Now, Rick,
Good morning. The
time is, uh, 9 33.
Uh, we're gonna be begin today's recess meeting
with public comment.
Uh, I've got six individuals who've
requested for public comment.
Are there any others who would like
for public comment today?
Okay. Seeing none, uh, we'll start with, uh, TTA Thomas.
Good Morning. Followed by, I'm sorry, ma'am.
Followed by Zoe Lee.
Is this thing going? Okay. Good morning, Mr.
Chair and members of the committee.
My name is TTA Thomas, a voter and resident of Chicago.
Today's hearing covers departments
of aviation water management, fleet and facility management
and buildings, and I wanted to speak plainly, plainly about
how the city's approach to infrastructure funding continues
to hurt residents, small businesses,
and even city employees, while leaving millions of dollars,
mismanaged or wasted, starting with water management.
This one is personal.
From April, 2024 through June, 2025,
I was displaced from my home
for over a year due to flood damage.
There was no running water yet.
I still received a monthly water bill the entire time.
My property has no water meter,
which means those bill were false estimates,
and that's fraudulent billing.
If this is happening to me,
how many other residents are paying for water?
They never used the department steal budgets
for water meter management.
Yet thousands of homes remain unmetered,
and the city continues building on outdated formulas
that assume constant usage.
Before any rate adjustments,
this department needs a full audit of unmetered accounts
and estimated bills
because collecting money
for services never rendered is not just unethical.
It's theft from taxpayers.
For aviation, passenger numbers are back
to pre pandemic levels, but revenue growth from airlines
and concessionaires is lagging.
Instead of financing projects through more borrowing,
the city should require profit sharing agreements
with vendors and airlines directing a portion
of terminal revenue into maintenance
and workforce force training.
This will reduce the need for new debt
and protect both travelers
and employees from cost cutting
that undermines safety and service.
The fleet and facility management department maintains
hundreds of underused buildings and vehicles.
We could generate millions by conducting an asset audit
and leasing idle city properties
for renewable energy projects or logistics hubs.
Fleet electrification supported
through private sector partnerships could cut fuel
and repair costs by millions without another
dollar from residents.
And in the Department of buildings, escalating permit
and inspection fees are strangling small contractors
and homeowners, a tiered permit system
where large commercial developers pay more while small scale
projects pay less, would make revenue fairer
and support local business growth instead of stifling it.
Mr. Chair, the theme,
the theme across these departments is clear.
We don't have a shortage of money.
We have a shortage of management accountability
before asking residents for another dime,
this city must plug its leaks literally and financially.
We can fund infrastructure through efficiency partnerships
and transparency, not constant collection from taxpayers.
Chicagoans are not the city's ATM we are. Its foundation.
It's time the budget reflected the truth. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Thomas. Uh, next we will have Zoe Lee,
followed by Danielle Carter.
Um, I want to address these rules real quick.
Um, good morning. My name is Zoe Lee, founder
of Chicago First Red,
and I want to address the so-called rules
of conduct for public meetings.
I've read them carefully and let me be clear.
Several of these rules appear
to violate the Uni United States Constitution,
which you guys clearly do not know about.
We are guaranteed the right to free speech
and petition under the First Amendment.
That means the public has the right to express disagreement,
frustration, and even anger toward government officials
as long as it doesn't become violent
or physically disruptive.
But these rules go far beyond keeping order.
They say we must remain seated at all times.
Can't raise our arms.
Can't boo can't use speech
that someone considers abusive or defamatory.
That's vague, subjective and un unconstitutional.
One's person's criticism is another person's defamation.
One person's passion is another's person's disruption.
The Supreme Court has been clear.
Government can't silence speech simply
because it's uncomfortable or unpopular.
And you guys have an issue with that here.
You guys are super biased when people are clapping
for your BS that you do.
You guys have a, you guys being here stealing like a lot.
I've been stealing a lot of stuff. You understand?
Like when it comes to the buildings department,
that's why I really came here today
because the city of Chicago has a lot of buildings,
uh, that work.
The building, the City of Chicago buildings department,
Marlene Hopkins has a lot of buildings out here that are
need to be, be condemned, need to be vi, need
to be demolished.
But you guys will go to single families.
You will go to small businesses, you will go to Landmark.
Y'all, y'all have knocked down every landmark in the black
community from the Sandpiper Lounge to the Fannie Mae Candy
to Gladys Kitchenette.
Like you guys. This is what you guys do.
But when it comes to any other, any other, um, ward,
you guys for some reason are able to give them money
Landmark that do anything like,
or if they're plugged in with the city,
but Mack Properties, a lot
of those buildings should be condemned.
Draper and Kramer, a lot
of those buildings should be condemned, but
however, those buildings still stand high
with help Bill building violations bug, uh, uh,
bedbugs when you guys have an ordinance
that you guys are supposed to charge them 500 to $5,000
per incident, and you guys don't even do that.
You probably would be out the hole
if you guys would start charging these billion dollar
developers that continue
to slumlord be slumlords in our communities,
and you allow it to be like something
that's like 7,500 South Shore where y'all guys knew
that should have been condemned and a murder was in there.
But hey,
Thank you for your comment Ms. Lee.
Uh, next we'll have, uh, Danielle Carter, followed
by Sam Barth.
Just, just like what Zo said about these rules right here,
the sergeant in arms made sure he told us
to look at those rules when we walked in,
and I know he's just doing his job,
but like we keep telling you all,
you all will not take our constitutional right.
All these rules are garbage,
and we will not follow these rules.
We will follow the Constitution just like you all are making
sure illegal aliens have constitutional rights
that they don't have and you all are fighting for.
Secondly, what's messed up about this whole
situation is yesterday me
and Zoe Lee decided to take a visit to the, uh,
unforgotten residents that you all don't care about
that Brandon Johnson hate since we're talking about housing
and, and fighting financing.
Well, we went on 22nd and Surat
and we talked to the residents
that were laying on the ground.
You know, the, the Chicagoans that Brandon Johnson say,
he's looking after us.
Well, we talked to them
and they said somebody from the city came over to talk
to them about th two or three months ago,
and they haven't heard anything.
It's cold. They're sleeping on the ground.
You all have not offered them housing.
You all have not did anything to help them,
but yet you all offer illegal aliens, everything,
free housing, free food, a warm place
to stay while our residents are laying on the ground.
So we told them, we got their numbers
because some of them, just about one
or two of them had phones,
but the other one said, Hey, they don't even have phones,
but we know all the illegal aliens have phones, iPhone,
iPhones and Jordan's, things like that.
So we got their number and we are going over there today,
and we told them, we will let you put you all on notice,
a 48 hour notice, 22nd
and cmac, if you all do not get down there
and help those residents that you all said
that you all were, you know, building a better, safer,
affordable Chicago.
Four, if you all do not get down there
and help those residents,
like you all are helping illegal aliens,
you all have 48 hours.
If not, we are going to bust.
We are going to put the resident, those residents in our car
and bring them up here so they can tell you
what you all have not done,
and show the world how you all hate Americans.
So we are going to make sure that you all,
we are putting you on notice.
You all have 48 hours to go down there on 22nd and cmac
and, and, and help the real residents of Chicago, the people
who built this city, and we letting you know that.
And we will be over there. We giving you two days.
Let them residents don't be off the
ground and getting some help.
Thank you for your comments.
Uh, next we have, uh, Sam Barth, followed
by Jessica Jackson.
Hey, good morning. Uh, my name is Sam Barth.
I'm an attorney at Law Center for Better Housing
and I'm here today on behalf
of the Chicago Healthy Homes Coalition.
Uh, here to talk today about the need
for a rental registry in the city of Chicago.
Uh, we deal with a, uh, a lot of tenants in our work
and, uh, a lot of, we see a lot of common issues.
One is tenants being scammed by landlords
who are not their landlord.
Tenants are paying rent to people who are not the landlord
and then end up in eviction court when the
real landlord shows up.
We also have issues with tenants who have conditions issues
and aren't able to, to know who to get in touch with
because, uh, one guy comes around at the first of the month
and picks up the rent checks
and isn't responsive when tenants have issues.
And there's no way to get in touch with the landlord about
how to fix these issues.
Uh, so these are both situations
where a rental registry would be very helpful for tenants
because a central database
where tenants can look up their renters
or look up their owners would help know
who owns the building, the condition of the building,
and how to get in touch with issues in the building.
But the reason I'm here today is
'cause I think, uh, it, it also connects with
what the Work Department of Buildings does
and why we're seeking the Department
of Building support here.
Uh, if we could have a centralized database with the city
of Chicago, then we can have one place
where the departments can coordinate
and have, be able to share information about buildings
and be able to really understand what's going on in these
buildings and what, you know, actually get the help
that folks need in order
to keep the buildings livable and habitable.
Um, so we're seeking, uh, $500,000, uh,
as a small grant request in order to create
and maintain a, uh, uh, rental registry in the city
of Chicago that'll help both the residents
and, and the city.
Uh, thank you very much for your time.
Thank you, Mr. Barr. Uh, next Jessica Jackson,
uh, followed by finer final speaker.
Uh, Mr. George Blakemore.
You may begin.
Uh, good morning. My name is Jessica Jackson
and I'm looking at the screen here
and it says, fiscal year 2026, budget recommendation summary
prepared by the Council Office of Financial Analysis.
Now, I'm trying to figure out, especially
as a retired accountant, I'm trying to figure out
how a financial analysis
and a budget recommendation summary for next next year
can be done when the reality is an actual audit
hasn't been done for this year or the year before.
Now, we have consistently asked Deborah Wiseberg, the Office
of Inspector General to do a forensic audit.
I wrote it to her at least twice asking for it.
I've said it from this mic to her two,
three times asking for it.
The people of Chicago have come over
and over to this mic asking for it,
but you all are not going to give it to us
because you all do not want to line item
and itemize the monies
that you all spent on illegal immigration.
You all do not want to show how you took COVID money
and spent it on illegal immigration.
You don't want to show how you took all these
increases in taxes that you did last year to cover up
what you did and the money you spent
for illegal immigration.
You all want to continue
with your spending on illegal immigration, if nothing else,
by paying these paid protestors to be out here
and waste more money
to fight the federal government when you know you cannot
win, then you got these people here today
ready to make some more investments in affordable housing,
no doubt by the city of Chicago
and Cook County is stealing
property from private owners like myself.
So when the gentleman got up
and talked about the issues with, uh, people now knowing who
to pay rent to, I tell you, some people who's stealing rent
the Office of Public Administration,
they're stealing properties.
Yeah. Ask me, Jessica, Renee Jackson, ask Tina l uh,
Polus Louis g Apostle.
Ask them, they're stealing property.
So all of you all in here that's coming in here
to do your little affordable housing deals and stuff.
Notice that Cook County is transferring and giving you all,
and you all are participating in moving stolen goods.
You all are committing theft as you move
and getting these south side, south properties,
south shore properties buying whatever you're buying,
you are committing theft of real estate.
Okay,
Thank you for your comment.
Our final public speaker for today is Mr. George Blakemore.
Where are you Mr. Blakemore?
I met a budget committee on budget
and government operation.
How many people are present, Mr.
Blakemore, but maybe I'm not talking about staff.
Maybe about 12.
What's going on over there at the county?
They're having their board meeting.
Well, uh, connect those dots.
The county's having their board meeting and,
and the aviation is coming up, uh, here today.
Water's coming up. And where are the alman?
Where are the alman hugging and kissing
and grinning and grinning?
Where are the Altman?
Is something wrong with, uh, the Altman? No.
Is something wrong with us to allow this to happen?
It goes to aviation.
I'm seeing more black faces and, and I'm liking that
and our dialogue with some of the ladies and, and,
and we have a new person over aviation.
I, I want to see my people get these, uh, jobs.
Uh oh, working.
No concessions
with the money concession.
Mr. Blakemore, why are you so loud?
Or what's happening here? Racism.
What? Nepotism, what
corruption, what?
Well, I see these black faces.
I'm, I'm not talking about the staff.
I'm talking about where the ultimates and,
and one of the young ladies say, Mr.
Blakemore, we stayed to 10 o'clock, uh, uh, uh,
nine o'clock, uh, uh, last night.
And Dorothy, Dorothy, Tim said Mr.
Bmore stayed, uh, all, uh, uh, uh, late
to nine o'clock at night.
And she said, well, there's something wrong with him.
With him. She said, it got to be crazy to to, to go.
I went to every one of 'em, every one of 'em.
Well, well, maybe it's something wrong with Mr. Blakemore.
Maybe it's something wrong with the system.
Racism is alive here.
We have black faces in high places selling us
out, not the staff.
So black people have a mental problem.
They're still on the white man plantation
and they don't know it.
I think they know it,
but they don't know how to get off the plantation.
They don't know how.
If they did, they would, if they could,
they have a mental problem.
Look at these empty seats here. And you are.
Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Blakemore.
Uh, alright. Uh, we'll stand at, we'll stand at ease while
we transition over to, uh, aviation.
Alright. The community will come back to order.
Um, our first department
for today is the Department of Aviation.
Uh, we will have a brief overview by, uh,
COFA director Jan Otis Gray, followed by, uh,
commissioners, uh, remarks
and introduction of his staff in the well, as
well as those that are in the box.
Ms. Oda Gray, you may proceed.
Chairman Irvin Al Persons guest. Good morning.
My name is Janice Ode, gray,
chief Administrative Officer of Kofa.
For those following with the Kofa book, the elders
were on page 180 2.
I did,
Mm-hmm.
The Department of Aviation proposed budget
for fiscal year 2026 is 1,666
point 19 million,
which is 8.71%,
or 133.45 million higher than the revised
2025 numbers.
The FTEs for fiscal year 2026
is 2,445, which is 53
FTEs higher than fiscal year 2025.
The revised amount. The Department
of Aviation has personnel cost
of 259.28 million non-personnel costs
of 1406.91 million.
Looking at appropriations by category, you can see
with the appropriations.
The highest one, of course is equipment
going down to the fund descriptions.
The Department of Aviation is self-funded.
We have two major funds, the Chicago Midway Airport Fund
and Chicago O'Hara Airport Fund,
looking at the appropriation by fund historical data.
It's trending for the past.
Uh, looking at fiscal year 25, revised
over fiscal year 2026.
Recommended it has edged up just a little bit.
The FTEs for the Department of Aviation
has been relatively flat.
I did go up this year just a little bit from 2 9 9 2 3 9 2
to 2 4, 4 5.
That concludes the report. Thank you.
Thank you, director.
Um, good.
You guys good? Yeah. Okay, good. Alright. Thank you.
Uh, welcome, uh, commissioner McMurray, um,
to the Committee on Budget and Government Operations.
This is your, uh, first rodeo.
Uh, I hope it is a, um,
e not, I won't wanna say easy,
but, uh, uh, you're getting,
we're gonna get you a little workout in today,
so we'll, we'll get you going.
So commissioner, welcome.
And, uh, if you can introduce the members of the team
that you do have with us here,
and those that are in the box as well as, uh,
begin with your opening statement.
Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Um, again, my name is Michael McMurray.
I am commissioner for the Chicago Department of Aviation.
And today I have with me, um, the department, CFO
to my right is naed.
Um, to his right is my first deputy, our first deputy,
uh, Tracy Payne.
And in the box, um, from left to right,
we have managing Deputy Tammy Morgan,
managing Deputy Richard Rodriguez,
Robert Rodriguez, I'm sorry.
Um, managing deputy, uh, Amber Ritter, managing deputy, uh,
Isaiah Vega, managing deputy of Midway,
Elizabeth Granado Perez, managing deputy.
Um, Dwayne Hayden.
We had hi, um, our, uh, assistant Commissioner
of Intergovernmental Affairs, Bernadette Williams.
And right behind her we have Managing Deputy Rob Diaz.
And then next to Rob, we have Managing Deputy Zach,
Zach b Bauman.
And, um, we have Deputy Commissioner Angie Kka,
and then also our, uh, director, uh, Kevin Barness.
Thank you.
Did I open the statement? Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
So thank you again.
Uh, chairman Irving and, uh, vice Chairman Lee
and Esteem members of the county on budget
and government operations.
Thank you for the opportunity to present
to Chicago Departments of Aviation 2026 budget.
I am honored to join you for my first budget hearing
as commissioner, and to continue the CDAs, uh, tradition
of excellence and innovation
and partnership with the mayor Brandon Johnson.
And this council. I also want
to extend my sincere appreciation to Chairman Matt Shea
and Vice Chairman Derek Curtis
of the City Council Committee on Aviation
for their steadfast leadership
and partnership in advancing Chicago's
aviation's priorities.
Working together, we are guiding O'Hare
and midway into a new era,
and it's an era defined by growth, stability, inclusion,
and community connection.
As you all know, our airports remain vital
to Chicago's economic health,
supporting more than 700,000 regional jobs
and generating over 45 billion in annual economic activity.
As we launch historic capital programs,
strengthen our community partnerships
and record travel levels, those numbers serve
as a constant reminder of what's at stake
and what drives our work each day.
This summer was the busiest in O'Hare,
70 year history driven
by strong travel demand throughout June, July, and August.
The airport Welcome more than 24 million passengers over the
three month period surpassing the previous
summer record set.
In 2019, July stood out
as O'Hare single busiest month ever
with more than 8.2 million travelers, an average
of about 266,000 people each day.
So far. This year, through August,
O'Hare has served more than 56 million passengers up more
than 6% from last year.
And while aircraft, the operations have increased
by over 11%,
these milestones reaffirmed Chicago standing as one, as one
of the world's most connective connected
and competitive airport hubs.
And they underscore the import importance of investing now
to meet tomorrow's demand.
Just two months ago, mayor Johnson joined us
to break ground on the first project ORD Next,
the bold next FA phase of O'Hare 21 Capital Program.
The new concourse d now under construction marks the first
phase of the largest terminal expansion in O'Hare history
designed by the renowned Chicago firm,
Skidmore, Owens, and Merrill.
The concourse will deliver 19 new gates
light field spaces inspired by Chicago's natural beauty
and an estimated 3,800 new construction jobs.
ORD Next also includes the new concourse e,
an additional satellite concourse expanding domestic
capacity, and the O'Hare global terminal,
which will transform terminal two into a state-of-the-art
international gateway, doubling his footprint
and remaining, uh, re-imagining the passenger experience.
These projects will strengthen O'Hara's position
as a leader leading global aviation hub, while ensuring
that growth is inclusive.
To date, the O'Hare program has already paid more than
$759 million to city
of Chicago's certified minority and women owned firms,
or 30 per 36% of payments made to date surpassing.
Our MWBE participation goes of 32%.
At Midway, we continue to build on the success
of the Midway Modernization program.
With new investments in the airfield
that would improve safety efficiency in reali
and reliability for decades to come.
Construction is underway on a major runway rehabilitation
that supports strong daily operations
and preserve midway's role as a vital gateway
for millions of travelers.
Each year, Midway's modernization has delivered brighter,
faster checkpoints, upgraded concessions,
and new amenities, such as the new Club Midway
and a renovated USO Center, making it a model of support
of smart community and focus reinvestment.
At the CDA, we believe the city benefits.
We believe the benefits of our airports must reach
beyond the terminals into Chicago's neighborhoods.
This year we joined Mayor Johnson at a take back the block
event in the Chatham neighborhood to roll out Pop Blue,
our new community outreach vehicle,
bringing career resources, small business information
and educational programming directly into communities across
all 77 neighborhoods.
We also launched a new family night initiative,
welcoming nearly 50 residents to midway for
behind the scenes experiences that connect families
to aviation and fun inclusive ways to further elevate,
uh, equity and accessibility.
We introduced sensory maps, videos,
and other accessibility resources across both airports.
These enhancements, including detailed visual maps,
audio guides, and calming sensory uh, spaces are designed
to support neurodivergent travelers who may have sensory
sensitivities by making our airports more navigable
and less o and less, uh, overwhelming.
This program underscores our commitment that every Chicagoan
and visitor feels welcome
and empowered when they pass through our airports.
Through these efforts
and through programs like CDA Career prep,
our ongoing partnership with city colleges,
we are opening doors for Chicagoans
to explore careers in aviation, construction
and trades that build lifelong pathways to success.
As you all know, our airports remain self-sustaining,
operating without reliance on local tax dollars.
This independence allows us
to focus on responsible long-term investments
that balance growth with fiscal stewardship.
Our 2026 proposed budget, 739.9 million
for O'Hare and 179.8 million for midway
prioritizes operational excellence, workforce development
and community investment, while seeking
to maintain affordability
for our airline partners and passengers.
In conclusion, we must always remember
that our airports are the front doors to Chicago
and their strengths rec, uh, reflect the spirit of our city,
diverse, resilient, and forward looking.
With ORD next, breaking ground community engagement,
expanding and record number of travelers choosing Chicago,
we are entering a new era of unprecedented opportunity.
I am deeply grateful for your continued partnership
and your commitment to keeping Chicago a global
leader in aviation.
Together we are ensuring that O'Hare
and Midway remain engines of opportunity for our residents,
our workers, and future generations. Thank you.
Thank you, commissioner. Uh, opening will be our chairman
of, of Community on Aviation.
Uh, chairman O'Shay. Thank
You, chairman.
Well, we appreciate the lengthy intro Commissioner
because we've doubled the amount
of City Council members in the room since you started.
It's an honor to open today's hearing
and welcome Commissioner McMurray
and the team here from the Chicago Department of Aviation.
We're in the midst of a critical
and exciting time in the history
of O'Hara International Airport.
The ORD Next program will likely be the single largest
investment in public infrastructure
at the Chicago Department of Aviation than ever before.
Commissioner McMurray, I'd like to thank you
for delivering that leadership.
You hit the ground running
and have already delivered for the residents of Chicago.
This summer's groundbreaking event for concourse D
sent a clear message to the aviation industry,
to the traveling public,
and to all Chicagoans that this project is coming.
And that wouldn't have happened without a tremendous amount
of hard work from you and your team.
On a personal note, over these last several months,
I've enjoyed getting to know you personally, sir,
and working with you and look forward
to getting more things done together.
You're supported by a great team,
which I never failed to mention.
It's important that it be mentioned,
but I'd like to recognize a few of them.
That leadership team, talented professional,
it's an honor to work with all of them.
Starting off with Bernie Williams, who, uh,
sometimes I feel like I speak with more than than my wife.
Uh, Amber Ritter, Rob Diaz, Dan Vegas
by town, Dwayne Hayden on behalf
of the entire Chicago City Council.
I'd also like to thank your first deputy Tracy Payne
for stepping up earlier this year.
And as Zach Balman for leading the Capital Program.
Zach, your work on that program has been invaluable,
not only to the airport, but to our entire city.
Thank you all. Commissioner,
I wanna talk a little bit about the, uh, ORD NEXT program.
Um, it captures the power
and the promise of what's possible
when we think big about air travel,
our economy and our city.
Could you tell us a little bit about what this will be
as we continue to work through this program? Sure.
Thank you, uh, chairman.
Um, the ORD next is the next phase,
and it's, it's, it's our next vision of the transformation
of O'Hare International Airport.
Um, and in the past, we've, we've focused on, um,
reconfiguring and transforming and growing our airfield,
but now we are focused on our facilities, our terminals,
to enhance the passenger experience.
So it's the next phase of that
and what it includes, um, the major components of
that is our concourse D.
So it's a new 590,000 square foot concourse,
as I mentioned a little bit earlier, 19, uh, new gates.
Uh, we broke ground on
that this past August, uh, early August.
Um, and we expect to have that completed in, uh, 2028.
But, uh, it also includes, uh, a second concourse,
concourse E will be just short of, um, of,
um, just south of where concourses, uh, D is going now.
And then also a new global terminal,
which will be the crown jewel, um, that's gonna go exactly
where terminal two is.
So we'll have to demolish terminal terminal two.
But again, it's all to, um, advance, uh, what we are looking
to do to improve, uh, a number of different things,
airfield operations, um,
and reliability, um, terminal connection, um, to reduce,
um, uh, um, you know, wait times for gates
and taxiing times.
And, and, and important also is
just the connectivity, right?
Uh, connecting, uh, inter domestic to international flights
and also passengers to airlines.
So it's a $8.5 billion project over the next eight
to 10 years at O'Hare International Airport.
Thank you. Uh, commissioner, we're on our fourth week,
uh, of a government shutdown.
Can we talk a little bit about, uh, how
that has impacted our two international airports
and, uh, what we should tell our constituents as, uh,
much like the budget, budget season, uh,
we're coming up on the holiday season.
Yeah, so, uh, the shutdown, um, clearly it's unfortunate.
Um, and, um, a lot of our partners, um, at, um,
Chicago Department of Aviation, our federal partners such
as the FAA and TDSA, um, you know, they're, they're,
um, it affects them.
Fortunately, um, we have not seen any impact,
very little impact, if any, at both of our airports due
to the shutdown.
But that being said, you know, we are monitoring this
because clearly, uh, the longer it goes on,
it could eventually impact, um, operations at O'Hare
and Midway International Airport.
But to date, we've seen very minimal of any
disruptions due to the shutdown.
Thank you. Um, Can I, can I interject for a second?
Um, the air traffic controllers,
my understanding is that they're not being paid right now,
That I that is correct, yes.
Um, and they essentially, for all intents
and purposes, controlled traffic at the airport
and literally control the ins and outs of the airport.
Yes. Ha Have we contemplated, uh,
some level if this continues
to drag on some level of direct pavement?
Because if they can't operate,
that means we can't operate, right?
And without them, you know, it just doesn't move.
But if we, if they get to that point, have we come up
with some type of contingency to kind of make sure
that they still come to work?
Yeah, that's a great question. Alderman.
You know, those, um, those particular federal roles,
we work closely with our partners,
but, you know, we don't, we can't, we do not,
and we can't engage those particular roles
and highly regulated, uh, by Congress
and certain, uh, credentials and criteria one needs.
What we have done is, you know, we've continued to work
and we are anticipating having to work with them regarding,
uh, what we can do to, uh, alleviate any kinds
of passengers, disruptions or inconvenience.
Uh, but unfortunately, you know, right now, you know,
we are, uh, uh, they control, as you mentioned, you know,
the airspace and the air service.
Um, and so we've continued to monitor, um, you know,
uh, the situation.
Um, but with respect to our being able to support
with payment, there's, um, you know, that's, that's, uh,
through federal guidelines.
Okay. No, I just, I,
I raised that, 'cause that's a good question.
No, I, you know, and I, and I, I want us
to really explore that.
Okay. 'cause if this thing continues to drag out, we,
we may find people just deciding not to come to work as well
as even TSA, uh, members as, as well.
So, again, those are two very critical components that
drive the traffic at the airport.
And if the planes can't fly, the people don't show up.
The people don't show up. People
that live in my ward, they can't go to work.
So I'm, I am very concerned about that component
of it while this, uh, this, uh, drags,
drags along. Go ahead, Mr. Chairman. Yeah,
Thanks, chairman.
Um, the, uh, order up concession
RFP do earlier this year.
Uh, can you update my colleagues as to where things are at,
what the status is of those bids?
Sure. So, um, order of concessions is, um, the new RFP
that went out earlier this year for, uh,
concessions in both terminals one
and three at inter, uh, O'Hare International Airport.
Uh, we receive, um, bids on those, uh, responses to
that RFP back in June right now.
Um, those, um, those, each of those, um, proposal
or bids are being, um, evaluated for, um,
technical compliance, um, um, and legal
and technical compliance.
And so we were very thrilled
that we had a tremendous response.
We had, uh, 21 total packages, um, for odor, odor up,
um, 13, uh, food and beverage six, um, retail,
and one, um, a duty free.
It's 148,000 square feet, one of the largest ever in
for North American or American Airport,
and maybe one of the biggest solicitations ever.
So 148,000 square feet, approximately 110, uh,
uh, stores or commercial spaces.
We are very excited, um, with the response that we receive.
It was overwhelming. Um,
and again, we are in the process of reviewing those bids,
and we help hope to have them awarded by either the end
of this year or early first quarter of next year.
Okay. Um, I know several
of my other colleagues had questions,
but, uh, again, just in closing,
we appreciate your strong leadership
and all the work your folks are, are doing.
Uh, not only those here,
but those, the,
the 50,000 plus working at our two international airports.
Uh, thank you for your strong leadership.
That's it for me, chairman.
Thank you, chairman. Uh,
to follow up on a concession question that you,
that you just raised, um, I, I read, uh, is it yesterday,
I believe, about Chicago brand, um, Jean
and Georgetti, uh, leaving the airport.
The reason I raised this is
because at Midway, uh, I found that, uh, there were lots
of Chicago based brands.
And I think that's one of the very unique, uh,
things about the airport is people come to Chicago
to get a taste of our food, our, our history,
and the, like, one other location that's actually, uh, in,
in my ward, Manny's, uh, they're no longer at the airport,
wouldn't even have a McDonald's at Midway Airport.
I mean, McDonald's is a Chicago based company.
Uh, know we got a medal here, but not at Midway Airport.
And, um, I'm just trying to understand the rationale
and reasoning behind the loss of very iconic Chicago brands,
uh, in our, in our airports.
So, Mr. Chairman, um, um, I, I'm familiar with the, uh,
uh, concessions that you referred to jeans.
And, um, I, I, I became aware of the situation yesterday.
I also read the article, you know, uh,
genes Base Patrol has been at Midway for quite some time,
um, the, since 2017,
the concessions program at Midway International Airport has
been operated by, uh, midway Partnership.
It's a joint venture, uh, comprised of Vantage Group, SSP,
American Hudsons, which is Volta.
And they've operated there since 2017, um, the program.
And they've operated that program at midway at since 2017,
pursuant to a, uh, RFP that was issued
by the city of Chicago.
Um, and, uh, it was a competitive bid.
Uh, they were awarded that, uh, concessions program, right,
to operate that in 26 17, again, you know,
by the city of Chicago.
And so they Midway partners independently oversee all
aspects of the Airports Concessions program, including,
you know, operating selection agreement turns
and concept developments.
So the team regularly evaluates
and refresh, um, their dining concept
to keep offerings current and appealing to travelers.
So as part of this ongoing effort,
midway Partners has elected
to refresh the Genes bistro concept.
And, um, and so today, you know,
all the joint venture partners there,
the restaurant operators, the airport concessionaire,
the A CDB partners, they all remain the same.
Um, um, but
what I understand is the only change involves the, uh, uh,
you know, uh, midway Partners looking to refresh
their concepts there.
Now that, that refresher,
that transition really reflects Midway's continued
commitment to, um, enhancing, uh, the guest experience
and offering diverse dynamic mix of food
and beverage options that drive, uh,
the revenue at the airport.
But, but it seems like the refreshing
of these concepts have come at the expense
of Chicago based businesses.
Um, when I think about the license
and agreements that exist, these are agreements that are
for Chicago based businesses that create, you know,
some economic activity for them.
And when you look across the landscape
and you see the iconic Chicago businesses continuously
pushed outta the airport, that
to me doesn't sound like something that we, as the city
of Chicago should be supportive of.
As, again, I look at, you know, Manny's, I look at now, Jean
and Georgetti, uh, uh, we look at these,
what I will call iconic Chicago businesses not being
president in our, one of our, I think, most cherish
and valuable spaces, um, at the airport.
And only seems like a move to,
I mean, in, in this case with Gina George,
they still have 15 years left on the licensing agreement,
and now it's what, oh,
a year on, oh, um, it's, it, it seems like there are,
you know, they've got these terms on these licensing
agreements, but are being pushed out for just to,
we're refreshing concepts.
I saw the White Sox grill at, at midway,
but it, to me, even though the White Sox are a part
of Chicago, that's not what I would consider to be a, a,
a food icon in Chicago.
Um, and, and I'm, I'm concerned about, you know,
people being pushed out, especially
local businesses being pushed out of the airport, uh, just
for the sake of making revenue.
Again, we know it's a captive audience out there.
Where are you gonna go? It is not like you're
gonna leave and go somewhere else.
They're gonna buy what's there.
But I think that flavor of Chicago being there has always
been critical to our, our airports.
And and I think that's something that we need to
be in discussion, uh, with the concessionaire on,
because again, that, that just seems to be a little unfair
to our, our, our businesses to,
to be pushed out in, in that fashion. So,
So, uh, Mr. Chair,
if I respond to Go ahead, that too as well, um,
you know, uh, one of the goals there is to make sure both
of our airports that we have that, that right mix
of both Chicago based, um, companies.
'cause you're right, it's very important
that Chicago companies share in, um, you know,
the procurement and the economic
and revenue opportunities
that are generated by our airports.
Um, and then, you know, mixed with national brands,
because not everybody is necessarily, um, from Chicago,
I will say at Midway International, uh, airport,
we do have a number of, um, uh,
Chicago based companies there.
Um, just this week, as a matter of fact, we, uh,
did a ribbon cutting for a, uh,
a Chicago sports based company,
and I attended that ribbon cutting myself.
And so the concepts are there.
Um, I don't, I don't have exactly the number
and I can get that to, to you, Mr.
Chair, the companies that are there.
Um, but I agree that, you know, it's very important
that Chicago-based companies and, and, uh, and, um,
or restaurateurs, you know,
participate in opportunities both at both of our airports.
Uh, thank you. Uh, next up we're gonna have, uh,
chairman Dow, followed by Alden Riley.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, commissioner McMurry,
Good morning.
Uh, good to see you.
Uh, first, uh, you know, you guys do not have, uh,
corporate dollars, so you're not in the, uh,
cross hairs of what we are considering as we, uh,
deal with the city's budget, uh, issues.
Uh, aviation is self-supporting.
You don't use, uh, local money
or state tax dollars, uh, for your obligations
or capital improvements.
So, um, you know, that's a good thing.
So this should be an easy budget hearing for you.
Um, I wanted to ask a few questions, though.
First of all, thank you for answering, uh,
chairman OSHA's question on the government shutdown.
Uh, that was one of the things that, uh,
I was concerned about,
and I appreciate, uh, the response I received from you
and, uh, Bernie Williams on the cancellation at O'Hare
and Midway, and glad to see that there haven't been many.
So that was a good thing.
So, uh, thanks for answering that question.
I wanted to ask you.
It looks like your, um, increase in personnel spending
has is about 29 million,
and about, uh, 13 million of that million is
for salaries at O'Hare.
And I'm wondering, can you tell me, uh,
how that's going to improve airport operations?
How you're thinking about, uh,
using increased personnel spending to support our airports?
Sure. Thank you. Um,
and so, um, a lot of the, uh,
increase in personnel spending is some of it's for hiring.
You know, safety and security is our highest, one
of our highest priorities at the airport.
Um, and quite frankly, you know, you can never be too secure
and you can never be too safe.
And so for us, when I came aboard, I really wanted to make
that even more so my priority.
So some of that is for, um, our airport safety officers.
Um, and that accounts for some of the, uh,
increase, um, in spending.
And also, um, there's a, a number of,
of activities at both airports that have been taking place
with respect to, um, either terminal, uh, improvements.
Um, and I know we are talking about, uh, employees here,
but in order to, um, uh, maintain
and order, uh, to service, uh, those facilities, um, uh,
and new expansions that have come online, um,
those new salaries
and new hires are going for
that particular purpose, as I mentioned.
Uh, ORD next, we embarked upon that
and related to that is a number of projects
enabling projects that we've engaged in.
And so those individuals and those hires will be,
and have been working on those projects.
All right. When you say safety
and security, can you be, I,
I think I understand the other points,
but could you be a little more specific since the TSAs?
Well, you have a federal presence at the airports.
Yes. So, um, you're exactly right.
So the, uh, TSA is responsible for, you know, screening
and safety, um, entering into the airport air side,
but you know, outside of the airport itself, uh,
the airport perimeters, um,
and certain lots, um, our airport, we have officers,
we call them airport, um, security
or airport safety officers.
Uh, those are the individuals that I'm referring to.
Um, you know, we, um, uh, right now,
uh, I forget how many we have.
We have, we have 3 0 3,
and we're looking to hire, uh, additional officers again.
And because I know that we've been short
and we looked to hire 75, 75 additional,
um, security officers.
