Of the public.
These rules shall be in effect at all times that a viewing
gallery or room is open for a meeting of the city council
or any of its committees. All individuals and their
belongings are subject to search at entry or upon request.
Individuals must remain seated at all times except,
one, when entering or exiting the gallery.
Two, when providing public comment during the portion of a meeting
set aside for that purpose.
Or three, when asked to rise and be acknowledged by a member
of the city council.
Profane, threatening, harassing, abusive,
or defamatory behavior or speech which, in the
judgment of the meeting's chair or the sergeant at arms, may
lead to a breach of the peace or disrupt the orderly conduct
of the meeting is not permitted. Disruptive or distracting
actions, such as the stomping of feet, waving of arms,
throwing any item, whistling, booing, shouting,
or other loud utterances, are not permitted when in the judgment of the
meeting's chair or the sergeant at arms-
Good morning.
All right. We're going to go ahead and get started with public comment.
The sergeant at arms is going to pull the numbers.
Since we have more than 10, we will do our
15 at two minutes a piece.
Okay.
Give me the first one. Just start pulling them.
Now, see, you making all that noise, and here you are, number one. Mr.
George Blakemore, come on down.
And all of you,
what is the purpose? What is the purpose of
calling the public up to speak when you don't
have aldermans
here
on this... Look! Can you see that?
Can you see that? They won't hear you. They're not
here to speak here.
Why
would you get up and
have people to speak?
Thank you.
Why would you do that?
Now we're ready to have public participation.
I came here to speak in time.
You getting paid.
You going to run up to this mic,
and the alderman that you are paying is not here.
Now make this make...
And my kinfolk. I'm not talking about my white brothers and sisters
by another mom.
Something is wrong here. Something is...
What?
Why the name? Who you call the name for
us to speak? Why would you do that?
Why would you do that? Are you crazy?
Are y'all crazy? Mr. Blakemore, maybe you're
crazy. You got a mental problem, Mr. Blakemore.
I'm losing
it. And she said, "You want Mr. Blakemore to trust somebody." I'm not going to
Thank
you, Mr. Blakemore, for your comments.
Next, we have Caleb Posley, followed by Jay Thompson.
Ms. Posley?
Caleb.
Posley.
It was Caleb Posley, and I'm here.
Caleb Posley.
Yep. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Caleb Posley, and I'm the manager of policy and systems advocacy at the
Network Advocating Against Domestic Violence.
The network is a collaborative partnership of more than 40 gender-based violence
service providers in Chicago and beyond, working to strengthen systems and
policies that support survivors and prevent gender-based violence.
I want to begin by thanking the city council and mayor's office for their
commitment to making up the $400,000 funding gap, and
ensuring that community-based, gender-based violence providers maintain level
funding in FY27. This investment is critical, particularly
given the growing demand for services.
According to the data that we track as operators of the Illinois Domestic Violence
Hotline, the hotline received over 23,000 contacts from
Chicago in 2025. That's a 25% increase from
2024. Chicago survivors face particularly acute
housing shortages. Domestic violence shelters had no available beds or
cribs for 157 days in 2025. Our
Measuring Safety Research also found that domestic violence programs statewide
provided direct services for 20,922
Cook County survivors in 2023.
While shelter turnaways increased 23% due to lack of available beds, these
numbers demonstrate that demand for services continue to outpace providers'
capacity to respond. Community-based organizations provide the
specialized trauma-informed services that survivors need, including safe
housing, legal advocacy, and more.
Even with level funding, providers continue to face significant capacity challenges
and struggle to meet the growing demand in our communities.
We appreciate the city's commitment to maintaining level funding for
community-based services in FY27 and encourage continued
investment in the organizations survivors depend on.
As the city makes future budget decisions, we ask that funding priorities
reflect the growing demand for services and direct
resources toward community-based providers doing the work every day. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Next, we'll have Jay Thompson, followed by Laura Bailey.
As, please, with the outburst,
as one, okay?
All right. Very well, ma'am. You may proceed.
Hi, my name is Jay Thompson. I'm a clerk living on the South Side.
Oh, hold.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
I'm a clerk living on the South Side, and I'm currently working in the Central
District. I've been working for CPL for over two years, and it's become
exceedingly apparent how underfunded we are.
This lack of funding is not new, and this proposed budget is not an increase on top
of a fully funded library system. It is an attempt to finally reach a
baseline that library workers have been trying to secure for years.
Staffing shortages are worsening with potential layoffs on the horizon.
It's become normalized for staff to pick up the responsibilities of multiple roles
to cover gaps and meet the patron demands.
Locations remain open even when there are less than three staff on site, the
required minimum, risking safety and rapid burnout.
I'm also concerned about the cuts to community resources and services, such as
cyber navigators.
We are living in a very digital age, but our literacy and digital rates are
notoriously low for youth and adults.
There's already a shortage of cyber navigators, and we are told we cannot afford
them, even though the daily demand for this kind of service is very desperately
needed in our communities.
Folks come to the library with help for job-seeking services, like resume
help and interview assistance, filling out immigration paperwork and court
documents, navigating new technologies from using Microsoft Word to
getting their phone set up, and also connecting with communities, as in
public events, getting their businesses started, and et cetera.
I love this job, and I love this so much that it's become my career.
I love working for the CPL, and I love showing people that they are capable of
learning new things. They deserve to have the space to learn, and our workers
deserve the support and capacity to serve our patrons properly.
We should not be able to
be
taken back and not being able to just be stretched thin.
We should not be able to split ourselves between multiple patrons at once just
because there's not enough staff to go around.
Please vote yes to the Fair Share Budget.
It keeps library funding steady with no cuts to vacancies or the collection budget
by taxing corporations instead of everyday Chicagoans.
And please commit to funding long-term funding for the 2028 budget.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we have Laura Bailey, followed by Dwayne Elliott.
Dwayne Elliott, you're next.
Proceed.
Good morning, chair and members of the council.
My name is Laura Bailey with Phalanx Family Services.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of
investing in youth employment and funding 7,000 additional
slots through Chicago Youth Works.
Behind each slot is a young person with talents, goals,
and potentials. For many, this will be their first job, their
first paycheck, for this first opportunity to see
themselves in a career they
may never have considered. Youth employment provides more than a
summer income. It gives young people opportunities to
practice communication, teamwork, problem-solving,
and accountability. They learn how to navigate a workplace,
manage money, take responsibility.
They also build relationships with caring adults who can offer
guidance, encouragement, and connections to future
opportunities. Additional 7,000 slots would
extend these experiences to thousands more young people
across Chicago. It would open doors for youth who are ready to
work but need someone to give them that first chance.
With meaningful placements and strong support, these
experiences can become stepping stones to year-round
employment, college, apprenticeships, and other career
trainings. The economic impact reaches beyond the
individual participant. A young person's paycheck can
help cover transportation, groceries, school supplies,
and other household needs. When those earnings are
spent in neighborhood businesses, they support our local economy.
Employers also have an opportunity to introduce young people to
their industries and help develop Chicago's future
workforce. To make this investment count, we must fund
the support that makes a placement successful.
Prepared supervisors, caring coaches, reliable
transportation, timely pay.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we have Dwayne Elliott, followed by Lavante
Stewart.
You may proceed.
All right. How y'all doing? Good morning.
My name Dwayne Elliott, I'm a part of the lived experience of homelessness.
I'm here today just to talk about the proceed...
Sorry, I'm a little nervous.
It's a lot of y'all, and I've been hearing a lot of key points today.
Basically, I'm just here about the budgeting. I'm sor- oh, I'm sorry.
Basically, I'm just here about the budgeting, and we're just trying to keep this
budgeting friendly, and keep it going, because mainly we're trying to keep people
housed and keep them lived experience.
Because when you at home, it's more than just a home.
It's where you can keep your mindset off what's going on in the world, keep it away
from what you're going through, everyday lives.
And I understand that certain people who aren't here
today to hear my voice, but it's key people here today.
I'm glad you guys are all here. And we pushing towards something different.
As long as we keep coming and keep talking about the problems, we should be able to
keep moving, motivational.
Key point is, is just coming.
Sorry, that's it for me.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you for your comments.
Next we have Lavante Stewart, followed by Peter
Tepfer.
Good morning, budget committee. It's short and sweet.
Just here to support the Department of Family and Support Services, the
My Chi My Future initiative. I've been in this game for over
20 years, working in communities.
And by far, this has been the best initiative to ever come out of the fifth
floor for our young people in Chicago.
Keep it funded, keep it funded at the proper levels,
and even over-fund it. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment. Next, Peter Tepfer, followed by
Gladys Delatorre.
Good morning, City Council. My name is Pete Tepfer, and I'm the CEO of All
Chicago Making Homelessness History.
We have a leadership role in Chicago's Homeless Response System, which includes
coordinating the city's nonprofits, working closely with the city's Department of
Family and Support Services, CHA, and other units of government.
We have knowledge of how the city's efforts prevents and ends homelessness, and
what works. And what we're seeing is an urgent and growing need for
city funding of the Homeless Response System.
Last year alone, unsheltered homelessness increased by
25% in our city.
I strongly urge this council to approve full and expanded funding for our
city's Homeless Response System.
When we underfund the system, we don't save money.
Instead, we simply shift the costs to our emergency rooms,
our first responders, and our justice system.
Investing in a robust homeless response system is the most fiscally responsible
way
and the most humane decision this council can make.
The proposed budget includes $30 million in new homelessness and housing
asks. I strongly urge you to include this funding in the finalized
budget.
First, we urgently need $15 million to protect vital housing
and services currently at risk due to impending federal cuts.
This is a critical stabilization to ensure that people who already have
successfully exited homelessness are not pushed back onto the streets
because of changing federal priorities.
Second, we must allocate $13 million to keep the Chicago Low Income Housing Trust
Fund solvent. And finally, we need to direct $2 million to the flexible housing
pool, a project for people who are homeless who cycle through public crisis
systems.
In each case, the proposed investment actually prevents people from
becoming homeless.
We already face a crisis in unsheltered homelessness and affordable housing,
and keeping people housed is not only the humane thing to do, it makes fiscal
sense. It costs less to keep our neighbors at risk
housed than it would to rehouse them if they became homeless. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we have Gladys De La Torre, followed by Denzel Johnson.
Alituta Machikuna. Nuka Gladys De La Torre
Kani. Nuka Kichwawami Ecuador.
Liaktamanda Sungumanda Yupachani.
Good morning. My name is Gladys De La Torre.
I am an indigenous Kichwa woman from Ecuador,
and I am member of Sanando en Accion.
Today, I am here to share my voice and my
experience.
Sanando en Accion has helped me understand my
rights by my confidence in finding a community
where I feel heard, respect, and support.
But many womens, especially immigrants and
indigenous womens,
still face serious challenges. Some don't speak English.
Some don't know their rights. Others are afraid to ask for
help because they feel alone.
Gender-based violence does not affect only one person.
It affect childrens, families, and entire
communities.
I believe that when a woman feels safe, her family becomes
strong, and when families feel safe, our city becomes
stronger.
Organizations like Sanando en Accion are more than
service. They provide educations, hope,
support, and safe space where people can find their voice.
Today, I respectfully ask the City of Chicago to
continue and increase funding for organizations that
support survivors of gender-based violence.
We need more resources. We need continued
support so that no one is left behind.
Please invest in organizations like Sanando en
Accion. When we support families, we
build a safer and a strong Chicago for
everyone. Thank you for the time and for listen to
my voice. Sungumanda Yupachani. Muchas gracias.
Thank you.
Next we have Denzel Johnson, followed by Shakira
Richards.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Denzel Johnson, and I serve as the program
coordinator at Phalanx Family Services, where I lead two programs,
one being My Shy My Future Safe Spaces, and My Brother's Keeper Brotherhood
Rising. And I'm here today with the youth empowerment space.
Every day I work with young people who are determined to build better futures.
They want to graduate, find employment, pursue higher education, and
become leaders in their community.
But too many are forced to pursue their goals while facing housing instability
and homelessness. What I have learned is that our youth are not lacking motivation.
They are lacking access to stable resources and support.
It is difficult to focus on school, work, or personal growth when you're worried
about where you're going to sleep at night.
That's why we support the creation of a coordinated entry system, a single
coordinated way for young people experiencing homelessness to connect with housing
and services, instead of navigating in a disconnected system on their own.
We want impacted youth to have a seat at the table, and as those
answered questions that we are going to have about how we get this funding.
We have young people right now that are sleeping in encampments, struggling to
access services, and relying on community spaces like public libraries that are
facing funding challenges. That is why we are calling for action now.
Support the equitable employer tax, fully funding public libraries, and
a coordinated entry system that ensures every young person has a pathway to safe
housing, stability, and opportunity.
The young people we serve have the talent and potential to succeed.
They simply need the investment and support to make that possible. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Next we have Shakira Richards, followed by Al Stinson.
Good morning. My name is Shakira Richards, and I represent Youth
Guidance, where we work alongside schools, family, and communities to
create opportunities for young people and families to thrive.
During the 2025/2026 school year, Youth Guidance
served more than 7,100 students across
131 schools through our Working on Womanhood program,
Becoming a Man program, Community After Schools program.
And for the past three years, we have been a lead partner
in the Garfield Park community for the My Shy My Future initiative.
Behind these numbers are young people navigating real challenges,
including trauma, violence, mental health concerns, family
instability, and barriers to opportunity.
In fact, 96% of the students served through WOW, and
93% of the BAM participants qualify for free and reduced lunch.
These are communities where access to consistent quality support is not
just beneficial, but it's essential.
Through the DFSS investment in 2025, BAM and WOW supported more
than 1,900 students across 34 schools,
delivering over 162,000 services to our
students. Community After School supported 390 students
across three schools. 390 students.
But we know that young people all don't need the same kind of support.
Some benefit from group-based mentoring, some
individualized support, while other need a trusted
adult who they can lean into for guidance and trust.
That's why we're also expanding our individual mentoring through community
after schools, and we plan to reach 60 additional students.
Our work extends beyond providing services.
We're mental health providers. We build relationships, strengthen
social-emotional skills, develop leadership, connect young people to
resources, and help them envision futures beyond their
current circumstances. We work in and with the schools,
outside of the schools, in the community, and provide case management supports to
families. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your comments.
Next, we have Al Stinson, followed by Ted
Deso.
Good morning. I'm Al Stinson. I represent Youth Guidance.
Like my partner, Shakira, was saying, we're part of the Match Up My Future.
And I just want to say thank you.
Irvin, you know me. I see you just as much as we see each other.
You know the work we do there. But I'm here to speak on our youth.
I come
from a community where our youth are dying.
And I'm proud to say today, as of the today, we have no youth homicides as
of today. And for the last three years since we've been the convener, our
numbers have significantly dropped amongst youth and violence
in shootings. And that's attributed to the work that we're doing together as a
community, along with Breakthrough and our other partners, INVC.
And just recently, I want to tell a story because I don't do no script.
Sis, I ain't going to go there. You're my sister.
We just had a Oktoberfest at Garfield Park.
We had over 300 young people there.
It was a lady riding past, and she saw what was going on.
She dropped out with her three kids.
She said, "It's free?" We said, "Yeah." She was about to take her babies to Oak
Brook. So you know how that made me feel, growing up there as a kid, not
seeing that? For that woman to say, "I didn't have to go to Oak Brook with my kids.
I can feel safe today in our community, and we can have a good time out here."
And so this is what we do. We provide safe spaces where our young people are
stakeholders, where they say, "Hey, this is what we want," and we going to make
that happen. So I didn't come over here for this theater.
I come here because I care about them babies where I live at.
And that's it. That's all. So thank you all, and I hope this is imperative that you
all continue to fund us and what we do because we have to make our
kids our future. I mean, our present, because they won't have a future.
And so if you all are hearing me,
please invest in that, and y'all will see the work that's being done because we
providing youth-
Could you hold up? Hold up
... opportunities that's happening to youth.
Hold up. Hold up. Ms. Lee. Ms. Lee,
please let the man finish his speaking. He's not interrupting anybody.
We appreciate that.
You may proceed. Go ahead.
Okay. As I was saying, at some point, as adults, we're going to have to get our
feelings out the way
because if we don't make our youth the present, they won't have a future.
And that's what we're doing in our community, Garfield Park.
I grew up there 40 years, and I see the change that's happening when we empower our
youth and make their voices out stronger, and that's what we're doing, because
their voices are-
Thank you for your comments.
Next, we have Ted Deso,
followed by
Mawuk Agdesi
off of 82nd Street.
Do we have that individual?
Okay. All right. You'll follow Mr. Deso.
Hold on. Ms.
Lee, we're not going to do this today.
We ask that you to be quiet while others are speaking.
This is just decent and common courtesy that we ask that you provide to the
speakers. So,
okay. Again, if you make one more outburst, I'm going to ask the sergeant-at-arms
to remove you, okay? Mr. Deso, you may proceed.
Thank you. My name is Ted Deso. I'm the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the
Night Ministry, and I'm here today with the Keep Chicago Housed Coalition.
The 2027 city budget can push back against dangerous federal cuts and
harmful policy changes and prevent 3,000 people from
losing their housing and returning to homelessness.
But we can only do that if the city prioritizes funding for housing and
services. Specifically, within the DFSS budget, we are asking the
city to address a $15 million funding need across our system,
resulting from anticipated cuts to HUD funding.
Late this summer, providers like the Night Ministry were forced to make impossible
decisions about how to move housing and support service
programs forward amid uncertain federal funding threats
and cuts to permanent supportive housing and harmful federal policy
changes. In fact, because of those changes, the Night Ministry made the
difficult decision not to renew our HUD funding for our programs during
2027.
Behind these numbers and federal programs are our neighbors, neighbors who have
worked hard to find stability, connect with services, and have a
place to call home, and behind these programs and homeless service
professionals who give the resources that can help Chicago end
homelessness.
Permanent supportive housing is one of the most effective tools we have today to
address homelessness. It combines affordable housing and support
services to help people maintain their housing, access health and mental
health care, and develop independence and build stability.
It's also a great investment. When people have stable housing and support, they are
less likely to rely on expensive emergency services, hospitals,
shelters, and the criminal justice system.
But there simply isn't enough permanent supportive housing available, even before
these cuts were announced. Over the last year, the Night Ministry's
outreach team has helped nearly 180 individuals move
into housing, but during that same period, we added over 700
people to housing wait lists.
I urge City Council to prioritize funding to fill this $15 million
system gap.
Thank you for your comments
Next we have
Mawuik Agdesi, followed by Hugo Avila.
There's a term known as corporate social responsibility.
It basically means that companies and organizations are good neighbors.
If you ever attend the opera or the Taste of Chicago or the Chicago Marathon, all
these events have sponsors, and they give money.
I think that we should do the head tax, but we should call it a different name
because I get that some of you aldermen are reticent for the
polling or the way that head tax looks.
But a lot of these agencies and city departments are being asked to do more with
less, and they need money.
Most homeowners or property owners, they don't want property taxes to
go higher.
So the tax is
the best method, just call it something else.
These companies are not temporary businesses.
It's not like a convention where they're going to choose a new location each summer
or each year. These companies have roots here because of Chicago
is a great city. It has great restaurants and
bars, and people want to be here. We live in an information economy now, a
knowledge economy.
The stockyards and the steel mills didn't leave Chicago because of the head tax.
The nature of the economy just changed.
How much does the city of Chicago spend on flowers?
I don't personally know, but I know that the flowers are beautiful, and they're
there to beautify the city. And it's the same thing with the library.
The library is there to improve the life of the citizens.
And it's needed because we need information and knowledge
and research. I delight in smelling the flowers, and I have a delight in
programming at the library.
You have to look at a company like United.
They could be anywhere in the country, but they choose to be headquartered here in
Chicago for a reason. They didn't leave
Chicago
because we had a head tax. You have to look at all the companies that have been in
Chicago from the '70s to 2012, and
I don't think they're going to leave Chicago just because we do a head tax, because
they want to be good corporate citizens.
So I just say do the head tax, but call it something else.
Companies do it all the time, like Facebook changed their name to Meta.
Thank you for your comment. We now have Hugo Avila,
followed by our final speaker, Carol Sharpe.
Good morning, chair and members of the council. My name is Hugo Avila.
I am the co-director for Central States CER.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak in support of investing in
youth employment and funding 7,000 additional slots for Chicago Youth
Works. When you consider these additional slots, one should also
consider the young people behind the number.
Young people are eager to work, express their interests, support families
and the communities they live in, and help build Chicago.
What could 7,000 more opportunities do for young people in their neighborhoods,
where they live, where they work,
where they'll spend their dollars, especially in Little Village?
A first job can be a turning point that gives young persons a chance to discover
themselves, their interests, and then they go with hands-on
experience in the workplace to be able to build communication,
teamwork,
and responsibility. These are skills that they'll be able to carry on in their
academic and future employment and the rest of their lives.
Just as valuable is the relationships that they build when they're
given these opportunities with their supervisors or coaches.
That can be the spark that ignites the passion that they have to be able to
go into a career and grow as a person.
The investments that you provide are not just for these young people, but also for
their families, as it helps them with transportation,
buying school supplies, and supporting their household and communities they live
in.
We need to expand the participation of individuals, but
additionally, we also need to provide the support that will make these
opportunities successful, such as supportive services, supporting supervisors,
coaches, and giving them the support and allowing organizations the
capacity to be able to provide the support.
So I ask you and I urge that you support these additional 7,000
opportunity slots for Chicago Youth Works
and support the needs for these individuals.
This investment not only builds stronger
neighborhoods, but stronger Chicago. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
And our final speaker, Carol Sharpe.
Good morning. My name is Carol Sharpe.
I am the president and CEO at the Night Ministry.
I'm also the subcontractor representative for the Flexible
Housing Pool here in Chicago. At the Night Ministry, we provide human
connection, housing support, and healthcare to members of our community who are
unhoused or experiencing poverty.
I am here with the Keep Chicago House campaign to urge funding for housing and
services in this year's budget so that 3,000 people do not lose their
housing and return to homelessness.
Our request includes $2 million in new funding for the Flexible Housing Pool,
bringing it to $8 million total. FHP serves people experiencing
homelessness who are cycling through public crisis systems like hospitals,
emergency rooms, and the justice system.
The Night Ministry has been an FHP partner since the program started serving
young adults and young families in 2020.
We are currently the largest provider of youth-focused FHP
services in Chicago. Last year, our FHP team served
158 residents and 216 of their children.
The FHP program provides our clients with rental assistance,
and the Night Ministry case managers provide intense in-home support to
help young people remain housed. Our case managers help young people
secure employment, access childcare and healthcare, strengthen
relationships with landlords, and overcome barriers to long-term housing
stability. We know this program works.
When young people receive housing through FHP, they stay housed.
At the Night Ministry,
95% of our clients remained stably housed last year.
Across FHP partners, clients use crisis systems
significantly less once they are stably housed.
Participants experience a 91% reduction in ER visits,
89% reduction in inpatient hospitalization days, and a
46% reduction in ambulance usage.
This contributed to more than $11 million in cost savings to our crisis
system each year.
I urge you to support $2 million in new funding for the Flexible Housing Pool and
affirm Chicago's commitment to housing stability. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
This concludes public comment.
We'll take a motion to...
Ms. Jackson, please. This is the
second time. I'm not going to warn you anymore, ma'am, about your outbursts, okay?
Okay. Very well. We're going to need a motion to allow Alders
Lampada and Nugent to participate remotely.
Can I get a motion?
All right. Thank you, Alderman Lopez. All in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Any opinion to say the ayes have it, and Alders
Lampada, Nugent are admitted. Alders Hopmanworth and
Taylor are also joining remotely, just for the
record, and we'll be able to move forward.
We'll take a motion to add them even though they're non-members as well.
Alderman Burnett moves that Alders Hopmanworth and Taylor
be allowed remote participation.
All in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Any opinion to say the ayes have it, and those two
non-members will be brought forth as well.
This morning we have before us the city clerk.
She's one of our citywide electeds, and also a
resident of the great 28th Ward. So welcome this morning.
You can begin with your opening comment, after which, if you could
introduce the members of your team that are with us today.
We will
proceed.
Ms. Jackson.
Okay then, if you're getting ready to go, please leave.
Okay.
You ready?
No, wait.
Ms.
Jackson.
Okay. All right. Could you remove Ms. Jackson from the room?
I guess she's going to know how to act, so okay.
Okay. Madam Clerk, you may proceed.
Good morning.
All right. Well, good morning, everyone.
I am City Clerk Anna Valencia, and with me I have my
fabulous chief of administration and finance, Kendra Thomas.
Thank you, Chairman Ervin, for having me today.
Throughout the last 10 years, we've crafted budgets that were responsible with
taxpayer dollars and still made the hard choices.
From cutting vacancies to adjusting the prices of our products by
small amounts to make sure we're covering our costs, to creating a reduced-term
city sticker that makes it easier to stay on track to council modernization
efforts that give residents unprecedented access to their city government.
Our goal has been to govern with empathy and mindfulness.
This year, my team and I put together a budget that reflects the principles we've
used to guide us throughout my administration: innovation,
accessibility, and empowerment.
We've taken the first steps to modernizing our sales software, something
we've been waiting to innovate for a long time.
That build-out will give us the ability to get through lines faster,
allow for more modern payment methods, and work on delivering our
products digitally. But we didn't wait on that to make our products more
accessible. We gave customers the opportunity to take advantage of our
amnesty month online in April of this year, making it easier for
drivers to come into compliance without late fees, back charges, and
from the comfort of their own home.
Since we began our amnesty program, we've brought in over $4.2
million in new revenue and over 30,000 new drivers.
Our Citykey program is going to continue providing residents across
Chicago the dignity of identification.
We plan to take the program further to empower residents to explore their
city and our local businesses, and to engage with more than
165,000 Citykey cardholders, while
continuing providing residents across Chicago the
dignity of an identification. By educating our Citykey
cardholders and businesses, we hope to unify our neighbors,
businesses, and communities to encourage Chicagoans to support Chicagoans.
Our Mobile City Hall program continues to evolve as well with a regionalized
approach and a strategy that identifies community needs to make
our events as impactful for our residents as possible.
We worked closer with our government, community organizations,
and provided giveaways that prepared students to go back to school,
and groceries that provided families a small lift while prices
increased and SNAP benefits were cut on the federal level.
Next year, we're planning to build out Mobile City Hall even more to give
residents access to government services and much needed resources.
Through that collaborative strategy, we plan on working with those who are already
engaging in work that uplifts our youth, families,
businesses, public safety, and general wellbeing of our city.
Lastly, we also created more access to our city's history this year
with the digitization of our city council audio
archive, making recordings from 1970 to
2012 available to the public for the first time.
I want to thank the Council on Library and Information Resources for
providing the grant that made that work possible.
Finally, I want to thank my amazing team for all the work they
continue to do for the city that we all love.
They show up every single day on a daily basis.
They go without being noticed and a lot of times without the praise
that they deserve. So I hope that you feel today
valued as amazing civil servants.
So with that, I will let my team introduce themselves from the commissioner's box.
Good morning. Catherine O'Connell, First Deputy City Clerk and Chief of Staff.
Good morning. Riley Boland, Deputy Director and Chief of Operations.
Good morning. Diana Martinez, Deputy Director, Chief of
Communications and External Affairs.
Good morning. Michelle Lavar, Deputy Director, and Chief Legal
Counsel.
Good morning. Peter Polchick, Managing Editor, City Council Journal.
Good morning. Roberto Lopez,
Chief Innovation Officer.
Good morning. Luis Cuentos, Deputy Director, Chief of CityKey.
Glenda Rodriguez, Chief of Scheduling and Advance.
Good morning. Marian Linton, Supervisor of Payment Center.
Good morning. Jorge Ramirez, Deputy Chief Operating Officer.
Good morning. Ian Uhlenberg, Director of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental
Affairs.
Good morning. Laurie Probasco, Deputy Chief Legal.
All right. I'm ready to take your questions.
Thank you, Madam Clerk, and welcome.
We will open
with Alderman Riley.
Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, Madam Clerk.
Good morning.
I looked at your narrative that you submitted to City Council
this year, and you talk about
your interest in developing and implementing the new SAS
OTC/over-the-counter experience
for customers. Where do we stand with that process right now?
Yes. We have our vendor selected. We are going through the
process of working with DTI closely on all the security features needed.
That is something that the cybersecurity, all that phase
was really this year working out the scope.
Next year, we start building, and I think that'll be a great conversation with
all of you to talk about our make and model table, because I know that's something
that's been brought up here. And so we're in that process now.
I understand the efficiencies that will be realized, tracking
inventory, those sorts of things.
But
what does it mean for the average customer?
Once this is all implemented, and I know you're just getting started, but once this
is all implemented, what can the customer expect to see as far as their
improvement with the experience with your office?
A lot more online services, which weren't available right now because
of our system is basically Scotch glue and some
paperclips. It's a very old infrastructure, so anything that we want to build on
top can't take it right now. So what we hope to look at in
the future is the ability for more e-forms.
Before the pandemic, our online services were about 19%.
With the upgrades we made, we have now 25% of our businesses online.
We want to see that grow. So think virtual city stickers,
parking passes that are digital dailies.
I know that's something people are very excited for.
The ability to text alerts, so that we can get
people renewed on text alerts instead of just emails and paper notices.
So a lot more efficiencies and more tools for my team to use, I
think would be helpful as well.
Sure. Well, and my interest is seeing you make as much progress as
our Secretary of State has
in initiatives like skipping a line and
fast lane kiosks and all the things that I think people have
really embraced and appreciate at our DMVs
across Illinois. And the appointment-only structures, I
think, probably help you an awful lot, especially with your seasonal
gluts of customers that come in when it's time to renew and these sorts of
things. Can you speak to that? I understand that you're doing a big
modernization effort, and what you inherited was incredibly antiquated, and you
made a lot of great progress so far.
But we're going to be outlaying a fair amount of money for
technology upgrades for you. I want to understand what the priorities are for your
office in the grand pecking order.
There's a million things you can do to modernize and bring online your
office, but what are the top four priorities
as far as improving that customer experience using digital?
Well, one, for example, the line efficiency is getting people
faster through the line. I often like to sell city stickers up at the front and use
our system. Right now, we still can only take a sliding credit card.
We don't have Apple Pay. We don't have Tap Pay.
A lot of that has to do with Department of Finance.
For the last 10 years, they've been trying to get a payment system manager, so
we've been waiting for their POS system.
We can't have automatic sellers because they don't make that type of equipment
anymore. And so we have to have a system that is stealth
built, that has not just a million records, that interlays
better with the Secretary of State's data, integrates better with the Department of
Finance. So that's a priority is making it a lot easier on the back
end to move customers faster if they choose to come in.
Another example is people with disabilities We cannot build an online
portal for those folks to put up their records, upload them, so that we
have people with disabilities having to physically come into the office to prove
that they have a disability to get the no-fee disability city sticker.
So those type of things that we can make it easier for people to do online
without even having to step in the office, especially our seniors and
people with disabilities, is a huge win.
Also on the back end, e-forms. So we have an e-form process, but
sometimes we'll be backed up with e-forms on the back end.
With 11,000 e-forms during our busy season, we have to pay overtime to
get people. Some people won't want to take the overtime or come in on a
Saturday or work through their lunch to try to catch up on those e-forms, and it
could take 10 days to get a response for people. That is ridiculous.
And so we want to be able to streamline, get that e-forms down, have better
features on the back end. We're just now tapping into what
AI is possible. We're working with Microsoft, our vendor, to really look
in to see, and obviously with DTI, to make sure are there
things that are going to really help move the needle on that-
Madam Clerk, I need to cut you off. You're speaking at length, and I only have a
little bit of time here.
I'd like to understand more about your fast lane kiosks.
Is that something you're looking at implementing?
That will be with the new system. That will be one of our
things we'll be looking into with the new system.
And
what would we expect to see there
as far as the kiosks? Where would they be? How many? How much do they cost?
When would they be deployed?
That is something we don't have until next year.
I'll have more of an idea on that because we aren't into that phase yet.
But one of the ideas that I've talked to our commissioner at the libraries
is having libraries be one of the places because of a lot of the
foot traffic they get, and they're in a lot of different neighborhoods.
So that is something we're discussing.
But in terms until I know what the technology can do, and that's rapidly changing,
as you know,
with the investments that are happening in technology, that I want to make sure we
get it right. And the cybersecurity is my number one priority piece.
Hold on, hold on. Gentlemen in the press box, if you all could keep it down because
I can hear you clearly over here, so
appreciate that. Go ahead, Alderman.
Thank you, Chairman.
Well, that's something I have a real interest in, and obviously the libraries is a
great idea. I think also looking at partnerships with our grocery
stores would be another-
That's a great idea, yeah ...
great opportunity to make sure that we have these available in all 50 wards.
I think that people do have a good customer experience with your office when they
come downtown, but I think we all agree
we'd like fewer folks to have to come downtown so they can remain in their
communities and closer to work or home, and I know that's a priority for
you.
I just have a couple more questions, Chair.
I know we don't have a lot of members here today.
Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead because we just a few people here.
Thank you.
Another thing I wanted to ask you about just briefly
is the CityKey program.
Mm-hmm.
And again, as you're talking about all the technology upgrades you're
looking to make in the office,
it seems that this might be one of those opportunities to
move application intake and document verification and
renewals
online.
And I know that today
you have to apply in person, and
there may be some reasons for that.
But
certainly renewals, I would think, would be something you could easily shift
online.
Where are you at on that? What's the-
So we actually, thank you to this body, supported funding for our online
platform. So our online platform has
two options. One is appointment system
that's in person. The second was an online feature where people could
apply online and have it mailed to their home.
We started that out, and then summer of
2025, I got a federal subpoena for our data.
Hmm.
And we worked with the corporation counsel at the time.
We were able to squash that subpoena.
Mm.
But there was a lot of fear that that data could be out, especially
domestic violence survivors, if that got out,
could put people in harm. So I worked with this body and a lot of community-based
organizations that asked me to pause that for now until we had more
clarity on whether that data was safe to be
secured and not be subpoenaed for some bad use.
And so right now we've paused that.
We will take- Do
we have any clarity on that?
I think Tuesday gave us clarity, and we'll see, I think early next year, how
things shape up.
We'll take another pulse of how people are feeling, and we'll decide if we
can turn it back on. But one of the new partnerships we're
exploring is with City Colleges and Chicago Public Library.
On the back end, we share the same vendor, so we're talking
about a partnership of where actually these CityKeys could be the City
College ID and getting them into our high school students
at Chicago Public Schools as our library card and government ID as well.
Okay.
One last initiative question and, and that's related to-- and I want to give you
some kudos for working to streamline council voting
and make that an electronic process.
And I know that you're working towards the goal of having electronic voting in
committee.
Mm-hmm.
Also laudable, and hopefully we'll get there soon.
But
for the public,
especially in the interest of transparency and participation,
have you considered or are you looking at developing
a shareable mobile app or portal to
track city ordinances, public comment, legislative history,
similar to what the State of Illinois has done?
Absolutely. So that is something we are looking at
as doing in our final phase of a tracking system, just like you can see your coffee
order. of where things stand.
We are also in the final phase next year of digitizing our journal on the back end.
So on the back end, it takes about four weeks to physically put a journal together.
I want that to be one week or less. And so that is something we are
in the process of going from a paper-based system to a digitized
system. And then next year will be a lot of change management.
So I hope that you will be one of the advocates with all of your colleagues to help
us embrace the new changes that we will need in this body to
adopt the system as a digitized system.
Okay. My last question is related to dog licenses.
How many dog licenses does your office currently manage?
That is my favorite topic. I thought that was going to be Alderman Lopez, though.
Mm.
I'm going to go, to save time, I'm going to go to Riley Bolin, my chief operating
officer, who can
get those numbers.
Yes.
Good morning. Riley Bolin, deputy director and chief of
operations. Currently, we are at
4,810
dogs licensed this year. Last year, we licensed
8,256.
So how many total
current and active dog licenses does your office currently have?
Currently active, paid for.
Currently active, that's actually a difficult question based off of the
archaic system that we work off of with OTC.
Unfortunately,
similar to-
You can ballpark it, because again, I want to let my colleagues ask some questions,
too.
Can you give me a ballpark number?
You could probably combine the two from--
So you're looking at maybe 12,000, 13,000 currently right now.
Mm.
But-
Okay. So I'll stop you there.
We have a lot more dogs than that
in the City of Chicago. Many hundreds of thousands of dogs more than that.
