddon.
Alderman Moore, not Moore, Scott, sorry.
Alderman Scott, I'm so sorry.
It's been a long day, but you've been a great vice chair, and so thank you.
I don't have questions.
I really just have some thank yous.
From the day you started, you were committed to working in the 24th Ward, trying to help
revitalize a broken system and so a broken community, and so I appreciate that.
And everybody in the box, I appreciate all your hard work with my area, especially, you know, Tim and Mary.
And I mean, everybody in that box, I think that I've worked with.
And so I appreciate your work and dedication with the 24th Ward, some of our NOFs.
And it doesn't go unnoticed.
So thank you, because I really appreciate it.
um, Sierra commissioner.
Yeah.
Nope.
You always get on me.
Um, thank you.
You know, you like, um, Alderman Mitchell said, you came in, you know, running.
And so that's always impactful for a group of 50 who everybody wants something done in
their ward.
And so I think that you have been, uh, strategic on how you handle all of us.
And I appreciate that because it doesn't go again unnoticed.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Next, we're going to have Alderman Mosley, then Alderman Conway.
Alderman Mosley, snooze you lose.
Okay, Alderman Conway.
All right.
Right at this.
Right in the nick of time.
um so first of all just want to lay out a few thank yous uh cindy thank you for everything
you do and updating the sign ordinance bringing the bringing the sign ordinance into the
modern era or at least into the 2000s here for downtown which is which is a great step forward
and mary everything you did with regarding the bid bid districts and i know the uh mag mile which is
a little outside my district but i know it's um not too soon for them but we are as someone who
two ssas in my ward as well it's it's going to be uh very uh very important and cindy tim and noah
all the work you all do for la salle street in the loop i i've worked with you all and really
appreciate all the work and education that you uh you give um and and and commissioner i think you're
doing a great job too i don't mean to not give you the thank yous but you know you get the credit
actually you know so um question for you uh regarding la salle streets uh appreciate that
the projects are moving moving forward i know i was when you were sworn in i was like staying on
you on this and i remember you said um you know i didn't leave my private sector job to not build
so don't worry about it and you and you have kept your word on that uh see um if you could perhaps
give a broad idea of the timetable for the remaining projects and how you think that
intersects with the Google Thompson Center coming online? Yeah, so the loop projects,
the salary, imagine, loop, reimagine projects are moving, are revitalizing. It's loop revitalization
project. They even get mad at me when I use the wrong term, so I want to make sure you stay
It's a little revitalization, to be exact.
They're moving forward.
We're proud that they're moving forward.
In fact, there was an article just yesterday that 135 South LaSalle is moving forward to CDC next week.
And so right now we have five projects that are moving forward that's going to create 1,423 units
and over 434 affordable units in these buildings.
This is $763 million in total development costs.
This is bringing much-needed retail, much-needed affordability to the loop.
So these aren't just projects that we're announcing so that we can say, hey, we've got conversions from office to residential.
These are projects that are actually moving forward.
And so where are they?
79 West Monroe just was approved at City Council last month
and is targeted to close by the end of this year with leasing to start Q1 of 2026.
City Council introduction, we're slating 111 West Monroe, targeted for December, hopefully.
208 South LaSalle, we're targeting for a City Council intro also in December.
30 North LaSalle. We're targeting a city council intro in January of next year.
And as I mentioned previously, 135 South LaSalle CDC next week. So these projects are all moving
forward. We're proud of the developers that we're working with. I'm really proud of my team. These
are complex deals. These are very hard projects, but the fact that these projects are moving and
the financing on these projects are moving ahead. This is a great sign. Not only are we putting these
vacant spaces back in productive use, we're bringing much needed affordability and much
needed density to our downtown. That's going to help our restaurants. It's going to help our
retail and help to ensure that we have a vibrant loop. So they're absolutely moving and they're
moving fast and we are going to do everything to continue to push these projects forward
efficiently and timely. Now, that's great, and I'm beyond excited about it. Obviously,
as part of the TIF sweep, we're taking away a lot of TIF dollars out of the LaSalle Street TIF,
about $75 million. What concerns, if any, do you have there? About your TIF surplus?
Yeah, about the TIF, $75 million TIF money going away.
Will it affect the timing of any of these projects?
No.
And what effect do you think it will have?
No, it won't have any negative impact on the timing of your projects moving forward.
You have a really strong TIF.
In fact, that TIF is slated to generate approximately $200 million in increment next year.
And so this is a TIF that's going to rebound from the surplus.
And so I have no concerns about the ability for your TIF to still be healthy and for us to have opportunities to create more projects.
The other thing that I think is worth mentioning, just to complement these, you know, when we think about our loop revitalization projects,
those were projects that we initially incentivized leveraging TIF.
It's important to note that just last month at planned commission, we had a project come forward on Michigan Avenue,
an office-to-residential conversion with zero TIF dollars.
And so what we're seeing is the private market is starting to wake up
and come in and actually invest in the conversion of some of these buildings.
But sometimes it does take city subsidy to move the needle
and create a market where a market isn't as strong,
specifically from office-to-residential conversion.
Well, that's great news.
I know one of the goals of the Loop Revitalization Project
project was to catalyze the movement of the central business district to that of a multi-use
district and it's good to see that there's at least some evidence that that's that is happening
well I um that's all I have and I want to thank you all for your for your good work and I yield
the balance of my time as an efficient questioner thank you thank you very much for your contribution
to shortening our evening no no what yes Alderman Mitchell can uh Conway port some of that 200
to the Avalon Park, 79th Street too.
It's not an adjacent tip, so unfortunately he can't afford it.
Alderman Mosley, would you like to go?
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.
Good evening, Commissioner.
Good evening.
I have to start by saying just really thank you to you and your team.
I get to spend a lot of time with you all,
So I have to say names from everybody, from Paul to Patrick to Noah to Cal to Victor, David, Erica, Jasmine, Jaya, Tim, Jeff, Kathy, Nelson, Meg, Mary, Noor, Mark, Hannah, to all of you all.
Thank you so much for allowing me to pop in on any given moment, and you never make me feel like I'm intruding.
So thank you for that.
And thank you, Commissioner, for before I even became an alder, this department has had my back, the 21st Ward back.
Despite whatever punches come out, we roll with them together.
So I'm very, very thankful for that.
I want to ask you about how we get more competitive applications from regions like the far south side of Chicago.
I think just working closely together.
Getting the word out.
I mean, we just hosted a session at the library for your businesses.
I think it's important for businesses to know that there are application rounds that are open,
and those, you know, whether they're webinars or in-person sessions,
allow them to ask my team questions about the feasibility of their proposed project,
the timing, address challenges on spot. I think it's also important to know that it's not atypical
for an applicant to apply for a round, not be successful for that first round, get feedback
from our team. Our team is always willing to sit down and discuss deficiencies in projects. They
are always willing to sit down. We issue deficiency letters. We schedule one-on-ones with applicants
when their projects aren't successful, this allows them to address those deficiencies.
And so for the next round, when they come back, they have a much stronger application.
And so, again, it's important for applicants to not be discouraged if they're not approved for the very first round,
but really to lean on our amazing team who prides themselves on authentically engaging,
working together, and really strengthening their application.
The other thing that I think is important to notice is we often see really strong applications
that aren't quite ready for permanent funding.
And so as part of the Housing and Economic Development Bond,
we have now pre-development funding that can allow those projects
to go from a pretty good idea to a solid project.
And so that's another thing that nonprofits and businesses now have access to
that they didn't have access to before.
And so I would say make it a concerted effort to do outreach
so that you have the numbers of applicants so that we can review.
If an applicant isn't successful, ask him for a deficiency letter.
Ask him for a meeting with my team so that they can strengthen it next round.
And also the pre-development dollars that we have will allow them to just strengthen the project overall.
Thank you.
I'm excited to hear about those pre-development dollars.
That's something that's needed.
tell me more about how we can use TIF works and TIF NIPs to put our people back to work
and also repair restore the homes that we have in those districts as well yeah and so the TIF
NIP program is actually under the department of housing and so I'll kind of defer to them with
which areas they've identified for TIF NIP and kind of where the the process is if that's okay
with you since it sits under their department.
But I'll defer to Mary to talk a little bit about TIF Works and some updated changes that
we're making to TIF Works that I think you'll be pleased with.
Again, Mary O'Connor, Deputy Commissioner.
So we're really excited.
We are relaunching TIF Works in Q1 of 2025.
And some of the changes to the program will be streamlining application.
So the TIFWorks program will help existing employees and upskilling,
and then as well as new employees, we could pay staff up to three months.
And we're also thinking about a retention bonus.
After three months, if the businesses continue to keep them on,
that you will receive some additional funding.
We are bringing on a program administrator so we can expand the program.
We're rolling out $11 million in 2025 to citywide.
So this will be citywide.
But other things we're doing is we're working on providing.
We're expanding the industry.
A lot of the TIF works before was pretty much marketed towards manufacturing.
But we want to make sure we address hospitality, health care,
the other additional industries that may have been
not aware of the program. So you'll see
in the upcoming year that we will be meeting with all the alders, your staff, our
community partners, talking about what this is. Our marketing will
change. We have a website right now, a landing page if you'd like to
look at following the progress of what we're doing.
