Behavior, including disruptive
or disrespectful conduct during others'.
Presentations is not permitted.
Banners, pliers or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Food and beverages including in metal.
Canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room,
individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated,
and the user must refrain from interfering with the view
or hearing of other individuals.
Individuals or groups.
Failing to adhere to these rules will be asked
to see such disruptive convict
and failure to comply will result in their being.
Subject to removal from the meeting by the Sergeant of Arms,
city of Chicago City Council.
Rules of Conduct for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of order
and Procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive,
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior including disruptive
or disrespectful, conducting others'
presentations is not permitted.
Banners, pliers or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Food and beverages including in metal.
Canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room.
Individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated,
and the user must refrain from interfering with the view
or hearing of other individuals, individuals or groups.
Failing to adhere to these rules will be asked
to see such disruptive convict
and failure to comply will result in their being.
Subject to removal from the meeting by the sergeant at Arms,
city of Chicago City Council.
Rules of Conduct for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of Order
and Procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive,
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior including disruptive
or disrespectful conduct
during others presentations is not permitted.
Banners, pliers or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Food and beverages including in metal.
Canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room.
Individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated,
and the user must refrain from interfering with the view
or hearing of other individuals, individuals or groups.
Failing to adhere to these rules will be asked
to see such disruptive convict
and failure to comply will result in their being subject
to removal from the meeting by the sergeant at arms.
Good morning council members.
Please remember to log into your devices. Thank you.
Good morning. Good
morning, good morning.
Can I have your attention please?
Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning. Good morning.
Welcome to today's city council meeting.
At this time, I would appreciate if you guys would take your
seats, be carious to your neighbors
and silence all of your listening devices.
The third floor is open seating is available on the third
floor, so please take your seats.
Thank you.
Good morning Council members.
Please remember to log into your devices.
The meeting will begin shortly.
Best, best can happen. Good morning
ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats
and welcome to today's city council meeting.
At this time, please take your seats
and silence all of your listening devices.
If you must talk, please use your inside voices.
Be curious of your neighbors.
There is seating available on the third floor.
If you can't find a seat here, please go to the third floor.
Please take your seats. Thank you.
City of Chicago City Council Rules of Conduct
for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of order
and Procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive,
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior including disruptive
or disrespectful conduct
during others' presentations is not permitted.
Banners, flyers or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Food and beverages including in metal.
Canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room,
individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated,
and the user must refrain from interfering with the viewer.
Hearing of other individuals, individuals
or groups failing to adhere
to these rules will be asked to cease.
Such disruptive conduct
and failure to comply will result in their being.
Subject to removal from the meeting by the sergeant at Arms,
city of Chicago City Council.
Rules of Conduct for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of Order
and Procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive,
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior including disruptive
or disrespectful conduct
during others' presentations is not permitted.
Banners, pliers or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Food and beverages including in metal.
Canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room,
individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated,
and the user must refrain from interfering with the view
or hearing of other individuals, individuals
or groups Failing to adhere
to these rules will be asked to cease.
Such disruptive conduct
and failure to comply will result in there being subject
to removal from the meeting by the sergeant at Arms,
city of Chicago City Council.
Rules of Conduct for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of Order
and Procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive,
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not
permitted disruptive.
Good morning. Good morning ladies
and gentlemen, please take your seats
and silence your listening devices.
The council meeting will start momentarily.
Please take your seats. Thank you,
Including in metal.
Good morning Council members, please remember
to log into your devices.
The meeting will begin shortly
With a view or hearing of other individuals, individuals
or groups failing to adhere to.
These rules will be asked to cease.
Such disruptive conduct
and failure to comply will result in their being.
Subject to removal from the meeting by the Sergeant of Arms,
city of Chicago City Council.
Rules of Conduct for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of order
and procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior including disruptive
or disrespectful, conducting others presentations
is not permitted.
Banners, liars or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Health, food and beverages including in metal.
Canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room.
Individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated
and the user must refrain from interfering with the viewer.
Hearing of other individuals, individuals
or groups failing to adhere to these rules will be asked
to see such disruptive convict
and failure to comply will result in their being.
Subject to removal from the meeting by the sergeant at Arms
City of Chicago City Council Rules of Convict
for Public Meetings 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of Order
and Procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior including disruptive
or disrespectful, conducting others'
presentations is not permitted.
Banners, flyers or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted in our subject to search.
Health, food and beverages including in metal
canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room.
Individuals must remain seated.
Public comments speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated
and the user must refrain from interfering with the view
or hearing of other individuals, individuals
or groups Failing to adhere
to these rules will be asked to cease.
Such disruptive conduct
and failure to comply will result in there being subject
to removal from the meeting by the sergeant at arms.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
The C, the city council meeting is about to convene.
Please take your seats, silence all your listening devices
and be curious of your neighbors.
Thank you.
Good morning council members.
Just a reminder, please remember to log into your devices.
The meeting will begin shortly.
Oh really?
Forum full call.
It's open. The
voting is now open.
The voting is now open. Please use your Eev device.
The voting is now open.
If you need help logging in
or for your voting device, please raise your hand.
The voting is now open.
All right. I will now call on those
who have not voted using the E device.
Alderman Hopkins not present. Alderwoman do.
Alderman D is present. Alderman Robinson not present.
Alderman Hall. Alderman Hall is present.
Alderman Mitchell not present. Alderman Chico.
Alderman Chico is present. Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Lopez is present.
Alderwoman Coleman not present.
Not here in the chambers.
Alderman Curtis not present. Not in chambers. Alderman osha.
Alderman OSHA is present.
Alderman Rodriguez Al Alderman Rodriguez is present.
Alderman Ramirez. Rosa Alder Ramirez. Rosa is present.
Alderwoman mitts not present.
Alderman Lawson. Alderman Lawson is present.
Have all those voted who wish.
All right, we will now close the vote.
Your mayor. We have a quorum.
Thank you. There are 44 members, president six are absent.
Thank you. We do have a quorum.
Are there any remote participation requests? All right.
Very good. Okay.
Alright, let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
Would you please remain standing
for the invocation which will be delivered by Reverend I as
Horri president of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest.
Good morning. Good morning.
Re aloha.
I'm sorry I can't remember the rest of them.
I tried to remember, but good morning to all of you.
Please take your hands and put them together because you
and I are one.
This is the world's golden chain of love.
We are links in the Buddhist world, golden chain of love
that stretches around the world.
We must keep our link bright and strong.
I will try to be kind and gentle to every living thing
and protect all who are weaker than myself.
I will try to think pure
and beautiful words to say pure
and beautiful words to do pure and beautiful deeds.
Knowing that on what I do now
depends my happiness and misery.
May every link in the world's golden chain of love
become bright and strong,
and may we all attain perfect peace.
Within infinite wisdom
and compassion, we surround all people
in all forms of life, particularly
to those in suffering and sorrow.
To all those in doubt
and ignorance, to all who are striving
for truth and to those whose feet
are standing close to the great change men call death.
We send forth oceans of wisdom and compassion.
May the infinite light of wisdom
and compassion so shine within us
that the heirs and vanities of self may be dispelled.
So shall we understand the changing nature of existence
and awaken into spiritual peace
to all enlightened ones who are present in their teachings.
We pledge our loyalty and devotion.
We resolve to follow their example
and labor earnestly for the enlighten
and welfare of all mankind.
Remember, there is no them.
There's only us.
May it be so go in peace.
Amen. Amen. You may be seated.
Public comments.
The council will now begin the public comment period,
which is limited to a maximum of 30 minutes.
Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Speakers cannot yield
or transfer their time to another speaker.
Any written comments that have been submitted will be posted
and made available for all automatic review.
Our first speaker this morning is Lisa Baldwin.
Good morning, Mr. President Mayor Johnson
and the members of City Council.
My name is Lisa Boden
and I am a resident of this great city.
Tomorrow marks the day that my father James Boden was
murdered with an illegal gun I was in in elementary school
when he was killed and his loss shattered our family.
I never wanna see another family go
through the senseless loss of life from gun violence,
and I would like to see better outcomes from the countless
calls for gun control, community safety
and new regulations that
I've witnessed since my father's death in 1972.
As our city moves forward to make budgetary changes
and realignment of the workforce, I come
before you today to highlight the challenging the
challenges, uh, facing the workforce pipeline
and the impact on public safety.
Although there are many questions, the process
of answering them might bring us
to favorable nonpartisan re results.
In my research on these issues, I direct you
to the National League of Cities who explore this topic
of hard to fill public safety
workforce challenges and solutions.
I have included a link in my email
to the council this morning of the three major cities,
only the city of Chicago officers pay out of pocket
for their replacement vest, body armor, uniform
and equipment, costing them a
significant of money out of pocket.
Can we get funding for this safety equipment from the
Department of Justice and the Homeland Security FEMA under
the Urban Area Security Initiative
as New York City and LA do?
How can we further address protecting those who protect us,
improve their mental wellness
and create better outcomes in our communities?
How are we addressing the challenge
of building the workforce pipeline, overcoming disparities
of gender and race and workplace safety?
What would make senior officers stay on the force longer
and draw new recruits into public service?
And how do we ensure that at the end of the end
of the school and workday, everyone makes it home safely?
I hope to see our city work together
peacefully and thank you for your time.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Our next speaker is Kathy Powers.
Kathy Powers is not present.
Our next speaker is Peter Nikko.
Hi, my name is Pete Nikko from the 45th Ward.
Let's talk about ShotSpotter.
Why spend money on a tool that is wrong 90% of the time?
Why depend on the CPD to provide shot spotter data
and then merely declare
after the data was released, that quote,
a typographical error was discovered in the original query
that caused only records up to March 31st, 2023 to return?
Why depend on CPD
to provide clearly erroneous shot spotter data is CPD trying
to undermine the executive decision
to eliminate this flawed tool from the people's fabric?
Quote, the key shot spotter data that CPD has relied
to sell this program have all proven to be false.
CPD has credited shot spotter with saving the lives
of 115 gunshot victims,
but found on their lives.
Saved list is cases where no one was shot.
Cases where people with gunshot wounds walked into police
stations on their own, looking for help cases
where police were already on the scene
and one dead man all on the lives saved list
In many instances, 9 1 1 calls came in
before shot spotter detections.
Life saving is just a con by the shot spotter.
Folks who've changed their story convincingly enough
for some gullible aldermans David Moore,
from prevents gun violence
to an emotional appeal about its newly
and falsely claimed lifesaving benefit.
Both sound thinkings Ralph Clark
and CPD Superintendent Snelling have asserted these false
life-saving anecdotes based on no data from shall sound
thinking and faulty data from CPD.
Here's an anecdote from the CPD data,
a dead man on the live saved list.
11:36 PM July 9th, 2023 shots spotter detected gunfire on
the 9,200 block of South Brandon Avenue.
Approximately a minute
and a half later, a call of shots fired was received
for the same block more than 18 minutes
after ShotSpotter's alert police arrived at the scene
and found Denar l Morris 45 of East Chicago,
Indiana in the alley.
According to the police report, they
found Morris covered in blood on his knees
with his hands tied behind his back with white duct tape.
When I asked what happened, Morris said, b***h ass Gary,
Indiana Police took me and dumped me.
Morris died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
It's unclear how many other victims on this live saved list,
excuse me, may have been excuse fatally.
Speakers are reminded that people
of all ages are listening to public comments
and we ask you to please maintain respect for others
and refrain from personal attacks or using profanity.
Thank you.
Reclaiming my time. Um, it's unclear
how many other victims on this list.
Our next have been fatally wounded. Our
Next speak, our next speaker this morning is
Elena Gourmet.
Good morning, can you Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes.
Good morning. Uh, my name is Elena Gormley
and I am a social worker
and the co-chair of the Chicago Democratic
Socialists of America.
Chicago DSA is the largest socialist organization in the
metro area and nationally,
DSA is the largest socialist organization in America.
In more than a century, Chicago DSA, we're proud
to mobilize more than 500 people on a holiday weekend
to defend CDSA member
and 25th Ward Alderman Byron Scho Lopez against a cowardly
censor attempt for his support of free speech
and the right to protest the DNC.
Today, the city council is poised to finalize nominations
to the C-C-P-S-A in the immediate aftermath of intense weeks
of violent state repression
of Palestine solidarity protestors both
locally and nationwide.
CPD officers ripped off a DePaul student hijab.
As the police violently rated campus
and University of Chicago police threw out Jewish student
cedar when the police violently rated their liberated
zones in California.
48,000 workers in UAW 48 11 across the
University of California system are poised to go on strike
because violent police rage repressing free speech are an
unfair labor practice.
If labor is the arsenal of democracy,
then free speech is the ammunition, socialists
and anarchists, not conservatives, liberals
or progressives are why we have such robust free speech
protections in the United States.
From the free speech fights of the 19 hundreds
to the Fisher Number one strike in Flint to the Students
for Democratic Society chapter at Connecticut State College
protesting the Vietnam War, the right to protest, to picket
and to organize on campus and off were fought for
and won by socialists.
The new CCPs a will be seated as tens of thousands
of people prepare to march on the DMC in August
to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, Chicago.
DSA supports the right to protest with sight
and sound of the DNC, and it is the city
and the CCPs a's duty to support this demand
and use every avenue possible
to prevent police violence towards protestors.
I greatly appreciate the new commissioner's willingness
to step forward at such an intense time.
All of the nominees are clearly highly qualified
with impressive resumes
and numerous credentials that they worked very hard to earn.
However, I am skeptical that when push comes to shove
and protestors say anything disagreeable, disruptive, craft,
rude or appropriate, that happens at protests that the c
that the C-C-P-S-A will be able to do its job
and step up to defend protestors against a clearly
unprepared, undisciplined,
and downright revist police department.
My one request of the new commissioners
and all of city council is
to prove me wrong. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
Our next speaker this morning is Dustin Spence.
Good morning. Morning. My name is Dustin.
Hi, my name is Dustin Spence.
I'm a member of Socialist Alternative
and a member of workers Strike Back.
I'm a resident of the 49th Ward
and I'm here to protest against the city support
for the Democratic National Convention in August.
The Israeli state's genocidal war on Gaza is now in its
seventh month, over 35,000 Palestinians
and over 1500 Israelis have been killed.
A million people in Gaza,
nearly half the population face a manmade famine.
None of this would be possible without biden's political
and military support to Netanyahu.
This city council has called for a ceasefire,
and yet you'll be hosting Biden, the world's biggest enabler
of this genocide.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have approved a
stunning $75 million for additional security for the DNC
security from what the thousands of working in young people
who are angry at Biden's war mongering who want to protest
outside the DNC $75 million for
brutal police repression against peaceful protestors.
While our cities are starved for housing, for education
and for healthcare, we demand
that the Chicago City Council reverse its decision
and approve the demonstration permits so
that working in young people from our city home
to the largest Palestinian community in the US have the
right to protest with sight and sound of the DNC.
We oppose Biden's support for the war,
his attacks on immigrant rights, his refusal
to address the cost of living prices
and his refusal to fight the right wings,
attacks on abortion rights, queer rights, and labor rights.
Enough is enough.
We should support neither Biden nor Trump working.
People need to fight for the largest possible vote
for left independent anti-war candidates, Jill Stein
or Cornell West as a step towards a new
party for working people.
And let's be clear that protests will happen regardless
of the permit status.
And I urge Mayor Johnson
and the members of this council, particularly those
who supported the ceasefire resolution to stand with us
and show Joe Biden what we really think
of his administration, his party,
and his support for this genocidal war.
Approve the permits,
stop the attacks on the anti-war movement
and US military aid to Netanyahu
and the genocidal war on Gaza.
We have no faith in Biden or the Democrats
and urgently need to build an alternative.
And I encourage those in this chamber
and all those who agree with me
to join us in building the largest demonstrations
outside the DNC to commit to opposing Biden
and his war mongering
and to building the anti-war movement through
to the November general elections and beyond.
Thank you. Thank
You.
Thank you very much. Our next speaker
is Zer Conve.
Good morning. Good morning, Mr. President.
Good morning, mayor Johnson
and Honorable Con, uh, uh, council members.
I'm Itzel av.
I'm here to support the resolution
instituting the month of May as Haitian Heritage Month.
We thank Alderman Desmond
and the city council, uh, on such a,
in such an important milestone.
This resolution dishonor bestowed on the Haitian community
for its contribution to the cultural
and economic development of Chicago speaks volume.
This comes on the heels of the 2021 vote
by the city council to rename Lake Shore Drive
to disable Lake Shore Drive in recognition of
the accomplishment of jab,
the de Haitian born founder of the city of Chicago.
Its, its first administrator,
is first listed estate developer is is
first business entrepreneur.
This milestone is, is is an avenger
for more things to come.
I'm speaking about Sable Park, which will grace the lake,
uh, the the lake front of its splendor.
And, and Sable Park shall be an icon for the world
to see in terms of diversity.
It will be the local where diversity triumphs,
where equality is, is recognized and not trampled.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Our next speaker, our next speaker,
our next speaker is Jackie Brown.
All right. It ain't your turn.
Now, Um,
first giving out of the God who's the head of my life.
I wanna thank all the ex alderman house.
Good lady Dorothy Tillman for being here.
Legendary Dorothy Jean Tillman and I wanna get on this.
As far as the city, this should not be a sanctuary city
because of the simple fact we have less
hot months than we do any, any days.
So why would you not vote for this nun
to be a non sanctuary city?
And then second of all, alderman Bill, I give you credit.
Alderman Lopez, my alderman is not here, which is Emma mit,
uh, you guys really talked about
that money when they gave out the $41 million.
We were here that day. Now, Brandon Johnson, you have
to answer to the citizens of Chicago
because come election time, I would not knock on doors
for you or pass out your literature
because you have not did a good job as the mayor
because you have let us citizens down as citizens.
You did not your act. The teachers are asking for money.
Why not give them the money?
When you gave it to the immigrants,
you took away the Section eight and you gave it to them.
Now you wanna build every building you want that's down.
You want to rebuild it
to give them housing when we have over 65,000, uh, um,
homeless people here already in the city of Chicago.
So it's not that you can't help your people here,
you are not helping them here.
And my thing is, you put them in all impoverished community,
but they cannot vote when you remember that
they cannot vote for you.
They cannot vote. Give us our 40 acres and our mule
because we paid the price for us to be here.
They should not come here and get what we already work for.
My thing is, I thought you was the HIC in this house,
but you don't act like it.
I'm just put it out there for you
because you not doing right for the people of Chicago.
You have let us down.
You selling all our buildings for profit.
What's gonna happen? They great, great-great,
great grandkids gonna have the money to come in.
They already sold our parking meters.
How can we let y'all, we trust y'all.
Now you say let us put, put you back in office for what?
I live in a community of eminence
where we got more auto parts, places
where our ordinance was put in,
and they're still coming in by the dozen.
And our whole neighborhood look like a a,
a junkyard over there and we're paying property tax.
And then you gotta have permits
to park on city parking streets
where you already paying parking taxes.
Who came up with that idea?
No, it was put in place before then. But why should that?
That should be abolished. That should be abolished.
Have a good day. Thank
You.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Our next speaker is Anus Sanka Gupta.
Okay, Good morning. Good morning.
My name is Anushka Gupta
and I'm here with Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago
and the Stop Shot Spotter Campaign.
I urge City Council
to reject order
20 24 0 0 0 7 7 5 9.
I come from a community
that the federal government surveilled
and violated after nine 11.
The Patriot Act did not make us safe.
Instead, it meant that I mourned
for my community over and over again.
Five years ago, I had to evacuate a vigil
for the Christchurch Mosque shootings
because someone had a gun.
I remember sitting in a library basement
and calling my parents telling them that I love them
because I thought that would be it.
ShotSpotter wouldn't have saved us.
The only thing that would've prevented that act
of violence is to combat Islamophobia
and the root address, the Root Causes.
Shot Spotter is just one example of surveillance technology
that does not make our communities safer.
Shot Spotter argues
that gunshot detection alerts save lives when the community
fails to alert law enforcement.
But a Fe People's Fabric report shows that only 7% of events
where CPD claims that shot Spotter saved a life,
had no corresponding call.
Phone calls provided a more precise location than those
shot spotter detections.
And so I ask, why are we paying for this expensive
and inaccurate technology when communities
are already doing the work?
City Council needs
to interrogate sound thinking's claims more, um, more fully.
And you should be deeply concerned about the findings
that show that 93% of the instances
where Shot spotter claims to have sa have saved a life,
actually had a corresponding 9 1 1 call.
Contrary to what sound thinking asserts,
and at least in at least three of the instances
where they claim to have saved a life, no one was shot
or the person who was shot had already died.
The author of this report, people's Fabric should be a part
of our, of our hearings, not just CPD and sound thinking.
And so I shared my story earlier
because the police did not help me despite being told
that many of us were in the library, no one came
to let us out or tell us that we were safe.
The 9 million that the city spends on ShotSpotter could
instead be invested in violence prevention efforts,
supportive services,
and our education system
to actually address the root causes of violence.
So I ask again, please vote no on Alder Moore's resolution.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Our next speaker this morning is Roosevelt Daniel.
Our next speaker this morning is Ann She
Morning. Good
Morning. My name is
Ann Scheidler. I'm a resident of the 39th Ward.
I'm here to speak, uh, uh, against the proposed, uh,
amendment to the noise ordinance that would put a quiet zone
around the abortion clinic at 6 59 West Washington Street.
I've been a sidewalk counselor in front
of Chicago's abortion clinics for nearly 50 years.
The number one comment I hear from women heading into a
clinic to have an abortion is quote, I have no choice.
Many of these women are being coerced into quote,
choosing abortion by someone
who has some kind of control over them.
It is not the choice they really want.
In fact, we just learned
that a young woman now in her twenties is suing the Chicago
Public School system
because the dean at her high school,
the Greater Lawndale School for Social Justice, forced her
to have two abortions to cover up her his crimes
of sexually abusing her.
The last thing we need is more protection
for abortion clinics in our city.
You already have a bubble zone ordinance,
which we challenged in federal court
and we, we wanna settlement because the law is so vague
and was being randomly and unfairly enforced.
You also tried this ordinance last fall
and your own attorneys found constitutional issues with it.
So you pulled it. You can be sure
that our attorneys at the Thomas Moore Society will sue the
city over this ordinance and we will win.
Just like we won against the state of Illinois with SB 1909
that tried to shut down the pregnancy centers
that give support to women who choose life.
The state is now required
to pay attorney's fees In that situation.
If we trust women to make their own choices,
let's make sure they have all the information they need
to make life altering decisions.
Don't leave them in the lurch
because you wanna take away our constitutional right
to free speech on a public sidewalk.
You don't need a brand new law just to go
after some folks whose approach the clinic
personnel don't happen to.
Like why deprive a young woman of the last opportunity.
She has to say no, this is not what I want.
Thank you.
Thank You very much for your comments, your Honor.
There are no further speakers who have timely signed up
for the public comment period.
Thank you. The public comments.
I would continue to ask for the, those who are
participating in our democracy, um,
to do it with some decorum.
There are, there are a number of alders who wish
to offer up some recognition.
I would ask for leave for this body
before we get into our resolutions, uh,
to give these five alders, um, just some brevity to,
to make some recognition.
Um, if there are no objections, I would like to proceed.
Hearing none, chair recognizes Alderwoman. Pat Dow.
Uh, thank you Mr. President.
Um, and it gives me great joy
and honor this morning on behalf of the members
of the city council to recognize the graduation
of Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman ii,
who is a Chicagoan.
Let's give her a hand. Y'all,
Who is, Who is a Chicagoan and a Third Ward resident.
She's the daughter of Jim Alita Tillman
of the Harold Washington Cultural Center
and granddaughter of former Third Ward Alderman
Dorothy Tillman, who at the age
of 17 Dr. Tillman earned her doctorate degree
in be integrated behavioral health
From a Arizona, Arizona State University.
And she walked the stage on May 6th, 2024.
She is the youngest person ever at Arizona State University
to receive a doctorate in integrated behavioral health.
She was homeschooled
and at the age of 10 you guys enrolled in college
as a freshman at the College of Lake County,
where she majored in psychology
and completed her associate's degree in August of 2016.
She then went on, if that wasn't enough,
to get her Master's of Science from Unity College in Maine
in 2020, becoming the youngest environmental
and sustainable scientist in the USA in the country.
And now after graduating with her PhD,
Dr. Tillman is the founder
and CEO of Dorothy Genius Steam Leadership Institute.
Having launched Dorothy Jean Steam Labs in Chicago
and in West Cape Town South Africa in 2020.
She's got numerous honors awards
and recognitions, which I won't go into today.
But I asked you to read today's New York Times
where there's an article about her accomplishments.
We stand here today to congratulate you,
Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman II on your accomplishments
and wish you the bright future.
Thank you Alderwoman.
The chair recognizes Alderman Lamont
Robinson Chair
recognizes for resolution and acknowledgement.
Alders Taylor and Byron Seigel Lopez Africa,
Colombian Recognition day
and please with some brevity. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Um, mayor Johnson, uh,
distinguished members of the city council.
Um, I have the distinct honor to introduce a, a resolution
recognizing national day of Afro Colombian Recognition Day,
uh, that took place yesterday, 20, uh, May 21st, um,
that recognizes
and remembers 173 years since
Columbia abolished slavery.
We here in the city of Chicago are proud to make sure
that we stand in support
and recognizing the diversity of our city,
where there's also almost over 20,000 Colombian
and Columbia descent residents.
I particularly like to welcome to the Chambers, um,
some special guests from the Council of Columbia
and Angel, Colorado, Lena Lara, Gladys ate as well
as some community leaders, Mina, Ana Castillo,
Christian Mina,
and some new neighbors as well to the city of Chicago,
Francisco Carillo, Maribell, Carlos Frere,
and their family and daughter.
This is an important resolution
because today over 10 million Afro Colombians feel
recognized and a time
where our communities are being pitched against each other.
We recognize the strength of our diversity
and the values of freedom, liberation.
And again, when someone, some people wanna take us back
to the times of Civil Wars, we remember our diversity
and our inclusion.
Excuse me for a second, ma'am.
If you have an outburst again,
I'll have to ask you to be removed.
Okay. So let's, I want you to stay though. Please continue.
And Alderman, 'cause you wrap it up. Please, sir.
Thank you so yet again.
When we see that importance
of our democracy relies on the people, we are proud
to present this resolution and we're so proud.
Columbia today celebrates
to have the first Afro Colombian vice president in the
history of the country
and proud to recognize the diversity on our city as well.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder, Jeanette Taylor.
Thank you Mr. President.
Too often we don't ask young people
how important their community are to them.
And so in the 20th Ward we ask young people at our
elementary schools, what does their
community look like to him?
And so young people from Dulles Elementary
and young people from Sherwood Elementary, drew Art
to show the importance of
what their community means to them.
Can I have young people and families stand up from Sherwood
and Dulles,
Mr.
President, I would like to thank them, their teacher
and their art teachers for allowing them to do art
that will be displayed in my ward office.
I want to say that these young people did an incredible job
articulating what their community looks like to them.
I want to thank the staff
and the young people for coming down today. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Alright. Um, I believe we just have two more.
Um, older woman,
pat Dow has two more quick
acknowledgements that she would like
To make. I'll make them, I'll
make them quick. Um, Mr.
Mayor, um, I want
to acknowledge a resolution honoring Public Ally Chicago,
which is a strong organization and network of young leaders.
Founded in 1993
with 30 Chicago Public Allies under, um,
our First Lady, our former First Lady, Michelle Obama.
She was the first executive director
and in 1994, president Clinton created AmeriCorps
as an outgrowth of the original AmeriCorps national program
in 1994.
Um, public Allies is a 10 month full-time work-based
learning experience for
and leadership development program for young adults.
And it's a national organization which has prepared over
8,008,000 diverse young adults
from leadership for leadership across the nation.
Uh, with us today, we have with us former director,
executive director Mark Payne, if you all would stand.
Bianca Cotton, associate Director and a Public Allies.
And AJ osu Ariana Smith is the name on their id,
but she's the director of Pathways
and NE Network Relations at Public Allies.
If you guys can
Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Um, I also would like
to say I'm a former executive director of Public
Allies too. All
right. All
Right. Um,
the last resolution I have today, Mr.
Mayor, is for, uh, older Americans Month.
For all of you who have these blue buttons, um, this is May
and May is older Americans.
Month a time for us to recognize the diversity
of our older Americans and their contributions to
and influence on every facet of our society
in the city of Chicago.
Older Americans included age 60 years or better.