And my concern is that, one, you didn't have ready at your fingertips
the number of dog licenses we currently have active in the City of Chicago.
That's a problem. The bigger problem is the number.
And again,
I'm not sure why we have dog licenses in the City of Chicago
if we aren't really serious about ensuring folks get them.
And as a dog owner,
I can tell you that I know how to do it
because I work here. But I think the average Chicagoan doesn't.
And I think we need to look at some opportunities, certainly with all
the different shelters and private and public adoption services,
all those folks. But then also, I think we need some help from the Chicago media
partners to provide some PSAs to promote this program.
Many people want to be compliant with our local laws. They're just ignorant.
They're not aware of them. And so there needs to be a public
education component to this, and it can be done without a budget.
There is nonprofit airtime available to all of us
with all the major broadcasters in Chicago. We should be taking advantage of that.
So again, I'm just putting a flag in that for you. It's not a critique.
Well, I guess it is.
Mm-hmm.
Let's do better.
But we can talk about that offline.
There are great opportunities to promote programs like this for free
and move the needle dramatically.
That's all I've got, Chairman. Thank you. Appreciate the indulgence.
All right.
And Alderman, if I could just comment on that.
We do actually know about all those free programs because we use them for Amnesty
Month because we don't have a marketing budget for Amnesty Month.
So the thing with the dog licenses that we find is that there
needs to actually be a more streamlined process with Cook County and
with Animal Care and Control and our veterinarians on how we get this.
Again, this goes with our archaic system we can't do, but next year
and the year after, we plan on trying to let our technology speak,
because I think that's also a place where we could find some efficiencies
and
some budget savings. But more of it's a priority of
how do we get that PSA and airtime, because we've tried
with some things on Amnesty and fines and fees and CityKey, and it just
all depends on when you get in the queue of the line.
But that's something we will try with dogs.
It's just I think we need a little more help from some of our partners,
and
marketing dollars are scarce with the City of Chicago, but you can make some things
work with very small dollars with content creators and online.
I literally do that for a living-
But things like that can do that
... Adam Clark.
Yep. So I'm happy to give you guys free advice on that.
Great. You can help be our advocate for dogs next year. We're taking you up on it.
Well, no, I don't want to replace Alderman Lopez, but I just have some good ideas
on how to get a lot of free airtime for you-
Great
... so folks know how to register their dogs.
Well, you-
Sign you up
... also have Alderman Coleman to contend with now.
There you go.
Her-
Yeah, she's got a puppy.
Yeah, with her support
partner.
Perfect.
Two things based on Alderman Riley's questions.
Is there a way that we can-- And this is not only for
our
dogs, but also for vehicles where we cross-reference
with either the county or the,
I'm not sure who-
Secretary of State
... issues-- No, this is on-
Oh
... the vaccination component. Every dog is
vaccinated or rabies or those types of things, that there's
a database of information of people who basically are saying, "I have
a dog because I went and got the dog rabies or
vaccinated" or what have you, to then say, "Hey, you also need
to get this dog licensed." Or have the whomever the
authority is on the collection of that
fee also collect our license fee at the same time while
they're doing the
vaccination or the rabies fee. And I would say the same thing
with the Illinois Secretary of State to cross-reference live
vehicles in the City of Chicago versus what you guys have in your system and
then, hey, send them out a
ticket or
a notice to say, "Hey, you need to be in compliance with the city's wheel
tax." So those are just two things that just come to mind, just using the
technology to cross-reference Till we actually find out what the true
population of dogs or cats or whatever
we're charged with licensing in the city. So just a thought.
I think also is one of the things that we need to do, it's duplicative.
There should just be one license at one place, and we could even
do a share cost with the Park District because they also have one.
So it's like the Park District, the Cook County, and the city, instead of having
people to go to three different places to get three different dog tags, we just
have one universal and do a cost share with each other.
No, I agree, and I think the same thing theoretically could be done with the
Secretary of State as it relates to vehicle licensing as well, so.
Yes, and we want to do that. We're waiting for their data to be updated, so to do
the crossover.
Okay, very well. Any other questions for the clerk?
Okay, go ahead. I'm going to go with Alderman Villegas, followed by Alderman
Lopez.
Mr. Chairman, not a question so much as a comment
for the clerk.
Thank you for continuing to partner with the Veterans Caucus to put forward
policies, and
policies that are assisting those men and women that have defended
this great democracy. And so,
looking forward to continue working with you.
Also, a big fan of
the modernization that's taking place. Long overdue.
We hope that it continues to
spin off into the other departments that are under
the executive branch's jurisdiction.
But just keep up the good work. Just continue to partner with us and let us know
what you need.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning members of the committee.
Good morning, Madam Clerk, to you and to your team.
I see the chairman was trying to get you out of here without me talking. Nice try.
But I do want to just first off start where my colleague
from the 42nd Ward left off, which is with regards to
city
licensing tags.
Would your office be opposed to the City of Chicago
issuing those tags in the manner that the county issues rabies tags?
Which is, for my colleague's edification,
vets are required to buy in advance
rabies tags.
They have to buy X amount a year for what they expect to be their
clientele for the animals that'll be vaccinated, and then they
are required to give them out at that point of time of vaccination.
However, the city
expects
after that, for you to go online or go to your office.
Would you be opposed to us changing the ordinance to requiring
veterinary service providers to
also pre-purchase our stickers and
sell them as well at the point of sale when vaccinations are administered?
Actually, I think that's an excellent idea.
I would say maybe also include the Park District, so we could do some type
of mutual tag. If they have their own tag and our tag, and we could do a
universal tag, and then have them pre-purchase that universal tag,
and then do a MOU with them to
maybe even make it $10, so it's $5, we get five, $5 the Park
District gets five.
I think that
Cook County administers almost half a million rabies tags a
year.
I'm sure the City of Chicago has at minimum
40% of that.
But we know that we're not getting 40% of those through your doors.
And I just want to add also that there's a value not just to the $5 that we
charge, or 50 for the unaltered, but as we
discussed with Animal Care last night, field return to owner,
which is an ordinance that I championed and that we passed, is
also dependent on having a valid city
license for your pet, and that allows that animal to go directly
home if caught within three miles of wherever
that sticker ties them to.
And those numbers are significantly down, just like your numbers are significantly
down. So I think that both agencies need to figure out how we can work
together, because there is a value more than just $5 for
us. But it's also about finding ways to bring those pets home when they are
escapees.
So I'd love to also join you and your newfound animal advocate-
... in addressing some of those concerns.
We talked about modernization.
Our ELMS system,
are we done modernizing that? Are we finished with whatever that
product looks like? Or are we still making changes to that?
We are in the final phase of the back end for our journal
creation, and then also working with corporation counsel
to administer their portal so that they can introduce for the city
departments. And then thank you to Alderman Villegas and some
of the other committees that are allowing us to work to digitize their
committees, and figuring out if we can start with some of the larger committees on
how that's going to look.
And then it'll be a change management process.
So trying to
boost up the alders that are embracing the portal now to really
get them to embrace all of the features before we
go live.
So I know that
in budgets past I've had discussions about some of my likes and
dislikes of ELMS, and I've always been told it's a work in progress.
So I think before we finalize whatever the
last step is-
Absolutely ...
if perhaps we could check in with all members and see what are their handicaps
and what are their restrictions from using this program to its max.
One of the things that I still see is that when we do file something in
person here, we lose control over it, and that is something that I've brought
up numerous times. But I'd love to be able to just see if we can
have more time before that final phase Additionally,
I and some other of my colleagues are also working on
a modernization wish list for this chamber for
201A and for the annex. I would very much like to
see if we can connect with your team as well, with the sergeant at arms, to address
some of these things that we're looking at moving forward.
I know that we've had conversations about why city council operates
only under one Zoom link,
and who has actual control over that.
I believe that still falls within the IGA office, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes.
So I think that that is something that should be fully under your control, as the
person who helps schedule meetings,
so that when we have two meetings, then we can actually have them simultaneously as
opposed to one after the other, much to the chagrin of my
friend, Mr. Blakemore.
But also,
right now we have
closed captioning going on.
Is that because there's someone in 201A doing this?
Or are we actually activating that aspect of Zoom
which does both
instant auto caption as well as instant note-taking?
We have a vendor, Kamal Tech, that is our vendor for closed
captioning. So that's who does the meetings-
Sorry, that is who?
Kamal Tech.
The same gentleman-
Vendor ...
who's helping us with the Zoom.
But Zoom itself
has options for closed captioning, which require
nothing more than an enhanced payment.
It has now AI note-taking, which means we literally
could have this entire meeting transcribed as we're talking.
So to your point about doing journals differently, that's in the system that we're
already using.
I would like to see us use some of that.
I like Kamal, but if we have an option that's readily available that we can all
use and is something universal, I'd like us to try and
explore that a little more.
Lastly, if I may, Chairman,
I have questions with regards to, bless you,
CityKey.
Your opening statement said that we're at 160,000
CityKeys issues. Is that since inception?
Yes.
My recollection and my research reminded me that in
2017, when we began this program, it was under the assumption that the
first 100,000 CityKeys were going to be free.
Correct.
Are we charging for CityKeys now?
No.
So how are we
fun-- Bless you.
Okay.
How are we funding that? And
what's the plan look like where we eventually start
charging for this CityKey? Because I don't necessarily believe that it was
meant, when it was introduced, to be something free
infinitely.
And additionally, we know that it was used
largely over the last few years to help provide migrant asylum
seekers with identification, and that many of our residents
did not get as much access to it as we'd like.
So I'd just like to see what our goal is moving forward,
if this is to remain a viable option for us, so that it's not
just a free key that we're giving, but something of value that taxpayers are
actually paying for as well.
There's a lot there. So one, the CityKey is for all Chicagoans.
So I just want to make that very clear.
And number two, when we started the program, that was the intention.
But as we started going through the program, the most folks that showed up
wouldn't have the ability to pay, which is a lot of the reasons they couldn't get
the state ID or driver's license as well because of the fee.
So we'd actually probably qualify for a lot of fee waivers than you're actually
getting. And when you run the numbers of having a payment system,
who's going to do all that, it actually is going to probably wash out less than
you're getting because of the folks that need it.
So for example,
we have a lot of homeless veterans that used it to get access to housing.
We have a lot of folks that are young people, youth, do a lot of One Summer
Chicago jobs, access needed for jobs, for employment,
and now you need for youth sports also.
We've seen a lot of domestic violence survivors using it, a lot of reentry
community using it. A lot of seniors love it, especially for the over
120 discounts we offer now even at museums.
So I really see it as a public good for
humanity, and therefore, it should be something.
Something to note on our revenue that we've done when I started as city clerk,
we've brought in $131 million. This year, we'll end at
$144 million. And so as we're seeing
more funding coming in on amnesty and other things, I think this is something
that should remain a public good.
Can I ask one more, Chairman? Thank you.
Since you brought up amnesty, I appreciate that.
This year's budget anticipates $6 million generated through a future amnesty
program. How was that number materialized,
and what were the
details behind that $6 million?
Sure. So actually, I would love to anticipate $100 million of
amnesty next year.
So I'll answer-
So would the mayor. Yes.
Yeah. So I have an actual plan for that that I would love to share with you
and get your support on. But first, let me answer your
question. So this year's amnesty in April brought in about
$1.6 million and about 16,000 new
drivers. And so our goal would love to be able to grow that pool
and keep them and retain them. Since also we
introduced the reduced term city sticker, which is about $35 for a passenger
vehicle back in 2018, we've seen $26 million come
in from that effort alone. And so what I'd like to see next year is a
coordinated three-month amnesty, August, September, and
October, or whenever this body decides.
I'm putting in an RMO for it with Alderwoman Lee.
And it would be on vehicle debt.
Let me see my right numbers. $2.4 billion of vehicle debt
on the books right now.
Did you say billion?
$2.4 billion of vehicle debt. That
includes red light cameras, city sticker
tickets,
as well as parking tickets. If you ballparked 10% of that coming
in through an amnesty, and we can figure out the
parameters together in that three-month period, and you do it online and in
person,
you're talking about $240 million, if alone, you decide
10% is your goal. But it would require all three
departments, Department of Finance and our office, is working very closely.
It would require free PSAs and
media to help get people out there, in person Saturdays,
and also online options, and the full force of all of us working together
towards that. That is something separate than trying debt
collections, because we've tried that over the last
few- There you go
... years and failed on getting that, because it's just debt sitting on the books.
So I'm proposing we try something different.
All right. Thank you, Alderman.
Alderman
Burnett, followed by Vice Chair Lee.
Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Madam Clerk and the team.
I appreciate all that you all do, modernizing our system, dealing with all of the
craziness. I just have one question and just something to ponder,
because there are some folks, I wouldn't say me because I don't own a vehicle, but
sometimes I've been tasked to go get city stickers and- ... forget.
Have we ever considered some type of program for those who want to just opt in to
an automatic payment to get their city sticker annually, whereas
they pay a
fee to get something reoccurring, and
when the term expires, it's mailed to them?
Yes, that is something we have considered.
And also, with the new system, think about a
mobile order.
Mm-hmm.
So, like a pickup order. You, again, order your coffee.
So you could do it online and pick up at one of the locations or maybe at a mobile
city hall. But I'll let my chief of staff talk about some of those new
features.
Good morning, Alderman. Catherine O'Connell, chief of staff and first deputy city
clerk. Thank you for your question.
So while we take in the money for city stickers,
all of our revenue goes into revenue accounting, which is owned
by the Department of Finance.
So right now, under the Four Star system,
we cannot keep people's credit card data
on file. So while it's a great idea and it works for a lot of
businesses, right now the city does not have the capability to
do that in a way that would help us keep Four Star
compliance. So I know that Department of Finance is currently working on a
new payment manager system and the Four Star compliance that would come with that,
so that could be something that we could consider in the future.
But for the short term right now, it is not something we can do.
Sorry, Four Star compliance, what is that?
Good morning. Riley Boland, deputy director of chief operations.
Four Star,
it relies more into the PCI environment, so it's also
working with the sensitive data for
your credit card information, PII.
So it's just keeping
residents'
financial security safe, really, through the firewall.
City's firewall.
So you're saying currently our systems that we have in place isn't secure enough in
order to keep that data at a
level that would allow us to reach that compliance level?
I
would be reaching out to the Department of Finance with that, and DTI, to be
perfectly honest. I wouldn't know the actual security parameters.
That would be something that they can probably speak more to.
Okay. Well, I'm learning that the constraint here isn't necessarily the will from
the department here. It's just more so our actual
feasibility through the Department of Finance on making sure that we're protecting
people's data, which seems extremely important given
the current environment we live in.
So I guess that's a question I will have to have follow-up with with the Department
of Finance. But otherwise, thank you all.
I know
going through busy season when January comes around for all these city stickers,
it's
very difficult. And so I appreciate the time that you all take to
make sure that our residents are served, and trying to do it efficiently, and
implementing technology into. Madam Clerk, I appreciate your leadership. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you, Alderman Burnett. Vice Chair Lee?
Thank you, Chair, and good morning, City Clerk and team.
Good morning.
Most of my questions were asked by Alderman Riley.
So I just wanted to make a couple of comments,
and mostly just gratitude for the partnership with your office consistently.
Never a time when we reach out and we don't get a response back quickly.
Really appreciated recently your office's
inclusion of my community in the Shop Local program.
I thought that was really great. It was great for the businesses in my
community to get some more exposure through other channels, and
really
love that you're doing this across the city.
I think we don't do that enough, and using your office to do that is a great way to
do it.
And the partnership on amnesty, I think amnesty
holds a lot of potential.
People know, and we do
a more concerted effort to make sure we're getting the word out.
I know that
our Comptroller, Belsky, is a big fan of amnesty as well.
Utilizing PSA space, getting to our partners about
our media partners, especially about making sure that their story's being told and
that there's regular inclusion of ads on there.
Think that has a great potential to help folks.
And I think it's a great example of
What we can do in other areas as well.
We have massive amounts of debt sitting on our books that by law
we can't just write off. So amnesty, I think, has a lot of
potential to help us. It's not a structural fix to be sure, and
just want to be on the record for that.
But it is a way for us to begin to chip away
at that debt number, which I think seems very daunting.
And
it gives, I think, the public the impression that we're not doing our jobs over
here.
And that's certainly not the case.
So look forward to working with you more and getting our
ordinance passed to get the amnesty program online and make it a
real model for future revenue collection.
Thank you.
So thank you. Thank you
... You're welcome.
That's all I've got.
And I think I wanted to point out for amnesty too, for folks that
don't know our numbers, but that's
vehicle debt only. If you decided to include water debt into a
three-month amnesty program, that's $945 million
on the books, and these are numbers from Comptroller Belsky.
He and I, and our offices are working very closely on this.
And administrative hearings, AH is administrative hearings, is
$3.3 billion of debt as well. So those are three different
buckets. If you add it up, you're looking at
$7 billion or so of debt that you could easily
try to collect.
And our ability to pay model ordinance will also hopefully go into the
RMOs with Chairman Irvin's blessing, and that ability to pay
will be a pilot program for city sticker tickets
that are $200, and people would be able to pay
$150, $100, and $50 based on
income at administrative hearings.
And again, this approach is would you rather have something than nothing?
Because people aren't paying because they can't afford and there's no pathway to
compliance. And so if you give them affordable option, like we did with
reduced-term city sticker, they will pick it.
700,000 people have chosen reduced-term city sticker in the last seven
years. So that tells you that people will pay.
Absolutely. And I have actually one other question that I missed.
I know the EY study
produced some recommendations for your department as well.
One in particular is just the $60
late penalty for city stickers, because that hasn't changed
since 2012. Have we done anything with that at all? No?
They actually have that all wrong.
They have it all wrong. Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's actually, that's the wrong number.
Okay, so what is the penalty today?
So there's two penalties.
Okay.
There is the late fee, and there's the back charge.
So the late
fee- There is a late fee and back charge if you do not get your city sticker.
My chief of staff can expand.
Oh, thank you.
Riley, go ahead.
Riley Boland, deputy director of chief of operations. Yeah.
So currently, yes, there is the $60 late fee.
However,
if you haven't been in compliance
for a period of time, you are back charged
up to six months. So there is
the- Okay
... $60 late fee, but then if you haven't been in compliance for three
months, then you take the price of the annual sticker-
Pro-rate it
... and then you pro-rate, and you add that additional three months.
So that was the big missing piece.
Yeah.
Okay.
And but I just want to warn, too, the city sticker is now $105
at the lowest level passenger.
Mm-hmm.
It's gone up 15%
in the last six years.
Okay.
So because of CPI, it goes up every two years and it's
capped at 5%, but because of inflation, it's gone up
15%. So let's say you walk in, you have to buy
$105 city sticker, unless you decide a reduced term at $35,
plus a $60 late fee, plus the- Plus
the back charge
... pro-rated back charges.
And you have a city sticker ticket for $200.
Yeah.
Which most people barely have $200 in their checking account.
So I just want to warn again, when we think about fines and fees, it's
regressive and the data shows it. So instead of the stick, think
about the carrot, and if you do something different, and we don't do something the
last 50 years has not shown anything different.
We still have debt on the books we're not collecting, because people aren't going
to pay the government.
Why should you?
I would pay for my family before the government.
So again, the debt collectors are making all the money out there.
We can be our own debt collectors in a responsible and equitable
way, and that's what I think amnesty does.
Great. Thank you, and thank you for the clarification on the EY piece.
Yeah.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you all.
Alderman Manna Hoppenworth, you are online, you have a question?
Yes. Thank you, Chair.
Good morning.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you, Clerk. Thank you to your team.
I want to mention
that my team and my ward appreciates you coming out to our
older adult resource fair with City Key.
Also wanted to
let you know that those that were living in the Broadway Armory at
one point are now living in our communities, and it
is in part because of City Key.
Also, we have folks that are living in tent encampments along the
lakefront, and getting that City Key card is the first step towards
getting them into stable housing.
So I want to appreciate you for that work.
I was hoping, through the Chair, that I could get the number
of City Key cards that were issued in the
48th Ward, and perhaps that's something that others would like as
well. Is that possible?
Yes, I actually have the number if you want me to tell you.
For sure, yes.
Sure.
Luis Fuentes, my City Key director can...
And if anybody else wants their ward number, we can
share that too.
Could you just share the list through the chair by ward?
Sure, I can just do that by the ward. Sure.
Thank you.
Thank you for your work on amnesty. That's great news.
It's going to take a lot of coordination.
I was curious also about, you mentioned the
lack of marketing budget for amnesty.
Is there any other program that you could think of that
it would be helpful for us to know about so that we can promote your
work? Your office does a lot.
And we have a newsletter that goes out every week.
We would just love to be helpful.
Yes. Thank you. So
right now, we only have a marketing budget for our City Key
programs.
We have no marketing budget for amnesty and fines and fees.
That is where we have become very creative
for fines and fees, so we rely all on you all, our
billboards up on the highway, CTA.
We do a lot of
whoever will take us. Media, free media, working with content
creators.
And that's it.
But our City Key marketing budget is less than $100,000.
Got it. Thank you again for your work around amnesty.
I think that's a very transformative program that you have,
and it will take the full force of all of us and
departments working together. Thank you very much, Clerk. Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Manna Hoppenworth. Alderman Taylor.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning.
Morning.
Clerk Valencia, how are you?
Good morning.
I want to say, first of all, thank you
for your willingness to always partner with us in the 20th Ward,
to bring services to our community.
I've appreciated that you're not just a clerk that stays in the
clerk's office.
Mm-hmm.
I only have two questions. Number one, is there
conversations about you all
building a dashboard?
A dashboard for specifically what?
For everything. So, like the amount of
tickets
that people get, like a dashboard that kind of explains the
work. And it's for transparency.
Actually, I would love to see every department have a dashboard
so that people can actively go look at that data.
I love that idea. I think that's something that I could collaborate with
also DOF-
Mm-hmm
... especially around amnesty, because I think there's a really good story to tell
about some of the debt relief we've been able to provide, get people into
compliance, and then also know that they have to come into compliance.
But
what the data has showed from the last three amnesties I've done is
people will come into compliance if there's an affordable option,
and they will then more likely trust the government and
come back. And once we have that information, we can send text
alerts, we can send emails, we can send postcards to remind them
to come back into compliance. But we've got to build that structure
out, which is why I'm doing the ability to pay ordinance, that I hope I
can get your support, that San Francisco has already done,
showing that if you make a certain income,
the ticket is more
tailored for what you get, and you're getting some money than nothing.
I appreciate that.
I also feel like some of the questions that we're asking around how many City
Keys, how many licenses, that should be public information
and something that we're able to share,
just with folks.
Sure.
Last question is,
why don't you have an advertising budget?
Because let me say this,
those programs are the difference between
somebody getting a boot on their car that they can't afford and
paying it down little by little, but they don't get a boot.
I also want to see that happen for water.
So I hope that y'all talk to us sooner than later
about having that for water. But...
I would love an advertising budget for amnesty
and education of the city sticker because we have no line item for
that. And our City Key marketing budget is $100,000, but we
can't take any of that line item to amnesty.
So if you even wanted to rename that
line item to an advertising to give us more flexibility, we
would love that, and if you could champion that for us, we would really
wholeheartedly...
My team is incredible about making that money work, and one of the
things we've been able to target is these
kind of folks in content creation that really can have a
ton of followers, and it's their business and we're
reaching youth, we're reaching
different demographics through it.
Also through North Lawndale News, The
Defender,
The Beverly, and some of these local papers we're able to also advertise
in to really get the word out. But we would love
to work with you on that.
You have me. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you,
Alderman Taylor.
With that...
Oh, you do have something? Okay
Yeah. Madam Clerk, I think on some level I'm appalled by the fact it's only like
eight people in the chamber. But I think it's also a compliment to you that people
think you're doing a good job, and it's not a controversial hearing.
So take it as a compliment
in terms of that.
I also appreciate following up on some of the things that Alderman Burnett
said. I appreciate that you all are really pushing that two-year sticker to try and
reduce the amount of friction with the long arm of city
government.
Recognizing it's not your fault, but I'm appalled that we can't keep credit card
information, noting that somebody could start a small business in their basement,
work with Chase, they keep the credit card data, and that small business is
able to process payments. And kind of seems crazy that the third
largest city in America somehow can't figure it out.
But I recognize that you are
also the victim of that and not the perpetrator.
Just to follow up on some of the questions on the amnesty program, asking the
opposite question.
The amnesty programs by
nearly all accounts have been successful, and we advertise them a lot.
Do we worry about the other side of cannibalizing people
that can pay on time, that know that it's going to happen, and how do you think
about that or measure that, if you will?
Well, I think that
definitely can be a concern, but I think the benefits outweigh the folks
that are going to just wait for amnesty because that city sticker ticket is
$200.
Yeah.
It goes up to $250, and with even more
collection, that can get up to over $300.
So I think
people, again, don't want to get that $200 ticket, so they're willing to
come. And I think that weighs the benefits in
people just waiting around for amnesty.
Yeah. And perhaps that
stick of noting they're going to get the ticket, people that can pay, pay, and
then in which case the people not paying are the people that perhaps are-
Because if you look at the heat map-
Yeah
... that Department of Finance has given us,
all of the vehicle debt is very
red on the south and west sides and a little bit of the lakefront.
Sure.
So,
amnesty is for everyone to take advantage of, so I want everyone in Chicago
to feel like they have it. And you're right, I had a guy stop me who lives in
Lincoln Park and thank me for amnesty because he parked in his garage, and
I was like, "Well, that's not the target we were looking at, but if you got a
benefit, well, great." So,
you can't prevent against that, but I think the relief, I've
had so many people stop me and thank me for helping them
get into compliance. A lot of people just don't even know, or they said they waited
because they were so afraid to come in and think about what is their late fee, what
is the back charge. They're just afraid to know what that number is.
Mm-hmm.
The other thing I think too, with Department of Finance, I'd love for them to see,
they've rolled back some of my fines and fees reform recommendations.
So if you get on a payment plan, if you default three times
now, you're not allowed to get on a payment plan again.
That seems
against what we're trying to do.
Yeah.
So that is also a risk. Also, the Fix-It ticket system,
they've changed the way you have to do that.
There's more hoops to get your Fix-It ticket one time if you get the city sticker
ticket. You have to go to an administrative hearing.
So we're trying to get those barriers removed for people to get into
compliance and be able to pay their bills.
No, and that's an extremely thoughtful answer on both the carrot side and the
stick side. So it's clear that you've put a lot of thought in this, and
I appreciate it, and I think the empty chairs show that people think you're doing a
pretty good job.
Thank you so much, Alderman.
And certainly, I do. So thank you for your time.
Thanks for being a good partner.
Thank you. Thank you, Clerk, and again we appreciate the work that you're
doing
keeping us in line, keeping us proficient.
Got to figure out this electronic voting and getting all that good
stuff and getting everybody. But your team is always on the floor
helping us out to make sure that we are-- I think it's mostly on us because
some of us just don't like to do it and-
I think some people forget their passwords, too.
Nah, that's what they tell us. That's what they tell you.
You know how it used to be where you had one through 50, and so I guess one or
50 used to get mad because they had to vote first or last.
So we can go back to those days, and we'll let Alderman Dowell lead us off
again so. But again, thank you for your work.
Thank you for everything that you've got going on.
And if there is no other,
I see no other hands, no other
folk. You good?
Go ahead.
Good job, Clerk Valencia.
That's all. Thank you.
That means a lot coming from you, so thank you. Thank you, Chairwoman.
All right. Clerk, well, you all are excused.
We will take a brief break to allow
MOPD to set up, and we will proceed with them
Good afternoon. We will now proceed with the
Mayor's Office of Peoples with Disability.
Before we proceed, we're going to have a brief overview from COFA,
after which,
Commissioner Arfa, if you would introduce the members of your
team that are here in the well, as well as those that are in the
box, and then
give
any abbreviated opening statement so that
we can proceed. Katie?
All right. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Irvin and members of the City Council.
My name is Katie O'Toole with COFA.
I'll provide a brief summary of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities,
or MOPD.
For 2027, the proposed budget for MOPD is
9.12 million, a 0.56 million or
5.75
decline compared to 2026. The corporate fund supports
approximately 37% of their appropriations.
Personnel accounts for 4.74 million, around
6% increase compared to 2026.
Non-personnel expenses are budgeted at 4.39
million, a around 16% decline.
The office requests 41 full-time equivalent positions for 2027.
This is one additional position compared to this year.
As of October 21st, the department had a vacancy rate
of 7.5%.
This slide compares proposed appropriations by category and fund against the
2026 budget ordinance. Looking at categories,
contractual services declined by over 14% in
2027, though it amounts to less than a million dollars.
This includes lower payments to delegate agencies and software maintenance, but
it's offset by higher professional and technical services.
And then looking at funds, the corporate fund increases by around
0.1 million in the request. The entitlement funds or
the CDBG grants and other federal grants
declined by 0.55 and 0.11 million
respectively.
Here you can see a historical overview of the office's appropriations by
funding source. MOPD saw a spike in funding
with the federal ARPA support in 2024 and 2025, but otherwise
has been approximately eight to 10 million
since 2020.
And lastly, looking at
historical positions, staffing's been pretty consistent since
2023 with 41 staff. In 2026 it went
down to 40, but then here we are with 41 once again.
The corporate fund supports most of these with
30 of the 41
grants support the remaining positions.
And that concludes COFA's overview for the Mayor's Office for People with
Disabilities. Thank you.
Thank you, Katie. Commissioner?
Yeah. Good morning, Chairman Irvin and Vice
Chairman Lee.
Thank you. I'm Commissioner Rachel Liver of the City of Chicago
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities.
I think you said you want me to start first.
Yeah. Okay. I'm going to have turning over to Esther, then the rest of
my staff to introduce themselves.
Hi, everyone. My name is Esther Gutierrez. I'm the senior policy analyst at MOPD.
Good morning. Finance director, Antonio Washington.
Good morning. Thomas Ciesielski, deputy commissioner.
Good morning. Christina McGleam, deputy commissioner,
joined by my service dog, Jade.
Good morning, everyone. Program manager, Liliana Schiller.
Good morning. Program manager, Mark Nobrega.
Good morning. Teresita Pineda, accessibility inspector for MOPD.
Good morning. Yasmin Ramirez, disability specialist coordinator.
Good morning. Matthew Sepanik, architect IV.
Good morning. Deanna Hawkins, accountant.
All right. Thank you.
Chairman Irvin, Vice Chairman Lee, and members of City Council,
I'm pleased to present MOPD's 2027 budget.
I am proud to serve as commissioner of the Mayor's Office
for People with Disabilities. We are the nation's oldest and
largest MOPD. By working collaboratively with
Mayor Brandon Johnson, further commissioner, city council,
our disability community, and residents,
this year we increased our citywide impact on
disability and accessibility. I
thank our hardworking staff at MOPD for all they
do. I cannot do this work without our amazing team.
Today I'm going to highlight many great accomplishments.
First is,
this year we launched our annual disability data
report. We worked with the Chicago Department of Public Health
to create a report titled "Neighborhood Conditions for
Adults with Disabilities," and this was the result of our departments
working together to add disability question to the
Healthy Chicago Survey. Our report findings include
that one in every four Chicagoans
has a disability. Among this group of people who
identify as having a disability,
42.1% have more than
one disability. Our report allows us
to make data-driven decision that meet our
disability community needs and integrate disability
access into our city's programs and services.
Another great accomplishment I want to share that earlier this year,
we launched our emergency transport of mobility
devices, along with the Office of Public Safety
Administration and the Chicago Department of Business Affairs
and Consumer Protection. And this now provides a way
for us to transport and keep safe mobility
devices when the owner experiences a medical emergency
while anywhere in public in our city.
This effort was made possible in partnership with the disability
community, including Access Living, and we are
proud that we have developed a solution that is
sustainable. Other departments involved in it, I also want to
recognize are the Department of Law, Chicago Fire
Department, Office of Emergency Management and Communication,
Chicago Police Department, and CDPH.
We also recognize that anyone can become
disabled at any point in their life,
including to gun or community violence.
Three years ago, Senator Tammy Duckworth chaired both
rules at EARM, funded by the United States
Department of Justice.
who are a temporary rehire role devoted
to serving people who acquire disability as a result of
gun or community violence. This budget funds
a permanent staff position, allowing us to move this program
from temporary to permanent, and allowing us to
continue our work with our community partners and our
community safety.
You often ask us about our Disabled Parking Appeals program.
This year, I'm happy to report that we streamlined our
disability parking appeals process, working closely with the
Department of Finance, Department of Technology and Innovation,
as well as Alderman Espada, mostly Vasquez.
Last December, we codified an amendment of Municipal
Code Section
9-64-050, which was ordinance
2025-0019980,
which increased the number of eligible zones allowed with an
agreement that every block can have 15%
disabled parking spots, with an optional adjustment
to 20% disabled parking spots at a
case-by-case basis.
These efficiencies meant to reduce appeals,
and in turn, reduce frustration by our
residents. And we see the difference.
In 2023, my office got
879 appeals, and as of this date,
we have just 514 appeals, shortening
further the appeal timeline and allowing us to devote
critical staff resources to our additional priorities.
I'll share about our Personal Assistants program.
8.4% of Chicagoans need support to
live independently, including with cooking, cleaning, or food shopping,
or other errands. Our Personal Assistants program
provides up to six hours of in-home help per week, and
it's funded at
370,000. A year ago, we served 90
individuals, and we had a 50% waitlist.
This year, we conducted an annual assessment of
client needs with our technical agencies, ASI
and Access Living, and we were able to adjust hours
needed per client. In 2026, the Personal
Assistants program served 149
individuals, and our waitlist has been extremely lean,
allowing us capacity to serve even more people in
2027 with the same amount of level funding.
MOPD's Career Center celebrates our fourth year of
working with job seekers with disabilities and employers.
I'm so proud to share that our Career Center was one of eight
centers defined by the National Legal Center, the
US Department of Labor, State Exchange on Employment and
Disability, through a learning lab.
And from there, we were able to further expand, work on
plans to expand our model. We offer job seekers
computer training classes, practice interview
sessions. And recently, we hosted two events with Apple
on using technology readily available to
increase accessibility.
We also partnered with the Department of Family and Support Services and
Chicago Youth Work to host our third annual
Inclusive Summer Jobs event, which has become one of my
favorite events every year. And through that, we supported
45 youth with disabilities, including
six in my office.
I'll share now about our Home Modification program, which is our
largest program. We know from our data that
10.5% of Chicagoans have a mobility
disability, which can include difficulty using
stairs or use of mobility devices such as manual or
power wheelchair. For over
26 years, our Home Mod program has helped over
2,200 Chicagoans with
disabilities live independently.
A typical modification adds a vertical lift platform
so the people can get in and out of their homes.
We also provide bathroom kitchen modifications.
Using 2026 funding, we are on track to complete at
least 150 home modifications, and this
is our second year of providing a free lift repair program,
which further sustains that investment.
And
we also have our Accessibility Compliance Unit, which
works to advance accessibility in our housing and permit
process.
As part of Mayor Johnson's Cut the Tape initiative, we
added a second architectural team in 2025
that reviews permit and pre-permit
reviews. And these
two roles are devoted to this process, and this
year so far, we completed
1,017 permit reviews and
214 pre-permit reviews as of
September. Further
assuring our commitment to accessibility
in our government-funded housing projects come through
MOPD, and we have accessibility inspectors who
visit throughout three phases of construction, and
they create a detailed assessment of accessibility and ensure
that accessibility requirements are actually built.
MOPD also provides a housing locator, which lists
available accessible housing, and this year we've already
received
212,555 searches
this year, and we have a new AI feature To further
serve, help people find accessible housing if we
continue our outreach to property owners to capture more
listings.
I'm also happy to share that this year we expanded our Access
Officer program and now have a focus on digital accessibility
in advance of the WCAG 2.1 Level
AA requirement for state and local governments that serve
populations over 50,000 residents, and that deadline
is April 26th, 2027.
We partnered with Chief Information Officer Nick Lucian in the Department of
Technology and Innovation, and together we are working to
train our city department and city council officers.
Already this year, we've had 43 trainings and trained over
2,756 individuals.
I'm also so proud of our communication access work
in our efforts to create an accessibility citywide.
Just for example, today we have two teams,
two sign language interpreters,
so we're providing public access through American Sign Language.
And then above my head, you can see the captions
for today, and then you can also see the captions on the live stream.