And if I can stay with you, Deputy
Commissioner, tell me more about support for local entrepreneurship and small business incubators.
In regards to TIFWorks, or are you just talking in general?
How can we support local entrepreneurs in our neighborhood?
We have a lot of resources.
So I'm also excited to share that in 2025, we will be rolling out $88.7 million in small grants.
that'll involve SPF, CDG Small, NOF Small, as well as TIF Works.
We've made some new changes to the NOF program where we are offering,
as the commissioner mentioned, sometimes an applicant may not make it for the first round,
but there's an opportunity that, you know, we will guide them and offer some coaching
to make sure that they continue to stay in the pipeline
and have an opportunity to be chosen in the next round.
We are offering, our grants are changing for like NOF.
Before it was a 50% reimbursement.
We've raised it to 95%.
We've also noticed that many of our applicants struggle because they're experts in their business,
but they're not experts in construction.
So we are offering a $50,000 bonus that will be used for ownership representatives or project managers.
So we are continuing evaluating our program, seeing where the challenges lie, and now offering additional technical assistance to meet those gaps.
And if I connect, Patrick is kind of dovetails into this.
special use permits, particularly for those barbershops and beauty salons that seemingly are unaware that they need a special use permit if they're in close proximity to another,
but they spend a lot of their hard-earned money and investments in opening up these shops and then get put in a really hard position where they may or may not pass ZBA.
hey, is there something we can do better with the state to make sure that they know that once they get their license to operate,
that they need to do or be aware of a potential special use permit?
Well, yes and no.
So there are – it's a rather limited pool of zoning conditions that require the special use to be triggered.
And you're right.
When they are only providing the personal service and they're not conducting any retail sales, there's no city license that's involved.
And so, correct, when they apply for their professional licenses through the state, I do not know necessarily that they have always secured locations for where they want to go and establish their business.
So there is sometimes a gap in that type of knowledge.
So we do try to work with the applicants as quickly as possible to get them the information about whether they are triggering a special use.
We work with licensing to do the appropriate licensing searches.
but we've talked with some of your colleagues about potential avenues to adjust some of those
restrictions from either a distance or a zoning district standpoint, but we'd be happy to work
on something else to make that simpler for them and also to lessen some of the burden on the
zoning board. Great, great. I'll close by saying, Commissioner, when you started, I shared how proud
we are of you. That has not changed. I know your family's watching. We're proud of you, Mom. We're
proud of the girl, your baby girl.
The bar
was set for excellence,
and you raised it, so thank you
for that. Thank you to your team,
and thank you for
all that you bring to this work.
You show up in your full, authentic
self, and we appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Mosley, Alderman Vasquez, followed by
Alderman Cito Lopez. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. I don't have
questions. I'm glad we were able to talk on the side.
I just wanted to really thank Commissioner
Bull Wright for all the amazing work. I don't think it would be an overstatement to think
that the whole council thinks you and the position is an upgrade. The ability to get things moving
and thinking through it is something we greatly appreciate. What I wanted to do is thank a number
of folks, Tim Jeffries, 40th Warder in the House, really for all the help with TIF in the way that
that just allowed us to really do so many great things over there.
Mr. Moody, who since being an OBM has always been a great partner.
And really someone who I champion often and will continue to is Catherine Hurd.
As far as DPD, what she did with the Western Ave corridor study
and Tom Bellino and Danielle Kreider absolutely caused historic,
unprecedented change in this city and got us to help up zone all of Western, the things we do on
Lincoln. And so I don't often spend a lot of time on just one individual, but the amount of work and
what she's done in 40, I can't thank her enough and just wanted to make sure that that was on
record along with everyone on the team. There hasn't been a moment that I reached out to DPD
that people weren't executing top notch. Patrick Murphy, you're a walking encyclopedia of zoning
in a way that is necessary.
And so thank you all for everything you do.
Just want to give you your props.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Audubon Navasquez.
Audubon C. Lopez will be followed by Alderman Beal.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
And I want to echo the sentiments of many people in the council
for the great work that Commissioner Boatwright is doing
for the city of Chicago.
And I'll tell you, there's a welcoming change in the department.
In terms of TIFFs, I think there has been a conversation here in the Council, and I think one that we must take.
I, for one, want someone who likes to read a little bit about history and talk about what was the intention of the TIFF program to begin with.
And I think Mayor Washington intended to fund neighborhoods that have been disinvested.
I believe strongly that you are trying to fulfill that very same commitment.
Unfortunately, TIFs have been mismanaged by previous administrations,
and we are in this budget situation because of these same administrations
that are ironically now blaming the new mayor.
In terms of the TIFs, I would like to talk about our particular situation in Pilsen,
where we have had the highest property tax increases percentage-wise in the city,
yet we still see school closures affecting our neighborhoods.
We also see the inability for us to be able to even remodel our library branch, Rito-Losano branch, that is in desperate need based on a feasibility study.
So in terms of, and I think that unfortunately I see a lot of misinformation coming about the TIF bond, people come misinformed to city council sometimes to comment.
And I really welcome the last conversation we had around the limitations of TIFs.
The TIF bond in particular, when we bought the 18th and Peoria lots, we actually used TIF bond to be able to now have affordable housing.
So with those limitations, in terms of the TIF use, right, in terms of some of the needs in our neighborhood to invest in the public works, libraries, keeping our schools open in terms of the need,
Can you describe a little bit of the goal of the Pilsen TIF that has been mischaracterized,
even to the extent of saying that this is the largest TIF in the city, which I think is quite a bit of a stretch?
So, Commissioner, if you can just share with us kind of what was the plan
and maybe how this can also contribute to the needs of the city, but without neglecting neighborhoods like Pilsen.
Yeah, so your TIF that you're referring to as it exists right now is primarily an industrial TIF,
just the boundaries that was established for your TIF.
If your question is how will the proposed expanded TIF benefit the city, benefit your area, is that the question?
Right.
I think TIF, I want to just for the record, TIF is one tool.
It's an important tool, but it isn't the only tool.
And so just to be direct about the question that you're asking, TIF provides funding that some other resources don't provide, if you will.
And so you mentioned the Housing and Economic Development Bond in the earlier part of your question.
The Housing and Economic Development Bond does not allow me to fund sister agency projects.
So, for example, I can't use the Housing and Economic Development Bond for parks.
I can't use it for schools.
I can't use it for libraries.
And I can't use it for infrastructure.
And so there will need to be other capital programs, if you will, to be able to invest in some of those much needed components in your area.
TIF is one of the examples, and I think that was one of the reasons you wanted to explore an expansion of the said TIF.
Any expansion of a TIF will require any alderman that touches that TIF to be a part of that conversation,
conversation because we always want to be collaborative in nature with any decision that
we're making that's going to ultimately impact positively or negatively others' orders. And so
I think the short is that the housing and economic development bond serves many uses,
but does not cover all the tools or all the priorities that a TIF would. Both are important.
They're different. They're complementary, but I think they're all very important tools to have
in the toolbox. Thank you, Commissioner. And in that sense, I know that you mentioned, for instance,
the need for sister agencies like CPS that regularly come to City Council asking for support,
and rightly so. We right now have, as you know, some schools that are closing.
Would it be fair to say that we do not have a lot of options if we want to explore, for instance,
saving some of these schools or investing, like Cooper Elementary right now, we don't have a
playground for kids that may be welcoming even students from the schools that may be projected
to close. So is it fair to say that they are very limited over there? What are the resources we have
in that sense? Yeah, so I won't speak for the parks and I won't speak for CPS, but I will speak for my
department. And I'm actually going to pass it to Tim to talk about some of the tools that we have
available, not just for the schools, not for the parks, but just in general that can help support
development in your ward beyond the TIF. Thank you.
For the record, Jim Jeffries, Managing Deputy Commissioner. I mean, I think the primary
tools that we have for private redevelopment are things like TIF, obviously, and then the bond was
a huge new piece for us, as well as NOF. I think specifically for non-private uses, TIF is our
biggest use, particularly for sister agencies and infrastructures, but that isn't the only tool.
You know, it's not just as TIF is not the only tool for DPD.
The city has a capital improvement plan.
Those funds are used throughout the city once approved every five years.
Sister agencies have their own bonding authority.
They have their own capital programs.
And as we have TIFs come offline, their levies will increase, too, and more funds will flow to them for projects.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tim.
And I think, like, as I said, and I'm hearing, you know, I used to represent the West Loop and other communities that indeed have used TIF to develop and to have economic development in line with the goals of the community has.
I hear, you know, in the 34th Ward, the concerns about TIF surplus.
Historically, though, downtown has benefited by significant resources coming from TIF,
and it is only fair that neighborhoods like ours can also have an opportunity to have balanced development.
And I do think that we need to have factual conversations.
I see conversations that really take a lot of time when it comes to invest in pools for CPS,
but when it comes to invest in private theaters, there seems to be no conversation, not even question about it.
You know, all public infrastructure is also important. I want to just make it clear for the record. In terms of, like, the small business development, earlier during the conversation with BACP, we talked about the need to coordinate with local chambers, right?
the need, you know, they have the storefront vacancy program,
restoring, reactivating empty storefronts.
