Good morning.
We will open our session for today
for the Committee on budget
and Government Operations, uh, meeting
that was recessed from yesterday,
and that time is now 10 0 3.
Uh, we will open today, uh, with, uh, public comment.
I have, uh, one individual
who has requested public comment today.
Mr. George Blakemore.
Mr. Blakemore, you're not my enemy,
and I'm not your enemy, sir.
But we have a, we have, we have a, this is the time
that's been set aside for public comment.
Mr. Blakemore. I can't, I'm not here to fight.
I'm here to give you your opportunity to speak. Okay?
Well just, just go to the, just if you want to, if you want
to go to the mic and make your comments
if you're able to do that.
Okay. Well, we'll start if these are your
time, go ahead, start this Clark.
Go ahead. Alright. Alright. Go ahead Mr. Blakemore.
You thank you, honor.
But Irv, we, well, we just have differences
and we, black people cannot get up in public
and fight among ourselves.
He's the Altman.
He has a title and, and the machine voted for him.
ENS slate him. I am a citizen. I have a Title ii.
I'm a concerned citizen.
I didn't only come to, to speak to those, uh,
for these people in on the budget to hear me,
but I came where the Altman could see me and hear me.
And I want to make a difference.
So you and I have a different interpretation.
You say, since the citizens are not here,
since the Altman's are not here, let just get rid
of Old nut George Blakemore and, and, and,
and get rid of this whole process with the public speakers.
And how are you going to continue this meeting without,
uh, the Altman's here
and they're gonna be making a presentation
to you, only to you.
And it's 50 of you all. You got to rethink this.
This is unacceptable. This is not good public policy.
This is not good government.
Please don't do this to yourself,
to your ultimate and to your constituents.
You do not have, you only have one, two, uh,
uh, with yourself.
Three Tums.
Now, you want now for this, uh, technology
and innovation, you want to start the meeting.
Just you three, to be sensible.
Be be civic minded.
You want the other alts to be able to listen
and ask them questions.
And the dialogue, uh, uh, sir, thank you
for allowing me, but the whole process,
and you, you can't make 'em come,
but you the chairman, you are the chairman.
You are the head. We look at you to do the right thing.
Last time you had lotteries
and everything, don't do that, sir.
You are a young man. You can learn.
You, you got leadership qualities that you can use.
But don't get caught up in this bureaucracy due
to please don't, Mr.
Irving, please don't let them be your role model.
Please, thank you again for allowing me to speak.
And it's bad for all of us. It's nobody here.
Time is very important and, and, and, and the budget.
You are paying them on time, the technology
and innovation for new.
But you have to get people who are savvy with this.
So please, you got the change.
Thank, thank you Mr. Blakemore,
for your, for your comment.
Um, I, I can always count on you to be here on time
and give us some, some words of wisdom.
We appreciate that. You're right.
We are not each other's enemy.
And I, I appreciate you in coming and,
and, uh, shining the light that you do
on the things that, that we do.
So we appreciate you and, uh,
and we, we appreciate your participation,
that you're a valued member of the public, uh, just
as any member of the public,
but you're consistent in, in being here when others are not.
So we, I respect that, uh, in you, uh, for coming and, and,
and pointing out certain things.
Uh, you may not always agree on everything,
but, uh, I do appreciate you coming
and you have a right to be here, sir.
Alright. Alright. Good morning.
Uh, we're going to, uh, begin today with the department of
DTI, technology.
Is it Technology and information
or Technology and Innovation.
Innovation. Innovation.
So we're looking for some innovation.
I hope you all can find some money in your innovation, uh,
to help us through our challenges at this time.
But again, uh, is it, uh,
your CIO, right?
Correct. Our CIO, chief Information Officer, Lucius
and his team, if you can introduce your staff you have
with you here in the well, and those that are in the box
and give you opening statement.
And, uh, we'll after that, be open for questions.
So please begin. Uh,
but first I want have, uh, our, um, council Office
of financial, an analysis director, Janice Oda Gray.
Start with a brief presentation
after which, uh, you can begin.
Director Gray.
Thank you, chairman Irvin Alder, persons and guest.
Good morning. My name is Janice Oda Gray.
I am the Director of kofa.
Let's look at a snapshot of the Department
of Technology and Innovation.
The total appropriation for fiscal year 25 increased by 12%,
from 73.14 million to 82.1 million.
The department is currently 53.1% corporate funded
total FTEs for fiscal year 25 is 1 45.
This represents a decrease of 57 FTEs compared
to fiscal year 24.
The 9,000 purposes of specified account is 18%
or 20 million higher due to a 19.4 million federal grant.
The USA grant that was recognized in 2025.
And finally, personnel services for fiscal year 25 is
10.8 million and 71.3 million for non-personnel.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman Irvin. Um, good afternoon.
Uh, my name is, hold
The Mic. Thank
you. There we go. I can hear myself now.
Um, my name is Nick Lucius
and I am the City's Chief Information Officer.
Um, um, I'm the head
of the Department of Technology and Innovation.
I, I have with me Melissa Clark. DT i's head of Planning.
Um, and in the box we have Robert Dugan,
who is a Deputy commissioner with DTI.
Uh, we have Kevin Kirby, who is head of support for DTI.
And we have Bruce Coffing, who is the, um, at DTI.
He's the city's Chief Information Security Officer.
Um, so again, good morning.
Um, chairman Irvin, I don't see Vice Chair Lee.
Good morning, vice Chair Lee and members of the committee.
My name is Nick Lucius
and I'm the city's Chief Information Officer.
Um, three times Now I'm pleased
to present the 2025 budget for the Department
of Technology and Innovation.
Today, I will lay out DTI i's accomplishments from the past
year, and I will talk about
what this budget will allow us to do next year.
At DTI, we are living in two worlds.
We are both a technology startup, building our chops,
and we are also the responsible team for managing critical,
um, existing IT operations
that support all city departments.
As we wrap up our 10th month in existence,
I'm incredibly proud of our, of our growth
and grateful to each individual at DTI who contributes
to our department's success.
We have nearly completed our first major project,
transitioning our department
to new modern technology job titles.
As we conclude this project,
we are now staffed at about half our full capacity,
which positions us to focus on necessary maintenance
and operations, security and protection,
and prioritized modernization.
This budget will allow DTI to continue
to strengthen the ongoing IT modernization
efforts across the city.
When we finish our staffing plan next year in 2025,
we will have a foundation to continue increasing the pace
of modernization and efficiency.
Another immediate major project of 2024 was
to harden our cybersecurity posture
to protect the city from an ever increasing threat
of global cyber cyber warfare.
Our award-winning cybersecurity team remains ever vigilant
in maintaining a secure IT environment.
We work in close coordination with federal
and local agencies around major events such
as the Democratic National Convention and the election.
Now, a little bit about what our department does.
DTI plays a critical role in maintaining the operational IT
infrastructure for all city departments.
We primarily manage what we call enterprise services.
Now, these are things like computers,
phones, internet, email.
We also manage apps and software like the office
and productivity apps that we all use to do our daily work,
financial and budgeting software that we use to run the city
HR systems that we use to manage the city.
If it's a system all departments use,
we are responsible for managing it.
We also have a role in technology
that individual departments buy
for their own unique operational needs.
We ensure that certain standards apply to these purchases,
such as cybersecurity protections, data protections,
and ensuring efficiency
and coordination in the collective buying power
of our city departments.
Now for 2024, I'm gonna go
through a set of our accomplishments.
We made great strides this year in our
ongoing modernization efforts.
While modernization often takes time
to achieve cost savings,
we've recognized a return on our investment already.
Our efforts will save $1.4 million annually
by achieving efficiencies in our support desk, as well
as our telephone services.
We expect to see additional savings as a result
of migrating to cloud infrastructure.
This year, we've built a modern
and professional contract management team.
As we began as new department, we took on nearly 50
contracts that all study departments use.
So in this effort of contract management, we're ING quality,
uh, we're prioritizing quality
and cost effective services, MBE
and WBE compliance, diverse supplier investment,
and growing our local technology, MBE
and WBE firms for greater participation.
DTI continues to host events
that help connect our M-B-E-W-B-E partners to opportunities
for networking with our prime contractors
and education around how to learn of upcoming opportunities.
We're also taking steps
to address equity in Chicago's technology workforce.
We have used our contracts to drive investment in Chicago
through novel approaches like an apprenticeship program
and Greater Grand Crossing that provides tech training
and connection to employment opportunities
and entry into technology careers.
We removed traditional degree requirements from almost all
our job descriptions, which removes a barrier to entry
for non-traditional applicants,
and opens up our recruiting pipeline
to a more diverse pool of candidates.
DTI also continued our efforts in modernizing the
city's ERP systems.
Um, this year we accomplished
multiple major ERP related modernizations.
We moved our ERP backbone from a city managed, um, servers
to a modern cloud based infrastructure.
And in doing so, we upgraded our software.
This is a very important milestone in the city's ERP efforts
because it stabilizes our system, um,
and allows for thoughtful planning
and continued modernization of our business practices.
As we move forward. With ERP replacement,
we also modernized the law department system
for managing its work, moving from an aged outdated system
to a modern cloud-based system that is now integration ready
for connection to our ERP systems.
Also, in 2024, we launched a modern portal
for requesting IT services, which is another aspect
of ERP modernization.
Within this initiative, we made sure
that we have a dedicated support service
specifically for city council.
Now, your longtime liaison, Isaac, um, he started a new role
with DTI this year, leading our network
and telecommunication efforts,
but we made sure Isaac is always available
to you even in his new role.
Um, with that, we've modernized your access to, um,
to our IT services with a phone number.
You all can call four A LDS for ALDs,
and it'll go to a support desk that's staffed
and ready to help you anytime.
Um, you can always reach out to me, you can always reach out
to Isaac, um, of course,
but we, we wanted to make it, um, even easier for you
to get access to IT services.
Through our monetization efforts,
we have accomplished many other modernizations this year.
I'll just list off a few.
Uh, we launched a data platform for gaining data
and insights on city operations,
which is just the beginning of that effort.
We've upgraded a significant portion
of our computer fleet, as I call it.
Uh, we've improved our DIS infrastructure.
We, uh, have modernized, um, department
of buildings IT system.
Uh, we have a ton of website upgrades
and we've enhanced accessibility and a DA improvements.
Um, and we have new community engagement digital services,
and dozens of more examples
of digital services for residents.
And, uh, partnership with City Department program staff.
With so many departments now engaging with DTI
to make their services more readily available
through simple intuitive digital forms, we're working
to bridge the digital divide by reducing the burden
of applying for government programs.
Now onto goals for next year.
We will continue hiring into our vacancies,
and importantly, filling out the delivery team within DTI.
This is going to increase our capacity
to deliver on the promise of DTI
to better connect Chicagoans with access to city services.
It will also enable us to be better stewards
of the significant amount of outsourced IT work that we do
with our valued partners and will continue to do next year.
We also plan to continue delivering ERP modernizations
with specific outcomes like faster hiring,
lower administrative burden on staff by reducing email
and paper processes, reducing bottlenecks
and back office functions.
This is vitally important work to get done
before we migrate our ERP software.
We have to make sure we do not embed outdated ways
of doing work, uh, into a new system.
This planned phase of ERP is already underway,
will be a focus of DTI for 2025.
We will also build on our data platform
that we launched this year.
Departments now have access
to cutting edge data visualization tools
with the launch of this platform.
And we're gonna focus on adding features
and data into the platform as we continue to build it out,
um, and make a modern data warehouse
that stitches together our IT systems
to allow a holistic view
to explore city departments and programs.
And in addition, we will always continue
to make the city's IT work
through ongoing maintenance replacement
and making it secure.
And that concludes my remarks. Thank you for your time.
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you. Uh, thank you. Uh, CIO uh, questions.
Questions. Uh, I'm gonna start with, uh, alderman Rodriguez,
followed by Alderman Mosley.
Thank you. Um, congratulations on your position, uh,
much deserved and happy to support you.
Um, just a quick question.
Uh, do you have any staff that are public facing
that actually work directly with City of Chicago residents,
uh, non like city staff?
Just curious.
I don't think that we do. We do have a contractor
that does, um, support staff support help for users
of the public website.
So if someone's using our public website
and has issues with it, we have, um, a support desk
that's staffed by a contractor
to help people with those issues.
Um, all of our other support is to help city departments
that interact publicly with staff.
Um, we do have a, um, as I'm thinking about the question,
we do have, um, uh, an individual who does partnership, um,
building with, um, u local universities,
community groups, um, and things like that.
Uh, just curious. I know one
of my colleagues may bring up, um,
just language access issues that, uh, uh, ward Wards have
and maybe your ability to support, um,
that via contract or something of that nature.
But I'm also just curious what our capacity is in each
of our, um, departments around, uh, language access.
But we'll, we'll catch up another time.
I just wanted to, uh, congratulate you once again and,
and thank you for your resiliency.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Altman. Altman, Mosley. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And congratulations again. Um, I heard you shout out Isaac.
I was gonna ask about him.
So, um, is Isaac doing two roles now
or did you He took on his new role,
but he's still able to assist us.
Yeah, so he's taken on this new role, um, in a, um,
in a more of a leadership position to manage our, you know,
our networks and telecom, um,
because you all, um, know him so well
and, um, he, he really understands what your needs are.
Um, he's taken a role of ensuring that those staff
who are taken care of actually supporting you now,
um, that they're supported.
So it's not a role that, um,
that takes up a significant portion of his time,
but it's one that I just wanted to make sure
that we don't lose his institutional knowledge
and ability to deliver for you all.
Um, and that, that gets embedded into our new folks who are,
um, you know, showing up at your office
and, and helping you out with things.
Got it. No, Isaac is, I mean, immensely valuable.
Uh, and, and I'm hoping that he is seeing that value.
I think it speaks volume when one person leaves
and it takes two people to replace
that one individual and so forth.
So to hear that he still kind of has two roles, I I hope
that we are, uh, giving him the support that he needs to,
to continue to thrive.
Um, can you talk to me more about from an automatic office,
what's gonna be available for task and customer
or constituent relations, uh, management, um, I, you know,
I, I know we have Microsoft Teams.
Is, is that something that we could look at and,
and really build out so that, uh, you know, when, uh,
office, like mine has a high volume of walk-in some calls,
there's some type of tracking system, uh, our systems,
and then we keep saying our systems
need to talk to each other.
I know some of my colleagues use things like air tables
and so forth to try to bring all that information.
So when we're engaging with residents
and constituents, we have a better fuller picture of, uh,
what city services they're in need of
Sure thing. Thank you for the
question. Um, so long time ago, I did, um,
constituent management for, um, an office in Ohio where I,
where I'm from, um, I know firsthand the work
of managing Constituents Affairs
and I, um, I think we have, um, in the Salesforce platform,
we have an advantage, um,
where it's already in your offices.
It's already supporting the 3 1 1 system
and licenses you already already have licenses.
So, um, we've taken a look.
I think we've, we've done some surveys, um,
and we're doing some, um, proof of concept development
around what it might look like to use that platform, um,
to extend beyond just 3 1 1
and be able to track who came into the office,
what they come in for, um,
and really understand the need to be able
to have somebody walk in that door free to be able
to say, I know who you are.
I know what you've come here for,
and make them not feel like they have
to explain the same things over and over again.
Um, and so I think that, that we'll be working.
I mean, we're working now, and I think next year we'll
continue to work on making that available to you.
All. The challenge is in, um,
50 different wars that have different needs.
And I, I do, I am sensitive that some will want
to look at another tool and, um, we've supported offices
that have decided to buy a different tool
and made sure that it's seamless.
Um, but we wanna make something available for those offices
that just want to take what the city's got to offer,
um, and provide a solution.
So that's, that's absolutely in our roadmap,
Well definitely would sign the 21st Ward up
to be a part of the pilot program.
Um, when you talk about some of those tools,
you know, I think visuals are powerful.
You know, your office has GIS is that a tool
that can be available to ward offices
to communicate data and so forth?
Even if we're talking about from a visual perspective where,
um, menu items are
or infrastructure improvements are so
that residents can see that visually?
Absolutely. Now, not only, and so we have tools, um,
and I think that, um, what we should do is, is just sit down
and show you what we have and, um, and identify your staff
and, and get them set up on things
we can do that for with everyone.
Um, there are so many tools available now
that are just free, um,
and our team has the advantage of having worked with them,
being able to show how they work.
Um, and so I, there's a plethora
of available mapping GIS tools,
and we definitely can work with your office on that.
Great. Looking forward to that.
And then lastly, I'll ask just, you know, I know you came
to this role with expensive, uh, uh, extensive, uh, services
and experience throughout the city,
particularly the Department of Buildings.
Um, from, from your role now and,
and in the past, what can we be doing to, to just
identify all those things at once so
that we can start troubleshooting, uh,
or implementing some solutions, uh,
using the data that's available to us? Right.
That's such a great question.
I think in our department, our main task is to, um,
con continue to fill out our vacancies
and build the team, the IT team
that the city has never really had,
which is a fully staffed one.
Um, we have the budget to do it,
and once we bring in, we'll have people whose job it is, is
to research, say department of buildings, um, technology
that they use and research what's happening across the,
the country and re
and see what's available to make sure we have the latest
modern technologies.
I do wanna say, in most cases, I believe we already have
the modern technologies in our control.
So the next step then is I, I always liken it to, um,
I've got all the best technology available
to me at any time, then I have to figure out how
to embed it into my daily life
and change my practices of
how I work in order to take advantage of it.
And it can be hard because you almost have too much where
I can do everything automatically,
but then that's not, doesn't help me be an efficient person
if I don't set it up wisely.
Um, so I think the next frontier is, um, a skills one,
it's a people one, and it's, it's across the city
and it's, it's, it's everyone learning how
to take these great technologies
and change their work practices so
that they can work better with it.
Um, and that's, that's where we, if the more staffed we get,
the better we can help show people how to do that.
Great. Excited to see you in the role.
Excited for the way that this department is going.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Um, uh, real quickly, uh,
one thing I noticed in your budget,
you have no personnel charged to the other funds,
like water, sewer, uh, airport.
Uh, why, why do you have no personnel charge
with those funds if we're performing, uh, work for them?
Thank you, chairman, for the question.
The, you know, in those other funds, I know we have, we do,
I me adom a bit.
Um, at DTI, we're a highly outsourced department.
A significant amount of our work is done, uh,
with contracted partners.
And so in those funds, you'll see, um, work that we do
through those contracted parties represented there.
Um, now as to why we don't specifically have city personnel,
um, in those funds, I think it's a, um, it's a, um,
budget management.
Um, it's just easier to manage the budget.
Um, but I will, uh, pass it over to, um, Melissa
to answer in more detail.
Thank you. Yes. So our personnel is funded in the
corporate budget, and as Nick alluded to, our services
that support other departments in those outsourced, um,
vendor contracts are, um, distributed across the,
the different allocated funds.
We, um, also have, uh, a couple of positions on a grant
as well for staff.
Um, but to, uh, commissioner Lucius's point, I believe, um,
the distribution of where staff is funded in corporate is,
uh, um, office of budget management decision.