And this has been a great partnership with the City Clerk's Office.
This year, our ASL interpreter provided over
1,167 hours of ASL interpretation.
So you've seen our interpreters in mayor press conferences, city
events, summer festival, one-on-one constituent services.
And this is another way that we're expanding
access citywide, and we also provide other types of access,
including over captioning.
We also have worked on food access.
From our data, we know that our South and West Side neighborhoods have
marked the highest prevalence of disability, and at least
40% of adults have disabilities.
We began our partnership with Five Ring Community, the donor to
the Austin community, and utilizing
technology to remove barriers for people with disabilities in
accessing food PLT boxes. And this model was
successful, and I'm so pleased that this year we're able to
expand the footings of West Garfield Park and North
Lawndale. Finally, I cannot close without
celebrating disability. This year, we honored the
36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and we held
our celebration at the Obama Library.
And we were also very proud to work with the Obama Presidential
Center on advancing accessibility
through training and through American Sign
Language
access. And so it was such a fitting place.
It
was also the first time Disability Pride was celebrated at the
Obama Museum.
And I'm so proud and grateful to our disability community who
showed up in full force.
It's one of the many ways that we come together throughout the year.
So thank you for your continuous support of all of our programs and
services.
Thank you, Commissioner.
We'll begin with questions. Any questions from the body? Okay.
Alderman Riley, followed by Chad Dow.
Thank you, Chairman,
and good, I don't know. Is it-
Still morning
... good morning, Commissioner.
First, I wanted to congratulate you on the great progress that you've
made with the personal assistance program.
It's great to see that
you've eliminated the backlog there, and kudos to you and your entire
team for making that happen, and certainly
our delegate partners as well.
I'd also like to ask, through the chair, if you could provide a list
of your
participating employers in the career center that you
offer.
I know of some local employers in Downtown's 42nd
Ward that participate, and I'm really proud of them for doing it, but would love to
help assist you in promoting that better and getting even more folks
to participate. So if you could through the chair, I would appreciate that.
First question, just quick answer.
On the home modification program, which I'm a huge fan
of,
I know there's significant demand for that program, and I know
resources are
finite.
What sort of backlog do we have there?
So thank you so much, Alderman Riley.
So one thing I want to make sure to mention is that a part of our career
center matter, we have an employer champions committee, and we're
so proud of all the different employers who we work
collaboratively with, who are really showing their incredible
commitment to increasing disability employment.
We can't do this work without both job seekers with disabilities and our
employer partners, so thank you for that too.
I'm very grateful for that.
And so for HOMAD, yes, the program, as
I come here every year, is in demand, and our
backlog is over 1,200.
And I forgot the second part of your question.
That was it.
And just so I heard it right, about 1,200?
Yes, about 1,200. And there we have already started
planning for next year, and I'm happy to have our
program director, Mark, talk about that soon.
If you could, very briefly. I want to get through a few questions
quickly.
Sure. Mark Noriega, program manager.
So yes, we do have roughly 1,200 people on our waiting list.
The list is currently in flux because we're also removing some of those people from
the waiting list and prepping them for our 2027 client databases.
So you'll see the list bob a little bit at this point, and then start
increasing after the January year starts again.
Very good. And
ballpark, please, this is more for edification.
Roughly how many Chicagoans are blind or
have sight impairment?
Best estimate.
So I don't need to guess because, I would use our disability
data report, which is on our website.
So he
asked me to define them by
disability.
Okay. I'm sorry for making you scramble.
And it's fine if maybe one of your staff wants to dig these up.
I'm going to ask three of them. So for sight?
So let me answer that for you right now.
So, according to our disability data,
5% of people identified have
low vision.
Okay. Roughly 5%. And how about hearing?
Hearing is 3%.
Okay.
And how about mobility, wheelchairs, walkers?
Mobility is 10.5%.
Very good. And the reason I ask this, because it's not covered in
any of your narrative, and there's a reason for it,
but I think is something we should explore moving forward with the mission of your
department and how it interacts with others like CDOT, the law
department, the police department, business affairs and consumer
protection,
right of way issues.
One of the things that I worry about tremendously representing a big chunk of
downtown,
is the impact, the chaos that occurs on our public
right of way, day in and day out,
especially in the central business district,
with regard to
illegal sandwich boards on the sidewalks,
Divvy usage, both the e-scooters and the electronic bikes
on our sidewalks,
e-bike deliveries on our sidewalks, bicycles on
sidewalks, private e-scooters on sidewalks.
You see there's a theme here,
and I worry very much for everyone on the sidewalk, but
especially folks who
are sight impaired, seeing impaired.
And they oftentimes cannot hear
or see these vehicles coming.
So my concern is that there is no one real
steward for our right of way. CDOT technically manages it,
but they need to receive a whole lot of input, and I would think that people
at MOPD could provide a whole lot, and your delegate agency
partners could provide a whole lot of feedback on those issues.
Even things like cracks in sidewalks for trip and falls.
These are the things I worry about.
We spend a lot of time and effort
managing our ADA ramps, and there's a lot of room for improvement on
those.
But it doesn't seem that anyone has full ownership of what's
happening with pedestrians on our right of way.
And for folks that have sight or hearing impairment,
I worry for them the absolute most.
What, if anything, are you or your delegate agencies doing to provide
feedback and advice perhaps
to the Department of Transportation and the other folks in the
city who have some jurisdiction over our right of way?
So we do work-
Oh, please.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to add an item,
which is consultation on bike lanes
when CDOT decides to
put them
in various communities.
So that's a big one, Commissioner.
Right. So thank you for that question.
So first up, we do work very closely with CDOT and
BACP. I'll start with the A-frames.
You're talking about the A-frames that are on sidewalks.
We work very closely with BACP with that
first pass to make sure that A-frame have what's called cane
detection, so that when you use your cane, you're able to detect
the A-frame. And I do get complaints from time
to time, and we work very closely with BACP to address those.
In terms of scooters,
we also work very closely with CDOT,
because one complaint we got was how can somebody report
a scooter, especially if you're blind or low vision?
And one of the solutions that we worked towards was requiring
every scooter to have contact information in braille
so that somebody who's blind and uses braille can identify
the scooter and the company. So those are some of the changes that we've been
making over time. And that has already been implemented, but
we continue to have those conversations around new
issues that come up. Certainly the PPDs that you talk about, that's another
issue that we are
continuing to work together on, monitor for those issues.
Okay. Well, and Commissioner, I didn't mean to put you on the spot, and I know it's
not your core focus or mission. I'm trying to make a point here.
And it's less making a point to you, more a point to the other
departments that manage the right of way, especially CDOT and BACP.
With all these emerging technologies, we have a lot of clutter and a lot of things
going on on sidewalks that should not be.
And as we are currently negotiating with Divvy
Our
micro-mobility provider, I guess that's what we call them.
We need to make sure that these devices are not operating on sidewalks.
It puts everyone at risk, whether you have a disability or not.
And I would like to find ways to have more partnership in
cutting down on all that illegal activity, because it puts lives at risk.
And all the different E, whatever you want to call them, bikes and scooters and
you know what's,
that's the stuff that I worry about.
And I think that when it comes to the A-frame signage that we
have, we have a lot of illegal signs on our sidewalks
downtown. And again, I worry about folks who can't see them.
And we have a lot of work to do on enforcement.
And when we ask these questions about enforcement, there's a lot of
finger-pointing. CPD, BACP, CDOT,
they all kind of look at each other and no one's actually doing it.
But I can't tell you how many complaints and concerns I get from constituents day
in and day out about that activity.
I worry about the population that you are charged with protecting.
I worry about that population the most.
So maybe we can work towards some goals for next year,
to have better integrated meetings and
planning to get our right of way under control, especially for
folks
who have experienced disabilities. Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Before we move forward, I want to recognize members
Mitch, Mosley, and Mitchell, and have them admitted under provisions
of Rule 59.
Is there a motion? So moved by Alderman Moore.
All in favor, signify by saying "aye." Any opposed?
Hearing none, the ayes have it, and Alders Mitch, Mosley, and Mitchell will be
admitted via Rule 59. Next, we have Chair Dow,
followed by
Alderman Lapata.
Any others?
Got it. One, two. Got it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Commissioner.
I, too, wanted to just congratulate you on the personal
assistance program,
being able to do more with the same,
and not asking for more, to be more efficient.
I
would encourage all of your colleagues
to be as thoughtful as you have been in terms
of looking at ways to make our government more efficient,
so thank you for that.
Just wanted to ask, was there anything in the Ernst & Young
report
that still needs to be addressed by your department?
Thank you, Chairwoman Dowell. I appreciate that.
We are constantly looking for ways to be efficient
and looking on how we can leverage every resource that we have.
In terms of the Ernst & Young report, to my
knowledge, there is not recommendations for MOPD.
All right. Thank you very much.
I wanted to follow up on
Alderman Riley's questions regarding the public way.
Are you consulted by CDOT when they are planning
bike lanes in the various neighborhoods?
It should be brought to CDOT-
And the reason that I asked that question-
Go on.
And the reason that I asked that question is because I had some
bike lanes put into the south loop, and had a
number of
wheelchair-accessible
people complain
to--
People who use wheelchairs complain to me about
their inability to traverse the intersections.
I am here for CDOT as well, and
I obviously encourage people to reach out to us, and we're happy to talk about
different issues, and
better understand what's
happening
with any kind of an intersection.
So-
So everybody make the-
Yeah, I understand you encourage people to reach out to you, but
do they reach out to you?
Does CDOT reach out to you officially when they are
putting in bike lanes?
When they're planning it.
So I know that we have an ongoing
dialogue with CDOT in the brief issue.
I'm happy to, if I have time, share more about that.
Tom Ciesielski, Deputy Commissioner.
CDOT and our department
overlap sometimes in planning of
these features or elements such as bike lanes, and
that might appear
in MOPD's site plan reviews when, for
example,
a larger development is planned in the city through the Department of
Planning.
However, we do not have direct communications
when CDOT is planning a bike lane in a
specific block of the city, for example.
We are involved, though, in consultations
when CDOT
needs our feedback on certain features that are
made part of these
public right-of-way elements. So for example, detectable warnings
for pedestrians who are blind that are made part of
bus islands, or traversing bike
lanes
is one example where we would weigh in, and we continue to
work with CDOT to make that
as accessible as possible
Thank you for that answer. The answer is no,
and they could do a better job.
Lastly, Commissioner, you
have a relatively stable budget,
but I do see you have some new positions.
What are those new positions
for in 2027?
Thank you, Chair Matilda. We have one new position, and that
is for a program coordinator,
to work on the further to serving disabled
survivors of gun and community violence.
That is a temporary program that makes permanent a
program that we have had funded for the past three years
through Senator Duckworth's earmark that she championed for
us. And we used those dollars to create a temporary three-year
position. And through that position, we were able to
work with our community organizations that serve people that
experience gun and community violence who may acquire
disability and
people with disability. And now this budget will make that role
permanent and work with our larger system, including the Office
of Gun Violence Prevention and other
departments as part of that safety strategy.
Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, that's all I have today.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be pinch-hitting for our illustrious chair
for the next hour or so, hopefully sooner.
Next up, I'm just going to go through the list of what he's laid here without
regard to when folks raise their hand or seniority, because I just got here.
So we'll go with
the First Ward, LaSpada. Alder LaSpada, you have the floor.
Hey. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you, Commissioner, for being with us today,
for talking us through your budget, and for the work that your entire team does.
I wanted to start by asking,
and again, this is another one of those collaborative questions.
Thankfully, we are working through
a settlement on accessible pedestrian
signals that the city, unfortunately, had not been installing for decades.
I'm curious how CDOT is collaborating
with your department on the prioritization of those signal
installations.
Thank you, Alderman LaSpada. So we are working with the CDOT
on
APS, and I'm going to have
Tom, who works closely with CDOT at this, talk more about
that.
Deputy Commissioner,
is this okay?
There you go. Go ahead.
The remedial
plan
order includes prioritization
factors that CDOT and the city is implementing
now in year two. A year one of the remedial
plan has been completed,
with the milestone prescribed by the
settlement achieved.
I think there were
70 APS or more already prepared and
installed.
We are in year two, as I said, with 110 installations
listed as a milestone. So we are also
assisting the Department of Transportation through our
active role in the advisory committee
that is meeting
year by year, four times a year.
That includes
people with disabilities who have a chance
to weigh in on the program and also weigh in on the
priorities and the prioritization
that is needed very much for this program.
And so thank you for that, but circling back to the
initial
question, how is that prioritization being determined?
What factors are we considering in the
hundreds, if not thousands, of signalized pedestrian
intersections in the city?
Thank you, Alderman, for that question.
Again, this is part of the
court-ordered remedial plan. So as an example,
and CDOT has
more details on this, but as an example,
more dangerous intersections are being prioritized
or intersections and crosswalks near
public buildings are prioritized, as well as
intersections near important public facilities such
as hospitals are one example of this
prioritization.
Thank you very much. My
next question,
and this can be a through the chair request.
I appreciate the conversation about the intersection between
accessibility and traffic safety, particularly with the
city's 2025 traffic fatality report
recently being released. People are probably aware, even through this year,
28 pedestrians or cyclists or scooters have
died in the city. So far, all of them because they had been
hit by cars. But the issue with scooters and
cyclists is an important one. I'm wondering if, through the chair,
it can be provided, and I'm sure that CDOT tracks this,
the number of serious crashes reported
between pedestrians and either cyclists or scooters,
and if they can break that down further to individuals with
disabilities.
Um,
Alderman, yes, we will send to that with the term.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alder Espada.
We'll go to 15th Ward Alder Lopez.
Was that 10 minutes, Chair? Or am I confused?
Oh, I thought you stopped speaking, kind sir.
I've-
You need more time?
I stopped speaking because I was listening.
It's necessary for the listening part that you stop speaking.
We had a consensus here that you were done, my friend.
I only have one more question.
Please do.
Which is, when I was looking at the budget,
and I want to be wrong about this, but it looked like there is a zeroing out
of funding for delegate agencies in the corporate
fund. 2026, there was 400,000 for delegate
agencies. That number appears to be zero in
2027. Am I reading that right, or was that funding
moved somewhere else?
Alderman, I'm going to have Antonio answer that question.
Good morning, Aldermen. This is Antonio Washington, Director of Finance.
So the $400,000 decrease is for our home modification
program, delegate agency expenses.
In previous years, funding for this program is split between the corporate fund and
grant funds. Well now, in 2027, it's consolidated to
only grant funds and no longer the corporate funds.
So we still continue to have the 400,000 in our
budget. It's just switched to grant funds only for the home modification
program, delegate agencies.
Helpful to understand. Thank you, sir, and that concludes
truly my remarks. Thank you, Chair.
You're welcome.
Alder Lopez.
I'm going to wait five seconds for Daniel to change his mind.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Good morning, Commissioner, and good morning, members of the committee, Chairman,
and everyone that's here with us. First off, it's always a pleasure to see you
and your team. Thank you always for coming out to discuss in
the ward what we can do better,
both locally and citywide. A couple questions I
would like to ask about.
First off,
with regards to
311 and 911 modernization
through OEMC, is your department working
with OEMC to ensure that both
systems
are fully modernized to be helpful to individuals with
disabilities?
Thank you, Alderman Lopez. So yes, we do work with
OEMC, and
we raise that the new system can increase accessibility for people with
disability. So I have been in ongoing dialogue with the
Executive Director,
Brent Fenner, and his team at that.
That is very important.
Okay.
In your opening remarks, you referenced that you're working with Department
of Family and Support Services with regards to the Chicago
Works and ensuring that that's part of your career center
to
help 45 youth with disabilities participate.
The mayor's plan is to have 40,000 individuals.
Is there a
goal
of increasing
this demographic's participation in the program
beyond 45 individuals?
Absolutely sir. Thank you, Alderman.
So we have been working very closely with DFSS
to develop ways that are included on the application.
We
now ask people who apply whether they have a disability.
We did not have that metric before.
That's a really important part of
working towards a goal and identifying that.
And then we have also provided
trainings and webinars on
preparing students with disabilities for these employment opportunities.
Before turning over to Christina McGleam on my team to talk more, I just
want to share that this is personal for me.
I worked for the city through a summer
program through Alder 37, and I made
$3.25 an hour. And I make no mistake that I'm here
today. So for me, this is so personal to make sure that
students with disabilities have the same opportunity that I did.
And we even hosted six students in my
office this summer. It's very personal.
Now I'm going to turn it over to Christina McGleam to share
more.
Thank you, Commissioner. Christina McGleam, Deputy Commissioner.
The 45 youth that the Commissioner mentioned are just the
45 that we had over 100 youth
come out to our Inclusive Summer Jobs Expo in April, which we
partner with DFSS on. So those are 45 youth that we
directly assisted in getting
employment with Chicago Youth Works.
DFSS did report that over 1,000 youth with
disabilities were employed who self ID'd on the application.
Okay.
Well, that's a much better number than 45, and that was going to be part of my next
question
with regards to, I know my good friend from the North West Side
talks about opening up all our offices and all our departments.
So I wanted to make sure that if we have opportunities to put
individuals who self-identify in this category to work in our
own offices, then all 50 of us should open up our doors to them as
well, as well as the 27 other departments that make up this
building.
Is Access Living still a delegate partner with your department?
Access Living is one of our other community shoots.
It is?
Can you provide through the chair a list of all their recommendations?
I'm a little bit perturbed when it comes to Access Living, who says that they help
us address
issues with the disabled community, and then sued us for not doing anything to
help the disabled community. So I'd like to know what exactly they've been helping
us do in your department.
Happy to put you to that with the chair, Alderman.
Thank you. And I know two of my colleagues referenced your work with
CDOT,
and if you're included, we got the answer through Alderman Doll's question.
But I want to go a little further, because CDOT also deals with ADA
compliance when it deals with construction of sidewalks and things of that nature.
And I know that roughly two or three years ago,
MOPD's also been a part of permit plan
review for buildings.
Would you be opposed, or what would you need to also
be able to fully staff and participate in
a disability review for the departments that deal with infrastructure
and
things of that nature?
I'm going to turn that over to
Tom to talk about that. But I'm really proud that we built a
really multidisciplinary team at our Accessibility Compliance
Unit.
And I know this is kind of more like a wish list, Christmas
question as opposed to what can't you do, what would you like to do?
But I'm sure some of you have thought about this already, so I'm anxious to hear
what your thoughts are.
Tom Ciesielski, Deputy Commissioner. Thank you, Alder, for your question.
I do think that
looking for solutions and looking around the corner is a great
approach.
Our Accessibility Compliance Unit
does a little bit more than permit reviews.
So I will say that
our architect who's here at this hearing, as
well as the team
as a whole, does participate in design reviews that are
important
even before permits are submitted for.
So let me ask you this. But I'm talking about
what would you need to have the ability to assist
departments who are making decisions
with regards to accessibility or ADA compliance
that are outside of what you currently do?
For example, you're talking about ADA ramps at intersections.
We're talking about the fact that we have new types of sewer covers that are ADA
compliant. Were you guys involved in that conversation?
And I'm sure there's a whole host of things across multiple departments here
that deal with-
I-
... that, that you may or may not be a part of.
So Alderman, I also want to take this moment to really share
about our incredible training. So in
2025, we launched a disability and access
training so then every city employee had to
take that training. So we know that over 25,000
city employees took that training, and we will continue to build at
that. And this year, we required new employees to
take that training. And I know that 787 employees
took that, and that we also provide training on a variety of
topics through
our city departments in our community partner.
So, I just want to make sure that we all understand that the
connection is
my philosophy is that we have to work on physical access, but also about
communication access. And with that said, Nick, then I'm so proud that we've been
able to expand.
Okay. I
appreciate all of those trainings, and I do think that there's plenty of more room
within the departments. If I could ask one more, Chairman, and then just be done.
Thank you.
You're good.
I believe your office has completed 687 permit plan
reviews, with 159 done the first
half of this year.
How long does an accessibility review take on average,
and where are the holdups in that process?
I'm going to turn that over to Tom and Matthew to share about our permit
review process.
Tom Ciesielski, Deputy Commissioner.
Our plan reviews
for permit are both commercial buildings,
new construction rehabs, as well as
housing, especially housing with government funding.
Primarily new construction, affordable housing.
We review for the Chicago Building Code, but
many other regulations as well. So our reviews are quite
complex.
Our goal is typically
for our department to review at least 100
projects per month
over four weeks, essentially.
So there could be a number assigned to each
plan review as an average if we
average the difficult and easy permit reviews, but we don't track
an average number
at this time.
Chairman, if I can have that provided through the chair,
a list of all of the reviews that are for this year and for
last, as well as the time it took from start to
completion.
And if I may also recommend to the committee, when they create this book
That needs to be included in the back end too, because the home
review section is
not included in this
data set that we're given. Thank you.
Thank you, Alder Lopez. Just recognizing Alderman Mitchell, I believe he
has been brought in for quorum already, but that you are now
here present. Up next, Alder Moore.
Thank you so much, Chairman. Commissioner Arfa, I
truly appreciate you. You always just doing a excellent job,
and you are so
accessible and
with you and your team informing us of what's going on
out in the community. What I want to touch on, I want to follow up, and I think
Alderman Riley has gone
on the,
I think the number of the 1,200
people we have still left for the home mod
program.
Financial-wise, what do we need,
at least in this year, to make sure those
people have what they need? Do you have what you need in your budget for that?
Thank you, Alderman Moore. We appreciate it.
We make do with out of our
resources to be able to provide
home mods. We work very hard
at being as efficient as we can by queuing people up this year
for next year. I'm happy to have Mike talk about that process
and about where we're going to land for this year.
This is Mark Nobriga, program manager.
We're talking about our wait list, roughly 1,200
people long at this point. While we are taking people off of it and
moving them into our 2027 client databases to be served in
2027, that still leaves a very large amount there.
It is a considerable commitment. We've done this exercise in the past, and I think
it ravages roughly to about $30 million to clear
out 1,200 people, and that doesn't account for
the total amount of people that would be added to the list while we wait for that
money to come in.
Okay.
From year to year,
have you been given the same amount, or has that amount been reduced?
I'm thinking about the amount. Okay, hold on.
I was going to have Antonio talk about the financial part.
Oh, great question, Alderman. So, Director of Finance, Antonio Washington.
For our 2027 budget for the home modification program, due to
federal cuts, that's been challenging to the community development block grant.
Our budget has a reduction of $231,000
for delegate agencies, specifically for the home modification program,
and that affects nine projects for 2027.
It affects how many?
It affects nine projects.
To kind of piggyback on Program Manager Mark Nobriga, to clear the wait list, we're
looking about $30 million. So $1,200 per project.
I'm sorry, 1,200 people on the wait list, 25,000 for
each project. So that's how it calculates to $30 million.
So to kind of answer your question more directly,
we do not have $30 million in our budget.
But we do make do with the clients that we do have on our list.
And as program manager had mentioned, we're constantly working with our delegate
agencies to get those projects moving and making progress.
At the same time, of course, funding does accelerate that, but we do
make just do with the money allotted in our budget.
Well, I'm concerned about... And I know that $30 million is a lot, but I guess I'm
concerned about the $231,000
that's impacted, you said through federal
cuts and things like that.
Correct.
I think this
body and this city has a responsibility to make sure we're
sure that the federal government, yes, has been
not doing what they're supposed to do on a lot of fronts, but we cannot let
that stop us helping our most vulnerable
people in our city. And so, I want to make sure that the
administration is listening, and whatever I have to do on
this end,
we have to find a way to
make sure we shore up that $231,000.
We cannot,
in any way,
ignore the needs of our most vulnerable
residents here in the city of Chicago.
And I think every alderman would
vote to support that and
increasing that
and putting that money back. Well,
supplementing it, and not so much putting it back since the federal government
failed where they were supposed to.
And hopefully,
since
we have changes in this election, things will pick up.
But I think we need to cover that $231,000.
So, if anybody from the mayor's office is down here,
and from the budget office, please listen and then add
that in.
Again,
I have a community
where we have a school with people
with
different abilities, South
Side Occupational. And
as I walk through the streets,
we cannot forget our residents. We take
that for granted.
So because we're looking at our-
A large portion of our constituency who
are able, but there's many of our constituency
that
have
people with
disabilities who need to make sure that all the resources
are there. So not only outside their home, but inside
the home as well. And we cannot afford for them to
have any funding stripped away. So,
I'm advocating for that 231,000.
Again, there's things we got to do everywhere, but that one cannot be cut.
And so I want to say that for the record, but I also want anybody here
from the mayor's office, the budget office, let's find that money, and
we'll put it back in. Thank you.
Thank you, Alder.
Oh, I'm sorry.
My time is up?
Yeah, it's up.
I think it is. But, so I want to take a round two.
This is real quick, and I think this is important.
Commissioner Arfa,
there was so much excitement around the Obama Center
and everything and what happened around.
I don't think people really know
the added value and what your participation
was in that to help make this center happen, especially
with people with disabilities. Can you just quickly talk about that?
I think it's important, and I think
it's something that should not
be swept under the rug, but highlighted.
So if you can comment on that, because maybe some people just don't know.
If you don't mind.
Thank you, Alderman Moore. I'm
very proud
that I worked very closely with the Obama
Presidential Center on increasing accessibility.
I thought it was so important that as we build the new museum, and for any
new museum or cultural organization, we continue to raise
the mark on what is accessible. And one way that
you will see the result of that work is, I worked very closely with
the team on
how
the digital exhibits were made accessible in American Sign
Language. So when you go to the museum and you see the digital exhibit,
every single digital exhibit is accessible through
American Sign Language, and I'm so proud of the deaf talent from
across the country that came to Chicago to film
those segments. And so you have deaf people who are
conveying
in their native language and culture what is being said in the
Obama Center.
And I just really want to honor and thank everybody who was involved in making
that possible, right down to
CEO Valerie Jarrett, and
President and the First Lady,
President Obama and the First Lady, because there was that buy-in
on accessibility. And then I'm also so proud of my team and I,
including Christina McGleam and Liliada.
We were able to present training on accessibility
to all the brand-new staff before the museum opened,
which was so important. It's even more important
because we're helping to shape the accessibility from the start
for this center, and it was just an incredible partnership.
And we also trained the volunteers, and we continue to provide,
to be in communication about ways to continue to elevate that
accessibility. So, thank you, Alderman.
You're welcome. And I think a lot of people know that, and that deserves a round of
applause from this body.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
You got it, Alder. Up next, Alder Mosley.
Thank you, Chair.
Just disheartening to hear about the
cuts to Home Mod. I was expecting this to go
in the different direction, considering the work that I know, like
my colleague in the 15th Ward has been doing around TIF
NIPS and so forth. But a
$200,000 decrease
is stunning.
Because it's not just--
Commissioner, correct me if I'm wrong, but
the city had a program called SARFS,
or even if you knew it longer, HRAIL, that used to be
in the Department of Housing, but now that's in your
department, and that now falls under Home
Mod. Is that correct?
Thank you, Alderman Mosley. Yes, that's correct.
In 2023 and 2024, we partnered with the
Department of Housing to merge the SARFS
program into MRPD,
so that the programs were not doing duplicate tasks, and
also because our program was recognized as being
very efficient, given the way that our program was managed.
And I have a very strong and outstanding relationship with our
dedicated agency. So yes, we merged that program into
MRPD Home Modification Program. It now serves
people of any age through Home Mod.
And I want to build on a question that my colleague from the 17th Ward
asked. So from 2023, 2024,
2025, 2026,
with this consolidation, did it come with more funding at any point?
I would have our
finance director
share about the funding
A great question. Thank you. Again, Finance Director Antonio
Washington. So for our home modification program, it's been
pretty leveled between 4 to
4.7 million.
2027 will be the first year that we've seen
a significant decrease, and of course, that's due to most of our funding
is the community development block grant for the home modification program.
So any effect to this particular grant is going to directly affect
our home modification program, specifically delegate agencies.
So to answer your question directly, yeah, since 2023, it's been
pretty level between 4 million, 4.5 million.
This will be the first year that has dipped below the 4 million.
Okay. And
we see that
the $200,000 is going to impact how many
people? Was it about 1,200 people?
So 1,200 clients on the wait list, but as
far as the $231,000 reduction, that'll affect nine
projects in 2027.
I'd like, through the chair, if we can get by our
wards, how many residents we have on a wait list.
Again, by ward. I know I have a pretty dense--
or
I have a lot of folks that
are on the wait list for HomeMod or seek to take advantage of the
program. So I'd love to know that. I want to
switch gears a little bit just in the interest of time.
When we look at disabled permit parking, and I know we're working with the
Department of Technology,
for some innovation and efficiencies around that.
Thank you all for being a partner at that table.
Yet, I believe we got to go further, just like when we're talking about
working with CDOT on sidewalks and so forth.
When we install
disabled permit parking, has there ever been a thought to
also make sure that there is a catwalk
and/or courtesy walk so that the
resident can get from their home or to the
vehicle?
Thank you, Alderman. We appreciate your partnership at that.
I'm going to have Tom talk about that.
Tom Ciesielski, Deputy Commissioner. Yes, we do know.
We are aware of situations where the resident has
requested a courtesy walk to their vehicle in a residential block,
and CDOT is responsive in providing
this feature for the resident.
Got it. I think it's something that we should make sure is standard, just
given that some of these residents,
again, are having some mobility challenges, whether they are
assisted by a wheelchair, a scooter,
a walker, a cane,
and particularly when it comes to inclement weather.
I know my colleague from the First Ward has been an advocate of making sure that
we plow the sidewalks, but do we offer any
service to those residents who have disabled
permit parking
who just may not be physically able to plow
or shovel a sidewalk so that they can get to
their transportation?
Thank you, Alderman.
I understand that many neighborhoods have different organizations
they support that can provide that.
The city does not.
Yeah. I know we try to do a volunteer program, but that
program just is not meeting the need.
It's not as voluminous as we need it to be.
And not just in the snow, but
I get neighbors that call about their neighbors not maintaining their
property. And when we go out to do a survey, it's
always a
bit of a catch when we knock on the door and it's a
resident
who
has disabled permit parking.
Have we thought about just, again, the services that
we can provide that are in the interest of the public,
such as the overgrowth, whether it's in the
alley
or
that's impacting the alleyway or the public way, the
sidewalks in the front?
Have we thought about a way that we can assist
those residents and make sure that our public ways are clear in a way
that doesn't penalize them by assessing
fines and fees?
Thank you, Alderman, for those.
Yes, I would continue to explore that further.
Okay.
Yeah, the
HomeMod piece really took a lot of wind out of my sails
here.
I hope that we come together as a council to figure out how we
can make sure that we're providing
and meeting the needs of those who are really counting on us. So thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Alder Mosley. Next up is Alder Conway.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Question for you.
First of all, sorry, I had a little bit of childcare snafu, which
hopefully will be resolved shortly.
Although I think it was Herbert Hoover who said, "Blessed are the young, for they
shall inherit the national debt." And that's certainly true in Chicago, so I'm
glad my young son gets to see the bills he's going to have to pay
My questions were largely asked by Alderwoman Dowell and Alderman Riley.
I share their concerns regarding
sidewalk accessibility as well as
bike lane accessibility, and I hope that
you are working with CDOT on consultation with regard to those.
A question I had, and echoing what Chair Dowell said about your
budget staying relatively flat, which we appreciate, but I know that
last year you lost a
significant amount of ARPA COVID funding.
And how were you able to manage that significant
decrease in 2026? And
how have you had to affect the services that you offer as a result of
that?
Thank you,
Alderman Conway. I couldn't see you clearly before, but now I can, so
I'm always happy to have the company.
I hope this doesn't put up the sleeve.
So, in terms of
ARPA dollars, we had a one-time influx
of ARPA dollars, which we used to
develop a classes assistance program to support
students with disability to experience learning classes
during COVID-19. And we partnered with our
technological agency, EDS McKinney, to distribute
$500 one-time cash grants to over
8,000 families across the city,
which I know made a really big impact.
So that was always a one-time program.
It'll be concluded, that program, at the end of 2024.
So it has not had any impact, and it was always a one-time
program that we
managed and executed completely.
Just reading the...
That's great.
I appreciate that. No, that's a great answer because I appreciate that
when you received COVID money, you recognized that it was
probably going to go away one day and were able to use that for
one-time purposes, which is what it was allocated for.
So, like I said, Chair Dowell and Alderman Riley essentially asked all
my questions. So, really appreciate
everything you're doing and you being conscientious with your
budget recommendation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I didn't think I'd say this, but very cute, Alderman Conway.
Yeah, he's beautiful. He feels like my wife. I appreciate it.
All right.
Hope she's watching, by the way.
Online we have Alder Taylor.
Thank you, Chairman.
Good morning, Commissioner. I just want you all to talk about
what the department does with families and young people of
disability.
Good morning, Alderman Taylor.
Thank you for your question. So you're asking how we support
people with disabilities, and
for example, through our career center, we support job
seekers with disabilities because being able to get
a job is so important, and being able to be independent,
and being able to live in our communities.
So that's just one example. Our home modification program is
another key example of how we support people
with
disabilities living independently in their homes.
That is so important. And then we also partner with
Chicago Public Schools, and we work together with many of
our CPS transition program in supporting
students. Many of the students will come to our career center for
tours.
So those are just some highlights of the many ways that we
support young people. We also have a program that's funded through the State of
Illinois, where we support deaf and hard of hearing
young people. They teach them strategies and drug and
alcohol prevention in American Sign Language,
and it provides a way for other deaf and hard of
hearing youth to see a mentor or somebody like them
who also heard hearing loss. So those are just some of
the many ways that we make an impact across the city and
people with disabilities of any age.
Thank you for that, Commissioner.
I'm going to ask you the same question that I asked the other committee.
What about a dashboard so that people actually could
see the amount of people you help, the work, the programs that
you all actually have?
Thank you, Alderman Taylor. So we track our services that we
use tools like ECM and 3.1 to be able to
track them, and I'm happy to learn more about what information you are
interested in.
That was the only question I got. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Alder. Next up is Alder Waguespack.
Thank you, Chairman. Commissioner and staff, thank you for being here today.
Appreciate all the work that you do year in and year out
on behalf of our constituents.
We heard from Alderman Riley earlier, and Dowell, and many others about the impacts
of these micromobility devices, e-bikes,
e-scooters, robots,
everything that's out on the sidewalks and the streets, and its effect on
pedestrians and people with disabilities.
I think that
based on the complaints that we get, that the numbers of accidents and
especially serious accidents are very low
And many of these problems,
I believe, go unreported because something might not quite
happen. Someone might not get hit, but there are near misses day in and day
out,
where we get complaints from senior citizens, people with
disabilities, family with small children, people in wheelchairs.
And we've tried to look for ways to report these
issues, and typically they go to CDOT without much
of a response.
So it's just something that I want to reiterate too, and
ask you if we were to require CDOT, if you don't already have
this, if we were to require CDOT by code to give MOPD final
approval or sign-off on street and sidewalk designs
before implementation, would you have enough staff to do that work?
Thank you, Alderman, for that question.
I will have to explore more and think about that, but I'm happy to
explore that further.
Okay.
Second, do you receive a list of
311 complaints or 311
items that are broken, out of order,
filed with 311, including the ADA
ramps or the tactile service indicators, the street crossing
signals,
any equipment relevant to people with disabilities
on an annual basis,
in order to follow up with CDOT to get these items fixed?
So do you receive a 311 list on an annual basis?
This is Esther-
I have Esther, who oversees our 311
team.
This is Esther Gutierrez, senior policy analyst.
MOPD does not obtain that data through its 311 reports.
Okay.
Have you asked for it before, or
would it help if you had it from CDOT on an annual basis so
that you could
advocate on behalf of people with disabilities or seniors or
anybody affected by
all of these
broken ramps and
outstanding complaints that we see as aldermen year to year?
So for instance, I've had
tactile sidewalk pads that have
remained broken for years,
years, near schools. And I know that the schools have issues
with children with disabilities.
And
we've taken it upon ourselves to actually pave some of those over, because after
one, two, three years, CDOT has done absolutely nothing to put new
pads back in. So that's why I was asking if you receive those so
you can advocate on behalf of the people that you represent
through MOPD.
Thank you, Alderman. I have been part of some conversations around
311, so I'm going to use this question to explore that further.
Okay. I'll ask
through IGA to get the number of those complaints
relative to
your concerns and interests.
Third,
seeing that the home mods was reduced by $200,000
is disturbing, and I believe that's what
we've been told here, that
if I understood it right, that's the first time in 20-some years that we've
seen a reduction in home mods
funding.
