Ladies and gentlemen who have signed up
for public comment, do I have any more
people for public comment?
That's it. Um, I have, uh, oh, let me come back on.
Uh, at this point, point, we'll reconvene the recessed, uh,
committee on budget and government operations
hearing, uh, from yesterday.
Um, we'll begin today with public comment.
I'm seeing that I have, uh, over 10 members, uh,
slated for public comment.
Um, can we reduce the time to two minutes and 30 seconds?
Is are you able to do that? Okay, that's fine then.
So we'll give everyone, instead of three minutes,
two minutes, and 30 seconds,
because I have over 10, uh, individuals,
and we'll still be within the confines of the 30, uh,
minute, uh, limit per the rule.
So, uh, we'll begin with, uh, Reese Johnson.
My name is Reese Johnson.
I'm from the West side North
Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.
I graduate from the Peacekeeper program this summer.
Several of our peacekeepers said they didn't want to go back
to the streets to make money
and are glad to be earning money this way.
What isn't talked about enough is too many shorties get lost
and the trenches looking for money to survive.
And part of that survival mode
and hustle is you can't trust nobody
and you can't let nobody little boy you.
So that mentality leads to a lot
of more conflicts in our communities.
So not only is this an opportunity to work, they also get
to learn how to deescalate conflict, feel safe,
and build healthy friendships
and relationships where trust is valued.
Over 200 youth participated in peace circles
and how to become circle keepers this past summer.
This is 100 more than last summer.
And because of its success, we are organizing
to make sure even more jobs will be available for youth
with the Peace Book.
But like I stated earlier, employment isn't enough.
We need access to resources like free mental care
and trauma-informed care survivors of violence,
and the victims' families deserve financial support
and access to the same resources I just mentioned.
We need a hol holistic approach to violence prevention
that centered, that is centered in healing
and incentivizing peace like the Peace Book ordinance can.
We were glad to work with the Mayor's office
and DFSS to develop the Peace Keeper jobs we need.
We also appreciate the direct support
and assistance from all the person, Jesse, Jesse Fuentes,
and all the woman Jeanette Taylor.
But now is the time to take the next level
and pass the Peace Book ordinance.
We need more peacekeepers.
We need to invest in the youth,
and we need to invest in our communities.
That's why we are here today, to demand that Chicago funds
what works, the Peace Book treatment on trauma,
and the Department of Public Health.
We know the money is there.
Let's put it to, into real solutions.
The $300 million slush fund
and the Chicago Police Department budget is set aside year
after year for a thousand,
for a thousand positions they can't even feel.
But Chi but Chicago youth are ready to keep the peace
and do work, do the work
of violence prevention in their neighborhoods.
When our work is funded, gun violence drops by 40%.
That's real safety. We can see and feel, and we are,
Man.
Thank you Mr. Johnson, for your comments.
Next, we'll have, uh, Benjamin Hart, followed by
Cornelia Sims.
Good morning. My name is Benjamin Hart.
I'm here on behalf of the Public Health and Safety Campaign.
Um, I'm, I stay on the low end in the third ward,
and, uh, pat Dowell is my Alder woman.
Uh, I'm here, uh, in support of the Public health
and Safety campaign, uh,
because I see in my neighborhood every day,
mental health crises, addiction, um, and gentrification,
and seeing the, the problems that me
and my neighbors are dealing with being dealt with police.
Um, it feels primarily like moving those problems away,
moving those problems out of view
and out of sight rather than actually investing in real
solutions and those problems.
Uh, we know that this last summer was one
of the safest summers we've had in the city in decades,
and we know that that's a direct result of funding
youth programming, violence prevention,
and mental health care.
And I wanna see those same types
of investments being made in my ward,
being made in my neighborhood.
I want to have, uh, a non-police crisis response line
that I can call, um,
and know that if one of my neighbors is struggling,
that they're not just gonna be swept up and taken away,
but they're actually gonna be given support,
that they're actually gonna be given resources, um, and,
and that they're actually going to be given
the things that they need to heal.
And I wanna see healing in my neighborhood, um,
not just criminalization and incarceration.
Um, and as our city is under attack
by the Trump administration, um, not just with the threat
of, of, uh, federal troops and of ICE agents, um,
but also of budget cuts
and also of attacks on social programs.
Um, we need local investments that don't, uh, that,
that actually challenge and protect us from the cuts
that we're seeing coming from the federal level.
Um, and if we really want
to fight against the Trump administration,
we can't have a local budget
that looks like the federal budget.
Um, and that means we should be funding social programs.
We should be funding youth jobs.
We should be funding mental healthcare, accessibility,
all the things that we know that make our city safer
and healthier for everyone.
Um, and all the things that we know are actually counter
to criminalization, counter to incarceration,
all these things that have not helped all these things
that have not made me safer, not made my neighbors safer,
and not made violence go down in our neighborhood.
So as a part of the public health
and safety campaign, I'm supporting the call, um, for
that 300 million slush fund from CBD to be redistributed,
um, to mental healthcare, to youth jobs, to the Peace book,
um, to accessibility to all the things that we know, um,
are most needed in our wards.
And the things that we know that are actually
what make public health
and public safety real in our communities
and are, are what actually make, um, violence
and harm go down.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hart.
Next we'll have, uh, Cornelia Sims, followed by Dr.
Uh, John ler.
Hey, good morning. My name is Cornelia Sims.
I'm known as cc.
I'm a parent leader with Power Pack Illinois
and community organizing and family issues.
We are a statewide organization of black and brown parents.
I'm here to ask for help working for a positive change.
These changes should include a 24 7 care vans,
more care vans, instead of CPD,
not having the mental healthcare they need
and end up in emergency rooms, which is time consuming
or in lockup, which is still kind time consuming when you
call 9 1 1 for help mental health, most
of the time they still send the police don't have skills
for such cases
because the CPT are not trained to deescalate the matter.
And when the CPD enter into our communities,
they're automatically greeted with a negative response
because of the violence that mostly not related
to mental health issues.
Veterans for our country are in great need
for mental health issues.
I have witnessed this firsthand due to my dad
had mental issues committed suicide,
therefore, I witnessed it as a 7-year-old child.
As we all know, every mind is a terrible thing to waste
as we have doctors and a medical need
to take care of physical bodies.
We need funding to take care of our mental health wellbeing.
And again, I say a mind is a terrible thing to wait.
Thank you, Ms. Sims. Next we'll have, uh, Dr.
John ler, followed by Dominique Chu.
Thank you, alderman. I'm actually not a doctor,
but thank you for the promotion.
Um, John
Ler wrote, doctor, President
and CEO of AIDS Foundation Chicago.
Uh, we provide services for people living
with HIV in Chicago
and across the Chicago metropolitan area.
And thank you Alders for your commitment
to ending the HIV epidemic
that we recognize The city has a huge budget deficit, uh,
but it is imperative
that the city maintained corporate funding, uh,
for HIV delegate agencies at the current level
of $3.35 million.
Any cut to this funding is unacceptable
and would severely impair the city's ability to respond
to the HIV epidemic in Chicago, which currently,
unfortunately, is growing.
We have the bi, the biomedical and behavioral tools
and scientific knowledge to stop HIV transmission.
Ensure people living with HIV live full lives
and protect those at risk.
There's clear scientific consensus that people living
with HIV who are virally suppressed through treatment cannot
transmit HIV linking people to care
and implementing prevention programs, including, uh,
the HIV prevention.
Medication Prep prevents new cases of HIV.
Any cut to city corporate funding will unquestionably worsen
HIV outcomes and increase the number of people
who are diagnosed with HIV
and who are not engaged in treatment.
The lifetime cost of medical care for someone diagnosed
with HIV is over $420,000.
Maintaining stable funding for HIV Prevention
and treatment programs is the fiscally responsible choice.
It costs far less to prevent new cases of HIV than
to manage them after the fact.
And there is much work to do to improve racial
and ethnic health equity in Chicago.
Abandoning that commitment now would be shortsighted
and harmful to the city's health and economic security.
We saw from 2022 to 23,
a 38% increase in the number of people diagnosed
with HIV in Chicago.
And we have significant health equity challenges.
The population's most impacted by HIV are black and Latin.
Gay, gay and bisexual men, black women and black
and Latinate transgender women
City corporate dollars are vital
because they can be used to fill critical gaps in funding
that the federal funds cannot fill.
Please maintain funding for city corporate, uh,
delegate agencies at 3.35 million in next year's budget.
Thank you. Uh, Mr. Ler.
Uh, next is, uh, Dominique Chu, uh, followed by,
uh, Tinney Gross.
Good morning. My name's Dominique.
I use, uh, she, she her pronouns.
I'm a housing policy and advocacy manager at the Center
for Housing and Health, a subsidiary
of AIDS Foundation Chicago.
I'm also resident of the 27th Ward.
I'm here today to ask for the City of Chicago
to fund the flexible housing pool at $8.6 million
for fiscal year 26.
The Flexible Housing pool,
or FHP is a multi-agency program
that helps people experiencing homelessness
and who are cycling through public crisis systems.
We help them define permanent housing to date,
and with tremendous leadership
and financial support from the city of Chicago,
the program's largest funder,
FHP has served over 1500 people, 500 of whom are children
among FHP participants.
We've seen reductions in emergency room visits,
inpatient days, jail registrations,
and most importantly, reductions in mortality.
We also have a 94% success rate in retaining people in
stable housing for at least 12 months.
Essentially, the flexible housing pool is a program
that keeps people healthy, housed and alive.
Not only that, but we've also reduced cost to crisis systems
by over $1.4 million over a two two-year
period across the country.
We're seeing an increase in people experiencing homelessness
and Chicago is no different.
And now more than ever,
when we're seeing increased attacks on marginalized groups,
the criminalization of homelessness, it is essential for us
to invest in solutions that provide safe, stable housing
for every resident of Chicago.
And to get closer to our goal of ending homelessness.
As you prepare to have conversations about the FY 26 budget,
I urge you to fully support the Flexible Housing pool
funding it at $8.6 million.
Thank you. Uh, Ms. Chu.
Uh, next we have, uh, 10 gross, followed by, uh,
Martine Cavel.
Good morning. Uh, chairman Irving
and Committee, thank you for having us.
I'm part of, uh, communities Partnering for Peace.
My colleague Damien Morris from Breakthrough is here as well
as MFS and Cred and others.
Um, I just wanna ask the committee this.
We know it's a very tough budget,
but the last nine years,
we have built the largest civilian architecture in the
United States that brings people with backgrounds
to be peacekeepers in the neighborhoods.
Outreach workers, victim advocates, case managers,
between staff and participants like peacekeepers.
On the weekend in hotspots, we have 2000 people
with backgrounds now involved in,
and we see the results in this city.
When the governor came to see us last week,
his first words were stability.
And I was pretty surprised that someone
with wealth will think about actually what working class
and those who didn't have jobs really is the main
cause is stability.
We need to have stability.
Um, this weekend in Little Village,
Mexican Independence Day, I've seen the work of New Life
and then last, say walkie talking both sides to make sure
that rivals don't go and intervene.
And the deputy chief there was very grateful
for a peaceful day.
That's the work behind the scene of victim advocates, out
outreach workers, et cetera.
The the field we have built combines two solutions
that often don't combine immediate
impact intervening in now.
So tonight, we don't have a mother losing her son
or a daughter, as well as dealing
with root causes employment to those
who employment never reached at about 2000 of them.
If yes, two days ago at Fox News,
there was a story about two, a manager
and a director at the institute
who just finished their BA degrees.
We brought the university to the Institute.
19 of our staff are now working on the BA
degrees, A GED program.
We have. So those are really the forces
that will change long term.
I've seen it happen in other cities.
We have now nine years in.
I would also say the city compared
to other cities in the country is a relative small player.
The state, the county 50 Foundation, as well
as the Civic Committee, have put large amounts into that.
So I ask that the city keep each part at least.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Gross. Next we have, uh, Martine Cave, uh,
followed by, uh, Brittany King.
All right. Hello, my name is Martine Ca.
I'm a registered nurse.
I'm here representing a health justice organization
called Ujima Medics.
Um, we have the work, our work has touched the lives of
residents of over 60 ward, 60%
of awards in Chicago over the past few years.
And I wanna talk about the fact that, um, based on the work
that we do, we understand that investing in public health is
what creates public safety.
And I wanna speak specifically to something
that's happened over the past just few weeks
and months, is that I've personally met
and talked to many people
doing really important work in case management,
infectious disease, disease, surveillance, medical support
to our elderly population, violence prevention work,
peacekeeping work, whether
or not they actually worked directly
for the Chicago Department for public Health, the cuts
to the department have affected them.
They've lost their jobs, they are laid off.
And so, um, we really, we don't have time for this.
This is what's happening in 2026.
We're gonna have millions of people
who are gonna be losing their Medicaid coverage
that are gonna need help.
Uh, we have a situation right now where we have people
who are afraid to call 9 1 1 or go get medical care
because they're concerned about ice,
or they're concerned about criminalization in
general overall, right?
Um, at the federal level, we're seeing a pullback
of surveillance of pollutants, infectious disease.
Uh, the governor has stated that Illinois is going
to follow our own vaccine mandates.
How are we going to do that if we cannot
fund public health in the city?
So, I really want to press that Chicago has an opportunity
to increase the C-D-B-P-C-D-P-H budget by $52 million.
If you support the aims of the public health
and safety campaign, we could restore these jobs
and these programs providing critical services
that protect our very lives, the quality of our lives,
and can close health disparities,
and the terrible life expectancy gap that exists in Chicago.
So, please, city Council sent a message
that Chicago can solve our own problems by listening
to the wisdom of your constituents.
Thank you. Uh, ms. Uh, ca.
Uh, next we have Brittany King, followed by Debbie.
So, so Horne. Justin.
Hello. On July 23rd,
the mayor put out a re press release announcing 40 million
in grants dedicated
to the homelessness infrastructure shelter.
The mayor states, he's bringing in everyone in Chicago
to the decision, to the table.
But the disabled community has not been brought to the table
for these discussions about shelter accessibility,
which we found out through social media.
We have disabled homeless people living on the streets,
being discharged from hospitals into nursing homes, due
to the lack of accessible shelter space, not allowing
for personal care attendance
or accommodations inside the shelters
because their physical requirements to receive
the shelter support does not have etiquette care,
because the shelter system does
not work for disabled people.
There have been numerous spark complaints
about the cost of accessibility.
But when individuals with mobility devices are present,
they have been given cuts that they cannot use
and no accommodations to support them in
being in these centers.
DFSS lacks a clear policy for connecting individuals with
disabilities for in shelters
to meet our access needs.
How many accessible shelter beds could have been created
with the money they spent on shelters instead of attorneys?
Thank you, Ms. King. Uh, next we have, uh, Debbie Horne,
uh, followed by Charles Spence.
Morning, everyone. And you got my name right?
Thank you for that. Ottoman Irvin.
Um, my name's Debbie Horne.
I've lived in Chicago for 15 years.
I live in Hyde Park in the Fifth Ward, um, here today
with the Public Health and Safety Campaign.
I have a 1-year-old who I'm excited to, to raise here.
Um, and I'm gonna change up the vibe a little bit.
All right. So I want you to, we're gonna go back like three
decades, and we're gonna think of this really awesome
movie that we all saw with some people who you call,
who you gonna call, okay?
When you hear them, wait, when you hear them say
that there's no money, who you gonna call?
Ghostbuster. I heard somebody. Thank you. Okay.
Well, we're here to do some ghost cop busting, right?
So, all seriousness, all silliness aside, um, we know
that there are vacancies in the police department
that have not been filled for well over six years now.
And that amount to $170 million in last year's budget alone
that are being spent,
but in ways that aren't accountable to, to our communities.
Um, that's more than 2.5 times the
entire corporate budget
of the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Um, no other department in the city has vacancies to
that degree, um,
or would be allowed to every year for six years.
Um, like if the law department had a thousand vacancies
and they didn't tell us where the vacancy dollars went,
it'd be pretty logical for us to take those vacancy dollars,
put them somewhere else where they could be used
for the intended purpose.
And so, that's all we're trying to do here.
We're trying to say, let's, let's do something logical.
We're being team players.
We know there are huge budget cuts coming, um,
and that this is a terrible, terrible gap
that we have to fill.
This is just one place we can redirect some money into the
incredibly important services
that you've been hearing about all morning.
So I just wanted to come sing that little, that little diddy
to get it stuck in your head so you'd remember
that there actually is some money that we can use
and we can reinvest into the public health
and safety that our communities deserve.
Thank you.
Uh, thank you, Ms. Horne.
Uh, our next speaker is Charles Spence, uh, followed
by our final speaker, uh, Reverend Dr. Wallace.
Skater Bradley.
Good morning Committee. Thank you
for this opportunity to speak.
Yesterday in the 24th district at San High School.
Police helicopter was circling at 2 45 in the afternoon.
I suspect this is in anticipation
of a potential retaliatory shooting
of a 17-year-old on Monday
who got killed just a few blocks away.
I applaud that effort.
I think Ariel's surveillance has extreme benefits.
However, scaling up helicopters to surveil
and provide information
and apprehend criminals is not feasible.
Helicopters cost $7 million.
They cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year
to operate, to increase the aerial surveillance
and monitor the criminal activity.
In Chicago. You can scale up the drone department in the
police department,
a scottio X 10 drone with infrared cameras
and obstacle avoidance software
for use at night costs $25,000
for $1.1 million.
You can get two of these drones for each
of the 22 police districts in the city of Chicago.
That is 0.5, 0.0005%
of the $2.2 billion the police department
has in their budget this year.
They don't earn salary. They don't get paid overtime.
There's no benefits. There's no pension contribution.
The monetary and financial efficiency
of these is without question.
And when you have a $1.1 billion deficit facing you,
that's worth considering.
But the numbers of side, operationally,
this almost doesn't get any easier.
These drones are housed on site at each district
and controlled from a single location.
So the next time at 4:00 AM an alarm
goes off and a call comes in.
'cause there's a smash and grab on Michigan Avenue.
This drone unit can deploy within 45 seconds, a drone
that can get to that location at 40 miles an hour
and hopefully stop these criminals from speeding off
and killing another father on his way to work.
So my ask here is, in 26,
increase the special functions Bureau budget,
adding line items for drone procurement and training,
and funded with $1.1 million.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Spence.
Um, our final speaker is, uh,
Reverend Dr. Wallace Gator Bradley.
Morning chairman. First of all,
I wanna say to God be the glory.
Zach Lee. I want to say I agree with what
that man was saying about the drones.
Thirdly, that young man, I don't know if he's still here,
that got up and spoke about the significance.
'cause we all realized that this budget
is predicated off the knowledge that Trump is
making sure that we don't get the money that we need
for the programs that y'all asking for.
So we not confused.
It's not on y'all when someone is saying they're not going
to give you the money to handle what our programs.
But what I am saying, that slush fund
that they have, I'm not saying
defund the police department.
I'm saying I sat here and I listened,
and everybody that know me, I normally tell everybody,
including this body, you better listen.
I applied that knowledge to myself.
And I stand with you 100%.
My name is Reverend Dr. Wallace, g of Bradley.
But they know me as Wallace Gator Bradley, United in peace,
warmer gang enforcer.
I understand what these brothers
and sisters are doing when they come out in the streets
to deescalate the violence.
I'm saying listen to them, what your people were saying,
they behind a budget that's going to make sense.
Listen to what they're saying to help you
with this $1.6 billion.
They got solutions in here. And it makes sense.
I'm just saying I'm with y'all 100%
because this the first time I came to the city council,
and even I had to listen.
Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. Uh, um,
that concludes public comment.
Um, today, uh, we will have
before us the, uh, police department.
Uh, the committee will stand at ease while the police
department comes in and gets situated, uh,
after which, uh, we'll begin with Their opening statements.
Also would like to recognize for the purpose of quorum, uh,
alderman, uh, Viegas, uh, welcome Today.
Uh, I think I've got everybody else on, so I just wanted
to, uh, make sure we do that.
I
We're fine.
Hey, how you doing, man?
Okay.
Good morning. And, uh, we're, uh, we're back on.
Uh, again. Uh, thank you for joining with us today.
We have before us the, uh,
Chicago Police Department represented by, uh,
superintendent Larry Snelling.
Uh, if you could introduce the members that are in the well
with you, uh, here and
after, which you can proceed into your opening statement.
Uh,
first of all, good morning, everybody.
And, um, just, um, just wanna say thank you,
uh, for having us here.
Um, to my right.
Um, uh, our general counsel, uh, Scott Spears, uh,
is, is here with me today.
Um, and for my budgeting, we have, uh, our deputy director,
um, Ryan Fitzsimons.
I'm sorry, it's been an early, it's been a long morning.
Um, before I get started, um, just want to say, uh,
uh, thank you to everyone for having us here.
Um, at the, uh, end of this, I look forward
to answering any questions, uh, that anyone may have.
But let me just start, um, with this year's numbers, um,
with the Chicago Police Department
and our reductions, um, this year,
our Chicago Police Department officers continued
to drive down violent crime year to date compared to 2024,
we've had 125 less murders than we had last year,
735 less shooting victims,
uh, than we had last year.
And 588 less shootings.
Overall, the men
and women of the Chicago Police Department continued their
lifesaving heroic work, uh,
to protect their fellow Chicagoans.
Our patrol officers responded to calls
for service every day,
more than 800,000 times of this year.
So far, our bureaus are working together, uh,
patrol the Bureau of Counter-Terrorism, uh, the Bureau
of Detectives working in lockstep, something
that has not been done in the past.
To make sure that we are serving our residents
of Chicago in the best way possible.
They share leverage resources like our newest fleet
of helicopters, our strategic, uh, decision support centers
and area technology centers to prevent crime,
and to also identify
and apprehend those who are responsible for violent crimes.
This year, we launched a new public transportation section,
uh, the strategic decision support center focused
on transit and CTA.
Our robbery task force is embedded in that center,
and they're there for to, to create
and streamline stronger investigations.
And this is something that we've been working on across the
board when it comes to robberies.
This year, we've continued investing in our detective
investigations, our homicide teams,
and non-fatal shooting teams in each
of our five detective areas to hold
violent offenders accountable.
Due to the diligent work of our homicide teams,
we have the highest clearance rate
that we've had in a decade.
Our non-fatal shooting teams
that we rolled out this year have been steadily
clearing more cases.
And this is something that we weren't as focused on before
because we were more focused on homicides.
But all of our victims matter.
All of this work is both focused on taking those inflicting
violence in our communities off the streets,
and bringing justice to the victims
and families who are living with the trauma of violence.
We cannot lose sight of our victims
and our people who have been victimized.
We have to reduce violence, the victims of crime.
Not only do the victims suffer, but so do their families
and their lives are forever changed.
This year, we expanded our office of Victim services.
We hired additional civilian members, which allows us
to reach out and to serve all of our victims.
We also continue to build stronger connections with families
of homicide, uh, victims.
Through our Family liaison program, our focus is not just
responding when crimes occur, but to prevent crime.
And we're also focused on being there for those
who have been affected in the process
of, of victimization, of violent crimes.
We know that people endure this type of trauma,
and it's important for CPD to step up
and make sure that we're taking care of those victims.
We've also continued our reform on consent
decree compliance efforts.
In the most recent report from the independent monitoring
team for the consent decree,
CPD nearly doubled operational compliance.
CPD is a department in transformation,
and we're continuing to strengthen every area
of public safety operations through these reform efforts.
Community engagement and partnership is vital.
As we do this, we're ensuring our community members' voices
are represented in what we're doing to make our city safer.
I've said before, many times
before, CPD cannot do this alone.
We need partnership with our community members.
We've made significant strides
to integrate community engagement into our policy
and training development.
We've also brought community members in
to see our training firsthand
through community training observation days.
We're hosting two of these observation days in October.
And please go to our website if you'd like to show up
and be a part of the training.
Um, it's, uh, it's on our website,
and you can sign up for that.
It's a great experience.
As we move forward, we're going
to continue strengthening our department
by recruiting qualified candidates for our sworn positions,
while also bringing in additional professional experience
through our non-sworn roles.
Uh, with that, I'm looking forward to taking any questions
that you may have today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Uh, again, uh, welcome.
Uh, these, uh, hearings.
I know they're a little unique
and different from what you all are, are used to having.
Uh, but this is, uh, going to provide us some insight
and some, uh, diligence as we prepare
for 2026, uh, budget process.
Um, I will start out with a couple of things.
Mostly primarily administrative, uh, from
previous conversations we've had, uh, in the past, um,
during these budget hearings, we've been talking about, uh,
the availability of officers as it relates to those
who are off on, uh, IOD, pension, uh, disability,
those individuals.
Uh, and the fact of there being not necessarily a difference
of standard, but a difference of opinion as to what is, uh,
what qualifies an officer to be ready to go back to work.
Um, as you know, there, there are approximately,
in any given time, 700 to a thousand, uh, members
of the department that are, uh, out on some level
of disability and getting them back to work.
And as soonest way possible, does all
of us a, uh, a service.
So just trying to gain some clarity
and understanding about what the department is doing
to help bring people back to work in the most efficient
and safest way possible, number one.
Number two, the ability for those that are able
to perform some functions, uh, what, uh,
what the department's position is
and what opportunities exist, uh, for them to do something,
albeit in a limited capacity.
And also, thirdly, um, the differences between, uh, someone
that is, uh, fully capable
and ready, which is one of the definitions, versus someone
who is also able to do light duty.
'cause as you find, you know,
if somebody's in the environment, they're more apt
to get back to full duty, uh,
versus not being in the environment
and, uh, you know, losing touch
and connection from what they, uh, work through.
So, uh, what I'll tell you that that's a lot, uh, to,
uh, to respond to.
Um, but what I'll do is I'll try to, uh, keep the response
as short as possible, but as concise as possible.
Um, it's a concern of ours when we have a number of people,
um, who are out on the medical
and those who are limited to light duty.
Um, what we're doing currently right now is, uh,
we're working, uh, with OPSA, um, having conversations
as to how we can approach this problem.
I think one of the issues is
that we need, uh, another doctor.
I don't believe that one doctor was, is enough, um, uh, to,
uh, navigate through these issues.
Um, we, as the Chicago Police Department, I've said this
before, um, I would like to have the ability, uh,
to have more control over, uh, how we go out.
And, uh, we determine, uh, those who are using the medical,
or those who are, are out on the medical for us
to do those checks, to make sure that we keep, uh, balance,
to keep down the possibility of any level of abuse.
Um, it's necessary for us to have that function back.
Um, because as the police department, again,
when you have sworn members, we need our sworn leadership,
uh, to make sure that we're, uh, checking to, uh, make sure
that it's balanced and the process is being used properly.
That being said, um, we use, uh, members
who are in a, uh, limited duty capacity, um,
for administrative duties, uh, when possible.
But there are things that we need
to really work through there.
Um, you know, we have collective bargaining.
We have, uh, you know, rules and regulations.
We have policies in place, and we need to sit down
and work through all of those things
before we can determine exactly how we're going to work, uh,
this process out for each individual, for someone
to return back to work.
There are, uh, certain, uh, uh, responsibilities.
There are certain functions that they have
to perform in order to come back.
And those are things that we really need to take a look at.
And, uh, and I think the addition, uh,
of another doctor would be helpful.
Alright. Thank you. Uh, from that, uh,
earlier conversation last week, um, what we're finding is
that the, the standards that the police pension board uses
to clear an officer is the same standard that the opsa slash
I'll just call it the city for, for lack of a better term,
should be using to, to clear officers.
And the, and I,
and I guess this is, this is something
that I think you all have to weigh in on, uh, as it relates
to if one party is saying they are fit to work,
another party is saying they're, they're not fit to work,
um, at the end of the day, the,
the individual is, uh, in limbo.