I would like to discuss the possibility to coordinate, you know,
with the department, you know, looking at what resources you have available
to coordinate efforts with BACP.
We have, you know, as you know, 26th Street, 18th Street,
that do not have BIF programs, do not have other tools.
So it is critical for us to look at what is available within BACP,
with the DPD and to support these local small chambers.
And I really appreciate the work of Mary O'Connor and your team.
As you know, we've lost some agencies even for economic development,
and we're in dire need to look at fair and equitable development.
Great. And we stand committed to work with BACP to support the businesses in your area,
whether it's through grants, whether it's through the Leary partner that we'll be supporting in the very near future.
We stand committed to partner with all of our departments to advance investment opportunities and support in your ward.
Thank you. And in terms of the, my final question, I think is around budgeting, because I think we need to talk about budgeting possibilities.
This is around also development. I know the pilot, the payment in Luffy's, right, in terms of opportunities to exploring, and I know Patrick is here.
we've talked about the possibility to have entities, universities, big entities, to contribute a little bit more.
They have big endowments. We also have lots that they own.
If there's any possibility for that, I know that is not within your department, but payments in lieu.
You know, we see, for instance, right now, empty churches in our world.
I do think that we have a social contract.
When we have empty schools, we have debt forgiveness or payments in lieu.
How can we balance that?
How can we work in collaboration to have a clear vision of what the city can look like,
where entities that maybe get tax exemptions can also be part of the solution?
Sure.
Alderman, I can chime in a little on this.
So any of those payment in lieu of tax agreements with major universities or nonprofit hospital systems,
would take a negotiation between the city and those entities to figure out an offset that is a payment,
like you said, in lieu of the property tax that would otherwise come.
So those would be larger conversations that would have to take place with those institutions.
Thank you.
And I think I would welcome these conversations.
It may not be about property taxes.
It may be around keeping schools open, right?
So I would welcome the opportunity to work with your department in finding solutions in a dire need of budget.
I think that we all have to pay our first share. Universities, the Archdiocese of Chicago,
I do think all have a responsibility to make sure that schools don't close, that we balance the
budgets responsibly. As you know, we have a serious situation in our community with 2,000 kids that
need solutions. So, I look forward to working with you and I commend you for your efforts, Commissioner.
Thank you.
Thank you, Hon. Presidio Lopez-Onderman Bill.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I only got a few questions.
We'll sign you up for round two.
We're going to just jump right in, Commissioner. Good evening.
Pull your mic up.
How are you, what are your 3% cuts? What did you do to accomplish your 3% cut?
Oh, sure. So I mentioned earlier, the majority of our 3% cuts came from professional consultant contracts that we're not moving forward. But that means that we're not moving forward with the consultants. Instead, we're doing them internally. I can actually go through the list. Just give me one second.
Okay, I have it right here.
So it's approximately $1.6 million.
Citywide planning, I mentioned that we had a land sales web portal.
It's complete right now.
That was approximately $50,000.
From a zoning standpoint, we had a zoning visualization task order.
It was about $100,000.
Planning and design, planning studies was the majority of our cut. It was over $650,000.
And this was across regions. And so we recognize that we can't afford to not do those studies.
We can't afford to stop the programming. Instead, we have to do it internally.
And so you won't see any negative impact. No one will see negative impact from the lack of those services and programs,
because we'll instead do those internally.
We also have a web-based zoning application that was approximately $150,000,
a cultural heritage study for $115,000,
a very small cut for a scope that was already complete tied to the Obama Presidential Center.
We had $200,000 that we cut from a partner guide house that we had been working with,
And it was just because their contract was done, and so there was no need for us to continue to engage them or shift their contract to another scope.
If you can just give me the rest through the chair.
Sure.
So approximately 1.6.
But, again, I just want to emphasize that we're not cutting programs nor services.
Instead, this is a lot of opportunity for our team to assume that work that the consultants would otherwise.
Okay.
And I do want to commend you for shortening the time frame for plan commission.
that is a huge lift
and I do also
on that note I want to echo a lot
what my colleagues have said
about you coming in
really bringing a lot of energy
a lot of innovation and guidance
in the department because I mean we've always
had great people in the department
and I don't want to start giving names but
it's just
nice having new leadership
that is serious about getting things done
cutting ribbons and putting shovels in the ground
But the whole team, including a man next to you, we've been there forever.
I appreciate him as well.
Why is there such a delay in the awards for the NOF, the next award?
Because I think we had it back in August.
There was supposed to be another award of NOF.
Are you referring to NOF in particular?
Of the large grants.
The large grants.
You mentioned earlier that large grants, the announcement for the next round is the end of the year.
Oh, yeah.
Why are we waiting?
We're doing twice a year.
Yeah, we do twice a year.
But wasn't it supposed to be in August, the next round?
No, we made an announcement.
Are you referring to when the last round closed?
So we made an announcement over the summer for the last group of finalists for our grants,
and this is typical for us.
This is the second round of announcements for this year.
So we typically do two rounds of announcements for our large, medium and large grants, if you will.
And this is the timing for the second round, summer and just think summer and winter, typically.
Okay.
Well, like I said, I know I have three, possibly four projects that I think are, you know, in that mix.
And I'm really patiently awaiting to see, you know, where we are with those awards.
So because we, you know, we like getting shovels in the ground on the south side as well.
So we love shovels in the ground throughout the city.
I couldn't agree more.
Okay. Whenever you're using TIF money, do you and your department now, because I know Alderman Dow, she does it.
Are you letting Alderman know that share a TIF and get support letters from everybody that's adjacent to those TIFs?
Yeah, we work closely with any Alderman that touches the TIF that's within the TIF so that we're collaborating with you all.
And oftentimes the aldermen are talking with their colleagues to say, hey, I have an infrastructure project or I need this amount of money to move forward to private development.
And so oftentimes those conversations start with you all, with your colleagues, but we certainly do make sure that we're having conversations when projects are moving forward.
And you're absolutely right.
Oftentimes Chair Dow does touch base with.
Well, Chair Dow does it, but I do know that the past administration, for some odd reason, I had a project lined up, and I went in to get some TIF and found out TIF money wasn't there and that it was being allocated to another project, and I had no knowledge of it.
This predates you, but that's how the past administration operated.
They operated in the shadows, so I'm glad that you all are bringing all that stuff into light.
Okay. The $570 million in TIF, if we were to not sweep the $570 million and did $320 million, do you have projects that could utilize next year $250 million on top of everything that we already have?
I guess it's important to acknowledge TIF is not the only tool that we use for development.
TIF is a tool that we use when and where appropriate.
At the end of the day, we look at what the gap is and what the appropriate funding source is.
And so I can't say definitively today that we have this many projects in a pipeline ready for funding that could be funded next year, if you will.
It's not the only tool.
We want to use all the tools that we have available.
I'm talking about this tool.
I'm just talking about this tool.
I wouldn't be able to say that there's projects in need of, or that would be TIF eligible, if you will, for over $200 million today, real estate development projects.
I'm just concerned that, you know, over the last two years, we basically are looking to sweep almost a billion dollars.
And that's a billion dollars, in my opinion, that could really go towards development, creating jobs and opportunity.
And when we're talking about a budget crisis, you know, we can grow out of a budget crisis if we, you know, got more shovels in the ground, got more ribbon cuttings and bring more opportunity, bring businesses back, using TIFF to, you know, attract businesses back into the city and creating jobs.
And so I'm just I'm just really afraid that we're using TIFF and we're sweeping TIFF to really, you know, to our own detriment is what I'm trying to say.
So I think it's important to know, you know, the reason I mentioned that TIF isn't the only tool in a toolbox is we've got a lot of private development that doesn't involve any city subsidy.
And I want to continue to always encourage that so that I'm not relying on TIF when it's not necessary.
We've got private investment funding 100% of the projects.
The reason that I said I'm not sure that I can say on the dais that we have, you know, projects in a pipeline in need of X amount.
I can confidently say, though, today, sitting here, is that we are not denying a project moving forward because of a surplus.
When there's a project that's in need of TIF and the costs are TIF eligible, we absolutely want to move that project forward.
You said it first.
We want shovels in the ground.
I want cranes in the sky.
And we want ribbons cut.
And so we need to leverage all the tools.
And again, TIF isn't the only one, but by no means will we leave anything on the table and forego moving a project forward in anticipation of a surplus.
Well, like I said, I'm just concerned because I have several projects that are ready to go.
And, you know, we looked to break ground on another project and we needed some TIF money and we looked and the TIF money is no longer there.
So if we need to port something or find, you know, I see my colleagues, you know, have, you know, surpluses, I would love to port some of that money out to the far south side.
All the way from the west side.
Hey, man, I'll take your money too, you know.
So, yeah, I think we should talk.
And then those projects that you have, they should certainly come in and sit with our team and apply for funding.
TIF may not be the appropriate funding.
I think it's important to know when we talk about surplus, not all TIFs were surplus.
And the majority of the surplus came from the downtown TIFs.
I just want to make sure that we're speaking factually and that there's no confusion that DPD is not stopping projects and we're not denying projects that are in need of TIF.
We will appropriately review a project for any funding source that they're looking for, whether it's TIF, whether it's NOF, whether it's our new Housing and Economic Development Bond, because our goal is to move these projects forward.