I would have to look, and I have
data over 20 years. I don't have that, but I can look into
that.
Okay.
So, and maybe one of my colleagues can answer this, but I
seem to recall that we had a housing and economic development bond
that had a list of things, and it was over a billion dollars.
It had a list of things that we were going to spend the billion dollars
on,
and there were a couple funds that were kind of wide open in
terms of what I thought those funds could be used for.
So $1 billion.
A lot of it is accounted for. We also have
billions in outstanding bond funds
sitting with CDOT.
And
is there an amount that beyond MOPD's
work with home mods
that you could foresee needing
for all of these other fixes
for equipment
or
infrastructure in our city
that needs to get done in order to protect
or service people with disabilities?
And I know that's a broad question, but we literally have billions of
dollars sitting there that CDOT or housing
has not used, and then we see something like today
or this last couple of weeks in the budget where we're cutting home modifications.
Thank you-
So it's more of a statement. I'm sorry.
It's more of a statement, but-
Thank you.
How about this?
Can your staff put together a list of
funding that you think is required to get the fixes you
need to represent the people
of the city through MOPD?
So if it's
tactile sidewalk
infrastructure, that is $20 million.
If it's home modifications, where we need another $10 million.
If you would
have your staff put together, I think, through the chair, we would appreciate
that.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you.
Does that feel clear?
Mm-hmm.
Okay, great.
Thank you, Chairman.
Very good.
And Commissioner, again, thank you for all the work that you and your staff do
throughout the year.
You have been one of the
best commissioners we've had over the last decade,
and all the staff that have worked there for many years.
And I believe that the city could do more to make
sure that we have the funding required to get the work done
that you need to. So thank you all for all the work that you put in.
Thank you, Chairman.
Well said.
Alder Manna Hoppenworth, you're online.
Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, Commissioner.
Good afternoon, team. I
hope that you can hear me okay. Can you hear me okay?
We can hear you fine, thank you. Go right ahead.
I want to first commend you, Commissioner, for always showing up in Edgewater
and in Uptown, for instance, for the Beyond
the Water party that we have every year, and the work
that you do to make our shoreline accessible to everyone,
no matter how they get around. I want to lift up the work
that you've helped us to accomplish to make our intersections
safer for our accessible crosswalks.
Those that live around Balmoral and Sheridan, they thank us all the
time.
And that's happening all over Edgewater and the 48th Ward in the city,
and I appreciate you for that.
As a physical therapist who worked to
discharge people to their homes out
of Cook County Hospital,
I always wondered how they're going to do.
And it does concern me that we are cutting funding
to the home modification program.
We want people to stay in their homes.
I hear it also in Edgewater that as people are
aging, they don't want to leave. And
everyone at the end of the day,
though they may be fully able today, they
might not be as they grow older. So we want to figure out
ways to help people stay in their communities that they love.
So I appreciate you for all that you're doing for that.
And Alderman Moore and
other alderpeople have talked about the concerns around
the cuts. I was curious because I see that the
overall funding has been cut for delegate
agencies.
Can you speak on the impact of those cuts
overall to the delegate agencies?
What kind of work will be cut, and how is that going to be seen in
the communities? Or is that more administrative?
Can you speak a little bit more on that?
Thank you, Alderwoman. I'm going to have Antonio answer that.
Thank you for your question. This is Finance Director Antonio
Washington. So specifically to delegate agencies
is for the program home modification, specifically.
So our other programs that are funded by the services by delegate
agencies that are funded by grant funds, those are not impacted.
Specifically, the home modification program will be impacted, and
that's where that $231,000 cut to delegate agencies for the
home modification program comes into the conversation.
So, to answer your question directly, it's specifically the home modification
program, the $231,000.
Okay. Thank you for that. And again, the home modification
program includes things that people can do to make their
homes more accessible, like ramps and lifts and bathroom
modifications. Those kinds of things help keep people in
place and not have to choose whether or not
to leave the city for something else
because their lives have changed because of a disability.
So I would also like to support you towards
that end of continuing sustainable funding for
that program.
I'm a little concerned that we rely so much on grants.
I also want to mention that Sheridan Road between Ardmore,
which is the lakefront trail entrance,
between Ardmore and all the way to Devon,
is a challenge for us. It is right on the lakefront.
It has no alleys. It doesn't have bike lanes.
It's right by Loyola. And so those sidewalks are being used
by everyone, including Loyola students who
ride their bikes on the sidewalks.
So I just want to put it out there as we're talking about safety on our
sidewalks. I could use a little help with that.
We want people to be able to get to the lakefront trail, and we
want our seniors to feel safe on the sidewalks, and they don't.
So we're doing all that we can with geofencing, with our shared mobility
devices. But,
again, I'm working with finance, I'm working with CDOT and others, so I'll
connect with you
if that's okay, Commissioner.
Yes, of course, Alderwoman.
Thank you. And then the last thing,
can you speak a little bit on the ADA transition plan?
What is it, and what has been done so far?
I know that city council has asked the city to have
a plan and to implement it, but
I would like to know where we are in terms of
is it formulating the plan or is it implementing the plan?
And what is the timeline moving forward?
Thank you, Alderwoman. I'm going to have Tom speak to that.
Tom Czyzewski, Deputy Commissioner. Thank you for your question.
The MOPD effort on the transition plan
has resulted in a draft plan,
and this draft will be prepared or is
being prepared for public engagement
very soon.
And more information on that will be available very soon.
The other
answer, I think, is that there is a separate
effort just starting an initial phase
for the CDOT transition plan for the public way,
and MOPD continues to be
CDOT's advisor on accessibility for that transition plan.
Thank you. That is very helpful.
I hope that also includes aspirations for making the
lakefront as accessible as possible as well.
We see the delight in young people's eyes who
have never
touched the water, much less gotten on
a
boat to enjoy it.
And I just want to thank you for all the work that you do to include
everyone, no matter their ability. Thank you, Commissioner and team.
Thank you, Alder. And that wraps it up.
There are no more questions. You are
killing me.
All right.
You got my seat.
There you go.
22 there.
Alder Lopez for round two. He has 30 seconds. Go ahead.
Actually, I have just one quick thing, and it was in response to something that our
colleague, Alderman Waguespack, brought up, which was the
housing and economic development bond, which we had talked about previously about
using to help expand
funding for
housing improvements, for MOPD improvements.
I just want to share with my colleagues that when this was discussed,
we talked about amending the bond inducement authority ordinance
to include
housing modifications for MOPD.
And the Department of Housing said that their entire share of that
bond had already been allocated.
During housing, we've heard a very different story, that only partial
allocation has happened up until this point.
So I just want to state on the record that
if we want to ensure that we are fully funding
home modifications through the MOPD program, that we still apparently
do have
a bond authority that we can tap into through the housing and
economic development bond to do this.
DPD and Housing are working with myself and a number of other
aldermen to recreate the TIF Neighborhood Improvement
Program to alleviate pressure.
But I think it's imperative that if there is
spending authority still available through
the housing bond, then we should use it for those who deserve to stay in their
own home in an accessible manner. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Alder Lopez. And I couldn't concur more with
Alder Waguespack in saying you, Commissioner Arfa, are one of the best, if not the
best, over the years. So thank you for your kind service.
To your leadership team, Esther Gutierrez and Antonio Washington, thanks for
joining us up here. All those in the box, thank you so much for your time.
Alders, food should be ready in about two minutes.
12:40 is what I'm being told. So we'll try to get back here at
1:40 for our next round, and we will take a
pause at this point. Thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure to serve as your Chair of Budget for the last
45 minutes.
Not too close. If you have it far away
Good afternoon.
We are back.
Before us, we have the Department of Family and Support
Services. We will have a
brief overview from the Council Office of Financial
Analysis, followed by
introductions from the
department and with
brief.
We got a long one. It's kind of long.
Hmm. Brief, okay. With the brief
statement from the commissioner, after which we'll go into questions, starting
off with the Alderman Conway. Chloe?
Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Chairman Irvin, Vice Chair Lee, and the members
of City Council. This is Chloe Yutimin, Manager of Data Analytics
with COFA. I'm here to provide a brief overview for Department of
Family and Support Services. For FY 2027,
DFSS has a proposed budget of
645.91 million. This is a decrease
of
7.46 million or 1.14%
compared to FY 21 six budget ordinance.
Approximately 34% of department's budget is funded through the
corporate fund.
Across all budget, personnel spending totals
85.17 million, while non-personnel spending totals
560.74 million.
This department has 439
budgeted full-time equivalent positions, and this represents an
increase of six FTE compared to prior year.
As of October 21st, 2026, department has a
vacancy rate of 10.28%.
Moving on to the appropriation breakdown.
The largest decrease is in contractual services, which
declines by 58.57 million compared
to FY 2026 budget
ordinance.
And this decrease is partially offset by an increase of
49 million in the
9200 category purpose as specified increase and a
5.45 million increase in personnel services.
And moving on to department's funding breakdown.
Local fund increased by 46 million while grant fund decreased by
53 million.
This is primarily driven by the 53 million
decrease in 925S state grant fund compared to
the FY 2026 ordinance. However, this is largely
consistent with the FY 2026 revised appropriation.
Looking at department's historical funding, the budget increased significantly
between 2018 and 2025, before declining
in 2026 and 2027. For FY
27, the largest funding source remains grants.
Finally, the last slide shows its staffing trend from
2018 to 2027. The largest share of
position continued to be funded through grants with
345 FTEs and the remaining 94
FTEs funded by local funds. And this concludes COFA's
overview for DFSS.
Thank you, Chloe.
Earlier today,
Director Oda Gray, an apology, she
was to present for...
What was the first one that you were supposed to do? The clerk's office. The
clerk's office, and I omitted her, but at the same time, also wanted to
congratulate her on an award that she received
being one of the top 10 CAOs in the
country. So I do want to give you
your flowers while you are here with us.
So congratulations On your achievement.
So,
thank you for everything that you do.
I have a running joke, I shouldn't say we.
I call them my mean girls because they are all deep into
the data, and if there's anything that you want to know
from a numbers perspective, they do the work and pull it
together, and they've done a lot of work to bring these documents before us in
a very short period of time. Mind you, they get basically about five days
to begin to pull that book together that we all look at, and they do great work
with it. And also the follow-up, and I know many of you all have your one-on-ones
with them, which is what you're supposed to do, and that they've been providing
great information to members of council for everything that they're doing.
So just wanted to congratulate Dr. Gray on her achievement.
So, thank you for everything that you do, and congratulations.
We have our commissioner. Commissioner Green is with us from Department of Family
and Support Services. You can introduce your staff.
Go ahead.
Could we waive the opening statement and get a truncated version?
Because it's a good 15-minute speech.
We just had that conversation. So we'll give you the
CliffsNotes version of that
dissertation, I'll call it, and then introduce your
staff. So, commissioner.
Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Chairman Ervin, Vice Chair Lee,
and the honorable members of the City Council.
Thank you for the opportunity to present the Department of
Family Support Services 2027 budget.
I do want to start by recognizing and thanking Mayor Johnson, his team, and the
Office of Budget Management. I also want to thank each of the council members here
today for your dedication to the wards and to all
the residents of the city. Thank you for your leadership and for your vital
partnership in our work. Here with me today, we
have several DFSS colleagues who can share much appreciated
expertise in their respective areas.
It is my pleasure to introduce those with me on the dais.
First Deputy Commissioner Harvey Jones, Managing Deputy Commissioner
Andrea Chapman, Managing Deputy Commissioner Raymond Barrett.
And in the box, Seraitha Burgess-Burnett, Deputy Commissioner of
Children and Children Services, Lashonda Brown, Deputy
Commissioner of Homeless Services, Daniel Castaneda, Deputy
Commissioner of Gender-Based Violence and Human Services, Margaret Lavarier,
Deputy Commissioner of Senior Services, Mahita Czyszak,
Deputy Commissioner of Finance, Kathy Kulik, Deputy
Commissioner of Youth Services, Mark Sanders II, Deputy
Commissioner of Workforce Services, Cristina Medina, Deputy Commissioner of
Human Services, Yolanda Curry, Deputy Commissioner of Senior Services,
Kevin Givens, Deputy Commissioner of Contracts, Programmatic Monitoring,
and IT.
DFSS work is grounded in the fundamental belief that every Chicagoan deserves
the opportunity to live with dignity, stability, and hope.
And every day, through our dedicated staff and network of community-based
delegate agencies, we work to make that belief a reality for
residents across our city. The department serves
Chicagoans at some of its most consequential moments in their lives.
We support families working to remain housed, individuals experiencing
homelessness, survivors of gender-based violence seeking safety,
older adults striving to age with dignity, young people
pursuing opportunity, and individual families navigating
economic hardships and barriers to employment.
We also invest in early childhood development, in workforce and re-entry, and
community-based programs that help residents build stronger, more stable
futures.
The services DFSS provide are not only just
programs and a budget,
they are lifelines for Chicagoans, investments in our neighborhoods,
and essential components of the city's broader safety net.
Each of you have received a DFSS folder, and inside you'll find documents
detailing our work of our seven service divisions,
including key 2026 achievements and policy updates
across each division.
I must tell you how deeply proud I am of all that DFSS
achieved as a department this year, and that what
DFSS achieved would not be possible without the over 350
mission-driven staff who are not in the chambers with us today.
As well as the leaders filling the box today who work late and on
weekends ensuring our services remain available to those who
need them and need them most, and I'm greatly
appreciative of each and every one of them.
I will say that one year ago today, I did stand before you, and I opened my
budget hearing remarks by speaking to the uniquely
challenging times our city was facing.
Chicagoans, especially our most vulnerable, were navigating unthinkable, if not
impossible circumstances when it came to protecting themselves from the threat
of ICE patrolling in their neighborhoods and making ends
meet in an incredibly difficult economy.
When critical federal supports like Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance
Program, or SNAP, and Medicaid were slated to
undergo cuts and restructuring. We anticipated further federal
challenges and changes that would increase hardships for even
more Chicagoans and their families as we head into 2026.
And unfortunately, those fears have become a reality.
As we enter fiscal year 2027, it's our responsibility to
grow and to ensure the environment in which we operate is
becoming increasingly complex. So federal changes such as SNAP
have already reduced access to essential food assistance for
some families and individuals, and forthcoming changes to
Medicaid eligibility requirements are expected to result in additional
losses of health coverage for our vulnerable Chicagoans.
We are also facing federal proposals to eliminate funding for our Low
Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income
households meet their home energy costs.
Together, these challenges threaten supports that help Chicagoans
So meanwhile, we're seeing changes in Head Start, which remove quality
standards and impose new restrictions on early learning providers,
including significant staff reductions that could force agencies to
close. These changes also threaten program quality.
They create barriers to access for families experiencing homelessness and
children with disabilities, and mandate English-only
classrooms instruction, a significant concern for the 45%
of children in DFSS-funded programs whose primary
language is not English.
This budget also includes
$7 million to commit to our pay parity for our
early learning workforce. By investing in the compensation of our
educators, we help to strengthen workforce retention,
protect program quality, and maintain access to early learning
opportunities for families. This investment is a commitment to a
strong start for every child. This budget also includes
$17 million investment to keep Chicagoans housed.
Changes in federal homelessness policy, including a shift away from permanent
supportive housing, created uncertainty for housing and
supportive services and placed greater responsibility on state and
local governments to prioritize housing solutions.
This investment will allow us to strategically support Chicagoans experiencing
homelessness through outreach and support services, rapid
rehousing, and access to basic necessities while helping them
move toward housing stability. It reflects our commitment to
protecting our most housing-insecure residents and ensuring they have
access to support that they need to improve and
move out of homelessness and maintain
stable housing.
At DFSS, we are responding to the
challenges through a comprehensive prevention approach that
recognize the interconnectedness of needs of our residents.
In homeless services, we are working to strengthen homelessness prevention,
expanding access to shelter and housing pathways, and improving
coordination across the homeless response system.
Through senior services, we support older adults through home-delivered meals,
wellness checks, and services that promote independence, safety, and
connection. Through youth services and children's services, we invest in young
people's development, educational enrichment, and opportunities and pathways to
success. Our gender-based violence program provide
critical safety, advocacy, and support to survivors and their
families. Our human services workforce development and re-entry and
other community-based initiatives help residents navigate hardships, reconnect
to opportunity, and build economic stability.
Recognizing that federal and economic indicators are not pointing to easier times
anytime soon,
as we consider the FY27 budget, we must look beyond the
immediate fiscal year and consider the long-term implications of our
decisions. Investment in prevention, housing stability,
early child development, youth, seniors' well-being,
and survivor services can help reduce the likelihood of
residents that will require more intensive and costly interventions
later. Maintaining the capacity of our community-based service network is
equally important, particularly as providers face rising operating
costs, changing funding requirements, and increasing demand.
So I am grateful for your engagement, your partnership, and shared commitment to
the well-being of Chicagoans served by DFSS.
The relationship that we have cultivated this year have demonstrated what is
possible when we work together, and I look forward to deepening that
collaboration in the year ahead. Through collaboration and shared
focus on solutions, we can continue to meet the community's needs
effectively and create sustainable pathways of support for all
Chicagoans. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve this great city,
and I look forward to taking your questions.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Alderman Conway
will begin. You're next.
Followed by Alderman Riley.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Commissioner.
First of all, I want to say we've had a
wonderful experience working with your outreach team.
If anything, I
don't like to just generally thank people, but we've had a great experience with
Selena Ruiz and Aaron Simmons specifically.
But the fact that you only have nine people on that team for the whole city
seems
like it couldn't possibly be enough.
So some questions about the homeless services part of your
budget. Maybe you can help me explain this.
So I see under,
I guess, group 3030, homeless services.
It looks like you're losing
five positions there from 22 people
in '26 down to 17. But
your homeless services budget,
specifically line 9263, I think this is about some of the things the mayor was
talking about, is increasing by
15 million. So maybe if you could talk about
why you're losing staff and what the 15 million's for, I think that would be
helpful.
Thank you for that question,
Alderman Conway. The 15 million is for keeping Chicagoan
housed, and we have a breakdown of that funding amount for
you. We are looking at flexible housing pool,
2 million of that in order to support-
Yeah
... 63 more households, ensuring that we have these two-
To stop you, that is a different line.
Okay.
The flexible housing pool is going up two million, and that's great also.
But the homeless services is also going up 15.
You're correct.
Yeah.
You're correct, sir. Thank you.
The rapid rehousing program, we're looking at putting
that in that 15 million, as well as expand our outreach teams
Which you have noted, the small amount.
The
reason why we're really doing that is because of the federal changes to
our continuum of care. They are shifting funding away from rapid
re-housing, as well as away from outreach services, so we want to meet the
demand that will be there. And in terms of the staffing, I'll
ask Managing Deputy Commissioner.
An obvious follow up, but maybe it's best for whoever you're going to turn it up
to.
Okay.
If you're going to add to the outreach team, why isn't that reflected in the
headcount part of the budget instead of just the appropriations part?
Got you. Yep.
Yeah. Thank you for that question, Alder.
Raymond Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner of Administration.
We didn't cut any positions. Actually, those five positions that are 17 to 22 on
corporate went to grants. So that is a grant eligible team.
You are referring to the HOT team. It's a little over 10 staff that are on it.
Okay.
But you are right about the outreach.
And so the HOT team does do mostly daytime engagement services.
We do also fund a collection of delegate agencies that are also doing
outreach services, and so we're very excited that a portion of that 15 million in
9263 will be funding our delegates, who help support around the
clock outside of just the city staff.
Well, this actually may then feed into my next question.
I notice under contractual services on the first page, it
looks like the four delegate agencies is going from
5.89 million down to 3.45. And I was going to ask who's
being hindered by that, but it sounds like it may just be moving around.
But I'll throw-
Thank you, Alder. Yeah, Raymond Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner of
Administration. That is correct. We're just reconciling accounts.
So,
the 3.45 million that's remaining in there is historic funding for our satellite
senior centers,
for our legal services for unaccompanied minors, as well as for our 211 program.
The money that got shifted from 0135 didn't go away.
It ended up going to our 9254 accounts, for My Chi My Future
safe spaces, but no impact to services.
So wait, it's going to 9254, which is violence reduction, or going to
9263, homeless services?
In the 0135 account, which is our delegate agency line, is for a variety of
different divisions.
Okay. It's not centered towards one particular one. Yeah, it's going to 9254.
I see. Okay. Although it looks like violence reduction is being significantly
decreased.
Yeah, I can help provide some context on that.
So a portion of that funding during the reconciliation process, some of
the 0135, that
2.664 million that you see in there,
was moved from 0135 into 9254 in corporate.
The remaining $5-plus million
got moved to the Protecting Care Fund.
So those violence reduction services are still happening as well, but they were
just moved to Protecting Care.
All right, so it sounds like we're keeping that
level set, at least.
Correct. All services are staying level.
Okay, great.
I suspect you're going to get some other questions on that because there's been
a lot of discussion about how CVI is going to increase, how much homeless services
are going to decrease. So I suspect some other folks,
a lot of people in this chamber are smarter than I am, but just going to try and
work that out.
You mentioned that
the
federal government had significantly cut back your resources, and I
saw that the COFA screen before that seemed to indicate that
federal grants were going up by about seven million, but the state was cutting you
about 50 million.
Maybe just if you could--
That didn't make sense. Maybe you could
clear up the confusion.
Yeah. Thank you, Alder. Raymond Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner of
Administration. So the opening statement that the commissioner is referring to is
the changing landscape of the federal environment in general.
Yeah.
Right now, that is not impacting us at all.
Good. Okay.
So, I could go through the math of it, but we are not seeing any impact to our
services. I think what you're referring to on the state side is CPS consolidated
its contracts for our early childhood block grant.
And so that's just funding that is, once again, not impacting services, but instead
how they wanted to redistribute the funding to, instead of it going directly
all to Chicago, to go to each of the federal grantees in proportion.
So the services aren't being impacted in any way.
It's just CPS wanted to consolidate their contracts.
Okay. Because, yeah, I see it on that screen, that state funding says minus
53.24 million.
Right. And that's in line with the
reduction of the state funding as with the CPS.
But I think it's important for you to know it's no impact to services.
It's just CPS wanted to divvy up the funds to each of the various
grantees on the federal side in proportion.
So it's not housed with us, but we're actually very excited to work with CPS on it
because it directly gets them payments faster.
Sure. And so I know that you all
took a significant reduction in funding
either last year or two years ago because of the expiration of ARPA funds.
Now,
do you
have any concrete reason to believe there's going to be a significant federal
reduction in funding, and how would
you
potentially plan for that going forward?
Because obviously you're kind of the last line of defense
to really bad situations for people in the city of Chicago.
Yep. Thank you for that question,
Alderman Conway.
In regards to our department, we don't see those
reductions happening impacting us.
What we do see is it impacting the partners that we are working with,
as well as those recipients of SNAP services, of Medicaid
services, right? And as their
ability to access those benefits, as that decreases, it
comes to increase on our
home-delivered meals, on our congregate dining.
It becomes an increase on our services.
But there's not a federal cut to DFS regarding
our programs.
Wonderful. Okay. Well, I just want to extend my thank you again,
specifically on the homeless services.
The homelessness issues we have in
my ward tend to be a little bit different.
They're not kind of random tents around.
It'll be 40 people behind the Blommers
factory, or 22 people under the Fulton Viaduct.
And the fact that-
In fact, I think I told you, Commissioner, "Please don't send your people back
there because it's not safe," and you did anyway, which I thank you for doing
that.
To the rest of you, I'm sorry, I tried to help you all.
But the fact that you were able to get 22 people back there into housing,
and then you did 10 others under Fulton,
really made a world of difference for my ward.
So I just want to make sure
to thank you, and I'm sure when Alderman Burnett goes, he'll thank you for that as
well, since we share that property. So Mr.
Chairman, thanks for letting me cut the line a little bit, and thank you all for
everything that you're doing.
Bring me back a souvenir.
Where's the baby?
The babysitter came to get the baby, so
Oh. Very well.
Who else have-- We have everybody for questions. Okay, everybody's down. Okay.
Alderman Riley, followed by Alderman Moore.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, Commissioner.
Sir.
I wanted to pick up where Alderman Conway left off.
Obviously, the department funds a large network of
delegate agencies,
and I would just like to make a request through the chair.
Could you provide the names of all providers-
Yes, sir
... the physical location of each of their office or headquarters,
the services provided,
and then the amount of their appropriation last year and this-
Yes, sir
... and what is being requested next?
Yes, sir.
And
again,
I think the most important thing for me to try and get my head around, and I've
been asking this question consistently, so I'm not picking on you, Commissioner,
is
how are we measuring their results?
So our nonprofit partners are obviously critical part of our network,
but what metrics have been developed?
And I know you have to speak more broadly, because depending on each
mission and focus, it's going to be different.
But if you could just give maybe a one-minute
synopsis of how you developed metrics and how you're
evaluating year-over-year progress.
A lot of folks
consider your agency's mission the most
important, and we want to make sure that each dollar, which is precious, is being
stretched as far as it can.
Thank you for that question, Alderman Riley.
And you are exactly right, the impact of the work that we're doing is critical, and
we need to make sure we're measuring it.
And we do have
a outcomes-based, data-driven culture through our Commitment
to Outcomes program. And that allows us
to clearly describe, measure, and report out on outcomes
to see if our delegates are reaching those.
We have a programmatic monitoring team, as well as a fiscal monitoring team that
is tracking that to look at performance, to look at fiscally, are we being
efficient on the dollars, and is it spending and going out appropriately?
That commitment to outcomes, we embed in every program and every one of our
divisions, and those outcome metrics are actually reported out on.
We also include it in our RFP process so that our delegates know the expectation
before they accept an award with us.
Good.
And...
Sorry.
That's a good thing.
Yeah.
And
sorry, I didn't realize my mic was hot.
Based on that information, how many contracts were renewed in
2026
even though the nonprofit provider may not have been hitting its
metrics?
There's certain things that we do to ensure our contractors
are actually meeting those metrics. We provide TA.
We do put them on program improvement plans if that is needed.
It's our hope and expectation that we can help them along to ensure that they are
meeting those outcomes. When they are not, we do defund, we do shift money
around to ensure that we're having impactful services happening.
The number of those that we-
That were not renewed due to failure-
That have not been renew-- has not been one.
Oh.
Yeah.
So I can step into that. Yeah, Raymond Berry, Managing Deputy Commissioner of
Administration.
Echoing everything the Commissioner said, the purpose of our department is that
they do succeed.
Yeah.
So they're on technical assistance to improve.
And so if, in most situations, it is resolved
with our assistance.
Last year, I can only recall of, on our end, one contract where
we forced them to end their contract because they were not working with
us for technical assistance, they were not hiring in a timely manner, et cetera.
But the purpose of our department is to support their capacity so that they're
performing.
Fully understood. And again, that's important work that you do with
a nonprofit partner.
But if
one of our partners is falling down in multiple areas, and yes, they're
taking your assistance and your guidance,
they still may be only delivering half the result.
Although they're trying and taking your coaching and guidance,
sometimes there's another provider out there, perhaps, that would be willing
to run through the brick wall to get that opportunity.
So I guess-
Yeah
... how do you do that balancing act?
Yeah. So the way that we typically do it is, everything that the Commissioner kind
of mentioned, but every year as we're looking at all the contracts, if
an agency's not performing, but they're performing, let's say, not at the scale we
want, but at a percentage that works for them, what we will do is we'll actually
modify their contract to where they can hit their target, take that money, and then
allocate it to the better performers.
I
see. Because that's our cost efficiency that we're trying to do as well.
And just so I'm clear, because you said there's only one
provider that you had to dismiss,
what is the total universe of your nonprofit partners?
How many are we talking about here?
Yeah. We have a little over 320 delegate agencies and over 1,200
contracts.
Okay. 320 agencies, 1,200 contracts.
Over 1,200, yes.
Okay. That's very helpful. And,
again, I'll look for that other information through the chair.
The vast majority of your budget is made up of grants, right?
Correct.
Something like 386 million or so is coming from the
feds/state.
Mm-hmm.
And in your opening remarks, Commissioner,
you did note that we've had some challenges with Washington, DC,
as of late,
given a hostile president, et cetera.
Certainly-
Yes
... Tuesday night's results are going to change that situation for us come January,
which is good news. In the interim, we're going to be feeling some continued
pain. I do think the trajectory there will improve rather dramatically for
us. So, a lot of our gloom and doom around here, I think
surprisingly, was erased on Tuesday night.
But that said, in the interim,
in the event that we see, we're not seeing it yet because we're seeing, I think,
maybe at the state level a bit, but not so much locally,
a significant reduction in those grants.
Is it the administration's plan to replace dollar for dollar that missing
federal money with local taxpayer dollars, corporate fund money?
Or what would the solution be there if this were a
catastrophe to happen in, say, the next few months?
Thank you for that question. When I look at across our federal
portfolio,
we don't have anything at risk, with the exception of Head Start-
Mm
... because we're waiting for that NOFO to come out and to
apply for that. So, that is something that we
have to keep an eye on. We are already working on the development of that to make
sure it is the strongest competitive grant that we can submit.
But that would be the one area that we have concerns, and that's all your Head
Start programs that we are-
And how much money is that?
Brandon Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner, Administration. $92 million.
$92 million. And the question was, would your plan be to replace
that dollar for dollar with corporate fund money?
That is not something that we have discussed
because we're hoping that we'll make sure we get
full funding from them. If we do not, we have to begin talking
to our partners because they're current Head Start agencies.
Mm.
And talking to the city to see if there are other
philanthropic, as well as other folks that could make sure those Head Start
agencies maintain, but they would end up having to go to other delegates.
So for now, the most immediate and potential risk is this $92 million
bucket of money- Yes
... for Head Start. Okay. Chairman, do I still have a little time here?
Yeah.
Oh, got it.
25, 24.
Okay. And also, I wanted to pick up where Alderman Conway was
talking about homelessness. Obviously, the ward I represent
downtown, we work with your teams every Thursday,
and they do a great job, and their work is appreciated very much.
How many shelter beds does the city fund today,
and what does one bed cost us per night?
Hi. Managing Deputy Commissioner of Programs, Andrea Chapman.
So, we fund approximately 4,100 shelter beds, and
if it is a congregate bed, it's at about $29
is the bed rate. If it's
a non-congregate bed, that rate's significantly
higher at about $45. But we do have a
range of bed rates throughout our system.
We have one particular provider that's still funded at
$35,
but just depending on if it's non-congregate or congregate, our standard rate is
$29 for congregate beds and then $45 for non-congregates.
Okay, and the second part of that question was how many people moved
from shelter into permanent housing in 2026, year to
date?
And how long is the average stay?
Yeah. So, for our average length of stay,
the average length of stay for our shelter system
is depending on the population. So, if it is families, families are
staying in shelter about 81 days-
81
... on average. And if it's a single, they're staying about
91 days. Our youth are generally more transient, and they are
stabilized a little bit easier as well, so that's about 31 days.
But our DV population, that's at about 52 days.
In terms of the number of households moving from
shelter or unsheltered homelessness into housing,
so for 2026 to date, about
1,149 households have moved to housing from
either of those situations.
And how would that stack up against last year, just to give folks some context?
I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you.
How would our progress year to date this year
match up against last year's number?
So last year we had a
little bit over 1,700 households move to housing, and so right now the
year is not complete, and we're already at
1,100. So the-
About on pace?
We are slightly below
the average of the folks that were housed last year from this year.
But part of that has a lot to do with our housing stock and
some of the threat to our permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing.
So, we've had to pause some of the initiatives that go into housing
because of the HUD NOFO that is threatening permanent supportive and rapid
re-housing dollars.
We had to do a little bit of pause for part of our year to make sure that with that
HUD NOFO, if those dollars were cut, we weren't having to
off-ramp significant number of folks.
So, we could not continue to onboard or enroll folks in these
housing units that weren't stable at that time because of this HUD NOFO.
I understand. Okay. That's helpful.
I'll let someone else ask about the youth jobs program,
Chairman. I'm sure there's great interest in that.
Alderman-
Thank you for your work.
Commissioner, go ahead. You wanted to make a correction.
I want to make one correction to my statement when you talked about
Head Start-
Mm
... and the funding that we have towards that.
When we compete, we're going to be competing with others in the city.
They will still fund the city,
so that
money may not come to us, but it will come to other agencies that-
That may win that competitive bid
So we'll still accrue the benefit, it just won't be passed through.
Correct.
Got it.
This is the second round it's happened this way?
Yes.
Understood.
Yep.
Thank you, Chairman.
Okay. Alderman Burnett.
I'm sorry. No, it was Alderman Moore, then Alderman Burnett. I'm sorry.
Thank you so much, Chairman.
I think it was Alderman Riley. I was going to ask you for the
17th Ward, but he asked
all the wards. And if you would, with that, just
by the address where it's located, can you put what ward
that's in?
What ward.
That's all.
And I just want to say
to you, Commissioner, again,
thank you for being accessible. Thank you for
taking calls whenever any one of my staff
call, and you are
detailed and knowledgeable about the work that you're doing.
I
appreciate your entire team, but
I want to definitely give a big shout-out to Margaret for the works that she does
with our seniors. It's fantastic when she comes out.
Very detailed, they're informed, and man, they learn so
much during those community meetings
that we have with her. So I just want to say thank you, and that was the
information that I was going to ask for as well, and we get that, would be great.
Thank you so much, and I appreciate you.
Thank you, Alderman Moore. Alderman Burnett, followed by
Alderman Quezada.
Thank you, Chairman. And Commissioner Green, it has been a pleasure to have you
since you've been on board.
As Alderman Conway noted, you came in immediately and dealt with something that had
been a problem in our community for a long time, and you all took significant risks
to help a lot of people. And you continue to do the work across
the viaducts in my ward, and I will be forever grateful for the
care and dedication you have to the unhoused population in our
ward. So thank you all for that commitment.
I am looking at what you all presented in this budget, and obviously
with
the changes in our budget and the impact,
the youth jobs are something that stick out.
I recognize that we're trying to add north of $20 million
to the budget in order to fill in the gap.
Could you talk a little bit about
the success of the program this year? How many kids got jobs?
How many kids applied? How many of them didn't?
And where do all of those, if you have a breakdown of where those kids were placed
across sister agencies in the city, that'll be helpful too.
Thank you for that question, Alderman Burnett.
Let me-- Sorry.
This year, we did actually surpass our goal.
We were able to bring on
33,018 youth,
working out of
various offices, including ward offices.
We actually had youth, 56,000 youth to apply, and
out of the 56,000 youth, we were able to get 33,000, but that was
with our partners
as well. We were able to bring on
21,707 from the city funding, and then
we had our partners to assist with that.
I just want to make sure you all know,
sometimes you may not see that youth are being hired in your ward, but we had
youth
apply in every single ward,
and we had between 40% and Napolitano,
100% of his youth were hired, applied out of his ward.
So just to let you know that percentage of youth that are coming from your wards
into our program.
And
what was the second question he asked?
There's one other question I want to make sure I'm--
Can you go through each question? There's a question I'm missing.
The last question I don't think you answered was just where were all of these kids
placed?
Okay. Yeah.
What parts of the city sister agencies?
Thank you. I'm going to ask Deputy Commissioner Kulick to give the breakdown
of where all the youth
went and where they're placed, and the agencies that we worked with to get us to
the 33,000.
Thank you for that question. Kathy Kulick, Deputy Commissioner of Youth Services.
So across the 33,018 young people that received
a paid opportunity, DFSS, as Commissioner Green mentioned, also
partners with other partners throughout the city.
The 21,707 young people that DFSS programs
directly gave paid opportunities were across different delegate agencies.
We can get you a list of those delegate agencies and where they're located through
the chair.
That'd be awesome. Thank you.
Yeah.
I do know I had a conversation with some of my parks, and they were saying that,
and I was a student of this process where
I was one of those apprentices who learned how to do park administrative services and
being a junior counselor back in the day.
And they felt like the programming in order to get people through the ranks has
kind of dissipated in a way that isn't helpful for retention or
to replace people who are starting to retire.
So as we continue these type of programming, working with our sister
agencies to kind of create these apprenticeship programs
could be extremely helpful. And I do recognize that the city has needs
and gaps that it needs to fill,
but I also recognize that Chicago has one of the most diverse
economies in the world,
and that there are corporations out here who hire hundreds, if not
thousands, of interns every year.