So again, these are officers, um, they are in
and around the airport, um, mostly airside
or, um, um, um, you know, outside the terminal and
or our roving officers who will go from site
to site at various locations
that we have throughout both airports.
So again, that's for our, uh, assos, our,
our security officers, um, our airport,
um, security officers.
Okay. Um, so this is more proactive hiring.
It's not because you're seeing an increase in public safety
incidents in the garages, or,
Yeah, you know, it's, uh, it is preventative
and we are trying to, um, you, you know, you,
I you may have read just recently a an incident in Atlanta.
And so, you know, we want to try to avoid those things.
And again, safety security is our highest priority.
You know, if people see officers there, if they know
that we have a presence, it's, it's like, it's more likely
to deter any bad actors.
So you're exactly right.
It's really, you know, uh, to prevent, to deter.
Um, and we see that as part of our role.
Okay. And then I also noticed that, um, you have a
decrease by 60 million at O'Hare, your rental, uh,
properties, the rental of equipment and services.
What's, what's happening there?
Why is, what's the difference between, between O'Hare
and Midway that results in this kind of decrease?
Um, I know that last year, um,
and I'm looking at the numbers here now,
I know there was some equipment that we needed
to have purchased in 2024, and we purchased that equipment.
So obviously it's not a need to, you have
that new equipment this year,
so you don't need to purchase it.
So we had it in the budget for that.
Okay. So it is, uh, Yes,
Basically, 'cause you've met your equipment
needs in the previous year. Okay. That is
Correct. Um,
and I guess my last question is,
it looks like your revenue and appropriations are up.
Um, are you looking
to more quickly pay down your bond
and debt obligations for O'Hare modernization?
So there is debt and, um, I, I would need to also
talk That's with our city CFO.
Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And if I could get back to you
through the chair, I would do that.
Um, um,
but it would make sense to me, autumn, you're exactly right.
Right. Okay. I would like
to get that answer through the chair.
Um, commissioner mcm, thank you so much.
Um, I wish you continued success.
It's been a pleasure working with you
and, um, getting a better understanding
of the operations of the airport.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Chairman. Do, uh, alderman Riley, followed by,
um, you not here.
Altman NuGen.
Thank you, chairman. Uh, good morning, commissioner.
Morning. Um, I hadn't planned on asking any questions
of you today 'cause you're an enterprise fund
and as Alderman Dowell stated, um, our,
our budget problems aren't focused on your
particular department.
Um, that said,
because you are an enterprise fund, uh, if we were
to do slots at the airports,
which I understand is being considered, uh, would
that revenue then have to stay within your enterprise fund
or does that revenue go to the corporate fund?
Um, I, you know, I,
I am not certain because I have
not investigated that question.
Um, and I, I do know you're exactly right
because we are an enterprise fund,
that any funds out there would have to stay.
Um, any answer I give you would be a guess.
And I would give you a guess. I would imagine that
because it's related to if it's a slide proposal,
and I would like to say I have not received any proposals.
I have not seen any proposals
about slots at any of our airports.
Huh. Um, but I would say that I would imagine it would have
to go to police and fire.
And, and from that end, again, this is just me guessing,
I would have to check with our law department on this.
And, um, but I would imagine it would somehow maybe have
to stay at the airport.
So yeah, that's, that's
kind of a conundrum, right? At the,
I would argue against that.
Uh, I think it, uh, is like any other concession.
Um, I mean, we may have to pay the concession,
there may have to pay for the space,
but the revenue derived from it probably would be like any
other business, uh, at the airport.
But I think that's a fair question
that we need to get a, get a
Thank you chairman. I think
that's a really important question for us. No,
That's fair. Yeah.
Especially given that our pension funds are
depending on that money.
Right. Um,
and the reason I asked that question is
that a local women owned business in my ward is being
displaced from Midway.
Uh, Gina Georgetti is located in the 42nd Ward,
has been here for some nearly a hundred years, um, and
Right around the corner from there.
Yeah. And I, and I was shocked to, to, to learn of
that development by reading the newspaper.
Right. Um, it would've been nice to have heard
that perhaps from someone in your office.
Um, and it does serve as a bit
of a cautionary tale for any of the restaurants
that are participating in the current bit of O'Hare
with SSP, because they also can be on the ceremoniously
dismissed after five years into a 20 year contract.
And I think Gina Georgetti is frustrated
because the strength of their brand was in part, used
to win the contract at Midway.
Right. And, um, two of the years of that contract,
they, it was during COVID and,
and, you know, there was no revenue
to be derived, um, from that.
And so, um, I'm incredibly sympathetic, um, to the owners
of Gina Georgetti.
And, uh, the fact
that you haven't been in any detailed discussions related
to slots or these sorts of things at the various airports,
um, also concerns me a bit
because it's been postulated that, uh,
Gina Georgetti had been moved along to make room
for bally slot machines.
And, um, can you state for the record that Gina
and Georgette's space will not be occupied by Bally's?
Um, again, I I, I, I have not spoken
with Midway partners regarding this,
and I just became aware of it yesterday.
So you also just became aware of this development?
Yes, yes. I became aware of this particular situation.
We have a lot of concessionaire,
and again, I, I am aware
that Midway Partners are in the process of a refresh.
Again, they have the right to do that per the agreement
with the city that dates back to 2017, um, through
that competitive bid that they won.
Um, and so, but I haven't spoken
with them about any particular concepts that they plan
to bring to the airport.
Um, and to the degree that it involves slots, I, again,
that would be news to me.
Um, I have not seen a, any proposals having to do
with slots at any of our airports.
I have not talked to, um, um,
valleys about slots at our airports.
But you also didn't talk to the,
the concession program folks about Gene
and Georgetti being displaced either.
That was news to you as well. Yeah,
That's true. And, but that's
typically in their, again,
their realm of responsibility.
That's not necessarily unusual. Okay.
I would suggest that anybody looking
to put slots in our airports would want to talk to me.
You would think. Right. That's right.
And Commissioner, just to be clear, I'm, I'm a big fan
of yours, and I think you're doing a great job, uh,
and also to your team.
Um, I'm frustrated with the, with SSP
and it, it, it makes me concerned
for the other local owned restaurants here
or other beloved brands in Chicago also being
used in this fashion.
And, uh, again, worth mentioning,
Gina Georgetti is a women owned business.
Um, so it's frustrating to hear
that these moves are being made.
Is there anything to prevent SSP from engaging
with Ballys directly about swapping in
for an existing concessionaire
That I do not know?
I would need to go back and revisit the look at the
agreement, and I can get back to you through the chair.
I'd appreciate that. We'll hear that it's our intention.
I know it's the mayor's intention to be inclusive
and to, for Chicagoans
to participate in the procurement opportunities at
both of our airports.
Um, and, and that's exactly, you know, what we intend to do.
That's what I intend to do.
Um, I don't know the details of that, uh,
particular agreement, um, alderman and,
but I can certainly review that, um, and get back to you.
Okay. Um, and get back to you through the chair.
I'd appreciate that. And perhaps you could confer
with the law department as well.
Yes. Um, here's another question related to this.
You know, it comes up
because the, the, uh, concession at O'Hare is up right now.
Do you have it within your ability to structure an agreement
with whomever the winning concessionaire is
to protect local brands
to prevent this short 90 day out clause, um,
from being used as a weapon against our local businesses
and brands, you know, the bait
and switch, let's use these great vener venerable brands
to get in and then dump them for, you know,
gambling brands that have no real basis or,
or connection to the city of Chicago?
Yeah, that's a good question.
I, you know, again, I would have
to look at those agreements, uh,
those concession agreements, alderman, to see what, if any,
um, discretion and
or, uh, authority that the commissioner has
with respect to those agreements.
Okay. Well, and you know, then mark me down as a vote
for you having more discretion over those things,
because again, I, I think you do an excellent job and,
and we look to you to look out for the city's best interest.
And by extension then, are,
are locally owned businesses looking
to participate in these programs?
And so if there is an opportunity for you to tighten up
that language, um, to better benefit Chicago
against the concessionaire, I'd love to see that happen.
Yes. Um, and you know, again, my concern is
for the other Chicago brands currently affiliated
with SSP, they could be next.
And, and that's not something we want to see.
I thought that one of the great really positive things that
aviation did when putting together these concession
contracts was to really promote our local brands
to really celebrate Chicago
and not just downtown the neighborhoods.
Right. And,
and I thought we were, we were seeing some success there.
So, uh, I really do hope that the news reports are,
are wrong and that this is not some, you know, secret plan
by SSP to bring in valleys at the expense
of locally owned businesses.
Um, and again, uh, very frustrated by that.
Um, sure.
The most important thing I'd like to you to get back
to us though on is, um, if there are
to be slot machines at the airports,
where does the revenue ultimately end up?
Will it, will it ultimately land with police
and fire pensions where we need it?
Uh, or will it then be kind of carded off only
to be used within the Aviation Enterprise Fund?
Um, as Alderman Dowell
or Chairman Dowell mentioned, um,
the city taxpayer does not subsidize your operations there.
Right? Most of this is, is the airlines, right?
That's right. And so what I would hate to see is
Bally's moving in there, Bally's moving in there, and,
and the revenue derived from BS technically subsidizing the
airlines right at the expense
of our police and fire pension.
So that's a really important question for us
to get to the bottom of.
Yes. I, I Agree. All right.
Well, I won't, I won't belabor the point,
but, um, shame on SSP for what they've done
to Gina and Georgetti.
Uh, I think that's a horrible move.
I think it's bad precedent
and I, I pray for our other Chicago brands
that this doesn't happen to them as well.
Uh, and hopefully we can learn from this bad experience.
And perhaps that gives you some leverage to improve, uh,
the, the authority and,
and regulatory, um, muscle
that you have to make sure SSP doesn't do this again
at O'Hare, if they're successful there.
I, I will take a look at that midway agreement
and get back to you through the chair
and also, you know, how things are structured
through our O'Hare, uh, current R-S-R-F-P
and what, if anything, anything we can do in conjunction
with the law department, I'll get back to you.
Great. And if you do learn that, uh,
that there is some plan
to put valleys in the Gina Georgetti space, I would like
to be one of the first people to know that as well,
that would be incredibly frustrating to learn.
Um, thank you very much for all the great work you do,
commissioner, and to everyone in the box for,
for their great work as well.
And, and Alderman, I would say again, you know,
I have not, um, received or reviewed.
I have not seen anything, any numbers, any, any numbers.
I have not received any, uh, financial forecast.
I have not seen any numbers with respect to what they plan
to invest if it's a casino.
My understanding is I think, um, if they're looking,
and I understand Bally's wanting to get their,
maybe their brand into our airport for marketing purposes,
you know, but whether that's, whether that's, uh,
concessions like a, uh, a restaurant
or slots at this time, I, I don't know. Well,
Anyone who's going to a a a a,
a casino operated restaurant could do a lot better.
I'd say they'd be much better off at Gina Georgetti
and eating crappy food from a casino.
Um, thank you chairman for, for, uh,
for entertaining my questions.
Thank you. Thank you.
So for the record, you, you, you're not aware
Of, of, Uh, I'm just messing
With No, yeah, I, yeah, I have not, yeah,
It's, it is all right. I'm just messing
with, well, two things.
What, and then I, I guess we need to write this down
'cause I, and Riley and I have found
some agreement on something.
Uh, it's, uh, what time is it? Yeah, I know.
You need to write that down. It's 10 42 on Thursday
and we, we figured it out.
So. Alright. Alderman Nugent, followed by Alderman Kada.
Great. Thank you Chairman.
And, uh, good morning commissioner.
Nice to see you and the team.
Um, it's been really great working
with you since you've taken the helm.
Um, and just, um, wanna thank you and Tracy
and Marty, Bernie, Amber, the whole, the whole crew.
Um, also just wanna take a minute
and rec recognize Zach, uh, Bachman and your team.
Um, he's, his leadership
of the Capital program has been really incredible
and excited about the new, new concourse,
and I think he was really instrumental in that.
So thank you. Um, wanted to
ask a couple questions if, um,
I too share the same question that I think Alderman Riley
and um, uh, chairman Irvin were asking.
Uh, I think it's really critical that we learn if there were
to be slots in the casino where that money would go.
I think that would have a lot to do with how some
of us approach this issue.
Mm-hmm. Um, I noticed in the conversations today, we kept,
several people were mentioning if BS were
to have slots at Midway Arrow here, is there anything that
contractually would make Bally the only operator
that could have slots in the airports?
Or for example, if we wanted to proceed with slots,
could other casino folks be in there?
Um, I, I, I don't have an answer for that,
but I can certainly, you know, see what's in the agreement.
I believe that was an agreement, um, negotiated a while back
through the state and the city where Valleys would be the,
um, I assume the only, uh, casino operator.
But that's a great question.
Let me get back to you through the chair.
I can get back to you on that. Okay.
I, I appreciate that. I would just, I would like to know
you we're, if we were to ex explore slots in the casino,
where, where the money would go if we could do it,
and then secondly, if there's an opportunity for slots
or VGT or whatever the, it may be, if we're locked in
with valleys or if it's a competitive process, um,
and what that looks like with respect
to the concession contract.
'cause it's a big difference between a steakhouse
and a burger joint and a bar
or a casino potentially being in the, in an airport.
And I, I would think perhaps there'd be more competitive
process if, if we open up to casinos. Yeah. You
Know, um, I will say that, uh, you know,
I've been on the job now for five months
and, uh, you know, we, I'm more in the airport business,
not the casino business.
Yeah. So, you know,
we've been busy running our airports, and that's what we do.
That's what we do best.
And I think we've done a great job
of it, particularly this year.
This summer's been the busiest summer in,
in O'Hare 70 year history.
And so again, you know, the majority
of my time has been on, on airport
Yeah. Related matters.
Um, and not casino.
'cause again, we are in the airport business,
not the casino business.
No, and, and I, and I respect that
and I think you guys are doing a good job.
I just, um, with this sort of new element added
to the conversation, I just, um,
would appreciate your thoughts as we learn more, um,
different line of questioning.
But just wanted to briefly ask about, um,
if you could highlight your MBE
and WBE figures as a department
for this year. How, how we're doing?
Sure. Um, so our MWBE numbers at O'Hare,
um, is 35%,
and at Midway they're at 56%.
Um, and, um, I think through July
of 2025, we spend approximately 153 million
with MWBE firms.
And that's at both airports.
That's Great. So, um, you know,
those numbers are good, but they could be better.
You know, 35% is good, but it can be better. Sure.
Um, at O'Hare midway, 56%. That's good.
But it can be better. And so our goals is to continue to try
to, you know, get as many MWBE and
or Chicago based, particularly small businesses,
as was alluded to early, earlier,
earlier in our supply chain procurement supply chain
in both of our airports.
Excellent. Thank you. Um,
the last thing I just wanna bring up, um, something
that I thought was excellent, um,
at O'Hare about a year ago, and my date might be off a bit.
Um, the new public art installations Yes.
At O'Hare, and I believe that was a partnership
with D Case, um mm-hmm.
Anything on the horizon for more art in our
airports or sculpture.
I think that that makes a much, uh,
much more lovely experience for somebody visiting our city.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for, you know, part, it's part
of the passenger experience, right?
So, you know, uh, just like our, our air,
air air airport partners, our airline partners
and destinations, just like concessions.
Those things add to an airport, the beautification.
And we do have a robust, uh, program
and we have a, a great partnership with D Case.
Mm-hmm. Um, I know
that we put money in the budget again this year
exactly for that.
And so we are looking at that now and we are planning, um,
and also we are anticipating the same thing for our, uh,
global terminals when they open.
And I think we have approximately 7 million in our budget.
Is that correct? Yeah. For, uh, that arts program.
And we've received a lot
of good feedback travelers throughout, they'll write us, uh,
whether they're local or dome
or international travels coming through,
they really enjoy that.
So thank you for pointing that out. Yeah.
I, I, listen, I thought that was a really great experience
for me to see the art and learn a bit more about it.
I'm, I'm really supportive of it.
I think, um, when people come into our great city,
they should see, they should see art and experience that,
and, um, happy to be supportive in any way appropriate.
Um, yes. Thank you. That's all I have today, chairman.
Thank you. Autum Nugent, uh,
Altman Cazada, followed by Alderman Mosley. Thank
You chairman. Uh, and
thank you Commissioner McMurray for being here.
Appreciate your leadership as well.
Um, so as you know, uh,
this past Saturday 11 ride share drivers were arrested
by the Department of Homeland Security during an ice, uh,
sting and operation.
Um, could you explain, uh, you know, uh,
what your department is doing, um, or maybe you
or your managing Deputy Commissioner Vega can discuss
how the team is addressing these recent security events,
um, at O'Hare.
Um, and then what kind
of precautions are taking place also at Midway,
and if there is any coordination with the Office
of Immigrant of Migrant and Refugee Rights?
So, um, first let me start off by saying,
I think it's reprehensible,
reprehensible what's happening in our city with respect to,
uh, Homeland Security and the raids.
Um, you know, we have federal officials at our airports,
including Homeland Security, FAA, um,
and, uh, we work with them on a daily basis, um,
at our airports.
Um, of course, they don't inform us of their activities,
nor are they required to, um, respect with respect to that.
Um, one of the things also I will say is I'm proud
of the stance that our city is taking with respect to, uh,
uh, protecting people, um, respecting the constitution
and the due process, um, that people are entitled to.
Um, that being said, you know,
the mayor has issued an executive order regarding, uh,
the staging of, um, uh, ice rates at,
um, some of our ride share lots or any of our parking lots.
Um, we are in agreement with that,
and we have been abiding by that executive order.
Um, we have posted signs, um, at our, uh, lots, um,
both at both airports, um,
and, um, um, at our airport.
We have, um, safety
and security 24 hours at both of our airports.
Um, and it, I, I can't go into details what that is
because it's, we are not allowed to.
Um, but just to say that we do have safety
and security at our airports.
Um, as I mentioned earlier, we have, um,
airport security officers as, as well.
Got it. Um, um, at certain, um, areas in our airport.
So that's what we've been doing.
We've been working also with the Mayor's office
and also the Department of Law for any directives
and how we, what we are to follow.
Has there been any coordination
with the Rideshare companies themselves?
Have they been notified about the new ordinances
or the new executive orders that have been signed?
And also about, um, you know, the recent activity
that has happened at the airports.
So, you know, these rideshare, uh,
companies can send a notice to these workers.
Um, has there been any conversations
or coordination around that?
Uh, not, not from my department, not with the Department
of Aviation, but I understand, I believe
through the mayor's office there has been. Okay.
Um, well, yeah, I would of course encourage and,
and welcome any leadership that you can take on, on making
that notice as well.
Um, as for the posted signs, um, what, uh, what, what kind
of language are we talking about in these posted
signs at the airports?
Um, yeah, again, it prohibits, um, um,
ICE from staging raids on city owned
lots and property.
I don't have the specific language,
but I can get that back to you. Um, but
Does that include the, right, sorry to interrupt,
but does that also include the rides share? Lots?
Yes, it includes the rides share lots, yes.
Okay. And you said you had security posted at the
Rideshare lots as well?
I said we have security throughout our airport,
but I'm not prepared to talk about Sure.
Those measures, because they're highly sensitive.
Yes, of course. I understand.
Um, I would just hopefully, you know, of course, wish
that there is coordination to report any, you know,
scene activity and whatnot.
Um, but that, that's very, um, encouraging.
And that also I imagine takes place at Midway as well.
Yes, it does. Okay. Thank you very much, commissioner.
Appreciate your time. Thank
You, alderman. Um,
Al, do Mosley, any questions? All right.
Altman Burnett. Thank you, chairman.
Commissioner, I just wanna say it's an honor.
Uh, I've heard so many great things.
Looking forward to working with you, uh,
and truly what you've been able
to accomplish in a short amount of time is truly remarkable.
As we all know, Chicago's airports are
the lifeblood of the city.
What makes us an excellent world class city.
So you play a very important role for our economy.
And most of my questions, as Chairman,
Dow mentioned this isn't a budgetary concern at this moment,
but I would love to know more
and highlight more about what your department is doing with
these, uh, concession upgrades as well
as the infrastructure upgrades.
And so, could you talk to us a little bit more about how,
uh, how important it is for these terminal upgrades, uh,
to be done in order for Chicago to rema remain
the number one or constantly one,
two terminal in the United States?
Yes. So thank you, alderman. Yeah.
You know, I mentioned it earlier that, you know, um,
our airports 700,000 jobs,
$45 billion annually in, uh, economic activities.
So that tells you a lot right there in and of itself.
Um, you know, uh, uh, this has been the busiest summer,
as I said, ever, um, in O'Hare,
70 year history, the busiest ever.
Right now, we are on track
to be the world's busiest airport, a title we haven't had,
uh, held since pre pandemic 2019, knock on wood.
So let's, uh, hope those that continues.
Um, and so that investment, because of that growth
and that demand, people want to fly into O'Hare, they need
to fly, they wanna fly,
and when they do, they choose our airports.
Our airline partners have invested
and are investing heavily at O'Hare
and also at Midway Airports.
And so, again, that shows you how the strength
of the market here, and we need to take advantage of that,
and we need to do it now to prepare for that growth.
And so when you look at ORD next, um, we are addressing that
to accommodate that growth, um,
with the two new concourses in the global terminals.
Um, again, as you mentioned, you know, um,
our airport system is an economic engine,
and it is, it's an engine economic growth.
Um, and so right now's a critical time.
It's very critical that we make those investments necessary,
um, for, you know, what's to come here for the city
of Chicago and both of our airports.
Yeah, it's super important.
And I know we've had a conversation about some slots in the
airport already,
but I'm more so curious about the other slots, the, uh,
positioning of different, um, airlines bidding
for the airport slots.
Um, how early on do those conversations happen
as you start these planning,
the planning for the new terminal?
And do you have any forecast on what
that process is gonna be like
for those different airlines? Yeah,
Yeah. So, um, great
question.
You know, just recently, October 1st at O'Hare,
based on our airport use
and lease agreement, um, we, uh, look at those slots, uh,
in gates on a yearly basis.
And so depe, it depends on, uh, a number
of different factors, um, um, at the airport,
which determines which airline gets which
gates and how many gates.
Um, but again, we review that on our, uh, our airport use
and lease agreement on a annual basis.
Um, and just October 1st of this year, we started
what we call our redetermination.
Um, you make a very good point.
Um, unlike many of our peer airport ports, um, we,
you know, we are not space constrained or slot controlled.
And so that's important for growth.
Um, but on a yearly basis, we look at, you know, um, the,
the, the frontage, how much frontage each air airport, uh,
each airline is used, used.
And that really is determined by the gates that they have.
And based on that, we make a determination on
who gets what slots.
Awesome. And when you're communicating
with these airlines about the slots and gates
and the upcoming renovations of the terminals,
how much conversation is about the new technology
that might be implemented?
What is some of the practices happen across the country
and, uh, our implementation strategy?
Yeah. Wow, that's great. 'cause uh, that's key to me.
Innovation is key, right?
So you just can't have terminals
and facilities alone, right?
It's what's gonna drive that.
And I think technology, as I stress
with my staff, is very much key.
So we have a technology committee that, um, works,
um, internally at CDA, um,
and we, uh, work closely with all of our strategic partners,
not just our airlines, but even our other safety
and security partners at the air, at the airport.
Um, but that, you know, it's really gonna, again,
it's all about the passenger experience,
enhancing the expense passenger experience.
And if we are gonna really make a difference, it's important
that we have the terminals,
but whatever technology we use, right, to enhance
that experience, whether it's processing, you know,
people coming through customs and border quickly, right?
Getting those people in
and out, all of that is gonna make a big difference.
And so it's important that we do that.
Yeah, it makes a big difference too, in our economy.
You know, when new technology is presented in these
environments, it's often new jobs, uh, more skilled labor,
uh, whether it's engineers
or software coders and developers.
What is the process that the, that your agency goes through
to kind of, um, prepare that pipeline of new employees
to deal with the new technology?
Uh, again, we do have a c we do have a committee in place.
Um, and one of the things we're looking to at is, um,
you know, bring it on board, which we need
to a chief technology officer.
And so that's one of my priorities for next year.
Uh, we have room in it for our budget, and I wanna do that
because we really need somebody well versed to lead that.
Right now we do have a committee.
We work with some of our consultants
'cause we have great consultants as well.
Um, um, and, but we do,
and we are looking to integrate
that in every facet wherever we can in the airport.
Um, and it's through our technology committee
that we address those.
That's awesome. And e everything for us is integration.
You know, how, how are we continuing to see some
of our students in the learning bodies here matriculate into
our, uh, workforce in all facets.
So, um, as you all think about this technology, uh,
economic bone within the airport, it'll be awesome
to understand the strategy, to make sure
that the students from our city are getting those
opportunities to learn
and, uh, grow within the, the new roles
that are presented in, in your division.
We have a number of programs, uh, intern.
We have an internship, a robust internship program, um,
with, um, particularly through, um, city colleges, um,
and local colleges and universities, um,
because that is key.
And, and we have opportunities there.
One of the things about airports make a very good point,
you know, they're just not economic growth,
but they are a driver of innovation as well.
And as Alderman NuGet pointed out, there also are, uh,
a driver of culture.
And so it's very important that we recognize that
and utilize the resources with our young people
and our people here to drive that.
And that's what I intend to do.
Yeah. It's a gateway to the rest of the world, right?
Someone flies in from a connecting flight to Chicago
and sees beautiful art by, uh, a Chicago artist
and eat at a restaurant like, uh, Jean and Georgetti,
and they go around the world and say how awesome it is.
So it truly is important.
Uh, and so on that note, uh, one
of my final questions would be about the timing of, uh, the,
the completion post RFP, uh,
submissions for the concessions.
What, what are the phasing timeframes of getting these, uh,
new concession lines off the ground
and getting them available to people?
So for order up, again, that's terminals one in three,
148,000 square feet, 110 commercial spaces.
We are evaluating, uh, those proposals right now
as we speak, um, for, uh, compliance,
um, um, and other things.
So a technical review is going, um, is underway,
and I plan to, um, we plan to, um,
hopefully announce, um, either by the end of this year
or early 2026, the response we got was overwhelming.
It was greater than we anticipated.
We got over 167 responses to this RFP.
Um, and so it's taken a little bit longer than we
anticipated to review that
and go through that, uh, those proposals simply
because of the overwhelming response.
But again, that shows that people wanna be a part
of our airport economic system, uh, ecosystem.
Um, and, uh, we need to make sure that we leverage it
and take advantage of that.
And again, that also includes making sure that Chicagoans
and Chicago businesses are well represented
in that evaluation.
Well, thank you. I look forward to seeing
how you all evaluate
and, uh, when the project is completed to celebrate
by taking a flight
and going to some of these, uh, awesome restaurants.
So thank you to you and your team. Thank you.
Alderman Burnett, uh, alderman Lesa, followed
by Alderman Knutson.
Hey, thank you very much. Chair. Um, I, I will say excuse,
Hold on one second. So let's,
chairman, could you, could you come full second?
Go ahead. You
Alright. Following
back up with Alderman lasa, um, again,
as others have commented, enterprise Fund, not a lot
of comments on the how things are operating.
I will say on the concession conversation,
as a frequent O'Hare traveler, I find a lot
of local flavor out of O'Hare.
There's Sea Frontera there, you see Summer House there,
publicans set up there just to name a few.
So the flavor is captured at O'Hare on our side of things.
Um, I would ask this question
'cause as someone who's spoken some of the, to some
of the concessionaries in the past, the build out costs
of a space at our airports,
that is the highest barrier to entry
that folks talk to us about.
Is there anything that we can be doing as the city,
as the airports to make
that cost even marginally more affordable?
Yeah, you know, that's a great question
because it's not just at our airports,
it's around the country.
So I hear that from some of my airport peers and other CEOs.
Um, it is, you're exactly right.
The the cost is just astronomical.
And sometimes it can make it very difficult
for smaller businesses to get involved.
One of the things that we've, uh,
and we are attempting to do
with our Order Up program is we have a incubator program
for small businesses to partner
with those larger businesses.
Um, and so that they don't have to necessarily build out,
the larger companies will do that.
They will work with them for a certain period of time,
let's say a year, I can't think, maybe a year or one.
And that helps smaller businesses, right?
Um, entrant into concessions.
Um, and so we, that's, that's one of the,
the concepts we have.
And one of the things I'm excited about for our odor up RFP,
um, but we do need to continue to look at ways, um,
to make it, uh, more financially feasible
for smaller businesses
to operate concessions at our airport, uh, airports.
And again, I think, um, you know, one of the things is,
it's, it's just nationally, it's a very, very difficult,
um, uh, business to, if you're small, to really get in
because even if you are able to get in, it's still a while
before you start making money.
And so one of the things we are doing too, is making sure
that we, uh, educate those
who are interested in concessions opportunities
at our airport to make sure that they understand maybe some
of the, you know, financial wherewithal
and things that they need to have in order
before they want to engage and get involved.
And that's something else that we're doing.
I'm curious, based off of you sharing
that small businesses, smaller businesses
that are involved in the order of program, are they able
to access the city's community
and economic development grants?
Because I feel like that is one of the things
that we could be doing as a city to,
to improve the financial feasibility
of some of these smaller businesses.
Uh, that's a great question and,
and I'm not certain I could investigate that
and I can get back to you through the chair whether
or not they have access to those kinds of grants, uh,
to engage us at the airports.
I'm not certain, but I can certainly,
I really appreciate that. Yeah.
Thank you, sir. Uh, thank you all.
I'm gonna say aviation chair, acting budget chair.
Thank you Alderman. Alderman Knutson.
Thank you Chair, and thank you so much, commissioner.
I, I wanna echo what others have said
that when I get the opportunity of working with your team,
which we always get excited when we do,
it's a really positive experience.
Um, I felt like the, the kind of the ribbon cutting
around concourse D was very well done.
And it does display O'Hare for what it is,
which you've mentioned, which is the economic engine
of the Midwest in a lot of ways.
Um, uh, one that too, I, I don't get to use O'Hare as much
as I did in my previous career was,
which was maybe too much in that career.
But I, uh, I like the rare times I get to go,
I, I get to go now.
Um, I have a question that it, it relates
to the Chicago O'Hare Airport Fund,
but it's, it's under the Chicago Fire Department's budget,
so it's okay if you only have context.
But, um, me
and some others noticed in one
of the personnel service lines coming out
of the airport fund, um, for CFD
overtime in 2026 was going from 5.5 million
or to 5.5 million from right around 800,000.
Obviously a big increase.
I know there's a reason for it,
but wondering if you had any context for that line.
Um, I do not. Okay.
Um, but I can certainly get back to you. Yep.
Um, through the chair on that, uh, derman.
I I will certainly do that.
Great. And I'm gonna ask it of CFD
as well when, when they're up.
And I, I'm positive it's a worthy reason.
Um, I, we just want to get some context to it. Sure.
Yep. We can, I can definitely do that.
Fabulous. That's all I got. Um, keep up the great work.
And I'll say too, we're excited about, um, uh,
sidetrack potentially being the first, uh,
L-G-B-T-Q bar in an airport, I think in the world.
So hopeful that process keeps moving forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Alderman Knutson.
Alderman Cardona. Thank you, chair.
How you doing, commissioner? Good morning. Good morning.
Um, I'm gonna piggyback off
Alderman Burnett on the concessions.
Um, so could you walk us through the process?
Who picks the concessions and,
'cause I heard you say, uh, that there's multiple people
that apply, but how does the process goes
through the concessions and who gets to choose them?
So, yes. So again, that right now, uh, we have consultants
who are actually reviewing, uh, the, um, the
proposals, uh, for responsiveness, whether
or not they responded to what we asked, um, and,
and for whether or not they're in compliance, um,
and their plans, let's say for instance,
for MBE and things like that.
So it's going undergoing a technical review.
And then, um, I'm putting together,
and I'm in a process of putting together committee,
a committee to then review those poll proposals, then
to make a recommendation to me.
Then I come before this, uh, aviation obviously committee
where they'll have a chance to, uh, ask me questions
and go through everything.
And obviously then before the city's full council, uh,
transparency and the integrity
of the process is very, very key.
Um, and so right now the stage is, uh, reviewing it
for technical compliance and responsiveness.
And then again, I'm in the process of working
through a committee, um, to review those responses
and then make a recommendation to, to me,
and then to the, um, Oak City Council.
Okay. So who are the consultants?
Uh, there's, uh, we have, uh, unison is one
of our consultants, um, um, at the airport.
Neil Laroy is another.
Um, and then I think there's one more.
So could you say the consultants are, um, M-B-A-W-M-B-A,
um, MWB firms?
Yeah. Yes, they are. Yes.
Um, so they're Latino, black, and others, right? Yes. Yes.
Okay. Um, let me ask you another question.
Uh, why, what's going on
with the vendors in the airport,
what the concession is with the MBE?
Um, what, um, like what we,
we talked about the process, but what I'm seeing
or we're seeing is, um, there's not a lot of diversity.
Um, and the thing is, like, in, in, in terms
of concessions, constructions, consultants,
and legal, what is your take on that?
So, I do have our A-C-D-B-E numbers.
A CDB is our airport concessions,
disadvantaged Business enterprise, uh, program.
And right now they are, um,
at O'Hare, they're 35% for our A CDB partners.
Mm-hmm. And 53% at Midway.
So, uh, similar to our MWBE, those numbers good.
But we can do better. Yeah.
And I'm gonna push us to do better.
Uh, again, that's 35% at O'Hare year to date, um,
and then 53% at, um, midway.
So those are decent numbers.
But again, I, I want us to continue to be as inclusive
as possible to give people an opportunities
to participate in our procurement ecosystem at O'Hare.
Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna do that.
Um, and so for those diverse
and small businesses, you know,
whatever they may be concessions and or
otherwise, you know, we'll make that effort.
Thank you. Um, I appreciate that
because we do need diversity within, uh,
the primes and non-prime.
Um, yes. Because, um, I see that, um,
as Latino folks, um, we're, we're lagging in that,
and we would like to get a step up, especially
with the African-American blacks,
but I think is the majority of, uh, of the, of the contracts
or the, the jobs are, are they're being
asked for the primes.
I'm hoping that we could get a, a foot in
and grow bigger for us,
Latino small businesses and big businesses.
Um, but besides that, you're, thank you for,
it's almost a year, right?
That you've been on the job. It feels, no five months,
but it, it feels like it's been a year.
It's been actually, it, it's been, uh, automated.
I think it's almost, it's almost five, five years.
Five months to the day, five months to the day.
But it feels like you've been here for over a year.
Uh, but I, you know, I appreciate you.
I appreciate you take, you know, taking a step
and being the commissioner, and also, um, hope.
And I mean, every time I talk to you, you've been open
with me, even though I keep changing my looks
and you keep asking me.
But besides that, I appreciate your, you know, you doing
and, uh, being the forefront for Midway and IT
and, and O'Hare.
Um, and, um, you know, my que that's, that's it.
Chairman, my questions are done.
Thank you for, we appreciate
your support as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Alderman Cardona. Alderman Conway.
Uh, yeah, I know I was late
and appreciate the, uh, committee willing
to hear from the 34th Ward.
My question is, is, is pretty quick.
I saw that, uh, uh, rental of equipment
and services was down significantly,
but it looks like you have kind of IT maintenance, uh,
also a little bit more in vehicles
and didn't know if we're choosing to buy some assets instead
of rental or what was, or what was driving that.
Um, and so if it's down, I know
that we purchased equipment last year,
so we're not purchasing as much.
We always look to be, you know, economic,
if there's opportunities, if it's feasible to, to lease and
or rent rather than buy, we'll do that.
And a lot of the options at airport
and with airport commission, uh, um, um, equipment,
you really have to buy it. But let me, um,
Yeah, I saw it. I saw it's
down $61 million.
You know, it's not kind of a few cars. Yeah,
No, no.
We made significant investments though,
in equipment over the past couple of years.
Good. We, we here in this chamber, like to hear good news.
So Uhhuh, it's kind of like sound investment made
to acquire capital in place of rental. I'm I, there you go.