Okay. Yeah. That, that if, if you guys are working
for water or working for the airport, uh, it, it,
it would be, in my opinion, be appropriate and,
and fiscally wise to charge that personnel to that, to
that specific fund.
I understand from a contractual aspect,
if individuals are performing work
and you're charging the contracts off to those funds,
but also, um, those personnel that are working in
that aspect also should be charged to those funds as well.
So, we'll, we'll take that up with budget,
uh, through the chair.
If you guys could provide us, uh, you all, for example,
in the corporate fund, you've got about $75 million
of contracts, uh, on your, uh, 1 38
and 1 39 lines.
If you could give us a breakdown of how you all arrived to
that, to that number in each of the, uh, uh,
finance general, oh, 90 nines for all,
all funds you all are touching, uh,
that would be, uh, appreciated.
Um, and also, uh, we, there's been a lot
of conversation around the, um, the ERP uh, system.
Uh, can you tell us where you are with that
and what, what, what we could expect, uh, on that?
I know this has been a long going conversation.
Uh, quite frankly, we've been a little too long,
if you ask me, uh, and where, where are we with it
and what, what are the expectations
that we should see in the next, you know, 6, 12, 18 months?
Uh, sure. Thank you Chairman, uh, with ERP, um, this year.
Um, so up until this year there's been a lot of planning,
um, and, uh, a project of this size, um,
has a significant amount of planning necessary this year,
um, was an action year.
This year we turned toward our current ERP
system, um, that we're using.
And, um, I call it, we needed to stabilize the patient.
Um, we, you know, modernization, uh, of, of
how we do business in the ERP realm, um, starts
with taking the system that we have, um,
and modernizing it itself.
So we modernized our, um, ERP system
by moving it from city servers into cloud infrastructure.
Um, and so now it is much more stable.
It is much more efficient.
It is much more efficient to manage, um,
and, um, we even are able to make enhancements to it.
Um, so I, we've taken our ERP system
and did a major modern modernization of it, um,
and finish that this year.
Now that we've done that,
the next step is we've gotta start modernizing how we work.
And this is a nod to the point I made a moment ago,
which is when we have technology that's modern, um, we have
to change the way that we work with it so
that we can take advantage of it.
If we just work the way that we always work,
the tech tech can be as modern as can be, um,
but if we configure it to work the way we always work,
we're not getting those efficiencies.
So next year, uh, we will be, um, doing things
that lead us to faster hiring.
Uh, we'll be, um, taking paper and PF based processes
and moving 'em into our ERP system,
and we'll be able
to just make the city's backend administrative functions
work faster and better.
And that's coming next year.
And so that's all part of the process that you gotta do
before you just then go And, um, we, we still,
we still need to upgrade to a new ERP software.
Um, and that is another step in this process.
And so we're doing all the, you know, liken it
to moving from one house to another.
We're doing everything that you've gotta do
before you move into another house.
We don't want to show up at the new house
and set everything up the way that it was before.
Um, and so all that work's happening next year.
Um, and then, um, once we're done with that, we will, um,
purchase a new system and then move all of our, uh,
business processes into that new system.
What I can say about timeline is that, you know,
as we've done research across the country with cities,
large organizations, um, these initiatives, um,
take two years to develop at a minimum.
And in reality, they end up taking longer
because you, you know, at that two years, you're just done
with the transition and you have to continue to, um,
you're really not never done with, um, modernizing a system.
Um, technology these days is continuous, um, improvement.
And so, um, I hope
that gives you a little more information about the timeline.
Um, and to answer your question, I'm happy
to discuss more if you'd like.
So when do you anticipate us being up
and functioning on a new system?
The new system that we would purchase
or the, the improvements next year?
I mean, a new system,
I would say, um,
sometime in 2026.
Um, if we can get our contracting in line
and we can get, if the
dependent on the work that we're doing now.
So the phase that we're doing now to improve the way
that we do our business
before we drop it into a new system, if that
finishes up next year, um, then in 2026, we should start
to see the new system come online, um, with,
with new features and be able to be in it.
Okay. It's just dependent on, on that.
Alright. Well thank you much, Otmane.
Thanks chairman. Good morning, commissioner.
Morning. Uh, Nick, you alluded to this in your, uh,
introduction, but I, I wanted
to touch a little bit more deeply in, when we talk about,
uh, cybersecurity
and threats to, um, all of our data,
what more do we need to do?
Are we, are, are, are you comfortable with where we're at
with what's been done, um, on both those topics?
Yes, I, I am, um, I am, I'm pleased with the, um,
of the seriousness with which we've taken this subject
and with the investment that we've put into cybersecurity.
When, um, when we got started this year, the, um,
as we were modernizing our job titles and, um,
and moving our folks into those no positions, um,
I prioritized cybersecurity, uh, as an immediate need, um,
to ensure that we brought in staff, um, immediately
to fill cybersecurity positions.
Um, and so we significantly increased the size
of our cybersecurity operations, um, in advance of
the DNC and in advance of the election.
Um, and, um,
and I, when I say we have an
award-winning team, I truly mean it.
Where our team's recognized, um, um, regularly for it's, um,
just being known in the, in the, in the industry
that, that we live in.
Um, I, I'll, I'll never feel satisfied when it comes
to protecting and securing Chicago
because it is, it's a never ending effort when the, um,
when those who would try to, um, take advantage
of our insecurities, um, are constantly evolving
and all the technology innovations that are available
for us to do good are available for others to try to, um,
take advantage of our insecurities.
So we're never done. Um,
but I, I am very pleased with, uh, with how,
how much we've built up that aspect.
Do you have the capacity, um, to have staff
come out ward offices to, to see what,
what we're using, what platforms we're working on?
Uh, obviously as we continue to see, uh,
more demand for city services, um, I wanna make sure that
any possibilities we have to, to become better at that.
And I'd like to think that we're pretty good, uh,
out in the 19th ward.
But, um, would your staff be available to come out, meet
with my staff, take a look at what we do in addition
to 3 1 1, um, to make sure
that we're doing everything we can
to deliver the best possible city services?
Absolutely. I, um, it, it's a best practice in my mind.
Um, when we're building things for our customers.
If we don't sit and sit with you
and watch exactly what you do, um,
then we don't know everything.
So I, I think absolutely we're available to do that. Okay.
I'll work with your staff offline on that.
Well, um, I'm really glad that you're in this position.
Um, appreciate your work.
Look forward to working with you more closely moving
forward and to your staff.
Um, all the best. Thanks Nick.
Thank you, der thanks.
Thank you Chair Che, um, great point around engaging,
uh, local ward offices.
I know some of our ward offices have a great systems that
actually interface between their sign in system
and their, um, 3 1 1 and 9 3 1 request and our 3 1 1 system.
So, um, maybe a best practice duplicate, uh, Alder.
Knutsen, uh, you ready to go?
Yes, sir. You're Up.
All right. Thanks so much, commissioner for coming today.
I'm grateful actually that yesterday was Streets and Sands.
'cause our, uh, our bloodline over at Streets
and Sands is no doubt working hard this morning.
So we got timing on something, right? Um, which is good.
So I wanna talk a little bit about, um,
just teching our ward offices and then some questions.
They might be silly and broad,
but really trying to understand the org chart as to,
you know, what we go to you for versus other entities.
So, um, first,
and this kind of piggybacks off of the questions,
alderman Mosley had we brought on, you know,
when I came in two years ago
or so, um, we brought in an internal tech portal,
um, through a contractor that we pay
through our expense budget.
And it's been a game changer for our office.
My feeling coming in two
and a half years ago was that there is still a bit
of a disconnect between 3 1 1
and the Salesforce software
that the city is invested in quite extensively,
and how we can use that in the ward offices.
So one example of
what our internal tech portal helps us do one out of many is
that when I go in, I get to see
immediately all the three one ones
that have been made in my ward that day
and what they're for, instead of pulling them
through some arduous manual task
that quite frankly we just don't have the staff for.
So continuing to try to strengthen that line.
Um, a question I have for you, um, in a related, um,
topic is how do we view your relationship with,
um, uh, with 3 1 1, I'm drafting a piece of legislation
that has to do with getting CTA request service requests
onto 3 1 1 OEMC is all good with it.
How do we fit DTI into there?
What do I need to make sure you're okay with?
Um, and, uh,
and really the overall relationship with, um, with OEMC?
Thank you Alderman. Appreciate that.
I, I think about this from a point of view of spending most
of my city career outside of it.
Um, that, that's always where I begin
because in the technology department, um, we sit
as a services organization for our other city departments.
Um, and when you think about city programs
and how this whole process works,
you budget a city department to do a thing,
they do the thing with those funds,
and then they use HR budget IT services in order
to accomplish that thing.
It puts us in a position where we, we've got support and,
and, um, aligned to what, say, um, streets and Sand
or another or 3 1 1, um, OEMC, um,
wants to see out of that program.
OEMC runs the 3 1 1 program for the service
to, to residents.
So getting those service requests filled,
making sure departments, um, are going, you know,
have the system to be able to use for that.
Um, we build it, we, we, we support it.
Now there's a gray area, always a gray area, um, which is,
I, I want my staff to have expertise in 3 1 1
to know how that program works.
So I've got somebody who is familiar with what
OM C's gotta do with the 3 1 1 program so
that there's a connection point.
It's not always, well, we're learning about
how three one works works for the first time when we go out
to build something for them.
Um, and so it's that connection point that we live.
So, um, with with, we've got a 3 1 1 group,
some folks from our team, some folks from their team, um,
that always convene and meet.
Um, so I just, I see it as a partnership
and I see it as when we don't know exactly who,
who's the right department for the thing, we don't want that
to be an issue of, you gotta figure it out.
We want to have just one coordinated 3 1 1 DTI
crew, uh, to get on the issue.
That's how we look at it.
Okay, great. So with the example, the hypothetical
of expanding something on the 3 1 1 app,
your department is the department
that builds the tech function,
Right? And we may
say, I'll go to OMC and 3 1 1
and say, alderman Knuts and would like to see this.
Think it's a pretty good idea.
I think a lot of other people wanna see it too.
Let's get in the, the backlog of items
that we wanna prioritize.
Um, at, at the end of the day, three, one will have a lot.
OEMC will have a lot of say in what they prioritize
and what they ask us to work on.
Um, and then we, you know, we will work together on, on that
and, and say, sometimes I'll say,
we gotta make this more usable.
I I'm in charge of, of, uh, performance and usability
and making sure these things work.
I'll wanna prioritize that.
I'll wanna prioritize what they are there to do
to serve residents as well.
Okay, great.
I, you know, I think that's all I, I have I, I'll
bring even more praise on Isaac.
When we were doing this integration, there's no question.
It took a lot of, a lot of work.
And we also are ward
that sells parking from our ward office.
So there's a, there's constant that impacts a lot
of tech within our office in indirect ways.
So, um, thank you to him,
but also thank you to your whole team.
'cause I know there's a lot of people working hard.
Thank you Alderman, Alder VAs. 'cause you're up.
Thank you very much. Uh, thank you Nick.
A as you all know,
and I, I say it regularly, I am immensely pleased
that now we've got DTI as opposed to what a IS was.
I, I don't believe that ever saved us any kind of money
as much as it was being pitched as a way to do so.
Um, but I really one, feel so much more confident having you
and the team in leadership to really make sure we've got the
kind of government that is, you know, we wanna bring our,
our government to the two thousands even just bring it up
to speed as much as possible.
And so thank you for that work there.
Um, my first question is I have, are, are related to,
um, the budget process.
So as we're all experiencing now
and the public is watching, uh, we get to a position
where we're all scrambling in the fourth quarter.
Uh, I guess this was after Halloween,
and then try to figure out the numbers and get the data.
And so when talking to Kofa,
and thankfully they're here with us as well, when we wanted
to get assessments from them
or from the Better Government Association
or the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
or the Civic Federation, they had all of two days
to make an assessment on a budget.
And that doesn't help any of us come to decisions.
It pushes us further down to the,
where we're now scrambling.
What I'd like to figure out is
what conversations have been had related
to the budget process, right?
The departments submit their budgets to the,
to the budget OBM, right?
That's all done through portals, online, all this data.
I have an interest and I believe this body in the public
does, in getting that information in real time
as it happens, um, have there been conversations
and figuring out that pathway of information.
'cause right now we don't get it in time.
We get PDFs if we're lucky we don't get
spreadsheets in the way we'd want.
Um, so yeah, what conversations have been had in order
to like improve our budget process?
It's, thank you for the question, alderman.
The, um, so first a big part
of improving the budgeting process
and is, is coupled with our ERP modernization work.
So, um, we are, you know, I think the, the budget,
the budget technology system is in stable shape.
I'll, I'll mark it as stable.
Um, and the, um, we need it to have more functionality
by getting a modern system to, to replace it.
That's the, like the long term roadmap
plan in the short term.
Um, I am TA always talking with, um, the budget director
and OBM about what do you need today?
What, what are, what are tools
that we can take off the shelf?
We have, and my, I have of the view
that the city already has the modern technology, um,
it's about putting it into place.
Um, and then, um,
and then this, I think a part of your question comes down
to part of what I've been was saying some
of the other answers, which is departments
run their programs.
OBM manages the budget and they make decisions on the budget
and we provide the tools for them to be able to do that.
Um, and there's, there's, I think there's some notion in
your question that, um, the, I I think the,
the budget department, um, it's, it's,
it's theirs, um, to work with.
Like how they, what their process is
for collecting information from city departments
and how they process it and make it available.
I mean, as being a department, I am aware that it is a, um,
it's a fluid process where you, you spend,
spend time getting ready for it and then it's proposed.
And when it's proposed is when it's fixed and put out there.
Um, but I think that, um, that a, a, a large degree
for what's in your question is for OBM.
Um, but I just wanted to share a little bit about my view.
Yeah, no, I, I appreciate that.
'cause OBM makes their decisions.
City government is something that public pays for.
We're elected officials to make decisions.
So it's great that OBM makes a decision.
It's more about the access to every other part of government
to that same information.
So regardless of the software, they have to determine,
or in fact, I don't believe they have to determine,
I think we have to determine that we all
want the same access.
COFA should get that information the same time
the budget office gets it.
This city council should get it the
same time the budget gets it.
So it's not necessarily,
to your point about modernizing technology,
it's about access with the existing technology.
So if through the chair you're able to send a list of
what software is being used by OBM
or different departments, just kind of a breakdown
of which ones talk to which ones.
Because even when we asked the question
to the budget office, when we asked it
to the comptroller about the data being shared,
the data being referred to was different than
the data we were asking about.
They were like, oh, we can give you like a, a two week,
a two year forecast about things to look at the budget.
I'm like, no, I want the data now in real time.
And that is a decision being made.
And so knowing which software we're talking about
and where it needs to be pulled from is what I'd like.
'cause when we think about the management ordinance
and how we improve things year over year, I don't want
to be here next year at the end of the year wondering
what we're gonna do between Thanksgiving and Christmas
because no one wants to give us the information earlier.
I think that needs to be fundamentally changed
and the data exists.
And so that I appreciate along those
same lines of accessibility.
I know o EMC's management over 3 1 1,
but I know you guys have partnerships.
You mentioned kind of having a joint team.
What I don't understand at all is why none
of us can see citywide 3 1 1, we only see our wards.
I want to know if Timmy's doing, if Timmy's got a better job
and better response times when it comes to streets.
We've been, I wanna know that what's their process
for getting the questions done, the fact
that we're not even getting access to other wards
to understand what they're doing better.
We're not to rank each other to see how we're doing
as a job, I think is unacceptable
and the public should feel the same way.
And so, uh, is there anything that you know of
that would impede us from giving that access
to all members of city co council?
Thank you for the question.
I, um, so I'll, I'll put a couple of things out there as
to the, the state of things and talk about what can be done.
The, um, so you're all aware, um, you have, uh,
the Salesforce modules that provide you
with information on your ward, um, down to the level of, um,
personally identifiable information so
that you can provide services to residents.
You need to know who they are in order to provide those
services outside of the ward.
Um, for, um, for security best practices that individually
identifiable information is, is limited to the,
the specific ward you're in.
Um, now outside the larger view all, so the 3 1 1 system
as a whole, we have a public data set that provides,
it says this is the type of request, the day it was open,
the time of day it was open, what type of request it was.
Um, is it still open? Is it closed?
Uh, details like that anonymized, right?
So it's not comprehensive.
It has, I think when it launched, it had nearly a hundred
of the 3 1 1 service request types.
There are a lot more than a hundred three one one
service request types.
Um, and we've, that is an ongoing process
to identify which service types can
be made publicly available.
Because in there, I think you'll have answers
to the questions that you need to ask to see
how city services are being handled,
but it can be a better data set.
And, um, and so I think we can make improvements
there and what's available.
Um, and I I also give an example.
I, I remember when we launched 3 1 1, um,
these privacy considerations we have to work
through, they take time.
Um, they're, uh, here's an example
to give you an idea of what it can be like.
There's a service request type for providing
literature to seniors.
It's just, or at least it existed, then you ask
for literature, it's delivered to your house.
Um, when it went to launch that we couldn't make
that type code public because it has the address listed.
And it was like, oh, by sending this out, you'll identify
that I know who lives in that house.
The dataset says they're asking for senior literature.
We're providing people's ages to the public, basically.
Right? So there's a lot of nuanced privacy things.
We just have to work it out.
And we're, we're on, we're, we're online here to, um,
to work through those and work with OMC
and you to make more available publicly
so you can get these answers. Well,
One, I, I appreciate the forethought
and I think it's absolutely right about people's identities.
I think to your point, if some of
that info is anonymized in a dataset,
it's just an interface then, right?
Like here's the information
we actually already have can share.
Here's how you in the 22nd ward can see what's
happening in the 25th ward.
Um, just because I think we're all elected officials,
we're competitive in nature.
I like to know where everybody else's scoreboards are.
'cause I like to beat them. I love you guys
to death, but that's how I roll.
And I think many of us are the same way.
It's how we got here. And I think it makes
for better government when we do that.
And so it's just a good way to kind
of measure each other, just to keep it real.
Uh, also, I wanna thank you for the work.
When we partnered to improve 3 1 1
to make sure we changed the language, we got estimated times
of completion for different, um,
requests that were being made.
The next step in that process is the work orders.
And I'll do the same example I always mention.
A neighbor puts in a request for a pothole, uh, streets
and sand shows up and goes,
that's not a pothole, that's a sinkhole.
It gets transferred to DWM, it comes up as closed.
And so the neighbor thinks that nobody paid attention to it,
when in reality it got transferred over.
Having that level of, of transparency,
transparencies we wanna do next.
So I wanna make sure that there's a commitment for this,
this year to get that resolved.
The second one being everybody here,
and this is a cost savings pays for separate software.
I mean, council, not just everyone here pays
for separate software to get the same information.
Anything that's not 3 1 1, you're using Airtable
or, uh, whatever other software
to get the exact same information that it leads me
to believe that if you just did one bulk deal
or one software and 50 users,
you save money then everyone paying separately
for all these different services.
So just wanted to know one, the commitment to get working on
that and what that's looking like.