How is DFSS
working with our corporate partners to
fulfill or help with some of these job applicants that are coming our way?
Thank you for that question.
We actually have started a new program this year, and it's called Career
Exploration and Employment Preparation program that actually connects our
Chicago young adults between the ages of 18 to
24, particularly those who are facing significant barriers to employment
with career exploration, job readiness training, and
industry-specific skill development and supportive services and these
employment opportunities. After we are training them, then we're asking for
corporations, community-based organizations as well, and
local businesses to hire them on in an
unsubsidized way, so where they will take on the full
cost of their pay. So we're connecting with corporations throughout
the city, and we would love when you all know businesses that can be a
part of this, please connect with us, and we'd like to expand that.
That's awesome. Yeah.
In looking at these, I'm very deeply involved with both community
engagement with youth in my ward, but care about it a ton across the city and the
country. And when I do my research about cities in
comparison who are doing this type of work, Boston is always at the
top of mind because they have a program where they effectively usher their
kids from their public school into corporate internships.
Mm-hmm.
It's a requirement for their seniors.
It's something that I feel like we should be emulating in order to bridge the gap
of opportunity for those in communities that don't necessarily have that strong
network of employers who live in those neighborhoods.
And so as I think about that, I love that you all are starting this program.
It's fantastic. I imagine that you've looked at best practices across the country
in order to emulate some of those tendencies.
Are the kids who are applying through-- How does it work with the overlap
of the youth works jobs, those 55,000 kids,
and this corporate
program that you're setting up?
So what we recognized, one concern I had, last year I looked at the numbers.
Only 50% of our kids were being hired.
And so I wanted to see what can we do for the additional that might be an
opportunity for them. That's how we came with this CEET program.
And so after we threw the summer employment, those kids that were left, and
actually even other kids that might be interested, but we were trying to get those
that had not been hired to go into this program.
So we had 1,500, a little over,
1,500 that actually became a part of the CEET program and now connect them
to employment opportunities. But you also-- I don't know the breakdown in
terms of how many were in CPS schools, because typically they were 18, so maybe
some of the 18 were, but they were 18 to 24-year-olds.
Understood. I get it. For corporations, they look for that type of
education base, right? You have to be high school educated at a minimum.
Yeah. I do know that there are some corporations.
I remember a lot of my friends, not a lot, but a few of my friends who were juniors
and seniors in high school would work at like PepsiCo.
They had some type of high school program. Like it can be very beneficial, right?
I know it
oftentimes requires
administrative burden to train up these kids, but at the same time, they have to
learn these skills in order to adapt into these workforces, and there's no better
time to do it than when they're younger.
And so if we can try to facilitate and help any way we can as a city to bridge that
gap of educational opportunities and employment opportunities,
I want to encourage us to lean on our partners more so than just try to
hold the whole burden within the city.
Because we already have a 20,000
employee gap with our current budget as it is.
And with the success from this past summer, I imagine that that is possibly going
to grow. And so I would love to keep working with you all to figure out solutions
on figuring out what employers, and incentivizing employers
to tag on to this process in order to make sure that we have
opportunities for our entire village of kids.
I would totally appreciate that. Our workforce division, as well as our youth
services division, is working together to try to increase the corporate response
for our program. I would love to connect with you to see how you could help us
in this as well. That'd be greatly appreciated.
Amazing. And as everyone stated, appreciate all the work that you all do.
You're the first line of defense. I know I don't have time to ask more questions,
but I know that a lot of the
Medicaid and Medicare roll-off and re-education of
processes is happening at the beginning of this year, and you all at the
forefront of educating us on how to reach our community members on that.
So thank you so much for filling in the gap where our federal government is not
stepping in.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Burnett, Alderman Quezada, followed by Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, Commissioner Green, and to the entire
team. I really want to uplift and thank you all for the great service that you
provide to our entire city, but especially to the people of the 35th
Ward. We've had a lot of great work done this year to help
our growing homeless community, people experiencing
homelessness in our community and our ward, and I really want to, again, thank you
and thank the entire team. In particular, I want to highlight Selena Ruiz and Aaron
Simmons for working with my team very diligently every week to
uplift and assist our neighbors.
I also want to shout out the Chicago Committee on Urban Opportunity, the committee
that I work on, all the amazing representatives and leaders
who work on that team who are dedicated to protecting the programs that our
neighbors rely on. I really just want to uplift the entire work that they all do.
And in my time on that committee, I just also want to uplift the great work and the
importance of our community service centers and the role that they play.
I've had the great opportunity of visiting and touring many of our centers, and
I see how our neighbors rely on the services and
resources that those centers provide.
And I think that, I'm going to say this every year, I think that the budgets that
we have don't do enough. We need to be investing more.
This is one of the most important departments that we have in our city.
Tackling poverty is one of the most important priorities any government should
have. We should be waging a war on poverty, not the poor.
And you are the department that is doing that.
And so I just want to uplift every single worker in the Department of Family and
Support Services that they do every single day for our city.
So I know that my colleague already asked a question about how many
shelter beds there are. The 4,100 shelter beds that exist, is
that a combination of the non-congregate and congregate shelter beds?
Is that right?
That'd be correct.
And do you have a breakdown of the non-congregate and congregate,
the
bed breakdown for each of those types?
We'll get that through the chair.
Sure. Thank you so much.
How many people are experiencing homelessness, on-the-street homelessness, in the
city of Chicago currently,
by estimate?
From our point-in-time count, and remember that was one point in time, January
22nd of this year,
we did see a 12% decrease. We had
6,527 people experiencing homelessness on that date.
75% of them were placed in a shelter, and we had
an increase, a 25% increase though, of those who are
unsheltered. So there was 1,614 unsheltered.
I think one of the things that we try to always help our residents understand
is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, if
we could convince every single person experiencing homelessness right now,
could we house and shelter every single person on the
street? No, sir. We could not.
So what is the difference in terms of capacity
and need in the city of Chicago?
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Andrea Chapman, managing deputy commissioner of programs.
Thank you for that question, Alder.
Right now, we don't have the capacity in housing or in shelter for everyone
that is experiencing homelessness in our city.
That remains an issue and has always been an issue for our system.
The demand really outweighs the supply of what we have.
But the reality is, is when we have
housing stock in communities of origin and in community of choice,
it does help for our unhoused neighbors and people experiencing
homelessness to actually accept the housing that we do have available.
But the same hold true for our shelter system as well.
People have to have quality stock, but it also has to be in community and
origin, and community of choice. A barrier that we're always
seeing in our system, even as we release RFPs, we have a number of
delegate agencies that do this work with us that we fund, and
they are doing the best that they can, but they run into challenges finding
property, finding landlords that will work with them, even for our shelter
providers. While we released three
RFPs for shelters this year, our providers mainly are working on the west
and south side of our cities. We're not getting providers on the northwest side
or north side, where we really need the expanded capacity.
And so that's where Alder support goes a long way.
If you all know of facilities in your ward that would be willing to serve as
shelters that our delegate agencies could use, helping us with zoning, it
goes a long way. But also being out in the ward and pounding the
pavement with landlords that have rental units, and asking them to work with our
Chicago Rents program so that we can increase our housing stock in
community of choice and community of origin.
That is also going to be an issue because even if we did put more online, it
has to be quality stock. But it also has to be in community of
origin and community of choice where people have connections.
Excellent. Thank you. And I know, Commissioner, we talked about this briefly
before, but I want to reiterate. I think it'd be really important if we had
a coordinated entry system
service and a staff member at the Copernicus Center on the northwest side in
Avondale.
I believe that would be really helpful for a lot of the northwest side Alder people
to help direct people to get assistance.
Okay.
We currently do not have that as one of the CES sites, but I
think that would be really helpful regionally on the northwest side.
Okay.
Could you describe a little bit about the demand and need around permanent
supportive housing and what that wait list is looking like right now?
Permanent supportive housing is managed by the continuum of care
and the coordinated entry system.
We don't
manage the permanent supportive housing.
Got it. But we don't even have the numbers in terms of, like, we wouldn't know on
our end what that wait list looks like?
We get that through the chair because we get that through our-
Okay. Thank you very much.
And then
could you describe, in terms of the flexible housing pool, the
population that it's designed to serve?
Yeah.
Yes, sir. Our flexible housing pool, right now we have
1,819 participants in 1,002
households that have been placed into housing, and
342 of them are youth-led
households, while 660 are adult
households.
Got it. And is there a wait list for that as well,
for the flexible housing pool?
I think-
Yeah.
I think there is.
There is always, again, there are always-- Again, I'm sorry.
Andrea Chapman, managing deputy commissioner of programs.
There is always a need for increased capacity, even with that,
and funding drives that. And since the city is not the sole funder of the flexible
housing pool, increasing the number of funders in that pool
also increases the amount of housing that is available in that
pool. But there is still a need for flexible housing pool-
Excellent
... housing and dollars to support.
Thank you,
guys. And just to add to that, if you don't mind.
Yes, absolutely.
As of August of this year, 173 have been
referred to flexible housing pool, with 110 of them currently
housed.
Got it. Yeah, I think it'd be really helpful just through the chair to get the
numbers of those wait lists.
Again, I think that we are playing defense right now with this budget- Yes
... when we should be playing offense.
We need to be investing drastically, a lot more, if we're going to really help our
neighbors experiencing chronic homelessness.
So what are the supportive services that are provided for folks in the flexible
housing pool, and who provides them?
So we do have some navigation services, as well
as case management services
within our flexible housing pool.
And the agencies include
Chicago Family Health Center, La Casa Norte, the Night
Ministry, UND Parenting, Universal Family Connections, and SCA Youth
and Family.
Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.
And just briefly, what would be the ramifications and negative impacts if we do
not
fund the request for permanent supportive housing and
flexible housing pool? What would those impacts be immediately starting
next year if we do not fund these?
So our request is for rapid rehousing because we do not do permanent
supportive housing.
That's right. Yes. Thank you for the correction.
No problem.
When you think about the impact of that, the first thing is going to be what's
visible. You're going to see more people in encampments.
That's automatic.
Got it.
Yeah.
And then the last thing I'll just say is, I don't know if you know about this, but
we received an
urgent notice regarding the closure of the Renaissance Triage program
in Wicker Park. Are you familiar with this and-
I am familiar with this, yes
... familiar with the situation?
It is not a DFS-funded agency.
Okay, excellent. Okay, that's all I got for now. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you, Alderman Kiazad. We have Alderman Lopez,
followed by Alderman Dowell.
Good afternoon, Chairman, and good afternoon, members of the committee.
Good afternoon, Commissioner, to you and to your team.
I'll let you finish that water before I start going to town on you.
Thank you.
A couple of things I'd like to talk about,
and they're more in your grants section than anything.
The grants totals for this year versus last year
are about 70 million less.
And if I'm reading
our budget correctly,
that has to do with disaster relief
and home investment programs
and various planning and administration, along with some
Consolidated Appropriations Act. Does that sound about right?
Brandon Barrett, managing deputy commissioner of administration.
So there is 63 million that gets carried over.
They're grants that for many of them we've had for many years that are
construction-based, both for the Bronzeville Senior Center, for HOME-ERP, which
is
expanding our shelter network to build on more non-congregate beds, et cetera.
But the only actual impact we had on the grant side of things is the loss of
ARPA dollars, of which those programs actually are level-funded
So on page 629, in the center, right under
Department of Family and Support Services.
Yes.
It says 2026 grant.
Mm-hmm.
HUD, CPD, CDBG, planning and administration, disaster relief.
Correct.
And home-- So there's nothing in 2027.
So-
Yeah, I'm following your logic, Alder.
So if you see them in '26, they then go into that column of carryover,
and that's a OBM like exact-
That's not what... I'm not asking about carryover.
Mm-hmm.
So this grant we don't have in 2027.
We do have it in 2027.
But then where is it?
It gets carried over.
Nope.
The carryover is from 2026, correct?
So I can go through each one. So for the Home Investment Partnership program, that
carryover actually is from 2021.
So
the 39 million-
Correct
... has been carried over for five years now?
Yes, that is correct.
And it's being carried over again?
That is correct.
So as we're talking about
homelessness and keeping people in homes,
you're saying that the department has sat on this
grant for five years?
That is incorrect.
That is what?
It is incorrect that we have sat on it.
So since they're construction-based programs, they take numerous years to go
through the environmental review, et cetera, program.
I can't say all of those shelters are actually going to have construction starting
next year.
So
all of your carryover grants, can you provide a timeline of when we're going to see
them actually executed? Because
there's a
significant amount of carryover, as well as a significant amount of
programs that we're seeing that are grant funded,
that I think
if we were to fully put pressure on the department to start moving forward with
some of this,
probably would answer and alleviate some of the pressures that we're seeing in our
neighborhoods.
As we're looking at,
for example, one of the things that I always like to see is when the
department helps seniors.
You have, I think, about a dozen grants specific to seniors.
We also know that we do like the Meals on Wheels and things of that nature.
Before I get to that question, I have a different question, because in
this administration's first budget,
and I believe it was Commissioner Brandy Canasi who was here at that time,
we had a program of helping seniors, both in terms of
shoveling as well as maintaining their lawns and things of that nature for those
who could not simply do it.
And then that program ended.
It ended the very next year by this
administration.
How was that funded?
And has your department considered resurrecting that
item?
Because I see that Mayor Johnson, just this morning,
is trying to lay blame for that disappearance
on city council.
Sorry, give me one second, sir. Sorry about that.
Take all the time the chairman will give you
Point, Alderman Villegas.
Could the
gentleman from the 15th Ward repeat that question again, please?
Alderman.
Do you want me to repeat that again?
Yeah.
Okay.
Sure.
In the mayor's first budget,
under the leadership of your predecessor, Brandon Kenasy,
there was a program that assisted seniors with basic
home
help, shoveling, cutting the grass, things of that nature.
Very light, very easy, call 311.
That program subsequently was canceled the very following
budget, his second budget, as a matter of fact.
This morning,
blame for that cancellation, along with videos of seniors saying
how they wish they could have someone come shovel their sidewalks and cut their
grass, were being put on the mayor's social media,
basically trying to put blame for that disappearance of the program on
City Council.
Has your department
looked at that program? How was it funded, and what can we do to
actually reconstitute one of the few beneficial things we've
seen out of this administration?
Thank you for that question, Alderman Lopez.
DFSS utilized ARP and federal funding to
expand the chore services that you're referencing.
In FY26, we no longer offer that lawn care,
or snow removal, or extermination due to the limited funding
ability. And I'm going to ask Deputy Commissioner-
And if I may, before you pass it along, what was the price tag of that?
It was called the Chores program?
Yes, sir.
I want to make sure I'm calling it correctly.
The Chores program, what did that cost us?
We can get that through the chair. Yes, we can definitely get that through the
chair.
Roughly.
Yep. Deputy Commissioner.
Deputy Commissioner Margaret Larravie, Senior Services.
So the Chore program provides heavy-duty
cleaning-
Great
... in-home support. That's a basic program that cost us, I believe,
around $200,000 yearly.
We used the ARP funds that we had to add
on to that program.
We added on snow removal-
Mm-hmm
... lawn care.
So it's safe to say under a million dollars?
Yes.
Okay.
Yes, it's under a million.
So for something that was so wildly acceptable
and appreciated across 50 wards,
not even a million dollars.
I think that's something that this department and this body
probably could find in a heartbeat
because most of us have snowblowers, chainsaws, and everything else that we have
to do anyway to make up for that program's disappearance.
So I'd love to see what we can do to bring that back, as well as to see by
ward, if you wouldn't mind providing through the chair, how many of our
residents by ward actually used that program?
Because I think it was very beneficial and
something that if the mayor wants to talk about it, then we can have that
conversation about it.
Thank you, sir.
I know we- You
mean to tell me you don't shovel snow in your ward?
Sir, I have three snowblowers.
Oh, okay. I hear you.
I would do it with both hands if I could.
All right.
We talked about the jobs program, Chicago Works, and that is something,
as we've talked before, is one of the few things that I clapped for
this budget
presentation because I do think that we need to put more kids to work, more youth
to work, and I actually have told you that I'd love to find ways to actually put
them to work year-round because I think that's even more beneficial for certain
categories.
Of those that were employed, how many of those positions were
actually on-site?
And are we still doing a remote version
of this Works program?
No, 100% of them, sir, are on-site.
Okay.
Yeah.
Can you provide through the chair, because I know there's some questions, but I
want to know about how many
private sector companies participate.
Because I do know that that has always been a challenge, but I don't necessarily
believe that we do enough to actually explain and recruit with our friends
at BACP. When we say that we could provide you someone who's going to work
that we'll pay for for eight to 10 weeks, I don't think people necessarily
understand that. And I'd also like to see what we could do to address
the delegate agency
management of that, because I know oftentimes it's the paperwork back and forth
that becomes a little burdensome and scary for people who don't necessarily want to
get that involved with paperwork, but do want to give people opportunities.
My office had 12 this year
in my office and three off-site.
I think I needed a vacation after dealing with 15 people
in their 20s, but it was well worth it.
But I think that we should be able to do that.
Lastly, I want to end with
the food insecurity and the issues with Meals on Wheels for our
seniors. Again,
we hear constantly that food insecurity is real in the city of Chicago.
I think it's almost at 50% now, according to the Greater Chicago
Food Depository.
What are we doing to address that through your department?
I know I've seen various trucks zipping around the neighborhood, not
necessarily
Meals on Wheels, but I also know that that program is still something that we do.
So if you could expound on the programs that are available, not just for
seniors, but for families. But also specifically when it comes to the
seniors, what's our wait list like?
How is the participation in the wards look like, and what do we need to actually
bolster people up? Because it's an absolute travesty that in this
city, in the center of this country, we have that high of
food insecurity.
Thank you for that question.
We have not put a wait list on our home-delivered meals, but if you all recall the
letter I sent you in the summer, that we were close to that because
we have a high demand of seniors on home-delivered meals, and the funding does
not match the demand. We have put some things in place.
We've done a partnership with Greater Chicago Food Depository
to be able to expand and take over some areas where we see fiscally
we cannot continue. And they've done an excellent job to be a partner with us
in our Chicago Housing Authority to ensure that those seniors and their
senior living facilities are receiving meals, which helps to reduce
the cost on our end. And we're also looking at other strategies to be
able to expand. We're
continuing to speak with the state to ask for more funding because it is
state-funded and federally-funded.
Chairman, if I may just ask one final follow-up on that point.
Go ahead.
Having done
many repacks in my lifetime with
Greater Chicago Food Depository,
oftentimes we see food comes in that's close to expiration,
or that's close as in two weeks.
Okay.
Whether it's because it didn't get off the shelves fast enough or
distribution, what have you.
In some European countries, when it gets close to expiration, it's simply allowed
to be
written off as free.
Is perhaps that a program that would be beneficial here where we could, as a
tax incentive, if individuals have food that's
within five days of expiration
or three days, whatever you want to say, and in risk of just being thrown out,
is that something that your department should possibly look into?
Because it would literally cut out the middleman at getting food into people's
hands.
If we can just give it away and have the retailers take it as a
tax credit or what have you
in that regard.
I agree with you, Alderman Lopez. I think with the food insecurity that
we know that is there,
all options need to be on the table, and we can explore that.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
We have Alderman
Dow, followed by Alderman
Moseley. Are you
followed by Alderman Moseley?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hi, Commissioner.
To you and your department, I just wanted to say, first of all, that I
think you're a compassionate spirit, and I think
that that compassionate spirit
is shared among your staff. And so I wanted to just
acknowledge that.
Thank you.
Also, my colleague here talked about wanting to be on
offense with this budget. I would like to be on
offense, too. But when you have a
budget that is facing an $882
million deficit, and you have
a lot of borrowing that is
potentially on the table,
we have to make sure that the dollars are spent in the
most efficient way.
So I just wanted to throw that out there as a counterpoint.
Sometimes you have to play defense in order to get back on offense again,
right?
All right, so
I wanted to just follow up
on the youth jobs.
Thank my colleague, Alderman Lopez, for asking for the
corporations.
Mm-hmm.
But I would like to get
your commitment to have those partners
divided by delegate agencies, city agencies,
private companies, so that we can see who's
got skin in the game.
Yes, ma'am.
Of the 33,018, are they all full-time positions
or part-time? Any part-time?
The 33,000, it is part-time. The Summer
Youth Jobs program, as well as the
CEAP program
and ChicagoAbility. So they were
60 hours
for one program, and then others were a year long, but
they were not full-time.
Okay. Can you break down-
Mm-hmm
... that so we can see what went into each pot?
Yes, ma'am.
I also like to know of the 33,018
hires, can we get a breakdown by ward-
Mm
... and by gender?
Okay.
Yes, we'll get to the Chair.
All right.
Just want to uplift the work that you do in the homeless space.
I appreciate the attention
that we've tried to give to homeless people in my ward.
Can you speak to
how difficult this work is when it comes to people
who seem to have mental
challenges?
Thank you for that, and acknowledgement of the diversity that we
see in our homeless population.
And we do have individuals that are coming
and experiencing homelessness that may have
undiagnosed or diagnosed mental health, high acuity as well as low
acuity needs. The benefit of what we have here in the
city is our COOPT. We have street psychiatry now, and we have
care that can help meet us with that, and they are true partners
in our work. The challenge typically is it's hard for people
to grasp hold of this. There are times we're
offering shelter or offering services, or even may have
housed some, and they return back.
But I think what is so important is that we recognize individuals have the
right to self-determine. They have the right to
make that choice. We are going to offer services.
We're not going to do it enforcement, we're not going to do involuntary
removals of that nature. But DFSS is there to actually always be
there to offer those supports. And it can be challenging
at times, depending on where the individual is in terms of their mental
state, and if they're actually able to receive the support services that they need
to address those issues.
Thank you for that.
Wanted to also uplift the work of Margaret-
Yes
... Alderman Moore mentioned. She's a godsend when it comes-
Yes
... to working with seniors.
And
can you speak to this new expansion
that the mayor has mentioned related
to the Senior Bill of Rights?
Yes, thank you for that question.
One, we know that older adults seek to reside within their own homes
and within their own communities, rather than being prematurely
moved into long-term care facilities when they don't have to.
And I believe the Senior Bill of Rights kind of acknowledges that, that we need to
make sure there are all services available to them, and so that they
can remain safely at home. And I'm excited about the work of this newly
proposed Office of Aging,
because that will help us support looking at cross departments.
Because it's not just DFSS Senior Services.
Oftentimes we're working with Department of Housing, we're working with Department
of Buildings, with the Department of Law,
if it's from land issues or landlord-tenant issues.
We work with public health as well, for their mental health or emergency response
that may be needed for seniors. So it really is a cross department, and
the Department of Aging, as well as the
chief or director of aging will be able to look cross our departments
and ensure that we are providing the supportive services.
But we're going to explore what that might look like at the end.
So the person is going to be located in the mayor's office and not in
DFSS?
Correct.
Okay.
I know that I'm working with your
department on the construction of the Bronzeville Regional Senior Center,
and I know that it is to be
largely under construction now. But how are you thinking
about the operational costs for operating
that? It's not in the
2027 budget. You're thinking about that for
2028?
Correct.
And do you have a sense of what that cost would be?
Deputy Commissioner Margaret Laravie?
Yes.
Thank you. Deputy Commissioner Margaret Laravie, Senior Services.
So, no, the operational costs are not included in this budget.
The operational costs would include the costs for staffing,
for the utilities.
And so all of those costs are being factored in.
We can provide through the chair what an estimate of those costs are for you.
I'll take it through the chair. I just wanted to see what that
number is so I can
perhaps try to help you fill that number.
Thank you. We greatly appreciate that.
All right.
I think that's it for me, Mr. Chairman.
All right, big bank. Okay.
No, it's not big bank.
Yeah.
It's called
hard work.
That's it.
I'll take that one too. Alderman Mosley.
Thanks so much, Chair. And thank you, Commissioner, for your
leadership, your guidance. I'll echo my colleague
in the third ward, who just spoke about your spirit.
But I also have to thank Managing Deputy Chapman, who
from when I came into office and we were faced with a housing
crisis,
the city said we could do both, and she has been a partner to
ensure that we were doing both in housing
all of Chicago, and particularly those who are most unhoused, which are
Black people. And so I'm really thankful for us being able to
break ground on
SRO youth shelter here in the 21st Ward.
I also want to congratulate you again on the record number of
youth jobs.
And we'll echo some of the questions that were asked around that.
But particularly, I'm wondering about the pipeline that it
can or even does provide to our city
staff numbers, particularly when we talk about our low numbers for
police and fire. Can you speak to
just what this program is doing and/or
has the capabilities to do to fill
our hard-to-fill vacancies?
Thank you for that question, Alderman Mosley, and thank you for the
acknowledgement as well. When we look at the
population that we are employing through our
Chicago Youth Work Program, I do want to uplift and recognize
that we have a target population. They're trying to at least get 50% of our youth
being from that target population, and that's youth who are in foster care, youth
with disabilities, youth that are living in economic hardship
communities,
and a couple of other factors, our foster care youth as well.
When we give the opportunities to be able to come into our programs, we
have so many city departments, as well as automatic offices that
are offering work sites.
And I was amazed, and Alderman Lopez was here when I was
meeting with him, and his chief of staff was a former Chicago Youth Work
participant in the One Summer Chicago
participant.
We're actually going to have a video coming out soon that you'll be able to see how
many city employees were actually a part of our summer
youth employment program. I think
people may take this for granted,
because that's what we do. Chicago Youth Works through our summer program.
But it is amazing at how many individuals that come through that
program have an entryway into public service,
into community organizing.
And this program gives them that opportunity to be trained as well as to be
able to explore what public service looks like.
And so we could give you the breakdown of where youth have gone
through the chair. But I want to acknowledge how many are going into city
agencies as well as aldermanic offices.
Would love to see that. And I know there was a component of this that was supposed
to be year-round. Is that happening?
Yes. Our year-round program is happening as well.
We have two year-round programs. We have one that's
like a AmeriCorps youth corps for us, and then we have the
regular year-round program, and then the new one that I talked about
earlier, which actually have them fully employed
as a career opportunity. So not just year-round, but for
their lifetime if they choose.
Wonderful. And I know this budget looks to
make a lot of investments.
I'm
picking up on those senior chore services.
And again, just highlighting the great work
or success from Streets and San of where we've been able to get youth
directly from high school into
impactful roles throughout the city.
Is that senior chore an opportunity?
Is that something that should live with your office or
go to the Department of Streets and Sanitation?
I know you also have a bit of the quality of life aspect, so
there seems to be some overlap here.
I'm just wondering if we can maximize opportunities for
youth to make the impact in communities.
And we actually have those partnerships in place, and we work with Streets and
San on several employment opportunities for different populations as well.
But I have Deputy Commissioner Kathy Kulik to speak about the work with
Chicago Youth Works and our partnership with Streets and San.
Thank you for that question. Kathy Kulik, Deputy Commissioner for Youth Services.
So not only do we partner or open a partnership up to the
Department of Streets and Sanitation, but as a matter of fact, it's all of the city
departments. We offer all of them to have interns
hosted at their office.
Some of our interns are actually also hosted in
alder offices.
When it comes to CPS, we also partner with CPS to bring
in youth from their schools. We go to schools that they
identify to help them with on-site applications.
And
yeah.
Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
And how can we
make sure that our city is prepared for
extreme weather?
Glad to hear about regional centers.
But, yeah, I know there's no designated
place from Department of Family Support Services in the 21st Ward
of where those who may be challenged at times
of extreme weather can go to outside of our
de factos, automatic offices,
libraries, park districts.
Okay. Thank you for that question, Alderman.
I'm going to ask first Deputy
Harley Jones to respond.
Thank you so much, Alder Mosley, for that question. You're absolutely right.
As the weather continues to change, this is a regular part
of our planning here at the city. We work closely with the Office of
Emergency Management and Communications.
And as you know, they lead the city's response to extreme weather.
The Department of Family and Support Services operates cooling and warming centers,
and we make up about 9% of the almost 300 cooling
and warming centers across the city.
Many of which you mentioned a couple of the agencies as well.
But we do open our community service centers, as well as our senior
centers and satellite centers as cooling and warming centers across the
city. But many of those other departments that make up the rest of
that plan do have additional extended hours.
Our senior services team,
in addition to acting as warming and cooling centers, also works with OMEC to send
robocalls to our senior residents to make sure that they have
key information about the extreme weather and places that they can be
safe during that time. And then our team works to monitor all senior
well-being and crisis checks that come into 311 on a regular
basis to make sure that those are taken care of as quickly as possible.
The last thing that I'll say is our homeless outreach teams work proactively
across the city with our unsheltered
individuals experiencing homelessness across the city, and our delegate agencies
to make sure they're providing additional outreach during those times of extreme
weather, and that they have those resources available as well.
And then finally, our DFSS-funded drop-in centers.
When capacity allows, we ask them and work with them to increase that
capacity to make sure that they are keeping their doors open to keep people
safe from those extreme weather conditions.
Thank you for that. And
I'll ask through the chair, just in the interest of time, if there's information
on how
entities can become satellite sites,
and sign up to be
an option for communities.
When we talk about grants, Commissioner, I know you and I have spoke before,
and you expressed some interest in helping
organizations improve their, or giving them some technical
assistance, strengthening their skill work, and
to have
better or stronger applications.
Can you speak to that work that you're leading?
Yes, sir. Thank you, and thank for remembering that conversation.
That is something we have been working on.
We're actually looking at our RFP process,
and seeing how we could streamline and ensure that is inclusive
of the values that I have put forth with the team.
We're also looking at our scoring and how we're evaluating
RFPs. Once that is completed, I want to make sure our delegate community, and those
who are interested in becoming a delegate with the city, will understand the
new process and will understand the expectations of that.
That is something we're still in the process of doing.
We've been working on that feverishly since I started.
And we will have a gathering, community
gathering for delegates to be able to explain those expectations, as well as
explain where we're looking at heading in our funding cycle.
Right. And, this may be something better directed to
OBM than just directly your department, yet we see
a lot of funding sources being changed from grants to
the corporate fund. And I know that is in part due
to the federal government shifting.
It looks like our federal government is shifting again.
And so,
whether it's through directly your department or OBM
through the chair, just a comprehensive list from, I would go back to
maybe 2019 to present, of funding sources changes from
grants to corporate. I think that's something that, as the
state is looking
at this,
we should start preparing so that we can advocate
for those dollars from the federal government that go to the state and then come
down to us.
And then lastly, I'll just say thank you for your
cooperation on helping us build out the Department of Community
Wellness and Safety. And thank you to your entire
team, but special shouts outs to, again, Manager and Deputy
Andrea Chapman, Margaret, and Yolanda holding down our senior
services, and Everett, and Harley as well. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you. Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you, sir.
Next, we have Alderman Walgesback, followed by Alderman
Fuentes.
Thanks, Chairman.
Good afternoon, Commissioner.
Afternoon, sir.
Most of my questions have been asked.
Just a few more specific ones in terms of the youth employment.
Who manages the direct placement of the youth for this program?
Is it your office it, or is it through a delegate agency?
Yes, sir. It's through a delegate agency.
Okay. So each individual agency gets to make the call to a group of kids
and decide where they're going to be placed?
And we do
ascertain from the youth where their interests are. Also looking at the community.
We place them with those delegate agency, but then the delegate agency places them
at the work site.
Okay.
Could you give me a number of
youth who received duplicate job offers?
Through the chair.
No.
We have to get that through the chair.
I hope so.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Is there any overlap in funding here with the Chicago Youth Force or
Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership?
Yes, we do partner with them, and they do employ youth for us as well.
So they provide 16 million in funding for the
program. Where is the overlap in the funding that we're providing
specifically?
And it is separate. It is not included in our budget.
Okay. So it's not intended for the students or youth that we're putting
forward, it's separate?
No, they do pick from our
applications,
but it is their funding standalone.
Okay.
How much funding was received from the business community or other
outside agencies to help with
any of the youth programs or funding?
I want to get that through the chair in terms of the dollar amount from-
Yes
... the outside. Mm-hmm.
Okay.
And
you mentioned a video. Is that being produced through your office or is
that
through the office?
It's through our office. Yes, sir.
Okay.
Our comms team has just finished
doing the video.
Okay. So was there a cost to the video or to the report
that you put out this morning before we started?
The cost for the video, we actually used the city's-
Production team
... yeah, production. Yeah.
All right.
So in terms of the funding for the expansion of the youth
program,
what was the total cost last year
for the entire program?
Total cost for last year
was 49.
Yeah.
Alder, I have to get that through the chair.
I do want to make one, to help respond to one of your earlier questions, just to
help you out for the through the chair is, out of the slots that we have with our
different partner agencies, park district, city colleges, et cetera, we can attempt
to get some of that information of what their operational budget is, but depending
on the responses, we may not be able to provide their operational budget as it
relates to slots. We can tell you how many slots they contributed to that wasn't
part of our budget, that overall hits the overall target, and we can tell you our
funding as it relates to the 21,000 that we served last year and the 7,000 new.
But I just want to make transparent, like I can't find Chicago Parks' budget.
They would have to tell us what they operate on.
Okay. So for now, just to this question of the
funding from last year. So this year, the funding's going up by 24
million, right?
Right.
And we serviced 33,000
and we're trying to go to 43... I mean 40,000.
40,000. Yes, sir.
The cost that you're adding this year is $24 million.
Can you give us a breakdown of how you're going from 33,000,
you're adding 7,000, and the 24 million is more than the entire
program this past year?
Yeah, I can start with that. So, thank you, Alder.
Raymond Barrett, managing deputy commissioner of administration.
So I think one thing we're trying to make clear is out of the 33,000 slots, our
budget only entails 21,000 of those slots.
And so as the 7,000 increase goes in there,
28,000 of the 40,000 slots is us.
So I think Alderman Lee kind of used the citation of it's like 40-something percent
increase in our budget. If you're looking at just our slot increase, it's
36%. So it is for 7,000 minimum
wage jobs, and minimum wage is going up each year, and so it's going to be
probably 1745. That's where the bulk of that funding is coming from.
But I just want to make it really clear that
there is at least 11,000 to 12,000 slots that we don't fund at all.
It's not part of our budget. So that's contributed by our partners.
Okay. Whatever you can give through the chair, that would be helpful, a breakdown
of that. And then,
so last year we waited months for the Ernst & Young report.
Your department was part of that report, and I'm assuming it will be
part of the upcoming year report that we've now spent $10 million
on to figure out how to better manage our departments.
Under the EY report for this year,
you had a very high number of supervisors with a very low number of direct
reports.
60 supervisors with two reports, according to the report.
What are you doing as the commissioner to reduce the inflation
of the supervisory roles?
How are you justifying the management overhead that we're seeing
here? You're one of the highest in terms of those direct reports,
that small number with direct reports.
And,
also based on the 10 departments that they did,
it was far out of line with the leading practice of six to seven.
So
I understand you've got a lot of work to do, but what specifically are you going to
do
for taxpayers in terms of following through on the EY report as
we spent the taxpayers' dollars to better
manage every single department?
Thank you for that question.
We have a six-to-one ratio,
and that's staff to managers. And we do work to ensure that they
have appropriate supervision over their portfolios, and it's also
important to know that roughly 80% of our work involves delegates.
So our staff average a high number of delegates
or sites location, depending on that type of program.
There's typically about 20 different delegates that we're working with per
individual staff.
So with over 320 organizations and
1,200 contracts, that six to one ratio allows them to have
appropriate supervision for the large portfolio they're working.
And is that--
according to them, that's not the same practices that we see in other
cities.
That that's
still-
Hmm
... that layer with the eight layers, the span of control, and--
Hold on. I'm reading it directly from the report.
Okay.
So,
it just basically says the manager with less than three direct reports, of
which you are pretty low there, adds between five and
seven hours of collaboration time per week, and this
was used-- Well, it's directly from calculations
made from '24 and '25. So did that change from the last
two years?
We did have a change in our staff ratio, but it actually went from last year was
eight to one, and we did down to six to one, so-
Okay
... it was even
better when I first came in, in terms of
the number of staff.
Yeah, I would like to just speak a little more to it, Alders, to help you out.
So it is best practice, I believe, from OBM and their external sources that,
as high of a ratio for staff to manager, and that is true.
I will echo again, Commissioner, which is we do have situations where the staff may
not manage another direct staff, but they manage numerous delegates, so that's not
captured in the concept of this manager ratio.
