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by six inches will be permitted and are subject to search.
All food and beverages, including in metal canisters, are not
permitted. Cell phones must be placed on silent prior to entering the
meeting room. Individuals must remain seated.
Public comment speakers are permitted to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated, and the user must
refrain from interfering with the view or hearing of other individuals.
Individuals or groups failing to adhere to these rules will be asked to cease
such disruptive conduct, and failure to comply will result in their being
subject to removal from the meeting by the Sergeant at Arms.
City of Chicago City Council Rules of Conduct for Public Meetings,
2023 to 2027. Pursuant to the Chicago
City Council Rules of Order and Procedure, Rule 49,
the Sergeant at Arms sets forth the following rules of conduct to be
followed during the public comment period and the duration of all committee and
City Council meetings. Profane, vulgar, threatening,
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Demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech
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Clear bags not tinted in color.
We good?
All right.
We're back on. First public speaker is Alicia
Garcia Abner.
Followed by Charlene Marsh.
Ms. Abner, you may begin.
Let me know when to start
You good, go ahead.
Hello, aldermen, alderpersons. I'm Alicia Garcia Abner, president
of Trino Inc., a 27-year-old local certified
MWBE firm, which provides CEI consulting services.
My concern is, given the apparent direction that diversity programs are
going nationally, we must ensure we adhere to the regulations set
by our municipal code, such as all roads lead back to
procurement. I'm here in support of Sharlen Roberts, the CPO, whom
I've known over the years as a champion, and has implemented numerous
diversity-related initiatives. I strongly support Ms.
Roberts on any proposed initiatives to centralize the
monitoring and reporting of the city's overall M&WBE and
other diversity-related programs.
There are currently not enough certified MBE/WBE
firms in the construction area to address the goals set on both
public and private construction projects.
Concerning is that MBE/WBE monitoring and reporting of the
diverse programs are also housed in other departments, such as
DOH, on non-housing projects such as railroad
and casino. In an effort to maximize efficiencies, all
monitoring, reporting, and determinations regarding the
MBE/WBE workforce hiring initiatives should be done by
DPS, as indicated in Article 2-92
of the Municipal Code. Centralizing the monitoring and reporting of
the M&WBE and other related programs to DPS will cut the
tape and expedite the public collaboration with
developers and other general contractors.
By their working directly with the CPO, issues involving
reporting, certifications, Next Codes, the Mentor-Protege program, and
other workforce hiring initiatives would be expeditiously determined.
Please make sure that Ms. Roberts is provided with the staff needed to ensure the
success of these programs. As a reminder, the review and
sunset of our project is subject to review by the
CPO. This has to be concluded by December
2026, unless the city finds that its remedial
purposes have not fully been achieved, and there is a compelling
interest in continuing narrowly tailored remedies to
readdress discrimination against MBEs and WBEs, so that the city will
not function as a passive participant in a discriminatory
marketplace. The CPO must have all diversity-related
information centralized in her department to ensure that it is
monitored and reported consistently.
I am also here to support Ms. Mary Richardson Lori, the first
African American Native Indian female serving as corporation
counsel for the third largest city of our country, the City of Chicago.
She is skilled, principled, dedicated to the city's best interests, and
highly regarded. I am very grateful she returned to lead the
department where I met her when I was in city government 20 years
ago.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. Next, we'll have Charlene Marsh,
followed by
Zoe Lee.
Hello.
Good morning.
Morning.
My name is Charlene Marsh, and I'm Zoe's mom.
And I came today to speak because I just have
a couple of questions, and I believe that maybe these
people here
will be able to help me. I'm a long Chicagoan.
I was born and raised here.
I went to St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana.
I lived at 4120 South Prairie,
and I have asked David Moore many
times, could he tell me why my building was knocked down
and why I can't be paid? I even approached him about
partnering with him with the property.
Whatever it took. Because I love veterans also.
My cousin was the late Jesse Brown that went to Hyde Park, grew
up in Englewood. And
he was Secretary of Veteran Affairs, and I wanted to honor him, and I wanted to
honor, really, a lot of veterans because I feel honored when I'm in the presence
of a veteran because they put their life on the line.
And I thought that I could come back to Chicago and build
affordable housing for the working poor who's on a
national poverty level. And
then I wanted to do work for veterans.
And I was in New York for many years, and I had
colleagues that are still there that gave me-- Because once,
Jesse White took me on a tour of his building, his
recreation centers, and he took me to a room
that had no computers, and I couldn't understand.
I said, "How you going to have an after-school and no computers?"
And
I felt Pritzer should've
given it to him because the secretary is so
dedicated to him. And so I called people in New York, and I had
100 computers donated with a phone call
for
my people,
our people. And so I'm just here today to ask,
will someone please help me to find out
why they will not pay me for my building?
That was money that I worked hard for.
My mother only had a fifth-grade education. My dad did, too.
And I want to say hi to Mrs. Roberts because I knew your dad.
He was a great guy.
Oh, I'm sorry. But anyway, and I hope
somebody can help me here. And
I was doing it for the veterans. I love veterans.
And my cousin did, too.
And I want to help the poor who are having a suffering
time trying to make it out here. Thank you. Thank you for your time.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we'll have Zoe Lee, followed by Jessica Jackson.
Yeah.
I asked my mom to come because so many people asked, like Monique Scott,
"Well, your mother needs to come down here." Well, she's 75 years old, and she's
not going to come down here. I'm going to come down here because the reason why I'm
here is because when my mother tried to fight this
herself and tried to do all the things that she was supposed to do,
the City of Chicago Law Department reached out.
You all heard the voicemail, and they gave her the three options.
You see our alderman
runs away every time, even though he told a colleague of ours,
a friend of ours, that he has tried to talk to us.
And you already know, that's a lie.
But the law department is supposed to be here.
This is the last budget meeting before you guys are supposed to
pass this budget. The City of Chicago needs to settle my family's
case. Okay? We have a federal lawsuit. You all are self-insured.
We have everything, and you all know we do. We have the deed, the trust.
We already had a trust. We've had the permit that says the City of
Chicago is the one that own this building.
You all know you all did it because we have the trust and the deed that's been in
this... The deed has been in the trust since 1962.
We have everything from the Department of Law, City of Chicago.
We have the general liability property damage claim form
that Anne from the law department told us to
fill out, with my mom to fill out, with the police report when you guys knocked
down the building, because that's illegal.
And you guys have violated the Fifth Amendment,
the 14th Amendment. That's the US Constitution.
I'm pretty sure that the law people, Mary Richardson
Lowery, that was
working with
Daley as well, I'm pretty sure she knows the Constitution, and
she's corporate counsel. They need to settle our case.
He knows. He was there. He understands.
Now, I'm not putting it all on David Moore because it was Latasha Thomas, it was
Terry Peterson, but he's the alderman at this time, and he's not
doing what he's supposed to do. Okay?
Contact Obama because he's been in there, too. Okay?
We had a lawyer that was going to take the case, but
Dennis Raphael, who works still for the claim department here,
lied and told these people that the statute of limitations was up, and it was not.
Okay? We have everything.
Settle my mother's case. She's 75.
She's here. She's here well. My godfather is here and well.
They worked hard. They worked hard.
That's my generational wealth.
She's here. She's alive, she's well, and so is
my godfather. He's 81. He cashed in his life insurance
to try to save that building.
Ain't nobody playing. It's 20 black aldermen.
Get on him and tell him to do the right thing.
Contact Mary Richardson Lowery. Tell her to settle my case before
January 20th.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you for your comments.
Next, Jessica Jackson, followed by Sharon Williams.
So you all think that you don't have to follow the law.
It's the same thing with my mother's estate.
Now, right here,
I have the Law for Public Administration.
It says, "The Office of Public Administration of Cook County
administers estates of deceased Cook County residents who
are without available family to administer the
estate or who did not leave a will designating
a person to serve as an executor of the estate." Clearly,
my mother has available family because I'm her daughter.
This is her will,
authorized
and filed in the Circuit Court of
Probate Division. This is a legitimate will with all
signatures and notarizing. So you all decided to
illegally put my mother's estate into probate, and you
won't let it out. David Moore, you,
Cedric Giles, and Bill Lowery. While Bill Lowery
was supposed to be contacting Kwame Raoul to help resolve
this issue, you all was planning a seminar
about probate and wills behind my back
because you dirty like that.
Ervin, you keep on acting like you don't hear me.
I'm not going to keep playing.
Chris Taliaferro already wrote a letter to the public
administrators and to Kwame Raoul telling him to
investigate this. Of course, you all won't do anything.
Now, let me tell you all something.
You're not going to take anything from me.
You're going to stop bothering me with this illegal eviction.
This is where me and my daughter lay our head. Do you all understand?
I want you all to understand. I'm rocking with the Republicans.
I'm rocking with the Republicans. I already told you.
At that Trump rally in Wisconsin, I was there VIP on the
second row. And you all better know this, December 9th,
the border czar will be here. Me, Zoe, and
P Ray got VIP tickets to that. We getting ready to meet the
border czar, and he going to give this to Donald Trump.
And if you all don't settle my case and leave me and my family alone, the
feds are coming. You can keep on, big boy,
like you ain't worried about a thing.
They going to get you, your wife, the mayor, the
Cook County judges, the Cook County public administrators.
Because let me tell you what the blessing is.
For the first time in history,
we have a president of the United States who knows
all too well about the corruption of the court
systems
He knows about the corruption of the Democratic Party.
I don't have to bend his arm to make him believe that these
courts are corrupt.
All I got to do is like what I'm doing. He knows who I am.
He coming for you.
Thank you for your comments.
Next, we have Sharon Williams.
Morning. How you doing? All right.
Sharon Williams, followed by Wallace Gator Bradley. I'm sorry, Dr.
Wallace Gator Bradley.
Can you step up to the mic, please?
Okay.
Hold on, ma'am. Your
mic isn't on. Go ahead. Hold on.
Testing. Testing.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Hold on one second. Could you restart the timer, please?
Go ahead. You may proceed.
I really do appreciate it. I'm glad that you are the person
that is facilitating because you are my alderman, sir.
I come as humble and as graceful as I possibly can, and I need to
explain to you why my vote flipped red.
I voted red all the way down the ballot.
I voted completely against Danny Davis.
I voted against LaShawn Ford, and I'm going to continue to vote
against every Democrat in the state of Illinois.
Because you are my alderman, I'm going to explain to you why.
It was that first 51 million. That first 51
million, my vote flipped instantly, 2.5 seconds.
My brother
by the time he was 12, he had murdered at least three to four people.
By the time he was 20, that number
quadrupled.
My brother, just like Yummy and pretty much the entire
Black generation in Chicago, they were wards of the state.
And because they were wards of the state, they were left out on the streets
to survive by themselves. How do you tell a nine-year-old to get a job
when he got to survive in the streets?
How do you expect somebody to see trauma one
night, and you want them to go to school the next day and figure out what the
teacher is saying? So the reality of what the Democrats
have going on in Illinois is a complete and total
national disgrace. I'm not playing no games.
See, I know how corrupt Chicago politics is, and I know
what happens to people that speak out against them, because I had a friend that
worked for Mayor Daley. I'm with that too.
I'm definitely with it. I mean business when it comes down to the
Democrats in Chicago. How dare you all to fund migrants
when we've been suffering? Y'all watched us suffer all of
these years. You know how many old men I had to fight?
I got the bullet wound in my mouth to prove it.
I got the slice mark across my face to prove it.
Do you know how many men I had to whoop off me just not to
become a victim because there was never no housing available?
Everything we ever applied for in our community, we was denied.
I'll call the governor's office right now and prove it to you how we are
denied, and there has never been a resource available for those
who have been underprivileged and those who were born without
families. Because of the drug epidemic in Chicago,
we have an entire generation of Black boys who were born
without families. We know that Mayor Brandon
Johnson, we know he got slave catchers that are after
these Black boys. They're living on the trains.
They're robbing everybody. And as a result of that, we got
officers who are being laid to rest
as a result of these boys living in poverty.
I know an entire slew of Black men who would be
alive today had they ever had a resource.
Never had a resource in the city of Chicago.
When I tell-
Thank you for your comment, ma'am.
All right.
Next up is Dr. Wallace Gator Bradley, followed by-
Tiana Conway
Well,
I ain't here to talk about no red hats, no black hats, no blue hats.
First off, I want to say to God be the glory, that's Gator's story.
I'm here for this reason,
dealing with the law department.
December 12th, 2016,
Aldrin David Moore
states, "We need to learn
from these settlements."
I'm here to speak on behalf of Mark Maxon.
When I realized in 2016, there was something real
strange when the pinstripe patronage was getting all
the money.
Those are lawyers that they was hiring to defend those
police officers that deal with torturing Black men to confess to
crimes that they didn't commit.
Fast-forward, we realized when they totaled up all the money, it ended up
being a billion dollars.
October
28,
2016,
I came before the budget committee right around the time they was putting the
budget together.
Fast-forward,
I heard Monday city council meeting, where a gentleman got up and
said, "It ain't so much the revenue that you got to get,
when it's more so the spending of money that you shouldn't spend."
Fast-forward, here we are today.
Thank God that you're on the budget committee.
I thank God that you're the chairman.
I thank God that Pat Dowdell is the chairman of the finance committee.
I thank God you got a new corporate council. And I want to say this.
They spent
$2,250,068
for Jake's case. For Gibson's case, they spent
$2,568,000.
For Mark Maxon's case, they spent
$2,575,117.
I want to say I'm glad that they finally settled
Jake's case. I'm glad that they settled Mark
Maxon's case, because they listened to what the
people saying, and they stopped spending money with bad
lawyers. So I want to say to God be the glory. Keep doing what you're doing.
Let them do what they do. And when it come down for the vote, let them count their
votes.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we have
Tiana Conway.
How you doing today?
Followed by Melvin Bailey.
I'm sorry.
You may proceed.
What'd you say?
My name is Tiera Conway, and I'm here to prove the
innocence of Ramon Banks, case number
22CR1213601.
And I just want you guys to hear this for yourself.
Now what
you were just hearing was the direct
evidence that proved the innocence of Mr. Banks.
If you go and read that report, that report stated you
got one weapon found in three different spots, and
directly behind the driver, directly behind the passenger, and you
just heard for yourself, this man said the left side of the seat.
You just heard Mr. Banks said he was running because he was scared for his life.
The police report states that he admitted to carrying a weapon, and
he used it for protection. Everything that's going on with this case,
he's been held for over two years. Everything that's going
on with this case is wrong. It's false.
They falsified the whole report. He stated he
seen a weapon in plain view, but tells me he had to put
something in my car, and I asked him what it is.
He tells me, "I'm not under arrest.
I need to search your car." If you see a weapon in plain view, why wouldn't
you go directly to recover the weapon?
Why would you tell me I'm not under arrest and you need to
search my vehicle? These prosecutors, these judges,
and these lawyers all needs to be held and accountable for
this at a higher standard This is not
acceptable.
I wish everyone can look into this case.
Thank you for your comment.
Go ahead.
Test, test, test, test.
Next, we'll have Melvin Bailey,
followed by George Blakemore.
Hey, good morning. I just want to know, alderman, if anybody from the law
department here? If no one from the law department here on the panel, I can
yield back.
Because, again, I'm still advocating for them vacant and
abandoned properties in our neighborhood.
I tell you, when I hired the young men on the new construction,
and if I'm developing, like I got a couple of properties, we breaking
ground in Alderman Irvin's ward. Now we're going to be breaking ground in
Jason Irvin's ward, coming soon to the South Side as well.
I don't want to build houses next to a vacant, abandoned house while we can just
take the whole block and hire folks.
It don't make any sense that we're not using the good
sense God have gave us to reduce this violence.
And I just don't understand it. And I said it the last time at City Council, but
thank the alderman who did sign my petition. Thank you very much.
And the ones that didn't sign it,
we going to double back at you so we can make sure we put it on the mayor's desk so
you guys can sign it, because we need to get a handle
in the 28th Ward,
like Alderman Irvin said.
When the properties, and let me just share this with you all real quick.
When you transfer the property over to the court system, I'm not having they back
at the court system. We'll come up with a RDA agreement, which is a redevelopment
agreement, recapture agreement, and an MOU.
That means you will hire 50% of your
workforce will go to someone in the community.
Someone that's suffering, one of the young men and women that's
suffering with social profiling. These the target areas that you will be hiring.
So we want to make sure that we can have the
implementation, that you're just not getting this property willy-nilly.
And just like the alderman's saying, these guys and women that we represent, they
have their own money.
We ain't asking the city for a dime.
We ain't asking the city for a penny.
Only thing we asking the city do is turn over them vacant and abandoned properties
so we can put some folks to work. I don't know about you all, man, but man, I get a
lot of phone calls from these young kids, man, from the South Side to the West
Side saying, "Man, is there any opportunity yet?
Do you have anything yet?" So man, I want to make sure that I'm doing my
job, and that's why I'm going to have them come down here with me because I don't
want to burn them out. I'd rather do the heavy lifting,
because if I bring them down here, man, half of the room would be scared the way
they looking.
Because they already high. They high from last night.
They medicating they whole process of what they going through with the
Molly, Percocet, and Xanax. Then now they got the pill machine
that they all pressing the pills all at once, because they talk to me.
They like, "Bro, we take this at once, and then once we drink, once we
medicated with drugs and alcohol, man, we get behind the car," and
that's why you got all of this
hit and run because they say, "Man, we can't see when we drive, but we get high
anyway." Because they going through trauma in our community.
They really going through trauma, man.
So that's something we all really need to think about when these kids come around.
Thank you for your comment. Next we have Mr.
George Blakemore, followed by Fred Cash.
Black faces in high places. That's your problem,
Black people. Anything that happened to a Black person,
sometime you got to look in the mirror at yourself.
And this man here, Jason Irvin,
you have poor Black leadership.
No Black leadership. So you under the
impression that you going to vote
for Walter Burnett,
and he's Black.
That Walter Burnett going to be looking out for the Black man interest.
Who put Walter Burnett in that position?
A white man.
Who put
this lady over here, Pat Dowell?
These are just
Black people that white people are using against
Black people.
So you have no leadership.
Well, the way it's set up, they have a machine and they slave people.
You slave a monkey, and the Democrats will
all vote for that monkey.
So the system is broken.
So I know that all of you hollering, "Go red, go red." What
about go Black?
Black is where it's at. Don't depend on the Democrats or
the Republicans. Trump said he's going to send them back.
He say, she say.
You can get them back. You can send them back.
But you welcome everybody in your community,
and if you put five or 10 Black people in one house,
they'll be fighting each other. These Mexican people work together.
You know why? They don't have the legacy of slavery.
Even though they might be poor, they never been enslaved in
Mexico.
So that legacy of slavery
and the audacity that a
young Black man would say, "Throw him out."
If I go over five minutes or one minute, throw him out, lock him up.
Have you heard of Uncle Tom, S***o,
Aunt Jemima? Did you know you can look good, you can talk good,
you can speak good, you can smell good, and be a piece of doo-doo, and you
can be a Black doo-doo.
So I understand exactly how the system don't
work for Black people
in high places, and it never will until you change
that mindset.
Birds of a feather flock together.
So you got all these Black faces. What about the-- Look at
your community.
Did they give all that money to the Black community?
That's your damn reparation.
That's all.
You're not going to get it.
Thank you, Mr. Blakemore.
Next, we'll have Fred Cash, followed by
Anat
Mar-
Get away
... Marhehit.
Good morning, aldermen and everybody.
My name is Fred Cash.
I'm 55 years old. I'm currently
with
cerebral palsy
all my life.
I'm coming to you all today because the system is really broken.
I didn't have any heat in my unit. I'm in a CHA building,
42nd and College. I haven't had any heat all night up under
East Lake Management CHA.
Y'all need to investigate that building because we don't have any heat.
Also, second, I'm trying to get relocated to the North
Side because I have underlying health conditions with
prostate cancer and everything, and the system is really broken,
you all. I don't understand. I never seen this before in my life.
We have to start taking care of the people that live here
first
before we start taking care of other people outside of
our country.
And it's really broken, and it's really sad.
And I'm getting fed up, and I'm getting p****d off
because I've been here all my life.
I never seen nothing like this before
in my life.
We have to start taking care of the people that live here
first
before we could start taking care of everybody else.
I've fallen into the cracks.
I remember the Harold Washington days. Come on, now.
Let's do it right. We have a
voting box, a ballot box.
Election day is coming, you all.
We don't work for you all. You all work for us. Everybody need everybody.
The funds need to start coming here.
Too many funds are going other places, and they're not getting to the constituents.
You aldermen, and I'm not downgrading no one,
you aldermen need to start taking care of your wards and people that live in them.
I'm one of them. I'm going to fight till the day I die
till we get it right.
I'm sick of it.
If I have to go to the national court or the presidency,
get a petition signed, this is ridiculous.
Take care of the ones that live here first
before take care of somebody else. That's all I got to say.
Thank you for your comment.
Next, we will have
Anat Marhehit,
followed by Erin,
last name start with an M.
Mahia? Okay, Erin Mahia.
You may proceed.
Thank you. I'm here to speak in support of the Affirmative Litigation
Department at the City of Chicago.
My name's Anat Margalit, and I am the director of the Consumer Practice Group at
Legal Aid Chicago.
Legal Aid Chicago is the legal services corporation for Cook County.
We provide free civil legal services to low-income
consumers who find themselves at risk of losing their income,
utilities, public benefits, and homes.
Many have been victims of predatory actors.
Over the years, we have worked with the Affirmative Litigation Department at the
city numerous times as our interests are aligned,
protecting at-risk Chicagoans from consumer fraud.
While Legal Aid Chicago can only represent one individual at a time and
has very limited capacity, the City Affirmative Litigation Department has been
able to bring its full enforcement abilities to the table.
One example
is
the injunction that they recently obtained in a lawsuit against Vision Property
Management and their affiliates.
Vision is well-known in the Chicagoland area and elsewhere around the country for
their predatory contracts for deed.
They have been sued by multiple state attorney generals, including in
Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin, and in Michigan by the
NAACP.
Vision purchased dozens of distressed Chicago
properties and rented them out through contracts for deed.
Vision collected the money through the lease payments to pay the property
taxes, but the taxes were never paid.
Numerous Chicagoans lost their homes and the equity that they had invested
in these properties.
In September of this year, the Affirmative Litigation Department obtained an
injunction ordering the payment of all sold taxes by Vision's
affiliates.
This injunction has already and will save the homes of numerous
Chicagoans who've been cheated by Vision.
The Affirmative Litigation Department is staffed with smart, compassionate lawyers
who get it, and we are so grateful to have them on our team fighting for the
consumer rights of Chicagoans. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. And our final speaker
today is Aaron Mahia.
You may begin.
Okay.
Yes, I came here to thank the Chicago City Council
and Mayor Brandon Johnson,
and even the Emperor Pritzker,
and even the Messiah Obama, for helping getting
my president, Donald John Trump, elected to be the
47th president of the United States of America.
The one-party system,
a totalitarian socialist.
You've put the people to the wall, and now you have an awakening.
You called down the thunder, and now you got it.
President Donald John Trump,
Kash Patel,
Pam Bondi, Tom Homan, and many others that
are rising up, they're coming, and hell's coming with them.
There's open exposure coming.
You see the Diddy
information, the Epstein, and it trickles down, and
it's not good.
The nation, all the big cities are run by a
totalitarian,
dark Democrat leadership and capitulating,
weak, worthless,
establishment, checkered pants, country club
GOP. And there's a one-party
system in all the big
cities, and Chicago's the belly of the beast.
Now,
this is not a Black and white situation.
It's good against evil.
And
I know there is racial situation. Not
trying to belittle that.
But
there's an awakening. The people have been provoked, and we, the
people,
are awake. And so on behalf of the Chicago MAGA
movement,
I want to thank you.
And most of them are former Democrats
because
they're in reality. They're not part of the establishment, the
hoity-toity establishment. And when we say we're
flipping Chicago red, that is not Republican red.
It's MAGA red. That's different. I said
the
Illinois, Chicago Cook County GOP, the
establishment checkered pants, country club establishment
GOP, they're worthless. They're
the capitulating guys for the dark,
vicious Democrats. We have a one-party
dictatorship over all the big cities.
You have the media. You're even in sports.
You have entertainment. You
demagogue everything. You can't even watch an
NFL game without us being lectured behind the football
helmet, all this politically correct garbage.
You're dictating to us.
Thank you for your comments.
This will conclude public comment.
Committee will stand at ease while the Department of Procurement Services comes in.
Matt.
You done?
Oh, you had raised your hand, that's all. Oh, okay. Go ahead. Okay.
Good morning.
CPO Roberts,
Department of Procurement Services, welcome.
We will begin with a short overview by the Council
Office of Financial Analysis, followed by your introduction of
your staff and members here in the well, as well as those that are in the box,
and give your opening statement, and we'll go into questions.
Director Oda Gray, please proceed.
Chairman Irving, Vice Chairman Lee, alderpersons, and guests,
good morning. My name is Janice Oda Gray, director of
COFA. We're going to look at a snapshot of the Department of Procurement
Services. For those alderpersons that'll be following with their COFA
book, it is on page 141.
Start?
The proposed fiscal year '25 budget is
14.0 million, a 4.3%
decrease over fiscal year '24.
The FTE for '25 is 131
compared to 136 in fiscal year '24,
which is a reduction of five FTEs.
The personnel expenses for fiscal year '25 is
12.2 million, and the non-personnel expenses
is 1.8 million.
For the fiscal year '25 budget, 79.3%
is from corporate funds. Thank you.
CPO.
Thank you, Chairman. Today, we have, to my right,
my first deputy, Tahita Hinton, and in the box, we have our
dynamic team. We have Courtney Giudice,
my legal counsel, Tammy Morgan,
managing deputy, Janna Williams, assistant procurement
officer, Lisa Freelon, deputy procurement officer,
Jesse Cortez, deputy procurement officer, Benjamin Ho,
deputy procurement officer, Lorelle
Blomuscher, deputy procurement officer,
Arthur Riley, deputy procurement officer, Mike Ritchie,
assistant procurement officer, Charles Coleman, manager of
compliance. And we also have in the audience
some of my team members, John O'Brien, Diana Garcia,
Fiona Dawson, Sip Isless,
Shadonna Mayweather, Stephanie P.,
and Veronica Smith, and Bill Dotson. Thank you.
Again, my name is
Charla Roberts. I'm the chief procurement officer for the City of Chicago.
I would like to thank Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chairman Ervin, Vice
Chairman Lee, and members of the council for allowing me to present on the
behalf of Procurement Services.
As the contracting authority for the city, we're here to provide a fair,
transparent, and equitable process where firms of
all types and all sizes can participate and
prosper.
My goal is to establish Chicago as a best-in-class model
for government contracting and economic empowerment.
I want to work with you to ensure DPS becomes the
example all other agencies look to for best practices,
innovative programming, and equitable opportunities for the
underrepresented communities.
My first day, I begun working to make this vision a reality.
I prioritize personally by meeting with
our partners to understand the areas of need as well
as strengths and opportunities
for improvement in the procurement process.
Utilizing information from these meetings, I developed a
comprehensive plan
focused on the following key strategic initiative:
increased opportunities. One was increased
opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses,
optimized customer service,
streamlined procurement processes, and cost savings strategies.
One of my top priority is to maximize
opportunities for minority and women-owned firms.
We've already instituted changes resulting in more opportunities for
certified firms to work on city contracts, an
increase in the number of certified firms, a streamlined
certification process, and increased outreach initiatives.
I am personally reviewing the minority, veteran, women-owned
business goals set on each DPS-issued contract,
and I'm working closely with other city departments on their contract
goals. For each contract, I look closely at the number
of certified firms in each areas to confirm the
goals set are genuinely reflective of the number of
available firms that are certified.
Utilizing this strategy, we've already added diversity goals to
several contracts that previously had no stated
goals and have increased goal percentages on other contracts.
At the time of contract renewal,
we are also assessing goals and looking at data analytics to
ensure appropriate goals are established on those contract
as well.
We are reviewing the certification process to remove barriers of entries
that impede small and diverse businesses from doing business with the city.
For example, we're currently researching removing the
certification fee.
We're closely
reviewing requests for new contracts to maximize
opportunities for both small and minority businesses to act as
prime contractors by leveraging the use of the
city's SBI-
Program, the midsize business initiative, and the
target market programs wherever possible.
Additionally, we recently created a fast-track
certification pilot program to make the certification process more
efficient and user-friendly.
When the pilot program is complete
in the first half of 2025, we will utilize that
information to institute overall changes
in the certification review process for all firms can benefit
from the reduced timelines.
We're also vigorously increasing outreach to small and
diverse firms, so firms in all 50 wards of Chicago
have the information they need to become certified and to participate in
city contracts. Recently, we have concentrated on
outreach efforts
on the City of Chicago's ACDB certification program
to maximize the number of firms who can participate in the Department of
Aviation's groundbreaking concessions RFP.
In the partnership with CDA,
we have conducted nine in-person ACDB workshops
in the north, south, east, and west regions of Chicago.
Further in partnership with the Department of Business Affairs and
Consumer Protection, we have conducted direct outreach to
restaurants, concessionaires to ensure they are aware
of the solicitation.
These efforts have resulted in DPS
receiving application from ACDB
firms at a historical rate. Since I've joined
DPS, we have received over 50 new
ACDB application, with the majority of those firms already
becoming certified.