Okay. Two final questions. Are you using cash on hand for reimbursement as far as the bond is concerned, and how much money have you spent for that reimbursement or looking to get reimbursed from the bond?
Yeah, so I want to be clear with how the bond works in our funding.
So the $50 million that I mentioned at the very beginning,
that's $50 million in projects and or programs.
And so when we announce, hey, this particular project is receiving $5 million
in the new housing and economic development bond,
they have to reach certain milestones before they're reimbursed.
And so there's not a need, if you will, to sell that bond just yet.
an award and an allocation are a little different. And so the bond will be sold when appropriate in
partnership with the CFO's office. The $50 million, again, is not an immediate allocation of the
dollars, but instead an award of the dollars. It takes some time to get those projects going and
the funding out the door. Okay. All right. My time is up, Commissioner, but I do want to thank you
as well for doing a wonderful job and your entire team. I've had the pleasure of working with a lot
of them for a lot of years. And I did speak with Commissioner Hopkins. And whenever Walter is not
in your office, I would like to schedule a meeting in order to talk about the signage and lighting.
And so I talked to her when she was here and she said that she would be more than willing to work
with us to address that issue as well.
So thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
And you didn't have to bring the big guns,
your mother and your sister,
you didn't have to bring the big guns
in order to get through your hearing.
But thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Bill.
Vice Chair Lee.
Thank you, Chair and Commissioner Boatwright.
Welcome to your first budget hearing.
I will dispense with the many accolades for your team, first and foremost.
Thank you to you.
Since you came on board, I agree with everybody else.
You hit the ground running and love all of the expertise and experience you bring to the table.
Patrick is not a human encyclopedia.
He's the walking embodiment of the zoning code, which I'm sure he has nightmares about.
But literally every time that I call, he answers and he's faster than Jimmy John's on any given day.
It's late, you guys.
So, you know, this is my gift to you.
To everybody in the box, especially Tim Jeffries, thank you, thank you, thank you.
We've been through a lot together, I feel like, in the short time that I've been here,
including working on a very important theater in my community called the Remova Theater.
I'm sorry? Yes. Well, it is a privately owned theater with 49 investors, half of which are from my community itself.
And through the cooperation and support of the 35th and Halsted TIF, that theater has been brought back to life
and is way on its way to continuing to spurring all kinds of economic development along Halsted,
included um including at least half a dozen to eight new businesses um and with the help of
uh Patrick with some up zoning that we've done um we are well on our way so I I thank you um for
all of the the assistance um in making sure that that investment that the city made um along with
the residents of the 30 of the of the 11th Ward um made that just a gem that we are all very proud
of at the end of the day um so thank you for all of that um and everybody else in the box mary
nelson cindy um and i for and for those that are here and see noah's back there um and it's not
confusing noah's a frantic and nolan's air off i mean like seriously um we have a great relationship
with your department we meet every single month um like clockwork but i usually cancel twice
before we can actually meet again um there's so much going on in the city and i know we have our
own we have challenges all around us um but your your team is incredible so thank you i'm gonna oh
i did that in just under a minute and a half here um let's get to a couple questions uh and just
to clarify for everybody that you know isn't necessarily all up on tiffs a tiff essentially is
um a tool that we use in the city um one one really important one that you know obviously
we've been talking a lot about tonight um that uh essentially separates an increment from a base
year um and then holds that increment for investment in the the geographic area um and
when it does that it does take away funds from the general fund and from the other taxing bodies
through the increment not the the base itself um and can you tell me how much of that goes to school
would have gone to schools what the percentage is um it's a little over 50 percent a little over 50
percent so for every dollar that we're getting in an increment 50 50 cents of that would have gone to
the chicago public schools essentially thereabouts okay um you know i know i know that there's been
been some talk tonight about um uh tip expansions and we talked here you weren't here last year for
this necessarily but I know that um with the with the bond deal that we did there was a lot of talk
about it wasn't just talk this was you know there's I think fundamentally you know and I think it's
the right thing to do is shifting um away from leaning on tips as heavily as we have um not doing
away with them I want to be clear right there's uh we're not doing away with tips but moving away
and leveraging the 1.25 billion dollar bond to do some really great things in economic development
and housing but we we discussed last year a rubric by which any new tiffs or expansions
would be would be evaluated can you tell me kind of where we are on that rubric yes so we actually
have the framework for the tiff expansion and extension that will we can actually provide
through the chair that we review so that the tiff extensions won't ever feel subjective there's
always been a formula in place to determine which tips or criteria if you will um and we want to
ensure that that's more transparent that was actually a part of the housing and economic
development bond discussions that we would provide um a framework in how we explore the
and extension excuse me and which tips sunset so we can provide that um information through the
chair do we have um do we have a a list and i guess you probably provided it already through
the chair um i'm wondering how many tips are going to be at sunsetting um in this upcoming
year and if we have plans for additional expansions or extensions um or any new tips for that matter
and you know i don't know what my other colleagues have going on in some of their awards yeah i think
it's actually provided in the budget but we can certainly repro send it through the chair there's
approximately 13 that will expire at the end of this year and we have the list of the 13 tiff do
we know what that's going to return to the taxing bodies i can provide it through the
chair would be great through the chair would be great um i am also looking for um just some
information around the process for just accessing tiff dollars right so i the remova theater is
existed before i ever came around so i actually haven't had um a new um a new project um to access
tiff funds for so um we have one example right now where we're we're looking to build a field house
for donovan park um and we've submitted a request to access funds to you know develop the land or to
help build the the facility i don't know where it went from there like if you can just indulge me
and talk to me about what that process is and you know who's involved because i think the the park
district obviously has to be involved in this process as well um but it's uh it's for donovan
park and in particular i'm just wondering what the the timeline for that sort of stuff is sure i mean
that's a very specific example and i can actually pass it pass it to tim in the event he can pull
up where that specific request is um in the in the process uh tim jeffries managing deputy commissioner
I don't know where it sits in the specific process, but if you want, I can talk about the larger process.
Yeah, the larger process is fine.
So projects big and small, and I consider this a big one.
When requests come in like that, we evaluate it.
We DPD evaluate it for three basic criteria, objective criteria.
One is geography. Is it in a TIF district?
Two, does it have eligible costs allowed under the TIF Act?
And then three, is there sufficient funding in the district to cover those eligible costs?
For this request, Donovan, and for many requests that come in, if the answer is yes to all of them, we refer it to the department that's actually going to be implementing it, and that's CDOT, CTA, Park District, so that they can review it from a technical perspective.
Because DPD is reviewing it by those objective criteria, but we can't say, in this case, like, well, what does it take to get a Park District Fieldhouse here in this spot?
And so we coordinate with them and we work with them to take it through the iterative process.
But I think ultimately the park district is the one that needs to, in this specific case, decide, like, yeah, this is what it's going to take.
This is how much it's going to cost and come back to us and coordinate to make sure that that can be covered by the TIF.
Thank you for that.
You know, I use this example because we've talked a lot about TIFs today.
And, you know, last year, earlier in the year, I should say, I don't even know what time of day it is right now, Cyr.
when we were doing that we were talking about the bond you know i i made it a point i was very
concerned about what was happening uh for funding for the park district i think the schools are
going to be just fine they're going to get 52 of the the increment back but park districts don't
get as large a share at the end of the day um and i know that um this this park field house has been
talked about for a really long time part of the reason we weren't in a position to have plans in
place and the tiff got swept last year um was because the park district just didn't have enough
money so i know this is a little off topic but that that i i want to say i appreciate the the
fact that when these tiffs expire money is going back to park districts um and and they will get a
little bit more control over their uh their futures in that way um we were just talking about eligible
uses i just want to be clear on eligible uses too is paying for property taxes and eligible use
for the tip or for tiff funds no okay thanks um that's all i've got i really appreciate the time
um and all that you guys do i look forward to continuing to work with you to build this great
city thank you thank you vice chair lee
Alderman Chico
welcome
thank you chair
good evening commissioner
I want to thank you
and your team for all the work
you've been doing around quantum
yourself Patrick
Noah him and the whole
DPD team
to really ensure that this will
be the catalytic change for the southeast side that we so desperately want to see and have been
craving in the seventh and tenth wards. So I appreciate that and I look forward to working
for the next couple years on this project. One quick question. I talk a lot about
how unique the tenth ward is, especially bordering Indiana. I know we have border wards
all throughout the city.
But when you're bordering a whole other state,
it's attractive to businesses.
And it takes my residents
and we go spend our money over there.
How do we get through that obstacle?
And how do we attract development and business
over in my ward,
especially in Eastside community
and the Hegwish community,
where we could walk to Indiana too?
That's something I know that
it's been difficult for us, but I'm looking at different tools we could use to try to bring
something on this side. Yeah, no, that's a great question. And it's similar to what I mentioned
with Alderman Mitchell. I think that what's happening at the site with SiteQuantum is going
to be a generational opportunity for us to ensure deep investment, not just on that site,
but going west in your respective wards.
The pump is already being primed,
and I think it's important for us to leverage things like NOF,
like the new housing and economic development bond,
like land use planning,
to make sure that we can attract the investment
that your ward hasn't seen in a very long time.