Absolutely. So, um, the, you, you,
we have my commitment, um, wanna make sure that we, um,
we don't do we, we don't need to buy things twice.
And so, um, we'll work,
we are working on providing something
that all offices can use it.
Um, absolutely.
And uh, and as, as for your first part, that transparency
around, um, I can open up this app
and I can see what's going on
with my service request in more detail.
Um, I, I, I, I wanna see that too.
Um, we have that on our roadmap.
Um, we have in this budget, um, the ability
to execute on working toward that next year.
Um, and look forward to, to partnership with you,
partnership with OEMC.
And I wanna see it as a resident too.
Um, and, uh, I put in my own three one more requests.
I'm gonna see it too. I, I'm
With you. I think the more we do that,
the less calls
we get to the board office, right?
'cause they're able to see it on their phone.
So thank you for your diligence.
Thank you for your expertise.
To have somebody that's a tech guy and a lawyer
and really able to help out is, it's unique
and I'm really glad we have in the city.
So thank you and your team for the work.
Thank you. Uh, I think that takes us
to one last commenter.
I would say that Alder Vasquez
and I agree that you got a great haircut commissioner.
Um, um, on that topic though, um,
the previous topic, you know,
many wards put in three one ones for residents
that may be in another ward near to them
and may want some follow up on that.
And I know my, my staff has definitely, uh, looked at that.
So just, just another reason for,
for a little bit more expanded transparency on that.
And I hope the alderman would have better, uh, reasoning,
uh, for expanding that access than what he's articulated.
So, uh, our, our, our last
and finest, uh, speaker, uh, uh, from Alder MI
Chair and good morning commissioner.
Um, and looking at your opening statement, um, there are
50 contracts used by the city departments,
um, in your effort to prioritize quality
and cost efficiency services, your M-B-E-W-B compliance,
diverse supplies, investment,
and growing our local technology and BMBE and WB firms.
Do you have, uh, a list of those firms?
Yes, we can provide you that.
Can you provide the list through the chair?
And also I see that you have A-M-B-E-W-B partner, um,
and networking with the prime contractor
who are your prime contractor.
That list of the nearly 50 is the list
of our prime contractors.
Yes. Um, and so when we send you that, that'll,
that'll be our prime contractor list.
Oh, okay. Okay.
And then in the list, will you break that down as to their
partners who, who they're subcontracting to?
Yes. And then the percentage for each one
and the ethnicity for that group.
Yes. Um,
what was the program that was used?
Uh, the apprenticeship program
for the Greater Grand Crossing.
So that's, um, exchange.
Um, it's next to the, uh, Gary Comer Youth Center.
And it is, um, so, um, it's a partnership between
make sure I right.
Our vendor is SDI present SDI presence,
um, and they have a partnership, um, for this exchange.
Chicago, I believe there's multiple, there's P 33
and Comer Education Campus.
And it, um, it brings in, um, people from
lots of different experience levels, um,
to begin a second career in technology.
Um, gives them training and a program to go through.
And then there are employers who hire outta
that program locally in order
to provide technology careers for people.
The city's contract, um,
for our basic managed IT services that we use is the vehicle
that provides that training to those technology apprentices
because they can work on, um, what the firm's able to do
through city work in order to get these people up
and running to then make them available to have these jobs.
Now we're gonna be hiring next year. Um, and that's
What I was gonna ask you because, um, it is
the biggest growing industry, I think that's
out there at least for, uh, the younger generation.
Um, and, and they have an eye for it.
So I was wondering, are you looking to expand that program?
Yes, we're looking at how we can be, um,
we can be one of those employers.
Um, and so we're working with the HR department on, um,
what the process is so that we can go and, um, and,
and bring candidates into the city.
Um, and also there's other apprentice that's just one that
Chicago, that our contract makes possible,
but there's other apprenticeship programs in the city
of Chicago tech apprenticeship
Programs. What would you say the success
of
that program if you would have to grade it?
I, I've been there, I've met apprentices
and, um, I've, I've, I I think it's, I think it's great.
It's just wonderful to see a human being talk
to them out loud and hear about the training they went
through and learn about the job
that they got and how it changed their lives.
And so I've heard multiple experiences
and I, it made an impression on me.
I think these programs, they do take a lot of effort
and, um, energy
and I think they have to figure out how they work.
And I'm, I applaud our partner for doing that,
and I applaud all the other ones in the city that exist and,
and we wanna make sure we,
we support these and make these possible.
I was wondering, um, if you can shine a little light on
how can we better allow the public
to access departments without having
to go within one department out into another department.
It's kind of hard to navigate.
Or is there anything that you
see that could be done?
Yeah, thank you for the question.
I think, um, I think there, it, it, uh, I would love
to have a world where, um, at least on the web, I know that
a website doesn't, isn't the only place to get something.
But if we, we could work toward a presence
where it's just easy, easy to use, easy to,
you're not looking at a list of departments,
you're looking at a list of services that I can get
as a resident, um, and easily interact with them.
We have a long way to go to
where we would have a website like that,
but there's great examples out there.
The UK has a, a fantastic example of this,
where their website is you as soon as you get to it.
It's just, what can I get as a person
and what's available to me?
It's centered around that.
And so I think centering our experience around people, um,
again, I have to say, we have a long way to go.
It's gonna take effort and time and money to get there,
but there, I think we could, we could do a lot better.
What would be one of your successes that,
if you would have to say, um, during this past year
That you would this past year?
I think I'm, um, I'm proud.
I'm really proud of our data team, um,
and how we've, um, made
top-notch world class data visualization software
available to the whole city.
Um, and, um, it's something that I would, I look back
to when I was in the department,
and I would've loved to have had something like that.
Um, and so that we were able to launch that
when we had our kickoff, um,
there was over a hundred people there.
It was standing room only.
Everyone was so excited, and we got
to hand out those systems.
Now we got people, our next leaders,
our next data leaders are now able to use that software
and interact with it.
That's very good. Um, can you provide, uh, a list
of the new community engagement digital
services that you have?
Can you provide the list through the chair
that you're working with, um, residents in partnership with?
Yes, we can do that. Well,
let me say thank you all for your service,
and, um, it's been a pleasure having to work
with you the past year and your team.
Um, my staff is, uh,
appreciative even though we don't have Isaac.
Uh, everyone is still fantastic.
You must have left a good mark on you.
So, uh, I can say continue to keep up the great work
and, um, continue to do a great job.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair.
Um, Alder, mana Haworth.
Thank you. Hi, commissioner. Hello to your team.
Um, thank you for being here.
I, you know, wanna build off of what Alter
mitts was talking about
and how to, um, how to make sure that our
neighbors are getting the services that you need.
And I appreciate your, the value that you have
to center your work around people.
And that's really what we do every day in our ward offices.
Um, a lot of people don't know what we do
and, uh, oftentimes they Google us
and they find us through, uh, a Google search.
And I, I think my first question is, who's in charge of our
Chicago City website?
That's a great question. So the, um, there's a lot
of different parts of the, the city's website.
So the main page, chicago.gov,
what you see when you arrive, um, it's managed by
and large by the mayor's office.
Um, we, individual departments
all have a content manager
that's in charge of their own pages.
There's give and take here, um,
because DTI has design standards
and standards of, um, you know,
people can't just make the site look
like however they want it.
Um, it's gotta be accessible,
it's gotta follow our standards.
But as far as what goes on there, um,
individual departments have the ability
to put what they put on their pages.
Yeah, I, I ask
because we have placeholders for every ward on the website,
and I would love that to be a place where
it's the first place that people go to.
Right. It, it astounds me as a new altar person
to know that I had to start from scratch, you know,
from my lease to my insurance, to my phone, to all
of our systems, including the city systems,
but also our website.
And I think about how much my team worked so hard to
get it up firstly,
but also to have the content in there that was exactly
what you're talking about, accessible
and shows the people that I represent
what is available to the city.
So, um, do you have any involvement in that
area at all?
Because I feel like this is a, uh, an equity issue as well.
Um, you know, websites,
not every ward has a website I, I haven't checked lately,
but when I first started, I noticed
that not every ward had a website.
And so to find out where the new Alder people, um, where,
where they, even, even that, um, portal
that's on the city web on the city website is very minimal.
Um, people just wanna understand like very basically
what the Alder person does, where they, um,
generally their area is and what they do.
Um, can you speak more on what is it that we could,
do you see this department at all being outward facing
or helping us who are on the front ends to be, um, better
at what we do so that we can make the city better?
Yes, I do. So I, I, I follow what I,
I I see where you're going.
And I think that a, a big part of what you're, what would
help here is just user interface design
on the city's website.
Uh, you know, clicking through multiple pages to get
to something accessibility issue
because of the barrier of the clicks and how,
and even me at two clicks
and I'm, I'm already thinking about other things
and I'm lost and distracted.
That's just me. Right? Um, so better interface design,
that's a, we have a role in that, in our budget,
and it's vacant, but we'll work on it next year
as user experience folks,
and then also content management, content.
You know, we're technologists.
Um, um, some of us, you, there's tech skills
and then there's writing skills
and there's communication skills
and that they, um, we, we don't have a workforce, um,
with job descriptions that have a lot
of communication aspects to it.
'cause you only got people or developers making things.
But in our budget, we do have content, um, people, people
who can, who, who, who think about this.
And, and so we do have a role there.
Um, and I think just working with you to, again,
it's all experimentation and seeing, oh,
did this work out the way we planned it?
Um, and, and, um,
and so hearing, I'm hearing feedback right now
that I'm taking back, I'm gonna look at those pages as soon
as I get out of the hearing to
see what the experience is like.
Yeah. And can, can you just touching a a little bit on
what you just said, because, uh, in the 48th ward,
I imagine in a lot of other wards, we trend older adults,
people who have trouble seeing and hearing, and, um,
and also just being able to manage, uh, a website.
Um, is that something that you, you say that you're going
to be able to work with us on?
Absolutely. So we have, um, accessibility and,
and a DA, uh, for the web in our thoughts
and something we're regularly working on.
And I also, on a personal level, um, my, my father's blind
and my job in the family is to set up his devices for him.
And, um, and so I have a perspective in what it's like
for someone who's low vision, no vision to interact
with websites.
It's opened my own eyes, um, to what that's like.
And I, and so it's an area we, we see ourselves
as having a role in to make sure that an accessible, um,
and there's an equity issue here with access and,
and the barriers to access.
So, so, yes, absolutely.
Thank you. I I look forward to the work
that you're gonna do towards this end.
And, um, I would like to learn more about, um,
how you're gonna work with us during the year.
Uh, I would like to keep in touch.
Absolutely. Thank You so much,
commissioner. Thank you. Thank you, chair.
Thank you. Altman Van Howorth.
Anyone, any other questions? Autumn Conway,
We, uh, uh, commissioner would simply like to commend you
for, for your work in a short period of time in
modernizing your department
and working to make the technology of this city, uh, as,
as streamlined as it can be.
So thank you for your hard work on that. And, and Mr.
Chairman, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank
You, sir. Thank you. Auman
Beck, sir, no questions.
Any other questions? Auman Moore, you have any questions
for DTI as you come in
Him so much? Thank you.
Thank you all. Uh, I, he actually does bring into, uh,
account one question, and that's about the diversity on, uh,
on contracts with, uh, with you all.
Uh, how are your, um, if you could break down,
how are your numbers between the, uh, different,
uh, ethnic groups?
Sure, absolutely. We'll get the numbers out here.
Okay. So for, I'm, I'm ask Melissa, um, to read this so
that you can read these numbers.
Thank you. Yes. So, um, for the time period of January 1st
through July 31st, 2024, we have, um,
approximately 3.84% of our spend, um,
to African American MBEs, 16.12%
to Asian MBEs, 3.41% to Hispanic MBEs,
and 6.97% toward wbe.
Okay. Uh, what are you all doing to improve, uh, I mean,
uh, how do you say this?
Like, we know that there are tech companies in,
in this, in this space,
and, uh, there, there seems to be a predominance, uh,
or a dominance, uh, by one group in particular in,
in the space on the minority side.
What are you all doing to change that landscape?
Absolutely. Thank you for the question.
So, um, one thing that we've done this year is reached out
to our, our vendors and talked to them
and say what, you know, um, what are the things
that you wish that you saw that you're not seeing?
What are the things that it would
take you to be able to grow?
Um, and we heard from that is just opportunities
for networking and being able to, um,
all get together in a room, meet the prime contractors.
Some people are looking for subcontracting opportunities.
And so we, for those folks, we've made available, um,
these sessions to be able to come and, and meet
and say, these are our certified, um, firms.
These are the firms that we have contracts with, um,
and have, have an ability for everybody to,
um, to get to know each other.
And they've really appreciated that for, and then some,
and some of the firms that are, as they get bigger,
they look for prime opportunities.
And we wanna make sure that we, um,
we focus on that as well.
Um, for prime opportunities, a lot of that comes down
to being cr thinking about the way
that we structure our RFPs and our,
and our, and our opportunities.
So with ERP, for example, um, we've set up to make sure
that we have, um, broken the contract into pieces.
Um, where if it was just one big contract, it would,
it would be, um, you know, difficult for a prime to come in.
Who is an NB? Um, we've broken up into individual pieces so
that there are opportunities, um, available.
Um, and, um, and,
and that's a little bit about what we've done in that space.
Okay, well, we would like to see those numbers increase
for, uh, you know, for African Americans
and, uh, Latino groups.
Uh, we think that 3% is a little paltry.
Um, I think you can, uh, walk down the street
and trip and find 3%.
So we're looking for improvement, uh,
from you all in that respect.
So we, we would like to see those numbers, you know,
you know, hit, you know, uh, hit double digits.
I mean, we've got a lot of work going on there
and a, a lot of opportunity.
So we think that that's achievable by your group.
And, and we look forward to you meeting that goal, uh,
going into 20 24, 20 25. So, okay.
You have my commitment to work on that, sir. Alright.
Very well. Any other questions? All the questions?
Uh, going once, going twice. Alright.
Thank you, uh, for joining with us today.
Uh, you all are excused, but always subject to recall.
So, uh, we will, uh, look forward
to seeing you in the future.
And again, thank you for your hard work.
And we know you guys are, you're the spine of the, uh,
you know, the, it is the spine of any organization.
So without, we're as good as our information is
and the decisions that people make.
So, uh, we definitely need you and appreciate you
and, uh, godspeed on the new system.
'cause everybody's crying about it so
that everyone think can start talking to one another.
And you all don't have to search 15 different systems
to find the one answer that you're looking for.
So, again, you all are excused.
The committee will, uh, be in recessed
until we bring our next group in.
Chairman. Mm-Hmm.
Good morning. Uh, we will now have the Department of Fleet
and Facilities Management.
We're joined by Commissioner, uh,
Hernandez Tomlin and her team.
Uh, she'll introduce her team as well
as the members here in the well.
And those that are in the box.
Uh, prior to her beginning, we'll have a brief overview
from the Council Office
of Financial Analysis Director OTA Gray, and
after which we will go to the department, begin
with their opening statement.
And then questions Director Ode Gray.
Thank you, chairman Irving Oder.
Persons guest, my name is Janice Oda, gray,
director of cofa.
Let's look at the fiscal year 25 snapshot of the budget
for Department of Fleet and Facility Management.
The recommended total appropriation for fiscal year 25
is 558.3 million, reflecting
a 5% reduction from the revised budget for fiscal year 24.
The total budgeted full-time equivalent
for fiscal year 25 is 1044,
which is 21 FTE, less than the revised amounts
for fiscal year 24.
Contractual services have decreased by 18%,
dropping from 180 7 0.36 million to 1 53 0.2 million.
The purposes specified account, the 9,000 account,
the reserve balance is 43.3 million,
or 42% higher than fiscal year 24 due
to a fiscal year 25 recognized federal grant.
A 41.7 million
for anadaco streeterville removal.
And finally, the department is 51.5% corporate funded.
Thank you.
Thank you, director. Commissioner, please proceed.
It's up to you. You introduce your,
That's fine. Okay.
Hello, I am Julie Hernandez, Tomlin,
commissioner of two fm.
Beside me is Glenn Cross Managing Deputy Commissioner.
Next to him is Mark Pulis,
our Deputy Commissioner of Fleet Services.
Behind me is Alvin Smith ii, my Director of Finance.
And in the box, if you can raise your hand, please,
when I call your name, Merrick Wisnewski,
deputy Commissioner of Architecture, engineering
and Construction, Merri Solis, assistant Commissioner,
bureau of Asset Management, Margaret Rizzo,
deputy Commissioner, human Resources, Jamie Es,
project Manager, Riverwalk and Millennium Park.
Kevin Campbell, director of Maintenance and Fleet.
Michael Pickens, director of Facilities for Trades.
Kimberly Worthington, deputy Commissioner
for Environmental Health and Safety.
Julie Bedor, director of Facilities Engineers.
Ricardo Martinez, director of Security.
Jason Roberts, director of Logistics and Supply.
Victoria Santiago, deputy Commissioner,
finance and Administration.
David Powell, project manager and Energy Procurement.
Rudolph Sanchez, director of Facilities Property Management
and Iris Troutman, project Coordinator, utilities.
And I do have a few in the gallery.
Um, Tanya Randolph, my exec executive assistant, uh,
Joe Mall, head of Graphics, and Mike Taylor.
Sorry, couldn't see you.
Mike Taylor, director of Facilities Over Asset Management.
And then my wonderful electricians up above
Those are, these are your guys? Yes,
They are. Aren't they? Awesome.
I'm, uh, I, I'll reserve comment to we finish,
uh, till we finish.
Uh, on that, go ahead. Okay.
I'll read my opening then. Thank you.
Good afternoon, chair Irvin, vice Chair Lee
and members of the budget committee and City Council.
Again, I'm Julie Hernandez, Tomlin, commissioner
of Department of Fleet and Facility Management,
otherwise known as two fm.
Today I'll present two FM's 2025 budget request,
which prioritizes cost-Effective Operations while
delivering Essential Services.
Our core mission is to provide efficient fleet management,
effective facility maintenance
and responsible energy procurement for all city departments.
We also offer crucial support services, including River Walk
and Millennium Park Management, environmental engineering,
real estate, graphics and records management.
Two FM is committed to racial equity and justice.
In 2024, we achieved a 48%
MWBE participation rate
with a significant increase in spending
for African American businesses.
This growth is due to increased investments in our fleet
and facility bureaus for replacement of vehicles
and ongoing facility maintenance.
Additionally, the community marketplace on the Riverwalk
empowers minority
and women owned businesses with 80%
of our current vendors being minority owned.
We are also issuing a new RFP in 2025.
To further expand these opportunities,
two FM manages 478 facilities,
including 426 owned and 52 that we lease.
We partner with CDPH, we partnered with CDPH
to convert two facilities into neighborhood health centers,
leveraging in-House resources to minimize the cost.
In 2025, we are reducing our corporate funding by $3 million
and will leverage TIFF
and Bond financing for major emergency
city building repairs.
Our fleet comprises over 14,300
units of equipment.
That's all city departments, including
10,100 owned vehicles, 2,800 leased
and 1300 rented.
The Chicago Works Bond program provides annual funding
to replenish our fleet.