Raise your hand. Y'all,
uh, stands at over 500,000
older Americans strengthen all of our communities
through their service, their civic engagement,
and other activities.
I wanna acknowledge as well our Department of DFSS,
our senior services division under the leadership
of Margaret Lare and Commissioner Brandi Kazi.
And they're here with us. Mr. Mayor and the audience.
Can we give our older Americans hand a hand
and a standing ovation?
'cause we have all Americans in our world.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Thank you Alderwoman.
And, uh, vice Mayor Burnett Alderwoman,
vice Mayor Burnett said he did not get his button.
Okay. The chair recognizes.
Does Alderwoman Stephanie Coleman still wish
to offer up her resolution?
Uh, acknowledgement. Please. You're recognized.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Uh, I love all of the diversity
and all seeing our young people here.
I'd also like to recognize, uh, the Polish Pebbles
from Earl Stem Academy in West Inglewood.
Fifth, sixth and seventh graders are here to join us
to be civically engaged
for their shadow day under the leadership principle.
Regina Lake, again from Earl Academy
in West Inglewood in the 16th Ward.
Thank you so much to Kelly Fair.
The amazing works that she is doing for young women
in the city of Chicago and vicinity.
Thank you Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
We also, before we have our last acknowledgement, uh, older,
um, Rodriguez Sanchez, we have students from Homann
that are here, um, in the very powerful eighth ward.
The students, are they there? Alright.
They're in the balcony. They are.
This is their civics class
and their eighth grade social studies teacher, which is
of course the grade that I taught.
So grateful for you all and thank you for staying away.
All right. And finally, the chair recognized for, uh,
mental Health Awareness Month chair recognizes.
Finally, Alder Rodriguez Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, I want to rise up
and remind us all
that this is Mental Health Awareness Month.
I want to particularly thank, um, all of the community
that have been pushing so hard for us to be able
to expand our mental health service, um, network, um, both
with mental health crisis response, um,
that is compassionate
and led by, um, mental health professionals
and peer support workers,
and also the reopening of our mental health clinics.
We know that there have been the collaborative
for Community Wellness have been fighting
for over 10 years now to be able to reopen our shuttered,
uh, mental health clinics.
Um, and we are finally making strides, uh, to make sure
that we can have mental health care
for everybody that needs it.
Um, so I am deeply grateful
for the work of the collaborative.
I am also very grateful for the mayor's team.
We have been, uh,
working on the treatment not trauma report, uh,
for expansion of mental health care for the last few weeks.
Um, and they have been working around the clock.
So my deepest appreciation for everybody
that has been trying to make this dream possible,
we really want to make sure to take care of everybody
who needs mental health, uh, services.
We know how deeply needed this is in our communities
for all kinds of reasons, for public health reasons,
for public safety reasons.
And we're finally going to be able
to present recommendations for implementation.
So thank you, mayor. Thank you, uh, to your team. Thank you.
The collaborative for the, uh, for community wellness.
Um, we are going to get this done. Thank you.
So finally, finally, alderman Lamont Robinson does wish
to have his acknowledgement.
The chair recognizes Alderman Lamont Robinson
with some brevity too.
Please, sir. Mr.
Mayor, thank you very much. Uh, good morning.
To my colleagues today, I, uh, have the honor of recognizing
an extraordinary individual whose dedication
and compassion have profoundly impacted our city,
who has been an employee of the city
of Chicago for 25 years.
If Inspector Kevin Callahan can please stand up.
Thanks. I first
met Inspector Kevin Callahan at the scene
of a high rise building fire in October
from 7:00 AM when that fire started through the next
14 hours, inspector Callahan stayed with my staff,
ensuring the 22 displaced families were housed, fed,
and supported.
His commitment to these families didn't stop when the fire
was out alongside of him.
That night was our very own commissioner, Marlene Hopkins,
who arrived that night at 9:00 PM
to assist in the relief efforts.
Her dedication exemplifies Mr.
Mayor the spirit of public service.
And together they demonstrated what it means to go above
and beyond for the call of duty for our constituents.
Kevin, I see my father
and you, who was also a Chicago building
inspector for 20 years.
It's folks like you that our city has to acknowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Callahan has served
as a building inspector for 25 years doing his career.
He has aided countless chicagoans, ensuring
that their homes are safe and livable
and has acted as an advocate for vulnerable
and unhoused populations, often utilizing his own money
to provide shelter for those in need.
Throughout his time as a building Inspector Spector,
he has helped single moms
and low-income families, again, out of his own pocket,
covering hotel stays, furnishings, rental deposits,
groceries, and even helping move personal items.
His Actions demonstrate an extraordinary level
of personal commitment and compassion,
and embodies exactly what it means
to be a true public servant.
Inspector Callahan has not only positively affected the
residents of our city,
he has also made a signif a significant impression
among its colleagues, providing guidance
and mentorship to junior members within his department.
He is a true unsung hero, working quietly
and tirelessly to ensure the safety
and the wellbeings of our community.
Today we celebrate and honor inspector Kevin Callahan,
not just for his years of dedicated service,
but his unwavering commitment to the people of Chicago.
His legacy of kindness
and advocacy for those in need serves
as an inspiration to all.
Thank you Inspector Kellen Callahan,
for your remarkable contributions for being a beacon of hope
and support in our community.
Your work has made Chicago a better place
for the countless families,
and for that we are eternal grateful.
If we can please stand and recognize Inspector
Kevin Callahan.
All right, thank you again. All those
orders for the acknowledgement.
Um, now we have three resolutions today celebrating Jewish
American Heritage Month, Haitian American Heritage Month,
and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Alderwoman Harris for the suspension of the rules,
I Move for the temporary suspension of the rules
for immediate consideration
Of these resolutions. Mr.
Hearing? No objection. So ordered.
So in order to, um, in the interest
of respecting time today, we forego the reading
of the resolutions and go straight
to comments from city council members.
Our first resolution is celebrating Jewish
American Heritage Month.
Are any members the chair recognizes
Alderwoman, Deborah Silverstein.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I stand in support of this resolution as alderman
of the 50th Ward,
which has the largest Jewish
community in the city of Chicago.
And as the only Jewish member of the Chicago City Council,
it is my honor to recognize Jewish American Heritage Month.
We are joined here today by representatives
of the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish United Fund
of Chicago, and the Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center.
We also have the distinct privilege of being joined
by Lynn Nki.
She traveled all the way from Wheeling to be today
to be with us today.
She's a Holocaust survivor who would like to share her story
and help us understand the vital need for standing up
to hate and remembering the lessons of the Holocaust.
Lynn is going to speak with us in just a few moments.
I wanna thank her so much for being here
and for helping keep the memory
of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust alive.
Before we hear from Lynn,
I just wanna say a few words about
Jewish American Heritage Month.
The first Jewish resident of America settled in 1654
in New Amsterdam, which is now called New York.
After fleeing antisemitism
and persecution in Portuguese controlled Brazil, starting
with a community of just 23 people, the Jewish population
of America skyrocketed to the millions
second only to Israel.
Currently, our nation houses nearly 40% of the world's Jews.
It is my long desire to make sure
that everyone's voice is heard.
Public comments are now over.
Please refrain from shouting from the gallery.
If you cannot adhere to that, I would have
to ask that you'll be removed.
Please continue. Older women, Silverstein
With more than 300,000 Jewish men, women, and children.
Chicago is the fifth largest Jewish community in the world.
From the arts to sciences, from business to philanthropy,
the Jewish Americans have played an integral role in shaping
the fabric of our society, nation and city.
We are doctors and lawyers, teachers and nurses, fathers
and mothers, neighbors and friends.
The one commonality, commonality
between us all is not our religion,
but our national identity.
We are all Americans
and we all share a dedication to freedom, to justice,
and to the values that make this nation great.
We are as diverse as this nation
and committed to the health, stability,
and strength of the United States.
Despite our contributions to society,
however, antisemitism still remains a very real threat
to the local Jewish community.
anti-Jewish hate is at its all time high in Chicago
and across the nation.
Just one week ago in my community,
antisemitic flyers were left on car windshields on a
predominantly Jewish block.
The flyers were hateful, vile, and completely unacceptable.
They parroted the same disgusting rhetoric
that has fueled pogroms, inquisitions
and attacks against Jews throughout the ages.
Jewish residents are scared
and we don't know if we can trust our elected officials
to protect us from those who wish to harm.
That is why I invited Lynn
and the Holocaust Museum here today.
Why it is so important for us to hear her story.
It is also why I had the Holocaust Museum here at City Hall.
On Monday, they screened their award-winning virtual reality
program for our city leadership.
I would like to thank you, mayor, the city treasurer,
Melissa, Kanyes, Irvin,
and the many alderman who came
to hear the survivor's stories.
Jewish Americans have been in this country
before our nation was formed, they gave us the polio vaccine
and helped split the atom.
Jews marched with Dr. King
and have been on the forefront
of every social justice movement.
Jewish history and culture cannot be separated from
the American experience.
They're inextricably linked to our nation's rich tapestry.
I call upon my fellow city council members,
community leaders, and every Chicagoan
to join us in this critical fight against antisemitism.
Let us be proactive activists for change, inspiring others
to stand against hate and intolerance.
Together we can build a nation where every person,
regardless of their religious
or ethnic background, can thrive and flourish.
Thank you all and may we all have a very happy Jewish
American heritage month.
And at this time I would like
to ask Lynn Naski to say a few words.
Alderwoman Silverstein. Just a moment please.
I would ask for this body to offer privilege to the floor.
Are there any objections? Hearing none. It is ordered.
Please, you may commence.
My name is Delin Naski and I'm a Holocaust survivor.
As a child, my world and that of my family forever changed.
On June 22nd, 1941,
when the Germans invaded Soviet Union bound my home of
weave the capital of Ukraine.
A few months between September 29
and 30 19 41 s
and German special units under the guidance
of mobile killing squads
murdered 33,771 Jews
of Kyiv at Ravine called Babin.
Just outside the Kyiv, the city.
Over 48 hours, my neighbors at my community
and my own family, my grandmother, Fania,
were brutally murdered individual, uh,
individual human beings, men, women, children,
and the elderly brought to a ravine id cards, taken, forced,
and to undress and then shot.
It was one of the first
and la largest MAs killing at a single location
during World War ii.
My father has left for the front.
So my mother and I traveled by cattle car
to the interior of Soviet Union.
There were so many people in the car.
Some people cannot have a space to sit, no food
or water at all.
Of course, our train went without any schedules.
Germans bomb it. And then some cars were on fire.
Human bodies were scattered, scattered all over.
During airstrikes, people like my mom
and I were running it nearby bushes, if any,
and waited until it was over.
We lived in such terrible conditions.
We lived in a room with different families,
sometimes four families in one room together without running
water and bathroom.
We eventually made to Kazakhstan, unable to survive the rest
of the war in Holocaust.
After the war was over, we made it back to, but the years
after the war were marked with antisemitism.
I'm sure Jewish people experienced antisemitism from
individuals, groups of people.
But the governments inspired antisemitism
something different.
Much worse. We were branded people, lower class of people.
We suffered during the war.
So many of us were killed by bullets,
killed in extermination camps, tortured.
And even after all of that, we again, uh,
became a lower class with fewer rights
and fewer opportunities.
In couple years, we decided that we have enough
of antisemitism and left our country of region for America.
It was in 1979.
Our family left the Soviet Union as political refugees,
unable to have equal rights with other citizens
who couldn't practice their religion.
It wasn't easy to establish ourselves in your country
to balance Russian and American way of life,
but we managed, we survived.
So that briefly is my story as a Holocaust survivor.
So you might ask me why I am telling you this story.
I feel strongly that I have a moral obligation
to six millions Jews, my grandma faa
and other relatives included
to tell people our story in order not
to forget Holocaust, speak up.
For those who cannot speak for themselves,
says the proverb 31 8, they perished.
Were exterminated. But not to be forgotten.
May we remember their lives
so they will not suffer double death.
We have to remember them.
Our memory of their courage
and bravery are their tos and monuments.
That is why I speak, why I share my story
and why I believe that the work
of institutions like our own Illinois Holocaust Museum is
so important as their mission.
Remind us, remember the past, transform the future.
I hope you will live today and remember the past
and what happens when hatred and bigotry
and antisemitism are left unchallenged
and the entire world remains silent.
But I also hope you live today understanding that
for this generation
and for the future generations, we must work
for a better work.
Thank you.
Thank you,
thank you.
Again, the chair recognizes Alder. Maria Hadden.
Thank you Mr. President.
Um, I too rise in support of this resolution.
Yeah, I do.
Um, I wanna thank our guests
and I want to thank you for sharing your story.
And um, you mentioned there were two, uh,
lots of wisdom in the room today, um,
from our earlier guests, uh, to the current occupants
of the box and even to our opening prayer.
And so remembering the past right, and taking action
and changing our future, I think are real strong sentiments.
And I think about the Jewish American people, um,
your histories, your stories, and your impacts,
and how much they mimic the stories of
so many different people.
Here in our country. So I rise
and supported this resolution as a black American who,
and I know we have folks here.
Many of our ancestors came here in a different way.
We were brought here against our will.
Um, we had different histories and backgrounds.
And as ancestors of enslaved people,
we've also struggled to find our space in this country
and make our way and continue to do so.
But remembering our past so that we can have an impact
and change and shape the way we want our future to be is one
of the reasons why I know I sit in this body,
and I think many of my colleagues do as well.
Um, our opening prayer today, um, I really appreciated
the words and the prayer of, um, I'm not someone
who typically prays full confession, um,
of how we use our words, right, and in grace
and our words, but also in our deeds.
And again, um, to my colleagues' comments, as someone
who represents constituents has a great privilege
of sitting in this body, um,
and being an elected official, I know
that it is our responsibility in these roles to
use our words and to use our deeds to set the examples
for the type of future that we want to see.
So, as difficult as it is, um, sometimes it is a privilege
and it's an honor, and I hope that we all rise to
that occasion every single day.
Um, so in honor of our guest
for Jewish American Heritage Month, thank you.
Um, thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Ottoman Knutsen,
Thank you, chair.
And I wanna also thank Lynn in the box for coming today
and having the courage to, to speak.
I had the honor of, uh,
the virtual reality session earlier this week
where it was your session,
and, um, uh, in addition to just being
quite an impactful experience, putting the headset on,
and I recommend everyone check it out
with the Illinois Holocaust Museum if they haven't.
Um, I think your story was just such a reminder
of when we look at history, the slippery slope of hate
and what that can become.
So I want to thank Alder person Silverstein, for,
for championing this, and also chair Hadden for
her wonderful words around our prayer giver,
and just the importance in interfaith dialogue.
Um, I think when we all talk, we're all better off.
Um, hate speech is on the rise.
There's absolutely no question.
I think there's some things we can really do from this body
to combat hate speech of all kinds.
And I think we're gonna be talking about
that quite more over the next month.
Um, so really just, just rising in honor of, of you Lynn,
um, and Jewish American Heritage Month.
So thank you for the opportunity to speak on this.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alderwoman, pat Dow.
Oh, the chair recognizes, uh,
David Moore, alderman David Moore.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I too stand in support of this resolution.
Um, as we hear of not only about the story,
but also about, um, the relationship, uh, whether
historically between the Jewish community
and the African American community, it's important
to understand, um, all sides of it.
And I understand, uh, people, uh,
sometimes frustrations and things like that.
At the end of the day, when you have a group of people
who have also stood with us, um, in situations
for civil rights, um, whether it was with Dr. King
or Reverend Jackson to help, uh, push Shara ca cause, um,
that I appreciate, but also appreciate the fact.
Um, I started out when I was a, um, little boy,
how my great aunt used to talk to me about the, um,
Jewish family that she worked for
and how, um, through her, um, not having the education
that she had, how, um, he taught her.
And with little money, with little money,
I thought my aunt was a millionaire.
I have to tell you that. And with little money, she's able
to buy real estate and, um, get us out of the projects
of Chicago for me, um, to have a life like this.
And she always talked about this family.
And as I, um, gotten older and over time
and developed friendships, um, um, not only
with my colleague, but others,
we can have difficult conversations,
but at the same time know how we can work together to heal.
And that's what I appreciate so much.
So I thank you Alderman Silverstein for bringing, um,
this, um, ordinance.
And I thank the, um, president, um, the mayor
for making sure that this is heard and recognized,
because this is what make, uh, makes America great.
And we will continue to work together to heal.
And I praise God for allowing you to survive,
to survive, um, that.
And no matter what people's politics are,
I always tell people, and, and,
and if aliens start coming down here,
we'll be on everybody's side trying to help each other.
And so at the end of the day, when somebody is hurting,
but for somebody to survive, a hurt, a pain, um, it's major
so that we can begin to learn from it, grow from it,
and also heal from it.
So thank you for coming down, sharing your story,
and also recognizing the community as a whole for the, uh,
different things that they bring, um, to our country.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
The chair recognizes Altman Burnett.
Thank you very much. Mr.
Chairman, also rise and support of this resolution.
Uh, first of all, Shalom
and I like to say Toda, for sharing your story with us.
Um, I'm blessed to have had many, uh,
Jewish friends in my life.
Uh, you know, it's funny thing, um, I'm listening
to a book about the autobiography of Warren Buffett
and Charlie Munger,
and as I listened to that biography,
they talk about in their younger years, uh,
Warren Buffett's sister Mary was going out
with a Jewish guy, and she had to sneak to go out with him.
And also because at that time,
there was discrimination against Jews back in the
forties and fifties.
But also, they go on to talk about
how he talks about in the, in the broker houses,
there weren't many Jewish broker houses
because the Jewish people were discriminated against even in
the financial industry.
Uh, which is, which is interesting.
And it made me think about the resiliency
of the Jewish community, how the Jewish community
was discriminated against in the financial industry.
But now they flourish in the financial industry.
Now they flourish in the philanthropic
industry across our country.
You all have contributed so much, uh, to America.
I also think about being born over in Rockwell Gardens
before I moved to Cabrini Green
and Dr. Martin Luther King died,
and my father worked with my offices at a hardware store,
and all of the stores on Madison Avenue was owned
by Jewish people.
And a lot of us had jobs there
before the riots and the fires, and we all lost our jobs.
But the Jewish community hired a lot of us
and helped a lot of us, uh,
and a lot of families on the west side and the south side.
So I just wanna say, toda, thank you all,
and thank your community for your commitment to our country,
your resiliency, to continue to
keep your story going,
but also encouraging your family members to always do well
and be good and give back.
And, and, and, uh, as they say,
you all always encourage folks to do Mik fuss.
Uh, so I just wanna say Zant, and to
Thank you, the chair recognizes Alderman Spaza.
Thank you, Mr. President. I too support the resolution.
I, I have to admit that, um, appreciate what everybody said,
first of all, for starters.
But I, I didn't know much about Jewish life other than
what I saw on TV until 13 years ago.
And I became friends with, uh, Deb Silverstein.
And as the years come on,
the past few years have been much closer, um,
I like to refer to myself.
I'm self proclaimed,
the closest ally in the council, I always say.
So. Um, so I stand with you
and your people, Deb, my, myself,
and my community, my, myself, my family, and my community.
So, um, those, uh, those virtual, uh,
things were hard to watch
and hard to listen to, but I'm glad I did.
So I just wanna say, uh, thank you all for all.
You've done, appreciate what you've gone through.
We have to, we have to have, to have
to start standing up against hate.
I don't know why this country has gotten outta control,
but, um, it won't be from me.
And I stand with you all. So thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank
You. Chair recognizes
Ottman Lawson.
Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I rise
to strongly support this resolution,
and I want to thank my colleague for bringing it to us.
Um, I think you remember a year ago when we were here, um,
I said, you would never be alone.
And Nick, Nick affirmed that you will never be alone.
Um, but I talked about the four synagogues in my community,
and I started listing off all the great Jewish home
businesses and everybody kind of snickered.
Um, a month ago, I had SKAs drawn on a school.
And so I, I will take my enthusiasm over my business
community over what we had to deal with last month.
Um, fortunately, we have an amazing, strong community,
uh, in Lakeview East.
And, uh, someone was arrested. My office is going to court.
Um, many of, uh, my colleagues, uh,
or my friends of the Jewish community in,
in 44 are going too.
And so we stand strong here in, uh, our city
and certainly in my neighborhood.
Um, I want to thank the Holocaust Museum, uh,
and Miss Ky Lynn for sharing your story, uh,
because we never forget, right?
And, and we have to commit ourselves to never forget
and to continue to tell these stories.
And, uh, you, you do it brilliantly.
And I, I really commend you for it.
Um, and, and for all the work
that you're doing at the museum.
And I, I also just wanted to, uh,
congratulate all the women Silverstein.
Uh, she was chosen to light the diaspora torch at Israel's
official Independence Day for all of her work
to fight antisemitism.
She was chosen, she was the only Jewish person outside
of Israel, is my understanding, chosen to be there.
It was quite an honor. So let's recommit
to support our colleague and our community,
and our Jewish friends and neighbors,
and speak out against antisemitism
where we see it in our city, to keep all
of our residents safe. Thank you. Thank you.
The chair recognizes Alderman Wapac.
Thank you, Mr. President, uh, and Alderwoman Silverstein.
Thank you for bringing this resolution forward.
I just want to thank, uh, Lynn for her comments today.
And then also, uh, recognize a constituent of mine,
Jane Charney from JUF
and thank JUF for their, uh, funding
and the tens of millions of dollars
and services during the Covid Pandemic,
which went, I think, unnoticed.
But, um, I look forward to working with your organization
and others as we push back on the antisemitism
and the issues that we've seen crop up
over the last several months.
And, uh, thank you for all of your service.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alderman Conway,
Of course, rise in support in this resolution.
And I am deeply disturbed by the current treatment
of Jewish people in our city
and our country, and around the world.
Today. I hear from constituents
and friends that Jewish people don't feel safe
with anti-Semitic attacks on the rise.
Now, while legitimate discussions can happen about Gaza can
take place, hatred
and anti-Semitism have no place in our society.
So, thank you, Lynn,
for sharing your brave story and all of you for coming.
Never forget, never again. Thank you very much. Thank
You. The chair recognizes
Alder woman Lee.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I too rise in support of this, uh, resolution.
I wanna thank Alder Woman Silverstein for bringing forward,
um, her guest in the box today.
And, uh, no, no, no, for the survivor who's here,
who shared her story, uh, I completely agree
that we cannot forget our history.
I think the Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center for all
that they've done over the years to preserve this history.
Um, and now that there are even more films
that are available, um, in the, in the VR room, uh, i,
I echo everybody's sentiments
that everybody should go see it, um, and,
and bear witness to what has happened.
Um, we cannot forget this in our past.
Um, on a lighter note,
I also wanna thank the Jewish community for all they do
to serve the city of Chicago.
I think, um, and then Alderman Wa
spec started to allude to this.
Uh, people don't really recognize the, the amount of work
and contributions that the Jewish American community has
done to serve all communities in the city of Chicago.
And, um, across the United States, uh, as an Asian American,
uh, I think we, uh, we share some fun things in common.
Mm-Hmm. Um, you know, our, our love for Mahjong.
I I still think we should do a tournament, by the way.
Um, and, uh, we have our own version of wontons.
You have Crep lock, we have wontons and dumplings.
Um, but in all seriousness, I I, I feel that, uh,
we are kindred spirits, uh, in, in terms of the struggles
that we've all faced, um, coming to the United States and,
and building new lives, and then finding ways
to preserve our culture
and our history, uh, while paving a new path
for ourselves here in this country.
Um, so I, I honor you during this month.
I thank you for all your contributions,
uh, and I wish you all well. Thank you.
Thank you. The chair recognizes alderman, osha
Thank you, Mr. President.
I too rise in support of this resolution.
Um, Lynn, thank you. Thank you for telling your story.
It's a story that the next generation needs to hear,
and I, I think it, it goes without saying
that everybody in this room should make sure
that they get the information, uh, of
where our school children, uh, could go.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center, uh, up in Skokie.
Uh, this next generation needs to know the history.
Um, this was mentioned by one of my colleagues,
hate of all forms, uh, needs to be identified, called out.
We need to put more light on it, uh, including antisemitism.
Uh, thank you for your courage.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder Vazquez.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Um, I want to thank our colleague, wo Silverstein, uh,
so much for leadership and courage,
and for inviting us to the Holocaust Museum, uh,
some months back, um, to Lynn, thank you
for your courage in sharing your story.
Uh, it takes enough courage to survive the trauma, uh,
that many communities
and people have gone through even more.
So, to try to retell a story here, uh, knowing how
challenging it might've been for you
to cherish story here when it shouldn't have been.
Uh, what we know, uh, is that the Jewish community, uh,
like many of our people have experienced so much oppression,
so much marginalization, that to see any of it come up, uh,
and re uh, resurgence of antisemitism
as we have difficult conversations is unwelcome anywhere.
Uh, and what we recognize is
that when our Jewish family says never again, they mean it.
And it's not, never, again, only for their population,
but for everyone else around the world, going
through this sort of oppression that is being pushed back
by any level of authoritarianism
or fascism, uh, in Chicago, where we are a city where all
of us are part of one community, we don't accept any of it
wherever it rears its ugly, divisive head.
And so, I just want to make sure that you all know that
as it relates to, uh, Jewish American heritage
and the future of Jewish American heritage,
that we are here with you.
We are all one community.
We'll always stand with you recognizing
that we are all one people that needs
to find ways to come together.
And I believe that we can. Thank you so much, uh,
to everyone here, and thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder Napolitano.
Thank you, Mr. President. I too rise
and support supported this to my colleague.
Um, and into the box
and to the information you've brought us today.
Um, your story is incredible.
As a father of three, my wife
and I make sure that we tell our children as much as we can,
make them learn about history
and make sure that they are not a part, a part
of repeating the worst parts of our history.
We've told 'em so much so that all three of them have wanted
to see the Holocaust Museum in
Skokie, and we have brought 'em there.
Um, their, their thirst for knowledge
and their thirst to not be a part of our past is, is
a strong part of the way we
should be raising our children today.
Um, I can't even begin
to imagine what you have gone through.
I'm glad we have you here today to explain it to all of us.
Thank you to my colleague for being strong enough
to stand up each
and every time in these chambers when it's been very tough
for you over the last year, if not longer.
My heart and my love is with you. I always stand with you.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Are there any other elders that wish
to speak very well?
Thank this entire body for your comments
and your support of this resolution.
From the earliest days,
the Jewish community has made indelible contributions
and achievements, our culture, society history,
and our economy, as our Jewish community has overcome
tremendous obstacles, we are still battling hatred,
violence, and antisemitism.
But through it all, they truly have shown
resilience, strength, and courage.
They truly imbibe the spirit of overcoming.
It's quite fitting though that I believe
that we celebrate the Jewish American community in the month
of May as we celebrate so many other dynamics
and achievements.
And that's why I'm proud to stand with you all
as we celebrate the resilience
and leadership, the accomplishments
and the enduring impact
that the Jewish American community has had on the world.
Let us continue to learn from one another
and celebrate the Jewish American community
and foster community engagement and advocacy.
But let's also make sure that we embrace our shared history
that ultimately defines who we are in the soul of Chicago.
Thank you.
So all woman Harris, can we get a motion
for the passage of this resolution?
I'll move passage in the omnibus hearing. No objection.
So ordered this resolution passes.
Our next resolution is celebrating
Asian American Heritage Month.
Are there any alders that wish to speak to this resolution?
The chair recognizes Alder Ramirez. Rosa,
Just a moment, please.
Oh, the chair recognizes Alderman Anthony Beal.
I was just one waiting till they get seated
before we move forward with the
Resolution. Very well.
I got you. No thank you.
Alright. Please remove, please remove the, the woman
that is speaking now, uh, charging at arms.
Please remove this woman from the Chambers Sergeant at arms.
Please remove this woman from the chambers, please.
Thank you.
Chair recognizes Ottoman. Rosa,
Thank you so much, Mr. President.
Happy Haitian American Heritage Month.
I'm proud to stand in support of this resolution,
recognizing Haitian American Heritage Month.
I'm proud as a fellow son of the Caribbean
and proud to recognize the descendants of the people
who 220 years ago in 1804,
established the first independent republic founded
by the formerly enslaved.
The people of it are an example of our continent's promise
of liberty and freedom.
And here in the US we must recognize
that we owe a great debt to the Haitian people.
From 1804 to 1864, the US refuse to recognize
it's independence.
Scared of what would it mean here in the us?
The US supported France's in position
of a massive debt on i, a debt imposed
to punish the Haitian people for winning their freedom.
From 1915 to 1934, the US US military occupied id, Turing
and killing thousands US soldiers forcibly took the wealth
from the Haitian National Bank
and carted the funds off to Wall Street.