And, you know, ultimately, uh, those individuals go back
to a disability, which again, is a, is an expense
that we continue to, uh, bear, unfortunately.
So I, I, I do agree that there definitely needs
to be more oversight, and if it's additional resources
for doctors or, uh, possibly looking to a third party to get
that work done, uh, I think it's critical not only
to your department, uh,
but also to the fire department as well as, again,
similar situations.
And again, getting people back to work,
getting them back into the environment that they used to.
Uh, I think it bodes well for, uh, for all of us
and including the officers themselves.
So, uh, chairman Dow you,
Uh, thank you, Mr.
Chairman. Good morning, superintendent. Good morning.
Um, first I want
to just thank this police department for your work.
Um, we just got, uh, four guns out
of a house in my ward this week,
and I really appreciate knowing how dangerous the work is
for the men and women of the police department.
Thank you, ma'am. Um, I wanted to start my questioning with
you last year was gonna do a staff allocation study.
Can you give us a sense of where that is and whether
or not that information is going to be useful
to the budget department
and to us as we begin to craft the budget for 2026?
So the, um, as you know,
the workforce allocation study is underway.
Um, it's still working through it. I believe it's this fall.
Am I supposed to get the results?
So by the end of this, uh, uh, fall, uh, we should have,
um, the end of that study.
We should be getting the results from that.
Um, and yes, I do believe, um, there will be a lot
of information on there that will be helpful to budgeting.
Okay. Um, you know, the, there was this, uh, report done
by what was called the Fiscal Sustainability Working Group.
Um, one of the, uh, recommendations in there I saw was, uh,
mounted Police 5.9 million as a possible
reduction that we could do.
Can you tell us what makes up that 5.9 million?
Uh, Ryan, you wanna talk a little bit about that?
Yep. Of, uh, Ryan Fitz Simon's, deputy Director,
office of the Superintendent.
So of that, um, the figures that I'm looking at,
non-personnel is 658,000
for the maintenance of the horses.
And then I believe the, uh, mounted unit. And how
Many horses is that, by the way? Do you know?
So, I haven't verified, the number I read in the report
was 25, but we'll get you
through the chair once we do our own count.
And then the salary for the horses
is 2.7 million, which is on page 2 77
of the budget appropriation book.
There. I'm seeing approximately
3.3 million for the mounted unit.
And how many individual offices would that
Mean? So according
to page 2 77 of the budget appropriation book,
it's 22 individuals.
Okay. Thank you. Um,
So, um, uh, all the one, I just want to, uh, be clear
that when we look at that, um, reduction, um,
that's mostly salary.
Um, those are people who are working.
And, um, so when you look at the net gain,
it looks more like $700,000
for the maintenance of the horses.
But, um, what is it, three,
at least 3 million of that is salary.
Uh, 2.7 million. Yeah,
2.7 million.
So those, those officers will still be here.
They're sworn members.
Okay. Okay. Um, thank you for that.
Um, with only a 9% vacancy,
what additional steps can be taken
to reduce the overtime spend?
Well, there, there are a lot of events.
Um, we've responded to nearly 450 protests,
uh, over the past, uh, two years.
Um, we have events across the city, um, you know,
every single year, especially during the summer, um,
Chicago Police Department goes out
and we man a lot of these events.
Um, and we, because we have to keep the city safe
and we don't want to pull all of our resources out
of those areas, um, where we know violence occurs on a,
a higher level, uh, we have to make sure that we maintain
that balance in the neighborhoods.
Um, so when we are sending people out, uh,
to these events, we have to do it on overtime.
Um, I do believe that, um, a lot of, uh,
the events, um, should hire, uh, private security
or there should be some level of reimbursement, uh,
for the Chicago Police Department that have to go out
and man these events.
Um, it is just so many of the events that occur, um, uh,
on a daily basis, especially during the summer, that this is
where we see our highest level of, uh,
overtime usage. Okay.
Thank you for that. Um, and I guess my last question,
and I'm getting this from the public testimony
that we heard this morning.
How do you respond to people
who say you have a $300 million slush fund that needs to be,
uh, directed elsewhere?
I, you know, I, I really wish I knew where that money was.
It, it would be helpful to us.
But, uh, that, what is it, 93% of,
of our budget, um, is personnel.
Um, so, uh, what, what do we have operationally?
Yep. So I believe the 300 million,
the talk is about overtime.
If you look on page 2 63 of the budget appropriation,
we're budgeted a hundred million in overtime.
And then of our total budget, 95% of that is personnel.
So we don't even have that amount budget for overtime.
So any reductions would then come to reductions of staff.
I think they might be talking about vacancies.
Vacancies. We have about 77 million in sworn vacancies,
3 million in exempt vacancies,
and 22 million in, um, civilian vacancies.
The issue with that is there is a turnover figure,
which is approximately 78 million.
So a lot of that vacancy savings are already wiped
out through the budgeting process.
Okay. Thank you for that.
Um, I look forward to seeing you in October.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, chairman Dow.
Next up we'll have, uh, vice Chair Lee, followed by,
uh, alderman, uh, Rodriguez Sanchez.
Thank you Chair. Uh, good morning, superintendent.
Hey, morning Algon. Um, and I like the, the thanks
to you and your department for all that you do.
And we've, we've had some recent
arrests in our ward as well.
So I think that, um,
I'll shout out the ninth District, 'cause I work with them the most.
Um, you know, we've, I I think that, you know, the,
the numbers, um, overall are great.
Um, I think that the reality for still constituents
and residents is, you know, we still see crime happening.
So no one is suggesting,
and I know that you're not either, um, suggesting that,
you know, this is a mission accomplished sort of moment.
Um, with the stats that you've
provided, can we get through the chair, um, just by ward,
a breakdown of let's ma major crime categories so
that we know, um, year over year,
whatever the point in time is, um,
that you were quoting earlier what
that breakdown is word by word.
We'll get that to you. Okay.
Yeah. Great. Um, I think one of the, one of the things
that, um, you know, we know
with data when you disaggregate it, um, you know,
it tells different stories too.
Um, while it's great that murders are down, um,
and, uh, some of these other violent primaries are,
can you talk about some of the areas that are,
are still sort of, um, areas of concern for you in terms
of anything that has ticked up when you disaggregate the
data, domestic violence comes
to mind, is one of those areas? Well,
Well, domestic violence is, uh, always at the forefront.
Um, a a large number of our homicides, uh,
have been domestic, uh, violence related.
Um, and there's gotta be a greater focus on that.
Um, um, there's always a focus on enforcement,
but there also has to be, uh, a follow through.
Um, uh, we've been sitting, uh, with the state's attorney,
uh, cook County state's attorney, Eileen O'Neil Burke.
Uh, we have, uh, conversations weekly, um,
regarding things that we can do, uh, some of the problems
that we see in some of the upticks, uh, that we have in, uh,
criminal activity, especially violent crime, um,
holding individuals
and then holding those individuals
accountable down the line.
Because one, one thing we know about domestic violence
is that it's ongoing.
This, it's usually, uh, repeat offenders.
So those are, those are things that we, um,
all have to work on.
So it can't just be at the enforcement level.
Um, at some point when there's an order of protection,
there's gotta be follow through, people have to be held,
and then people have to be held accountable.
So those are things that, uh, we're looking into.
But, um, when people are convicted, um, we need
to take seriously the possibility, um,
of those people when they're released, getting out
and going back and attacking, um, a,
a domestic partner again.
Thank you for that. Um,
and I know that there are civilian positions now within CPD
that are dedicated to victim services and domestic violence.
Can you tell us about a current vacancies
in those positions?
Right, Ryan Fit, Simon's Deputy Director, um,
we have 30 filled 25 vacancies.
So the total budgeted amount is 55.
And we're currently getting ready to interview
to fill the remaining 25 vacancies.
And we think we're gonna do that
before the end of the year.
That's our hope. Great.
Um, I think Alderman Dowell covered some
of the other questions that I had.
Um, we made some better progress this year in reducing the
number of sworn officers
and physicians that civilians are eligible to, to hold.
Right. Talk about that.
Ryan Fitzsimons, deputy Director. Yes.
We're moving forward with our ization.
Um, this year we've hired about 54 consent decree positions.
As you mentioned earlier, our victim services division.
We've served almost 8,000, uh,
victims already referring them out
to advocacy organizations.
We're also moving forward with our data analytics team,
where we've made substantial strides there.
Um, and generally we've been focused on a lot
of the consent decree, the project management,
the data centering victims in our response.
So we are seeing progress.
Okay. Um, as far as the, the progress goes,
and you can give this to us through the chair,
if you can give us, um, the total number, um,
of civilians hired into sworn positions
through the course of this year, that'd be great.
Sure. That's all I've got, chair. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.
Uh, vice Chair Lee, uh, alderman, uh, Rodriguez Sanchez,
followed by Alderman Viegas.
Good morning. Thank you for being here today.
Um, Alderwoman, so I,
the Chicago Police Department is the best funded
department in the city.
Right. And I think every year we ask of
departments to adjust their budgets,
and a lot of times we end up not being able to care
for people because we have to cut programs.
Right now, we're looking at that, right?
Like, we're looking at cuts at the federal level.
Departments like the Department of Health, for example,
which is funded at like 5% by our corporate fund,
might lose a lot of different grants that are federal.
Um, and we are in a precarious position in order
to be able to care for people.
So, I, I really want to be mindful
when we think about the police budget,
because it is where we have a lot of our money, right?
And that's what has happened over the decades.
Um, I would like for you to walk me through
how do we decide how we use overtime?
How is overtime authorized in the city of Chicago?
Is there guidelines that we use to know exactly
what counts and whatnot?
'cause what I'm seeing is we had 100 million budgeted
for 2024, and we ended up using over 200 million,
273 million.
Is that the number? Let me see.
Are, are you talking currently
173.8 million in
overtime last year.
But we had 100 million budgeted, so we went over by a lot.
And we do that every year.
Actually, last year was less than it has been in other
years, but we still
went way over.
So I, I would like to have an understanding of
how do we decide what it's worth doing overtime for?
So I'll, I'll tell you how, um,
we determine when overtime is necessary.
And then I'll, I'll let, um,
Ryan talk a little bit about how that budget works.
Thank you. We, the, the reason
for the reduction last year is
that I looked at previous years of
how overtime was being used, extensions of tours, uh, things
of that nature, what was necessary or not.
Um, every district commander, um,
has a budget to follow.
Um, and we keep close tabs on that.
During comstat, we talk
to them about their overtime budgets,
but we have days of the year where we know
we see the highest levels of, uh, events
and also the highest levels of crime.
And based on, uh, those historics, we,
we determine those days that we're going to have
to cancel days off to make sure that we have the manpower,
uh, to fill those needs
and the voids of, uh, you know, having less police officers.
So we make the decisions there.
What we, what I did was an analysis of, um,
where we utilized overtime for some of those, uh,
events in the past where we found that it wasn't necessary.
The district levels, uh, could handle it, uh, on their own.
But those events where we know we were going to need, uh,
serious manpower to keep the city, uh, safe, um,
and to make sure that the events are safe, that's
where we utilize the overtime.
So we're very careful about it.
Um, and I'm being a lot more careful about it
because not only are we worried about the overtime,
but we're also worried about the, the health
and wellness of officers.
We're constantly doing overtime.
So we've reduced, uh, the, that overtime greatly.
But, um, I'll, I'll go to Ryan
to talk a little bit about the
financial aspect of it. Mm-hmm.
Yep. Thank you for the question.
Ryan Fitzsimons, deputy director.
So from a budget standpoint, in 2018,
we were budgeted $95 million for overtime.
In 2025 we're budgeted a hundred million.
So we've seen that go up by about 5.26%.
If you factor our raises from 2018 to 2025,
the straight time raise is about 27%.
Once you tack on the time
and a half, you're looking at a 40% increase in our
contracts that we've negotiated.
So we've budgeted 5.2% more,
but cost of labor has gone up by 40% simultaneously.
If you look back pre COVID in 2019,
we had 14,917 members
of the Chicago Police Department budgeted.
If you look for 2025,
we're at 13,783 members budgeted.
So you've seen an over 1200 person reduction in staffing.
So that's kind of driving mechanically some of our overtime.
But we have driven it down this
year compared to previous years.
Last year, I believe, um, January through August,
we were at about 156 million.
This year we're about 128 million from
what we can see on our data.
Got it. Um, chair, can I ask one more question? Sure.
Um, so when I think about what people call the police
for, um, I have looked at the data
and a lot of it is nonviolent things like disturbances.
And I see police responding to things
that they don't have a way to solve.
And it is very frustrating, right?
Because officers go out
because they are cold when they get on site.
Turns out that they can't actually be helpful, they leave,
and it's an incredible waste of resources, right?
And that happens all the time.
I see it happen in my community every single day.
So is there space to think about
what are the things that the police is doing
that should be delegated to care agencies so
that it can actually be solved
and we're not wasting resources,
and then have less expenditures by the police department,
particularly when it comes to overtime?
Well, one of the things that I can tell you is this.
I I, I wouldn't attribute that to overtime.
The, those, those would be your normal calls throughout the
day where officers are working their tour,
uh, tours of duty.
Um, now, as the police department,
if calls could be filtered out in that way,
would that be helpful to us?
Absolutely, it would. Unfortunately,
it doesn't happen that way.
And when we get calls
as police officers, we have to show up.
And when we get there, if there's something that we need
to resolve, we will resolve it.
Well, there are times where people have called the police,
and the police get there,
and there was no, uh, police service that needed
to be provided at that time.
But as the police department, we don't have a way
of filtering those calls out.
So when those calls come to us, they go, we go to it.
Now, one of the things that I will tell you about, and
because I hear you mention the CARES program, look,
they're often that we as officers are dealing with people
who are in mental health crisis.
Mm-hmm. But that happens more times than it's documented,
because when someone is acting out violently
or someone wants to take someone's life, I would imagine
that there's some component there that,
that there's a mental health crisis,
but the need for the police, um, is, is present, um,
in those circumstances.
So when you have a team that goes out
with a clinician, if they go to a, a location
and you know that this is a nonviolent situation, great.
But there also been times where they've gone
to these locations and found out that the person
that they were coming in contact with was, uh, violent,
had a violent history or turned violent.
And under those circumstances, they will call the police.
So, um, we've seen more attacks on,
uh, paramedics, uh, first responders, things of that nature.
And we do need to be, uh, at some of these calls.
But if we can filter out calls
that police officers don't need to respond to, yes,
that would absolutely be, so
What I'm hearing you say is that we need a better system
and then we would waste less resources.
Well, you know, listen, as,
as someone who's been doing policing for 33 years,
I would never say that an officer showing up to a call
because they were called, uh, through 9 1 1 to go there,
that it's a waste of resources, at least not on that side,
because there are people who are looking for help,
and our job is to show up and provide that help.
Now, once we get there and we find out
that it's not a police matter, maybe we can, uh,
get them some resources or, or,
or, uh, guide them in the right direction.
So, uh, yes. Could there be a better system? Absolutely.
Okay. Yes.
Thank you, chair. Thank you. Alderman.
Uh, at the point that she raised is though, is something
that this body has discussed previously, uh, relating to,
uh, what calls should we not go to, right?
I mean, we are a system that pretty much goes to everything.
Other jurisdictions, uh, there's certain calls
that they don't go to or send other resources
or other, um, other people to, um, have we,
and I know this came up under Superintendent McCarthy, um,
but have we evaluated in some respects
calls that we really
should not be responding to?
I know we have the priorities one through four,
but are there some calls that really do not require
police presence?
That, again, you know, we all are many times in situations
where your, you,
you have more calls than bodies, right?
But some of the calls may not necessarily really require
police presence.
So have we, or has anyone undertaken any evaluation
to see if there are calls that through OEMC
that do not get dispatched to the police department?
Well, yeah. One of the things that I can tell you is this.
And, and there are calls, um, that, uh, could be handled,
uh, by someone else if the services existed.
Um, here, I'll give you one.
A lot of times, uh, police get called out, uh,
for a parent who's having a problem with a child.
Um, and if there were, if there were, uh,
a program or someone who could respond, who specializes,
um, in children, that would,
that would be helpful to the department.
I mean, that's just one example, uh, of an issue like that.
Um, but as the police department, when we get these calls,
we go, it, it, we would have
to get everyone involved in that.
So it, it, it can't just be the police department,
because one of the things that we worry about is
liability, right?
When we start deciding as a police department
that we're not going to a call, if it turns out
to be more volatile than, uh, than, uh, the call, uh,
seemed like it was when it came out.
Um, then now the Chicago Police Department didn't respond,
and as a result of not responding, um, someone's hurt,
injured, possibly even lost their lives.
And that becomes a liability for the department.
So I think this is a conversation we would have to have
with everyone, and we would have to know
that there would be someone else accountable
for showing up to handle those calls.
No, I, I, I fully, I don't, I, I do agree with you
that the department shouldn't decide what calls it goes on,
or it doesn't, if you get dispatched by William MC
to a call, I think it is your responsibility to respond to
that call specifically.
Um, I, I do think that, uh, intuitively
that it, it begs a, a, a conversation
and at least some evaluation, uh,
'cause again, uh, resources are, are at a premium.
And, and I, I don't believe
that the police department should be responding to the call
of, you know, the kids, uh, won't gimme the remote.
That, that doesn't make sense. Right.
Um, however, I just think that we have, as a city,
have not undertaken the process to say, Hey, that's not,
that's not the best use of our resources.
We're not going to respond to,
you know, to something like that.
Again, of course, with, with some level of limitation,
I mean, you, you know, people have to, you know, have
to handle some of their, you know, personal business.
But I mean, at least going through the process to see,
because again, those calls,
and I don't know how many they are that are like that,
that potentially get coded out in such a way,
but I do know that there's a significant, some level
of significance that would, should require us
to at least evaluate to see if we may, uh, may want
to make some, uh, may want to make some changes.
So, um, next up we have, uh, alderman Viegas followed
by Alderman Vasquez.
Every, everybody's on the list.
Uh, everybody's on the list. Thank,
Uh, thank you chairman. And
to your point around data, I think
that would be an opportunity
to take a look at data from previous calls and let AI
or it take a look and,
and determining what's the majority of the calls
that the city is getting and be able
to deploy assets in that manner.
So, around technology.
Um, what, what are you guys doing around tech
for efficiencies, uh, whether utilizing ai,
drones, et cetera?
Well, the, the first thing is, um,
and I can let, uh, Ryan talk a little bit about the, uh,
the process that we're going through right now.
One of the things that we're working on now is trying
to get a records management system.
So all of our systems are talking to each other. So
Are you in cor, are you working with DTI then on
Ryan? Do you want to,
Or, or, or do you guys have your own IT section?
Uh, yeah, Ryan Fit Simon's, uh, deputy director.
So we work very closely with OPSA, their tech team.
We've been working with them
to get our records management system up and running.
That's one of our most integral things
that we need to move forward with.
We're also trying to digitize all of our ticketing.
So right now we have a lot of paper ticketing.
We've been rolling out, uh, printers.
So basically we use apps to put that in,
goes right into the data warehouse.
We don't have to wait two weeks to get that manually input.
We're also going forward
and we've digitized our two 11 forms,
which what that allows is
PSA working with DTI on this whole, right now,
the city's supposed to be going
through an ERP system right now mm-hmm.
Where we're focusing on finance, hr, and procurement.
And because the, uh, CPD is such a huge budget,
there's millions of dollars to be saved in tech.
So I, I wanna make sure that you guys are being
as aggressive and making sure
that all the players are at the table.
The fact that DTI, um, is not working directly with you
and is working with PSA, again, just I feel like there's,
like, we're not talking, we're not all at the same table.
So I wanna make sure that we're at the table, um,
because there's, there's savings there.
One of the things that's been helpful for us
with OPSA is they understand our data.
They're the subject matter experts.
DTI, we haven't seen that same level
of subject matter expertise.
Um, so a lot of times it's more of
that technical conversation that PSA has with DTI,
where they help translate the operational need.
PSA, they're in the building with us.
They work with us day in, day out.
DTI, A lot of times I see more on the budgeting side
where we have to move the paperwork through DTI,
but as far as the user experience,
we haven't really had them integrated.
Alright. Well, um, I'm gonna keep pushing on that.
The it that you guys,
we've gotta find savings or savings there.
Um, so, uh, superintendent around the, um,
you talked about over time with the events, um,
it was mentioned a couple years ago,
but have we revisited, given the budget challenges
that the budget challenges we're facing now
around taking a look at getting retired folks,
retired police officers that wanna come back
on a part-time basis to work these events,
especially in the summertime, so that way to free up
the full-time, uh, officers so
that way they can be in the districts
and not be at Lollapalooza and other events like that.
Is that something that we've explored?
Uh, 'cause I think there's some savings there as well.
Well, we would really have to take a look at that.
Um, we have, uh, rehired, um, uh,
retired police officers, uh, to fill, uh,
positions in our academy coming back as training officers,
reducing the number of sworn officers
that we need for the academy.
So we have done that.
But when we're talking about, uh, uh,
retired officers coming back to go out
and work sworn positions, that's something that we'd have
to work through collective bargaining.
We'd actually have to look at everything else.
'cause we'd have to look at the ages of, of, uh,
of the officers who are coming back.
Because obviously just
recently there was a two year addition to the retirement age
where it was 63, now it's 65.
But, um, we would have to put limitations on the age.
Um, we'd have to talk about the uniform.
We would have to talk about liability and think and,
and how they're, uh, going to be protected.
Um, and that's a, the legal aspect of it. Well, you
Got, you got your general counsel here
and I think that yes, he can, you know, take a look at that.
'cause I'm looking at other suburbs, other municipalities,
they have have auxiliary police officers
that deal specifically with events.
And I think that given that that, uh,
the overtime is accounting for these events like a Lala and,
and taste of Chicago, et cetera, that given, um, there,
there's some, I think there's some savings there.
But again, I would allow you guys
as subject matter experts to take a look at that.
But if it's other, if it's working in other municipalities,
that's definitely something we should explore.
Especially if police officers wanna come back
to these events where there's historically maybe there's
less activity, less crime.
You know, I'm not sure you guys make that decision.
Well, events are one thing. Uh, events are one thing.
The protests and things of that nature are another. No,
No, I'm not talking about protests.
Right. Protests, that's something that sworn officers,
I'm talking about the events.
You had mentioned that there was like 400 events
this past summer and,
and if we have sworn police officers there,
full-time sworn police officers there for these events,
I think there's an opportunity to take a look at it
and I'll be interested to see potentially what the
l legality or what hurdles we have to jump
and then also take a look at what the savings are.
Yeah, that would be, that would be some great work
for Scotts Beers there.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, chairman. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next is Alderman Vasquez,
follow Alderman Martin.
Thank you very much, chairman. Um, I've got a list of
through the chair questions, so I just wanna list 'em off.
None of your response. Um, so, uh, first, uh,
if you could share a list of internal revenue
and expenditure transfers within objects and purpose.
So, um, we get a quarterly reporting whenever line items
or get transferred from one item to the next.
And so far we wanna compare that to
what the departments are seeing.
Um, I I, I'll mention like settlements, right?
If we budget 82 million
and we're at 140, 50 plus,
where does that money then come from?
We should have some level of where it's being transferred.
So want to get a sense on that.
Uh, next, uh, a cost benefit analysis used
for determining functions
and positions that are in-house versus third party
or any contracts like how you all determine when you go
with the third party compared to when you stay in-house.
We're comparing it to all the different departments to try
to figure out there's a way to centralize certain things.
Uh, next, uh, uh, I'm sure this will be a lot, a list
of FOIAs that the department received in 2025,
including requester information.
Uh, also how many work hours
and roughly like the cost broken up
and having to handle all of the FOIA requests.
Um, similarly, each department's got those kind of costs,
and so we're trying to see if there's ways to consolidate.
Um, okay. Next.
Okay, these are, uh, okay, so, uh,
this is no longer to be the chair.
Thank you. Also, by the way, thank you for all
of everything, especially this past week.
I just wanna tell you personally,
I just appreciate your support
and help in, in a number of things citywide,
but even for, for me.
So thank you for that. Um, okay.
In, in response to Chairwoman Dallas',
question about overtime, you pointed out that
what was appropriate in overtime in 2025
was a hundred million.
Um, can you share how much overtime has actually been spent
to date for 2025 in comparison to
what was appropriated? Ryan?
Ryan Fitzsimons, uh, deputy director.
So the figures I have are from January 1st to August 31st
for the, for 2025.
That was, uh,
$128,716,606. So
We're at 28 million over from
what was already appropriated.
Right? Yes, sir. So 28, um, similarly through the chair, um,
for the past 10 years, if possible, like comparison of
what was appropriated to what was actually spent, just
to kind of like to track some of that trend there.
If you could send that, I'd appreciate it.
Um, this was a little more specific.
So since we've had all of the ICE incidents, uh,
federal agents protests, I imagine the amount of costs
and overtime and work needed by CPD has increased.
Do you all have any data to share?
Like, I imagine it's probably exponentially increased
because every time something's happening, for example,
you guys are getting called and just cur
kind of curious what that looked like.
Uh, Ryan Fit Simon's Deputy Director.
So one thing I will say is, historically this past weekend,
Mexican Independence Day weekend is a
high expenditure weekend.
I believe if you look in the mid-year report, we report
around 8 million in expenditures
At this point in time sitting here today,
the data hasn't come back.
It usually takes a week or two to really fully evaluate it.
So we may be up,
but it, it's hard
to know if it's really a substantial over
expenditure due to that.
Well, and I appreciate the Sorry, go ahead.
I'm, I'm sorry. Were you speaking more about the
protests that are happening?
All of the above. Right. So for example, the weekend
before that, there was a protest, uh,
that happened in downtown, right?
And then every time there's ICE incidents, so like 61st
and killed there, CPD was getting called for that, right?
That I imagine all of those are uptakes
because everyone's trying to figure out what's going on
and just kinda see if there's a way to track that.
So if you are speaking kinda year to date, then
what we had for total plan marches
and protests for 2024 was around 2.8 million.
This year, we're sitting at
around 4.7 million in expenditures to make sure
that those protests are safe. So through
The chair for clarity, like the day Donald Trump says,
operation Midway, blinks, we're gonna start doing this.
You start seeing gates up in the federal buildings,
like within that window of time.
And now is kind of more specific
because I'm wondering if based on everything
that's happening at the federal level,
we're now incurring more costs because of those changes
and how people are completely, uh,
behaviors change across the board.
So it was, it was more specific on that, which it could be
through the chair, uh,
'cause I don't know the specific date of when
that all kicked off, but,
We'll, what we'll do is we'll go back, we'll look at
that time, that timeframe and that window.
Yeah. And we'll look at any overtime that was expended
for protests at that time.
Yeah. And, and background, like our economy's going down.
You got people that can't go to businesses or staying home.
We're taking hits economically.
And we're also taking on, I my hypothesis
that we're taking on more cost as well,
that it's really not helping our city in any
way for them to be doing this.
'cause we're taking on more costs, even
for the work that you all do.
So I think the last thing I'll ask at the buzzer is, um,
A lot of people have asked this.
There's a number of things that I believe, I believe you,
this budget for CPD is high
because we dump everything on your plate, all of it.
And just throw money and say fix it, homelessness, uh,
you know, substance use disorder, all of the things,
event control, permit parking.
That what I'd like is some level
of assessment from the department as the things
that would be lower priority, top priority.
You have to handle violent crime. Right?
Lower priority, because we should be working on to,
to the superintendent's point,
these other solutions in place.
So if there's a domestic issue between a child and a parent,
or between, you know, two parents
that there are systems in place rather than
calling CPD for everything.
'cause I think if we allowed y'all
to focus on your core functions, investigations,
apprehensions, emergency response, when appropriate,
you'd be way more effective at that.