Key fleet highlights include for CPD
we ordered 277 new vehicles this year in 2024
and plan on, or we did order another 382
for 2025.
Chicago Fire Department ordered 47 new units for 2024.
We have 41 more planned for 2025 streets
and sand 84 units this year.
20 24 60 tour 62 ordered for 2025.
We are also actively electrifying our fleet.
We have 1200 hybrid 600, I'm sorry, 60 plugin hybrid
and 236 EVs electric vehicles.
Hybrid vehicles have increased CPDs fuel efficiency
by more than 50%,
saving the city just over $1 million in fuel costs this
year in 2024.
Two FM remains committed to operational efficiency
and have implemented several initiatives over the past year
in our asset management bureau.
We're optimizing space and lease costs
and reviewing our right of entry fees.
And our Environmental Health
and Safety Bureau, we're streamlining environmental
clearance processes through the Cut the Red Tape Initiative
in facility operations.
Resuming in-house management of seven 40 North Sedgwick
to save about $600,000 in energy efficiency.
We're achieving about 141,000 in annual utility
savings with the library.
Solar Projects two FM will continue
to prioritize cost effectiveness while
delivering essential services.
I wanna thank our 880 plus dedicated employees
and look forward to collaborating with you
to build a better Chicago.
Thank you Chairman. I'm ready to answer any questions.
Thank you, commissioner. Questions, questions?
Altman Nugent?
Sure. Thank you Chairman.
Uh, I just wanted to say thank you,
commissioner to you and your team.
You guys are tremendous partners in the ward.
Uh, everything from North Park pillage with Glen
and I attached at the hip to, uh, the Marine Corps property
to working with us on, uh,
rehabilitating the fire station on Pulaski.
Uh, huge thanks to you and everybody in the box.
Uh, your partnership is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you, Alman. Thank you. Altman.
Newton Altman, MIT Fellow Altman O'Shay.
Thank you Mr. Chairman. And good morning, commissioner.
Morning. Um, my question is, uh, surrounding,
um, the Old Streets in Sanitation Ward Yard
that's located in my ward in the, um,
4,800 block on Chicago Avenue.
That facility is being turned over
to water at this point.
Are you familiar with that? Yes. The one right blocked? Yes.
Right. Yes. Water department is taking that over. Okay.
So, uh,
and this is for the lead replacement program?
Yes. From my understanding, uh, commissioner Connor wanted
to use that for his lead service, uh,
replacement line program.
And do you know what's the time limit for that
or I believe we just turned over that property.
Um, I'm gonna turn to Merit Solis.
Do we have a date of when water is supposed
to move in there?
Identify yourself please too.
Sorry. Merit Solis. Um, assistant Commissioner assets.
Uh, yes. It was scheduled for November 15th
for water to take over the facility.
November the 15th. Yes.
And well, that's the question for the water department.
Lemme ask you, uh, in terms of your fleet, what do,
what do you do you do with
obsolete, uh, vehicles?
Now? I know in the past I wanted to just share that,
um, they, we used to could put in ordinance to donate it,
uh, obsolete equipment.
Is that still something that, uh, fleet does now?
Yes, alderman, uh, we do still do that.
However, we pretty much run our equipment until the end
of life when it is absolutely inoperable anymore.
Um, and then we work with the Department
of Procurement Services to either auction these, uh,
pieces of equipment or we scrap them.
And that's revenue generated for the city. Okay.
So you don't do the, um,
obsolete and donate?
'cause I haven't seen it in a while.
That's why I'm asking again. We will if we have it.
Oh, okay. But it's very common that we do not.
Okay. Um, how many,
how many facilities that the city have
that are not utilized at this time?
I do have any, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
Do we have any facilities that are vacant owned by the city?
Yes, we do. We have about 25 vacant properties.
Can I get that list through the chair? Absolutely.
Um, and I,
I saw you when you were reading your statement, uh,
you talked about the energy efficiency Yes.
The savings. Um, what are your expectation moving forward
for 2025 in terms of, uh,
since it's a savings, are you looking to invest into more?
Yes. So our savings are realized right now
with our gas prices, uh, gas and fuel, natural gas.
However, our electricity, um, has risen.
Um, we do plan on applying for more rebates,
more incentives, uh, through those programs.
We do have an energy management, uh, company that we use.
We hedge our fuel for the, um, upcoming
six months, um,
to hopefully lock in a better price than we would
doing it in real time.
Um, so there are ways that we work
with our energy management company
and I have a project man manager over energy, who
that's all he does
and a project coordinator too, where we work
with the utilities to find different ways for savings.
Lemme ask about contracts.
Um, how many contracts have been
led from your department?
How many contracts do we have? Yes.
We have about, uh, 200 contracts
This year.
Now on your books,
We have 200 contracts that we use to purchase, um,
either services or commodities from.
And what's the numbers when it come to,
do you have numbers for those contractors?
Yes, I do.
So out of $253 million that we've spent, um,
so far this year,
121.6 million went
to certified primes and subs.
So that's 48% of our payments went to
minority women owned businesses, primes and subs.
Is it possible that through the chair
that we can I can get a list of that information?
Absolutely. And the breakdown
of all ethnicities, if you don't mind.
I have that with me, if you'd like me to read it.
Yes, you can read it. Would you like
to know the primes?
Yes. Or the primes and the subs?
Uh, for primes, uh, we spent 42 million,
42.6 million on certified mws.
13% of that went to African American businesses, 2%
to Hispanic, uh, 1% to women owned businesses
and just under 1% for Asian
for primes and subs.
Alderman. Mm-Hmm. Um, 13%
of those payments went to Hispanic firms, 11% went
to African American firms, 3.8% went
to women owned firms, and 2.3 went to Asian.
Okay. I'm sorry, I stand corrected.
That was only sub numbers. The last ones I gave you was only
Subs, not primes and subs. It was just subs. Right.
I do have primes and subs,
if you'd like me to read that too.
Absolutely. Okay. For,
for payments to primes
and subs, 24.5% went to African American
firms, 16% went to Hispanic,
2.6% went to Asian,
and 4.9% went to women owned businesses.
And that's where the 48% comes from, uh,
for our total spending to mws.
And I would just like to have a list
of that through the chair.
Absolutely. The breakdown, if you don't mind.
Um, chairman Irvin, I think that's,
those are all of my questions.
Uh, but now thank you
and thank your department for the work you do, uh,
and managing all of the facilities in the city of Chicago.
Um, just hoping that we keep our facility up to date.
Um, I think I was in a briefing of a law settlement
where we had a ambulance
that was inoperable and somebody had an accident
or something along those line.
But just making sure that the facility, uh, kept, uh,
up to part is very critical.
May have been before your time,
but yet we still have
to be proactive rather than to react after.
So thank you all so much for your work
and keep up the great works. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you Altman. Mrs.
There, is there a request, uh, attached to that?
What? Is there a request attached to that?
A request for what? Nevermind.
I know you got jokes. Uh, shaman, uh, you, i, I,
I ain't for joking right now.
I'm trying to get some business done.
Sorry. I'm, I'm trying to help you get some business done.
I'm, I'm trying to help you. I I'm
trying to throw your lifeline.
Maybe, maybe that's something that, that you're looking for,
that that might, might help you.
You know, you know, I be joking most of the time,
but I'm, I'm be trying to help you out now.
Alright. Alderman, OSHA followed by Alderman Moore.
Thank you, chairman. Morning.
Commissioner Morning, Uh, Julie, uh, we had, uh,
streets and sanitation up yesterday
when we talk about the fleet of snowplows
and spreaders, which I believe is somewhere around 300
all in, if, if you include, like,
when we get the big storms.
And I know every late summer into fall we're scrambling
to make sure particularly the aging equipment
get that up and running.
Um, are, and ironically, and yet today it's snowing.
Um, are we comfortable with
keeping the fleet in good shape?
As I'm sure today we're gonna have several
of these spreaders and plows come in saying, oh,
we got this problem, that problem
'cause they ran for 12 hours.
How are we looking on keeping that fleet out there ready
to go, ready to respond to every storm?
So thank you Alderman for that question.
Um, streets
and Sand, um, is probably at the best
that they have ever been as far as equipment is concerned.
Um, they have new equipment.
Uh, we're replacing equipment, um, as quickly as we can.
Um, they got a additional 84 pieces of equipment on order
for this year, 2024.
And next year we're ordering 62 additional pieces
of equipment, um, for them.
And we're in constant communication with streets and sand.
We have daily reports, especially like today for Snow.
What do we have up and running? What's down?
Nothing's down right now.
Um, so it's, it's constant communication and,
and communicating with Commissioner Stallard and his team
and my, my fleet team, I'm, I'm confident that,
that we're okay with streets in hand
And we're good on staff
and the garage is ready to handle those repairs when,
you know, we get news as
day progresses that things are
down. We're good on that front.
We are good right now. Okay.
Um, we could be better, um,
if we can hire more mechanics, uh, mechanics we're,
we're very short on.
Um, but you could see our overtime numbers are,
are higher in our Fleet Bureau.
Um, but the more mechanics we can get on board,
the more that would help us.
And there's just a global shortage of mechanics right now.
It has nothing to do with City of Chicago or our department.
It's, there's just a global shortage right now.
I know Daily College, um, has a wonderful program.
I, I, I would imagine we're working with them
and in communication with them, um,
as we look for more mechanics.
So we do have a couple things going on right now.
Uh, we do have a shadow program with, um,
is it Kennedy King, with Kennedy King College,
where we have two students shadowing our mechanics, um,
uh, you know, to just to see what we do.
Um, that's only one piece.
The next piece we wanna do is, um,
do an apprenticeship program through a city college.
Um, unfortunately talk stalled.
Uh, I lost my labor relations supervisor a couple months ago
who was in the middle of those talks.
So we're gonna resume those talks after budget, um,
and hopefully get some type of program in
where we can get these kids right at college level
or at junior college and even before then try to recruit
before they make up their
minds what they wanna do for a living.
So, uh, we are working on that
and I think that's very important that we stress
and it's a great job.
We have great mechanics that we have. We're just short.
Um, I know that, um, Daley College
has established a partnership
or relationship with the Chicago High School
for Agricultural sciences, which is in my community.
They have a pathway, um, in this field.
I'd very much like to see, um, could,
could someone from your staff and I head over to Daley
and talk to someone there?
Um, this would be CPS graduates
in the city colleges program, uh, a pipeline to,
these aren't jobs, these are careers.
Um, may maybe we can talk about that offline.
Absolutely. I'd be totally interested in that.
You had mentioned we have 25 city owned buildings
that are currently vacant.
When we talk about that,
is there a discussion going on about, could,
could we possibly sell some of those?
Um, are are we close to having,
um, possible leases
with someone taking over those buildings?
I just know there was a strong push several years ago,
so much city owned property
and communities, um, that just sat there.
And it reminds me, I, I had a Dunking Donuts
that opened on a vacant piece
of land in the Morgan Park community for 65 years.
It sat vacant. It was a, it was a fly dumping haven.
A Dunking Donuts opened up there three weeks ago,
and they're doing gangbusters.
So, what was the question? I'm sorry.
These 25 vacant city owned properties, like, are,
are there active discussions about possibly putting
on that them on the market?
Are, are they even marketable, um, or potential leases?
Yeah. So right now, um,
our job at two FM is just to be sure that they're, um,
safe, they're secure.
Um, we are responsible for snow removal, landscaping
and security, of course.
Um, we are going through the list, um, constantly.
Um, there are interests in a few of them.
Um, so yes,
we are constantly looking at if, if we can sell them
or what condition they're in.
Um, but it, it's, it's not a fast enough process.
Unfortunately. I have a staff of maybe two
in asset management.
Um, and that's only part of what they do. Hopefully
Someone from budget is
watching somewhere here in the building.
And we can get an assessment of that.
Um, when we talk about our fleet of vehicles,
um, fleet of vehicles, just
that people drive throughout the day, people
that vehicles that people drive home.
How many are we talking there?
Are we talking 5,000 in the fleet
And our entire fleet?
For the city of Chicago, it's about 14,000 pieces of, uh,
equipment and vehicles.
And when we talk about vehicles, just your standard sedan,
um, whether that be electric or, or,
or, um, gas fueled, how many standard
vehicles are we talking not not equipped
for this task or that task?
So light duty vehicles, we have about
5,000 light duty vehicles.
Out of that 14,000, majority of that 14,000
are city owned equipment.
So 10,000, 10,000 ish are city owned
and then leased and then rented.
We should be looking, and I know again,
this isn't your field, but with 14,000 vehicles,
we should be looking at the possible sale of some
of those vehicles or just saying, you know,
wouldn't it be great everybody that worked
for the city at a certain job, a take home vehicle.
But when a $300 million property tax increases on the
table, or 150 million property, whatever it is,
I think we should be looking at not having so many vehicles
that we have to maintain fuel
store, uh, take on the liability for.
Um, I think it's safe to say we've,
we've got more vehicles in our
fleet today than we ever have.
Would that be a safe
It would be fair. Markis, deputy Commissioner
of fleet operations, uh, I would say it's a fair statement.
We've been kinda stagnant at the, uh, 10,000 pieces
of owned equipment
And, and obviously selling them is one thing,
but slow down our plans
to purchase vehicles.
Um, and I know to some, you know,
the environmental component of electric is great.
We need to do a little bit more belt tightening.
Um, so I, I just wanna throw that out there.
Um, in closing, uh, Julie,
really appreciate working with you.
Um, long
before I was alderman, you were a problem solver in, uh,
in water management
and I've always enjoyed working with you.
Um, appreciate your service, appreciate your staff.
Um, but I would like to talk
to somebody about possibly maybe doing a, a field trip
to visit out to daily.
Try to identify if we could do more there
as a feeder program because we have
such a shortage of mechanics.
Thanks, chairman. Thanks Julie.
Thank you. Thank you Chairman.
osha, uh, we have, uh, alderman morph of Alderman Quinn.
Thank
You, um, chairman and good morning.
Um, commissioner Tomlin, first of all, lemme just start
by saying, uh, I appreciate you for being, uh, proactive,
not just when we about to do budget
as some commissioners do, reach out to you just
before budget, um,
but throughout the year just to see if, um,
anything is needed or any questions that you can ask.
And I appreciate you so much for doing that.
Um, and uh, and I thank you for your team,
especially the guys in two fm.
I gotta get 'em a big, um, what, what should I say?
The guys that's, you know, do, um,
help us here in city hall, um, come to our events to set up,
um, microphone speakers and all that.
Those guys are, uh, just so professional
and exceptional in what they do.
Sometimes they don't get a lot of, uh, you know,
the credit, uh, for what they do.
'cause they gotta deal with some of the attitudes that,
you know, sometimes the elected official
or the mayor has to deal with as they're setting up
and everything and making sure that things flow well.
And so they make all of us look good.
And I just want to give a shout out, um, um,
to those guys not only in this booth,
but throughout the city that, um, does that work.
Um, um, co couple of things that I've, um,
that I'm noticing now, um, talking,
getting into additional numbers if we need to,
is your intentionality, uh, um, equity.
You, you make it attentional not only in your staff,
but, um, appreciate what you've done.
Um, and, and on the contracting
side and, and where you're going.
And as I look at, um, the book that, that was put together,
um, by a budget department comparing, um,
and you may not have it,
I'll just show you the picture of it.
He may have it up there with him.
Um, uh, the Department of Affairs hearing documents, um,
the, uh, oh, you close, um, from 2022 to 2024
and looking at, um, your numbers, that's, that's, uh, um,
I think we're on track from 1 1 24
to 7 31 24, 61, uh,
0.5 million in, um, African American spend compared
to 81 for the whole year.
I guess my question is, are we on track
and based on the numbers that I'm looking at,
but I then I don't know what the contracts are out there
that have not been, um, been finalized yet.
Are we on track
and if so, probably by what percentage to, um, um,
beat that 81,000,023 since we're already at
61,000,024.
And, and are we on, um, track to do that
or, um, based on what's out there now
and what, what, we only got a little,
we only got December left, but these numbers through 7 31.
So what's not reflected in this budget?
I guess my question is, where are we at on that?
Do you think we're gonna exceed, um, 23 numbers?
So first of all, can I please comment on our, um,
two FM staff?
Mm-Hmm. I've been fortunate in just the nine
months that I've been here.
Um, the staff is amazing.
I've been truly blessed to be surrounded by such, um,
wonderful human beings.
Their, their people with such knowledge
and, um, just grace
that they have shown me in just these few nine months.
Um, and especially the electricians for acknowledging them.
Thank you so much. Because they work really hard
to make sure that everything is going very smooth
for everyone and they're behind the scenes.
And one thing I told Mayor Johnson was,
I was gonna put two FM on the map.
Everyone was going to know what two FM did
after I'm done with it.
Thank you. So thank you for acknowledging that.
And second, um, yes, we are on track to spend more
with minority women owned businesses.
A lot of our primary contracts that we use,
especially in fleet repairs,
facility repairs are minority owned.
They're primes, right?
And, but I wanna focus on the black MBE span.
That's at 81 and that was at 81 for the whole year. 22.
And, and, and it seems like it's on track.
I'm just asking the question.
Do, uh, do based on the fact
that we are already in December now,
do we do the finance people know based on
what we've spent since July 31st?
Have we exceeded that already?
Or if, uh, we are going to exceed it?
And if so, estimated about by how much?
If you don't have that answer now,
you can provide it through the chair.
I don't have the exact answer,
but I can tell you without talking to finance that, um,
we will surpass that number.
Okay. Alright.
But if, if, if you can just provide
through the chair just about, so I'll know
that what we're looking at.
Absolutely. Before we get to next year,
the other question I have has to, uh, do around,
um, the facilities.
Um, I'm looking at here, uh,
478 facilities including 400, 4 26 owned
and 52 leased.
Can you tell me, or somebody tell me, based on
cost versus leasing, are,
are we saving if we lease
or are we saving more if we own it?
So that is, uh, one thing that I have been, um,
looking at in the short time that I've been here
and we're not through yet.
So we're looking at all of our leases right now,
and we do have, um, a company that we use
to help us do that analysis.
We don't do it in house.
Uh, we have to outsource that
because there's a lot of factors that go into
that particular answer to that question.
Uh, where are we saving money?
Um, so we are looking at our leases.
We are looking at what we own.
We're looking at, um, places that we lease out,
where we are the landlord
and the revenue that we're getting.
It's not, it's, it's not that much revenue.
I think it's maybe $700,000 a year that we get, um,
as a city, as a landlord.
So we're looking at all that alderman.
It's, it's not an easy answer to say, yes, it is cheaper
to lease or no, it's not.
It, we go through a whole analysis. Um,
And I got And when do we determine that?
When do we expect that analysis to be done?
Since, uh, well we look what timeframe we're looking at.
Well, it's actually by property.
So we would have to do one for each property.
So for example, a lot of us are in two North right now.
Um, we would have to do analysis on
buying versus leasing.
What that cost difference look looks like, what
that savings looks like.
It may take a week, it may take two
weeks, it may take a month.
But that is something that I wanna do.
Okay. And then as it relates to the police, um, vehicles,
um, what's the total number of vehicles
that we have in the police fleet?