I think two other just quick important notes is, as we said, it's overall six to
one. We do have situations where staff will have, let's say, a director to an
assistant director, and then the assistant director will manage numerous
staff. And, we actually, when we saw the
reports of Ernst & Young release it, we wanted to be proactive.
And so we did something new this year where we took two of our teams that had this
kind of imbalance, I would say, and looked at all their work.
We did time studies, et cetera, to make sure that one, they were properly staffed,
two, that they had the systems they needed.
And overall, what we were seeing was in a lot of these situations that
one manager was focusing primarily on the client-focused
work and the team that was managing that work, and then the other staff member,
although managing that assistant director, was actually bringing in resources from
the community into the center. So it was almost like a division of
labor where one was very focused on the staff itself.
Also in those situations, because we are over 60%
AFSCME or union,
if we only had, let's say, one manager at that location, and then that manager,
let's say, is out sick, et cetera, we then do have a liability issue where we don't
have a backup person on location, and then we'd have to fill that out.
So there are nuances to it. But we are also
very interested to see what Ernst & Young says as we participate in all the
conversations.
Yeah. Did you actually share all of that, what you just told me, with the people
from Ernst & Young?
We not only shared everything, I would say I think we were told we had the best
PowerPoints, and we walked them through all the city processes, et cetera.
And we've been waiting, honestly, to see what they say because as I personally said
to them, I think if you invest a little bit up front for some of the
infrastructure in the city,
you alders probably know iSupplier, even though used in North Carolina, et cetera,
is a pretty bad system. We have a lot of bad infrastructure systems where our teams
are being inefficient.
Yeah,
I wouldn't want to compare us to North Carolina, but-
In terms of major US cities, though, that's where they
compare us to. They did EY reports for
major US cities. We're not talking about, I don't know, wherever in North
Carolina.
I think that's the issue here, is that we're seeing an imbalance in so many
departments.
They're telling us this is what needs to be done, and we seem to be going in the
opposite direction. So,
anyway, my time's up, but I would like to see
if you're communicating with EY. I'd like to see how we're communicating that to
them and how they are going to reconcile in their
upcoming report specifically what you're doing because,
according to their report, there is an imbalance.
So,
all right.
Thank you.
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, all.
Thank you.
Hey, Alder, welcome us back.
We have Alder
Fuentes followed by Alder Mitts. Go
ahead.
Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Commissioner and team, for being here today.
I think you all do extraordinary work.
Commissioner, I'm a fan of yours, and I appreciate not only your hard work
but your passion for meeting folks where they are.
I do want to just spend a couple minutes of my time
talking about delegate agency contract payouts, and then I want
to go into housing.
Look, we know that larger experienced nonprofits, they have the reserves to
operate, right? We could take four to six months to pay them,
and their staff are going to be okay.
But there are small nonprofit agencies across the city of
Chicago that do phenomenal work,
and they cannot keep their operations
without these grant dollars. Can you walk me
through the timeline of payment,
the things that are required for payment, and then how do we provide the
technical assistance and both the financial assistance to small
organizations that may not be able to operate without
the reimbursement of the funds in a timely manner?
Thank you. Thank you, Alder Fuentes.
In terms of walking through the contracting and payout, I'll have the
managing deputy commissioner,
Barrett.
Yep.
Thank you for that question, Alder.
Raymond Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner of Administration.
So, I think it's important for the timeline of events that agencies can
only voucher after a contract has been fully executed.
So, the timeline really starts once they get the award letter, and they provide the
information that is required. And depending on the funding source, there could be
different
certifications of insurance or different types of insurance they may need, contract
documents, et cetera. And then also depending on the federal funding source, there
may be more of an intense review of their eligible costs as it relates to the
budget. So, once the agency signs both the contract
documents and is agreed upon with DFSS, obviously, of course,
and the budget document, and the scope document, the contract is
actually executed at that time, of which they can then voucher.
The vouchering process itself is actually really timely.
As long as the voucher itself is accurate,
and we do obviously provide technical assistance with that, we are seeing agencies
getting paid in under 30 days. I do think it's that front part that we
are constantly looking and revisiting is, how do we best support our
agencies for each of these aspects?
Specifically for, like-- What we see is, for example, an agency may not have
a person who's specialized with insurance, and so then we're trying
to coordinate with them, and we have, like I said, 320 delegate agencies of which
it's difficult to sometimes always provide them some of this capacity
that
I wouldn't say there's a clear knowledge of who should own it, of where we should
get that support. But that is, I think, the key part of what's delaying
sometimes these payments.
And so you would say that a four-month delay of
payment is not normal?
I would say that if the contract is fully executed and they submit a voucher,
100%, a full month of payment, they will get paid within 30 days.
I've seen that pretty consistently.
It's the award letter and everything before that that is really
dragging down the process.
Okay. There's some specific organizations that I think are having some problems.
I would love to get you a list of those organizations because we know
that when organizations are not paid between four and six months,
who's impacted are the workers, right?
And
their pay is impacted at no control of their own.
And so I just want to make sure that the people that are in the field
serving the most vulnerable are not impacted by some bureaucratic
things that I think can be fixed. And so I would love to be supportive and get
those organizations to you
through the chair, if that's okay.
Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Pleasure.
All right. Awesome. I want to go into housing.
In the last two years, the department has helped a great deal.
In my ward, we obviously have about four other tent encampments in the 26th
Ward that we're working on every day.
If Selena is watching, she has to know how grateful I am
for her work. And if she's not, you got to tell her, okay?
Oh, I do.
All right.
Can you walk us through
what makes permanent supportive housing different from other housing
interventions, particularly for those with disabilities or
complex health needs?
Permanent supportive housing, as opposed to rapid re-housing or transitional
housing. Permanent supportive housing allows an individual to
have intensive supportive services that would meet mental
health needs, health needs,
other concerns, high acuity needs.
They will wrap them around the supportive services that they need in order
to remain housed. Also, permanent supportive housing means
you will continually have your housing taken care of.
You will not have to worry about being evicted.
That's the issue of
the HUD NOFOs shifting from housing first to this treatment first
program or program model. So, that's one of the
major pieces with permanent supportive housing.
As opposed to rapid rehousing, which is up to two years
subsidized,
and a little less of intensive case management, but they do have case management
services as well.
Awesome. Thank you. And can you also, Commissioner, from your professional
perspective, can you walk us through how effective permanent supportive
housing is in ending homelessness?
And what can you share about the efficacy of this particular model?
Yep.
Permanent supportive housing, having that within our housing service array is
mission critical.
One concern that we have are individuals being housed and then returning.
Permanent supportive housing has the right type of supports to be able to maintain
and keep people housed. It is critical.
It is funding that is typically done through our CoC,
and
our funding stream is usually coming from federal government
through our coordinated entry system that does the permanent supportive housing to
get them connected, but it's a critical housing support.
One concern I do have is ensure that we constantly have
units, therefore landlords are willing to become and work with us on Chicago
Rents. We have to increase that as well because there's a
deficit there. So we do need people to take part in
Chicago Rents, so we have more units available.
And it would be the same thing with rapid rehousing as well.
Thank you. And can you tell us how does providing someone with
stable housing through the flexible housing pool reduce their
reliance on emergency services, hospitals, and
other public systems?
Talk to us about
cost savings there.
Thank you for that, because we have seen, if you all have been able to at
least look at their most recent report, we've seen that annualized
reductions include about 46% decrease in 911
emergency medical service activations, as well as 32%
decrease in Chicago Police Department calls for service.
And that's been sustained year to year,
up to five years of housing provision so far that we've seen.
The first year following housing placement in the flexible housing pool,
participants demonstrate 91% reduction in emergency department
visits, and 89% reduction in inpatient
hospital stays. And they typically sustain
that low rate, and you'll see there's avoidable hospital
utilization observed over the last five years.
And not just that, we've also seen Cook County Jail registrations
decline among participants in our flexible housing pool by 81%
in the first year after being housed alone.
That's a $6 million investment. We're asking for additional $2 million to keep that
good work going.
Thank you. Look, for all of the reasons that you stated,
the one piece of the budget that
I believe we need to protect is the additional investments in
homelessness services and flexible housing.
Thank you.
Look, we're going to have to make sacrifices.
There's a lot of negotiation that's going to happen in this budget cycle,
but I believe that this is the line item we have to protect, and I'm going to do
everything I can to make sure that it's protected. So thank you all for being here.
Thank you, Alder.
Thank you.
I like that.
What I didn't hear was about some revenue. I need some revenue.
Revenue, revenue, revenue, revenue, revenue, revenue.
Who's next?
Alderman Pitts, are you on?
I am.
Okay. You're up.
Thank you very much,
Mr. Chairman. And good afternoon, Commissioner.
Afternoon.
I simply want to echo my colleague, Alderman
Fuentes, about
the delegate agencies.
And I'm particularly interested in one in my
community,
Mary Crane
Center, and the
timeline for paying them, if they've been pushed back,
and then probably won't be able to make
ends meet. So, who is it that's on your staff that works
with
that agency?
Okay.
Did someone hear me or no?
Yes. I'm sorry. I was confirming the population you were
referencing.
The one on Lemar.
1100 block on Lemar.
Just as an FYI, I think many of us have heard the
same thing, and-
Okay
... yeah. No, I just wanted to-- You may not be aware of this, so I just wanted to
let you know that we're sounding like that
matter's going to be resolved by the end of next week from what I'm-
Okay
... told.
But as long as they get resolved, because it will put
peoples out of work. And I do apologize.
I had a funeral to attend, so
I missed out on that question. But I do want to
bring up another question in terms of
flood money.
How much you have in funding for
the flood that's been awarded recently
to the North
West Center?
How much is that for?
I'm sorry, Alderwoman Pitts. The last portion of what
you're saying was muffled for me. Can you please repeat that? Sorry.
The question was around flood money.
Flood money. Thank you.
And you're the agency that's overseeing the agency
that has been awarded Funding for- Yes
... to administer flood funds to the
37 Ward on the West Side.
Yes. And it was $15 million that we were awarded for,
uh-
How many to date have been serviced?
We have had two awardees
thus far.
And the grant was awarded when?
Oh, today's date. As of today we have had six awarded that have been
approved.
Six awarded.
Yes, ma'am.
And can you give me a breakdown
of how much it's costing to be an
administrative grant?
Yes, we can.
To the agency.
So, yeah, I can... Let me kind of go in here. Yeah.
Thank you, Alder. This is Raymond Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner of
Administration. So the $15 million that is coming to us through
OBM for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster
Relief program, CDBG-DR.
Part of the reason why it was given to us is actually our community center staff,
which I think is what you referenced there.
Our staff is actually the ones going and working hands-on with the
staff and making sure that they go through the application process.
We can tell you how much they get. They get grant funded to do other things in
general, so I could tell you how much of the grant fund, but they don't get funded
actually out of CDBG-DR. This is something that, as a cost efficiency
actually, we took our existing staff and had them help support this
process, so that we could get the payments out of the door instead of going through
someone else. Also, because we wanted to give that hands-on support to them.
So I just want to make that clear that it's by DFSS staff that is working with
them.
And also, just to follow up, I want Deputy Commissioner Castaneda
to add a little bit more detail and context.
Thank you, Alder Evans, for that question.
Danny Castaneda, Deputy Commissioner for Gender-Based Violence and Human Services.
The agency you're specifically referring to is the Northwest Center.
They are being funded through this grant program at
$200,000 annually. They are not administering the $15
million. That's what we're doing.
We're funding them to prioritize outreach
and helping people apply for the program, so it's $200,000 annually.
Okay.
Thank you. Thank you for that information.
Yes, ma'am.
Commissioner, in terms of
homeless encampment,
have you been getting a peek in
bus, CTA buses being used, the bus benches being used
for homelessness, or even called out?
We do know of, and thank you for that, Alderwoman Evans, we
do know of individuals are using
bus stations,
riding the train-
Bus benches.
Benches.
One more time?
The bus bench that-
Right
... yeah.
Yep. Those shelter, bus shelter.
Mm-hmm. Those, yep.
You're correct. We do have a small portion of individuals that are using those
bus shelters, that you would stand under and wait for a bus,
as a place to live.
Mm-hmm.
We have reached out. We are constantly doing outreach to
all of our unhoused neighbors, whether
they're at a bus shelter or on the train
or in an encampment to offer services.
And sometimes we have to make sure we're bringing COIP, substance
abuse, mental health services as well, to
help people
be open to services, depending on their situation.
But the main concern to me is make sure we have housing
so we don't have to have encampments or those living in shelter.
And we do have a CTA expansion. We have expanded contracts for
beds through CTA that are helping us to ensure- Okay
... that we have more housing support for those that are
in those transit positions.
Okay. Very good.
I know that
we usually have around
homelessness when it come to housing,
you used to have to get a special use or something to be able to...
So you know, do you have a list of
special use
houses for 37th Ward? And I'm asking
that so that we can
kind of know the identify-
I can-
... where
the folks are supposed to have it versus people who are not supposed to have them.
And then...
And I do under-
I believe I understand what you're referencing.
And you're talking about shelter
versus housing, I think. Are you talking about... Is that correct?
Yeah, right.
Well, if a person don't know the rules, they think that they can just rent
houses to them and rooms out and so-
Mm-hmm
... in there with some-
Yeah
... are not following the rules of making sure they get
special use permits, so that's the question I'm
asking.
And that should go through Department of Housing.
Mm-hmm.
Our shelter individuals are going through our process for zoning and are
connecting with
alders, ensure that they, if they want to try to build a shelter in their ward.
But what you're speaking of specifically, I think, should go through Department of
Housing.
Where are-
Correct
... the peoples are setting up housing that don't have-
The permit, special use to be able to do, and you don't have the record of it.
Okay.
No, correct. So they would not be a part of
our service array. They're not one of our programs.
If you're thinking about Mosley's Ordinance Studies, that's population,
are you referencing that?
That is something you may want to grab through zoning or the
ZBA is probably going to be your best bet on that one.
No, I just know that there are some out here.
And
you know from the residents talking, saying, "Oh, you have too many peoples in
this home."
Mm-hmm.
So that's why I'm asking, do you have the
information or do
housing have it? And if not-
Does not
... then who do you
provide it to? Who
comes out to investigate that?
Correct. You're right, that should go through Department of Housing.
Okay.
Yep. Ms. Ban.
Okay. All right, very good.
All right, well,
most of the questions I've heard have already been asked,
so I want to thank you all and your team-
Of course
... for the work that you're doing.
I would like to see work speed up
around this flood issue. I don't have to tell you that.
And we
have opportunity to extend out the office here to
help facilitate
with some of those requests and be an intake to help out.
So I'm looking forward to working on them with
your department and the members who was working on it,
boys. So thank you so much.
Thank you, Alderman Pitts.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman. Next up, we're going to have Alderman Lapata.
Hey, there we go. Sorry, can you hear me get well, sir?
Yes, I can hear you.
Okay.
So my initial question is, Commissioner, thank you again for being with
us today. For the value of all of the work you do, I
will simply, for the moment, plus one
the support for the flexible housing pool, the work that we're doing around
homeless services. I can speak to the deep,
compassionate interest of my residents to making sure that all of our
unhoused residents, particularly those on the street, but even those
who are living doubled and tripled up,
have access to safe and comfortable housing.
I know it is not
city funded, but I
am following up with others related to the triage housing
division in Marshfield, which we cannot afford to lose.
So we'll be following up with Renaissance and whoever is the state
funder of that program. I wanted to ask you about
gender-based violence and domestic violence services.
What I had heard from providers is that
DFSS and/or the mayor's office has
confirmed that they will be,
at minimum, at the same funding levels for our delegate
agencies in 2027 as they are in 2026.
Is that accurate to your understanding?
No, that is accurate.
Okay. That's helpful, number one, to ask.
My second question
is
related to the number of positions and
services that are being moved from the corporate fund
to the Protecting Care Fund.
I ask about this because while
I think having expenditures against the fund
communicates a certain confidence
in the fund passing legal muster, I know we
are currently engaged
in legal action related to this.
My hope is that we prevail in that
suit and are able to put these expenditures against this
fund. I do want to understand
what is the worst-case scenario. In a case where we either have
an injunction or are unable to expend these funds,
what happens to the funding currently meant for
violence reduction, CAC, and gender-based violence services?
Thank you, Alder, for that question.
This is Raymond Barrett, Managing Deputy Commissioner of Administration.
I think there's two parts to it. One is
the part that is about the sustainability in the fund and the potential legal.
I think that is an OBM question. But I think just as important to that question, as
you said, is what is the impact to services if, for whatever
reason, that funding isn't secured or moved to corporate, whatever it may be.
So obviously, that funds
overwhelmingly are gender-based violence programs.
So that's resources, that is legal services,
that is housing support for those survivors of gender-based violence.
That also includes a million dollars that goes to the Chicago Children's Advocacy
Center, which helps provide support services for child
survivors. In addition to that, there is $5.2 million of which goes
into youth violence reduction programs, primarily into our SCAN program, which
provides mentorship
programming for those youth who are most
at risk at potentially becoming justice involved.
And so as of sustainability, that's OBM, but that is actually what's on the
line if somehow it wasn't absorbed by corporate or another funding source.
I
suppose I could say I'm very much aware of the kinds of program and
services funded. My question is
I'll state it more plainly. Do we have a backup plan
for the continuation of those services should there
be continued legal barriers to the expending
of the Protecting Care Fund?
Yeah. I really think that's answered by Office of Budget and Management.
We would be advocating, just like this entire body, and yourself I
imagine would, if we found for some reason that those services weren't being
provided. So I am hoping, and we would definitely call for your support as
well to make sure that the Office of Budget and Management has a backup plan for
this as well.
It's
too bad that their budget hearing was two weeks ago.
I
find that a distressing answer,
to be perfectly honest with you. I will follow up with OBM.
I would say, prior to your hearing, they owed you
a stronger answer than the one you were compelled to
provide me now. But I will make sure to follow up with OBM.
Thank you so much. And Commissioner, thank you so much for the work of you, your
whole team, and the whole department. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, Alderman. Vice Chair Lee to close.
Thank you, Chair. I'm so glad I made it back in time.
Thank you.
Hi, Commissioner. Hello, Team DFSS. Thanks for being here.
Thanks for all of the hard work you do all year round.
Appreciated your partnership earlier in the year when we did a data
disaggregation-
Yes
... ordinance to begin disaggregating Asian-American data
between DFSS and CDPH. I think that's going to go a long
way
to really get help where help is needed the most, and hope that starts a trend
of further disaggregation in other communities as well.
I think most of the questions that I would've asked have been covered by
colleagues, so I apologize in advance.
If something was already answered, you can just say so.
If any of this, through the chairs, were asked, I would just ask that that be sent
to all alders versus just the one that requested it.
We always benefit from getting some of the answers that our
colleagues have already asked.
Have you all talked at all yet about CVI today?
No.
No? Oh, good. I found one. Okay.
Can you talk about what you have
in your budget this year for CVI proposed for 2027,
and how those funds are going to be expended?
Yes. Thank you, Alderwoman Lee.
And with CVI, that's our
peacekeepers as well as our SCAN
program.
That is what
Alderman Lospatto was referencing, the
$5,201,147
that's moving to the
Protecting Care Fund.
And
I think sometimes it's hard for us to distinguish what
CVI work is being done in which department, because I think between you
guys and CDPH, I think are the two main
bodies that are funding programs.
How much coordination is going on, and
how is your work distinguished from their work?
An easy distinction is we have the youth, and they have the adults.
Okay.
Yep, that's a good way to think about them.
Our
Peacekeeper working group that we have from the executive order, we've actually
brought them to the table to talk about looking at job descriptions, look at
expectations, and seeing how what we're doing with the Peacekeepers can actually
flow into what's happening with the adult CVI.
So can you just talk a little bit more about what youth
CVI Peacekeepers are doing, just
out on the street and in our communities?
Thank you for that question.
I actually do have what their role
is and how we look at their role. Our peacekeepers are
doing
things like
peace circles. They're having community conversations.
They're talking with other youth to deflate and ensure that they are
deescalating
any
disruption and arguments. We actually train them on
how to intervene before things escalate.
We actually work with them in the community to ensure that they are
supported in that work as well, not leaving them out on their own to do
that. So we give them about 10 hours of working with them in the community,
and
learning in real time how to do those deescalation.
One thing that I do know is that our youth have been extremely
successful in that. This year, we
did an RFI to get a delegate to help us really hone in on what
that curriculum should be,
and so that the city can take ownership of the
Peacekeeper model. And we're excited to see where that will end.
We more than likely associate that with the report that you should be getting in
March of next year, of looking at
Peacekeepers being more integrated within the city operations within DFSS.
And are they working all year round, or is there a particular time of year?
Are these young people just working during the summer?
They start off in the summer. We're now moving it to be year-round.
Okay. And
is that separate funding, then, from the youth summer employment
program?
Yes. It used to be integrated into some youth employment-
Pulled out.
Yeah. Yes, ma'am.
Can you provide, through the chair,
the names of the delegate agencies that are running the CVI
programs, the number of youth
by ward, and the communities where they're doing this work?
Okay.
And for this year, we are finishing the contract
now for it to start, so we have no youth right now-
Okay
... because we start anew.
So this is ostensibly new funding, then, for going into next
year?
Within the executive order, they have the 900,000, and that's what this funding is.
Okay. Then for the- For whatever has already been done with youth.
Okay.
I'll restate my question. Provide the data that you do have.
Okay.
I understand that
the $5 million for next year, you're writing contracts for now.
But for the coming year, if you can provide
the same...
If you don't have the actual delegate agency names, how many agencies are you
targeting? How many youth?
What that schedule is going to look like-
We can
... in terms of what they'll be doing.
Yes.
That would be really great.
We can get that to you. Yes, ma'am.
Excellent.
I'm assuming my colleagues already asked about summer youth employment.
Yes.
I'll just sort of echo the call. I'm assuming that I know some of what was asked.
I was just trying to wrap my head around a 21% increase in the number of jobs and a
49% increase in the budget.
So, yeah. Those through the chairs can be provided to everybody. That'd be helpful.
I'm not going to beat the dead horse here.
I appreciate all the work that you and your teams, especially the
group working on homelessness issues
across the city. I think, as we've talked many times,
I think we're all seeing an increase in the number of unhoused
in
the city and popping up in each of our wards.
I know
the number of encampments in my own ward has grown literally exponentially.
But we're working together with your teams and I'll echo some
of the sentiments of my colleague, Alderman Fuentes,
that it's going to be important to maintain that funding for homelessness-
Yes
... and for supportive housing. We don't want to make the problem any worse than it
already is. I know one of the biggest challenges is not having enough
places for people to be.
That's right.
That's not something that just sits on your shoulders, I know, but you're one of
the first phone calls most people make.
Can you talk a little bit about
what's happening at
SPARC? It's real close to the 11th Ward, it borders.
We've had some folks come in asking for help and really
requesting not to have to go back there.
Can you talk about what the function is, and kind of ideally, how that facility is
supposed to operate?
And just at the high level, our SPARC is supposed to be
our waiting center, if you will, for people to be placed into shelter.
Traditionally, typically like EHART, which is for families, this is the
one for individuals.
And at EHART there's a 15-day limit
that you can stay there. At SPARC, we do not have a limit.
So I do think our program model might need to be adjusted, just
preluding that I want to consider in our next contract to
shorten the timeframe that people are there.
Because this should not be shelter,
and it's turning out to be that.
Well, and I imagine that part of the reason people are staying longer is because
you don't have any place to put them.
Yeah. So
it would perhaps be helpful for all of us to see, if you can provide through the
chair, sort of what's the average length of
stay? Length of stay?
And the volume of people that are coming through.
Yeah. We're seeing more couples out on the street
right now, not just individuals.
And
we're getting into winter.
Yeah.
As far as the plans around other facilities, how
many shelter beds are in your budget going into 2027?
4,100.
And on
gender-based and domestic violence, I know that the Home Share numbers have come
down.
I understand that there has been some conversation already with advocates
about ensuring that the $400,000 decrease from the Home Share
is going to be covered.
Yeah?
Yes, it will. Yep, that is correct.
I think that
there- And we've already sent out their letter of intents that they'll see their funding
has come.
Great. I just want to get that on the record.
You
bet. Obviously, it's an important issue to me and to all of the-
Yep
... members of the Women's Caucus.
I know that we continue to struggle to find the funding.
I don't know that it's ever going to be sufficiently funded, but we certainly want
to make sure that those are maintained, and that we do what we can
to continue to
make sure that they're not getting any less, and looking for ways to do more.
What would you say is the biggest area of need when it comes to domestic and
gender-based violence?
One is having
the appropriate response,
a timely response, and sensitive response for
our
survivors of gender-based violence.
The other one is making sure we have enough
housing units for emergency when people are leaving, and that
they have
those shelters that are geared towards their particular needs.
The other area that we're working on is making sure that they have rental
assistance as well as
supportive service for employment.
We're trying to focus in on ensuring they have what they need to be able to get
back on their feet.
And I know that through the Office of Victim Services, that the police do
referrals to delegate agencies. How closely do you work at all
as a department with the Chicago Police Department?
Because one of the questions that we talked about- Yeah
... during the police
hearing
was just
how we're,
A, supporting victims, and what does the
continuum of care look like? Right?
Because by the time a victim calls, works up enough nerve, and it's
bad enough that they've called the police to get an order of protection,
the response from Victim Services was, "It could be up to
a week."
And if the victim isn't comfortable with releasing their
information to then be referred to a delegate agency, we're losing victims
here. So I'm wondering, where else are we getting touch points?
If you're not getting them from the police, are people calling into DFSS looking
for help, and what do those referrals look like?
First Deputy Commissioner Harley Jones, thank you so much for that question.
I think at a really high level, that coordination happens in real
time all of the time, and I'll lift up a couple of places.
In particular, that work with CPD happens around the gender-based violence task
force as a regular part of the work that we do.
And then, of course, we continue to support that ecosystem through the gender-based
violence programs at DFSS, up to and including the
Domestic Violence Hotline, which we work hand in hand with.
And then, of course, making sure the programs that we have available are
readily accessible to any residents, whether they're coming into the front
door at our community service centers, or they're
calling the Domestic Violence Hotline and getting plugged into those
services as well. So creating that ecosystem and working hand in hand is a
regular part of what we do.
Yeah. And my final question is, through the Chair, if you can
provide a detailed list of all of the funding that you're providing with
the delegate agencies in the areas that they're working in.
So I know legal services is another one.
Yeah.
There's an endless need in this area, and it's a lot of
wraparound services. And
glad to hear-- Not glad to hear, because the need is greater, but
the root of my question just really is, what are you seeing and what should we be
on the lookout for in terms of
where
we need to find other ways to support-
To support
... these victims. So if you can provide, just through the Chair,
the list of delegate agencies you're working with, the areas of
support that they're providing,
along with
if you have ward level information at all.
And I know this is through delegate agencies, but I'm sure they're reporting a lot
of this information back to you as well
with the level of funding. That's all I've got. Thank you.
Can I follow up with one question?
Go ahead.
We do have a length of stay for SPARC, and it's 35 days the length of stay.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Oh, and what's the capacity over there?
Is it 400?
200.
Yep.
250.
200?
200.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Again, we know that the work that you do is
critical to our city.
You are dealing with a population in many respects that
always has some level of challenges.
I do want to say that I am, as it relates to the
unhoused, you guys are doing the best that you can given the situations that
exist. I know a lot of these individuals choose not to take services.
I know the work that Selena and her team, they're constantly, especially in the
Garfield Park area, just out, are just trying to get people to take the service.
We know you can't force services upon people.
Also, at the same time, we have to,
I guess, help
people and guide them the best way that we can
to get to those services. I know that we
had an
area over on Des Plaines that we were able to get that cleaned up,
and get people serviced
in a way. And
I don't know what the silver bullet is for this, but
as we begin to see more and more people
unhoused and in an unsheltered state, we
definitely have to have some level of response.
I don't want us to turn into what I saw out in Los Angeles, and just
people just out and about just on the sidewalks, just as if it's just like a
regular housing situation. That's not the solution.
But we do have to have some level of compassion and care around
those individuals. As it relates to the summer jobs, we know that
that works. As I stated earlier,
our goal is to have less children with,
I'll call it the idle time, as my
grandmother would say, "The idle hands lead to mischief."
So we
don't want idle hands, and I think that one of the items that was brought up
as it relates to bringing in some of our corporate and philanthropic partners
in helping source not only funds, but experiences for our young people.
We've got great kids that may be a
little misguided in some respects, but have great minds and great
intellect, and given the right circumstances and opportunities, can really
flourish. So to the extent we can, work with our philanthropic
partners on bringing resources to the table, as well as exploring
some of the tax incentives that exist, especially from the state around it,
especially with individuals that are justice-involved.
There are tax credits to hiring
people that are in those particular situations.
So I think that if we take the full kit of what we have, I know the
expansion
that we're looking at this year of bringing that number to 40,000 still does not
meet the need, which I think was like 55,000, 56,000 of
people that are looking for work. Coupled with some of the new
opportunities, potentially on a voluntary basis under these new
SNAP and benefit rules that will also alter the
landscape a little bit as well. So again, we know that
you all are pushing and working as hard as you can to fulfill the
needs. One thing that we didn't really dive into, I know we talked about it on the
housing front, what other areas are we
likely to see federal cuts from outside of the housing, which I think
we've got a pretty good grasp at?
We know the Medicaid one is-- Thank you, Chairman Irvin. Our apologies.
We know the Medicaid cut is coming in terms of the work requirements, and we're
already seeing
people dropping off.
You all know I had 14 years of working in federal government.
This is the first time I can't always predict
what next shoe would drop.
LIHEAP.
What's going to happen when people are trying to choose, "Do I do food?
Do I keep my lights on?" Or, "Do I pay the rent?" So I
know that has also dropped as well, in terms of states' ability to
access those dollars and get those out.
I really can't tell you which the next one will be.
We see all the policy changes are going to impact.
The funding may still be there, but the policy regulatory changes will make
it more difficult for people to get into a service such as Head Start.
It's going to make it more difficult for
some of our populations to be able to access Head Start.
Our non-English speaking children will not have the ability
to be able to get a classroom that has ESL, right?
So some of those barriers are based on policy changes and not even just
funding.
Well, we know that you guys
have your work cut out, and whatever they don't do, kind of
lands in between the state and our lap as well.
Also, I know people talk about the work that
Deputy LaRaviere does around our seniors.
I think your Senior Fest, even though you all had a little rain this year, but
you got to maybe move that into Navy Pier, someplace that's
covered so you don't have to manage or worry about that.
But the work that you all are doing over there, especially our senior
center, the satellite senior center in Austin, as well as the main one at
Central West. We appreciate everything that you all do and the staff
over there that's
doing great work in the community.
I think Alderman Telia Ferro, Alderman Mitchell, and
I had something in to name the
Austin Satellite
Center.
Oh my God, if she was sitting here, she'd slap me.
Ms. Drummond, yeah.
Drummond. Yep.
I've known Ms. Drummond. I'm 52. I've known Ms. Drummond a long time, right?
Yeah, she used to stay right across from us. We lived over at Buren.
But, yeah, we want to move forward with that because she was one of her, Bob
Andracik, and the South Austin Community Council were real drivers
of bringing that center to the Austin community, which
at the time was the largest community in the city.
However, did not have a senior service center from the City of Chicago in it.
And so that's how we got that Austin Satellite Center over there
on Congress. So again, thank you for the work that you all are doing.
Let's keep it moving. And also, just a
final thank you on the homelessness.
I know we've got Franciscan and the work we're doing to create
the non-congregate shelter.
I don't know how they survived as long as they did
with what they had. And
fortunately, we were able to pull the money together to do something that
create a level of dignity that's
needed. Just because someone's homeless doesn't mean that we have to discard or
treat them
in the manner in which that shelter, even though with all of that, they still
provided a service. But again,
it required a level of dignity that I'm now glad that we're going to be able to
provide those individuals. So with that being said, you all are excused.
But as they say, subject to recall, and we will take a pause as we
bring in human relations.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Hey. Oh, he's out.
I know what these are.
Good afternoon, back on. We have the Department of Human Relations with
us.
We're going to have a quick overview
from COFR,
followed by introductions from
the team, and if you can
give us an abbreviated opening statement, and we'll dive into
questions. So, Adrienne.
Good afternoon, Chairman Ervin, Vice Chair Lee, and members of the City Council.
My name is Adrienne Russell, they/them.
I'm a data analyst with the Council Office of Financial Analysis, and I'm here to
provide a brief overview of the Commission on Human Relations budget for
the fiscal year of 2027. The proposed budget
is $2.85 million,
which reflects about an $80,000 increase from last year or
2.81%. Most of this is personnel costs at
2.72 million, which is up 2.6% from the prior year.
The remaining .13 million is for non-personnel costs.
The Commission on Human Relations is 60% corporate funded, and
there are 20 full-time equivalents budgeted for 2027,
which is the same as last year. And as of October 21st,
2026, they had a vacancy rate of 5%.
This slide shows the appropriations by category and fund.
In the appropriation categories, the biggest piece is the personnel
services, followed by contractual services.
And
as stated earlier, it's 60% corporate funded.
The remaining funding comes from grants, the 925 Entitlement
Fund.
This slide shows the appropriations over time.
You can see that it increased from 2018 to 2024,
decreasing in 2025, and is back up to $2.85 million
for the 2027 proposed budget.
Lastly, we can look at the FTEs over time, which have remained pretty stable
at either 20 or 19 FTEs. The only thing really changing
here is the distribution between grant-funded positions and local
corporate funding, with corporate fund funding more FTEs over time.
This concludes COFR's overview of the Commission on Human Relations.
Thank you. Commissioner, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, Honorable Chairman Ervin, Vice Chair Lee, and members of the
City Council. On behalf of the Board of Commissioners and staff, I am
pleased to present the Chicago Commission on Human Relations
2027 budget recommendations. With me on the dais is Deputy
Commissioner Joann Newsome. In the box, we have Director of Human
Rights Compliance for Employment, Marisol Gallegos, and
Director of Intergroup Relations, Daniel Serrano.
As the civil rights enforcement agency for the city, we investigate and
adjudicate complaints of discrimination in housing, employment, public
accommodations, and credit. We also assist and advocate for victims of
hate crimes, mediate conflicts between individuals and groups,
and provide workshops and presentations.
The CCHR staff is a dedicated and talented group of human
rights professionals who work hard to fight discrimination and
promote equity and unity in our city.
It is indeed an honor and the highlight of my
36-year career in civil rights to lead and work with
this tremendous team.
While all of us at the commission are committed to this work, fighting
discrimination and hate cannot be done alone.
We need allies that represent the diversity of our city.
Therefore, under my leadership, we have changed the focus of our
intergroup relations work from increasing the number of outreach events
we attend to building more strong, sustained
relationships with communities.
For example, we have prioritized addressing the overly
disproportionate number of hate crimes targeting the Jewish
community by strengthening our relationships with the Jewish
organizations to join efforts to fight hate and
discrimination.
Similarly, we have been actively engaging with the Muslim
community, meeting with leadership, and attending community programs
to show our support and to help the community see that the
CCHR is a resource. In addition, for more than a year,
we have continued to engage with the trans community to provide
information, support, and resources to help address some
of the community's concerns, as documented in the
2025 Trans Homicide Report by the city's working
group led by the CCHR.
In addition to our work with community, the CCHR continues to
work hard to provide a recourse for victims of discrimination.
Our adjudication division provides thorough and efficient
investigations of discrimination complaints and
manages settlement conferences and administrative
hearings.
As of October 16th of this year, we have seen an increase
of 53% of new discrimination complaints.
We attribute this to the new relationships we are building with
communities, helping all Chicagoans know that we are here for
them and our services are available to all.
Despite this sharp rise in caseload,
CCHR's investigative team maintained exceptional
efficiency, completing 88% of investigations in one
year,
a significant increase from 68% in 2025.
Going forward, we will continue to examine new ways to improve
our online complaint filing process to better assist the
public. We will also work to improve access to our
legal research tools for parties with cases before the
CCHR to make our decisions and legal rulings
easier to navigate while providing the most current information
available.
Equally important, CCHR's Intergroup Relations and
Outreach Unit continues to provide thoughtful and
compassionate service to city residents and is key to our
community relationship building initiatives.
Our hate crime victim advocates work with the police department, state's
attorney's office, and community organizations to provide valuable
support to hate crime victims and their communities.
IGR also intervenes to mediate community tensions to
prevent violence and hate crimes.