The amount of investment that's coming as part of Psi Quantum
is going to be a game changer.
I am confident of that.
I'm confident that it's going to attract opportunities for new housing, opportunities to attract more residents to your ward, an opportunity for us to invest in retail development opportunities.
This is going to be a game changer.
Not to be cliche, but it really will be a game changer.
Not just for you all's ward, not just for the far south side, but for our city as a whole.
We haven't seen this level of investment on the Far South Side in decades and decades and decades.
And so it's important for us to leverage this opportunity and be very strategic and very intentional and, most importantly, very collaborative.
It's important for us to engage with your residents to make sure that we're being respectful and responsive to the concerns that they have around what type of housing comes in the neighborhood, what type of retail comes in the neighborhood.
How do we continue to attract grocers so that we can eliminate food deserts throughout the communities?
This is, I think, going to be a big deal for a lot of reasons.
And I think that this is an opportunity to, I mean, we don't want anyone to go to, Indiana is Indiana.
It's great, but this is Illinois, right?
And Chicago is amazing.
And so I think it's important to have amazing developments and amazing investments in your wards.
and we can certainly be a partner in delivering that so that you can achieve that.
But we are going to need to be intentional.
We're going to need to be holistic.
It's not going to take, you know, one project, if you will,
but the project that you have underway is certainly going to stimulate investment quickly in your ward.
Thank you for that.
And that's happening at the north end of my ward.
In the south end, when folks over there see it, initially they're like, well, what about us?
because it's miles until I go from 87th or 83rd to 136th.
So things like NOF and expanding it to my neighborhoods on the south end,
what kind of thought process has that been given
because we do need to see something on the south end?
Because like I said, I could literally walk to Indiana for my house,
and it's just difficult to attract that type of development and investment.
We want to talk with developers.
We want to, if it's appropriate and where it's appropriate to issue an RFP to attract investment to one of our city-owned sites on the far south side, we absolutely can.
And we mentioned TIF.
We mentioned NOF.
Those aren't the only tools.
I think it's important to just say, hey, city, we need some subsidy.
We need to help to attract the investment in areas that we haven't seen.
That's our housing and economic development bond.
That's why we're so eager to make sure that, A, people realize that it's a tool because it's a newer tool, less than six months old.
We need to get the word out to make sure that we can have viable projects move forward.
I mentioned a little bit earlier the pre-development fund.
It takes a while.
People spend a lot of money.
Developers spend a lot of money to determine if a project is a go or no go.
We want to help remove that barrier in accessing capital by leveraging our new housing and economic development bond through the pre-development grants that we can now provide to move these projects forward.
And so NOF is one-two, TIF is one-two, but the Housing and Economic Development Bond is a far more flexible tool that extends throughout the south side, the west side, and throughout our city in a more equitable and holistic way, I'll say.
Thank you, Commissioner. That's all I have, and I look forward to having this project uplift the entire southeast side forever. Thank you.
Thank you, Audemant Tico.
Alderman Manahoppenworth.
Thank you, Chair.
Hello, Commissioner and team. Thank you to everyone in the box. Thank you. Thank you, Tim, for all of your help with TIFs. Thank you to our regional planner, too, Catherine and her team, Danielle and Tom.
And also those who are not here, like our ambassadors on Argyle, they're really essential.
You know, they add so much to the business corridor, so I appreciate it very much.
You're doing such a terrific job.
And the work that you have done, you know, it precedes you, and we can see it.
You know, I got a chance to go to the Pullman Historic District.
And so I just love your vision and your commitment to what we need to do.
I'm really appreciative of everything that you are supportive of.
Alderman, can you speak in the mic a little more?
I have trouble hearing you up here.
I'm very appreciative of all that you are doing to help us revitalize parts of the 48th Ward,
including Edgewater, Uptown, across three wards, really.
and so I really
I just want to appreciate you and your team for that
because it has to do with
proactive land use
and that's
it takes a lot of time
to do spot zoning
and also
zoning is supposed to be
there for predictability
and what we want
to do is open our doors
and say we are open for
business, we're open for development
we're open for density
and this kind of actual planning is essential.
And so thank you for the work that you're doing on that.
I just had one question,
because we're talking about property taxes a lot.
I would like to know a little bit more
about what you think about land value tax incentives
and what that could do to affect development.
Could it help to build units on empty properties
that have been underdeveloped for a long time?
What could be some of the positive and negative financial implications?
Could we get more potential revenue for something like this?
and we're just looking for creative alternatives to what we have right now.
Can you speak on that at all?
Sure. I just want to clarify.
Is your question the use of property tax incentives to help move private development forward?
Land value tax incentives.
So you're taxing the property, the land, and not the property on top of the land?
Okay.
I'm actually going to pivot that to Tim to kind of speak on kind of pros and cons, if you will.
At Tim Jeffries, Managing Deputy Commissioner, I mean, I would I'd love to have a long conversation about land value taxes.
But I think from a practical perspective, it's like it would be an interesting.
I don't think that anyone can say definitively what would happen if Chicago shifted to that model.
I think it is worth looking at and having a long conversation.
But I think that is probably like a decades-long process to move us to a system of taxation that is so fundamentally different than what it is now.
So for the purposes of this budget and many of the short-term ones, it couldn't be a solution because it would be such a complicated process to move us onto that sort of system.
It would require state, city, county coordination.
and that's not saying it's not worth doing
but I think a lot of study would have to go into
identifying if that's like the right
thing to do for Chicago
but it is a
it's a very different and a very interesting alternative
thank you
and if I could just add to that
I mean I think that's a much larger
larger issue in terms
of like collaborative conversations
that's one that we should certainly have with the
county
as it relates to the property taxes if you will
but
definitely something worth exploring further in conversation
with the county.
Absolutely. Thank you. And that's all
I wanted to ask. And just to say again, I appreciate
all the work and your team. And I'm really excited about
the city and the direction it's going in in terms of bringing in new developments.
So thank you.
Thank you, Alderman.
Alderman Gutierrez.
Thank you, Chairman.
I had a question for the last one.
They already asked it.
I just wanted to commend your team, Commissioner,
on the work that you guys are doing for stitching it together.
You know, in my ward, in the 14th ward, we have Brighton Park and Gage Park.
And I think with Alderman Lopez, they've been doing a great job.
And I know community is excited to be part of this project.
I think a lot of youth has been involved in this process.
Our seniors are excited also being part of these community events and outreach that you will have put in in our communities.
And we're just excited to see the results and the changes that are coming up to our community.
So thank you so much to you and your team.
They've been doing a great job.
And Patrick, they just said the way you answer all of our questions in real time, it's amazing.
And we do appreciate all the work that you guys are doing.
Thank you.
Thank you, Audemars.
Vice Chair?
I'm good.
You're good?
Yep.
Oh, go ahead.
Oh, damn, man.
You've been hanging out for a while.
You could have had it then.
You just kept going.
Okay.
Go ahead.
Wait, you won or this your one, right?
Won round two.
But I just wanted to say I wanted to commend everybody for their help.
I want to commend everyone on the –
God, dog, I forgot what I was going to say, man.
Everything they do is that.
With the central area plan.
So they're doing a great job.
And Bill?
Motion to recess still tomorrow.
I got another department, man.
Man, you cold, man.
These people waiting, man.
Yeah, man.
You good?
We good?
No, I'm good.
Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman.
And I just want really quick on the issue of TIF-eligible expenses.
How is child care a TIF-eligible expense?
Child care.
Day care facilities?
Or just day care services.
How is that a TIF-eligible expense?
Yeah, I mean, Tim, you want to chime in on the eligibility component of a day care?
Sure.
The TIF Act, and I'm going from memory here, but the TIF Act allows for daycare expenses to be eligible if it is for associated with an employer.
It's employer focused and the employees working for that company have to be a low-mod income family and then they can qualify for daycare expenses.
It's really written in a way to contemplate on-site daycare for, like, a very large company, and I think it's something that used to happen more frequently.
But we're not talking, like, residential daycare.
It's like you'd have to be part of, like, the development.
I think it's a little bit ambiguous.
It has to be through the employer.
I guess I can say that it has never been done in the city of Chicago.
and um does tiff also have eligibility for job training and retraining programs
but i mean is that something that's universally applied or is that something that would have to be
done post tiff creation as we do now with other tips are you asking if we can leverage tiff works
in existing tips or only for new tiff is that i'm not sure that i understand your question so
the process would be you'd have to have a tiff first and then do like a tiff nip or create a tiff
works in that specific tiff correct okay yes yeah yes i mean i'm just clarifying that's just
not just clarifying but a tiff works right the tiff nip does fully different programs yep okay
um and then also is lead is lead pipe replacement something that's covered under
a TIF program?
Again, Jim Jeffries,
yes, to the extent that it is
lead pipe in the public way, that's generally
defined by CDOT as anything that goes up
to the Buffalo or B-Box
underneath the street.
The city mains go into the B-Box.
Everything up to that point,
including the B-Box, is eligible to be replaced.
When it exits the B-Box,
that's considered a private utility and is no longer
TIF eligible. So the residential
portion is not eligible? Unfortunately, yes.
Can we have the complete list through the chair of what are considered TIF eligible requests per state statute? Thank you.
Are you asking for the TIF eligible expenses?