We have about 3,300 police vehicles in our fleet.
And of the, of, of that number,
how many are down right now?
I am going to turn that question over to Mark Pulis
because he knew you were going to answer, ask
that question right here.
Alder. How you doing? Mark Pulis?
Uh, deputy March Pulis,
deputy Commissioner, fleet Operations?
Well, alderman, uh, we have out of our, uh,
frontline vehicles, our, uh,
we have two, two hundred and sixty eight that are down today
out that 181 of those are for some sort of body damage
or accident repairs.
So we are looking at about a 90% availability
for the police department.
Okay. And, and in terms of what the police
need, are we at that number?
I I, I don't know if I even asked CPD that question in terms
of what they need.
And I'm talking about, especially as it relates to,
um, squad cars.
Let me be specific 'cause we got a lot of other vehicles,
but let me be specific, specific to squad cars
and in terms of their need, uh, has the superintendent
or who's ever in charge over there saying, Hey, are,
are we at our number that we need
or are we behind on that number?
So I can overall say that, um, we communicate
with CPD again weekly, if not more than
during the week, uh, more than a couple days a week.
Um, as far
as I know they have had the most vehicles
they've had in their fleet.
Okay. In a long time.
Um, mark, do you want to add anything to that or,
Um, yeah, we have increased, uh, our number
with the police vehicles.
We've been on a replacement plan
and getting them at least 200 plus new
police vehicles a year.
Uh, so we are, we've increased our number for 2024
by 340 units.
Um, we are in constant conversations with OPSA
and members of CPD to find out exactly
what they need, where we're at,
And do we ever keep any, if this makes sense,
reserve vehicles so that when we get down Right.
I know it's not gonna be 2 68
'cause you never know between accidents,
other things happening.
Um, do we ke do, do we ever have a reserve number
that they call over and say, Hey,
and I had another vehicle gone down.
Can you send me something over?
We are work, we are working
to build our pool vehicle reserve.
Mm-Hmm. Uh, that number over the
years has dropped a little bit.
Okay. But with the influx of vehicles
that we're getting now, we're slowly building up
that pool at, at our locations.
Alright. Thank you so much.
And thank you for answering the questions directly and,
and not blowing no smoke.
I truly appreciate that
and thanks for the hard work that, um, you all doing.
And I appreciate you so much, commissioner.
Thank you Alderman. Uh, any others for questions?
I have Alderman Quinn, uh, Altman
Moore. Because before,
before you said
before I was done, they cut my mic off.
So we, we gonna you gonna take some points off of that?
All right. I have Alderman Quinn next.
Uh, we also have who else? Uh, alderman Rodriguez.
Any others? Uh, wags. Okay. Gotcha. Alderman Coy.
Thank you Mr. Chair. Um, good morning Commissioner.
Good morning. Um, I wanted to pick up
where Alderman OSHA sort of left off specific to mechanics.
Um, how many mechanics are you short?
I do have that if you just gimme one second.
So right now we're down 10
electrical mechanic automotives.
17 machinists automotive.
We have two different types of mechanics.
One electrical, one machinists.
So like I said,
the electrical mechanic automotive were down 10
and the machinist automotive were down 17.
17 machinists. So, so the machinist would be responsible
for fixing the snowplows?
I defer that question to Mark Pulis, please.
Yes. Uh, it would be a combination of both.
Most of the mechanical repairs
that are done on the snow plows are done
by the machinist automotive.
Okay. That's what I that's what I thought.
I, I raised the question.
'cause Commissioner Staller went out of his way to
express a lot of gratitude to the good work that you do, uh,
on, uh, on behalf of the, uh, streets and sanitation.
Um, specific question related to the current freeze, does
that have an adverse impact on the freeze on job and hiring?
Does that have an adverse impact on putting more
machinists on the job?
And should this council be looking to, if it does,
should we be looking to lift the,
the freeze specific to mechanics?
That would be lovely if you could. Okay.
However, however we are in process, um, to be clear, uh,
we are in process of hiring mechanics right now
because we started the process before the freeze.
So it is not affected by
The, just to be, just to be clear Mm-Hmm.
Under the, the hiring freeze today.
The mechanics are covered under that
and we ought to, we ought to reconsider that position
because we're gonna be getting into the snow season.
Um, is, is overtime adversely impacted on mechanics
because of the freeze?
Absolutely not because of the freeze,
excuse me, I'm sorry.
Because of our vacancies. Yes. And
Help me understand that a little bit more. So I,
I I interrupted you so I apologize.
So the No, go ahead. Um, I guess my,
my question specifically is related to the hiring freeze
and you,
you answered one question about the mechanics
being part of that Mm-Hmm.
Um, and then the follow up question is relative to overtime
with the mechanics, is the,
is the freeze impacting overtime adversely?
So let me correct my statement please.
The hiring freeze has not affected our hiring process
for the automotive mechanics
because the process started, we were in the middle
of the hiring process before the freeze actually took place.
Okay. So the budget office allowed us to continue
with that hiring process.
Okay. And, uh, uh, uh, go ahead.
No, that's it. Okay. Um,
and about how many mechanics are you planning on onboarding
under the current process?
Um, I'm going to defer that question to Margaret Rizzo,
my deputy commissioner over hr.
I believe it's eight.
If you can identify yourself please.
Good morning. Thank you for that question.
Um, for your information, Alman, presently we have a total
of 186 machinist automotive budgeted positions
as Commissioner Hernandez Thomas shared with you.
We have currently 17 vacancies.
We are in the process of bringing on approximately
by December 13th an additional four positions.
We've already hired eight this current, uh, fiscal year.
So we'll have a total of 12 hired this year.
And a natural follow up is
how many are gonna retire this year?
That I wouldn't know
How many, many are retirement eligible
That I wouldn't know either. So
There's a blind spot there.
Yeah. And what, what I'm, what I'm getting towards, just
based on, on the commission commissioner sanitation
kind remarks is that there's pressure points coming.
And as a council, we ought to be cognizant of that
to make sure that you're well equipped.
And if there's something
that you think this council could do, um, relative to,
um, lifting a freeze
or making sure that overtime's available to get you
through this potential hurdle, we,
you know, we stand ready to do it.
Uh, 'cause I think it's inevitable. Snow is coming.
It's here Right, right now in the present.
Um, so I, I guess I would ask, is there,
is there something you think we could do as a council
to help assist in,
in these pressure points that are inevitable?
One thing possibly is, since it's a hard to fill position,
um, maybe get the word out to your constituents,
your schools, your high schools.
Um, we would gladly come out there and, and,
and do award night for you if you'd like, um,
to talk about the job, um, to the youth
and the young adults.
Um, I would also like to talk to the budget office
and to DHR about possibly having a year
round posting for our automotive mechanics,
whether it's electrical, mechanic and machinists.
Uh, both of them I would presume I would like
maybe a year round posting Yeah.
Where we can just keep filling
and automatic refills as someone retires,
where we don't have to go
through the entire process every time.
Yeah, that's an idea. Um,
Back to Commissioner Stoller's testimony yesterday on, on
a similar question I asked him about laborers
and they developed this unique program
with CPS and laborers.
So maybe something that you wanna model
after with, uh, with like the machinist union.
Um, because I believe they were able to onboard
55 new laborers.
And from the sounds of it, it, it,
it happened pretty quickly.
And that's sort of where we're at today is,
is doing this in a, in an expedient manner.
Um, okay. Yes.
In fact, Go
Ahead. Can I, um, add
to that please, alderman?
Um, so we were working with local 1 26, the Machinist Union
and, um,
and Illinois Department of Labor.
Um, and only my few months there
and those talks stalled unfortunately
because my labor relations person, um, retired.
So, um, I didn't have anyone to fill in for that.
So we are gonna continue those talks with local 1 26
and talk about an apprenticeship program, um, along
with the Illinois Department of Labor,
Um, relative to publicity.
Um, the 13th ward is, is home to scores
of city workers, union workers.
So, uh, to the extent I could be helpful in advertisement,
certainly, um, stand ready to do that.
That'd be great. Thank you. Um, one,
just switching gears a little bit, um,
you mentioned in your remarks
that there's 40, 41 new
units for Chicago Fire Department.
Um, what are these units specifically?
I'll defer that to Mark Pulis.
Yeah. These 41 units that we have are, uh, vehicles
that the 41 units that we have, uh, listed are an order
and they're gonna be consisting of,
um, what do I have here?
11 engines, two towers, um,
eight ladder trucks, two squad units,
and four hazardous material trucks.
And, uh, additional 24 ambulances.
Those will be, those are on order, uh, pending delivery.
Did, did you say Mark,
did you say additional 24 ambulances? Yes.
Okay. Yes. 24 ambulances. And,
You know, a about just generally speaking, how old is our,
our fire department fleet?
And, and I recognize
and appreciate that COVID had, has, has an impact on that.
Sure. Um, the average age of a pumper,
we currently have 113 of them.
Uh, average age is around 16 years.
Our, uh, tower ladders are an average of 11 years.
The ladder trucks that you see, we have 77 of them,
they're roughly around 15 years average age.
Um, when it comes down to ambulances, we have gotten
a good amount of ambulances in, so we're at 131 ambulances,
and that's including the frontline, the spares,
and the surge ambulances that CFD uses.
Um, they're all sitting at an average age
of less than five years. Okay.
So our, our CFD fleet is in, is sort of in the teens.
Is that, is that, how would you categorize that?
Is that considered old or
It, it's, it's around average.
Okay. Uh, NF NFPA recommendations, uh,
recommend average life to be around 15 years.
Okay. For like a tower truck
or a ladder, uh, equivalent age for a pumper.
So we are still, we're still right at the borderline for,
uh, age of the equipment, uh, according
to NFPA regulations. Okay.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And your team appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you, honor Quinn, uh, alderman, uh,
Rodriguez follow bottom and Walker speck.
Thank you Mr. Chair. Commissioner, it's always a pleasure.
Um, thank you. You've been a steadfast government, uh,
leader for a long time,
and so glad to have you in this position.
Thank you. Um, I did have a couple questions regarding, um,
the fleet electrification, the, uh,
changing environments, broadly speaking environments.
Um, I know that there were, there's been a, a, a, a mass
increase in the number of hybrid
and electric, uh, fleet, um, purchases.
I'm just wondering relative to the whole fleet,
where are we at, um, as a percentage of vehicles
that are now electrified, either hybrid
or, um, how are we doing moving in that route?
So right now, alderman, we have 236
electric vehicles that we've acquired since 2022.
Um, as far as a plan moving forward, um,
we're looking at the infrastructure that we have to support
those electric vehicles.
So right now we're working on installing additional
charging stations throughout the city.
So relative to the entire fee,
what would you say the percentages of,
of these new, I mean, where are we at?
5%, 25%, you know, where are we at like that?
236 electric vehicles out of how many?
14,000. Okay.
You're including large equipment if you're
including the entire fleet.
Mm-Hmm. We have about 14,000 pieces
of equipment and vehicles,
But I'd also think that these
electric vehicles are in spaces where you,
there are electric vehicles.
I'm assuming there's a ton of, um, units of equipment that
don't necessarily have that option, is my assumption.
Yes. So they're more light duty vehicles.
However, the electric vehicles I'm speaking of,
they're more light duty vehicles.
Um, and we did just order, um, is it a sweeper
for streets and sand and, um, three,
Three fully electric garbage Trucks.
Oh, they're not garbage refuse trucks.
Um, fully electric that are coming in in 2025.
And we're gonna test that out. See how that goes.
Didn't you say sweepers that are electric?
One sweeper. One plugin sweeper.
So there, the pelican that you see on the street right now
that Streets and Sanitation uses, uh,
they have a plugin hybrid unit.
Uh, so we are, we have one of those on order.
Expected delivery is supposed to be late first quarter
of 2025.
Uh, we're gonna be getting that.
We're gonna see how that'll work for us.
Um, it's a new area using something that large
and, you know, on a hybrid platform.
Uh, so we definitely are very interested in it.
Uh, we got to C one, it seemed, it was very exciting
to see it was, it was a good piece of equipment.
So hopefully getting that in soon,
I am definitely gonna come back next year
and see how that goes and see if we're on pace to
replace our fleet with, with with, with these items,
especially if they're, uh, effective.
Yes. And talk about cost savings.
I mean, not just in, you know, the urban heat, um,
environment, but in real dollar savings on gas.
Um, you wanna take my time, Mr. Commissioner?
No, hold on. I, I just had a question
'cause I, what was, didn't, uh, what was the cost of
that versus a traditional, uh, sweeper
Ag?
Can I get defer to Kevin Campbell? Sure,
Sure. Uh, in the
box, Kevin? Yes.
Kevin Campbell, director
of Maintenance Operations for Fleet.
Uh, the additional cost for the hybrid system is
around $250,000.
However, we are using a grant fund, uh,
to cover a majority of that.
Uh, we do typically expect the hybrid units,
the return on investment, especially with, say,
a high mileage unit like a hybrid police vehicle will get
the cost, uh, difference back in two to three years.
So anything after that would be additional savings.
And what, what is that cost on,
on the competitive, what we've been using? Right.
So for a police vehicle, we're paying $3,314
for the hybrid system, and we're saving over
$2,000 a year in fuel.
So we're getting that money back in less than two years.
Well, you just said you purchased the vehicle at 250,000.
50, so that would be the street sweeper,
which is a much larger electrical system
Hybrid. And how much is,
how much would that unit be on, on,
on a non-electric, non-hybrid?
So that unit is almost twice as much
as the diesel equivalent. Okay.
So about 125 grand on a diesel equivalent.
Correct. And you say the return you expect
on maintenance and operations to get
that back in two years?
We have gotten it back on the police vehicles.
We're hoping for a similar return on the heavy duty,
but we'll have to see how it actually plays out.
Okay. And this is be, this will be the first, uh,
sweeper we u utilize in that respect?
That's correct. Okay.
No, this is a big deal. And man, it's 2024.
The, we know that the big rigs
and big vehicles, the, the, the, the supply that, that,
the market isn't there yet.
Right. But it's developing.
Um, one of the things that, that my staff
and I had been talking about is in these newer industries,
uh, look, I'm chair of the Workforce Development Committee.
Uh, I'm curious if we have mandates on the workforce
of these, um, of these entities as well.
I mean, are, are these organized groups?
Do, is there any way that we know how they deal with, with,
with paying their, their staff in this emerging industry?
I have No, I'm sorry, alderman. I, I don't know.
Kevin, do you have any idea? Do you have any idea,
Uh, in terms of technicians?
Uh, one of the benefits of electrification, uh,
Kevin Campbell, director of Maintenance operations, is
that the maintenance costs are significantly lower.
Uh, however, as you mentioned,
the the skill level is higher.
So we do need to, you know,
anticipate that with our workforce.
One of the items the commissioner mentioned is
the electrical mechanics.
I think as time goes on, we're gonna rely more
and more on electrical mechanics as opposed
to machinists to maintain our fleet.
And my staff had a specific question, so I'll just read it
and it'll be a true through the chair request.
Um, so you all spend a significant amount on a budget on
vehicles and electric vehicles.
Can you, uh, well, um, can we get a list
of those EV manufacturers, um,
maybe for the last couple of years,
who those manufacturers are?
We just wanna do our own research
and learn who these folks are and, and,
and maybe our own kind of deep dive in the, their practices
and how many of them are union or not.
Um, it's something we wanna look at.
Um, we think that, um, the best practice
is going green,
but at the same time, we also wanna make sure
that our labor force is also not losing in this process.
That we're retraining our labor force to be able
to fit into this new environment that's, uh, upon us.
And, um, I am all for this movement,
but we've gotta look at some
of the unintended consequences in well as well, uh,
to make sure that everyone's, uh,
gaining as we move forward.
So that's all I have.
Thank You. Thank you.
Thank you, Altman. This, this three sweep of question.
Uh, yesterday, uh,
commissioner Stallard talked about the need for the sweepers
to come in for a full overhaul, uh, on a,
pretty much on an annual basis.
Uh, is that, will that same requirement exists
with this new, uh, sweeper?
Yes, that will be needed.
Uh, sweepers need to go through a major PM process
where they basically go through all the hy hydraulic, uh,
lines, pump motors, uh, brooms assemblies, everything
that have to have to go through a regular,
uh, maintenance cycle. So, yes.
And what, uh, what does that cost?
What does that annual cost for the overhaul,
um, per se?
And I'm trying to understand from a cost perspective
where the savings is going to come
from getting this hybrid machine if we're still
gonna have to go through this, uh,
laborious process on an annual basis.
Do we think that that's strictly gonna come from fuel?
Yeah, it still has, it still has to be determined. Okay.
Most of the, most
of the major components on there still will need to go
through a major, uh, PM cycle.
And have you all quantified the cost
of the annual overhaul roughly on, you know, between time,
time and materials on a sweeper? Generally,
Yes.
Pardon me? Yes.
And what, what is that approximately?
Uh, a major overhaul on a sweeper is anywhere between 25
to $35,000.
And and that's per sweeper per year?
Per sweeper Per year. First, every other year.
Every other year. Okay. Just keep in
mind, we have a hundred sweepers.
We, we try to do about 50 of 'em a year.
We do a complete major on
Okay. No. Okay.
Cycle. Yeah.
And because I I I, I do recall that it's a very,
you know, intense machine.
Um, but I'm, I'm just, I,
I understand the desire to move to a hybrid
or fully electrified, electrified fleet.
Um, I'm just questioning the cost benefit of doing such.
If you're gonna still, I could see if we were like losing
cost and maintenance, but it seems like
we're gonna have the same maintenance cost.
And this, this is really based toward a fuel cost.
And I don't know what it cost to run a diesel on a sweeper.
I don't know what that is, but it seems like a,
a high market to hit.
And you're saying in two to three years, you're,
you guys think you're gonna hit that mark?
It is a high cost. We're hoping
to see those savings very soon.
Okay. Uh, I, I think
what you were speaking to is the police vehicles and,
and not this larger type of equipment,
but we do know that over time
these alternative vehicle costs are actually decreasing
as technology keeps on getting better.
So I think it does make very strategic sense
to take this approach, get this one sweeper at a bit higher
cost to see how it works.
And as that price goes down over the years,
which I assume it will, given our economy,
that then we have an advanced start on that technology
and our understanding of its performance.
And then we're able to dig deeper
and maybe get some efficiency costs in
purchasing a hundred of those units.
And then that per, uh,
vehicle cost then comes down even more.
I think that's probably accurate right away.
You're looking at this. That is
Correct. Thank, yeah.
You, you are correct, sir.
Sure. And, and you can hire me onto your team,
uh, this endeavor.
Anytime. One other thing that I totally forgot, forgive me.
Um, uh, and maybe since I'm, my time is going short
and I wanna respect, uh, our ability to get to lunch.
Um, I just wanted to talk to somebody
and who would it be around our garbage trucks
and their hydraulic systems failures?
'cause that seems to happen in my ward
significant amount of times.
And we get nastiness in our alleys,
and I get those calls whenever that happens.
And people are really p****d when that happens.
So who can I talk to about, pardon?
