Good afternoon.
The time is now 1:04 PM The meeting
of the Committee on Aviation is called to order.
We will now have a roll call to establish a quorum
vice Chairman, Curtis Alderman Hopkins.
Alderman Dowell. Alderman Robinson.
Alderman Harris. Alderman Lee.
Alderman Quinn. Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Coleman. Alderman Rodriguez.
Alderman Chabas. Alderman Burnett.
Alderman Irvin. Alderman Cardona.
Alderman Wapac Alderman
Mitt Alderman Pido.
Alderman Nugent.
Alderman Napolitano.
Present The following,
alderman have request a remote access
for today's committee and aviation meeting.
Alderman Coleman.
Present Chairman Alderman Lee.
Alderman Lee Alderman Mitts
Present, no.
Alderman Deano.
Present Chairman Alderman Teris
Present.
Alderman Robinson Present Chairman,
Having a quorum already present, can I get a motion
to recommend approval of these rule of 59 requests?
Chairman Alderman Lee is on
Alderman Lee, you're there.
Okay. Yep. All in favor say aye.
All opposed the opinion of the chair. The ayes have it.
I'm sorry. Can I get, uh, permission for Alderman Lee?
Alderman Quinn? So moves at this time,
we'll begin the public comment period outta
respect for everybody's time.
Each speaker is limited to three minutes,
and once again, the streak continues.
We have no public speakers have signed up
to comment at a Committee on Aviation meeting
Items before the committee this morning.
Item number one is the approval of
the October 14th, 2025 Rule 45 report
for the Committee on Aviation.
If there are no questions, can I get a motion
to recommend approval of the report?
Alderman Spto. So moves all in favor, say aye.
All opposed in the opinion of the chair. The ayes have it.
Item number two in Ordinance
0 2 2 5 2 82.
An amendment of municipal code sections 10 dash three six
dash 3 51
and 10 dash 3 6 3 55
through 10 dash three six dash 3 58.
Adding provisions regarding fines for violations occurring
at Chicago's two international airports.
Before us today is Deputy Commissioner thy towns
and General counsel, Anita Morris from the Chicago
Department of Aviation.
They're here to present information
and answer questions regarding the ordinance.
Deputy Commissioner
Hello Aviation Committee.
Uh, I'm Aria Towns
and, um, we will talk to you today
about our ordinance.
Oh, there we go, right there. Next, next slide.
So this ordinance seeks to modern modernize, uh,
the municipal code by updating fines and fees
and penalties to commiserate
with other pure airports in violations, uh, of our airports
with rules and regulations.
Next slide please. So,
currently there are 55,906 badge holders
at both O'Hare and Midway Airports.
And I'm gonna take it a step further to allow you to know
that the City of Chicago employees,
we have 2,538 at O'Hare
and nine eight hundred and thirty nine at midway.
Um, this ordinance helps us to ensure
that we are creating a stronger
and deterred against dangerous behaviors such
as runway incursions, careless driving badge violations
that can jeopardize the safety of the entire airfields
and terminal environment.
Next slide. So this ordinance addressed four items.
The items that we are addressing, um, are,
it expands who's subject to the rules airport rules
beyond current batch holders
to include certain federal regulated individuals,
companies operating within the airport
and non badge persons addressing secured areas
while under escort.
Next. It also strengthen, strengthens the clarity
and clarify standards of badge suspensions and revocations,
and adds new administrative fees
to offset hearing costs as well.
It updates the method of serving notices of violations
to allow service by mail in addition
to a personal service cons consistent with Illinois law,
and it explicitly prohibits badge holders from carrying
or possessing firearms in secured areas of our airports.
This ordinance also established clear tiered schedule
of fines ranging from mild to severe to better align
with pure airports.
The current fines range from a hundred dollars
for first offense to $500 to third offense.
The new proposed system creates a range of four sets
of fines based on cl uh, class class offenses
with some fines as low as $25 for a first offense
and some as high as 5,000 for the first offense.
This ordinance,
again, this ORDIN ordinance, uh,
adds more communication in addition to services
that allow the, uh, mail for minors min via mail
and mirrors Illinois law.
And also, again, we have to strengthen
that it clarifies our firearm policy.