And following the occupation,
the US government backed dictators like
Papa Ddu Valier for decades.
This is barely scratching the surface of
what the US government has done to em.
So it is well past time that the US recognized
what it has caused on the island of em.
But I'm so proud to celebrate Haitian American Heritage
Month because in the face of this adversity from some
of the strongest empires in the world,
the Haitian people have persevered.
And the Haitian people have continued to build their nation
and have continued to build up their people,
not just on the island, but here in Chicago as well.
Building families, building small businesses,
becoming entrepreneurs, becoming community leaders,
becoming faith leaders, excelling in every single
realm of public life.
So happy Haitian American Heritage Month
to my fellow Caribbean sisters. Thank
You. Thank
you.
Chair recognizes Alderman Moore. Thank you, Mr. President.
I definitely stand in support of this resolution, um,
as we deal with and look into, um, history.
Um, and you find out it's only a matter of where, um,
your particular boat landed, right?
And, um, but
after learning that we find out that, man, we got a group
of people instead of getting into America,
they landed over in a French colony, right?
But they were able to stand up and stand up
and fight for their freedom, stand up
and fight for their independence.
And so as I studied, as I was dealing with, um,
the John Baptist, um, Abel, um, project, um,
that's when I began to learn
and study more about my Haiti family.
And so the gifts, the gifts
of building everything that we see in trades,
nothing like the Haitian people.
And they should be more than, uh, represented in our trades,
more than represented in our city.
But even more importantly,
can we even be standing here in Chicago if it wasn't
for a Haitian man by the name of Jean Baptist Point, dsa?
So, yes, as our my colleagues, many not all voted
to, uh, rename, um, SVO drive to, um,
John Baptist Point, SVO Lakeshore Drive.
This man should even have more of an honor.
There's no reason why a statue shouldn't be somewhere.
I know we're working on a park somewhere,
but it's gotta be more so that people can only know him,
but know the gifts and the works of the Haitian community.
I truly stand in support
and always remembering, um, this, um, um,
and recognizing, um, Haitian
and heritage American, uh, month.
So thank you all so much for coming down
and let's continue to work together so
that those voices can be heard
and policies that be put in place, um,
to make sure you're getting the resources that you need
as you all come, um, into the United States.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Alder Hadden.
Thank you, Mr. President. I too.
Uh, help me out, Mike. Thank you.
Um, I too rise in support of this resolution, uh,
with great enthusiasm.
Uh, it's wonderful to see you all.
Um, thank you for, for the time.
The, uh, the culture, the food,
and the experience that you brought to City
Hall earlier this week.
Um, my regrets that I won't be able to join the Daughters
of Haiti at the celebration this weekend.
And, um, as the representative of the 49th Ward
and most of Rogers Park, you know, um,
our community has been blessed to, uh, long time,
been a home of Haitian Americans from used to, we used
to be the space for the Haitian American, uh, you know,
community association.
We got kids in Creole.
Uh, I still think, I don't know,
it might be our only one in Chicago, or only Haitian Creole.
Okay, two. All right. But we hold one of them.
We got 50%, I will say, of the, uh,
Haitian Creole restaurants in the city of Chicago.
Um, but also I've really enjoyed, um, the embrace
of your community, of myself and of my colleagues.
Um, as children have the diaspora, I think often
as black Americans, it can feel,
we can feel isolated and disconnected.
And I've enjoyed in this role,
and even prior to, um,
the Haitian American community's role in the city of Chicago
and bringing together many of the children of the diaspora,
um, I think that we have a lot to learn
and celebrate and grow together.
So really excited to stand in support of this resolution
and to continue our partnership, um,
and friendship. Thank you.
Thank you. Chair recognizes
Alderman. Walter Burnett.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
I also stand in support of this resolution. Uh, Bonjour.
Um, I just want to, um, thank, uh,
the Haitian community.
I've had a long relationship with you all, um,
in my position as Alderman.
Uh, at one time I was the chairman of the Committee
of Special Events and Cultural Affairs.
And while being the chairman of that committee, uh,
we worked with Patrick Butas and,
and many of the rest of you all to, uh,
get the De SBO bridge named,
and also to put the statue up
for De SBO right there on Michigan Avenue.
And that was one of the proudest days of my life,
uh, in doing so.
Uh, but, but outside of that, you all have contributed
so much to our society.
Uh, matter of fact, Patrick But's a,
I know I keep saying his name, but Patrick,
but has helped me to redevelop a lot
of things on the west side and my ward.
And he also helped a lot of the, uh,
aldermen on the south side.
There's so many professional people, uh,
this young gentleman here, uh, him
and his mom have contributed so much to museums and, and,
and, uh, culture, uh, in the city of Chicago for many years.
Uh, the judge is the judge there, judge is with you.
The judge is, is so involved with the,
not only the Haitian community, but the diaspora.
Uh, currently, you all are trying
to work on getting a museum for people,
a people of African descent from all over the
world to get built.
So I just want to say Mercy Buco, for all
of the contributions that you all have made, uh,
in this world, but also in, in Chicago.
I mean, even coming from where you all come from,
you all still strive for excellence, right?
Excellence. When you get here,
you all become the leaders in our society.
And, and then a lot of you all get back to Haiti.
Uh, we pray for what's going on over there right now.
Pray that things will get settled,
but, uh, we gonna be here to continue
to support you throughout.
God bless you all, and thank you very much. Mercy.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes
Derman, LAA.
You love to hear it. Uh, uh, very proud to rise
in recognition of this resolution.
So grateful for everyone in the box.
I think of my dear friend
and councilors, ya name Moreno, who's not
with us here today, who's been such an influence on my life.
But that, that surface, that Alderman Rosa
started to scratch, I think we need
to scratch it a little bit more.
I, I think it cannot be overstated the role
that the United States has played in
destabilizing Haiti over the years.
We have, we have to be an honest people
because honesty is the only path
to restoration and reconciliation.
The, the work that we've done politically
and economically towards your country's destabilization
is a travesty.
We, we get involved with Haiti
until we become disinterested,
and that dabbling has to stop.
And so, I'm, I'm grateful for the prayers of my colleagues,
for the people of Haiti,
but the fact that right now Kenya is doing more
for the stabilization and peace
of Haiti than the United States is disgraceful to me.
So I'm grateful for prayers,
and I will be even more grateful when those prayers are
accompanied by economic investment infrastructure,
investment, investment in your country's stability
and wellbeing, to the point that we are as grateful
for those who have come to the United States as those
who have been able to stay and make their country peaceful
and whole and prosperous.
And until that day
and through that day, thank you for everything
that you're bringing to the city of Chicago.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
The chair recognizes Alderman Robinson.
Mr. President, thank you, uh, Mr. President.
As a history teacher, I know that it is only
fitting that our youth know their history.
And so, Mr.
President, I would just like to take a moment
and recognize students from Kenwood High School
and Walter Payton,
because as we celebrate Haitian American History
Month, again, Mr.
President, they should know their history.
Gene Baptist Point, Abel's, founding of Chicago
stands as a testament to the transform, transformative power
of vision, resilience, diversity,
Hallmarks of Haitian history.
However, it is bittersweet
to celebrate this rich legacy
as our Haitian siblings currently face
a severe humanitarian crisis.
As previously mentioned,
Haiti won its independence from France in
1804, becoming the first independent
black-led nation created by former slaves
who cast aside their chains
and fought their oppressors for freedom.
Haiti was also the first nation to permanently ban slavery.
And the revolt of enslaved people in Haiti
served as a powerful symbol of resilience
and hope for black communities globally.
Despite gaining its independence, Haitians were forced
to pay reparations for their, for their oppressors
and their descendants for the privilege of being free.
A debt that took more than a century to repay
Haiti's independence
and his struggle against injustice have served as a beacon
of freedom and self-determination for black people
worldwide
celebrating Haitian American History Month.
We honor the resilience and spirit of the Haitian people
and pray for peace in the region.
As we reflect on this heritage,
let us also remember our responsibility
to support our Haitian siblings in their time of need.
Thank you for joining
and the celebration of Haitian American History Month.
I would also like to recognize and thank founder
and CEO Hernandez fourth ward resident, Brenda,
Brenda, excuse me, Jones, for
allowing Chicago to house the Haitian
American History Museum.
Thank you and God bless.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Alderman Byron Sik Lopez.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I do also like to rise in support of this resolution, um,
and how proud I am in this moment to
call Chicago or home to be the home.
So many people that call our city a century.
So there's no coincidence
and so proud to be in a city that was founded,
but an Haitian immigrant that jumped Baptist Point svo.
I also, just as my colleague, alderman
Laman Robinson mentioned there's so much to learn from Haiti
and their fight and their fight towards
self-determination and resiliency.
Mm-Hmm.
Just a second. She's looking for it.
We just get, we just looking for it. Alright.
Please continue. Alderman six Lopez, please continue.
Uh, no, you, that's, that's out of order, ma'am, please.
Alderman six Lopez. Thank you.
Thank you. And there's so much
to learn about true liberation and freedom.
And as Alman LA Robinson mentioned,
Haiti became the first free Black republic in the world.
That is not only something to be commended,
recognized by, respected.
So today, as we see the humanitarian crisis
that is completely preventable,
we call, of course, on all governments to make sure
that we understand that corporation
and collaboration to build bridges
will get us all to a better place.
And never, never, we being
more proud than to see our Asian brothers,
sisters, and siblings to continue to fight in the midst
of adversity for a better world where self-determination
and respect among nations is paramount.
So again, Mr. President, proud to be in this moment
and recognizing everybody in the box, thank you for being
with us in the city Council. Thank you again. Thank
You.
The chair recognizes all the woman Pat Dow.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I too rise to be associated with this resolution.
Um, I won't belabor the points
that have been made here today about the rich history
and heritage and culture of the Haitian community.
Um, but I would like to say
that I'm learning a lot from this, this community,
and I appreciate that.
I think that we have to better value the contributions
of Haitian Americans to world history,
to the United States history.
And now as we face a migrant crisis in this country,
we cannot forget about the struggle
of Haitians coming into the United States who have
to fight to be seen.
Um, I want to thank,
uh, judge Lionel Jean Baptist
and his colleagues Fika em
and their colleagues for working with, uh,
this administration on, uh, the Haitian
or crisis at the border.
In addition to, uh, all of the members
of the African diaspora who also struggle, um,
to receive the services that, uh, seem
to come naturally to other groups.
Um, I also wanna thank, uh, Patrick Brutus
and Alderman Yancy for
bringing forth this resolution and this recognition.
Um, and while we didn't mention his name, I wanna uplift,
uh, our Haitian American brothers, uh, Kwame Raul,
who was our, um,
state's attorney Attorney general for the state of Illinois.
How about that? Um, so thank you Mr.
President for bringing this resolution,
and, uh, congratulations on the celebration of this day.
Thank you. Thank
You.
The chair recognizes Alder Vazquez.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Um, I, I would like to add, uh, not much to
what my colleagues have added
and spoken to, uh, really, uh, stand proudly, uh,
to be associated with this resolution.
And wanna thank our colleague, uh,
alderman Yancy, for putting it forward.
Um, there's such a strength and a resilience
and a soul to our Haitian siblings, uh, who
as others have noted, uh,
fought against their oppressors and won.
There's not many who can say that at all.
And I think it needs its own moment
because it takes, it takes a strength
and a resilience of having to endure so much
and still have the fight
and then be able to win, uh, as this city here
that we live in now, uh, as we all know,
we wouldn't be here, but for, uh, Haitian immigrants
who came and helped build this country
and name this country and make it what it is.
So thank you so much for that edition.
Um, what I would like to add as chair
of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rice is, uh,
an ask and a request that you continue
to challenge us to do better.
We know how many folks have come since there's
been such a crisis at the border.
We know that we need to do better.
We have been asking for, uh, Haitian services
to be more centralized for those who have come.
Make sure that there's shelter for those that have, uh,
culturally sensitive and, uh, language appropriate services.
I wanna make sure that you continue to push us in
that manner, and I'm willing to lend our committee
to be able to do the work to get that moving forward,
because we are not a better Chicago
until we are all one Chicago.
We wanna make sure the people that are coming
here are being supported.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Alder.
Jesse Fuentes.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I too, uh, stand to be associated with this resolution.
I like my colleague, Carlos Ram.
Rosa am a daughter of the Caribbean of Puerto Rican
and Cuban descent, a daughter of an island
that still colonial property of the United States.
Puerto Rico being one of the longest colonies
of the United States, Haiti's ability
to be resilient
after a 13 year revolution to achieve its independence
now celebrates 220 years of that independence.
I don't wanna belabor my colleagues' points,
but I wanna say you continue to inspire
beautiful islands like Puerto Rico,
that one day independence is possible.
That self-determination
and sovereignty shouldn't only be a dream,
but a reality for people across the world.
We have a long way to go.
The last piece I'll say is migration doesn't happen.
Coincidentally, it is designed Haitian migration
is a result of the meddling that happens in Haiti, the lack
of support, the lack of infrastructure building.
And we have a responsibility to support Haiti as just
as we have a responsibility to not me, in the politics
and in the financial infrastructure of Venezuela
and so many other countries across the world.
And so I look forward to locking arms so
that we can continue to create a world of possibilities
and inspiration the way you all did for us 220 years ago.
Thank you for being in the box this morning.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder
woman Stephanie Coleman.
Thank you, Mr. President.
As Chair of the Chicago Alderman Black Caucus,
I undoubtedly, uh, support this resolution, uh,
to our 40,000 plus Haitian brothers and sisters.
The love, the culture, the food,
but the love amongst our brothers
and sisters is what I've admired so much.
And just really, um, I wanna thank Chairman Dow as well
as Chairman Taylor and Alderman Yancy
for the working group on the Africa Diaspora
and all the work that they've been doing,
but that Patrick Brutus has left a mark, uh,
not only in the 16th ward in the city of Chicago,
there's a crane in the sky
because of the work that Bruta did here within our city.
And I even wanna thank you, um, your mother
and the UN Song Heroes on the Cook County side,
uh, and just the contributions from our
Haitian brothers and sisters.
God bless you all. Thank you for being here.
Thank you Alderman Yancy for uplifting
and celebrating our brothers and sisters.
Thank you. Are there any other alders that wish
to speak to this resolution?
If not, uh, alderman Yancy will close.
The chair recognizes Alderman Desmond Yancy.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, my connection
to this resolution begins in the fifth grade.
Uh, my twin brother and I were working on a family tree
project for class,
and at the bottom of the tree was a name Gustav
Calie from Nice France.
Beneath it was a question mark.
The family story is that Gustav
and this son named woman got married and had children.
And that was a narrative that made sense to 11-year-old me.
As I got older and began to learn about the history
of French colonialism and chattel slavery in America,
I began to question that narrative three years ago.
Uh, 2021, I went to Freetown, Louisiana,
where my father was born,
and went to visit with my uncle Joe and Cousin Booby.
If you got family in the South,
you probably got a cousin Booby,
or you might be Cousin Booby.
We talked about that family story,
and two things became instantly clear.
Uh, one Gustav and that unnamed woman weren't married.
He was a plantation owner.
And, and that unnamed woman was my ancestor
and was enslaved, my ancestor.
The second thing is my ancestor arrived in this country, uh,
from a slave plantation in Haiti.
This sobering conversation answered so many questions,
but also brought up many more.
So I'll say I'm not yet comfortable
with claiming Haitian heritage,
but I'm honored
to present this resolution honoring the history
and resilience of the Haitian people
and their contributions to America.
I'd like to give special acknowledgement to the Sapr family,
Patrick Brutus and Cindy Newman,
and various coalition partners for their commitment
to honoring the history of the Haitian community, including,
uh, as chairman Dow mentioned Chairwoman Dow mentioned our
Illinois Attorney, general Kwame Raul.
Uh, I'd also like to acknowledge Chairwoman Coleman,
chairwoman Dow, alderman Mosley for their leadership.
And Alderman Moore, who championed the renaming
of Lakeshore Drive in honor of Jean Baptist Point, svo,
which I took on the ride to City Hall today.
Um, I have no other words
to share except I support this resolution
and look forward to its cast.
Thank you very much.
So it's been stated, Haiti
and Chicago has a very special bond.
Our histories have been intertwined since the very founding,
the establishment of our city.
The Haitian born immigrant.
John Baptiste Point de SBO founded a trading post
that became the great and thriving global city.
As we know today, Haiti's influence
in very significant ways in Chicago's black
history is well represented.
And I'm so grateful that we are in a moment where
our history continues to collide.
And our modern history, the city
of Chicago has taken strides honoring the legacy of
the incredible John Baptiste Tu Sabo.
And today we continue to remember
and uplift the contributions the
Haitian Americans in our city.
Through this resolution. Its community enriches our
neighbors hoods, our neighborhoods, our schools,
local government and business.
And by celebrating the culture
and traditions, this is what makes Chicago stronger.
It's what makes Chicago a very vibrant place.
I'm truly honored to celebrate alongside of you all today.
And as mayor, I will always
celebrate the diversity of our city.
And just the other day, I was honored
to host the Mayor's office first ever Haitian American
Heritage Luncheon here, right here at City Hall,
of which I still have leftovers, that rice was popping.
But I'm also grateful
and honored that our history is,
is really the liberation for the world.
So thank you all. And with that Al Woman Harris, on motion
to pass this resolution,
I move passage in the omnibus hearing.
No objections. So ordered.
Happy recent American Heritage Month
as we of as our honor guests, um, uh, relocate for now
and our other guests come in.
Uh, there is one more resolution.
Our final resolution is
celebrating Asian American
and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Are there any elders that wish to speak to this resolution?
Chair recognizes Alderwoman Julio Ramirez. Awesome.
Hello. Good morning. Good Mor. I am. Good
Afternoon. Oh
my goodness. Good afternoon.
I am honored to be sitting on a council
with some history makers.
As we acknowledge,
acknowledge Asian American Heritage Month.
I want to acknowledge and show my deep respect
for the first Filipina, um, on the Council Alder Woman when,
and also the first Chinese American Alder woman,
my seatmate, um, Alder Woman Lee, and the 11th woman.
I also wanna acknowledge that my state rep happens
to be the first Chinese American elected
to the General Assembly, Dr.
Theresa Ma as well.
As many of you guys know,
I stand here today, um, as a ward,
the 12th ward that is ever changing.
My family moved into Brighton Park that is the majority
of the 12th Ward over 50 years ago.
And at that time it was majority Polish and Lithuanian.
Yesterday we held a community meeting,
and we actually had a resident that had been there 60 years.
Her first language was Polish.
She knew a little bit of English.
We had majority Spanish speakers,
and we also had Cantonese speakers in that space.
Prior, um, majority Polish, it has now grown
to 70% Hispanic.
And in the 12th ward, we are now 20% Asian American.
We are the second largest, um, cha um,
Asian American ward in the city of Chicago.
I don't take that lightly.
And so I really wanted to acknowledge some folks
that are in the box today.
I wanted to acknowledge Palu,
who is the executive director of Castle.
I wanna thank you so much
for all the work that you have done.
Thank you. If you guys can give a round applause.
So Paul and I
just want to share that with our new arrivals.
Paul also stepped up to help feed many of our new, uh,
residents in the ninth District police office.
So thank you so much, Paul, for your deep commitment
for new migrants who have been coming
to the city of Chicago.
I also want to acknowledge Grace Chen. Is Grace here?
Has she left? I want to acknowledge Grace Chen.
She has been so critical, um, when it comes
to getting voter registration, civic engagement,
and that's such a huge priority to make sure
that we're building better connections with our residents,
um, connections that are culturally sensitive.
And although there may be language barriers, there are
so many different things that connect us.
And so in the 12th Ward, as a Mexican American, I'm
so excited to build that coalition with our Asian American,
um, migrants here in the city of Chicago.
So thank you so much for being here.
Thank you. The chair Rec
recognizes Alderman Walter Burnett.
Thank you very much. Uh, vice President also rise
and support of this resolution.
Um, you know, uh, coincidentally, I have a lot of, uh,
Asian family, well, some Asian family members.
I have a uncle who married a Japanese.
So I have a half Japanese cousin who's actually married
to a Filipino and have Filipino and Japanese and black kids.
And I also have a Filipino sister-in-Law.
And I have another, uh, Japanese cousin who went to the Navy
and married a a Japanese.
Um, you know, I, when you look at, uh,
Asian American struggle, uh, each na, each one of you all
who come from different countries, um,
share the same struggle.
You share the same struggle as a lot of us, uh, who,
who were bought over here.
Uh, some of you all came over here,
but you still had the same discrimination going on.
But at the same time, your ancestors helped to build, uh,
the railroads and many other things in our society.
Uh, so, you know, it is, it's just all
of these different heritage days today just, uh, speaks
to the diversity of our country, the resiliency
of Americans, of people who come here and become Americans,
and how we continue to fight and struggle and,
and get through what we're getting through.
Uh, so I just want to say, um, Shehe,
iga, uh, Dday Bo, um,
cop, co cop, um, Shehe,
iga, cop cop.
That's all all thank you in, in several different languages.
I, I know I miss a lot, a lot of you all.
I know you all, uh, some of you all.
I've been knowing you for a long time, uh,
from different communities, and I've always, uh, enjoyed
and respected you all's culture.
And I learned so much.
And, and, and every time I learn from your cultures,
it gives me strength, uh, as an African American.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you. Alderman Chair recognizes,
chair recognizes Alder Hadden.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, I don't stand up
for every resolution on most city council meetings.
Um, I will say, but I'm happy to do so on this one.
And similar to our, our Vice Mayor's comments, it's, um,
every time I get to stand up for one of these,
I think I'm becoming in a better mood.
Um, it could also be the caffeine from my tea taking effect,
but, um, I rise in support of this resolution
and, um, knowing many people in the box,
I know, I don't know everybody.
Um, but again, thank you for all the work that you do
through your various roles
and organizations in the broad support of Chicago
through your community.
Um, as the representative from the 49th Ward in Rogers Park,
I have the great honor, um, as with my neighbor
to the west here of representing some
of the most diverse neighborhoods
and wards in the city of Chicago.
And, um, so we get to interact.
I had a lovely conversation, um, just yesterday with a, uh,
doctoral student from Northwestern who was studying,
doing an ethnographic study of Rogers Park.
Um, she herself is a, a postdoc student from China,
and she's lived in the United States for several years now.
And, um, she spent some time in Hyde Park at U Chicago.
Now she's at Northwestern. And she just was marveling at
spending time in Rogers Park
and about how welcome she felt about how much time,
even friends that she has who have moved to this part
of the city who are, were like, I'm never leaving.
And we were able
to share our stories about coming from different cultural
and why Rogers Park felt like home
and why Rogers Park felt safe.
Um, so I rise
and supported this resolution again, the, the experiences,
the culture and the aid
and efforts that the broad, very broad
and diverse Asian community in Chicago, um, has added
and continues to do in supporting not only the Asian
community, but all of our communities.
It's just been tremendous.
So I very much appreciate you all. Thank you, Mr. President.
You're welcome.
Chair recognizes Alderman, David Moore.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I definitely wanna stand and support this re um,
Lucian resolution also, although we all have friends
and then some of us, even family members, um,
that are Asian descent.
I stand up, uh, for my brother, um,
Curtis, Ike Uchi.
I remember Curtis, uh, from being in college.
And, um, he graduated, um, from Evanston,
but we met at West Illinois University,
and he became my best friend.
Uh, unfortunately in high school, they don't,
the history they teach you,
sometimes they don't even teach you your own history.
You have to go beyond that to learn it.
But it wasn't until later in life, uh, uh, being friends
with Curtis that I learned of the Japanese intern internment
camps, and, um, those things, you just realize, you know,
man, how have we missed, um, um, all of these things.
But I, I stand up for him because not only is he my brother
and a good friend, um, someone, um, me major in accounting
and have a dual degree in accounting
and operations management.
Someone that I relied on heavily to teach me the tricks
of accounting, to teach me the tricks of math,
to help me succeed as I, uh,
got my accounting degree at Western Illinois University.
And for that, I'll never forget him.
That's why we were brothers to this day.
Uh, I helped him as people tried, uh,
because he was, uh, if you want to use the word passive
or nice, I would say,
and people take, um, people take
advantage of your niceness and your kindness sometimes.
And, um, some of the guys in college, um, try
to abuse him in, in ways, whether through drinking
or other manners, and forcing him to try to do things.
And as my brother, I had to stand up for him and,
and kick some behind and, and protect him.
And so, um, those, those are the things we have to do.
Uh, when we work together, when we be, when we talk,
when we get to know one another.
And not only we do, we get to know one, know one another
and respect one another.
We, you'll find out that we work together
and make our lives better, but make our city even better.
So, um, I recognize this resolution, I support it,
and I thank you all for coming down as we,
um, express this day.
Thank you so much. Thank
You.
The chair recognizes Alderman, Raymond Lopez.
Thank Thank, thank you, Mr.
President, members of the city.
Usually it's a boo, so I'll take that gate.
Um, but it's my pleasure to stand
and rise in support of this morning's resolution.
Uh, the 15th Ward,
which spans from Canaryville Brighton Park, back
of the Yards, gage Park, Chicago Lawn,
and West Englewood has Asian Americans
of every variety in every community, whether it
as residents, as own, as business owners, entrepreneurs,
or in our law, our first responders.
And we are so much better for it,
which is why today I am honored to wear my Asian American
law enforcement pin.
Um, and to see my good friend here as well, representing,
uh, our police officers.
Um, the Asian American community is so much more than
what we just assume.
It's billions of people have roots in
Asia Pacific,
and they are so much so a part of the fabric of our city
that it's easy to forget that as
someone whose family came here over a hundred years ago, is
so inspiring for me to see the growth
of the Asian American community,
particularly on the Southwest side.
Um, and seeing it infiltrate every corner
of our communities, growing as our neighbors, as those
that we support and those that protect us.
I could not be prouder to join my colleagues today
and to work alongside so many individuals in this body
who understand and appreciate that fact, uh,
and know that there are still plenty of work to be done
to ensure that we are fully encapsulating everything
that the Asian American
and Pacific Island Islander community has to offer.
Uh, but also welcome them into our communities as well.
Um, because I remember when I first moved into
my home in Brighton Park,
we had only one Asian American family, Chinese family.
As a matter of fact, we had a block party,
and they didn't realize that they were included in the block
until we went there and said, this is for you two.
'cause we are all the same on this block.
Now I think we have four families, um,
but I think that's what we have to do actively
for every family as they move, as,
as we see the full integration of our city,
one neighborhood to the next.
So, thank you, Mr. President.
I wanna also thank Walter Burnett
for being a great spokesperson for Babel.
Um, the, the app that's allowed him
to speak 10 different languages today, he's not in here.
But, um,
and I would only say to my colleague from the 49th board,
who has spoken more than I today,
um, it's crazy.
Uh, there was only one thing we did wrong today,
and that is we did not have a party With everyone's cuisine
available today, imagine
how good things would've smelled today,
because everyone we've celebrated today,
the Jewish community, the Haitian community,
the Asian American community, have some
of the best food out there, say for Mexican, of course,
we could have had one heck of a party, Mr.
President. So I challenge you next time.
We have three great ethnic groups.
I want three great foods here for all of our people.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes
Alderman, Byron se Lopez.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. President.
Uh, I also like to rise in support of these, um,
important resolution
and celebrate the contributions of the Asian American
and Pacific Islanders, um, in the city of Chicago.
I had the pleasure to represent the Chinatown community
during my first term.
And, um, I tell you that is, uh, is, um, a real honor
to work with so many wonderful leaders in the box doing
wonderful work every day, uh, to make a city, uh, a city
that really reflects the values
and principles of, uh, of the city, of the broad shoulders.
And that is because of the contribution of the many,
many people that have come as,
as other colleagues have mentioned,
and continue to make our city a place
that we can all be proud of, um, to, to be
and to see, uh, the Chinatown community.
The only Chinatown community in the country
that is growing is a reflection of the commitment
and the determination of our Asian American residents
to make Chicago a beautiful place, a place
that we all can be proud of.
There's so many wonderful contributions in so many aspects
that I don't have enough time today,
but I just tell you on behalf of our ward, that we continue
as neighbors to celebrate the contributions
of our Asian American, um, uh,
Pacific Island brothers, sisters, and siblings.
There is a place, uh, very special in our hearts,
and it shows how immigrants make our communities
stronger and better every day.
Thank you so much, Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair
recognizes Alder Vazquez.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Um, I rise, uh, proudly to be associated
with this ordinance, uh, resolution.