Yes.
Okay. Under the statute.
Yes.
Okay.
That's all. Thank you.
Okay.
I just want to just thank the department for the work that it does.
I think you're like right up there
as far as on a level of importance
and we talk about public safety
but without planning
I think the development that you all do
helps us in our public safety efforts
because we need livable, walkable
great communities in order to stem
the tide on certain communities
I just want to thank you for the work
that you all have been doing
on the west side of Chicago
in conjunction with the Department of Housing
with all of the tools
that you all are making available for us
So I am fortunate to have mature tips that are generating funding that has been very helpful to residents,
especially East West Garfield Park and in North Lawndale.
So, again, we're all working together, and we appreciate your leadership.
We appreciate the gentleman sitting to your right and everything that he brings to the table.
I'm glad to see him move up to be your first deputy.
and that knowledge.
We still need to, I don't know who's replaced him in zoning.
No one yet.
Okay, so he's doing double duty.
Well, he's doing great in both respects.
So, again, I just think that the processes and the things that you're doing
and the level of development that you're bringing
and the use of the bond funds throughout the city,
I know that was something that you really talked about.
I know you guys are executing on that.
I know that's going to ramp up as we move forward.
I know we just passed it this past year, so we expect that to ramp up.
And I know others are very excited to take part in that,
especially those of our colleagues that don't have the TIPS in their areas.
They don't have the other funding sources that this bond was designed to bring to the table.
So, again, thank you and keep up the excellent work.
We don't have any other questions?
Okay.
You want a round three?
We'll see you outside in the parking lot for round three.
But, again, thank you, and you all are excused.
And we'll take a three-, four-minute recess while we bring in our next department.
No, but I meant today.
Oh, you mean, well.
Thank you a lot.
I am so glad.
Thank you.
Well, first of all,
this is managing this.
Oh, no.
Thank you.
All right, it is 9 o'clock and we are still here on Friday night.
I want to thank you all who have hung in today.
As we get delirious, if somebody needs something a little heavier than water,
I have some in my office.
So I know that, again, we are diving in deep on this.
I just want to thank everybody for sticking around.
Commissioner and your team, thank you for waiting here.
I know it's a little late, but we promise to make this as painless as possible to the extent that we can.
If you could, wait a minute.
How long is your, okay, we'll pass on that.
This is in the book they can read.
If you could introduce your staff, give us a quick opening statement, and the members in the box as well, and we'll jump right into questions.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you for all being here.
the late night crew i should have probably brought like a bedtime story time that we could have done
uh i'm chris brown library commissioner for the city of chicago and i'm joined today by
mary ellen mesner our first deputy irma jackson our director of finance patrick malloy our director
of iga maggie clemens deputy commissioner of library operations and patron experience
Mary Robinson, Director of HR
Shamil Clay, our Director of Marketing
Julia Brokda, our Assistant Commissioner of Facilities
Esme Bueno, a District Chief
Tamela Chambers, District Chief
Nicole Steves, IT Director
Brett Lipinski, District Chief
Shelley Hughes, our Director of Children's Services and Family Engagement
and Lindsay Lahren, our Assistant Commissioner of Content
I think I got everybody
All right, if you could read your opening statement, and we'll jump into questions.
It's real short.
Okay, I'll make it quick.
Good evening, Chairman Irvin, Vice Chair Lee, Mayor Brandon Johnson.
and esteemed city council members.
Chicago Public Library embodies what a city can achieve
when it invests in knowledge, equity, and community.
And your continued support empowers CPL to be a powerful connector,
bringing vital resources and opportunities to all Chicagoans.
For over 150 years, CPL has been more than a library.
It's been a place of learning, growth, and connection.
With 81 branches across our 77 neighborhoods,
and a collection exceeding 6 million items, we provide pathways for every resident.
Our delivery service extends these resources to every corner of Chicago,
reinforcing our role as a key equity connector.
CPL serves as a bridge to essential services.
Through our partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health,
we've distributed thousands of resources from Narcan to hygiene kits
through high-use health vending machines.
We combat food insecurity by delivering meals in collaboration with Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Our libraries host job fairs, thanks to many of you, mental health and behavioral health support,
community murals, and more, anchoring neighborhoods with stability and hope.
Most recently, we've expanded mental and behavioral health services at Legler Regional Library
and a handful of other neighborhood libraries meeting the needs of Chicagoans.
CPL is on pace to record more than 70 million touchpoints this year, including over 5 million
in-person visits and nearly 13 million checkouts.
Program attendance has surged by 42%, and we deliver over 35,000 tutoring sessions, an
increase of 23% from the prior year.
This is an incredibly important program for parents, as one parent put it, finally math
homework without the tears.
Our Umedia space is engaged with 20,000 teen visits, inspiring creativity and learning.
And through One Summer Chicago, we provided hundreds of job and career opportunities.
Next year, every library branch will employ at least two summer Chicago youth.
We also celebrated cultural diversity through exhibits like Pilsen Days, honoring the Mexican heritage of Chicago.
In 2025, we'll deepen our focus on youth engagement.
Our 81 Club partnership with Chicago Public Schools continues to break barriers, granting
library access to all students and teachers.
This initiative has already increased 81 Club library cardholders among students in economically
disadvantaged communities by 63% and among English language learners by 81%.
And our commitment to diversity is strong.
Over 60% of our staff are persons of color, outpacing library industry benchmarks for African American and Hispanic representation.
Over the past five years, we've increased our African American senior leadership representation by 10%.
Our investment in non-English materials has doubled since 2021.
CPL is more than books.
It's a cornerstone of opportunity and resilience.
with your continued support as council and our mayor.
We will remain a force for growth, connection, and hope in Chicago.
Together, we will create a city where every resident can thrive.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Questions?
Alderman Hagen?
Thank you for being here this evening.
um i've got a couple questions um around vacancies and overtime and staffing and you know just
generally will be pretty direct and you know saying that i think that our libraries and all
the services that you all offer are indispensable um and so i'm always concerned about the um support
that our libraries and staff have in order to continue to provide those services, especially
as just major points of access for everything, right, from literature to media to learning
to computer access to social service engagement, like our libraries do it all.
You know, obviously, I'm going to brag about the Rogers Park Library, right, obviously.
which you know is a small but mighty branch right with wonderful team members and
you know I can't think of a better resource for every community to have and I know
we're every community doesn't have one and that's you know work we have to continue to do but
for the ones that we've got our our public employees I know our library employees
deal with a lot more than what their job description entails.
So one of my questions is around some of the vacancies.
So I think how many vacancies were eliminated for you going for this 2025 budget?
Well, one thing I just want to also point out is we've done an amazing job with our hiring for this year.
So over the year of 2024, we've decreased our vacancies by 50%. We're now at 9% vacancy overall as a department, which is a six-year low. And so I want to shout out our director of HR, Mary, for her incredible work to really get us to an unprecedented vacancy rate.
Can I ask, what is that reflected in numbers of hiring?
So in terms of total hiring for the year, it's over 200 hires, and we're down to 123 vacancies for our department.
And then how many of those vacancies are being carried forward into 2025?
We are reducing by 21 full-time vacancies and a number of hours for part-time staff.
We did, as a department, look at the number of hours it takes globally to operate Chicago Public Library.
And so the amount of hours we'll have for next year will actually be on par with our current hours for this year and prior.
So do you have those hours on hand or can you provide those through the chair? That would be great to see, like, what are the total amount of hours it takes to operate at the service level and then how many hours you have represented in your workforce.
Yeah, and we spend a lot of time on that analysis. So this year we anticipate 1.9 million hours globally to operate CPL. With all of the reductions in vacancies, we'll have a tad over 2 million for next year. So we're confident that we'll be able to maintain operations and not see a reduction in services.
that's uh fantastic to hear and thank you for having the numbers on hand i appreciate that
um you know if you've got that analysis available through the chair that would still be fantastic to
look at um so then you know along the same line of questioning it sounds like you're headed in a
fantastic direction um you know i know that sometimes because i believe there are uh 40
hour sometimes employees have to work overtime or comp time and I'm wondering what that's looked
like in 2024 so through the chair if you're able to provide kind of overtime hours to date and
comp time hours to date like so that time worked over 37.5 hours would appreciate that and then
the the last thing that I've got to ask and I know this is going to come down to just budget
requirements, but thinking about a lot of the work and services that our library staff do,
and a lot of the skills that they bring with them, and wondering if there's been any discussion
and what it would take in order to provide some, like, pay differential or incentives
for your bilingual or multilingual staff that are using this skill on the job.
Alderman, I'm glad that you bring that up. It's something that we are talking about with DHR.
I've been in other library systems where there has been a pay based on whether or not that
language is being used on a weekly basis. And so I think that's something for us to continue
to talk about as a city. And just around the overtime, we are slightly over $600,000 for the
year. We're budgeted for $400,000, but I think that's because we started off the year with so
many vacancies. I think with this vacancy reduction, we'll see less use of that over time.
Thank you for that. Look forward to those through the chair requests. Thank you and your team for
all that you do. Love our library staff and, you know, just everything you bring for our communities.
And of course, very much appreciate you all hanging out with us here late into the evening.
Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman Hatton.
Vice Chair Lee?
Thank you, Chair.