That's what I'm Hoping to drag outta here,
or hoping the answer is,
Uh, you know, I can get back to you through the chair on
That. Okay. That, that's fine. It was
more, it was more of a,
it was more of a meant to be a compliment.
Yeah. I know. When you're doing something right,
if it's not holding back your services. So that's,
You know, alderman again, we are not,
we are enterprise fund, but, you know, yeah.
We take our jobs in the financial stewardship very, very,
um, uh, you know, responsibly.
We take it very seriously.
And so, you know, to the degree
that we can reduce costs at our op at our airports,
we wanna do that because that helps our airline partners.
Um, and, um,
and it makes, um, our airports more attractive to travelers,
and then that means more revenue.
So, you know, we are, we are always on the, to look out
to do things more economically when we can. That's,
That's great. Music to the year
is the 34th ward.
If you ever wanna run for city council, please,
you'd be most welcome here with that
Line of thank, you know, I live in your ward, actually,
Derman, let's not, I live in your ward, but, you know,
Let's not be too hasty, you know,
however you want to dedicate yourself to the public.
Thank you, commissioner Neil.
I yield the balance of my time
before I get myself in any more trouble here.
Two minutes and 49 seconds.
Alderman Conway, that's a record. Alderman Quinn.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, commissioner.
Good morning. Um, commissioner, I, I appreciate your staff,
uh, and, and their willingness to provide, um,
status reports on the replacement
of the, the, uh, the windows.
Um, and so I was, I was hoping to,
to maybe get an update from you as to
where we're at on the construction
of replacing these windows.
Yeah. So, um, I know you
and I have talked a couple of times about
That. Yeah. And I, I appreciate
your
enthusiasm for wanting to get this done. Yeah, no,
That's a, that's A really, really important Yeah.
That is, uh, you know, alderman, I know that, um,
you know, we, uh, issued an RFP earlier this year
for the replacement or the installation of the ods windows.
Um, and I know that, um, that RFP is,
is currently being evaluated.
Okay. Um, and I'll, I need to check with our staff.
I know that we are very close,
and I, I think we want to try to award
that sometimes very soon before this year.
It's out. Sure. Actually.
So maybe, um, early fourth quarter.
Um, but I, I can get back and get an update. Yeah, that
Would be great. As, as
we continue to get CL closer and yes.
To a construction timeline, it would be very helpful.
Uh, and I apologize for not having that answer
to you right now, but yeah.
Just so we could properly manage expectations,
we don't want, um, our residents
to lose faith in what we're doing here.
It's been, it's been a, um, a little bit of time,
but I certainly appreciate your, your willingness
to, to work through this.
Mm-hmm. Um, and,
and to, um, begin the replacement of, of these windows.
Yeah. Um, the, the second item, um, I I read in, in,
in the Sun Times, uh, today about, um,
the, the prospects of, of gaming coming to Midway.
Can you speak to that?
Um, yes. So, um, I know, uh,
there's been conversations about it and I've read as well.
Um, and as I mentioned earlier, um, you know,
I have not seen, um, any, you know,
comprehensive, um, uh,
uh, proposals, um, from anyone
regarding, um, slot machines at an airport.
I will say that from my standpoint, um, I,
I don't envision if we were to do it,
and again, I haven't spoken with him,
but I, I couldn't imagine, you know, slot machines,
for instance, in our hold rooms or anything like that.
We are not Las Vegas. Sure.
We are not in the casino business.
Um, and, um, we are in the airport business.
Um, but I'm always willing to talk and to listen mm-hmm.
To what people may have to say. Yeah.
That's, that's the right thing to do, sensible thing to do.
Um, but I, I haven't seen any forecast.
I haven't seen anything about investment
or how much somebody is willing to, to invest.
I haven't seen anybody identify
locations necessarily for any slots or anything like that.
So it's very difficult to me to speak, um, to
that whole issue without sure.
Without having any, any information on it.
Um, and I appreciate that,
and I just, I, I think it, it bears saying
that I think it's really important
that if those discussions are gonna take place, um,
that Southwest is at the table.
Oh, sure. Without Southwest, there is no Midway airport.
That's the reality. Uh, uh, as someone
that has grown up a couple blocks from the airport, uh,
I could remember when Midway Airlines was there
when a TA left.
Um, so we really need Southwest to be a, a good partner
and for them to have a seat at the table. Yeah.
They've, they've been fantastic.
Um, at Midway, um,
I think they have approximately like 190, uh,
departures a day over 80, I believe destinations.
Uh, we've, we meet with Southwest regularly.
They're looking to invest more at Midway.
And so we are excited about that. That's great.
I mean, we effectively, they're, they're
Midway is one of their hubs.
It's, and it's fantastic.
And it's great for the, the region.
Um, and to that end, um, can you, um, can you share with,
with me how many people actually went through the TSA lines,
um, this past year?
Because I, I, I believe I read where we're, were,
we've surpassed sort of pre COVID numbers.
Yeah. Um, I think year to date, um, I want
to say, let me, let me check those numbers.
I know I have that number.
Um, I think, I know I have it at O'Hare,
and I don't know if I have it combined.
I know last year, alderman, it was over 101 million
between the two airports.
Mm-hmm. It was 80 million at O'Hare, um,
and 31 million at Midway.
That's, that's really Significant.
Right now, we are tracking ahead
of our pre pandemic numbers.
Um, in the month of July, um,
at O'Hare there was about 8.2 million.
Um, and then I think for the year, um,
uh, I can't, I can't quite wanna say maybe
48.3 million, something like that.
So I just know we are trending ahead of our 2019 numbers,
um, in terms of passengers and airport operations.
Um, and, um, you know, if those trends continue, you know,
O'Hare will be the reclaim.
Our title, our rightful title is the
busiest airport in the world.
And, and I think that's great.
And, and I, I will also say the, the residual benefit from,
from the, um, the uptick,
um, in, in Midway, is that we're starting to see a lot
of development along Cicero, um,
because of the traffic patterns.
Mm-hmm. And so, um, it's, it's very good, um, not only
for the airport, for the city, but
but for the, the hyper-local areas as well.
So, uh, commissioner, thank you, uh, for, for all your help
and, and your staff is always
very, very helpful and patient.
So I'm, I'm grateful. Um, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Thank you.
Alderman Quinn. Alderman Mitt.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning.
Um, commissioner,
can you tell me if, um,
the air traffic controls, how
that's affecting the airport,
and what do you see as the moving forward
here if we continue the shutdown?
Well, thank you, alderman.
Um, so, um, today, uh,
from October 1st through, um, today's, uh, date,
um, you know, we've seen very little, if any, impact
from the federal shutdown as it relates to the FAA
or TSA with respect to their staffing.
FAA has always had a little
for a year, for a number of years.
You know, they've, they've been trying
to recruit more air traffic controllers anyway.
But at o here, midway, uh, the
staffing levels have remained normal operations have been
normal since the federal shutdown.
Uh, that being said, I am concerned about if, um,
it becomes even longer and protracted.
Um, if, um, you know, people don't show up to work.
Um, if people aren't being paid
and not showing up to work,
clearly it could have some effect on O'Hare,
midway airports.
And so we are monitoring the situation, um,
um, you know, regularly.
Um, and it is a concern
'cause it would impact service at our airports
and airports around, around the country, uh, country.
Right.
Um, how is the, the, is there any grant dollars
that you are looking to
perhaps not receive at this time?
From the federal government?
Uh, you mean airport grants? Yes.
Or, um, um,
so at the airport.
Yeah, that's, we receive a
couple of different kinds of grants.
These airport, uh, improvement grants
and other grants that we, a IG grants,
they're entitlement grants where,
or, uh, airport improvements
where we get those from the federal
government automatically.
Good. And that's been no impact from that? Well,
It, oh, so it no impact.
It's no impact at this
Point? Not so far.
Okay. Not no impact.
And then we have, uh, discretionary grants that we receive
for various kinds of, uh, airport projects,
for instance, this year.
So there's nothing that would, uh,
affect the airport at this time?
Not at this time, but we are monitoring. I,
I'm just saying Yes.
Just wanted to make sure that we, we are good for, for now.
But even if it were, are there measurements
that you putting in place
or looking at in case of the unknown?
Yes, we are. Yes. Okay.
Okay. We have to be prepared.
So, um, you know, again, um,
when I look at most of a lot of our projects, particularly,
let's say for instance, RRD next, that's,
that's funded through the airline.
So we're okay with that.
But again, we do have those other grants
and it could impact operations at the airport.
And then we'd have to, you know, if, if that were to happen,
uh, the federal government continues with shut down,
or if they decided, um, that, you know,
they're not gonna give, uh, airport any airports grants.
You had a problem. That
Could be a, a not too good situation for any airport.
Lemme ask you about, um, what are we doing in terms of
the guidelines that came down for DEI
at in your apartment,
So, right. And so
to date, um, again, with respect to those guidelines,
you know, we haven't seen any, um, reduction in our grants
or any grants re withheld from our airports
because of those DEI guidelines.
But again, we're continuing to monitor the situation.
Don't you have to go back and redo those application now?
Oh, so you're referring to the A-C-D-B-E and, yes.
Oh, okay. So, um, yes. So all of those, yeah.
So our DBE partners,
our A-C-D-B-E partners, you're exactly right.
The executive order that came down, unfortunately.
Um, and so we are working now with, um,
our Chief Procurement officer
and also the Department of law.
So the Department of Procurement Services
and the Department of Law, uh, to address what needs
to be done, you know, at the next step.
Most of our procurements, the majority
of our procurements are made
through the Department of Procurement Services.
Yeah.
Think all of you all have to work Yes.
Collectively in order to,
That's exactly what we are doing.
The, the Department of Procurement Services has,
they've been on top of it, top of it.
They've been fantastic. Same way with the Department of law.
And so we, you know, we meet, we've been talking about it.
Um, people do have to get re-certified. Correct.
And yes, so, so we are working with the Department of Law
and BPS on that.
Okay. Well, thank you all very much.
Uh, what, what, what would be one of your, um,
goals since you got in, uh, I knew that you'd like
to see implemented at the airport?
Well, you know, this has been, um, um, the busiest summer.
I know I've said that before in my 70 year history.
And right now, we're, uh, on track
to be the world's busiest airport again. Amen.
We Get that title. I like us to have that. I,
I, I'd like you to have it as well.
Yeah. And so, um, that belongs to Chicago.
So we, you know, we are tracking very well.
We'll continue to, to monitor and see what the numbers are.
Um, they're looking good either way.
It's been a very good year at our airports.
Um, the numbers are up.
Um, our airlines are increasing services.
They're constantly adding new routes.
Um, people are coming. Revenue.
You should be up too, right? Pardon me? Yes,
Rev. Okay. That's
why you about, you know that.
They sure are. Okay. Very good. Well, congratulations.
Commission on your first budget hearing as well,
and, uh, to your team.
Uh, they do an excellent job at the airport.
Um, one thing I would like to make sure
that we keep getting is information, uh,
within our various office about program in initiative
that you have that can help the public just share, sharing
that information Yeah.
Is critical. So thank you
and look forward to continuing to work with all, all
of you in the future.
Thank you. And, and Alderman,
we will continue to share that information.
I also just like to say, if I may, you know, at any time,
if any council members would like to come out for a tour of,
uh, at either of our airport, uh, we'd be more than happy
to accommodate you.
There's some very interesting things taking place at our
airports, particularly again, at O'Hare
with the construction that's taken place on an active
airfield, which you don't see it often.
And this time next year,
you may even see cranes on our, on our Oh, wow.
Airfield at O'Hare. So, uh, we are very excited about that.
I'm, I'm a transportation and construction nerd.
Um, and so this project is, is near and dear to me.
But at any point, if any of the, um, auditors wanna come out
and, uh, have a tour, um, um, of our facilities
or airfields, just let me know and we'll make that happen.
Very good. Thank you so much.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, and thank you.
Uh, next up we'll have Alderman Viegas, followed
by Alderman Napolitano.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Commissioner, how you doing? Good. How are you?
Great team, great department. Uh, just a few questions.
Uh, so, uh, my colleague, uh, from the 37th Ward mentioned,
started talking about the A-C-D-B-E stuff.
And I know that, um,
you were just talking about concessions, had concession.
Have the concessionaire been selected
and finalized yet, uh, for our order up at O'Hare,
uh, terminals one and three?
Not yet. They have not been selected.
So, because the, because there's some, uh,
a ruling came down from, from A-U-S-D-O-T around it,
the usage of A-C-D-B-E.
Are we concerned that, um, since they haven't been selected
and those contracts are not codified yet, that, uh,
that the a db, those ACDBEs that are part
of those teams could potentially be, um,
taken off the team by the vendor?
Nope. That's not gonna happen.
I'm not gonna let that happen.
Those proposals are in,
and they will be evaluated as they were submitted.
Okay. So, so those A, B, C, um, uh, partners who are there,
those primes, they're still part of their team.
If a prime were to come to me
and say that they would like a move A-A-C-D-B-B partner,
then we will no longer consider their proposal
because they're changing their proposal.
Okay. So those A, B, C, uh, A-C-D-B-E are locked in.
Um, and we, we are
evaluating those proposals as they were submitted.
Thank you for that. And that's a message
that needs to be resonated Yes.
From this building.
'cause there are a lot of small firms that are,
are wondering what the status is, given that the, uh,
federal government, U-S-D-O-T, uh, in essence,
has removed the DBE program
and is asking everyone to resubmit, uh, by,
uh, by November 3rd.
Uh, yes. Okay, cool. That's good.
Um, we talked about the busiest airport.
Is that because problems at Newark
and other airports where they're directing folks here?
No, that's, that's strictly before demand.
The market at O'Hare Perfect.
And both of our airports, uh,
we are the most connected airport in the US right now.
Yep. And so it's
because of that, uh, that's one of the key drivers.
Perfect. That's great. So, um,
and our airline partners in their investment in Chicago,
increasing the number of departures, increasing the number
of seats, increasing the number of routes,
that's what's driving that.
Perfect. Thank you.
Um, I'm gonna talk a little bit about the Sea Mars.
Um, so have there been any changes
to the CMAR teams, um, in the last year or two?
Uh, no, not that I'm aware of. Not that you're aware of.
Okay. And, um, could you talk a little about, about some
of the CMAR makeup of,
of whether Latino owned firms are on DC Mars or not?
Um, I don't have that information in front of me right now.
Alderman, uh, I could get back to you.
Yeah, if you could provide that through the chair, uh,
I'd love to see that as well as makeups, as well
as professional service opportunities, legal, um, um,
accounting, et cetera.
I wanna see what, what opportunities are out there, uh,
for those professional services as well.
I can do that. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Um, and then I, I, I came in late, a little late, chairman,
I, uh, apologize for being a little late.
And I had heard some questions around the, uh, the
questions, uh, around the, uh, the ability to have
slots at the airport and, uh, you know, the General assembly
provided us that opportunity in 2019.
And so it's a little frustrating that since 2019
that the city hasn't taken advantage of trying
to capture some revenue in the form of 15 to 20,
$25 million a year.
Uh, and, and so now that, um,
it's been an ordinance introduced, and it,
and the CFO has signaled that potentially
that's a possibility, uh, there was a question
around whether
or not, uh, revenue would stay at the city, at the airport,
or whether it would come to the city.
Were you able to expound on that or no? I, I have not.
Um, you know, I don't have an answer to that
Question. So we've
asked, uh, we, we've stated,
and I'll, I'll follow up with Corporation Council
to get very clear direction on that.
I'm of the belief that it, that it is permitted
and it is general revenue to the city.
Uh, but I am not a lawyer.
So I'm gonna allow, uh, the Corporation Council to opine on
that and let us know, uh, where,
where we would land in such a case.
Thank you. And then, Mr. Chairman, just, uh,
since Legal's gonna be involved, I did wanna point them
to the statute to make their job a little bit easier
as it relates to research.
So it appears that, uh, under, uh,
under two 30, ILCs 10 slash 7.15,
that all gaming revenue from these positions, uh, if the,
if the city chose to do that,
would be taxed at the same CACI main casino,
but it would include an additional 33.3% tax paid directly
to the City of Chicago to specifically fund police
and fire pensions under two 30 ILCS 10 dash thir,
I'm sorry, slash 13, appendix 5.5.
So just wanted to, that's for law.
So they be, they're listening to this,
make their homework a little bit easier.
Um, but this is an opportunity for the city to capture,
and I don't think anyone's trying to, uh, to, uh, you know,
put, uh, arrows pointing at the Air Point Airport,
making it look like a, a, a casino.
I think it's more for traveling public
and traveling people that want to have an opportunity,
adults 21, that, that are maybe delayed given post nine 11.
We gotta get to the airport two
to three hours ahead of time.
We've seen that with the, the, uh, a lot of traffic as well
as, uh, traffic, uh, uh, air controllers delays,
that there's delays all over the place.
And this would allow adults the opportunity
to spend some money.
And if it's majority
of the folks are spending money not from Chicago, um,
I think that's an opportunity to, to, to increase revenue,
but also, uh, revenue that's not from the city of Chicago.
That's just my opinion, though.
But I did wanna put point that out there, uh,
to make it easier for the law department, uh,
to do a little bit of research.
But again, the, the aviation is the, is the important.
Commi is important, uh, department.
It's the economic engine of the, of the region.
Uh, I'm glad you're there.
Uh, commissioner, uh,
given your background in infrastructure, um, and, uh, and,
and the importance of, uh, of, uh,
getting projects completed, uh, I think that, uh, you know,
the whole council supports
what it is that you're doing out there.
Uh, and we stand ready to assist you, uh,
in any way, any way possible.
Uh, I know that it's,
you have some challenging times right now
with the federal government, um,
but do, do wanna make sure that, uh, that we're helping
along with that, with the federal government, do we know
how much federal dollars we receive
for infrastructure projects versus passenger fairs
or any other type of, uh, infrastructure dollars?
Um, yes, I think we do.
Uh, Zach, um, my managing commissioner, Zach Bauman,
he would have that information.
Zach Bauman, managing Deputy Commissioner
for the O'Hare Capital Program.
We, the entire capital program is $10.9 billion.
The amount that we have allocated, uh,
that we're anticipating receiving federal funding for is 17%
of that for midway.
The entire capital program is, um,
about $850 million.
And the amount that we anticipate receiving federal funding
for that is 9% of the capital program.
So about 17% at, at O'Hare Federal.
Um, are we concerned about,
given the rhetoric that's coming out of DC around, uh, DEI,
uh, that money being paused.
So to date, we, you know, we have not, you know,
re you know, received any kind of disruption and,
and the receipt of those funds.
Okay. But we continue to monitor
that alderman is what I'll say.
Cool. Well, I appreciate it. Again, thank you.
Thank you Chairman, and above the great work at the airport.
Thank you, alderman. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, thank you.
Uh, alderman Vegas, um, alderman, uh,
Napolitano followed Baldman Robinson.
Thank you, chairman. Good morning, commissioner.
And, uh, good morning to your crew in the box.
Um, I hope the transition's going well for you.
You have a incredible crew, uh, to help you out.
Um, before I even start, I, I'd like to kind of piggyback on
what my colleague, uh, alderman, uh, the leg had said.
I, I'm, I'm a huge fan, a huge supporter.
If we can work through the, the slots at, at the airport,
um, there's something there.
There's something there that we can capture, um,
that would help generate some revenue,
and especially if it's going so towards some
of these pensions, uh,
it would help these budgets a lot more as well.
But that's for another day.
Um, Am I'm a fan
of, of some of the measures that, that O'Hare
and the federal government has taken towards, uh,
noise mitigation at, at O'Hare, uh,
and how it's been going over the last couple years.
I do have a fear for, for my ward as well, because,
or our ward, because we are the northwest point of the city.
That is kind of the runway pattern towards O'Hare.
Um, and my worry is as we're coming up with new ideas
and concepts such as the, um, the, um, uh,
fly quiet program, uh, the,
which I think is a great, it, it, it works well.
But what worries me about it is some of the, the alterations
of the fly quiet program is forcing more
takeoffs and landings over houses
that were, were not a part of the O'Hare Con, the, uh,
the O'Hare monetization program, contour Noise Contour.
Um, and my big question here is, is do you foresee
that contour expanding?
Where we at with that, with the government?
Are they going to be going back to, um, um, you know, it,
it's more of a chica a cigar shape from, from the,
from 2005 when it was created?
I think it has to become more of a cone shape
because, uh, our complaints are growing more
and more every day.
Um, and I, I, you know, talking with the, um,
the ONCC, Aaron's awesome.
Gives us as much information as he possibly can. Yeah.
He, he's a, he is an, he's a font of information.
Yeah, yeah. Um, but I'm still kind of hung up on if this,
if this, um,
fly quiet program changes
and it becomes more on the permanent side,
because I think it might have to
'cause a lot of the construction going on at O'Hare that
a lot of my ward is not in that contour anymore.
And it is, it is a dramatic effect.
And where this leaves budget wise is it's harder
to keep people in in that area.
Um, we're gonna see people leaving a little bit, you know,
houses are going up for sale because it's pretty intense.
Do you, do you see, are those,
are those negotiations going on with, uh,
expanding that, that contour? Yeah,
So, um, so that, you're right.
That fly quiet program, you know,
it's had some successes actually.
It's duplicated, I think in other airports. Yeah. Around.
So this equitable distribution of noise,
and I think you as well, uh, what is it?
It's Wards 40, 41 and 45. Yes.
Um, but I think that, um,
the program itself is always evolving, right.
So it's not just, you know, let's put it here.
So where there's opportunities,
depending on whether it's due to construction
or whatever, the goal is to make that, that distribution
of noise equitable.
So we can look at ways in which,
whether it's additional construction that may lead to one
or another, we have to be
flexible within the program itself to make that happen.
I, I will certainly be talking with Aaron about that.
I know he has some ideas.
He's not here today, but he has some ideas about how we can,
um, um, uh, uh, you know, a, uh, address
that particular issue.
A and, and he is, Aaron's awesome.
He, he's got a rough job and he's he's good at it.
Yeah. He's done it for years. Yes.
And he's one of the best. He
Is. He really is. He's the best.
I, I would just ask this
and I'll, I'll wrap it up, mine up.
Um, if you can, you know, round us up in,
in 41 and 45,
and even in parts of 39 are affected as well,
if this contour does expand, um, you know,
changing programs helps out a lot.
But when people see it on a regular basis, being a part
of a, uh, of an expen, uh, ex expanded contour is
what our communities are looking for
or hoping for, I should say.
And we get it. We know how hard, this is a big ask,
but we'd like to be, you know, partner with, with you, um,
and, and, and your administration
and your group to, to get through this if we
Can. Yeah, we could certainly make
that. I agree with you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.
That's all I got. Thank you, sir.
Alright. Thank you. Alderman Napolitano, uh,
alderman Robinson.
Alderman Moore. You got anything? Okay.
Follow, uh, followed by Alderman Moore.
Chairman, thank you very much. Uh, commissioner, I just,
uh, wanted to, uh, give you, um,
some kudos this morning.
Um, you, um, have stepped in,
um, and, uh, are rocking and rolling,
and we know how important, uh, midway
and O'Hare is to the city of Chicago and the region.
Um, and so just thank you for stepping in
and carrying the baton and moving things forward.
Um, you also have someone in the box, uh, that,
um, hopefully continues to hang in there with us.
Um, the young lady, um, sitting right in the corner there
that's smiling at me, so make sure that you, you keep her
around because we need her.
Uh, we talked about Southwest, um, airlines, um,
growing in this region.
Um, how are we connecting, um, the aviation jobs to,
um, city colleges, CPS?
Uh, those are great jobs commissioner.
Um, we know the struggles that we're having
with getting folks, uh, jobs in the city of Chicago.
Again, i I we talked about the growth of, of Southwest, of
how are we, again, connecting them to city colleges and CPS?
Well, uh, again, that's, uh,
you know, I'm sorry, alderman.
That's a great question. Uh, one
of the things I talked about earlier, some of the programs
that we currently have underway, um,
through the Chicago Department of Aviation, like our, uh,
career prep, it's our ongoing partnership
with city colleges, um, where we are opening doors for
Chicagoans, um, connecting them
with opportunities at aviation.
Um, you know, whether it's aviation related,
construction related, um, um, opportunities, um,
with the city's airport systems.
These are great jobs. These are well paying jobs, um,
with great benefits.
Um, and the more that people know about those
opportunities, the better.
Um, and we do that
and we try to educate people on those opportunities again,
in a number of different ways.
Um, also, um, you know, through our community outreach, uh,
which you may, which you may be aware of,
but, um, so that CDA prep is, is big for us.
Uh, we have a number of interns every year,
internship program, um, through, uh, colleges,
city colleges, and lo other local colleges as well, um,
where we have students come
and intern with us, not just through the summer,
but sometimes through the year, if they can.
Again, whether it's in it, it could be engineering,
it could be architecture, it could be, uh, finance related,
uh, construction related, um, um, business development, uh,
legal, right.
So there's a ton of opportunities.
Um, we need to, uh, continue to grow
and let people know that those programs exist
and connecting people with airline industry jobs.
So just doesn't mean, you know, either,
you know, airline pilots.
It doesn't just mean concessions,
but there are a whole host
of supporting jobs in the aviation business that people can.
Thank you, commissioner. Sp specifically, um, how
are we working with, and I mentioned Southwest,
but there's United, right?
Uh, there's American Airlines, uh, specifically how,
how do we pull them in
to assist us, um, in creating jobs in the city of Chicago
for, for our youth?
So I know each of those airlines have their programs,
and that's a great, so they have their own programs as well,
and perhaps we can work more closely with them.
Um, our programs are independent,
but they do get that exposure as well.
I know airlines have their own programs as well,
but perhaps there's a way for us
to better coordinate with each other.
Um, there are a number of, uh, of initiatives
that our airline sponsor sponsors, uh, throughout the city
of Chicago, either through CPS
or c uh, city colleges where they engage and, and, and,
and, uh, present opportunities as do we,
but it's not necessarily coordinated,
but perhaps we can coordinate our efforts.
I, I, I, I think that, um, um,
commissioner us pulling in, um, CPS
and city colleges is, is, would be, um, if you haven't done
that, I would recommend that.
Mm-hmm. But then also as we are meeting
with our airline partners, um, I do think that, um,
that should be something that we're, we're,
that we're asking for.
Um, because again, you mentioned how
these are good paying jobs
can get folks in the middle class.
Mm-hmm. Um, and we need that, um, particularly, um,
on the south and west sides.
And so I would, I would ask
that you got a great team over that box.
Is there somebody that can take that baton and run with it?
I would appreciate it. Um, my last question is,
as it relates to United Terminal, um, I,
I think I might have mentioned this maybe
to your predecessor.
Um, when do we see, uh,
some improvements in that terminal, particularly
as it relates to our bathrooms?
Um, um, and I,
and I'm pretty sure that I'm, I'm,
I'm thinking about the other terminals.
I think it's United and, and,
and I'm, I'm sorry, I don't know the, the number
of the terminal, but, um,
it, it seems as though we're still in the seventies, um,
in some of our bathrooms at the airport.
I know that we've done some renovations,
and so I'm just curious what our timeframe is to really get
our airport up to snuff as it relates
to, to our competitors.
Right. So there are, there have been a number of, uh, of,
uh, of improvements made, um,
and upgrades made both in terminals five recently as well
as terminal three that are taking place now.
With respect to terminal one.
Um, I think, um, I don't know.
I know that United is, uh, um, that's their terminal.
Um, and Zach, you might know whether
or not any improvements
through the capital program is taking place via terminal one
at United's terminal,
Zach Hoffman, managing Deputy Commissioner,
we do at O'Hare, have approved funding
for a restroom modernization program.
We've identified the restrooms throughout the terminal
campus that are, as you say, most out to date,
and we're prioritizing, um, reconstruction
of those facilities.
That work is anticipated to begin in 2026,
and will take about two years to get through the list of,
I believe, 17 restaurants that,
or excuse me, restrooms,
that we have slated for that construction.
Um, additionally, when we're doing, uh,
capital improvement program in an area,
we include funding from
that pro from the restroom modernization project
to do whatever restrooms are adjacent
to the ongoing capital work.
So we identify that as a need of the airport
and are working our way through the, um, restroom refresh.
Commissioner, uh,
keep up the great work. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you Alderman.
Um, alderman Moore, uh, followed by Alderman Walker Spec.
Thank you. Um, chairman, I was, um, pretty much, um,
listening and just wanted to be clear,
and this may be for you to help me out on Chairman,
if you can, so we don't, um,
totally rehash when we were talking about, um, the,
the B'S, uh, revenue.
I'm not understanding what, from my knowledge, why it's an
issue, what makes it different from something when, uh,
when historically all revenue stayed at O'Hare.
I just, I just wanna understand 'cause I was lost on
That. Oh, this, uh,
this is just me from a lay perspective.
I would liken it to having a McDonald's at O'Hare,
you pay your fee as a concessionary your rent or whatever,
and you keep your profit.
This isn't an enterprise, per se, of the city of Chicago.
This is a space that they're leasing
that somebody else is utilizing for, for their business.
And I, I would equate, uh, valleys
or any other group that were to go into the airport
as another business,
and they would be able to take whatever revenue barring, uh,
plus whatever taxes that we charge the state and,
and the local government charge.
So that's, that's the, the difference in, in that respect,
if you look at it from like a concession space.
But I am looking at it, so all the,
I thought all the concessions revenue stayed at the
Airport. No, I mean,
if you have a business
and you know, you have a business there
and you pay the rent, you know,
just like we charge the city charges,
the people rent to be there.
Oh. And that rent stays there.
The rent stays there, but,
but the revenue derived goes to the business.
Got you. I got you. Alright.
And so, um, with that said,
you mentioned when I was hearing about an agreement
that was signed that states that,
and if I misheard correct me that it's, uh,
specifically Bally's get to be in there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, if that's
what I heard on the 'cause.
Someone, one of my colleagues had asked, can, um, would,
would this be Bided out
or does Bally have the priority of just being there?
And I thought I heard you say when I was listening in that
that was an agreement that was signed probably
before you, that it says that Bally's just go,
automatically goes.
There was, did I mishear that?
Yeah, no, alderman, I, I think what you're referring
to was my comment I made about, um,
our master concessionaire, the people
who run Midway Air Airport, uh, midway Airport Partners,
they run the concessionaire at Midway Airport.
Um, and, um, they have a Right, they won the right to to,
to do that back in 2017 pursuant to a, um,
a public, uh, RFP
that was put out in solicitation that was put out.
They won that back in 2017.
And so they pretty much operate the concessions program at
Midway International Airport. Meaning
They can bring, that's what I was referring to,
meaning they can bring in anyone they want to bring in.
Um, they have a, yeah, they,
they put together the concepts, um,
and um, they have an agreement to do that with the city.
I just wanna be clear so that we've turned that over
to them that they have so they can bring any, so if,
if Ja if Jason has a, uh, a,
a competitor against Valleys,
they don't have to choose Jason.
So it's not, that's what I'm just trying to understand.
I need to know from a lay person's perspective. So
I think there's a couple of questions there.
I, Amber Ritter's with me, she can explain, um,
our concession agreement with Midway,
And I think the chairman wanted to about the chime. Oh,
No, I, I just, we're you're talking
about a regular
concession. Are you still talking about gaming?
The gaming piece? So
Let's, let's, the,
the gaming piece I think is a little, we, we wanna wait.
We've asked Corporation Council
to give us some guidance on that.
I'm just going off of what I think it should be,
but we've asked corporation Council to, to write,
give us an opinion on the revenue, all
that whole setup financially
and how it either a stays there,
Doesn't stay there. No, no, I,
I understand that part.
I heard that, I heard you say that before I came in.
I was talking about on who comes in, who gets to come in,
does it automatically, is it automatically ballot
or could it be Jason Casino
Under the host community agreement, uh,
that we entered into, uh, Bally's has the first right
of refusal for placing, um,
placing slots at the airport.
Okay. And so
that would conclude no joint venture with anyone else.
Right. Uh,
Well, it includes the Valley's JV that exists, uh, today.
Um, that's part of that corporation, which also includes,
uh, citizens of the city of Chicago that have,
uh, bought into that.
Okay. And, and just, uh, and,
and Alman Vie gets brought up was
something I was gonna bring up.
As I just wanna be clear, when you submit the, um,
information for C Mars
and clo uh, regarding ethnicity, make sure everybody
and the, um, council get it.
And that's every group, um, who, who, um, who we have, um,
you know, who those C Mars are on right now? A
Actually Alderman? I do have
that. Zach. Zach, ba Zach, you have
that information for our C Mars to break down, please?
I do.
You don't have to state it. I,
'cause I need to, I'm not gonna write it down that quick.
Oh, okay. If it's in, if it's somewhere in
one our documents, then find it.
If not, just, just provide it through the chair so we,
we'll have it and we'll have that breakdown.
Gotcha. Yes, sir.
Um, uh, the, the other one is, um,
we took a, um, a trip to The Bahamas to meet with the, uh,
foreign minister there.
And, uh, uh, we got people
that's doing business there from here in
Chicago, um, trying to grow.
But, uh, my understanding there's been direct flights, um,
to, to The Bahamas that's been eliminated from Chicago.
I had to even go through, which I hated, um, to sit
and go to, um, Newark, um, airport.
Um, are, are we, can we have any conversations
with those airlines, uh, to make sure that there are some,
you know, consistent direct flights?
I'm more of a united person,
but I, I'll be a little flexible,
but United needs to do that as well.
I wanna put that on record, but I want us
to make sure we having those conversations.
And I think, um, you know, I, I think
that's important. Um, uh,
Well, as, as you've, um, you know, as you've alluded to,
rightfully so that's an airline decision, right?
The routes that they take, and
No, it's their decision, but I just want us
to have some con but is part of us making, getting us back
to number one as well, because if I have
to take a direct flight, you know, somewhere, you know,
somebody may go, well, you know what,
lemme just go visit my cousin in, uh, Miami or something,
and I just go wherever.
And then, um mm-hmm.
We may lose out, but I'm just saying,
let's just have those conversations, um, on that Bahamas.
And then the last thing, and I appreciate what you said,
and I give you kudos for this, um,
I think it was GI Alderman viegas,
it was somebody else asking about the A-C-D-B-E, um,
concessions that, and given what's happening, um,
in the environment right now, um, you strongly say, Hey,
nothing is going, um, to change.
And I just want, uh, to go on record to say, I appreciate
that you've taken that ground
and that everything that's happening, um, whoever's,
you know, champing over the constitution,
whatever institution we have to be just as bold
as well, and stand firm.
And, and, and my position is, um, whether it's aviation,
any other department, any other business that do business
with the city, if we don't eat, don't nobody eat.
And so, um, you know, if, if, if,
if this administration wants to shed airports down
because, um, we're not eating, then that happened.
But I appreciate, um, your, your stance on there.
I also want to commend you, um,
commissioner and I have to say this.
'cause as you know, uh, I, I, I, I was
and am a big fan
of Commissioner Jamie Re you didn't come in here trying
to be a Jamie Re you came in here, um, um, setting yourself
and, and, and putting your own mark on it.
And, and let me commend you, you've done that well.
Um, you've got a team around you, um,
that was pretty much already here that, um,
is just solid man, I mean solid.
Um, and one of the, you know, better teams within,
within our city agencies.
And, and I just wanna say, um, I appreciate, you know,
what you all are doing out there.
I appreciate the communication, whether it's, um, um, Tracy
or, um, calling me, um, somebody's calling me and,
and, and being proactive.
And I truly appreciate that
and I appreciate everything, um, that you all are, um,
doing, um, for the Department of Aviation.
And I can't wait till we get back.
Um, and we will be back at that number one status.
So thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you Alderman. Uh, alderman Walkers back.
Thank you, chairman. Uh, good morning, commissioner.
I'm slide over over here. I see you. Yes, there you go.
Uh, just, uh, three or four questions.
First, I want to thank your staff, uh,
especially I think Amber, um,
Zach Baughman on the Air Airport, facilities,
capital projects.
And happy to hear, uh,
alderman Robinson asking about the restrooms.
You know, if you can reach that heida style, uh, level,
that would be pretty awesome.