My apologies. Um, I am immensely proud of the fact that
through the, uh, last remap, we were able
to grow our Asian population in the ward
to create a coalition ward where it used to be, uh,
a, uh, white majority.
So we've been able to make sure that we have the population
that's representative and reflective in our ward
and can probably say we're at 20%, uh, Asian
Americans here in the 40th.
So, one, wanna make sure we continue growing those numbers
up because the more we're informed
by all the different populations that we serve,
the better we're able to serve.
So I am immensely proud of all our siblings here.
Uh, I wanna shout out, uh, Mike Ada,
because the 40th ward is gonna be the home
for the Japanese American Service Committee, the JASC,
which is, uh, yeah, I know.
Yeah, it's coming. It's coming.
My friend coming to the 40th ward. So glad to have you here.
Uh, as well, uh, wanna shout out Chinese Mutual Aid
and my friend Dennis Monero does an
amazing job there as well.
Uh, we want to make sure that you continue to challenge us.
Uh, I'd love to see, um,
so many more folks here in council and in city.
Departments that represent the Asian community,
that we see the proper representation
when it comes to leadership.
Because by being informed, uh,
and not just, not just focusing on diversity,
I think people use that term too often.
It is inclusivity.
Diversity is when you wear something
on your shoulder to show it off.
Inclusivity is when it comes into your organization,
into your soul to help inform what we do.
So we wanna make sure that as government,
we are representative and inclusive
and reflective of all the populations we serve.
And so please challenge us to do more.
Uh, y'all know how to find me, and we are happy to do so.
Thank you so much for everything
y'all contribute to our city.
Let's keep contributing. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Thank you. You're welcome.
The chair recognizes Alder woman Pat Dow.
Uh, thank you, Mr. President.
I too rise to be associated with this, uh, resolution.
I just wanna congratulate you all on the Asian American
and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
I wanna give a special acknowledgement to my colleagues,
alderman Lee and Alderman Mana Howorth, who has
expanded the city council's perspective on concerns
of this population.
And I appreciate that, uh, that it adds a more flavor
to the, to the batter.
Um, I also want to acknowledge, uh, David Gupta, uh, founder
of, uh, SDI, who is with us, uh, this morning,
and to just say to all of you all,
congratulations on this day.
And thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Alder woman. The chair recognizes Alder.
Jesse Fuentes.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I too rise to be associated with Asian American
and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
And I just wanna take a moment to acknowledge all of the
contributions that your many communities have played in the
role of the city of Chicago and in the United States.
I mean, your ability to stand side by side
with the black community during the Civil Rights Movement,
your work to ensure that there's farmers, workers rights,
and unions to represent that sector of the labor, your
contributions to our communities in terms of ensuring
that we stand up
and we advocate
for robust migration protections in the United States.
Your contributions to science, I mean, we can go on
and on about the contributions
of your communities from the Transcontinental Railroad.
I mean, you have created, uh, built
and sustain a country like the United States
and continue to do so.
Uh, I am extremely lucky to live in a city where we get
to celebrate such a broad community, uh,
but more importantly, ensure that we are locking arms
with one another in each other's struggle.
Um, there's a a, a quote
that I said not too long ago in city council,
and I'll say it again today.
In the Koran, it says,
we are different so we can know each other.
There are many different people in this room,
and we are grateful to advocates
and champions like all the women,
Nicole Lee and all the women.
Lenny Mana Howorth, who continue to be a champions,
but continue to show us why we are different,
how we could get to know each other,
and how we'll make the city of Chicago a better place.
Thank you for being in the box this afternoon.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Are there any other alders who wish
to speak to this resolution?
Before we offer deference,
before we offer deference to our final two, uh, speakers
who happen to be, um, a well reflected representation
of our Asian American community.
Alright, seeing no hands, um, the chair recognizes Alder,
Lenny Ward.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, Dennis Manero, who's sitting in the box right there, um,
showed us a picture of what we were doing last year,
and it was our first city council meeting.
So I want to congratulate you, Mr.
President, on, um, marking one year in office.
And I celebrate, um, this time with you.
I'm very excited to see so many friends in the box
and also those that I have yet to meet.
Um, I wanna thank
Alter woman Nicole Lee, for your leadership.
One thing that I have been so excited to do is
to meet other colleagues in city council,
in city Hall, and at the county level.
Um, because we, we need to know each other
and we, we brought each other together, um, over food
and over drinks with, uh, commissioner Morita.
Um, and I look forward to continuing to build
that community with you.
I want to, uh, recognize that over the last year, um,
my community, Aja Argyle Edgewater, um, uptown,
we have contributed so much to the new arrivals mission,
and it's, uh, been successful in our ward,
our very welcoming ward
because of those of you that are in the box,
John o at the Southeast Asian Center, who has offered
so much support via I
and Van, who is here, um, CMAA, uh, and Dennis ero,
and all of those who have small businesses on Asia Argyle,
including Jennifer Nki and Hawk, who is here.
Um, all of you have helped, uh, welcome new arrivals.
I'm, I'm the daughter of Filipino immigrants,
and, um, this is what we do.
We, um, we bring each other in, we ask for friendship,
and we build our community together.
So I wanna thank you for that.
I want to, um, thank this Miley Center for being here
for always opening your doors.
Um, and you have been doing that
for a very long time at Edgewater.
And thank you for being here.
You've been a wonderful partner. I appreciate it very much.
And, uh, alter Jesse Fuentes.
Thank you for recognizing the history.
You've already mentioned so much, uh, in council.
We're talking so much about transit and infrastructure,
but it was truly in, uh, you know, may
and, uh, 1869,
that 15,000 Chinese workers helped build the
intercontinental, um, uh, um, the railroad.
So, um, and they did it, um, with less money,
less accommodations, um,
and less, um, less paid than others.
So, um, Asian Americans have built the
infrastructure of this community.
Um, we celebrate in May
because in 1843, we saw the arrival of the first
Japanese here in the us
And in 1965, as Alder Fuentes already pointed out,
we saw farm workers, Mexican and Filipinos
and Alano, um, working in solidarity
with unions over five years to fight
for better working conditions.
And we did that together in 2021.
The Asian American Advancing Justice than Grace Pie
and others, and our friends in Springfield helped pass
for the first time, um, the Teach Act, which champions
Asian American history, uh, in our public schools.
And I thank you all in the gallery also, who are here
to recognize the work that we need to do together, uh,
across all agencies.
And I want to say that, um, you know, uh, Nicole Lee
and I are here as a Asian caucus,
but we stand on the, the shoulders of so many, and it's
because of history of those that are in the box.
I wanna recognize, um, again, uh, our business owners, our,
um, chambers of Commerce, Filipino Chambers of Commerce,
Morro, ASCO, who has been a great friend.
Um, I'm also a small business owner,
and my mother was also a small business owner.
Uh, and I know she's looking down at me right
now, very proud.
Um, and knowing that, um, we are here together
to build better communities, I know it would,
it would touch her so much.
Um, thank you Mr. President for recognizing this this month.
And, um, thank you all for being here with us today.
Thank you. Thank you.
Our final speaker, the chair
recognizes Alderwoman, Nicole Lee,
Thank you very much, Mr.
President, and, uh, good afternoon.
Uh, good afternoon colleagues, uh, esteemed guests,
and all of you who are in the gallery today.
Um, and to those of you who are in the box,
thank you for being here.
Thank you for persevering through this morning.
I know it's been a long day.
Um, and to my colleagues, I promise I'm gonna try
to keep this as brief as possible so Nick, don't time me.
Um, you know, it is with immense pride
and deep gratitude, um, that I stand here
before you as the first Asian American woman,
first Chinese American to serve on the city council, um,
and representing the first Asian
American majority ward in the city.
Um, and it's, uh, thanks in no small part to many of you
who are here today, um, that that was made possible.
Asians are the fastest growing
ethnic minority in the United States.
And here in Chicago, our vibrant community continues
to flourish and thrive,
and our diversity enriches the cultural fabric of our city
and our contributions span every field imaginable.
And today, also, um, in the United States,
we have a vice president who for the first time is a woman
who is also Indian, as well as African American.
I'm gonna channel her for just a second.
She, uh, she was recently speaking, I don't know if any
of you caught this in the news.
She was speaking at an Asian American conference,
the Asian American, I'm sorry,
Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.
And she said, you know, um, we have to know
that sometimes people will open the door for you
and they'll, uh, and they'll leave it open
and sometimes they won't.
And then you need to kick down that door.
She used another expletive
that I will not use in this chamber,
but I, uh, I wanna take a moment
to acknowledge the folks that are in the box.
Uh, a few of them at least, we've ref, we've referenced many
of them, but I wanna talk to you about many of them
who are trailblazers in their own right,
who have been kicking down doors and making their way, um,
and making a name for themselves.
Um, grace Pi, unfortunately, who isn't here, uh,
from the Asian American, uh, justice, uh,
was responsible for the Teach Act.
Uh, and that that act ensures
that every single student in the, uh, state
of Illinois has a unit on Asian American history.
We also, um, Alderwoman do acknowledged David Gupta earlier,
but I wanna know David, um, as a, as a business owner
and as the largest MBE
and N-M-S-D-C corporate plus certified IT services company
in Chicago, um,
with the hundred million dollars contract in the city
of Chicago, has intentionally spent that with MBE
and diverse suppliers as well, 50% of which goes
to African American and Latino vendors.
So thank you for the work that you're doing
to also unite the city in that way.
Um, and if you are a Chicago sports fan, we have
with us the legendary Gene Honda, who for the last 32 years
has been the voice of the Chicago White Sox,
the Chicago Blackhawks, DePaul Blue Demons basketball,
the Big 10 Tournament, um,
NCAA Final Four and, and many more.
He's, he's got a Stanley Cup ring on him too,
if you wanna see him later.
It, it, you could really hurt somebody with that.
But we also have young people like Kara Ing,
who's a constituent of mine, um, who
at a very young age has now published two books of her own
and has made a documentary
with her brother on the history of Chinatown.
We also have with us Deputy Chief Steve Chung.
Um, Steve, thank you so much for your contributions,
Steve.
If you, uh, for any of you who have been to, uh, uh,
community meetings involving our, our migrant response,
Steve has been part of the team that's been doing that.
Um, no small task by any means.
Uh, so much appreciate your representation
of our community on the Chicago
Police Force, and thank you for your service.
Um, I see Ernie Wong standing in the back here.
Now, for those of you who don't know Ernie Wong,
and I think Mayor Johnson, you know, Ernie, uh, Ernie is,
is a, is a, is a well-known face here in City Hall.
Uh, but he, for those of you don't know
as a landscape architect,
and you might think, why would people know Ernie Wong?
Well, you'll know his work.
He's designed, uh, ping Tom Park in Chinatown,
and if you haven't been, you should, um, as well
as Palmisano Park in, in our ward among many other things.
He recently gave a Ted talk, um, about how we innovate
with dirt, um, and,
and the, the power of places to unite communities.
So Ernie, thank you so much for your contributions
to the entire city of Chicago.
Um, we also have,
I'll mention one other person who's actually in the gallery,
if she's still here, Katie Chung.
She may not, she may have left.
But if you look outside the city hall,
windows Auntie Randolph, she is the Google resident
and artist in residence, um,
who's also a homegrown Chicagoan.
I say all this to say that
I think sometimes when people think of Asian Pacific,
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,
they don't necessarily think of people
who are sportscasters,
who are young authors, who are artists.
We have so much, we have so much to contribute
and we continue to, and I think every single one of you
who has throughout your career
and the many years, you still have
before you for some of you, uh, to continue
to break down barriers and be great role models
for the young people who never imagined
that they would see an Asian American older person.
'cause that was me a long time ago.
I won't say how many years. Um, but anything is possible.
And I think all of you, um, for your contributions,
and I wanna also acknowledge all of the, the people that we,
that came before us.
Um, alderman F says, thank you for,
for talking about the history.
Um, because all too often I think people forget about Yuri
coma, uh, and her, her walk beside Malcolm X, um,
and the work of Grace Lee Boggs
and more locally here, um, Laura Lu, who was the first, uh,
appellate judge, uh, Chinese American statewide here,
and, uh, Sandra aka
who also served on the Illinois Supreme Court.
Uh, so thank you for indulging me, um,
in this little history lesson and allowing me
to acknowledge those in my community who I so look up to.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Thank you again
to this entire body.
This resolution is a powerful testament
to who we are as a city.
A diverse A API community has made incredible contributions
and have achieved greatness across many fields
that have made our city what it is today.
Vibrancy of culture, the rich traditions,
the storied history as we heard today,
can be found throughout Chicago, in our neighborhoods, arts,
restaurants, businesses, but really around the world.
We must continue to learn from one another
as been expressed earlier, and we learn from one another
as we celebrate the Amer Asian American
and Pacific Islander communities.
It allows, it allows us to foster true community engagement.
It allows us to embrace our shared history that again,
defines the soul of who we are.
So that is why I'm very proud to stand with all of you today
as we celebrate the resilience
and the leadership, the accomplishments
and the enduring impact of a very proud
and vibrant A API community.
Thank you. And with that Alder Woman Harris, an motion
to approve this resolution,
I move them in the omnibus Hearing.
No objections. So ordered. Thank you very much.
Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Okay, before we, uh, return back to the regular order
of business, the chair recognizes Alderman Raymond Lopez.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon,
Mr. President, members of
the city council.
I move for the temporary suspension of the rules
for the purposes of recognizing the family
of the late Raydale Lacey.
I believe the rules are already
suspended, so you can proceed.
Mr. President, I'd like to,
Uh, just one second.
Alderman, can we close that door please?
Okay. Thank you. Alderman Lopez, please proceed
Again. Thank you Mr. President,
members of the City Council.
Uh, joining us today are family friends
of the Late Radar Lacey, an icon
of the Greater Englewood community, who is known by known,
respected, and loved by all
of the Englewood five that are here today.
Myself, alderman Moore, alderman Hall,
Alderwoman Coleman, and Alderwoman Taylor.
Um, and I would like to recogni, have them recognize,
I believe many of them are standing here today.
Um, I would actually wish to allow my colleagues
who knew her as well to have a moment to speak to her life,
her legacy, uh,
and the fact that she was able to transform personal pain
and to public purpose
and dedication to our community, to our children,
and to giving love where
so oftentimes the headlines are the exact opposite.
Thank you Alderman Alderman Moore, please
You, Mr. President. And
I know the day is, um, long,
but this is what we really live for.
The recognitions, the honoring of different heritage.
All that is very important.
But this is very important
because it's those little heroes that do not
get the recognition or that we do not see,
but we miss them when they're gone.
And Radell Lacey, um, she, she,
she turned her pain into purpose
and helping our young people,
especially in the Inglewood community, teaching them chess.
But at the same time, you're talking about violence,
prevention, keeping them out of trouble,
but yet giving them knowledge,
she will be missed in Inglewood.
And as we um, build
and develop, um, the new Ogden Park field house,
which I can't wait till it get done,
there's gonna be a room named
after her in that field house so that our children can come
to and we can remember, um,
radio Lacey not only remembering her,
but continue to do her works there, um, so
that our children, um, can, you know, um, continue to stay
of trouble but yet have vision and have hope.
So I thank you family for sharing her, um, with us.
Um, where ar Arielle at? Where she at?
Reyna. Reyna. She's gone. Rena's gone.
And so, um, I thought she was here. Oh, there you are.
And so thank you so much
and I appreciate everything um, that you all have done, um,
with her because she couldn't do it on her own
'cause um, she didn't have a lot of money but she did a lot
because she had people supporting her
and I thank you all, all for that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you Alderman Lopez
and more, uh, for raising um, the life
and the contributions of Ray Lacey.
And so with that, um, no other business
for resolutions, the chair recognizes
Alder Woman Harris for a motion to return back
to the regular order of business.
I move that we return back to the regular order hearing,
no objections, so ordered and then we have an alder.
Um, Taylor has requested
to participate in today's meeting remotely
reason stated in Rule 59.
Can I get a motion to approve remote participation?
It's been moved. All those in favor to allow
for remote participation for Alder Woman
to Na Taylor signify by saying Aye.
Any oppose this motion carries.
Please add all to woman Taylor as we're participating
remotely Communications
Communications from Ms. Honor the
mayor to the honorable
of the City Council of Chicago.
Ladies and gentlemen, requested Chief Financial Officer I
transmit here with an ordinance authorizing the issuance
to the city O'Hare International Airport General Airport
Senior Lien Revenue Bonds in Chicago O'Hare International
Airport Passenger Faculty Charge Revenue Bond series 2024
for favorable consideration of
this ordinance will be appreciated.
Very truly Here with Brandon Johnson,
mayor referred the committee on finance Ladies
and gentlemen, with the request of the committee
or commissioner of housing, I transmit here
with an ordinance authorizing the issuance
of tax exempt housing revenue bonds for the benefit
of one 11 West Monroe LLC.
Your favorable consideration this ordinance will be
appreciated very two years.
Brandon Johnson May referred the Committee on Finance.
Ladies and gentlemen, the requester Chief Financial Officer.
I transmit here with an ordinance authorizing the issuance
of the city's second lien water revenue bond series 2024.
Your favorable consideration of
this ordinance be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson May referred the committee
on finance Ladies
and gentlemen, gentlemen at the request of commissioner
of Housing and transmit here
with an ordinance authorizing the issuance
of tax exempt housing revenue bonds
H-P-U-M-C redevelopment limited partnership,
favorable consideration of this ordinance be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson May referred
to the Committee on Finance ladies
and gentlemen at the request of Commissioner of Housing
and Transman here with an ordinance authorizing the issuance
of tax exempt housing revenue bonds for benefit of 2 0 8.
LaSalle owner LLC favor, consideration
of this ordinance be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson Mayor referred the command
finance ladies
and gentlemen at the request of Commissioner of Housing
and Transmen here with an ordinance amending the 2023 City
Tax exempt Private Act activity volume,
bond cap seating ordinance.
Favorable consideration
of this ordinance will be appreciated.
Very true. The your Brandon Johnson mayor referred the
committee Finance Ladies
and gentlemen at the request of the Commissioner
of Housing I transferring here
with the ordinance amending the United Yards Project
Ordinance enacted in December of 2023
to correct the legal description of the project sites.
Your favorable in consider consideration
of this ordinance will be appreciated very truly
as Brandon Johnson Mayor for the Committee on Finance.
Ladies and gentlemen, as requested Commissioner Planning
and Development I transmit here
with ordinances authorizing execution
of intergovernmental agreements
with the Chicago Park District to provide TIF funds
for improvements of various city parks.
The favorable consideration of these
ordinances will be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson
Mayor referred the committee on finance.
Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen request the budget director
and the commissioner of human resources I transmit here
with the resolution amending the salary resolution.
The favorable consideration of this ordinance will be
resolution, will be appreciated.
Very referred the commander, oh sorry, very truly yours.
Brandon Johnson Mayor referred the committee on budget
and government operations.
Ladies and gentlemen, request the budget director I transmit
here with a fund 9 25 Amendment
for favorable consideration Ordinance to be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson Mayor referred the
committee on budget and Government Operations Ladies
and gentlemen, the requested commissioner Planning
and Development I transmit here an ordinance authorizing a
Class six B tax incentive
for the property located in 1 0 7 7 0 South Dottie Avenue
via the consideration this ordinance will be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson May further the Committee
on Economic Capital and Technology Development to the Honor
or ladies and gentlemen at the request the Commissioner
of planning and Development I transmit here
with an ordinance authorizing a Class C tax incentive
for the property located at 41 21 South Packers Avenue.
Your favorable consideration ordinance
so you appreciated fair to yours Brandon Johnson,
mayor referred the committee on economic capital
and technology development.
Ladies and gentlemen, request the commissioner
of housing I transmit here with an ordinance authorizing the
issuance of multifamily loan funds
for affordable housing development.
1237 North California Avenue.
Your favorable consideration
that ordinance will be appreciated.
Very truly the years Brandon Johnson Mayor
for the Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
Ladies and gentlemen request the commissioner of planning
and Development transmit here
with ordinances authorizing negotiated the sale
of city owned properties for favorable consideration
that the ordinances will be appreciated.
Very truly, the yours, Brandon Johnson, mayor
for the Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
Ladies and gentlemen, the request, the Commissioner
of planning and Development I transmit here
with an ordinance authorizing the sale
of city owned properties located at 68 8 0 1 South Dan
Avenue, 8 89 26 2 89 40 South Mackinac
Avenue to neighbor space.
Your failure consideration this
ordinance will be appreciated.
ve Truly yours, Brandon Johnson Mayor refer
to the Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
Ladies and gentleman requested Commissioner of Fleet
and Facility Management and Trans here in ordinance
authorized an execution of an amended lease agreement
to the rent office based at one 11 West Washington Street
for the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Beba Considerations ordinance will be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson May referred the
Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
Ladies and gentlemen, I transmit here with appointments
to various special service areas.
Your favorable consideration of
these appointments be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson,
mayor referred the Committee on Economic Capital
and Technology Development.
Ladies and gentlemen, I transmit here
appointments to the board of ethics.
Your favorable consideration of these
appointments will be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson, mayor
for the Community on Ethics and Government Oversight.
Ladies and gentlemen, I here
with appointments the Chicago Police Board.
Your appointments will be appreciated.
Very truly yours, Brandon Johnson, mayor,
read the Committee on Police and Fire.
Ladies and gentlemen, I transmit here appointment
to the Human Resources Board.
Your favorable consideration of this or these
appointments be will be appreciated.
Very truly, Brandon Johnson, mayor
for the Committee on Workforce Development,
I city clerk Anna Valencia hereby informed the city council
that the following document was filed in my office.
Determination Certificate of Chief Financial Officer
concerning City of Chicago,
second lien wastewater transmission revenue Bond Refunding
series 2024 A
I City Clerk Valencia also informed the city council
that all those matters which
were considered by the city council.
The regular meeting held on April 17th, 2024,
which were required by statute be published in
or pamphlet form or one in more newspapers were published in
pamphlet form on May 22nd, 2024.
By being printed in full text
and printed pamphlet, copies of the Journal of Proceedings
of City Council, city of Chicago I City Clerk Valencia also
informed the city council that all those matters were
considered by city council At the meet regular meeting held
on April 19th, 2024 to required by statute
to be published in book or pamphlet form or in one
or more newspapers were published in pamphlet form on
May 22nd, 2024.
By being printed in full text
and printed pamphlet, copies
of the journal proceedings City Council to the city
of Chicago I city Clerk fluency also informed the city
council of the ordinance authorizing the issuance
of general obligation and or sales tax corporate bonds
or economic development
and affordable housing programs, which passed
by the city council at the regular meeting held on
April 19th, 2024, which were requested
to be pa published in special pamphlet form published in a
special pamphlet form April 24th, 2024 IC Clerk Valencia
also transmitted here with the following miscellaneous
communications and reports requiring
to be council action zoning re of particular areas referred
to the committee on zoning landmarks
and building standards claims against the city of Chicago,
which referred to the Committee on Finance Corrections
and pamphlet copies of ordinances deferred
and published at April 17th, 2024 C council meeting.
She referred to committee on committee on rules correction
of special pamphlet of ordinance passed
by the city council on April 19th, 2024, which is referred
to the committee on Committee on Rules a minute municipal
code chapter two dash 1 76
by modifying sections two dash 1 76 0 1 0
and two dash 1 76 0 50 regarding use storage
and maintenance of information
provided by applicants utilizing online platform
to obtain City of Chicago municipal id, which referred
to the committee on the budget and government operations,
your Honor, that concludes the reports
and communications from mayor and other city officers.
Thank you. Thank you, uh, for our committee reports.
First up, finance the chair
recognizes chair doo.
Uh, thank you Mr. President
and members of the city council reporting
for the City Council's Committee on Finance,
which held the committee meeting on May 13th, 2024.
The following items received a due pass
recommendation from the committee.
Item number one is an ordinance concerning the issuance
of multifamily housing revenue tax exempt bonds to the
avenues SW LLC at 36 0 1
and 36 13
through 36 25 West Chicago Avenue in the amount of up
to 25 million in the 27th Ward.
Mr. President, unless someone wishes to speak on this item,
I move passage of this item by a roll call vote
Hearing.
See you no hands. Um, we will proceed with voting now.
Members, please use the EVO application
to record your vote at this time.
The voting is now open. The voting is now open.
Please use your e device.
If you need support, please raise your hand.
Voting is now open.
I will now take a voice. Vote those who have not voted.
Alderman Robinson. Alderman Robinson is a yes.
Alderman Hall. Alderman Hall is a yes.
Alderwoman Taylor. Yes, Alder and Taylor is a yes.
Alderwoman. Hadden Hadden is not.
Oh, sorry. Alderwoman Coleman. Alderwoman Coleman or Hadden.
I don't see them. Okay, voting is now closed.
Thank you. There are 46 0 nays.
This matter is passed. All Awo hears a motion to reconsider
I move that we reconsider the
Vote. All those in favor
signify by saying Aye.
All the po opposed say no.
This motion fills chair recognizes chair do.
Thank you Mr. President.
Item number two is an ordinance concerning an amendment
of the municipal code by adding section
a new section 11 dash 12 dash four 70 to establish water
leak relief pilot program.
Um, I believe Alderman Viegas wants to speak to this and
after he speaks, I move passage of this item
by the first most favorable roll call vote of the Committee
on finance and the successful unsuccessful
motion to reconsider.
Very well, thank you. The chair
recognizes Alderman Viegas.
Thank you Mr. President and colleagues.
Today's an important step in finally remedying an issue
that has plagued Chicagoans for far too long.
We did not get here overnight.
For the last five years, we've been hearing from residents
on their horrific experiences around outrageous water bills.
Today is for Delore
and Robert Johnson who were charged $60,000.
Today is for Scott Rosenweig who was charged $44,000.
Today's for Andrea Gardner who was charged $80,000.
Today is for every single single Chicagoan
who has been harmed and who had their livelihood disrupted
by the price gouging for the Department
of Water in the city of Chicago.
I wanna give a shout out as well to the phenomenal reporting
of Brad Edwards and CBS news who've been steadfast
with their coverage throughout the years.
It's because of your reporting
and I was made aware of this, of the issues
that residents were facing.
That's prompted my colleagues and I
and city council to take action.
The Water Relief Pilot program provide much needed
assistance to constituents that have been asking
for help for a long time.
It provides a pathway
and a course of action for property owners
to resolve their grievances.
This is long overdue policy change
and I'm happy that we are finally offering a solution
to Chicagoans have been, who've been affected by this issue.
This is the first step,
but definitely not the last step. Thank you Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes alder of Manhattan.
Thank you Mr. President.
I would like to be added as a yes on that first, uh,
vote for the Committee on Finance. Thank
You. Very well. Thank you Madam
Clerk for adding Alder Hadden
to the most favorable roll call as an I vote.
The chair recognizes chair Dow.
Uh, thank you Mr. President. Item number three,
Oh, we already moved for the motion
and I did not actually accept that.
So there's a motion on the floor to accept
and to pass this item along
with the the most favorable roll call along
with the subsequent uh, motion to reconsider.
All those in favor signified by saying aye.
Aye A, please continue.
Item number three is an ordinance
concerning the first amendment
to the intergovernmental agreement
with the Chicago Park District for the provision
of tax increment financing funds
for were parked 5 98 at 1514 North Larrabee Street in
the 27th Ward in the amount of $1.25 million.
I move passage of this item by the same motion
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered
Item number four is an ordinance concerning an amendment
to the redevelopment agreement with NP Avenue OLLC
for Commerce Park in the 10th ward.
I move passage of this item by the same motion
with the exception of my vote Mr.
President, I wish to be recorded as voting no on this item
Despite the division hearing.
No objection. So ordered
Item number five is an ordinance
concerning a tax increment financing redevelopment agreement
with North Lawndale Catalyst Initiative
and North Lawndale Initiative Support Inc.
For 4,100 West Fillmore Street in the 24th ward.
I move passage of this item
by the first most favorable roll call vote
of the Committee on Finance reporting the associated
unsuccessful motion hearing.
No objections. So ordered.
Item number six is the substitute ordinance
concerning the 64th amended administrative service agreement
with Summer Core 5 0 4 Inc.
To increase funding
to select tax increment financing redevelopment areas
in the following wards,
1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27, 30, 35, 39, 45, 48
and 49 and the amendment
of the small business improvement funds fifth program rules.
I move passage of this item by the same motion
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered
Items number seven
and eight consist of small of orders of authorization
for the payment of various small claims against the city
of Chicago and the denials of payments
of various small claims against the city of Chicago.
If there are no objections, I move
that these items be placed in passage in the omnibus
Hearing none so ordered.
Item number nine is the report of cases in which verdicts,
judgements or settlements were entered into for the month
of April, 2024.