And have other departments handle the things
that I believe shouldn't be a part of what's on your plate.
'cause the misconduct is its own challenge, right?
We're still paying for stuff that happened in
the eighties, right?
But the things related to the work that's being done now,
we can make policy changes to help.
And that way you can focus
and not have people getting burned out, overwhelmed,
and then leaving the force.
So thank you for everything you all do.
It's a job none of us would wanna do here,
but we appreciate everything y'all do. Thank you very much.
I appreciate that, alderman.
And I just wanna be clear, you, you wanted, um, the, our,
our expenditures for overtime?
For how, how far back?
10. 10 years. Okay.
So 10 years also in, in that analysis, we're also going to,
uh, establish the manpower at that time.
Okay. Yeah. Perfect. And the decreases in manpower,
Which is really good to kind of understand the data.
So yeah, I'd appreciate that. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, also, uh, alderman vie, uh,
superintendent's requesting a funding strip for your,
your duty chairs, uh, um,
item number, um, we're gonna go to, uh, alderman, uh,
Martin, followed by, um, alderman Lata.
Thank you Chair. Can I, uh, provide a quick point
of information before I ask, ask some questions?
Sure. No, I don't. So I think both for Alder Women Lee,
who had mentioned some questions around, um, uh,
ward based numbers, uh, in terms of violent crime,
and then Alderman Vasquez around over time.
There's a lot of information on the Inspector General's
dashboard, um, in a public safety tab,
including I just looked at overtime broken down by month.
So I think, uh, let's all look at some of this stuff
and I think, um, we can re-up that, uh,
in various communications to older people.
'cause it might save CPD some time to compile information
that's already available and, and searchable.
Um, 'cause I think you, your office is doing a good job
of working with OIG to get this information out.
Um, that's helpful. So just wanted to throw that out there.
Um, in terms of my questions I had, um,
two quick through the chairs.
One is hardened to hear
that there were about 40, 54 positions
that were consent decree tied, that were hired this year.
If you could share the current number
of vacant positions tied to the consent decree, um,
that would be helpful to know through the chair.
Um, and then second, uh,
just following up on the overtime spending piece, generally,
if you could share through the chair some of the drivers
that have been successful in bringing
that cost down year over year.
'cause I've pulled up on the website, uh,
OIGs website the month by month,
and it's steadily lower than each
and then the months of the proceeding year.
And so just knowing what you all have done, um,
that's been successful
through the chair would be good to know.
Um, so for special events, overtime spending,
I was wondering what more needs to be done so
that this time next year, hopefully, we're talking about
how we successfully moved
the manpower overtime related manpower away from
some of these special events.
In particular, are there ordinance
changes that need to be made?
Because it seems like this has come up a few different
years, and I'm not sure ultimately what we need to do
to get this across the finish line.
Um, well, what, what I can tell you is, and, and, uh,
and first of all, thank you, uh, for that, uh, opening,
uh, information.
I think that was helpful to everybody, um, uh, for us
as a department and recognizing that we're showing up
to these events and we've seen where the more successful,
uh, event planners have their own security, um,
and even if they have inner perimeter security, things of
that nature, it's been extremely helpful
to the police department
and not having, uh, to put so much manpower out there.
I'll give you an example. Um, nascar, um,
from previous years, overtime is way down when it comes
to NASCAR because we didn't have
to worry about anything on the inside.
They had their own security teams within.
Um, it's been reduced from the first, second year.
And this third year we were way down because we realized
after doing an analysis that we could bring, uh,
those overtime costs down by not allocating all
of the officers, uh, to a, an event
that has private security that would, uh,
really be helpful to us.
Now, um, as far as the, the ordinance parts of it, Scott,
would you like to talk a little bit about that?
I, I think, uh, sorry.
Scott Spear's, general counsel, I think that, um,
the best thing we can do to help bring those numbers down is
to plan and organize.
If we, uh, if we know in advance what's going to happen,
we can plan accordingly.
We can work with event planners on what they can do
to contribute, um, versus what CPD does on the outside,
like the superintendent said.
So an organization like nascar, uh, works
with us extensively in advance.
We do the preparation.
We work, uh, with a whole of government approach to, uh,
you know, blocking off streets, getting things set up, uh,
keeping things safe for everybody.
Um, so that, that helps a, a great deal.
Whether we deal with that through an ordinance
or we just deal with that through a practice, uh,
within the city, um, I think is, is kind of up to the,
the body to decide.
But that definitely is instrumental in helping
us keep those costs down.
And, and just real quick, just to follow up on that, some,
some events are one-offs, right?
We are going to have to have overtime
and I'll, I'll give you an example
of one event, the Pride Parade.
And it's not the parade itself, it's about all of the people
who come down to party in the streets
after the parade has ended.
The parade goes, well,
we never have any problems with the parade.
It's just that after the event has ended, a lot
of people converge on the area and they're just crowds
and crowds of people, uh, in the street.
And we have to do what we can to navigate through that so
that fights don't break out
and property doesn't get damaged.
So, uh, events like that, uh, uh, bud Billiken,
the parade goes very well,
but sometimes you'll get a teen trend.
It happens afterwards. So we have to make sure
that we have enough resources, um, at those locations
to make sure that they don't get out of hand.
Good to know. And I think maybe we can,
as a body follow up with D Case to see how we can get more
of these festivals to work early
and proactively with you all so that your experiences
with NASCAR are, uh, more, more common
as you're working to bring this down.
Um, in the interest of time,
I'll ask one question just through the chair.
Um, if you can give us an update on whether, uh,
there's an overtime audit being conducted.
Um, I recall that being discussed last year,
but I forget if that was ultimately moved forward with,
or if there is some less formal auditing,
but still important work being done, um, around overtime.
And then lastly, I know in your remarks, superintendent,
you had talked about non-fatal shooting teams being rolled
out earlier this year.
I know that Chuck Wexler over, um, at PERF had, uh,
shared some good early assessments this year
in terms of that working.
Um, was wondering if you could shed a little bit more light
on the, it is about 58
or so people, detectives who were working,
I think earlier this year in this initiative, how
that's helped drive down
or drive up, excuse me, some
of the clearance numbers that you had mentioned.
So there's a, there, there are quite a few
things, uh, that are involved.
Um, one, um, if you read the perfect report,
there were a lot of recommendations in there
and we actually took those seriously. Yeah. Um,
And this is like the 2019 report
or so so from a number of years ago,
Was it? That's, that's correct.
Yeah.
Um, and I, you know, my
focus when I came in is to clear up some of these things
that people have complained that
have not happened in a timely fashion.
Our workforce allocation study, things of that nature.
And it was the same thing with the PERF report.
Um, our chief of detectives, Antoinette,
or City, is doing an excellent job of making sure
that our detectives have the resources to get things done,
um, along with these non-fatal shooting teams, um,
our homicide teams, our robbery teams, all of the, uh, our,
uh, retail theft teams, uh, working in lockstep,
uh, in coordination
and understanding that some of these crimes crossover
and having those connections is number one.
The other thing is our, our, uh,
crime gun intelligence center and the creation of that
and having everyone working together,
having someone from the state's attorney's office embedded
in that, uh, location is helping us,
uh, build stronger cases.
But it's also helping us get evidence back, running guns
and running evidence from guns through bin
and getting those hits back.
DNA testing. And it's coming back a lot faster.
So, uh, our detectives can bill stronger cases
and they can present a much stronger case that's built
around evidence.
Um, uh, that's less likely, uh, that's more likely
to identify the person who's involved in this crime.
And having that strong case to present
to the state's attorney is helping us get charges approved,
uh, a lot more and a lot quicker.
Noted. Well, I look forward to talking more about that
as well as forensics issues.
'cause I know we're lacking in our own forensics lab.
We share it with some others and
that's longer term strategy.
But we're talking about stuff
that the federal government can actually help us out with.
Yes. I think, uh, forensics that are just available
to the city would be quite helpful.
So thank you, sir. Thank you
to your team and thank you chair.
Thanks, alderman. Thank you.
Uh, alderman Martin, um, we're going to take a,
I'm gonna recess this meeting just for about two minutes.
Um, we're gonna recess this meeting
and we will reconvene this meeting
after we recess our regular, uh,
regular budget committee meeting, which I will go into
and then come right back out of,
because I want to, um, for, uh, for the sake of of time.
So this point we're gonna, we're gonna recess the, um,
midyear budget hearings at, at this point,
and we will reconvene the midyear budget hearings
after the recessing of the 11 o'clock, uh,
regularly scheduled budget, budget committee meeting.
So, uh, I'm gonna call the committee on budget
and Government Operations to order, uh,
for our 11 o'clock meeting.
Uh, wanna establish a quorum with members.
Irvin Lee, ADA Dow, Harris, CCHE Lopez,
Alia Cardona,
Conways Bodo, I see you.
Nugent, Vasquez, uh, Napolitano, uh,
Martin and, uh, Robinson.
So brought the meeting into,
and I don't wanna recess that meeting.
And then we're gonna come back to our, uh, this meeting
of the regular committee of the budget
and government operations is gonna be recessed
until we conclude with the police department.
And then we will go back into this meeting, uh,
back into the meeting that is, uh,
the regularly scheduled meeting for 11 o'clock.
So, alright, so now we're back on the record for our, um,
our midyear budget hearing and Alderman LaSpada.
Uh, you may begin
That. That was some
procedural gymnastics to be sure
that's, I remember this for the rest of my life.
That was great. Um, okay, back on track, superintendent.
Thank you so much for being with us.
I could exhaust my time calling out folks,
but just of the moment, I'd be
so remiss if I didn't personally
and directly thank, um,
officers Weiss Fogel search in Duran,
Sergeant Larson over in the 14th district.
In particular, what they have done with us this past summer
and the summers previous
to really make our community thrive.
I cannot say enough, and I'd be a disservice
to my office if I didn't call them out.
And that goes for your whole team.
Like, the results that we've seen in our neighborhoods
in the first ward are outstanding
and I am very much grateful for that. Um,
Thank you all man. I'll make
sure that they get that information.
I appreciate it. If I could give commendations, I would.
And so these are the moments that you can, um, I wanted
to ask about a few different places specifically.
Um, first we were talking microphone.
There we go. Uh, we were talking briefly about
domestic violence and that
that is a concern for the city right now.
If you pull up the city's violence reduction dashboard,
it victims incredibly
powerful transformative work
happening in the city right now.
When you filter for domestic violence victims.
Tell us a very different story.
Um, I wanted to understand with our, um,
victim advocate positions, you talked about the 25 positions
that we're working to fill.
I appreciate that. I wanted to understand if we understand,
or if it can be provided through the chair, how much
of the allocated time
for those victim specialists is going towards addressing
what I would say are the very special
and specific needs of domestic violence victims?
You wanna get that information?
Can we get you that through the chair? Yes.
Oh, uh, another one that is specific
and through the chairs, just, um, as we are,
I know it's a small thing,
but when we talk about the Mounted patrol office, I did want
to understand, again, through the chair, you could provide
the number of times that team has
been dispatched year to date.
Uh, Ryan, deputy Director, we can get you the number
of times I, they're not really dispatched.
What they tend to do is more
so they do patrol both here, downtown.
They do patrol down on South Shore,
and then they also attend ceremonial functions.
They go to block parties, those sort of things.
But they do have patrol functions
that are, are their duties. Could
You give a breakdown again, like it doesn't have
to be on the floor right now of how much
of their activity is ceremonial
and how much of it is patrol?
We can get that. Yeah. Okay. And
Then just add in the details.
Mm-hmm. There's so many when they're detailed to Yes sir.
Certain locations. We'll make sure that you get that.
Um, time for two more questions.
Uh, I did wanna understand what is happening with the Office
of Constitutional Policing because if I, if it's a necessary
and urgent office reflected in our work
with the consent decree.
Also, when I look at that team,
we have a current headcount of 46 positions, 46 headcount,
35 vacancies,
and they've been persistent vacancies through the year.
What, what do you think that is reflected in?
Like, how do we fill those positions?
'cause when an office is at about 80% vacancies,
it's troubling for the work that we're trying to accomplish.
Well, it, I can tell you there's a lot of great work
that's being done and, uh, Allison Clark Henson, um, uh,
you know, who's, uh, uh, in charge of that, she's the new,
uh, executive director there.
She's doing such a great job with the manpower that she has.
Obviously there are issues with hiring, but, uh, and,
but we're still working toward that.
I'll let Ryan talk a little bit about the hiring process.
Yep. Ryan Fit Simon's Deputy Director.
So we have 176 titles that we're currently interviewing
for pretty much every single consent decree position is in
some stage of the hiring process.
So we are moving forward with that.
I think the biggest thing that we need
to make sure in 2026 is that we're able
to get timely a formm approval
so we can start the hiring process when we don't start
until later in the year.
It really delays our ability to hire
for those critical positions.
How long were we delayed for in tying in terms of trying
to hire for those positions?
So this year we did not see new postings go up
until April.
So we, we waited a long time
to get the ball rolling on that.
I think that's gonna be a conversation
that we're having in a month, because when we approve a
budget as the city council, I won't speak
for all my colleagues, but I, my assumption is
that we're gonna gonna start trying to move
that budget at the start
of the year rather than the third of the way through the year.
Um, pardon for one more question, sir. Okay.
I did want to speak specifically to a topic
that some colleagues have brought up, which is how do we,
how do we make the workload that we're asking
of your officers more manageable?
And some folks have brought up various categories.
I want to speak specifically to
when we look right now, year to date,
there have been 359,000 9 1 1 calls that were specifically
parking violations.
I know from talking to the Department of Finance,
they have said there's no technological challenge
to those calls being routed
to parking enforcement aids in the field, that it's more
of a manpower challenge.
I'm curious if you are supportive
of those 9 1 1 again, like parking violation calls
being routed to parking enforcement aids
under the Department of Finance.
Um, and also there's a, through the chair component,
if we have a sense of what percentage of those calls
have resulted in, um,
violent activities, activities
that would necessitate the specific
needs of a police officer,
Well, uh, listen. Now,
we wouldn't have a problem with, uh, someone, uh,
showing up, uh, other than the police, uh,
for a parking violation.
Um, but we also have to be careful about the actual call.
So that's something that, uh, OMC would have to work out.
We'd actually have to talk about that
because, um, for what reason are we calling
for a parking violation?
How long has that car been there?
What's, is there a smell coming from that car?
Um, that as a file loader, these are things that
as police officers, we need, uh, um, to, uh,
investigate if that's the case.
And I'm giving something that's extreme right now.
However, when it comes to just writing tickets,
I wouldn't have a problem if that's going
to free our officers up from having
to write a parking ticket or showing up to that job.
Especially, um, when calls are in a backlog or in a wrap.
Uh, we wanna make sure that officers are
free and available to do that.
So it's something that we are actually looking at right now.
Um, we're looking at two districts right now around that.
So we are taking that in consideration.
I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Chairman Alderman, uh, alderman
Wa back. Yes.
Chairman. Just a point of information.
Uh, going back to that prior question from Alderman lada,
what was the delay?
Who was the delay in the hiring or who created that delay?
Your department or somebody else? Ryan
Fit Simons deputy director.
So what we were waiting on for our new postings
to go up was a form approval.
So basically the way it works, we submit it to Office
of Public Safety Administration, office
of Public Safety Administration, submits it to O-B-M-O-B-M,
then approves the posting,
and then we're allowed to proceed.
One of the best things this year is we have had great
partnership with the Department of Human Resources
that have given up us up to 12 titles
to post a month, which is fantastic.
So we would love to continue with that, especially
for our consent to create titles next year.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. You have questions?
I was coming to you anyway, so,
Uh, I do, but I'm not on the committee,
So I know you're not on the committee.
Okay, I understand that. Dive in.
You're a senior member, so Okay.
Are more seniority than I do.
So, uh, you, it makes you a senior member. So go ahead.
Thank you chair, uh, superintendent, thank you
for all the work you and all your staff here
and throughout the city do.
Um, just a couple quick questions on, uh,
the staffing audit.
Is there a date on that or if that question hasn't
Done that's, that's been, uh, asked, uh,
that it's due this fall, uh, in the fall.
So I would venture November-ish, uh,
like right after budget.
So, um, okay.
Wonder if there's some uniqueness to the timing of that,
but we'll, we'll lead that along today.
Okay. The other one was, uh, any cost analysis on,
on the potential gap, uh, between, uh,
those CPD writer, uh, ticket writers, um, officers
who go out, just like you were saying, depending on
what type of call it is versus the civilian, uh,
ticket writer request.
What kind of, what kind of savings?
I didn't see anything in the, uh, specific
and the report that just came out,
but I didn't know if you had done anything separately.
We have not done a, uh, analysis of that.
Um, we are in the process of trying to digitize
and streamline some of our ticketing processes,
but we have not done that analysis. Okay.
Alright. Uh, chairman, that's all I had.
I just wanna say, uh, you know, specific thanks
to the officer who's a real hero for taking
that rat off the, uh, alderman's office sidewalk as well.
I mean, that, um, that's somebody else's job,
but, you know, he should get a commendation.
Thanks, alderman. Thank you. Thank
You. Alderman Walker spec,
uh, alderman Uhto,
followed by Alderman Harris.
Thank you Chairman. Uh, good morning.
Uh, so always a pleasure to see you.
Um, first I just wanna make a statement.
You could just put me in a column as, uh, uh, one
of the elders that thinks we're, uh,
trending in the right direction with crime.
Uh, the big challenge is gonna be could we
do this two years in a row?
Um, so we're up to a good start with you.
And I think certainly, uh, I give a little assist to, um,
state's, attorney Burke.
Um, I'm, I'm guessing you guys work well together.
Um, problem is our media friends don't help us much
with the exception of Charlie.
I'm not referring to him on that.
But, uh, you know, with, with all the stuff they show
and never show any of the positive stuff.
So, but hopefully the trend continues
and we don't get any crazy things and with overtime
and protests and so on and so forth.
Um, and one
of the reasons I think maybe is I keep hearing about these
peacekeepers and do you have anything to do with that soup?
Do you hire them? Do you sit down with them?
How does that work? Or, um,
did we get some new peacekeepers?
'cause I think there's some real phonies out there,
and I won't mention the phonies, but I certainly think,
and I don't know if we work with these two individuals,
and that's the Pastor Brooks and Pastor Price.
They're two awesome individuals.
So is that, do you have any say about that?
Do you work with those people at all? I'm sure.
I'm sure you talk to them too regularly, so, well,
Sir, and here's what I'll tell you.
You know, with our community members
and anybody who's out there trying to work, uh, with us
to reduce crime, we'll work with those individuals.
Um, our, our, uh, officers are out there working,
and our district commanders are coordinating, uh,
with anyone who's, uh, working, uh,
to reduce community violence, um, uh,
in their respective districts.
So, uh, all of our commanders
and our area deputy chiefs, our chief of patrol, um, they,
they're well aware of who's out there, what's out there, uh,
the times, the hours that their work, their availability,
and, um, when we can, uh, get them involved.
We do, um, obviously there are always limitations,
uh, to that type of work.
Um, we don't wanna make a situation dangerous for someone
who doesn't have, uh, um, the expertise or the training
or the skill of an officer.
But, uh, where people can be helpful
and helping us, uh, reach out to community members, uh,
to not only reduce violence,
but to stop, uh, retaliation, that's always helpful to us.
So thank you. Yes, working with the pastors has been great
and, and thank you certain
Pastors, but, uh, okay.
Um, something that's really bothersome to me and,
and just breaks my heart,
and I'm sure nobody in the room has the answer for this.
'cause I don't think we have the answer so far.
And I wanna be, I don't wanna be critical
of the people running it, but the suicide, I mean,
is it just, is, is it, do we think the trend's been the same
for, I don't know, last 10 years,
or do we think there's an uptick lately?
It just seems like there's been an unprecedented amount
of police suicides
and it's just, you know, had a really close one recently
that was not quite my ward,
but across the street from my ward
with a young kid and everything.
So are we, do we have enough people there to help
or how, how do we handle our, are do we have,
are we putting more in a budget for the future?
We, we, we taking less out
for the next budget. What say you?
Well, one of the things I'll tell you is that, uh,
things are getting a little better.
Unfortunately, anytime you have one.
Um, it seems like a hundred.
Um, so it's always hard to say that things are good
or things are getting better
because one, uh, is one too many.
However, um, you know, we, we fought last year to make sure
that we maintained our, our clinicians that we hired.
Um, we have two new locations, north
and south of EAP, where our officers can go and get help.
And one of the things that we're seeing,
and I talked to, uh, um, Kevin Graham from EAP,
that there is has been an uptick in officers reaching out.
Now that's a great sign.
Yes, people would take that to mean
that there are more officers who are having problems.
No, that means that there are more officers
who are reaching out for help for their issues, something
that we didn't see in the past.
And, you know, we want to take the stink off of the,
the stigma that going to get help is a weakness.
We want people to understand that, you know, that the things
that these officers see on a daily basis, the things
that I've seen, these things stay with you forever.
And sometimes you need to talk to someone.
So, uh, there's been a lot more help with our officers.
And one of the things that you'll see when our officers are
doing overtime, um, there are people from philanthropy
who will provide food
for our officers while they're out there.
We make sure that we get, uh, water to our officers, um,
the police foundation has reached out
and make sure that our officers are hydrated,
that they're nourished when they're in the field,
especially when they're working with protests
and things of that nature where these officers could break
down and have a breakdown
and an adverse, uh, response to what they're seeing.
So, um, we're moving in the right direction.
We still have a lot of work to do though. Thank
You, Sue. Uh, just
two more statements, chairman.
I wasn't expecting that long of an answer,
but it's a very important thing that none of us understand.
So I just wanna say we need to help you with,
with your budget, I feel with,
we need more parking enforcement aid.
So as a bunch of other men, we need
to work on getting more parking enforcement aide
that could take that off the plate of the police officers.
And I also just wanna say, uh, a great job to 16, working
with limited resources, doing a great job.
And also our officers down here.
This job has, I only been here 14 years,
and I could tell you this job has totally changed.
Uh, people are outta control
and they do a great job keeping order for us.
So just wanna say that thank you to 16
and thank you to officers down here.
So thanks soup, and thanks all, all, all you're doing.
Everybody else, but thank you Chairman. Thank
You Alderman. Thank
Aldo. Uh, next we will
have, uh, alderman Harris,
followed by Alderman Lawson.
Thank you chairman. Um,
good morning soup, if it still, good morning. How are
You? Um,
big kudos, but thank you.
I mean, I, I have four police districts
and I gotta say they're all fabulous, um,
doing amazing things.
Um, but would it be an accurate statement to say
that we're doing more with less if you are,
since we're in this 10 year comparison, uh, thing that say
that over time we have learned how to,
we have down downsize the police department
through whatever means we got there.
We have fewer people than we've had over the last 10 years.
Oh, 100%. Um, and that's a very accurate statement.
And this is why, you know, anytime that we do an analysis
around overtime and we're comparing it, uh,
going back a decade, we need to make sure that we get, uh,
our, our numbers, uh, in there.
Um, because our staffing is very important.
So there are times in the past where we may not have had
to use overtime because we were fully staffed.
We had a thousand more officers.
Now, uh, with that reduction, we have
to dig in overtime when it comes to certain events.
And as we talk about bodies, the cost
of bodies over 10 years has drastically risen through
what, whatever kind of contracts we've had over time
that continue to rise the cost of a body.
So while it looks like we have a lot of overtime,
we have overtime for a reason because, like it
or not, there are parts of the city that need more
because they have very lot going on in those districts.
And so you're going to have to give overtime
because it's just a necessary part of the universe
to be able to supply overtime
for communities that really need it.
Um, so that's my comment in a nutshell
that sometimes overtime is needed
for a variety of different reasons.
As we talk about special events,
one just jumped off in my universe.
And so the, we're gonna have
to supply overtime from the police department
to get it done, and it just, if we knew in October
of the year before we could plan for it.
But when these events come up
and they pop up, the police department always jumps in
and is the first to jump in and say, all right, we got it.
Um, and the citizens don't understand the costs behind that.
But, um, it's somebody who's sitting here watching to say
that 93% of the your budget is bodies,
the rest is necessary.
And so, whether it's overtime to me
or not, I wanna live in a safe community.
And I think that the police department, when I see them,
I feel safe, I feel confident,
and we have to have the ability to do that so
that we could keep people outta our business.
So I thank you all for everything that you do,
and thank you for your leadership.
Um, but I just wanted to say that we are cooking the bread
with Les Bakers, so thank you so very much.
Good. Well thank you for that, all the woman.
Appreciate it.
Thank you. Cooking the bread with Les Bakers.
Let's flour then let's,
Like, let's fly. I haven't heard
Less something. It's
a bacon. Gotta put it in the oven if it don't bake.
Got don't get baked without the bacon. Put it in there.
Agreed. Agreed. Uh, next we'll have, uh, alderman, uh,
Lawson, uh, follow baldman ka.
Thank you chair. Um, I don't know how to follow that.
Um, that's
where I thought we were down even
further officers than that.
The 13 7 83, I, I thought we were closer to like 11.
Is, is this total positions or sworn officer
Officers? Those are total
positions. So
Sworn officers is closer to 11,000. Right.
Uh, Ryan Fit Simon's deputy director,
our sworn officer's position authorizes 12,646.
Field is 11,662.
And we have 984 vacancies, according to my records. All
Right. And
Yep.
Um, so sworn authorizes, 12,646
filled is 11,662
and vacant is 984.
So we have been running at about a thousand
vacancies for a while.
Is, is my memory, um, is that accurate? That's correct.
For the last 10 years, probably,
No, I would not say the last 10
Years. Just maybe since
2019.
Well, since 2020 we, we've seen a mass exodus of people.
Right. Where we, where we didn't
necessarily keep up with attrition.
Right. Okay. Okay.
Um, I'm a big fan of tech and leading into tech.
We've talked a lot about cameras.
Um, is there a way that the department quantifies, you know,
the number of camera involved, arrests, prosecutions,
the types of crimes where they've been most effective?
And that may be something for the department
or for OPSA, depending on how things are, um, categorized.
But when we, we talk about cameras and,
and license plate readers.
I had an issue in my ward. We had a shooting.
There was a, a network of private public cameras, LPRs.
'cause they jump on the drive and then
they're wherever else in the city.
But we had a good arrest we
would announced with state's attorney.
But is there any way that we know the number of arrests
that are tied to use of a camera, uh, in solving that crime?
You know, we, we can, uh, we can look at that
because, um, there are all types
of cameras that are out there.
First of all, our body-worn cameras,
but I know you're talking more of, of, uh,
our, our post-it cameras.
Right. And, um, we could probably get more of
that information through you from the detective division.
Okay. Because the, the use
of the A TC room has been excellent in, uh, uh,
apprehending, uh, individuals, um, our SDSC rooms.
So, um, we'll, we'll get with the detective division
and see if we can break that down for you because I,
I think when we talk about efficiencies, right?
Leaning into tech, freeing up officers, you know,
being more efficient with tech is something
that we're gonna have to do more and more of.
And the, the more that we can look to actual numbers on
that, whether that, like I said,
the license plate readers have been involved in solving
a thousand crimes this year.
You know, that's a number I wanna put out there.
And people won want know, and people want to know
that if you're involved in a crime,
we've got your license plate.
Um, you know, that messaging I think doesn't hurt either.
Right. Um, same thing, we talked with the barricades
around Wrigley, you know how that frees up officers
who are not sitting at one corner with a wooden barricade,
but are actually, um, able to do more
because they don't have to man that corner.
Um, the parking pilots in 19, it's been talked about.
I'm in full support. I look forward to how, how that works.
Um, especially in a neighborhood like mine.
Um, I, uh, want to just ask, uh,
our numbers are obviously going in the right direction
and I I'm curious if there's any correlation with, uh,
arrests and prosecutions.