Um, I mean, they're basically spas in Japan, so
that would be kind of cool there.
Um, and then Tracy, Bernie
for communications on all these
different issues coming forward.
It's a great, uh, team that you have.
Very professional, and we all appreciate that.
Um, so, uh,
first question is on contracts related to federal
agencies like TSA and,
and you can kind of go into, I think, answer this too,
if you want, about your relationship with these agencies.
But, um, when you have a contract, for instance,
like all clear, uh, you know,
where we're doing these pre-checks, um, how do the,
how much do we receive from companies like that?
Uh, especially on the pre-check, um, with the mag
and, uh, we have a company there
that's like a, a unique company.
Um, are we doing well on those contracts?
Are they soon to be competitive?
Uh, what's your sense of working with those
agencies and those companies?
So I, um, those, those contracts I believe are held
through the federal government and with TSA,
but Amber Ritter, um, who heads up our, uh,
commercial development and, and real estate.
Amber could, you can answer.
Thank you, commissioner, and thank you Alderman. Yeah.
So for specifically for the clear contract,
that is a concession under our concessions agreements.
Um, they of course have their own agreement with TSA.
We work very closely with both CLEAR
and TSA to ensure, you know, that, uh,
traffic continues to flow smoothly.
We do receive a lot of revenue from that contract,
and it's a, you know, a big passenger
benefit in our estimation.
Uh, for those who are, uh, who are members.
Uh, if you have another specific
question about Clear Hep. Well,
I was just, um, I've been reading a lot about just the
impact of the shutdown on TSA, uh, other agencies,
and I didn't know if that filtered into that.
So when I was looking at pre-check
and, uh, clear, I also realized that they were coming
to the end of their, uh,
I think it was a 60 month term on their contract.
So I was just curious if we were continuing that
and seeing any impact from the shutdown
or any other, uh, RFP that we have to put out.
We have not seen a spec, uh, a, a a a dramatic impact, uh,
from the shutdown on our TSA movement, actually,
I think at O'Hare speak to my colleagues, uh, business here,
but, uh, we tend to have a pretty good, uh, TSA uh, times.
I think we, you know, we've done a lot
of work over the decades with TSA
and have, uh, kept our wait times down, uh,
pretty well compared to other air airports.
Um, and so we, we will continue to work with TSA and Clear
and other entities to make sure that that's the case.
Um, and we, we do value that, that clear product.
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Um, so commissioner, uh, have you talked to any
of the vendors
or, um, you know, either food vendors,
airlines about the potential impact of a head tax?
I have not. Okay.
I, and they haven't reached out
and said, Hey, this could impact us in some way.
No, they have not. Okay.
Um, alright. Well, I think, uh, again,
you have a very professional staff up and down the line,
and it's very helpful to have them in place.
Uh, I hope they continue there, all of them,
and, you know, continue to improve the airports
to really make it a, uh, one of those shining, uh, uh,
examples in the city.
So thank you very much for your work, uh, across the board.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank
You Altman, uh, alderman Taylor.
Thank you, chairman. Good morning, commissioner.
Um, first I do want to say,
while I was disappointed that we lost, uh,
commissioner R, um,
and I was concerned about the
airport, how would move forward?
You've, you've impressed me and I'm not easily impressed.
Um, you definitely have a champion and Miss Ty
because every time I've had an issue
or a constituent has had an issue at the airport,
she's Johnny on the spot.
And so I appreciate that.
Um, I'm not gonna beat a dead horse,
but I do want to have a conversation about us making sure
that we have Chicago owned homegrown businesses in
concession when it comes to O'Hare and Midway
and to come the thought that people,
I, I'm gonna be honest, I hate everything about O'Hare.
I just, sometimes it's just too big
for kinda what's going on.
And so Midway is kinda and luck.
And the part about it is I often don't get
to go outta Midway.
And so when I'm due, I'm excited
because I also feel like it's more Chicago owned
or it's, it's, it's, it's the homey one for, to me,
or it's the Chicago grown one to me.
Um, I want us to talk about legislation that reinsures,
that the concession belongs to homegrown folks
and making sure that we have something in place
that actually helps small businesses
and our communities to get in those spaces.
So is there something that we're doing commissioner,
or how are you all working with small business to reinsure
that they can take in those spaces in Midway in O'Hare?
Yes. So, um, you know, um, with respect to our order up,
um, uh, RFP that has been out
and we are currently evaluating, you know, one
of the things is we've, um, we've structured it so
that small businesses would have an opportunity,
even if they're not partnered with larger companies
to participate, um, right.
In concessions at O'Hare.
And so that was done purposefully to make sure
that it's inclusive and particularly for
Chicago based small business, small and,
and maybe medium sized businesses.
And so, um, you know, that's the way the RFP for, uh,
terminals one and three Order Up was structured.
Um, we always encourage, and I agree, it's very imperative
and it's important, um, that Chicago businesses are,
are participating, um, in the, um, ecosystem at, uh,
the procurement system at, uh, O'Hare, both of our airports.
And so one of the things I plan
to do is make sure I maybe revisit some of those agreements
or revisit those agreements
or in some instances, visit them
for the very first time to look at that.
Um, you know, we're gonna encourage, um, you know,
our concessionaires, um, um, um,
if they're master concessionaire with respect to
what we would maybe like to see at our airports.
And you're exactly right, it's very small
and small businesses
and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of the City
of Chicago, make no mistake about that.
And we realize that,
and inclusive inclusivity, you know,
the mayor talks about it,
and that's one of his directive to me to make sure
that we are inclusive and that everybody in the city
of Chicago throughout our 77 neighborhoods have an
opportunity to participate at our airport system.
And that's certainly, uh, what we are going to do.
And so we'll go back and we'll take a look at ways
and we are constantly look at ways,
but I also wanna look at ways that we can make sure
that happens regardless of what's happening,
let's say on the federal level or any other level.
Um, we wanna make sure that we present those opportunities,
um, to, um, our Chicago based businesses.
Thank you for that. Um, alderman Robinson started
with this question, and I want to continue.
How many young people do you all employ
through the one Summer Chicago program?
Um, do, uh, Bernadette Williams,
she heads up be do you have that information for us?
Sure. Hi, Bernadette Williams Intergovernment Affairs.
This year we hired 33 interns, of which five
of them were Chicago, one high schoolers.
And so my question is, is there a program,
and I want to not just say this, in aviation
and citywide where we're going out those
16, 17, 18 year olds who get ultimately trained
to be ready when they become young adults
and graduate, having the option
to actually work at the airport.
Is that something you all are already doing?
Is that something you all are in conversations with CPS
and is that something you all are willing to work on?
'cause I, I'm starting to see younger folks at the airport,
which excites me.
Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause that means we're giving young people in
our communities a chance.
Mm-hmm. Um, but also understanding
that they need the training to understand
what actually happens at the airport.
Bernadette, Thank you, commissioner. Yes.
Bernadette Williams again.
Um, thank you Alderman for that response.
We are certainly doing that.
We partner with Chicago City Colleges
and we do have a program in place at the
Colleges for young people.
And we also have partnered with CPS for those young people
that are interested in aviation programs.
And we are continuing to do so as well.
What are you all doing for the mental health
of the workers who are working there?
Um, I was there, um, a couple of,
a couple of weeks ago,
and one of the young ladies who worked
for TSA was obviously having a bad day.
And I have discussed it with OEMC, but I realized that
because of the amount of folks who are,
what's the word I want to use, uh,
freaking out at the airport
and having fits, um, what type of toll is
that taking on the workers and what are we doing
to reassure these people are giving some time or given a day
or even given some retraining when it comes
to incidents at the airport?
Um, I know that, you know, through the city of Chicago,
if you're referring to our employees,
we have an EAP program, right?
Employee Assistance program where workers can, you know,
assist, um, any kind of, uh, whether it's mental
or just talking
to somebody if they're going through something.
And of course we, we support that
and we encourage that for all
of our workers at the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Um, um, you know, as it may relate to
any kind of trauma again, that they may experience from,
you know, seeing certain incidents at the airport, again,
they're encouraged to talk to their supervisors, the entire,
they, they encourage to come to us.
And again, if, if assistance is needed, um, either
what we provide internally at the CDA
or through our city's EAP program,
which is a very good program by the way, um,
we encourage them to take advantage of that.
Last question. I noticed
that if you come in internationally at night,
a lot of those international companies
don't have staff at their, at their, their desk.
What are we reinsuring that, that folks who,
who need assistance or need help can get them when those
airport folks are not there?
There, um, that's, um, that's the case.
That is, that is troubling.
And we would definitely need to talk
to our airport partners about that at least.
So this happened two years ago,
and it was with Ethiopian Airlines,
and it wasn't, it, it didn't, it happened in Chicago,
but the problem was kinda in New York when we got off the
plane because of an incident that happened overseas,
there was nobody at the checkout.
So it was nobody to tell us what a, what a hotels was,
where we could go, could we stay in the airport?
And I've seen that happen once at O'Hare
on a returning flight.
What it, what are we putting in place to reinsure that?
There's all, there wasn't even a phone, there was nothing.
What I wound up doing was getting home
and calling back to have a conversation with,
with somebody from aviation.
But like, what do we have in place to reinsure
that these companies who use our, our airports for national,
um, flights are, are are there to take care of customers.
Yeah. 'cause this, and this was probably like nine
or 10 o'clock, and I was like, well, it's nine
or 10 o'clock, but there was nobody,
there was no bell, there was no phone.
And so you just saw people sitting at the airport
'cause they didn't have the support
because they didn't have anybody at these counters.
Yeah. Well, we certainly do have staff of,
we can have staff and we have staff available.
We can have staff available if the airlines notify us if
they're having, you know, obviously issues,
staffing, uh, whatever time.
So, you know, we have a airport personnel who's willing
to step up and be there, um, for those passengers.
And we try to work with our, our, uh,
airport partners if they let us know,
if they let us know in advance, uh,
we can certainly make sure that that doesn't happen again.
One of the things that I will do is, uh, when we meet
with our airline partners, talk
to our airline partners about those kinds of instances
where there has to be better communication
between them and us.
And if they think they're gonna have staffing issues,
if they think they can't staff,
then certainly we'll step in.
Because for us it's about our passengers, passengers,
all they know is that it's, uh, city of Chicago O'Hare
or Midway International Airport.
And so, you know, we wanna make sure,
because that's our name, that somebody
that we're stepping up again to help out In those instances,
again, it's about the, you know, passenger experience.
And so, you know, when we are able to work with them
and we always offer, um, they just need to let us know.
In that instance, had sure had they let the City
of Chicago know a Department
of Aviation staff would have been there to assist.
But, um, but we would can certainly take this up in our
monthly meetings with the airlines to see
what their plans are and instances like that,
and also to make sure they had
better communications with us.
So if they're not there, we can make sure that we are.
Last question, how are you knowing that you,
you talked about these are the highest numbers
that you've seen for the summer.
How are you, and maybe it, it ain't,
don't gimme the long answer
and maybe it's through the chair, about
how you all are preparing
for the holiday season that's coming up.
Um, I don't know if you all are seeing a decline
because of what's going on international, um,
but how, how are you all preparing
for what's gonna happen in this travel
season for the holiday?
So, um, you're right, those numbers were up this summer.
Um, and, uh, we know we do have airline projections, right?
So we have an idea of what the demand will be
and what it will be like,
whether it's doing Thanksgiving and or Christmas.
And so, you know, we prepared the airlines,
our partners are, and we are prepared, you know,
for those adjustments and changes in schedule, you know,
be it doing Thanksgiving and or Christmas holidays.
That's all I got. Commissioner. Thanks. Thanks chairman.
Thank you. I thought you were gonna ask
for another last question.
Um, I guess you get three, like, I'm closing, uh, church.
So, uh, alderman Lawson, uh,
do we have any others for aviation?
I think everyone has spoken already,
has asked their questions. Alderman Lawson,
Thank you Chair. Uh,
just a couple questions. A lot of mine were covered.
Um, hello Commissioner. It's good to see you.
Thank you. And your team.
Thank you. Um, I represent the 44th Ward,
which includes Wrigley Field, uh,
the LGBT entertainment areas at North Halstead.
Um, I have a lot of, uh, employees that work at O'Hare, uh,
that fly regularly.
So the importance of the airport, uh,
is not lost on, on my community.
I'm one of the top, I am the top neighborhood tourist
destination as well.
Um, and so we welcome a lot of people.
And I, I think the investments that are happening are aware,
are critically important and ongoing, um,
and people do respond to them.
Um, I also have nuts on Clark and Sidetrack in my ward.
Um, so just to put a another, you know, the importance
of local flavor is really, really, um, essential.
And I'll tell you one of the things
that really upset me in the last year
or so was when, uh, CDA tweeted how excited they were
that Chick-fil-A was coming to the airports.
Um, Chick-fil-A, of course not a local company, uh,
has a terrible reputation in the LGBT community, uh,
is also not open on Sunday, which is one
of the busiest travel days we know for everybody.
Um, is there a requirement, at least in our contracts
or our concessions going forward,
that they be open seven days a week?
Um, I don't, Amber, can you speak to that please?
Uh, I can Thank you. Am I on? Okay.
Thank you Commissioner and thank you for Alderman.
Um, there is,
however, um,
we received a legal counsel from the law department that,
uh, there are previous lawsuits regarding airports
and Chick-fil-A.
Uh, there's precedent that said that requiring them
to be open on Sunday is actually a First Amendment violation
of their religious freedom.
So I, I may be paraphrasing and that,
but this is, uh, the legal opinion that we received,
but we did have legal counsel that told us that in fact, um,
we could not enforce that against them. So we
Could not hold the fact
that they're not open on Sundays against
them in the bid process.
That's correct. Oh, what is it?
Okay. Um, that's troubling, I think, um,
because I think you, you may go down a slippery slope
with other businesses that may, you know, uh,
for whatever reason say lunches is too, too,
uh, much of an issue.
Um, I would hope, again,
we could look at this in a way
that talks about business. I,
I, I think you raise a point,
and I I wouldn't, I would
look at it from a revenue perspective
and not from a whatever other perspective.
Does that impact their mag, does it impact,
do they pay less rent?
I mean, this is space that could be utilized.
How do you all handle that financially,
barring if it's Chick-fil-A or, or Ponderosa?
Um, how do you handle that?
Uh, yes. Excuse me. Trying again.
Yes, alderman, um, it doesn't affect their rent in the sense
that they still owe, uh, a mag a minimum annual guarantee
for all of their sales.
So the fact that they're not open Sunday, um, uh,
could affect their bottom line, of course, in the sense
that their revenues are down,
but they still owe us the minimum amount of rent
that we expect from everybody.
So they, for example, they would not get a different rate,
uh, than the place that's next door to them
based on the fact that they're not open on Sundays based
upon some other personal decisions.
That's correct. Okay.
Very well, continue, continue. So,
I, I, again, I, I think you understand the concern there
and, and something that is not very Chicago
and not very friendly and,
and really should be looked at at a
different way when it's at the airport.
Um, the other thing I want to talk about, again, a lot
of users going from my word to the airport
and the CTA, um, has gotta be a better partner, I think
for airport operations.
Um, especially international tourists.
They would expect nothing less than
to get on a train and go downtown.
Um, what is your relationship like with CTA, um,
and what sort of work is being done
to improve the terminal at O'Hare?
Um, both in terms of cleanliness, safety, and modernization?
Well, I, um, I have not in my five months here, you know,
I haven't had a chance to meet with CTA about,
um, their services.
I will say that, um, I, I take the blue line
to the airport, I think it's fantastic.
I take the orange line to Midway. I think they're fantastic.
It's a fantastic o option. It's cheap.
Um, it's, you know, it's, uh, you know, they, they,
they get you there, right?
It's easy. Um, so often, you know, I use the blue line
and, uh, and the orange line to either of our airports,
but I have not had a conversation with the CTA
regarding their services, though
I'd encourage you to do that.
'cause I think it's, it's really, really important
for those people, especially who are working at O'Hare, um,
and, and flying frankly too.
Um, because I, I think CTA has gotten better, uh, from
where we were during some dark days during the pandemic,
but it, it's, it's a constant struggle.
Um, whether it's pigeons at Belmont
or, uh, you know, problems on the train
with safety or smoking.
Um, I encourage you to, to get together with,
uh, our acting chair there.
Um, and I'm sure your team talks
to them more regularly too, so.
Sure. Um, the only other, uh,
maybe quick question I had is when we talk about Inc being
more inclusive of, uh, smaller
and minority contractors, um, what are we doing actually,
uh, you know, are we waiving some of the mag
or, I know there's a, a 10% set aside I think I read,
but just sort of, you know, it's, it's hard to, to commit
to a, a big dollar amount if you're a little guy.
Um, so how, what are we doing specifically
to encourage their participation
In concessionaire?
So, one of the things we do, we, uh, we try to educate those
who are interested in becoming concessionaire
because of the demand that's there, right?
It's a, it's a steep, steep investment.
One has to make, uh,
getting involved not just at our airports,
but this is across the country.
Um, and so, um, you know, um, having
that entrance is, is, is very difficult.
But, you know, what we do is, uh, for instance,
in our latest RFP, you know, we've broken down the packages
so that, um, you know, uh, we made it available to, to mom
and pop or smaller businesses to be able to participate.
Um, as the one alderman mentioned, the, the big issue there,
and sometimes the big barrier there is the build out, right?
So it takes a significant investment, capital investment,
um, to start and be involved in a,
a concessions at any airport, again, any airport.
But, um, in our, our latest RFP that we have out,
we have an incubator program
where the smaller businesses can work with, um, uh,
larger companies at the airport or larger concessionaires.
And those concessionaires, you know, they owe, they pay for
that build out, let's say for a year.
And they mentor these, these, um, smaller companies.
So, so that, um, they can see what it's like for,
let's say a year of what it's actually like to have
to operate in an airport, what the demands are financially,
time-wise, what the demands are.
Um, and so we think that's a great start.
There's other things that we can look at
and possibly should be looking at, and we'll do that.
Um, because again, you know, it's very important,
as I mentioned earlier, that, you know, small businesses,
not just in Chicago, not just in Illinois,
but around the nature nation.
Small businesses are the backbone of this country,
and we have to make sure we do all they can,
particularly here in Chicago, to make sure
that they are viable, right?
They employ people, they employ people who work, obviously,
they pay taxes, they raise their kids here, they go
to school here, they shop here.
So it's in our best interest to make sure that we do
what we can, and I do what I can at CD eight to make sure
that they're participating in, uh, things
that O'Hare procurement.
Thank you, commissioner. I couldn't agree
more about small businesses.
I think we've, we've gotta take care
of 'em, especially right now.
Um, I appreciate your work, uh, and,
And the follow up. So thank
you, chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Alderman Altman,
Gutierrez, you have anything for aviation?
Yeah, no, just thank you, commissioner
for all the great work that you
and your team have been doing.
Um, I just have, uh, one question
and I know, uh, the commission meets tonight actually.
Um, and I think, and we spoke about this
before, uh, looking to see if there's any way
that we can have more diversity in that commission,
if we can, uh, have, um, terms
for the commissioners as well.
Uh, we appreciate and,
and give kudos to all the hard work
that the commissioners have done for many, many years.
But I think the demographics of our area have changed.
I think also those meetings need to be bilingual now, uh, so
that way we can have more outreach
and more of our neighbors present on those meetings.
With that said, um, there's no Latino representation in
that board, so I, I, that's the only thing
that I would ask and advocate for.
Yeah. You Mitch. Yeah. We talked just briefly about that,
and I need to get back to you.
Please. You and I need to sit down to explore those ways.
'cause I agree with you, that's very important that,
that representation is important.
Thank you so much, and thank you to you and your team.
Thank you. Thank you, alderman.
Um, I, I think, uh, it's, it's 1225.
So, uh, I guess you've, uh, successfully passed your, uh,
first, uh, hearing, uh, yesterday.
The first one went almost to four o'clock,
so I guess you're doing a little better than,
um, than the first day.
Uh, I, I think, um, what, what you're hearing from, uh,
members is, number one, we definitely know
and believe O'Hare is a
and mid wear economic engines to our city.
Also providing a great economic opportunity.
Uh, we want to just make sure
that the access on the opportunity is, um, based
for businesses here locally.
Not only just local businesses,
but diverse businesses as well.
So, uh, given all of the responsibility, given all of the,
um, economic power that exists there,
we just wanna make sure that everybody's getting their
respective, uh, cuts of what's going on.
Also, as it relates to, uh,
we know you have some other impending challenges
with the federal government, just, uh, want to know
and understand what the contingencies are, uh, for
that is this, uh, shutdown, uh, looms into some somewhat
of an unchartered territory.
And also just making sure that, uh, you know,
we'll be able to function and operate.
You got over 2000 employees out there
that depend on planes coming in
and out of there, uh, for their respective livelihoods.
And, uh, also the other businesses and cargo
and other things that move through the airport.
So we just wanna make sure that, um,
things are moving in the right direction.
Uh, as you noted that you do have some shoes to fill,
seems like you guys are doing well in that endeavor.
Uh, I do want to thank the staff
and the team, uh, out there that is, uh, that is making
that all of that happen.
Uh, we do continuously, um, I wanna,
I don't wanna call her an over communicator,
but, uh, uh, Bernie, um, uh,
calls us ad nauseum.
Uh, maybe it's
because I'm on the aviation committee, I don't know,
but, uh, is that, uh, it's not just me.
Okay. All right. But no, she definitely communicates,
uh, criteria as well as on the, uh,
workforce development side.
Mm-hmm. Um, and the rest of the team, we wanna thank, uh,
Tracy Payne for her stepping up
and stepping in, uh,
at a time when the department was devoid of leadership.
And, uh, we've got a great, uh, team.
I see you've, uh, stolen, uh, one of my folks from,
I shouldn't say my folks, but one of the folks from, uh,
procurement over there is, uh, managing hopefully gets, uh,
Tammy's over there getting everything, uh, lined up.
So I think you got a great team of people,
great organization,
and again, continue the work, uh, that we all need to see
because you are an engine.
Believe it or not, we're probably one of the few cities
that actually manages, owns,
and manages our, our own airport.
And, uh, we want to keep it that way.
And we wanna make sure that everything that we're doing, uh,
as far as our city is concerned and making sure that O'Hare
and Midway, uh,
stay top destination places, uh, are great thing.
Let's not forget. And,
and also talking with our concession people that
we definitely wanna see Chicago brands, uh, featured,
uh, in our airport.
I, I, I still think it's a travesty that, uh,
we we're losing, uh, Chicago staples,
uh, in the airport.
I think that's part of the experience as part, we're,
we're our food town, we're foodies, uh, you know, we are
what we are and, uh, we want everybody else to know
and come to love Chicago.
We'd love for them to go have something at the airport
and then come in town and
experience some of the same things.
So let's make sure that when we have those conversations
with the concession people, that they're actively, uh,
targeting and actively going into licensing
and other agreements, uh, with these, uh, uh,
with our local businesses, I think it works well
for both parties to do such.
So, again, thank you for your time today,
and, uh, you have, uh, successfully, you know, passed, uh,
budget 1 0 1, and, uh, we will see you, uh, in the future.
Thank you. Committed with Standard Ease while we transition
to, uh, wa, department of Water.
All right, we are back on, uh,
with the Department of Water Management.
Uh, we will start with the overview by Chloe ing our,
uh, member from Kofa.
After her, we'll have opening statement, uh,
how long, okay.
Uh, have the opening statement by, uh, commissioner Connor,
uh, following, followed by his introduction of members
of the staff, uh, here in the well, as well as those
that are in the box. Coy.
Thank you, chairman. Good morning,
chairman Irvin Elder Persons members
of the City Council and guests.
This is Chloe UTI, Maine from the Council Office
of Financial Analysis.
I'm here to give a brief summary for the Department
of Water Management for fiscal year 2026.
The department's proposed budget is $774 million
compared to 2025 revised appropriation.
That is a $345 million increase,
also a 80% increase.
The department's budget is non-corporate funded.
It is funded majorly through water funds, sewer fund,
and other grants funding for the spending breakdown.
The personnel cost is $309 million,
and the non-personnel cost make up the remaining
$465 million.
The department has a total
of 2,492 full-time equivalents budgeted,
and the number remains the same compared
to the previous year.
In this slide, it is a detailed breakdown
for the SY 2026 appropriations by category and fund.
And note that the dollar
and percent change is the comparison made
with the FY 2025 revised appropriation.
The difference between the revised appropriation
and the 2025 ordinance is due to the receipt
of a $10 million from the CDBG lead service line
replacement program, not budgeted
for an FY 2025 ordinance.
From the tables, it has listed
that the department's budgeted is
through local fund and grants fund.
And This graph,
it gives a historical trend
for the department's appropriation by fund from 2017
to 2025, the department's appropriation has been
around $300 million to $400 million.
As for 2026,
there has been a $320 million
increase in the grants funding
for the full-time equivalent positions.
The department's positions has been steady.
And for this year is 2,492, this same as last year.
This concludes my summary. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, thank you, Chloe.
Uh, we're gonna jump into questions.
I'm gonna start with, uh, alderman Mosley.
Thank you so much, chairman.
Uh, thank you Commissioner, and to your phenomenal team.
Uh, I will just say on behalf of the 21st Award,
we are thankful that you always take our calls no matter day
or night and time.
Um, when we have issues, you respond
and you help us smooth them out and keep things flowing.
Uh, commissioner, I want to say, shout out
to you and again, your team.
We've had a couple, uh, times where the Pumping station
and Rosalyn has had some tough times.
The response, uh, was not just informative to our office,
but informative to our residents, um,
and, uh, even helping deliver safe water, uh,
which is a great, great essential role for your department.
Uh, lastly, would just like to, again, just thank, uh,
everyone from, from Dan, Karen, will, uh,
Marisol, just many, many thanks from the 21st Ward,
and we'll turn it back to you. Thank you.
Thank you all the most. Y Autumn,
Bernet, anything for the Department of Water?
Thank you, chairman. Uh,
I just wanna say I'm looking forward to working with you.
Uh, I know how important the water department is
to just maintaining our systems in the city.
Haven't had the chance to connect
with this department quite yet.
Uh, again, given that this is purely funded through water
and sewer funds, I'm not as, uh, concerned with this budget,
um, at this moment.
But thank you again for all you all do.
Looking forward to working with you. Thank you, alderman.
Thank you. Uh, alderman, uh, Moore.
Yes. I gotta fix this thing. Um, thank you, chairman.
Uh, first of all, let's get the, the niceties, um,
quickly out the way.
Uh, commissioner is always, you know,
you're doing a stellar job, so, uh, appreciate, um,
your proactive and your communication.
But, um, Sharon, as you know, would kill me if I would not,
um, say thank you to Greg Knight.
Um, that he is just, I mean, just killing the game out there
and helping us because we do have, um, you know, residents
that, um, have these issues
and, you know, they want it tended to, um, quickly.
And, um, he's someone that, um, she can call on
and it makes my life, um, a little easier.
And also, um, my go-to person who I reach out to a lot
of Donna Murray, uh, especially when we dealt,
had this flood situation just was stellar in getting a lot
of questions answered for our constituents to, you know,
so it wasn't so heavy on, uh, me 'cause people were angry.
And, um, I, I, I get that.
Um, what, what I want to, um, talk about is this, uh,
$339 million disaster recovery fund.
Um, and I, so how is that money being applied
to, well, what is it being applied to?
Is it for the flood stuff or is it for other stuff?
I just need to understand. I don't wanna assume.
So, uh, thank you for the question, Alman.
That is actually the CDBG, uh, disaster Recovery grant
that we are in the process of trying to sign an agreement
with HUD on, for the flooding from 23
and 24 on the west side wards.
So all of that is going to, um, go to the west side.
Yes, sir. Okay.
And, and, and I didn't know if it was all going.
I know they definitely, uh, needed a big portion.
So how are we looking at it for the people that was
affected in July and August so I can effectively communicate
to my constituents when they act?
So, I'm, I'm sorry. So I know that, um,
we actually took the opportunity to walk with FEMA
and some other agencies
to take a look at the flood damage from Gen from July.
So I know that they are trying
to put something together at this point to,
uh, to apply for money.
But in the meantime, we are actually proactively putting
together a couple of programs to be able to, um, alleviate
and address some of that flooding
and, um, just try to make sure
that the system is in a good place.
Okay. And then I heard Kofa speak about, um,
that was an increase, but I think part of
that increase is from the 339.
I just wanna be clear, and I think
the Alderman Irvin has been posing this question mostly
throughout, um, uh, with this budget.
Are there any, um, um, changes to your personnel
that's going to negatively impact us?
No, I had no changes to personnel.
Okay, good. That's good to know
because, um, that's a, a critical department
and, uh, that's important for us, um, that we don't,
you know, have people that's impacted in that department.
Now, when I want to get to is, is what I started
with the department of, uh, uh,
of the finance department and, and the budget department.
The other day was these, was I was asking about positions
that were in, um, in, in the water department.
Um, and I guess they're gonna get those to me in terms
of those full time positions.
Um, are, and I, I don't know if I think you were here.
Can you speak on that a little bit? If, if you can?
Um, I know that there are positions that are funded out
of the water and the sewer fund, uh, in other departments.
Um, I can't speak to who they are.
I, I don't know who they off the top of my head,
so I'll have to defer to, uh, to the budget office
and to finance for those.
Okay. But therefore, since you don't know who they are,
you don't know whether
or not that what they're doing is, is attributed
to helping the water department or not.
I would like to think that it is,
but you know, again, a department of myself
with 2,400 employees, it's kind hard to keep up
with what everybody's doing. Alright.
Thank You. Thank you.
Thank Al Moore. Uh, autumn,
you everything. Go ahead, autumn.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um,
good afternoon commissioner. Afternoon
Altman Commissioner.
Um, yesterday we had, um, commissioner Stoller before us,
and, and we talked about his Labor Apprentice program.
Do you have a similar program?
Um, yes, we do have a labor apprentice program.
Um, and this year, how many did we have?
We've, I've hired since we've started, we've hired over 400,
uh, laborers through that program.
So 400 laborers from the Apprentice program
have become full-time laborers. Yes.
Yes, sir. That's great. That's, that's great work.
I just, I, I think about the, the, the, um, decades worth
of work that we have before us
with the lead line replacement.
And I think it's just a unique opportunity for us to create
that, that line, uh, to the middle class from Chicago.
And so I'm delighted to hear that, um, you have, you have
that apprentice program in place
and that over four, 400 people have been hired
full-time from it.
Yes, sir. That's great. Good work. Commissioner.
Um, speaking of lead line replacements, can you speak
to a status, uh, as to where we're at with that program?
Uh, so currently right now we have completed approximately
1500, uh, lead service lines through the program.
And we're steady ramping up.
Um, so this year we will appro complete approximately 6,500
and each year we need to ramp up till we get to a place
where we can get to, um, to be able to complete.
And, uh, the, the federal mandate for us to replace them.
And, and the criteria for the, the replacement today is,
I said, I, I didn't hear you. I'm
The, the criteria in order to qualify
to have your lead lines replaced.
W can you remind me what that is?
So, I mean, it's, it all depends.
So we have different programs where Sure.
People can qualify. So we have the equity program
where people can apply,
and it's a free program where we replace the public.
In the private side. We have the, um, daycare program,
which is also an equity program,
and we replace the entire service line free of charge.
Um, so anybody who has a lead service line qualifies.
Mm-hmm. Um, we just ask that, um, that we ask the alderman
to just help us out with the outreach so
that we can be in 100% compliant so
that we don't have to come back later on.
Yeah. Commissioner, have you been tracking the people
that have declined getting their lead lines replaced?
Um, we have, um, I have that number.
I can get you to get you that through the chair.
Yeah. That's just interesting, uh, to understand.
Um, commissioner, uh, I wanted, I wanted to, um,
thank you for your help during the, the July
and August floods, obviously that, um, uh, has those,
uh, circumstances apply a lot of pressure to our residents.
Um, and, um, moving forward, I'd like to, at,
at the end of this process, uh, sit down with you
and to really understand maybe some deficiencies in our
sewer sewer system.
Um, but we, we can get to that, uh,
at another, another time.
Um, in terms of the, the, the money
that's gonna be allocated, uh, for the west side,
you anticipate a program, um,
for the south southwest side at some point,
um, for flood relief?
Um, I think that it's,
looks like it's going through the same process.
I can't really say, 'cause it, again, it's, uh,
federal money and we know everything that's going on Sure.
At the federal level.
Okay. Um,
before I turn it back to the chair, I, I would wanna
recognize your staff, uh, Joel and, and Danny Mish
and Mike Paluch.
Those guys are, are fantastic. And your entire team.
And I think it speaks to your leadership too.
We're, we're, frankly, I'm on a personal level,
I'm delighted that you're back in that seat.
Um, I think if there's anyone that could, um,
ramp up the lead lines, it's, it's under your direction.
So thank you very much, commissioner.
Thank you, alderman. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, alderman,
um, alderman Conway.
Thank you. Um, few things I, I, uh,
looking through here, it's in, in a, in a good way.
It looks like your, your budget went up significantly, um,
despite the fact not adding any more, um, employees.
So the, the huge construction project you got going on,
what, what, what, uh, what is that?
I have a lot of huge construction projects going.
I see, I see 283 million is earmarked for construction
of building and structures.
It looks like your, your budget went up about 350 million.
So I was just trying to get some directional accurate,
noting zero if it comes from the corporate fund.
So I've, you know, you don't need to overwhelm us,
but that's obviously a huge number till it's,
Yeah, absolutely. So it's
all grant funding.
And that's part of the C-D-B-G-D-R. Yeah.
The Disaster Recovery grant
that we are, uh, working on with Hood. Um, and that's,
Again, that's the Disaster recovery fund.
Correct. That's the disaster recovery that's going
for the flooding from on the west side from year 23 and 24.
And, and so do you think you're hopeful
that will alleviate future flooding concerns?
I, I take it. Well,
What we're hoping to do is try to, uh, uh, to,
to alleviate as much as we can.
Um, the issue is that, again, the city was,
that system was building the 18 hundreds.
Yeah. It only has only has so much capacity.
There's only so much land that we have to build.
So we're trying to come up with different projects
and different things that we can do
to help alleviate that flooding.
That's great. Well, hopefully 300 million will help the,
help the, the system a bit.
So, uh, that, that's, I,
that was actually my only other question I saw that o like,
over time, from 2024 to 2025
to 2026 went from 20 million to 6 million, then projected
to be 11 million next year.
It seems like a, what's driving that variance?
Um, a lot of things. So we took a look at,
take a look at all of our efficiencies.
I have literally given my managers the authority
to figure out strategic policy changes and how we do work.
Mm-hmm. Um, how we schedule crews, how we, uh,
just do our overall daily maintenance, our daily work.
So they, they've been doing a good job at it.
Great. All right. Um, that's, that's, uh,
Mr. Chairman, that's all I have.
Thank you. Thank you. Alt MCC Conway.
Also, keep in mind, on the overtime, let's, uh, remember
that the budget department did an exhaustive, uh, run
through, uh, over time to get numbers, uh, a little closer
to everybody's reality and,
and really working to hold people to those numbers.
So we will see increases in overtime
for various departments.
Um, primarily large one will be in police,
but just the exercises they
went through on overtime in general. So
That, that makes sense. And I thought,
I, I thought it might
be related to the construction.
That was why I asked on it. It's all good. Thank you.
Okay. Uh, Altman vie, followed by Altman Mitts.
Uh, thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman and Commissioner.
Thank you Autumn. Um, again, great department.
Um, very important department. Two questions.
Uh, one is around selling water to other municipalities.
I know that, that previous, uh, administration was really,
uh, trying to get aggressive
around selling water to other municipalities.
'cause we're not the only game in town anymore.
We have competitors in Hammond, Evanston, other,
other compacts that are trying to sell water.
So what are we doing to kind of differentiate ourselves, uh,
from our competitors, for lack of a better word, in order
to make sure that we're selling water
and continuing to create revenue?
Um, so a couple of things. So one of the things is that,
I mean, basically not to pat ourselves on the back,
but we are the city of Chicago.