This item will be placed on file with the clerk.
Item number 10 A is an ordinance
authorizing corporation counsel to enter into
and execute a settlement order in the case of Jose
CIO versus Tyrone Gamble
and the city of Chicago, uh, in the amount of $190,000.
I move passage at this item
by the first most favorable roll call vote
of the Committee on Finance report
and the associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider
Hearing No objection. So ordered
Item number 10 B is an order authorizing corporation
counsel to enter into
and execute a settlement order in the case
of Tijuana Washington versus City of Chicago in the amount
of 525,000.
I move passage of this item by the same motion
Hearing No objection. So order
Item number 10 C is an order authorizing corporation
counsel to enter into
and execute a settlement order in the case of Lamar Johnson
versus City of Chicago versus Don Franklin in the amount
of $940,000.
I move passage of this item by the same motion hearing.
No objection. So ordered
Item number 10 D is an order
authorizing corporation counsel to enter into
and execute a settlement order in the case of Iris Chavez
Chavez and in as independent administrator of the estate
of Irene Chavez, deceased versus City
of Chicago in the amount of $1.75 million.
I move passage of this item by the same motion
with the exception of Alder Alderman Conway who wishes
to be recorded as voting, no
Hearing, no objections despite the division. No to order
Mr President this concludes my report
from the Committee on Finance.
Very well the chair recognizes
Alderwoman Stephanie Coleman.
Does she wish to be added to the most
favorable roll call as an I vote?
Aye. Very well. Please add Alderwoman Stephanie Coleman
as an aye on the most favorable roll call vote.
The next committee is Committee on Budget
and Government Operations.
The chair recognizes Chair Irvin.
Thank you Mr. President members
of the city council reporting
for your committee on the budget and government operations
which held the meeting on March 20th, 2024.
Committee has a series of reports
and recommends passage of the following items.
Item number one is the cations recommending a proposed
ordinance concerning an annual appropriation ordinance year
2024 amendment within fund 9 2 5.
Uh, I move passage of this item
by the first favorable roll call vote
of the Committee on finance and the associated unsuccessful
motion to reconsider
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered.
Uh, item number two is a communication recommended an
appointment and amendment of the municipal code section two
dash five three dash 0 2 0 modifying term
limits and cause of removal.
Uh, for the City Council Office of Financial Analysis,
I make the same motion that there's no objection
Hearing none so ordered.
Also, uh, Altman Lopez filed a Rule 41 response request
regarding an ordinance
with reference number 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 7 3 6 3.
Summarize as a directive to commissioner of Department
of Human Resources in all non-medically relevant telework
policies across all departments in an ordinance
with reference number 0 20 23 0 0 0 5 8 8 2 summarized
as establishing a policy prohibiting property owned
by the city and use the shelter for migrants
to continue such use beyond 12 months.
These items have not been discussed in committee due
to departmental requests that they be reviewed
before being heard in committee and
therefore there has been no recommendation to report.
Mr. President, that concludes my report.
Thank you very much. One item number three,
um, chairman, just, uh, the overview
of the FY 25 budget calendar.
Did we do that one
That the, uh, the FY 25 budget calendar was an item
for discussion of what was taken on that, uh, on that item
Specifically? Very well, thank you. Thank
you Mr.
President. So we have committee on, on, on rules.
The chair recognizes Chairwoman Harris
Reporting for your committee
and committee on rules in response to Rule 41.
Failure to report res uh, response required by, uh, request
by Alderman Lopez.
Resolution 2 0 2 4 0 0 7 6 8 All Hamas leaders
to recognize the Gaza Convention Article three,
resolution (202) 400-7842.
Call for clemency Investigations Inc to investigate claims
of Innocence Ordinance
2 0 2 4 0 0 4 2 2 2 amendment
of the municipal code section 2 1 7 3 dash 0 4 2
allowing city agents
or agencies to work with the federal immigration officers
regarding individuals arrested for
or convicted of criminal activities.
Ordinance
2 0 2 3 0 0 5 9 6 1
amendment of the municipal code section 2 9 2 6 4 4
by establishing city council procedures
to determine the need for expedited procurement
to address threats to the public
resolution
two zero two four zero zero zero seven eight seven one call
for hearings regarding the impact of Chicago Board
of Elections resolution 2 4 0 2 2 2 RI.
These items have not been discussed in committee due
to the department's request that they be re uh, reviewed
before being heard in the committee and
therefore there's been no report, uh,
no recommendation to report.
Thank you. That concludes my report. Thank
You Chairwoman Committee on Contract
Contracting Oversight and Equity.
The chair recognizes the vice chair ADA
Reporting for the Committee on Contracting Oversight
and Equity in response to the Rule 41 failure.
Failure to report response request by Alderman Lopez.
Oh 2023 dash 0 0 0 1 2 5 7
amendment of the municipal code chapter two dash 92
regarding advance and direct payments to
and defin definition of M-B-E-W-B-E contractors.
This item has not been discussed in committee due
to departmental requests that they be reviewed
before being heard in committee and
therefore there has been no recommendation to report.
Mr. President, this concludes my report.
Thank you very much. Committee on Economic Capital
and Technology Technology Development Chair recognizes
chair Chairman Viegas,
Mr. President members of
city council reporting
for the Committee on Economic Capital
and Technology Development, which meant on Tuesday,
May 7th, 2024.
The committee held a meeting and recommends
passage of the following items.
Item one, one, item one on the agenda is the appointment
of John and Zayas as a member
of the Community Development Commission,
which was collectively voted on by the committee members
and introduced by Mayor Johnson at the April 17th, 2020
4, 20 24 City Council meeting.
I move for pass of this appointment
by the first favorable roll call vote,
the Committee on Finance and the associated
unsuccessful motion to reconsider
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered
Items two through four on the report are series
of appointments and one reappointment
to various special service areas introduced by Mayor Johnson
during this April seven, 17th, 2024 City council meeting.
The following individuals are being considered
before the committee appointment of SUNY KA Kareem
to SSA 61 dash 2023 Reappointment
of Michael A. Moreno Jr to SSA number 25, an appointment
of Angel Angela c HeLOCK to SSA number five.
I move for past these appointments in reappointments
by the first several roll call of the Committee on Finance
and the associated unsuccessful motion
to reconsider hearing.
No objection. So ordered
Item five and six on the report are ordinance
to approve our ordinances to approve the issuance
of class six B tax incentives
for property located at 2 7 2 North California Avenue in the
27th Ward and 1 0 3 3 0 South Woodlawn
Avenue in the Ninth Ward.
Uh, both were introduced by Mayor Johnson
during the April 17th, 2024 City council meeting.
I move for passes these two items by the first field,
but roll call vote
of the Committee on Finance in the associated unsuccessful
motion to reconsider hearing.
No objection. So ordered
Item seven on the report is in ordinance
to approve the issuance of Class seven C tax incentive
for property at 52 14
to 52 32 South Archer Avenue in the 23rd ward introduced
by Mayor Johnson during the April 17th, 2024
City council meeting.
I move for pass of this item
by the first favorable roll call of the Committee on finance
and the associated unsuccessful motion to,
to reconsider hearing.
No objection. So ordered
Item eight on the report is an ordinance
to approve the issuance of a Class L tax incentive
for the property at 8 0 1 West Madison Street in the 34th
ward introduced by Mayor Johnson
during the April 17th, 2024 City council meeting.
I move for pass of this item
by the first favorable roll call vote,
the Committee on finance and the associated
unsuccessful motion to reconsider
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered.
Thank you Mr. President. That concludes my report.
Thank you chairman. The Committee on
Environmental Protection and Energy.
The chair recognizes chair person addin.
Thank you Mr. President
and members of the city council reporting
for your committee on Environmental Protection
and Energy in response to rule 41, failure
to report requests by Alderman Lopez.
Item one is R 2023 dash zero zero zero two nine eight eight.
A call for hearings on the potential application of laws
of comparable municipalities regarding regulation
of livestock and other non-PE animals
within the city of Chicago.
Item two is O 2023 dash
0 0 0 2 9 9 3.
An amendment of municipal code titles two
and seven regarding livestock licensing
requirements, policies, and restrictions.
Item three is R 2024 dash
zero zero zero seven three six eight.
A call for hearings on carbon dioxide capture
and storage technology.
These items have not been discussed in committee due
to departmental requests that they be reviewed
before being heard in committee and
therefore there has been no recommendation to report.
Mr. President, this concludes my report.
Thank you Chair Hadden, committee on Health
and Human Relations.
The chair recognizes chairperson Rodriguez Sanchez.
Thank you Mr. President reporting
for your committee on Health
and Human relations with met on May 15th, 2024 at 9:45 AM
the committee considered one resolution
and one ordinance, the first being resolution
20 24 0 0 0 8 3 8 9, which was an expression of support
for right for the self-determination of the people
of Puerto Rico in opposition to Puerto Rico Status Act.
This item received a due pass
recommendation from the committee.
Mr. President, I move passage of this item
by the first most favor, roll call vote
of the Committee on Finance and associated on on successful
motion for to reconsider hearing
No objection sole order.
The second item was Ordinance
20 24 0 0 0 8 8 7 2, which is a requirement
for city departments and agencies to include designation
of Middle Eastern or North African on data reports using
racial or ethnic classification.
This item received a dual pass recommendation from committee
and I believe that Chairman Viga has remarks.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alderman Viegas.
Thank you Mr. President.
Uh, as the lead sponsor of this ordinance, I rise
to note the stories and testimonies that have been heard
for years from the MENA community
and their demands for change.
Today I'm honored to be taking this step forward in ensuring
the Middle East, Eastern and North African community will be
accurately counted in future government
forms and census data.
The American Community Survey brought
to light the many difficulties, prejudices
and the discrimination the MENA community has faced.
Today's action here in council reiterates our commitment
to making sure the MENA community has adequate
resources allocated to them.
Chicago's homes are the fourth largest concentration
of MENA Americans living in the United State states.
They voiced their concerns and have demanded action
and today they finally will see the fruits of their labor.
With the pass of this ordinance,
the city would join the US Census Bureau,
the federal government, and various state agencies
of recognizing MENA Americans as an identified group.
Recently, the state has amended Uniform Racial
Classification Act and the data governance
and organization to support Equity
and Racial Justice Act to require agencies that compile or
or report data using racial
or ethnic classifications to include a classification
for Middle Eastern or North African passive.
This ordinance will do the same thing here,
creating a classification within the city of Chicago
that officially recognizes the MENA community.
This will open doors for the community to gain access
to affirmative action resources
that have been off limits, off limits to them.
I wanna thank again the American Middle Eastern Voters
Alliance for their tireless effort
and advocacy on this issue
and give a shout out to the Arab American Business
and Professional Association President Rush Darwish.
Chairman Mohamed Aala, Salman Abta
and former Judge Bill Hadda.
You are the reason we're here today
and I urge passage. Thank you. Thank
You very much. Has the motion been
made? Hearing No objection. So ordered.
Uh, we also had a subject matter hearing on opioid
overdoses and the work that CDPH is doing
to preserve lives and reduce harm.
And I want to take this moment to encourage my colleagues,
uh, to seek training for their staff on the use of Narcan
and other helpful harm reduction trainings.
Um, we can help save lives, um,
and we can help our communities in the work of caring
and protecting one another.
If you want more information on the resources, you can talk
to me or you can reach out directly to the Department
of Health and Human Relations.
Um, this concludes my report.
Thank you Madam Chair. Committee on Housing
and Real Estate Chair recognizes chair Scho Lopez.
Thank you. Um, Mr.
President and members of the city council reporting
for your committee on Housing
and Real estate, which held a subject matter hearing on
Wednesday, May 8th, 2024,
and a regular meeting on Wednesday, May 15th, 2024.
The committee has a series of reports recommending passage
of 11 ordinances.
This include a lease agreement, land sales,
a leasing agreement, and a municipal code amendment.
The first item is from the Department of Fleet
and Facility Management.
Item number one is the First Amendment
to Intermental lease agreement
with the Chicago Park District for use
of city owned property at 58 0 1 North Pulaski Road
in the 39th Ward.
A move passes of this item
by the first most favorable roll call vote on the Committee
on Finance and, and associated
and successful motion to reconsider
Hearing. No objection.
Sole ordered.
Thank you. The next item is an Aldermanic introduction
from Alderman Robinson.
Um, the item, uh, uh, is a second item, the lease agreement
with Northwestern Memorial Healthcare for use
of city owned property at 47 27
to 47 59 South Quarter Grove Avenue
for contractor parking in the fourth ward.
A move passage of this item by the same motion
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered.
Thank you. The following, uh,
five items are from the Department of Planning
and Development Group for your convenience.
Item three is a negotiated sale
of vacant city owned property at 13 14 2 13 16 South
Pulaski Road to quote unquote work as,
um, work for his hands.
Ministry adjacent church property owner for re
for development as parking lot in the 24th ward.
Item number four is a negotiated sale
of city owned property at 40
or at 83 40 South Halstead Street
to adjacent property owner Griffin Burris Holdings LLC,
um, for development as parking lot in the 17th ward.
Item number five is the sale
of city owned open space properties at 44 41 West Adam
Street to Tamekia Jenkins at 352 South
Costner Avenue to Brian Ramson
and 42 42 36 South, uh, sorry, Westmont Road Street
to Victoria Giddens in the 28th ward.
Item number six is a negotiated sale of vacant
as is city owned property at 6 42 North Lockwood Avenue
to Myrtle Malone in the 37th ward.
And finally, item number seven is a se sale
of city owned properties in the 15th ward
to adjacent neighbors under Child block builder platform.
I move passage of these items by the same motion
Hearing. No objection,
sole ordered.
Thank you. The last four items are for the Department
of Housing, also group for convenience.
Item eight is an amendment municipal code section two dash
44 dash 85
to clarify affordable housing requirement ordinances.
Ordinances. Item number nine is an amendment to E air
AP subscription based software license agreement
with ANOR Inc.
For past use of proprietary platform
through November 3rd, 2023 and for projected use
and access by the Department of Housing for the period
of April 30th, 2023
through December 31st, 2024.
Item 10 is an execution of loan subordination agreement
with Paramark Realty Corporation
for Lincoln V Village Senior Apartments at 60 57 North
Lincoln Avenue in the 50th ward and 11.
And item 11 is the sale of various city owned properties
to United Power for action
and justice under city lots
for Working families program in the 20th and 24th wards.
I move passes of these items by the same motion
Hearing. No objection.
Sole order.
Thank you Mr. President. Finally the yes.
Thank you. And finally, uh, the sub,
the Committee on Housing
and Real Estate tell a subject matter hearing on
May 8th, 2020 fourth
for our first 2020 fourth biannual hearing
with CHA 10 public written comments
and 23 in-person comments were accepted into the
record, no votes were taken.
I understand Alderman Viegas would like to say a few words.
Very well. Thank you Chair.
The chair recognizes Alderman Viegas.
Thank you Mr. President.
I I rise to provide brief comments on the recent hearing
that was had in the Committee on Housing
and real estate regarding Cha's vacancy rates
and the state of scattered site properties.
Last week we heard from residents about the horrific living
conditions they've had to endure
for the past years more than an hour.
Chicagoans provided public comment.
We all sat here in this chamber hearing these stories.
It's no secret that CHA is struggling.
I urge CEO Tracy Scott to listen to our residents
and take their concerns seriously.
The CHA has to be willing
to make tangible differences in its current operations
to improve the quality of life for its clientele.
I wanna clo work closely with the chairman to make sure
that we keep good on our promise
and help hold CHA accountable.
We cannot let the toast testimonies we heard last week go
invade action is needed as president.
That concludes my, my report. My, my my comments rather.
Thank you very much. Is there anything else?
Chair s Lopez? Well,
Thank you Mr. Chair.
Uh, Mr. President, this ends or, or um,
or report I just wanna recognize, I know that went quickly,
but, um, the, um,
the previous item had almost 500 lots that were transferred
so that we can do more justice through the need
of affordable and public housing in the city.
And certainly, uh, chairman BI had our commitment
to make sure that we continue to hold CHA accountable
as we have so many people unhoused, including CPS children.
We will continue to work to make sure
that housing is a human right in the city of Chicago.
This concludes Mr. President, my report.
Thank you Chair s Lopez For Committee on Immigrant
and Refugee Rights.
The chair recognizes Chair Vasquez,
Uh, Mr. President
and the members of the city council reporting
for your committee on immigrant refugee rights
in response to the Rule 41.
Failure to report Response request by Alder person Lopez.
Uh, R 2 0 2 3 dash 0 0 1 2 6 5
calling for hearings with Chicago Police Department
and Chicago Law Department regarding status
of you non-immigrant status certifications policies
for approval of denial
and collection of data, uh, as well
as R 2 0 2 4 dash zero zero zero seven three six seven.
Call for us President Biden
and Secretary of Homeland Security to process requests
for temporary protective status
to e Ecuadorian citizens migrating to United States.
These items will be discussed
during the next committee hearing on June 6th, 2024
following conversation with the sponsor of the legislation
and therefore there has been no recommendation to report
until items are heard in committee.
That concludes my report. Thank you Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Committee on License
and Consumer Protection Chair recognizes Chair Silverstein.
Thank you Mr. President and members of the City council.
I'm reporting for the Committee on License
and Consumer Protection.
We held a meeting on May 8th, 2024
to consider seven ordinances
regarding liquor moratoriums in the first eighth, 10th, 36th
and 38th wards.
The committee has recommended passage
of each of these items.
Oh 2 0 2 4 dash 0 0 0 8 6 4 2
and others ending in
8 8 3 9 8 8 6 1 8 9 5 9 8 9 6 2 8 9 6 3
and 9 0 0 4.
Mr. President, I move
that the city council concur in the recommendations
of the license committee have the same roll call
as item number one of the Committee on Finance report
and the associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider hearing
No objection. So ordered
Oh
2 0 2 4 0 8 7 7 3
an ordinance prohibiting peddling in the 23rd ward.
I move passage of this item
by the same motion if there's no objection,
Hearing none so ordered.
Lastly, reporting for your committee on license
and Consumer Protection in response to Rule 41.
Failure to report response request by Alderman Lopez
oh 2 0 2 3 dash 0 0 2 5 8 amendment
of the municipal code section four dash six four dash
zero zero and four dash 64 dash three 50
to prohibit sale of menthol flavor tobacco
or liquid nicotine products oh 2 0 2 3 dash
2 9 83 amendment of the municipal code Title four
by adding new chapter four dash 4 0 1 entitled
Trade infer products oh 2 0 2 3 dash
2 9 9 2 amendment
of the municipal code chapters four dash six four dash 56
and eight 12 To define regulate
and license video gaming terminals
oh 2 2 4 7 360 6 amendment
of the municipal code chapter two dash 25
by adding new section two dash 25 dash nine five
prohibiting deceptive or excessive consumer fees.
These items have not been discussed in committee due
to departmental requests that they be reviewed
before being heard in committee and
therefore there has been no recommendation to report.
This concludes my report.
Thank you Madam Chair Committee on Pedestrian Traffic
Safety Chair recognizes Chair LaSpada.
Thank you Mr. President reporting
for your committee on Pedestrian
and traffic safety for
what your meeting was held on Wednesday, May 1st, 2020.
Four. The committee held a subject matter hearing on the
topic of lowering the citywide default speed limit
for which no votes were taken before the committee.
There were also 128 routine traffic items, all
of which passed at the request
of the respective ward office.
Two items will be held in committee
O 2024 dash 0 0 0 8 9 84,
and O 2024 dash 0 0 0 8 9 8 5.
If there are no objections, I move passage
of the other 126 items
by the first most favorable roll call vote from the
Committee on Finance and the associated unsuccessful motion
to reconsider the vote,
Hearing none so ordered
Also in response to the Rule 41, failure
to report response request by Alderman Lopez
for oh 2024 dash 0 0 0 7 3 6 4
amendment of municipal code section nine dash 64 dash five
by allowing persons with unexpired disabled parking permits
to apply for new permit, uh, new residents
with written certification from city controller.
This item has not been discussed in committee due
to departmental requests that they be reviewed
before being heard in committee, and
therefore there has been no recommendation to report.
That concludes my report. Thank you.
Thank you. Chair. Chair recognizes
for the Committee on Police and Fire Chairman Talia Farro.
Good afternoon, Mr. President.
Good afternoon to the City Council reporting
for your Committee on Police and Fire,
for which a meeting was held May 14th, 2024.
The committee recommends the passage of the following items.
Item number one is the re-referral
to the Committee on License
and Con Consumer Protection
Ordinance 2024 dash 7 7 54, which is the amendment
of municipal code titles two
and four, adding new section two dash 36 dash five 20
and new chapter four dash 24 Regarding lithium ion batteries
safety standards for micro mobility devices.
Mr. President, I recommend the passage of this re-referral
by the first most favorable roll call vote in the Committee
on finance and the o associated
unsuccessful motion to reconsider
Hearing. No objection.
So ordered
Mr. President to
consider, um,
the committee recommended the passage of a series of
Chairman. Can you specify which
committee you wish
to re-refer this item to
The committee on License and Consumer Protection.
Alright. Very well, thank you.
The committee also recommended the passage of a series
of appointments to the Community Commission
for Public Safety and Accountability.
The following appointees were recommended as passage, uh,
appointment of Anthony Driver, Aaron Gottlieb,
AER Minor, Kelly Presley Romero, Terry,
and Sandra Worthham.
Mr. President moved the passage of these items
by the first most favorable vote, uh,
most favorable vote in the Committee on Finance
and the associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider
with the exception of Alderman Lopez
and Alderman Quinn wish to be recorded
as a no on the appointment of Anthony Driver,
Aaron Gottlieb, Javier Minor, Kelly Preston, uh,
Kelly Pressley and Ramil Terry,
Uh, despite the division hearing are no
other objections so ordered.
Mr. President, that concludes my report.
You welcome. Thank you
all for committee on Public Safety
Chair recognizes Chair Hopkins.
Thank you Mr. President.
Reporting for your committee on public safety,
which held two meetings May 1st and May 7th.
Uh, the agenda included the approval
of the Rule 45 report submitted
and also two subject matter hearings.
First on a public safety summer preparedness plan, uh,
and the second was a resolution calling
for hearings on illegal tow truck
operations in the city of Chicago.
Uh, item number three, proposed ordinance 4 0 8 8 amendment
of municipal code section 8 32 65 designating noise
sensitive zones on portions of specified streets.
Uh, I move passage of this item
by the first favorable roll call the Committee on Finance,
an associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider, uh, Mr.
President. I am aware of a pending motion
to defer and publish this item.
Uh, prior to that, the sponsor has requested
an opportunity to speak.
That would be Alderman Conway.
Very well, thank you. The chair recognizes Alderman
Nick Spto.
Hi. And Alderman Lopez wish to wish to defer
and publish item number one.
Very well. The item will be deferred.
Um, are you, um, substantiating that? Alderman Lopez.
Alright, so it will be deferred and published then.
Was that your speech by the way? Oh, Conway wanted to speak.
I wanted Rick, my apologies. Thank you.
Yeah, yeah. We'll just offer up a courtesy.
It is okay if we leave from the body.
That was my mistake to give you an opportunity to speak.
Alright. The chair recognizes Alderman Conway. I
I recognize his court at two, so I'll be brief Mr.
Chairman. You know, so this, this ordinance for those of you
who don't know, creates a noise sensitive zone
around family planning associates.
A medical facility provides variety of
critical women's healthcare services, including abortion.
Now, the genesis of this ordinance comes from protestors
repeatedly using amplifiers to disrupt healthcare
and intimidating patients' access to it.
In fact, I have personally observed
protesters putting amplifiers against the wall,
the clinic making it so loud
inside the clinicians can't hear patients speak
and the building shakes.
And I've also seen protestors running at patients
with amplifiers on their persons in attempts to harass women
and discourage them from accessing hair, uh, healthcare
in addition to a voluminous amount of,
of noise complaints from surrounding residents.
And frankly, further delay of this measure will only seek
to enable this heightened harassment.
And for those of you that are worried about
constitutionality, allow me to read from Matson v.
Women's Healthcare Center, which was a medical,
which is a medical facility in Florida
that provides abortion services.
A US Supreme Court case from 1994 where Judge
Chief Justice Renquist delivered the opinion
to the Court Chief Justice Renquist a Nixon appointee
elevated that position by Ronald Reagan wrote the following
opinion, we hold
that limited noise restrictions burden no more speech than
necessary to ensure the health
and wellbeing of the patients at the clinic.
The First Amendment does not demand
that patients at a medical facility undertake Herculean
efforts to escape the cacophony of political protest.
If over amplified loudspeakers assault,
the citizenry government may turn them down.
That is what the state court did here,
and we hold that action was proper.
Now, with that, despite this delay, I certainly want
to thank Commander David Harris,
the first District Commander, uh, as well
as Ray Phillips Santos, the law department
for your hard work on this.
I also want to thank the many volunteers
who are here today from personal PAC as well
as Planned Parenthood for your, for your support.
As well as, as well
as also the medical professionals from FPA
and the escorts of the Illinois Choice Action Team.
Do not worry, this delay will not, will not stand,
and this will pass this very constitutional measure.
Thank you all for your support. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Thank, thank you
for letting me speak out of a worker.
Thank you.
Chairman Hopkins.
President. The matter will be deferred and published.
In addition, uh, I'm aware of a pending rule 41 request
for two matters in the public safety committee.
The first is a call for a hearing
regarding possible adverse impact on the safety
of Chicago residents as a result of the elimination
of cash bail in the state of Illinois.
The second is an amendment
to municipal code chapter eight 16 to establish prohibitions
and penalties on minors who violate curfew, uh,
and to hold parents accountable
for their children's illegal activities.
These items have not been discussed in committee due
to departmental requests that they be reviewed
before being heard in committee and
therefore there has been no recommendation to report.
This concludes my report. Thank you Mr. President.
Thank you Mr. Chairman. Committee on special
events and cultural affairs.
The chair recognizes Chairman Spto.
Thank you Mr. President, members
of the city council reporting
for Committee on special events, cultural Affairs
and Recreation, also known as the Happy Committee,
which held a meeting on May 8th, 2024.
The committee recommends passes of the following, item
oh 2 0 2 4 dash
0 0 8 9 6 8.
First amendment to intergovernmental agreement
with Chicago Park District
and Forest Reserve of Cook County for continued funding
and support of Neighbor Space Open Space project.
I move patches of this item
by the first favorable roll call vote on a committee on
finance and associated unsuccessful motion
to reconsider hearing.
No objection. So ordered.
Thank you Mr. President. This concludes my report
And the committee. Thank you very
much, chairman. The Committee on
Transportation in public way.
The chair recognizes, uh,
chair Vasquez Vice chair.
Yeah. Thank you Mr. President. Uh, Mr.
President members of the city council reporting
for your committee on transportation
and the Public Way, which held a meeting on May 8th, 2024.
The following items passed
by the majority of the members present.
Uh, number one, pages three
and four, uh, include 12 ordinances
for miscellaneous items introduced
by the local alder persons from Wards
8, 19, 23, 26, 27, 28, 32, 38, 40, 47, 48,
and 50.
Uh, number two, page five includes items 0 20 24 dash
0 0 8 8 3 6, A transportation ordinance
for a property located in the 47th ward.
And number three, page six includes item 0 20 24 dash
0 0 0 8 6 6 9, a vacation ordinance
for property located in the fourth ward.
Item 0 20 24 0 0 8 8 3 5,
a vacation ordinance for property located in the 27th ward
and item 0 2 24 dash 0 0 0 8 8 3 3.
A vacation ordinance ordinance
for a property located in the 37th Ward.
If there is no objection, I move passage of these items
by the first and most favorable roll call vote
of the Committee on Finance
and associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider
as, as was my auction voice.
Y'all like that one? Someone wants to get home.
Alright. Sold hearing. No objection. So ordered. Thank you
Mr. President. This
concludes my report.
Thank you. Vice chair final committee on
zoning landmarks and building standards.
The chair recognizes Vice Chair Lawson.
Thank you Mr. President
and members of the city council presenting a series
of reports for the committee on zoning landmarks
and building standards, which held the meeting on
May 21st, 2024.
These groups are group, I'm sorry,
these reports are group four.
Convenience following items were
passed by a majority of members.
Present. Page one contains three mayoral appointments
including a 2024 dash 0 0 8 9 2 9, the appointment
of Adrian Soto as a member of the zoning board of appeals,
a 20 24 0 0 8 9 2 7, the appointment of Tanya
Akia as a member of the Chicago Plan Commission.