Like, are our arrest numbers,
what are they like over the last few years by category?
Are we seeing any changes because crime is going down
or is it because the arrests are up or prosecutions are up,
or both, or, or arrests up for a period of then down
because people are spending more time, uh, behind bars.
But do we have any tracking of that? Uh,
I'm, I'm sure we can get the information if you have,
if you have, uh, specific numbers that you like around that
we'll make, we can get you that information. Yeah. You
Know, I, I think generally like where,
where are our arrest numbers for the last few years?
You know, how does that compare to convictions, right?
Not just prosecutions, but convictions.
I know you're working very closely with our state's attorney
and I, we appreciate that.
'cause I think we feel that in our neighborhoods.
Um, the only other thing I'll say, uh, well,
two things on overtime.
Um, it may be interesting to look at Pride Parade 24
and Pride Parade 25, because I know, um, that you
and the department made a concerted effort to, um,
bring in additional shifts as opposed
to relying on overtime.
Now we still have a lot of officers.
I know there's still a lot of overtime,
but be curious to see in that event, right,
which we do plan very well for and was very successful.
Thank you for that. But if, if the overtime number, well,
what the difference was from year to year,
because it, it was pretty much about the same type of crowd.
But I know we had the different shifts that
that gave officers a break.
Who needed it on what was the hottest parade? I remember.
Um, thank, thank you again for that day.
Um, the only other thing I'll, I'll add,
we did send a letter about chamber security and it's, um,
and the security of this building.
Several of my colleagues and I signed onto a letter.
Um, and it's, it's pretty tamed today,
but you might imagine, uh, as someone who has his back
to the crowd, I know how the police feel about
having their back to anything.
Um, it can get a little raucous and a little rowdy.
And we appreciate your partnership in looking at
what we can do, um, to help secure this space
for everyone who's here, um, and the building.
So, um, I'll end with that. Thank you again for everything.
We do appreciate the communication.
Thank you. And I just want to just, uh, I've talked to,
um, Mary Richardson Lowry, um, Corp Counsel,
and she's gone through approving the first steps
and I'm working directly with her to get this done.
So because the, the safety of everybody is important,
so we wanna make sure that we get that done.
Um, the, the, the other thing
that you mentioned about those officers working the shifts
of the parade, we bring in people later on in the day.
So those officers who were there throughout the day are not
there throughout the entire night.
So we make sure that we get them out of there. So,
Excellent. No, I, I, I appreciate
that. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, alderman Lawson, uh,
alderman Cardona, uh, followed.
Thank you, chairman. How you doing? Superintendent.
Um, just wanna ask you, um, something one
of my colleagues has, um, put on me out there in the media,
and you responded, because I know, um, activity out there
with homicides and how crime is, um, going on.
And you police department says,
crime has gone down specifically.
Um, the question is, has it really gone down?
Because what the media is saying,
and we see it on tv, people are getting, uh, shot,
uh, murdered, all these other things are happening,
and, uh, what they're portraying in the media
and what you are saying are two different things.
So I know you have things categorized in certain statistics,
so I just want want you to clarify, um,
because I know my colleague, uh, Dervin Na Patal, um,
asked you for, for, um, separation of data
and, uh, we haven't received it.
So if you could, uh, uh, talk about it
or address it here, uh, I'd greatly appreciate it.
So the first of all that, uh, information,
I actually responded and, and I responded to all.
I didn't realize that, uh, if I wasn't a part of the group
that, uh, I couldn't send the email to everybody.
So, but I did respond to the Alderman, um,
that was something that went straight to my email
and their times where I miss my personal email so
that anything that sent should be sent to super admin
because my people would get it.
My chief of staff, Dana O'Malley, is working on
that information right now.
And we reached out to let 'em know that, uh, we're getting,
there were a couple of things that we needed to clarify.
Now when it comes to, to, uh, the crime
and the numbers in this city crime,
especially our violent crime has been reduced greatly.
Now, that's not to say
that we don't have a crime problem in the city of Chicago.
We still have criminal activity going on,
and our officers are responding to it every single day.
And I've said this a million times, if, if we got our
homicides down to 50, uh, people would celebrate
except for the 50 people and their families, um,
and the 50 people who were murdered.
And, and, um, I, I appreciate the fact
that our crime is going down,
but I'm still aware that there are victims
of crime out there
and people who have been victimized, um, that we have
to acknowledge and we have to continue to do the work
that we're doing to protect those people
and bring them some level of justice.
Now, those people who would say that coming to Chicago,
that, uh, it's the most dangerous place in the world, well,
that's just absolutely not true.
I mean, when it comes to murders per capita, I believe we,
we may be in the top 20.
Um, there are some cities
that are a lot more dangerous than the city of Chicago.
Now, what I will say is, in any metropolitan,
major metropolitan city, you are going to have crime,
you're going to have violent crime.
Um, and that's not to say that we should accept it,
but as a police department
and as a leader of police agency, my job is to make sure
that we respond to it and we respond
to it the best way possible.
And make sure that people who have been victims of crimes
get some type of attention from us so
that they can get some type of justice.
We need to help these people
and make sure that they're, they're safe.
We need to prevent crime.
And we've done a lot of that with a lot of the things
that we've done across the board, especially with the Bureau
of patrol, bureau of Counter-Terrorism, working along
with the Bureau of Detectives.
Those things are, are very serious to me.
They're very important to me.
They're very important to the police department
and our officers, which is why they go out every single day
and put their lives on the line
to make sure that everyone is safe.
What I will say is that any numbers
that you wanna look at immediately,
and we will give you a breakdown of everything
that you want, anything that you need.
But if you go to our dashboard, we keep everything on
that dashboard because I want to be as transparent
as humanly possible,
because as, as the police, we always have
to prove what we do.
You know, there are a lot of other people
who get credit for doing things.
They don't necessarily have to prove themselves.
And I'm not, I'm not counting anybody
else's beings right now.
What I'm saying is that for us, we have to make sure
that anything that we say, we can prove it.
And I wanna make sure that we have it up on the dashboard
and we're being transparent.
So, please, um, if you go to, um, uh, chicago police.org,
you can find all of the numbers, anything you want,
and that, that goes all the way down
to when an officer uses force.
And just, just to see the breakdown of the reports on that.
So, um, for those who come to this city,
I was out there during Mexican independence, uh, day,
and the celebration downtown.
There were people from all over the country
who were down there walking up saying,
we didn't know Chicago was this beautiful.
Um, so there are people who come here
and they get to see that, uh, Chicago is a beautiful place,
and there are areas in Chicago where we have challenges,
and we need to keep working on those challenges.
And I agree with you that there's areas in the city
of Chicago that are challenges,
but, um, I know you guys are doing the best you can.
And I do, I do appreciate the woman and men in Blue
'cause they sacrifice every day putting their lives online
for us, uh, to protect us, especially, uh, us who are, uh,
undocumented or documented.
You know, I I really do appreciate
everything you guys do for us.
Thank you. Thank
You, alderman. Thank
you, alderman Cardona.
Uh, next we'll have Alderman Conway, followed
by Alderman Napolitano.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, uh,
Mr. Superintendent,
I,
I first wanna say I really appreciate your comments on
transparency and,
and community policing that you said, uh, right there.
Uh, frankly, my questions have been answered,
and I also did read in the, in the,
in the Glowing Tribune editorial the other day, uh,
the following, uh,
Snelling Place is an extraordinarily high priority on
keeping himself and his rank
and file out of the white hot political disputes
that are tied to the state of public safety in Chicago.
Uh, I find that, uh, I find that admirable.
So I will sort of spare you any questions on curfews and,
and shot spotter.
And merely, uh, merely thank you for your service
to this great city, and anything myself
and my colleagues can do to help you.
Uh, we stand at the ready. And with that, Mr.
Chairman, I yield the balance of my time. Thank you.
Thank you, alderman. Thank you. Wow.
All right. Okay.
We'll, now we'll take that and keep rolling.
Uh, alderman Politano.
Thank you, chairman. Uh, good morning, superintendent.
Or are we in the afternoon now?
Oh, how are you? Alman still in the morning.
Um, you know, I'll just make my, as a quick statement, um,
my apologies, and, and to my colleague as well, and to you.
Um, I probably should have got ahead
of it a little bit quicker in here
and said that, uh, I, I believe the superintendent in your
department does an incredible job
and is doing your absolute due diligence to,
to get us the information that we requested.
My bad, I'm going through the wrong chain, uh, on that email
and, and, um, that conversation,
we, we will have through that.
No need for it here right now.
Um, and the only reason why I've asked for
that information is I, I've received it in the
past, years and years ago.
Um, I gotta be honest, the dashboard is incredible,
but it is a little bit difficult to navigate through,
to kind of pinpoint what you want in different directions.
So I thought I can kind of, uh, compound that information.
But what I'm asking for, in no way, shape
or form, am I hand to God?
Am I hand to you and my
brothers and sisters in the department?
Am I questioning the task you're doing
as, as superintendent police?
I am by far, probably.
I can't say you're biggest fan
'cause I think we're all your fan down here.
I think you're doing an incredible job.
I think your staff does an incredible job.
I think your officers in the street do an incredible job.
So please, I'm asking you friend to friend and,
and former officer to officer.
My questions weren't to put you on the spot.
It's just the questions that I get bombarded with
where I live, the, the information
that they want, you know, where I live.
I know. And that's the information that they want.
And that's why I was asking for it.
'cause I thought it might clear some stuff up.
So I'll wait for that, and we could talk about
it after, after that.
But my apologies for not getting down here sooner
and maybe bringing that email more to light,
because there's, there's no malice between either side
and what's going on in, in it.
And I appreciate all you do.
So I don't wanna waste your time wast any more
of the chairman's time. But
Thank you you so much for all you do, sir.
Well, uh, thank you all the minute.
I just, uh, wanna say thank you for that.
Um, uh, no apologies needed.
I, I, I know what that was about.
But at the same time, you know, when,
when the media reports something
and, uh, my officers feel like they're taking a hit,
I'm gonna stand up for them.
And I just wanted to make sure that, uh, they understood,
uh, that I was going to stand up for them when they felt,
uh, that there was something,
uh, that was strange out there.
So I, I understood exactly.
But anytime, anytime you need some clarifications on
something, please, you know, just reach out.
You, you know, I'm, I'm always available.
Appreciate it, boss. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Uh, alderman Napolitano.
Um, to close, uh, we'll have Chairman Tille Farrell.
Yeah. Oh, hold on, hold on. Chairman, uh, Altman down.
Excuse me, just one question through the chair.
Is it possible to get a breakdown of overtime by, like,
events, protests, uh,
staffing changes
or whatever, just to see
where your overtime is being spent? We'll
Pull something together. Uh,
the categorization isn't necessarily clean,
so there is some judgment involved, but we'll exercise that
and try and get you something.
Alright, thank you. Thank you.
Um, chairman Dowell, uh, almond Garden,
do you have anything for the police department?
Not right now. Thank you.
Is is now, or never? Oh, just,
Uh, Nadi.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
You called me off guard there.
Um, I don't have anything in particular,
but I do, uh, wanna sincerely thank all the police officers,
um, uh, for all the work, the, the women
and men, the brave women and men
of the Chicago Police Department do.
Um, I want to thank you, superintendent, uh,
for your excellent leadership, uh, for your
bravery in the face of, uh, uh, many different, uh,
challenges that you have endured throughout your tenure.
And, uh, from the bottom of my heart, uh, from the residents
of the 45th Ward, uh,
we sincerely appreciate the challenges
that you face on a daily basis
and continue to overcome challenges
that are sometimes seem very, uh, insurmountable
and you continue to overcome them.
So, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you, alderman. Thank you Altman.
Gardner Alman to Farro chairman to Farro
Chairman. Uh, thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Uh, and Alderwoman, do ask a question that I wa I was going
to, um, ask on, uh, the request that I was going to ask, um,
just for a breakdown of the special event
and festivals throughout the summer so that we can see, um,
uh, what we're being reimbursed
and who's reimbursing, uh, those expenses.
But, um, but more in particular, I want to say thank you,
as all my colleagues have said
before, uh, for your great work as superintendent
and leader of this department, uh,
to even look statistically
and see that we're 33% down in our murders
and homicides, um, uh, year to date, uh,
that speaks very well to your leadership and,
and the hard work of the men
and women of the Chicago Police Department.
Um, in fact, I, I know that, um, it said
that those numbers are the lowest
that we've seen in the last, almost nearly a decade.
Um, and so I thank you for that
because our communities are, are getting a lot better, um,
under your leadership.
Our communities are starting to thrive, um,
under your law enforcement leadership.
So, um, I appreciate all the good work,
and I appreciate you take every single call, um, and,
and without hesitation, um, you give a great explanation of
what's going on on your department.
So appreciate you, Sue.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it, alderman.
Thank you. Uh, thank you superintendent.
Uh, appreciate your, uh, being here with us today.
Uh, as you can see, uh, we know that the work
that your department is doing is definitely vital
and necessary for the effective,
uh, functioning of our city.
Uh, while we are experiencing, uh,
some turbulence right now financially, uh,
one thing I I think we, um, haven't really touched on.
We know that the budget department is primarily asking
for departments to do three to 5%,
um, reductions in expenses.
Um, have you all been through that exercise?
And what does that exercise equate, uh, for you all?
And what, what would we see as a result in service
reductions or changes in
how you operate in order to meet that goal?
We have, uh, uh, been through the exercise.
Ryan, you wanna talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, so we've completed the exercise.
We've looked at, um,
basically the ask from the budget office was
$92 million in cuts.
Uh, we've given up quite a few positions over the last few
years, over 1200 positions since 2019.
So at this point, we don't have a lot to give.
We were able to try
and discuss some revenue ideas, especially recovering, um,
some of our costs for special events.
And then we also discuss potentially keeping
positions in the budget, but budgeting those positions
at a lower figure to make sure
that we are keeping the structure
of the Chicago Police Department intact,
but maybe minimizing the amount of money that we need
to raise to keep our operations, um, ongoing.
So we, we fully acknowledge that leann times are coming.
We've already been giving pretty dramatically
for the last six years.
And I think it's trying to think about what is the structure
of the Chicago Police Department in the future.
And, and, uh, uh, to your point chair.
Um, look, we, we do understand as the police department
that there's a budget crisis
and everybody is going to have
to take a haircut at some point.
Um, but I want to be very careful
and cautious about where we cut
and what we do so that it doesn't affect the progress, uh,
that we're making right now.
And, uh, the safety of the city.
So, um, also the wellness of the officers.
So when we start talking about everything that, uh,
we have lined in, uh, in our consent decree, um,
we need to make sure that we're staying true to that
and the progress that we're making there.
Um, and we need to stay true to the residents of this city
to make sure that we have, um, the resources
and the manpower, um, to keep everybody safe in this city.
So, so how do you, uh, how do you effectively
cut $92 million outta your budget without impacting service?
Uh, we don't, um, it, it's, it's, it's really, I
Mean, if, if, if that's the answer, that's the answer.
I mean, you cut $92 million outta your service.
Does that mean that, um, my, the the cost for service
or the, the response time for a police officer to get
to a particular, um, event, uh, goes up?
I mean, it, it, I mean, it, it is what it is.
I mean, I, I don't know how to
sugarcoat the fact
that if you cut $92 million outta your budget,
that your service is going to suffer for that.
And, and this is, this is true now, uh, obviously, and,
and you heard, uh, Ryan Fitzsimons, uh,
mention this, uh, a little earlier.
We have, um, vacant positions, um,
where we would like to hire people.
But we do know because of, uh, uh, budget constraints
that there are only certain number of people
that we're going to be able to hire.
Um, when we can determine how many people
that we're going to be able to hire in a year, we know
that we're not going to be able to hire for a bunch
of those vacant positions at this time.
Those, and as, uh, Ryan mentioned earlier,
those positions can go, um,
funded at a much lower rate.
Um, and I believe that that would help us get,
uh, to those numbers.
So we are willing to make those sacrifices.
We know that we have to make some level of sacrifice.
So, but we, but again, I want to be very careful, uh,
as a department as to what we cut, uh, how we cut,
and if we're reducing our numbers.
Because over the past years, we've given up position
after position after position.
We gave up positions last year, I believe.
How many did we give up last year?
A few hundred. I'm not sure.
We'll get you that through the chair though.
But it was in the hundreds.
So, um,
and it con, if it continues to dwindle, then we'll see, uh,
uh, the department numbers greatly reduced.
We, we just want to be, I want to be very careful about that
because I wanna make sure that we have what we need, uh, uh,
to provide, uh, for the people of the city.
The other thing is, is that if we want to keep
overtime down, we have to have a certain level of manpower,
uh, to continue so that we are not, um, as,
as the Alder woman said, um, having, uh, uh,
more bread, uh, than bakers.
So we wanna make sure that, uh,
we're doing a much better job of making sure
that we maintain, uh, the right, uh, resources
and the right numbers so
that we can properly serve the people of the city.
Um, you, you spoke of the exercise that you've gone
through in the positions that you have would need to,
uh, reduce
or bring down to reach the targets
that have been set forth by OBM.
Uh, what categories and
or, uh, bureaus are these positions
that you've potentially slated for adjustment to come from?
Um, a lot of 'em are sworn, uh, sworn positions, um,
and, uh, non-consent decree, um, non-sworn positions.
So, um, obviously our consent decree
positions are essential.
We have to make sure, but when we look at non-sworn
positions that we know we're not going to be able to fill in
that year, um,
but not just completely remove them from the budget,
because when we do that now, we are reducing the number
of people that we can hire, um, when we're in a,
a better position to hire
and bring numbers back to our department.
So I, I just want to be careful
that we don't just eliminate positions.
Um, but if those positions can sit there, um,
it funded at a much lower rate, um,
and we know that we're not going to be able
to hire those people, I think, uh,
that would be an effective way of saving dollars.
Okay. And the, uh, non-sworn positions that you've slated
for adjustment, uh, what categories are, are those in?
What we, what are we speaking of in that relation?
Yep. So those, uh, Ryan, fit Simon's Deputy Director,
those tend to be more so administrative.
So administrative assistants, records, positions, the value
of those are about somewhere in the neighborhood of two
to $3 million.
What about the other 89?
I mean, that's where we have
to start making tough decisions
and having a tough conversation.
I'm asking this for a reason. The
Sworn, yeah, the sworn are 77 million in vacancies,
and the consent decrees about another
20 million in vacancies.
So these are, so what what you're saying is that you are,
you're looking at sworn vacancies.
You're looking at primarily vacancies to, to, to manage it,
to manage your, uh, $92 million or, and
or not hiring individuals
that are trip out of the department.
So I think that's gonna have to be the discussion.
Do we keep up with attrition?
Can we afford to keep up with attrition?
So I think we need to work with OBM in early January
to come up with a hiring plan for
what we can do financially,
and then also ensure
that we are meeting the operational needs of the department.
'cause we're going to need to adhere to
that hiring plan very closely.
But if you're, if you're, if you're saying
that your $92 million, of which a small fraction
of it is administrative, a large component of it is sworn
members, however, you're saying that those members
that you've slated for, um, adjustment would be,
uh, vacant positions.
Is is that, is that your statement?
That's the strategy overall. Yeah.
So it's trying to keep up with attrition
and then make sure that we're bringing in the new talent
to make sure that the operational needs for 2026 are met.
But if we know we're not gonna close, we have 900
and something vacancies on the sworn side,
we're not gonna be able to do all those promotions
that hiring next year.
So figuring out what we can do next year
and then budgeting that remainder at a lower rate
so the city will not have to raise that much money
to keep that up.
I think the thing to be cognizant of as we go
through overtime every year go past
that a hundred million dollars, our
vacancy salvage helps offset that.
So it's going to be moving money from one
pocket to potentially another.
And it's unclear what the real financial impact will be.
That's a, uh, I, I, I think that's a,
that's a fair statement.
I, I, I know that your overtime is absorbed
through your vacancy count, um,
which would be very interesting to see how that, uh,
plays out, uh, in this potential new configuration.
Uh, Autum Vasquez, you had a question?
Yes, thank you. Sorry about it.
It's kind of same questioning you had.
Some of the positions we're talking about are contracted,
so you can't change what they get paid out of.
So if you're talking just vacancies in the
amounts, that makes sense.
But aside from overtime,
you still have the misconduct money. So where's that? I'm
Sorry, what was that? The
Last part? Meaning, meaning like
the settlement funds all come outta
CPD as well, that was moved, I think last term.
So it feels like you're trying to squeeze blood from a rock.
'cause I have no idea where the
settlement money is coming from.
I anticipate similarly is overtime it's coming out
of the vacancies that are sitting there,
which means the funds aren't there to be able to save from.
I'm, I'm not sure that's the case. I mean, yeah, I'm not,
So you're, let's, let's keep in mind, um,
there, there are two things.
The, I can't remember off the top of my head where
the settlement line out of the eight state numbers
or categories that exist, what line that's in
and what other items are within that line
to potentially absorb the offset of going over on
that particular one line item.
I, I, I don't know. But we can, we can kind of manage
and figure that component of it out.
Also, keep in mind that, um, at, at times,
man, it's people mind, uh, at times that, um, you know, we,
we have to, you know, look at the ins
and outs of, of those lines as it relates
to the eight categories that, that exist.
So, yeah. Um, but again, what he is, uh, proposing
as a solution to manage their $92 million, uh,
ask from budget could potentially run it,
run them into an issue
of running over the appropriation under one
of the eight line items for personnel.
If that number is dramatically reduced,
and that is a, that is an issue that, yeah. And at that
Would be different. I think
that's the challenge in looking
at just the math, right?
If, if those two buckets over time
and misconduct, which happen every year
are just completely over budget
and it's coming somewhere outta the police budget,
even if you're anticipating 92 million year vacancies, like
again, it's a question we keep asking
where does the money ultimately come from?
It's why we wanted the transfer reports,
because our assumption is it comes outta the vacancies
that aren't hired, that that money is there
and then gets moved to cover the settlements in overtime.
And if that's not the case, we need some level of clarity
and data to show that.
I, I think that there's a need for, for a level of,
of clarity on that, on that matter.
I mean, the personnel
and overtime is, is still within the same category.
Yeah. Again, I, I don't know which one it is,
and I think we'll work to get, um, to get that item.
And it may actually may have a, uh, uh, something drafted so
that everybody has some clarity and understanding
of the appropriation lines and how that particular,
The other part was more about the event.
'cause I think if I heard correctly,
and correct me if I'm wrong, it was about trying to
minimize the cost for the events while still keeping
the staff there to do it.
Which I don't, I
don't know if that was something I misheard.
I know we talked about scheduling
and scheduling less of those events to kind of even it out,
but to some of that related to the
manpower necessary for the events.
Like how you scale that down
without scaling down the amount of people.
No, that, I mean, that makes sense.
I mean, um, but when we started to talk about events,
that's why I'm talking about having private security.
We've, we've seen where we could scale down, uh, the number
of officers around events
because of the security on the inner perimeter
that they have themselves that they,
that they've provided. Or
You could have, you know, liaisons
and then to your point, private security
or, you know, um, retired officers
or something else that might be a lower cost.
Just different ways to look at it. So, okay.
Thank you for that. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Uh, thank you, uh, Altham and Vasquez again.
Uh, again, we, we all know
and understand that we've got some, uh, fiscal, uh,
challenging fiscal times ahead of us
that's gonna require everybody to, uh, to chip in so
that we can get to where we need to get to, uh,
as a city within the confines
and constraints that, uh, have been laid out before us.
So again, Mr. Superintendent,
we thank you for joining with us. Yes, sir.
I, I, can I just ask one,
one quick question just on something we just covered,
you just talked about this for the last 10 minutes,
and it's just something that, that I get asked all the time
and I ask the superintendent, thank you.
Thank you for the, the kindness.
Um, we're talking about manpower and, and budget cuts and,
and attrition and where we're gonna be missing people and,
and possible issues arising.
Is it still fair as a superintendent to say
that we can't use some sort of outside help and, and,
and I, putting politics aside
and putting just the city first
and foremost, the protection, if we brought in the,
the federal government to help with say, security details,
not to fight the crime, not to make the arrests
security details fests, um, to,
to patrol the business corridor
or to make it a little safer, is it, would
that give you the ability to alleviate
what we're missing officers and put them in, in, or,
or I should say we're putting officers
where they might not see as much crime
and put 'em in the higher crime areas
and bring in, say, the National Guard, or,
or at hopefully some point, maybe it's the, the FBI
and A TF that comes in and helps us as well.
Is it still possible in your position
to say, we don't need any help?
Well, here, here's, here's what I would tell you.
And, and from a law enforcement perspective,
and I think this is where a lot of people, um,
get confused about the National Guard and their abilities.
The National Guard have no powers of arrest.
Uh, they're, they're not the police
and they don't perform a police function.
And these are obviously men
and women who are serving our country, and, you know,
and they deserved all, all of the respect in the world.
But as a city where, um, our officers
and I have all the confidence in the world
that our officers can handle situations,
especially when it comes to being in the downtown area
or being in the most violent areas in the, in,
uh, in the city.
If I were going to look at this, um, I would look for
help from the federal government in other ways, funding, uh,
in the form of, of, uh, funding, uh,
our police department in a way that's going to help us, uh,
bring in more, more officers having more funding
around things like overtime if we needed to do that,
if they, if that is something that could be provided.
But we work with our federal partners on a regular basis.
Uh, having, uh, federal agents here from A-T-F-F-B-I,
we work with them all the time around violent crimes.
We work with them all the time.
Uh, when it comes to things like human trafficking, uh,
when it comes to guns, drugs,
and we have a great working relationship.
We work with them through the DNC, um,
and that partnership was excellent in helping us,
uh, keep crime down.
So those are the things that are important to me right now.
Would, would I like to see our, our city, um,
with military members of the military, um,
protecting it right now?
I don't necessarily like the visual.
That doesn't mean that if they came here
that I couldn't work with them.
I'll work with anybody. I'll have a conversation with anyone
to make sure that anything that we do is civil.
Any communication that we have is civil
and that we have a clear understanding of what it is
that we're looking for in our city to keep peace in our city
and to keep everyone safe.
I'm willing to have those conversations with anyone.
Thank you, superintendent. Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Superintendent.
And again, uh, we appreciate you joining with us on today.
Uh, the committee will be in, uh, be in recess,
um, until the conclusion of our
originally scheduled 11:00 AM budget committee meeting, uh,
after which we will reconvene that meeting
and then take a, our 30 minute lunch break.
But we do need to take care
of the routine business, uh, of the committee.
So again, indulge us, uh, for, uh,
the presentation from the budget department, uh,
so we can do our regular business of the committee.
Uh, but again, Mr. Superintendent, we thank you for joining
with us today, and, uh, we look forward to, uh,
having you back in October.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you to everybody.
Okay.
On budget and government operations, uh, midyear hearing,
uh, at this point, we will
again, uh, we are reconvening the recess meeting
of the committee on budget
and government operations, uh, midyear budget hearing.
We have reconvened the meeting at this point.
We will recess this meeting until 1:00 PM
Did, uh, my cousin,
that's what I'm saying.
I know. Yeah.
Package.
Your somebody
I saw that for second.
Does some research on,
there's no s**t.
I say Max. I,
I was like
going
The, uh, committee on budget
and government operations will come back to order
for via budget hearings.
Uh, next before us is the Department
of Family Support Services, uh, represented
by Acting Commissioner Angela Green.
Uh, commissioner Green, if you would introduce the members
of the team that are here with us in the well, as well
as those that are in the box
after which you could, uh, give your opening statement.
And we'll go directly into questions.
Thank you, chairman Irvin. I have with me.
First Deputy Commissioner to my right, Harley Jones,
managing Deputy Commissioner Raymond Barrett.