We're in the best in the business.
But it come, what comes along with that is the humility
and being humble with that, right?
And getting people to understand
that even though we're the best in the business,
that we're going to give you that, that,
that on hand service to
where you can touch us whenever you need to touch us.
But also communicating to them
that we want to be good partners.
We want to be, uh, in the game with them
and whatever that may look like.
Whether it's them having issues with leaks in their system,
just trying to help them through that as well as just,
you know, building out our system a little bit more
to make it more resilient, right?
To make sure that we're able to, uh, uh, to
to, to sell more water.
To sell more water past the 41 direct
connect customers that we have.
And we have the ability right now that in a lot
of those areas, out of our pumping stations,
we have the ability to be able to do that.
We have other suburbs to be able to connect to us. How many
Customers do we have? Um,
total, we have, um, a hundred we service
as 120 suburbs.
Uh, how many, uh, actual individual accounts do we know?
Oh, in, in, as far as in the city or the suburbs? Total,
Total system.
Uh, I would've to get you that. I'm just
Curious. Yeah, yeah. Um,
and then issue that we've been talking about
for quite some time, water billing,
water billing is just outta control.
Um, and it's a small percentage.
It, I think it's like 1%, but the number is huge.
Uh, and so trying to figure out like
what is the water department, uh,
and finance doing to wrap your, your arms around this issue?
Because we've seen, you know, uh, example
after example, uh, in stories that are,
that are really heartbreaking, where we saw a, a, a female
that, a, a older lady that was old, that old the city,
$200,000, $200,000.
And, uh, the city was threatening to,
um, stop her.
Uh, not, uh, what is
that called when you're stop their payment? Um, you
Mean disconnect their services? No,
Not disconnect service. When you're, um,
you gonna garnish
Your Wages, garnish your wages, garnish her wages,
and her daughter's wages as well.
Uh, and she's a senior. And so, um, again,
it's not a huge pop, it's not a huge number of people
that it's affecting, but
when it's affecting them, it's huge.
So I'm trying to figure out like,
what are we doing around water billing?
Is is it the actual technology?
Um, is it the, uh, the meters? Like what's the issue there?
Well, to be fair to the commissioner,
that is not in his purview.
That is the purview of the comptroller
and the finance department.
Okay. So that's, that's really not,
not necessarily on on him per se.
He can answer to the extent he can,
but it's really not, not on him. I would, I would say
I appreciate that. But,
but there is a component of it where it's the meter,
uh, have some of them,
they were talking about the malfunction
of the meter in this example where the meter was taken out,
tested and then wasn't re that same meter that was tested,
that passed was not put back in.
They put a new meter in. Right.
And so that bill, dramatic,
that bill dropped dramatically. Uh,
So what, what, so what you're seeing is,
so let me say this, that there is nothing wrong
with the meters themselves.
The issues that we're having are
with the transmitters and the batteries.
Okay. Uh, when the system was built,
when those meters were put in, it was 20 years ago.
And they're starting to come to the end of their,
their useful life.
So when the process now of working with finance to talk,
to take a look at whatever this new read
system is going to be.
Right now, everything is, um, is either cellular
or it's a drive by with a car,
with somebody trying to read the meter.
If the meter does not read on the first pass and it,
and go make another pass.
And if it doesn't read on the second pass,
now it becomes an estimated read.
Which means that now that is going to be determined
by finance, what that read is off passed, uh,
bi alpha pass billing.
Um, and then once that is caught up,
once there's a final read, then
that bill trues up whether they owe money
or whether we owe credit.
So what we're in the process of doing again, is trying
to come up with a new read system, which,
which is something we're gonna be trying
to get the RFIP out over the next few months to be able to,
to, to less lessen that problem. Okay. Well
That's good to hear that you're
trying to tackle this issue.
So thank you again. Keep up the good work.
Um, your department's an infrastructure agency,
so looking forward to supporting you. Thank
You. Thank you, autumn.
Thank you. Autumn V it's Autumn, MIT followed
by Altman Napolitano.
Thank you. Um, commissioner, I don't have anything
'cause we don't work long
and hard on the one issue
that I've been complaining about since 2023.
And finally, uh, we finally getting something in the budget.
'cause my constituents are still struggling.
So, um, your department won't be able to help.
But what we can do is, um,
moving forward is what we are looking to do
and trying to create some green alleys, uh,
some storm water, uh, systems
and, um, you know, just to make, make it better
for residents even to someone with some of 'em,
with some shutoff valves
or whatever we need to do to help the residents in the area.
Um, we wanna say thank you for it.
Lemme ask you about the, uh, water service lines.
Um, what percentage are you at today
and are you at the, are you on target for
the range you're looking to be at now? So,
So again, we've completed about about 15,000 lead service
lines and we have to do a total of about 407,000.
So if we kind of put that in perspective, um, so in the,
in 2026 we're looking to go, well, for 2025
we were on target to do about 7,000.
Mm-hmm. Uh, in 2026 we're on target to do about 10,000,
uh, between 10 and 14,000.
Now in 2027 we need to ramp up to somewhere around 15,000.
So in 2028, as we are progressing, we need
to be at 19,000 service lines a year.
So we're in the process of trying to figure out how
to get the funding
and how to ramp up with contracts
just to be able to hit that number.
And there are some things that we need to do even as, um,
even with you all as a council
to be able to help us with that.
One is to make it mandatory
and there's a way to phase it in.
'cause right now it's not mandatory, right.
They have the option of of not letting us in,
but if we're going to hit our target, hit our mark, we have
to make, we have to start making it mandatory now so
that we can start getting people accustomed to it
so that they know that it's coming.
It are we looking at some type of way of, um,
doing blocks instead of individual homes that's, you know,
that that's a hardship for us to come back with CDOT now
to try to repair
and, um, take it out uniform on?
Yeah, absolutely. So those are,
so we do have block level programs.
We're actually putting out, uh, contracts
and bids for just block level,
whether it's just the lead service lines.
Then we have our, the ones that we're doing with our CIP
with our water main and our sewer main replacement,
you'll get lead service lines on those as well.
Um, the individual ones are like the leak and break program
and the homeowner initiated and the equity, the equity ones.
But I will, we just won't be able
to get away from those right away
because those are, um, uh, 'cause they're funded differently.
And when they get approved, that's when we have to do them.
We try to coordinate, coordinate them a little bit better.
But the leaks and brakes are the ones that are that,
that are really the, um, the bane of our existence
because we, because we never know
where they're, when those are gonna pop up.
And those are the most expensive.
And as you said, just try to coordinate those through cdot.
It just becomes a, it becomes an issue
Even with the, um, the winter months when pipes burst.
And we have seniors who may have had
that issue on their side.
Is there any, uh, programs that can assist them, uh,
to get repaired instead of them having to allow
that water to run?
Um, yeah, so actually the leak and break, the leak
and break program does help that.
And we can get you more information on that.
Okay. That would be great. I'd appreciate it.
Um, and are you still doing the,
um, sample test kits
for water apartment?
Yes, ma'am. All, all they have to do is request it through
3 1 3 1 1 1 and they can still get that kit?
Yes. Okay. Alright. Well thank you all very much.
I appreciate that work that you're doing
and looking forward to continuing to work with you.
I'm ask this about the sewers though, before I go on.
I, are you, the sewers being cleaned now
or do you do that work
For being citywide per se?
Yeah, so we do have a cleaning
Program before the winters set in, in areas
where we have these floods that just to making sure
that the sewers, uh, uh, clean whether
they report it in or not.
Are you monitoring somebody monitoring it to make sure,
So we monitor through, monitor it through 3 1 1.
If anybody calls and asks for
A and if they don't call 3 1 1,
you don't do anything. Well. So
We're in a, in a process now of trying
to put together a systematic cleaning program citywide.
But again, it's one of those situations where, you know,
it's, it's, it's money involved, right?
You have to be able to, and, and, and it's a contract.
'cause I do not have the capability in-house, you know,
with, with my forces to be able to keep up
with the program of that magnitude.
So as we get funding and be able to dedicate it to that
and we are able to get contracts out for that, then we will,
we'll do we doing some targeted claiming.
Okay. All right.
Thank you very much that, uh, that's all of my questions.
Uh, chairman said thank you, commissioner,
keep up the great work, you and the team.
Thank you Alderman. Thank you Alderman. Mitch.
Uh, next we're gonna have Alderman Spto followed
by Alderman Walker Spec.
Thank, thank you Chairman. Uh, no questioners. Uh, I'm,
I'm sorry. I said
let us, I'm in Napolitano. I said
Napolitano. I
know he looked the same. We both have a vow.
It's the glass. Both we're about the same size. I know.
Don't, I'm not offended. Don't worry about it.
I'm not that sensitive. Uh, our our friend
that's listening now, our crazy guy on northwest side,
he's probably being entertained by this.
But, uh, anyways, uh, thanks commissioner.
Thanks for everything. I have no questions, no complaints.
I get great service from you.
Glad to see you back in the seat.
I know it's been a while now. I think I called you more when
you weren't the commissioner than you are the commissioner.
So, uh, I get great service from everybody.
I call the same couple people. That's about it.
So just thank you for everything and keep up the good work
and, uh, hopefully, uh, hopefully we get some breaks in the,
uh, breaks and getting breaks
and water main breaks this winter. So
Thank You, autumn. Thank you Commissioner.
Thank you Chairman.
Thank you. Autumn, SPTO, autumn and Napolitano.
Thank you chairman. Uh, just one quick question.
Good afternoon, chairman. Good afternoon.
Our chairman, uh, commissioner
and incredible crew in the box.
Um, I appreciate all you guys do.
Are you and I, my apologies
for not having this information before I come in here.
Um, I I should before I even ask you,
but are, are you losing any vacancies in this, this budget?
I am not. Okay, Perfect.
My one question just based off of that too is, is there
a larger amount in the last two years of, uh, those
sewer collapses or those water main breaks, um, than you,
than you've probably seen in, in your, you know, your time.
And the reason why I ask is,
is on the northwest side in a couple of different wards,
and I'm assuming citywide, I'm seeing a lot more of them
and it just seems like,
because I see so many of them, it seems like
between the permanent process, the opening the ground
and the fix process, that time has expanded.
And, and I say that knowing how large your,
your scope is
and how much work you have to do,
is there something different going on
and are you seeing a, an uptick in these?
Uh, it's been a slight uptick
and I think one is a couple of different reasons.
Um, one is just, you know, we went a couple
of years without having a CIP program,
which would've taken care of a lot of those issues, right?
Um, the other issue is just, just making sure
that people understand how our system works
and how they operate it.
Um, but we are working with those entities as well
as we should be trying to get back on track
with ramping up over the next few years with our CIP program
to be able to try to mitigate a lot
Of those. Alright,
that's very encouraging to, to to hear.
I I think one of our only issues we see is that when, from,
from observation of the sink
or the break to repair seems like the time expanded.
Like we understand it, we get it.
Um, but I, I'll finish with this.
Uh, I, I said this yesterday to, to CDOT as well,
your department, you
and your department as far as your communications top notch.
And what I mean by that is we have issues where it comes to,
um, PDs compared to, you know, that resident not knowing
that it's, hey, this is something that you have
to coordinate with someone that comes out your department.
As far as the communication that we ask for them to convey,
uh, to those residents, it's, it's second to none
and it means a lot because that's language that's hard
for us to communicate from our office.
Uh, were you guys understand it
and can explain it a lot better, but every time we call
and ask, can you talk to this resident about this?
You're, you're, that box up there does an a plus job on it
and it means the world to us.
'cause it, those are the difficult points for us.
So I appreciate all you do, uh, any way
that we can speed up those, those, you know,
those fix fixes on those breaks and,
and, you know, I'm, I'm all
for it in any way we can help you.
So absolutely. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. Uh, alderman.
Alderman Beck, followed by Alderman Taylor.
Thanks, chairman. Um, commissioner, uh,
you had mentioned you didn't have, uh, the information on
where those staff were that are outside
of the water department, but, um, you know, just looking
through the book year after year, we kind of know
that they're an IT budget treasurer, OIG, for example.
Um, but I think we really need to know,
uh, who and where they are.
So, uh, chairman, I don't know if you can ask for this
or make sure that the budget and finance people get it,
but, um, I think we need to see all, uh,
positions and, um, salaries of all the couple hundred people
that are paid out of the water fund,
not doing water related activities.
So I'd like to get that through the chair. Um,
Hold on. That's,
um, tho those things, those two things don't exist.
Uh, people that are paid out of the water fund, um,
in some way, shape or form are supporting the
operations of the water fund.
Those are all positions that are budgeted, um, in the book
because they have some, um, responsibility
or are doing something related to water and or sewer
or something along those lines.
So while they may not be sitting in his department,
under his control does not mean per accounting
or other principles that the work that they're doing, um,
is not rightfully charged to the enterprise fund.
That's the same thing in aviation, similar to what we do
with the police department and other departments
that are doing work, um, re related to the outcome
of what's going on in, in the water fund.
So a hundred percent we know that they're doing all water
or airport related activities.
I think as it was explained yesterday, uh, department
for example, let's take the, let's take the law department
that may have a team of a hundred lawyers.
Yeah. And when you start looking at, on an FTE basis,
they may have two FTEs that are working on water,
even though eight or 10 people may be working on the matter.
I, I think from a budgetary perspective
and from, uh, how our systems work,
it may be down the road under a new system,
people can accurately record their time
and do it like you do if you were at a law firm
where you have a case number
or a fund that you're billing to.
But I, I think right now they're just allocating,
making an allocation based upon what the estimates are for
individuals in the department, even though it may be, uh,
may be more people actually performing the work.
But from an accounting perspective to charge the, uh,
to charge an accurate
or a believed to be accurate amount back
to the water fund is totally within the bounds
and confines of both GS B
and gap, uh, accounting principles.
So, um, oh, I agree with you. I think the budget reflects
That I'm not, I'm not arguing that.
I just kind of want to know, like overall, instead
of me having to go line by line,
I thought we could get like just a whole, uh,
the whole gamut in one kind of fell sweep.
And I'm not asking the commissioner to do it.
That's why I was asking, oh, well
That's what the book, now remember last year we, we,
that we had a change in the book from the fund basis
to the departmental basis.
And that's why it looks different.
In the past it was always just a whole water fund,
and then you had the departments in the fund,
but it didn't, it, it was you
to do the department when they were up here, you had to go
through from four different sections of the book
to find out all their information.
So there's just a change in how that is, uh, brought up.
But we can provide, I think, uh, for other departments
outside of water, uh, that are charging people
and stuff to the water fund could create a, a, a, uh,
document of just pages out of the fund
that would, would show that.
So I that I think that's easy to do if
that's exactly what you're looking for.
Yeah. Something more along that lines.
And I, I don't want the commissioner to do it.
I saw his eyes get really big
and I was like, no, I'm not. I don't want you to do that. Oh,
Actually, uh, uh, between budget and, and
and the committee and the budget staff, that's,
that's not too hard to do. Yeah. Okay.
And, and Altman I do wanna clarify that.
Um, I don't, I know where they are.
I just don't know who they are,
So. Yeah. And I don't wanna know
the, they,
They're, I just don't know who they
Are. Okay.
All right. Well, I'll move on from that.
Um, thank you though. So, um, there,
there have been the recent water rate increases
for suburban customers, either I think it's 5% or CPI.
Um, are you seeing an increase this year
or significant increase, uh, for those water rates?
And I don't know if you can explain, um, you know, have you,
have you had any issues with those suburban, uh, customers
in terms of getting those funds in for, uh,
with those rate changes?
Um, so again, every year we have, um, a rate increase
that's by, uh, statute that's either CPR
or 5%, whichever one is the, is the least amount.
Um, we haven't heard any issues, haven't seen any issues
outside of, um, some of the suburbs
that we work very closely with on their payments.
Um, so we have, we just haven't seen any issues.
I mean, they understand it, they know it,
and we work with them on a regular basis to make sure
that they are trying to, uh, uh, get their bills paid.
Yeah, and I know, uh, was it Harvey
that's having the problems right now?
I think Harvey was going bankrupt
or declared some situations.
So I know that they're always on the hook with us
for a couple million.
But, and, um, I guess if, uh,
chairman do we have, oh wait, he's, he's, hold on.
Um, sometimes we have outstanding bills
from some of those suburbs.
Are we seeing any issues there with some of the suburbs?
Um, for the most part they're all pretty much up to date.
Um, and it's just those couple of, you know, actors
that we have to work with on a regular
basis to be able to get the money.
Okay. Sounds good.
I think that's gotten better and better every year.
Um, all right, so with that, I just, uh, I thank a lot
of your folks, uh, Lisa, John G, Tony fta, uh,
a whole bunch of other professionals that we were dealing
with on a particularly thorny, uh, project that, um,
they handled it very well.
Uh, we're very professional
and that's, uh, just want to thank them
for their approach on some of these issues
because it's, we need them in the room to go through these,
uh, engineering issues, to go through timing issues.
And without them showing such professionalism, it,
it can make it very hard.
So I want to thank all of them
and I know I didn't hit everybody,
but they know who they are. So thank you very much.
Thank you. Ottman Chairman. Thank you.
Uh, Ottman Taylor.
Thank you, uh, chairman. Hey, commissioner, how are you?
I am well, Altman. Wellman, how are you?
We work for the city. Question one,
what is the response from the department
when we see this regular, um, irregular water usage?
So, you know, my office gets loads
of calls about people saying, my bill was this at one time,
and it went to something else and went extremely higher.
And not in just the hundreds,
but in the thousands for some folks.
And they, like, there's nothing leaking.
I, and they don't know what it is.
How is the department working with these families
and what type of, um, outreach
or conversations are we having with aldermen
and neighbors to, to tell people like some
of the common things to do about running water
and when they see that high usage?
Um, thank you for that question.
So it's a couple different things there.
Uh, we tell people when people think they don't have a leak
in their bill spikes like greatly,
especially if they're metered.
Usually there's a leak somewhere, there's some type
of water uses, which is drawing the water through the meter.
It doesn't have to be a visible leak.
It could be a unused toilet somewhere in the house
that's constantly running, or it could be anything.
Um, so we try to tell people that when you see that to like,
you know, get them, get, have a plumber come out
and check their system and see,
and if they, if the plumber can't find it, you know,
they can get, they can call 3 1 1 and we could come out
and try to assist to a certain point.
Um, but it is also, um, uh, the fact
that two different things, you have people who are unmetered
who see their bills, you know, go up and go up and go up
because they're unmetered.
But then you also have the people who are un who are metered
and they see their bills go up
because they keep using the same amount of water.
Or we have a point a place again, where we talked about
where the meter isn't bad,
but it's the reed system itself that is starting to, uh, uh,
get to the end of his useful life.
So, like I said, we're in the process of, of trying
to come up with a contract to be able to change that out.
Mm-hmm. As well as work with, um, uh, the CFO and finances.
Make sure that the CFO
and the comptroller just to make sure
that people's bills are in the right place
and we have things and provisions for that, uh,
that, that we work within.
I appreciate that. Commissioner, is there a fact sheet
that you all already have
or creating that we could send out, um, to folks?
'cause I feel like some of the things that you tell us to do
or will say that they need to do, we wanna be able to send
that to folks regularly, especially when it's it's storm.
So I know that there's always these conversations.
So black woman, black household, you know,
we turn out the lights, maybe we can go in the closet
when a storm, what do we do when it comes to water,
when it's flooding, those type of things.
Is there a, a fact sheet that we can give
to community members or even like little webinars
or things that you all consent to us
that we send to constituents.
So during those times are storms when it's really bad when
we shouldn't be taking bath,
so we shouldn't be wondering waters so
that the bills don't go up.
So a couple of things. So, um, on the flooding side of
that, uh, we work with MWRD on a lot of the messaging
and we just piggyback off their messaging
so we can get something from MWRD if you want to talk
to the, uh, the, uh, com President Steel about that.
'cause they do have, uh, a material and literature on that.
DWM has some of the same literature
and I believe it's on our website as well
as we can get you something
that you can get to your constituents.
On the, uh, water usage side,
we're always talking about water conservation.
And again, working with MWRD on how not to use your, um, uh,
washing machine or your, uh, your dishwasher
and you know, it's lessen the amount of water that you use
because it, it'll bring your bill down as well as it'll,
it'll soften the blow on the sewer system itself.
So there are a lot of things that are tied in together with
that so we can get you something.
I appreciate that. Um, are you all sending out stuff to
folks with these vacant buildings?
How you working with the building parments to do that?
Because another complaint we get is people will say,
this vacant building been vacant for 10 years
and I'm still getting a water bill
'cause they hadn't registered as a vacant building.
Are we, is there some system
or there's some thought process behind reaching out
to the vacant property owners to make sure
that they register their buildings?
Um, from the DWM standpoint, we have not, uh,
started to look at that.
The only time we get involved in
that is if we get a call from yourself
or one of your, um, your council mates on whether there's
water running in an abandoned building, then we go out
and shut it off and then we start talking to, uh,
DOB about what that looks like.
Um, but I would definitely be open to a conversation
with the commissioner of DOB
to figure out how we can partner on that.
Good. Um, I always ask this question
and you might have passed it out,
but I'm not there to get it.
What, how many people per ward, um,
are currently without water?
And my hangout with the city is
we will cut off our everyday folks in our community,
but these municipalities that owe us a million dollars,
we like, well it's a municipality don't seem fair,
but I know that's kind of the rules.
And so you can just talk to me about 20, about
how many people, um, are actually cut off
and what is in place to get these people back running water.
Um, so that is, uh, a more of a broader question.
Um, and we can have that conversation.
I don't necessarily have that direct number.
Um, but what I can tell you is that, um,
in the 20th ward alone, we posted seven homes
and we only shut off one and we shut off one.
And we did, we have a shut off of violation and,
but we've also restored 13 in the war through,
uh, through the we program.
So I would assume to think that, um,
we can get you information on
how they can go about getting their water turned back on
and how they can work with finance to ensure
that they're in a place where their bill is paid to be able
to qualify to get their water turned back on.
I appreciate that commissioner.
'cause one of my concerns is some
of these bills are outrageous
and it takes so much for folks.
They got outrageous 'cause they couldn't afford it.
And then we ask for these, uh, uh, uh, outrageous amounts
to get them cut back on.
And so just wanna making sure that we are fair
to the citizens that we actually represent.
Um, I do understand municipalities depend on us
to get water, but they need to pay what they owe as well.
Um, can you talk about the lead pipe, uh,
replacement project where we are across the city?
Um, and is, is the data broken down by Ward
or what's kind of happening?
Absolutely. So, um, across the city right now, uh,
we have completed 14 thou,
a little bit over 14,000 lead service line replacements.
And it's, we and we, we do have that by ward from 2021
when we started making, uh, start changing them out.
But of course, you know, we have the different programs
where we're trying to get 'em all done
and which especially we're trying to again,
go go into a block level type of replacement so
that we can get the most efficiency out of it
and try to get 'em done as quickly as possible.
Um, next year we will be ramping up again to, um,
a place whereby 2027 we need to be at
19,000, uh, replacements.
And the only way we're gonna be able to do that is with,
with the help of you and your council members to be able
to make a lot of these make to start making them mandatory
by 2026.
And I have, uh, my team working on, um,
language ordinance language to be considered, um, by the end
of, by December meeting
or November meeting to try to get that done.
And it'd be great if we could sit down
and talk about how to get these, uh, uh, this,
this language into the ordinance so that we can be able
to start, uh, getting more of these, uh,
these lead service lines changed out.
'cause the reality is that if I don't change the entire lead
service line, I don't get credit for it.
So by doing a partial, I don't get credit for that.
We have to change out the entire line
to be in compliance with the mandate.
So let's have a conversation about how we going block
by block to explain to people that they actually need it
and be moving their c because there's a whole process.
People, they complain about wanting the upgrades
but don't wanna move their cars,
don't want the street tore up.
And so let's at some point have a conversation
about how we do that.
And we, we coordinated with some of the award meetings
that we have to talk to people.
AB actually, um, replacing those lines.
And correct me if I'm wrong,
is there a conversation to make sure citywide
that everybody has meters?
Uh, so we are going to start that conversation back up.
Currently the meter pro the meter program was put on pause
in 2000.
End of it, 2018 or 2019, I can't remember.
But we are currently,
anytime we change out a lead service line,
the complete line, the homeowner gets a meter.
And is that something they got request?
Are we saying that, Hey, you don't have a meter,
we a suggestion, you get one.
Um, what is, what are we kind of doing?
So we are not replacing, we do not have a, uh,
meter installation program per se un i,
unless it's going through the lead service
line replacement program.
Again, we're looking at that now to figure out if we can use
that program to be able to, um,
to install more lead service lines so we don't have
to come back and do double work.
Uh, so we just, I mean we have to take a look at
what the ordinance says as well as far as meter installation
and try to and, uh, to try to change
that language if it needs changing.
So we can go back to doing meter installation
because there was a, uh, moratorium put on it.
Commissioner, is there a program that you have with CPS
and city colleges that gets you folks in-house
to become employees of the water department?
So again, we have our apprentice program, um,
through the laborers and we have, um,
some other programs that we're working on.
We are actually trying to work out a program with CPS
as well as city colleges for more,
for a lot of our programs.
The, uh, the, a lot of our uh, uh, jobs are
licensed or they have to have some type of certification.
Mm-hmm. So we're trying to figure out how do we work
with the unions on reaching back into city colleges
and to CPS at least get them started.
So at least when they get, when they finish,
they can have their license or have their certification
and then they'll be able to apply with the city
or be able to have some inroads
with the city the same way the streets
of sand does on the labor side.
That's good to know. I would love to,
to have a conversation with you about how we look at,
what I get tired of is it seems like the people
that work in some, a lot of these departments,
they're not from Chicago.
And I want us to be able to, to homegrown a lot of the folks
who we need in these departments.
Um, how many did you, if any, did you get any young people
for from one summer Chicago?
Uh, no, I did not.
And the, usually the reason we don't get them is
'cause they don't, a couple of things
'cause the type of work that we do, but also
because they don't want to travel to where we are.
Right. So that's always been the issue.
But we did have interns that came out of college this year.
I believe we had eight. Um, so
that worked out really, really well.
So let's have a conversation.
'cause we need to be able to get young people to know
that there are a thousand things that you can do in the city
of Chicago and the water department is one
of the biggest departments that we have
and that we kind of wanna grow them
and so we need to engage them real early.
So let's have a conversation about that.
My last question is, how many positions
did you lose or did you have at the opening of 2025?
Um, I did not lose any positions.
Okay. All right.
Um, you started to talk about this earlier,
but my last question is,
can you talk about your relationship with, uh,
president Steel and Water Rec?
Um, we have a great relationship.
I, it is interesting what makes our relationship really, uh,
good is that we have, we share the same birthday.
Oh Wow. So it's just interesting.
So we call ourselves the water twins, right?
So it's, we have a, uh, relationship
where we actually talk about
how we can partner even more on a lot of our, uh, projects
that we're doing, especially toward flooding.
And they've been a great partner by, uh,
giving us funding toward a lot of our projects.
We do a lot of, uh, inter intergovernmental agreements
with them so
that we can make sure everything is done the correct way.
But they are great supporters of ours.
Well, thank you, commissioner. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Uh, chairman.
Thank you Alderman. Thank you Alderman.
Uh, alderman Gardner followed
by Alderman Manna Hopping Worth.
All right. Thank you, chairman. Sorry, this thing broke.
Um, thank you Commissioner and thank you. Yep. Thank you.
Uh, and thank you for your staff for being here today.
Um, I, I'm sure my colleagues asked some of the questions
that I have, but, um, I wanted to ask you a little bit,
we have, uh, I know my colleague from the 41st ward asked a
little bit about sewer collapses.
Mm-hmm. Um,
and oftentimes with sewer collapses,
it's the walls within the sewer.
Correct. That, that break down. Right.
And then we end up seeing the top of that.
It can be anything. It can be, it all depends on what the,
uh, the makeup of the sewer itself is.
What has happened to the sewer over time?
Anything can contribute to the, uh, a, a sewer break. Okay.
A collapse. Um, so I, I like to be out on the streets
and I know, you know, that I, I, I saw you out
and grace that project, and which you helped us out
greatly a few years ago.
We had to pull a lot, a lot of trees out in order to get
that project done, which you helped.
Um, but one, uh, some
of the times when I'm out on the streets, um, you, you know,
I try to, I ask a lot of questions
and some, one of the things I I, I see is that, you know,
you guys actually use like fake bricks, believe it
or not, on the walls of the
sewer. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Fake brick. Yeah. It's not, they're not real bricks.
They're like sand. They're, they're, it's like hard sand.
Okay. I could literally take a, a brick and,
and break it with my, with my two hands. Right.
I know, I know what you're talking
About. And, and, and
I, I think some of the, uh,
I think problems we're getting
with these collapsed sewers is due to the fact
that we're using this, uh, I don't know
what you would call it, one off of brick.
They're, they're not really bricks.
They're, they're hard, it's hard sand. So
Tho they are bricks
and what those bricks are, um, again, as time goes on,
the specifications for the material that we use changes.
Mm-hmm. And we have
to stay within compliance within the code for what that, uh,
material is and material that we,
that we purchase and that we buy.
Um, so it's the brick itself.
Uh, it may, it is not the issue.
It all could be also be the, um,
after the brick is installed,
where else is there a compromise in, in that, in
that system itself?
Mm-hmm. So if we, if we replace a piece of main sewer
and it's a brick sewer mm-hmm.
And it's only a small piece that we can replace
with brick, that's what we do.
If it's a larger piece,
and again, I've given, uh, my managers the ability to say,
Hey, we not, we're not going to use brick.
We're going to use a, a whole stick of pipe
or whatever the case may be, depending on what's going on.
Then they do that. It all depends on where it is,
what it is, and how fast we're trying to get in to get out.
But it's not necessarily the
composition of the brick that we're using.
'cause that is a, uh, a brick, a brick that is, uh, uh,
that is, that's that we have been told that we have to use
because of the specification of what we're doing.
Yeah. And, and, um, this,
that's not a knock on you, right?
Mm-hmm. This is a knock on the city,
meaning like I I I'm sure we're trying to cut corners
and we're trying to save money because I'm sure it's a lot
cheaper than buying a real brick.
Well, it is a real brick.
It's again, it's about what is the specification
for the brick that we're using according
to industry standards.
Right. Again, it is, um,
the standard may have been differently 30 years ago opposed
to 50 years ago.
Mm-hmm. Whereas, like a great example of
that is on the water main, that when water main was the
first installed, they were wood.
Yeah. Right. So the standards have come a long way.
Um, so we're at a point where it's ductile iron now.
So again, it goes back to what is that standard?
We have locations in the city where we have sewer that are,
that are, uh, concrete reinforced, uh, pipe.
And we, it's, it's pipe that was built
that was put together in the forties and the fifties Right.
That we're now starting to see that there's an issue.
Well, there is no issue. But then we have pipe that was,
that we have bought in the sixties
and the seventies that we are starting to see issues
with a lot sooner than the other pipe.
So again, it's about the specification in the industry
standard that we have to abide by according to the rules.
Okay. We, we agree to disagree, Annette,
but, um, I, I, um, I also, I wanted to ask, are you guys,
uh, are you actively working with cdot, uh,
when you are doing these lead service lines, you know,
as far as when they are, um, uh, grinding up streets in
between the times that they're like repaving?
I know that would be an ideal time, right?
As opposed to us grinding repaving
and then all of a sudden now water department comes
to do a lead service lines.
How, how is that communication between you and cdot?
Um, it has gotten better over time.
Um, but you have to remember that
their work moves a lot faster than our work.
So if you have a street that you want resurfaced this year
and but you want to let surface lines done,
it won't get resurfaced this year.
Right. Because we have to get in
and do our work, make sure it's done correctly.
Um, that's why I, when we have our CIP briefings,
I say if there's a street that's you need done, yeah,
then go ahead and do it.
And I'll come back after the moratorium is done to come
and do my work, which you'll probably be more than five
years, probably like 10
or 15 in the case of where a street has been milled
or there's an issue
and, uh, we get notification of a sewer cian,
or even with the lead service lines that there is a leak
or break on the service line, then we get in there as soon
as we possibly can, right.
To be able to replace it.
But also there's a delay
because I can wanna get in there tomorrow to do it.
But if the homeowner was, doesn't wanna let me in,
'cause you have to go through this whole series
of notifications that are mandated by the state Yeah.
By the feds. If they won't let me in,
then I can't get the whole thing done.
So I can only do what I can do
and then have to come back for the rest.
Okay. Um, on a brighter note, I wanted to make mention
of, uh, some of the individuals on your team
that have been very helpful.
Um, John Gallagher, one of 'em who, who's, who has a lot
of knowledge on Edgebrook
and Wildwood, which is a new area of my ward, uh,
helped me many times, uh,
where I've met him out on the streets
and in the alleys, uh, helping to explain not only
to me, but to residents.
Uh, so very helpful. Elisa Rosario, Kathleen Henley,
Carla Ford, Anthony fell on the street.
Joey Deo on the Vac Truck, uh, does an amazing job.
And I wanna make mention of one project
on the 5,050 100 block of West Winnemac in my ward where we,
we were replacing a water main.
And during this time, there was an individual,
an older gentleman who was hospitalized
and he had a difficult time getting in, uh, into his home.
And the crews on that site, on
that work site actually went out of their way
to lift this gentleman out of his car into his home.
Went totally out of above and beyond.
And I, and I just wanted to make mention
of several of those individuals.
Steve Domain, the assistant district superintendent, Sophia,
uh, ish, rich, Sandra, Sean Ryan, Brian mc Morrow,
Anthony Rice, Victor Guillen, Brian Morris, Jose Sania,
Santoyo, David Baez, Robert Kaan, Negro,
Brian Dodge, uh, all lady, uh, ladies
and gentlemen, that did a wonderful, wonderful job.
And I just wanna make mention and commend them and,
and just let you know that you, your men
and women on the streets are doing a great job.
So thank you Commissioner,
and thank you for everybody in the box.
Thank you. Alderman. Yep.
Alden man, how poor. If you had,
you said you had, you had a question.
Yes. Thank you. Hi, commissioner
Alderman. How are you?
Very well. How are you? Thank you.
To you and your team in the box today,
and others who are not here.
Um, I wanted to shout out to the whole team
who helped with the RIDGE Project.
That was really hard. We got through it.
Um, I did want to say that the, and I mentioned it yesterday
and, um, with CDOT that the,
the traffic management plan was really, was nuts.
But, but before we get into that, I do wanna say that the,
um, the Ridge Project has been talked about since January,
and we're looking forward to full restoration this year.
And, and my neighbors at this point, they, they wanted
to throw a party for your department
because they were so happy with eventually
with the project coming to an end.
And how contractors are very much available
to the neighbors when need, when needed.
It's fascinating to look in our inerts, you know, at our,
at our, some of our, um, pipes
that haven't been replaced since 1833, uh, we had almost,
we wanted a hundred percent participation
for the lead line replacement.
We, we had a hundred participants that's like 90%,
um, in, in the area.
So, um, thank you to the team for, for helping us
to achieve that goal.
And, um, and yeah, I wanna come go back to the traffic
because we are a, a cut through neighborhood between svo,
lake Shore Drive and, and the, the west side, east to west.
And, um, just on Bryn Mawr alone,
we have 40,000 people coming through, um, every day.
And really, it was like a, a snow globe, you know,
all the traffic just went everywhere through our alleys,
down one way, streets the wrong way.
And my ward is basically all of it is a school zone.
There's schools like on every block.
And so we had to work together with CPS,
with streets and sand, with cdot, all of us every week.
And it was, that was really hard.
I just cannot, I'm still, I'm still trying to understand
whose job is it to figure out what that traffic plan is
for any community as going through
a major construction project like that.
Because I felt like we were on the fly. I wanna say. I know.
Thank you Pablo Martinez for being on the line
with us at all hours of the day and night,
because we are just trying to pop signage up
and down the blocks trying to, to trying to figure it out.
So, help me, help me,
help me understand whose job is it, firstly,
to formulate a traffic plan when something like,
we want the lead line replaced
and we want the zoo main to be upgraded.