I don't really have questions.
I just want to make a few comments.
Thank you for the shout-out.
At the Library Foundation
gala the other night,
it was a wonderful event.
I think just what a great embodiment
of what the Chicago Public Libraries
means to the people of the City of Chicago.
I get to brag
at these meetings
or these hearings that I have the best libraries in the city in my ward Chinatown the daily library
Canaryville and McKinley Park McKinley Park is technically not in the ward but my residents go
to McKinley Park library and I hold a lot of community meetings there and you know these
libraries are more than just places to store books where people go you know to borrow things
they're the heart of our communities and I you know Chinatown I think still has the distinction
being the highest used, most used, highest utilized.
It's really late in the night.
I'm sorry.
The words are not coming.
But a lot of people go there and a lot of people use it and a lot of people miss it
when it's closed.
And it's, you know, indicative of my culture and the Chinese culture that reading and education
are so important.
And it is a place where people young and old go to every single day.
And it's not a quiet library.
um libraries aren't quiet anymore and that's it's a wonderful thing um to to hear the the just buzz
of activity um and every now and then you'll have the security guard who happens to be an African
American well last time I was there was an African American woman um who uh who would
ask people to be quiet in Cantonese and it was just it was great um that's what uh that's what
these libraries do for us um they're very special places and I want to continue to just congratulate
you and really honor all of those who work in the libraries who are there to you know look out for
the kids that are there every day after school for the seniors that come in and now with all
of the other things that all of the other roles now libraries are playing part Community Center
part you know counseling center part emergency room if you need Narcan um and and just this week
um where you go to do your civic duty um so with everything that we throw at uh at the staff um I
really want to lift them up and just say so many thanks to them for all that they do to uh to serve
our communities and anything that we can do to continue to support uh your work you know we're
for it um the the couple of questions that i do actually have we had a we had an issue over the
summer with the air conditioning the hvac system at the chinatown library um can you talk a little
bit about just what your like capital plans look like i i imagine that like the the park district
you know funding doesn't come easily um and it's not very much when it comes to improvements and
things like that um i'm just wondering what that looks like for you this year compared to last and
And, you know, what do you foresee as some of your bigger challenges going into 2025?
Yeah, we work very closely with our partners at 2FM to identify how we protect our assets.
And so we have annual meetings with them to, you know, go through an inventory of what we want to prioritize.
I think with the Chinatown location, there was an unforeseen AC chiller issue.
And so some of that also comes up as well.
We're working on projects and additional work is identified that needs to come up.
As Chicago Public Library, we don't have a designated capital fund beyond the maintenance of our facilities,
and so we really depend on working with our alders and the state to identify funds to do renovations and whatnot.
But primarily it's maintenance and protection of the assets, and we look at geographical coverage to make those decisions.
Okay, great.
The other question would be just expansion of programs.
Like, will there be any expansion of programs or new libraries opening up or anything like that going into next year?
well and one thing i want to add thank you um uh in addition to the renovation we are working on
a capital planning project with gensler um to kind of re-envision what are the future of our
sites look like taking a look at international best practices and um working with our communities
and our altars to um bring world-class spaces into our chicago neighborhoods um and then and
can you repeat the question one more time just what if any new projects do you have going on
uh into 2025 uh well we have a number we have our uh back of the yards project um uh that's going to
be a co-development we have our woodlawn our bessie coleman project which is um running on
the corridor to the obama center um that's slated for a development um and then also our north
Pulaski location in West Humboldt Park. But no shovels in the ground yet, simply projects
that have had resources and funds allocated to them.
Well, I'm excited about Bessie Coleman getting some recognition there. Let me know if you
need to find an airplane or something. I probably know some people that can help.
That's all I've got, Chair. Thank you very much, you guys.
Thank you. Alma Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman, and good evening to everyone in the 11th hour of this budget committee hearing.
Sir, good to see you and your team.
I'm sure you already know what I'm going to ask, but first and foremost, yes, we are all excited about Back of the Yard, so thank you.
We don't have to have that conversation or any more community meetings on that.
But my concern still remains to follow up with what my colleague was talking about is the lack of capital investment by this district.
I've heard that same answer year after year after year, and I know we have capital expenses, needs such as Gage Park, which probably can fit in the annex here.
Brighton Park, which is shared by 15, 14, and 12, which is one of those 1980s libraries, the Brown Box.
What is it going to take for us to be able to finally address that lack of funding mechanism so that we're not having this conversation?
As we've seen this budget cycle, a clean sweep of TIFs makes it a little more difficult to address library concerns, or in some neighborhoods, as in Brighton Park or on Gage Park and 55th Street, the complete absence of a TIF.
So what do we need to do or advocate or push either this administration to do or the state to do to allow us to actually create that dedicated revenue stream for that purpose?
Well, I always appreciate, Alderman, that you're someone who's interested in the future of our capital.
I know we've been talking about this for a couple of years, but this year we have allocated $250,000 from CPL and from DPD to do this capital strategy.
Part of that work, in addition to the visioning of what that future is going to be, is also to look at what will these spaces cost.
and I appreciate your support
in thinking how those will be funded.
I think we'll have to have a conversation
as the city, as the library,
as the mayor's office
for how we'll do ongoing funding
to keep these spaces exciting,
innovative, and relevant
and what kind of engagement we want to do
whether it's around the library fund levy
or conversations at the state level
about our capital
as well as possible other departments capital.
But I appreciate that you're –
So if I may then.
So the issue isn't necessarily that you can't include it in your levy.
It's that we're not including it in your levy.
Correct?
I defer to the Office of Budget Management.
Well, I'm asking you.
I mean they're the ones who are basically saying what your levy is going to be.
Correct?
Correct.
I don't believe that even if we increase the amount that we're pulling from on that levy, it would be enough to cover capital.
I believe it's pretty much it would be enough to cover operations.
I think that'd be another additional funding source or conversation.
And how do our library peers in Cook County deal with their capital expenses?
They probably have taxes for their local community to fund those.
outside of their property tax levy i'm assuming there's some sort of library association here so
i'm assuming that that means you guys talk to each other so it can really depend municipality
to municipality um i come from california they would put out those projects to voters to see if
they wanted to tax themselves for an additional amount okay so i i i would like to know if you
you can provide through the chair by community the age of those 77 libraries that we have,
as well as those, I think it's three regional sites that you have. What are the ages? Because
I think that can give us a rough estimate of what exactly we're referring to. If we have
20 libraries that are still from the 80s or beyond
at $30 million a base.
That gives us an expectation of what exactly we're going to be spending.
$600 million to upgrade our libraries for the 21st
and 22nd centuries. But I think those conversations
are long overdue. And since we're biting the bullet
on everything else right now, we might as well incorporate that into our discussion as well.
because I think 10 years here, 10 budgets,
I've heard the answer 10 times.
And I've only been here for four of them.
Let me ask this question, and this is,
what is the debt load of the library today?
I'm going to pass that to our finance director.
Yeah, the debt load.
How much do you have outstanding in debt?
That would be a budget office question. I mean, we are funded on the Library Fund 346
and the budget office is responsible for…
I'm sorry, I can't hear you.
We are funded on Fund 346 and the budget office is responsible for putting the revenue there
on from 346. So we don't,
that would be a question for them about the debt.
So on page five, chairman, just, it says that we spend
2.2 million on debt service
for this year.
Well, I was, but I know what you're, I know what you're asking,
but that's what we're spending. Yeah, because at some point in time, it must predate
both of us that there was some level of a capital infusion into the library system just trying to
understand where they are in their planning and seeing if there are additional resources that
that can be freed up for capital because you what you stated was that it was all operational there
were no capital but there's a levy for capital um somewhere in the ether so i was that's why i was
trying to understand what the debt load was and what the expiration of that potentially was.
But we'll get that information from the CFO or the budget director.
Chairman, would that be included also in our financial analysis report with all of the outstanding,
would the library's bonds also be included in that report? Potentially?
The pink one that we got, the financial report that we got before budget season,
where it lists all of our bond obligations.
Oh, in Africa?
Yes.
I'm sure it would be somewhere in there.
I just thought that they may know because the levy is like $122 million for death service for something.
And so just trying to understand what that is and what the outstanding balance will be.
Awesome.
Well, that's all I have, Chairman.
I think that libraries are integral.
We have three that I know need repair.
One that was promised.
One we'll be talking about forever.
So I think if bonding and borrowing is an issue, we should be doing that immediately.
Because we can't just keep putting duct tape everywhere.
Thank you.
Thank you,
Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Cinchel Lopez?
Thank you, Chairman,
and thank you, Commissioner,
you and your team
for being here this late.
I think just by you being here
on a hearing at 9 p.m.,
you should be rewarded
by getting an extra staffer.
I really appreciate you
and your team coming in front of us
and all your work.
I'd love to spend money.
And I think that I commend you for the efforts.
I think I'll talk, I have just a few questions.
One is around staffing.
And I tell you that my gratitude to the Chicago Public Library staffers,
the librarians in our city, truly to be commended for their effort
and their service to the city of Chicago.
So, again, I would like to express my support
so that we can look for ways to staff our libraries fully and adequately.
I know that during the summertime, you know, and in many difficult times,
our libraries remain open, and I want to thank you for that,
and also do everything we can, again.