The garbage juice? Yes, the garbage juice. Juice. Yes.
How are we doing with garbage juice in those trucks?
Stop. So, um, as soon
as we are aware that that's happening to a garbage truck,
it's brought into our shop
and we repair it as quickly as we can.
Um, do you wanna give the, it's, um, the, so plug, sorry,
I'm learning more about garbage.
The plug. Yeah. He mentioned plug yesterday.
Yes. So there's a couple different,
couple different reasons why they leak the hopper juice
or garbage juice.
Um, one is the plug that, uh,
commissioner Stallard mentioned yesterday.
Uh, it's a common wear item.
It, you know, that they do, they do wear out and leak.
They get torn with the garbage going in there.
Another one is the, um, hopper seal, the tailgate seal.
So when the tailgate opens up, there's a seal
around the back that gets debris, uh, in it
and that, that rips.
So once we're aware of it, we can go out
and repair those items.
Um, hopper seals
and the rear tailgate seals.
If we're notified, we may be able to do 'em out in the field
with our road service crews.
If not, we try to look for 'em
and repair 'em when they come in for the PM process.
If they come in for a specific leak saying
that I got a leaky hopper, we will take that truck
and we will get that in and get that repaired. I'll,
I'll follow up my word soup on
who our contact is here to, to, yes.
To get that direct line. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Um, alderman Beck.
Thanks chairman. And, uh,
good afternoon commissioner and all your staff.
Uh, good afternoon. Good.
I just have some follow up questions
because I think you just answered one.
We can take that one off.
Um, our, on the new ambulance, uh,
purchases, are those all a LS Is that what we moved
to now they're all outfitted as, um, a LS versus the basic
Mark?
Uh, yes. They are all a LS ambulances.
Okay. Um, in terms of, uh,
leasing with a lot of our city vehicles, what percentage
of the VE vehicles that we have are for, uh,
have out-of-state leases,
where I see a plate on a one of our vehicles
that says Ohio or
Those unit, those units would most likely
be a rental unit.
Uh, when we lease the vehicle, it's, uh, titled
and plated here in sh uh, state of Illinois.
So it could be a rental that Most likely a rental unit.
And when we do a rental like that, how often are we,
what percentage of the lead is rental
and are those long term
or are those sort of short term where we need, you know,
a quick, uh, turnaround?
The rentals are mostly our larger equipment for
the water department, um, aviation.
And that's the smallest amount of our fleet. Right.
The heavy duty equipment are make up most of our rentals.
Okay. Um, when we look at,
uh, take home vehicles for city employees, uh,
what percentage of the fleet is take home vehicles
and do we have a rough breakdown?
Like what are the agencies that have most
of the take home vehicle break?
Um, percentage.
There's actually only about 150, um, out there right now,
alderman that are take home vehicles, uh, citywide.
And that's less than we had last year.
I'm having trouble finding my page,
but I believe we're like 20 down from last year
with the take home vehicles.
Um, I don't have the percentage,
but like I said, it's about, I'm sorry.
That's all right. Quoted 176 take home vehicles.
Compared to last year,
we were at almost 200 take home vehicles.
Okay. You, you don't have to get the, uh,
department, I think imagine most
of those are emergency related OEMC police fire.
Yes. They're, uh, departments that are 24 7 public safety.
Okay. And it's actually a much lower number than I
thought, so That's fine.
Yes. Um, what's the oldest
contract that you have in the department,
and do you have any that are, say, more than five years old
that you haven't rebid yet?
That I would have to get you through the chair Alderman.
Um, I do have authority as two FM Commissioner
to enter into certain contracts.
Um, I can get you that list as well.
I believe I only have three.
Okay. Yeah, I was kind of looking through 'em
and I, I did see a lot of new ones.
A lot of 'em are for, um, you know, the larger amounts seem
to be for the different zones where you would be doing
general construction or general contracting.
And the, is it five different zones?
There are five zones.
Uh, you're probably speaking of our jock contracts. Yep.
Yes. Those are brand new.
Those were just awarded this year, 2024.
Right. So they're, they're all new.
Um, if you have any that are older than five years,
if you could, whatever you have
through the chair, that'd be helpful.
Um, and then I think finally, um,
you know, we had the solar contract with, uh,
constellation a few years ago.
And you have talked about, uh, some of the different things
that you've done, um, to libraries that were getting solar
Energy installations.
Um, you know, there was talk
of the renewable energy credits,
and I know a lot of that was coming
through the Chicago Recovery Plan,
but can you just generally give us a sense of how far along,
uh, you are in switching over to Clean Energy with our, all
of our facilities and, um, if we're keeping pace with
what we think is, um, appropriate for switching over
to, um, clean energy in our buildings?
So for our energy savings, um,
we do a voluntary demand response where we, um,
could get incentives, um, increase, especially
for the water department
and for aviation who are biggest spenders, um,
there in energy costs.
Um, we're always looking at our gas
and diesel prices, um, for the future.
We have an, an energy manager who, uh, they're called Amco.
They look at hedging our fuel for the future
so we can lock in prices, fixed prices, um, we apply
for utility rebates, uh,
the a hundred percent renewable energy.
Um, we work with Department of Environment.
Um, my project manager, David Powell,
was just at Double Black Diamond out in
Waverly, Illinois the other day.
Um, if you want more information on that, I can have him
speak about that since he visited it.
Would you like more info? Sure,
Yeah. I got a couple minutes up
there. Okay.
David Powell, can you give a overview
of Double Black Diamond for Alderman Waga Pack, please?
Yes. Uh, David Powell, project manager, uh,
on Monday we visited Double Black Diamond, the, uh,
solar farm installation located in a Waverly, uh, along
with, uh, department of Environment.
And, um, uh, it was, uh, quite, uh,
quite a, quite a sight.
Pretty astounding, um, uh, I think it was eight miles across
and one mile wide, over a million solar panels.
Um, the, the city will be, uh, 100% renewable energy, uh,
effective January 1st, 2025.
Uh, so 70, 70% of our largest, uh, energy users, like
as the Commissioner said, uh, airports
and water are the biggest ones.
Um, and, uh, those are gonna be offset
by this, the solar farm.
And then 30% of our remaining, uh,
electrical energy use is gonna be, uh, uh,
renewable energy credits.
And, um, I don't know if you want to answer this.
So I remember AM
or sco, uh, a few years ago changed the light bulbs
and, you know, the thermostats in most of our buildings.
I'm sure they're doing a lot more than when we did then,
but have we, um, I know we're gonna save a ton of money
with double Black Diamond and moving that whole facility
or moving into that facility with, uh, our energy needs.
But, um,
what is Amco still providing for us
through their contract or continuing contract?
Amco provides, uh, utility bill validations.
So they, they look at, um, uh,
all the bills that we receive.
Um, they make sure that it's at the, uh, correct rate class,
uh, that's, that have all the correct surcharges, uh,
before that is submitted to two FM for payment.
Um, they also perform
as the commissioner stated, our fuel hedging.
So they look at our hedging for electricity,
for natural gas,
and as well as, uh, fuel supply for our vehicles.
Um, so they, uh, perform, uh, market analysis.
They look at rates, they look at trends, they look at, uh,
uh, things that are happening in the world.
Um, and then they, uh,
provide recommendations looking at prices and,
and when we, uh, should hedge,
and then they provide that, uh,
those recommendations to the commissioner.
Great. And are, are they partnering
with any other companies here in the city
that are offering us any other incentives
or, um, you know, like through perhaps come Ed
and what they offer?
Um, are we missing out on anything
that we we could jump into?
Or are we kind of capturing every available incentive
and opportunity?
Like, you know, you know, going out to, uh,
is it Sangamon County?
Okay.
Yeah. So too Far for you, but go ahead.
I'm sorry. Uh, yeah, so, um, uh,
SCO doesn't make us aware of opportunities.
The city, uh, we do go after, uh, utility rebates.
Um, you know, there was some discussion about, you know,
fleet electrification.
Um, we did go after those incentives through coed.
They have a make ready program.
They have incentives for electric vehicles and for chargers.
Um, so we, we did submit applications for, uh, some,
some of those purchases.
And, uh, as of right now,
we have a little over a million dollars in incentives
that we are, are collecting from those
electric vehicles and chargers.
And, um, I'd be happy to pass along any information that,
that, that you'd like about that.
Uh, no, that sounds good.
Um, I appreciate your work on it
and, uh, hope you can continue to, you know, keep those
projects going now and into the future.
So thank you very much. And thank you,
commissioner. Thank you Chairman. Thank you.
Thank OT. August, but, uh, Ottman man. Hopper.
Thank you, chair. Hi Commissioner. Hello.
Thank you for being here and to your team in the box.
Uh, we haven't had a chance to, to chat,
but I, I wanted to thank you for your work in the 48th ward
and also, uh, with our police departments.
The 24th police department has a beautiful new, um,
community area.
Um, and we're excited to, to get more people out
and enjoying that space.
Um, so you, your department does not take care
of park facilities,
but you take care of libraries, is that right?
Correct. Okay. We have two.
We have Edgewater and we have Basian.
Basian is in uptown, and it's beloved by the community.
Our schools use it
because they don't have a proper library themself, you know?
Um, and it's also a place
where people are probably using today
when the weather is very bad.
Um, it's also, you know, I think about it, um,
especially now
because I'm happy to see that you're working with CDPH
to convert facilities into health centers.
And I hope we can have conversations, uh, more about
how we could possibly co-locate some of our services,
like libraries and health facilities in the future.
But I, you know, bian is, is, um, again, well loved,
but it, it can't support, um, solar right now
because it's, it's over a hundred years old.
Um, the librarian does all that she can, she's got a hammer
in her back pocket every day trying to get the HVAC to work.
So I just wanted to, um, I just wanna understand like,
how do you prioritize the maintenance of our libraries,
not just in the Edgewater, but all over the city. So
It does come down to budget alderman.
Um, and also our main priority is of course,
warm, safe, and dry.
That's, um, that's two FM's priority for all
of our city facilities.
Um, if there is major work that is beyond our trades, um,
scope, we will go out
and assess, um, possibly get, um, a, you know, a scope
for you to see what needs to be fixed, um,
and then come back with a price.
Um, so it's really a matter of, um,
and then of course, emergency repairs.
If something, God forbid, breaks down a boiler, um, hvac,
you know, we will go out there, we will repair it.
But again, if it's beyond the trade scope,
that's something we would have to contract out.
Um, but if you have a specific complaint about your library,
please just let us know and we'll be glad to come out there
and see what's going on with that.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Um, I wanted to again, just say that, you know,
our library is a safe haven for so many in the uptown area,
so I appreciate your attention.
Um, I wanted to say thank you
for all your work on sustainability.
I'm very excited to, to know more about, um,
your electrification of your fleet.
Um, uh, a lot of my neighbors, they wanna know how, um,
the city is providing infrastructure to, in, you know,
entice more people to do the same.
Um, and I hope that we can have conversations about
how we're, um, providing infrastructure in our wards so
that people are, um, inspired to also go electric.
Um, and hopefully we'll have more
conversations on that later too.
Yes, absolutely. We can.
Um, I wanted to ask about the
323% increase in your students
as trainees program,
because I'm very happy to see that you are investing
in, um, bringing young people into your work.
Can you speak more on that?
Sure. Alderman. One second, please.
I'm gonna defer that question to Margaret Rizzo,
deputy Commissioner for our, um, human Resources.
Can you speak about the interns
that we hired this year, please?
Absolutely. Good morning.
Um, Margaret Rizzo, deputy Commissioner of Human Resources.
Um, this year we had seven interns, um, student interns
who were high school and college level
that participated throughout our various bureaus in our
department to get work, um, knowledge.
So we had quite a few with our fleet administration.
We had some work with our asset management
and some work with our Archite architecture
and engineering section Of the seven, six
of them were funded by our, a third party sources
and one was actually hired by our department,
and they worked from July 1st
through the middle of September.
The increase that you see in our budget has been raised
as a result of us putting in from to hire two
year round student interns to work within our department.
Once we hire them next year, based on their,
in the knowledge that they have
or the degrees that they're choosing to pursue,
we will then determine will they'll be placed.
Thank you. Can you tell me just a little bit more about
how you, um, recruit your interns?
'cause that sounds great. You have seven
and one of them was hired full-time, is that right?
Correct. Um, one, um, student was brought on through the
Environmental Defense Fund that came through,
that was partnership with Department of Environment
and Department of cdot.
And they did a, um, fellowship application and was accepted.
And so they were working on the
electrification of our fleet.
So they were assigned to that division under Kevin Campbell.
Uh, we had two student interns that moved
through the partnership with the Chicago Public School
System that was hired, that worked
with our environmental health and safety program.
And they worked, um, closely with Deputy Commissioner Kim,
Kimberly Wellington, on various projects throughout,
throughout her, uh, bureau.
And we had, um, one student that came
through our one summer Chicago program
and was sponsored through the alternate
school network system.
And they worked part-time.
They worked, uh, two different sections.
They worked for HR for a short period of time,
and they were involved in our training section
where they went out
and actually, uh, participated in our job fair, um,
job fairs, and also worked in our graphic section.
'cause they have a lot of experience and knowledge.
They wanted to be into the artistic end. Creative end.
So they had the opportunity to work under, um,
Joel Mall from our department.
Um, the final one that we're, uh, we're having,
I included the two auto tech programs, um,
shadowing students that are in partnership
with Kennedy King's, um, college program.
And they are presently gonna be work shadowing
anywhere from 15 to 28 hours a week within our various
garages and the fleet to get experience
and see the knowledge that's needed
to become a automotive mechanic
or electrical mechanic automotive.
And that's starting, um, they are starting to next week
and they will be probably working for eight weeks
in their school semester.
And then the final was, um,
hired actually by our department.
And she was a student intern that participated
through the pool system with DHR under, uh, infrastructure.
Um, she ch was assigned to our architect
and engineering section where she did various projects with,
um, our deputy commissioner of that section.
Incredible. You, you all do so much.
And I love the way that you are opening the doors
for young people to see what we do at the city level.
And Yes. Um, your,
your department also is in this building, right?
For the, the three and a half floor?
3M three,
Yes. So I,
I did not know that a half floor could exist
until I started working here.
And I also did not know that you,
that you all up in the second floor are part of this team.
Um, I hope that you never get rid of the bucket.
The bucket is my favorite part of, uh, coming here
and, uh, giving messages to those in the second floor.
So there it is. Never
get rid of the bucket.
We will not get rid of the bucket.
Thank you, commissioner. Thank you Chair.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, all the man of hopping worth.
Learn something new about you every day. Alright.
Uh, I just got a couple items.
Uh, millennium Park transfer, uh, this year.
You guys are adding almost $5 million to corporate fund, uh,
from the, um, as the, uh, special events, um, motel,
hotel, motel tax fund.
What, what necessitated the need to make that adjustment?
Um, we worked with the budget office to, um, determine,
um, what security was going to look like next year in 2025.
So we cut, um, some security costs out of there as well
as moved, um, moved I believe 5 million, like you said,
chairman from the 3 55 fund to the corporate fund.
'cause I don't think the 3 55 fund, um, could handle
that 5 million, if I'm not mistaken.
Oh, okay. So it was purely, uh, um, that was just,
you just guessed, just ran outta runway, um, in 3 55.
I I believe that was the, the purpose, yes.
Okay. Um, your asset Management
Inc increased in rentals almost $10 million.
What was, what drove that?
Yeah, so we have, um, a new lease, um,
that we're starting in 2025.
The Inspector General, um, is moving to a new location.
So our rents, uh, went up.
And then there's cost escalations in most
of our leases too every year.
So we have to make up for that as well as, um, insurance
and property taxes.
The location that they're at now, is that, was
that lease space or is that owned space?
Is that the 400 Superior building? That is
Sedwick side. Yeah.
Sedgwick Superior. Yes. That is our city facility.
And they moved out of that to,
They moved out of there to, um, an office on LaSalle
That we own to go rent something.
Do we? Yes.
Is there a reason as
to why we would leave a city-owned facility to the tune
of almost $10 million to go lease something,
Um, In the building we own,
It was before my time chairman,
but I can, um, dig up some info
for you if you would like, through
The Okay. All right.
Uh, all right. Before your time.
We'll, we'll give you a pass on that one,
but that, that financially doesn't sound like it makes sense
if we're, is somebody else moving into the
space on Sedgwick?
Uh, not at this point.
It, there are discussions taking place of who is going
to take over that space.
Okay. 'cause this just doesn't It is, it's not, yes.
It will be a city department that will,
will be taking up that space.
Okay. Um, alright. I, I, I think, uh, that's okay.
It's not making a lot of sense,
but we'll, we'll cross that bridge.
Uh, ultimate, uh, Gardner, go ahead
Very briefly. Thank
you Chair. Um,
and thank you Commissioner and your staff.
I just wanted to, I'm gonna be very brief
and it's just, uh, to express my gratitude.
Uh, we really appreciate everything that you do.
Um, we're happy to see you in this position. I know I am.
Um, and, and we appreciate all the work
that everybody in the box does.
And Joe Mal, Joe Mal is, uh, my fan favorite.
I, I cannot, uh, do what we do in the 45th Ward.
We cannot do what we do in the 45th Ward without Joe.
And, uh, I just wanna sing his praises. He's a gentleman.
Uh, he manages people very well. He always comes.
He's innovative, uh, no pun intended.
Um, but, um, he is, uh, he's the man.
And, and I appreciate all the work that he does
and all of you do in the box.
So thank you for everything you do
for our city. Thank you, chair.
Thank you, alderman. Is there a request with
that? A request?
A request is, I just, I hope, I hope Joe
and Commissioner stay on for as long as possible.
You must need something.
I'm just, I'm just,
Hey, hey.
This is the time. You know, I tell people all the time,
fer Exchange is not robbery.
Uh, any other questions? Uh, ultimate Callway.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, I'll be fast.
I'm, I'm, I'm blessed that when you go later in this,
you are, you are brilliant and handsome and beautiful.
Colleagues have answered, have asked most of the questions.
So mine are mere follow up from, uh, from theirs.
Um, getting back to the savings
from on electric vehicles, the police vehicles.
I just wanna make sure I understood the math right.
You said there were, they cost more on the front end,
but you make up that difference in gas
and maintenance in the first two years.
Am I, am I understanding that?
Yes, I believe that is what Kevin was saying. Yes, Kevin?
Yes, That's correct.
The Kevin Campbell, director of Maintenance Operations, uh,
to reiterate the cost difference on the hybrid police
vehicles, $3,314,
and we're saving approximately $2,000 a year
in fuel per unit
It. Oh. And just in
fuel. Okay.
Um, well, that's, that's, uh, fantastic.
Um, and then my other question was a follow up from,
from the renewable energy, um, uh,
regarding the double black diamond worth noting,
I was a solar energy developer prior
to becoming an alderman,
but compared to the double Black Diamond I was playing
with tinkered relative Tinker toys.
So when you mentioned the,
you said 70% of the, um, that will be a hundred percent, uh,
uh, carbon neutral.
I, I don't know if that's the term that was used,
but 70% will come from the field
and then 30% will be renewable energy credits.