In the box, I have Deputy Commissioner of Homeless Services,
Andrea Chapman, deputy Commissioner of Senior Services,
Margaret Laier, deputy Commissioner of Children's Services,
retal Burgess Burnett
and Deputy Commissioner of Gender-Based Violence
and Human Services, Daniel Castane,
and Good afternoon, chairman Irvin
and Chair, vice Chair Lee,
and the honorable members of the City Council.
My name is Angela Green,
and it is my privilege to serve as the Acting Commissioner
of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services.
I'm grateful to be able to speak with you today
regarding our department's midyear budget outlook,
and to provide with you a more detailed picture of our work.
And as I spoke, who we I have here with me today,
I would definitely be working
and leaning on them as they are able
to share their much appreciated expertise in
their respective areas.
But before we get into questions, I would like
to share a little bit more about myself and about DFSS.
As someone with over 25 years
of experience in Human Services Administration, the work
of the Department of Family and Support Services is truly
the work I have dedicated my life to from pregnancy
through seniors.
Our department touches all stages of life for our clients.
And so this work is inherently personal.
It comes from the fundamental values of who we are
as a people working with community partners.
We connect Chicago residents
and families to resources that build stability,
support their wellbeing, and empower them to thrive.
Our core work is the delivery of wraparound services
to our clients, and year
after year, we're striving to positively impact many
as many people as possible.
I'd like to quickly share a few examples of
how we're doing just that.
This year, our one summer Chicago Youth employment program
led by our youth services division,
employed more than 31,000 youth, connecting them
to learning opportunities, the chance to earn a paycheck,
and for many a foot in the door towards a future career.
And our city shelter system led
by the Homeless Services Division is in the midst
of becoming even more inclusive and more accessible.
And our outreach workers continue to connect daily
with our unhoused race residents, offering them shelter
and supportive services,
and ensuring they know their rights.
Separately. Our senior services division each year connects
thousands of Chicago seniors to programs, events,
and activities and support.
DFSS has 21 senior centers,
which last year saw almost 700,000 visits
by 18,000 participants.
Our department is heavily grant funded.
We rely on federal, state,
and local funding for 68% of our operating revenue.
With that in mind, we must maximize every dollar
with our funders, and we're always looking for new,
more cost efficient ways to do so.
We also lift up people doing this work, including our staff
and a staff of more than 300 delegate agencies,
helping us succeed in empowering, life affirming work,
supporting Chicago's most vulnerable populations.
We strive in every way to maintain a workplace culture
that respects and supports its talented and dedicated staff.
Key performance indicators across our divisions track not
just how we're managing our spending and performance,
but also how we are well supporting our team.
Our staffing vacancy rate is at a historic low,
an all time low of 12% with 43 vacancies
and 39 new hires to date this year, the average number
of years of service for our department staff members is 10
years demonstrating our high retention rate.
People sometimes refer to our work as the heart
of the city's services,
and I can tell you all that the people sitting here
with me today and those out there in the field
and in our offices, they embody that heart.
So thank you for allowing me a moment
to speak about our department's mission
and the incredible people behind it.
And with that is our pleasure
to take any questions that you may have.
Thank you, commissioner. Uh, we're gonna open
with, uh, Alman Nugent.
Thank you chairman, and welcome commissioner.
Uh, thank you and your team for being here.
I, I think DFSS reminds me a little bit
of the police department in that you take on
way more than just what is in your mission statement.
And, uh, you know, I just wanna share with you that worked
with your, your team, uh, pretty regularly
for the past six years, but since 20, uh, 2022 when, uh,
my multiple homeless encampments began growing.
Your team has been a tremendous partner.
Um, in a fact, I'll share
with you is my community voices their
concerns at CAPS meetings.
And I repeatedly invited the Park district
and the mayor's office to the CAPS meetings.
And the only person, the only city agency
that ever came was yours.
And it's Andrea Chapman over there.
And, um, I'm very, very grateful to you for doing that,
and, um, it's very meaningful
and I wish that other folks would do that.
So, I recognize you're new in the role,
but I have some pretty specific questions,
and if you can't answer them today,
through the chair would be just fine.
Um, do you know
how many homeless encampments there are
currently in the city of Chicago?
And I can defer to, um,
deputy Commissioner Andrea Chapman.
Thank you for that question, Alder,
and thank you for your continued partnership and support.
Andrea Chapman, deputy Commissioner for Homeless Services.
Right now in the city of Chicago,
we're seeing 80 encampments.
And again, that number can change daily,
but right now at our last count,
there are 80 encampments across the city of Chicago.
Okay. And of the 80, do you know
how many are in parks versus other city property?
Um, right now Parks has, uh, over 50 of those encampments.
Okay. Um, I should mention, I'm, I wanna thank you guys
for help us Clean Legion Park.
Last Tuesday, however, um,
there's over 25 tents back in Legion Park.
I was there last evening.
There was a citywide cross country meet.
And, um, parents notified me
and Park District Security
that an unhoused individual was filming the children.
Uh, they also notified me that, uh,
somebody in a tent was using meth
and they were getting their tents tagged again
to say seven days.
I, I'm very frustrated
because in July when we tagged everything there and,
and said that, we'll be closing the encampment down on
September 9th, um,
and we cleaned it 25 tents last night.
Um, and, and why I bring that up is I know
that you have your folks, the hops teams, the CARES teams,
how many hop, which is Homeless Outreach Program teams,
do you guys have in DFSS?
Yeah, thank you for that question. Alder Woman.
I can, um, I can answer that specifically.
So we, we have a, a hop team, um, with DFSS, with, uh,
with 11 staff members and then 11 delegate agencies, uh,
that work with those HOP teams across the city at those
encampments, uh, with unsheltered individuals.
Okay. And how often do HOP teams visit encampments?
Thank you so much for that question.
Alderwoman, uh, the, the HOP teams
and our delegate agencies are,
are visiting encampments across the city,
uh, every single day.
Um, they not only work on that schedule,
but are working in, in partnership with the Continuum
of care and our, uh, housing partners at all Chicago, uh,
to, to make sure that that schedule is regularly happening.
What is the average cost associated with a visit
by the HOP team or a CARES team is CARES
teams under you guys as well?
The CARES team would be under Public
Health Department. Oh, sorry. CDPH.
But like, what's a,
what's a HOP team visit cost.
Thank you all for that question.
Um, we'll get it through the chair
because that has been asked before,
and, um, it's not just sometimes the HOP team,
but it could also be cleaning, et cetera.
But we can give you a breakdown of what that costs.
We'll look back through the chair.
What I think I'd like to see leading into budget
is conversations between DFSS and CDPH
and Parks, because I'm very supportive
of a Housing First model,
but I don't believe the parks are homes.
And I think we're spending more money, we on
tagging every seven days and streets and sanitation
and cleanups, and sometimes it's hazmat cleanup
and it's Hops team and it's CARES team,
and it's Salvation Army and it's night ministry,
and I wanna help these people,
and I think housing is the way to go,
but perhaps we need to realign how we're doing this
because I don't, what we're doing is not working.
If we just had an encampment closure
and there's 25 tenths there, like I don't,
the insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting a different result.
So I'm, I'm really confused.
The other thing I just wanna bring up,
something I've noticed popping up in my parks lately
is signs from the city telling folks to go
to approved campgrounds,
to approved campsites, I think is the verbiage.
Mr. Chairman, may I continue for a moment?
What are approved campsites?
I'm sorry. Um, I think Al Woman, you have to go
to Parks District for that I'm not aware of.
I think your staff has seen them though.
Thank you for that question.
Andrea Chapman, deputy Commissioner for Homeless Services.
Um, you're, you're correct.
Alder Nugent, what we are seeing in parks are approved
or designated areas where tents
and encampments are allowed, as you just mentioned, even
with Allegiance Park, the area
that we just closed was really around the riverbank.
Um, and so that was removing of those structures,
but there were postings from Park District
that did cite approved areas for tents on park property.
So that is definitely something
that Parks is making available for the unhoused community.
But they would have to speak to
how they designate those areas.
Mr. Chairman, perhaps
during the budget season, we could bring parks in.
I'd love to know where approved campsites have come in,
in the city and where in the code those are.
I'm, I'm not familiar with those.
I, I, I too, um, am interested in that as well.
This is my first hearing of quote unquote approved
campsites within the city of Chicago.
So, um, I I, I echo your, your concern
and sentiment around that, uh, around that issue.
So, uh, I think we will have to reach out to parks and
or, uh, city to see, um, if that's even
permitted, you know, per, per se, uh, in,
in the, in the bounds of the city. So
I, I appreciate that. And I,
my frustration with encampments
by no means is a reflection of
how I feel about you or your department.
Um, quite frankly, you guys always answer our calls.
You're always out there, you're always trying to help us
with the unhoused, and you've shown up at
the community meetings that no one else will show up to.
And so for that, I'm very grateful.
Um, my frustration is just that, um,
we're not serving the residents
of the 39th Ward right now appropriately
with, with what we're doing.
And I'm trying to figure out how to course correct in a way
that is empathetic to the unhoused,
but also is respectful to the neighbors that are adjacent
to these encampments that are very dangerous.
So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Uh, alderman Nugent, I think many
share the concerns of, of that.
Um, I know that we have, uh, made strides.
I know these, um, events where, um,
we attempt to house people.
I, I, I just, I, I just wonder where how do we handle
situations whereby individuals whom are offered services,
but just outright refuse, uh, services?
And, and I don't know, uh, how we, you know, how we handle
that with some level of humanity involved.
Um, because again, uh, to, you know,
I've recently personally had a situation, uh, at one
of my parks at Clark Park along, uh, in the 4,600 block
of Jackson, where it's like, okay, this is,
this is my new home now.
And, and again, it, it, it does take away from, uh,
everyone else's ability to utilize the open space, um,
in the parks, in, in the area.
We have children, we have, um, some level of, you know,
we want to create an environment, a safe environment,
especially around individuals with negative habits, um,
that, uh, may not be the best, uh, showcase for our,
our children in these, in these instances.
So, um, I, I too am concerned about the same thing
because we are beginning to see this happen, uh, more
and more, uh,
across our city in just various just odd spaces that
tends to just show up, you know?
So, um, I, I, I share and echo your concerns,
and I think, uh, the, uh, decision by the Park district,
of course, we would definitely want to have some, uh,
some conversations around that issue specifically.
So we're not talking about the Boy Scouts,
uh, pitching tents here.
We're, you know, it's a different conversation. So they're,
They're not allowed to pitch tents though, under the code.
The Boy Scouts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Oh, wow. I didn't, I, that's the, the,
That's why we always went outside of the city. I guess
The, the code's very clear.
Uh, parks, parks close at 11, uh,
no structures on the public parkway.
No open containers, no alcohol, no drugs.
Alright, well, I think that's, uh,
very, very clear on that point.
Uh, I'm gonna go chair, uh, Rodriguez Sanchez, followed
by, uh, vice Chair
Lee. Hello, commissioner.
So good to see you.
Um, thank you so much for all the work
that you all are doing in our communities.
I'm deeply, deeply grateful.
Um, can you tell me what does the collaboration
between the care teams
and the FSS looks like right now
that they have started visiting encampments?
What is the coordination that takes place? Okay.
Um, thank you for that question.
Al Woman, we definitely do partner with our care team,
with our sister agency.
Um, they are separate.
Um, it is under our public health department,
but when we are on site, they are sometimes on onsite
with us to provide services
and to provide mental health services on, on their end.
But we do work in collaboration with them.
And I just wanna make sure if, um, first,
Debbie Har Harley has any additional statements to that.
Thank you so much, commissioner
and Alderwoman for the question.
Yeah, just to kind of round out the commissioner's, uh, uh,
uh, point, um, very specifically, um, help
with substance use needs, harm reduction services, uh,
medication assisted treatment, and of course that connection
and referral and follow up for behavioral health services
as well are kind of the key aspects of that collaboration.
Uh, can you tell me, um,
how has the rapid rehousing process has maybe changed
as we have like used a lot of the funding
that we had allocated for that?
We, I have participated,
like my community has had rapid rehousing events,
and they have been incredibly successful.
Uh, in some cases people are still housed
after years of, um, of an event.
And, um, I know that we have been trying to do that again,
and it's not necessarily as easy.
So can you tell me where we're at with that
and what are the options if we can do rapid rehousing?
Thank you so much Alderwoman for your question.
I'm, I'm, I'm happy you bring up, uh, rehousing.
I think this is a really important part of really the, the,
the three, uh, pronged strategy that we use at DFSS
as we are supporting our unhoused neighbors.
Uh, and of course that starts with prevention
and making sure that the solutions
that we are are putting in place
and working with our partners across the city.
Um, try to prevent as many people
as we can from entering homelessness.
I think that's really the first one. Um, the second one is
to make sure that we have a safe, efficient, uh,
and effective and, and accessible, uh,
response when people are homeless, right?
So when we talk about the outreach teams that we, uh,
that we mentioned a little bit earlier, um, as well
as the delegate agencies, in particular, our partnership
with CTA, making sure
that our delegate agencies are also working
with our unhoused neighbors there.
But then you ask specifically about the third area
that rapid rehousing
and how important those housing resources are.
Um, making sure that they're affordable, making sure
that they're appropriate for the individuals, um, that,
that we've been talking about,
and making sure that they're accessible.
So whether it's our HOP teams
or whether it's through, um, events like accelerated, uh,
moving events, um, that we put together with our partners,
uh, really focusing on that rapid rehousing, um, as a way
to move them into permanent housing.
Now, of course, I think that the, the one additional point
that I'll make is that housing
and the availability of affordable housing is that,
that long-term solution.
And so we are constantly working with our partners
and of course with all of you to make as many of those, uh,
resources available, uh, as well.
And I'd look to, to Deputy Commissioner Chapman,
if you had anything additional to add for,
for rapid rehousing.
Thank you for your question. Alderwoman.
Um, Andrea Chapman,
deputy Commissioner for Homeless Services.
I just want to emphasize everything
that Harley just mentioned and the commissioner.
Um, our approach to this work really is three prong,
because as often
as possible we wanna prevent folks from becoming
or experiencing homelessness.
And when they do, we wanna act rapidly to make sure
that they are connected with the appropriate shelter
resources, housing resources, so that we can stabilize them
and return them back to housing as quickly as possible
and make that brief and non, uh, reoccurring.
But when we get to the housing strategy and a ME
or rapid rehousing is not our only tool,
we also have permanent supportive housing so that folks
that need that longer term, um, support and case management
and housing also have that.
And we oftentimes do housing directly from street
encampments directly
to housing without people going into shelter.
So I just wanna make sure
that rapid rehousing is not only available
through the a ME process that happens, those one
or two day events that happen in community for
or in shelter for shelter residents.
We are actually doing rapid rehousing
and connection to permanent supportive housing
directly from unsheltered locations as well. Got it.
But what is our capacity right now to do those events?
Like, I know that they have happened,
like I have witnessed them.
I am a big advocate for them,
but what is our capacity right now?
And if it needs to be through the chair, that's fine,
but I, I would like to just have like a better understanding
of where we're at with, with it.
Yeah. Alderwoman, thank you so much for that question.
And just let me make sure, are you asking very specifically
about the accelerated moving events
that the deputy commissioner?
Mm-hmm. Um, great. Thank, thank you so much.
Um, what I can tell you is that, um, so far this year, uh,
towards the end of August, we've, uh,
roughly had about 18 accelerated moving events
across the city.
Okay. Um, the other thing to, to to remember is that, um,
we work with our partners on the, uh, on continuum of care
to schedule roughly about two of those a month, um,
with a focus on not only encampments for unhoused, uh,
or unsheltered, um, individuals, but also within shelters.
So we know that helping move folks from shelter into
that permanent housing is the best way to continue
to make those resources available as well.
And can, can you tell me what the criteria is
to decide if it is adequate to use
an accelerated moving event versus a different approach?
Great question. Thank you so much. Um, yeah.
We, uh, DFS works hand in hand with a number
of our partner organizations, including our delegate agency,
uh, all Chicago, who oversees, um, the continuum of care
and, and works in partnership with us.
Um, so in particular, the resources that are put together
and those decisions are made are really scheduled two
times, about two times a month.
As we mentioned. They look for, um,
an ideally about 20 individuals
or households that can be served at those individual events.
Um, but then the other piece is that we also have to, um,
think about the equity of the resources that we have.
So in working with our partners, uh,
there's a really strategic approach
that includes not only the vulnerability of
of the individuals that are sheltered or unsheltered,
but also things about the resources that equity,
the geography as it relates to the events
that we're scheduling over the course of the month as well.
Okay. Um, I know that many of my colleagues are frustrated
with the idea of people living
in parks around their wards.
I have an encampment in my ward,
and what I have tried to do with that encampment is
to make sure that I am paying as much attention
to them getting to know every one of those people by name.
I establish in my break room, in my office, sort
of like a living room situation.
So the people who are unhoused
that are in Ronan Park at this point, they come to my office
to charge their phones to store insulin
or food in my fridge, to take a nap on the couch to
regulate, um, whatever, to use the bathroom,
whatever they need in the hours that my office is open,
I am trying to accommodate
because I know that they are in a precarious
and very vulnerable situation,
and I want them to know
that there is somewhere they can go to.
Do you have suggestions for how our offices can be working
better in tandem with the FSS so
that we can provide that support?
Because we can act like this is not our problem.
We can act, we can say all we want, that we, that
it is not okay to camp in the park.
That doesn't solve the problem though,
because people don't have a place to live
and we are not being able to provide housing for everyone.
So the, it is a complicated situation, right.
So from your perspective,
how can our offices better partner with the FSS so
that we can provide support?
And I am saying this very, very sincerely.
We do not have the infrastructure in our
offices to do this work.
We take this work on
because we know that it is incredibly important to do it.
And if we don't do it, it is very likely
that nobody else is gonna do it.
Right. Of course we can reach out to you,
you will come, you will check on them.
But I am in the ward all the time. Like my office is there.
Right. Um, so any thoughts that you have on that,
which be grateful.
Thank you, Al Woman.
Um, I will say recognizing that our unsheltered
homeless neighbors as well as encampments,
they are definitely among the most visible
and, um, complex challenges
that we have in the city that we face.
And we are all, um, actually as you said, we're all a part
of helping and trying to find that solution.
Um, recognizing that when our team meet, meet with, um,
the unhoused, it may take eight different visits to build
that trust, uh, to build that, um, that trust
that we will actually follow through with what we're saying.
Um, and so we know it doesn't happen overnight.
And we would love,
and I think we have done, I know you've, you've, I've talked
to you and, and my team has talked to many of you, um,
in terms of how to support when you're seeing what's
happening there and calling 3 1 1 or,
or calling us, you know, we actually, we get out
and we try to support you in that
every may not have the setup that you have
or, um, your, your MSW working on your M Ms W
or have that social Work Inc.
Inclination. Um,
but we do have, um, avenues for them, if you call us, um,
we can make sure that we are taking them
through our process, through our system, um,
and recognizing that they,
that they have their own self-determination, um,
and recognize that is, um, actually
what we're working sometimes, um, in line with.
Um, 'cause we always wanna actually retreat them
with dignity and respect.
Um, but we would definitely always respond to alters.
And if you have suggestions, I would love
to partner with you mm-hmm.
To brainstorm other things
that we can do within the city. I'm always open to that.
So the last thing that I'm gonna say,
'cause I know that I'm out of time, is
that it would be really great to get training
for our all manic offices on
sensitivity when we work with unhoused people
because they are the most vulnerable of all.
And I don't think
that there is always an understanding of that.
Um, so I, I do think that it would be beneficial
for this body to have some training on how to
interact with our own house population. Thank you.
Thank you. I think it,
alongside the training might just be like a helpful handout
for just at the counter at each
of our offices when we do
encounter people walking in the door.
'cause um, you know, when we had our introductory meeting,
I shared with you some, some more of the things
that I'm starting to see in my ward.
Um, that more
and more we are getting unhoused coming
in asking for services.
Um, and it's not something that we encountered,
you know, for the staff that are there.
This is a relatively new thing.
Um, we encountered this more during the migrant crisis
and, you know, there were all sorts of things sort of set up
and like, there was, there were pathways.
So like we've had to kind of feel our way through that.
So if, if there was like a one pager
that you all could put together, like you said, you know,
we have resources if it's just like step one, step two,
step three, like make sure you call 3 1 1
to put the shelter request in.
And then if there's other services that are needed,
then here's, here are the things that you can do,
the people that you should call.
Excellent. That would be great. Definitely. Yes, sir.
Um, sure. Yep.
I, and I'm, I apologize I missed your introductory
or your opening statement earlier,
so I apologize if this is redundant.
Um, thinking about the number of unhoused, um,
I don't think we've done the point in time count
yet for this year, have we?
No. No. Okay. Um, I would say anecdotally,
at least in my ward, I'm,
I am seeing more unhoused pop up in places that, you know,
were not typically, we didn't typically see folks.
Um, and the handful of people
that we've had come into the ward office, you know, um,
they know that there's a, a shelter on Halsted
that had been converted from the migrant shelter.
Uh, but they're specifically asking not to be there.
So my question is, um, who's running the shelter currently?
What's, are there any wraparound services
that are available there?
Um, and you know, if,
because, you know, a couple of the people
were frankly a little fearful about,
and were very adamant that yes, they wanted help.
Yes, they wanted shelter, but they, they did not want
to accept a placement there, um, very intentionally.
So, you know, again,
not knowing really what to do with that.
You know, we reached out to the ninth district police
and we, we put the information into the 3 1, 1 requests,
but, um, I wonder what sort
of feedback loop we have about just, um, service issues at,
at each of these individual shelters as well.
And we do have a process for that.
Um, if you don't mind, speak to that.
Yeah. Thank you so much for that, uh,
for that, uh, question.
Older woman. Um, lemme first, I, I think, um, we,
we agree with you, right?
As we continue to see, uh,
unhoused individuals across our city, it's our focus
to do everything that we can, uh, through all
of the services we've been talking about, uh,
our outreach work, our work with delegates and shelters.
Um, and, and I, I think that the, the biggest answer
to start is that we don't have enough
resources for everyone.
Um, and I think, you know, one of the, the biggest, um,
I think examples of that is on average in 2025,
we get 141 new requests for shelter every single day
and are able to make about 24 placements, right?
So I think, um, you know, kind of continuing to think about
what we have available, not only on the shelter side,
but in permanent housing, we know that there's not enough.
Um, specifically, um, your question about the,
the shelter placement and resource center, um, one
of the points of clarity, I think in particular is that,
that that is not a shelter. Oh, it's
Not a shelter. It was not set
up as a shelter.
Um, coming out of the new arrivals mission,
this was very specifically set up as a new 24 hour,
seven day a week shelter placement, um, center
where somebody could come to request shelter,
and then they would stay in that center until they were able
to be placed in one of the shelters in the, the DFSS system.
Gotcha. In particular.
So there's no shelter placement at that spot.
People would, um, would be able to walk up and come there
or, um, or call 3 1 1
and be pointed there while they are waiting
to be placed in a, in a shelter bed.
It's, uh, like a lobby waiting waiting area.
Yeah. A wait, a waiting area while they're getting a while
they're waiting for shelter placement. Right.
Okay. Thank you. Okay.
Thanks for the clarification, because, and,
and that way I will provide more accurate information, um,
to, uh, residents as they're asking.
Thank you. You know, 'cause we, that's right.
On the 11 and 25 border. Yeah.
Um, and, and again, we do see a lot of spillover coming in.
Um, I noticed one of the, one of the things that we see,
and it, it, we've heard it today,
it's like playing whack-a-mole, right?
We can, uh, encampments the move events, the, the cleanups
and having to post,
and a few days later, everything sort of pops back up again.
Um, and these individuals,
because they don't have a home, they don't have anywhere
to store the things that they have.
Right. And if you find a nice blanket,
you probably wanna wanna keep that.
Um, it seems to me that storage is something that we,
if you're not already thinking, I'm sure you are,
but if people had a place to store some of their things,
they could, I don't know how many of the unhoused understand
that many of our park districts have public shower hours.
Um, you know, and the, those are public resources
that they can go and access as well.
Um, I've talked
to you about the, the cmac and Clark folks as well.
Um, the blocking the public way, um,
I think becomes a real big safety hazard, especially
for the elderly, um, and those with disabilities.
'cause if a wheelchair can't clear the, the sidewalk,
because there's a, there are home, uh, unhoused people
who are taking up residence on the sidewalk.
Um, I think, you know, for me that's a really high priority.
And obviously I've got a pretty busy business district, um,
between, you know, McCormick Place in Chinatown
and that thoroughfare coming back and forth.
And we have a school there, um,
and a lot of seniors that live in
the Hilliard homes as well.
Um, so, you know, I'm, I'm definitely looking
for more support in those areas,
and I know resources are scarce.
Um, and given that resources are scarce,
can you talk a little bit about how, um, how we're working
with maybe the, the nonprofit community
and other delegate agencies
and just sort of more creative ideas and,
and how we, you know, begin to chip away at this?
Because I think, as I've talked to people, there are those
that are, that have been unhoused for a very long time.
Uh, and then those that are entering sort of like,
you know, becoming unhoused.
Um, are there different strategies you have for the diff
for the different points in time when someone might enter,
um, into the, that spectrum of being unhoused?
Thank you so much Alderwoman for your question.
Um, this is a really important one, and I,
and I think what I'll point to is, um,
in particular is just the, the vast network of, of nonprofit
and delegate partners that we have.
We cannot do this work alone. You're absolutely right.
Um, and so it's really important that our,
our homeless services teams, um, are not only working
with our shelter delegates, but our outreach
delegates all the time.
Um, focus on not only on the, the needs of the individuals
that they're serving, but in increasing the capacity
and their own ability to continue
to serve our unhoused neighbors.
Um, I, I think the, the, the biggest, uh,
and exciting news is that the shelter infrastructure project
that was announced earlier this summer, um, in particular,
uh, and so this is an investment being made by the city, uh,
with a, a really specific purpose.
And that's, um, first to look at how we can increase, um,
the accessibility, the capacity, um,
and the facilities of many of these shelters
that have been open for a really long time.
Um, and so working with a group
of existing shelter delegates
and helping make an investment to move those from congregate
care to non congregate care shelter to better care
for the needs of un unhoused individuals as well.
Um, and then the other piece is working with the Department
of Housing who's working with another five delegates
to look at, uh, the purchase
and renovation of individual buildings, um,
to increase their capacity, um,
to provide non congregate care shelter
that can better take care of the needs of individuals.
Um, and, and that's not only for the facilities themselves,
but the capacity of those delegate agencies
and the accessibility.
So making sure that we're not only working
with the Department of Housing,
but the mayor's Office of people with disabilities as well,
to make sure that that's a part of how these, uh,
new shelter investments are made.
Great. Do you, do you have a figure, like
how many shelter beds do we have today in citywide?
All in all categories?
Yeah. I'm gonna see if we can't, um,
get a little more detail from the deputy commissioner.
Thank you.
Andrea Chapman, deputy Commissioner for Homeless Services.
Thank you for the question. Elderly.
Um, we currently have 52, um,
5,262 beds across our shelter system.
That's all populations for single women.
That's 404 beds for single men. That's 1100 beds.
Um, single women
or men, which is a facility that could take either one.
There are 40 beds there, family beds.
We have, um, a little bit over 3,300 beds there.
And then our youth specialization population,
we have 168 beds.
And for our DV specialization population, we have 156 beds.
Thank you for that. Um, if you could snap your fingers
and create more beds today, how many would you say
that the city needs today?
I'm trying to get, I'm trying to get my,
I wanna get on the record what we think the gap is,
because there's, um, this is an area where we can really
not afford to. Um,
And I'll say the stay Focused on this,
The last point in time count was 7,452
individuals that we had, they were homeless, if you think
of having shelter beds for each one of those.