I'm committed to DPS becoming a deeply rooted in all of
Chicago's community by regularly conducting
outreach to small and diverse firms in the community.
These efforts will provide firms with increased awareness of
opportunities for them to participate in city contracts,
as well as the tools and knowledge to
participate on such contracts. To further show our
commitment, DPS has
already conducted four additional--
Have already, I'm sorry. DPS has already four additional outreach events
planned for 2025 in various different automatic
communities across Chicago.
These events are planned in different regions of the cities, one per
quarter,
to ensure each ward receives support.
We look forward to working with each of you to plan further additional
outreach to best serve your constituents.
This year, the city has increased payments to MBE and
WBE firms. The city paid $1.3 billion
to prime contractors. Of those payments,
$600 million went to MBE and WBE
firms, reflecting a 5% increase from last year.
By implementing new strategies, including maximizing
goals on city contracts, removing barriers of entry
for small and diverse businesses, and increase outreach to small and
diverse firms, we expect the
numbers from this year to increase
exponentially in the upcoming years.
We will implement metrics to measure our success and report to you
the outcome.
Another one of my priorities is providing superior customer service to our
partners in our department units.
We are unique in that we serve
nearly every city department daily.
I am utilizing information gathered from meetings with our partners
as well as data
analytics to timely meet requests.
At the start of each year, I
will meet with each department to understand their needs so we can better serve
them. For example, I've already met with the water department
to determine how we can be more strategic with sourcing
M&WBEs and how we can create mentor
protege programs to create new opportunities
for M&WBEs in spaces that currently have limited
minorities engagement.
Our third focus is in line with Mayor Brandon Johnson's Cut the
Tape initiative, is streamlining DPS operation to
reduce solicitation timelines. To further
this goal,
we're reviewing all of DPS' current processes and policies
to update them to improve inefficiencies and to create workflows
that will better assist our customers and increase transparency
on contract timelines.
We're also developing a robust internal training program to
ensure our team works as efficiently as
possible and closely examining how we can
leverage current technologies to better serve the city.
Finally, I am committed to maximizing cost-saving strategies.
I've reviewed
current city processes and identified various measures to reduce city
spending. To achieve this goal, we are utilizing the following
measures. Aggressively negotiating with vendors to ensure that
the city is receiving competitive pricing.
Incorporating language in solicitation and contracts which includes the city
with rebates and high-volume contracts.
Three, requesting reductions in pricing during contract
renewal periods.
Four, strategic sourcing implementation.
And five, partner with user departments to increase the number of
revenue-generating contracts
the city holds. In closing, DPS, we
are committed to transformation and deeply
integrating DPS into the city communities so we can
provide the city best-in-class services.
I plan to work with you and our customers to transfer
DPS into a department that will act as a
vehicle to create generational wealth for all businesses,
especially those in underserved communities.
I look forward to partnering with each
and every one of you
as we work to continuously to improve and meet Chicago's
needs. Thank you.
Thank you, CPO Roberts, and welcome.
I forget, this is
your first rodeo?
Yep.
All right.
Well, not my first. Well, my first rodeo here.
Is it your first ro-- okay.
Just that.
All right. You got your seatbelt on?
I-
Okay. All right. Very well.
Better be on, you know.
We're going to start this morning.
Chairman Metz, Committee on Contract and Equity.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning,
CPO,
and welcome to your first budget-
Thank you
... hearing.
Our first question would be
one that we always want to know, is
if you could give us, what are percentage of contracts?
And if you could break that down for me for your department.
Okay, thank you. Let me gather that information.
Okay, well-
So the city of Chicago has spent roughly $1.3 billion
with primes.
Six hundred million of that was spent with minority and women-owned vendors.
So the breakdown of that 600 million,
508 million was spent with
MBE firms, which was a 5% increase from
2003. Ninety-one million was spent with WBE firms,
which is
the same percentages
payment to WBEs in 2003. African American,
of that 508 million, African
Americans received 254 million.
Hispanics received 178 million.
Asian-owned firms received 106 million.
And Native American payments was roughly 7,000.
Do you have the percentage?
Oh, yeah. Sure.
The percentage for
African Americans of the... No.
The percentage for the MBEs, 30% of the city total payment to prime
contractors.
African Americans percentage was 19%, Hispanic
13%, Asians is 8%.
Okay.
And to add to that, in the area of construction,
to break it down,
construction payments was 273 million.
M&W received 110 million. The MBE was
91 million,
which is 34% of the construction payment.
The WBE is 18 million, 7% of the construction payment.
As we further break down the African American spend,
African Americans had 18 million,
7% of the construction spend. Hispanics, 52 million,
19% of the construction spend. And Asian American
MBE payments was 31 million, 12%
of construction payment.
Okay. I
want to know,
what was your thought about
compliance being centralized
in the City of Chicago?
Um, I thought-
And the reason I ask that question is
we have
various departments who are handling their
compliance.
Are you keeping data or track of all of that information that should be
under procurement?
Do you get all of it from other departments?
So to answer your question, I do believe in centralized data,
especially when you're trying to defend a program if we're ever challenged, and
we do not currently receive all the data.
That's interesting because as we know,
that this program for
DPI
is being investigated, and when it come to the
City of Chicago, we need to have a central
location with true numbers
that we can defend
if the investigation were to take place.
And I think that should be
held up under Contracts, Oversight and Equity
department.
And may I ask you, do
you have sufficient staff
to complete the work that you're looking to do?
Do you feel like you have complete staff?
To accomplish the work that the office is required
to do, we do not have the
sufficient staff to do that.
Okay.
Can you give-
We do not have sufficient staff to-
You don't have.
We do not.
Because we're sort of behind, if you
ask me. I think that
procurement should do a lot more with all the contracts that we
have here in the City of Chicago.
It should be more centralized, where
we could go to one department. Speaking of that, let me say
technology. How
does technology impact your ability to deliver
procurement and compliances in your department?
Thank you for the question, Alderman.
The state of the technology of the City of Chicago
is a 20-year-old system, which
hugely impacts how we deliver our services.
So when you're talking about streamlining contracts, being able to
reduce timelines,
the technology that we have in our office today impact how we deliver
that.
Running reports. One of the aldermen called the other day, requested a
report, and if we had up-to-date
technology, the report should have been done with the
click of a finger, but it takes us several days because we have to
run reports and then manually do some things.
In the year of 2025,
the City of Chicago is the third largest city, and we
should have
technology that supports
the work that we do. And it takes us three days and
sometimes more to run a report for the alderman.
So that's just an example how technology
impacts what we do. And when we're talking about reducing
timeline, that's going to impact that.
Well, if that's the case, then technology also
hinders you from
getting
contractors paid on time.
Is that a fair
to say?
You're correct.
Oh, okay.
I have a concern in terms of
how
we're tracking
all of the contracts,
and
I wanted to see... Well, this is another
topic I bring up with
Ballas.
I want to know why we don't have that in Contracts
Oversight and Equity where we could track all of the numbers
at one location, and opposed to being in housing.
But I bring that up with
that group at the time because you were just coming in.
But let me say thanks to
Tahir, and Tammy, and yourself, all of you
for being very helpful to me in just
coming in.
I know we need a lot of work. I know my colleagues,
we need more information.
Contracts is dollars,
lots and lots of dollars we putting out here in the city.
And for a community to not know the process
of even being certified or, and thank you,
Tammy, for coming out, you and Lisa, to do this workshop
with us. I think those need to be
did more often, not only in my ward.
And
once every three months is not enough when we're already behind.
So, I think that should be at least
one held in each ward twice a month.
Now, that require more resources for you to have in your department to be able
to do that. You need more staff peoples to do it.
So maybe
it's something that we need to talk about because how can
one
get a contract if
your system is not set up to follow it in a way that
they could navigate through that process without somebody
giving them some direction? So, I'm
looking forward to continuing to work with you and your staff, hoping
that
we can see some results. I'm glad to see that the number,
what I had been hearing, have improved
since that time. So ditto to you for getting up the
Black contractors' numbers. That's what we want to hear.
But I think there's a lot more that we can do on that.
And just because we're Black, we've been at the back, and we don't want to keep
staying at the back. Not when it come to these dollars.
We want to move up forward. So thank you for your work, and I'm continuing to
look forward to work with you and your staff.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Chairman Mitch.
You stated in
answering one of Chairman Mitch's question as it relates to level of staffing,
and I want to, I guess, get clarity on that.
Is it that you all don't feel you have enough staff with what you
have today? Or if we look at, because you guys have a significant
number of vacancies in your department, about 30%
of the department is vacant. Are you all actively hiring
for those, and you feel once you hire everybody in, you guys will be adequately
staffed? Or is this just right now just trying to hire in the people that you need
based on the vacancies that you have?
Maybe a combination of both. Because every time there's an unfunded
mandate that's passed that impacts procurement
services that requires an FTE to do that particular
job, that's a variable that has an impact on the
staff that we need to
manage all the incentives. And every time there's a mandate
that's passed that impact procurement services, we see that as
an additional FTE to do the work.
As Chairman
Mitch stated earlier, the amount of outreach that
needs to be done to get in a community that's not a
part of those positions that those vacancies, the amount
of outreach that needs to get done to educate and get them in the
community and train in the 50 wards.
So if Alderman Mitch is stating that she need at least more than once
a month, think about the other communities and the underserved
communities that need outreach, and those people are there.
So if you think fundamentally what we have and the work that
really needs to be done and the compliance that really needs to be done, that's
what I mean about we don't have adequate staffing
to
do the work that needs to get some of the
success that we would like to have.
Okay. No, I understand that, yeah.
Well, I think maybe we need to look at some of these vacancies and
potentially reclassify
where the resources are going, if you feel that is the
case. But again, I just wanted to get some clarity on that, seeing
the number of vacancies that existed in the department.
So,
good.
Chair Dial, followed by Vice Mayor Burnett.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hi, Commissioner Roberts.
Good morning-
Morning
... to you and your staff. First, I just want to compliment you on
the
statement.
This is, I think, the first time I really feel like there's been a
roadmap on how you're approaching
the department and the priorities that you've set.
It's very well-written and very clear, and I just wanted to acknowledge that.
Thank you.
Just want to
clarify a couple of numbers. When you were giving out the
construction numbers, you mentioned 273
million, 110 million, and 91
million, but I didn't quite get what the...
And then 18 million. Could you just go over those numbers again?
Thank you, Alderman. So maybe let me clarify that.
So we spent 1.3 billion with primes overall
in our overall spending.
Of that spend, some was done in construction and
some was done in non-construction.
Right, I got the 600 million.
So
construction spend,
273. Minority and women received
110 million.
MBEs, 91.
Okay. I got it.
And WBEs. So I think I may have left out
the non-construction. That was one billion, and the minority
and women received 489 million
of that non-construction dollar amount.
And MBEs received 416 million, and
WBEs received $72 million of that payment.
And of that breakdown in non-construction, African Americans received
236 million, which is
22% of the non-construction payments.
Hispanics received 126 million of
that payment, which equates to 12%.
And Asian
MBE firms received 74 million, which is
7% of the non-construction. Sorry about that.
I did leave out the non-construction.
Thank you.
Chairman Mitz asked my question on the
centralizing and monitoring of contracts, so I won't go there.
The construction and MBE firms
that you're growing, I
saw that in your
report.
Can you tell me, and thank you, Chairman Irvin,
for
looking at the vacancies, at the 37 vacancies, in terms
of
how we might reclassify that so you can get more support
for the things that you need to do. Can you give an example of what an unfunded
mandate is?
An unfunded mandate could be all the incentives that we have that we have to
follow.
If there's
an incentive, and if we don't
match an FTE with that incentive, that we have
to ensure that we are reviewing those
incentives, and if we put that in our
solicitation document, we have to monitor, track, and follow
that incentive through the life of a contract, and it could take an FTE
with all the contracts that we have going forward to process that.
And those come up because you're
putting a closer eye-
Exactly
... on the contracts that are coming through.
So all of our contracts going through, we will be monitoring them,
and we will be following everything through.
Okay. You talked about, in your statement,
the fact that you're trying to get rid
of some of the delays in your processing of
contracts. Can you give some example of some areas that
you currently see where
work is needed?
So a standpoint of delays, for example, we created a
memo for our revenue-generating type of contracts that come
into the office.
Since we knew it is
connected to a budget line item, we see those contracts, that
we're fast-tracking those contracts that come through the process.
We're working in collaboration with the law department to see
where our law team may review something and
are we reviewing some of the similar things from a legal
standpoint, and
what they need to review versus what we need to review, and how we could reduce
the legal eye on some of these contracts as they move
forward.
And internally, we have some pilot
procurements that I'm having the time look at to see
the realistic time that it really takes for a procurement to
come in, how do we reduce the time when it's out on the
street, how to reduce the time between the question and answer period,
and working together from that standpoint.
So we're looking at various different things, and we also have some active
procurements that we are looking at to see realistically what
a real time could look like on a more complicated procurement
versus a less complicated procurement.
Okay.
So we have some test things in place.
Thank you for that. I
think I sent you an article when the judge
in Kentucky and Indiana
struck down the DBE program there,
concerned about the impact that not just that
legal decision, but also the
apparent movement by the Trump administration to reduce
DEI,
a focus in the country in general. What
are you doing to protect the City of Chicago
and our program?
Great question. One of the things we're doing is ensuring that we have a
narrowly tailored program, and I guess that kind of goes back to the question that
Alderman Mickes asks is when they review these types of
program, they're going to come to us and see
how we act and narrowly tailored. And it goes back to
having a centralized compliance unit
to
do compliance on such contracts that are let.
One of the things that we're doing
is
moving forward, we will track
all subcontractors in our C2 NOW system.
Currently, we only track subcontractor payments to minority and women-owned
firms, but when they review these types of programs, they will look
at all types of firms that receive contracts.
So moving forward on
not just here on the contracts that we have lets, but we're going to make the
recommendation to the other departments that
are currently doing compliance, that they track that information as well.
So when they look at the city as a whole, they're not just going to look at DPS,
they're going to look at the City of Chicago's spend.
And normally they look at it in the construction space, and we
currently don't
review all of that information. So
another thing that we're going to look at is the disparity study was let.
We're going to review
the information and recommendations to ensure that we follow the
recommendations from that disparity study.
And moving forward, we are also going to see
if we need to conduct a new disparity study
because that information that was
conducted was done in the area of construction.
And we may
do a disparity study that not only includes construction, but professional
services.
Professional services. Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
I wanted to also acknowledge the fact that you were
reviewing getting rid of the certification fee.
That's been something that a former member of this body
had been calling for for the last three years.
Do you know how much money,
what the revenue impact of that would be?
I think the number's no more than 60, less than
$70,000, my recollection in conversation with the
team.
Thank you. I just wanted to get the number out there in the public domain, because
it's not a lot of money, and we really should be
getting rid of that certification fee.
You mentioned strategic sourcing. I just didn't know what that is.
Could you give an example of...
Can you talk about that for the rest of my time?
Strategic sourcing is a
little bit different from purchasing.
Strategic sourcing is where we look at departments that are buying
similar things, and that instead of two
departments put a PO out, and then
they buy off that particular procurement.
We will look at do surveys for all
of our departments that are buying similar things, and we will put contracts in
place that when you buy in bulk, you drive down the cost,
and that-
Okay. So I got it now. So that's like low-hanging fruit.
That's not something we typically do?
We do it in a smaller sense. We do it from a standpoint
that a user department will run a tab to see
which departments have procured off that particular PO, but
we're going to do it on a broader sense, not just those departments that may have
bought off that PO, but that are doing similar procurements across
the board, and then bring those together to drive down the cost.
Okay. Mr. Chair, can I just ask for information through the chair, one
piece of information? Okay.
You mentioned that you've received over 50 new ACDBE
applications.
Can I get a list of
those companies through the chair?
Sure. No problem.
All right. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor, followed by Alderman Quinn, you have anything?
Followed by O'Shea.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Commissioner.
First of all, I'd be remiss if I did not thank you and your staff.
You have some great people working for you.
Matter of fact,
Elisa just helped me to
get two minority businesses certified, so I
appreciate
every time I call folks on your staff, they're there to help.
Got a concern about the compliance
situation.
Even with Bally's and me and Alderman Mickes talking about it right
now,
your department don't keep up with that. Am I correct?
We're not tracking the compliance, but we do work closely with
some of the stakeholders
on that.
So why? I just don't understand why.
So I'm on the planning commission.
Um-
And I was on the planning commission when we
set a policy that
we encourage businesses to have
25 and five, even on private developments.
And
to keep compliance on that, that goes through housing.
How does that go through housing?
That's a fair question, and it was predated myself,
that agreement that was signed with the City of Chicago and Bally's, so
I don't have that answer.
So,
and I don't know, maybe this is a question for the chair or maybe a question
for the law department.
Could
we just put that in your department with procurement?
If that's the will of the body,
that's your choice.
So,
I'm not just talking about just Bally's.
I'm speaking in terms of all of the compliances with
all of the developments that are going in the City of Chicago.
Are you ready, would your team be ready to deal with those
things if we put that in your department?
We definitely have the level of expertise to get the job done, and
coupled with the staffing, I'm confident that we could get that done.
So would that be
a
lateral switch? You know what I'm saying?
You just take it over and do it, or what? How would that work?
That is a great question. I'm not totally familiar with the processes of the
city, but I guess you guys would make an assessment and you guys would take
it to whatever body and you'd vote on it.
But
that's the will of the body, and that's what your desires are.
And if it's housed in the Department of Procurement Services, we do have the level
of expertise to get everything done.
Okay.
So I think that's something we need to look at because it's
just baffling that housing would
keep compliance on
these type of things when they should be focusing on getting housing
built in the city.
And procurement should be focusing on dealing with compliances, not
only
with big developments, but everything throughout the city.
So,
and I want to apologize, I was trying to keep up with
some of your numbers, and I just want to hear the percentages
of
African American in
construction, African American
percentages, not
money-wise, with
non-construction also.
Not a problem.
African Americans in the construction space, only payments,
received 7% of payments,
and
for non-construction, African Americans received
22% of payments. And payments mean just payments
up to date, and these could vary because we're also
monthly monitoring and really getting onto vendors that they
input their payments. So at this point of time is
22% and 7% in construction.
Which is up from last year.
Up from what?
2%.
But here, we do have a plan in place that we're going to get out in the
community, and I extremely confident that these numbers will
increase
in the next years to come.
So some of this is not really on procurement,
some of it is with the departments?
This is just a snippet. So when we talk about our numbers, you're
talking about procurement numbers.
So when you talk about that big casino construction project, that number
could look differently. When you talk about
what happens
in other spaces, this is just
what we do in Department of Procurement Services.
So overall, if you tally the numbers up together, they may look
differently.
So,
how do you procurement
in, let's say,
I don't know, transportation,
right? How do
you deal with their procurement?
We track their numbers.
You track their numbers.
That's correct.
But they pick the contractors and what have you, things
like that, or do procurement pick the contractor?
There's a process that we work with them, and there's a
low bid process, and there's an RFP process.
And we're part of that process with them.
Okay.
All right. So,
I appreciate everything you're doing.
What do you think we can do to make those numbers go up?
I just need your support and give me the staff that we need, and I think we have
the level of expertise to get out there, get in the community, to
educate the underserved community.
We're going to use all our procurement power,
meaning use all the
target market programs, the small business initiatives,
as well as the mid-size business initiatives to
increase that number. So if you get us the team and
resources that we need internally, I'm confident our staff
have the level of expertise and the leadership that I bring, I'm confident
those numbers will increase.
All right. Thank you, Commissioner.
I had something else, but I can't remember what it was, but thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Next we'll have Alderman O'Shea, followed by
Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman.
Morning.
Good morning. How are you?
I'm doing well.
I'd like to start out with,
over the last several years, I think it's no secret that
Department of Procurement Services has failed.
And so you had a lot of work to do
right out of the gate just to start to make up the difference.
With so much going on
with so many different departments,
can you go a little bit more detail on your plans for
outreach initiatives?
Our plan for outreach and initiatives, we're going to use that, number one.
We are going to host
at least four in the aldermanic wards, the north, south,
east, and west, to ensure that the underserved communities and all
the communities are aware on how to
do procurement with the City of Chicago.
And also in that outreach process, we will
inform the community on our certification processes,
including
whatever the certifications that you may qualify for, whether it's
minority, women, ACDBE, DBE, we will educate the
community and assist them with getting certified with the City of
Chicago.
Historically, we've hosted two big outreach initiatives,
one in the area of construction, and
another in the area of
professional services that we just had a successful event
this September. Going forward, we will use data analytics to do
more targeted outreach and smaller targeted outreach
in the community and out in
general to target
firms, like bringing smaller firms in and introducing them to some
of the larger firms that they have not historically done business
with. So if you look at construction, we'll invite some of the
larger prime vendors that we do business with today and
have them create mentor-protege relationships and adopt smaller
firms that have not historically been utilized on the City
of Chicago contracts and create those relationships so as we move forward,
when we have contracting goals on contracts, they have those
partnerships with minority and women-owned businesses, and they're building
those relationships. So we're going to have that
strategic, more
smaller,
targeted outreach. We're also going to work with our community
partner and our assist agencies to help build small and
minority women-owned firms that may not have the capacity
today
to participate on some of these opportunities where we're
deficient in some of the spaces that they don't currently
exist. So our community partners like HACEA, Chicago
Minority Supplier Development Council, the Women Business Development Centers, and
the like, we will work with them to help build the capacity of these
firms. We will also use our resources that we've built
over the years,
and there are several capacity-building programs out there that
minority and women-owned vendors may not be aware of today, get them
registered in those program so when it's time to bid on some
contracts with the City of Chicago, they'll be at least equipped to
bid, and they'll start building those relationships with some of the larger prime
vendors where they don't currently have relationship.
Thank you.
When you came in, obviously,
I believe it's safe to say there was a bit of disarray within the department.
Would you say you've been able to hire,
bring people in,
enough support to carry out your mission?
At this time,
we're not able to hire
yet because when we came in, I think a couple of weeks later, we
implemented the freeze. However,
after the freeze is lifted, some of those vacancies, we
have an aggressive hiring plan to hire some of those
vacancies. And some of them were in the process, so
just has been stopped at this time.
However, once it's lifted, it is our goal to continue
that hiring process with some of those vacancies
that are out there to fill those roles.
Would it be fair to say that because some of those vacancies aren't
filled,
that is having an adverse effect on the success
of what you're trying to accomplish?
I think manpower is always key
in how you get things done. So,
if you have more men to carry something, it makes it definitely easier to get
things done. So
I do believe that
as soon as the freeze is lifted, our goal is to
continuously to
aggressively hire
some of those staffs that we so desperately, critically need.
I think it's important that we make sure that
this department, your department,
is staffed at a level that we can make sure that we're
focusing on the things that,
again, not to belabor the point,
sat by the wayside the last 18 months, 24 months.
And as this hearing carries out for the next hour, two hours,
we're going to hear that more and more, how important that is.
So
whatever I can do to be helpful
in supporting you.
And when I say that, I speak for many of the people in this room.
Appreciate your work, appreciate your staff.
I know it's been a difficult
couple of years for some of you, but
I think we're starting to turn the corner.
Thank you very much. Thanks, Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman.
Alderman Lopez, followed by Alderman Moore.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, members of the committee.
Good morning to everyone here from procurement.
Ms. Roberts, I first off want to thank you for coming to my office.
We had a very productive conversation.
I believe that there are many issues that I
think that
we can work on
together. I want to echo the comments of
my colleagues who've said that we'd like to see some streamlining
of the fractured nature of procurement addressed.
Having
several mini procurements across this
multi-billion dollar agency makes no sense and doesn't allow
us to truly capture and monitor our progress or
find areas where we are lacking. And I think that that is a goal
that all of us want to see.
Some of the concerns though that I have, and
as it relates to budget is
all of us will have questions about procurement and our ability to attract and our
ability to execute.
But in order to do all those things, you have to have employees that are there to
do those things. And as I'm looking at a 41% vacancy
rate, what are those positions in?
Good question. Let me grab the doc, the sheet for you
of those vacancies.
Do we have-
In rough approximation. I don't need specifics because I think we have-
They're across the board. We currently have contracts in the
contracting unit. We have some spec writer vacancies, some auditor
vacancies. We currently have some compliance vacancies, so there's
vacancies on
both sides of the unit.
Okay.
How long have those positions been vacant?
Have they been posted?
I don't know, but they were vacant when I came into the office, so I don't
know why they were not filled. That predated me.
But we are trying aggressively.
When I first came, we did
publish several of those positions to be filled.
We have some in the pipeline that we're currently trying to fill.
So after the-
Hire freeze
... freeze is lifted, hire freeze is lifted, we plan to
fill those positions. And the ones that are not in the pipeline,
we're going to put them out. We follow the process.
Didn't want to over-inundate the human resource department.
But we critically need these positions.
But our plan is to have all of those position filled
before the first quarter is over.
Well.
All of them.
Thank you. And allow me to say, I don't care if you have to inundate the human
resources department because this is billions of dollars that
we have
going out the door that we are
making mistakes and things are falling through the cracks on.
Most notably, we see where bids are-- We are literally
paying double
for bids that are going out.
As we've seen,
I believe there is a water RFP that's out right now where
three
companies bid.
Two apparently bid in what appears to be nothing short of
a scheme to try to corner the pricing, to fix
the pricing.
And a responsible bidder gave a price that was
literally half of what the other two were doing.
And yet the higher bid
was accepted because of a technical issue that could've been resolved fairly
easily if we had individuals working with our bidders to ensure that things
were being submitted and addressed.
That error is going to cost taxpayers
20-plus million dollars more just for that singular
contract. And I know that we have talked about reviewing and
making sure that we're getting the best deals possible.
And I think that
having a fully staffed department is the only way that we're
able to catch these things and to address these things, and do what your charge
is, which is to make sure that we are
being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, getting the most responsible,
lowest bids for what we're asking for.
Additionally,
it also is what I think is hindering our ability to attract
more WMBE participation.
We have heard about trying to build capacity.
We know that that's an issue for us.
We know, and you and I have talked about this with regarding to some of the caps
and things of that nature. But oftentimes, when it comes to
WMBE
opportunities, sadly,
we tend to get
siloed.
You will have
contracts for custodial work
targeting African Americans, landscaping targeting Latinos,
and I hate to think that that's all that we can do.
We know that there's so much more we can do, whether it's being GCs, whether it's
focusing on some of the professional services and things of that nature.
So I I would really press on you
that
working with this body,
streamlining procurement across all departments to give you a
better sense of what's going on,
where waivers are happening, where violations are happening, where recruitment
is not happening, how we are expanding outward to ensure that we are
using the bill-- How much do you put out in RFPs
a year? How much does procurement cover in a year out the door?
The spend is probably a little bit more, but just roughly we spent on
procurement is $1.3 billion.
So we spend $1.3 billion,
which is the best economic driver that we can do,
right? That's almost the entirety of the
property tax levy goes out the door in spend through your department.
We need to be able to make sure that that money's getting and lifting up
Chicagoans, that we're doing what we need to do.
And I think that
any hindrance, from a budgetary standpoint, if there's one department
that doesn't need a cut, it's yours.
If there's-
Amen.
You're probably the only department to agree with me 100% today.
But we need to make sure that we're doing that because
those opportunities to lift communities, to help
elevate individuals, even talking about
buildings when we come to securing properties.
All of those things are things that are missed opportunities if we are not fully
engaging, reaching out, and putting our tax dollars to work.
And that's over a billion a year that we are not
on top of. So
don't be afraid to push,
don't be afraid to ask, because I think that's one thing that everybody in
this room can agree on when it comes to your department.
I think there are definitely things that we'd like to see a tighter control on.
Again, like I said, making sure that we are being responsible, getting the best
bid, and putting people back to work across all departments.
I would love for you
to actually weigh in on the water department's inability to do work
because of outstanding IEPA issues with
trees and water mains and things of that nature,
because we are losing money as well.
And then lastly, to
focus on our WMBE subcontractors and pushing forward
on direct pay to them so that they are not negatively
impacted by GCs who are in
dispute and not getting paid, who can wait out,
who can weather the wait,
while our WMBEs cannot.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman. Alderman Moore followed by Alderman Villegas.
Thank you so much, Chairman. Good, it's probably afternoon
now, CPO Roberts. Appreciate
you and your entire team
for the work that you all are doing.
Let me, before I get into some questions,
echo what my colleague,
Chairman Dowell said about
laying out a clear roadmap. I cannot
express how important that is, and the fact that you
have one that is so
understandable
is a tribute to
the person that you are and your qualifications.
And we really
commend the mayor for selecting you for this
position.
With that said,
I used to work for the Chicago Housing Authority, and
as a development manager,
one of the things that we had to follow was
the HUD regulations. And
for all of us that were successful, the people that were successful,
they knew those HUD regs. I probably wasn't the greatest one
with knowing HUD regs. When I think of people like Shea Onobasandjo, who's gone
on to be extremely successful. Jessica Caffrey, who's
now
over at Cook County
Land Bank.
A couple of others
who just went on to do some great things.
I truly believe that until you know your job
well and know the laws around your job, you
cannot do it effectively.
I don't think I've met anyone
in a long time that understands the regs and
can articulate the regs from a procurement
standpoint
like you can. And it's not just articulating them,
but understanding them as well. People can read and quote scripture, but they don't
understand scripture.