Is that the renewable energy credits that are created
by the Black Diamond that we own?
Or is that, are we buying some,
or is that, what is,
what is the renewable energy credit portion of that?
I'll defer to David Powell,
project Manager over Energy, please.
Yeah. David Powell, project manager. Yeah.
So 70%, uh, from Double Black Diamond, that's for
our list one accounts.
So our airports, uh, Jardine Sawyer.
Um, and then the, uh, 30%, uh, uh, of the remaining, uh,
electrical, uh, bill, uh, facility, uh, load, uh, that's
for our list two and three accounts.
So that's for our medium and smaller sized buildings.
More municipal buildings. Right.
Like libraries, uh, et cetera.
So where, so there's a rec,
a renewable energy credit offset to the, to those, I guess.
And like, so where is that coming from?
Uh, we purchase the, the renewable Energy credits.
Okay. Yes. Uh, uh, any idea what we're,
what we're paying for 'em?
Uh, I don't have that value in front of me,
but I can, I can get that to you.
Okay. I'd, I'd ask for
that through the, through the chair.
Um, uh, and I guess,
and I guess as a corresponding thing, just to confirm
that we're not getting a cash payment
for the renewable energy credits
that Black Diamond's creating.
I mean, you can just answer that if you know, but
No, we're not, we're not getting payment for that.
Okay. Um, Mr.
Chairman, that's, that's all I have in the wake of my,
my follow up for my brilliant colleagues. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, quickly, uh,
what is this Double black Diamond?
Uh, can, can you kinda, yeah.
Uh, help us, help us understand what's happening here.
This is a little bit above our, uh, it's not
above our pay grade, but it, it is, uh, it is.
We just need to get some clarity
to help us understand this renewable credit.
I know we made a deal that we would, all
of our energy would either be, would be renewable,
but what does that really mean?
And it's sounding like it's, it is, but it isn't.
And I'm also looking at the electricity costs, which are,
to me, I, that's probably one
of the biggest expenses you all have.
Help us walk us through that process.
I'm gonna have David walk you through that process.
David, simplify it as much as you can please.
Yeah. Uh, thank you for the question.
Uh, so, uh, double Black Diamond is a, uh,
solar farm, uh, that's built in, in, in Waverley, Illinois.
Uh, it's, it's, uh, it's actually, uh, functioning now,
but, um, uh, the city will be renewable,
100% renewable energy.
Uh, in terms of city operations on January 1st of,
That's our, that's our farm.
Uh, it's not ours. We don't own it.
But we, we entered into you,
you had mentioned we had entered into agreement, uh, in,
uh, 2023.
We had signed a power purchase agreement
with Constellation Energy, that, that's the city's, uh,
retail electric supplier.
Um, so we, uh, we have the arrange the, uh,
power purchase agreement with Constellation.
Um, uh, but we don't own the, uh, solar Farm.
We just, we just have the, uh, the, the power arrangement
with, with Constellation.
Let me ask you this question. Are we the only customer?
Are we like 95% of their, their business?
I, I'm sorry. Are we their only customer
or like 90, 95% of their business?
Uh, for the solar Farm, uh, we are not the only customer.
There, there are other customers for, for the, uh,
the solar installation.
And what percentage are we of that particular entity?
Entity, uh, what percentage of the power
that's produced at Waverly do we purchase?
Uh, I, I don't know the exact number,
but I think it's, it's, it's, it's either 50%
or, or, or possibly more.
Okay. If you can just kind
of let us know what that looks like.
So we purchased, we, we got into an agreement
with Black Diamond Double Black Diamond at Waverly
to purchase energy credits from them that will be offset by
what we use here in the city. Is that that's,
That's correct.
Okay. And is that, has that purchase netted us
a positive financial gain on that?
Or what, what has, what has the mechanics
of the finances been with this Black Diamond deal?
Well, you had, uh, you had, you had mentioned earlier
that our, our electric costs have
increased, and that's true.
And that's not due to, uh, the, uh, power purchase agreement
with, with double black Diamond.
That has to do with, uh, external factors that, um,
that are outside of the city's control.
Um, there are three main drivers as to why our,
our electricity costs have increased, uh, in 2025.
Uh, the first is, uh,
there's a carbon free resource adjustment Rider
through Combated, um, that was part of the CJ legislation.
Uh, that's a ComEd writer.
And what that does is that provides a subsidy
or floor for the, uh, nuclear generation, uh, in Illinois.
So when the electric price, uh, goes below that,
that floor that's set, uh, there is a charge that all, uh,
customers have to pay on their bills in order to offset the,
the, the low price of, of, uh, of electricity.
Um, so, uh, basically since December of 2022, uh,
customers have been paying, uh, charge on their bills, uh,
because of the low prices of electricity.
Um, the second, uh, uh, increase, uh,
for our electric costs, uh, driver is the ComEd base rates.
Um, and those base rates, they, they escalate every year.
And that's been the case with, uh, you know, the,
the ComEd four a year rate case, uh, from, uh, 2024 to 2027.
And then the third driver, uh, behind the increase
of our electricity costs is the, uh, su uh,
supply capacity costs.
So, uh, there was a, uh, there's an auction that's held, uh,
by, uh, PJM, the grid operator between, uh,
generators and suppliers.
And they set the, the, those, those cap, uh,
capacity supply rates, uh,
and, um, we're looking at some pretty big increases
for those rates, uh, in the second half of next year.
So we did fold that into our budget to account
for the, those increased costs.
Does this also, I remember, uh,
5, 7, 8 years ago, we went through
the process of aggregation, um, with the city where we kind
of did this huge deal where that actually
resulted in savings for everyday Chicagoans on their,
on their electric bills.
Are we in a similar boat
where we potentially could do the aggregation again
and lock in a, um, lock in a lower price for, for residents,
um, in their power purchasing?
Uh, that's a great question that,
that was also a little bit before my time,
but we can definitely, um, have, uh, more discussions
with you on that if, if you'd like.
No, I, it just, it was, I mean, at the time, I,
I think it saved state citizens a lot
of money if I, if I remember correctly.
And I, I don't know what the, I, I, I know it was,
I know it had something to do with the power auction
and the ability,
or something with one of the state agencies that kind
of regulates where power goes
or who, who, what the purchase price of power is.
And it ultimately resulted in a savings for, for residents.
'cause I, I, I personally participated in it after,
after we, we passed the legislation.
So just didn't know if there
that similar opportunity existed
as we go into this renewable space
and all of these other different, uh, spaces
or the ability for everyday Chicagoans to
only use renewable energy theoretically through the same way
that we're doing on these, uh, on these various, uh,
various credits that we're, that we're looking at.
So just a, just a thought.
I don't know if the, that's a quick math exercise
or if it's a elongated process,
but just something that may be worth exploring,
uh, for us again. So, okay.
Chairman, may I go ahead. Sure. Um, we work really closely
with the Department of Environment, uh,
commissioner Angela Tovar.
These may be some questions for, um, for her
and her department, because we do, like I said,
we work really closely together
and she may have better answers too.
Okay. Very well au more You had a question.
Thank you, chairman. Just real quick.
I had gotten a call, um,
while I was here and I was just double checking.
So, Simeon, um, high school does have a auto mechanic
and auto body, um, um, class.
They, 'cause they, I think they took it away before,
but I had to make sure that they brought it back.
So if you can intentionally get someone out there, uh,
to connect with, um, the, um, teacher
and principal out there, send me on
to make sure our students are connected continually,
I think that'd be beneficial if we can get these CPS
students, you know, here for, since we got a shortage
and the fact that we have, um, programs, um, from a, um,
um, vocational standpoint there, we gotta make sure
that there's a, a not just say we're going out here to talk,
but there is an actual pathway from there to here like we do
with our electric department, our electrical, um,
department at ION, where we putting our kids to, um, work.
So I, I need somebody intentionally reach out
to the principal in, in a, in an auto mechanic, uh,
auto body teacher there at ion vocation,
uh, Symon High School.
That's great. Absolutely.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. That's, that's, that's good.
We need to, as I say, we need a pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow, so, understood.
Al Martin, you had questions?
I did. Thank you, chair. Um, just one set of follow up.
I, I know that a, I know
that a different colleague had asked about, um, vacancies,
and I believe that you had indicated
that a labor relations individual, uh,
a position was vacant, uh, that would help build vacancies.
Maybe my notes are incorrect in that regard.
I'm sorry, did you at first say vacant buildings and,
Oh, VA vacancies? Just vacant
Positions? Oh, just vacancies.
Yeah. 'cause I see that there are 145 proposed vacancies
and that the overall staff count is 609.
So it's about a quarter.
A little less than a quarter of the positions.
No, we have, um, 1044 positions
and 144 vacancies.
So we have a full staff of about 900, um,
labor relations supervisor that left.
I was speaking about the apprenticeship program
that we were in discussions with, uh, local 1 26
and the Illinois Department of Labor.
Unfortunately, those talks stalled for a bit
because we lost her.
Mm-Hmm. Um, but we're gonna pick up
those conversations again.
So two different conversations.
Yes, we wanna fill our vacancies, um, for
machinists automotive, but we need to go back
and talk to local 1 26 Illinois Department
of Labor on developing an apprenticeship program.
Great. Thank you for the clarification. Mm-Hmm.
And then lastly, do you see there being beyond
what you just mentioned, any particular driver, uh,
that is an impediment to you filling those 144
or so vacancies more quickly?
So, most of our vacancies are in our fleet unit.
So out of the 144 vacancies we have, 78 of them
are in our fleet bureau.
The next largest, uh, bureau,
obviously our facilities bureau.
I believe we have 60 vacancies, maybe. Yes.
So majority of our 144 vacancies are our primary drivers
of our department, our fleet and facilities.
So, um, I'm sorry, I forgot your question. Oh, if, if,
If you see there being one
or two key impediments that are slowing you down
and filling those more quickly?
No, I, I don't think there's anything slowing us down.
Um, I think it's a global issue as far
as the mechanics are concerned.
A lot of dealerships are having trouble hiring, you know,
in the private industry.
Um, we did tweak the minimum requirements, I believe too,
to our, um, automotive titles.
So we're seeing, we're gonna see if that helped.
'cause I think that was brand new this year
that we just did that.
So we're gonna see if that helps.
Um, so to be determined.
Okay. Thank you. That's it, chair.
Thank you. Thank you. Vice chair, you have anything?
Yes, please go ahead. Thank you, chairman.
Hello, commissioner. Hello. How are you? Um, I'm good.
Great to see you all here. Um, I mostly just wanted
to extend my thanks as well to you
and your team, um, especially the, the council folks
that are here taking care of us for all
of these long and extended days.
Um, yes, I, I agree with, uh,
my colleague that the bucket should stay.
Um, I think a lot of people don't realize
how much work two FM does, um, from, uh,
everything here in the council to helping us
with our flag day celebration in the 11th
and 15th wards every year.
Um, you know, it's probably one
of the more unique things I think you guys get to do.
Um, digging a big hole and burning a bunch of flags, um,
and, and doing it to, to honor our country in that way.
Um, but really, I, I think your team goes above and beyond.
I know there's a lot on your plate.
Um, I'm assuming some folks earlier asked you about
ambulances and fire trucks
and everything, so I won't be redundant on that.
Um, I, I think that, um, you know, maintenance of our fleet
with, with every type of vehicle that we are, uh,
that we're working on and that we need, uh,
to provide services to our citizens every
day is really important.
So, you know, um, as far as the needs go for you, I know
that recruitment is a really big problem,
I think across many different groups right now.
Um, I appreciate that Alderman Moore is connecting you
to some other, uh, some other folks, some high schools, um,
that have automotive programs.
Because if we don't start to build that pipeline, um,
you know, the, it it's only gonna cost us more long term,
um, in so many other ways.
So, um, appreciate all the work that's also being done
to electrify, um, the fleet.
As far as, um, the, the plugin hybrids go, are we,
are you building, um,
charging stations too in different areas?
I know we've got a filling station in the ward,
but I, I wonder where the cars charge.
Yes. Um, we're about 75% done with, um,
installing our electric chargers.
I think we have, our goal is to get to 275,
I think we're at two 13.
Is that correct? And where, where are those located?
They're all over the city.
I can get you a map if you'd like. Yeah.
Through the chair. If you wouldn't mind getting a, uh,
providing a map, um, by Ward, that would be great.
Um, you know, one of the biggest challenges
to electrification is just having
access to a charging station.
Um, less for you from a two fm perspective,
but I think, uh, from, from a citywide perspective,
that's something we'll talk to the, uh, uh,
Angela Tovar about.
Yes. Um, as far as how we, how we begin to provide more,
I know that with the, the cold winter we had last year
and all of the electric vehicles everywhere were, were sort
of dead on arrival because they needed to, to get these, uh,
their batteries charged.
Um, in my own ward, I think we've only got
maybe half a dozen 10, um, across the ward,
and that's not very many.
Um, so, you know, as people are, uh, getting
more into electric vehicles, um,
and when you don't, if you live in the city
and you have electric vehicle, it's great.
Um, it's great from an efficiency perspective
'cause you're not getting as much, uh, gas,
but if you have no place to plug in your car, uh,
you're relegated to going to, you know, a parking lot
and, uh, and, and getting things done there.
So, um, at any rate, thank you so much for all
that your team is consistently doing.
You guys are all doing great jobs.
Um, and appreciate all that you guys do
to support us in the things that we do.
Thank you. Thank you, chair.
Thank you. Uh, au morale you anything you have anything?
Two f him,
Rod. Thank you Chairman.
And, um, know that most of my,
my basic questions have been answered.
You know, I came in when you were talking about
energy procurement chairman,
and it, it's troubling to me that
no one at two FM was terribly up to speed on that.
Um, because exactly what you said is true.
Um, the city being deeply involved with
procurement, um, leveraging relationships with the state
and the state's, uh, energy regulation agencies
and the IPA, um, we were able
to achieve substantial savings.
You know, the city of Chicago
and the sister agencies are one of the biggest consumers
of electricity in the region,
and we have a tremendous amount
of purchasing power we need to leverage.
And playing Patty cake
with our current utility providers is not how you do that.
Um, you need to play hardball
and the state of Illinois has gotten quite good at it.
The city needs to. So, um,
as I'm looking at the 2025 initiatives for Fleet
and Facility Management, um, I'd encourage you
to revise your, your bullet points
and connect with your counterparts at the state of Illinois
to find out how you can get back to the good work
of leveraging our purchasing power.
Um, not just the city,
but also leveraging our sister agencies.
Um, you know, fleet
and facility management is a
humongous chunk of the corporate fund.
A tremendous, we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars.
And, um, when I'm looking at your 2025 initiatives,
I don't know if, uh, you picked these
for a specific reason,
but, um, looking at this list of your plans
for the coming fiscal year
and then looking at your budget submission for personnel
leaves me scratching my head a bit.
And I do understand that a tremendous amount
of your work involves day-to-Day maintenance of facilities
and our vehicles and the fleet stuff alone is huge.
Um, but I don't see a lot of bold initiatives here,
um, on your list.
And certainly we're all for installing new community gardens
and putting in some solar panels
and an additional 60 electric vehicles,
purchasing those shouldn't take more than what a week.
Um, so I, I guess I'm trying to understand, um,
why we continue to see that your line items grow
in the corporate fund, yet this list
of initiatives is not terribly impressive.
Um, how much money are you spending on managing, um,
our, our, uh, lot remediation program?
I see you have four vacant parcels in Englewood you're gonna
be working on, but how much, uh, par how much
of your budget is dedicated to those initiatives?
To which initiatives? I'm sorry. The vacant lot program
Remediating vacant parcels.
I'm gonna defer to Kimberly Worthington, please.
Deputy Commissioner over Environment and Health and Safety.
Sure. Kimberly Worthington,
deputy Environmental Health and Safety.
Um, we have a group of eight environmental engineers
that work with planning, um,
and housing to determine which parcels in the city
to do remediation for.
And we can provide you with a list through the chair of all
of our current and planned remediation Pro project projects.
Um, we also have, of those eight for our
specifically grant funded, one is specifically for the St.
Streeterville and Darko Thorium program.
Um, two our first CDBG NEPA reviews
and one is for CHA.
Um, so, but we can get you a list of all those projects.
Thank you. I,
and I guess while I've got you there, uh,
who do we contract out the actual installation of these,
of these, these community gardens?
Uh, or does someone in-House perform that?
Is that one of these eight engineers you mentioned? So,
Uh, two FM is not responsible for completing the end use
of the, um, vacant lot.
So we work with planning
and housing so that they can do what they need
to do for those lots.
But so your involvement then,
the work you actually do in making these gardens become
a reality is what
We remove any contaminated soil.
We have, um, a jock contractor that we utilize.
Uh, we have to work through the state
to get their approval on our remediation plans, um,
to make sure that the soil is safe for them
to be gardening on.
Um, and it's a lengthy process,
but, uh, you know, we've been trying to streamline that
through the cut the Red Tape initiative.
Great. Thank you for answering those questions.
And then, um, obviously I, I'm a big proponent of,
of installing more electric vehicle charging ports,
and congratulations on the progress you're making.
Um, the funding for
that program comes from which fund,
how are we funding that program?
Primarily?
I'm gonna defer to Kevin Campbell, please.
Over vehicle maintenance.
Kevin Campbell, director of Maintenance Operations.
So the initial funds were
provided through Capital Improvement Plan equipment note,
uh, and the total for both vehicles
and the charging stations over the past three years
has been, uh, $23 million, uh, of that money.
We've been able to recoup approximately half back
through a combination of IRS rebates
and, uh, U-S-E-P-A and Illinois EPA grants.
And do you have the total amount of, of U-S-E-P-A
and state grants that support that program?
I do. The U-S-E-P-A grant
total is
$750,000
and the Illinois EPA total so far is
$570,000 with another, uh,
approximately 3.8 million coming from a
combination of both of those.
And so the bulk of this program is, is paid for
through what fund?
Uh, capital equipment, um, note through the budget office.
Very good. Um,
and then I have, uh, chairman a question about, um, the, uh,
mental health system expansion initiative.
Did, did, did folks cover that already?
I don't wanna be redundant. No, go ahead.
Um, so obviously among your, your key results
for the current fiscal year, um, you mentioned
that you managed repairs
and built modifications to reopen Rosalyn Mental Health
Center and Lower West Neighborhood Health Center.
Um, as part of the Citywide Initiative, um,
what do we spend, uh, per center, um, to,
to get those reopened?
Just on the, you know, I'm with you guys.
I'm looking at the capital cost, but,
So we used our in-house crews to, um, um,
to rehab Lower West and Roseland, um, I'm sorry, lower West.
We used our in-house crews and that cost us about $59,000.
Um, that's what labor and material, um,
and Roseland we used in-house crews for some
of the work at only a $7,000 cost.
And the rest of it went to, um, Mason Ry repair,
which was about a parking lot, I'm sorry,
Mason re masonry repair.
Um, the budget was a million dollars.
We spent about 700,000 of that.
Okay. And I don't see any listed
for 2025
'cause I don't see a budget narrative
that says we're gonna be opening, uh,
additional mental health clinics.