And lastly, document number A 2024 dash
0 0 8 9 2 5.
The appointment of Camina Brooks as a member
of the Chicago Plan Commission.
None of my colleagues wish to speak.
I move passage of this item
by the last most favorable roll call vote
of the finance committee report.
An unassociated un, I'm sorry,
associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider.
So you no hands hearing, no objection. So ordered
Page one also contains document number oh 2024 dash
0 0 8 9 0 5.
The Adopt a Landmark Grant funding agreement
with ECG Madison LLC
for preservation project located at 8 0 1 West Madison
in the 34th Ward.
I move passage of this item by the same motion.
If there is no objection,
Hearing none so ordered
Page one also contains the historic landmark designation
for the John B. Murphy Memorial located at 50 East Erie
Street in the 42nd Ward.
I move passage of this item by the same motion.
There's no objection, hearing
None so ordered.
Moving on to text amendments,
page one contains document number oh 2023 dash
6 2 9 8.
The amendment of municipal code section 17 dash four dash oh
4 0 4 regarding minimum lot area reduction
for downtown floor area.
Bonus, none of my colleagues we wish to speak on this item.
I move passage by the same motion. If there is no objection,
See you. No hands here,
no objections. So ordered.
Excellent. Document number oh 20 24 0 0 0 7 8 0 1.
The amendment of municipal code section 17 dash 12 dash
1 0 5 dash D regarding occupancy rates
of principal tenants utilizing highrise building signs
number passage of this item
by the same motion. If there is no objection,
Hearing none so ordered.
Moving on document number oh 20 24 0 0 0 8 3 9 8.
The amendment of the municipal code Title 17
by modifying various sections
regarding permit specifications
and location restrictions
for cannabis business establishments.
I move passage of this item
by the same motion if there's no objection, noting
that alder klutz would like
to be revo recorded as voting, no
Hearing, no objections despite the division. So ordered.
Last item on page one is,
is document number oh 2024 dash 0 0 0 8 9 4 8.
An amendment of the municipal code section 17 dash four
dash 4 0 4.
Modifying limitation on minimum lot area reduction
to exclude buildings and lawful existence for 20 years,
which the committee provided a do not pass recommendation on
pages two through 15 contain various map amendments in the
first, fourth, eighth, 11th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 20th,
25th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 31st, 33rd, 34th,
39, 40 second, 43rd, 44th, 45th,
and 47th wards.
I move passage of these items
by the same motion if there's no objection, hearing
None so ordered.
And lastly, page 16 contains various signs over a hundred
square feet an area 24 feet above grade in the third 13th,
23rd, 25th, 27th, 28th, 32nd, 39th, 42nd,
45th, and 46th wards with passage
of these items by the same motion.
If there is no objection, hearing
None so ordered.
Mr. President, that concludes my report.
Thank you very much for the agreed upon calendar.
Uh, chair recognizes Chairwoman Harris.
Hi. Um, I've received from city clerk, Anna
and Valencia, a total of 82 items proposed
for the agreed calendar consisting of, uh, congratulatory,
commemorative and tributary resolutions from the following.
Alder person, older person, Hopkins, older person,
do older person, Yancy, older person, Harris, older person,
Chico, older person, Quinn, older person,
Lopez, older person.
Ccho Lopez, older person, Burnett older person,
Conway older person.
Vegas older person.
MI older person admits all the person Nugent.
All the person Lawson. All the person person.
Gardner and Alder person, uh,
had not moved these in the omnibus
Hearing. No objections.
So ordered. Thank you.
Uh, for new business clerk will call the wards.
We will begin with the 50th
Zoning amendments which are referred
to the committee on zoning landmarks
and building standards, traffic regulations
and traffic control signals which are referred
to the committee on pedestrian
and traffic safety exemption from physical barrier
requirement for commercial driveway alley access
for parking facilities which are referred
to the community on transportation and public way.
All, all our person Silverstein has a proposed order
for the issuance of a permit
for signed sign boards at 25 45 west of V Avenue,
which is referred to the committee on
zoning landmarks and billing standards.
Almond Martin has a proposed ordinance for the transfer
of funds within the 47th Ward wage allowance al thematic
expense account for the year 2024, which is referred
to the committee on the budget and Government operations
and a ordinance for a transfer
of funds within the 47th Ward.
Wage allowance al thematic expense accounts
for the year 2024, which is also referred
to the committee on the budget and Government operations.
Alman Martin also has proposed resolution to call
for hearings on the city of Chicago's Ineligibility
to rehire policy, which
is referred to the Committee on Ethics.
Alman Martin also has proposed resolution to call
for hearings on the ongoing efforts
of violence prevention organizations in Chicago,
including Shot Spotter, which is referred
to the Committee on Public Safety Woman.
Martin also has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section two dash 1 56 dash 4 45
prohibiting lobbyists from making direct
or in-kind contributions to mayor
or mayoral political committee, which is referred
to the Committee on Ethics Woman.
Martin also has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code titled four
and 10 Exempting Public Place of Amusement
and Pop-Up Retail User licenses Requirements
for Specified locations, which is referred
to the Committee on License to Consumer Protection.
Martin also has a proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section four dash 60 dash 0 22
to allow additional alcoholic liquor licenses on portion
of West Montrose Avenue, which is refer
to the Committee on License and Consumer Protection.
And when Martin also has a proposed order for the issuance
of permits for signed sign boards at 36 20 North Lincoln
Avenue, which is referred
to the Committee on zoning landmarks and building standards.
Oman Lawson has a proposed ordinance for amendment
of the alcoholic liquor sale limits to begin at 10:00 PM
10:00 AM excuse me, on June 30th, 2024 to coincide
with the 2024 Chicago Pride Parade, which is referred
to the Committee on License and Consumer Protection.
Alman Riley has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section 10 dash eight dash 3 3 2
allowing permits for athletic events which do not present
unreasonable risk to health of participants, bystanders
and city personnel, which is referred
to this committee on special events.
Elman Riley also has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section nine dash 1 0 8 dash 10
by modifying referenced sections under definition
of covered offense
for automatic parking enforcement system pilot program.
This is referred to the Committee on Pedestrian
and Traffic Safety, Oman Riley also has proposed ordinance
for amendment of municipal code section four dash 60 dash 22
to allow additional alcoholic liquor licenses on portion
of West Erie Street and West Ontario Street,
which is referred to the Committee on License
and Consumer Protection.
Oman Riley also has proposed
or has proposed orders for the issuance of permits
for signed sign boards, which are referred
to the Committee on zoning landmarks and building standards.
Almond Napolitano has proposed orders for the issuance
of permits for signed sign boards at 81 0 1 West Higgins
Road, which was referred
to the Committee on zoning landmarks and building standards.
Almond Napolitano also has proposed order for the issuance
of permits for signed sign boards at 81 0 1 West Higgins
Road, which is referred
to the Committee on zoning landmarks and Building standards.
Oman Vasquez has a proposed resolution to call
for hearings on mitigating health
and environmental impacts due to traffic congestion
and pollution in the city of Chicago, which is referred
to Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.
Um, Vasquez also has proposed resolution to call
for Thera Carter
to resign from the Chicago Transit Authority as president,
which is referred to the Committee on
Transportation in a public way.
Two committees having been called the Committee on
Transportation, the Committee
on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.
The matter is referred to
the Committee on Committees and Rules.
Alman Vasquez also has proposed ordinance for designation
of Catalpa Plaza as Elise Mallory Plaza, which is referred
to the Committee on Transportation and Public Way.
Alman Viegas has proposed resolution to call
for hearings on the potential for
and benefits of employee ownership transition alternatives
of enterprises throughout the city of Chicago,
which is referred to the committee as economic Capital
and Technology Development.
Alman Viegas also has proposed ordinance
for an honorary street designation
as Fernando the DeLeon Way, which is referred
to the Committee on Transportation and Public Way.
Alman Ramirez. Rosa has a proposed resolution to call
for hearings on potential loss
of Greyhound bus terminal at six 30 West Harrison Street
and connection via Ped Dway, the Clinton line,
Clinton Blue Line Station, which is referred
to the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.
Alvin Ramirez. Rosa also has proposed,
has two proposed orders for the issuance
of landmark fee waivers for the properties at 31 16
through 31 24 West Logan
and 24 0 1 through 24 0 3 North kz, which are referred
to the Committee on zoning landmarks
and building standards while and Ramirez.
Rosa also has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section four dash 60 dash 0 23
to allow additional package goods licenses on portion
of West Belmont Avenue, which is referred
to the Committee on License and Consumer Protection.
Alman Wapac has proposed orders for the issuance of permits
for signed sign boards at 25 0 1 North Damon Avenue,
which are referred to the Committee on zoning landmarks
and building standards and a proposed order for the issuance
of permits for assigned sign board at 1645 West Fullerton
Avenue, which is referred
to the Committee on zoning landmarks and building standards.
Alman Tero has proposed ordinance for amendment
of the annual appropriation ordinance for the year 2024,
which is referred to the committee on the budget
and Government Operations.
Alman Irvin has proposed orders for the issuance REMS
for sign sign sign boards at seven 10 South Sealy Avenue,
which are referred to the Committee on zoning
landmarks and building standards.
Alman Burnett has proposed ordinance for amendment
of minimum code section 17 dash six dash 0 4 0 3 F
by requiring special use permits for sports and recreate
and recreation participants
and plan manufacturing District four A, which is referred
to committee on zoning landmarks and billing standards.
Alman Burnett also has proposed orders for the issues
of permits for signed sign boards, which are referred
to committee on zoning landmarks and building standards.
Alman Burnett also has proposed ordinance
for an honorary street designation
as honorary Edna M Pierce Way, which is referred
to the Committee on Transportation and Public Way.
Alman C Joe Lopez has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section four dash 60 dash 0 22
to disallow additional alcoholic liquor licenses on portion
of West Cmac Road, which is referred
to the Committee on License and Consumer Protection.
Alman Debar has proposed order for a transfer
of funds within the 23rd Ward wage allowance account,
which is referred to the committee on the
budget and government operations.
Alman Debar also has a proposed resolution
to call on Deputy Mayor of Infrastructure, deputy Mayor
of Intergovernmental Affairs
and the mayor's chief of staff to testify on City
of Chicago's forward progress on lead service replacement
program, which is referred
to the Committee on Environmental Protection Moment.
Debar also has a proposed order for the issuance s permits
for assigned sign board at 57 64 South Archer Avenue,
which is referred to committee on zoning
landmarks and building standards.
Allman Rodriguez has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code chapter nine dash 72 by adding a new
by adding new sections nine dash 72 dash one 20
and nine dash 72 dash one 30 establishing pilot program
and specified areas for use of automated enforcement systems
to record covered offenses
and violations, which is referred
to the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.
Alman Taylor has a proposed ordinance for vacation
of public alleys and opening
of public rights away in the area bounded
by East 60th Street South.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Drive East 61st Street as South Calumet Avenue,
which is referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Public Way.
Alman Taylor also has proposed orders
for honorary street designation as Lene Perkins Avenue,
which is referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Public Way.
Alman O'Shea has a proposed order
for the issuance supremacist for signed sign boards at 99 20
Southwestern Avenue, which is referred
to the committee in zoning landmarks and building standards.
Alman Coleman has a proposed orders for amendment
of an honoree Street designation as Lulu Mae Williams Way,
which is referred to the Command on
transportation and Public Way.
Alman Lopez has a proposed order for proposed order
for the Chicago Police Department, superintendent Snelling
and Fleet and Facilities manager Hernandez Tomlin directed
to facilitate purchase of Command van.
Command van for infield support services at Democratic
National Convention Convention
and Beyond, which is referred
to the Committee on Police and Fire.
Alman Lopez and Alman Silverstein have a proposed resolution
to call for the release of Hamas held hostages,
which is referred to the Committee on Health.
Alman Lopez has a proposed resolution to call
for chief sustainability Officer Angela Var
to testify on failed partnership with Rain Ready,
which is referred to Committee on Environmental Protection.
Elman Lopez also has proposed resolution to call on ComEd
to testify on failure to avert outages in the city
of Chicago, which is referred
to Committee on Environmental Protection.
Elman Lopez also has proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code section two dash eight dash zero 40
establishing exceptions to al automatic introduction.
Introduction limit for honorary street designations,
which is referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Public Way.
Almond Gardner and Alman Alderman Lopez
and Alderman Gardner have proposed ordinance for amendment
and municipal code titles two, three
and 11 exempting property owned, leased
or occupied by City of Chicago from payment
of municipal charges,
which is referred to the Committee on Finance.
Alman Lopez also has a proposed ordinance for amendment
of municipal code chapter eight dash five
by adding a new section eight dash five dash 10 enhancing
penalties for persons arrested while concealing their
identity during violation of Title eight, which is referred
to the Committee on Public Safety.
Alman Chico has a proposed ordinance for a transfer
of funds within the 10th Ward wage allowance automatic
expense account for the year 2024, which is referred
to the committee on the budget and Government Operations.
ALM Chico also has a proposed ordinance for amendment
of Ms mc code sections four dash 60 dash 0 22
and four dash 60 dash 0 23.
To this allow additional alcoholic liquor licenses
and package packaged good licenses on portions
of East 93rd Street.
Mm-hmm East 93rd Street, the East 106th Street,
south Brandon Avenue, south Ewing Avenue, east 100 Street,
south Indianapolis Avenue, south Avenue O South Avenue,
south Commercial Avenue, and East 118th Street,
which is referred to Community on license
and Consumer Protection.
Alman Chico also has proposed ordinance
for honorary receipt designation for William j Cress,
which is referred to Committee on Transportation
and Public Waive Alman Beal has proposed ordinance
for modification of fee reductions in waivers
regarding develop redevelopment agreement
with reclaiming Roseland project, which is referred
to the committee Housing and Real Estate.
Elman Robinson has proposed orders for amendment
of municipal code section nine dash 64 dash 50 establishing
priority reapplication process
for restricted parking space applicants, which is referred
to the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety,
Elman Robinson also has a proposed order
for historical landmark fee fee waiver for the property
of thirty three hundred and thirty three oh two South Gilles
Avenue, which is referred to the Committee on zoning
landmarks and building standards.
Alman Robinson also has proposed an ordinance
for an honorary street designation as l Lydia Ria Amun Way,
which is referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Public Way.
Alman Dala has proposed order for the issuance supremacist
for signed sign boards at 1414 South Wabash Avenue,
which is referred to the Committee on
zoning landmarks and building standards.
Almond Hopkins has proposed orders for designation
of alloy real property
and annexation real property
as a low affordability community, which is referred
to the committee on zoning landmarks and building standards.
Alman Hopkins also has proposed orders for vacation,
a portion of East Erie Street between North St.
Clair Street and North Fairbanks Court, which is referred
to the Committee on Transportation and Public Way.
Alman LaSpada has proposed resolution to call
for hearings on the benefits
of bus infrastructure improvements, which is referred
to the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety,
your Honor, that concludes the presentation
of all thematic introductions.
Thank you very much for the approval of the journals.
Ottawa Harris.
I'm not aware of any corrections
of the journal from April 17th, 2024
and April 19th, 2024 regular meetings
and move the day be approved.
Hearing no objections.
It so ordered for unfinished business. Alderwoman Harris.
I'm aware of three pieces of unfinished business.
The first piece of unfinished business was filed
by Alderman VGAs and I defer to Chair Viegas
Very well. The chair
recognizes Alder Alderman Viegas.
Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, Mr. President.
I filed a Rule 41 notice with the clerk of my intent to call
for a vote on the appointment.
2024 dash 0 0 0 8 3 5 3
regarding the appointment of Nick Lucius
as Chief Information Officer, which was deferred
and published on April 17th, 2020 24.
Following any debate on this, this item,
I reserve the right to close.
Very well. Does anyone wish to speak to this appointment?
Chair recognizes Alderman David Moore.
Thank you. Um, Mr. President.
Um, CIO.
Um, Lucius, I want to, um, first of all,
um, just say thank you.
Um, as I have talked to many people even prior,
um, to your first appointment, many people, unequivocally,
there's no one has said that you are not a nice person.
Everybody, whether they agree, uh,
professionally on some things.
Everybody said that no one said that.
So your family should be proud that you are carrying that
for them, that you are definitely a nice person.
Also, there's, I learned
that character is when nobody's watching.
It's what you do when no one is watching.
And I want to say thank you for, um, the character
that you've shown after, um, the, your first, um,
when you first became, came before the body.
That character based on you going out and doing the work
and doing what is needed, um, to assure that, um, you know,
you are communicating based on the concerns that were there.
And I wanna say thank you for that.
I want to also want to, um, give a shout out, um,
to our CEOO, um, for making sure
and having those conversations with you as well,
but also bringing people to the table so that we can get
to the thing that we, I think we all try to strive for.
And that's equity and that's inclusion.
Um, but then integrity part is following up on those things.
And I have no doubt
that integrity is gonna be shown based on those
conversations that you had.
And I look forward to that.
Um, my final thing is that, um, I did request, uh, a, a list
of the executive leadership team,
which I won't totally hold you responsible for,
but I want to get it.
Um, 'cause I copied the administration on it as well.
And so it's important
because as we work towards that, I want
that executive leadership team to be representative of
what the city of Chicago is as well.
So, I thank you so much,
and I fullheartedly, um, support this appointment
and I ask my colleagues to do as well. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder Shade.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, uh,
I stand in support of this.
Uh, we should have done this a month ago.
We're a month behind. Thank you.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you to your family for once again coming back here.
We're lucky to have you.
Thank you very much. The chair recognizes Alder.
Maria Hadden. Nope.
Chair recognizes Alder. Nicks pdo.
Excuse me. Guys. Guys, can I talk? Is that okay?
Thank you all. Thank, thank you, Mr. President. Nick.
Like my colleague said, it should have happened a month ago.
You saw a perfect example of a class act over here.
I told you those guys that did what they did
to you wasn't personal, but there it is.
He's just saying, check you out some more.
Everything's fine.
So, I appreciate my colleague David Moore,
for letting him know that you stand with them.
Um, I know it was an unfortunate thing
that happened last time you're here
with your family, but it's all good now.
Like all O'Shea said, it should have been a month ago,
but good things come to those who wait.
So I look forward to working with you.
Uh, you won't have me bothering you very much,
but I wish you best the best in your,
in your future with this job.
And, um, we'll be talking to you. So, congratulations.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank
You. The chair recognizes
Alder Fuentes.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Uh, first, uh, I wanna welcome, uh,
the family of Nick Lucius.
Back to the box. I know your parents, uh,
traveled once again, uh, to make sure
that they can witness this appointment.
Mr. President today I stand here in support of Nick Lucius
as the Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago.
He's come here a second time, so I think it's important
that we understand how qualified he is.
Nick possesses a unique combination
of technological expertise
and legal understanding, making him the ideal candidate
to be the Chief Information Officer.
To lead this great city, he demonstrates a deep
and current awareness
of the ever-evolving technological landscape
that we experience on a day-to-Day basis.
He stays ahead of the kd, actively researching
and adopting emerging, emerging technologies
that can benefit the city of Chicago.
This forward thinking approach ensures
that our city at the forefront of the latest advancements
beyond his technological experience.
Nick brings a valuable legal perspective to the table.
As a holder of a law degree,
he possesses a keen understanding
of the legal implications surrounding technology,
particularly as we phase into a world of ai.
This unique skillset allows him
to navigate the complex legal terrain associated
with new technologies, mitigating potential risk,
and ensuring compliance.
With the evolving regulations.
Nick Lucius will keep us safe, his ability to bridge the gap
between technology and law.
fos fosters collaborative environment within
the IT department.
He effectively communicates complex technological concepts
to non-technical stakeholders, ensuring
that everyone in the room understands the implications
of potential new technologies.
This fosters buy-in
and facilitates the smooth integration
of new systems and process.
Finally, Nick's cutting edge, um,
and technological knowledge, coupled
with his legal background makes him an
exceptional candidate.
His leadership foresight
and ability to translate technological technology into
actionable solutions for the city
will be an invaluable asset.
So today I recommend that all my colleagues support Nick.
Nick Lucius in this appointment.
He not only has the technology
experience, he has a law degree.
He's been doing the work.
If you ever had issues,
it was Nick Lucius that helped you through it.
Now let him lead us in the city of Chicago. Thank you, Mr.
President. I, I'd be remiss if I didn't add.
He's also a great resident of the 26th Ward.
For a moment there, I thought it was a Netflix
series, a Marvel character.
Nick Lucius chair recognizes Alder Vazquez.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, just get ready for being in front
of us a lot more times as we talk through this stuff.
So just think of the first two. The first one is practice.
Um, I, I rise and I am in support fully for Nick Lucius.
Uh, working now five years in government, trying
to improve 3 1 1, trying to make sure our, our, uh,
constituent, uh, systems are working at each ward office
and trying to improve the way the city does tech.
It has always been Nick Lucius we've been reaching out to.
And if it wasn't Nick Lucius, it was like,
Hey, can you get us Nick Lucius?
Um, I am so happy to have you here, uh, in the new position.
Um, I also say that I, I appreciate this conversation.
I think this is not a rare moment,
but it should be recognized when we have someone in the
position that is clearly qualified in the subject matter.
When we're talking about software technology, it, how
to modernize our systems.
Having somebody who's appointed, uh, in the position
that has the track record
and experience that knows how to work
through all the subject matter, all the questions
that are come up, gonna come up, they're crucial,
especially when you're operating something that is,
in essence, 36 different organizations
that are somewhat siloed when you need to get them to talk
to each other and get them to use the same system
so the Department of Buildings can talk to 3 1 1,
for example, Nick Lucius is who we are, fortunate enough
and elated to have in the position going forward.
So, um, absolutely support you.
Um, unlike, uh, my colleague, uh, uh, alderman Spaza, uh,
he may not be bothering you a lot, a lot.
We certainly will. Uh,
but we know that our city benefits more, uh,
because of the, the partnership with you.
So thank you so much and thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alderman Burnett.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Uh, also, um, stand in support of this, uh, appointment.
Uh, just wanna say to kindness to you
and your family, uh, Nick, uh, Koto
for all your de dedication to the city of Chicago,
to the state, to government, to judges, to all
of those things that you've done over the years.
Um, I think this may be the first time that I've seen a, uh,
a scientist, uh, work for the city of Chicago.
Uh, so we really appreciate you being a scientist
and a lawyer, uh, and, and giving us your experience
and your expertise.
Uh, thank you very much.
Uh, I know that you probably could make a lot more money
and private industry, so I want to thank you very much.
Thank your family too for the sacrifice.
Your wife over there shaking her head, yeah,
we can make a lot more money.
And she's shaking her head over there.
That's probably what my wife would be doing too.
Like, we can make a lot more money.
But, uh, you know, uh,
working in public service is a ministry.
So thank you for taking on the ministry
to help us in public service to be able to do a, a good job.
Uh, so as they, um, as they would say, um,
they would say Bravo to you.
Uh, bravo to your family for sharing you
with us au
Thank you Alderman. The
chair recognizes Alderman. Derek Curtis.
Thank you, uh, Mr. President, uh, Nick, uh, i, I, uh,
really, uh, appreciate it that I really appreciate that,
uh, the things
that you've done Nick for, for a long time.
You've always been a standup guy.
Um, I'm sorry about what happened before, uh,
because you always been, uh, a standup guy.
I do want to thank you for showing those characteristics
that my colleague Alderman Moore was talking about.
Uh, you was definitely a scholar at that.
I want to thank you and your family for, um, also, uh,
supporting you in that effort.
Uh, you know, basically leaving,
I know it was a disappointment, uh,
but, you know, uh, we get through those things.
Uh, congratulations to you and your family.
Thank you so much. I know Au Bedo said
that he won't be bothering you a whole
lot, but I definitely will.
Thank you so much for your support.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Alder. Minow. Howorth.
Thank you, Mr. President. Hi Nick.
Uh, are those your girls behind you?
I wanna say hi to you. Thank you so much for coming back.
Uh, my name is Lenny
and I wanted just to let you know that I think
that this appointment is one of the most
important appointments in the city of Chicago
that the mayor is going to do.
And your father is gonna be a part of this wave
of incredible infrastructure that we're gonna build so
that everybody can get what they need no matter
where they live in Chicago.
You know, um, it's really so incredible
that you're here today to support your dad.
Um, you all are actually gonna benefit from everything
that he's gonna, uh, lay the groundwork for.
Um, 'cause he knows that equity has
to be at the center of everything.
Um, so I just, I wanted to say hello
and thank you for being here.
Um, I'm really proud to stand up in support
of your confirmation
and thank you all, uh, to the rest
of your family for being here.
Um, it is a very important, uh, appointment
and we appreciate your support very much.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alderman Gardner. Thank
You, Mr. President.
Uh, thank you Nick, for your service to our city,
and thank you for coming back today.
Thank you to your family, your wife, your father,
your mother, um, and your children for coming down here.
I think Gabe would be easy for you to come back, uh,
with a little bit of a salty attitude.
And it's obvious that you're not,
and it, it says a lot about your character.
Um, so thank you
and thank you to your wife who looks like she probably maybe
works in a hospital and taking time off to come here.
Um, and thank you for the work that you do to continue to,
uh, allow our city to grow. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other Als
before Alder vie closes?
See you. No other hands chair recognizes Alderman Viegas.
Thank, thank you, Mr. President.
Uh, a lot of my colleagues have mentioned
how important this appointment is,
and I'll tell you that under the previous administration,
the IT department was shelved in another agency, um,
and quite frankly was not really at the forefront of
how we deliver services within the city of Chicago.
This committee, um,
or this department rather, uh, is crucial to making sure
that we can find cost saving methods.
And as, as we embark on new technologies around ai, uh,
cyber security, et cetera, it's important
that we have someone that has the ability to, uh,
to professionally navigate us
through this new world of technology.
Whether it's the Chicago Tech task force where
Commissioner Lucius will be, uh, sitting with us
and also with C-O-C-O-O, John Roberson, uh,
and the many companies that are part
of it as well as the other cities.
Um, Chicago Tech Task Force has evolved
where we have other cities that are part of it.
Uh, LA Mount Vernon, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, Atlanta.
And we're using the tech for the tech task force
as a laboratory to find out what are some of the solutions
that all cities are facing.
And we're gonna have Nick at the forefront helping put
forward policies, pilot programs to make sure
that we can deliver the services in an efficient manner.
So, very proud to stand for this appointment.
And with that, Mr. Chairman.
Gotcha. Uh, I move for pass of this, uh, item
by the first favorable favorable vote in the Department
of Finance and the associ
and the associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider
Very well with 48 Yays
and zero Nays hearing, no objections.
So ordered. Congratulations Nick.
Thank you very much. Before we proceed,
we have one more Alder Al Matic introduction that needs
to be sent to committee.
Mr. Clerk,
All the bless you
der person Mitchell has a proposed ordinance
for the honorary designation of portion of
78th Street as Dr.
Donda Westway, which is referred
to the Committee on Transportation and Public Way.
Very well, thank you very much.
Now, the second piece of unfinished business was filed
by Alderwoman Dow, um,
Alderwoman Hairs. Thank you very much.
The second piece was filed,
unfinished business was filed
by Alderman Dow. I defer to Chair
Dow. The chair recognizes
alt men. Dow
Uh, thank you Mr. President.
Uh, I filed a Rule 41 notice with the clerk
of my intent to call
for a vote on order 20 24 0 0 0 87 61
regarding a settlement agreement in the case
of Brian Mejia versus City of Chicago, which was deferred
and published on April 17th, 2024.
Following any debate on this matter,
I reserve the right to close.
Alright, does anyone wish to speak to this item?
All right, see you. No hands.
Alright, the final speaker then will be Alderwoman Dow.
Yes. Uh, thank you Mr. President.
I just wanna say to, um, the members of the city council
that we really need to pass this settlement.
Uh, I understand that many
of you have some personal feelings about the case,
but the facts are the facts
and the facts are not in our favor in this particular case.
Um, as you all know, a judge has already determined
that the city is responsible for the battery
and responsible for the false arrest of Mr. Mejia.
Um, and a jury now only needs to decide
how much our damage is gonna be.
And a review of the comparable damages
of similar cases reveals that our settlement,
which is inclusive of fees
and costs are, is a, is a reasonable settlement.
Um, and that we as an elective body have a fiscal duty
to vote in the best interest of our taxpayers.
And I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this settlement.
And I call for a roll call, vote
Very well. So there's
a roll call Mo uh, call
for a roll call vote on this item.
Uh, thank you Madam Clerk.
So members, please use your EVO application.
Record your vote at this time.
The voting is now open. The voting is now open.
Please submit your vote.