And people can do that with the regulations.
And so you,
no matter what,
as we sit here as aldermen or other people, we got different
ways of managing and gets things done and pushing for things.
But in order to really do a job effectively, you have to understand
those regulations. And with your knowledge of that,
tell me,
what are the top three
things you probably saw when you got here that you
felt need improvement and the things that you
know that you can do going forward, you saying
realistically, "Hey, with what I have in place now, these are the
goals I set." And we've
heard what you said in terms of more
staff and that's up to us.
Bottom line, that's up to us from a council standpoint. We can control that.
But the top three things that you got in here based on your knowledge and the
things that you've done at your previous assignment saying, "Hey-"
This is what can get us to a certain number.
If you know that number
based on what you have now,
state that in terms of increased
contracting goals or anything of what you
just saw for improvement.
Can you talk through that?
Thank you, Alderman Moore. One of the things that if
I think about when I first walked into the office, or I was
having a meeting with someone on the Mayor's
Johnson Cut the Tape program, and one of the things the young
lady asked for, and I don't recall her name, is she asked me for your standard
operating procedures. And I felt inadequate because
I could not provide her standard operating procedures.
So,
the way I manage and the way I'm going to deliver with my team is I'm
focused on the three Ps: people, process, and performances.
So we've built in a whole mission and
a strategic plan on
people, process, and performance.
And one of those three Ps that I focus on
is those standard operating procedures that we are aggressively
meeting biweekly in the morning, and the team is coming in, and we're going to
have these things done to
create standard operating procedures for all the processes
within the procurement department, from an administrative standpoint to
the certification standpoint, compliance standpoint, and even on how we
do contracting. So in that process, you'll be able to--
I'm a numbers game, data game. Things that can be measured
can be improved. We don't have any accountability right now
because we don't have those standard operating procedures.
So when you say when you walk in, that's one of the things I was disappointed that
we didn't have. However, it put us in a position that
we can create the ones and make them better and make them better that work for us
today. Investing in our people
because people is what we have to
carry out these processes and the mission.
So, that's extremely important to me that we have professional
development and give them the training that they need, not just from a
contracting standpoint, but from a compliance standpoint, to ensure
that our compliance team, they're reviewing these certifications, that they
understand that when we ask for
taxes, what we're looking at in those taxes.
Educating them that as the world turns and we grow and things look
different, we're growing with that process to ensure that we are
certifying firms in the right
NAICS codes and the different codes.
So,
and then performance. My thing is we will be putting metrics in
place so
things that I say, I want you guys to know what we say.
And so we'll be putting metrics in place, and we'll be reporting that out to you.
We want to be transparent so you know exactly what we'll be doing, that it's
not at the end of the year, you guys will say, "Hey, what has procurement been
doing?" We're going to report that to you because we want to be transparent.
We want to work with you so you could understand that there may be some
pitfalls in some of the aspirations that we have within the office because we
may not have the staff that we need, or we may not have the funding or the
adequate. So we want to report to you that if there are pitfalls, what were
those pitfalls? What were the variables that attribute to those pitfalls?
So,
those three Ps, the people, process, and performance, that's what's going to
be our driver within
procurement services.
And we're working diligently to
create the framework of our
strategic plan.
Thank you. And I appreciate that answer because
usually we have to pool and force people to do reporting, and the fact that you
want to voluntarily do it because it's the right thing to do to not only help
us understand and us also being a part of the process, but also for
the procurement department to succeed.
The buying guide,
something that I give out to businesses, and
I tell them, "Hey, go with this buying guide," but I don't ever follow up
on it myself. Can you tell me how
consistent are we with that buying guide?
Like if something is supposed to be a procurement, supposed to be coming up in Q3
that it does, versus going into the next year
or not happening at all. Because if I'm telling these people,
"This is what you follow, and this is how you can get some contracts," I want to
make sure that it's working. Can you speak to that?
So we do distribute our buying plan four times
a year, each quarter. But what we're going to do going forward, we're going to
break that buying plan down. That's one of the things, initiatives that
we'll be working on, meeting with each departments that
outline what they provide me to in those buying plans.
And what we plan to do is break that buying plan down per
department,
so it's more edible to the underserved community.
Exactly what you said, Alderman. We put in a buying plan that we're going to buy
these things. But we're going to work ahead of time of meeting with
the end users to ensure that when we're
buying it in a community that we could connect something back that
this is in a buying plan. We're going to say it was going to be procured this
time. And if it's not, we'll put it on the second quarter buying
plan. But we're going to take those things out of that buying plan and bring them
to the community and make them into bite-sized pieces that
is more edible and user-friendly and bring it
into the community so you can understand that.
We will be sending you those DPS alerts
to your team
when those things come out from the water department that was outlined in the
buying plan. And maybe going forth, my team could
do it a little differently how we're doing it
today,
so that you'll know what was outlined in a buying plan
We could put that in a DPS alert to your
unit so they'll know exactly, check these off, these things have been
procured, this is when they're coming up, and make it more
sizable for your constituents. But we will
look at it differently because we do put the buying plan out, and I understand
the concern you have, how do we know, and how do we know those things are
being procured and what's happening.
So we will look at that to see how we make it more feasible.
All right. And I think my last two questions, if I get to it.
This
C2 system, can you explain that system to me and its purpose?
Our C2 system is our contract and compliance
and certification
system. It's where we receive all our
certifications for the minority and women ACDB.
So it's our
certification clearing house, if you want to call it.
And then we also track our minority and women
participation contracts
in the C2 system.
So not-
So it's a contract-
... cutting you off
... and compliance monitoring system.
I get it. So now when you were talking about systems, is this a system
you support?
We do support it, and it does needs updates.
Okay. All right. And in terms of payment audits,
how often do we do payment audits?
Monthly. All right. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
You good?
You got something else?
Mm-mm.
Okay.
Alderman Villegas followed by Alderman Laspada.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon, CPO
and staff.
Where are we with the veterans program,
and how many certified veteran-owned businesses do we have to
date?
The current veterans program is a pilot program that
sunsets in June of 2025.
But I believe we have enough data that my department, we're not going to
look to
reinstate a pilot program. We want to create a
program
just as we have for the
minority and women-owned program.
Currently, we do have participation goal on
our construction projects, and we are
implementing veteran goals on our non-construction
projects as well.
We do outreach to our veteran. As a matter of fact, we have a
veteran outreach tomorrow,
and
the focus of this veteran initiative is
to get more veterans interested in doing business with us,
getting them certified, and educating them on the opportunities that
they have. We currently have
128 certified veteran-owned firms with the
City of Chicago. We're in the process of
renewing the partnership with Cook County,
where last year we only accepted their
minority and women-owned vendors through
the reciprocal program. This year, we're looking
at to accept the veteran-owned certified
vendors as well.
That's from Cook County. Are we also taking a look at the
state's program as well, and see if there's some reciprocity there?
Yes. The law currently states that we should accept the State of
Illinois certification. However, there is probably some
language within the municipal code that we have to fix before we
accept that. But it is our true intent to accept the
State of Illinois certification as the law states, but
there's a little piece that we have to fix before
we do that.
Cool. Thank you. And I would like to work with you on that legislation.
I brought that forward
maybe five or six years ago,
the VBE program. So I'd like to work with you on codifying it,
eliminating the pilot, and making it part of our
procurement opportunities.
Two real quick questions.
So small businesses within the city,
they're having a hard time with payment.
What are we doing to expedite the payment process?
And I know that it's a
tricky question because sometimes the smaller subs don't have a
direct contract with us. The prime is the entity that has a contract
with us. But what are we doing to ensure that
we're not putting these subs in a situation where they're having to tap
their line of credit,
and then have to pay interest on that money while they're waiting for payment from
the City of Chicago?
Alderman, we do currently have direct pay as part of the
municipal code. We can direct pay subs, but we're currently working
out that process with the Comptroller's office to see where
there's a easy fix in implementing that
direct pay. But we already have that as part of one
of our initiatives to see how do we bring that to
fruition. So we're in conversation with the Comptroller's
office to see if we can in fact do that.
Okay. But it's under the code already, you're just trying to figure out how
to-
The how to
... the how to part. Okay. So with the ERP system, that might be an
avenue there to help expedite the payment.
That could direct... Yes, of course.
Okay. Thank you.
Obviously, the DBE program is under attack at the federal level.
And here locally in Illinois,
there's been some lettings that have took place where some of the
projects have not had any DBE goals because the
folks that are suing,
the State of Illinois has decided not to put any goals on there.
Where do you foresee the city's MWBE VBE program,
and what are we doing to make sure that we're prepared
for any type of challenge
from any future lawsuits?
So our MWBE program, we have just a little bit more
flexibility how we run those, but we run them very
closely how the DBE rules are outlined
and SBA programs are outlined. So we
have not established any contract with no goals, but we're
closely watching
the dynamics, not just
the surrounding states, but across the 50 states.
Have a good working relationship with an organization called the American Contract
Compliance Association, where they work with
municipalities that have affirmative action programs, which
includes the DBE program. So we're watching closely
what they're doing across the 50 states.
As you're aware, I was with Cook County many years ago, and
Cook County's construction program was the first program to be struck
down in the state of Illinois, and all the other
municipalities looked at what Cook County was doing to build back up its
program. So we're watching closely what's going around the
50 states to ensure that we have narrowly
tailored programs to ensure that if we're ever
challenged, we could withstand strict scrutiny.
So we're looking at how we're delivering waivers, how are
we
looking at
the compliance part, and how we're looking at good faith
efforts overall. So we're watching our program closely, and we're
working with our partners,
some of them that you know, to ensure that we are
watching and keeping abreast and ensuring that we're running a narrowly
tailored program.
So around the professional services,
really in all procurement, when we're talking about procurement,
at what time do the departments engage your office, or
when do you engage their office to make sure that as
lettings are advertised or bidding opportunities are advertised, that there's
actually been some discussion around how that goal is going to be set?
Well, going forward, in January, we'll be meeting with
all the departments to discuss exactly what you said.
The municipal code outlines
plainly that the chief procurement officer shall be meeting with the
departments in January to see what types of
procurements could be
done within the target market program or the SBI program.
So that's top priority of mine is to meet with the departments.
We've already been meeting with them.
Before procurements have let, we're going to work with them to
see what's going to go on the target market, what could be good for SBI,
and the
municipal code said the
chief procurement officer shall establish the goal.
So we will be establishing goals going forward on contracts.
Okay. Well, again, let us know how we can help with that because we
want to make sure that local firms are participating,
local firms that are headquartered here are having an opportunity to
seek these procurement opportunities.
When we're talking about professional services, non-low
bid opportunities, mainly the professional services, engineering, architecture,
with selection committees that are formed, does the chief procurement office have a
seat in the selection process
with the other departments so that way as the selection committee's
making their decisions, that someone
from
the diversity team is there to talk about what
opportunities are available for
minority, women-owned, and veteran-owned firms?
Yes, we do have a seat, and we can make recommendations who serves on those
committees.
Okay. Then as it relates to the professional services, non-bidding,
low price, is there an opportunity to take a look at what the criteria is
around selecting the firms to make sure that the
MWBE portion is something that's weighted a little bit higher
since obviously there's a pre-qualification process already.
We know that all the firms that are bidding have the necessary
requirements to participate. But is there an opportunity when
the scores are weighted to have a little bit more weighted towards the
MWBE local firm component, so that way we can make sure
that, again, there's local participation on these procurement
opportunities?
So currently right now, if a bidder does not submit any of
their Schedule Cs and Ds, they're deemed
non-responsive, and that bid is rejected.
From a weighted standpoint, I'm going to
turn that over because I don't know if we weigh
with the minority and women on participation as part of the
technicality.
Right. So what I'm saying is, obviously there's a score that the selection
committee's looking at and has the ability to rank firms.
Sure.
What I'm saying is to take a look at MWBE firms as
an opportunity to be
weighted a little bit more. So if the goal is 20% and someone comes in at
20%, they check the box. However, if another firm comes in at 30,
then that extra 10% should be
allowed for some type of consideration because obviously they're
understanding what we're trying to accomplish and want to be a true partner with
the City of Chicago.
I've done that professionally in my career at the University of Illinois.
So we can definitely, University of Illinois, we can consider
using that formula here at the City of Chicago.
Okay.
So we'll take that in consideration.
Cool. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you,
Alderman. We'll have Alderman Lassata,
followed by Vice Chair Lee.
Thank you very much, Chair. Commissioner, thank you so much for being with us.
I just have a few questions about
some of the line items in the budget that I would like to understand
better. Number one, I was looking at-
Line item in the budget
... the vacancies related to position
1508, the senior procurement specialists, of which it
looks like we have 11
current vacancies, which
when I look at that against the budgeted positions feels like a substantial
number. How are we
currently operating against that number of
vacancies? Do we know
what the pathway is going to be to getting those filled in the new year?
Great question, Alderman
Espada. We do have some current positions, some of those in the
pipeline to hire some of those. I don't know the exact number,
but I could get you that information through the chair.
We do have some positions that we were trying
to hire for, so that number may look
a little different. There's very different variables when we get
vacancies. Some of them may be union positions, and a
union position may leave, transfer, then they come back into our department.
So, there's very different variables what that number may look
like.
But
right now, we are trying to fill some of those positions, and
I don't have--
Hold on one second.
I wish I had my glasses, but
Jesus.
And could you repeat your question so I can ensure that I-
Yeah. It was
as much budgetary as it was operational.
I was just curious how we operate with that significant number of
vacancies, and if the 11
vacant senior procurement specialists isn't accurate, I'm glad to
know that we have more folks filling those spots.
Some of those positions we're currently trying to fill now.
Some of them were recently left because they may have left the
department or they may have transferred, and we're trying to
fill those positions.
Okay. I appreciate it.
My next question is related, it's on page 207
under 4137 contract review and
audit. And I know this is a relatively small amount of headcount, but as
I look at it
against the secondary book over here, there's three
position titles. Deputy procurement officer is vacant.
It lists assistant procurement officer as vacant.
And then the other two roles, auditor four, are not being carried
over to 2025. So I'm both curious
and concerned of how
that sector of your team is operating right now.
So all of those positions we are aggressively
trying to fill. If we were not in the freeze
period,
our desire would have had all those positions filled because they're
critically needed.
I agree. I'm curious what it means to not have
those positions filled within your team right now.
We had people working overtime and
previously working overtime, and it does put a little dent
on us achieving some of the goals that we have
in the
contracting space as well as the compliance space.
I can fully imagine.
The only other one that I want to--
You have all of our support-
Thank you
... in working with you in the new year to get this lifted, because I
don't conceive of it as an efficiency to not
have that headcount filled, because it only slows down processes that
we want to see moving forward.
The only other point that I would ask you about
is under 3024, Office of Contracting and Equity,
4031, Contracting Equity. There's a lot of
reorg, it seems, happening between what the field
analyst position,
the principal operations analyst.
Can you talk to us about what a field analyst does as
opposed to this eliminated position of principal
operations analyst? I know this is a little bit of nitty-gritty, but I'm
genuinely curious.
I'll start off before I turn it over to my subject matter expert.
But what a field analyst does for our compliance
department, they do all of the
site visits for contracts as well as site visits for
certifications.
Okay.
And part two, did that answer your question?
It does. And against
the position that is being eliminated of principal
operations analyst?
That position actually is being reorganized.
In our proposed budget, we
proposed an outreach unit to help us with
all the outreach initiatives that we plan to
do going forward in our operations unit.
So,
we proposed a reorg with some of the positions.
So we didn't ask for any new positions, but we tried to look at our
needs and some of the vision
going forward, and especially the outreach that we need
to do in the community. So we proposed two new
units within the Department of Procurement Services, one of them being outreach
and the other one being the operations unit.
Got it. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Commissioner. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you. Vice Chair Lee, followed by Alderman Walker.
Spencer, do you have anything?
Okay.
Any other questions? Questions? I got Alderman Taylor in, Alderman Riley.
Okay. Very well. Go ahead, Vice Chair.
Thank you, Chair.
Good morning, Commissioner. How are you?
Good morning. How are you?
How's it going so far?
So far, so great.
Oh, excellent.
I've just got a couple of questions.
A lot of my colleagues covered
many of the things that I was interested in, just in terms of
the things that I think we just need to be prepared for, especially given the
changing political tides in the country.
But let me
ask you about some things that I've learned over the course of the
last year.
Being awarded a contract versus receiving the
task orders for contracts. How does that work?
I'm assuming that you don't necessarily have a whole lot to do with it, your
department, because that's got to be done at the departmental level.
But can you talk about what that process looks like?
And mostly what I'm trying to get around with my questions is just where are there
opportunities to streamline systems so that there's more
consistency, I think, across the board for vendors?
It's really nice when you can say, "I won a million-dollar contract," but if you're
not tasked out the work, you never actually realize the
fruits of those. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Great question, and that's one of the things that I want to use data analytics
on, and I'm driving my team to say, "Hey, show me where we put out
a task order, and show me how some of the firms within the
task order has been utilized." And that information is going to help
us make better decisions in how we utilize task
orders going forward.
So we do utilize task orders on our construction
and on our non-construction side, and I'm going to turn it over to
Jesse Cortez, who will be able to give you an example on how it's
performed on the non-construction side.
On the construction side, sorry.
Good morning, Alderman. Jesse Cortez, Jesse,
Deputy Procurement Officer for Design and Construction.
So, the way those contracts are formulated is that we have the standard award
contracts for singular amounts, and the ones you're referencing that are task
order-based would be what we would call qualifications, RFPs and Qs.
The qualifications would be setting a pool of vendors that could be awarded up to a
certain amount, and that's where you're saying that maybe a vendor received a
million-dollar contract, but they haven't been successful in getting a task
order. So a task order, in essence, is a mini RFP.
These contracts are set out for multiple tasks over the
course of five, six years. There's not a specific task that is set
out for them to actually qualify for.
The qualifications are based on for the type of work that they're doing.
So the actual recipient receivables that we receive are
small proposals that the department gets and vets and then issues
a evaluation and
provides an award to a firm based on their proposal
that comes in, which is the task order.
Got it.
So, I just wanted to add in addition to that from a non-construction
standpoint, we're going to gather data to help us make decisions as we
use more of the target market process
or the SBI process to pre-qualify minority and
women-owned vendors in those spaces.
What I see now that we have
concurrent
contracts
for similar services, maybe in IT, we have a target market in
IT for a similar service, where it's a non-target market.
So we're gathering data on those
processes to ensure that we do it better to
address some of the concerns that you have now.
Because who wants to have a million-dollar contract that you've never been
utilized? So right now, as part of our strategic plan, we're
gathering that data, looking at that information to see how we have
firms
in a space that they're not just winning a contract and they've never
been utilized. So I'm looking at past data
performance to see where, especially in the minority and
women-owned vendor community, where we could do better in that space.
So thank you for that question.
Yeah. And hopefully, we have funding in the budget for you to
facilitate all of this too, because I think this is so important because it's hard
enough to register to become
a minority women-owned business whether it's a
municipality or other arm of government.
And then you go through the whole process of preparing a bid and all of this, and
now you've won all this work, and then only to be left with
on this million-dollar contract and may have gotten $10,000 worth of work.
So I think wherever that gap is that we can address, we're
going to do much better by these businesses that we want to be helping.
Because I know that as a city, we want to be doing that, but we're not setting them
up for success. And frankly, we're not setting ourselves up for success-
Sure
... if the programs are languishing like this.
So,
whatever support you need from us on that,
I'm not on the committee necessarily, but I'll be anxiously awaiting reports back
from you on that. And if there's folks that we can help
connect with, I can be happy to do that.
As far as
improvements on payment processes, I think I asked you this part of this question
during your confirmation process.
I very often will run into
minority contractors and vendors that do business with the city, and one of the
real sort of recurring themes is the time to payment once their
work is done.
It's not very often someone is a prime, they're more often subs.
And work in one case was completed something on the order of three
years ago, and it took me coming in and asking the right questions before your
time
to get the person finally paid. They'd written it off like,
"I'm never going to get paid by the city." So I think that really discourages
people from actually wanting to do business with the city, and
these small minority-owned firms are basically
floating money to the city for construction projects.
And I know that this, again, it's a decentralized system.
The Department of Procurement Services has a role to play in sort of
getting these contracts going. But this is another area where I'm
wondering what your thoughts are on how we might continue to
build some more centralization and transparency around this so it's not
I'm spending a week trying to figure out who it is I need to ping to try to get
paid for the work that I've already done, and I've already paid my workers out.
Great question, and thank you for the partnership and the desire and
willingness to work with us. And we don't take it lightly.
I take it personally,
because I know the impact that when you don't pay a minority of women-owned firm,
they go out of business. And they're not in a position to carry the
work of the city. So we don't take that lightly here.
I know currently it takes roughly seven days from when the
construction firm get paid that they pay their subs.
However, the length of time that the City of Chicago may take
is part of that prompt pay that we have to work on to do better on, and
that's one of the things that we're looking at and collecting data on to
see how we could mitigate some of that risk
and burden on minority and women-owned firms.
So as we collect that data, we probably will need your
help because it's not just our department that controls how we pay.
Sure.
Matter of fact, it's not part of our department how we pay.
We do contracts.
But we are working closely with our controller's office, and they're
sensitive to this as well. But we're working on systems
and things like that that impact how we pay people.
So, I think everyone is sensitive to it, but it does
happen, and we just have to work together to see how we can mitigate that risk.
So I'm glad that I have you as a partner as we move forward in this
area, because I don't like to see firms go out of business, especially
minority and women-owned firms. So, as we move forward in that process,
we'll keep you updated and see how you could help us
bring this to fruition.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and
anything that we can do to--
I know that this administration's been really focused on how to cut the red tape
and make things easier to do business, and this is part and parcel part of the same
thing.
And we don't have to boil the ocean, right?
We don't have to solve it for the entire city.
Let's pick a department that we can start with.
Sure.
Start small. Because I do think the many conversations
I have about just procurement and how we pay vendors and everything,
I've had conversations with people about direct pay and how do
we do this in a way that
takes us, the city, not you in procurement necessarily, but
take some of that out of the
hands of people inside the city, and
sometimes it's good to farm some of this work out if it means that people are
getting paid faster at the end of the day.
So I would just encourage you, and anything that we can do, if you need
support from us,
please let us know, because I think this is something that's really important to
me. Obviously, with minority and women-owned
businesses, we want to continue to support their work.
It's important to my community and the Asian-American community.
I know that
we always want to see increased participation. Every one of our communities do.
And I also want to highlight at least one company, SDI, that
has a great contract with the city, and they reinvest with subcontractors
that are something on the order of 80% minority, women-owned businesses.
So I don't know how much tracking
Department of Procurement Services does of this, but I think it'd be an interesting
thing to take a look at because it's hard enough to be a prime on anything because
you've got to be a big enough company
to do that. But how the primes, at the end of the day, are also
putting money back into additional minority and women-owned
businesses in terms of-- I
don't know what the parlance is in government, but I know in the private sector
it's tier one, tier two
in terms of spend with minority-owned firms.
So if we can get any data on that through the chair, that'd be
great.
Thank you.
We will.
Thank you.
You finished? Okay.
Very well.
Alder Riley.
Thank you, Chairman.
Good afternoon,
Chief.
Thank you for responding to the
budget data memo I sent to you. I appreciate your detailed
responses and
had a couple of questions I wanted to go through
related to your responses.
I note that you're seeking to carry over a
number of funded vacancies, and I understand why.
And you're proposing to eliminate
five.
And I see among the five,
two auditor four positions
proposed to be eliminated.
Why is that?
So when you make an assessment and you have to respond to a 3% cut,
no one really wanted-- it was difficult for us to come to that decision.
We really had to think about the critical needs and
essential needs of the office.
Sure.
So from my standpoint, it was difficult for me to even
propose the five. So I met with my team to see
where we could
come up with the 3%, and
those
were the one that were proposed.
And to be clear,
I'm one of the folks around here encouraging people to
eliminate vacancies, okay? So I'm not necessarily complaining that you
are. I'm trying to rationalize how you came upon the decision
to eliminate those two particular positions.
What's the name of the division they work in?
That's a finance function within the office.
Right. But they currently are housed under
Contract Review and Audit, correct?
That's correct.
And
when you eliminate these two out of the four positions, the irony here is that you
will have no auditors inside of the Contract Review and Audit division.
You'll have a deputy procurement officer, and you'll have an assistant.
Yet no actual auditors in literally
the job descriptions in the name of the division.
Are you caring for that function elsewhere?
That role was previously created by the previous
administration.
Mm-hmm.
So we thought about our mission-critical needs.
We thought about the direction this office was going.
We heard the aldermen's doing my hearing, some of
their concerns that they were having, the outreach and
the compliance. So we
made a fair assessment and made sound judgment and came
up with that.
Sure. I understand. It's just the action itself
contradicts the narrative. If you've been hearing from aldermen,
and again, you've inherited quite a Herculean task, and
I take no issue with the job you're doing.
I applaud you for the job you're doing and your team.
But I'm trying to point out some examples where
there are smart cuts, and then there are cuts that just don't make sense.
And
one could argue, if ever a department needs an auditing function, it's yours,
given the amount of money and the volume of contracts, et cetera, that you're
handling.
And to make sure that we're
getting a return for our investment and the best value possible, you would want
auditors, I think, housed within your department.
But I just brought that up out of curiosity.
I also wanted to go into
a couple of other larger buckets. Again, in the grand scheme of
your department's budget under corporate, and that's the
context.
But you have some large buckets as far as broadly defined buckets.
For example, under legal consulting services, you have
$150,000 earmarked.
And
the description of the consulting, I understand it's probably
extremely broad, so you have some flexibility in
executing
that appropriation line item and entering into agreements with folks.
But
$150,000, do you actually have a list of the folks who provide those
consulting services to the City of Chicago?
Well, actually, the legal consulting
contract is for
what we've been talking about today.
If our program is challenged, any questions that we may have, if our
DB program is challenged, that we could hire a consultant that
could provide us the legal advice on our program.
And you're expecting to be challenged? Is that the case?
And also to do a disparity study just as well.
So how much is for the potential lawsuit versus how much
for the disparity study?
Could you hold one moment while I grab that?
You know what? I'll spare you that. If you could just through the chair.
Sure, no problem.
Thank you.
And then again,
assist agency consulting services,
$175,000.
Service reimbursement agreements available to approved city verified assist
agencies for training, outreach, and development of emerging vendors, et cetera.
Do you have a list of the folks who perform those duties for us on a contractual
basis?
We're in the process of reviewing some of those contracts now.
We have several proposals that are on the table.
So-
We work with our assist agencies to help build capacity of minority and women-owned
firms.
Mm-hmm.
So those are some of the things that I discussed today.
So these contracts have not yet been executed?
Yeah.
So this is a-
Because the way I came in, I came in at a weird time
in trying to go through the hearings,
come through the budget process. So we are reviewing those contracts, and
then the way it sets up, things cut off, and you
have to get things done by a certain time.
So I came in at a
weird time, but we have several
proposals on the table that we are reviewing to
provide those services for us.
Okay.
I guess I'll get to that in a second.
And then consulting services, $300,000.
Outside consulting services to provide certification, application review, and site
visits.
What's that for?
Could you repeat that question again? I'm sorry.
You have a line item. I'm looking at your budget response memo to mine,
which I appreciate.
It appears to be on the
second page of your response.
It's bullet-pointed under response number five.
Nope.
Sorry.
It's under the next page.
Consulting services, $300,000 in bold.
I guess I'm trying to understand generally, not to take a lot of time on this
because it's not a tremendous amount of money in the grand scheme of the budget.
Although if you total these things up, they do exceed the revenue generated
annually by Alderman Hall's proposed hemp tax.
So it is money.
I just want to understand how these contracts are being used and
who eventually, I guess we'll have to ask through the chair when that's available,
is performing these
functions. I ask this because another part of your response
references your outreach conferences, and I understand what those are for.
But
looking at them, when you take the two in the response you sent, it
adds up to $100,000, which is a rather round number.
And I know that one is purposed for construction summit and one is for a
vendor symposium.
And we're having a veterans event tomorrow that is part of that
cost just as well.
And where's that one going to be held?
That's going to be held at the Cultural Center.
The Cultural Center. And I understand.
So these costs that are associated here,
they also cover things like
facility rental, et cetera.
You're not, I hope, paying rent to the cultural center
to do these events.
For the cultural center, it'd probably be a revenue-generating entity.
So let me...
We're not paying cost to them.
Okay.
And where are some of the other venues you host these events?
Historically, they had them at the University of Illinois at Chicago,
their forum. They've hosted them at Malcolm X.
And
our past events,
we had to turn
down some participants,
so we're outgrowing the space that's hosted at Malcolm X that we are
looking at
going back to UIC and maybe McCormick Place
to meet the needs of the supply and demand.
Do you have to pay rent for those facilities?
Yes.
Through the chair, if you could let us know what you're being charged for those
facility costs. McCormick Place
shouldn't be profiting on the backs of
this agency trying to perform the work that you're performing.
So perhaps there's some intervention that occur either from your
ultimate boss or perhaps the city council.
But again, I just want to help understand what those costs are associated with.
Finally,
I ask these things because in your narrative and throughout your
testimony today,
you've talked about increasing outreach
vigorously to small and diverse firms, which is sorely needed,
and I wish you well in the effort.