We don't want traffic all over
our communities going the wrong way,
and thousands of dollars in, in, in, uh, in automobile, um,
damage, you know, parked cars.
Um, please, how, how is it that we can
help to not have this happen again?
Um, absolutely. Thank you for that question. Auto.
So during the permit process, especially
for a job like Ridge, um, we have
to submit traffic plans according to, um, uh, the,
the traffic coordination, like through the state
and understand what their requirements are.
And then also with the requirements of the city
of Chicago on traffic plans, those are submitted
through the permitting process, which is reviewed by cdot.
They give us the approval
or non-approval on the traffic plan,
and then we start talking about what
that traffic plan looks like.
We cannot start a job until the traffic plan is approved.
Once we get the traffic plan that's been approved
by either IDOT or cdot, then we start.
And now if there's an issue after that, now we can come back
and say, this traffic plan doesn't necessarily work.
How do we fix it? But ultimately, it is the, uh,
the permitting, uh, authority who has
to approve the traffic, uh, movement pattern.
Okay.
I still, I, I, I know that from the beginning to the end
of the project, we were tweaking that plan the whole time.
And I also know that I followed many cars east to west
to try to figure out what their pattern was.
And a lot of 'em were on their phones.
They were just following Google Maps or ways
or whatever directional app that they were looking at.
So how did that plan connect to any
of those way finding apps?
Um, again, I, so I am not the
traffic management authority.
I'm the, the construction company,
the person trying to do the work.
So, but I will say this, that unfortunately is not something
that is, uh, just relegated to your ward, right?
It, but fortunately, we have enough relationships
and be able to have the conversations with the people
that are in charge of the traffic plans
or the approval of the traffic plans to say,
listen, it's not working.
These are the complaints we're getting.
How do we rectify it? Right?
And it has to be an open conversation,
a very honest conversation,
and everybody has
to play their part no matter what that party is.
Yeah. Thank, thank you, commissioner.
I would've appreciated those conversations happening
before the project actually ensued.
And, and again, I just wanna say thank you
to the entire team because, you know,
every week was something else.
And, and we did the best we could.
Thank God nobody was hurt.
There was a lot of damage to cars.
Um, CDOT was there with me also, um, you know, just trying
to direct traffic by the schools,
but it was, it was really tough.
That was really hard. And,
and at the same time, we were
very grateful for this project.
We want our water to be clean and to be safe.
And for households who are afraid to drink their water,
who buy bottled water, uh, we want them to be able
to drink water out of their tap.
Um, again, so really, I'm, I'm just saying, um,
that was a very challenging project
and, um, thank you, Joel.
Thank you. Um, Brendan,
thank you Tony though though you all came
and spoke to, um, our, our neighbors to try
to explain the situation.
Um, and then once again, when the project was over,
um, we celebrate it.
So, um, I just hope that when we move forward,
we have better, better plans to, to track this traffic
and also work with Google in ways
to make it better for everybody.
Absolutely. Thank you,
commissioner. Thanks, chair. Thank you.
Wo thank you much. Uh, Ottman Martin,
Thank you, chair. Good afternoon,
commissioner team.
I wanna echo, um, our thanks, uh,
for the good work
and, uh, the top-notch communication, um, when we reach out,
uh, with issues, uh, with projects.
Um, so please do keep that up.
Uh, my one question for now is simply a
through the chair request, and it's a two-parter.
Um, one, I'd like the department to share
what performance metrics, including KPIs or
however you like to term them internally,
do you currently use,
and what process does the department currently utilize
for monitoring the progress of those KPIs.
Um, that's all I have for right now.
Thank you. And thank you chair.
Thank you Alderman. Alderman, uh, Lata, followed
by Alderman Robinson.
Thank you very much, chair. Given the time, I'll try
to be comparably brief.
Uh, commissioner, thank you so much for your presence
with us here today for your whole team.
I'll say a, uh, pun intended, high water mark
of my time in office was getting to
visit the Jardine treatment plant was very eye-opening
about the extraordinary care that we take to deliver
clean drinking water to Chicago residents.
I'll also say your team did, has done a phenomenal job
on the, uh,
water main replacements happening in the
first ward this year.
I want, I want to ask, let's say three quick questions.
Number one, the CDBG grant
that we're getting around sewer line construction.
I am heartened to see it, given what we've seen
with the federal government, uh, over the past,
let's say four weeks.
Uh, and more than that, are we confident
that these funds cannot be clawed
back from the city of Chicago?
Um, I wouldn't, I don't know, to be honest with you.
It's, we've seen some very, um, different things
that are going on with this administration.
Um, but I will say this, that we are, we were in the process
of signing and, uh, the agreement with Hood for it.
And then there were, you know, it, it,
the federal government went dark, it went closed.
So until that comes back on board,
we don't know exactly what's going to happen.
Okay. Best wishes.
Um, question number two related to,
uh, again, I'm, I'm looking at page 6 0 7.
It's the it's CARES act funding
for lead service line replacement, relatively old dollars.
The full 2025 grant of 6.4 million
has been carried over to 2026.
Can you speak to us about, like, were there challenges
that we found getting those dollars out the door?
Is it because we had comparable CDBG dollars
for lead service line replacement?
Why do we see the full amount of
that grant carried over to 2026?
And which one was it? Ottoman also, sorry.
Uh, this is on page 6 0 7, 0 8 8.
Department of Water Management Cares Act lead service line
replacement 9 2 5 C 2 8 2 5, HUD
9 2 5 C.
This one, um, this was, uh, is a reserve balance
that we, that's there.
Um, this, that one is, if I'm mistaken, this is
where there was some reserve, uh, COVID-19 money.
And that, uh, the OBM decided to give it to us to be able
to, uh, to use it toward LED service lines.
And that that funding has to be used by 2027.
So, and it will be
By like January 1st, 2027, correct?
It's, I don't know the exact date,
but it's sometime I can get that
for you. I can get that for you can.
So if someone can,
'cause I just want to confirm that the,
the sun will not set on these dollars before we can.
No. So let me say this, that any a light of a lot
of our CDBG money that we have, that's,
I will have no problem with using that money.
I have enough work to be able to knock it out Okay.
To be able to spend it up. As a matter of fact,
I may ask you for $5, just in case I'm short.
You may do so. I will be,
I will be paying you in 2026 myself
for our lead service line replacement.
Um, but last question, and this can be through the chair.
Um, just
because we, we know that this work often involves
tree removal, I know that your teams,
particularly from witnessing the work on Horne this year,
do take great care in working with our, uh, office
to keep tree removals as limited as possible.
I wondered if you could provide through the chair the number
of trees that we had to remove related
to water infrastructure projects in 2025
and what that collaboration looks like
with the Department of Forestry.
Are they in any way compensated, do they work with us to
replace trees on the backend?
Uh, apart from the three the chair requests, can you speak
to what collaboration with forestry looks like on that?
Um, absolutely. So we work very well with them, uh,
to be able to get the trees removed.
Um, we actually fund out of the water fund, uh,
approximately two crews that they do our tree removals
and our tree trims specifically for our jobs.
So they are, they do get, uh, compensated for that work
And on the potential replacement
of those trees on the backend.
Um, so this, and this year
and last year, we did not fund tree replacement.
They are totally handling that as well as CDOT on where the,
where trees should be going and where, how that's funded.
Okay. Given both of their budgets, like I,
I hope in the future we can find a way to
be active partners on those replacements.
But that's, those are all my questions
for right now. Thank you for your work.
Thank you, Altman. Thank You, chair. Thank you.
Uh, alderman Robinson, followed by Alderman Gutierrez.
Chairman, thank you very much. Uh, commissioner, um,
I want to, uh, give you kudos for, uh,
being responsive almost 20, uh, four, seven.
Um, and, um, Alyssa Rosario in your office
is, uh, dynomite, and I know you know that.
Um, so please make sure that you give her, um, my kudos.
Um, I might've missed this, so please forgive me.
Can you give me some insight, um, um, as relates
to the lead pipe replacement, um,
where we are as it relates to funding,
um, and knowing where we are in this political climate?
Two part question. Um, hopefully when
that changes will receive additional funds,
because from my understanding,
we really don't have the funds necessary to,
um, complete this across the city.
Thirdly, from my understanding, we don't have the
manpower, um, to do this as well.
Um, so again, maybe a two or three part question out.
Let me, let me pause there and let you answer.
Um, so currently, um, our funding levels are, uh,
at a sustainable rate right now.
So we are clawing money from everywhere to be able to, uh,
replace lead service lines, um, and the CDBG, we,
and for equity lead service line replacement, uh, we,
we have about $19 million
that we're using toward, um, equity.
Um, and we also have, for our,
and daycares, we have about $1.6 million
that we're using toward, um, uh, lead service lines.
But we also have, uh, uh, part of the bond that was sold,
um, earlier this year for lead service lines, as well
as we're using, we're cobbling together, uh, funding from
SRF estate revolving funds, as well as our capital projects
to be able to get less service lines done.
So the more that we, more money that we are able
to cobble together, the more less
service lines we can can get done.
So what you're saying is, is that right now you,
you have the resources that you need to, uh, replace these.
I I guess the, let me step back.
From my understanding, this has been a slow process.
Correct. Um, how separate from,
is it just funding or is it labor?
How do we kind of put this in third year commission?
I guess that's my question.
Um, so basically, so to answer the first part of
that question, do I have all the money I need?
Absolutely not. Um, you're looking at a
next year alone for 2026, uh,
and for me to be able to do the number of lead service lines
that I wanna do, you're looking at $300 million just
to be able to, uh, accomplish 2026.
So again, we're cobbling, you know, all the money together
that we possibly can, trying to come up with creative ways
of being able to get this done, working with our, uh,
partners at the state and
whenever they open back up our
partners at the federal level.
But as far as manpower, the Department
of Water Manager does not have the manpower to be able
to take tackle this alone.
So we work, so we put out enough contracts to be able
to supplement that, whether that means it's
through our capital program, which is our water main
and our sewer main, uh, replacement program
where you get lead service lines, whether it's through,
again, through our equity program
or whether it's through our, um, uh,
daycare program or even block level.
But we're, we're constantly coming up and with new contracts
and working with the Department of Procurement Services
to figure out how can we bring more people aboard
to be able to get this work done.
H how are we working with the unions to be able
to get young folks, particularly at City colleges
and CPS, uh, to come over, um,
and, um, be able to, uh,
work in your department to be able to do some of this work.
Uh, is there any connections to the two commissioner?
Um, so again, those are ongoing conversations.
Um, I like the fact that Streets
and Sand did it with their laborers, um,
but the labor is a little indifferent than any of the other,
uh, uh, titles or trades that we need.
'cause they're all licensed or they
need some type of certificate.
Right. And so then we have to figure out what
that pathway looks like from the high school
or from city colleges into some type
of apprenticeship program or some type of program
that they can work their way through
that will give them a pathway
to work for the City of Chicago
Commissioners. That something
that is ongoing,
or is that something that you're, you're,
you are considering doing in, uh, the upcoming year? So
It's a, it's a little bit of both.
Again. So we have the, the Apprentice program with the,
with our laborers, and we're looking, trying
to figure out again, what it looks like to be able
to move forward with these other, uh, trades
that are licensed and have to,
or have such certain certifications.
We don't know. That's some ground that's never been,
that's never been tested before from my knowledge.
So we're working with not only the unions,
but even having conversations with, uh, uh,
DHR to see what that will look like.
Got it. Commissioner, is there anything that,
that we can do in this body to help you move
that for forward?
Uh, again, um, we know that,
that it, those are great jobs to be able
to get folks into the middle class, which alleviates a lot
of our pressure points
that we're having on the south and west sides.
Um, and so knowing that, um,
this is going to be an ongoing project, billions
of dollars, right?
Absolutely. Um, and we know we got a labor shortage.
It, it, it just, it seems to me that this would be the time,
um, for us to work with our partners at CPS
and city colleges and our labor partners at the Union
to really figure out pathways for our young people.
Um, absolutely. Again,
we're always open to those conversations.
This is something that's not going away
for at least 40 years.
That's the, the reality of,
or at least 20 years or whatever that's gonna look like.
Um, so there are, we should, should absolutely be looking
for Pathways to be able to build, uh, generational wealth
or just a path into the middle class, right?
For people who want to do better, who want to move up.
And again, these are great paying jobs that are going
to sustain families for years.
So we have to figure out what that looks like
and how we accomplish it
and make sure that our partners are on board.
Commissioner, thank you so very much.
Thank you, Altman. Thank you.
Al Altman Gutierrez followed by,
uh, alderman Coleman to close.
Thank you, commissioner and team.
Um, I just wanted to again, uh, express my thank yous to you
and to your team, but we would like to ask about some issues
that we've been having in the ward and, um, just for me
and my constituents to have a little bit more of,
of the information how everything works.
Um, the first one is, we've seen
that there's gonna be an increase, um, nearly by 29 million
in, uh, contractual services.
Oftentimes we've seen in the ward that many
of those jobs when contractors come in, they don't finish,
uh, or they don't do all the restoration
after the work is done up to code, or should it be done.
Uh, not until constituents call our office to complain
that it's only gravel, you know, on their, on their,
by their sidewalk, by their property, is when we then need
to communicate with you all to check what happened there.
'cause sometimes we don't know if it was an in-house
or, um, a contractor taking the job.
Um, is there any city inspectors that go out there
and make sure that the contractors are doing a good job
and that they are finishing
everything like they're supposed to?
Um, absolutely. So we have resident engineers that work
with our in-house crews as, as well as our contractors,
depending on what work that we're doing.
But we also have our foreman
and we also have our, uh, uh, managers in the districts
and even on new construction
that make sure that those things are done.
Um, usually what happens
and what we've discovered is that when there's an issue
with the, with restoration, it's always
because it's a lag time between, if,
especially on lead service lines, where we did the repair
and if we're trying to replace the entire
lead service line itself.
So there's a lag with communicating with the homeowner
and making sure that, you know,
if we're gonna replace the entire
line, what that looks like.
So we can try to be as efficient as possible.
So one of the things that we're trying to do is take
that program and go some, uh, depending on the nature
of the leak, take that lead the lead service line program
and send it straight to LSLR opposed to doing the repair,
which will give us that, that extra,
that will reduce the time of what
that restoration will look like.
But we also have, um, uh, uh, a di it's division
of restoration where they actually oversee that
and they make sure that these jobs are being done on time if
there are issues that they make sure
they're being taken care of.
Yeah, we, we've experienced a couple of times, we're not,
um, there's a lot of communication with the constituents
and we can also wanna offer, you know, that help also,
if language is a barrier
or anything, please let us know
so we can contact the constituents.
'cause it's really important for them to know
that they haven't been forgotten.
Right. That it's a work in progress that we need
to notify them.
So happy to help with my team if needed.
Uh, 'cause many times things, um, I know take time,
but then constituents just think
that it's just gonna be like that.
That's the final result they're getting, you know,
the final work and it's not that.
So I really appreciate it.
We have a little bit more communication over that
and we can help out with it as well.
Absolutely. Wo also, uh, would like to, um, mention about,
again, some things that we report.
Thank you for your team to coming out, um,
in market and, and we're excited.
'cause oh, water department took our note.
They're coming to do it, but then weeks and weeks pass by
and they don't get to do it.
So we really need to, to be on it.
'cause many of that, those, um, projects have been there
for many years, right.
Residents, even the
before administration with me, they've been asking for it.
We continue to ask you guys, okay, let's get it done.
I know you guys are really busy, but I think we need to,
to put more detail into all that
and ensure that all of the, uh, projects
or cases are really, uh, all the projects are closed down,
properly done in a right way.
And it's not only the markings.
Um, I do have a list that I'll send your team,
uh, that we need to revisit.
I oftentimes, you know, go out there myself to,
to check if they're done
or residents even call me directly and they're not done.
And sometimes I'm like, oh, but we put this months ago.
You know? Um, so I really would love to, to have, um,
a better communication with that.
And that, uh, we follow through from the beginning
to the end and it's not those
markings there for weeks and weeks. Please.
Absolutely. OT woman, Thank you so much.
And, um, thank you for the work
that we've been doing towards the flooding.
I know our constituents,
we had more than 2000 families impacted
with flooding on July and August.
And with that said, um, we've also, um,
been reporting a lot of sewers that it's,
they're not draining properly.
Can you please explain what the cleaning, um,
when we put in a 3 1 1 for,
for the constituents, what does it entails?
'cause sometimes it's not, um, sure.
What the work that is supposed to be done
Be done. Absolutely. So if
they, if you put it in 3 1 1
and you put it as a sewer cleaning, um,
our inspectors will go out,
and I'll use this for example, if you put,
if it rained today mm-hmm.
And you put it in today, and it's, um, uh,
and we, and we don't get to it for a couple of days
and we get out there and the standing water has actually
gone down, there's nothing, there's nothing for us to do.
Because what we're trying to do is keep the water on the
street as long as possible
so it doesn't inundate the system.
Um, so if there is water standing on the street,
it just means that the system
is actually doing what it's supposed to do.
And that's to keep the water out of the system as long
as it possibly can.
Or they will get flood, you know, basement flooding.
Yeah. There's been some frustrations also around that.
Um, 'cause some residents in, um, especially seniors right,
that they're, thank God,
are very retired, you know, at home.
And sometimes they're, they're waiting for,
for the city truck to come in when they put a,
a request for inspection.
Right. And there have been sometimes since they're home
that they, they're excited, as I said,
'cause the truck comes, they park in front of their house,
they think they're gonna come out the truck and,
and clean it and inspect it.
But unfortunately, sometimes, um,
levers don't even come off their truck.
And then we see that the ticket is closed,
and then constituents of course, right away call me.
It's like, wow. They have like a four d um, view
that they can even take a look without coming out
of the car, you know, the truck and, and inspect it.
And I think it's, it's something that we also need
to take care of and, and at least, um, do more digging.
You know, maybe they don't come in 24 to 48 hours.
They come in five, seven days later.
So of course the water may be not in, in the street no more.
So I really do ask also for that too, to talk to your,
to your employees and, and to do a better job with that
Abs Absolutely. OT woman.
Um, last thing I'll ask, um, talking about the flooding,
is there any way you can get me a report of the,
of the sewers that were cleaned around the areas
and she, um, especially with the floodings,
where the reports we have, as I I heard, uh,
before you said that those are, um,
special contracts that we get, right.
Um, I'm interested in sharing that information
with my constituents around the areas, um,
that were impacted with the flooding
and see if we can coordinate on having
a little bit more of those.
Um, especially in Archer Heights, Chicago Loan, gage Park,
uh, where we experience the, the a bigger amount
of, uh, floods, please.
Absolutely. We can get you that Wo
Yeah, thank you.
And I'll send you the list of
the things we, we have pending. Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you.
Altman Gutierrez, Altman Coleman.
Thank you Chairman to Commissioner Connor, I'm going
to be brief so you can be gone.
I just wanted to thank, uh, you and your team.
Uh, for the last year.
We have been working with the residents of the 16th Ward,
uh, regarding the ward line replacement.
And not only West Inglewood, but Chicago, uh, lawn.
And just wanted to say, I am grateful
for the outreach starting back in February up
until even our last meeting, uh,
this past a couple of Saturdays ago.
And it was so refreshing to have Alonzo Owens, uh,
to consult with the firm
because no one knows our war better than Alonso.
And so just super grateful and just wanted to thank you
and the entire team.
I was waiting on a specific list of names,
but I haven't received them yet.
But just grateful for everyone that is a part
of Department of Border Management.
Absolutely. Thank you all the women.
Thank you, Altman. Alright, well, uh, didn't you go,
go ahead man.
Thank you. Um, just, um, Joel
and, um, deputy Commissioner Joel
and the entire team, they came out to the community
and what they did was, uh,
and they even came back out two times
and they're able to get the residents out
and get them excited about this, um, um,
lead line service program.
And so I just want them let you know,
because a lot of people don't know.
Um, they think it's just nine to five.
We are not the only ones that's 24 hour.
They were out there, you know, at night, um, making sure
that the residents, um, did what they needed to do.
And I just wanna say thank you all so much,
your entire team, um, for making that happen
because we were able to get some information out.
Thank you chairman, for, um, letting me do that. Thanks.
Alright, well, uh, seems like everybody's,
you're in pretty good shape.
Uh, uh, I I will say this,
uh, just a couple things.
Number one, uh, restoration.
Um, I, I think the restoration has improved, uh, with some,
um, the adding of, uh,
deputy Tahiti over there moving on some things and,
and just kind of being focused on that.
Uh, that's been one of the major complaints
that we've always used to get.
And I think I've not heard that in this iteration this year.
So you all are moving in the right direction.
And from my staff, I'm, I'm hearing the same thing.
Uh, again, uh, your work is of course, necessary and,
and I apologize for the bottles of water here.
Uh, our water is, is top-notch
and up to speed just to point of convenience for us.
Uh, but, uh, be that as it, um, all of the, uh, the teams,
I, I do want this one point, uh, the lead service,
align replacements, uh, jock, we talked about that.
Um, it is, uh, my desire
and hope that in our management ordinance, we will pass that
through, which I think creates the opportunities, uh,
that we talk about for a lot of our contractors, small
and large in, in that respect.
So, uh, hopefully we'll see that economic activity come
through and that we can continue, uh, down the roads.
But, uh, thank you to the team.
Uh, thank you Joel, everybody that's, uh, doing all of the,
uh, all of the great work in the department,
keeping us healthy, keeping us good, keeping us flowing.
So, uh, thank you all for your time
and only you got a short, uh, short window here.
So committee will stand and, uh, stand at ease until 2 45
and we will return with the Department of Buildings.
Thank you, chairman. I
Testimony.
Good,
Good afternoon. Uh,
we are back on the record committee on budget
and government operations back in session.
Uh, we have before us the Department of Buildings, uh,
we will have, uh, you doing, uh,
director Ode Gray from Kofa with the brief overview followed
by Commissioner Hopkins is, um, opening.
Read it.
Alright. Followed by, um, commissioner, introducing,
uh, the staff that's in the well,
as well as those that are in the box.
We're gonna waive the reading of the opening statement.
You all have it in your package.
So direct order, the Great Police proceed.
Chairman Irvin Al Persons and guest. Good afternoon.
My name is Janice Oda, gray,
chief Administrative Officer for cofa.
The Department of Building proposed budget
for fiscal year 2026 is 39 point 37 million,
which is a little less than 1%
lower than the revised fiscal year 2025 number.
The Department of Buildings is fully locally funded
with 80.19% being corporate funds.
The personnel spend is 35.74 million
non-personnel, 3.63 million.
The FTE's budgeted is 279
for fiscal year 2026.
And that's reduced by one from fiscal year 2025.
Looking at the funding, it's all local funds.
As mentioned before, the funding, the local fund, water,
vehicle, and sewer, they had minimal changes.
When you compare the 2025 recommendation to the 2026,
the 2025 ordinance
to the 2026 recommendation, the changes were minimal.
There was a small decline in corporate funding of 1.74%.
The federal grant fund decreased by a hundred percent
because we didn't see any.
And fiscal year 26 recommended budget
appropriation, appropriations, historical, they've actually
only risen 1% from 2011 through 2025.
Only 1% on
average FTEs.
The FTEs, as you can see,
there are minimal changes to the FTEs.
That concludes my report.
Thank you. Uh, director OTA Gray. Um, commissioner,
Good afternoon.
Today I have with me my first Deputy John Scott.
In the box I have Deputy Commissioner Hal Hutchinson,
deputy Commissioner Carl by
Deputy Commissioner Martha Renoso,
deputy Commissioner Latoya Vaughn,
assistant Commissioner David Anderson, director
of Public Affairs, NEFA Hyatt Brown,
supervising electrical Inspector Stefan Gibson
and Oscar Ion P.
Thank you. Uh, as you stated, we're wa the reading
of the opening statement.
We can, uh, look at that.
Uh, we're gonna open, uh, this afternoon with the, uh,
acting chair of the committee on zoning
and building standards.
Uh, chair Lawson.
Thank you Chairman. Uh,
very much appreciate the consideration.
Um, good to see you, commissioner.
I think this is your second budget hearing as commissioner.
Yes. Yeah, you were brand new last year though,
I think very much, but not, not very brand new
to anything but that chair.
I hear you. Um, I know you guys have done a lot
of tech upgrades, uh, in recent years
and wanna just give you an opportunity to talk about, um,
what's happened in the last year
and what's coming up, uh, for 26.
So we have been very successful
with upgrading our permitting system from Hansen
seven to IPS 11.
Two thirds of our permitting, um,
functions are currently in IPS 11.
We are currently working on our plan-based permitting
process and anticipate, um, that being fully implemented
by the fourth quarter of 2026.
In addition, we will be starting to work on the migration
of our inspection proce processes out
of Hanson seven into IPS 11
midyear in 2026.
With the hopes
and goals to have that fully, uh, implemented
by the first quarter of 2028, it requires us
to really spend a lot of time in discussions
with the Department of Technology
and Innovation on our various process changes
and ensuring that we're implementing efficiencies
as we are doing work smarter.
Right. I, I, I think we've seen a difference already.
Um, and, and just the accessibility, the transparency there.
And so, you know, do you have the resources in this budget
to continue to do that work?
So the resources that have been working on
to date will continue to, uh, work through this,
and then as we transition from the permitting
to the inspections, we will work very closely
with the chiefs and
or supervisors in the respective bureaus to ensure
that the system meets the needs of the inspectors.
Great. Great. I know, um, some
of my colleagues might ask this as well,
but we're always asking about inspectors
and I know, um, I don't think vacancy wise,
how are you doing with inspectors?
Um, we're not losing any in this budget, I
Don't think. We're not losing
any inspectors in this budget.
We did reclassify three of the inspector positions
to chief building construction inspectors.
Those chiefs will be responsible
for overseeing our demolition duties,
our new construction certificate of occupancy duties,
and our special inspection program
or our public places of assembly
and public places of amusement, um, areas.
The, they, there's a lot of responsibility that comes
with those three areas.
And currently those functions are being performed
by a supervisor, but in reality,
they really should have a chief that is managing the process
to ensure that all of the provisions
of the code are being followed properly.
Right. I should have started with this.
What's the average time to permit
and, uh, what's the, what's the average time for,
uh, wait on an inspection?
So the average time for inspections is anywhere from 10
business days to 20 business days.
It depends on the bureau as well
as the volume for permit inspection.
The heaviest bureau is new construction
because they touch almost every single, um, inspection
or permit required inspection.
So they have a, a bit of a higher, um, time.
And those inspections are performed
by building construction inspectors,
which we have eight vacancies.
And so we will be working closely with budget
with the filling of those eight vacancies.
Um, as we move forward, we were able
to successfully hire three this year.
And so we are just working to fill those remaining vacancies
for the building inspectors.
Great. You guys are exempt from the hiring freeze?
We are working with budget on our, on our hiring plan
to ensure that we are filling those positions.
Um, and then is there a team
that specifically does business inspections, whether
that's a new business or renewal, um, is
that separate from the residential team?
So, no. So the in special inspection program,
those inspectors are assigned to doing those inspections.
Got it. Got it. Um, wanted to ask,
um, we're increasing the fees
for the general contractor license?
Yes, we are in this budget.
We'll just talk about that for a second.
I don't think we've done it in a long time.
So we have not increased the, uh, fees for a number
of our trade licenses.
And so this year we are proposing to do so as part
of the revenue, um, ordinance.
And that is just to bring it into alignment
with the consumer price index increases
that we do on our building permit side of the house.
And so let me get to my tab. Mm-hmm.
So in 2026,
we are increasing the annual license fees
for general contractors.
We are doing it for mason contractors,
crane operators, drain layers, license,
and our stationary engineers.
Right. Um,
um, you know,
I was was very involved in passing the A DU ordinance
where we're using existing spaces
to create new housing opportunities.
Um, your department has, has been a big partner in that.
Um, I know as we set things up for ADUs
and others, you know, sort of what can we look
for from buildings as far as activating those unused spaces,
um, that are, are sort of legacy projects
and can be used for housing.
So we will rely on the building code provision that allows
for, um, the construction or reuse of those spaces.
We will ensure that it complies with all the electrical,
the plumbing, the, um,
general rehabilitation code requirements as it's related
to fire separation, e means of egress
and things of that nature.
Just to ensure full compliance with the building code.
I know, you know, we're talking about a vacant
buildings, um, fee.
Um, and you and I have talked a lot about vacant buildings,
problem buildings, whether they're owner occupied or
or investor occupied.
Um, as far as the vacant buildings program
that I'm sure you've been briefed on, um,
do you have the staff in place to maintain the registry
and the, does the billing go through you or through finance?
So the fortunate part is
that the vacant billing registration is online.
So we don't have any staff
that is actually managing that process.
Owners, investors, mortgage companies, banks,
they're all able to, um, up upload
or input their application online,
remit their payment online, do their renewals online.
So there's no manpower
or resources in the department that manages that.
So I, I guess my question is, is it,
is another question I have is, is someone, um,
they're being self compliant or they're self-selecting?
Or, or do we, like if I had a
problem, I say, Hey, this one's vacant.
You guys come inspect, it's vacant
and then it's not registered.
And so then they get notice from the department. Is that
Typically Yes. So when
we do a vacant building inspection, one
of the standard violations is failure
to register the building.
So that puts the owners on notice that they are required
to comply with the vacant building registration ordinance.
Um, and so in our, the back office of the system,
if it is a private owner that takes the initiative,
it's a voluntary registration.
If it's city initiated, then there is a,
a slight increase in the fee structure
to hold them accountable for failing to comply.
Right. Um, at what point do we start
to initiate forfeiture?
You know, you've got an owner who is not maintaining the
property, we can find 'em all day long, put a lien on,
but if it's eminent domain
or sort of what does that process look like through?
So we're currently working closely with the Department
of Housing and Department of Law and a forfeiture program.
Mm-hmm. So what we are looking at are buildings
that are active cases on the di demolition court call
or buildings that have orders of demolition.
And we are looking in looking at it by ward
and doing the assessments that way.
And in order to ensure that we are rebuilding the community,
um, simul, you know, in simultaneously.
So we're not looking all over the place like we're gonna
focus in Inglewood or we're gonna focus on the north side,
or we're gonna focus on the west side.
And that list is vetted through the Department of Housing.
And then those properties are then referred to
because we're looking to see where they doing rebuild,
where's missing middle projects that planning has, so
that we are able to build better together in that same area.
And then what we are able to do
through the legal proceedings, the law department works
to ensure that we have jurisdiction so
that when the judge makes the final determination of whether
or not to forfeit the property to, um, an entity
that he is doing so he
or she, I should say, are doing so ensuring
that proper jurisdiction has been completed.
So currently we have, um,
10 buildings that are in the pipeline.
Great. Um, you answer so succinctly
and quickly, um, that I think I've run
through all of my questions.
Um, I would say just, um, you know,
as we look at ordinances going forward, I'm very leery
of anything that's gonna add workload, um, unintentionally
or intentionally without having the budget for it.
Um, and so I know we've added the cooling ordinance
that you guys have implemented,
we've talked about some other things that, that um, may
or may not pass in the next year.
Um, but I just, whatever you could do to be more vocal
that this will cost me for inspectors.
Right. This will cost, you know, um, so that we understand
that before, before we make any decisions.
Um, I would just say continue
to be the great accessible commissioner you,
are your department's been good to work with?
You know, I know we haven't done a lot
with the building code in the last year.
Maybe we did a lot, a lot of work previous.
Um, maybe if there's, is there anything to look
for code-wise, uh, that you wanna highlight
that maybe we should start to work on?
Yeah, so we actually, um, had a working group internally
revising the mechanical code.
We're currently preparing to reach out
to our key stakeholders to get their input on it
with the intent of introducing that during the first quarter
of next year with those updates.
And then we will be fo in 2026, we'll be focusing on our
other MEP mechanical electrical, plumbing provisions
to do updates to them as well.
So we are committed.
Thank you so much, commissioner. Thank you Chairman.
Thank you Alderman Lawson.
Uh, next we're going to have, uh, chairman Dow, followed
by Alderman Taylor.
Uh, thank you Chairman. Uh, hello commissioner.
Good to see you this afternoon.
And, uh, just wanted to acknowledge, uh,
your right hand there.
Uh, John Scott for, uh, his work
with my office and also Carl by
and everyone else in the box.
Um, I'm a little concerned, uh, commissioner
because you know, I know you heard it in the report
that co uh, Kofa gave, uh,
your budget has been basically flat for,
uh, a number of years
and, you know, we keep adding different, uh,
projects to your plate.
Um, the latest one being the ADUs.
And I just wanna make sure that, um, you know,
that you feel comfortable that this budget is going
to provide the service that, um, you believe that the city
of Chicago needs
and that you have all of the revenue generating positions,
um, available to be filled.
Um, if there's any kind of help that, uh,
this council can give you, um, moving forward.
Thank you Alderwoman Dow I am
very pleased to say that the department positions
that we have enable us to successfully keep up with a lot
of the changes in additional ordinances that are added
when the cooling ordinance was, uh, introduced and passed.
Budget worked with us to increase the number
of cooling plant inspectors.
And so I'm never afraid to ask
for what's needed when there are, um, additional duties
that are added to the department.
As you stated, we have remained relatively flat
and we rise to the occasion
to be responsive not only to the residents
that need us in response to 3 1 1 requests
or residents that need us in response when it's extreme
weather, but as well as doing our, you know,
permit based inspections as I stated.
Um, we currently have the eight vacancies
for building construction inspectors.
We are working to, uh, post those titles.
We were successful in hiring three new inspectors this year
and we look forward to filling the remaining balance.
We were successful in filling six
of our plumbing inspector vacancies
and the success from that resulted in us
eliminating the backlog we had in our
3 1 1 request for plumbing.
So we definitely, um, our
staffed adequately
and will not hesitate, you know,
when the time is ne when it's necessary to raise my hand
and work with budget, who has always worked very closely
with the Department of Buildings to ensure that we were able
to, um, add positions as needed.
Well, I appreciate that, uh, answer.
Um, I guess when I look at the fact that you are losing,
um, oh, let me ask this.
The million dollars
that you're losing in contractual services,
a little over a million dollars, what does that impact?
So it really doesn't impact anything.
The funding that we've had in oh one 40 previously was
for developer services.
And if you recall, we pivoted from developer services
to direct developer services, eliminating the Department
of Buildings being the go between the developers
and our municipal code review firms.
The funding that was in the budget covered the
agreement, but that, um, was entered into
between the, the review firm and the um, client.
By us eliminating our involvement
and having to go through the low bid process
with procurement, it eliminated the need for us to fund the,
the cost that is actually being spent
by the developer
because the developer would pay the city,
then the city would pay the municipal Code review firm.
Now the developer pays the municipal code review firm
directly eliminating the need for the city
to be involved in that process.
So that is what contributed largely to that reduction.
Thank you for that. Um, you know,
there's been some issues I've heard regarding the compliance
with the Building benchmarking ordinance, um,
that we may be leaving significant amount
of money on the table, uh, for,
uh, buildings that are not compliant.
You know, you could get a fine up
to almost $10,000 per year.
And if you multiply that by, um, the many instances
of noncompliance, I have heard that
we could be leaving up to $30 million on the table.
Uh, do you agree with that assessment
and what do we need to do to ensure that we have the ability
to execute?
So, um, Alder woman, I'm not familiar
with the benchmarking per se,
but what I will say is that any buildings
that are in our enforcement process finds
that are assessed at either administrative hearings
or circuit court are collected
through the Department of Finance.
So I'm not familiar with the estimated amount that you just,
um, provided me, but I will do some further research
and I will get that
information back to you through the chair.
Okay, thank you. And then the last question is more of,
uh, based on what I'm experiencing in the ward
and you know, this, um, I have a situation
of a, um, senior
who lives alone without family, um, sh with,
um, mental
and physical disabilities, uh,
and her home is falling apart.
I know it's an active court case,
but this is like taking a long time to get some kind of
satisfaction, uh, for the community,
which is always calling me about, uh,
when a brick falls or something.