Mm-hmm. And that's the number.
And, and we're at a little over 5,000.
Okay. So another 2000 beds. Okay, fair enough. 2,500.
I'll, uh, I'll turn it over to
er, Conway, do you have questions?
YY yes. I, I, to follow up on, on that, I wanna, uh,
thank you commissioner and your, uh,
and your team for your work.
But just diving right in there, um, you know,
there was discussion about shelter beds,
there was discussion about shelter locations.
There was kind of discussion about an intake center,
you know, saying that you're, um, you know,
2000 beds, beds short.
You know, that's, that's obviously a big lift, you know,
how would you, where would you like to start on that?
Is it a location issue?
Is it more of just a beds for the locations that we have?
Is it kind of an intake area? Um, yeah, please.
I think when we are looking at addressing homelessness,
it has to be multi-pronged.
So it's not just shelter beds,
but it's also housing, housing stock.
Um, it's also mental health
services, substance abuse treatment.
Um, so we have to recognize
that even if we do have a shelter
for every single individual,
not every single individual is gonna accept that.
And that, that's just a reality that we had to face.
Um, and I think that there's,
we have a three pronged approach.
And, um, Harvey, I asked you
to prepare, if you don't mind sharing that. Yeah.
Th thank you so much for your question, alderman.
I know we, we, we talked about
this a little bit earlier, right?
So, so making sure that we are focusing our,
our solutions on helping prevent homelessness period,
uh, at the very beginning.
Um, and making sure we, secondly, making sure we have a,
a strong, efficient
and effective response, uh, mechanism to help, um,
meet the needs of, of individuals
who find themselves homeless for a variety of reasons.
Uh, and then of course, um, those, uh, uh, resources on the,
on the other end, making sure
that we can rehouse individuals.
Um, that gets back to the availability of shelter beds,
the availability of affordable housing, the ability of the,
of the housing stock.
Um, and so that's really, I think that focus as we continue
to look at all three of those areas, um, to be able
to address the needs of everybody that that is unhoused.
That's a lot. You didn't narrow it down
too much, but I, I get it.
It is a, it is obviously a multi-pronged problem.
And, and of course we want to prevent homelessness,
but we're in a situation where we have 80 encampments,
according to you all, and, uh,
and approved, um,
designated campsites within the park district, apparently.
Uh, by the way, do you all have asking about that?
Do you all have any kind of management
or role of services in the
designated sites within the park district?
Within the park district?
Um, we do have a role in, um, encampments in terms
of providing services.
Um, and we do come out, even
with the Park District ask to come out.
We, we do support that as well.
But, um, our, our role, honestly, is to offer the services
and, and try to encourage them to take access
of the housing stock that we have.
And, and, um,
you know, so I, I had a, I had a, uh,
when I first took office, I had a, um, real dangerous, uh,
encampment that had really turned in kind
of an open air drug market, um, on the streets of Fulton,
Milwaukee and Lake between Canal and Clinton.
Um, that, uh, where
forearm robberies happened,
three people got shot, one of 'em fatally.
Um, and it was interesting, and,
and got to know the 22 people that
that lived under there over time.
And I'd go out with Chandra Libby,
and she would offer them, uh, you know, immediate,
immediate housing there.
And it was interesting that 10 of them took that housing
and, and it was great that, that, uh, you were all able
to do, I guess the sad part of the 12 of them didn't,
um, you know, over time.
But it, it's, um, you all have a tough job.
That's all I'm saying is that, is that, uh, you know, and,
and I think it's important that we can have the capacity
to be able to offer the immediate shelter to those
that are taking it, because those folks we're really getting
preyed upon by drug dealers that were there, several
of whom got arrested and charged with very serious offenses.
Uh, you know, subsequent, subsequent to that.
Um, a, a last question I have, and you've touched upon this,
but maybe if there's more clarity, you know, I,
I think when I looked, you all get about $500 million worth
of worth of grant funds from the, uh, I think from the feds
and the state, uh, any,
knowing you're already shorthanded on some levels,
any idea on what you first see as the impact to
DFSS as a result of those,
or things that you might already be seeing
And and you're talking about an end result
of what's happening with the federal government?
Yeah. Like, do you know that you could say, well, this is
where we get from the, from the federal government,
it does this service, and we're worried that
that's gonna get taken away, whatever that might be.
Thank you. Thank you for that. When we look at our grant
funding, we have 438 million in grant funding this year.
And 68% of that, uh, represents our overall budget.
But out of that 438 million, when we look at
what comes from the federal government,
that's 40% of our funding.
Um, they bring in 1, 1 77, um, 0.4 million,
um, in federal grants.
And when you think about the risk, um,
what's happening right now, be our, our, our funding
with the federal government is level right now,
but recognizing the administration, um, changes that they,
they're having right now in terms of
how they're reinterpreting some federal laws, um,
and even how they're looking at changing eligibility,
there would be a huge impact, um, on DFSS if some
of those changes did occur.
Um, one is around the personal responsibility
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of Perra.
Um, it will have a significant, um,
implication on our federally funded programs if their
reinterpretation of, um,
what constitute a federal benefit actually occurs.
Um, an example of what that, uh, impact would be our CSBG,
our community service block grant, our Title 20,
our Head Start funding, um,
that could impact Chicago residents, um,
with undocumented immigrant status
and limit their access to about 94.7 million in funding.
Um, if the executive order impacting homelessness takes
effect, um,
and falls into policy, it will directly impact, um,
our federal, um, homeless
and housing assistance requirements.
Uh, and that will impact by 75.3 million in funding
that we receive from hud, um,
and their Home American Rescue Plan, as well as C-C-D-B-G
and their emergency solutions grant.
So with the changes that we're seeing,
if those changes actually take impact, we will,
we will feel that, yeah.
Are the, is the 94.7
and the 75.3 you mentioned, are those both part
of the 1 77 0.4?
Yes. Um, thank you all for your testimony
and your hard work, Madam Vice chair.
That's all I have. Thank you. Thanks.
Um, just a quick follow up on, on
that question regarding the grants.
As you're building your 2026 budget, um, what sort
of assumptions are you building
in You?
Can you, you can,
it, it really is just my question is,
'cause we've, we've had, uh, obviously several
of these already, yours, your,
your department is very susceptible
and very reliant on federal grant dollars.
Um, and I'm, I'm wondering how you are just planning
for the, uh, hoping for the best always,
but putting a real realistic plan together about
what this is going to look like should certain things not
fall in your favor?
In our favor, I should say, not in yours. It's, and,
And, and excuse my pause.
And I think, you know why I had to
Pause. I I know why you had to
Pause. I'm sorry. I had
To ask the question, but it Yeah.
I, I respect the question. And
we do have sustainability plan.
I'm gonna ask Raymond to kind of walk through mm-hmm.
What those actions are on our part.
Yeah. Thank you all for that question.
So first off, like even prior
to this federal administration, when we think about grants
and our long-term funding,
we are always thinking about sustainability.
So every single year we coordinate on the grant end
with Office of Budget and Management,
and within our department on what we think is going
to be the appropriate amount of funding.
So for the, regardless of whatever the 2026 budget is going
to release, it is forecasted on the grant side with
what we already now anticipate is going to be our funding
of which right now is no impact onto DFSS
as it relates to the federal administration.
Obviously, a lot of things can change, et cetera,
but luckily that's why we come here, not us necessarily,
but on a monthly basis for the 9 2 5 Sure.
For any changes on the grant appropriation.
So anytime any of those changes happen, we have a duty
to inform you of those changes.
There's not like little piggy banks
that you're hiding another or I wish Money Tree Yes.
Or Money Trees. You can buy those in
Chinatown, but they don't grow real money.
Um, yeah. They are called Money Trees. Yep.
Um, other, one more question for me
before I go on to my colleagues.
Um, how do we define an
encampment, uh, definition?
That's a, that's a great question. Thank you so much.
I think, um, I'll, I'll ask, uh, Andre, Andrea, uh,
deputy Commissioner Andre
Chapman to weigh in on that. Thank you.
Deputy Commissioner Andrea Chapman.
Um, I just want to one, say
what we're seeing across our city in terms
of encampment has changed, right?
But our definition of encampment really is 10
or more individuals in a location.
But we do have smaller, um, sites that really,
where we're seeing anywhere from two to four people
or five to 10 people.
And we still treat them the exact same way at this point,
because those setups can grow.
And then we'll be looking at
what is defined as an encampment.
So we are actually triaging and supporting and outreaching
and engagement, doing the same engagement at the, at
that level for those smaller sites as well.
And they're part of our cleaning, um,
our monthly cleaning schedule too,
for the smaller locations, just
because they're not defined as, uh,
an encampment 'cause of the size.
They are part of the monthly cleaning schedule
that we do in coordination with Department
of Streets and Sanitation.
No, that's great. Thank you for that.
Um, I think I'm definitely seeing more individuals
popping up in, uh, in places, which I think for me, we,
we sort of, it was stumped
because we had, we've had encampments
before where larger ones where it made sense to come
and do like a accelerated move
or rapid rehousing where we could bring all
of the troops out at once to, to flood,
flood them with services.
But when you have, you know,
a maybe a dozen in a neighborhood
and they're all in different locations, it, I think we have
to take a very different approach.
Um, alderman MITs chairman, MITs,
Thank you.
Um, vice Shirley,
and, um, to all of you, um,
I would tell you, um, that this department
is one of the, my favorite departments family and support.
It deals with most of the issues
that my community share every day.
And, um, I appreciate my colleagues for the questions
that they was asking, giving me a, giving me an idea of what
to look for in terms of revenue.
But I would like to ask questions such as
on the domestic violence.
Do you have a number of cases
that you can give us some numbers on for the city?
Thank you.
WO mit, um, I'm going to ask my deputy commissioner
over gender-based violence, um, to provide those numbers.
Daniel Castana,
Uh, Danny Castaneda, deputy Commissioner
for Gender Based Violence and Human Services.
Uh, although just to clarify your question, are you asking
for the number of incidents
of domestic violence in the city of Chicago?
Uh, give me the number from 20 24 25.
The number of incidents? Yes.
Oh, we can certainly get you that through the chair.
We would normally refer back
to the publicly available violence reduction dashboard.
Are you perhaps looking for the number of cases
that have been referred to DFSS versus the number
of reported incidents?
Well, the ones that they've encountered, they should,
I think, yeah, that you would have a number from just
the DFSS.
I know that it'll go further to the state
or to the domestic violence court unit.
Right. Do anyone track that information?
Uh, yes. Thank you for, um, adding that detail.
So it certainly varies by program model.
So the gender-based violence division at DFSS, uh,
funds about 12 different programs.
Um, so just some high level numbers.
Um, our training and education programming, um,
has served just over 10,000 survivors, um, in 2025 alone.
Um, our gender based violence legal services, uh,
has served just over a thousand survivors, um, since 2022,
which is when we stood up, um, that program prior to 2022,
we were only serving survivors of domestic violence.
Um, but since 2022, we expanded to serve survivors
of all gender-based violence, not only dv, uh,
and then just another number,
our gender-based violence rapid rehousing program, um,
has served 242 households, um, since 2022 as well.
Um, I asked that question
because there's a rise, right?
A significant rise,
and I think that there were, uh, like a,
a 40% increase over at the domestic violence court
and just trying to see, there's a gap of service
that we need, because I guess it tie
in domestic violence, mental illness
work hand in hand in some cases.
Um, the reason I
mentioned it, when, when there was, um, the fire, they
and my water was a domestic violence situation.
I don't, the resources we had Red Cross,
but that's not when people done lost everything.
They traumatized families in the past.
Oh, why somebody didn't reach out to us
and see that we didn't, we had a mental illness problem
for a minute, and I didn't have anyone from the,
the department just to check you all.
Okay. Or that just,
that's just means saying the testimony.
So we have to,
we may need more resources here to help folks.
That's a trauma, a tragedy.
And then trying to deal with family members.
Uh, there were, uh, one location we were able to get,
but there are still families that need assistance.
Um, and currently working with some
of the business in the ward to try to help even pay for
some of the funerals.
I think I went to a funeral where three family members
at one time, and that hadn't been, I, I, it is a lot,
bit much to try to deal with that
and then keep your sanity at the same time
and go on for your day.
But that just one of the issues I wanted to mention, um,
the mental illness issue, uh, the homeless issue
that that's increasing.
We get into the winter months, they, they,
they're under by dock.
They even in in business,
any corner they can get in now they're starting to set up.
So, um, there's a lot that we have to do.
And I know your department doing what you can with
what you have, but we also have our seniors,
look, I no better one than me to talk about
what our seniors need.
If you have mothers, you ought know that
you have to help 'em.
So I, I just thank you for the work that you're doing
and all these issues, even with childcare is, uh,
another issue that families are faced with.
And Lord, help, whatever
we get from Washington, hope that we can get some funding,
but these families are struggling
and I see some difficult times ahead for,
um, the service that you provide.
So just toughen up and let's go for this ride
and make the best out of it.
Thank you all for your work.
Thank you. Thank you. Um, uh, while we're on the topic
of gender-based violence, in last year's budget, uh,
there were 2 million additional dollars that were, um,
provided for DFSS for gender-based violence,
and I believe I was told that
that was going towards legal services, uh,
for victims of domestic violence.
Can you give us a sense of, um, how, how much
of those funds have been, have we burned through so far?
Thank you. Um, uh, vice Chair Lee, uh, yes.
We did receive additional $2.4 million investment, um,
which we were directed toward expanding existing services
and launching the new, um,
gender based violence training program.
Um, the impact so far, we've had one training delegate
that began in quarter two, um,
has already trained 44 frontline staff, um,
and the other two agencies have been launched.
And the early results are definitely promising.
We're seeing the number of, um, individuals
that we have trained in that, but
how much money we have spent through that.
I'm gonna ask, um, managing deputy, um,
commissioner Raymond to speak to that.
Yeah, I, I'll, I'll start off with it.
Um, so I can say,
and this is lumped in with, um, all of the GBV corporate,
so there's a little bit, but I think you get the,
the generalist is that, um, expenditures
for essentially January through around May
or June is around 23% for the, for the GBV corporate, um,
line of which some of that probably seems, um, a little low,
but one, those, the, the program
that commissioner just mentioned is new.
And then second, the Emergency financial Assistance program,
which is a, a big bucket of those funds.
Those, uh, payments were, um, they didn't start right away.
So we do anticipate a high expenditure rate
for those corporate funds by the end of the year.
Yeah, hopefully when we get to, um, the,
the routine budget hearings,
we'll have a little bit more information,
a little bit more up to date, um, to understand just kind
of where, where you are.
Was it, I mean, I don't, I think that the answer
to everything is, it's never enough.
Um, but given what, uh,
what you received in this current year's budget, you know,
how does that, how's that looking for the following year?
Thanks. Uh, Viegas, did you have any questions? Okay.
Please go ahead and then, uh, Al
And Martin, thank you. Thank you, Madam
Chair. Um, this is around, uh, veterans,
and oftentimes we talk about veteran homeless issues.
This body took the steps, uh, early this year to allow
for new, uh, developments to have a 30 day window for,
um, veterans for affordable housing utilizing vast vouchers.
Um, how does your office engage with the Department
of Housing to make sure that the veteran population
that you're engaging with on a daily basis
or a monthly basis knows about these programs
and these vouchers that are potentially available for them?
Yeah. Um, yeah, I'll, uh, thank you
so much, alderman, for your question.
I think, I think I'll start, and then I'll, I'll, um,
I'll ask, uh, deputy Commissioner
Chapman to, to weigh in as well.
Um, but I, I, I think you highlight a really important
point, and that is, um, many of the individuals, um,
experiencing homelessness within our
community, uh, do have that background.
And that's one of our, you know, kind of our,
our focus areas.
As we, as we know, um, individuals like veterans who are,
are experiencing that, we work hard
to make sure we're creating those, uh, additional pathways,
but really, uh, focusing on
how we can support those individuals.
One thing I'll say internally is that we are continuing
to work within, um, the DFSS portfolio.
Um, in, in particular, veterans are a, a, a,
a target area focus for our workforce programs as well, um,
in terms of, uh,
helping think about long-term job stability and things like that.
But I will, um, look to Deme, uh, deputy Commissioner, uh,
Chapman to talk a little bit more about the, the intricacies
of the housing and the voucher that you mentioned.
Deputy Commissioner Andrea Chapman.
Um, thank you for the question.
I will say that we work closely, not just with Department
of Housing, but the continuum of care to make sure
that those hu those vouchers are available for veterans.
And, uh, which DOH is at the table for that as well.
DOH also sits on the continuum of Care leadership body along
with D-F-S-S-C-D-P-H.
So collectively, we are thinking about
how we are supporting, um, in homeless services
as a continuum, veterans.
And we also work very closely with the va,
and we've worked very closely
with the VA on their ending Veterans Homelessness
Initiative, DFSS, um, as well as, um, other members
of the COCA part of that.
But we are always making sure that our programs,
our services, our resources, veterans can easily connect
with, and they have that support.
Our outreach teams, our shelter providers, as well
as other providers throughout the continuum are a part
of the COC
and making sure that veterans are connected
to those resources as they become available,
and they're able to sustain in those programs so
that they don't experience unsheltered homelessness. And
Then from a revenue standpoint, have we, given that, um,
uh, the federal government has a soft spot,
quote unquote soft spot for veterans, have we have, we
as a city put forward any grants to try
to get some funding from the federal government,
specifically geared towards the veterans community, given
that the federal government, again has some, some, uh,
programs and v vouchers, other programs around workforce
that potentially could,
that you guys could tap into for funding.
I know our ENS team is constantly looking at new, um,
revenue funding and also looking at even some
of our legacy funding that we have to ensure
that we are able to bring in more revenue.
But I want you to see if you
Yeah, thank you all for that question.
Um, right now, the difficulty with the federal grants is
that it's very far and few between.
Um, whenever we look at any type of federal grant,
we first make sure, just from a cost efficiency standpoint,
does it even make sense to be within our department?
Sometimes, depending on the size of the grant,
we will either refer it to, um, another department,
and this is not a good example,
but let's say do OH was the better, uh, apply,
then we would refer them to do it.
Or even sometimes we ask very strong delegate agencies if
they, if it's a small amount, enough amount that we're,
it just doesn't make sense administratively for us to do it.
But on the federal end this year,
there's been very few grant opportunities
that have been available, they've kind of shut down.
And then not only that, there have been, um,
extenuating executive orders that we always have to, um,
have law review to see if we even
could accept a grant agreement from that, the federal source
Along those notes.
Um, if the grants are difficult, what have we done to talk
to the Illinois delegation to take a look at, uh,
having some legislation
or even some funding from, from them themselves,
them themselves, the Illinois delegation
as a whole, to get some of that funding.
I know that they do have discretionary funding,
and if we can target it towards veterans, I think
that might help some of the departments,
whether it's your department or DOH, whoever.
But the deal specifically with, uh, the, the unhoused
veterans, and I would, my first call would probably be
to Senator Duckworth, given the fact that she's, uh, she's,
uh, a veteran, but also I think she's on the
veteran of Veterans Committee.
So I would just, um, you know, as another way to try
to find some funding to deal with the,
with the homeless VE homeless veteran issue.
Yeah, no, thank you all. I, I think that's a great idea.
I think one, we should have a conversation, like, especially
with maybe other departments as well on it.
I know previously, not just our grants team, but our IGA
and policy team will work coordinately
with the state on some of these things. This
Is federal government Though, right?
And, but we have the, a federal IGA team as well.
So we, we coordinate on some of these things,
and I think that's a great opportunity
that we should either see, does it make sense
and where we could, you know,
coordinate on. So, cool. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank
You. Um,
alderman Martin,
Uh, thank you, vice chair.
Um, good afternoon, commissioner and team.
Um, I have a number of questions focused on,
uh, homelessness related services.
Um, was wondering, um, to start,
how many budgeted positions are conducting
homeless outreach?
Alderman, thank you so much for that question.
Um, really two pieces to that.
So our DFSS internal outreach team is about 11 individuals,
and then we have 11 delegate agencies on,
uh, in that outreach space. Got
It. Um,
uh, for the individuals, is
that 11 who are hired?
And then maybe I saw one that one position
that is vacant at the moment is, does that sound correct?
Uh, thank you, der We have currently, um, three positions
that are, that, well, two that are currently vacant, one
that is about to be vacant 'cause of retirement.
Um, uh, one is for the director, uh, overall
for the po, uh, the team.
And then there is two community intervention specialist
positions, which are the, the HOP team members.
So three total vacancies,
although one is going through retirement, so I'm sure if
Today's the, got it. So
two hop team positions that are currently vacant.
Um, and then a third, uh, director position that's vacant.
Correct. Um, got it.
For the delegate agencies.
So 11, you mentioned, um,
how much money in FY 2025, uh, is the city expecting
to spend on those 11 delegate agencies?
Yeah,
I think that's a great question.
I'll have to give that through the
chair. Through the chair is
Fine. That very
Specific number.
Um, and one of them just to be clear, is the Salvation Army,
because I, I believe like when we call 3 1 1, uh, we ask
for, uh, a crisis team to come out, do a wellbeing check.
So presumably Salvation Army is getting
funding from the city to do that.
Okay. Um, that is helpful.
Um, can you provide through the chair the list
of those 11 delegate agencies?
Yes, sir. Yes, that would be great.
Um, and then I, I wanna have a better sense
of what our overall shelter system looks like in terms
of ones that specifically receive DFSS funding.
Um, so this is, I strongly suspect it
through the chair request.
Um, and happy to offline talk about ways
to tighten up these questions.
But essentially what I'm looking for is the name,
the address, the approximate number of beds in
each shelter facility.
Um, and then related to that, it would be helpful to know
what our understanding is of a wait list,
because maybe that's something that we know system wide.
Maybe that's something that individual locations keep.
But I know in talking anecdotally with people,
depending on the circumstances
around someone's homelessness, say someone is, uh, uh,
kinda a victim of domestic violence,
they're unhoused as a result.
My understanding is that certain shelters that, um,
specialize in supporting individuals
and families recovering from domestic violence
have wait lists.
And so it would be helpful for me to know as we continue
to address some, uh, homeless related issues in, um,
in, in our 47th ward, kind of how we communicate out
to residents, especially as we head into the budget season,
this is what we're doing, you know,
these are the resources that we have.
And when a lot of people are talking about wanting
to see efficiencies across all departments,
I think it's really helpful for them to know, Hey,
if we're talking about homelessness, which we've seen in 47,
uh, a significant uptick, not unlike some other parts
of the city, do you want that to be on the chopping block?
Um, so I really wanna make sure we're painting an accurate
picture of what is being
provided for right now through both, you know,
city personnel as well as city resources going
to these delegate agencies, um, both in terms
of outreach as well as shelter.
So, um, that covers it by way of my questions.
Uh, deputy Chapman
and your team, I really appreciate the work
that you've been doing, including partnering
with us in recent months on a challenging situation.
Uh, would like to connect with you offline,
because I have one or two follow-up questions around that,
but wanna express my gratitude directly.
And that's all I have. Thank you, vice chair. Thanks,
Chair. Martin, uh, trivia.
Gus, you've got another question.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I forgot to ask this question.
Mm-hmm. So, uh, commissioner,
you had mentioned approximately 7,000, uh, people,
74, 52, 74.
Yeah, a couple, three
or four years ago, people were talking,
the city had 60,000 homeless.
Um, like what's the difference between the 60,000 number
and the 7,400 that you're mentioning today?
So our point in time count is at one particular time,
it's usually January 15th, if I remember correctly.
Um, it's done across the nation, um, where we go on
to actually count who is unhoused the whole day.
So that's a point in time there.
I don't, I don't, unfortunately, I don't know
where the 60,000 came from.
Yeah. Um, you, thank you.
So I can just add a little bit older, which I believe,
and Andrea, you can come wrong, the six there,
there's been a number for unsheltered
that has come from the state as well, um, for their,
their number and of, I know they have their own methodology
of, of necessarily how to do it.
So, um, I think just back to our pit count really quick, is
that there, we have seen, um, obviously the,
the numbers were much different the last two years
because of just the HUD formula
and specifically as it related to, to new arrivals. Well,
No, I, I, I bring that up
because 60,070 400 is a huge number, right?
10,007 400. Okay.
But there was like a campaign around this whole 60,000.
And so I was just wanted to kinda get a sense from the
department that's responsible for this.
Was that a accurate number
or was it just number part of a campaign?
That's all? So 7,400 looks like it's the number
Is that, that is the number we have, yes.
We have a, we work with an, um, we work with a, a vendor
to literally just go through the methodology
and make sure that we're doing it in the most accurate way
possible from a accounting slash non counting basis.
Thank you. So the only additional point I'll add to
that is that while that number that they gave you
around the, the point in time count is very specific
to literal or homeless.
Um, in, in that, that point in time, um,
that additional larger number oftentimes kind of
provided by advocates or
or other organizations, also includes people
who might be doubled up with family members,
they might be living with other people, um,
that may find themselves inside,
but might be in a different space than those folks
who find themselves unsheltered at any given time.
Sure.
Um, thanks for that.
I have one last question just around language accessibility.
Um, and, uh, sort of a, that's sort
of an across the board question.
I know that you've got a lot of great partners,
delegate agencies, like in my ward,
the Chinese American Service League, um, you know,
'cause I've also written the unhoused, um, space.
I've, I've also seen, um, non-English speaking,
mostly Chinese speaking, um, unhoused as well.
Uh, and I have learned the hard way
that we don't have the resources, the, um,
to really accommodate individuals
that find themselves in these situations,
even from like a shelter perspective.
Because if you can't communicate with somebody,
it makes living in a shelter situation, um,
all the more challenging.
Um, can you talk a little bit about how DFSS is, uh, working
to address language accessibility?
Thank you so much for your question.
Uh, older woman, I, I, I'll start, I think in particular by,
by going back to earlier this year and,
and some of the work of the one system initiative
as we brought, uh, together,
what was the old new arrival system with, um,
with the current shelter system
that included not only bringing beds online and
and infrastructure, but also a, a very specific push
to provide training and capacity building, as well as tools
for our shelter, uh, delegates to, to be as ready
as they possibly could to support anybody experiencing
homelessness regardless of, of where they, uh,
where they're from or, or, uh, how long they've been here.
Um, and that includes not only kind of immigration 1 0 1,
whether, um, whether it's talking
to them about the specific populations that they would see,
but also making sure that they have funding
and accessibility to some of the, the tools
that can be available, um, to help bridge some of those gaps
around language as well.
So I'll turn over to Deputy Commissioner Chapman,
if she has any additional insight into what some
of those tools or, uh, methodologies look like.
Thank you for your question. Elderly, um, Andrea Chapman,
deputy commissioner, just wanting to really confirm
what Harley said as part of the OSI transition, we went
through extensive, um, technical assistance
and capacity building for our delegates to make sure
that they could serve and support anyone who needed
to access our services and our systems.
And part of that was, um, training, not just for, um,
our shelter providers, but also for our outreach providers
and our drop-in centers.
And it was through the Illinois Technical Assistance Center,
and it was funded by the state, but it was training and,
and a large part of that focused on, um, language access,
making sure that documents were translated in several, uh,
languages, making sure that all of our providers had access
to language line, um,
and as many facility
as possible did have bilingual staff in multiple languages.
So we continue to build on that work
that was started earlier this year.
And we are continuing to survey our providers
to find out their capacity and where they still have gaps
and where they still need support.
But even in terms of, um, outreach
and engagement, our, our language, um, access
and our, our messaging goes out wide when we are posting in
encampments, we really have to consider the folks
that are living in that encampment.
So our recent posting we did in Burmese, we've done in, um,
English and in Spanish,
but we really look at the language
of the residents in those locations
and make sure that we have the resources available
for them in the, in their language of choice.