But outreach is kind of a broad word,
and besides these particular events that you host,
what exactly is it that-- I'm trying to understand the method, or is there a
specific standard protocol that you're using
to go out and identify these firms that are or could be
qualified
vendors with the City of Chicago?
Is it just advertising events, or do you have a method to go
out there and actually identify all these small, diverse firms out there that
haven't come to visit with you, seeking proactively a
certification or responding to an advertised event?
So there are several different variables and several different approaches.
So we are working with our BACP, so any firm that
applies for a City of Chicago license, that we're working with them as a
strategic way of
outreaching to firms. Now you
have business license with the City of Chicago, so we're
outreaching to those firms to get them educating and getting them certified
as well. We're working with the aldermen and going in their community where they
have constituents and educating them at their ward nights and-
Those are good efforts, and I'm sure they're appreciated by aldermen coming to ward
nights and these sorts of things. That's not a broad reach, right?
But my whole thing is I want to help you
get this far and wide so folks are knocking down your door, right?
And certainly, I'm not saying discontinue what you do with the aldermanic offices.
We're going to churches. We're going where people meet.
So that was just an example of how
far out we're putting out the net. So there are several different
approaches that we're taking-
Okay
... trying to engage. We're working with our assist business community.
We go out at night. We talk to the vendor community.
We're working with our assist agency,
HACIA, BECO. They have firms
that become their members, and then we educate them on
becoming certified with the City of Chicago.
So there's various different approaches.
I'm sorry if I didn't outline every single approach-
No
... but we will be getting out in the community.
And my time is over, but if you could, and it's not time-sensitive, so this is a
request post-budget,
whenever that is.
If you could
get us a slightly more detailed
narrative around those efforts-
Sure
... there may be some ways to help fill in some cracks and amplify the work you're
doing there.
Thank you.
But again, thank you for responding to the memo. Thanks for answering my questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman Riley. Alderman Taylor.
Thank you, Chairman. How are you doing, Commissioner?
I first want to say thank you to your amazing team
who helps me out whenever I have questions.
You don't have it easy, let me say that.
And I know you know that, so I appreciate you taking the job because I probably
would've ran. Because every year we sit and talk about the 30%
MBE and WBE, and it seems like we can never get there.
And so I'm hoping that
I like what Alderman Riley said about us being able to help you get
there. So I do like what you said about going out to the community,
going out with the aldermens. Because our biggest issue is
you'll have contractors who say they're MBE and WBE,
but then when I'm looking on the construction site in my community, I don't see
anybody that looks like me. And so we got a problem with checks and
balances, and it doesn't seem like anybody is challenging
these GCs for saying that they're Black or a woman
minority, and they don't have the folks.
And so what I want to see you do is figure out how we grow new
developers.
And I could speak for 20. I can't speak for other wards.
I've basically been using the same five or six
GCs, and they get all the work. We're not building new
developers. And a lot of folks who are developing in our community, they are
not even from Chicago They don't look like us.
They don't know anything about our communities.
And so there's no accountability to the work they do, which is why we have
buildings five and 10 years down the road that are falling apart.
I literally have a whole community of homes in my ward that
are sinking.
And that's not the people who bought the homes.
And that was a bad contractor. And of course, the city
mustn't do their job in inspecting.
And so you got your hands full. You really do.
But I like the part about us
going out into the community and talking to the smaller developers and figure
out how we get them to be bigger developers.
Because what I see now is you get these big developers who come in
and they inflate the price. And so you come to an alderman and you say,
"I need this amount of TIF money." But then you come back to me because,
of course, you inflated the price because the process has taken so long,
and now you're asking for an outrageous amount of money and the
community doesn't agree with it. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Look, I know you just literally planted your feet down, but I'm sure you have some
thoughts.
So I think I hear you, because I want to answer your question from your
most concern is from a workforce development standpoint.
We do have workforce goals on our contracts, and that's one of the things
that I'm working with the assist agencies to see how we can get
more people that you desire to have working
your ward
in
that pipeline. So I do have
a group of people that I'm working with that is addressing some of the things that
you're discussing, that we could have more
Black and more Hispanics working in those pipelines to get
them to be an apprentice. And I do believe I'm going to turn it
over to Jesse
Cortez, that he could talk about some of the things that we're doing.
Thank you. Jesse Cortez, the Deputy Procurement Officer, Design Construction.
So in all of our standard construction contracts, we carry
CRO and EEO requirements. So the CRO, Chicago
Residency Ordinance, which requires 50% of the work hours to be performed
by Chicago residents. All of our construction contracts carry those that are funded
by city funds, of course.
And also the Equal Employment, which is the diverse
workforce for the minority and journey workers.
We also have requirements for local participation.
A great example of a project we were able to actually do large scale goals on would
be the Jackson Park Phase One Mobilization project with CDOT, which
was a partnership with the state and IDOT in order to get those
funds in and use our minority participation requirements as opposed to DBE
goals on a contract. So we're looking at establishing those types of relationships
and figuring out the overall goals and achievability, how we can actually upload
and recruit more, because it doesn't just stop at those
localities. We're trying to get people interested in the trades, which
is the first thing we need to do. So if we don't have the interest in the trades,
you're not going to have a workforce to actually implement it.
So it starts at the trades, getting them in those fields, getting them to
study that, getting them through that system, and then allowing them to grow within
these projects in the city. That's where I believe, and I believe
Commissioner Roberts is also in that belief as well.
I want to push back on your statement about sending people to the trades.
The biggest problem with it is our young people can't pass the drug test.
And so I've been working with the Obama Foundation about getting young
people in Lakeside Alliance. They go through all the training.
They do extremely well. When they get to that drug test, they fail, because we
legalized marijuana without thinking about the...
And I know that's really not your monkey, not your circus, but I want us
to have an honest conversation about it.
What do you all do about,
is there any
coverage or anything that you all do when it comes to racial tension on
these job sites?
When it comes to the GC, is that you? Who is that?
I don't think that we had any complaints
or have experienced any of that on the job
sites that has raised up to the level of my attention.
We do do site visits, but my-
They found two nooses on the Obama presidential site.
So-
Probably was before you.
It's probably before-
I know it was definitely before you.
You know, I've never, I didn't-
But nobody ever came to us and said, and this is actually
in Alderman Yancy's ward. Nobody ever came to say to us, "This was the
follow-up. This is what happened.
This is how we're making sure that it's a safe work environment."
But definitely we as
holder procurement, construction projects, we could put up
signs and things that
we have zero tolerance in that space.
So we, I would take your question and your concern on an
advisement and provide you some update of some of the things that we can do.
I appreciate that. I'm looking in the budget book,
where it says for professional service, information technology
maintenance. It went from 17,000 to 205.
Can you explain to me
what we're doing? Because I heard you say that you need
some technology.
17?
It's on page 204.
It's contractual services
10338.
You look at expenditures for 2023,
and then you go over to 2024 and 2025, the
recommendation.
Mm-mm.
You see it?
Hold on, let me find that page. I'm sorry.
Which one is it?
0138.
That's to enhance all the systems that we have within our office that we need
critical enhancement to that we haven't had it.
Our C2 system that we utilize, there's several enhancements that we need
in there to
do some of the certifications that we have and the compliance, and
that whole system needs to be modernized and is part of our
procurement modernization efforts for the systems that we have within the
office.
Are you all building a dashboard?
We currently have a dashboard within our office, but we are looking to
explore how we could build a dashboard to be more transparent.
For sure.
Same thing with reimbursement to travel. Where y'all going? Ooh.
Let me see.
Where are we going? What line item was that?
That's,
travel-
It's a few-
... 0245
... few spaces down.
It went from,
what's that, 8,000 to 50,000?
50,000, yeah.
Yeah. That's a lot of money. Where y'all going?
Some of it is used for when we do professional site visits for
office within the downtown area, that when we
certify firms within the downtown area, and some of it is for
professional development that's needed to ensure that as
we need to have narrowly tailored program
to attend conferences to ensure our staff has continued education
so that they could be well abreast on what's going on in
procurements and
diversity for a best practice standpoint.
Are you all looking at other cities to do what they do well, to kind of
implement it in the city? Because I'm literally been listening to procurement
before I got into it, and it's always an excuse why we can't get to
30% when it comes to MBE and WBE.
I can't tell you what they did in the past, but I'll guarantee you won't say that
next year.
Amen.
Is there another city that you all are looking at?
So like a lot of times when we come up with things that we want to do different, we
mirror another city. Is there a city that has a system that you're looking in that
we can look at to kind of see?
Well, I'm a part of this organization, American Contract Compliance Association,
where
we come together
at these conferences from a best practice standpoint.
City of Austin, Texas, has a great
minority and women-owned program, but their state looks a little bit different from
ours. But we do take best practices from every
state that has something to offer.
I have my ears to the ground, my foot to the ground to implement
a best practice. Remember, my opening statement
was, I want people to come do business with the City of Chicago.
When I'm out, people say, "Don't go certify with the city.
That's not going to happen." We want the City of Chicago to be a best in
class, that people are looking at us how to run their programs.
So yes, we do look at other states to see what they're doing from a best practice
standpoint.
Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman Taylor.
Alderman Villegas, you had a follow-up?
Mr. Chairman, just a point of information.
Around the technology,
is that part of the ERP that you guys are trying to embark on, or is this
another separate
program that's being crafted?
Alderman Villegas, these is our current systems that we have in place that we
do have to do some stop gaps even before you get to
the implementation of an RFP.
No, the ERP.
I mean, the ERP, sorry.
Okay. Thank you.
Alderman Sutton Lopez.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, and it's good to see
you. Thank you very much for your efforts.
I want to start by just
asking, just broadly speaking, I think the issues of procurement I think have
been
evident as Alderman Taylor and many others have shared.
These issues definitely need someone at the helmet that believes
truly in minority participation and has the
experience to advocate for that. I really commend you.
I can attest to your advocacy in the short time that you being appointed.
You're already being in some of the SEA meetings, actively working with these
stakeholders,
to strengthen this programming in a time where we will need not only someone who is
an advocate, but with experience that you bring.
Just broadly speaking, what are some of the challenges that you inherited?
I think in the council, I think oftentimes it's hard to
have a real conversation about why changes in staffing are
so necessary. To me, the issue of procurement in the city has been long overdue,
and I'm really excited to have someone that has, one, the
experience, and two, the determination. I've already seen it.
I don't read the words anymore
or the talk, I see the actions, and I've seen you active and looking into
ways to engage. So my first question is, what are some of the, broadly speaking,
some of the challenges Alderwoman Taylor mentioned to bring those
equity contracts to the percentages that are needed?
So, some of the challenges is overall the human
capital needed to get the job done.
I can't tell you why there's so many vacancies. I don't know.
But my job when I came in was to aggressively
fill those spots.
The challenges with the outdated
technology systems that we have in not being modernized or
been brought up to date and in really fully
enforcing in the municipal code as it
relates to the minority and women-owned business compliance section,
what it states and how we look at target market, how we establish goals.
I see
not having
policies and procedures and workflows and standard operating
procedures across the board so you can measure and
so you can have accountability.
So
Those are some of the things that I see, but I don't want to focus on them.
I want to focus on things how we plan to transform
this department to
a wealth building, not just for
firms that have been historically doing business with the city, but firms
that have never done business with the city.
We want to educate them, and we do have to get in the community.
It is imperative that we get in community to ensure that
those that don't have the tools and create the
awareness of the opportunities. Similarly, what we've done in
partnership with CDA, getting it out there for the
ACDB concessionaire, that historic opportunity.
And we are getting out there, and we're going to continue to get out there in the
community, not just for that type of procurement, all types of procurement.
Thank you. And I'm glad that you mentioned what you inherited in terms of the
vacancies and issues that demand immediate attention and the
focus of the council to make sure that we fill them.
I think that at least from our ward, and I think speak
from communities like ours, small businesses that have been marginalized for way
too long, it is a welcoming change to have someone with your experience in the
department.
I have a specific question now around the Cut the Red Tape initiative.
The report that
has one of the recommendations for the Department of Procurement Services is to
find a way to reduce the time it takes for the city to issue vendor
RFPs by about 50%. My question is, what does the
department plan to put in place to implement this change?
Great question. Right now, we have a strategic plan in place
to
do an overhaul on our policies and procedures and how we do things.
We're educating our team too and giving them tools
internally, educating them to think faster and
look at procurements differently
than how they looked at them historically.
We're implementing the strategic sourcing method so
that we could reduce costs.
We also have a couple pilot procurements that are going forth now.
You came in a little later, but I talked about it earlier,
that we haven't
two pilot, a couple pilot procurements that we could really measure
what is accurate, what's realistic time for a
complicated procurement or less complicated procurement, so we could
measure those, document those timelines, and measure the timelines so we
could see where the inefficiencies are, and that we make that part of our
process that we can become better and do better.
So we do have a couple things that we're doing right now is documenting our
processes as well as educating and continually
training our staff so they can learn and do better, as well as we
have a couple pilot procurements that we are reviewing to see where the
inefficiencies can be improved.
Thank you.
My other question, I think that you've already been showing this, and I think
it is, again, I will say it again, a welcoming change in
procurement services to be active in the community.
I know that you being active going with Latina, Latino contractors,
speaking to them, discussing plans to implement changes.
I know that they're being
even small contractors that are going bankrupt because of how
long has taken for the city to pay for services already
rendered. So what are some of the ways that some of these stakeholders
group, I know that some of the different
stakeholders in my community have already engaged with you, that people can get
involved to provide input for DPS
to make these changes and improvements possible for next year in 2025?
We're in the process as part of our strategic plan.
We'll be hosting focus groups with all the stakeholders, even the
community, to get their input in how we make the process better for them.
So we will be hosting focus groups
in the community to help us with the process.
And part about the strategic plan, maybe through the chair, is it possible that
you can share maybe how these focus groups, what areas or how they will be
functioning? I think it'll be great to have good representation
from the both Latino and the Black caucus as well as other members of the
council. I do think that this is, in my opinion, a good approach.
I don't know, maybe through the chair, you can share more details on how these
focus groups can operate. I think that is a really important and welcoming change.
Thank you.
Yeah, just want to
end
with
the issues of
potential
federal changes.
What do you think in terms of minority contracting?
I know that we have
plans that go from the casino proposal to small changes.
I do think minority participation is important.
I think it's a program that we must protect in the city.
What do you think that we can do to best protect them and
prepare in terms of any kind of
challenges to the minority programs that the city has had for a
while? Any recommendations that you have for the council?
My recommendation is to ensure that office has the tools and resources that it
needs to be successful to continually to create a narrowly tailored
program,
so that if we're ever challenged, that we withstand strict
scrutiny. So we need manpower to get things done.
We need to continue to educate our team to ensure that we
are doing things from a best practice standpoint,
closely watching what's happening in other states, implementing those things to
protect our program. So we need that manpower, and we need that
technology to bring us up to date.
In terms of technology, I know that you have been keen in
swiftly changing some of the software.
Can you describe what you inherited
Maybe briefly describing what you're implementing now in terms
of software, and how is that reflected in the budget.
So one of the things we're doing, we're updating our C2 system to ensure
that
some of the
modules that they currently have in there, historically haven't
utilized them, so we will be utilizing some of the modules that the
C2 system offers.
I'm going to turn part of the question over to Ben
to answer the questions, what are some of the things we're doing from a IT
standpoint.
Benjamin Ho, deputy procurement officer for Shared Administrative Services and IT.
So Commissioner Roberts has mentioned C2.
So we will be doing enhancements as she had stated.
Another big area is that we are participating in the
citywide ERP modernization program.
This is the system that allows the vendors to bid online,
and we
fully understand the need to make that system more user-friendly,
and that will be provided with the new ERP that will be
selected.
We're in the process of contracting for that, and when that's
completed, implementation will begin under the auspices of
DTI.
Thank you, Chairman. That's it. I think this is a welcoming change in the
department, and I think it speaks volumes as to why we need
sometimes to get rid of holdovers or previous administrations.
I think the time was overdue here in procurement. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman. Just a couple questions that I have.
ERP system,
as I recall, the last CPO was kind of
leading the effort on ERP. Is that still the case with you?
We are working in collaboration with the
stakeholders to move the process forward.
And the stakeholders meaning human resources, finance,
procurement services, and
2FM.
So are you all
still leading that effort or...
Yes, sir.
So you are leading the effort. And where are we with that effort?
It's a three-phase approach, and we're
in the second phase
in the open procurement process, but we're in the second phase.
The second phase. And so phase one is what?
Phase two is what? And then what's phase three?
Phase one is where we selected-- I'm going to
have
Mike Ritchie explain the phases.
And it's still an open procurement at this time.
Mike Ritchie,
professional services APO. And like Commissioner Roberts said, it is an
active procurement, and it's currently in negotiations.
But explain the three phases.
What does that have to do with what phase you're in?
Okay.
So the first phase was the
actual
selection and evaluation, and now there's negotiations,
and then obviously phase three would be implementation.
Just to clarify, sorry.
So you all have selected a vendor that you all are
working with to--
you're shaking your fingers, so help me out.
So the first phase approach is where we selected a
program manager to write the RFP, and
we utilized the target market program to
select that firm. The second phase is the negotiation
firms with the software
that we plan to utilize, that we're still in the negotiation
phase.
If we're successful after this phase, the program manager
will write an RFP for the third phase of the
process to
find the implementer and proposals to write an
RFP for the final phase, for the implementation phase.
Okay, so we
did a procurement to find someone to do a procurement to do
a procurement. Is that a fair statement?
Similarly, almost fair.
Okay. All right, and so right now we've
gotten one part of this done.
We're right now writing an RFP
to do the
totality of the project while at the same time trying to understand
what our needs are?
So that program manager will come in and figure out the systems, what
we have in place, ask a lot of questions.
We have over
100 and something systems, so they will have to come in and gather a lot of
information, a lot of data, blah, blah, blah, to-- Sorry.
Gather a lot of data to
write an RFP
for our future needs.
Okay. All right. And that's where we are right now?
We are in the process of phase two.
Which is data gathering.
No, no, no.
Okay.
We have not started the data gathering. We're in phase two.
That firm has not started phase two.
We are in the negotiation phase, and it is open procurement in phase
two of selecting
the software vendor.
Wait a minute. How are we selecting a software vendor if we don't know
exactly what we need?
The process was done in three phases
pre my time.
All right. So
we still have to do a
collection of
things so we can understand what we need,
but we've already picked a
software
vendor.
Have we picked a vendor or we picked a software?
What have we picked to date?
We're in negotiations. So
technically,
it's negotiations.
Okay. So we're negotiating with a vendor
on something that we don't know what we need, is what this sounds like to
me. Am I wrong?
It was a three-phase approach. One was for a program manager to come
in to-
Right, we got the program manager, right?
Yeah. And then-
Program manager's doing his or her thing, right?
Correct.
Okay. So the program manager
has helped us select a vendor,
an unnamed vendor,
that
has a software solution.
However, we haven't
figured out what our needs are.
No.
It kind of sounds like we're putting the cart before the horse.
No,
I don't want to
confuse you on it. It was a three-phase approach, one for the program
manager to come in to do the work, and then the
second phase was a selection RFP process
where we hired a vendor that made recommendations of three firms
that
submitted proposals to us on their solution.
Okay. Now that's different. Okay. All right. Now, okay.
The way it sounded to me was as if we had
picked some
software company that we were going to do the ERP
through, but what you're saying is that we picked a vendor that
will help us through the RFP process with multiple
potential vendors or partners. Is that right?
Yes, kind of.
Okay. Kind of. Where am I off at?
I think you confused me a little.
Hell, if I get confused-
No, it's a three-phased process.
Program management.
Check. That's done, right? Or is that not done?
We can turn it over to Ben.
Okay.
Benjamin Ho, deputy procurement officer.
Thank you,
Chairman.
Allow me to clarify some of the confusion because there are
multiple phases within the phases.
So there are three parts to this procurement,
the picking of the software, the picking of the program manager, and the
picking of
what we could say is the implementation vendor that actually does the work.
So Commissioner Roberts alluded to the
program manager. That
firm has been chosen, and we're about to
award the task order. That is under
the auspices of DTI, but
procurement is working closely with them.
And-
And let me stop you right there.
Yes.
The program manager's job is to do what?
So the program manager's job is to do several things.
One,
their first task is to
write the RFP to select the
implementation vendor. This will be a firm that will
actually do the configuration of this software
and make it work according to the city's needs.
So that part requires
the program manager to tell in an RFP
what basically the city will need the new software to do.
Okay? With me on that? So that-
Yeah.
Then there was an additional phase which was not
really mentioned, which has already been completed.
The selection of the software was
actually done with an evaluation committee composed of the entire
team that
Commissioner Roberts mentioned earlier with the different departments that
own the different modules.
Okay, so that's my question. How do you select the software if we
have not fully vetted and understand what our needs are?
So then the needs were actually
for
the
five different areas we have.
Let me give you some context, if you don't mind, on that procurement.
So that procurement was aided and abetted by-- Not abetted.
Aided by-
It doesn't sound like you abetted.
So, I'm sorry.
It might be the right term.
So just to try to make it real simple, that
procurement was
under the auspices of DTI, or AIS at the time,
and
the previous procurement officer, and they hired
Gartner,
a national IT consulting firm, to do an
IT modernization study. At that point,
the study recommended that ERP
be the focus of the city's IT modernization,
and that happened back in 2021. So this has been
going on for a while.
And as a result of that, Gartner also
recommended that
we
look at the best-in-class ERPs that
will fit
an organization of the city's size.
So there are many ERPs on the market, but some of them fit
small businesses, medium-sized businesses.
We are a very complicated organization,
and there are three
ERPs that fit that description. So the city
held,
essentially,
a closed procurement with those three.
So all those three were invited for nine days
of
demonstration, and then followed by additional
six days of question and answer and
sandboxing, meaning that they would
provide a
live system for us to get our hands on and look at.
And after that, the evaluation
committee
made the recommendation of what
looked like it had the most functionality.
Because these are all cloud-based systems, they can do
basically anything,
because they're built for multiple clients.
However, we need to then
see, because
this is now getting to your question, how do we select a
software without knowing what our exact
requirements are? We have a general idea of what the
current functionality is required for
the current state of city business process.
And in that case, the evaluation committee was
looking and scoring
these three ERPs on how can they meet the current
needs. Also, do
they do new things that the city doesn't currently do that's best practices?
So all those things were scored to say, "Yep,
this system looks like it could meet the future needs." Now,
the RFP is to then take the current
state
and then move us to future state,
meaning improved business processes like Commissioner Roberts was
talking about. We don't want to just automate
bad business processes that are slow and efficient.
We want to improve our business processes along with the
new ERP installation.
Okay. That sounds much better.
Okay. I didn't make it sound like that, but
well, he's the subject matter expert, so we got to get in the weeds.
I don't expect you to know everything. All right.
And so I kind of know where we are. Where does our target implementation
date on this?
Let's see.
Currently, the city is in negotiations with the software vendor.
The estimated time for a new contract is early 2025.
Okay. All right. Well, let's
end it. All right. Sounds good.
Hold on. Alderman Coleman,
you're next. Go ahead. Do you have a question? Go ahead, Alderman Diggs.
Mr. Chairman, that was very confusing.
So is this part of the
ERP that you were talking about, or is this separate for the
gentleman from the deputy director?
Benjamin Ho, Deputy Procurement Officer.
Yes, I was speaking about the ERP process. Yes.
Okay.
But ERP, the contract hasn't even been
finalized. It's been negotiated for 18 months.
When do you anticipate some type of final decision, so that way
implementation can begin?
All the while, 18 months of negotiations, and there hasn't been
any pathway. The city's losing money on efficiencies.
Do you guys have an anticipated time frame? Is it in your court?
Is it Law's court? Whose court is it in?
The ball.
Hold on.
I'm sorry.
Commissioner Roberts would take that answer.
We are
working collaboratively to
finalize the second phase so we can move to the third phase
aggressively. So we're working together to...
I know it took 18 months prior to me coming.
I can't say what happened prior to my
tenure here, but we're moving to move the process forward.
And Commissioner, this is not
anything on you. I'm just saying that
18 months for paperwork,
and I think that
we're losing money, we're losing efficiencies, time and attendance,
40 million a year.
All types of efficiencies. So I just wanted to put that on record. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. And then my other question around this
has been around the MWBE component of this, and
what
does that look like, and has that been implemented in phases one, two,
and I would expect it definitely in phase three?
Yes, everything that you
suggested we are looking at.
Okay.
So when we have this conversation next year, we should be
much further along.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
One other point, the time to certification.
Where does that stand right now, and how has that improved
versus this time last year?
We reduced the certification timeline from over six months
to 90 days, and we're currently
assessing every aspect of the certification process, whether it's a
full certification, whether it's an ACDB certification,
whether it's a DB certification, whether it's a no
change affidavit
process. We are looking at every aspect of the certification process to
see how we could reduce timelines.
Okay.
That's all I have. Any other questions?
Okay. With that, you all are excused.
We're going to take a break. We'll break for lunch.
We will return at
2:45.
Yeah,
2:45.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to clear the chamber for sanitation
purposes, please. Everyone must exit until we reconvene.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we must clear the chamber for sanitation purposes, please.
We must clear the chamber for sanitation purposes, please. Thank you.
You were my world.
Open up, everything's waiting for
you
Good
afternoon, everybody.
We're going to go ahead and get started with the
final hearing of the budget hearings for the Department of Law.
Nobody else wants to cheer for that? Director Odegard, it's the last one.
Day 10 into month two. Okay.
We're going to start with
an overview from our friends over at the Council Office of Financial
Analysis. Dan, over to you.
All right. Daniel Fristrom, Council Office of Financial Analysis.
Finally, we have department 031, Department of Law.
The proposed budget for FY25 is $45.9
million, which is a decrease of
$309,600, or 1%,
compared to the revised budget for FY24.
The total number of FTE positions is reduced by 21,
dropping from 427 in FY24 to
406 in FY25. Personnel services
costs have also decreased by 1%. Notably,
the Department of Law is funded 79.5% by
corporate funds, and the budget allocates $41.8
million for personnel costs and $4.1 million for non-personnel costs.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dan. And now we're going to have Corp Counsel Mary Richardson
Lowery introduce your staff that are here with you and in the box, and then you can
proceed with your statement.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, aldermen,
Vice Chairman Lee, members of the Budget Committee, any
members of the Alder Corps in general.
Welcome,
and it is my duty and honor to...
Sorry.
Can you hear me?
I'll hold the microphone closer to you.
Okay. This better, aldermen? Thank you.
Very good. I was just noting a welcome, and
it's my duty and honor to appear before you today in furtherance of the
2025 budget.
Seated in the box with me, first to my right is Deputy
Julie Morgan. She's over administrative services for the department.
Seated in the box is Aja Carr,
pardon me, Favors, our first assistant.
John Hendricks, managing deputy of litigation.
Jim McDonald, managing deputy of transactions.
Cecily Porter Adams, chief labor negotiations deputy.
Kimberly Roberts, business licensing and enforcement deputy.
Elizabeth Mannion, risk management deputy.
David Hollkamp, our collections, ownership, and administrative
litigation deputy.
Behind second row, Christine Hake, our
legal information and prosecutions deputy.
Adjacent to her, Victoria Benson, mass torts and complex
litigation deputy.
Adjacent to her, Helena Tamrit, our labor deputy.
Next to
Helena is Caroline Fronczek, our federal civil rights and
litigation deputy.
Steven Kane,
next to her, our affirmative litigation deputy.
Jessica Felker, our federal civil rights and
litigation deputy associated with the more aged cases.
And then Andrew Worsik, our deputy over
constitutional and commercial litigation.
I think I've covered everyone that is in the box as far as I can
see. In the audience, alders, we are joined by
a host of staff members, including
Derek Kuhn, who is the chief
of
employment litigation. Miriam, who is
our deputy of
affirmative-- I'm sorry, appeals division.
Shelly Sandoval, who is our recruiter.
Jennifer Bagby, who is our public safety reform deputy.
Lisa Mischer, I believe, who is our head of real
estate deputy.
Wanda Bates, who's in our administration area.
Christine Cabamban, who is our PIO.
Shelly Sandoval, who is our recruiter extraordinaire.
We have others in present.
Oh, Fiona Burke, somewhere hiding in the
corner. Very good. Fiona Burke, who is our deputy of
aviation,
environment, regulatory, and contracts, along
with other staff. Thank you very much to the staff members for
being present with us today. Alderman, I have a brief
presentation.
You have my comments that are in your file, and I'm going
to introduce those into the record
for your use.
You're on the mic.
Okay.
Yeah.
Very good. Thank you.
But predominantly, I'm going to speak in summary format, and this is
associated with the slides that we're going to be presenting to you today, and
this will go over the department.
I occasionally will need to turn, so excuse my back when I do.
But ultimately, I wanted to reintroduce you to the composition of the department.
The first slide you'll see is slide two.
It is the divisions of the department.
We have
many,
essentially organized around technical expertise
of the department. The divisions range from aviation to labor, to
employment litigation, to constitutional law, appeals, and
public safety reform.
Our department is one of the largest
law departments and law practice groups in the
city and indeed in the state.
Each year I get asked, or last year I was asked about our demographic
numbers. If you go to slide two,
you'll see that our demographics show our
team having 55% female or
non-binary.