But you come in this late, I do think that we owe you at the very minimum,
looking to the way to make sure that we don't cut those 50 staffing positions.
Our libraries, indeed, are spaces that are important for our community.
So my ask to you is, do you think that these potential cuts will impact the staffing, you know, especially when we're trying to sometimes, as you know, expand hours in the summertime?
You know, it's something that our communities truly appreciate it and a service that I would love to work with you and your team to figure out a way to prevent cuts.
I do think that those are difficult choices to make, but I just would like to ask you directly, how could we potentially prevent those cuts?
Yeah, thank you, Alderman.
And we understand the budget the city is facing and that we're all looking at our capacity and what we can operate within.
um as i as i mentioned earlier uh we're at a a six-year low in terms of our vacancy rate there
have been times when i've come before council and that vacancy rate's been over 25 percent um due to
that the hiring fairs that we've had the speed-based hiring the work with dhr to build
in efficiencies we're now at a nine percent vacancy rate so um in terms of capacity we're
able to continue to operate and provide the service that our residents deserve. And we'll
continue to monitor and make sure that that continues to be the case. But we appreciate
your support. As of this moment, we're able to continue our operations.
Thank you, Commissioner. And definitely count on our office. Again, you have outstanding teams
at both the Rudy Lozano and the Little Village Library. I personally have gone to do some book
greetings. I can attest of your commitment to service our community. You have wonderful programs
for youth and even the Pilsen days that you brought up and internationally known photographer
that really collected the history of our community. So I really want to commend you.
In terms of capital funds, and I know that that is a conversation, and I know that the difficulties
that you're facing with that.
As you know, we do have the feasibility study
for the Rural Osan expansion.
We actually have worked with the state and the city
to look for those possibilities.
Unfortunately, you know,
TIF is one of those few tools that we have available.
So if you can share with us, you know, about the need,
I know that, I mean, unlike other of my colleagues,
we do not have those spaces that we can shine pride.
My kids go to the library often.
My triplets go to the library often.
This is a beautiful space, but as you know, we don't have oftentimes even air conditioning,
staffing sometimes in the library, you know, asking for better conditions.
So unfortunately, you know, it is very poorly understood among some of us how desperately these infrastructure dollars are
and how hard to come by.
So my question is one on the feasibility study,
And again, the risk of potentially losing some of the state and federal funds that have been secured.
So if you can share about that, I mean, if there's any risk.
I know there's been allocations for that.
We worked really hard to make this happen.
Unfortunately, the politics of this council sometimes are not treating every child the same way.
So, Commissioner, if you can share with us a little bit about that.
Yeah, and we work closely with our 2FM partners to make sure that our facilities get the attention that they need.
And so I know the Lozano branch is slated to get its HVAC repair by the end of fall. So that's imminent and coming and is important for us to get to.
I appreciate, Alderman, your support in working with the Pilsen community in Chicago to raise the issue of our Latinx heritage, our Mexican heritage, and given that one in five Chicagoans identify as Mexican the need for archival efforts.
It's something that we're committed to.
And our team is working on a planning process to kind of look at what would that archive look like beyond the space, beyond what the capital might be, what the funding might be, to really look at our capacity for care and how are we going to work with the Mexican community and beyond to develop a plan for those archives.
so I think
it's an
emergent conversation
it's both the capital and the planning
of the archives
Thank you Commissioner
and like I said in terms of
the feasibility study
I know to be able to fit
potentially the archives of the history of the
Mexican community again
we are in the Latino Mexican community
almost a third of the population in the city
and I think it's only fair
that we also invest
with capital dollars. I mean, we put a lot of effort and time to link it into this potential
amendment over TIF, because some areas do not have the TIF availability. I do, for one, welcome,
when possible, to use TIF dollars for what it was intended to do, public works. I know some of my
colleagues defend private works. I do not want to judge their decisions in each community,
but I do care for public works of mine.
And I think that the investment of TIF dollars
for the expansion of a library,
for welcoming archives,
I think is a good investment.
I think the politics of obstruction,
I think to me are concerning.
Every child, you know, deserves the same opportunity
for a good quality library.
So I would love to work with you
and hopefully some of our colleagues
so that every community, every neighborhood
can have a quality public library
where we can have the infrastructure that is needed.
I do think that there's other tools,
other ways of funding this.
I do think that in our community,
we paid for that.
You know, I think we have paid high dollars
that could help create that.
So I welcome, you know, maybe other mechanisms.
I know that the politics of the council right now
sometimes do not allow for that,
but I hope to work with you
to perhaps look at mechanisms to fund a public library,
an expansion of a library that is, I think, a pride for the City of Chicago in the cold Midwest.
Thank you for your support, Alderman.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Cito-Lopez.
Alderman Gutierrez?
Thank you.
Just wanted to commend you, Commissioner, for the work that you and your team have been doing around our libraries.
As you know, the only one that I do have is the Chicago loan.
branch 60th and catsea and of course we we do need a bigger and better library for gauge park so
hopefully in the upcoming uh future not that long uh we could build that one because our community
to deserve it as my colleague mentioned we also shared the brighton park library which also need
some tender love care um so happy to collaborate at all means uh to make those plans possible
not only preserving the ones we have but also building the ones that our communities
deserve. If we need our kids
and our youth to be able to have those safe spaces in our communities
we need to continue to invest in our libraries and our parks. So thank you so much for the
work you guys are doing. Thank you for your support.
All right. We're getting
winding on down. Alderman Mosley. Thank you
so much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to you, Commissioner, and your entire team. I get to
spend some time with you all, and I always enjoy it. Libraries are a big, big part of the 21st Ward,
whether we're talking about Brainerd, that's connected to our, right across the street from
our seniors and our affordable housing and very near to our soon-to-be youth shelter,
polling place for our ward.
West Pullman, our early vote location
that recently had some renovations. And of course, our
really crown jewel of the region, Woodson Library, that is
just so gracious to us under the leadership of Valita Simpson
is where we hold our town halls and see over 200
people every fourth Saturday of the month from January to October.
and they give so much of their time and talent.
So we really, really appreciate the strong partnerships.
Want to see what we can do to improve just resources around mental health.
So many folks who are looking for mental wellness end up at our libraries
and looking forward to just continuing the strong partnership
and want to say thank you to each and every one of you doing great, great work.
So thank you.
Alderman, just one quick note.
we are actually relocating a mental health clinician to Woodson.
So that'll be happening in the late fall.
So you were right on the same page.
Thank you.
That is amazing.
I mean, you know, they are there day and night.
So thank you so much for that.
Thanks for your support.
Thank you, sir.
Vice mayor.
Good job.
Keep it up.
Love it.
Just quickly before we close out,
Just thank you for all of the work.
The things that are happening over at Legla Library,
the fact that we've got that behavioral health person working in the branch over there,
I think it's been a very positive outcome from the community.
I know that that library gets a lot of use, a lot of non-library use,
just people who have various challenges and are just looking for a safe space.
And Legler has provided that for residents in the West Garfield Park community,
furthermore being a regional library for the west side of Chicago being open on Sunday.
So again, very high use over at Legler, and it's becoming more of a community space,
which again, libraries are community spaces where people do congregate
and also hopefully deal with some of the challenges that we face.
One thing I did, we had talked about the vending machine.
Have you guys made any determination on getting that over at Legler,
or is that something for another department?
We partner with the Department of Public Health on that initiative,
and so I think we're still in our pilot stage.
I believe there's five to six across the city.
We have one in Harold Washington Library and one in Uptown Library, but we will take back that feedback and that desire to discuss as they evaluate the program with us.
And Chairman, just want to thank you for your support of the Legler Library.
I know after the pretty substantial flooding that we had, we did have a closure, but thanks to our partnership with 2FM, they were able to put in some, I think, some preventative measures for future rainfall to make sure that we can avoid that.
Just want to shout out our partners at 2FM and our Assistant Commissioner of Facilities, Julie Brocta.
All right.
Well, again, thank you for your help.
Also, the Taylor Street Library seems to be doing very well.
Also, a lot of activity that was public.
I think we did three of those, if I'm not mistaken, housing and library developments.
I think while people over there were skeptical at first, I think it's been a very, it's been a boom for residents over there.
They love it.
They love the design, the architecture, the building, and everything.
So, again, thank you for your partnership in bringing not only affordable housing, but bringing CHA residents and affordable housing residents together in a beautiful space that, again, has become more of a community center than actually a library.
So, again, kudos to the team and the work that you all do in the library and helping move our cities forward.
But, again, also, if we get that vending machine, I think at Legler would be very helpful.
I don't know what the cost is, but if it's an eligible item that we could do menu-wise,
I think I'd be more than willing to supply that because I think it would get great use
over at the Legla Library.
So again, thank you for your time.
I got you out of here in a good amount of time.
So I want to thank my colleagues that have hung out with us for this evening.
And I promise good things for you all tomorrow for hanging out tonight.
And I do want to thank our vice chair.
I've been in and out doing a bunch of stuff today.
So thank you, Alderman Lee, for stepping up and stepping in as needed.
We appreciate that.
And again, until tomorrow, the committee will stand at ease until 9 a.m. tomorrow.
Thank you, Alderman.