And now this ordinance, if this ordinance take place,
it'll properly begin 10 days
after the passage of the publication.
So do we have any questions?
Questions from committee members? Alderman Rodriguez.
Thank you Mr. Chair,
and thank you for the amazing briefing
that I had earlier today.
Thank you very much, uh, appreciated the, um, the,
the extent that you went to depth on this issue.
Just wanted to put a couple questions on, on the record.
Um, although they're in the written record,
I would like response.
Um, first I'm just curious what qualifies
as secured area?
Well, our a takes from
anywhere within our terminal space on our
land of our airport.
So, um, I actually wrote it down on my other sheet
of paper it from Higgins Road all the way
to Danny, can you help me?
Sure. Higgins Road to Oh, introduce yourself
Is a on. Yes,
very good. Uh, Danny Vega,
managing deputy Commissioner, safety Security,
uh, O'Hara and Midway.
Um, basically any area that's, uh, occupied
by airline tenants, um, uh, badge holders
that is not open to the public.
You have a sterile area, right?
That is traditionally what you would, uh,
anybody who's flying would encounter the sterile area going
to and from an air, uh, jet, uh, from the, uh,
screening area into the, into the sterile area,
which then leads you to a, a plane Outside of that,
the secure area includes the airport operating area,
the airfield, and any other access point to that airfield.
And I'm curious if all federal authorities,
including those who might be employed by border patrol and
or ICE, would also be subject to these rules
and potential fines, uh, if they were to violate, um,
anything within these, uh, this ordinance.
Anita, Anita Morris, our general counsel.
Yes. Uh, so this is going to be applicable to anybody
who violates these fines, be it, um, someone who's employed
by another agency or, um, actual city employees.
Um, as long as they fall within those classes
that are specified under this ordinance,
they're either a badge holder or they're under escort.
Um, not, it would not be applicable
to the traveling public though.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all I have.
Thank you. Alderman.
Alderman Dow? Yes. Thank you. Mr.
Chairman, can you go back to the, um, slide
that had the breakdown of the fines
Go?
Can you give me an example?
I'm sorry, I missed the briefing. So I don't know.
You probably, uh, of what a class 1, 2, 3,
and four type fine is.
Absolutely. So a class one fine would be something
that is a bit more minor.
So we would be looking at, um, something like a vehicle
with an expired plate,
and that would be for a class one violation.
A class two violation would be
something a little bit more moderate.
Uh, so something like blocking a service road, um,
and then they would, uh, fall within that class.
Uh, class three would be something
that we would say is serious.
Uh, so something like piggybacking
and basically the piggybacking
that is not actually swiping your id,
but just following somebody in, um, into a secured area.
And something severe would be a Class four.
Um, so something like a fuel spill
or a ha a spill of a hazardous material.
Okay. Um,
and how many violations did you have in 2025?
And do you have that information broken down
by these various new classes now?
So I can get the information, um, under the new classes,
but our violations from 2025 for individual violations,
can I give you 24 and 25 so you can see the difference?
Sure. Mm-hmm. So if I start with 24,
we had individual violations,
1000 804 41 in 20 20, 20 24,
and 2025, we went up 16% at 16,
1000 hundred 50 for companies.
In 2024, we had 503 violations in 2025,
2,140, which was, uh, up 228%
totaling fines.
Uh, in 2025 was 3,790
Was what, 3,790? And we can
Do that. What, what is causing
the, um,
increase in violations from your perspective?
Well, Danny, our managing deputy,
he can go into further detail about that one.
Good afternoon. That's,
that's always difficult to gauge, right?
But I think it's a combination
of perhaps newer badge holders.
Um, uh, 47,000 plus at O'Hare.
Uh, we hit a record this year with respect to the number
of O'Hare badge holders.
Uh, in, in addition, we also have employed, uh, thanks, uh,
you know, the approval of, uh, the airports and, and,
and the city, uh, increased our personnel,
our security personnel for safety purposes.
And, um, we have more people at the airports.
Um, quite frankly, it's just more people, more construction.
Um, there's a lot of activity, uh, in
and out of that, that airport, the airfield itself. Right.
So, and in terms of getting a badge, um, what's required?