And 51% of our
attorneys identify as female.
61% of senior management, sorry, identifies as female.
40% of our workforce is
ethnically diverse. A long
flight. 29% of our
attorneys are
ethnically diverse. Overall, our
workforce is 40% ethnically diverse, and
75% of our newly hired
attorneys are
ethnically diverse.
Sorry, senior attorneys.
Really long flight.
One of the more recent hires in our
deputy category is Margaret Mendenhall Casey.
This is a reflection of the recruitment I discussed with you last year,
and your desire to ensure that the composition of our
leadership reflected the community that we serve and the broader
legal community that we are part of.
When I went and spoke at an event, she appeared
in our midst, very highly skilled, has come in and dedicated
herself to the Torts division, and you'll hear more
about that work
later today.
In slide five, one of the things that we discussed last year
was the recruitment.
Some of the alders pointed out that we were
down in our numbers. When I arrived, we had 44
individuals that we were short in our
recruitment numbers, and we have
made quite the few strides with respect
to where we are in recruitment. We've gone from 44
short to 18.
So I have to recognize Shelly Sandoval.
Can you stand for a moment, please?
Shelly took on the charge of revising how we went
about recruiting,
elevating our
electronic presence, going out to the law schools,
being present at associations and organizations, going into
communities.
Many of you have before you a flyer that she helped put together in
terms of some of our pipeline efforts, but we would not have been
able to close the gap as much as we have without Shelly Sandoval's
good work, and I am grateful to you for your continued
steadfastness in this space. Thank you, Shelly.
As we were going about our recruitment, one of the things
that we discussed last year was a
challenge for recruiting attorneys to a public
sector environment,
was that we didn't cover basic things like ARDC
fees.
Attorney and disciplinary committee requires us as
attorneys to pay fees for our license and renew our
license through continued education processes.
And so now we have an
environment where we are picking up the expenses of our attorneys.
And not only our attorneys, going into 2025, we're going to pick up the
expenses of those who are identified as attorneys
in other operating departments so that their fees are
covered as well, and we think that'll help us with our recruitment
across the platform.
In addition to that, we
understood, and it became apparent to me that we
afforded few opportunities to do continuing legal education
in the department. So we went from having three CLE
courses
in 2023 to 18
and counting in 2024 to make
sure our attorneys have the opportunity
to continue their legal education to develop and
enhance their area of expertise. And in 2025,
we'll be opening that process up to other lawyers embedded in
operating departments who are also subject to continuing
legal education obligations. That is
embedded in the 2025 budget, should you
deem it approvable.
I wanted to take some time,
aldermen, to highlight some of the areas of the department that I think is
particularly relevant for your ward leadership,
relevant to the citizens of the city,
impacting our financing,
reflects our risk mitigation strategy, and
introduces a new division to you.
Slide six, please.
I'm going to begin with our
Building License and Enforcement division.
This is the division that is not new to any of you,
but is a division that impacts every one of
you, and it is led by Kim Roberts.
And she has been in that role for in excess of 20 years
and counting. She doesn't look a day over
20.
But she has done, and continues to do, an extraordinary
job in leading that
division. She is
the definition of servant leadership.
Her division focuses on building codes and licensing regulations,
and principally here to date has been focused on compliance.
In that pursuit of compliance,
it's dangerous and hazardous properties, lead
paint violations, zoning, criminal activities, and
regarding unsafe structures.
And she continues to do an extraordinary job.
What we introduced in 2024 was also a
process through BLE, where we could prosecute
multiple buildings that are under the same
ownership, principally owners who are out of state
and have multiple buildings that have safety violations.
The distinction here is beyond compliance, we actually started the
fining them. And Kim has been very successful in
moving on this, a particular recalcitrant landlord in the
33rd, 35th, and 39th Ward, where we have
significant fines that have been secured,
building violations that have been cured,
including installing
security cameras. And this is mostly in low income resident
areas,
and these are residents that didn't have much of a voice before.
Kim, through her efforts, have given them a voice.
Slide seven.
COAL, our Collections Ownership
Administrative Law area,
and enforcement.
This division is now run by Deputy
David Holtkamp. Deputy David Holtkamp is
a former chief of that division, and it
is actually our largest revenue producing division.
This division, over the last 14 years, has
produced about $2.1 billion.
This year, we are on schedule to collect $100
million
through this division.
The COAL division has filed 45,000
health and safety violation cases associated with
owners
who have failed to meet their charge.
In many instances, these violations are the result of the good
work of the Buildings Department, Streets and San Department,
sometimes Transportation Department, sometimes Water
Department, and we work in concert with those
bodies as well as the Police Department relative to any
citations, most of the police being inherited by
Christine Hague through prosecutions.
Slide eight.
Through the COAL department, one of the things that we learned
in our one-on-one session with the alders that we had last
year
was that there were certain alders that were confronted with problems
associated with vacant lots. My
intention of scheduling the one-on-one session was to reintroduce
to you the Department of Law.
But what I did was open up that process so you could introduce to
me issues that you were specifically having within your ward.
One alderman, Alderman Scott, said to me that she was
having serious issues with vacant lots in her ward.
I assumed it to be a relatively small problem, but I
decided it was important to follow up.
Her concerns were followed by Alderman Mitchell and
Alderman Moore.
In looking further into that issue, it
became clear that it was not a small issue, but a very large
and pervasive issue that adversely impacted
countless areas of the city.
And so I called upon and met with David Holtkamp and
Ashley Costa, both chiefs at the time, and asked and answered
them to begin the process of due diligence.
In doing so, we unearthed
11 bad actors,
one of which had just under 800 vacant
lots
that she
owned through varied legal structures
and had failed to pay taxes or fines or fees,
constantly changing ownership structures to avoid said
taxes, fines, and fees,
and had not been held account
until now.
As a result of that surfacing of the issue by Alderman
Moore, we have been pursuing her doggedly in
court.
And she is well on her way to
being held to account.
But we also recognized that we needed to have a structure in
place that would allow for others like her
to be held to account
So this year we established a unit that we call the
Special Collections Unit, and through that Special
Collections Unit, we went to budget.
We were able to get reassigned two individuals.
Those two individuals, by the close of this year, will have generated a
million dollars in income and will pay for themselves.
It is clearly a unit that is ripe for growth.
But mostly what's happening through this unit, slide nine,
you will see that
these two
pictorials show the impact of what was happening with this particular
recalcitrant owner in Alderman Harris and Alderman Coleman's
ward. Unfortunately, this is replicated across many
wards throughout the city.
And
but for Alderman Scott raising it,
we would not have started on this journey.
We have a very long way to go. I did hear the
testimony earlier from a member of the public who spoke of the
challenges of developing in the wards where he
is adjacent to these
lots that are going unattended.
Streets and San,
Department of Transportation, Buildings, once again, has partnered with us in
this effort. Indeed, they now are pointing out additional
lots that they are bringing to our attention so that
as they cite them, we are
beginning the legal process, the ownership
identification
with respect to those kinds of property.
It's a lengthy one but we are very
focused on ensuring that we deliver
relative to said projects. You may be on slide 10 already.
Very good. Going to slide 11.
Affirmative Litigation Division.
This division is led by Steven Kane.
This is our consumer protection-focused division,
which focuses on the interest in protecting
the citizens of Chicago and holding
businesses to account who fail to meet their
obligations.
This division in 2024, this is a small
division, but in 2024, it is on pace to
exceed the $40 million in settlement that it
has been successful in securing on the citizens'
behalf.
Highlighting a
matter that it was successful on in slide 12.
This is Resapro, a rehabber
that focused on underserved communities, falsifying
construction applications, and performing unpermitted work in
said underserved communities
resulting in
those individual homeowners being left with dangerous
defects.
Through Steven Kane's good work, we were successful
in getting Resapro to be held to account
and establish a restitution fund for those homeowners to
help fix their dangerous defects.
This model that Steven has pursued,
and he pursued that with the support, I believe, on that one,
of both our constitutional division as
well as the contracts
division on AERC.
That collective effort has resulted in this fund being
established, and what we're going to try to do is look for opportunities
to have similar funds
where we can further serve the citizens once we receive
settlement.
To the extent that those become known, I'm going to make sure that we bring that to
the attention of alders where
some of the properties may be located in your ward and you have an opportunity
to surface this with
members of your community that may be able to apply for
any restitution allocations.
Slide 13.
Vision Properties.
This is a rent-to-own scheme intended to
exploit
underserved communities. Once again, dilapidated properties,
getting people to
think that they are going to be able to become homeowners,
and setting up unfair terms that really would have
resulted in them losing their homes.
Steven Kane was successful in getting a preliminary injunction against
said practices, and he continues to fight the good
fight around fair housing.
Finally, mentioning one other item relative to Mr.
Kane. This is the division that filed the action
against Glock.
Some of you may say this is an area in which
that is going to be a difficult one going forward.
That is true.
But
difficult doesn't mean that we should not pursue it.
What some may not know,
the suit that we filed includes the use of switches,
and it is the use of switches that in four of the last five
officer shootings were involved.
It is the use of switches that was involved in the loss of the officer
who was just trying to get home.
And
it was the use of switches that was involved
in some of the other
activities and communities that have been a scourge
upon
the wards and many communities of the city.
So
we're at the formative stages. This division is working with
an outside organization
and will involve other attorneys as well.
But this is a fight that we are obligated to pursue.
Slide 14.
Slide 14 is a depiction of the bond
work that through finance and our airport
environmental regulation and contracts divisions that
I referenced earlier, Fiona Burke, I reference now Jim
McDonald, longstanding leader on finance, now the managing deputy of
transactions.
Their collective efforts have contributed to
2.67 billion in bonds. That work does not
happen without their pin.
And I will call out the United Yards bond deal in the
20th Ward,
which is going to contribute towards the creation of 45 new
affordable housing
units. I will also note
the work of Fiona Burke,
specifically around the O'Hare expansion.
She and I
worked diligently in the very public,
relative to
what became very public discussions associated with the expansion
of the airport.
I
date back to negotiating as a cub lawyer here,
the T5 expansion.
So working with Fiona and the Department of Aviation and
their steadfastness, we were able to
continue the good work that preceded us,
and we look forward to the future expansion of O'Hare.
In an effort to address the high exposure cases that we are confronted
with,
often inherited from many years hence,
some more recent, two new divisions are
at play.
One is a division called Mass Torts and
Complex Litigation. You will recognize in the
box Deputy Victoria Benson. She has
returned to us
after a departure,
and she returned to us in part at the behest of Jessica
Felker, who had a lot going on and said
to Victoria, "Will you consider returning?" And me, "Will you consider having her?"
And it was a yes and a yes.
Victoria is focusing on our more high exposure litigation
and mass torts, specifically around
managing defensive cases where we have the same
defendants but many plaintiffs, and she's starting with
183 lawsuits.
Because of her past
experience, she'll be able to incorporate new methodologies,
engage in advanced analysis,
and
do so within the context of the overall financial
interests of the city.
An additional, slide 16, division that we have now,
I shared with you that we had just hired Elizabeth
Mannion
as our division deputy. Elizabeth is in the
box as well
and is here to respond to what I suspect will be some questions
around risk mitigation and risk mitigation approaches.
What Elizabeth has done in very short period of time has
been extraordinary. She is an incredibly hard worker.
She is engaged in the process of forecasting some of our financial
exposure and risk assessment. She's doing legal
analysis. She's developed a
collaborative approach with her contemporaries around the country,
all with an eye towards data-driven
analysis of how we go about our charge and
minimizing our exposure.
Slide 17.
Through
her efforts, we have been able to
address a host of issues, including
launching this Litify system,
which has started some time before the efforts had started
in collaboration with the Department of DTI.
But this system is
replacing our more nascent and
frankly failing system of tracking our case
management
as well as matter management, and we are hopeful as we continue
to grow the system and look for ways to shape the system,
it will help the leaders of this department as they go about their
charge in making strategic decisions and analyzing
trends,
and assessing assignments
and the like.
And finally,
Elizabeth was instrumental as the DNC was
happening, and for that matter, so was everyone in the
box and many of the staff member here
in helping us in our planning and operations.
Every person in that box played a
role, received training, was assigned to various parts of the
city
around DNC,
and ensured that from a legal compliance standpoint, we were
where we needed to be, doing what we needed to do.
And I am grateful for the extraordinary efforts
by them,
and I will call them out in a specific detail a little
later.
Finally, slide 18.
So
a lot of the public discussion around
the law department's work is use of outside counsel.
I wanted to make sure it was clear what our percentages are
with respect to use of outside counsel.
It's much smaller than is often
depicted.
But where we use it, we try to be
judicious.
There is work to be done on that front.
We use it in areas where we need additional expertise,
medical expertise,
focus, reverse conviction expertise.
We use it when we have conflicts. We use it because of the
sheer volume
that we have, and we use it because we only have a certain
number of employees
at our ready.
There are
a plethora of issues. We have about 17,000 active
cases
in this space, and there simply aren't enough
lawyers in-house to do that work. By comparison, we have just
under 300 lawyers.
New York,
with the same sort of issues, we have has 700.
I want to do a
quick reference for you before I close
and open it up for
questions, because I think it might be helpful for you to
know by the numbers
where we are as a department, and
then I wanted to
open it up for questions that you may have.
You will note that our budget, as
proposed, is
$45,000,920.152.
That is both in terms of personnel and non-personnel.
In the corporate front it's just over $36 million.
We have had a slight increase in our professional and technical
services area.
It's up $282,000.
That's because of our facilities contract
that had not been adjusted in 10 years, and so it had
a 10% increase. So that adjustment has occurred.
We have an increase of 24,000 in our
dues and subscriptions
area. That's because of us taking on the
ARDC fees in furtherance of
covering the license
fees of our attorneys, and by extension,
ultimately the attorneys embedded in some of the operating
departments.
As noted, we have just under 300 in total
attorneys and just under 400 employees overall.
We have a decrease overall of 21,000 in our
non-personnel area.
We have rid ourselves of 10 photocopying machines, probably much
to the regret of some of the staff.
We've added a high-powered machine,
but we will be assessing the efficacy of that
approach. We approached our budget on a zero-based
balanced,
and I think we should be doing that every year.
That requires that we assess our
staff, our operations. We don't have a large
programmatic spend,
but it's certainly the right thing for us to do.
We only have a single contractor
in terms of non-attorney based contract work.
It is a WBE or MBE
that is a subcontractor to them.
So we have eight contractors.
Eight con-
Into the mic and identify yourself.
Julie Morgan, Deputy Corporation Counsel of Administrative Services.
We have eight contract vendors.
Okay.
This year we settled a very high number.
We're up
quite a percentage in terms of the number of cases that we settle.
Our settlements and judgments are,
as of 10/31 of '24,
we're at about 140 million.
Of that number, 103 is CPD,
13
CFD,
and then we have a host of categories that are
Department of Water Management,
and other departments
in our settlement figures.
That compares to a smaller settlement figure in 2023.
But what we've done is begun the process of addressing some
of the larger reverse conviction cases,
our police pursuit cases, the age
discrimination cases, and some of our operation departments have
been brought to conclusion.
So we've settled a great deal of cases that had
otherwise not been resolved.
This year, on the reverse conviction front,
we've only received eight new cases.
That is compared to double digits in all prior years.
So we hope that trend continues,
but it is not something that we
frankly, totally control.
I'm going to close now after going over the general numbers,
and then open the floor up for questions.
But I do want to reiterate my gratitude for being able to appear before
you,
incoming notwithstanding.
My gratitude to the employees of the department and their
good work.
Many people don't understand the sacrifice that public
employees make. I was a longstanding employee before I went to
the private sector and then returned.
And it is indeed a sacrifice, but it is for the greater good.
Most of them are acutely aware that every day they have an opportunity to have an
impact, not only on your wards,
but in terms of the overarching issues that we're confronted with
legally.
And
they have done, in large part, an
extraordinary job, and I am
grateful to be able to stand beside them as they go
about their charge.
That is my presentation. I open the floor.
To the chairman.
Sure. Alderman Lopez, did you have a point of information?
Yes, Chairman. Actually, we skipped slide 10.
Okay.
Thank you, Alderman.
Slide 10 reflects the work of the Special Collections
Unit. It is interesting, Alderman, that you
focused in on that slide.
You will see that it affects your ward.
This is the slide for those alders who were not in the room,
that
reflects the work of the Special Collections Unit that was established as a result
of my conversation initially with Alderman Scott, then Mitchell,
and then Moore, in terms of vacant lots and the adverse impact in their
wards.
As we began that work, we discovered that it was
more than those individuals, and it was more than just a few,
that it is pervasive.
This is my list of just one of those individuals.
Alderman Lopez, you're on that list,
as is Alderman Hall,
as is Alderman Harris,
and Mitchell, and Deal.
Gutierrez, Lopez. Sorry, Alderman Lopez, I said you
twice.
Chico.
Alderman Coleman appears
pervasively
on that list.
Alderman Moore.
Has this list been provided through the chair to-
Cannot be.
As said, we're in litigation-
Okay
... on this, but I do want to know that for each of these
aldermen, I have begun meeting with you individually because we are in court, and
some of it is starting to come out. Some of it is starting to leak out,
and I did not want you to be surprised by
what was happening. Alderman Taylor, O'Shea,
Curtis,
Mosley, who I've already met with, Rodriguez.
Alderman Conway,
Alderman Mitts.
Alderman Fuentes, Alderman Burnett.
This is one individual.
I have 10 more to go.
Alderman Taliaferro as well. This individual is currently in
court, as is Alderman Erwin is on that list as well.
We have just begun that small unit, with
that focus
on her, but there are many others
who
are engaged in similar contract. I'm sorry, this is not only
her,
I call her the woman who has the LLCs, but includes
also the other
top 10 offenders.
And I wanted you to see the impact. I raised that as well because
sometimes, Alderman,
you are cast in a light that you can't solve for certain
problems in your ward, and the citizens who live in your wards are
cast in a certain light.
This is
a burden that they inherited, as do you.
This is a choice that these particular owners of these vacant lots
have made.
But we must and we will hold them to account.
That's slide 10, and thank you, Alderman, for resurfacing it.
Thank you for your presentation. We're going to start with Chair Mitts and then go
to
Chair Dowell as well, maybe. We'll start with Chair Mitts.
Thank you,
Vice Chair, and
good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Alderman Mitts.
Ms. Richardson and your team.
Yes, I introduced them.
Now I don't get to work with all of you a lot.
Hopefully,
only if there are issues that come up in my ward that I
can't answer, especially one you just finished talking about,
the vacant buildings and
either that of fines and fees where someone is in
an administrative hearing because of
violations or
Those type of issues. But we got one down here that I
hear all the time, and I was just wondering, who is working with
the
community folks who come down and talk about these issues
with their property?
I
just think that somebody in law should be reaching out or
sharing something with us or
talking to them about the issue. It is
unhardening to hear this every council
meeting. And I know we have
a fine law department there that can address some of the issues
that they have, because that's pretty much why.
But I never hear anyone say anything, and I done heard this too long, so
I just wanted to see if you would address that for me.
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
We have several divisions that ultimately have to work
with some members of the community.
Probably the one that's most prolific is Kim Roberts,
through BLE.
And many of the alders will call her directly so that the
property is brought to her attention.
If, Kim, you can speak to
the alderman's questions, and then I have another statement
I'd like to make.
Thank you, Mary. For the record, my name is Kim Roberts.
I'm the deputy corporation counsel for the Building and License Enforcement
section. And good afternoon, Alderwoman Mitz.
Thank you for your question.
I am familiar with your office, and I know I've worked closely with you over the
last few years. It sounds like you have a specific question about a case
that's pending in court. I would be happy to talk to you about that offline.
Some of our-
And it's not my case that I have in my ward.
I'm talking about the confusion that comes from constituents who
come down here and testify
every council. I rate, but I never hear anyone
trying to assist them. Give us some peace of mind.
So that's the question I had.
I understood the question. And in part, that I
asked Ms. Roberts to respond because she has had
those communications, so that you're aware-
Okay
... preliminarily. There is a different division that's handling a
litigation matter, and then we've had our managing
deputy reach out so that if there's any additional
information that can be surfaced that we can look
at,
that that process can be
allowed. But there's an active case, so there's going to be some restriction.
But I think it would be helpful,
pardon me. I think it would be helpful to hear from
Deputy
Kim Roberts. One of the problems, Alderman, you should be aware of
with respect to that particular matter, and I hear both the pain and
the concerns associated with
the mother. This case has been litigated.
It was litigated before I arrived.
It's ongoing litigation,
and it's had adverse impact on them in terms
of the judicial ruling. So I hear the pain.
We are going to have some limitations, however, on what we can do.
And to that family, if they wish to sit with us and can
present additional information, we are willing to hear that.
The court has ruled with respect to their prior
submittals, but if they have additional information that we can
consider, then I'm willing to ensure that that meeting takes place.
But I do want you to know that Kim has,
over time, been engaged in some of the preliminary outreach.
Ms. Roberts, would you care to expound?
Yes. Thank you, Mary.
Alderwoman Mitz, that's correct.
The matters that have been surfaced with the council
are pending in court, so it's limited on what we can talk about.
However, I've had direct communication with
the owners of those properties, and they're aware of the city's position.
But if you need more information about the facts of those cases, we're happy to
discuss that offline, whatever we can disclose.
Ms. Jackson, please. Thank you.
Let me just ask a question concerning
housing
court,
because
there are
families that are being displaced
from their home
based upon,
I don't know if somebody trying to take the house from them, but they
always end up in court, and they have to go through these
proceedings and don't have the resources to
get the house back. How are you
addressing those issues? And
for myself, I've seen that
in my community, we can't buy houses that right at our own
neighborhood. And that's again with banks.
It has to do with the banks
who won't allow
a person on the block who live there to purchase a home there,
but others can come in and
next thing you know, they done bought it.
So how are we working with that system?
Because that's not
a level playing field that I see.
Alderman, you are correct. I wanted to
have Steven Kane speak to one of the ways in which we tried to
approach that specific issue. Steven Kane, I think
the Resapro, the alderman was not in the room when I mentioned
Resapro, and I think it might be helpful by way of illustration of one of the
methodologies being used to address the issue that she
raised. Steven?
Sure. Thanks for the question. Steve Kane with the Appellate
Litigation division. We've got a couple of cases that we filed
that I think pertain to this kind of an issue.
One is the Resapro case that we filed
against construction companies that failed to get permits, and then we were able to
get
the company to pay for inspections of these homes to
look for life, health, and safety issues.
And when found, pay these folks who are leaving these homes money so that they can
try to fix these problems.
Another case I would mention is Vision Property.
We sued this company. It's a company that
would buy up dilapidated homes-
Slide 13
... in low income areas and then sell them to low
income folks on a rent-to-own basis.
And it did so under terms that were basically destined to fail.
And then to make matters worse
,
it required
homeowners to
pay property taxes directly to the company with the idea that the company
would forward them on to the county.
And instead, the company simply pocketed the money for itself.
So we've been in court getting an injunction requiring this
company to pay these property taxes so people can stay in their homes.
As part of that, we've talked to many folks who are living in these homes.
We're always happy to talk to other folks who are facing similar issues to see if
there's anything that we can do on behalf of the city.
Thank you.
Can you tell me about squatters?
Do you get cases from
folks who are trying to get the squatters out of their
home after they've came in and taken over a
property?
Kim.
That's a big thing that's coming up now.
It is, Alderman. May I have Deputy Kim Roberts
respond?
Thank you, Mary. Again, my name is Kim Roberts, deputy of the Building and License
Enforcement division.
To answer your question,
when squatters take over a property, it's the property owner's
responsibility to evict them. The city can't really get involved in that
matter. We only get involved with vacates when there's dangerous and hazardous
conditions at the property. We don't evict people from their
homes.
They put them in there. Tell them-
Ms. Jackson.
Ms. Jackson, I really need you to...
I understand. I can't have any more outbursts, okay?
I haven't even talked now.
They're answering all the questions, but I cannot have you have any more outbursts,
because if you have one more, I'm going to have to have you removed, and I don't
want to do that, okay? Okay. Thank you.
Please continue.
Well, let me just say, I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you
on issues, particularly when it come to housing.
And
I don't know whose responsibility
where
we need to be talking about housing court and programs
within the district where peoples go to court.
It seems as if
there's a case in court and you're not there, somebody else is there
to
make a deal somewhere and do get people's property,
in terms of lawyers or
investors who are there. And it used to be that the
community used to go to these courts, court
advocacy.
You remember those?
I do, from quite some time ago.
That helped peoples to be able to advocate on behalf of
themselves, whereas the law department can't do it.
These are things that are missing now, and that's why peoples
don't know what to do.
Alderman, if you are receptive-
Mm-hmm
... I'd like to have at least one member of my team sit with you-
Okay
... and maybe we can talk through
what the 2025 version of court advocacy can look
like.
Oh, okay. Very good. I look forward to it.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you, guys.
And thank you for your communication in writing.
I am grateful for your communicating with several members,
acknowledging their individual efforts.
Thank you. You're so welcome.
Thank you, Chair Metz. Oh, we're going to have Chair Dowell next.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, Corporation Counsel.
Good afternoon, Chairman Dowell.
I guess the first thing I want to say is that, since I became the
chair of the Finance Committee, I really didn't understand the
amount of legal
influence and legal work that
comes through the committee. And so I first wanted to thank
your team,
especially John and Carolyn,
Victoria, Ken, Jessica, and Margaret for all of their
hard work and for
having those
legal
classes 101
that you came up with to help some of our new members
understand the role of the law department and how your
department's divided up. So I wanted to just thank you for that.
Thank you, Chairman.
I have a lot of questions.
And this is just based on what I'm seeing at the finance committee level.
So I'm glad to hear you only have eight new cases, but you
inherited
a number of wrongful and reverse conviction
cases from decades ago from Burge and
Guevara, Watts, and Boudreaux. I'm wondering if you could share
your strategy
moving forward as it relates to the disposition of these cases,
especially the legacy reverse conviction cases, and
those that have a certificate of innocence.
If you could just maybe talk about your strategy.
Because it looks like
we have a long road to haul.
Thank you, Chairman, for the question.
We certainly have
a long, it's a Southern expression, row to hoe.
We
have inherited through reverse conviction a--
Thank you, Vice Chairman Lee, for your leadership
as you exit.
We have inherited a plethora of
cases that are 10, 20, and 30
years old in the reverse conviction area.
And we also have,
as a result of that, began to
re-strategize our approach as well
as build upon some of the areas of success.
One of the things that I mentioned in our
earlier presentation, I believe it's in slide 15,
is relative to the creation of our mass torts
division.
This division's creation, and I'm going to have Victoria
Benson, our returning veteran,
speak more detail, is intended to begin the process of
addressing
those concerns.
She immediately inherited 182
cases around a single group of same
defendants and a very large group of
plaintiffs.
But by dividing that into a separate division,
it allowed us to begin to apply some varied
strategies for how we go about redressing
those kinds of cases. And while she can't speak to case
specifics, of course, she can generally speak about
the vision of the division.
I was looking for a general
discussion, but also if she could weave into that how
the new risk manager that you hired,
how that fits into the strategy.
Yes, and that is a slide. So after we finish with slide
16, we'll go to slide 17, but leaving up slide 16.
Victoria
Benson, if you can speak first, and then followed by
our new risk manager
in slide 17, intended to respond to the very
questions that the chairman has posed. Victoria?
Thank you. Good morning. Victoria Benson, Deputy Corporation Counsel with the Mass
Torts and Complex Litigation Division.
As corporation counsel has explained, I can't discuss any of
the details with those pieces. However, one of the things that I can
address is increasing some of the access and
participation of the law department in those cases.
So
in concert with our outside counsel, I am reviewing
the materials myself, making analyses myself, looking for some of these
patterns and aspects. Having that type of
in tandem activity
allows us to somewhat change what the strategy may have been in the past,
because I now have the time and the resources and the ability to specifically focus
on that piece.
And in terms of working with our
risk manager, I'll let her speak to some of those pieces about how the two of us
interact together pretty regularly, specifically on the cases
involving the Watts matters.
Thank you.
Elizabeth Manion.
Hi, good afternoon. Elizabeth Manion, Deputy Corporation Counsel of Risk
Management and Compliance. Alderwoman, thank you for your question.
Can you hear me all right?
Better.
Better? All right. Allow me to take this opportunity to speak a little bit
about the creation of my division.
This division was created approximately a year ago under this Corporation Counsel,
Mary Richardson Lowery, and we've done some really exciting
things to put the Department of Law in best practices and
really meeting the need for a
law enterprise of this size. One of the measures that we've taken is
rolling out our new matter management system, Litify, and with this,
we have customized matter management pages for all 19 of our
divisions. We are able to do uniform tracking, which includes
budgeting and exposure. Essentially, it's a way for us to forecast
matters early on from case inception and track it
at each level, making decisions of how much we value a case is worth,
and then having that factor into the legal steps that we take next.
Not only is it helpful for each individual division, such as mass torts,
federal civil rights litigation torts, we are able to monitor
individual attorney desks to set our attorneys up for success, and
we're able to have
an oversight at the department level, top-down, backed by
data.
All right.
Thank you.
So
I would like to see Corp Counsel,
the city get to a point where we budget
our settlements money based on
reality and what we're seeing,
and not
budget it so low that we always go above that number.