Because to your point,
people will accept services when they can understand the
services, but also feel accepted in those facilities so
that they can get the support that they need.
So we're continuing to build on that, continuing to work
with our delegates, um, through OSI, as Harley mentioned,
there was great expansion even to the internal DFSS team
to be able to work on this technical assistance, um, this,
this capacity building
and active contract management with all of our delegates
to make sure we are holding them accountable
because we expect to be held accountable for the services
that we're putting forth for our residents of Chicago.
Thank you. Deputy Commissioner.
Um, if there are no further questions, I think,
uh oh, sure, sure.
There's no question, but I'd just like to know if, um,
through the list, can you provide me with the list of the
agencies that you work with, whether it is the,
um, domestic violence, homelessness
or seniors, um, even the
children youth services delegate agencies?
Yes. And do, do you all work with the state at all?
They have programs similar.
So is there any collabor collaboration between,
uh, the city in the state
or the county or any of these program?
Some of 'em are been, you know, we have d duplications
going on, so I wanna know relationships
And, and we do receive state funding too, um, for some
of the services, some of the times we're
doing the service for the state.
Um, and so we do partner with, um,
our state, our state partners.
Yes, ma'am. That's not the city funding,
the state funding as well.
Yes, ma'am. Because we get the information there.
There is some of the agents,
and I know they're doing, I happen to be at a event, Phoenix
Recovery is a agency that's in my war.
And they, they were, the young man came up to me Sunday
who used to live under the vidoc on Chicago Avenue in Sey,
where everybody knew out there that Vidoc was a house
for homelessness.
But he says, look at me now.
And he was all sharp, dressed up
and, uh, out of the programs he said, and that's
because the programs helped him to be able
to get his life back on track.
So I just thought I'd give you your testimony to the work
that you, some of the agents are doing.
And it certainly was an opener for me to know
that people can come back
and they don't necessarily have to be homeless,
they just need a little help, uh, break down mental illness.
A lot of things cause them to drop off for a minute,
but that don't mean they can't get back up. So
Thank you so much for that.
I'm gonna just round out your, through the chair request.
If you could, um, through the chair, provide a list
of all delegate agencies grouped by program area.
Um, I think that would be really helpful to all of us. Yeah.
And, and if you could also include, um,
how much we funded them, um, you know, through
the whatever point in time in the year, that'd be great.
Okay. If there are no further questions
for our friends at DFSS, uh, we'll go ahead and end here.
We'll, the committee will stand at ease
for about five minutes while we transition to the, uh,
Chicago Department of Public Health.
Thank you very much.
Where's my, Uh,
the committee will reconvene here.
Uh, we are coming back from our little standing at ease.
We're now going to start our presentation
for the Chicago Department of Public Health with, uh,
our commissioner, uh, Dr.
IgE. Take it away.
Thank you so much.
Vice Chair Lee, members of City Council.
I have here with me, Mary Emmanuel, uh,
chief Financial Officer, uh, Maribel Chavez, our
managing deputy commissioner,
and also Kate McMahon, uh, director of policy.
Um, today I'm here to give an account of the $76 million
that the city has committed to our trust.
Uh, but, but before I get started, I just wanna say
that today I speak with care and concern.
We are at a weird time in our country where we are beginning
to see diseases that we didn't, we haven't seen since 1950.
Uh, we are coming out of a pandemic
and people are questioning if vaccines are necessary.
This is the context in which public health is operating now.
We are seeing moms, we are seeing polio,
we are seeing syphilis, we're seeing diseases
that are vaccine preventable.
Um, so working
in public health right now requires a lot
of creativity and a lot of support.
The paradox of public health is that when we succeed,
our work is invisible.
When you don't hear that there is an outbreak,
it means that we're doing our work.
People don't see when outbreaks don't happen,
when overdoses are reversed, when lives are lengthened.
So today I am going to try to make that visible, uh,
because the, the resources you've committed to us,
sometimes you don't see, uh,
because we, we don't have outbreaks.
76 million of C resources was allocated
to CDPH in FY 25 to prevent, to protect,
and to promote the health of Chicagoans.
And under the leadership of the mayor's office,
we're working closely with the Deputy Mayor for Health
and Human Services and with you all,
because we have been in the wards,
we have been in your offices, we've knocked on your doors,
we are aligning the resources, the priorities
and partnerships to ensure
that every Chicagoan has an equitable chance
to live a full and healthy life.
But you must also know
that the funding we have from the city is a little part
of the budget that we have.
The funding from the city makes up 11%
of C DPA's total budget.
So you understand why we're nervous about
what is happening at the federal level.
The rest of our funding comes from the federal government.
We are a city state. We are a big city.
We get funded like a state.
So we have hundreds of million from the federal government
that is at risk.
We worry because
and federal support may be waning, may not be dependable.
And this is the time when we have
to do the best with the city.
Limited city resources that we have, uh,
over-reliance on federal funding has been a historic
challenge, but it is also an opportunity.
The truth is public health cannot be
sustained by one level of government.
This cannot be done by the city alone. Chicago is big.
We need the state, we need the federal partners to step up,
and we want Chicagoans to live full and healthy lives.
So we need you all to again, continue
to advocate on our behalf with the state
and the federal government.
I will start with the successes
of the resources that we have had.
Why do we need to maintain this resource?
Because we have been working for the last 15 years
to close the life expectancy gap in Chicago.
Today, I am proud to tell you
that Chicago's life expectancy has reason
for three years in a row.
Today we stand at 78.7 years.
We are nearly back to the pre pandemic level high.
But our work is to close gaps to, to reduce the number
of years between different population groups in Chicago.
And today, I can tell you
that black Chicagoans have gained four years
in life expectancy since 2020.
This is what's celebrating
because for 15 years we have been trying to get progress
and now we are seeing progress.
We don't want that progress to be reversed.
This progress reflects braided investments.
City dollars along federal dollars,
community partnership increased workforce
that resulted in reducing death from COVID-19 COVID-19 has
been eliminated as a cause of death
for black Chicagoans in the city of Chicago.
We want that to remain the story.
We have seen progress in chronic diseases, violence
and opioid overdoses.
These are the things that kill people prematurely.
And now we can demonstrate that the work we do work
in increasing life expectancy, mental health.
This is a mayoral priority.
We are proud to say
that we are not just telling you we're doing a good job.
The OID has just completed an audit
of our mental health initiative.
Mental health investment is the largest part
of the city's investment in our budget.
It is 20% of our budget.
And so the OIG came and review what we are doing.
It is a partnership as city run clinics
and the partners that we fund.
And the OIG concluded that the CDPH programs are
ensuring mental health quality, mental health equity,
mental health reach.
We are gu steward of taxpayers dollars by holding ourselves
to Medicaid productivity standards.
We increased appointment scheduling success from 27% in
early 2024 to 93% by mid 2025.
What does that mean? Last year, if people wanted
to schedule an appointment in a mental health clinic,
only 27% of them were successful this year,
97% of them are successful.
I did not just say there was an audit that revealed that
that is so, and we did it without adding additional staff.
We did it by ensuring there was productivity standard.
Every staff in our clinic must see at least 30
patients a month.
This is the Medicaid productivity standards
and we are holding ourselves accountable.
We have increased the efficiency
of the staff we already have.
We are not asking for more.
We're using better the things that we have in 2024 alone.
Our city run centers, in addition to 37 community partners
and telehealth expansion,
we have served 36,000 unique patients within a year.
We are good stewards of the taxpayers dollars,
opioid overdose prevention.
Let me tell you a little story.
The success in opioid overdose, you all know it.
You have been our partners in this is one
of our biggest success stories last year,
mortality from opioid overdose reduced by 38% in one summer
because of the partnership we have with you
and the work that we have done on the west side this year.
Between January and now, opioid overdoses
EMS responses have dropped by 24% in the first half
of the year alone compared to 2024.
This is not just data, it is life save.
August 27,
we were in the 46th ward launching a new opioid reversal
initiative and somebody gave a testimony,
Al Walker, he stood there.
He was proud because he was someone who overdosed
and it was reversed with Narcan.
Now, Al Walker is a mentor
in the program that we fund.
He's the one going around telling other people there is hope
because he survived, he lived.
And so when we invest in this work, these are lives.
These are real human beings who have been saved.
Their lives matter.
This is the power of public health.
This is the power of saving lives
by leveraging state programs that provide naloxone
medication, that reverse op opioid overdoses at no cost.
CDPH has expanded access to naloxone
through citywide canvasing, na, Narcan, newsstands,
vending machines and libraries.
We are meeting people where they are.
We are removing barriers to access
and empowering Chicagoans to join us in saving lives.
You have been very focused on cost savings.
And I'll give you an example.
It costs $17,000 to have a vending machine.
This is funded through federal dollars currently.
But we want to continue
to serve Chicagoans even if federal dollars go away.
So what did we do? We explored partnership
with the 81 public libraries.
Every public library in the city
of Chicago now has a Narcan box.
We excel partnership with 30 manic offices. At least 30.
All manic offices now have Narcan.
We are now working to use old newspaper stance things
that have been abandoned to stock with Narcan.
This is how we find problems.
This is how we overcome barriers
because we are committed
to saving lives in the city of Chicago.
We are committed to subtle rating Narcan, city
of Chicago with Narcan.
And we did it at no additional cost to the city
violence prevention, 21 priority communities
identified by the mayor's office.
How can we help? We came here
and presented Before you are summer intervention plan.
We said we wanna fill the gaps. Where are there gaps?
The state is funding a little.
The county is funding a little.
The city departments are doing a little here.
Where can CDPH help?
And we chose to help by investing in street outreach,
play streets and victim services.
Today we stand before you to say that 33% reduction
over the 4th of July weekend, our map, our data, revealed
that the 4th of July weekend is the most dangerous weekend
in the city of Chicago.
And we reduced, you know, mortality by 33% in collaboration
with all the other departments who are working together.
There's been 22 reduction overall in violence
in the city of Chicago.
Regardless of the rhetoric, our work is not done.
But A-W-B-E-Z analysis found that the summer
of 2025 saw the fewest homicides in Chicago
in 60 years.
How did we do this?
We achieve this by braiding violence prevention staff
and opioid overdose staff.
It is the same communities that are impacted.
So instead of duplication of efforts, we synergize, we work
with other departments.
I'll give you an example. The peacekeepers initiative,
the state is funding it,
but they don't fund it over the weekend.
And we realize the weekend is the gap.
So our funding compliments what the state is doing,
and then extend to the night hours from 9:00 PM to 12:00 PM.
So this is how we are braiding funding,
and this is how we are stretching the
limited dollars that we have.
Air quality. We get a lot of questions about
how we are watching out for the health of Chicagoans.
CDPH has installed 277 air quality sensors across Chicago.
This is the largest, the largest
city owned monitoring network in the United States.
It is the second largest community air monitoring network in
the entire world in the city of Chicago.
We came before you, we promised
that we were gonna do it, and we got it done.
Cheryl Johnson of People for Community Recovery set.
The air sensors are absolutely necessary towards fixing
environmental racism in Chicago's black
and brown neighborhood.
These sensors deliver real time neighborhood level data so
that every person, every ward now has at least one sensor.
And you can see real time
what the data is like in your community, empowering people
to make informed decisions.
We did this through partnership.
This is funded through upper dollars,
and we are committed to ensuring that it continues.
And the way we are doing
that is we have negotiated a five-year agreement
for the data such that we can continue to use
that data even when the funding ends.
We are protecting families. We are doing vaccination.
20,000 doses
of vaccination administered last year over
the respiratory season.
This year, we are seeing a surge in West N Virus
because of the climate change.
And this year we treated 90,000 Hatch Basings.
We tested 23,000 mosquitoes.
We go around and catch the mosquitoes,
and we test them in a laboratory
to see if they have West now or not.
And we spread 14 community areas, 22 human cases.
Uh, and this for the first time,
residents can track this data real time through
the public dashboard on Chicago.
We are working on nutrition.
We walk to the mayor's office on an executive order,
and we are ensuring that there is healthy food available.
Snap benefits may be impacted,
but how do we ensure
that city dollars help increase access to healthy food?
We at CDPH,
our WIC Women Infant Children program serves over 17,000
pregnant women, infant and children breast cancer screening.
Did you know there is no longer a gap in breast cancer
screening rates in the city of Chicago?
More than 90% of people
who need breast cancer screening get it.
And there is no racial inequity.
We have eliminated
that racial inequity in the city of Chicago.
This is what city dollars do.
This is what we do in public health.
In this year alone,
we have delivered 55,000 oral examination
for Chicago public school students
and 32,000 vision screening.
Every public school in the city of Chicago can access visual
and dental screening at no cost because of the work we do.
Family connect. When the fifth year of family connects,
we go to people's home.
When you have a baby in the city of Chicago,
we offer you a home visit.
41,000 home visits to date supporting mental health
of them, of them birthing parents, breastfeeding,
safe sleep, newborn care,
because do you know,
every year they at least a hundred children, babies
who die just because of how they are placed when they sleep.
These are all reversible, preventable causes.
And this is what we do.
We go to the home, we see how they place the baby.
We tell them this is how they should do it.
We check their blood pressure, we screen them for depression
because we don't want them to wait to come to the hospital.
We go to meet them at home.
One mother said, Nisha, no one told me how to be a mom.
My baby didn't come with instructions,
but you guys brought them.
This is what we do. This program is funded
through upper funding right now expiring in 2025.
And to ensure continuity,
we are targeting the 10 most impacted community areas.
We are leveraging state grants,
and we're also working with the birthing hospital
to access Medicaid waivers so
that they can continue this Home visits 3 1 1.
This is when you request us to come
to serve your constituents.
And when people ask us to come
and deliver services this year,
we have received 72,000 service requests through 3 1 1.
And we have resolved 82% of them. We track this real time.
We have a dashboard.
We have a data platform
that ensures accountability and transparency.
Elders. Every dollar investment
invested in public health is an investment in life,
is an investment in dignity,
is an investment in opportunity,
is an investment in the social fabric
that holds the city together.
But just 11% of our budget comes from the city.
This is low compared to peer cities.
The value of health is immeasurable,
but the resources we commit
to protecting it must measurable.
We are committed to a healthy Chicago.
Our commitment is unwavering.
We are committed to cost savings
and exploring opportunities for efficiency.
We are committed to stewarding every tax dollar
that you have committed to our trust.
We're eliminating redundancy. We are increasing efficiency.
We're holding ourselves accountable.
So we want you to be assure
that every dollar you put in the CDPH
budget is dollar well spent,
and we will account for every single one of it.
We want to stay committed
to closing the life expectancy gap.
I believe it's possible. We have seen now
that it is possible and we can do it,
but we need the city, the state,
and the federal government pulling together
and continuing to invest in public health.
Thank you, vice chair
and members of the city council for this opportunity
to give an account of the
resources you have committed to us.
And I wanna thank my colleagues
and the entire department for their commitment,
because these are tough times for us,
and we get a lot of requests for a lot of things.
And we are committed to meeting our, uh, our residents
where they are safer, more equitable
and resilient. Chicago.
Thank you, chair. Thank you very much Dr. IgE.
Um, I'll start with a couple of questions.
I know it's, it's really staggering to think about how much
of your budget, how little
of your budget actually comes from the corporate fund.
Um, so I wanna focus a little bit on grant funding.
Um, in 2025, I think we've said,
get $737.7 million mm-hmm.
Through grant funding. Mm-hmm.
What is that looking like for 2026?
Like, have we seen, uh, federal cuts that, uh,
we already know are going to impact us?
Uh, can you give us some, some sense of what,
what we're gonna be seeing here in a few weeks? Thanks.
Mary Manuel, uh, uh, chief Financial Officer.
So for 2026,
we will be restricted in terms of the one-time COVID grants
because they will be coming to an end.
So as a result, our budget will be cut into even
by more than half, which means
that the grand budget from the 700 million that, uh,
the number that you just mentioned will come down
to almost 228 million
From 7 37 to 228.
That's correct. From
737.7 million,
which is current for 2025.
Um, the ARPA dollars represent about 500 million
of that, basically.
Um, so without the ARPA dollars, uh,
we're looking at 228 million
Federal funding that will be left,
Correct. Right.
Ouch.
Um, have there been any, any other cuts outside
of just COVID dollars that are, we knew were going away,
but, um, with the current administration,
are we seeing things that are trickling down to us
that would reduce this number further?
Absolutely. So we recently have been getting awards with
less dollars than what we expected.
So, uh, in the past two
or three months, we had one grant, which came in, uh,
at at least 2 million lesser than what we expected,
and we think we might get more such cuts moving forward.
What did that 2 million represent percentage wise of
that particular grant that you were just talking about?
Almost, uh, I think close to 20% of that grant. Yeah.
Um, I'm gonna bounce around a little bit.
How, how much of the grant funds do we get today, um, go out
to delegate agencies
Close to, uh, 20 to 25% of that close
to delegate agencies?
And obviously we'll have a commensurate
sort of impact Yes.
On these things. Yes. Um, are there things
that feel like are going, are going to need
to be eliminated completely because of the arpa?
The, give me a sense of what was ARPA funded?
I guess that's a better way to ask this question.
Yes. Uh, so a lot
of ARPA funding went into the mental health
violence prevention, um, and environmental.
Um, um, so the one thing that we had
supportive housing initiative where we were exploring, uh,
the possibility of respite care of people
who have complex medical issues.
Uh, we were not able to do that, um,
because the upper dollars will not, um,
allow for us to do that.
Um, our COVID ID vaccination work,
you all will have received notices from us
that we will be able to do word by ward events.
And now we're looking at different ways of doing it.
Um, we are working with, you know, the pharmaceutical, uh,
companies to provide the vaccines and cover the gap.
Um, and then violence prevention.
There is gas right now, which is breeding funding from city,
uh, county and the state.
So that, uh, contribution to that will reduce.
But we are like, you know, being creative in terms
of which gaps will we support.
Um, so there are not a lot of things
that we will stop completely.
And then Family Connect is also upper funded.
That's the home visiting program.
Um, I think it was about 17 million in upper dollars.
So instead of that state grants
that we've gotten a little dollars there.
Um, and then working on Medicaid waiver
to see if we can cover the, the others.
So we are, um, off the top of my head, I I,
apart from the housing that we had, we will have to stop,
but other other initiative we will downsize
and then see how we can work with the state
and other partners to fill the gap.
Great. Um, colleagues. Okay.
Chair, we'll start with Chair Viegas
and we'll go, oh, we can start with chairmans,
uh, chair Viegas.
And then o over to Chair Martin. And maybe Alderman Vasquez.
Alright, thank you. And, and good afternoon.
Um, I was just thinking about the programs
and the outbreaks that we are, we have now.
What are the ones here in the Chicago area that you know of,
of outbreaks that we need to be
Aware of, Worry about?
Um, we, we issue health alerts every time
we see something unusual.
Um, there are a lot of things
that are always simmering in the background.
Uh, this summer, um, I think every week we have about 100
or so notification of something that is unusual.
We will declare an outbreak if it is getting out of control.
So in terms of outbreak, I'll say, you know, we have
ongoing now a salmonella outbreak
that is a foodborne illness that we are looking into
and working with IDPH to control.
Uh, we have rats born, um, lept
leptospirosis, uh, that is also a bacterial infection due
to contamination with rat urine.
We are seen more cases than we have seen before.
So we're working, uh, on that also with IDPH to control it.
Mm-hmm. Uh, we have had sporadic cases of measles,
but, uh, I will not say measles is an outbreak
for us in Chicago, because we did a lot of work last year
to ensure that our vaccination coverage is above 95%.
So we are seeing a few cases,
but they're not spreading widely.
Um, we have had ptosis
that is a vaccine preventable. Um, what
Was that? Ptosis?
Whooping cough. Oh, Okay. Whooping cough.
Yes. More than, more than a couple hundred cases
that we haven't seen before.
Uh, we are in the middle of a congenital syphilis outbreak.
Again, we haven't seen congenital syphilis since 1950.
Uh, we have emoc that we are in the middle of responding
to emoc right now, more than 79 cases.
We've historically had less than six
in the last year in the state of
Chicago. In the city of
Chicago, um, rabies,
I will not say it's an outbreak.
Every summer we see rabies,
but we are seeing more exposure cases than before.
So about maybe almost a hundred that we've seen this summer.
Um, so there are infectious diseases that pop out.
Our goal is to control it, um, quickly
before it becomes too much of a problem.
Um, so the ones
that we are a little nervous about is the empo
because that's, um, that is increasing rapidly.
So we are trying to get the messaging
out for, for all of that.
And congenital PHI is
beginning to come down now. So I think,
Can you give me, um, your, your view on
the vaccine COVID vaccine
or just
versus what we are hearing?
Yes. What is your view for, to be able to take these shots?
Who should take them? Um,
Um, I will share that my view, again, my training is
as a preventive medicine specialist.
So vaccination is a core part of the work that I've done.
I have worked in 42 different countries.
I have been a vaccine facilitator for the WHO.
I have led vaccination initiatives
for almost every vaccine preventable disease.
So that is the background that I bring to this work.
So I will say, without no shadow
of doubt in my mind, that vaccines,
the COVID vaccines are safe.
Every country in this
planet had COVID,
every country controlled COVID with vaccination.
There is not a single instance where we said we had COVID
and we don't have COVID where there was not vaccination.
Every vaccine preventable disease
that we're seeing now were controlled with vaccines.
When there was vaccines, for me, it was eliminated
from the country.
We know vaccines work,
when we stop vaccinating diseases start coming back.
So in the city of Chicago, we have eliminated
death disparities and death from COVID vaccines.
So if someone says to me, vaccines don't work, I said,
think about what was happening in 2020 and 2021.
And then 2022 vaccines emerged,
and then we started seeing things go down.
And every time we stop doing what works, it pops back.
So if you're 65 years old, get vaccinated.
If you have an underlying medical condition,
especially heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes,
you need to get vaccinated.
If you are working in a public space, you have interaction
with people, you need to get vaccinated if you are pregnant,
if you are a, you were born
after 2019, now you're not already vaccinated,
you need to get vaccinated.
That is my honest opinion based on the data
and what I know to work.
Well, the flu shots are, are we still going to be, uh,
hosting flu shots, um, throughout each automatic office?
Yes.
We will not be able to carry to each older manic office
because of the operational cost,
but we are committed to ensuring that
flu vaccination is happening.
So we'll do all senior centers.
The mobile van that goes around
Now? Yes. We'll do mobile vans,
Yes. And we'll be able to
request that van if need to.
And we Okay. Yes. All right.
Just make, who is the contact person for that?
Abel, Maribel
Paul, uh, Ana Escobel.
And we could provide, uh, the, uh, the contact information,
um, aldermans.
Okay. And the, um, link to request the, uh, mobile,
uh, caravan as well. Okay.
And I want thank you for the work
that you did on the west side.
We had this op opioid crisis that was out there.
They've gotten much better, much better.
And more peoples know about it.
Um, more places where they can go and,
and access this, um, Narcan kind to be able to
revive someone if need to, um,
keep up the good work
and we'll look forward to, uh, the road ahead.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
That information that Alderman Mitts requested,
if you can provide that just through the chair will share it
with all of the elders.
Thank you. Um, alderman Viegas.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Um, the $76 million that the city funds,
uh, CDPH with, um, would you say
that No.
Strike that. Um, that $76 million investment, um, how does
that help alleviate or minimize the cost for hospitals?
Is there a correlation there by people engaging
with the health department
that either reduces people's ability
or not, not not ability rather,
but it, it allows them not to have to go to emergency rooms
and other types of things to seek service? Yes.
So I will talk about mental health in the last data
that I have is for 23,
because we've been keeping a close eye on this.
In 2023, there were 12,000 hospital admissions
for schizophrenia, 5,000 hospital,
a admin ad admissions for major depressive disorders,
and about 4,000 for manic depressive epi episode.
These are, these three constitute
what we call severe mental illness.
So in total, more than 20,000 hospital admissions
are due to severe mental illness.
Now, what happens is, um, Medicaid, a lot
of these folks on Medicaid were only covered
for 10 days of admission.
So we were tracking repeat hospitalization up to 40.
Some people are admitted, admitted 40 times in the hospital.
Now what happens is, I have gone to hospitals where people
who have cancer cannot be admitted
because the bed is occupied.
Where there is nowhere to discharge patients too,
where there is no support for people
with severe mental illness.
So the mental health clinic
and the work that we do, collaborating with the hospital,
when you discharge, we can continue
to manage them in the community.
We cannot do severe illnesses because that requires,
but we can help maintain people in our care.
We can help identify mental illness
before it becomes a crisis.
So the work that we do is helping to decongest, um,
the hospitals by ensuring that people
who can be managed at the
community level, we are managing them.
So that is one example. So
The reason why I'm asking, so it saves the
hospitals money a lot.
So, so that being, I'm, I'm teeing it up for you.
So Correct, because hospitals don't pay property taxes
and $76 million is what the city's funding.
And we're looking at half a million
from the federal government.
Like, have you had discussions with,
or has the administration had discuss discussions
with hospitals to kind of determine
if there's an opportunity to have some type
of contributions in order to, to make this investment,
knowing that ultimately it saves the hospital's money
for the, for the, for the,
for the investment that they're making? Yes.
So there are two types of hospital systems.
We have in the city of Chicago.
A lot of the hospitals that agree to see the kind
of patients that we're seeing are called
safety net hospitals.
Uh, 70%
of those safety net hospitals are in
financial distress. Right.
So I'm not talking about those.
Yes. So the, the bigger hospitals, um,
are healthcare system is one key.
The bigger hospitals get to choose
unless it's an emergency who they serve,
which insurance they accept.
So we have been trying to work with them in terms of
how can hospitals invest a little more in
prevention so that they can do better.
But the truth of the matter is, the burden
that I'm describing falls on the
hospitals that are safety net.
They're the ones who will accept
these patients in the first place.
So that's where the burden is.
So the, the more private, richer hospitals don't tend
to have a lot of Medicaid patients
who fall into this category that I'm in.
So they, their contribution, it's been tough to negotiate.
What leverage. Do you have any leverage at all?
Yes. Uh, we are trying to, to work with the state
of Illinois, um, in the Medicaid reimbursement model
because Medicaid, the state has a Medicaid plan amendment,
and there was an 1115 waiver that says, you know, some
of this cost of housing of, you know,
community engagement can be covered through Medicaid.
So that is the opportunity that we feel is there
to leverage, you know, state dollars
to do the preventative aspect.
So for instance, Medicaid will cover home meals for those
who are, um, identified as needing
that they will cover community support for those
who are identified as needing that.
So the money's not coming from the hospital,
it's coming from the payer.
Is there a way, as we're talking about, just to pivot
for a second, around private hospitals, especially the ones
that are doing well, the, the flu, you said that the flu,
um, vaccines are gonna be minimized
because of the cost, right?
Have you had a discussion with the hospitals to say, Hey,
you need to step up here in order to fill that gap.
Not with, not with those private hospitals, not
with those private hospitals.
And you have a discussion with them. We
Can, we can explore it.
I would, I would encourage you to,
to take a look at, look at that.
Um, trying to figure out how they can make an investment,
given the fact that every person, every person
that doesn't go to that institution saves them money.
And in turn, they can make an investment on our side.
My last question is, uh, it's two part.
Do you have any role, do you play any role in the, uh,
procuring of healthcare for the, for the, for the res,
for the citizens of, I'm sorry, for the workers of Chicago?
Like do you have participate in the ME Blue Cross Blue
Shield discussions?
Yes, we participate in the conversations mostly to help
mitigate threats for Chicagoan.
We do that in two ways.
So the way to get healthcare is
through insurance coverage.
So depending on the type of insurance you have, I'm
Talking about. So, so for us,
yes.