If you need support, please raise your hand.
The voting is now open.
I will now call on those who have not voted.
Alderman Hopkins not present. Alderman Robinson.
Robinson is, yes. Alderman David Moore.
Alderman Moore is, uh, yes. Alderwoman Taylor.
Yes. Alderman Taylor is Yes. Alderwoman tab Baras.
Tab Baras is no Alderman Ccho Lopez.
Ccho Lopez is Yes. Alderman Burnett. Burnett is, yes.
All right. All those that voted, the voting is now closed
Very well. There are 37
yays. 10 nays.
This motion passes Wo Harris on the motion to reconsider.
I move that we reconsider the vote.
All those in favor on this motion
to reconsider signify by saying Aye.
All those opposed say no. This motion fails.
And before we proceed to the final item, there is a,
uh, another automatic item that was missed.
Mr. Clerk, there are two. Mr.
Clerk, could you please read those in the record?
Almond Robinson has proposed ordinance for amendment
of chapter two dash 36 of the missed book code
regarding Affirmative Action Officers
and Advisory Board, which is referred
to the Committee on Police and Fire, Alman Ramirez, Rosa
and others have a proposed ordinance
for a referendum on the November 5th, 2024 ballot,
which is re regarding the minimum regarding Amendment
of municipal code chapter two dash 80, which is referred
to the Committee on Public Safety.
Two committees have been called the Committee on Public
Safety and the Committee on Finance the Matters referred
to the Committee on Committees and Rules.
Your Honor, that concludes the
all the medical introductions.
Thank you. Under the, the third piece,
the chair recognizes Alt Woman Harris. The piece
Of unfinished business was filed
by Alderman Moore under Rule 41,
and I defer to Alderman Moore.
Thank you very much. The chair
recognizes Alderman David Moore.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I filed a Rule 40, um, one with the clerk with the intent
to call, um, for
vote on order SOR
20 24 0 0 0 7 7 5 9.
Um, to create more transparency
around sound thinking shot spotter surveillance.
And I reserve the right to close,
but I just wanna call for a roll call vote on this item.
Very well. Are there any other alders that wish
to the chair recognizes Alderman Irvin.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Uh, members of the council, uh, as it relates to Shots Spot,
I know that there's been a lot of conversation going back
and forth on this issue.
Um, however, I think that, that we're
a little more time and room for productive discussion.
One challenge that I think exists here, and I,
and I think this is, uh, um, I think when we were, uh, uh,
when I was a kid, I,
I should say I'm, I'm a little older now.
Uh, maybe some of our, uh, youngsters didn't get the,
uh, it was a bill.
The little schoolhouse rocked in it talked about a bill
and how a bill became law
and High went through all of the gyrations.
And one thing that I find here is that, uh, what this piece
of legislation does is something that,
that in my opinion may cross a, a constitutional boundary
between the legislative process and the executive process.
And we as a body can do some things,
but ultimately, enforcement
and execution of things is not with this body,
but with the Executive Branch.
And I think that in order for us to get to
where we're trying to go on this issue and recognize
and deal with the technologies that may exist exclusive
and inclusive of Shot Spotter, um, I, I think we need
to have a little more of a,
a committee work on this particular item.
And I think in the, in the spirit of compromising, try
to get to the best piece of legislation possible, uh, I'm,
I make a motion that we refer this matter back
to the Committee on Police and Fire
for further deliberation.
Chair recognizes Alderman Vial,
Mr. President,
um, Mr.
President, I rise to support this particular ordinance, uh,
because I think it's real important
that we understand this is about saving lives.
This is about over 80% of the
shots fired in this city do not have a
nine one one call behind it.
Why is that? Because our communities have become
complacent with gunfire.
'cause we hear it all the time.
So when you hear something all the time, you say
to yourself, why should I continue to call?
So we have a sense of complacency in our community
that needed to be addressed,
and that's what Shot Spotter does.
It fills the void.
And let's not forget that many people have been shot
and left for dead that could have potentially been saved
if they had not got that shot.
Spotter alert. So it's about saving lives.
Now let's talk about the money for a minute.
We are only talking about a few million dollars.
Not to minimize it, any, any million is a lot,
but we're talking about a few million dollars as a tool
that our police superintendent says that we need.
The former police, superintendent of police, Eddie Johnson,
say we need.
So if we rely on the experts to tell us what to do,
and that's what we do, we try to confirm experts to kind
of guide us in the city because none of us are experts,
but we try to put people in place
that tell us what's best for that particular department.
Now we're already short over 2000 police in this city,
and you want to take away shot spotter.
Every person that I've heard that testified
that they want to get rid of shot spotter living communities
where ain't no shots being fired.
Okay, Mr. President,
are we gonna kick them out
like you kick them other ones out?
Please continue. Please. You all remain from refraining.
Just simmer down. You all relax. Please continue. Ultimate.
So it's real important that we have the tools necessary
to continue to fight the gun violence in our community.
Don't take away this tool that we need.
If it was good enough to extend through the convention
to protect the conventioneers, it's good enough
to protect the residents of this city every single day.
Every single day. And so we have people who said, you know,
we need more dialogue.
Well, those are the same people
that got the most shootings in this city.
But we need more dialogue. We need shot spotter.
We need technology like that to help our communities.
And I just implore each
and every one of you to get past the politics.
Campaigning and governing is different.
We're trying to govern. Sometimes you have campaign
promises you just need to break.
But what's in the best interest of the entire city?
And not just a select few people who are
dead set on canceling shot spotter.
So y'all, let's just do the right thing.
We shouldn't even be talking about this when we're talking
about having something in place that's going to save lives
and going to get the police to those scenes within 10 feet
of that shot being fired, to get the police to go to
that particular, uh, spot in a timely manner.
Time is of the essence.
Let's do the right thing and put politics aside
and let's govern for the best interest of the people
of this great city, I recommend everybody to pass this item.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Altman Lopez. Altman Lopez.
Good afternoon, Mr. President.
Good afternoon, city Council.
Just as a quick point of order,
what is the motion on the table? Motion
On the floor is to refer this item re-refer
And I move to lay that motion on the table.
Call. Call
Was the motion to accept the roll call.
Okay, so there's a motion on the floor to lay
alderman Irvin's.
Motion to re-refer
Mr. Hold on. Mr.
Just let me finish. Okay. I, all right, let me finish.
There's a motion on the floor to lay Alderman Irvin's.
Motion to re-refer to committee on the table.
So if you vote in favor of
Alderman Lopez's, motion to lay alderman Irvin's motion
to re-refer on the table.
You wish, then obviously not to consider
to refer this item back.
If you vote no, you wish to proceed with the conversation
to refer this item to, uh, committee.
Okay? Is everybody clear?
And there is a roll call vote that's being requested.
Just relax here. Just hold on a second.
Chair recognizes alderman Bill.
Thank you Mr. President. Mr.
President, point of clarification.
This is a rule 41 to discharge from committee.
This is not a committee report.
You cannot re-refer something back
to committee out of a rule 41.
Our rule state rule 41 has to be acted upon
and it has to be voted when it
is discharged from the committee.
Therefore, that motion to send back
to committee is out of order.
Therefore, the rule, uh, to lay on the table is null
and void because you cannot send that item back to committee
because it has to be voted on.
Chair recognizes Alderman Irvin.
Thank you Mr. President.
Uh, the item
that was being discussed was deferred and published.
It was never not discharged.
So again, this is a different item.
If under your circumstances that may be the case,
but what your facts that you're stating are incorrect,
this item was dmp
and it's not subject to what you're speaking to.
So it can be referred back to committee
or be referred to wherever it is going to go to.
Again, it was, it was a item
that was deferred and published.
So it is subject to whatever the rule of the body says.
Alderman Bill, remember you're
directing your comments to me.
Alderman Irvin has the floor.
Just where, just hold on a second. Okay.
Alderman Irvin, are you finished with your Yes, sir. Okay.
So has been cleared.
This item can be referred to committee by, by the rules.
Right? So Madam Clerk, there's been
this motion is not appealable.
Madam Clerk. Madam Clerk, please.
The Evo, this motion is not appealable. Thank you very much.
This motion is not appealable. Thank you.
I've made my ruling. Thank you.
So the, the, the, the voting is now open. There's a motion.
Okay. Because there's not debatable.
So once a, so once the motion for to table this table,
the motion that was initially on the floor is
no longer debatable.
I've heard the explanation. I have made my ruling.
And so now Alderman Lopez's.
Motion to lay Alderman irvin's motion on the table
is now up for vote.
If you vote yes on Alderman mo uh, Lopez's motion
to lay alderman irvin's motion on the table,
it means you obviously wish to not have the conversation
or the vote to refer it to committee.
If you vote no on Alderman Lopez's motion, then you wish
to proceed with the original motion
to refer this item to committee.
Madam Clerk,
The voting is now open. Please use your Eev device.
The voting is now open.
Okay. I will now call on those
that have not used their Eev device to vote by a voice vote.
Alderman Robinson. Alderman Robinson is a no.
Alderman David Moore. Alderman David Moore is a yes.
Alderwoman Taylor?
No. Alderwoman Taylor is a no. Alderman.
Vasquez not present.
Who just came in? Alderman Vasquez is a no. Okay.
Okay. Voting is now closed.
Not, I do not see him on the floor. He didn't?
Okay. Voting is now closed.
That says not in the
voting is closed.
The chair that says not here, not in the chamber.
Okay. So obviously this motion fails 24 to 23.
All right. So we proceed with the vote
or the motion to refer this item
to committee with the debate.
Um, are there any other individuals that wish to speak
to Alderman Irvin's?
Motion to refer chair recognizes Alderwoman. Scott,
I am so disappointed
and so many of you, I am disappointed.
I had another mass shooting.
I have to leave here and go to an operation
for another mass shooting.
This is the fourth mass shooting
that I've had since being an older woman.
So I thank all of you.
I thank I thank everyone who voted no, I thank you.
This is something my community needs.
There were 90 shots,
six shooters, 90 shots.
Six shooters. Not one person called the police.
So this is safe for the DNC,
but not for my constituents as alder, as,
as alderman Jeanette would say.
I digress.
The chair recognizes. Thank you.
The chair recognizes Alderman Spto.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I know some of my colleagues mentioned about the police
being able to respond, but we forgot another important group
of people, first responders that save lives.
And that's, that's paramedics, that's firemen that respond
to somebody that's down and bleeding out and suffering.
And a lot of times fire
department will get there before the police.
So that's also an important thing.
So they'll, let's not just forget about the police.
It also helps the fire department when dispatchers dispatch
the fire department to send an ambulance out or an or, or a,
or a, or an engine or a truck.
That would also save life.
So I just wanna bring that all up to you too.
So, um, some of these communities, like you heard,
my colleague from the 24th ward say they need help.
Maybe my community doesn't need as much help,
but I still support my colleague from the 24th ward
and wanna do everything I could do
to help my friends on the west side or the south side.
I'm too a bit surprised, uh, Monique, about
how some people feel about this.
I'm, I'm a little baffled.
Maybe someday we can have a little group discussion
with some common sense people and sort this out.
But, um, we need this.
I mean, Larry Snelling, Eddie Johnson,
I don't know what more we could say.
I mean, those are two very, very well respected people
amongst all of us, I believe.
I don't know anybody that dislike either one
of those two individuals.
So, um, with that, I hope y all consider
that this is a very important tool
for our community, our city.
Um, make us look good, uh, saving lives.
We hear all the time. One life, if one life is saved,
if one life is saved, so,
or I'm gonna say it, if one life is saved
because of shot spotter, then one life is saved.
So with that, thank you Mr. President. Thank you. The
Chair, Rick Alderman Napolitano.
Thank you Mr. President.
I, I, I'm pretty baffled by this as well.
Um, I, I think this is more agenda based and,
and what, what frightens me about this, this, this is a push
or a movement that has been done for the last three
or four years, I should say four years in hopes to get rid
of, or three years in, in hopes to get rid of ShotSpotter.
It's kind of based off of rhetoric
or conversations that's put out there.
Misdirection conversation, mis misdirection in the media of,
of the, the, the purpose of shot spotter.
It's a tool. It is a tool.
It doesn't claim itself to be shot predictor.
It claims itself to be shot spotter after the fact,
after the constant unfortunate fact in Chicago
of shots fired more here than pro,
pretty much anywhere else in the country,
if not in other countries that are war torn.
We're affected by this in Chicago more than anybody else.
Every single one of your communities is affected by this.
And every single one of your communities is affected
by there's no police service anymore
because we demonize the police down here.
So nobody's taking the job.
2200 I think is a soft number that we're missing.
I think it's closer to 3000 if not more.
And that's not even the amount
that are gonna be leaving very soon.
And that's not even the amount
that are not gonna be taking this job in the future
to protect our communities.
This is a tool,
and I know a lot of you won't care about the way
that it was used this way,
but it saved a lot of our officers lives
when our officers were in a shootout and an officer was shot
and we were not able to communicate
that location over the radio quick enough in a ten one.
But shot spotter picked up where they were triangulated it
and gave the direct location of
where those officers were to save their lives.
I know a lot of you don't care about that
or some of you don't care about that, but I care about it
and our citizens care about it.
And if it wasn't the police there,
it was gonna be the 25,000 people shot in this
city in the last five years,
giving a tool to get to them and save them.
And like my colleague said, for our paramedics,
our street doctors to get there to save them
because we're not bringing more police here
and we're not securing the city anymore.
And we're not making it a welcome city, not just
for the illegal migrants,
but making it a welcome city for the people
that live here right now.
And you take police from my ward
and send them somewhere else to patrol
because we don't have enough police
and we're eliminating tools.
So, so when are we gonna be on the right side of this?
And until you come up with an alternative, instead
of paying somebody a, a caseworker to go knock on doors
and hopefully put down the guns
and stop shooting each other until that day comes
that we're going to start utilizing tools
and start backing our police officers
and saving some citizens' lives in this city.
Because every weekend, 43 last weekend,
summer hasn't even started.
You know what a lot of you are planning to do during the DNC
and how it's gonna get really bad in this city
and I'm gonna lose more police officers in my ward.
I don't have shot spotter in my neighborhood,
but God, do I praise it in everyone else's neighborhood,
where it works and where it helps you drop your agenda,
drop your movement of why you're here
and just start worrying about the people
that are killed in this city or the people that are shot.
And give us a resource
and a tool until you come up with another way to do this.
Keep this tool going until we figure out something else.
You don't have to steal that money
to put it somewhere else right now.
You don't have to put it towards lives.
Put it towards the right thing for the first time down here.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. And again, just for um, point of point
of information, um, this is a debate on whether
or not this item should be referred to committee.
And I do believe that everyone in here actually cares about
this city, particularly those who are victims
of gun violence chair recognizes Altman Lopez.
Again, good afternoon, Mr.
President, members of the city council.
Um, two things I'd just like to clarify.
First, as a point of, again, a point of order,
what committee is this being re refer
re-referred to under this motion?
This this motion is to be referred to police and fire.
Is that accurate? Alderman?
It will be referred to police and fire.
So we are the motion on the table is to re-refer
to the committee that already passed it out, correct?
Yes. Okay. I just wanna make sure that we're clear on all
of this to understand when we're talking about discussions
and debates that we had this debate in the committee
that we're sending it back to, to have another debate on it.
Um, two, before I get to the mo, to the merit,
to the motion, um, there's something else that we need
to discuss and I'm really getting tired of it.
And it's the illegal manipulation of our rules.
This little book. Y'all got it
right, this little book.
It's 59 Rules that we abide by, right?
And regardless of what the topic is, the one thing
that should always be universal is the
application of the rules.
When we have discussions for
how we move forward on anything, anything we're doing,
not just blindly making it up as we go along,
not pretending we don't know,
not pretending like we don't care following the rules
because this is the law in this room.
Rule 12, any member may appeal
to the council from a ruling of the chair
and the member making
that appeal may state their reason for the same.
There's nothing in this rule which deals with appeals
that says the chair, presiding officer
or anyone else therein gets to say, Nope, not true.
Disqualified not taking it doesn't apply.
Anything that comes off the chair can
be appealed by this body, by anyone here who disagrees
and makes the case to the members.
Any manipulation of that is a manipulation
of the democratic process of this room, which we are all
sworn to uphold.
And you're doing that to stem me a
conversation on public safety.
How desperate are we, Mr.
President, to break our own rules
for the purposes of defending
criminality in the city of Chicago?
We want to talk and have another discussion on something
that was passed out of a committee
and send it back to a committee.
You're not even referring it to a different committee.
You're referring it to the same committee.
And for what, how many more
times are we gonna discuss this issue?
How many more times are we gonna have this conversation?
Because I'm sure what's going to happen, Mr.
President, is that if this were to be scheduled again
in the, in the committee per this motion,
it'll be reported out again
because of the nearly 30 members of this body, 60%
of the city council support it.
And what are we gonna do? Again, come back to this book
and say, oh no, we've got another parliamentary mo maneuver
to pull on you because we're gonna do that in a month
and we're gonna push it off again.
And then we're off for a August
and then we have budget in September and
before we know it, it'll be 2025
and we won't be having a conversation.
The DNC will be long packed.
The bill will be paid and the polls will be coming down
because we wanted to
deflect from having this conversation on
how we keep our communities safe.
We could talk to what blew in the face, Mr.
President and every opportunity has been had to discuss this
with my colleague to discuss it with all
of us individuals.
Were running around this room today
saying, well, let's hold off.
Let's have a substitute. Let's continue a conversation.
Okay, what's the substitute look like?
Well, it's a blank piece of paper right now.
We'll get back to you. That is not
how you have a conversation.
We've had a conversation. We've had many conversations.
We've had whole campaigns
and elections based on conversations.
And what we still don't talk about is what
is so infuriating, especially
for those who need a reminder.
This is technology for all
of the gaslighting attempts.
Technology does what it's created to do.
And this is created to detect sound,
particularly a gunshot.
This technology brought our police
to Ariana Preston.
Do we remember her police
officer killed going home?
Do we remember her? I know I was at her funeral.
I remember her Luis Huska
not a month ago.
Do you remember him? I was at his funeral
as we're 17 of you.
Shot Spotter a technology.
Some of you in here call racist, brought our officers
to their location either because 9 1 1 wasn't called
or was called to the wrong location.
But shot Spotter was able to inform our officers,
inform our first responders where to go.
That's what you wanna keep talking about
and committee, when you have innocent victims
who have died on the street
waiting for someone to call 9 1 1
and have only had help arrive because of shot spotter.
That's what you wanna keep talking about to try
to justify why you need to get rid of this.
There are individuals in this room where we've gone
to memorials for victims who were lying,
shot dead on the street for an hour
died because no one ever showed up
because there was no shot spotter in their community.
That's what we're gonna keep talking about.
About 260,000 bullets reigned on the streets
of the city of Chicago last year.
That's how much evidence has been collected
because of the technology that nobody wants anymore.
Because we're committed to an agenda.
We're committed to talking about this again, just
so we could talk about it again.
And in the meantime,
how many more dead people dead Chicagoans are gonna be here
as we talk about it again and again and again.
And then again. Again, Mr.
President, we don't need to send this back to committee.
We don't need to have more conversations.
We don't need to play stupid
because we know what this is about.
There are those of us who stand with victims
and stand with law enforcement.
And there are those of us who are politicizing this so
that they can continue to stand with criminals.
It's an abomination.
And I urge all my colleagues to vote against this referral.
So we could get back to the original motion asked
by the sponsor for an immediate roll call on this
item. Thank you.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder woman is
Imagine for a moment we had the technology
to send an alert every time smoke
was detected in the building.
It doesn't mean there's always a fire,
but it's common sense to use it anyway.
Imagine we had the technology to send an alert
every time motion was detected
inside your business when it's closed
or your house when you're out of town.
It doesn't mean there is always somebody breaking in,
but it's common sense
to have a security alarm just in case.
Imagine having the technology to send an alert
every time a likely gun is fired in your neighborhood,
on your block outside your house.
It does not mean there is somebody shot,
but it's common sense because the fact is,
sometimes there is a fire, there is a burglar.
And in this city, there's often somebody shot
all of the experts who people in law enforcement
who actually use the technology
and the vast majority of people who live in communities
where it is deployed, agree
that shot spotter is a vital tool.
If I want a medical diagnosis, I'm going to see a doctor.
If I need a bridge built, I'm calling an engineer.
Let's listen to the experts
and the people living in these communities when
making these decisions.
So why are we listening to a bunch of activists
that know nothing about how this tool is used
and really just wanna divest a vital emergency response
resource from communities of color to use the money
for their own pet projects?
ShotSpotter cuts response times allows officers
to render medical aid faster, preserve evidence,
and yes, make arrests.
Opponents do not want to face this fact
because by their logic, we might
as well be cutting ambulances services to
CFD engines along with smoke detectors and burger alarms.
Let's be real. This is about money.
They want to divest a life saving tool
to put cash in their pockets to address root causes.
The city just spoke loud
and clear with the defeat of the bring home Chicago effort.
They do not trust these undefined plans
where organizers say, just give us the money and trust us.
We can expand opportunity through job training, programming,
incentivizing business investment
to create jobs in underserved communities
and teach young people the skills to succeed
all while keeping this vital public safety
infrastructure in place.
This is not an either or, this is a both and,
but it's being framed as a mutually exclusive decision
because yes, we owe the people of this city to work
to create opportunities in their communities,
but we also have the responsibility to invest in making sure
they are as safe as possible on their way
to their new school or their new job.
So I make this pledge, I'm going to fight every moment
that I have a seat on this council with as many tools
as possible to keep our communities free of gun violence
and provide the most rapid response possible when
shootings do happen.
You wanna talk about root causes?
I wanna talk about root solutions.
Getting guns and those who use them off the streets
and saving lives when a person is shot should
be our priority.
Just as the seed will not take root
until the soil is tilled.
No lasting change can take root
until we have cleared our neighborhoods of the guns violence
and those who wreak havoc on our residents.
If you shared this mission, vote yes, but if not, so be it.
But don't look at the next victim's family in the face
and say, you did all you could
to keep their loved ones safe and alive. Thank you. Thank
You. The chair recognizes
Alderman Chico.
Thank you Mr. President.
Over the past few months, I've heard people who support it.
I've heard people who are against it,
but what I haven't heard in this chamber
is somebody who's actually dealt with it.
I've dealt with it. I've used shots bottle
and I've seen what happens.
I've seen that it works many times.
As a tactical officer working in the fourth district,
I was the first person on scene
seeing the body on the ground, several shots,
radio radioing to OEMC, that we need an ambulance.
And the next question we asked was,
do we have, and he calls.
And oftentimes the answer was no. We had zero calls.
That body that I saw down there many, many times,
we can't put a price tag on that,
but we're paying for shots.
Spotter is invaluable.
We cannot put a price tag on the bodies
and the people we save each and every day.
This past Friday, over 450 shots rang out in our city
one day out of the year, 450 shots.
And you're telling me we don't need shots bother.
You're telling me this
technology we could do away with it.
That doesn't make much sense to me.
The men and women who go out there every day
protect us, depend on it.
If we take four or five alderman outside
and somebody brings out a shot, we're gonna get four
or five different responses where that shot came from.
East West Shots spotter directs us to the proper location.
And one of my biggest parts of my war, all Gale Gardens, one
of the biggest CHA complexes,
we have shots firing out there all the time.
We need shots spotter to direct us where to go.
I believe in this technology.
I've seen it save lives in my 10 years on CPD.
I ask my colleagues to support this.
We need this and our residents need this as well.
Thank you Alderman. The chair recognizes Alderman Knutson.
Thank you chair. Um,
and I just wanna start by saying I, I agree with some
of the things said before me.
Public safety should be totally viewed as a both
and non E, either or.
Um, and I, I I believe in the technology of of shot spotter.
I've talked to people who have it in their wards.
We do not have it in the 43rd ward.
And I think it is a good crime fighting tool.
I've talked to police officers that feel the same.
What would be helpful for me standing up saying this is if
someone on the floor would make an argument
that the ordinance we have in front
of us is in any way legally enforceable.
I I I'm not in the business of looking at things broadly and
and voting yes on something that has no chance
of succeeding in practice.
There's language in this ordinance about what happens to you
as an older person if you disagree
with the mayor's administration.
What does that have to do in this ordinance?
In fact, the first whole page is whereas is
there's a few orders.
One which has to do with shot spotter.
That's confusing to me. Y'all.
I'm a corporate lawyer, I'm not a prosecutor.
But that is confusing on the face
of the law and the language.
So by going to committee, I'm committing,
and I think I'm maybe not the only person here in a true
good faith effort into drafting a policy on shot spotter
and other technology that actually works
something that we pass.
And it's not just a media story about the topic,
it's something that then can get done
or else this ordinance on its face.
And I recommend everyone in this room actually read it
through, has gotten no shot.
So let's go to committee, let's have the conversation
and let's pass something that works. Thank you.
Thank you. The chair recognizes al, the woman Taylor.
So I'm in my office
because I've been meeting with my young people all day.
But what I wanna say is, the person
that we have not heard from is the person
that all of us voted for.
Who is Superintendent Snelling about shot spotters.
This is worth continuing to having a conversation.
But what y'all won't say is
why don't people call the police?
I'll wait. Why don't they?
Because there is not a trust
between the community and the police.
This same administration
that y'all talking bad about gave the police more money.
So I'm confused.
Well, we got a police problem, we got a,
people don't wanna do their job problems.
And don't get me wrong, raise your hand as an older person.
If you've ever been in the middle of a crossfire
and you had the pug call the police,
raise your hand if you've had a relative killed.
And it was because somebody on the block called the police
and it took them forever to come and that person died.
Isn't this worth having the conversation?
Isn't this worth us talking to all the women?
Scott, I apologize
and I'm sorry that you have those issues in your ward.
So do I. But what I don't wanna do is waste taxpayer dollars
on things that don't work.
And I'm not clear of whether this is the best
use of our money.
And so it is worth having the conversation we all voted
for Superintendent Snelling.
Most of us did, almost everybody.
And so we need him to be involved in this conversation.
This is not one or the other.
And that's public safety is not technology.
Public safety is I'm looking out my window
and I'm calling the police 'cause I got a relationship
with them to tell them something that I see.
And for folks who don't got Shock Spotter in they ward,
you might wanna be quiet because you don't know.
You all have very safe communities.
You all have the resources we need.
Some of our communities don't.
And so I could agree with all the women, Scott,
of why she would be upset,
but I want us to have the conversation.
And it's funny, nobody wants to talk about it
because we gave the police more money
despite saying don't do it.
And this ain't about what the movement wants.
This has been issues for years.
Y'all forget that every month we're giving money away
because of bad police conduct.
We forgot that part, huh?
It is our responsibility
and our duty to have healthy conversations
and be equipped with all of the right information.
And I don't feel like we have, there was a young lady
who came to Committee on Police fire
and talked about another system that we might could use.
I've heard nobody talk about that system yet.
And so we make a decision to spend taxpayer dollars.
It needs to be an inclusive conversation with both sides.
This one sided part. Y'all do that too often.
At the end of the day, y'all, we, we,
safety is not technology.
We know what good and safe communities look like.
It happen on the north side.
Why can't it happen on the Southwest side? I'll wait.
I tell y'all all the time, we have a responsibility
to work together and work with each other.
And that's the expectation of everybody.
You don't get to pick and choose to, to the folks
who own the city council, who've been firefighters,
who be EMTs.
I respect you, you being in those spaces.
I respect the work that you have.
We're in a different time now
and we're in a time where we all have to work together.
And I, I, I wanna say I can speak for hold
and Irving, that is what he is asking
for at the end of the day.
Y'all do a lot. You know
what my young people said when they came in my
office, city council.
It gets exhausting
because we arguing, fighting around the wrong things.
Our city is not gonna move
until we realize we gotta work together at
the end of the day.
Monique, before I digress, I I, I'm just real sick of y'all
because we won't have the real conversations.
We won't be honest with each other.
We won't be honest about what we actually have.
And until we do that,
this is gonna be Ringling Brother Universal Soul Service.
Thank you Mr. President.
Thank you. The chair recognizes
Alder Seig Cho Lopez.
Thank you, uh, Mr. President.
And, um, I think, uh, Alder person,
Jeanette Taylor said I'm not as, as, um, as I would, uh,
just wanna point out as some very important facts.
I think that as Alderwoman Taylor mentioned,
this is definitely the time for us to take the time
and do justice to our constituents
by looking at the facts and the data.
Fact of the matter is
that Inspector General report is very clear about the ine
effectiveness of Shut Spotter.
This has been backed also
by a report by the state's attorney.