Can you speak to that?
I can, Alderman. What we
started this year is intended to do precisely what you've
articulated.
We have both Elizabeth Manion, our risk manager, Julie,
our chief administrator, sitting with the OBM
and DOF folks every month.
And the focus is on settlements and judgments,
so that we collectively have a better forecast
with respect to said settlements and judgments.
That began each year at the beginning
of the year. We sit with Budget, we submit to them what we
think is a forecast, what we think the number should be, and
Budget with us, there is a forecasting that happens
that's typically around numbers.
That sometimes works well, and sometimes frankly, it just hasn't.
So what we've tried to do is supplement it with these meetings where we're
sitting with them, and we've agreed collectively to standardize
that going into next year. As you have, Chairman,
the Finance Committee, through your chairmanship witness, this
year has been a particularly active year with respect to
us attempting to move some of these cases through settlement.
We closed 89 cases
this year, but 48 of which are settled.
So that pain point that you're experiencing was real.
It was an incredible volume.
We also had 39 cases that were dismissed in the city's
favor.
Three went to trial, two not liable, one liable.
And do you anticipate that we'll have that same kind of volume
in 2025?
It is decidedly possible that we'll have a similar volume in
2025.
All right. I might have to take a round two, but I'm going to
also...
We pulled some numbers from FOIA.
Sure.
FOIA requests, and we're spending about
close to a million dollars annually,
because we're not addressing our FOIA
responses quickly enough. What
are you doing to help us bring that number down?
I'm going to introduce you to Deputy of
our LIP division, Christine Hake.
She has deployed a plethora of methodologies to
address our FOIA, and I will say she inherited quite the
load when she arrived
to her status as a deputy.
Christine?
Thank you. Good afternoon, Alderman Dowell, Christine Hake, the City Prosecutor.
I also run the FOIA division here.
Since I came on two years ago, we have implemented
essentially trainings for FOIA officers.
I've ensured that each department has a FOIA officer as well as
a backup FOIA officer. That is important.
And then we have a fully staffed FOIA division here to
defend litigation. Not only are they defending the litigation, but they're
advising the departments as well.
So each ACC has a department liaison that they're assigned to.
Every first Tuesday of the month, we have new FOIA officer training that I've
initiated, and we have quarterly meetings with regards to updating the
law. Now, the sheer volume of FOIAs is a lot.
Approximately CBD had about 25,000 FOIAs that came through
last year.
I will say this, that
with regards to our budget right now, spending the money on FOIA, it's about
1% of the budget that we're defending in litigation.
Well, I know it's 1% of the budget,
but a million dollars is a million dollars, and if we can
even cut it in half over the next year,
that's helpful to us.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, and we're working towards that.
With our trainings, I'm also offering, I've reached out to client
departments, not just FOIA officers.
If the client departments themselves and the staff want to have FOIA
trainings, I'm happy to do that tailored to each client department.
So I'm really going out there trying to make
headway with all these FOIA officers and ensure that they also have backups, and
ensure that the general counsels that are in these client departments
are also paying attention to the FOIAs that come through.
So I've really worked hard to make sure we're training these FOIA
officers properly these last two years, and I will say I will
continue to do that.
I'm sorry.
Okay, I won't push that anymore, but I'll take a round two.
Yep.
What you got?
I got two pages.
She has other-
Two pages?
I will say, Alderman as well, Chairman,
there are 102 active cases in the FOIA space.
FOIAs, by their nature, are always time sensitive.
The training that Christine Hake is doing with the operation department
FOIA officers is really important.
That will help to close the gap of that number that you're
referencing. That kind of targeted, intense
training did not exist before,
and we're hopeful that that's going to bring down the numbers.
But I take your point in terms of the penalties when we don't meet
the timelines, when I say we, the collective, and then ultimately
we get fined in court.
Right. And you know the departments that are
the bad ones.
I am acutely aware.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll come back.
Very well.
Vice Mayor, you have anything?
Keep moving.
Okay.
Thank you, Vice Mayor.
Alderman Lopez?
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, members of the committee.
Corporation Council, good afternoon to you and all your team.
Good afternoon to you, Alderman.
I too wish to echo the sentiments of
Alderman Mitz and whatever we can do to bring resolution to
our
individuals who you hear constantly from every month.
I'm happy to join and help facilitating that process,
understanding that there are things that we can't and shouldn't
discuss publicly.
But I think that there should be a way for us to find some resolution as we
do other settlement matters.
I am happy to report back to you as we attempt to make some progress.
Thank you.
The Special Collections unit
We said we're dealing with 11 offenders, and I'm well aware of the one that you're
referencing.
How many problem properties is that a reference to?
With respect to that individual or overall?
Overall, throughout the entire city.
Okay.
Your unit is focusing on-
Which-- Yep, certainly. I'm going to have David Holtkamp
respond to that question because he has been steadfast
on that front, and I think he'll have the cumulative number as well as some of the
particulars, and then I'm happy to take the additional questions.
And as much as I love lawyers,
30 seconds.
Oh, are we loquacious? I'm sorry. We will try to-
You're not as bad as public health, which I appreciate.
Good.
Go.
Is it on? Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Mary, and thank you, Alderman.
The slide that you saw is about 1,500 lots
throughout the city
for the top 10 violators, and those are
individuals and entities that these individuals own.
And these are individuals that we have identified as individuals that
own hundreds of lots throughout the city and fail to maintain those lots,
and
don't pay their
fines to the city. So this is just-
All right. So-
Yes, sorry.
Alderman.
So we're talking 11 individuals who own
1,500 parcels of property who are the top 10
offenders for
trouble. And are these vacant lots?
Yes, they are, Alderman.
Okay.
Those are vacant lots, and they've accumulated, the oldest
I think is 17 years, but these are properties that have been accumulated over a
large period of time.
So then there once was a time when after a certain point,
liens, fines, and everything that were placed on these properties eventually
would outweigh the actual value of those properties, and the city would then move
forward with
going for possession of those properties.
I think that came to an end under Lori Lightfoot's administration,
roughly. There wasn't an urgency by the City of Chicago to take
ownership of more lots. Are we looking at
going after these properties
to take possession,
either through forfeiture or whatever the other legal means
are, so that we can then in turn activate them with some of the
programs that we have going on, whether it's for housing initiatives or things of
that nature, in these particular communities?
Short answer, and you're going to appreciate this, yes.
Okay.
Conversely, on the flip side, as you know, we oftentimes hear that
we do those kind of things without enough notice to individuals.
Are we putting in safeguards to ensure that,
especially when it still comes to occupied properties,
houses in particular. Are we putting in safeguards to
ensure moving forward as we make a greater effort to go after those who are
delinquent on their fines and fees through various liens and whatnot,
that they have remedies to remove themselves from being in danger
of said takeovers?
David, I'm going to have you respond to that, but I think
Kimberly may also be able to opine.
And if there's a policy in writing as to how people can
cure themselves of that, can you provide that through the chair, please?
Will do.
Thank you, Alderman. Again, David Holtkamp for Deputy of the Collections,
Ownership, and Administrative Litigation division.
When it comes to
occupied lots, that's probably going to be Kim's
division there. But I just wanted to touch on your question
earlier about
taking the lots, okay. What we're really doing here is
we're kind of going with a three-prong approach with
all of these lots here.
So what we've actually done is we've identified, or we're able
to identify more than just these 10
owners. And what we're doing is we're actually going to circuit
court. We're registering thousands upon thousands of judgments against these
individuals, and we've been doing that already.
And at the end of the day, if these individuals do not maintain their lots or
they refuse to maintain their lots and refuse to pay all their debts, what
we're going to do is we're actually going to force sales of these lots.
And we know who these individuals are, so it's not a situation where
we're taking grandma's property.
Yep.
We're taking properties from people who own hundreds and hundreds of
lots. We're working our way down the list.
What we're also doing is we're identifying lots that are in really, really bad
shape. We see those at the beginning.
And we're filing cases in the Circuit Court of Cook County to get
injunctions to make sure that these lots are cleaned.
I take your point-
Yes
... Alderman. Your body language was communicating.
Kimberly.
In the words of Mayor Brandon Johnson, was that your follow-up question?
Exactly.
Follow-up answer?
No, just kidding. Understood.
No.
And I appreciate that, but I also want to just add one caveat before Kim gets to
that-
Okay
... is that,
while we are ticketing, while we are holding them accountable, while we're issuing
violations, oftentimes these private lots are also having a very negative
impact on their surrounding neighboring lots.
And I would ask your department to come up with a
legal mechanism upon which Streets and San in particular can
use Forestry if necessary, if we have to start cutting down trees,
doing whatever, and fining and then adding that to the pile so that we can
actually make those lots not have a so direct a negative impact
on their surrounding neighbors.
30 seconds.
Thank you. Kim Roberts.
For Building and License Enforcement Division again.
Alder, I know that you're concerned about the vacant lots in your ward, but you
also have a lot of distressed properties which are occupied, and you're well aware
of the resources that we have available because I know you and your office are
always in court with us.
Yep.
I think what you're talking about is the more global approach and how we can attack
the blocks from every angle and every city service that we can offer.
And I'm willing to sit down with you and anyone from your team to introduce other
departments into this program. As you're aware, we can ticket the properties
through Streets and Sanitation. We can refer the properties to the Department of
Buildings where we can get a demolition order, or we can demand that the property
be boarded and secured. Finally, we have the forfeiture option.
Yep. Okay. I just want to make sure that all of those options are vocalized because
I think we hear plenty of conversations about what the options are.
So if we can just make sure
it's been aired publicly, as we just have, but want to make sure that
those processes are shared and expanded on as much as we can.
I will also, Alderman, make sure that we have properly posted them on
our website so that members of the public have access to
that information.
Okay.
If we could go back to the settlements and judgments page that you had up
there.
Sure.
I believe that was solely focused on the police
department, correct?
No, it did not.
So...
Which slide are we?
Or is this--
Oh, okay. Thank you.
Can you put up slide 23?
Is that-
Go ahead.
And thank you, Alderman. Julie Morgan, Deputy Corporation Counsel of Administrative
Services. So what you're seeing here on this slide is
essentially the largest amount of our settlements and judgments.
It covers multiple client departments.
So it's not representative of just CPD.
Okay.
So this is the largest categories.
Is this all of them inclusive of 2024 year to date?
No. So we-
So if you could provide through the chair year to date 2024 what this would look
like,
because that is, as
Chairman Doll has mentioned, we deal a lot with the various other settlements that
oftentimes are not headliners
for the newspapers. But just to see
both what we're spending in terms of the departments for settlements, and
then
I guess the question would be for me, what are we doing to remedy?
Because that's something that we see a lot of accidents that are returning, things
of that nature.
We talk about best practices and improvements for CPD, but we've got
21 different departments that cause us to have settlements, and we'd like to know
what they're doing. Additionally,
I'd like to also see
what we can do to go after
loss when the city of Chicago
has damages. We never go after the people who cause those damages.
Someone hits a light pole, we're not charging their insurance, we just let it go
and taxpayers pick up the bill. I'd like to see more
prosecution of those individuals because they have insurance for a reason.
We should tap into that.
And then lastly, so I don't have to do a round two, Chairman,
I've oftentimes vocalized my concerns about the settlements that we make when
it comes to
criminals. I'll just be perfectly blunt.
I don't like paying taxpayer dollars to criminals.
What I'd like to know is
what can we do
and what do we need to do to ensure that
understanding that we are trying to do what's best
with the taxpayers, but also that we have to send a message and show
some sense of moral clarity when it comes to dealing with
individuals.
It has just been reported that the city of Chicago, I'm assuming the law
department, has reached a settlement with Dexter Reid, who fired
upon police officers
during a traffic stop.
That, to me, sends the wrong message, and nowhere is that more
evident when his own brother
was just pulled over, again,
committing the same crime that his brother did, but thankfully not shooting upon
officers.
We are having an issue where it appears that we are
encouraging behavior. Where we are in settling and
trying to mitigate losses, we are going down this
spiral where we're actually adding more fuel to the fire for people
who are looking for an opportunity to get paid.
And that concerns me
because at one, that diminishes real incidents, but two, it sends
a very negative message to the taxpayers who are footing the bill and seeing
these settlements time and time again.
So I will end with however you wish to answer that because you know that's
something, and your team will say that I bring up every single month.
But I'd love to know what we can do better to
ensure that criminals are not cashing in on
taxpayers in whatever form that means and however we can make that
happen.
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
I'm going to have
Managing Deputy of Litigation, John
Hendricks, respond generally to the question, although he can't speak specifically
to any settlement. I also want to offer an opportunity post this
event for us to talk through
some of the other subtexts of issues.
But at the risk of being loquacious, I'd like to-
You can be loquacious.
I-
As much as you want now. I'm off the clock.
You're off the clock. Okay. I'll provide an opportunity for us to talk more
generally.
Deputy Managing Deputy Hendricks, please.
Right. John Hendricks.
Thank you for the question, the difficult question.
We view all of the cases
With a goal of resolving them in the interest of the city,
which sometimes means settling those cases.
But I take your point about-- And when we do that, we
take each case individually. We look at
the likelihood of success on the merits.
We look at the
severity of the injuries, as you know, all of these factors in
every single case. We don't look at it from the
standpoint of
the concerns we have. The
concerns we have are that the case be settled and resolved in the
city's best interest.
It sounds to me like your concern is that some of those settlements
would, you believe, incentivize
misconduct.
I would respectfully disagree.
But I take your point, and I think it's a valid concern to consider.
So on that particular issue about
how we resolve these
very difficult cases, CPD has many.
As you know, we've had a number of cases this past year
that have emerged that were very, very expensive,
largely because these had-- And I'm speaking now of
the current police misconduct cases that are handled
by our Federal Civil Rights Litigation division, but by, for example, the Torts
division and the pursuit cases that involve police pursuits.
A
number of these cases we settled
this year because they were trailing from
having been filed during COVID and
having essentially
not been treated
timely by the courts, and
therefore, it's been an expensive year because a number of those cases have caught
up with us.
But I think with respect to your primary concern that
we don't
accurately consider or sufficiently
consider incentivizing or not incentivizing certain
types of behavior, we do consider that.
Thank you, Managing Deputy. Alderman, I look forward to have future discussions
with you. We take your interest.
Chairman?
You sure?
All right. Very well.
Nah.
No. We're good.
We've been at this a while.
Alderman Gaspardo?
I did not know that
Thank you, Alderman.
Alderman Quinn isn't here.
Alderman Cecilia Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman, and
thank you Corporation Counsel for being with us today.
I think Chairwoman Dowell mentioned this around
police misconduct settlements. I think that arguably this is probably the largest
liability for the city of Chicago, and I'm glad to hear that we have a
risk management division.
You mentioned in your comments that some of these is
past
cases that we have little control over.
I will argue also that there are things that are under our control
today to prevent future behavior and future issues
that will be costly for the city. This is, I think, an average of $100 million
per year, which is a huge liability in a time where constituents
is asking for us to be more responsible with public dollars.
I do think this is a number that must be managed, if
anything, from this point forward.
My question to you has to do on agreeing with many council members
here about constitutional policing.
Now,
how can we reconcile, and I think I want to hear from
your department
who deals ultimately with the settlements on a regular basis with
finance.
As we want to have constitutional policing, what are the
conversations that we have had with the Office of the Inspector General,
with the Department of Police, and maybe with the risk
management team around extremism in the police
department? There are time after time,
single names that are costly on repeated occasions.
So I do think that there's something here that must be addressed moving
forward, especially with the narrative of
impunity that we continue to see. So,
how can we have a little bit more
detail on these conversations and the coordination with CPD and the Office of
the Inspector General?
Thank you, Alderman, for your question.
I'm going to respond in several parts, but I
also want to signal Jennifer Bagby, who
is head of our Public Safety Reform
division, because I think she can speak most pointedly to that
question.
I want you to know that we have established a process with the police
department where we're meeting with them regularly to talk
about patterns that we see
on the litigation side so that they can consider
said patterns with respect to any of their
practices and policies. I also want you to be aware that
with some of those age cases, many of those policies have
changed since the incident
occurred or is alleged to have occurred.
And we
Have the
FCRL through Caroline Fronczak's group
also
has a charge of engaged in
constant conversations with the police department
around issues, as does our risk manager
now is beginning to keep some data and
for us to analyze and sit with the department.
But your essential question around constitutional policing, I really
think the best person on the team to respond
is Jennifer Bagby, who's been at that end of the business
for a while. She also is sitting at the table relative to the consent
decree around that issue. So Jennifer,
the floor is yours.
Jennifer Bagby, Deputy Corporation Counsel of the Public Safety Reform Division.
As the corporation counsel indicated, I am the
lead attorney for the city in the consent decree matter.
So I have been involved in representing the city on the consent decree and working
with CPD and all involved client agencies over the last two
years.
Constitutional policing is what is at the heart of the consent
decree, and it is what all of the policy and
training that is
generated as a result of the consent decree
is geared towards, and is being achieved
slowly but thoroughly at the Chicago Police Department.
With regards to the question about extremism,
and I know this came up at CPD's budget hearing, you raised this question
with them as well, the CPD has been working on a
policy with CCPSA that addresses
associations that aims to address this
issue.
There are avenues for investigation through BIA and through COPA.
And so all of those
processes, so CPD policy development, community
engagement through CCPSA,
training amongst officers to ensure that they know what the rules are,
and then the ability to hold officers accountable through disciplinary
procedures, through either COPA or BIA, are what the consent decree
is
meant to achieve. And those areas are all being addressed through the consent
decree.
Thank you. So can we expect from the risk management division and,
again, because it was really disheartening to hear
that through some technicalities and definitions, there simply has not been any
actions, and it's been over a year since we've been in these conversations.
I do think it's important to get some sort of report
back in what is the progress being made, because ultimately, we pay the bill
through the finance committee and
through the legal settlements in these cases.
So I will ask that maybe we are given some sort of
recommendations with Inspector General, we be the
Bureau of Internal Affairs. I do think there needs to be more collaboration because
ultimately,
the consequences are going to be felt in the department.
So it's through these divisions, and I'm glad to also hear from the
Mass Torts Division.
How can we get regular communication in terms of actual
progress that we're making with the specific legal
recommendations to make progress?
I tell you, to me,
it is one of the biggest issues when public
servants-- We'll talk about what's happening out there, but I think public
servants, no matter what department, what's right is right, what's wrong is wrong,
and what I hear,
and the evidence that was provided to me with the recommendations of the inspector
general, I do think they need to be followed.
I take your point, Alderman. Jennifer Bagby also produces a
report, and it's published on our website.
I want to make sure you get a copy of that, and once you've had a chance to review
it, perhaps we can have a conversation offline relative to
some of your concerns.
Thank you. The other one is around
outside and inside counsel. I know that
95% is inside counsel. I do think that is good practice.
I like the comparative analysis that you've done with other cities.
I think again, the concern that I have around the whole infrastructure here is
about there's a whole business made out of these tragedies. Right?
And I do think that if there's any recommendations also that maybe you have,
because I do think that by us reducing the bill here, by us
reducing and changing our practices, we'll be more in line with consent decree
and we'll be more responsible with the taxpayer.
So if there's anything else around that, I know that you mentioned, if there's
anything to expand that out, I have only one more question after that.
Very good. Can you put up slide 20, please?
When you were out of the room, Alderman, we talked about some of the initiatives
relative to outside counsel.
Our risk manager working with our first assistant, working
with the relevant deputies, is engaged in
assessment of that work product,
how we're engaging them, where we're engaging them, and whether or not
there's a need to continue to engage.
I do want you to know that we reported earlier that just the
sheer volume, we're going to always have some outside counsel.
But we have to look for opportunities to bring some of that work inside,
hence the CLEs and the technical training,
and opportunities to strategically
look at our open line items for some staffing.
But I do need to manage some expectations in light of the sheer
volume of the number of reverse conviction cases that are so old,
we have to hire experts, medical experts, track down police officers,
track down witnesses
once those cases are inherited in our
FCRL area and now Mass
Torts.
In terms of the pursuit areas- We've had,
through our Torts division, we have a lot of
activity.
I know the superintendent is engaged in a policy analysis
and procedural analysis so that we can begin to minimize some of those
occurrences.
But we probably have over 30 cases just on that topic
alone that we've got to get through, and each of those cases
have a price tag associated with them.
So this is an ongoing challenge that we have to confront,
and confront we will.
I think Shilpa is in here, one of the chiefs
of the division who has been working diligently in the tort
space.
And we have a great deal...
Shilpa?
Very good. I just want you to give the good
alderman a sense of some of the volume you're dealing with and some of the
things you're doing. And also, there's an open line of
communications now with the police department when we see certain
potential for patterns that can be solved for.
Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Alderman, for your question.
Shilpa Patel, Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel with the Torts division.
With regards to our caseload, we have about 900 cases
currently handled by about 25 attorneys.
So our caseload volume is pretty high ratio of cases to
attorneys.
So in part, some of the cases going outside counsel helps our
attorneys focus more on their cases and provides us more time to
in-depth deal with the cases. Our discovery practices or our discovery
requirements have also increased over recent years, which requires more time for
each of those cases.
With respect to our communications with CPD, since
our new deputy, Margaret Mendenhall Casey, came on board, she has
been regularly having meetings with CPD's Office of Legal Affairs
to identify ways in which we can mitigate some of these cases
and some of the practices within the police department to help
eliminate some of these cases or some of the practices by police officers
that regularly result in litigation.
Thank you, Shilpa.
Thank you. I got one more question, even though I'm sure I don't have a round two.
And through the chair, maybe
I would like to work with Alderman Rodriguez Sanchez around
the Department of Justice investigation around price fixing and the
use of software for price fixing, which is illegal by
some
entities, some corporations. So that I would like to work with you on.
And finally, I think just to touch on something that Alderwoman Dalil
mentioned is FOIA, the FOIA criteria, right?
What are the criteria around-- Because
I believe firmly on fair process, due process, and that
investigations should be concluded before we make
any judgment. Unfortunately, I think sometimes these
criteria seems to be blurry.
I think what is the criteria in terms of redacted emails, not redacted emails?
I think the weaponization, unfortunately, and politicization of issues
blurry the due process. I think in the
premise of legal right,
everybody's innocent until proven otherwise, but it seems like nowadays anything
goes. So FOIA's, I think, have been at the question of all of this.
I would like to hear what is your criteria in terms of redacted, not redacted, what
is to protect the due process and fairness in the investigations?
Thank you, Alderman Sancho Lopez, for the question.
Christine Haik, our deputy over the lit provision that handles FOIA
matters, can respond to your question.
And with respect to the one you asked preceding that,
I would have you work with Steven Kane, who's over affirmative litigation
and may be helpful on that other subject. Christine.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Alderman Lopez. Christine Haik again.
I'm sorry,
Sancho.
Christine Haik, City Prosecutor and over the FOIA division.
It's a case-by-case basis of what we're seeing, what exemptions you can
take. We start with FOIA by transparency, right?
You don't have to take an exemption necessarily.
There are exemptions that exist within the statute, but they're very tight.
So it depends on what types of records we're talking about.
And
basically, when the statute was overhauled in 2010 by the attorney
general,
there are a lot of open transparencies there.
For example,
if somebody's involved in litigation, let's say,
the
discovery may not apply in that litigation, but that
attorney can go through FOIA and get that information.
Granted, there are redactions that can be applied, but just because
something is being litigated in court doesn't exempt
that attorney that's litigating it or the public from seeing some of that
information. So I'd be happy to talk offline about certain
specifics
surrounding certain records. So,
I believe you have my number. I'll reach out again after, and then we can talk
about certain things with what exemptions apply where for what records.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you, Alderman Sancho Lopez.
Alderman Burnett, you had a quick
follow-up question.
Thank you.
Thank you,
Corp counsel. Just a question about the Trouble Building
Initiative.
At one time,
the Department of Planning was working with the Building Department,
and they were allowing folks to get some of those buildings and rehab
them and put them back on the tax rolls.
From what I understand, and I don't know if you know this, maybe someone from your
staff do, that some of that is held up in your department.
Hmm.
Do you have any recollection of that, or
Any information on that?
If I will, Vice Mayor, I'd like to have Kim
Roberts respond to your question.
Thank you, Mary. Kim Roberts, building license enforcement.
Thank you, Alderman Burnett, for the question.
I think you're referring to our trouble building program that spans the entire
city, but you're talking specifically about maybe the forfeiture option,
which we did have in existence a few years ago, but it was put on hold because the
Department of Housing was revamping it. Currently, they have revamped it.
They are the gatekeepers of that entire program.
They identify which properties would be selected, and then they
also vet any potential end users that can develop that property.
So the program is in existence. It's moving forward.
It's slow
getting it through the courts, because you have to have the right combination of
anything. We can't just go around the city forfeiting properties.
It has to be an agreed situation between the existing property
owner and making sure that whoever takes it on has the capabilities to moving it
forward to bring it into compliance.
All right. Thank you very much. So it's not held up with you.
We need to check with the housing department to see where it is.
That is correct.
Okay. Thank you very much.
That said, Alderman, if you would like for us to have a meeting
to sit with you, we can meet with you with housing, walk through where we are
and what remains to be done, and that might help you as you go about meeting
your charge.
Okay. I appreciate that.
Certainly.
Thank you.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Alderman Moore, followed by Alderman Viegas.
Thank you,
Chairman.
Corporation Counsel, yeah, I think you are just doing a magnificent job,
you and your entire team.
First of all, I just want to thank you for being
not only proactive and always willing to educate us and ask us if we need
anything, but also being accessible and
always willing to meet. And I just appreciate that.
That helps us get through things without waiting to get here.
I think that's why a lot of people don't have a lot of questions, because
you are accessible and try to get a lot of our questions
answered and work with us to move forward.
So I want to appreciate you and your entire team-
All of that
... for being that way. I also want to highlight
the work you're doing in making sure that there's equity
on a lot of the bond deals that we do.
All of that matters, and to see those improvements
under your leadership is great. The only question
that I have is, and if you can just provide it through the chair, if
it's separated out,
I'm just trying to see, and it may not be an issue, but in terms of the
settlements as it relates to
tripping hazards,
how much
is that costing us a year? Hopefully it's
minuscule, because I know CDOT is working a lot to do a good job, but I just want
to see
what that number
is. But other than that, I don't have any questions.
You are
doing a yeoman's job, and
I
guess the question I do have, is there anything that you need from us
to continue to even do a better job than you're doing?
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
Happy to provide the information,
the data through the chair.
My approach to this office is born of my initial
experience as a cub lawyer, just learning the craft
here, and I return with that same sense
of energy. But we can't do what we do in
your absence.
I really want to,
once again, she's not here now, but lift up Alderman Scott in raising
the issue of vacant lots. Had she not done that in the 101,
and then you said, "Me too."
Right.
I would not have put us on the path of trying to find
a resolution. And frankly, I thought it was a small problem. It is not.
Right.
That kind of collaboration, that kind of partnership, those kinds of
meetings, I am more than willing to take meetings with the alderman.
No one will know your ward and your ward's issues better than you,
and I respect that.
We as lawyers can't always resolve it in the way that you'd like,
but we always put ourself on a path to resolution, and we
will talk through the issues with you, even if it doesn't
have the most favorable outcome, because you deserve that.
So I look forward to continuing lines of dialogue with you.
I think we're on the calendar for a meeting already
with respect to some of the information that we have
generally talked about here, but there is a specific
pervasive impact on your ward, and my charge is to help
you to make sure you have access to that information, so
if we're successful in our pursuits, you can transform that
segment of your ward consistent with what your vision is for that ward.
Right.
So I thank you, Alderman.
No, thank you. Appreciate you.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Alderman Moore. Alderman Viegas?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
and welcome Corporation Counsel.
Thank you, Alderman.
A quick question. On one of the slides, it had reference to
reverse conviction. Is that
term being interchanged with wrongful convictions? I was just curious for my...
You're speaking in reference to slide 23, perhaps?
Yes. Where it says 37% reverse convictions.
And the reverse con-- I'm sorry. Julie, why don't you? Julie Morgan.
Yeah. Alderman, your question was, was reversed conviction
synonymous with wrongful conviction?
Yeah. Are they the same term? Is that-
So, we have a deputy of federal civil rights, Jessica Felker, over
reverse conviction unit,
and that is the term that we use within this department for those cases.
I think it's important, though, that you hear from Jessica Felker,
so that she can give greater clarity around your question.
Yes. Jessica Felker. I am
one of the deputy corporation counsels for Federal Civil Rights Litigation
Division, and I do oversee the reverse conviction section
within that division.
Reverse conviction is the term for the litigation that when
a conviction is vacated,
the person then has sued the city alleging that their
conviction is wrongful.
Okay. I was just curious,
were they interchangeable? That's all,
the term.
So,
could the risk officer give us a rough estimate on
how much the city's on the hook for
reverse convictions or wrongful convictions?
And then
given that there was a
judgment of 200 million
for 42 years, which would come out to about 5 million a year,
and there being about 200 plus cases
that are still pending,
could the risk officer give us what that strategy is to try to-- Not
the full strategy, obviously, but just give us a snapshot as to
what the potential liability is for the city?
Well, I think Jessica Felker might be better
poised to respond to that question. Jessica, will you?
Yeah, Alderman, I can't in a public forum discuss what we
believe the risk or liability is. That's
certainly
our fiduciary duty and our duty as lawyers not to discuss our
work product and our opinions about liability.