But if you look at the city's, um, I guess
list of, of of clinic locations,
do we have a sense if we were to continue
to reopen clinics in the future, um, is there an average
cost if we, if we are able to keep most of
that work in house, do you have a ballpark figure
that you can apply to each of those locations that, um,
we would contemplate for future consideration?
Yeah. At this time, alderman, we're,
we're not looking at any additional facilities, so I,
I don't have an answer for that.
Very good. Um, I, I think that's the extent of,
of my questions chairman.
Um, we, as you know, have, have requested, uh,
a whole slew of data, um, from the budget office
to assist the administration in, um, in coming up
with a budget solution here. And, uh,
A, A great amount of that data is related to, um,
third party benefit agreements, it, um, maintenance
and upgrades and these sorts of things.
So I'll look forward to getting that from the budget office.
So thank you and, and again, thank you, uh, to you
and your team for all the good work you do.
Uh, appreciate it. Thank you, chairman. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Alman Riley, uh,
just a couple other, uh, follow ups.
Um, the environmental
remediation has been slow at best.
Uh, several of our lots that are working to be disposed of,
uh, seem to be stuck in the, uh, environmental queue.
Uh, what's the, what's the holdup of, of like getting
that clearance so that those lots can be turned over
to the final users.
So we have been working on, um,
cut the Red Tape initiative with this administration
and, um, we found some steps
that we can eliminate from the process.
I'm gonna have Kimberly Worthington,
deputy Commissioner over Environment Health
and Safety, maybe share some more,
some more information about that Sure.
And how we're cutting down the times.
Sure. The, um, specifically
for the vacant Lot reduction program, um, you know, that's
where to gain efficiencies.
We reviewed all 10,000 parcels that planning
provided to us that the city owns,
and we were able to clear half about half of those.
Um, so planning has about 5,000 parcels that are ready
to go without any additional environmental review.
The rest, um, two of the 2000
of them have onsite environmental concerns from being former
gas stations and dry cleaners.
And we need to take another look at those
before turning those over to somebody to build a home
or build a side yard, a play lot for their kids or garden.
Um, so we're one of the red tape initiatives is to
look at what our criteria are.
Can we just move to disclosing
what we know about these parcels?
Or do we need to sample?
And that's, you know, something that'll be determined
by the law department
and the mayor's office, hopefully in the next couple weeks.
So we can turn around another big chunk of parcels
to planning, but all of the parcels are available for sale
as people show interest in them.
We elevate them to the top of the list, um,
and review them as soon as we can,
usually within a couple weeks. So
Do, do we have a responsibility to turn over a clean piece
of dirt or are we allowed to turn, turn it over
as is and let that cost go to the developer
or the third party that's purchasing a property?
We sell property for the most part, as is.
We do have a responsibility to disclose any information
that we have on that parcel.
And that's where our issue comes in
because we are sitting on a lot of information about
our city property.
So whether it's through CDPH
and the inspections they do, um,
or the work we've done historically.
Um, it's important, you know,
from the law department's perspective that we share
that information with the buyers.
So we put together a memo, we go to the closings
with planning and answer any questions
that the buyers have on the environmental
issues on their parcels.
So we, why, why not just do a phase one and,
and then just pass that information along to the end user?
Uh, 'cause it just seems like we're, it's,
it's a long process, right?
And to me, it doesn't take that long
to just do a phase one on a piece of property,
give the report and let the buyer
as more or less buyer beware. Um, so
We, uh, phase one does take time.
It's about two months.
And so, uh, the historic review that we did kind
of replaces that phase one in concept
because it identifies what the major issues are
for those parcels.
Um, and we can go right to sampling if needed.
Um, but yes, ideally planning would be having people
do the phase two and do the cleanup on their own.
I think the issue comes in when it is, you know, a,
a community group
or somebody that may already be gardening on the parcel
or something like that. Um,
Um, okay.
I I, it seems like, or,
or is there the possibility
that you have two different paths?
So we've got a path for, let's say you've got, you know,
people that are purchasing vacant lots for side yards
or community gardens.
I kinda get, like, you can't plant vegetables in,
in bad soil, right?
But for like, um,
let's say we're doing a housing development
where we know we're about to remove, uh, dirt out of
that site and, you know, put in foundations
and the like, uh, why wouldn't more
or less the phase one satisfy that need
and the developer take on the, the need
and risk of remediation
and removal as part
of their development costs versus us kind of what I,
what I see is like slowing down a process
of getting a parcel develop
because we're trying to figure out
and clean, clean a piece of dirt.
That, that to me is more of a detriment than actually just,
Hey, you guys do this.
This is what you do. Let us as a city, you know,
put this out to the general market to allow them to do that.
And they probably can get it done it faster
and probably done it for less cost.
So why wouldn't we take that approach on,
on those type of parcels?
And I, I get the community garden parcels and the side lots,
but these other parcels, why aren't we taking a much more,
uh, ex ex expedited approach?
Um, we, that's the approach that we have suggested
to planning that they do for the developers.
Um, there are developers of affordable housing
who are expecting now that the city deliver clean parcels
or pay for the remediation.
So, you know, those are discussions,
planning is having with the developers.
Okay. That's fair. Uh, we can,
we can follow up with planning on those.
That that's fine. Um, the, uh, the jocks, um,
I know that, uh, you all have entered into a new round
of jocks in the five areas.
Uh, what have, what have been the NBE components
on the, on those jocks?
I can tell you they have exceeded, um,
their M-B-E-W-B-E, lemme just get that for you.
So all jocks combined, um, MBE,
they're at about 35%.
So they're exceeding the 28% contract goal.
Uh, WBE, they're at 12%, again, exceeding the 8% goal.
And VBE, they're at, uh, 0.5%, uh,
just below the 1%.
And the jocks are, um, I know they're,
how much utilization have we seen on, on the jocks?
I know we, we kind of report the top line of the jock,
but then the jock has to be utilized.
Uh, what is our level of utilization under the jocks?
How much we've spent so far?
Yeah. Um, what is the total Yes, yes.
What, what we spent thus far
and what is the total, uh, top line contract amount?
Uh, we have about $33.9 million worth of work
with our jock right now,
Jocks. And, and the,
the limit on the jocks would be what?
That I'm going to defer to Mark was Nki,
our deputy commissioner over architecture,
engineering, and construction.
Uh, good afternoon chair.
Um, currently, uh, we're in a three year cycle for the,
for the base contract, which is a $75 million, uh, value
Said 75 million.
Correct. And, and thus far we spent 33 million,
Each of the five has a 75 million.
Oh. Each of the five has a 75 million on cap.
And, and we've spent 33 million in total out
of the, what is that?
3, 370 5 million?
That's correct. Okay. And they're brand new.
And how long do they last?
Uh, so the base contract's three years,
and then there's, uh, two one year extensions available.
Uh, and we started the contract in, uh,
about mid mid-April. Okay.
And, and the work that you spoke of, commissioner,
the 33 million you spoke of with the MBE percentages
that you gave on the jock in relation to the 33 million that
that has been spent to date?
Correct. Okay.
And, um, of the,
of the amounts that have been spent
or could be spent, how much of those are
with, um, are with MBE primes
That I would have to get you through the chair, please.
Okay. Um,
and then also, if you can break down the 33 million
that has been spent by ethnicity, uh,
that would be appreciated as well.
Will do. Okay.
Um, the vehicle repair, uh, cost, uh,
the contracts related to vehicle repair, it seems like we do
a pretty good job of doing most of this work in-house.
Um, at what point do we decide
that we go out versus do work ourselves?
I'll let, um, deputy Commissioner Mark Pulis answer that,
but, um, we do as much in-house as we can,
however, with a lot of the specialty vehicles, um,
heavy duty, um, those we contract out.
But Mark, do you wanna add to that, please?
Sure. Um, using our outside vendors is, uh,
good majorities for body work, body
and repair, accident damages, things like that.
Uh, we also use our outside vendors for
specialty repairs, like the commissioner stated.
Um, somewhere where we don't have the tooling
or the computer, uh, diagnostic equipment needed,
the training involved, uh, so forth and so on.
Okay. Now I was, I was wondering, uh,
I mean on the vehicle repair side, uh, we do have,
we do perform some repair work on like, uh, auto body, uh,
it looks like based on the positions that exist
or are those unfilled positions at this time?
Uh, can you repeat that question, sir?
So it looks like, based on your positions
that we perform some repair work, vehicle repair work,
like auto body repair work and, uh, vehicle painting work.
But I guess my question was are those positions filled at
that at the, at this time,
Correct. They are filled,
They are filled Right for Right
for the body work, right.
Sand with our sheet metal and our automotive painters.
So we do, uh, what body work we can in house.
Uh, the, there are no vacancies right now for that.
Okay. Um, I did ask you about the aggregation.
Um, I think that is, uh, that's all that I have.
Um, the only other thing with the, uh, MMBE numbers, uh,
on the overall, I do have one, I have one issue.
Uh, and that was in relation
to the public safety training center
and the contract with PBC on the LA the next
to last building, uh, I think,
or the last building that's being built.
And, um, to find out that the
participation African American participation on that project
was hovering around two 3% is, is unacceptable.
Um, I, I, I don't know who, what, where,
and I've been, uh, you know, PBC says two fm.
I'm like, it doesn't matter, uh, whose issue it is,
I just know it just needs to be corrected.
Um, I, I know that, uh, there are quality qualified people
to be able to work in these pools.
Uh, we have to just make sure that we're doing,
being intentional about, uh, making sure that we meet, uh,
nbs especially, uh, in, in, in Bapa communities, uh, so
that, um, we can, uh,
we can share in using those city dollars to help, uh,
transform, uh, communities.
The Public Safety training center is, uh, is very nice,
beautiful facility.
The work that, uh, alderman Mitch has done, uh,
with the Culver's
and the additional, uh, pad over there for, uh, restaurants.
I mean, it's, it is beautiful along Chicago Avenue.
Um, matter of fact, it used to be in the 28th ward,
and I don't know how why I, I let al the ish had it, but
nonetheless, uh, she got it now.
She done good work with it.
Um, but again, uh, we just wanna be intentional about some
of the, uh, things that, that we have going on.
Um, I will say, um, we've got, you know, your,
your team here takes great care of us.
We appreciate the work that they do, um, as well as, uh,
managing and keeping, uh, our offices
and keeping everything looking and us pick
and span around us.
My last question is, uh, who decides, uh,
what gets painted on the sweepers?
That is not my decision.
It's not your decision. Okay.
I'm trying, I'm, I'm still trying to figure out
how do we get a, uh, certain, uh, professional sports teams.
Uh, which one? Well, we don't, we don't have a bear sweeper.
We, we've got a, a bull sweeper, we have a sock sweeper,
we have a cup sweeper right here.
We're gonna get even a sky sweeper,
but we don't have a bear sweeper.
So I did ask the question chairman
when I first started, too.
Um, do we get sponsorships for that?
And so I think, was it, uh, no, it was Alderman Burnett
that brought up, Hey, can we, can we sell
space on our sweepers?
And, and I it sounds like, uh, I mean, they go
through the community every day.
They're downtown, they're all over.
Um, you know, that's something I think we should explore,
uh, the, the selling the space on, on those sweepers.
'cause they're very visible. People love to see them.
And, uh, I, I think, um, I, I'm definitely open.
I think, uh, I think Alderman Riley might, uh,
put out an RFP before we get outta here on that too.
So, but
nonetheless, I, I think those are ideas
that we all need to be thinking about.
I mean, we, we, you know, we have community pride, um,
and I think that showcasing areas of our city
or advertising, uh, certain, um, certain brands
or things that don't conflict with our values,
I think is, is, is appropriate.
So, um, if the de I'm not sure if that's your department
or another department that could, uh, broach that subject,
but I think it, it does make sense, uh, for us to,
uh, for us to do that.
So. Okay.
Any other questions
you look like you're itching to say?
So
Say something to you.
Oh, leave me alone. I didn't
All You want me to be quiet now?
Nah, I didn't, I, I, I wanna come,
I wanna come get them dollars outta your award
and stop trying to tip for me that
I'm not trying to take dollars from
Nowhere. Don't take that for me.
We ain't budget here now.
I'm gonna tell it all.
We're gonna be fine. Altman Mosey. Have something.
Go ahead. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon.
Uh, commissioner. Just one good afternoon.
One shout out Kim, uh, who has been phenomenal
to the 21st Ward.
Um, and wondering if you can talk about two things.
One, um, there are a few nonprofits that reach out
to our office asking about surplus, uh, and,
and how they can put a bid in to maybe get some
of the city surplus, uh, inventory.
And then two, um, just some of the,
the environmentally challenged land throughout our cities.
Uh, can you just expound upon more of the plans of
what we can do to get that land in a suitable state
to spur development?
So when you're speaking of surplus, you're speaking of
Mostly vehicles has been the, the most thing
that folks have asked about in my office.
Okay. Yes. Um, so I forgot who brought it up earlier,
but we are working with, uh, department
of Procurement Services, the new CPO Ms. Roberts, um, on,
um, fast tracking our end of use equipment, end
of life, not end of use, end of life equipment
and vehicles to auction.
So we do have a process in place.
Unfortunately, it's just been a little bit slower than
normal, so we're gonna try to push
that forward 'cause that's revenue for us.
Then when we, um, sell these vehicles
and equipment in auction, we also scrap a lot of, um, end
of life vehicles that are not operable at all.
So there's revenue there.
Um, and then your second question, I'm sorry,
Was just about environmentally challenged land, uh, and,
and the strategy on how we can get it back, uh,
to developmental stage.
Yes. So we have a very strong environmental team as, uh,
you noted, I know you and Kimberly, uh, speak quite often.
So I have every, um, faith and belief that Kimberly
and her team in two FM are working towards
that every single day.
Um, if you have specific questions on specific, um, lots,
I know you reach out to Kimberly directly,
so I appreciate that.
But that, if there's anything I can help
you with, please let me know.
Um, Kimberly, do you wanna expound on anything
that we're doing that Alderman Mosley may not know about?
Hmm. I, uh, Kimberly Worthington,
deputy commissioner EHS, um, some
of our environmental justice work that we're doing,
it's part of our action plan is to work with the community
and try to figure out how to, uh, prioritize
the assessment
and possible remediation of, you know,
heavily contaminated land in the city.
Um, you know, we are getting closer to finding those areas.
Unfortunately, your neighborhood is one of the
more contaminated ones due to atmospheric deposition.
So, and as we get more data
and more community input, um, you know,
I think we'll be starting to see the a plan
and then try to figure out how to fund it.
'cause we do not have any funding for remediation
in the two FM budget.
So, um, we only have money to test
and if we can't clean it up, then we,
it's probably not a good idea to test.
But, um, but I know the lots you're referring to
and we're in conversations with planning
to figure out how to make that happen.
Great.
Thanks so much. Thank you.
Thank you Alderman. Uh, alderman Gutierrez
or Alderman Coleman, do you have anything?
No, alderman. Okay. Alderman Coleman, go ahead.
Thank you so much. Uh, chairman Irvin, uh,
I think it was Chairman Mintz who asked about the, um,
number of city owned properties.
I'm assuming Ward Yards are included in that 25,
Not 25. 25
was vacant, uh, buildings that we own.
Okay. Do we consider, uh, the old Ward yards
as one of the vacant
Buildings? Most of them we
do own correct Merit.
Most Ward yards, if not all, all Ward yards,
yes. Alderman, we own
Are you all responsible for the maintenance
or streets and sanitation?
Yeah, I was gonna say yes.
We are responsible for maintenance.
Okay. May I just flag, uh,
the former 16th ward yard at 62nd and troop?
Absolutely, it Is. Um, we look forward to
being rfpd out,
but in the meantime, in between time, uh, I have to,
I live directly across the street
and I'm always fussing, uh, with streets
of sand in your department about maintaining it.
Uh, it's a little building anchored on the corner,
but it's surrounded by about seven lots
and it's just grounds for fly dumping.
Um, I've noticed sometimes steel is being dropped off,
but I see trucks that are actually,
that do business with the city.
So I don't know if there's some type of agreement
or maybe this is a holding space,
but I like to just flag, uh, the old six,
the former 16th ward, yard streets, sanitation.
Absolutely. Yes. We'll definitely look into it right away.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Altam. Any other questions?
Any other questions? All right,
uh, I'm gonna, just one last thing.
There's a $42 million grant, uh, for Streeterville and the,
and, and a Darko studio.
Is that just a 32nd synopsis of what that is?
Kimberly, please? Sure. Oh, more environmental stuff?
Yeah. Oh God. Okay, go, uh,
go ahead. Okay.
Uh, real quick. Uh,
early 19 hundreds manufacturing
spread radioactive waste all over streeterville.
Um, federal government sued the company.
We received a bankruptcy settlement,
and it's been going on for probably about six years.
We've had this grant, it's not new for this year,
it's just carried over.
Um, and anytime water management
or CDOT is working in the street, we're out there monitoring
for radioactive waste.
Um, and sometimes we find it,
and then we have to stop the job and do a cleanup.
And that's what we use the 45 million for.
And we're gonna be doing a more proactive sampling.
Uh, we got the approval from U-S-C-P-A,
so we'll be going out and monitoring in the streets.
Okay. Wow. Okay. Didn't know that. Altman,
Just to expound on that, um, thorium is, is all over
that neighborhood and
What's, what's the element?
Thorium. Thorium, okay. Yeah.
Yeah. There is a lot of, uh, light manufacturing
that occurred over there, and there were light bulb
factories and all sorts of things, and,
and the waste just went right into the ground.
Um, and so, yeah, it's very expensive.
We've had issues trying to do menu upgrades, you know,
to upgrade lighting or replace sidewalks.
'cause when we open these things up, they have to test
and invariably they find thorium
and they gotta bring in these EPA approved folks
and their crazy white suits,
and they gotta strip all this soil out,
take it out in special containers.
It's a real thing. And
so it does make these projects more expensive for the city,
but then also private developers are having
to pay exorbitant fees
to have this stuff removed from their sites too.
And it's a real big process.
Um, and lastly, uh, what will eventually become BLE Park,
uh, near Navy Pier.
I was going to ask that. 'cause that big,
I never understood why that big area on the other side
of Lake Shore Drive was not developed.
And, and this, this, okay.
There was remediation there as well. Okay.
So yeah, literally that entire neighborhood,
that neighborhood, you know, Streeterville was, uh, uh,
really became a neighborhood, uh, as a landfill.
Ka Streeter declared himself the mayor of Streeterville.
Um, it was after the fire, but it became landfill post-fire.
And so it was full of, of shanties and,
and, you know, crooked businesses
and a lot of gambling and all this kind of stuff.
And over time we just layered on top of it
and it was all this pollution underneath.
So wow. Settlements like this have helped us improve
that area quite a bit.
Obviously it's a beautiful, well-built environment,
but it was contaminated through
and through for the very longest time.
Wow. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Uh, learn something today about that. So, alright.
With that, uh, committee will stand at ease
until tomorrow at 10:00 AM
Thanks.
It's either all or nothing on the environment.
Um, we're, we're still upstairs.
Uh, alderman Harris has provided, uh, lunch.
So, uh, please join.