Just, I'm just curious to see what it takes to get a badge
besides being an, you know, employee
of a construction company or,
So there's training that you have to watch videos, um,
with any of our badged employees,
all our badged employees have to watch a series of videos,
um, letting them know just the proper, uh, rules
and regulations under the F-A-A-T-S-A
and, um, all the federal partners that we have to abide by.
They have to watch the video.
They also have various trainings, especially
what I said earlier today.
I do not have a strap on my badge.
I promise you, you do not
want me to drive on their airfield.
But the individuals with the air,
with the stripes on the badge, they have to go
through rigorous trainings.
Um, um, um, um, background checks, everything
that you have to go through to make sure
that you are qualified to drop on the airfield.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks, alderman. Alderman Hopkins.
Yeah, thank you. Uh, Mr.
Chairman, first of all, uh, congratulations to the team for,
uh, attaining the number one ranking in America.
We passed Atlanta Hartsfield as the top airport once again,
first time since, uh, 2019.
So, uh, that's a tribute to the continued operations
of O'Hare and we're all proud of that.
Thank you for, uh, putting Chicago back in the number
one spot where we belong.
Um, all these fines
and all these violations, even the more severe class four,
I'm assuming these are all civil matters, right?
None, none of this rises to the level of criminality
yet I would suggest that possibly some
of them could be a precursor to criminal activity, right?
You could have an innocent person making a mistake
and going into a secured area,
it looks a lot like a person going in there with intent
to case out the area
for possible cargo theft or something like that.
So how do you draw the line?
When is it appropriate to refer a potential violation to,
uh, the Chicago police, uh,
for a possible criminal investigation?
Also, not an easy answer to that,
but obviously, uh, it's it's case by case.
Totality of circumstances.
You look at each case, there's plenty of video.
Uh, we constantly review video.
And then, um, did that employee had a legitimate,
have a legitimate purpose to be at that place at
that time? Um,
Do we have any examples of that In, in recent, uh, months,
has there been, uh, any badge violations
that have in fact led to a criminal investigation?
We could, we could provide that information to the chair.
Yeah,
I'm not aware of any.
Okay. Well, specific to a badge application, right? Sure.
Uh, uh, a badge holder.
Okay, well, I think that's important
to understand going forward as you put more detail,
you know, and, and try to, uh,
ideally prevent this high number of violations.
A lot of them, I'm sure are innocent mistakes.
People forgot the rule
or, you know, had no ill intent when they piggyback,
they were just trying to, you know,
be lazy about it or whatever.
Um, but again, you know, it could be masking, uh,
more serious violations
and I think you need to put some more thought into that.
Um, and, and make sure that in this high number
of violations that get, uh, fined
and adjudicated, um, we're not missing any indications
or clues, uh, that could potentially stop, uh,
a major crime from happening.
Yes. All right.
That's all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thanks
Al.
Thanks Alderman Hopkins, uh,
let the record reflect Alderman Irvin is in attendance.
Thanks, alderman. Alderman Lopez.
Good afternoon Chairman and members of the
Committee. And
also welcome to all
of our fellow airport workers in the back, behind everybody
who are here today from Unite, uh, here.
Um, I have some questions.
Um, and as many of you know, I used
to work in the air at Midway Airport as well.
I have had my badge.
Um, so I,
I understand intimately all the violations you're referring
to 'cause we've all seen them.
Um, but I do have some questions.
First off, I do think
and agree that we have to modernize our
enforcement and our penalties.
Um, but to start with
section one,
which says it shall be a violation
for these four categories, basically anyone with a badge
or anyone in the airport,
and one of my colleagues just asked about immigration,
who has authority over the airports?
Well, the commissioner has
authority ultimately over the airport.
But regulatory, it's the F fa f faa. FA ts a, correct?
Yes. And tsa, which are federal,
Federal Entities. Federal
entities. Mm-hmm.
So if we have federal entities
and we have them at both airports, correct?
Um, including customs at both airports? Yes.
Customs and border protection at both airports? Yes.
CBP, um, are those individuals armed
Customs individuals armed?
Correct.
Yeah. CBP officers, law enforcement are
Armed. Okay.
So there's nothing saying that they're not going
to be able to have their weapons in, in pursu in the
execution of their duties Correct.