I understand your question, and I understand Alderwoman
Dowell's concern about the liability in reverse conviction
lawsuits. I'm always happy to meet and
discuss what the exact numbers are that we believe we're facing,
and I think we've had 102's discussing it.
I am always happy to discuss it when we meet on committee on finance
to discuss the issues and possible
brainstorming of solutions. But unfortunately, as you
know, in this forum, I can't discuss any legal strategy.
Well, I'm not talking about legal strategy so much as
what
do you think the potential liability is?
Because
I'm not an attorney, but I think that if the city doesn't
appeal the 200 million
and it's 42 years, that would be a little under 5 million a year.
At 200 cases
times-
So, sorry
... times five million would be one billion, but that's just
for one year.
And so I'm just, again, just trying to get-
Yeah
... because here, I'll tell you why I'm concerned because
if I'm a
insurance company and I'm
insuring the city of Chicago and I know that there's a threshold, I think it's 20
million if I remember correctly, but I see this big liability out there,
what's to stop the insurance company from saying, "Hey, I'm going to insure the
city. I'm just not insuring those 200 plus cases because
based on
the number here, it looks like you have some exposure of over a billion
dollars," and that's on the low end?
So, a couple of things. There was no $200
million verdict. There was a $50
million verdict.
Again, an excessive award that we are challenging,
but I understand your concerns.
We
do have insurance for every case that is filed
against the city that's not being taken away. We have written policies.
We've used that insurance this year,
for reverse conviction cases, $29 million of the $71
million
of settlements that were presented to this council this year was covered by
insurance. Again, the
liability that we believe we face is work
product.
Not every case involves the same amount of
years. The 184 Watts
cases that are now being covered by mass torts, for example,
have very few years, even no years of incarceration.
So there's a complete variation
in the liability we face in those sorts of
cases as opposed to a case, for example, when there's
a 30-year incarceration. So I appreciate that
that's not the direct answer you want, but again, it's work product for us
to reveal the risk and our assessment
of the liability.
I'd also like to have Deputy Commissioner Elizabeth Manion respond to the
general insurance statement.
Elizabeth Manion, Deputy Corporation Council of Risk Management and Compliance.
Alderman, thank you for your question, and I certainly can appreciate your concern
as an alderman and as a taxpayer. The City of Chicago has
23 years of excess policies.
We have worked very closely with experts in the industry to make ourselves as
competitive as possible reaching the markets.
So as of the current date, we'll plan to
continue with our excess insurance program.
Okay. So, at some point would welcome the conversation in a
private setting through the chair of finance,
again, to talk about liability.
There is-
Obviously, with the city facing
some budget deficits, not just this year, but in the out years as well,
I think it's important, incumbent upon us to figure out what that liability is and
find out what the strategy is. Because there are not any revenue tied
to this type of payment here.
It's going to come out of the corporate fund.
Alderman, I think that's a fair question, and I'm happy to have-
Okay
... set up that meeting with you and the chairman.
Thank you. And then you mentioned the 5% outside attorney.
What's the dollar amount? What does that make up that 5%?
Go ahead.
Thank you, Alderman, for that question.
Julie Morgan, deputy corporation counsel of administrative services.
This year, outside counsel spend was $45 million.
Okay. So is that about average per year?
Yes, Alderman. Looking at the average spend for the past couple of years, we are on
track for a similar amount.
45 million.
And that's with a higher settlement rate for this year.
That's right.
We'll probably have a high number of cases for next year.
And then hopefully after that, we will start to see a downward trend.
But one of the things that I shared with the group earlier is that the
downward trend in terms of the number of RC cases has already started.
We only have eight or nine this year that have come in as
opposed to double digits and beyond in years
past.
Got you. Thank you. And then my final question, Mr. Chairman.
So yesterday we had the Department of Human Resources.
And I'm
not sure if you've been following the news around
employees that were
put on a Do Not Hire list, and a process
that
was put in place around peace circles,
that the
chief of staff would convene a circle of people that were
all accused, and the accuser and the person
making the accusations, and they would talk.
Have you ever heard of a peace circle from a legal standpoint?
Because I'm curious, at some point that's going to come up in the lawsuit.
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
I had not heard of that
preceding,
perhaps because I pretty much stayed within legal circles only.
But I've certainly come to learn about it.
Got you. Okay. And again, the Department of Human Resource commissioner, who's
charged the subject matter expert in that area didn't know what that
was. So I figured I'd ask the corporation counsel since that was something
that the chief of staff decided was something that was appropriate.
So just curious if you heard that.
Had not.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman. Alderman Reiling.
Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, Corporation Council.
Good afternoon, Alderman.
And thank you for responding to the
budget memo I send out every year. Appreciate the detailed response.
Certainly.
And before I start, I also want to compliment you
and
the folks in the box and the gallery for all the great work that they do on behalf
of the taxpayers.
Thank you, Alderman.
Before I get into my questions, I just wanted to note on your handout about your
successes with the summer law clerk program and paid volunteer program, and
all of these things. I noted one of your
talking points is that 72% of the 2024
program identifies as ethically
diverse.
Mm-hmm.
Not ethnically.
Oh.
I apologize.
So let's hope they're not ethically diverse.
They're all-
Yep.
They probably view themselves as ethic.
Yeah.
I'm sure the-- It was-
That's the editor in me. I've got OCD-
Thank you
... and there's my editor.
Very good.
So
I'm going to do a little follow-up on some questions that my colleagues asked.
But wanted to talk very specifically about a couple responses to that
memo I referenced.
And I can tell that you had one of your best attorneys prepare the responses.
I'm looking at
your response on--
I ask every department whether or not they are going to
be
implementing salary increases for non-union employees, and
your response, I thought, was rather clever.
Outside of the scheduled cost of living adjustments and step increases,
no staff are receiving increases in the 2025 budget.
One could argue that that's exactly what raises are,
cost of living adjustments and step increases.
And look, I'm not suggesting folks don't deserve these things.
But what we're going through with each of the departments is we have an optics
issue here as well.
Clearly, the folks who work here, in your department especially,
are underpaid. Okay? And I would love to see a much
higher rate of compensation,
especially for your entry level attorneys, so that you can continue to try and
attract that talent that might not genuinely or
naturally gravitate towards public service.
I know that's a great challenge for you.
But we're trying to justify to our constituents who have to pay the freight for all
these new taxes and all the creative revenue ideas our revenue subcommittee's been
coming up with,
how we can reconcile that.
But
again,
this is an issue that we're confronted with all of our
constituents at home.
Maybe through the chair,
so we can spare some time here for my colleagues.
If we could discuss how you
rationalize each of those step increases. I know there's a schedule.
But I don't want to bog down the committee time with that.
I'm happy to provide that information through the chair.
Thank you. And
I appreciate you're one of the only departments in the city that
made any kind of effort to do any form of zero-based budgeting, and I
know that you did apply that to your non-personnel items.
Sadly- Not the biggest bucket of money in your department, but
I just wanted to acknowledge for the record that that effort is appreciated.
It's a very tiny drop in the bucket in the savings-
Thank you, Alderman
... but the effort is applauded.
One thing I obsess about, have been for 17 years since I got here,
is our manager to employee ratio. And thank you for
getting back to me your list of supervisors, and the
number of direct reports they manage.
And while I do see a number of your managers
have a number of direct reports, and that's encouraging.
Of the 122 managers or supervisors within your department,
50,
or 49 or 50, I've got to check my math,
manage five or fewer direct reports.
And if you could just give me a very brief explanation as to
why that is.
I understand some of these folks are specialists,
but it seems there may be an opportunity for you to consolidate some of that
managerial responsibility to improve that ratio and get it
more aligned with what we see supervisory levels
within the private sector in your industry.
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
And yes, we are assessing that and also looking at opportunities
for
whether or not there should be some combination.
But I want to cite for you a quick example of why it matters.
We are set up, just like every other law firm, and that's how we're categorized
by the Illinois Supreme Court. We're set up in divisions
or buckets or bureaus or units around technical
expertise. One example of that is the
public safety reform, which is the five or less category,
very specific technical expertise in consent decree.
Very important work. An example of it is affirmative
litigation that has generated 40 million.
Very technical work now. Would that particular
deputy like more people?
Yes.
San Francisco has 17 in a similar division and is
bringing in a much lower rate at given the percentages.
I think we're going to look at ways to shift some of our personnel
so that he has additional support given that sheer revenue.
But that's generally speaking why we approach it that way.
That said, Alderman,
your observation is a keen one. We always have to reevaluate our units,
our structures, and see whether or not there are opportunities to combine, and we
will.
Appreciate that. And
a couple other aldermen hit on this, and I don't want to belabor it, but the
$45 million or so that you're spending routinely on an annual
basis for outside counsel, I understand why you need to engage outside
counsel for complex litigation, et cetera.
Yet, that number's remained pretty static.
And I understand that the caseload that you're dealing with is also
pretty consistent,
but we certainly would do a lot better getting more of that
money in-house.
And I'm really encouraged to see that you're doing performance
assessments and you're reviewing the work of outside counsel to determine whether
you're getting a value or not.
But I just want to state for the record, yet again,
I would happily embrace
a greater headcount for your department knowing it was going to reduce that outside
counsel number.
Especially when we ultimately have to settle out a lot of cases where we're
spending a lot of money on outside counsel.
That's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. It's frustrating.
So to be able to have those costs in-house would be a good thing.
But to that end on the assessment piece, and again, a
brief answer because we have a short amount of time here.
As a result of your performance assessment of outside counsel,
which again is very encouraging to hear,
what has been the result?
Have you determined as a result of this review that there are certain firms you
no longer wish to do-- I'm not asking you to out them here, but are there
firms or lawyers in particular you've decided you don't want to do business with
anymore?
Yes.
And is that
a large number?
I'm happy to have a discussion with you through the chair, but that will be the
outcome.
Yeah, and I don't want to get into specifics.
Certainly.
I understand the sensitivity.
But yes, I would like to have that conversation-
I welcome it
... outside of this hearing.
And then,
I'd be remiss, before I get back into a couple other questions.
We have, and you've been here for many of these
public comments that have been made, but we have Ms.
Jessica Jackson here, and I know she's been brought up earlier today by some of my
colleagues.
A number of us are incredibly sympathetic to her situation.
And,
I would assume there are probably some members of your office that are as well, and
I understand you're in a unique position here because of litigation.
And whether or not your department can directly assist her, I think it would be
incredibly helpful
for someone in your department to provide her with the
appropriate people she can talk to to get the help she needs to rectify this.
I am not an attorney. Some of my colleagues are, and we've all sat with
her, and her situation seems to me egregious.
And I can understand full well why she comes down here every day as upset as she
is. Were I in her shoes, I would be just as upset.
And so, again, I know you can't provide her with direct counsel,
but I know, especially with your network, that we could find someone that
could provide her with that advice that she needs,
because she's really in a horrible situation here.
You should anticipate we'll be having further discussions on that front.
It is a difficult situation. There are
aged prior judgments that said
I understand that you're in a unique situation, but-
I under-
... I think you've heard from-
Sure
... a number of us what we'd like to see afforded to-
And I'm going to share
some of the outcome with alders who have inquired on that front.
And I'll do that so that we can meet our fiduciary duty and our
confidentiality.
But I understand.
Thank you.
And then
I have two last questions, Chairman.
And one is
related to the... Well,
do you want me to wait to go to a round two, Chairman?
No, go ahead.
Okay.
One is a follow-up on Alderman Villegas' question.
I'm
glad to hear you're also unfamiliar with peace circles.
Hypothetically, because we can't talk about specific cases,
were a department head to ask you or
one of the attorneys who works for you
whether a peace circle would be an appropriate method to address a sexual
harassment allegation,
would you endorse that course of action?
I'm
not going to respond directly to your question because I
think it's important that there not be anything read into a current
fact pattern. I do think it's important that you
are aware of some of the options that
a department has
available to them, and I want
Helina Tamrat,
our deputy of labor, who regularly visits these
issues, to share with the alder corps
some of the standards. Helina?
Thank you for that question, Alderman Riley.
My name is Helina Tamrat, and I am the deputy corporation counsel over the
labor division. And some of the work that the labor division does is
we
provide legal advice and counsel to city departments on
labor and employment related issues.
We handle disciplinary matters and defend the city on
discrimination charges that are filed in different agencies.
Again, part of our role is to advise city departments on
issues pertaining to policies, the revision
of policies, and updating of policies.
So I think I want to point you to the city has a very
robust diversity and equal employment
opportunity policy that is managed by DHR.
There's specifically an EEO division.
They're responsible for investigating allegations of
sexual harassment and other claims of discrimination.
So once an investigation is made, and if there is
a recommendation
after a finding of a violation, the
violation would be of the EEO policy.
If there is a violation of policy, typically,
DHR would recommend discipline.
However, as part of the policy,
the
EEO policy is robust and fulsome, and one of the
things that it includes is that in addition to discipline,
it's openly worded in such a way that,
in addition to discipline, the
recommendation can include alternative ways of
addressing
concerns that have been raised. So without-
Can you put your microphone closer to your-
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
So without specifically talking about a particular case,
I can say that there is provision in the EEO
policy that allows for alternative
means of
addressing concerns that are raised.
Okay.
Not specifically sexual harassment, but there is a room for an
alternative means of addressing concerns.
Fair enough.
But within that kind of broad
flexible policy,
do we have dos and don'ts? Like, don't host a peace
circle with folks who are accused of sexual harassment
with their victims present?
So the policy does not specifically use that
word, no. So there are no specific dos or
don'ts in the policy. However, like I said, typically,
if there is a violation that has been sustained
after an investigation, there is a recommendation
from the DHR, from-
So ultimately, the department head can reject or accept or amend.
Yes. Every department head has the discretion in issuing
discipline under the personnel rules of the City of Chicago.
Department heads are responsible for issuing discipline, not
DHR. DHR can recommend when they're
investigating under the EEO policy.
Okay. Well, maybe that's something that we need to revisit at
a later date. It seems like there's some room for improvement within our policies.
It seems, unfortunately, some of our department heads need some extra guidance on
how to handle these types of cases.
I don't know if that's more training or if it's a more clearly defined policy.
Thank you, Alderman.
Chairman, I had one last question that the last person asked me to-
I thought that was the last one.
That was one, and this is the last one.
All right.
And then no round two, which I'm sure everyone's thrilled to hear.
The last one is one I've been asking of CPD, and they
actually referred me your way.
And that is,
who do we talk to about
potential future changes to CPD's chase
policies,
both vehicular and on foot. And I know that
part of that's risk management. I get it. I understand.
I saw your slide with the pie chart
on settlements, et cetera.
But we are the only police jurisdiction in the state
that prevents our officers, generally, from engaging in vehicular
pursuits. The state police can do it.
Cook County Sheriffs do it every day,
yet we can't.
And we have some crime categories here which remain very
problematic. They're all problematic, but
carjackings and the like,
these continue to happen because folks know we don't chase criminals
in the city of Chicago.
And frankly, the only folks that can are police officers.
So could you help me understand that better, and is there an opportunity to revisit
that in the future? Again, I understand you have to strike a very delicate balance
there.
I'm just saying perhaps we could
more delicately strike that balance.
Thank you, Alderman, for your question.
And yes, I will strike a delicate balance in my response.
We
appreciate that's an ongoing issue here.
I want you to be aware that we have begun having conversations with the
superintendent, his staff, and sharing some of our
observations as he and his staff think
through opportunities to
look at policies and procedures.
I'm also happy to have a conversation with you offline in terms of some of the more
sensitive aspects of that discussion within your
fiduciary
responsibilities category, but I can assure you that discussion has
happened.
Our risk manager, Elizabeth Mannion, also sits in those sessions.
Maggie
Mendenhall Casey, our new deputy of torts, sits in those sessions.
Our managing deputy of litigation is included in those sessions.
This superintendent is acutely aware that he's inherited some processes
and procedures
that likely
have an opportunity to
explore
strategies going forward for their use or not use, and that
process is underway. But again, I'm happy to meet with you separately, Alderman.
I appreciate that. Thank you. And thank you again for the work that you
do and your entire staff. It's important work, and it's valued.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Alderman. The next up is Chairman
Lospada.
Thank you very much, Chair. Corporation counsel, thank you so much for being with
us today. I know it's closing in on the end of a long day.
I appreciate your work. I deeply appreciated the
presentation. To learn new things about your department and
your team was really fascinating to me. I have three quick questions.
I wondered if you could go back to the slide that looked at active cases
related to buildings licensing and enforcement.
Can somebody pull up that slide?
Sure. Slide 12?
There it is, yes.
Sure.
I was
struck-
Slide six. I'm sorry.
Yes. I was really struck by the disparity by wards
in the number of active cases. And without making
presumptions,
I'm wondering if you can draw out
why we see those disparities and what actions counsel
may be in a position to do to address them.
I'm going to have Deputy Kim Roberts respond because she lives
and breathes those issues.
And
David Holtkamp, if you'd like to also add something, you are welcome to do that.
Thank you, Mary. Kim Roberts, Building and License Enforcement Division.
Thank you for your question, Alderman.
I believe the chart reflects the different cases that my division prosecutes
across the city identified by wards.
If you'd like a breakdown of those type of cases, we have eight operating sections,
so it's a variety of different cases that are before the court.
So I think this conversation would be better offline in a meeting one-on-one where
we can talk about the types of cases that are happening in your ward.
I would really enjoy that. Not so much for
my ward specifically, but
looking at this data and the patterns, having an opportunity to sit down with you
and potentially with colleagues to unpack that and think critically about
how we work through some of these disparities, I would relish that opportunity.
Yeah. But thank you very much for the response.
Yes, I would welcome that meeting.
Yeah.
My
second question
was related to
the COLE, Collections, Ownership, and Administrative
Litigation. I know that we talked about that briefly before.
And again, I think the opportunity for counsel to sit down and have some
briefings to understand how these cases
emerge, how we can work more collaboratively with the
COLE division would be fascinating.
But I was wondering if you would take a moment to highlight an example of one of
these cases and
how that came to your division,
how we successfully prosecuted it.
Can you pull up slide eight, please?
Yes.
David Holtkamp?
Sure.
Thank you, Alderman, for your question.
David Holtkamp for
the-
Or rather, let's pull up slide nine, and I think there's
specific cases associated with slide nine.
There's the fly dumping
in Ward
16 and the other fly dumping in Ward six.
Sure.
So this is just two separate cases that
were... Oh We've modified the way we actually look at cases
as they come in. So in the Cole Division, we actually are responsible
for looking at the ownership,
and discovering or looking into the ownership of all the Department of Streets and
Sanitation tickets,
and CDOT tickets. So we see pictures as they come in,
and what we've actually built into our process now is
when
the pictures come in and they look like these two, what we will actually do is
we have a little button. We will refer that to the Special
Collections Unit, which is our new unit that deals with vacant lots, and in this
case, pretty dangerous vacant lots.
And then our SCU attorneys can review those
pictures. And what we will do is we'll decide whether or not we're going to
actually
just pursue those in Department of Administrative Hearings and pursue a fine,
which we can collect on. Or in these two cases, what we did is we actually
filed cases in Circuit Court,
multimillion-dollar cases against not only the entities that own these
lots, but the owner behind those entities.
And we
immediately filed motions for preliminary injunctions to have those cleaned, which
were granted. So those two lots do not look like that today.
They are cleaned and fenced. And
those cases are actually ongoing, but
for the dollar value. But they have been cleaned.
We forced them. We got court orders requiring them to clean those lots.
So that's the process. That's part of the process that we have
undertaken for the SCU,
to focus heavily on vacant lots. It's just
one of the prongs that we're working on here.
No, I think it's fascinating. I would love the opportunity to sit down and
better understand your division.
Although,
the presentation and how you addressed it was a great primer on what we're trying
to accomplish here.
Thank you, Alderman. And I also would welcome that conversation.
Just building on the question asked by Alderman Moore in terms
of what we can do together, this is what we found in terms of
the major
individuals who are
bad actors. This is our top 11. In your ward, you'll probably
have someone in the top 20 or the top 30.
But you will know more than we.
And so being able to sit with you, go through that,
you may have some vision for a certain area of your ward where you've had
patterns of buildings that have gone
unattended to, or land that has
not been properly cared for.
This is the kind of strategy that can be deployed
around specifics in a ward,
and hopefully that collaboration is something you would welcome.
We will absolutely sit down. There's properties that come to mind even just as
we're speaking now.
My last question, because it was the only one where I saw
a significant decrease
in head count was within Federal Civil Rights
Litigation, which is going from
52 head count to 44. I'm wondering if you could
explain the rationale behind that.
I'm going to have the deputy, Carolyn Fronczak,
give voice to that issue as also. But as
she
has the mic handed to her,
I just want to also just forecast, it's one of the
most difficult areas for recruiting.
It's a specialty
area. It is an area where we have outside counsel involved,
but the difficulties in recruiting, we're on a 4/1
schedule, meaning four days in, one day off.
There are other entities out there that are on a 3/2 schedule.
We are now adding ARDC coverage of fees and additional
CLE as an enticement for those folks.
But this is certainly one of the areas in which we've had a great deal of
challenges in our recruiting. Ms. Fronczak, the floor is yours.
Yes, thank you. Caroline Fronczak, Deputy of Federal Civil Rights Litigation
Division.
Yes, our head count has gone down. It's regrettable because this
is, I think, one of the best areas of law to practice in.
It's incredibly rewarding.
And I think some of the challenges are with some of the restrictions for city
employment.
Work from home days are restricted.
And I do require our attorneys to be in the office when they meet with
clients, because I think it's very important for them to have face-to-face
conversations with the police officers and other members of the
City of Chicago that they interact with.
And maybe some people enjoy working from home more, and that's not their
bag.
But I
do expect a lot of the attorneys that work in our division, because our cases, as
you know, are very high exposure and there's a lot at risk.
So we're always looking to recruit people who are interested in
representing the City of Chicago and the Chicago police officers who
represent the City of Chicago so well.
So we're always looking for further hires in our division.
I appreciate that a lot. I appreciate the honesty in everyone's statements
from your whole team. I'll close by saying the recruitment work that you've
done and your team has done is exceptionally laudable, and
my hope is that counsel can work with you also on the retention
side of this. I hope that folks who are young
attorneys today decide that the Department of Law is where they want to make a
career as well, and maybe there's ways that we can
help you make that a really viable career pathway for
folks. But thank you very much. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman, for your question and your comment and your compliment.
We are grateful.
Thank you, Chairman.
Alderman Conway
Followed by Alderman Waguespack.
Wonderful. Well,
Madam Corporation Counsel, I
appreciate you bringing slides. That helps us
contextualize a lot of this, which is great.
Thank you for your advocacy for our city.
Thank you, Alderman.
You have a lot of great employees. Certainly,
as we have the
litigation briefings, Margaret Mendenhall Casey and Caroline Fronczak
both do a great job, and it's great seeing Victoria back at the city as well in the
expanded role, amongst many great ones you have.
So I certainly
appreciate everything you all do.
I wanted to give you a chance to add some context
to a quote you made in the paper a couple of weeks ago that
raised an eyebrow among many in this chamber, that I thought maybe you could add
some additional
context
or amendment to after the ShotSpotter vote.
Your quote was, "The thing that passed is in
violation of the Separation of Powers Act.
The legislative branch cannot compel the executive branch to act."
A lot of people, I think, bristled at that in this chamber, so I wanted to give you
the opportunity to perhaps expand upon it if you'd like.
Thank you, Alderman Conway, for that
question.
I was speaking in the context of entering contracts, and it is
reserved for the executives, and it was only in that
context that I was making the
comment. Of course, many of those contracts are then presented to the
city council, on which you opine. But the origin story for those
contracts tend to be in the executives, in that executive ranks, and that's the
structure that I was speaking to, and only the structure that I was
speaking to.
And seeing that, perhaps you could explain to this body what the Separation of
Powers Act is.
That wasn't something I was familiar with, but maybe-
Well, the legislative body legislates, the
executive executes within, in that case,
again, for contractual purposes.
Is that what got specific-
And because it wasn't a legislative initiative, this was a
contractual initiative
born of a contract that was entered through CCPSA,
and advanced through the procurement department.
It was simply a comment intended to contextualize for that purpose and that
purpose only.
Oh, is the-
I'm sorry
... Separation of Powers Act, I don't know if act is uppercase or lower.
Is that an actual law that exists or no?
Yes, sir. It is embedded in our constitution.
Okay. So it's part of the Illinois Constitution,
and in your opinion, is that something that applies to municipal government in
addition to state government?
It applies to certainly all municipalities.
It applies across the state, and indeed it applies across the
nation in terms of our governing and governance structure.
So
in your opinion, it applies to the governance of the City of
Chicago. Is that right?
It does.
Okay.
And just getting back to the compel thing and make sure we're on the same page.
So I
see my friend here, Alderman Villegas, a decorated Marine Corps
veteran, and as a fellow veteran, I'm grateful that he
put in place
a veterans preference on affordable housing.
Would you agree that an ordinance that passed this chamber, you would agree that
the
Department of Housing is compelled to follow that ordinance, right?
The ordinance is a legislative process,
and he was certainly within his right to...
And I believe he worked with our folks-
I believe he did
... in legal counseling with respect to the legislative process.
If you're suggesting
that somehow the two are equivalent, they are not.
Mm-hmm.
The separation of powers with respect to the legislative process is clear.
The separation of power with respect to the executive contractual
process is equally clear.
Yeah. I wasn't actually. I promise you I'm not suggesting
anything.
Perhaps there was a bit of some concern that if we're passing ordinances that the
executive branch thinks they can disregard them, as you're-
Well, let me get-
... which may have been out of context.
Thank you, Alderman-
Yeah
... for the statement. Let me disabuse you of that notion.
Please. Yeah.
As legislators, that's precisely why you're here,
to legislate.
Okay.
I was not suggesting that your authority
with respect to legislative matters is diminished,
for the record.
That's great. No, that's great. And I
appreciate that. Now,
so you know, there at times will be, to change subjects, there'll be
a bit of a
contentious relationship between the executive branch
and the legislative branch on issues of the law.
In that situation, how do you go about-
Excuse me.
Yeah.
You're having a philosophical legal discussion
which is not germane to the budget.
You know,
yeah.
We are in budget hearings.
Yeah.
So if you have budget questions
related to the law department, I would ask you to focus
on that, and this
ideological legal mumbo
jumbo
can be taken-
Well, with all due respect-
... on a side
... Madam Chairwoman, I wouldn't say that if
Madam Corporation Counsel does not think that she has to
regard our ordinances or does not think that she represents us, I think that is
very germane to how we should be dealing with the budget of this
city as well as the budget of the law department.
Well, I think you've made your point on that.
Yeah.
So do you have budget questions?
My question is, to the extent that there is a
disagreement between the executive branch and the legislative branch of government,
how do you go about resolving that dispute?
Alderman, let me
address the subtext of your question,
and I'm going to do it in a way that I think will resonate with you because I'm
going to cite the law.
Under the Illinois Compiled Statutes 65-20,
it provides, "The head of the law department for the city shall be the corporation
counsel. Corporation counsel shall be and act as
a legal advisor of city council,
its officers, its boards, its department
heads." That is the charge, so I take that
charge seriously.
The Municipal Code of the City of Chicago, further in section
2-60-020, I anticipated this
question,
further sets forth the responsibilities to conduct all
law department business of the city, not of an individual,
and appear to protect the rights and interests of the city in its action, suits,
proceedings brought by, for, and against any
officer, board, department. That is the charge,
and city council members are part of the charge.
I take that seriously, Alderman Conley.
That's great because
there was some concern that perhaps,
based on some of those comments I read, that perhaps you think you're more the
executive branch's attorney rather than ours, and that would be-
That's fair
... an issue, especially if we were thinking about the law department's budget
versus that of the legislative of the LRB.
Let me disabuse you of that notion.
No, I appreciate that.
You're welcome.
Madam Chairman, that's all the questions I have.
And Madam Corporation Counsel, that quote did
raise an eyebrow, and I really appreciate you clarifying it here today. Thank you.
I appreciate your surfacing it so I had an opportunity to clarify.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Conley.
Alderman Waguespack.
Thanks, Chairman.
Corp counsel, thanks for being here today.
Thank you, Alderman.
All of
the questions I think that have been asked are something I was going to cover,
too, so we're pretty good there. I just wanted to go back briefly and revisit
the issue of the Do Not Hire list.
And this is a budget issue because it has to do with what taxpayers are going to
end up paying in potential litigation.
And I don't take this lightly because we
passed
a sexual harassment policy for the city a few years ago, just
updated it for not just the City of Chicago, but for every business in the
city.
And
Alderman Riley started to touch on it there. I know it's a hypothetical.
You don't want to speak to a pattern of facts that are starting
to come out. But yesterday, the human
resources director touched on some of these issues,
and
when I looked at the policy that we had in place in 2019 that
was changed on May 6th, 2024 and brought that up, she said that
someone in the Department of Law rewrote that
policy on the Do Not Hire
or ineligible for hire,
and that she couldn't really talk to it.
But was that your department that did that
update?
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
It wasn't a rewrite of the policy. The rewrite happened back in
2011, and I think there was an additional
revision of substance in 2019.
What was specifically done last year was not at our behest.