What can you, what advice would you give me
and other aldermen who are dealing with this kind of issue
to sort of move this to some kind of conclusion
that is a win-win for the senior
and without family and the community?
So one of my recommendations is always to have, uh,
participation in the court case.
It, it helps the department as well
as the law department when the judge
or judges can hear from the alder
persons letting them know the impact
that it's having on the community.
We work very closely with the Department of Family
and Support Services, their senior services area.
When we encounter situations with seniors that live alone
and the living conditions are, um, somewhat challenging,
we also can always look to,
to ask the court to appoint a receiver.
Unfortunately, the appointment
of receiverships has become a little challenging
because the judges are not always open to allowing
for a receiver to be appointed. But,
You know, if that's the case in this, that's the case.
In this particular case,
I'm not sure. But
what I will tell you is that I will make sure
that the next court date is on my schedule
or my calendar so that I can attend the hearing
to hear exactly the status of the case.
And also I can work with the Department of Housing
to see if there are some options available.
But I, the challenge with this particular owner,
as you know, is that, um, she's not very, um,
accessible to us because we did schedule a date
and time to visit her property
and then she, um, essentially play possible. I appreciate,
I appreciate what you and your department have done.
I I especially appreciate what you have done.
Personally, I'm just feeling, um, impotent so
to speak because I'm not sure how to move forward.
Um, and as each day goes by,
this will probably be the third winter, uh, that, um,
this particular building is gonna be subjected
to, uh, damage.
And as you know, the area, uh, it,
it will be an eyesore.
It is an eyesore. Okay.
And what I, and what I will do also is ask the law
department to see if the judge will give
us a forcible entry.
We don't like to do those,
but this may be the direction that we need to go in as well.
All right. Well I will follow up with you offline.
Um, I appreciate everything
that the building department does.
Um, somehow I feel if once we get past this budget
crisis that we seem to have, um,
your department should be the first in line
to get more resources to protect the safety of the city
of Chicago and its housing stock.
Thank you so much Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Uh, next up we're gonna have,
uh, Altman Taylor.
Thank you Chairman. Uh, hey Commissioner.
Hey Alder woman Taylor.
I was just about to say, if you all don't know, I call
the commissioner Black girl Magic
'cause she just figures it out for our community.
Um, I want to revisit one of the hardest times
that you and I had to work with just happened this summer
with the families on 61st and King.
Um, we had to have people move out for three days
and everybody was in a frenzy.
But what hurt me most is those families either had to go
with to a shelter or they were forced
to go move with relatives
and didn't have, there was no money for us to relocate them.
And so I want us to be able to talk about kinda
what you, you had to do, what the city done
and kinda what you feel like needs to happen for us
to make sure that families are secure.
And it's also gonna lead me into
a couple of other questions.
Thank you for that question.
So those are very difficult decisions that are made when,
you know, it is determined that
because of the unsafe living conditions that a property has
to be, um, vacated.
One of the things that you know,
is always beneficial is if we can get an agreement
with the owner or receivers,
and in this case, that building was in foreclosure
and we were not a part of that chancery case.
But the ability to be part of the Chancery case
where we can ask the chancery judge to allow the receiver
to provide some financial assistance to the
residents that are being impacted is definitely, um,
the best option available.
And we, that was one of the lessons learned from King Drive
and we now work very closely with the Department of Law,
with properties that are in that same situation.
To have a voice in that chancery court hearing that is
to protect the best interest of those residents.
And those
Go ahead. I was just gonna
say, and those relocation monies will
enable them to have something to put down towards
Mm-hmm. Uh,
rental of another unit
Because they, I, I saw people, so being out there
to kinda see the process broke my heart.
'cause you saw people trying to put stuff in cars
and trying to figure out throwing stuff away
that they could've needed, but
because they couldn't take it
to the next place they were going
or to a shelter kind of broke my heart.
And then we had families who just packed their cars up
and kinda are living in the back of the building.
They've since then been moved.
But I want us to have a conversation about
like, how do we, what is the city implementing?
Because another thing
that I noticed is the living conditions,
like they had windows.
I mean they were, they had holes in the ceiling
where they could see the apartment
or they could see the outside.
And so what are we doing to let,
I know we have these tenant write books,
but how are we going out to make sure
that these buildings get inspections?
A lot of folks are scared for whatever reason, not
to call 3 1 1 or report the issues in the building.
And sometimes even when they do,
they don't understand it's a process to,
to make these owners clean up
or either give, give up their buildings.
Can you talk about that a little bit because,
and I've seen it a lot in my community, which is bringing me
to having a, a conversation
with the community orgs about going
to these different buildings.
'cause if you know anything about this building,
this was actually one of the buildings
that they filmed a movie in some years ago.
And so the thought that they had not called 3 1 1 had not
reached out to me to say the condition
of the building was what it was.
Lets me know. We got some work with making sure
that these buildings, despite calling 3 1 1,
get an inspection within four years
or every four years.
Okay. So I wanna start off with answering the lack
or n nowhere to go.
As you know, we had the Department of Family
and Support services out there
and they were offering shelter placement.
There were individuals that took, um, accepted that service
and they did go to the shelter.
Anyone that declined the services, they indicated
to the Department of Family
and support services that they had res either family
or friends that they could go and stay with.
It is never the intention that anyone is being impacted
to have to live in a car that is not, um, the ideal outcome.
And I realize that when you're in the middle of this,
it's difficult to make a sound decision.
Um, but that is why we have family support services there
with us because they are that side that can talk with,
you know, the residents that are being impacted
to convince them, um, to accept the shelter placement
until they're able to find a place to live.
As it is related to the inspection process,
we do rely heavily on 3 1 1 requests
because people are often are not afraid
to make the phone calls.
Um, but also the building code is very clear
that the property owners are responsible
for maintaining their buildings in a safe living condition.
And it's also very clear that the owner
or owner should not be renting a unit
or units that are not code compliant.
And so as we continue to work very closely
with our partners in the Department of Housing, we are going
to be putting together, um, some the cold
details and kind of putting it into a flyer
or a pamphlet that we are also providing
to building owners and leaving.
When we do our inspections, we do do our
conservation type inspections on a periodic basis.
We are averaging between a three and four year cycle.
Um, we also have our buildings golf law list,
which highlights the owners
or landlords that have active litigation
and not bringing their buildings into compliance,
which enables us to keep a very close watch.
We rely heavily on the court process to
require owners to come into compliance,
but the judges are often very, um, sympathetic to the owners
and they do allow them a lot an an enormous amount
of time to bring their buildings into compliance.
I spend a great deal of my time
on court calls on especially on Thursdays,
which are the buildings that are most problematic.
And I'm very outspoken
and vocal with the judges when, um,
the conditions are not improving.
Um, but it's just, uh, we're gonna continue
to fight this fight until we are able to win
and the tenants are living in the living conditions
that they deserve to live in.
Thank you. I appreciate that. Commissioner.
Um, how are you all working
with BACP to reinsure?
That our business are some of the same.
I went into a couple of businesses
and I have said to myself, how are they still open?
How they're still able to function?
And it's because nobody's ever called 3 1 1
and to report them in the near future are their
conversations about how we can make sure that businesses
and buildings get an inspection
during a certain time period.
So we work very closely with BACP
to do inspections of businesses.
We, um, are together on Fridays, um, during a lot
of the operation cleans, which gives us a, an opportunity
to focus on those businesses that are located in that area
that is being inspected.
Also, we work very closely with the Vice unit,
and we do inspections of businesses on Wednesdays as well.
My team, as you know, are looking
for the building code violations.
We're also looking at sanitary violations.
And when we find that it's egregious
and that it is dangerous
and hazardous, we do do a
commissioner closure of the business.
When we find businesses that are not in compliance,
but can make the repairs in a short period of time,
we give them the warning, we advise them that they need
to pull the necessary permits,
they need to get the work done.
We'll be back in a week,
and if the work has not been completed,
then it may result in a commissioner closure.
So we are definitely, um, working hand in hand
because it is very important to the Department of Buildings
that businesses are being properly maintained
and are in compliance with the code.
So I spend time out in the field as, you know,
doing those inspections as well.
And my team, you know, has a clear understanding of
what my expectations are as it is related to our businesses,
and it is that they sh are to be coal compliant.
I met with a group earlier this year with BACP,
had a very candid conversation with this group
of business owners, and I have to say, they, they took heed
to the messaging
and I've seen a bit of a better, um, they,
they're maintaining their businesses in a better condition.
My last question is, what if,
what, if anything, can the city do about business owners
that are racist and that mistreat, um,
constituents in our, our community who may be homeless
or who may ba be students?
Um, I, I, I got a bad business that you know of in my ward
that, um, continues to
be disrespectful to community members
and has even disrespected members
who are not in the community who frequent the business.
And had they talked to me, I would've told them,
I don't even go there because
they're mistreatment to people.
Is there anything that the city can do
to hold those folks accountable?
I think that what Commissioner Kapa and I can do is meet,
and maybe we can put together a training guide
for our business owners
and that kind of details to them, the what's proper,
uh, treat, how to treat people similar to
what we all are required to do as city employees.
And perhaps we can even integrate, you know, some of the,
um, recommendations from
some of our EEOC, um, ordinances
and, you know, code requirements.
But let me work with Commissioner Cappa to ensure
that we can put something together collectively,
and then we always alter woman with welcome an opportunity
to meet with your business community,
and we can, you know, address all of the issues
that you have brought forth today
as it is related to businesses.
I feel like since I've been in office,
and let me say this, I haven't frequented this bill just
since 2019 because of the mistreatment
of students that live in the area.
And so for me, it's like I made the complaint,
people have complained, but the behavior continues.
And so I want to be able to have something in place
where business owners know you can't treat people this way.
Um, I have appreciated the work that you've done
when it comes to fires in our community.
Um, is there a conversation around
what support's in places?
So, you know, I had the big church fire
and while they got, um, they have gotten some support
for, from the community, is this something else
that they should, businesses should be doing to reinsure
that their insurance covers fires?
I mean, it is very important for them
to look very closely at their policies, um, to ensure
that they have the proper co coverages in place.
Um, as you stated, I am at a lot
of these unfortunate incidents that result in, you know,
catastrophic outcomes.
And it is just my one takeaway is the importance of, of the,
those owners knowing what their policies are,
but also, you know, for those residential properties, um,
that we try to find, um,
insurance options available for the tenants.
Because when a fire occurs in a residential building,
the residential, the, the owner of the property
insurance covers the building,
it does not cover the tenant's belongings.
Mm-hmm. We really have, I mean, I'm very, this is one
of my other, you know, biggest concerns is
how do we find affordable ways
or means for tenants so that they are able to
Afford The insurance? Yep.
Yes. That part.
Um, I don't even, there are not a lot of companies
that even talk about insurance.
And so I want to have a way to reinsure not just homeowners,
but renters get fire insurance just
because of some of the weather changes
and being cold quicker than it is, um,
and making sure they're just protected and under.
'cause I never in a million deals, like I'm not paying,
that's an unnecessary cost to get fire insurance.
But then I see, because the building has coverage,
I'm not covered if I don't have my individual.
Um, what I want to say is, thank you for you
and your team always being caring
and supportive of the people in the buildings.
Um, too often when we see those folks in those living
conditions, we judge, we go to the side, we hush hush,
we laugh, and I've never,
and I, while I've seen, um, a, another department do
that while we was there, I've seen you check them
and I've seen you make sure that your team does not do that.
So I appreciate the compassion that you
and your team members have to make sure that, you know,
people are already going through a crisis
at what's going on with their building.
And on top of that, they're being judged by city workers.
So I want to say thank you black girl magic
for always moving with ethics
and making sure that your team is, is,
is kind to our community.
Um, that's all I got. Commissioner. Thanks chairman.
Thank you Alderman. Uh,
next up we're gonna have Alderman Knutson
follow Alderman Spto.
Thank you chair and thank you commissioner.
I actually, um, have decided I'll, I'll,
I looked in my email and you've responded
to basically everything we ever ask, which is, I know you do
that nonstop commissioner with all the wards,
so I'll save my line of questioning
because you always give me the answers.
And I just wanna say thank you to you and your team.
You've gotten us outta some hard situations
and you're always really creative.
Um, which a lot of times, uh,
we need it comes in big for us.
So, um, I just appreciate your work.
Thank you. Thank you.
Altman, knoon, Altman, SPTO, all thank you Chairman Bo.
Thank you, chairman. Good afternoon commissioner
and everybody else.
Appreciate all these, um,
things are going pretty good for me.
I think things are probably going pretty good for everybody.
The fact that there's only six people here is a good sign.
So otherwise they'd all be coming here, uh, kicking
and screaming and yelling and everything.
So, uh, no complaints from me.
I, I, I think I'm probably a low maintenance guy,
with the exception of I've been calling
Carl an awful lot lately.
We getting a couple assists from John lately,
but appreciate both of you guys.
I had some problems that are important to me,
and I do wanna say one thing.
It's almost every time I call
and, uh, uh, uh, Carl sets me straight on this
and he is like 99.9% right?
Every time they're blaming the city, it's them.
He's like, Allman, we sent it to their Expeditor,
we sent it to their architect.
And I call 'em up and I tell 'em,
and they're like, sorry, Allman.
I mean, not you guys but them.
I'm like, you know, don't tell me to ask
for something if you guys aren't
following along with the whatever.
So, so like I say, 99%
of the time you guys are what you're supposed to do.
And either their expedite
or architect's not doing what they're supposed to do,
but just wanna say, appreciate you guys
and keep on doing what you're doing. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Altman Bedo, alderman Moore, followed by Alderman Coleman.
Thank you, um, chairman.
And, um, good afternoon commissioner
and to your entire team.
Um, Altman Lawson, um, made a statement.
He was like, you, um, answered, um, alt my questions.
You made me get through all of
my questions so quick and fast.
And, uh, and he, and he probably still listen,
but that's what happens when we put qualified
and well qualified people in, um, position
and, and it shows.
Um, but as, um, I think, um, alderman Nuon just,
um, stated the reason why a lot of people are not in here
because you're doing your job.
Um, and you, you and your team, you,
you guys are just doing the job proactively.
And, and therefore a lot of people don't have a lot
of concerns because you're addressing
them, um, very quickly.
And that, uh, we, that we appreciate from your,
um, entire team.
Um, I, I would like to, um, ask just a, um, couple
of questions from inspection standpoint.
Do we have structural engineers on, um,
um, in the buildings department?
We, I know we did at one time. I thought we did.
And that was because maybe I'm so old now,
but if, if we don't, when did that stop?
So we actually have three structural engineers
that are on the permitting side of the house
and they do all of the reviews.
When we have problems in the field
where we need their input, they will meet us in the field.
We also have, as part of our municipal code review
contracts, uh, um, the services of any of those firms
that have structural engineers as well, that can come out
to the site to, uh, work alongside
and give us recommendations for, uh,
structural recommendations for problem buildings or,
Okay. So we do have 'em,
but they're not,
but they're not on the inspection side.
But if inspector go out there and get something wrong
or is not sure, then we can pull 'em in
to ask them after the
Fact we can. But if it's
a problem, if it is a,
a building related problem that's not tied
to a building permit, then the owner is responsible for
hiring a structural engineer to do the evaluation,
to make the determination of what has to be done to bring,
to address that structural deficiency.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Let, let me ask, ask it this way.
So if an inspector comes out
and they make a structural engineer call
on something, but they're not a structural engineer, do
as a building owner, then I have to go pay a
structural engineer to say, this inspector that came out
who is not a structural engineer is wrong.
So, so the, the car, the building inspectors are went
through training to be able
to identify structural deficiencies.
Okay. What they cannot do is do a structural evaluation
to determine the calculations that are needed in order
to comply with the structural provisions of the code.
I'm not a structural engineer, right.
I'm a building commissioner, but I can look at a building
and make a determination if there's a structural
deficiency that exists.
But it is the requirement of that owner
to hire the engineer.
'cause that engineer not only has to do the evaluation,
but they have to prepare the drawings
or the structural engineer report for our review team
to review, to verify that what they're proposing
as a repair, um, is in compliance
with the structural code provisions.
Okay. I got it. Thank you.
And um, the other
thing I had about was, um, 73rd
place that happened this year.
I just wanted to say, um, again,
I've said it in other settings.
I can't remember if I said it in this setting,
but I don't think it's been since budget
because this thing just happened this year, um,
from the efforts you and your team came out a year ago,
and you continue to come out anytime we call you, um,
um, to come out there.
But the number of buildings you all moved and your presence,
but along with streets and sand and others.
But the buildings made a difference
because, um, these guys were not allowed to hide in there
or hide their guns in there.
And as we know, um, the feds came in
and hit over in that area hard, which made a big difference
for that community who has been dealing with this
for well over, um, 10 years.
Um, although it's not perfect, um, um, which is no nothing,
you know, cause of the building department,
but people can actually drive down the street now and, and,
and for, and, and that's a win, um, for those constituents.
And as I work with my commanders, um, to, um,
to do the other things we'll, um, take care of that.
So I wanna thank you and your team so much
and they gotta know and know that that's just not a
just part of a job.
You've changed people's lives.
That's, I know it's part of the work that you do,
but it's life changing, um, for a lot of residents.
And then, um, just real quickly, about 81st Street, um,
yesterday in Marshall
and I heard, I hear the, um, property manager from
WD CD or whatever,
or DM, um, reached out to you unless he lying to me.
Um, no, he reached out. Okay. Okay.
Um, and so I want to look at that, um,
building 'cause I wasn't aware.
I did drive around there and saw, see all of those, um,
cables hanging off of there
and there are some more things that's going on in there.
Um, and I think the owner lives out of town, the country
or whatever, and they're just doing property measure.
To my knowledge, only three people are there, um, renting
and if and, and do just do some conversations.
I think if we can work with them and look at that building,
'cause it may be a problem situation that we can get
that building closed down and then work
to get those other people relocated into some
of their other buildings.
I think that'd be a, a a plus until somebody come in
and do a better rehab.
Even getting that owner in to do what he needs to do.
So, um, I am aware of what occurred there on yesterday.
Uh, Kevin Nugent did reach out to me. Mm-hmm.
And what I will do is work with the police department
as well as the management company
and we'll come up with a strategy of what we need to do.
We will do a comprehensive inspection, right.
We will file a court case
and we will take the necessary steps.
The one good thing about WPD is
that they are very proactive, right?
Not reactive. And they have a pretty large portfolio which
will enable them to be able to rehouse those tenants
that are legal.
They have their, um, lease agreements that are in place.
They will work with them and then we will work through the
court side of the house on what to do
with those that do not.
And I will find out from Kevin if they have any
of them in the eviction pipeline
or just to see exactly where the owner is with it.
But we will be addressing that.
Absolutely. Thank you so much. Yeah, I had a couple
of residents call me this morning of course.
And that is a nice block.
I, as a matter of fact, and, um, but I did drive down
and I gotta get that street resurfaced.
Um, but other than that, um, yeah, if we, when we take care
of that, I think that'd be a plus for the residents as well.
So thank you so much for all
that you do in your entire team. I appreciate you.
Thank you. Thank you Alderman. Uh, Al Coleman.
Thank you Chairman. I appreciate you taking my advice on
not wearing your Madison suit.
You look like Deacon Irving today.
Congratulations on a lighter note.
Um, commissioner, you are amazing.
I'm gonna echo what everyone had said.
Uh, who is the new Ernestine Black?
So Michelle Evans is the new Chill.
Yes, she is the new Ernestine Black.
Shout out to Ms. Black.
Um, I'm sure fund retirement is good to her.
How was your demolition budget?
So we were funded for 2025 with $10 million
and we are being funded for 2026 with $10 million.
What's the average? Is it still about 18
to 23?
5,007
Between 18,020 5,018?
Depending on the size of the building, if it's framed versus
masonry, if it's a one story versus two or three story,
Um, is there any special ordinance
or language on venues now under your department?
Entertainment venues?
So we have the provision
and the code for special, um, for public places
of assembly and public places of amusement as it is related
to the occupancy placard and the occupancy numbers.
And that falls under our special inspection program bureau.
What about cigar?
Um, smoke shops onsite cigar.
So there are ventilation requirements, um, for cigar shops
that have to be complied with.
Okay. I'm gonna give you an address.
Um, after this, uh, there's an illegal one in the 16th ward,
um, Marquette Road as well as 69th Street.
Thank you. Alderman Moore.
I inherited 69th,
but I'm very intentional about getting more of a tax base
between Halsted and Ashland.
We only have a laundromat, a liquor store
and a daycare that is contributing to the tax base.
There. It's just churches and nonprofits, great nonprofits.
But we have about eight nonprofits alone,
69th street, that corridor.
So I would love for us to go back to 69th, um,
clean it up and have some attention on some of those,
not only dilapidated buildings,
but just those abandoned buildings
that owners are doing nothing with as well as Marquette.
Specifically. I asked about the demo
because we saw so many
buildings that just need some attention.
I know you had sent a special, uh, unit out.
So my team did go out to do those inspections.
Any of those buildings that were found
to be demo worthy were bid out for demolition.
If they were not demo worthy, then they were written
for court and they're in the enforcement pipeline
through court will for demo. Will, will
Michelle start sending, uh, out those monthly
building court reports?
Yes. So I, we were talking back and forth about that
and I will ensure that that is sent
to you on a monthly basis when we get
it from the Department of Law.
Okay. Around what date is that?
So we typically receive it from the law department within
the first week of, no, I wanna say later in the month
for the following month.
So I will look in my email to verify it
and then I'll just make sure that she gets it to you
because it's typically for like,
we just received the November cases, uh, that are coming up.
So I will forward that to you. And
Who was the person in Department of Law that dealt
With that? His name is
Larry Baylor.
Okay. You know, I don't have any,
um, any complaints other than I have to share you
with 49 other wards
and I wish that your department could work my ward
as you know, the challenges that we in Inglewood face, uh,
with the vacancies and the abandonment.
Same thing with on the west side,
but I'm just so grateful for you.
And before there was a commissioner, Marlene Hopkins,
my very first community meeting six years ago at St.
Mary's Missionary Baptist Church, Mr.
Carl by was the first City Depart
representative Department of Buildings.
So I will forever be grateful. I was a fresh alderman.
I don't even think I was in office for two months
and he really helped guide that meeting
and helped me, uh, address my constituents.
And I think we're, we're doing all right, Mr. Bird.
So God bless you all. Thank you for all the work you do.
Sometimes it can be a thankless job,
but your department is so vital, uh, towards likeminded
and communities like Inglewood, back of the yards, um,
and market park in Chicago line.
So thank you Commissioner.
Thank you. Thank you.
Alderman Coleman, um, those people from St.
Mary, you know, they're from the west side right?
But they don't wear suits with, um, the buttons on it.
Thank you. Oh, and they live on the south side now,
Just, I'm just saying that they are,
they are from the west side, just as you are.
You just don't want to admit it. It's okay.
Altman Gutierrez, do you have anything for the commissioner?
Thank you, chairman. Hi Commissioner.
Hi. How are You? Good, good.
Hope you and your team are doing good. I know.
Um, I just wanna congratulate you first and your team.
'cause I know you guys do great work around the, uh,
50 wards here in the city.
And you also take all of my calls
and if not, you just return 'em right away,
which we really appreciate that.
'cause you always give us an answer.
But just wanted, uh, to ask a couple questions, uh,
just also for our constituents
to know more about these programs and initiatives
and, um, the steps that your department is taking.
'cause you know, many of the times
in wards there's language barrier also our elder, um,
constituents that don't know how to use a computer
or need help and they need to wait until the grandson
or the son comes home and, and they need to do something.
Right. Um, so the question here is,
if your department is taking, um, any steps to ensure
that the e um, the e permit process is accessible
to our residents, um, I said the el elderly Spanish speaking
or people that don't have access to computers.
So is there only they need to come downtown?
Is there any other way we can
help 'em with, with that process?
Well, I know that there are computers
available at the libraries.
Okay. But I, I tell you what, I will put something together
to share with all 50 wards for the, the,
for the digital divide
after I discuss it with my team to see what we can,
what options we can make available
to provide that type of assistance.
Because you're right, senior citizens
are not able, my mom is 88.
She's not going on a online to apply for a permit.
No. And also it's, uh, sometimes I know there's,
there's some material that I've seen once that I think
what needs, what requires a permit, what's not.
Also if you have it in multiple
languages, I think that will help.
We do actually have it in multiple languages. Great.
You can translate it or convert it on our, on the website.
Okay. And we can just print it and have, make it available.
Awesome. Thank you. And then, um, also, um, speaking
of my constituents, um, sometimes, um,
an inspector comes in, um, they're working on something,
the inspector needs to come back,
but sometimes they don't know who to contact.
Is there also some guidelines that you can provide in order
for them to be a clear message for them?
Also? They always call to our office, we call you.
But if there's something that we can distribute also in
different languages or more like, uh, guideline
or steps that they can follow, um, so
that way they can be in assurance
that they're doing in in getting into compliance.
Yes. So, uh, one of the additions
to the team this year was Nefa Hyatt Brown
as our department's communications person.
Awesome. And she has been working closely
with me on creating a lot of these documents.
And so we will add this to the list
and that way not only can the inspectors leave it
with the property owner and or the contractor,
but we can also make it available to your offices.
Please. Thank you so much.
And again, uh, thank you so much for all the work you guys
Do. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank You Alderman and, uh, Altman. Mosley to close.
Thank you chair, and good afternoon, commissioner.
Always great to see you and your team.
Um, I wanna ask you about the vacancy tax and,
and can you enlighten us maybe on how that will work?
Do we have a rate yet or so forth?
These are, uh, the vacant buildings, um,
that will be taxed I guess because they are vacant.
So we have the vacant building registration
for vacant buildings that, um, have a fee schedule
based on the status.
If you're a private owner, if you are mortgagey
or if you are a financial institution, I can get you
that breakdown through the chair.
Um, we did amend the code in 2021
to lower the fees for private owners, largely
because what we were finding is that their failure
to register was resulting in their water not being
terminated, which resulted in astronomical water bills.
And then when they would come
to the building department in an effort
to register the building,
because the fees are calculated based on the amount
of time the property has been vacant,
they were finding themselves owing us 5,000, 6,000, $7,000,
which is a discouraged,
it's gonna discourage them from doing so.
So we did lower the vacant builder registration fees
for them in order to make it affordable.
But I can provide you with the code provision that details
what each group or category of registrants are required
to, um, comply.
We don't have a tax on them on vacant buildings.
There's not a fine for having a vacant building.
There is only the requirement for registration.
Um, we also, as you know, we'll put properties
that are eligible for demo.
We are finding that the deterioration rate is upwards
of 30% or more.
We put those on the vacant building call in court in,
in effort to seek an order of demolition.
Those buildings that are structurally compromised
and have, um, opposed an imminent danger and
or threat to the public first responders, we utilize my,
um, emergency demolition orders.
Uh, that's the code allows me to do in order to do the demo.
So we have a number of tools in the toolbox to tackle it.
Um, but I'm always open to working with you
to see if you have other ideas.
We also have the forfeiture program
that I talked about earlier,
which is the reinvestment in the vacant building portfolios
because we realize we can't demo demolish our way out of it,
and we don't wanna see communities
that are full of vacant lots.
So there are just a number of tools in the toolbox to try
to accomplish great future seek. I
Maybe I'm using the wrong verbiage here, uh, or language,
but I thought under this proposed budget, uh,
that we were implementing a tax on,
Oh, we're increasing the registration renewal
fee for mortgagees.
So mortgagees were, when we amended the code in
2021, the renewal fee for mortgages was only $30.
Their initial registration fee is $700.
So in this, or in this year's budget, uh, revenue
proposal, we are proposing that their Regi,
their renewal fees are three 50 50%
of their actual registration fee
because they're not good stewards of their properties
and they don't maintain 'em in the best condition.
And we receive the calls when they're not boarded,
when the grass isn't cut,
when they're prob attractive nuisance.
And so we, uh, recommended the increase for the renewals.
Thank you for that. And when some
of the nuisances are squatters trespasses,
if they do register as a vacant building, uh, does
that give the city the authority to restore the property,
whether it's residential or commercial?
So the re the registration is holding them accountable
for ensuring that their property is being secured.
If it is compromised, breached, a squatter is in it,
their a their ability to produce evidence
to the police department that they are the owners,
that they have registered, that somebody is in there.
We can all work, come up to work collaboratively together
to figure out how to go in.
I mean, ideally, if they're filing a trespass complaint
with the police department, that is a, a little more teeth
to the process to help with working to, um,
address those individuals
that are occupying the property illegally.
And I know we are working on that.
I really appreciate your partnership and,
and commitment, strong commitment there.
Um, I know, uh, we as a city, particularly Department
of Laws, looking at bank owned properties that are vacant.
Uh, what's gonna be building's department
role in this effort?
Well, we all, we work very,
we work hand in hand on all of this.
So we identify it, we're informing them of it
as we're taking our enforcement action.
And again, the goal is to get what compliance, to bring it
to their attention that, you know,
their properties are an attractive nuisance
and we're gonna take the necessary enforcement action.
And through the court proceedings, they eventually,
you know, sometimes we don't get jurisdiction.
Sometimes they don't get the notice for the court
and law will have to, um, you know, make attempts
to serve again or to find ways to all.
And anyone with a financial interest is served notice
of violations for that.
And so, just over the course of time,
we all just worked together to really get
a responsible party to come to court in order to address it
and have them take some accountability. And
Commissioner, I, I gotta thank you
for your strong advocacy with the courts
and getting to see the vision of the city better
and, uh, helping to restore the hope to our residents
that are, uh, experiencing just a, uh,
an inconvenience in their quality of life.
So thank you for that. Uh, I, I want to ask you and,
and maybe connect with you offline, uh,
communities are really looking to try to figure out
how they can play a more active role.
I don't know if there's a such thing as a community base
or nonprofit receivers or so forth, uh, thoughts, ideas,
but would love to connect with you on that.
Um, uh,
wanna also ask you about permitting licenses.
And so there are times where I would see a business that,
um, not yet have a license, uh,
has not taken out permit fees,
and they may have taken the liberty
to put up like a back lighted sign.
Uh, and particularly Bob Hos has been popping up in my ward.
Um, and who's responsible for that?
Because it's, sometimes I hear BACP say, well, alderman,
they don't have a license yet.
They're not open yet. We can't do much.
Uh, but it seems like they're allowed
to do this bad behavior, uh, do simple corrections
as finally filing for the permit,
but continue on this, this pattern of abuse.
So when we are informed of work without a permit,
we issue a stop work order
and we also file, uh,
enforcement action depending on the amount
of work completed, it could go to administrative hearings
or it could go to circuit court.
Um, administrative hearings is gonna find them for failing
to comply, whereas the courts will not,
that case will not come off the court call
until they have obtained a permit
and have to come into compliance.
So those are our tool two tools in the toolbox.
We are not as involved in the licensing aspect of it
as our partners and BACP,
but any work that is being performed
that requires a building permit,
we are gonna hold them accountable for that. Right.
And under this budget, how, um,
is it impacting your department in terms
of personnel and staff?
I mean, you are amazing and, and hands on
and we, I don't think we're trying to stop that,
but we wanna give you more, uh, to work with
so that you can do more.
So, uh, fortunately, we, I only lost one position.
It was a deputy commissioner,
so it was a senior level position.
We didn't lose any of our inspector positions.
We are carrying 30 vacancies.
We, and the, we were, we started the year with 35.
We were down to 21, but we've had nine retirements.
So that is what, um, brought us back up to the 30,
um, vacancies.
But this budget has funded us properly to be able
to provide the services that are needed
to the residents in the city.
And we have the positions
that we still are working very closely
with the budget office on filling, as I mentioned earlier,
we have eight, um, vacant building inspector positions
that we're working to fill.
And those positions will be divided between, um,
the Conservation bureau and our new construction
and special inspection bureau. So. Right,
Right. And,
uh, earlier this year we, we talked about, uh,
getting really an adjustment on
the excessive signage, uh,
that we see throughout our business corridors and so forth.
Um, can you tell me more about how your inspectors can work
with other departments and,
and potentially other folks who can help enforce
our laws on the books?
So, as you know, we work very closely with BACP
and the ordinance that was introduced was to really help,
um, widen the, um, ability
to ensure compliance with the code.
As we all stated, you know, unanimously, it's not,
uh, to be punitive.
We want to encourage our businesses
and our commercial corridors to, um, ensure
that they're being good partners as it we are looking
to attract other businesses to come in.
The code allows for 25% coverage of the window space.
And that is what we, you know, that is what our guideline is
for enforcement.
So we are gonna continue to work closely with, uh,
commissioner Capoli as well as Commissioner Boatwright
and their teams to really put together a team to go out
and to start having those conversations
with our business owners in the
Corridors. Great. Thank
you. Commissioner.
Thank you to Carl Bird, John Scott, Hal Hutchinson,
Donald Mitchell, uh, Irma Rodriguez, uh, my girl,
Michelle Evans, and of course Ernestine Black.
It is always a pleasure when we pick up the phone
and give you all a call.
Uh, you all, uh, I'm aware, uh, you all are, are just, uh,
amazing at helping us
and particularly working through permitting issues, uh,
in a place that I hadn't seen
some development and some time.
So kudos to you. Thank you so
Much. Thank you.
Go ahead. Uh, commissioner,
I didn't wanna disturb alder mostly of the vacancies.
Where are we at on the, those that, um,
um, for the steel, like the porches, how many, is
that a special investigator?
So that's, I'm sorry, inspector,
That's a iron inspector.
Iron inspector. And we have two
and we have one vacancy for 2026. Is
That so three for the city?
Is that a good number?
It's a good number. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Um, commissioner, um, I, I think that, um,
um, you're, um, even though you're,
this is your second budget, we know that you have been in
and around for a number of years.
Uh, always been someone who has been accessible to members
of the council and have probably met more people in crazy
situations than we care to, to note as you got two things.
Number one, um, I saw that your STF um,
team is down one.
What, what precipitated that?
I don't think we're down.
Um, we, what we actually had
to do was move positions into their proper, um, sections.
And, um, as we are filling vacancies, sometimes we put
a person into a section,
but they're actually working in maybe conservation
or maybe a conservation.
They went into conservation
because that was where the opening was,
but they should be in demolition.
So a lot of the movement that you see in the budget book,
we're not down the position.
We just are bringing our bodies into alignment
with the organization.
Okay. Alright. You had answered the question about
the deputy commissioner.
One thing that, uh, uh,
was brought up earlier in public comment was about the need
for rental registry.
Um, and about understanding, uh, who,
I guess theoretically who's on first, uh, what is,
what is the department's thinking on that,
what is your position on on creating such?
So I, um, do believe that that is something
that is definitely needed in the city.
It is conversations that Commissioner Castaneda
and I are having, and we are looking to continue to work on,
um, putting something together to present to the body of
what we are proposing.
But we do agree that there is a need
for this rental registry.
Um, it is a lot of these owners hide behind LLCs
and then you have to peel back the layers of the onion
to find the actual owner.
Um, having a registry
and requiring them to provide us with an owner
and not an LLC will help us tremendously when dealing
with buildings that become problematic.
My final question is around, uh, inspections.
Uh, what would it take, uh, for us
to do periodic inspections of rental units?
And when I say that, I'm not saying that a rental, uh,
i I come, I came from an environment
where we did annual rental inspections.
Now I'm not suggesting that we need
to do annual rental inspections,
but some level of a periodic inspection if it's three years,
four years, whatever.
What type of resources would it take for your department
to, to do that?
So currently our goal is
to do it on a three to four year cycle.
Anytime we respond to a 3 1 1 request
and that building falls under the, uh, code requirements
for a periodic inspection,
we do perform those inspections simultaneously
with the 3 1 1 inspection.
Um, to gain access into, uh, a unit
is sometimes challenging
because tenants don't always wanna allow us in,
unless it's the actual complainant
who then will allow us into their unit, um,
through our enforcement process and circuit court.
When we are doing inspections of the units,
the landlords are required to provide, um, notification,
I believe of 48 hours before, you know, we are allowed in.
But we, um, we are definitely cognizant
that we are required to do it.