As badged officials? Correct.
So, Uh, just like our own police,
Chicago police still be able to, yeah.
Okay. So I just wanna make sure that we're,
we are a hundred percent clear
that we are not unarmed our own officers.
This is just holding them accountable if they are on the
field doing things, correct?
Correct. Yes. Yep.
Section two, about the rules being promulgated
by the commissioner.
Is there any discussion
or reason why, uh, since we don't have a, a clear definition
of what Class one through four is going to be?
Will those rules be provided back to the committee
before they're instituted for review?
Yes, we can, but go ahead.
And as such, chairman, is that something
that we should include, uh, in this ordinance so
that the department has to return back
before this body with its rules?
So for section two where I understand
what you're asking for, uh, the different sections
for the different categories of classes, um,
it was not the intent of the department to, to come back,
um, no, with the actual, um, with which,
with which fine would fall into which category.
Uh, but that is something that we can do.
So is that when are we looking
to have the finalized version of the rules put in place?
Because you said that this goes in
effect 10 days after passage.
Do we have a draft version that's already ready?
Are we approving fines
and then still working on this 10 days after?
Hi Bernie Williams, chief Strategy Officer.
That's something that we're working
with the law department alderman on,
and we will, um, continue to talk to law
and follow their recommendation on that as well.
So what is the timeline then?
So we are looking to have the ordinance passed
and then the rules within the next couple weeks, for sure.
The rules will be promulgated at that time,
but we'll leave that direction
to the law department to follow their lead.
And I guess, chairman, the, my question, my next question
and follow up to that would be, will you be following up
with them and us as to what the rules are
or do we need to amend this
to have the committee come back before?
I just don't like passing violations where I don't know
what I'm passing violations against
Law department. Mm-hmm.
Yes, we would make sure that the information
is provided through the chair.
Yes.
We'll talk to the law department
and General Counsel Morris, make sure we have that answer
for you, uh, before council tomorrow.
Awesome, thank you. Um,
lastly, these fines that we've seen,
and I want to just add to what my colleague, uh,
from the third ward asked about the
description of the fines.
Can we have that broken down also by airport? Yes.
And then by the, uh, respective agency or
or operator that those individuals report to.
So is it an aviation, is it a contractor?
Is it a city person that violated those, uh, as well?
Um, yes, we have. The last question that I have, uh,
chairman, is all
of these fines are directed at the badge holder, correct?
So yes, that is correct.
Um, our badging violation
or we have a badging manual that is, um, applicable
to the badging to the badge holder.
So what in the future, whether it's a $25 fine
or a $5,000 fine, that will go to the badge holder, correct?
Well, it could also go
to the company depending on the actual
violation that we're looking at.
Uh, because with this ordinance, what it's doing is
it is expanding the scope so that it could also apply
to someone who is under escort
or it could be the actual company, um, who's responsible.
So if it's a fuel spill,
it could actually go to the company.
And I'm sorry, where does it say that that would happen?
Where does it say that it would go to the company? Yes.
So for example, we have airline X,
and I won't accuse any airline
of running across an active runway, but it happens.
So you have airline X'S Ramp agent runs across not paying
attention or makes an error according to this,
that would be a class, something
or other fine that they would have to pay.
But would there, where in this ordinance does it say
that it would also be applicable to the airline?
Because if the goal is to change behavior
and to make sure people are aware, especially
as we just heard, that there are lots of new employees
who are not necessarily paying attention to the videos
that you have, uh, at your offices, at the badging office,
we need the airlines, the construction companies,
the vendors, everyone to start paying attention
as well, not just their employees.
So the best way to get people's attention is
to start hitting them where it matters.
So where in this does it say
that they will also be held accountable?
So if you look at b where it, where it expands,
uh, the individuals whom, uh, this ordinance is applicable
to, that's when you're going to see that
the individuals are defined.
Um, so it's no longer just a batch holder,
but you'll see that now we have, let's see.
Um, so you know, not to be redundant, is it number four,
But I'm sorry, is
It number, is it number?
Is it B subsection
Four, subsection four.
Any entity operating in such secured area at the airports
to violate any safety
or security rule promulgated
by Federal Transportation Security Administration,
the Federal Aviation Administration or the commissioner.