It was at the behest of DHR trying to clarify
some of the provisions, and it was that clarifying language
that was added. It was not intended at the time to be
substantive. Indeed, that was a written
communication to the OIG that it was not
substantive.
We had one of our deputies work with them around some of the framing
issues. What I do anticipate, Alderman, is that they'll want to
look at that policy again in a more substantive way,
and we and others will likely be at the table through that process.
What is allowed for under the current law and rules
that when they begin to revise it substantively, the
OIG is also at the table for such substantive revisions.
Okay.
Well, I think based on what we've seen with the abuse of the
Do Not Hire policy over the last year and a half,
we're going to have to make
sure that some city council members are on that
or rewrite it ourselves as an ordinance as opposed to just
having a policy in HR. Because
I think downplaying the misogynistic, sexually harassing,
antisemitic actions of people who are still in
positions in management in this city and destroying
the potential future of some of our employees who then were
summarily taken off the list because something else was found out is just
not the way to govern. And to downplay that in any way,
shape, or form, I think it does a disservice to all of our employees in the
city who are put in a position
where we just heard Ms. Tamrat say that
certain alternatives
are allowable.
And frankly, putting somebody who's been sexually harassed
In front of their sexual harasser in a peace circle is just
absolutely absurd.
Absolutely absurd. And for the Department of Law or Department of Human
Resources or anybody in this city to allow that to
happen
or subjugate somebody, an employee, especially a woman, to that is
just appalling. So I don't ever want to see that
again. I think making sure that this policy doesn't allow for that,
and the way it's written now, I'm really not sure who wrote this,
but comparing the 2019 to the
2024 revision is pretty simple to
do, and it actually made it more difficult for the person who's
put on that list, whether correctly or not, to get off of that
list. It actually made it more difficult for our city employees.
So I just hope that as we move forward, that
first of all, we address the harassing behavior and that people are held
accountable, but second, that no department in this city, especially those
tasked with making sure that our laws are followed
and the laws that we create, do not allow for
our employees or any employee in this city to have to sit through what our
employees did over the last year and a half.
And again,
if it leads to litigation, I'm sorry
if it goes that direction.
It is taxpayers who are footing the bill for that.
So I don't take it too lightly that
we're going to sit there and have to potentially pay out taxpayer dollars when
we're sitting here arguing over
other litigation in this city. So
I'm not taking offense to anything you said today, but it just is
appalling to think that alternatives that were suggested
in this case were something that the city law department could get
behind. I would rather hear somebody say, "No, that is
absolutely not the path that we would go,"
and never let that happen again. So,
you can respond to that or not, but that was all I had, Chairwoman.
Thank you.
I appreciate your comment and your question, Alderman, but I want to assure you of
one thing.
First, as lawyers, we don't
support
anything in terms of sexual harassment, and so any
implications of that,
I just want it to be clear,
it's the antithesis of our existence.
Second,
what Deputy Helena Tamarint referenced was the
alternatives that are alternatives that are allowed under the
language. She did not speak to a
method or means or method. Indeed, she said it's not defined,
and that perhaps is part of the challenge and problem here.
It needs to be.
Third,
our charge is to work with the Department of Human
Resources-
Resources
... as it goes about looking at their policies and procedures.
We tend to also bring
technical counsel when we need to, and if that's required, happy to do
it. Fourth,
if there's an ordinance that this body decides to move forward, we're happy to
review that, collaborate with you on that.
But we too, as lawyers, are responsible for
upholding the law,
not looking a blind eye,
not being
soft.
And as a woman,
I want to assure you that won't happen.
I look forward to working with you as we pursue whatever we need to
resolve that issue. Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you. I appreciate the response.
Thank you, Alderman Waguespack. That was it?
Okay.
Chairman Mitchell, followed by
Chairman Taylor.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
It has been a pleasure watching you today.
Thank you, Alderman.
First of all, you have a great team.
Thank you, Alderman.
And I look forward to working with that team as I
go on a crusade of mine. And that is,
in the last two years, I've noticed there's a lot of ordinances and
legislation on the books that has not kept up with present day
situations.
So I wanted to get your support and your team's.
And we've already started some things, but to work with me
and other aldermen on that
so we can continue to do the job of taking care of our wards.
And I appreciate what you said about being lawyers.
As being an alderman, I take that very seriously.
We look forward to working with you, Alderman. You're certainly right.
When I was building commissioner, the building code hadn't been
completely revised since 1957.
And so we went about that process over four years, and I still didn't
complete it, and I handed it off to the next person, which I think was John
Roberson. And he handed it off to the next person, and they handed
it off to the next person.
Well, hopefully we don't have to go to all those different people.
And it continuously evolved. Indeed.
But if you have ordinances that you think are relevant that are right
for revision, this is our charge.
Yeah.
And we look forward to working with you in that pursuit.
Okay. And
we've already set the tone. It's an ordinance that was
introduced by Chairman Ervin,
it was called the
Tow Ordinance-
Mm-hmm
... where we had problems with cars being parked on vacant
properties. And
Chairman Ervin developed the ordinance, and in
executing that ordinance, it didn't have teeth. They had a lot of limits.
So I reached out, talked to Kim Roberts, and she facilitated the
meetings. And to make a long story short, we worked together, Mike Lococo
from Streets and Sanitation, Cole from Streets and Sanitation, my ward
superintendent, and myself, and we added teeth to this ordinance, and now it's a
very powerful tool that we're using.
And I want to be able, this time next year, to have those kind of success stories
in some of these ordinances.
Thank you. And that was a good testimony to what collaboration looks
like.
Yeah.
We don't function in isolation. All the operation departments are our clients,
so are the Aldercorp.
Yes.
And we respect that. So we look forward to future opportunities to
do more of same.
Okay. And other two
attorneys that worked on that was David Holtkamp and Ashley Kostka.
They were excellent.
Ashley is a workhorse.
Yeah.
She is the chief in David's division. She is extraordinary.
She was at the table with respect to the formative
stages of us developing, and still at the table relative to
this issue of these recalcitrant bad
actors as it relates to vacant lots.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
She moved the needle for us, and I'm just delighted to have
her as one of a chief in our employ.
Well, good. That'll be the one, because the vacant lots is another
issue we're going to tackle, and I look forward to working with you guys on it.
I want to further the conversation about something
Alderman Riley brought up. He mentioned two of the young ladies that have
been coming down here, Zoe Lay and Jessica
Jackson. I think I wanted to make sure there was a distinction.
I think your response might have been for Zoe about some
things that's already in place.
They have active litigation as it relates to city.
They have a separate
litigation with the public administrator-
Mm-hmm
... and something
beyond that. With respect to the city, that's where we're going to look
for-
Okay
... an opportunity to sit with them and see if they have anything new that they can
produce.
Okay.
The judgments were entered preceding my arrival and
reaffirmed preceding my arrival. But I hear their pain.
I recognize that they have ongoing concerns, and we want
to provide them with an opportunity to be heard.
I'm hopeful if, or I will open the door too if they have new
information that they can present, that they present that to us, and it will get
a fair shake.
Okay. Because the interest of mine is,
Jessica's property is in my ward. It's been there forever.
I see.
Yeah. And so, I spent a lot of time talking to Jessica about it.
Chairman Tyler Farrow and I both been digging through,
and based on the information that we've seen,
she has a good strong case.
Mm-hmm.
My goal in this and
representing her and her property, and her daughter for that matter,
I don't want to see them lose their property. She did everything right.
And I look forward to you reviewing if you can, to what
extent you can.
I'm asking for a little help because in trying
to assist her,
I wear two hats. I wear the alderman hat and I wear a committeeman hat.
When it comes to judges, we have to be very careful
not to violate certain ethics because we don't want to seem like we're exerting
undue influence.
So we tread that very light. So I want
assistance with doing that so we can continue to help her
along. We've been in contact with all the lawyers involved,
and there is light. There is light.
We just have to get through that tunnel.
I'm happy to have a conversation with you offline.
Okay.
You could imagine that in terms of the direct conversation that will need to happen
with her and her counsel, it probably is not a table
at which you can sit.
Yes.
But that said-
Agreed
... as someone who resides in your ward-
Mm-hmm
... I'm happy to have a conversation with you.
Okay. Thank you. And the last thing, through the Chair, can I have--
We had a meeting with Chairman Dowell earlier
last year, and she presented this cheat sheet of your
department with your lawyers and what they're responsible for.
Can we have that again?
You may.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
You're very welcome, Alderman.
Thank you, Chairman.
Chairman Taylor?
Yes.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Can you tell me why it takes so long for us
to settle those wrongful convictions cases?
Because these folks lost off on their life, their time,
what could have been, and we realize we're in the wrong, and it
just still takes forever, and we're actually holding these folks up
from moving on with their life. So can you talk about why it takes so long?
I can speak generally, but I'm going to have Jessica Felker, who runs that
division, speak in detail. I will tell you that, just as a
general matter, these reverse conviction cases are 10,
20 and 30 years old.
By the time they come to us, many of the,
to the extent there are allegations around an officer involved, he or
she
may be living in another state. They may have
perished already.
We have to do a case reconstruction.
We can't just accept
a reverse conviction and then settle.
We are obligated by law to do due diligence.
Where is the officer? Interviews. Who are the witnesses?
Interviews. Will they want to come forward?
There's a whole host of analysis that we are
obligated by law to engage in. I know it's not satisfying
to hear.
I'm reading your non-verbals.
But this is part of the charge. It does take a long
time, admittedly.
But there are legal requirements that we have to
adhere to in order to assess a case.
You will find that we're now moving at a faster speed in some
categories. There are others that are just continuing to take
time because we don't have available information, witnesses,
et cetera. But I give the floor to Jessica Felker,
who lives and breathes this daily.
Thank you for your question, Alderwoman Taylor.
To echo what corporation counsel said, these are very difficult to
litigate, and
unfortunately,
not every reverse conviction case that comes through
our office is the same. They cannot be evaluated
quickly and easily. Each case is very factually
dependent, and even those cases that name the same
defendants can be vastly different in value.
A case's value generally cannot be properly
assessed on a handful of external or superficial values
or factors. The law department,
as
corporation counsel mentioned, has a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers to
investigate and develop evidence when that discovery could save the city
millions. So this year alone, when we presented
cases, you've seen me a lot presenting cases before you,
the settlements have ranged in value a great deal.
And so just to give you an idea, we settled one of these
cases for $20,000 per year of incarceration.
We settled the top case for
$685,000 per year of incarceration.
So that gives you an idea that we can't just walk into this and say, "It's a
reverse conviction case. It's this much." We have a
duty to the taxpayers to know what the value is before we enter
that, and all the difficulties that corporation counsel mentioned are
true. These cases are not based on recent events.
They're not incidents that happen in a split second.
There's not body cam that we can look at and
evaluate quickly the value. These are incidents from 10, 20,
30 years ago,
and getting all of the information we need to do proper discovery
takes time. That doesn't mean we're not looking at cases in early
case evaluations. We are looking at any opportunity
we can to bring these to a resolution, but we
also have to keep in mind our obligation to the City of
Chicago taxpayers to fairly value these cases.
So I appreciate the answer. It take you all 20 minutes to give somebody 500
years for something they didn't do, and so that's just a conversation
that we need to have. And it's unfair that people are wrongly
convicted and there's nothing done on the other end.
Those officers still get to collect their pension, they still get to work at CPD,
and they have loads and loads of other cases that come up under their belt,
and we do the same thing. Has there been any conversation about
officers who are repeat offenders getting their own insurance?
That's a great question, Alderman.
Mm-hmm.
As she takes a sip,
looking for my answer. There's a-
She usually says, "I'll wait."
That's right. Her expression said it.
Her expression said it without the words.
There are legal impediments, but I am happy to have a
conversation with you as we explore
alternative paths forward.
It's not going to get no better. What's the percentage of work that the law
department contracts out? And through the chair, can you get us the racial
makeup? Because what I hear is the City of Chicago contracts out a lot,
and the majority of those firms don't look like me or you.
Yeah. I'm happy to provide that information through the chair.
We had some earlier slides, but actually, we've made some great strides in
that area. We have a ways to go, admittedly, but we've made some great
strides in that area.
With the cases of the young ladies who are losing their property, because I have a
young lady who is now going through the same thing, how are you coordinating
with the county and the state to reassure that we help folks before
they get to this? Because it does seem to be a problem when it comes
to court. We do all the right things, and then we get to court, they
somehow screw it up.
We are at the formative stages of having those broader conversations with our
counterparts. Frankly, I'm having some broader conversations with my
counterparts around the country in large cities that are dealing with
the same thing and trying to bring back best practices that we can
implement
here. I do want to hear more about the specific other issue you
have, and I'm happy to take a meeting really quickly so I can
track down that issue,
and work with my deputy to see where it is in the
process and what we can do, if anything.
And if we can't, I'll have that honest conversation with you as well.
So sometimes I feel there's no coordination between
you all and the attorney general in what actually happens on the court.
And it looks, for a person who is not an attorney-
Sure
... who has to deal with that,
none of this seems like it's right.
Well, I want to assuage your concerns a bit.
I have the benefit of having a very longstanding
relationship with the attorney general.
I know him personally, professionally,
and we have regular dialogues. He and I met recently
around what is likely looming changes that
Charlotte Roberts referenced earlier on DBE,
our MBE/WBE related programs and compliance, and what we can do
together. He and I talked recently with
respect to consent decree and how we go about addressing that
issue together. He and I spoke recently about
constitutional policing and what we can do together.
So there is a collaboration. Again, I'm happy to talk to
you. It is building. We look for
areas of interest, and we also have, through
our Affirmative Litigation
divisions, Steven Kane has direct and regular
dialogue with his comparable in his department,
so that as we pursue litigation around consumer protection, we're doing it
in a collaborative, supportive measure.
Further through our
appeals division, on occasion, we will file an amicus
that essentially is supporting some of the things that he is attempting to do.
So I can't speak to past practice. I can only speak to present
practice and mine, and we have to have a collaborative relationship
because I am dependent on him in many respects, and he on me
She's pointing me to some of the demographics on outside counsel, and if you want
to-
Okay. Yeah
... her to share that with you-
Yes, please
... she can do that. Julie Morgan.
Chairman Taylor, we just wanted to respond in person.
Mm-hmm.
Since you asked a question, we did have it ready for you.
So of our outside counsel spend, we look at both the
minority-owned firms and our outside counsel staff in general.
So with our minority-owned firms, we are looking to increase those
numbers. We are at 2% right now, but our outside counsel
spend in total is at 56% are diverse outside
counsel.
So you're saying we
contract out 56% and only
2% are minority or woman-owned. Is that what you're saying?
I'm sorry. Thank you for letting me to clarify.
Thank you.
Of all of our legal matters, we contract out
5% of our outside counsel cases.
Okay.
Of that outside counsel cases, 56% are
being represented by diverse outside counsel staff.
We have gone through different initiatives recently, including an open house
that we held this year. We have another open house we are planning for
2025. We've also revised our outside counsel guidelines,
which in those guidelines we specifically state that the City of
Chicago values diversity among our legal representation, and we
have expressed that to all of our outside counsel firms.
If I may, Alderman, let me add the following.
This is an area where we have some
opportunities for improvement. What you're asking is about minority-owned firms.
That
56% includes lawyers like myself, who used to be
embedded in large firms, of color.
So what we're doing as well is capturing that group of lawyers who are
men who are of color and are relationship partners
for the city. And we're specifically encouraging some of these large
firms that are not diverse in terms of the leadership
makeup, but are diverse in terms of lawyers in technical areas
that happen to be of color that we'd like to invite in for being
relationship partners here. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
The other thing that we did, Alderman, is we had our first in many
years, I'm told, outside counsel.
We had a
party of sorts where we invited lawyers who are interested in working for
us,
and we opened the floor to them. We presented some of the
areas of opportunity that we have in the department, and we've
hired some of those firms, some of whom are also diverse.
That helped our number jump tremendously.
We still have a long way to go. We are very cognizant of that, and
we're keen on making some strides.
Many of those individuals I know. At issue is in quality of
craftsmanship. We have to just provide opportunity, and we will
continue to do that.
Thank you for your honesty. Can I do one more question?
So my last question is,
you're not going to like it, but
I want an answer. Which department do we spend the most
on lawsuits on?
It is the police department.
I didn't hear you.
It is the police department.
Thank you. That's it. Thank you, Chairman.
Corp counsel, you mentioned your relationship with
the
attorney general. I would like for you to speak
to developing a relationship with our new state's
attorney.
Yes. I had the pleasure of meeting with the new
state's attorney before she took office. We sat down together.
We had a nice long meeting. We talked about the issues that she
would confront, and the issues that I confront, and the issues that we can work on
together.
I look forward to a healthy relationship with her.
We resolved that we would put our staff together and begin
a reset in areas that she believes
are ripe for
said reset, and areas that I think are ripe for said reset.
I look forward to working with Eileen Burke.
It is my duty to do that, and we will.
I won't get into the specifics, although you gave me generalities in the
response, but I know it's early in
her tenure. And so I look forward to having more
discussion about that at a later date.
The last person I see is Alderman Manaa
Hoppenworth.
Thank you.
Hi, corp counsel.
Hello, Alderman.
Thank you
to you and your team here.
I want to
extend my appreciation from the 48th Ward for all the help that you've
provided to us for troubled buildings and
also for
the settlement briefings that you provide to us
with the finance committee. I also wanted
to give you a big thank you for working with HR to
expand our EO training and anti-discrimination
training. That's very important as we can
hopefully prevent things from happening
just through education and creating a culture where we all want to be,
especially for our women.
I had a question about
the "do not hire" list.
As you spoke about
the department heads having the authority to do that,
does that hold true for alderpeople
as well in their wards?
I'll have Helena Tamara, the deputy of labor,
that's her area of expertise, opine.
Thank you for that question, Alderman.
Helena, put the microphone close to your mouth
Sorry. Thank you for that question, Alderwoman.
My name is Helina Kamrat. I am the Deputy Corporation Council of the Labor
Division. So I want to make sure I understand your question.
Do you mind
asking it again?
As a freshman,
we have to start from scratch, and that includes
everything from phones to lease of our
office, hiring,
and putting together our
HR manual.
And we hope to never have to let anyone go.
But
in the case that something does happen, firstly, I want to prevent anything
from happening.
And I hope that we can work together
to...
Because honestly, we just did things as well as we
could to put together our office. And I imagine all of
the freshman alderpeople did as well in the last year and a half.
But
I want to prevent things from happening, but in the case that something does
happen, is that within our authority?
Because I feel like we've been talking about how
the city works, and there's a lot of
decentralization, is what I heard the other
day through HR.
So what authority do we have in our ward offices
to,
towards that end of putting people on a do-not-hire list, which I am learning so
much about.
Alderman,
may I suggest, as a freshman alderman, and we may want to do this,
Madam Chairman,
for all freshman aldermen. There are some fundamental things that I think as
a freshman alderman you ought consider.
Not simply that, but there are other components.
I'd love to put on a clinic, a session, a 103 or
104, or whatever, just for the freshman aldermen, where we can go over those
kinds of issues and more, so that you have a substantive experience, and
then we can give you the kind of
direct experience, information, and
have you ask and answer questions of some key staff.
If you're willing, I'd like to arrange for that so that
you have all the support and the information you need in your
decision-making.
I appreciate that because,
again, I'm learning so much, and I want to use all the tools
that I have available to me, but also I don't
want to be in a position where I abuse
my position of power. So I want to understand
when is it appropriate,
why you would do that, and also how do you prevent something
like that from happening in the first place?
For instance, I know that we have an employee assistant program
through HR, and I think that you are also involved in that.
I believe any employee can call this number to ask for advice,
and maybe that's something that we could talk about how-
We can add that to the agenda.
Perfect.
Really, that's all I have.
I want the city to be an attractive place for
everyone to come and apply to
work here, especially women, especially women of color,
those with disabilities, those who have been overlooked for so long.
And I,
yes.
I feel like I need to get together with you a little bit more
about all of this, so.
I look forward to it, Alderman.
The city has been good to me. It was a wonderful
place for me to come and to learn the craft and to learn
at the knee of people, at the time, much
more advanced in their skills than I.
I am today who I am because I had those
experiences. I want others to have them too.
So whatever I can do to make sure that you have the structure you need
as you invite employees within your sphere, I'd love to
do that for you because I think the breadth and depth of
experiences here,
the opportunities for professional growth here are like
no other. And I want you to have that experience as I do other
freshman alders. I want you to know what the rules are
of the road, and I think that will help you, so I'd be delighted to work with
you.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks so much. Thanks, Chair.
Thank you, Alderman Hoppenworth.
Chairman Coleman,
and then we have
Alderman Lopez for one question in round two.
Alderman Coleman.
Thank you.
Looks good up there. Reminds me of a couple of years ago.
The old days.
I am just in awe at how elegant and eloquent you
are. You are the epitome of an Alpha Kappa Alpha
woman.
Thank you.
Would you agree, sorors?
Thank you.
Etho will be proud, and Nellie, I know Nellie is deep down in
you too.
I am obligated to sit in her honor and to put forth an
image accordingly. But thank you, Alderwoman.
I just wanted, absolutely. I wanted to thank Kim Roberts on the
record
for her expertise in your department.
I know we may disagree with
the way the message is given towards
us, but there are some of us on this council that want to
help make the Jackson and Lee family whole
in any capacity that Chairman Taliaferro as
well as Mitchell has been working on.
Alderwoman Taylor touched on it a little bit, but what are ways,
because we're finding that especially in our communities, there are more
families That perhaps the courts
have taken advantage of, and just sometimes what we
don't know, we don't know. How can your department
maybe coordinate with other agencies, I don't know, maybe an Urban
League or some of the pro bono or pro se firms
to help? But how do we prevent and help families
that don't have the where
means to address cases like that, especially when
it comes to the housing and probate,
if we can find some preventative measures instead of
addressing?
Sure. Alderman, you referenced Deputy
Kim Roberts earlier. She's been involved in some of the programmatic
efforts on that
front and had spoken to some that had started and had
stopped. I don't know if there's something,
Deputy, you'd like to add. But I'll just say for the record, if
you'd like to help facilitate a discussion with the Urban League, there used to be
a lot of that that happened where members of the community could come,
we'd appear, other operation departments would appear, and we'd
impart information, take questions, try to give
direction.
I think that might be something whose time has come again, and
I'd certainly be receptive to it. But I give the floor to Deputy Kim
Roberts.
Thank you, Mary.
Kim Roberts, Building and License Enforcement. Good afternoon, Alderwoman.
To answer your question, I think what you're aiming towards is some kind of legal
aid services. And I do understand that you guys
field tons of different complaints touching on different legal issues,
and so sometimes you call the law department just looking for guidance.
It's important to understand that we are not in a position to offer legal advice to
the constituents, because a lot of the times they're defendants in our cases.
But what we can do is maybe collaborate between our contacts in the
outside with legal aid clinics and
maybe just other resources that we can help introduce each of
the aldermanic offices to, so that you have someone to refer people to.
Yeah. And that we can actually refer them to a person-
Right
... and not just a hotline. And then being a little intentional when it
comes to Black housing matters, there's a different attention
and some more hand-holding that we need to have,
especially in wards in the Black Caucus.
The balance there is you're our client, the public is
not in that.
Is.
But there's opportunity here for us to collaborate, so I'd like
to do that.
Yes, because we are sometimes
psychologists and pastors and mediators
and all of that.
Teachers and-
Yes
... the whole thing.
Yes.
I understand.
Violence against Black women.
Mm-hmm.
In your legal opinion or just in your
advice on how we can better assist
by way of our new Cook County State's Attorney's office and
CPD in addressing that so that Black women
have the support, and that we're solving
these instances in a faster manner, and
that the
department takes those cases seriously.
Thank you for the question, Alderman.
I understand there's an initiative that was led
by the Deputy Mayor Umi,
on that subject, and she was working with CPD
and others,
and that they're defining next steps in the process.
I'm happy to be a part of those discussions as they look forward
to next steps, and we know that this is a pervasive issue.
Yeah.
Violence against Black women, violence against, frankly, women,
period.
And I look forward to a scenario where we can just sit down
collectively and ask and answer what can be done.
Again, my restriction here as the counsel is
to you as the alder
to operating departments, but I think there's some collaboration
that can happen, and certainly I can have some discussions with CPD
through other members of my staff around that subject.
Okay. I will make sure as my corp counsel that you are
present when we're at these discussions, because what we found is that
12-year-olds are reported as women and not as
children, and those cases are not taken-
And that is-
... all that
Thank you, Alderman, for that comment.
That is also something that's happening around the country.
Mm-hmm.
There's a big initiative out of Washington, DC on that
issue of labeling a child an adult, particularly-
Mm-hmm
... if it's a child of color that's been accosted.
And that's pervasive.
But I know that the deputy
mayor of policy is aware of that, and again, I look
forward to the discussions.
And last but not least, there was a graph.
I know that 16th Ward, while I'm used to being the tallest girl in
the room- ... certainly I'm disappointed that my ward is
sticking out. Well, until I came here, of course, Chairman Dow.
But-
That was slide nine that was up. But
your ward is also affected in slide eight.
Yes.
If we can go back to that.
Can we touch on that just a little?
Just a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
And unfortunately,
your ward is one of the wards that has been most
abused
by some of the
more
aggressive
owners.
Mm-hmm.
She used the word-
Skilled
... skilled,
but soon to be held to account,
individuals who set up these fictional organizations with the
intent of preying on community.
And so earlier today through the slide, we demonstrated
the impact on community. We wanted to demonstrate the impact on
community because oftentimes community gets blamed.
When you have someone who's living in a mansion in a suburb who's
preying on community, they tend to go
unblamed.
Yes. In Burr Ridge is where they live.
And that's changing. So our collective efforts are
to pursue those who prey on community and then ask
questions of the alders, "What do you want to have in your
community? Is it a park?
Are there other housing opportunities?" If we are successful
in getting them
to sell or release or otherwise
move the property back to a rightful
environ where it can be properly developed
or they are acting in compliance, then that's what we're going to do.
There are large swaths of your community,
where children have to walk to school, and they're walking past lots where
drug deals or fly dumping or
abandoned cars or-
By law-
... tall grass on which children get pulled into said tall
grass.
And I've mentioned things, every one of those things reflect one or more of these
individuals who have preyed on your communities and not
paid taxes or fines or fees, and have not been held to
account until now. So we will pursue
them. We will be unflinching, unrelenting in that
pursuit because the scourge they have brought on our
communities
would not allow that community to develop, would not allow the community to
reach its fullest potential. And I am grateful to the good
work of David Holtkamp and the great work of
Ashley Kostra and the
developing ongoing work of the Special Collections unit in
that space,
because they took on this issue, as I said earlier,
that was born of a single conversation with a fellow alderman,
Scott, who raised it as a concern, and then it was echoed by
Alderman Mitchell and Alderman Moore, and it's ballooned
to this
unveiling of a pervasive problem that is adversely impacting
our communities.
Thank you for capturing the bad actors.
I believe there was one specifically in the last couple of weeks,
$16 or $17 million.
Uh-huh. There is a
series of cases that we have a $28 million look at,
particularly
aldermen. There's another case in which we have a much
smaller, but it's in the millions, look at, I'm going to say to an alder,
at a particular owner in an automatic ward because of the kind
of environmental impact and pervasive dumping and failure
to comply and repeat offender, et cetera.
So it just so happens, Alderman Coleman, unfortunately with respect to
our highest abuser of just under 800 properties,
the vast majority happen to be in your ward.
Thank you. I look forward to
us following up on that.
I look forward to that conversation.
Thank you.
And I also, as a closing on that issue, when we presented
this issue to the mayor, he was aghast.
And he told me the next day after he saw the map that I showed him,
that it was one of the most obscene things that he had witnessed as it relates
to property and the absence of property management.
The obscenity has been visited on those communities.
The obscenity is
grandmothers who have paid their taxes, tried to do the right thing,
and they have these lots next to them that have gone unattended.
And
segments of the community where they're asking, "Why don't I have a park or
additional housing," et cetera. These are some of the reasons why.
This is why the work we do is so important, and we continue to pursue
those issues. I thank you, Alderman, for the question.
Thank you, Chairman.
Coleman. Alderman Lopez.
Thank you,
Chairman.
And briefly, you gave me flashbacks when you were scolding Alderman Conway.
I was glad it wasn't me for once.
One question with regards to looking forward to working with
newly elected office holders.
Yes, sir.
We have a new president.
We're going to have a new border czar.
Are we going to be working with this incoming administration to address
the removal of those individuals committing heinous crimes in
our city
with regards to whether or not they have
temporary protective status or an undocumented status
in the manner in which that they would like to see the cooperation restored between
municipalities and the federal government?
Thank you, Alderman, for the question.
We're going to be legally obligated to respond to whatever
changes in rules, laws, procedures that come out of the new
administration.
We have, through our IGA, an individual who is
tasked with keeping us abreast of said changes.
I am in discussions with my contemporaries around the country so that
we can be thoughtful about
our responses, but we will meet the letter of the law, whatever that happens to be.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Alderman. Any other questions before we close
this last hearing today?
Seeing none,
Corporation Council, I want to thank you for your presentation
this afternoon, and thank you to all the people that you brought down in the
box.
Thank you, Alderman. Thank you, Chair.
The day has ended, and on behalf of the chairman of the Budget
Committee, Alderman
Irvin, the Budget Committee is adjourned.