As of October 23rd of this year, IGR has
responded to 90 community tensions, with 10 of these
conflicts going through the mediation process.
Without this intervention, these hostilities can
quickly escalate into dangerous confrontations.
Finally, IGR provides educational workshops on a
variety of topics, including bullying, conflict resolution,
and know your rights presentations to stop hate and discourage
discrimination.
11 workshops have been delivered in 2026.
All of our services are available in English and Spanish.
We also have access to translation services of
LanguageLine Solutions for more than 200 additional languages.
To expand
our reach into new communities, the CCHR
has also focused on strengthening our public relations and
social media efforts. We have recently released our
2025 annual report and produced new
outreach materials. We will also release our 2026
hate crime report very soon. We have expanded our social media
profile to include regular postings on Facebook,
Instagram, X, and BlueSky. New videos have
also been produced, including a series on hate crimes and a
step-by-step video demonstrating how to file
a discrimination complaint online.
In addition, we are continuing to grow our podcast, "Think Before You
Hate", to introduce new topics and highlight the city's diverse
communities. In conclusion, the commission is very excited
about 2027. We look forward to building more relationships
with the communities of our city and providing thoughtful, efficient, and
caring services to our residents.
This budget, as outlined by the mayor, will be essential to
providing our department with the tools we need to continue and
expand upon this important work. Thank you in advance for your
consideration.
Thank you.
Vice Chair.
Thank you, Chair, and hello, Commissioner.
Good afternoon.
Welcome to your first budget in the hot seat. Yours is not so hot. It's okay.
I just
want to say thank you for all of the incredible work that CCHR does.
You are a small but mighty team,
but the work that you do on behalf of the city is so impactful.
I know you all carry a lot of load for the city through
investigations,
responding to hate crimes, and just all of the myriad of things that I know
my office calls you for.
We appreciate all that you're doing.
Can you talk about
what are the trends right now, other than the rise in hate crimes
against our Jewish neighbors?
What else are you seeing? Are
you seeing increases in other areas?
What are you dealing more with these days than others?
Well,
thank you for that question, Alderman Lee.
And
actually, it's good news.
Hate crimes are down significantly, and let me see if I can
pull some numbers for you.
This year we've had 133 reported hate crimes
compared to 208 last year.
So we're down 36%, and there are two major factors
related here. Race-based hate crimes are down
44%,
and religious-based hate crimes are down 48%.
And you have to remember, too, this reflects a 55%
decrease in anti-Jewish hate crimes, and that's where we saw
the big uptick in 2024,
and they've been steadily coming down.
And also what we like to point out when you talk about hate
crimes and community tensions, they're tied to international and
national events.
We know what happened in 2024. The Israel-Hamas war-
Knocking on all the wood around me so that we don't
get more.
Yeah.
With the Israel-Hamas war, we saw an uptick in
a lot of hate crimes. There's a lot of tension in the country.
Particularly, we saw a lot of acting out on college campuses, so hate crime numbers
were going up. But as that rhetoric has died down, so have
the hate crime numbers.
Unfortunately, we also
saw a lot of rhetoric from Washington,
which fueled anti-hate for everyone.
Anti-LGBT hate,
hate against migrants and immigrants.
So we saw those numbers increase, and slowly, slowly, they've been
coming down the last couple of years.
That's great.
And
Deputy Commissioner Joanne would like to-
Joanne is the deputy commissioner.
Cool.
I'd also like to add that on the investigation side,
while our numbers don't really fluctuate with culture necessarily and what's going
on in the world,
we've noticed that
when it comes to disability discrimination complaints, historically, they've been
based in public accommodations or people's
inability to access a business. Lately, the disability
discrimination complaints have been mainly based in housing, or I shouldn't say
mainly based in housing, but more based in housing.
And that it breaks down between
inability to have an emotional support animal live with
you and
lack of accessible parking for buildings that provide parking.
On the housing side, also on the housing side, where typically
we have 70% or 80% of the complaints based on source of
income this last
year, and this year it's been more based on race.
Source of income and
race discrimination are kind of running neck and neck, whereas usually
it's source of income, specifically Housing Choice Voucher.
Thanks for that. I don't think that's good news, but
interesting to see the trend moving in that direction.
I think a lot of this also goes to, I think, a broader issue
that's not necessarily,
particularly in your body of work. You're at the impact of it, right?
It's after it's happened. I think as a city, we've got to do a better job of
making sure we're educating property owners of what their obligations are and
legally what
they can and cannot do.
I have had at least one or two occasions where
constituents of mine who are property owners
got themselves into hot water with no
ill intent at the end of the day. It was really more ignorance than anything,
and it was received as some sort of discrimination.
So,
just as an example, it could be
someone who's
taking over
the management of properties because someone has passed away.
So, in that transition, if you're not someone who's accustomed to managing
properties, you won't know the various forms of payment people can
make.
I've had an older individual who was
taking over the responsibility and was asked by someone who was looking at
an apartment of theirs, "Do you accept
vouchers?" And she thought it was like PayPal or
Venmo. She's like, "I only take cash or check,"
or she didn't take electronic payments.
She didn't know
even what a voucher was at that point.
And I think the individual filed a complaint against her.
And then you guys investigated, and it was fine.
This is what we go through, but I do think that providing some
level of
education and ensuring that property owners are educated properly.
Not that I'm trying to put you out of the job or anything like that, but you know.
We do work closely with the Chicago Housing Authority to provide
education outreach, both to Housing Choice Voucher participants as
well as property owners and property managers
Are you all concerned at all with federal
grants? I know under this administration you've got six
positions, I think, that are grant funded.
Are we at any risk at all? Are you concerned about that, and is there a backup
plan?
I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
Grant funded positions.
Mm-hmm.
What's the source of the federal grant funded positions?
For us, we receive CDBG funding, so we have six staff
that are funded through CDBG.
They work in our fair housing division and intergroup relations.
And we don't have any real concerns with losing that funding, do we?
No, we're good.
Okay.
I think that's all I've got. Like I said, I really appreciate the work that you and
your team
do throughout the year. We've got to pick the ball back up on the one training that
we want to do for local businesses in my community, just to
ensure that they are understanding
the notion of bias
and how that plays into interactions with customers.
That
is something that we started. We're going to pick that back up.
I know we've got a lot of things going on, but I'm going to reach out to your team
so that we can close the loop on that and hopefully provide some
source material for other communities as well,
for small businesses to understand.
Just like with property owners, what are your obligations as a business?
And where the lines cross between discrimination and
running your business in a way that keeps it secure.
So there are nuanced differences, and we need people to understand that.
Otherwise, thank you.
Thank you.
Alderman Waguespack, you have anything?
Yes, Chairman. Thank you.
All right.
You got your pad out, that's-
Only a few pages.
Kidding.
Thank you all for being here, and I just want to say
your
staff have been
excellent in the way that they respond to many of the hate incidents
that we've seen over the last few years.
When they go out and they do groundwork and are out there speaking
to our constituents in the most respectful way,
working through these investigations, I just want to say that we really appreciate
that.
I think
if you have it in the upcoming report, most of the questions
that I had should be answered in that report.
And when did you say that it would be coming out?
The hate crime report should be out within the next couple of weeks.
Okay.
I think I can wait for everything there.
I was just looking at what the breakdown would be for those
investigations, the types that
typically come out in that report.
So I will wait for the report to come out.
And again, just appreciate hearing these numbers
about
the
race
hate crimes and the religious hate crimes all going down for the first time in a
couple of years. It's very important, I think, for people to see that we
are
getting back to a place where we can have the discussions
about religion, discussions about race, and things that don't
go to where we've seen them go to in the past, which is to very dark
places unnecessarily. And I'm glad that you acknowledge where
it really started at the top in Washington and worked
its way down throughout the country, because often if our leaders at the
top are not doing the right thing,
we see things devolve into the kinds of
ugly debates and ugly interactions that we saw over the last few
years. But I just want to, again, say thank you to you and all your
staff over the last few years as you've...
And I know you've been there a short time, but, as you've worked through these
issues at that level, at your top level here,
it's very important for all our constituents citywide and
I appreciate everything that you all have done. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you. Chairman Dow, you have anything?
Okay. All right.
Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon, members of the committee.
Good afternoon,
Commissioner, and to your team. Just a quick question for you,
because I was trying to see in your remarks, and forgive me if you
referenced it, but I didn't see it, the issue of U visas and T
visas.
How many applications have you processed?
She can answer that.
Okay. I will defer to our Director of Human Rights Compliance, Marisol
Gallegos. That's one of the things she does for our office.
As far as for last year, each year, last year and this year, we've done one U
visa.
Certified.
Of each?
I said U visa and T visa.
We have not received any T visa requests.
What are we doing to advertise that?
We do have it on our website.
If when our investigators take discrimination complaints
based on the facts alleged in a discrimination complaint, that
might be a conversation we can have with the complainant,
depending on what the terms are in the investigation.
And how would you be able to engage in that conversation without being in
contradiction to the Welcoming City ordinance, where you're not asking someone's
citizenry or nation of origin while trying to determine whether or not they
are
a possible applicant for a U or T visa?
Typically, when people come to us and request a U visa, we haven't
done a T visa. U visas, typically, they come through
an agency like the Legal Aid Chicago.
And those attorneys
know the process. I don't know honestly that-
The average person knows they can ask for a U visa.
They come to us through agencies, typically. Am I correct?
Well, I would probably agree with that assessment because I don't think
most people know that the Commission on Human Relations actually has
the ability to process applications for
U visas and T visas.
The fact that you only did one is probably a
testament to that, especially in light of everything that goes on
with regards to how we treat non-citizens
in this city.
And so we are clear,
and so that this is on record for everyone who's
unfamiliar,
your
ability to process U visas deals with
discrimination and adverse actions, correct?
Yes. Discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex,
sexual harassment, national origin, ancestry, age, disability,
orientation, gender identity, marital status, parental
status, source of income, military status, credit history
with employment, criminal history for employment, bodily autonomy,
and retaliation. And
for all of those, you have to be a non-citizen, correct?
In order to get a U visa?
Yes. So a non-citizen who's-
Well, the-- Go ahead
... been discriminated on any of those, in addition
with the adverse reactions of not being hired, refused to be promoted,
discipline discharged, not
being rented to or allowing your lease.
I don't know what steering means.
Unequal compensation, harassment, failure to accommodate, and
other forms of discrimination. So-
No, that's not-- No, actually-
I'm reading from your website. So I want to make sure,
because
if that's not correct, your website's not correct.
And if your website's not correct, then your advertising is
wrong. And
we already have an issue with U visas coming out of CPD.
Mayor Lightfoot, myself, and I think even the Committee on
Immigrant and Refugee Rights have all tried to raise this issue
on the fact that we do not
effectuate enough U visas in this city.
So having read
directly from
you guys,
I'd like to know what,
with regards to your
department and budgeting needs, are you doing to address
the promotion of U visas for our non-citizen
residents who are qualifying but not being engaged
by the city?
Hi, this is Marisol Gallegos, Director of Compliance and Employment.
I would like to say that we did participate in-- We are one of the first
agencies that released our information about U visas on our
website for the City of Chicago.
Ma'am.
I-
Could you speak a little more into the mic?
One of our-
Yes
... members is having trouble hearing you.
So we are one of the first agencies that put our material on our website.
I myself have conducted a training with
BACP, with their investigators, about
how to certify U visas. U visas need to be certified.
We still have to be in compliance with the
USCIS law, so the Immigration Nationality Act.
So we can only certify if based on one of those qualifying
crimes.
I know.
But I'm also saying that I find it
unimaginable that only one
undocumented individual
in the entire city of Chicago
qualifies
through what I just read through.
And I don't necessarily believe
that that is a failure in processing.
That's a failure in advertising, in sharing that
information.
I would like to see that changed from this
group.
If I may, whenever we do outreach presentations
about our adjudication process, about how to file a complaint,
we always talk about our ability to certify
U and T visas.
Okay.
We do that often.
Can you provide through the chair how many locations you've had that conversation
and in which wards they've transpired?
Okay. Thank you. We will-
Because I
would like to see that if you're having those conversations in areas where you
don't have undocumented citizens, it really doesn't help.
And also, I'd just like to add that
for us to certify a U visa,
the discrimination has to be based in a qualifying crime, so there's
harassment or sexual harassment.
It's not just all of the-
I got you
... visas that you mentioned. Okay.
There are two
ways that people get this.
That, and if they are the victims of violent,
felonious crimes in the city of Chicago.
You do not deal with the latter. CPD does.
But I also know that we sit on these applications.
We don't offer them. And even when we've had people who
were victims of violent crime, the turnaround time is years.
That has to change,
and I think we forget that part when it comes to the
undocumented non-citizens of our city,
especially when we want them to step up and speak to the bad
actors among us, whether they're under your jurisdiction or
CPD's. And we can't do that if
we are not
showing that we are, one,
promoting that option to keep people here so that they feel strong enough to
stand up
But also protecting them because we know retaliation is real as
well. And I think that is where my biggest concern for everything that's
under your guys' jurisdiction comes from, because
I am continuously hearing, especially as it relates to housing,
where landlords are threatening their
tenants who are non-citizens when they complain about building
issues, bed bugs, which are on the rise, and things of that nature with,
"If
you keep bothering me with this, I'm going to have you deported."
By very definition, that is now something that should be a
U Visa eligible application,
but we are not
addressing that issue.
Immigration Nationality Act for it to be a qualifying crime.
Could you identify yourself for the record, please?
Marisol Gallegos with the Director of Compliance.
So then we need to go back,
because that's the second time you've tried to correct me based on what's written
on your website.
Because refusal to rent, renew lease, sell, or lease
termination are the qualifying things on your website.
So either your website's wrong
or you're wrong today. Either way, I'd like that to be clarified,
because if that is correct, what you have posted, which you touted as how
you provide this resource,
then we need to make sure that it is up-to-date, accurate, and that we're able
to
put that out there across all departments, not just buildings, but
CDPH, housing, everyone else should be able to be aware of
what is covered under U Visa and T Visa applications.
Thank you. Duly noted. Again,
we know that you all have
interesting work. One thing that you stated earlier was that you
all were doing less outreach events,
but doing more with organizations.
Is that your testimony?
What I wanted to convey is we're trying to build
relationships, so we want to have ongoing relationships
with community groups. We don't want to just do one event and get out.
Okay.
We want to establish some relationships.
All right. No, I just wanted to understand what the strategy was
with that. Okay. All right. With that being said, well, you all are excused,
and
we don't need to beat a dead horse, so keep rolling.
All right. The committee will stand at ease while we bring in the Public Library,
which is our final group for the day.
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the last hearing of the
evening, of the week.
Chicago Public Libraries. We're going to start with a COFA
overview. Katie's here. I'm going to kick it over to you, and then introduce
the commissioner.
All right. Wonderful. Thank you, Vice Chair Lee, and good evening, members of the
city council. My name is Katie O'Toole with COFA.
I will provide a brief summary of the Chicago Public Library's budget
request. For 2027, the proposed budget for the library is
$130.78 million,
a $14.77 million or
12.73% increase. The corporate fund does
not directly support the Chicago Public Library appropriations in
2027. However, the corporate fund does contribute a
separate $31 million subsidy to the library
fund in the budget request for 2027, just to note
that.
Personnel accounts for the majority of appropriations for Chicago Public Library
with $93.64 million, up
nearly 7% from 2026. Non-personnel expenses
are budgeted at $37.14 million, a
roughly 31% increase.
The library requests 1,105 full-time equivalent
positions in 2027. This is the same as
2026. As of October 21st, the library had a vacancy
rate of 12.28.
This slide compares proposed appropriations by category and fund against the
2026 budget ordinance. Looking at categories, the
purposes as specified 9,000 categories sees the largest change,
reflecting increases in reserve balances for state grant
funds. And while here you can see 9,100
purposes as specified looks the same, there is a shift in funding
sources for library books and materials.
It's about $5 million is shifting from the corporate fund and going into the
library fund. So, looking at the funds, this shift
from the corporate fund for books is the reason for the 100% decline
seen here in the corporate fund change.
The library fund support increases by about 10% to total
$99.8 million in 2027. Grant funds
increase by over 50% to nearly $31 million in
2027.
Here you can see a historical overview of the department appropriations by funding
source, beginning in 2018. The library has seen some fluctuation
in appropriations over the years.
2026 represented the only direct corporate fund support since at
least 2018. The library fund has
generally increased over the years,
supplemented with various levels of grant funding.
And lastly, the library's historical
budgeted positions are featured here.
Staff has been pretty consistent at around 1,100 since
2025. This is a decline of approximately 50
positions since 2023 and 2024, though.
The library fund supports 1,033 positions in 2027's
request, with grants supporting 72.
And these 72 positions have been supported by grants since
2020. And that concludes COFA's overview of the proposed
2027 budget for the Chicago Public Library.
Thanks, Katie.
We're going to introduce Commissioner Brown.
You can read his statement, and then you can introduce your staff that are here
with you.
Good evening. Do you want me to introduce my staff first?
Well, whichever you prefer.
Yeah.
With me tonight we have Mary Robinson, our deputy commissioner, Deputy Commissioner
Maggie Clemens, and our Director of Finance, Irma Jackson.
In the box from front row left to right, we have Sam Zuckert,
Chief Data Analyst, Shenita Mack, the Director of the
Harold Washington Library, District Chief Tamala Chambers,
Assistant Commissioner Brent Lipinski,
Director of Technology Nicole Steeves, Julia
Brachta, Assistant Commissioner of Facilities, Patrick Molloy,
the Director of IGA.
Then behind from left to right, we have Shelley Hughes, District
Chief, Erin McKinney, District Chief, and Neisha
Sanders, District Chief.
Good evening, Vice Chair Lee and members of City Council.
Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the Chicago Public Library's proposed
2027 budget, the services it supports,
and our priorities for the year ahead.
As a department of the City of Chicago, we appreciate Mayor Johnson
and the council's commitment to sustaining the essential
services our libraries make possible across our neighborhoods.
The Chicago Public Library, as you're aware, has
faced a structural funding deficit.
Our dedicated library fund revenues are not sufficient
to cover the recurring costs of our system, which
include annual salary and wage increases for our
existing workforce. However, Mayor Johnson has ensured that our
2027 budget is fully funded in order to
maintain our operations. The proposed 2027
budget includes approximately $30.9 million in corporate fund
support to address this gap.
That funding serves several essential purposes.
It replaces approximately $18.6 million in TIF funding that
supported our budget in 2026. It accounts for the $5
million in existing corporate fund support for books and
materials, which helps us maintain our $10
million collection
budget for books. It also helps cover the approximately
4% in annual personal cost increases
and supports essential building management and finance
general costs needed to operate our department.
This fiscal challenge that we're facing is
a longstanding one.
Our operating costs increase an average of 4.6 annually,
while direct departmental appropriations increase by just
2.4%.
When you factor in our personal costs, you see
they make up 83% of our operating allocation,
with annual salary and wage adjustments alone requiring
approximately 4.25 million in additional funding each
year.
With another 10 million in dedicated
allocation of books and materials, that's more than 93% of our
operating budget committed to personnel and collections,
leaving just 7% for all other operating needs, including
our
facilities
and department. This provides little flexibility to
absorb the additional costs without affecting core
services.
As department leadership, we recognize our responsibility to make the most of
every public dollar. This year we've reviewed staffing and management
across 21 divisions.
We've continued hiring the essential positions needed and have added
142 employees with more recruitment planned for the
remainder of the year.
In 2027, we plan to review our operations
with our labor partners and employees to ensure we're delivering the greatest
possible value through our services.
In terms of the role of our department, we're responsible for delivering free
public service to residents across all 77 neighborhoods
through 82 locations. Our role is to ensure
that every Chicagoan has access to the books, information
technology, learning opportunities, and welcoming public spaces
that they require. That includes developing our book collections,
advancing literacy and lifelong learning, providing public computers,
internet access, digital resources, and delivering
educational and cultural programming, as well as preserving
Chicago's history and cultural memory.
And Chicagoans rely on our libraries
in a large degree. Last year, residents made 6.6
million visits, borrowed nearly 15 million items,
and used our public computers and Wi-Fi more than 5.5 million
times. That momentum has continued into this year,
with visits increasing by 12%, technology use
growing more than 11%, program attendance
increasing by 5.6%, and circulation
remaining 29% above pre-pandemic levels.
Over the course of a month, what does that mean?
That means over 6,000 visits, 3,200 items
borrowed,
1,100 computer sessions, and 3,900 Wi-Fi connections
at each of our neighborhood libraries.
These numbers reflect the everyday role that our workforce and
libraries play in strengthening our neighborhoods.
An independent McKinsey analysis estimates that every public dollar
invested in CPL generates roughly $3 in
benefits, with over 440 million in annual
economic value.
Based on their analysis, that represents an average of
approximately $5.4 million in economic
value generated by each of our neighborhood libraries.
At CPL, reading remains at the foundation of our mission.
Through the 81 Club, developed in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools
and Mayor Johnson, more than 300,000 CPS
students went back to school this year able to use their school
ID as their library account.
Just as importantly, it means that every student now has access to
free online one-on-one tutoring.
This year, story time participation and early literacy events
grew by 8.5%, reaching over 150,000
attendees. Over 29,000 of them participated in
bilingual story times, and we provided over 40,000 homework
help sessions, growing by 29%.
Nearly 45,000 children participated in our summer reading
program, collectively recording more than one million
days of reading.
And our collections continue to see investment.
A few years back, the city allocated an additional two million in
annual investments to our books budget to bring us closer
to big city
peers, and we continue to build on that momentum.
We've also improved access to digital collections
by adjusting our policies and reducing e-book
waits from 46 days on average to just 20
days.
And at CPL, learning extends beyond the classroom into our
libraries. Across 29 YouMedia spaces for
teens, we recorded approximately
39,000 youth visits, and through
After School Matters and Chicago Youth Works, over 150
youth
received paid summer internships with an additional 85
opportunities throughout the year.
We also offer late evening programming in partnership with the
Mayor's Office for Community Safety.
We are also investing in digital literacy and AI readiness
through
literacy opportunities for people to make
informed choice, and
really exercise human judgment, and not simply face
technology adoption for its own sake.
This coming year, through state-supported investments, we will bring translation
and accessibility technology to all 82
locations.
We also continue to preserve cultural memory
by preparing over 70,000 archival items for
digitization,
and have added
a librarian for Latino collections programming to continue
to invest and build relationships for that one
day securing a Mexican heritage archive.
Beyond youth services, our libraries connect residents to resources that
strengthen their everyday lives.
Sunday visitation grew by 21% this year, with more
than 600,000 visits on Sundays alone, and the
first hour of Sunday service is the second busiest
hour of the week.
This demand underscores the importance of reliable access
beyond traditional weekday hours.
At our Legler Regional Library, our food pantry partnership distributed
over 231,000 pounds of food. And through
Ladder Up, a free tax prep clinic service,
we served more than 4,000 Chicagoans and helped them secure
approximately $5.4 million in
refunds.
Our libraries also serve as early voting sites, and 42
sites serve as Election Day polling spaces.
And we're investing in the future of our capital.
We opened the 82nd location of the Chicago Public Library at the
Obama Presidential Center, welcoming more than 110,000
visits in the first two months.
We do recognize there is room for improvement.
This year, through driver shortages, our delivery
services were affected. Each year, we deliver more than
1.4 million requested items, and this created
delays for residents waiting for books and materials.
We've been working to address that challenge through recruitment,
staffing, and operational improvements.
We're also investing in a safer Chicago Public Library.
We've strengthened our training and incident response, and by
the end of this year, we are on track to complete a two-year investment in
providing camera and panic buttons at every Chicago Public Library
location.
In regard to our future, we are wrapping up our first
integrated programmatic and strategic plan and
capital strategy, which will provide a direction for
the future
of how we strengthen Chicago through building a city of readers,
keeping Chicago learning, and bringing Chicago together.
It reflects our mission to strengthen Chicago neighborhood by neighborhood.
I want to thank our employees, our board, our
labor partners, the Chicago Public Library Foundation, our
friends groups, and the many partners who contribute to our work.
I look forward to working with the mayor and this council, as well as
many of our partners, to continue to protect the services that
Chicagoans rely on.
Thank you, and I welcome your questions.
Thank you, Commissioner Brown. I think we can all attest to
the important role that Chicago Public Libraries play in
communities across the city of Chicago.
I don't like to brag too much about the libraries in my ward.
I have some great library branches in the ward.
One of the most highly utilized ones being the Chinatown branch.
So really,
shout out to all of the workers that are there.
And y'all are having to deal with a lot, too.
The library buildings themselves are relied
upon to keep people warm in the wintertime, keep people cool in the
summertime, and a myriad of other things that you've been called upon to
do, and I think that the libraries have always risen to the occasion.
So I thank you all for that. I'm going to open up with questions.
Alderman Dowell, do you want to go first?
Yes.
Okay.
Use this mic this time.
Thank you. Hi, Commissioner.
I want to understand the $18.6 million
TIF switch to corporate. My understanding is
that you've always had this $18 million in your
budget, right? Through TIF dollars.
We've always had some sort of subsidy,
well over the last 10 years.
But this was
a
TIF surplus from last year that's now moving over to the
corporate
fund. Okay, it was a surplus. So it did not go in as
the regular TIF dollars. It went in as surplus.
That answers my question.
We also, last year,
did a property tax increase. I think it
was 9.2 million. Can you tell us how that money was
spent?
Yeah. As I mentioned in my opening statement,
the
Chicago Public Library,
we see annual increases in our
personnel costs of about 4% every
year. And so really, that funding is simply to
cover our operating costs and to be whole as a department.
It was not for additional programs or capital.
It was to make sure that we did not have to have any personnel reductions.
Okay, so it was all for staff costs.
Correct.
Okay.
Now, you mentioned that Sunday hours are very popular.
When that program was implemented, weren't you supposed to get some
additional staffing?
Yes. There was a union side letter with some stipulated
personnel.
Did you get that?
We did get additional staff. We haven't hit that
number,
but what we've managed our hours based on
is a review of what's needed to open the locations,
what's needed to staff our service points.
At this current time,
we're able to keep those sites open.
So what would be the number at full complement, and where are you?
We could get you that through the chair.
Okay.
I'm curious to know what impact that has on your employees.
If you're not working at full complement, it means that some employees
are working overtime. Do you pay overtime?
We do have staff working Sundays who
receive a full
7.5 day of pay for a half day. So that's also part of
the agreement.
We make sure that
we have enough staff to, again, operate our service points.
We make sure that we can provide the needed
lunch breaks and work breaks that are stipulated in our
agreement with our union workforce.
And any
site that is not able to meet that, we would review on a case-by-case basis.
What's the least popular day?
It'd probably be
Friday.
Friday would probably be the least popular day.
But again,
we have this new
opportunity with our Chicago public school students.
We want to make sure that they have library service every day of the week.
Thank you.
Can I get through the chair the number of visits by library?
Yes.
And the number of books
by library?
Absolutely.
And can you tell me how you're going to spend this?
Okay, so the 30 million additional you're getting, I'm
getting
a little over 5 million for books and materials,
4% in your personnel costs,
which equals what?
Just under 30 million.
We also have 3 million moved over to our departmental budget
from DTI.
So again, it's really to
remain whole and continue our services.
So the 30 million is, well, we'll separate out
the 5 million for books. The 25 million is for
staff,
personnel costs?
Correct.
Oof.
What would you do if you didn't get the 30 million?
I think we'd have to work as a city
with the mayor's office, with council, to
look at what those ramifications would be.
We'd probably not be able to offer Sunday hours.
There'd probably need to be
some sort of personnel reduction if we lost that 30
million.
All right.
Regarding the
Bee Branch Library, do you have any capital improvements
on the books for them?
I'm going to turn that over to Julia Brockta, our assistant commissioner
of facilities.
Hello, I'm Julia Brockta, assistant commissioner of facilities.
Beyond our regular maintenance, which is anything that goes
wrong at the branch, we address through building engineers and 2FM.
I'm not aware that we have any specific
planned upgrades. The branch was fully gut renovated and-
About 10 years ago
... probably was done in 2019.
Yes.
And the Hall Branch library, you're doing work.
When will that be completed?
That's scheduled to be completed at
mid-December of this year. We are doing a roof replacement
was done at the branch fully,
some interior upgrades tied to the roof renovation, and then
a fully new HVAC system.
All right.
Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you. Next we'll go over to Alderman Lopez.
Thank you, Chairman, and good
evening, now
Commissioner, members of the committee. Good evening to your team.
Couple questions, if I may. First, going back to the
department's
deficits.
So
this year's
deficit would've been roughly $25 million
without corporate fund support? Is that what I heard?
30, if you factor in also-
I'm not
... the other 2FM and finance general.
So I'm not factoring in
the additional 5 million for books and materials because that's on top of what the
5 million that you already allocate. Correct?
Because this budget says last year was $5 million,
appropriated $5 million, and now we're up to $10 million.
So I'm assuming that's the $5 million you're referencing
on page 575.
9,100 purposes as specified.
Is that $5 million increase part of the $30 million we were just
asking about?
That's correct.
Okay, so then
the other
positions that were offloaded to
DTI
and whatever else we're paying for is about the $25 million.
So the levy's short $25 million to fund the libraries fully this year.
Yes?
Anyone?
Hello. Irma
Jackson, Director of Finance.
I know we work in the library, but we could talk in this room today,
so please do.
Okay. The $30 million goes to the library fund
on the revenue side, and so that's where the shortage
was at on the library fund. The library fund covers not only Chicago
Public Library, but two FM's budget.
That's there to take care of facilities
and then finance general. It's also on the library fund, and that's
all related to healthcare and medical-
So the library fund on its own was short $25 million to
fund those things.
It was short $30 million, the whole fund.
Okay. I'm not going to keep arguing this.
Okay.
So I don't know why we're being difficult when you're the one short money.
Especially when,
to be perfectly frank, I'm the one that helped put $9 million and convince
my colleagues to do that last year.
I'd appreciate some direct answers in this.
Now my question is, as we're looking forward, I'm
seeing that the libraries are going to be short again in
2027 and 2028,
roughly to the tune of $38 million next year and
over $50 million in 2028. Is that correct?
Those sound similar to the estimates we've had from OPM.
What are the estimates that you have?
Around that $50 million mark by the 2028,
yeah. Do you have an exact estimate that you'd care to share with us?
I-
Fine. Provide it through the chair, please.
Sure.
What your projected
budgetary deficits are going to be for the next two years, because I think that the
conversation
about working with this administration and them fully funding the library is a
false one, because they're not.
You are structurally behind, and had city council not
stepped up as it did last year, as my colleague mentioned,
you would've been laying people off, reducing services, reducing
programs
throughout this entire year.
And you'd be on track to do it again
if we don't look at structural changes
to how you fund and where this money's coming from, recognizing the
shortfalls that we're facing.
Correct. Absolutely. We do need-
$40 million, $50 million every year- ...
a structural solution. Yeah
... is not something to sneeze at, and as we're seeing
our own budget,
$75 million
can throw us out of whack instantly.
Not planning for your $40, $50 million shortfalls
adds to that problem if we're not having a very candid conversation.
And I think all of us want to see libraries fully funded.
All of us know the value.
Thank you, Alderman.
But I don't like that we're pretending like there's not a
cliff that we're running full forward to right now.
So I want to make sure that we're putting all of that on the table as we
continue to have these discussions, because I think that
last time
OBM wasn't interested in raising the property tax levy for you guys.
Were they supportive of that idea, or did you propose that to them when you
submitted your budget?
We operate our department on our fund that
we are given.
As given. Yeah.
Back of the Yards Library,
where are we with that?
We
are still in conversations with the developer.
They are pursuing
their funding package, and it's still in play.
Are you aware of the
proposed $9.3 million draw from TIF for this
building as well?
I'm going to pass that over to Patrick Maleary, IGA.
Alderman, I believe that
any TIF request for this is for the development as a whole, not specifically
for the library. As I-
No, it's for the library.
Okay.
That's not something that we
have discussed to this point.
There seems to be a lot of things that we're learning about and not discussing.
I just found out about
this BYNC Library Rooted and Rising
TIF request for years 2028 and 2029,
totaling 9.3 million from my TIF, which I don't mind
because I know where it's going toward.
We've been advocating for that.
The fact that neither developer nor library system were aware
that we're actually looking at allocating this is problematic because I think we're
having conversations in silos, and we don't know where money's coming from.
You don't know what to plan for. We don't know what's going on, and certainly it's
very selective when we see which aldermen are learning about things.
Case in point, my other favorite library to talk about,
Gage Park.
What's going on with Gage Park?
As you know, we have 11 million in state funding.
It's our only discretionary capital dollars that our department
has that we've committed to a permanent Gage Park
branch.
Yes, which we learned about last year, which no one told us about. So go ahead.
And we are looking at a number of potential parcels
to
potentially purchase and develop.
So that's the extent of your knowledge of what's going on?
Um-
Because I will say
that I've learned
Public Building Commission meeting
from April,
where we are discussing the Gage Park Library for
evaluation, site design, and construction at $6
million, which nobody seems to know
what that's for.
Continuing on to the June PBC meeting,
again,
where we're continuing this conversation
with regards to authority to move forward,
as well as
I'm glad to see, I believe at this meeting, there was an update
or discussion about
engaging my colleague
who also represents Gage Park.
And then in August, confirmation of that as well as
the
resolution to incorporate this as part of their ACRA
and other things with regards to this Gage Park site, which they are now
apparently in
a week moving forward to purchase,
to look for
authority to purchase a site for Gage Park Library,
of which the two aldermen that represent Gage Park and the one that's been
complaining about it for 10 years has
been completely excluded from this conversation.
Did you know about any of these?
What I know is that-
Yes or no? Did you know about any of these-
I do know about PBC and the pursuit of potential parcels.
You didn't know about that?
That they are looking at a number of parcels that-
Last year, you told me you were going to keep me in the loop on this discussion as
we move forward.
None of this came from you.
None of this came from them.
None of this came from anybody but my own due diligence to continuously look to see
what's on the horizon.
We'd be happy to meet offline.
No, I don't need to meet offline,
because it is completely unacceptable,
and it's downright shameful
that this is what I'm getting from you who have heard me say this how many years
about Gage Park and the need for a library.
I have said this
even before I had the library in my ward.
And as one of your
biggest champions,
for you and your team
to keep my
ward excluded from this conversation,
I don't know what you're doing
with this library, playing games.
I personally am glad the community's getting a library.
And I've said numerous times, I don't care where, as long as we get one.
But when I see that we are committing $6 million to move forward, how are we
paying for the rest of this? Because a standalone library is
not
$10 million. It's almost 30. So
where is the remaining money coming from once you acquire
a site to move forward?
Again, you know what we're contributing as the city library.
That would be a question for OBM.
So you're going to punt the building of a library to OBM?
The money is not coming from us.
Where is it coming from then, sir?
I can't answer that.
Because I don't see
$20 million
in the budget for construction.
So
I don't see a full library coming.
I don't know of a magical TIF or funding source
anywhere in Gage Park, except along possibly Western,
because there's nothing on Kedzie, nothing on 55th, nothing on 59th,
nothing on 51st,
nothing on California.
So I don't understand how we can move forward
with a plan for site acquisition
without the rest of it
to build.
I'm sure we knew when we built the new Chinatown Library
that all the money was there, that you weren't just going to buy a site and hope
that it magically rained $20 million on your location.
I'm sure all the new libraries that we have throughout the city have never been
built...
We don't
fly a plane and build it simultaneously,
especially something that has been talked about ad nauseam in this chamber.
I'm
glad if
the library is finally going to happen in Gage Park. Great.
But your department's behavior and contribution to the secrecy of how this is
going down
makes me question the fitness for you in this role,
and that is a sorry thing to say.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman Lopez. Next, we're going to go to
Alderman Quezada, followed by Alderman Sigcho-Lopez.
Excellent. Thank you very much, Chairwoman, and thank you, Commissioner, for being
here, and to the entire CPL team.
Want to shout out our Logan Square Library branch, that is in
our 35th Ward, and the friends of the Logan Square Library.
Just last month, I had participated in a community event where
the kids who participated drew me wearing all sorts of really silly hats,
and that was a really fun activity to participate in.
I'm really grateful to have participated in that activity.
Glad to make it there.
So, as you know, there is growing support for a
library in Avondale. I support
building a library in Avondale.
Avondale is represented by four wards, the 35th, 33rd,
30th, and I think a portion of the 31st Ward.