The code says as, as needed on the periodic, um, spec,
uh, code re you know, um, as the code says.
So we, we are trying to comply with that proactively,
but I know that we can do better
and as we, um, we spent a great deal
of time doing 3 1 1 inspections, which is what, uh,
keeps us from getting to our periodics.
And so it, and that's what it,
it sounds like the 3 1 1 inspections really drive the bus.
And I, and I understand that it, it,
it has its place in should, um, just, just wondering about
just routine inspections
because if, if no one makes a 3 1 1 complaint, then
the likelihood of you all getting to that property,
you know, goes down because you are
so busy answering complaints
that are coming through the system.
So, uh, you know, it just, I know
that in other municipalities
that it is pretty much a requirement every time you rent a
property or every time that you change ownership
that there is some form of an inspection that is performed.
However, we do not, uh, we do not do that.
So, uh, and,
and just looking at what the outcomes are gonna be,
especially in some of these cases that we hear about over
extended periods of time.
So just, just as food for thought.
So one of the things with the rental registry
that would enable us to, um, one option would be
for a third party entity to do that annual inspection
of the building similar to what we do
with our A IC for elevators.
So that's our annual inspection certification process
where a third party vendor does an annual
inspection of the elevator.
So that is something that we could definitely look at, um,
as a component or a part of the rental registry.
And we also could work as a department
to perhaps put a program together similar to what we have
for elevators to do the same
for our multi-unit residential buildings.
Okay. Alright.
Well, uh, appreciate your, uh,
your time with us this afternoon.
Thank you to the team. Thank you to the staff, uh,
for the work that you all are, are doing.
Um, I guess you can tell by the, um,
I won't call it the lack of interest,
but the lack of problems that you all seem
to be running a smooth ship over there
and continued success in 2026.
Uh, with that being said, the committee will stand at ease
while we bring in two fm film.
Oscar, thank you. Yeah,
Good afternoon. The
committee on budget and Government
Operations come back to order.
We have before us the Department of Fleet
and Facilities Management, uh, represented by a commissioner
or Hernan Tomlin Wait minute, Hernandez Tomlin, right.
Okay. I was about to say Tomlin Hernandez.
No, Hernandez Tomlin.
Um, we will have a brief overview from the
Council Office of Financial Analysis by, uh, Katie, uh, tool
and then we will go into the commissioner.
Uh, do you want to give your statement or,
or do you We can read, uh,
Read It if you want.
Uh, commissioner will, uh, give her a statement, then, uh,
introduce the members of her team, uh, in the well
as well as those that are in the box.
And then we will proceed to questions beginning
with Alderman Spto.
Katie?
Good afternoon Chairman.
Um, and members of the city council. We are here.
Alright, thank you. Um, good afternoon chairman
and members of the city council.
My name is Katie O'Toole.
I'm with the Council Office of Financial Analysis, um,
for a overview of the proposed budget for the Department
of Fleet and Facility Management.
Um, the fiscal year 2026,
proposed budget is 500 million.
Um, this is
around 56 million less than the fiscal year.
2025. Um, revised appropriations for about a 10% cut.
Um, the department is largely funded by local sources
with 55% of it funded via the corporate fund.
Um, about 120 million. Thank you.
Um, is personnel, uh, with 379.8 million,
um, non personnel in 2026.
1031 FTEs are budgeted for.
This is a, um, change of 11 FTEs compared to 2025.
The next slide shows a more detailed breakdown
of the proposed budget for the Department of Fleet
and Facility Management.
Um, in the first table, you can see the percent
and dollar change as compared to the revised appropriation
for 2025.
Um, this is just a slight change
of about a million dollars due
to lower than budgeted grant funds.
Um, for the fund descriptions, um, the different funds
covering the department, um, like I said,
largely local funds, uh, with just, um,
about 52 million in grants.
The next slide shows historical, um,
appropriations for the department.
Um, over time largely the same.
A little bit of a decrease this year or proposed 2026.
And for FTEs, um, you can see the historical trend, um,
the proposed number of FTEs
for 2026 would be the lowest since
2017 concludes my summary.
Thank you, Katie. Uh, commissioner?
Thank you Chairman. Good afternoon, chair Irvin,
vice Chair Liam, members
of the Budget Committee and city Council.
I'm Julie Hernandez, Tomlin, commissioner of Department
of Fleet and Facility Management, or
otherwise known as two FM with me today.
Or I would like to mention first, please, uh,
managing Deputy Glen Cross is not with us today.
He is, um, taking some time off,
getting some much needed rest.
So today I have with me Deputy Commissioner over Fleet Mark
Pulis, deputy Commissioner over Fleet Facility Operations.
Anthony Maggio, my director of finance, Alvin Smith ii.
And then in the box I have,
I hope you guys are sitting in order.
Uh, Margaret Rizzo, deputy Commissioner, human Resources,
Jamie Veramonte, project Manager, Riverwalk
and Millennium Park, Merrick Wisnewski, deputy Commissioner,
architecture, engineering and Construction.
Victoria Santiago, deputy Commissioner, finance and Admin.
Kimberly Worthington, deputy Commissioner,
environmental Health and Safety, merit.
Solis, assistant Commissioner Bureau of Asset Management.
David Powell, project Manager, energy Procurement.
Curtis Anderson, director of Maintenance, uh,
operations of Fleet.
Ricardo Martinez, director of Facilities Security.
Rudolph Sanchez, director of Facilities Property Management.
CIA Jordan, director of Admin two.
And Michael Pickens, director of Facilities Trades.
And I do have several members
of my dream team in the gallery.
There. Everyone Wave Thank you.
Cannot forget, um, our electricians, Jonathan Bondy,
Mike Smith, foreman Mike Olson.
Thank you guys. Today I'll present two FM's 2026 budget
requests, which prioritizes cost-effective operations
and essential services.
Our mission is to provide efficient fleet management,
effective facility maintenance
and responsible energy procurement for city departments.
We also offer crucial support services,
including the management of the Riverwalk Millennium Park,
real Estate for city operations records management, as well
as graphics and reproduction services.
Two FM is committed to racial equity and justice.
In 2026, we achieved an overall 38
and a 5% MWBE participation rate.
The Riverwalk alone achieved a 55% MWBE rate,
which included the com community marketplace where five
of seven businesses are minority and women owned businesses.
Two FM also expanded outreach
for the 2025 community marketplace, RFP
to increase community participation.
We manage 474 facilities.
426 of those are owned
and 48 are leased in 2025.
We're reducing corporate funding by $8 million
by using bond funding for major building repairs
and fuel station tank replacements.
Our fleet includes over 14,400 units
of equip equipment including 10,450, owned
2,500 lease,
and 1400 rented through the Chicago Works program.
We continue to replenish the fleet for this year.
For CPD, we have 382 new vehicles.
Um, 262 are on order for 2026.
For Chicago Fire Department, we have 41 new units
for this year, for 40 more planned for 2026
streets in San 62 new units
for 20 25 67 ordered for next year 26.
Our 2026 budget request is 500 million.
It's 10% lower than last, I'm sorry, than this year 2025.
To maintain service levels,
we're implementing several operational efficiencies,
including consolidating leases and exiting underused spaces.
We're gonna save over $11 million over the next 10 years.
We're going to transfer six underutilized buildings
to Department of Planning and Development.
We're launching a space management governments framework
to guide future space decisions.
Right-sizing, janitorial, landscaping, pest control
and security service with a focus on non-public
facing facilities.
To save about 20 million, we're adjusting fleet
and facility operations,
staffing models to improve coverage.
And after hours response,
we're using a federal age energy grant
to identify building energy upgrades
and develop a fleet electrification strategy.
We're growing our green fleet, we're now at 1,385 hybrids,
80 plugin hybrids 247 EVs,
which is a 14% increase from last year.
We are also reducing our lease vehicles by a hundred units
over the next two years, which will save the city
about $1.1 million.
This budget request also furthers the mayor's initiative
to expand the Department of Environment by moving grants
and environmental engineering personnel from two FM back
to Department of Environment, starting in March next year,
2026.
Two FM is working in close coordination with DOE
to ensure a smooth transition.
Two FM will continue
to prioritize cost effectiveness while
delivering essential services.
I wanna thank our 940 dedicated employees
and look forward to collaborating with you
to build a better Chicago.
Thank you chair. I'm ready for any questions. Thank you.
Thank you Commissioner Al. Ms. Rosado.
Thank you Chairman. Uh, thank you commissioner.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
I only had two questions for you
and one of 'em you answered already.
So I was, uh, anxious to know about new, uh,
new rig slash vehicles and police
and fire as you know, obviously.
And then of course, streets and Sand was a nice bonus
to hear, so that's good news.
Thanks for finding money. My one, my one,
my one question I had was, um, do we have a,
do you have a grant writer in your department?
Because I know, you know, um, it's tough to get money.
So do we have somebody that's dedicated
to just writing grants to try to get money, especially
for like police and fire?
I do not have a grant writer in my department. No.
Does somebody take that task on
or does somebody from the city do that for you?
We work closely with the budget department to, uh,
they have a grant writing section? Yes.
Okay. And then like, do you give a ask
or do they just ask for the sky
and hopefully you get a little something?
We always ask for the sky. Okay. All
Right. Okay, well
that's it. Thanks a lot for everything.
The fact that there's uh, uh, five people here.
I guess that's a good saying. So
Thank You. Thank you Commissioner.
Thank you Chairman.
Thanks Alderman. Thank all this
Wasdo, alderman Cardona, you have anything?
Yes,
Chairman.
Um, how you doing commissioner?
Good, alderman. How are you? Good.
Uh, just wanna thank you and your, and your
and your staff, uh, for doing what you guys do for the city.
Um, so my question to you is the equipment like an example
of the Bureau of Electricity, their trucks, um,
and other, other trucks when they, when they break down,
what's the turnaround time for for those vehicles
to get back up and to actually go on to to,
to fix the issues that are happening in our neighborhoods
or in general?
Are you specifically asking for that particular unit
or in general because they're all different? Well,
That unit in general too,
because I hear a lot like their vehicles are, are down
and it takes a while for them to get back up.
So it gives, uh, uh, downtime for, for things
to get moving. So,
So in general, as you know, all units
of equipment are different.
Some take longer than others, depending on if it's damaged,
uh, if it's a PM
or um, some type of repair, um,
we'll have different turnaround times,
but generally we get 'em in, get 'em out as soon as we can.
Um, our, uh, men
and women at our garages work very hard
to turn this equipment around,
so departments are not without for very long.
Um, but nothing should be out be more than a day, two days,
depending again, on what the unit is
and how badly damaged it is.
But, um,
and we have a great communication
between all the city departments
who need those units of equipment.
We know every single one that's down,
they know every single one that's down
and when it's coming back.
Okay. Thank you so much. You're
Welcome. And, uh,
hope you have a good budget.
Thanks. Me too. Thank, thank you Alderman.
Uh, Cardona, uh, next up we're gonna have, uh,
alderman Moore followed by Alderman Gutierrez.
I'm sorry. Um, alderman Coleman was making me laugh
and I got off track.
She's funny. How you doing commissioner? Good,
How are you? Uh,
I'm good. Thank you so much as always.
Um, I appreciate you for, um, the work that you do
and your team, but um,
you are definitely a hands-on
commissioner and I appreciate that.
I appreciate you, um, periodically reaching out just
to see even before I call you if, um, if I need anything
or if you can be in any assistance in any way.
So definitely appreciate you.
My only question has to do, uh, with the, uh,
police vehicles, and maybe it's gonna be for CPD,
but do you, um, in terms of the total vehicles,
are the 3 82 just, um, replenishing what, um,
replenishing like what went out of service
or is this in addition to what was all
what they already have?
So compared to last year for CPD, what are
Yeah, 45.
Yes. I'm sorry. Ultimate we are replenishing
and at the same time adding,
so we're gonna be up 40 vehicles, so we're
Gonna, this year, so we're be up 40 foot Yes. For 2025.
Yes. Net four. That,
that's, that's what I was getting at.
Thank that way to look out to your commissioner.
That's what you're supposed to do. Thank you, sir.
So that's what I was looking for. What that net increase is.
So we have a, we are net 40 for 2025
and we have 262 on order for 2026.
Around what, what time in 2026.
Are we expecting to get those
All throughout the year? From what
I understand, throughout the Yes. Yes.
Unfortunately they just don't come all at one time. Yeah.
Okay. Alright. Thank you so much.
That's the only question I had. I appreciate
It. Thank you.
Thank you al the memo. Aldermen Gutierrez.
Thank you chairman. Commissioner, I just wanted
to thank you and your team for the
great job you guys are doing.
Uh, I don't have no questions.
I know, uh, you guys work so hard for our fleet
and facilities to run
and be managed properly, so we just wanted to thank you all.
Thank you, alderman. Thank you. Alderman Gutierrez.
Alderman Viegas.
Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner.
Hello. Howdy. How are you?
Um, just a couple of questions.
Um, deal with the electrical vehicles that we're purchasing.
Um, are, we use, we're getting any federal,
state rebates on those purchases?
I asked, I only asked because I know
that the current administration
and federal government's
trying to do away with these rebates.
So I was just trying to figure out were we able
to capitalize on those rebates?
Yes. I'm going to turn that, uh,
question over to David Powell.
He's our energy procurement manager.
Okay, Thank you for the question. Alder.
Uh, I know that we, uh, are working with Department
of Environment on getting, uh, uh,
federal tax monies for the Chargers.
I'm not sure on the vehicles.
I'll have to get the information through the chair.
Yeah, if you could, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.
Um, and then, um, commissioner, what type
of technology are we using around, um, you know,
for inventory management, um, internal reuse, um,
decommissions and going to market, creating a marketplace
for some of the assets that we're retiring?
Are we currently doing that
or are we using any type of, uh, technology, uh,
vendor to help us with that?
So, I'm sorry, I heard your first, uh,
inventory management and what was
Last? Inventory management
internal reuse.
So for example, uh, with some of the furniture and,
and other, uh, assets that we're purchasing
that we're making sure that other departments
that are gonna procure it first are looking internally
to see, hey, we may have it already.
And then also decommissioning of, of, uh, assets as well as,
um, you know, creating the marketplace.
So our inventory management is run by EAM.
I'm not sure what that really stands for.
Um, but we use that as a mechanism within our departments
and um, that's our work order system
as well as our inventory.
We don't have a lot of inventory. Okay.
So it's more of a work order management system.
Um, the furniture software that you spoke of
or the, uh, asset management.
Uh, we did talk to, um, a couple vendors, uh,
and looked into a couple different, um,
newer technologies on how to manage that.
And it looked amazing.
Unfortunately, uh,
we didn't have the budget for it this year.
Um, but it is something that we would definitely use
on a regular basis.
That would be great. Yeah.
Um, and then, I'm sorry, what was your third,
Uh, as it relates to like decommissioning assets
and stuff like that,
We trying to create a junkyard or something?
No, no. So what I'm trying to create is at the federal
government, they have especially, so two FM I see as more
as like a GSA where, uh, they, they have, they require,
they're in charge of the buildings.
They're, they're in charge of furnishing
them vehicles, et cetera.
And so once they've run their life,
what they do is they put it on a marketplace
and allow people to either purchase them
or prior to the department going
to buy something They can look internally
to see what's available, um, to see, you know,
before they purchase something.
So again, trying to reuse whatever assets we have, uh,
which in turn saves money.
So we are working with the Department
of Procurement Services to improve our assets.
Um, our auction sales.
Yeah, that's, um, crushed, uh, vehicles, crushed equipment.
And then any type of vehicle
or a piece of equipment that is at its end of life, uh,
we do use something now, or is, is that owned by us
or procurement services? Go ahead, mark.
Uh, good evening.
Um, DPS uses a public surplus as a web-based Okay.
Auction site that's all over the country.
They utilize that for multiple city departments
for, for their resale.
In our case, it would be used vehicles
that are still whole vehicles Yep.
That still have some viable life if someone's gonna put big
money into 'em and if need be, uh, scrap,
scrap materials that may need to be sold off for their way
to the, the metals and so forth.
And we also, the vehicles that are not worthy
to be retitled Okay.
To be rebranded.
Uh, we crush those vehicles
and that all goes through DPS for scrap.
Gotcha. Okay. Cool.
And then, uh, my last one is around, uh,
deferred maintenance.
Uh, for, for our, uh, for our assets, what's,
what are, are, are either the buildings we own vehicles,
like what's the deferred maintenance, uh,
cost on, on all those assets?
So deferred maintenance, as you know,
is very difficult to track.
Um, I'm going to turn to Deputy of Architecture
of engineering to explain how we keep track
of that deferred maintenance.
Uh, good afternoon, alderman.
Um, thank you for your question.
So, two fm, uh, like the commissioner's side uses EAM,
which is our work order tracking system.
We're currently working with a
and e firms in order to assess the entire portfolio for, uh,
all components including mechanical, um,
envelope, as well as, uh, any other building systems.
Um, that assessment also incorporates some
of the aesthetics items.
Um, and we're also currently, uh, working with MOPD
and PBC to also compile deficiencies that are associated
with a DA, uh, public facing facilities. So,
So you gave a lot of acronyms there.
Can you,
Um, a DA being American Disabilities Act, uh,
which is basically the accessibility
to our public facing buildings.
So we're working with the Public Building Commission
and the office of the mayor, uh,
accessibility office in order to assess that.
So we have, uh, general assessment of that.
And then basically all these assessments
that we're conducting and,
and currently getting,
all the data are gonna be put into the EAM system, um,
as an update and a refresh of what's already in there, um,
in order to give us a, a full view into our portfolio,
which will help us, um, determine critical needs
and help us plan not only for a five,
but 10, 20, 30 year asset replacement strategy, uh,
in order to get us prepared and ready for those needs.
So, so you're using that system now so you have some rough
estimate of a ballpark figure?
Uh, it's, it's, like I said, it's a work in progress,
so I wouldn't really want to give you any numbers right now.
Okay. Um, because they wouldn't be necessarily accurate.
Um, once we finish our assessment of the entire portfolio,
I think that's when we can have that full, uh, description
to you with regards to the, the values associated.
Yeah. And, and when do you anticipate that being done?
The reason why I ask is because as you're, uh,
putting together that plan,
there's gonna obviously be a need, a request
for capital in order to help pay for that.
Yes, sir. Um, I, I mean,
we currently have a five-year plan, um, that,
that we are working through.
Uh, and that's based on ongoing collaboration
with our end user departments based on their feedback
and their needs, as well as our facility operations team.
Um, so we, we collaborate with both those teams
to understand the critical needs in order to make sure
that our buildings can stay functional, operational,
not only for the public, but also
for the occupants that work for the city.
Cool. All right. Cool. I appreciate it.
Um, yeah, if there's an opportunity
to utilize more technology, I would, uh,
encourage you guys to use it. So
Absolutely. Da data is
key.
Cool. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, commissioner. Thank you.
Thank you. Altman. Viegas, um,
um, Mitchell, you anything?
Go ahead.
Thank you, chair. Good afternoon, commissioner. Good, good
Afternoon. How are you? Good
to see you. Hey.
Um, one of my questions you already answered in your
statement of two FM managers, 4 74 facilities,
4 26 owned and 48 leased.
Um, so what is the total annual cost associated
with the lease and renting for these locations?
Our annual rent, uh, for this year was about 28.5 million
Year to date. So you
say for this year to date or up to,
That's what's budgeted for 20 25, 28 0.5 million.
Okay. That's budgeted for 2025.
And I'm, I'm assuming that's,
that's, that should be really
close. 'cause you already knew.
Yes. We only budget for our leases. Yes.
Okay. Um,
I have a facility on 900 East 103rd Street.
Can, are you able to tell me what that lease is costing us?
I
Can get you that through the chair, please.
I almost reached out before now. Okay. That'd be great.
Okay. Get that, provide that through the chair.
Um, so what is the current status
of the three electric garbage trucks that have been sitting?
They're sitting in back of the 900
East hundred third Street.
They've been there pretty much all summer.
It's three, three electric vehicles.
I'm gonna turn that over to Mark Ulis please.
Sure. Those electric vehicles we did receive
and we're getting prepared.
Uh, we ended up having some conductivity issues
with the GPS system in there.
Mm-hmm. We are working with the manufacturer, uh, to try
and rectify this problem.
They've been out a couple of times now,
but what it's doing is the,
the GPS is actually killing the chassis battery, not the
electric ev battery portion of it.
The vehicle has a smaller battery to operate, you know,
little lights and things like that.
Mm-hmm. Um, so we're working to rectify to get
that corrected
before we can get that back out on the street.
And once and once they, once they're ready,
they're gonna be put on route.
Yes. And are we going to monitor 'em for a particular period
of time and see if that's something we want
to further invest in?
Absolutely. Kinda off to a bad start right now.
You know what, it's a lot better than our last, uh,
attempt at a electric refuse truck.
Okay. Okay. But, uh, yes,
we are gonna be monitoring the usage of it.
Mm-hmm. We wanna see how it's gonna perform
for Streets and sanitation.
Yeah. So, uh, you know, they're,
they're really on board with mm-hmm.
With doing this. We wanna see
how it's gonna perform going up
and down the alleys, uh,
how long we can get it out there on a
date, the overnight charging.
Okay. So we are gonna monitor this
before we move forward with any more
of these, this technology.
Okay. We look forward to the results of, of,
of how they perform.
Um, uh
oh, okay.
So about CFD.
So CFD engine 46, uh, it says, from
what I understand, it's a 2002 Spartan Laverne model
and it's 23 years old.
Uh, it services three of my communities.
It services Caman Heights, Jeff, uh, two of my communities.
Jeffrey Manning, Caman Heights.
Um, is this engine scheduled
to be replaced with the new unit? Oh,
Do you know that level top of your head
Or? I do.
Okay. I do.
I'm gonna turn that to Mark. He
knows it off the top of his head.
All right. It is, it is slated
to be replaced once the new rigs come in.
I believe it's, uh, seven or eighth on the list.
I out of the new seven.
So what do you think it's seven and eight?
Would I'm, I'm gonna say probably
you knew I was gonna ask that she looked up.
Uh, it's prob if we get all our deliveries in time,
well hopefully we'll see it by, uh, third quarter,
third quarter, third or fourth quarter of next year.
Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Um, um, so another,
another tower left cf, uh, tower 16 is currently out
of service and temporarily assigned
as a truck as a truck company.
Tower 16 has been outta service for most of the year,
and in several cases no spare
and Tower Ladder was available to replace the frontline rig.
Uh, as you can imagine,
this represents a major public safety concern
as Tower 16 is the designated tower ladder for, for steel
and box alarm fires from had Park South all the way
to 103rd Street.
A question, why don't we have enough spare tower letters
to substitute any of the 10 tower ladder citywide in the
event of mechanical failure?
Do you know that particular tower?
I do not know that particular tower. Okay.
Um, that's what it's down for. Um,
Before you start though, I, I would like to, uh,
say Alderman before he looks that up.
Um, our crews, um, work tirelessly,
uh, in our garages to turn over this fire equipment, um,
as quickly as possible.
And again, like I said earlier, it depends on the damage,
it depends on what type of repair they need.
Unfortunately, we're dealing with very old equipment waiting
for this new equipment to come in.
And I just want to reassure you
and this body, that two FM fleet management, we do
what we can to get stuff out the door,
get it in, get it out.
Um, we know it's public safety.
We know, um, have a lot, i I approve overtime for the crews
to work on these rigs mm-hmm.
C-F-D-C-P-D, um, to get this stuff turned around quickly.
So you have my reassurance that
this is very important to us.
And thank you. I have good credit with you. Okay, good.
Yeah. Um, but this particular one I'm not familiar with,
mark, I don't know if you have. Yeah.
So Tower Ladder 16 Alderman mm-hmm.
Uh, has, it was just down in the middle of September.
Mm-hmm. It, it went down for service.
Uh, we have a couple different issues
that we're gonna be taking care of.
There's a fire, sorry, back up.
I'm sorry to cut you up back first. You said you have,
it noted that Tower Ladder 16 has only been
down since the middle of September.
Yes, sir. I have it going down at our shop on,
uh, September 15th.
Okay. Um, so we are working on the brakes mm-hmm.
Wire harness, uh, some, uh, fuel issues
that we're gonna be taking care of on that.
Okay. And the reason why they're in a ladder truck, uh,
working with a ladder truck instead of a tower mm-hmm.
Is because we don't have enough power spares at this time.
Right. The ratio for, uh, spares
has kind of diminished over time.
Yeah. It's kind of harder for us to get a tower ladder in.
Yeah. So kind of, so we have a, we have a small spare count
and right now a lot of those are, are down for service.
Okay. Kind of give me what, what, what is, what is the,
like the cause of not being able to keep up with that?
Well, you can be honest.
A new, a new,
a new tower ladder right now is running about $1.6 million
at 1.5 to 1.6 for one for one unit.
So it's not that costly frame
to put, keep them in inventory.
No, no, no. And the timeframe, if we do order one,
the timeframe to get it built from the manufacturers
anywhere from two to three years.
Wow. And it's not just an issue for Chicago.
This is a global issue with all fire departments.
Um, okay.
Well definitely could you please keep this body abreast on,
on that, that, uh, progress with, with those issues?
Absolutely. Yeah, because I, I have a, I have a lot
of fire firemen in my ward.
Absolutely. So, okay.
Uh, that is, that's all the questions I have. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, commissioner.
Thank you. Thank you Chair.
Thank you. Um, Altman Coleman.
Thank you.
Okay. Uh, Altman Taylor.
Thanks chairman. Um, good evening.
Was it still afternoon?
Good evening And good evening. How you doing?
Good, how are you? Um, I have a question around
two FM's process when it comes to moving
all dramatic offices.
Um, so I definitely wanna always thank Isaac.
'cause Isaac is, is on the money when it comes to things
that I need in the office.
We pay a vendor to move furniture,
um, and store.
Are they storing at their facilities or city facility?
I'm sorry, alderman. The question was do does the moving
vendor store our furniture at
their facility or
No? Do they store
our furniture?
So I, I moved, I was forced to move my office, um,
and the furniture was stored somewhere.
Is that at a city facility
or is that at the moving company that you choose there?
And the, let me say why I'm asking this question.
There is no clarity around who you supposed to call,
who you supposed to work with.
Luckily, I've been blessed enough to have Isaac
and other people when my computers were broke
and items were missing.
But like, there was no process in place that I could see
that was sent to me, nor to my staff to say
how this is supposed to go.
I apologize. Yes. And so I want
to see some work mm-hmm.
From this department to say, well, we're moving and off.
First of all, I want you all to take more, um,
more in around offices actually moving
you all holding the landlords accountable.
Um, it's very hard to find an office
even when it's an automatic office.
'cause one or two things happen.
You get a slum Lord who think they can be slick
and over charge the city.
And you get somebody who,
or you get somebody who wants to not do
what the contract says they going to do.
And so just luckily I was able to get out the contract
because of the law department,
but there needs to be some type of ordinance
or some type of, uh, language that says
what does moving look like for an office?
So if you could tell me what you currently have
or is there some thought of
what you all could work on when
it comes to moving an office?
Thank you for the question
and um, I know exactly the incident you are speaking of
and I'm, I'm sorry that you had to go through that.
Um, just for clarification, Isaac, I believe works for, um,
DTI, not for two fm.
Um, and, uh, we do store the furniture at our warehouse,
um, on Pershing 1800 Pershing.
Um, and I'm sorry, alderman, we do not manage,
uh, alderman leases.
So I'm sorry, I can't answer that question for you.
You all don't. No, we don't.
Oh, I know you don't. No, all that's that.
That's the problem. 'cause, 'cause oh, I'm sorry.
It's me or my staff that's actually dealing
with folks when I wanna lease.
And there should be some in-between so
that when we are renting these automatic offices,
people understand kind of the needs of what we need.
It took me two months to get internet
'cause there was no connection between the city
and the folks that we're actually giving,
getting the internet from.
And so who is that on that?
That's on me and my office. That's on me and my staff.
Yeah. Unfortunately it is not two fm.
Okay. So we need, we, we'll, we'll get some legislation
to change how this works.
'cause for me, gosh,
we need some language to say that how this actually works.
And because there was no communication,
there was no straightforward answer for us.
It was all over the place.
So imagine being able to get in a space.
I was in my space in August.
It wasn't until October,
late September that I'm able
to actually get an up and running office.
And so I I, I want to see us work together to figure out
how do we make sure that it's as it is as easy
as possible for folks who want
to move their office. Does that make sense?
Yes, that makes sense. I would love to work with you. I
I would also add to that, um, ultimately the placement
and automatic offices
and that type of stuff, squarely falls on us.
While two FM can help in some ways, it,
it ultimately falls on us to locate site
and get through the process of getting our offices, uh, up.
And so I don't want, I don't want people to think
that this was her issue.
I mean, we have to also, uh, they can assist us,
but we ultimately responsible for that.
Thank you for that Chairman. Which is a problem.
'cause even when I was trying
to get my first office, there was no help.
There was no support. And so for a person who is elected
to do work, I wanna be able to do that sooner than possible.
And I could use your help with saying how
that goes in communicating with people
that we actually have to move in with.
Um, can you all talk about vehicle use,
how many vehicles you got, how much does it cost for fuel?
For fuel and, and who is using these vehicles?
So right now in our inventory Alder Woman, we have
around 14,000 units.
Uh, 10,000 of those.
We own about
2500, 2500 lease we lease.
And the rest are rentals.
Uh, we did go down in our leases and our rentals this year.
So we were able to save some money in our corporate budget.
Um, gasoline and diesel went up a little bit this year.
However, um,
we were conservative in our budget for next year.
Uh, we hedge our fuel right now, I think we're 60% hedged
for next year, uh, for the first quarter.
So that means that we've locked in a price just for 60%.
Um, so we got a really good price.
The prices depend of course, on worldwide events.
With the war being over in Gaza
and Israel, we are able to get a cheaper fuel price.
Um, but that changes every day.
And we have a consultant that helps us determine when's
the best time to hedge our fuel.
What happens to the vehicles that we can't repair?
Are those, are those sold? Are those gifted?
Are those given away?
If they are at the end of life,
and again, we own them only if we own them, we will, um,
work with the Department of Procurement Services
and it will go to public auction.
Uh, uh, on a point, uh, alderman Comey,
There was once a time where the city would donate some
of our, uh, fleet to out of country to our sister, uh,
sister, sister, sister, sister cities by way
of rural business, Chicago.
Have we done that as of late or taking inventory?
Unfortunately, um, we run our vehicles
until pretty much end of life to the ground.
Um, so unfortunately we don't have anything just laying
around that is useful to anyone. Believe
It or not.
Our trash is very much so a treasure to I
Synagogue. I dunno that I would even Kenya.
Yeah. Yeah. I, I understand what you're saying.
I feel the same way, but Okay. There really isn't.
If there is though, ultimate, if there is,
we would absolutely donate it, but we don't have that.
Thank you Commissioner. Thank you Chairman.
Mm-hmm. Thanks Alderman Taylor.
Thank you. Um,
I've had this conversation over the years about us saving
money on repurposing buildings that we already have
versus us renting out space.
Is there some kind of conversation that you,
so I got six vacant schools.
Um, the one
that has the me work on it is probably Wadsworth.
And at some point there were some conversations
about maybe the health department
and another couple of other departments to moving in.
Are we looking into that serious?
'cause It would, according to what we're spending on Rent
and Space, it, it will save us millions of dollars.
So we work regularly with the Department of Planning
and Development on, um, our vacant surplus property.
Uh, right now we have about six of them, uh,
that we just transferred to DPD planning
and development recently.
Um, Wadsworth is not in that list.
I believe Wadsworth is still in CPSs inventory.
It's not in two FM's inventory.
It's not, it became two FM's
when it was turned into a migrant shelter.
Am I correct?
I'm sorry. We maintain Wadsworth. Yes.
Okay. But we do not own it.
You all maintain it? Yes.
Um, how many, oh,
those vacant school buildings do you all actually own?
I believe it's only two,
but I can get you that through the chair.
I don't, I don't know off the top of my head.
Um, my
last question is around
Two Questions.
Um,
that was my last question.
Thanks commissioner. Thanks Chairman.
Thank you. Alderwoman.
Is that, is that really your last question?
Oh, she done cut off the mic. Okay. Alright.
Well, um, I I just got a couple items.
Number one, um,
area four police headquarters at Harrison and Kedzie.
Um, is there any way we can get rid of all of those, um,
I don't wanna call 'em junk vehicles,
but inoperative, inoperable vehicles at, um,
at Harrison and Kedzie?
I mean, it is extremely unsightly
or put up some level of a barrier to, uh, shield the,
what's in there, what's going on from, uh, from the,
from the community, uh, in that respect.
I have two, two of your facilities in the ward, the
Northwest Fleet F Fleet or,
or send that stuff over there, um,
in the, in the industrial area.
Uh, and I, I know that the area four
could definitely use the parking.
Uh, but it just seems so unsightly that all
of those vehicles are, are at that particular facility.
Now. There's a reason that you have 'em.
That's, uh, that's fine.
I just want us to try
to get a little better aesthetics over in the area there.
Uh, the second point, uh, you talked about energy, uh,
and you talked about the hedging.
How much have we saved on energy purchasing, uh, utilizing,
uh, third party services
or just our own, uh, staff, uh, going out
and, uh, sourcing the best deals for the city?
So, um, the savings are through credits.
Um, unfortunately the, with our electricity bills, our
charges went up with the carriers.
So just like your electric bill went up, so did ours.
Um, so unfortunately we didn't really see a lot of savings.
Um, I can get you that through the chair of
how much we did save in credits.
Um, I don't have that in front of me.
Alright. No, no problem. I know years ago we did this, uh,
big aggregation, uh, deal with, I, I can't recall the party.
Are there any more ideas like that in the kitty where, uh,
that potentially will save a resident serious dollars?
I know we, I can't remember if
that was in like 20 14, 13 ish, uh, that we did
that big a aggregation deal.
Oh, it was, was anybody in that was,
see a lot of blank stares over there. Okay.
Okay. I'm sorry, chair. That was before my time.
I'm not familiar with that from 2013 or 14.
Okay. Alright. What was that?
Okay. All right. Well, we'll, we'll, well, no worries.
We'll, we'll figure, we'll figure,
figure something else out.
Um, I, I think, um, I guess everyone had to focus
with the fire equipment and all of the equipment
and, uh, just getting stuff out in a,
i I guess now are we at a point where we're not
overhauling as much or
we're just trying to get new equipment?
Are we trying to um,
I guess get more on a schedule as it relates to replacement
of equipment and not necessarily
like putting good money after bad?
Fortunately this year we were able to hire, um,
quite a few people in fleet more than last year.
So we were able to, um, distribute the staff more evenly,
I think, in the different garages
and divide up the work a little more evenly.
Um, we are repairing what we can, like I said earlier,
and we will get it out the door as quickly as we can.
Um, our, our two FM crews, they work really,
really hard on getting this stuff turned around.
Um, I think where we're gonna save money is leasing
and that's, as I said in my opening statement,
we can turn some cars in who have very
few miles or less usage as well as, um,
they have more equity in the lease
where we can get that money back.
So, um, over the next two years, our plan is
to turn in some more leases
and probably save about a million dollars.
Okay. Alright.
Well, I, I think that is, uh, ultimate Burnett.
Do you have anything? Okay, no worries. Okay.
Uh, I think that is all we have for, for day.
Uh, we appreciate your time, uh, your effort.
Uh, I, I guess you guys are doing a good job as
nobody's here to throw eggs
at you or anything like that, appreci.
So maybe, uh, next year we'll get you up sooner, uh,
so we can get you in and out.
So, uh, with that being said,
the committee will stand in recess until Wednesday,
October 29th at nine 30.
Is that a nine 30 start or 12 noon start?
No, Tuesday is supposed to be doing something else. Yeah.
Uhhuh did we say, was that a nine 30 or 12 o'clock?
We got the mat, we got
the, we got the calendar.
Is it 12?
No, the OIG Yes, the committee will stand at ease
until Wednesday, October 29th at 12 noon.
No.