As we, as the city of Chicago, the government,
we're procuring medical insurance for our employees.
Does your office play a role?
Oh, no. You don't play a role in that at all. Okay.
The reason why I was asking was, I think
that there's some savings, especially around the, um,
around the pharmaceutical side of it.
You know, you take a look at, uh, companies like, uh, uh,
the gentleman that owns, that owned, um, the Dallas, um,
Mavericks, he's a, oh, mark Cuban.
Mark Cuban. He has a online medical
that saves his pa, saves patients money.
I was curious as to whether or not the city was doing that,
but it looks like your office doesn't do that.
So, no. Okay. Well, I'll, I'll ask that question
to someone who's responsible,
but would like for you to please talk with the hospitals,
let them know that for every patient
that they're not seeing,
that we're seeing there's a savings there
and there needs to be some type of investment back.
Thank you. Thank you,
chair. Martin, do you have questions,
Please? I have
a few. Thank you.
Uh, good afternoon, commissioner and team.
Uh, appreciate you all being here.
Um, one I wanted to follow up on
Vice-chairs Lee's questions around, um, funding sources.
Uh, I, I, I know also in looking at some requests
through the chair that, um,
CDPH had at one point identified approximately 70 positions
in the FY 2025 budget.
So current fiscal year's budget,
that would be eliminated at the end of the next budget year
because of federal funds, uh, sunset.
So ARPA as well as cares with an S.
Um, and that there might be 45 positions approximately
associated with the care program.
So care without an s, you know, the, um,
non-law enforcement crisis response team.
Um, and I also, uh, recall the department noting
that it would be working with OBM
to pursue other funding opportunities.
I was hoping you could get into a little bit more
of an explanation in terms of kind of
how you are exhausting those various options,
what you are feeling bullish about,
what you're feeling bearish about,
and how that will impact, um, your budget next year.
Um, so, um, I'll start
the, the positions that have been identified, uh,
they fall into two categories, uh, represented
and non-represented positions.
Uh, the represented positions, uh, will need to work
with the union to see what the options are, um,
for continuity of those positions.
So that's the primary pathway for non-represented position.
Uh, you know, a lot of the work
that we do is just mobilizing grants and writing grants
and trying to see if we can, uh, find additional funding
to keep the core positions going.
Um, so right now for CARES with ns,
that's the mobile vaccination van that is co-funded
by Blue Cross Blue Shield.
They have been investing in that program.
So that's some funding.
Um, additional funding for the team.
We are looking at the public health infrastructure grant,
where we have identified some core staff
that can be covered there.
Uh, we have had to do some reefs for, for that
because we couldn't absorb everybody.
Um, family Connects, for instance.
That's the, the other part that is upper funded.
Um, states, uh,
maternal Child health block grant.
Um, I think we got some additional dollars there, Mary, yes,
for the MCH grants to fill some gaps there.
And then the Medicaid 1115 waiver is another option
that we're exploring.
Um, again, the staffing there, we are trying to,
we are negotiated with the hospitals
to observe those staffing positions.
The nurses that do the work so
that they are funding from their programs.
And we are training them
to do the home visit that we were doing.
So that's sort of our continuity plan. And then Care,
Oh, go ahead.
Um, care, we are working very closely with
CESA at the state level to see where we can collaborate.
Uh, the state is funding 15 mobile crisis teams.
Uh, they started in January.
Um, so we are in conversation with them about, um,
we have funding for care until 2026.
Uh, and so working with the state to see
where there might be opportunities
to complement the program.
They have mobile crisis team, we have mobile crisis teams.
Uh, so is there a way we can coordinate with them, um,
for sustainability.
And then we are also looking at,
there's the 9 8 8 federal program also that has, um, funding
for mobile crisis response
and where there might be opportunities there,
but we still have at least an additional year for care.
Understood. Um, so zooming now, how much
of a gap currently exists?
So how much funding, like, like a, a gap filling funding,
have you do, do we have like in hand
and how much worst case scenario does not,
we don't have any funding for,
even though we might have some grants
that have been submitted, like you had mentioned,
Um, overall or for some of those programs. So
Overall, Overall, uh,
best case scenario for 2026 puts us around 300
and 310 million, 310 million.
That is down from more than 700 was six case scenario.
If all the federal funding also goes away
that we're watching now at the federal level,
we will be down to
a hundred and forty, forty, a hundred and forty five. 145.
Oh, so those are your, your projected budget numbers.
So best case you're at 310, not so, not the Gap. I see.
And then 145 million. Okay.
Um, with my remaining, well, one question. Go ahead.
Uh, uh, I, I was hoping you could, uh,
maybe I'll just ask a few altogether
'cause I wanna be respectful of others' time
around the care teams.
Um, I know that there are a number of vacancies
with employees who have titles like EMT,
associate Crisis Clinician, as well as Crisis Coalition.
Um, what are we doing to fill these vacancies?
And I'm guessing that they're subject to hiring freeze,
but you let me know if that's incorrect.
And then assuming that's the case
as we head into January 1st of next year, assuming
that not all of those are wiped, what can CDPH do to
speed up both the filling of those vacancies as well
as retention to minimize new vacancies coming on board?
Yes, you have identified the two challenges
that we have staff turnover in the mental health space, uh,
which is a general problem
because again, it's very competitive space.
So for care program, we have emergency medical technicians
and mental health crisis clinicians.
Um, it's been challenging
to keep our clinical positions just
because of how competitive it is.
So in the clinics, and we, we just have this turnovers, um,
so back filling the positions right now
for grant funded positions
that have less than two years left on them,
hiring people into those positions have not been very
successful because we need to tell people
that you are hired on a grant that is time doted
that ends on a certain date. So,
Sorry, there, there is a hiring freeze that applies
to these positions, or does the hiring freeze not apply?
Not, not for grant funded positions. I see.
Uh, city funded positions hiring freeze. Okay.
Grant funded positions are hiring freeze understand.
Makes sense.
Okay. Uh, sorry, I, I interrupted, but, okay.
So you're having trouble with, um, prospective hires
because they understand that the grant funding
may run out in the not too distant future.
Okay. Um, what about, um,
the retention piece?
Yes, retention. We're trying to get to the bottom of that
and to find a model that works for our clinicians
to attract and retain them.
Um, we've shared with you the challenge
with the behavioral health workforce
and how competitive that is.
I mean, today I just got an email from a clinic
that has no clinician at all outside of the city
that's trying to see how they can get services.
So it's very competitive out there. So care is the same.
Um, one of the other challenges that we have is, again,
we have more competition now
for the pool that we're serving.
We have 15 mobile crisis teams from the state, you know,
and then we have 9, 8, 8,
19,000 behavioral health calls going to 9 8 8 right now.
So we are trying to see where is the sweet niche
for the city's care team that we can maximize.
So we have expanded into other areas of work,
like the encampment outreach
for our care teams to keep them engaged.
Uh, because if we don't have enough
to keep our staff engaged,
it becomes really challenging to keep them.
They will be poached by some other people.
Um, so those are some of the things we're looking at.
Uh, we are working very closely with the state
to understand, um, the model that we have is, you know,
based on the state's guidelines
and to see where we can flex.
Uh, so we are, we are exploring some options.
Um, what is the best configuration, the best model
to attract and retain the staff that we have.
But over the last three years, staff retention in
for mental health has been a challenge.
Understood. Um, may I ask just a few questions just
through the chair to be clear?
Sure. Um, so, uh, wondering,
'cause I, I know you already got into this,
but, um, with the people who,
where are their vacancies you're looking to hire,
I'm curious what, um, approaches you're, you're taking
or looking to take to address that issue of
the position might only be around
for two years 'cause it's grant funded.
So through the chair, it'd be good to know
how you're looking to approach that.
Second, um, what's being done to improve coordination
between the care team and then CFD
and CPD, um, third, what is being done to ensure
that the city is dispatching as many calls
as is appropriate to care?
And then finally, uh, how to, uh, ensure that
as many vans are operating on a daily basis as possible.
So I know I have other colleagues who, um,
wanna ask questions.
If those are addressed, please feel free to just say,
please refer back to, uh, the q and a with Alder person.
So-and-so in lieu of needing to write it out.
'cause you know, if someone wants to ask those questions,
that's great, but I just wanna get those on the record.
Thank you. Vice chair. Thanks
Chair. Uh, chair
Vasquez, do you have questions?
Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Um, so I've got three through the chair.
Just want to get 'em on the record.
Thank you for everything you do. Um, if you could, uh,
share any of the internal revenue
and expenditure transfers that happen within the department.
Again, we're comparing it to the quarterly transfer
reporting, which we question the accuracy of it.
Um, also, um, if you could share, uh,
any cost benefit analysis
or how you determine when you're doing stuff in-house versus
third party contracts.
Same, same, same thing.
And then any, um, uh, a list
of FOIAs the department receives,
but also just how much time and money is spent on foia.
Uh, we're trying to figure out if there's better
ways to kind of move all that.
So, um, I think, uh,
obviously we just had CPD
and they articulated how it'd be great
to have other solutions to what they're doing.
So I've got, uh, questions related to care.
Um, when actually when fire department came by
for their hearing, they said they had no engagement
with the Par Cares program
and there had not been conversation with CDPH about it.
Um, is that your understanding of it?
And what is the department doing to better engage
with the fire department, uh, for solutions?
Thank you. So the triage process for care,
when you get a 9 1 1 call, the caller is
as if this is a behavioral health.
So the dispatcher, OEMC dispatcher takes the call.
They ask if there's a mental health component, if there is,
um, the screen for the police, is there, um,
a violent tendency, is there a weapon?
Um, if none of those present, then it goes
to fire screening.
The fire screening.
Ask if there is a medical emergency, if there's a completed
or attempted suicide
that makes it a medical emergency that's there tough.
And then if none of those are present,
then it comes to care.
Um, so care, we are cleared for five types of call, um,
that we respond to.
And that is where we are primary discharge, uh, dispatch.
So those are the calls that come to us.
Then we have opportunities for CPD assist.
So if a call comes in
and says it is unknown,
we don't know if there's a weapon
involved, we don't know if it's safe.
Uh, and PD goes out and then they go on scene
and realize that, oh, there's a mental health component.
They have the opportunity to ask for an assist from care.
Uh, so mostly we PD assist
and primary discharge are the most calls that come to us.
CFD if there is a mental health component, again,
they're the emergency medical services.
Uh, so the relationship
before was that we had in the past a model
where it was embedded with police then fire.
And at the beginning of this year,
there was a recommendation from the mental health, um,
task force that all of
that program transitioned to public health.
So it is now completely public health.
Um, fire is not, uh, a part of that anymore.
And police, um, opportunities for engagement with police is
through police assist.
So in that scenario, to your point, CFD calls,
O-E-M-C-O-M-C routes where they need to,
and that's kind of the end of that conversation,
but I would imagine there might still be a conversation on
the CFD member making determinations on real time.
So are there any conversations, even if it's like quarterly
or regularly to figure out each person's got a separate,
separate judgment even based on protocol
to make sure that gets improved?
Yes. So, um, the audit
and quality control of 3 1 1 is done
by the medical directors.
Um, so we cannot audit CCPD.
You know, they have the auditors who look at it to ensure
that, you know, 9 1 1 calls are triaged appropriately.
Uh, so to the best of my knowledge, I, I don't know
that they have found issues in terms of
how the triage has been done.
But where we have engaged with police
and our, our senior crisis manager,
even at the district level, we work in the district level.
They know that we are there. We work
with them on the field, patch us in.
If you go to the field, and this is a mental health issue,
purchasing, but it is also important to know
that police has CIT teams that are also trained.
So, um, they do the evaluation,
the purchasing, I will give an example.
We have someone who is a frequent flyer,
has mental health issues.
Um, police is trying to get an involuntary, uh, commitment.
They call K in.
We went, worked with them on it, got the person
to the care that they needed.
So we have, um, those relationships with the police.
Uh, we are trying to get to a sweet spot
where our community groups are not always comfortable with,
you know, the police involvement.
There are times when police need
to be involved because they're the primary.
Uh, but our hope is that we can build relationship
where they can patch us in if they go to the field,
if we don't know upfront if it's a mental health.
But if they go to the field
and realize it's mental health, we want them to be able
to call us in like you will call for and assist. Yeah. Um,
I think the challenge there is it feels like in some
regard, you guys are not an afterthought,
but lower in the workflow process, which doesn't help
for best practice or protocol.
That in reality you should definitely be at higher
levels talking to CPD.
Because if we want to get to a model
that we're expanding citywide, which we do,
that way we have officers doing less
and they can focus on what they need to.
And I think it might be a better allocation of funds
that you all would have to be kind of
at the planning stage rather than, Hey, we're gonna,
we'll contact you and let you know
when ultimately you're in charge
of like public health medical crises
or mental crises that people they may not know.
So what needs to get done so
that you all are placed higher in
priority for those conversations?
Yeah. So it requires region 11, um, guidance.
They develop the protocol for how nine 11, uh,
9 1 1 calls can be managed and triage.
So we are cleared for low equity calls.
Uh, there are only five cares, uh, calls
that are eligible for care.
And then mobile crisis teams,
if we could potentially go to three or four.
Um, but we'll have to negotiate with them
what we'll need to be able to make that happen. Is
There any, is there any part that we
can play help with that? Yes,
The CESA act.
Okay. All thank you very much. Thank you chairman.
Thanks. Um, and just on that subject, how, how often
are you engaging with the, I guess that would be OEMC, um,
to assess kind of how this is going.
The care teams are still relatively new. Mm-hmm.
Um, I'm sure we're learning a lot
as the calls are being taken
and as the teams are being deployed.
Um, is there a, a schedule,
a regular cadence of just check-ins? Yes.
Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes.
We have the steering committee meeting, regular steering
committee meeting with OEMC,
and then we have our staff
who are also embedded in the dispatch room as part
of the auditing process.
Um, I've got one question
before I hand it over to chair, uh, Rodriguez Sanchez.
Um, and that's a little off topic,
but still with within the topic of budget, um, can you talk
to me about, um, staffing ratios between, um, management
and frontline employees in CDPH?
I know because you guys are so grant heavy mm-hmm.
Um, and so many positions are recent as,
as those numbers are coming down.
Um, I'm just curious to know what those ratios look like.
Yes, it is constantly evolving.
Um, you, we, we've gone from a high
of about a thousand staff.
We're now around 700. We will, we may come lower.
Uh, so as some of this grants end,
the staffing ratio has changed a little.
But one of the things that we have paid attention to is
what we call the span of control.
Um, supervisory titles having an average of 68.
Um, we're averaging around four
or so right now as people go from those teams.
Uh, so we are restructuring
and sort of merging teams as we go.
Uh, we are hoping that by the end of this year,
we will be closer to that six to eight
for span of control back.
Right. Um, but as you know,
we have staff transitions and all of that.
We are consolidating.
So one example is when I started we had 13 deputy director,
deputy commissioners, we now have seven.
Um, so we are, you know, just merging as we go.
So that's, that's one area we're paying attention to.
Got it. So you've, you've gone from 13
to seven deputy commissioners, um, in, in the time.
So, and you said from a thousand employees to 700 staff.
Okay. Okay.
At the moment, at the, by the end of the year when
All things are subject to change right now, I I get that.
Okay. Um, chairwoman please.
Thank you. Vice chair. Um, you said a little bit ago that
the corporate funding for
CDPH is about 11%,
but last year
before last year was about 5%.
Is that all mental health expansion?
Uh, not quite.
Uh, so the percentage
of the total budget last year when we had more money,
the 76 million was a smaller percentage.
This year we have less money.
The 76 million is a higher percentage.
And what is it comprised of the 11%?
Like what was the, where,
which areas were increased from corporate?
So don't, yeah, so we didn't, we didn't get any increases.
The seven to six is the combination of, uh,
27 in the personnel that is tapping expenses
and 47 million in known personnel expenses.
Of that 47 million, we have close to 32 million for,
um, delegate agencies, mainly for mental health
and violence prevention.
And the rest is, uh,
all the other typical known personnel, uh, lines.
Okay. Thank you.
Um, I think my colleague, uh, Matt Martin
asked a little bit about this,
but I, I don't know that I got the full answer in my head.
Um, have we been exploring more opportunities for funding?
And if so, what does that look like for the department?
Um, more opportunity for the department as a whole. Yes.
Um, state collaboration, um, disease control is something
that we are quite worried about.
And this year the state, I think believe
invested $1 million in special pathogen treatment centers.
They don't give us the money.
They fund the organizations to do the work,
but at least that work supports Chicago.
Um, the state is also investing heavily in the healthcare
transformation work.
I think they have many millions
of dollars invested in there.
And then mental health work is also a place where the state
and the county is investing.
So, um, the way funding comes to us, you know, the,
the state or the county is not giving us money,
additional money, but they're investing in these programs
to ensure there is no gap.
Uh, so mental health investment by the county,
they've opened Providence,
they've expanded their mental health, uh, clinics so
that if there are gaps, they are filling those gaps.
And the same for the state.
Can you talk about the vacancies on the care program?
And, um, I'm interested in retention
and I think we have had conversations about
what can be some strategies that we can use.
Um, I'm very interested in the model
that Albuquerque has, which they created an academy
and they opened up, uh, a call for
applications from people
that were from different backgrounds.
Right? So they got teachers, they got social workers,
they even got police officers that didn't want
to be in the force anymore.
And that felt more, more compelled to do the care work.
And they trained them and they had 50 positions open
and they ended up with 500 applications
and they fill all the positions
and everybody is doing great.
Um, that is just one example, right?
But I, I think that in this moment we need
to be creative about how we go about this work.
The responders in Evanston, for example,
they are not licensed clinical social
workers or anything like that.
They are people that went through a training.
I already talked to the Chicago city colleges
and they would be super interested in creating a curriculum
to be able to do something like that.
I'm only offering that as an idea,
but I do want to hear your ideas about how do we make sure
that we are emphasizing retention
and that we're making it easier Yes.
To hire the people that we need.
'cause we, it is, it is an emergency.
You are right. Older woman.
Um, I know we've been in this conversation back and forth.
The model we have right now has emergency medical
technician, again with very limited areas of work,
emergency medical technician.
Mm-hmm. Um, then we have licensed, you know, social workers
who are crisis clinicians.
So again, very restricted areas
of work for what they can do.
Um, so one option is for us
to explore different titles for the work.
Um, there are two trade-offs are our clinicians right now
can actually provide clinical services and support.
Um, we can shift to a peer model.
When I was in New York, I was community mental health lead.
So we use peers, um, you know,
very similar people like you're describing.
They will not provide counseling, they will not provide,
but they can engage people and connect them to services.
So that's one model for us to consider What is sustainable,
what will actually work, and what gap are we trying to fill?
If the gap is high equity cases,
then we need highly specialized people
because of the liability that's ra.
Uh, linked to that, if we're doing mostly lower equity cases
and outreach, then the staff
that we have right now is not amenable to lower case.
So that, that we will run into challenges with, you know,
job descriptions and the scope of their work and union. Can
You exp I'm sorry. Can you
explain that a little bit more in detail to me?
What, what do you mean?
If our staff right now they provide mental
health services?
Yes. If we're looking for resource navigators,
people can just connect people to services.
They don't need to be mental health professionals. Mm-hmm.
They can be peers, they can be teachers that we train.
Um, we, we know those models
that are just using peer workers, community health workers.
We have, we have a lot of community health workers
that can do that work.
Uh, but the model that we have right now
that is emergency medical technician
and clinician, it's a very medical model.
So that, so the model, I am open to whatever model
we can use,
but the biggest thing for me is where is the gap?
I cannot design staffing if I don't know what it is
that I'm trying to solve for.
So what is the, if we look at the pool of the patients
that are calling 9 1 1, what do they tend to be
and what are they looking for?
And then what kind of staff will be best for the people
reaching out to us?
The state funded teams use peers.
So they do low equity cases. They affirm and connect.
Um, so we are, we are interested in exploring
what model will work for the needs that we have in Chicago.
What is obvious to us right now is that
the space is getting saturated for low equity cases
because we have the mental health.
We have 9 1 1. So they are handling all
their affirm, redirect.
If what we need is higher liquidity cases,
then the best option for us will be we have
to work very closely with police.
What do you mean saturated? Um, I don't, I don't see that.
I, I really want to be able to understand this
because what I am observing in my community at least,
and when I get in the CTA
and when I walk around the city is dysregulated people.
Yes. That have a lot of basic needs.
And when I interact with people,
because I talk to everyone, usually
the need is something pretty basic.
Yes. And then
after you have the interaction, you figure out
what is the next step?
What does this person need?
Do they need to be connected to social services?
Do they need outpatient? Who do I bring them to?
And I frankly don't think that there is a saturation of that
because I see it in my community all the time.
And it's the police who comes out
because I don't have care in my community.
So whenever I see somebody dysregulated, the people
that come out is the police
and the people who are dysregulated do
not want to talk to the police.
And they do not want to get in an ambulance
and they are going to walk away and we lose them.
So I don't, I I really want to be able
to understand the part like it, are there numbers?
Like what, what are we looking at
and what are we not looking at?
Because there's clearly a gap somewhere.
Yes. So you are right.
Older women, um, when I say saturated,
I'm saying those who are asking for help.
So if we look at those who are requesting services
from 9 1 1
or from behavioral health services,
we have the numbers from cesa.
Those who are calling, I say, I need help and want help
and the opportunities available
to help engage those people and support them.
That's what I mean. Like the 9, 8, 8 space
and the mobile crisis space.
Now what we are seeing a lot of time is a third party call.
You see someone who's dysregulated,
you call as a third party.
Now in engaging with that individual, that individual has
to be willing to engage with you.
So the third party views of
this person is dysregulated.
I, I will call 9 1 1 to come
and help that person is the space where we're in right now.
So the folks who are on their own saying I need help,
or their family members saying I need help.
Um, I think that those people, we are getting to them
and connecting with them.
The folks that are falling through the gaps are the folks
that a third party is calling
because I see somebody working on the streets
who's dis-regulated.
Now you can call me in,
but that person has to be willing to engage with me.
They may not be willing to engage with the police,
but we also need to be able to find them
and engage with them.
Um, one example is the, we've responded to some
of the frequent flyers in, in your, in your ward.
There are particular individuals there.
Um, the issue is meth use.
We've tried to engage with them several times.
We cannot engage around meth
because of the substance use component.
Uh, we have all for them services.
We have engaged with them several times.
Now, are they going to leave that area? No.
We offer them services
and say, you know, these are the substance
use disorders that we have.
We've engaged with them several times.
You will continue to see them there.
Um, if there's gonna be involuntary commitment
or hospitalization, we will need
to work with police to remove them.
But can we remove someone because of substance use disorder?
No. So they're very complex social issues.
My hope and my goal
as the public health commissioner is if you have a mental
health issue and you need help
and you want help, we want to be able to get to you.
Um, but many of those we're, we're encountering
that they're, they have complex social situations.
We need to be able to connect them
to care that is sustained.
But it, it is, it
Is not understand that.
Yeah. Let, let me ask you, so you're saying
that the data we're getting from cesa, from
and from from 9 88, what about the police?
We, we don't have the, that be
Because most of the time who comes out is the police.
Are we looking at the calls?
Are we talking to police about these calls
that they are constantly, we just talked to CPD this morning
and we were talking about
what would it look like if you didn't have to go out
and respond to all of these things that you cannot solve.
Like I see you every day going out there and standing
and not being effective at this.
That is the Opportunity. It's just not effective.
You're not helping anybody. We're wasting resources.
So are we looking at the calls that are coming
through CPD that end up like that?
Do we document any of it so that we can improve outcomes?
Because I am going insane
looking at the broken system.
That does not work.
We continue to do the same thing over and over.
We're not helping people. So how do we fix that?
That is where there is an opportunity.
When I talked about police assist, there are two pathways
to this upfront or on the backend upfront.
We have done a lot of work on the upfront in the triage.
We're embedded in the dispatch if, are they missing any
of these checkpoints, um, that is required.
Um, those who are unknown is, is a gray area.
Uh, so we are looking at it very closely.
And then on the backend, if you go out, if the police
goes out and say, this is mental health, we want them
to be, be able to purchase in.
So those are the two angles that we have been exploring.
Where are we losing people?
But if you, you know, we, we will share through the,
the chair the numbers that we have.
We share those numbers with you.
Uh, in terms of these are the five calls that are eligible
for us, are we missing any of those calls?
To the best of my knowledge,
audit admin, audited and audited.
We are not missing the calls that are eligible for us.
Are there other calls that can come to us
that will require collaboration to say, yes,
we send you these calls,
but on paper those calls belong to police
and police needs to be able to call us in
to say we are handing it over to you.
And we, and we don't know
how often the police is calling us when they,
We, we have 39 assists this year.
We have done 39 assists that they have called us in.
Okay. I guess part of the other question is
with this steering committee,
I'm assuming CPD is part of that.
Um, I, I think it's a data issue, right?
Uh, what what we're talking about right now is the
disconnect between when a nine one one call is placed
and the police are dispatched
and then they discover that it's a mental health mm-hmm.
Um, issue and what actions being taken at that point.
And I think part of that is going to be whether
or not care teams are available in that area
or not, and where they're not.
Then what's the next step?
Are the police simply leaving and not doing any follow up?
Mm-hmm. That's a data point that's useful, right?
Like, should we share, that should be shared here.
Um, is there a card we can leave behind?
Um, I mean it's some, it's, I I think a lot
of this can be done with communication too.
Like, we're not the right people to help you
and we're here here, right.
We have to leave you with
something, not just leave you. Right.
Right, right. And that requires self-awareness on the part
of the agency,
but it also requires for us to make a decision of
what we want the police for.
And I don't think that there's a consensus of
what we want the police for, because historically we have
just been throwing everything
that we failed at policy-wise to the police.
So then they just are used
to managing whatever, and they show up.
And if there's nothing to do, they will leave.
Which is why I, what I observe over and over and over
and we're not really being effective
or having good outcomes.
So I, I do think that
that is something that we need to work on.
Well, I think, I think we all want for
every s**t the city, city agency,
I did not mean for that to come up that way.
Every city agency to, oh my God.
Don't, don't, please don't replay that tape. Keep going.
I'm never gonna recover from that one.
We want every city agency to be set up for success. Right.
And, and success, I think has to mean like, what?
It has to be more outcomes based.
Um, I, I, I would acknowledge that completely.
I, I don't, I do not believe that the police inherently,
not they, that they don't want to help people.
I think we have to set everybody up for success
and to ensure that people have,
the people's skills are being used to the, uh, the highest
and best value to the citizens of the residents
of the, the city of Chicago.
Um, so I think, you know, we'd love to hear more about like
what sort of reporting comes out of this steering committee.
Bless you. Um, public health. Yes.
Someone gave it up to Zyrtec. Um, yes.
If we can hear a little bit more about what's coming out
of the steering committee, I think I, I, I don't follow it
as closely as, uh, uh, chair, uh, Rodriguez Sanchez does.
Um, but it would be great to hear about, um, just sort of
what, what have we learned so far?
Um, where are the gaps that we can identify and,
and what are the steps that you wanna take to improve?
'cause you know, we're, we're gonna continue to do this.
Take a look at what's working
and what's not, and what's not working.
Let's try to fix. Um,
did you have any other questions here?
No, no, for now. Thank you. You're good. Okay. Anybody else?
Okay. Well with that, I thank you.
Uh, we'll, we'll see you right back here about a month. Yes.
Um, hopefully this gave you a good
sense of what folks are interested in.
Thank you again for all of the work that your teams do.
Thank you. I know, uh, these are very trying times
and unpredictable, um, and they have to be very stressful.
So I appreciate everything that you all. Thank you.
Thanks so much. Uh, the committee's going to be recessed
until tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM Thank you.