And this is an independent effort that's being led by neighbors.
There is a petition that has gone out that has received thousands of
signatures, a lot of which are coming from the 35th Ward.
This is a petition that I'm sharing on my newsletter as well.
There was an independent study that showed that
this gap of a lack of a library in Avondale affects about
35,000 residents,
because
across the city of Chicago,
our library branches reach about 80% of Chicagoans.
But there is this significant gap in Avondale.
So to that end, I think some of the questions that I would like to hear or
answers that I'd like to hear are
when the CPL system is looking to open up a new branch,
how does it determine that? How does it determine need?
What is the strategy behind that? Because our residents are asking, and they want
to know how they can get in the queue to build a library in Avondale.
Thank you, Alderman, for that question.
We are working on a capital strategy that we are looking to complete
in spring of 2027.
That includes a really review of,
and mapping of the city of Chicago to look at potential gaps
of service. So I think at that time we could meet with you and
review what we've found in partnership with our architectural vendor,
Gensler.
And we've done this work in partnership with the Department of Planning and
Development.
Just also have to call out that any potential
new library location would also require an
operational
budget.
Each of our locations require about a million each year
in staffing costs. That includes
security and janitorial costs as well.
And so we'd be happy to have that conversation with you,
to look at that map,
to review what your residents are
requesting and to see where it fits within that plan.
Excellent. And so it's good to know that $1 million operational cost.
How much on average does it cost to just construct a new library itself?
I know there's-
It really depends on the square footage.
There are some potential savings through co-locations.
We've done those in the past where they've been around 15
million. If it's a standalone, it's probably something where we're
looking at between 20 and 25 million.
And most of our locations are
in the range of 12,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet.
Got it.
So- That's probably today's dollars too, just saying.
Right. And it's probably going to-
The longer you wait-
... keep increasing
... it's going to just get more and more expensive.
So
I just want to clarify, that's probably today's estimate.
Right. And so, I'm familiar with a couple different
initiatives to help secure funding, right?
What are the tools at our disposal to get the funding that we need
for construction and then operational?
Is that a combination of federal, state, local?
Is that through neighborhood-based property tax increases?
Would that be an eligibility as opposed to a citywide
property tax increase? What kind of revenue options are at our
disposal when considering expanding the library budget,
and then especially when we need to build a branch in a
specific neighborhood area?
Because we don't have in our department a capital development
budget, we really do depend on a capital stack, and so that could be a
combination of
funding from the state level with a partnership with a state rep.
It could be
state earmarks.
It could be potential TIF dollars.
It could be in partnership with a developer as well.
They're each very unique to the neighborhood and
the potential sites.
Got it. That's really helpful.
What else can my residents be doing to help build a library in Avondale?
I'm going to pass that over to Patrick Malloy, our IGA director,
who has quite a bit of experience, just
maybe over a decade, in how these get built and developed.
Let's see.
I'm sorry, Alderman. Could you repeat the question?
It was,
what can the community do to get this built?
Yes. What can my community continue doing-
So I think that- ...
in advocacy
... the capital stack and
working with state legislators, things like that, those are important in getting
the capital stack. But I think that the important thing is we have a structural
deficit that we need to resolve and
figure out because the thing that needs to be considered is the operational
costs, the ongoing operational costs, and that's the piece that is
not specific to that location, but needs to really be figured out before we
are looking to add the new locations.
But again, in terms of the capital, it's generally working with
community, working with state legislators, things like that.
That
would be an important step, assuming we have the operational dollars.
Excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alderman.
Thank you. Alderman Sigcho-Lopez?
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Commissioner.
It's good to see you and your team.
I also want to start by thanking
all the staff and
all the people working at the Ruiz Lozano, as well as the Little Village
Libraries there.
All their teams who do wonderful work, doing not only, of course, what is
required of them within the mission of the Chicago Public Libraries, but they do
assist in other manners, including support for unhoused
residents and other critical functions.
So first, my appreciation with all Chicago Public Library workers
and staff, and especially in the Ruiz Lozano and Little Village
branches.
I know that this has been touched in the media on several occasions, and
we've been directly talking with you about the issue for
the Latino/Latina community not to have the archives of our
history
in the City of Chicago.
When we account for 30% of the population, but yet our
history or archives only represent about 3%, if
I'm not mistaken, of those archives. I do think it's a call for action.
I know that back in 2021, we finished a
feasibility study for the expansion of the Ruiz Lozano Library.
That was one of the fundamental, and because we understand that if we
don't tell our history, if we don't have archives of our history,
our children are unfortunately unable
to learn from that legacy, such a rich legacy.
So,
my question in terms of what are we doing in Chicago Public Libraries, I
know that you did a wonderful initiative to have some
of the history being recorded, some of these archives recorded in the Little
Village Library. I do thank you for that, and I also do think that it's
critical that we have a physical space for that.
So that is my question. I know that you've spoken about it,
Commissioner, and I hope that we can work together to make it happen.
Thank you, Alderman. Absolutely.
It's a commitment of our department that we want to find a
path towards
a Mexican Latino archive.
Of course, we've talked a lot about the capital investment
that that would require,
as well as the personnel that would be needed to really build
out such a space.
But you have our commitment to keep exploring it and to having
conversations, to
looking for potential funding sources
to move this forward. I think in the short term, we can start to
explore more opportunities to
invite residents in to preserve and
digitize their
community and neighborhood
artifacts and photos and papers, to start to
build the relationships that'll be needed
to eventually source that
larger archive. And as I mentioned in my opening statement, we've
added a
management-level position dedicated to engaging
Chicago neighborhoods,
working with folks who are already doing that kind of archiving work.
I think Raices recently put out a report about how
there is a lot of
potential archival content, but maybe not necessarily the
dedicated personnel within the city to preserve it and
steward it, and the spaces and infrastructure that are needed.
So the need is there. We're starting to build more of these relationships.
But I think we do need to have a citywide conversation about
how do we resource this kind of infrastructure.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner. I do agree.
I think, again, just being geographically in the southwest side,
Ruiz Lozano, actually one of the leaders who has the name after
him in Pilsen,
spoke about the need of this. So it is very symbolic and important for many
reasons. So I would love to continue and know that we've been in conversations to
secure that funding.
My next question is about literacy rates.
In the City of Chicago, and I think in Cook County,
there's about 20 to 24
adults, in particular, that lack basic literacy skills.
I want to also recognize the leadership both libraries, especially
the Ruiz Lozano and both the Little Village Library, that have done
a lot of work to keep some of the GED programs, Spanish literacy
programs, even though we have a very limited budget to do
so. So in that line, what have been the conversations
maybe with the Secretary of State?
I know, understand as the chief librarian, I had an earlier conversation with
his office. In order to equip and fund our
libraries, that are, I think, fundamental for us to have
a functional democracy, to have literacy rates that are
on par, what we should have in the City of Chicago.
Thank you, Alderman. I know you work and support Scale Lit
that does a great deal of work in the adult literacy
ecosystem.
Oftentimes, we provide our
neighborhood library spaces for that adult literacy tutoring that's
needed.
So we continue to work with
partners
to bring in conversation clubs and ESL classes
and adult literacy programming. And we can get you through the
chair some more robust
examples of just the work we're doing for adult literacy in the city.
Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yeah, maybe through the chair, I know that there's about 81
club that
you have. I want to make sure that both the libraries, the Ruiz Lozano
and the Little Village Library, are able to tap into some of those funds,
just because, of course, we are in those areas where the literacy is
needed. My other question
is in line of the 2027 initiatives that you have,
the integrated strategic plan and capital strategy,
I think it's a neighborhood by neighborhood strategy.
So
in terms of the capital, and
I just want to mention for the record,
it's tragic to me when there's money for
private stadiums, there's money for everything, but in our area,
we were not able to pay for a library for our children.
Right? Especially with archives of our community, I think it's quite shameful that
we find that, and billionaires get more money than our neighborhoods that actually
pay those property taxes. So in terms of the capital
strategy, right? And I hear a number of colleagues talk about the need of more
libraries and all that. Sadly, there's not a lot of funding.
I know I talk about the magic TIF, as some refer to.
Some of us, of course, in some areas don't have that.
What is included in your maybe strategic plan in the absence
of that? I would imagine there's got to be a state, and I'm not sure at the
federal funding, but maybe with the new changes.
What it is in this strategic plan for 2027, because I see a lot of
capital needs. For us, as I said, this
is super important for us to address the lack of our
archives for the Mexican and Latino community.
I know I had to
overcome a lot of challenges during the TIF process, but that is something that
we're not going to let go. So we need to figure out a way.
So maybe you can mention some of those strategic capital ideas that you may have
for 2027.
So part of this capital strategy, while it does go into different
amenities that we could start to build into new library development,
it also includes a section on a scan that we've done
nationwide on how different
municipalities are funding their capital development.
So this strategy is meant to be something that we can take to
state reps, that we can take to alderpersons, to developers, to
show them, "This is where we want to evolve and develop
our Chicago Public Library spaces."
But it also comes with
a scan of how different municipalities are funding
their developments and how they're getting traction.
So this, I think, will be a strategy that we can digest
as a council,
to work with the mayor's office to
plot out some paths that we could take to do that development that's
needed.
Mm-hmm. Thank you, Commissioner.
Definitely look forward to meet with the representatives and all that.
Finally, I forgot to mention, but I know that in the libraries, a lot of local
libraries, there's also a desire to work with returning citizens as
well as provide. We're really close to the Cook County Jail.
I know that there are efforts that I would like to make sure that are
accounted for in some of the work that is needed.
So love to work with you, follow up on this capital strategy with the state
representative and the secretary of state.
And also, to make sure that these initiatives, that both libraries, and
especially with head librarians, that those initiatives, I think both of them, both
head librarians, have my full support. I want to thank them both.
They both do fantastic work, and make sure that they're fully supported in what
they're proposing on their budgets. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Alderman. Thank
you, Alderman Lopez. Secretary Lopez. Alderman Waguespack.
Thank you, Chairman. Good evening, Commissioner, to you and your staff.
Last year, correct me if I'm wrong, but did we not see a
$5 million cut in the books collection?
We did see that $5 million come back through the
corporate fund.
So there was a cut. There's no way to get around
that. Our library fund, correct. And then-
Yeah, that book collection was cut by $5 million, because I remember that.
There was significant outcry from the public about that.
So you
stated that there was an increase
in
another $10 million dedicated to books and materials this year?
Correct. That
$5 million has come back into our library fund, so now we have our
$10 million within our library fund for our book collection budget.
Okay.
It was a little bit confusing because I know we had made that whole
last year, so I'm not sure why there's a debate about
trying to fund these collections through the
$5 million, but that's okay.
I know we ended up doing the property tax
levy, increasing it to make sure that you had enough for
the book collections and the staffing.
This year, what I've been hearing a lot
about are the issues with the drivers,
and you just kind of brushed over it briefly, but what specifically has been done
to get the drivers back in the trucks to get the books delivered
in the efficient way that they used to be,
and should be now?
Yeah. So in May, we normally have nine drivers.
We were down to two. We had some long-term absences.
We hired two additional drivers.
We
invested in the
team that are doing our circulation processes and
increased that
group by 150%. And so
as well as purchasing equipment to support
those deliveries being made-
What kind of equipment? And what's the 150-
They're called smart bins. Not to get too into the-
Yeah
... into the weeds, but we've added smart bins to
make that process more efficient.
We've also had
additional personnel deliver material that are not
books, to just sort of alleviate the amount of
drivers who can really focus on just delivering our book material.
This next year, we will be looking at that team closely
and reevaluating
how it's resourced.
So the 150% was who specifically?
These are circulation personnel.
So they're clerical staff at our Herald location
preparing material to be sent.
So while we had
an absence of the amount of drivers needed, we were able to
support the work happening around them to alleviate some of
that, and to prioritize
high circ
libraries.
Okay. So were the drivers moving the bins around inside the library out
to the trucks?
The drivers, when they-
Because right now you're saying you only have two drivers, or how many do you have
now?
At the low point of May. Now we're
up to six.
From two to six.
Yeah.
Okay.
So in May we were at a low point. Deliveries were
taking almost a month.
Now they're cut in half, and it's about two weeks.
We still have-
Okay
... room to improve. Normally, we're at about four to seven
days. So it's a priority of our department for this
next year to get back to that four to seven-day delivery time.
Okay. So is that a labor issue that you can't
hire the additional drivers, or
you have long-term absences?
It's simply that there are a number of departments competing for
the driver hiring process.
Okay.
That's interesting. So you have to compete with other departments to get
some drivers,
and
I'm assuming you went to the administration and said, "Hey, I've got a problem
here.
We're backlogged by a month, two months with books." That's what we were hearing.
So you had to compete with other departments to get drivers into those trucks.
Which is why we've been able to add those two,
and
cut that
delivery time in half.
Okay. So you also mentioned that you had 142 new hires?
Correct.
And what is the breakdown of the 142?
So you have four out of that 142 were drivers.
Were the rest the pages and the clerks, or
maybe you could go into that a little bit.
Yes.
Of the 142 hires,
14 were librarians, 11 library associates,
53 clerks, 52 pages, and 12
administrative positions.
Okay. And I'm assuming they were spread out through all the different libraries?
Correct.
Okay.
One of the things that came up in the Ernst & Young report this past year
was optimizing library staffing and structure based on
branch needs.
Seems like a very simple thing, and it sounds like you were filling it, the
optimizing with the EY role here that they played.
It says further that CPL staffing models assign high-cost roles to
small branches when these roles may not be needed at all branches.
Reclassifying roles and tailoring staffing to community needs would improve
service alignment.
What have you implemented, if anything, from the EY report
based on the fact that you were short drivers, but you were also
short 142 people after last year's
increase that we voted on for not only the book collections, but for
hiring?
So our work on the EY report,
taking their findings, we looked at 21 of our departments.
Really looked at,
are there opportunities to manage these divisions differently?
We have a number of paths that I think we could take,
but we want to really check those
EY findings in partnership with our labor
partners. So in 2027, our plan is to
work with our AFSCME
labor
members, and to start to pilot and test some of these
potential paths we could take.
Okay.
You said you're going to work with AFSCME, but do you have to go back to EY,
and I think we've heard this from a couple
of our commissioners. Do you have to go back to
EY and follow up with them on how you're going to
implement that?
So there's a second part to this EY report.
The first one entailed about 10 departments, one of which was
yours,
where they focused on these staffing issues.
But are you doing a follow-up with EY on this as well?
I think we're going to continue to have engagement.
But for us, we've already done enough work to know
there are some potential paths that we could take.
But we want to be
mindful of how we test and pilot these findings,
especially with a department at our scale, 82 locations, 1,000
personnel.
We don't want to make changes that'll have unintended
service degradations.
Okay.
Chairman, I think,
give me one second. Just looking through my questions.
I'm sure you got some too.
I do. I'm going to back clean up.
You know what? I'll wait there and I'll let you dive in.
Oh, I got one. Alderwoman Gutierrez.
Thank you, Chairwoman. Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Commissioner. Thank you, Vice Chair, Chairwoman
Lee today.
Thank you to you, Commissioner, and all your staff, because I
know
I've been an alderwoman with so much pride of being the first
woman,
first Latina representing
our now 14th Ward that is 85% Latino.
Being a former educator
in Gage Park and Pilsen,
and it just broke my heart every time that I had to
advise my students to go to the library to continue
on their project because the school was going to close.
Because, of course, also our CPS schools, without a big
budget,
also had to close our doors sometimes early on,
and could not host our kids till 6:00, 7:00, or 8:00 PM when they still
need to go
and continue to do homework, continue to use a computer,
continue to read and research for their project that they have been
working.
So working at Hernandez Middle School, as you all know,
and having my kids, because when you're
a teacher, when you are an educator, those kids also
are like your own, because you want them to succeed, you want them to do
good.
And me being a counselor in that school and having to
advise them to go to the nearest library,
that it was a couple blocks down on the same
55th Street. But being a teeny-tiny
storefront,
it just broke my heart.
Being an educator and also being a mom, and having to bring my
kids to that one as well.
But let me tell you all that even though it's teeny-tiny,
it's mighty as they can be.
Because your staff there, and kudos to all of them,
they do great things. So I can't imagine what they can do
if they have a bigger space. And that has been my mission.
And not only that, because you've seen me not only advocating for a new library,
but also advocating for bathrooms in our Sanka Park that we
also don't have, because we also don't have a field house.
And you also have seen me since day one, and not only
as an alderwoman, since I was working in the county, since I was an
educator. I've been a fighter since I came to Chicago
15 years ago. And sorry, I need to remember people.
Yes, I was not born here. I was not raised here.
But when I came into Chicago and I realized, because I've
lived in the 14th Ward ever since, when I realized the discrepancies
between the North Side and the suburbs, and how
nice those schools and libraries and parks
right were, and we didn't have any of that in the
Southwest Side,
it made me volunteer and work to fight to have that.
So now, of course, now being a mom of three little ones, I'm going to continue to
fight because I'm also fighting for my own.
But as I fight for my own, I'm fighting for everybody.
And not only my 14 Ward kids and families and seniors, but the whole city
of Chicago. So again, thank you all in the
box. Thank you all for the CPL workers out there.
Shout out to all of those AXME workers.
I'm so proud to be the vice chair of workforce development and make sure
that they also are protected and that we continue to fight
for their benefits, they're being well taken care of,
and we name it. Because we all deserve to be in a
space that we can thrive and a space that we can be happy.
So I cannot thank you enough for you and your team, for all what you've done
for families in the whole city of Chicago.
And yes, since I started as an alderwoman, we met.
And we met at that teeny-tiny library that we're talking about,
right? And we discussed that, yes, it was one of the
last storefront libraries that we were going to make whatever it's
possible for a community of Gage Park in the Southwest
Side to have a library.
And yes, I had to sit down and talk to the state.
I was able to get some funding from our
state librarian, our secretary of state.
I was also able to bring that one other extra million
because we have a great partner in this fight, our state representative,
Erin Ortiz. And I'm happy to say that all of this is not
because I'm a fighter and I understand what is needed.
It's because I have great partners like you all, and great partners in
all levels of government. And it's the first time that in the 14th Ward, we
are all working together.
And that's how you do it
for our people, with our people.
So I just have one question. That was all thank yous,
and my time is about to be up,
and we're all going to go have fun. Spanish ] We are all going to be working on
the weekends as well because we signed up for this.
I have a question for you all.
So libraries are about information literacy,
reading comprehension, and learning.
So I was surprised when the Chicago Public Library system
focused on AI by hosting a
conference. And I know some people were even asking me, "Hey, Lu,
of course, things are changing. Of course, times are different.
But why is CPL hosting this conference?" And I really
didn't know much That's why I need you
all to please tell me. If you can please talk us more about it,
on why and how
this came up.
Yeah. Thank you, Alderman. Thank you for recognizing our staff and the work
that
they support in your ward.
We did have an AI summit
a few weeks back, and really the goal was to
help Chicagoans understand
this technological moment of change.
There's a lot that's out in the media about AI.
There's a lot of misinformation out about it.
There's a lot of ways in which AI is already starting to impact
institutions and organizations in Chicago, and we
wanted Chicagoans to have a chance to hear about
the possible risks of AI,
the opportunities,
and to hear from the institutions that shape Chicago.
So we brought together
the president of Chicago Public Schools.
We brought together
the chancellor of city colleges to hear about
these organizations that have a huge impact on our kids
and on our city to share how they're approaching AI.
Not to ask people to adopt AI or to use
AI, but to make sure that they understand it.
And so that was really the goal, is to help
Chicago be an AI literate city as opposed to
just have these changes built around them.
To let them help shape it.
I have a follow-up question, Commissioner, and thank you so much for that.
Is there any thoughts about replacing our staff
with AI? There's a lot of people that are scared about not
with AI or technology, right? Because I know sometimes technology is
needed, but sometimes we cannot do stuff with a machine or
a robot. And having our kids and families that we've been discussing, and
with my long comments, that we serve
throughout the city and throughout our ward, is there any thought about
changing the way we have things in our libraries?
Maybe instead of a librarian giving a book, having a machine.
That worries me.
Absolutely not.
Okay.
There's absolutely no-
Okay
... plan or desire to replace anyone. We
value our personnel and their talents and their creativity and
what they bring to our city.
But the city does have an AI policy that they've put out
this October that does provide some
stipulations and parameters for all
city departments. And I'm going to ask Nicole Steeves, who's our IT
director,
in the box to share a little bit about that policy that the city has put out.
Yes, please. Thank you.
Hi, Commissioner. Nicole Steeves, IT director for CPL.
So, the Department of Technology and Innovation has issued their
citywide AI policy. It largely focuses on
governance, meaning who has access to which
AI tools, which are permitted and which are not,
and then procurement processes. So what kind of
tools
the city departments are able to pursue purchasing.
After that, they are leaving it up to each city
department to decide how AI might
interact with their operations, with their services.
And at Chicago Public Library, we are committed
to treasuring our human workforce or human
labor, and are really only pursuing AI in a couple of
ways. In the literacy avenue that the commissioner described, and
then also just wondering how AI might be
able to let us provide services that would
not otherwise be humanly possible.
And for us, one of the most exciting avenues that we're taking with that,
we have purchased AI-powered translation tablets
that will be available at all of our locations, that will
allow for real-time translation, both spoken and written, in
95% of the spoken languages in the United States, including many
dialects of commonly spoken languages in
Chicago. So we love that.
Thank you so much for that answer, and I'm glad to hear that.
But also, I have another follow-up question.
I've raised this concern before. Unfortunately, when people,
adults, are watching porn or anything that they're
not supposed to be watching in a public space around our kids,
I know your policies and training to your staff has been
different, because before I think it was not that established.
Can you please elaborate on the changes you've done since I raised this?
Yeah. We have very clear behavior
guidelines that
people cannot disrupt library use.
And so our staff do get training
and guidance that if somebody's watching something that's disturbing the
space,
they work with their
person in charge.
We also have security at our locations to
support them in having those conversations and make sure that
it's being dealt with.
We can't control people's behavior, but we can respond to it and let them
know these are the parameters. You can't do this
inside of our sites.
Yeah. We'll encourage all of our employees, not only in the libraries,
but in the parks and everywhere, of course, whatever jurisdiction that it's
in the city,
that we continue to protect our families, protect our kids.
And, I don't have no more questions, but thank you,
and hope you all have a restful weekend. Thank you.
Thank you, Alderman Gutierrez. Alderman Chair Dowell had a
follow-up.
Just one more question, Commissioner.
The TIF surplus, if we approve that, how much of that do
you get?
Irma Jackson, Director of Finance.
So the surplus goes into the library fund revenue
side as a whole, and that fund supports CPL,
2FM, and finance general. So it's not
going to CPL directly. So it
supports all the operations.
That wasn't my question. My question was how much of the TIF
surplus
will you get?
I know you're saying it goes into this fund.
Mm-hmm.
So let me be more exact. How much of the TIF surplus
goes into the library fund?
For 2027?
The TIF surplus for 2027 is considered
transfer in
on the revenue side, and it's budgeted at $9.3 million.
And that's above and beyond
the $30 million, correct?
Correct.
And
how is that $9.3 million
reflected on the expenditure side?
So
all the revenue goes into the fund again.
And so
the fund supports three different departments, and so it's
not a one-for-one. So it's not
$9.3 million goes to CPL and the $30
million goes to 2FM. It's all one pot of money, and
that pot of money supports three different departments.
And those three departments are the library, CPL,
2FM, and who else?
And finance general.
That's huge.
Okay, so can I get a breakdown then to the chair of the
$39.3 million?
What goes to the library, what goes to finance general, and what
goes to
2FM?
2FM.
Mm-hmm. So the
entire fund is $166 million
all together. All the revenue together is
$166 million.
CPL's budget is about roughly $100 million.
Finance general is $28 million, and
2FM is $38 million. And so that's how that makes up the
$166 million all together.
I hear you. I'm asking about the
$39.3 million only.
Can I get that through the
chair? We can get that through the chair.
Thank you.
Yep.
I'm going to... Oh,
sorry. Go ahead, Alderman Waguespack.
Point of information. Could we get that for the last five years to see
what that chart looks like? The last five years of those same numbers that
Chairwoman Dowell's asking for.
Actually, I'm going to raise you.
Okay.
I'd like to see that for 10 years because I think that-
Perfect
... part of
what I think is I'm wrapping my head around right now
is
the library fund.
I'd love to understand
how
that has
changed over time.
So if you can give us over the last 10 years,
the library fund, how it's been funded, and again, if there have
been changes.
For the entire time, the 10 years that we're looking at,
has the library fund funded the same three things, CPL,
2FM, and finance general?
Yes.
Yes?
Yeah.
Okay.
And I'd like to have the breakdown of each of those years.
I want to know how much the library is getting a share of because
what I'm picking up here is that the library
keeps getting
pecked away at, and that is not okay with any of us
in this room.
What did you say it was for 2FM for this year?
$38 million.
Mm-hmm. And that goes to fund all facility maintenance-
But you're also- ...
and security and janitorial.
And you're also being charged,
and is it additional
money to 2FM that wasn't there before, or is that included in that
39?
I
read some place where
2FM charges,
you're having to pay $11 million more in 2FM charges
this year?
This year, that's because
the money to manage the Harold Washington Library is
being moved from the library fund to 2FM.
From the library's budget to 2FM.
From the library's budget to 2FM, but the library's still going to have to pay
for it somehow?
It still comes out of our library fund.
So it's actually not being moved. You're still paying for it because it's
coming out of your budget. I just don't understand why all the
different...
It's not all making sense to me. I know you guys can't answer that question.
I think this-
We can get that through the chair.
Well, and-
What does the fund pay for-
Yeah, and can I-
... over the last 10 years?
This is more of a follow-up question, I think, for OBM to help us understand that
because also
money going to finance general from the library fund, the library fund is funded by
the tax levy, correct?
Correct.
Yeah. And we
Nothing's changed, but their costs go up
every year. So there's that we've got
to take a look at as well. So-
Chairman?
Yes, go ahead.
I'll-
Commissioner, sorry to interrupt. Point of information.
Did you mention how much your annual facilities costs
were
estimated?
When you're sitting there looking at what you need, what is your estimated
number
so that we can compare to what 2FM is actually giving you?
So if 2FM is getting
$38 million and your facilities needs are
40,
that you give them a number- That would
be a request
from the 2FM department. They have that breakdown of-
Okay
... how much is going into janitorial, security, and
facility maintenance.
But you give them a number every year that you need at a minimum?
That's that 38 million that's going to them.
Okay.
Thank you.
I see where it's going there.
Yeah, I think we all are.
I get the impression that the fund has fallen behind over time.
Is that fair?
It's increasing in revenue each year by about
2%, but it's not keeping-
Not keeping pace ...
pace with our personnel increases.
Okay. Got
it. So correct, we have a structural deficit.
You've got a structural deficit. Let's talk about capital needs.
Your facilities folks are great. I think
that they do the best job that they can. I'm just not sure that...
But again, this is another area where I'm concerned that we're not keeping up.
As great as the Chinatown Branch Library is, we know that it's got some
challenges from a heating and cooling perspective, and that has cost
the libraries a lot of money,
in terms of having to replace HVAC
systems way earlier than you would've anticipated.
So I imagine that there are lots of needs like that.
What are we looking at in terms of just overall deferred maintenance within
the
portfolio of real estate?
We can definitely-
Do you guys have to... Yeah. You can get that to me
We can get you that through the chair.
I know that's probably more-
Yeah
... of a 2FM question, but
that also falls to your budget at the end of the day.
Let's see.
So I know
2F, you guys are moving or getting
some money from
DOIT, Department
of Information Innovation Technology. It keeps changing names.
Yeah, so DTI.
Yes, DTI.
Three million is being moved onto our budget.
My understanding is that
DTI has looked at the costs
associated with their work for each department.
They've moved that three million in services that they provide
CPL onto our budget.
I'm sorry you guys are getting all of this right now, but I feel like there's
wheels spinning in my head right now about all of the other places where these
shared services are now charging back to departments where
there's not revenue coming behind it to account for it.
Which just means that
departments like the Chicago Public Libraries are taking it on the chin, which
means by extension our libraries and our
constituents are also at the impact of
that.
That was more of a statement than a question. Sorry.
I'm just a little frustrated on your behalf.
I really appreciate all of the work
that your department does
to do with what you have, and it feels like every year you're
fighting just to stay alive when we really should be having more conversations
about how to
have more libraries, how to increase collections,
and
really understanding the costs associated with it.
Nobody ever loves raising taxes
or anything like that. When we did that last year, it was really important to this
body,
and under the leadership of Alderman Lopez, to make sure that
we kept the libraries whole in that way to make
sure that
those positions were maintained for safety and security for
what now our library workers are now having to face.
I know that in at least one of my libraries, we have an
increased number of unhoused that are popping up all over the wards, and
they're finding refuge in
our public libraries, which you and I have talked about, Commissioner.
And-
Yeah, thank you for the support
... yeah. Library workers are literally taking abuse because of it, physical
abuse in some cases. They want to be
there to help as many people as possible,
but we also have to hold up our end of the bargain, too, as a city, and make
sure that
we're funding this in a way that sets everybody up for success.
So
the biggest piece of this that I think I need, and I think this is more of a
conversation with OBM,
and
probably mostly OBM and the mayor's office, about
what the broader strategy is with these
chargebacks for shared services.
Alderman Lopez, do you have another question?
Can I just-
Oh
... one quick note?
Sure.
And I appreciate
the desire for that clarity. We have great partners in
2FM and DTI, but I hear what you're saying about
maybe there's an opportunity for more clarity about what this money is,
what's within that budget.
Yeah.
And for me, as we're looking at the budget as a whole, I'll be taking a look
across the board on that. I just had two other questions on here
that I did not get to yet.
You mentioned a lot of hiring was done.
Was it across titles, or is it
more sort of like churn and burn type positions?
Across titles.
And
we are at the same vacancy rate,
consistent with last year. So last year we were at about 16% vacancy.
This year we're at about 15. So we have made progress on hiring.
I think to Alderman Wagusback's question,
we do want to make sure we're working with our labor partners to
review those vacancies we have now and
what EY had put forward to make sure that we're
putting forward models of service that are as mindful as possible of
the management of our department and its costs.
We want to do that in partnership with our labor partners.
But before filling all those, we do want to be
mindful of the long-term operational models we put forward.
Yeah.
Your team is great. Appreciate it. Alderman Lopez, do you have one more?
Thank you, Chairman.
And I
am going to end on an easy note.
What happens to the books when they're taken out of circulation?
Our teams have parameters for the condition of them.
We want to make sure that we also
are making space for new material.
So if books are
withdrawn because they're out of date, maybe they're not
the most up-to-date information on a topic, stuff like
health topics or-
Books that say-
... finance
... smoking's good.
People need up-to-date information.
So if they're withdrawn, we do have
a contract with a vendor that is able to recycle that
material or
find a new home for it.
And we pay for that contract?
From what I understand, we actually get revenue from that service.
Correct?
Yes. It's a...
Yeah. Yes. It's a small amount of revenue, but it's not-
If you could provide through the chair what actually that contract entails
and what we get from it.
Sure.
I'm not really concerned about
$50,000 that comes or whatever from this.
But I think there's an opportunity that's missed with libraries.
As we know, and as I'm well aware,
little libraries pop up all throughout the city of Chicago.
I have one in my lobby.
I would love to see what we can do to actually take some of our
out-of-circulation books
and actually just donate them to community organizations, or have
quarterly pickups or let
people come and get them, because I
don't like when I see images
where books are thrown out or
recycled into little scraps. And I remember growing up,
and the Brighton Park Library would actually do sales
of books and things of that nature.
So I'd like for us to see what opportunities we have to do that in our
neighborhoods,
because I think
we can give them an afterlife once they're done within your system,
in the neighborhoods themselves.
Thank you.
Happy to do that.
Thank you, Alderman Lopez. I think Alderman Ervin had a
comment or question or two for here.
Thank you, Chair.
For me, it's real simple. My daughter,
this is her department. So,
we frequent. I'm blessed to have two libraries in the ward, one at
Taylor Street in Little Italy, and then the one at Legler,
which is the regional library, and we tend to frequent the
Legler Library. And I like the things that you all are doing over there.
It's become a community resource. You've got the food.
You've got the mental health.
A lot of stuff going on over there, which I think is a benefit
to the West Garfield Park community. Staff is great.
Everybody's the children's librarian there.
Everybody's great
in the space.
Two things we got to figure out. Number one, got to figure out the exterior.
I know that we've put some funding aside to have the fence
rebuilt
so that it's not as inviting for people to sit,
especially along the side of Monroe, where we tend to have a lot of people.
Now, granted, people are there because they really need help, and the fact that you
got the mental health services there, food is there, and I
get it and I understand it. But at the same time,
the question that has come from the community is,
is this the space to do this in? Because we
have
the children that are there, the others that are there, and I get
the rationale of it.
But I just want to get you guys' thoughts as it relates to
the
unintended consequences, potentially of having
those services in the building at that location,
given everything that's happening in that portion of West Garfield Park
community.
Thank you, Alderman. And I agree. I think
our libraries are inclusive spaces.
We have services there
that
assist people who are unhoused or
facing maybe substance abuse.
And at the same time, we don't want it to be a deterrent to people walking to those
locations in the neighborhood. And I know that's been an issue on that
corner, along that fence. And so, I think we have
maybe a couple conversations that need to be had in partnership
with- The Department of Public Health, CPD,
libraries to really think about
how do we offer these services, but also make sure that
kids walk into that library feel safe, and that it's inviting to
them, and it's not a deterrent. We're committed to having that
conversation.
Okay. And the last thing, so
I don't know how to say it but to say it, right,
is that
she spent, I think she attended something at the
library in Oak Park,
then came back to Ledler, and the one thing that jumped out at her
was that, why dad, are our books
dirty? Right. Not
that was just something, and as a
10-year-old, for our young people to see
the stark difference
literally two miles away,
that's something I think that we need to work on.
Now, I don't know how you clean a book. I don't know all of that.
I'll leave that to the librarians and the professionals about that.
But
I don't want, if she sees that, that means that other young
people
see that, and we cannot normalize
that type of activity in any community, let
alone a community that is
rebuilding, that is moving forward.
We don't want to normalize that as what the
activity is.
Ledler's a great place, architecturally significant.
You got a $20 million piece of artwork in there
that we
were able to keep and get done.
It is
one of the most unique buildings that along that Pulaski corridor, and I think
we want to have the same level of class and respect
for what's in the building that is the building too.
So,
I look forward to working. Like I said, we're working with 2FM on that fencing
issue,
working with CPD, the DCOs on the exterior
issues. We just got to figure out how to serve and
service without it becoming the deterrent
that brings people what the building is originally intended to do, which is
to be a resource and be a place for our young people to
utilize. I mean, you've got the music, you've got a lot of stuff going on there,
and I don't want the external factors to be a
deterrent on our young people using that space and our adults
using that space, people learning how to read in that space, people doing what they
need to do in that space. So,
I know my colleagues have probably wore you out today, so
that's all that I have, and that's the only thing, and that came from one of
my constituents, a 10-year-old.
Thank you for the feedback.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I just have one last thing.
I probably will have further questions after you give me more information, but the
finance general $28 million, is that to pay for pensions?
It's a combination of benefits.
Okay.
And Irma can go, I think, a little bit deeper into it, but
benefits, pensions, all of that.
In finance general, yes, it's mainly for healthcare
benefits.
There is an amount for DTI. That portion is there
for IT support, and then there
is one line in finance general related to pension.
Okay.
You guys are done. I'm not going to ask you anything else. It's Friday night.
I appreciate you guys hanging out with us and being here so late on a Friday night.
Listen,
on behalf of the 11th Ward residents, especially all of the young people
and seniors who live at the libraries in my ward,
thanks for all that you guys do. Big shout-out to all of the workers at our
branches. Chinatown, McKinley Park,
Daley, and Canaryville. Thank you.
Three libraries.
Three in the ward, four if you count McKinley.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.
Yeah, thank you. Everybody have a good night. Oh, one last thing.
The committee's going to stand at ease until Monday morning,
9:00 AM. So, for the couple of people that are tuning in, and we'll make sure we
get this out online.
It is.
Oh, okay. It's already been sent out.
We're going to start 9:00 AM, not 9:30 on Monday. Thanks everybody.
Have a good weekend.
I agree.
Well, I mean, every little bit. Makes sense. For sure. Yeah.