So that's the section really that's going
to be applicable more to the companies than also
that example that you just had.
So, and I, and I ask this
because I know the law department likes
to get very technical on these matters
or seems as though it's one or the other.
Should there be an and or so that you can hit both employee
and company so that it's not just a matter
of either you get the person or you get the company,
but you can actually issue legally tickets to both?
One moment please.
My law department Spidey senses are tingling.
Hi chairman. Uh, I'm Christopher Coleman.
I'm assistant Incorporation counsel
in the Department of Law.
Chairman, I'd love to hear a law
department answer on this.
Uh, yes. Uh, thank you for pointing us out Alderman Lopez.
Our preference actually is to retain the
or so in statutory interpret interpretation
or means if you have a list, it's yet this
or that or both, we strongly advise against and slash
or, uh, in drafting exercises.
So then this legally would not prohibit us from hitting
both employee and
That's correct.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you Alderman. Alderman Lee.
Thank you Chairman. Sorry I can't be there with you today
and I apologize that I missed the earlier briefing.
Just following up on, uh, chair Dowells earlier request
for some through the chair information
and subsequent follow up from Alderman Lopez,
can you include the total number of employees?
I know that you said, uh, the number
of badged employees has increased over time.
Um, we've seen this huge
increase in the number of violations.
I'm interested in just kind of looking at the, the corollary
between the, the types of employees as well as the,
the total numbers, um, as a percentage of the, um,
I'm sorry, the violations as a percentage
of the total number of employees.
Um, and then also, did anyone already ask, um,
for the, you don't have classification
of violation types,
but how are the violations currently, um, currently tagged,
I guess, um, are they coded somehow?
I know you don't have them in these next four classes
that you're proposing,
but, um, how are the, are the violations assessed and,
and coded today or in the last couple of years?
Yeah, So in terms of, to go to your,
actually I'm gonna start with your second question first.
Uh, so when you asked, um, how will it be categorized, so
we are actually going to categorize, uh,
the violations similar to how they are today.
Uh, the only thing that we're doing differently is
that we're raising the actual fine amount.
So, uh, right now we do have all of the violations.
They are just not broken down into these categories.
Um, but what we will be doing is we're actually going
to be separating them out into the categories
and we will be finding people accordingly.
Um, so, uh, that is to answer
that second part of your question.
Then the first part of your question, I believe you asked,
what is the amount of badge holders that we currently have?
Uh, so at Midway we currently have 839
badged employees at O'Hare,
we currently have 2,538 badge employees.
I'm sorry, at the, um, city, um,
city employees at both, uh, city employees at O'Hare,
we have 2,538
and we have 839 city employees at Midway.
So I was looking, there was a number
that somebody mentioned like 47,000 badged employees,
whether they're city or contractor or whatever.
That's the, because that's the total number
of potential violations that we're,
we're talking about, right?
So that's, if you can just include that in the,
through the chair request, that would be really helpful.
Okay. And then my final question is,
I know you have this set up for first offense, second,
third, fourth, God forbid,
but are, are there cases where there, um,
more than four offenses on any of these with employees?
I'm just curious.
So when it gets to, um,
when it gets to something where it's like four um, offenses,
uh, we do have the ability actually at any level, uh,
the city does have the ability to remove the badge.
Perfect. Um, so if it does get to that level,
that is definitely, um, something
that the city does have the ability to, um, actually go
and remove the badge.
Um, we have not had a go pass, um, four, uh,
because we do have that, um, ability to do that.
Um, and usually, uh, when it gets to, um,
your second or third time, um,
then usually the company will pull the badge.
Um, and that's not something
that the city even has to go in and do.
Great. I appreciate that. That's all I've got. Chair.
Thank you.
Thanks Alderman. If there are no further questions,
can I get a motion to pass Alderman Irvin?
So moves all in favor? All opposed.
And the opinion of the chair of the ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of this ordinance will be reported out
of the next city council meeting on Wednesday,
January 21st, 2026.
There being no further business before the committee.
Can I get a motion to adjourn? Alderman Rodriguez?
So moves all in favor?
All opposed the opinion of the chair of the ayes habit.
The meeting of the Committee on aviation is adjourned.