But furthermore and more recently, a very concerning report
by Senator Markey, Senator Warren Wyden, as well
as Congresswoman Ayana Presley that have called on DHS
and the office on Inspector General to look at the shots.
Spotter violations on potential violations on Title six,
as well as Civil, the Civil Rights Act on 1964.
That is why I think it's important that yes, indeed
we leave politics aside to look at the facts.
And the fact of the matter is
that we got a look into community led health initiatives
that had already been discussed
and being today being implemented
in many of our neighborhoods.
I do think that we also gotta take on the offer
of Superintendent Snelling who did say that he would like
to take at least six months of the time that has trans, uh,
transpired between now and then
to look at alternatives that actually work.
But I'll tell you that, that we have to today does not work.
And I mentioned, as someone mentioned some cases,
I also wanna mention the case of Adam Toro, another case
that we should remember when we use technology
that can be also detrimental.
So
Whoa, whoa. Hey, hold
on. That is out of order, please. Thank you.
No, now no Alderman please. You have not been recognized.
That is out of order. Please continue, alderman.
So again, for those who want the conversation,
let's have the conversation.
I agree with Al Alderman Knutson, the language on the,
on the on on this ordinance will not pass
legal moisture anyway.
So I do think that we owe it to our constituents to regroup
and discuss this as we should
as elected officials looking at the data.
This is not only, again, observations
by our own inspector general, the state's attorney,
but now even a federal investigation on
this specific software.
So again, all we ask again
and I support the motion of Alderman Irving, is
that we take our time and due diligence
by looking at the effectiveness of this software.
And that is indeed, I think what we are called to do
as elected officials look at the data.
And the data is very clear.
I think that we need a different direction.
The status quo is failing our communities
and we need a different route. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The chair recognizes Alder Fuentes.
Thank you Mr. President.
There's, there's a couple things that I wanna point to
and uh, first Alderman Moore, I wanna say I respect you
and I res I respect your want
and need to continue to make our community safer.
And I want to be res, I want to be able
to respectfully disagree and debate.
But when doing that, we have
to be careful also what we call each other.
I want folks to refrain from our opposition to Shot Spotter
as the fact that we are only movement activists
to make campaign promises
because this is probably the most
data-driven position to be in.
There are bodies of research that have said
that shot spotters ineffective at the local, state
and federal level.
The reality is I represent the 26th Ward.
I've been living in the 26th Ward my entire life.
I had a best friend murdered by guns in our community.
I just had a 4-year-old boy shot on North Avenue
Shot Spotter detected the sound.
It didn't prevent that young boy from being shot.
Oftentimes we get reports
and those folks have already passed.
There are limitations
and flaws with a system that we give a lot of money to.
Let me ask you this. If there is organizations in our
community that seek to reduce violence,
but we're only 2% effective, do we keep funding them?
No. We take the money away every single time when we have,
uh, when we have organizations that seek
to reduce drug addiction
and they through robust reports only show
that they're 3% effective.
You know what we do? We take the money away.
We have organizations that year after year
after year, fight for money get taken away
and have to apply again because they have not
shown to be effective.
We make organizations to try to make our community safer, go
through a million different metrics
to show effectiveness in order to be funded again.
And yet we don't have that same sort
of accountability for ShotSpotter.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't invest in a system
that makes our community safer.
I'm saying right now we're discussing a system
that has been proven to be ineffective.
More importantly, has not prevented
gun shootings in our community.
We haven't seen gun violence go down
as a result of this system.
We only get reports of the sounds detected.
I would like to have a discussion on
how we take the same money that we give shot spotter
to either develop a system
that prevents gun shooting in our community,
that invest in the infrastructure in our community.
'cause the reality is, is that the south
and west side communities don't have the infrastructure
to keep their communities safe.
The safest communities in our city don't have shot spotter.
And so I want us to be able to be in a dialogue
that really allows us to have meaningful conversation
to achieve the thing that we all want.
I believe all 50 older people in this chamber want a safer
Chicago, don't want young people being victims
of gun violence, don't wanna have to lose relatives
or are pledged officers to gun violence.
But shot spotters, not preventing people from dying.
It's not what it was designed for.
And I believe we wanna live in a system
where we can actually have people be in a safe city.
And so to be able to refer this
and to have more meaningful conversation is
to entertain the proposals that some people have brought
to us about an alternative system
or other ways in which we invest in community.
And also half of this ordinance, respectfully
Alderman Moore, is inflammatory towards the administration.
It has no real language on
how we're supporting the contract.
How much money is given,
how is this implemented in each respective ward?
How much prerogative would the alderman in those wards have?
Is it dependent on the constituents
or the alderman without the constituents?
It lacks so much detail
and I don't know if it's gonna hold up,
but I think we should also be having a conversation on
how in more meaningful ways we make our city safe.
And if ShotSpotter is the system that's chosen,
then I would like to see a lot more accountability measures
and outcomes that need to be met in order them, in order
for them to continue to qualify for funding.
Moving on the way we hold everyone
else accountable to funding.
ShotSpotter needs to be held
to those same metrics. Thank you.
Chair recognizes alderman, osha,
there's a point of order the chair
recognizes Alderman Lopez.
Thank you Mr. President.
Just as a reminder to the body, rule six specifically states
that all conversations have to be directed to you.
And I've heard my colleague reference
by name at least eight times already for this resolution.
So I had ask that you enforce rule six in this room. So that
All direction is To you. The
Chair recognizes Alderman O'Shea.
Thank you Mr. President.
We could debate for another six hours.
You see people arguing for shot spotter,
people arguing against.
What I just continually to be confounded by is
that several months ago it was decided
to spend an exorbitant amount of money,
almost $10 million to continue this.
This technology that the majority
of the people in this body, based on that vote don't feel
as important, doesn't achieve a
goal and it's fact.
It was that $10 million was spent to carry it
through the Democratic National Convention.
Now what is a Democratic national convention?
Its congressional leaders, its millionaires,
its political elitist coming to our city.
I would argue the very faint people that many
of us are complaining about have failed us
and failed our city and failed black and brown communities.
So we're spending almost $10 million to continue this
right up until the end
of the Democratic National Convention.
Then we're getting rid of it. If we can spend almost
$10 million to protect the political elite,
what are we doing about the people in Washington Park
or Inglewood or South Shore or North Lawndale?
The neighborhoods that lead the city in gun violence.
Whatever you think about shot spotter, no one spoke up
and we said spend nine
and a half million dollars to carry it right up
until the end of the convention with all the big popular
elitist leading our democratic party are here.
Sounds to me folks like everybody in this room is more
concerned about looking out for them than the out looking
for the famous term we hear here over and over again, black
and brown communities.
'cause that's where the majority
of the shooting victims live.
Thank you.
Chair recognizes Alderman Mosley.
Thank you Mr. President.
As we have these conversations, to those
who do not have shot spotter your ward, I would ask you
to ground yourself in this to talk less
and to listen more.
A lecture Will not work.
If you wanna talk about the inequities and public safety
and what that looks like beyond just policing.
Let's talk about our infrastructure.
This weekend I had the opportunity
to do really just clean up my block
and what rang out the most to me.
Living within a two block radius of four schools,
that there are children walking to schools on broken
sidewalks that's filled with broken glass
and streets riddled with potholes.
What inspiration is that on your way to school?
That is where we can use the energy of how we can look out
for better or other wards that are not ours.
As we have this conversation, listen to more
of what is coming from the wards that is represented
or have shock spotted Alderman Moore.
Mr. President is doing exactly what he's supposed to do.
His residents has come to him and said, we need this tool.
There are more and more that make up the ecosystem
of safety in our communities that are saying,
we need this tool now
we wanna make it more effective, then let's do that.
But to simply just do away with it is not acceptable.
And again, if we want to have a conversation about
how you can come and help wards like the 21st ward,
be better, then let's have a conversation
about infrastructure.
Let's have a conversation about menu dollars
that we all get the same amount of money to improve our
inside mouth when there's a vast difference between
the amount of mileage that we have
that is a part of public safety.
We see it when we do operations clean
and we have the full force
of city services going throughout an area to improve it
because we know that it can improve public safety.
Let's start there. Let's direct some of
that energy there and let's listen.
Listen to more of us who have
this tool in our ward so
that it can be better so that our streets can be safer
so that our city can be stronger.
That is the Chicago that we deserve to live in.
Thank you Mr. President. Thank you.
Are there any other alders that wish to speak to this? Okay,
The chair you would like to close.
Okay. The chair recognizes Al the woman Cruz.
Thank you Mr. President.
I agree with, um, my colleague other Mosley.
I think this is the time for us to take, to listen
to each other and those who have, um,
this technology in our ward.
I have been taking the time to listen to my residents
who either we go to their house to speak with them
regarding this, um, shots spotted technology
or those who come to our, um, meetings with the police.
What our residents are saying is we need this technology.
We need to feel some sort of safety in our communities.
And while I, I understand that this, um, technology doesn't,
doesn't fix or doesn't address
or rather say the root causes of crime.
I totally agree. Is this prevent certain things? No.
But however, is a tool that alerts our police officer.
There is something going on in those neighborhoods
or streets, whatever it might be.
So what I ask is for that time for us to also to listen
to those other events that have shots, powders inward, but
but also to have both ends of the exp expective here.
Whether it is those who support it or those who are not,
or even a police officer
and even um, our superintendent Snelling to be part
of this conversation as well.
We have to listen for all ends of this conversation.
But also if shots, powders is actually gonna be indeed
not be part of this, um, anymore, we also need to know,
I think it's the right thing for us to know.
What is that transition?
If the time that was allotted for, um, shots, powders is
to have a transition, how is that transition going?
Where are we at now?
What is the superintendents Natalie is saying?
How are we really transitioning to something different?
We can't just take something away
and say, we'll figure it out down the road.
We can't do that. Something that is needed
or that communities needed.
And maybe, you know, we'll have this conversations with,
with residents and what the technology look like.
But I think the responsible thing
to do if in these shots powder is gonna be ending, what is
that transition and how do we get there?
And it is important for us to have again, um,
our superintendent Snelling to be part of here
and others as well, who may have ideas.
And I have talking to, um, others who are not, you know,
support shots, powders and say,
we have provided those ideas.
We actually have given recommendations.
So what are those recommendations?
So I think this will give us the opportunity,
but I I do wanna say that it is time to, um,
give us also the opportunity for those.
I cannot speak on behalf of all the districts,
fully districts, but I can speak on behalf of 25th District.
And I have to say they have been doing a great
job communicating with us.
What are some of the incidents that Shot Spotter picks up?
What is going on in our community?
And having those conversations
and being able to visit the sc SD room has been a,
a experience to understand the technology as well.
So what I'm just saying is let's utilize this time
to have conversations,
but bring everyone to the table, not only one side,
bringing all sides to this conversation
and figure it out what will be the path,
whether it is shots about to continue
or shots spotter doesn't, and what will be that transition.
So I those, I just wanna make sure I let that, um, you know,
share that with you. Thank you. Thank
You. The chair
recognizes Alderman. Okay.
The chair recognizes Alder Lee, Alderwoman Lee
Added to the, You wanna be added to the speaker's list.
So you're next. And then Alderman Vazquez is
after that. You're
Welcome. And I was gonna be so
fast. Um,
I've been sitting here listening
and I, I really wasn't planning to speak on this.
Um, but something that I just, I wanna acknowledge so
that it's, it's here in the room.
This, this item passed through committee.
There was an opportunity for people to talk about this.
Um, so I I I think we have to hold ourselves accountable
for, you know, if it was an important enough
issue, you would've showed up to the meeting.
I go to plenty of meetings that are,
I'm not on the committee for, um,
we have shot spotter in the 11th ward.
My community wants shot spotter to continue to be a tool
that the police can use.
Every police officer that I talk
to in the ninth district says the same thing.
Um, I happened to have unfortunately had a death in my ward.
I was not in my ward.
But a 53-year-old man married with a family who happened
to fill in for a delivery driver at the restaurant
that he manages, was delivering food in Inglewood
and in an attempted carjacking was shot, um,
and ultimately killed.
There was not one nine one one call
that was placed for that man.
ShotSpotter brought the police.
Um, and, and EMTs over there.
Unfortunately that didn't save his life.
Just like it didn't save Ariana Preston's life
or Luis Wekas.
It's not a perfect tool by any means.
Um, but to say that we don't need as many tools as we can
in this fight for public safety.
And this is about, this is not just a tool for the police,
it's a tool for the safety of our city.
'cause if we don't have this anymore, um,
and we don't have a plan for a replacement, Mr.
President, we, we've gotta have a plan
for a replacement if that's the plan.
I think we haven't heard any of that yet.
And I think that's part of what's missing.
But to be clear, we had this discussion and committee,
and I can't speak to the legalities
of everything at this point.
Um, would've been great to have
that conversation a while ago.
And I think we wouldn't be here.
I think the additional conversation
would probably be a good thing.
And I hate to, I, I hate to agree with some
of the sentiment about whether
or not we're actually gonna do that
because there was an opportunity to do that previously.
And with that, I thank you for the time. Thank you.
The chair recognizes Alder Vazquez.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, first I wanna thank our colleagues.
Uh, I I I'm in the 40th ward.
We don't have shot spotter on our ward.
Um, so in some regard, uh, I speak out of privilege to say,
um, that how I feel about shot spotter.
But, um, I lost a brother to gun violence
and I just growing up in the city in different neighborhoods
and I know a number of us have, how many
of you have lived in your house
and heard a shooting from inside your house?
How many of y'all could tell us exactly
where the shot happened based on what
that sounds like, right?
If any of us were in a position where we got shot
and we were on a corner somewhere bleeding out,
I think we'd wanna know that everything possible was being
done, which does require technology.
So when we talk to some of our colleagues, especially those
where they're seeing the most amount of gun violence
and they're speaking to that truth,
it's something we need to listen to.
And I don't think we have fully.
Um, the reason why I say that is I wanna start there
with the conversation.
When we talk about shots, ShotSpotter specifically,
it is a little bit separate from that conversation, right?
Uh, ShotSpotter had a whole bunch
of talk tracks about why it was so effective
that the talk tracks were so effective.
We've heard members repeating them here.
First it was, hey,
this is preventing gunshots from happening.
Hey, this is, uh, gonna lead to more, uh,
people being apprehended or, or more convictions happening.
This is gonna lead to more safety.
Even their own data as they were proven left
and right, that that was not the case.
They had to walk all that back and change their talk track.
And then it was, no, no, no, it's not any of those things.
But we have to make sure that there is response when a shot
occurs so someone could be there in time
to potentially save a life.
Now I appreciate that
that last point was actually the most honest
and the one we should have started with as a city.
As a city. And this is, uh, prior to Mayor Johnson.
Prior to Mayor Lightfoot, this is under Rom, right?
Had we had the conversation on what we actually want
to occur, we might've gotten somewhere if we were saying,
Hey, we wanna make sure that first response is as quick
as possible, that our ambulances
and first responders can get there.
When a shot occurs, then we can have that conversation.
But that's not how it was pitched.
It was pitched is you want the city to be safer.
Let's dump $10 million a year into this technology.
I promise it'll get it done. Now the reason why IIII
disagree a little bit about going through committee
and through legislative process to kind of fix
that is we literally had a commissioner
for technology out here that we know is an expert.
And we couldn't even get that right on the first vote.
So some of this stuff, when we talk about technology isn't
about votes or legislation, it's about data and a process.
I'm not saying we don't need to have any technology.
I wanna make sure we have the best technology working.
We need to know what accountability actually looks like.
Because here's the thing, shot spotter may let you
know when a shot's happening.
They are not in control of the response time.
The response time is CPD
and the other first responders getting there on time.
When it comes to evidence, that's not a shot spotter thing.
That's officers finding evidence on the ground when it takes
to, goes to conviction.
That's not a shot spotter thing.
That's our officers doing their job,
our detectives doing their job to do it right.
So the tool that we have for Shot Spotter
or any other tool for for shots being heard could also be
used for accountability on officers.
Are they getting there on time?
Are they responding out of all the shots that we're hearing?
How many of are confirmed? How many of them lead to cases?
How many lead to convictions?
We could have gotten all
that data from this software and technology.
No one ever thought to ask of it when it first came about.
'cause Ron was like, you know what? We're gonna do something
real easy to say we did
for public safety rather than having a full competitive bid
process to find out what the best software actually is.
So we need to have the full conversation.
I think why people are, uh, in their, um, why it's visceral
for some is 'cause we have not had a proactive conversation
on what a post shot spotter Chicago looks like.
What is the technology that we're doing?
Is there a competitive bid for a process?
How are we talking about what's gonna be next?
There have been zero conversations with members
of this council about what that looks like.
So we should actually convene the kind of working group
that has members where you see the most amount
of gun violence and folks
where you don't see any shot spotter to figure out
what are the metrics we all wanna see
and the technology we wanna actually invest in.
I think we can actually do that and get there.
We just haven't, which is why folks are frustrated.
So yes, I believe we need technology to fix things.
We need to make sure that first responders get to
where they need to as quick as possible.
'cause it can save lives.
That is not a preventative measure by any means.
So one can invest in root causes to make our city safer
and in the things that are reactive
to also make sure that we can save lives.
It is possible, but we need the intentionality of this body
and this administration to actually have the conversation.
'cause time is running out before
we have to figure out what we need to do.
And we're only gonna get more tense
and frustrated until we do.
So I, you have my commitment for any colleagues
that wanna convene that group to do so,
so we can have the conversation about
what we wanna see outta technology
so we actually get it right.
Uh, thank you very much Mr. President. Thank you.
The chair recognizes alderman, David Moore, you so much
and for some reason, um, alderman Vasquez, I don't know, um,
why you ended up going before me,
but it segues way into that and I thank you for that.
Um, it just blows my mind
that people who come to work should be punished
as ultimately says.
I don't sit on economic and technology,
but when I, my staff, I, I tell them, give me everything
so I can look at what's coming up.
That's why I was able to go in there and talk about
and talk with uh, our CIO
and then when I don't get the information that I need, then
that's when IDNP something not outta politics.
Never. Not since Rob,
not since Lori or anybody else.
I'm the most open person, the most transparent person.
The person that wanna work with everybody.
You come to work, all this
debate would've happen in committee.
Then after committee, you
don't get the information you want.
You can DNP it. That's what happened.
DNP it for a whole month ain't heard from
nobody a week before.
Now everybody want to talk when you got the
votes to pass it.
And then they wanna manipulate
by bringing you the information that they want to bring.
The wear ass clauses that has no bearing on this at all.
None. And all the debate that everybody's been having about,
you're not gonna hear me sitting up here trying
to defend shot spotter.
What I'm trying to do is have you have a voice on that
so you can defend it or not.
That's what this order says. This, it has nothing.
Everybody debate about keeping shots
by this order Says nothing about keeping it,
it's saying transparency, making sure that we have reporting
so you can make those decisions so that
before a decision is made, that is brought
before this city council body.
So you can vote whether you want it or not.
Based on that information that my colleague
before me spoke about.
That's what this is about.
So everybody's screaming
because they didn't do they homework, lawyers
and everybody else talking about.
Whereas clauses talking about all of that talk on ordinance,
don't let nobody feed you something.
The order says what it is we hear by order
more information to be reported out
to the city council to be published.
And then we hear by, before any decision is made
that it comes before this city council body, you all
who represent your constituents.
If you don't want that, you know what I'm saying?
You don't want that. But don't get into making this, Hey,
I'm voting against shots spotter.
You voting against having the voice for your constituents.
That's what you're voting against.
You can get to that shot spot part.
When we get all our data
and all of our information,
I'm open all the time to talk change.
You can knock, you can knock out every whereas
clause there if you want.
But the order still stands of what we want.
So don't make this about little minute stuff
that the media didn't even pick up on.
Okay? Don't make it about that.
Is it legal? Yeah, it's legal.
It's legal because as a, as a body, you have the ability
to contract and you have the ability to fund it's legal
and so and so let's do this so
that you can come back and have that vote.
And whether you vote for it
or not, which that conversation isn't even here today.
That's down the road. You should have that voice
for your community because I'm listening to my community
and I gotta have a voice for them.
I have to have a voice for them
and I'm gonna continue to do that. Now let's get to,
Excuse me for a second, excuse me, please.
Could you refrain from, from being disruptive?
Please, if you do it again,
I would have to ask you to leave.
Okay. Alman Moore, please continue. Thank
You Mr. President.
And for those that said we need Snelling
and here, Snelling done chimed in more than enough.
He done chimed in.
He done said it or how many times he gotta say it.
So stop making these excuses.
Have some grow some grow something,
a heart, anything
to do and do your jobs.
So don't punish people and re-refer something
and start talking and want to negotiate
because whoa, I don't have the votes here.
Same thing they did with the arbitrage.
And they send the same dog on people.
It's over and over again. But that's the politics.
And I tell you all, all the time, I hate politics.
'cause guess who lose when that happens.
Black people all the time. But it's the same ones.
And I don't, I don't point my finger at no white
folks or anything like that.
It's us that hurt us.
We don't need to delay this.
And those conversations that everybody talked about is gonna
be had once this has passed
because that's what this entitles you to.
You done set your own song self up
by not reading the ordinance.
All those conversations you're going to have,
you're gonna have, because you're gonna get the data,
it's gonna be reported, it's gonna be clear,
and then you're gonna get to vote
and you're gonna say, we don't want to keep it
or we want to keep it.
If that's not that vote today, this vote is today
to give you that information that you need
and for you to have the authority
to say whether you want it or not.
That's what this vote is for.
And if you vote against that
for your people, then that's on you. Thank you so much.
Thank you Alderman. The chair recognizes Alderman
Irvin, your motion.
Thank Mr. President.
Um,
if the only thing you know
is spaghetti and meatballs.
No, no, I'm, it's my most,
It actually his mo thank oh, sorry.
Alderman Moore. I recognize what you said,
so I'll recognize your comment.
It's Alderman Irvin's motion,
so he reserves the right to finish.
Okay. Alderman Irvin,
Thank you.
As I stated, if all you ever know
and eat is Spaghetti
and meatballs, that's all you'll ever know.
Shot spot has started,
I think probably maybe about 15 to 16 of us.
Were here in this council, sold to us as the end all be.
All of all.
Since then, other technologies have emerged,
other things have happened,
but only thing we continue
to talk about is one very narrow piece of the technology
that is being utilized.
Ladies and gentlemen, I live on the west side
of Chicago in the 11th District, probably one
of the most challenged districts in this city.
Do you think I only want spaghetti and meatballs?
I want an opportunity to find out what else is out there
that is going to help make our citizens safer,
not just one specific narrow
band of technology.
And again, while others have talked about this one
specific piece of technology, there are 10
or 12 other different things
that we have an opportunity to take a look at.
Now the cameras are here.
If you want to just be the show horse, then it'll end today.
But the job of this is that we have to continue
to work if we want to help make the rest of this city safe.
I've always contended this, that if we make the west side
and south side safer, this city will be better.
But we cannot tie ourselves into one specific piece
of technology that at best just
reports when something happens.
Again, this is about trying
to get the best for our citizens.
This is about trying to get the best even
for our police officers.
Now granted, I was in a meeting just yesterday
with the commanders of the 10th, 11th, and 15th district
and I asked them, Hey,
what are you gonna do when shots spotter ends?
And they look like deer headlights.
We've got to figure out something
beyond one piece of technology.
And again, this ordinance
or this order, whatever you want to call it,
doesn't do a damn thing to get us there.
So again, this is about do we wanna make
Al Alderman? Alderman,
you're out of order. Alderman,
Let's talk.
Al Alderman Alderman Moore, you are out of order.
Sir Alderman
Moore, please.
You are out of order sir.
Just a second. We can do better.
You are directing your comments here.
Thank you for doing that.
Please do not disrupt your colleagues as they speak
and direct their presentation towards me.
Alderman Irvin, please continue.
Thank you, Mr. President. And as I stated,
this is deeper than just one piece of technology.
This is something that we as a council, need to explore
and look at beyond the one piece of technology
that's all this is talking about.
And again, as one, one member stated,
people sound like shot spotter representatives are
wondering if they got stock in it.
But again, we've gotta get beyond one piece of technology.
If the goal is to make the city of Chicago safer.
Now granted, the superintendent needs to be at the table,
the fire commissioner needs to be at the table.
The people need to be at the table
and the conversation must be broader than this room.
But again, we got to have the opportunity to do such
because it's been stated.
If it's just about shot spotted,
the executive is clearing this decision
that he will not continue it.
So if you want to go ahead down that path
and have nothing, then vote for it.
But again, this is about a broader open conversation about
what we can do to help make the city of Chicago safer.
Not just on the technology front,
but we're gonna start with the technology of it.
So again, we know that this ordinance needs work as as,
as the Altman stated.
At the end of the day, it's about a bunch of whereases
that don't get us to where we need to be
and that's going to help make this city safer.
So again, I believe that this item needs to go back
because we want to try to create something that's gonna work
and something that's gonna make sense.
I'm sorry, this is not it.
And we need to make a better effort as a city
and on behalf of these constituents that live in some
of the most challenged communities in our city,
we've got to do better.
This is not it. I'll renew my
motion and ask for a roll call.
Vote so the roll call vote will move forward.
Madam Clerk, please use your e vote devices
to cash your vote on the item
to refer this item to committee.
The voting is now open. The voting is now open.
Please submit your vote, raise your hand if you need help.
The voting is not open.
I will now call for a voice vote if you have not voted.
Alderman Robinson. Alderman Robinson is a yes.
Alderman Yancy. Alderman Yancy is a no Alderman.
OSHA Alden. OSHA is a no. Alderwoman Taylor?
Yes, Alderwoman Taylor is a yes.
Alderwoman to Baras. Alderwoman to Baras is a no.
Alderman Viegas Alderman Viegas is a no.
Have all those voted who wish? Alderwoman Coleman.
Oh, I can't see it. Alderwoman Coleman have all those voted
who wish the voting is now closed.
All right. There are 23 yays. 20 Fay nay. 25 nays.
This motion fails.
Thank you very much. We would now return this back
to Alderman David Moore.
Roll call. Vote on the item.
Okay. The motion has been called
for the vote on this item.
Members, please use your e vote. Sure.
The chair recognizes Alderman Bill,
I want to be crystal clear
that this vote is strictly about getting more
data for ShotSpotter.
It's not for or against getting rid of the technology.
It's about asking for more data
to make an educated decision on
whether we should keep it or not.
That's all it is.
Yeah. Well thank you for your attempt for clarification
that it's not entirely accurate.
This is also about funding. This is also about usage, right.
So there's a roll call vote on this item.
The first, Please use your EVO
applications to cash your vote.
The voting is now open. The voting is now open.
Please use your e device. Raise your hand if you need help.
Thank you.
I will now call on those
who have not voted using the Eev device.
Alderman Robinson. Are you adding it on now? Right now
he's already in
Alman Robinson.
You can take a voice vote. Alderman Robinson is a yes.
Alderwoman Taylor. Yes. Alderman Taylor is a yes.
Alderman Burnett. Alman Burnett is a yes. Alderman Conway.
Alderman Conway is a yes. Alderman Viegas.
Alman Viegas is a yes. Alderman Vasquez.
Alman Vasquez is a no.
Oh, just saw that come through. I got you now.
Okay. Is all voting whose wish the voting is now closed.
There are 34 yays. 14 nays.
This motion passes on a motion to reconsider
the chair recognizes all the woman Harris.
Mr. President I move that we reconsider
To vote. All those in
favor of reconsidering this vote
signify by saying Aye.
All those opposed say no. This motion fails all
very well.
Um, Alderwoman Harris on any other
further unfinished business,
I'm not aware of any further unfinished business.
Thank you very much. Alderwoman Harris. For Melissa?
For Melissa. Miscellaneous MIS list. Oh wow.
I got it. Miscellaneous. Miscellaneous business.
Alderwoman Harris, I'm aware
One piece of miscellaneous business on May 17th,
alderman Bill filed a notice of intent
to discharge the committee on budget
and government operations from further consideration
of ordinance
0 2 0 2 3 0 0 0 4 9 7 7
and discharge to the committee on the committees
and rules from further consideration of resolution
R 2 0 2 3 dash 0 0 4 9 7 6
and ask that those items be
considered today as city council.
Very well, thank you. The chair recognizes Alderman Irvin.
Uh, thank Mr. President.
Uh, I would note that because the modus was notice was filed
on May 17th and the rules of order and procedure required
and any notice of intent
to discharge be filed five days prior
to city council meeting, which would've been on May 15th.
It would be a property to hit these items today.
Very well. Your point is noted.
Alderman, bill, do you wish to respond?
Uh, yeah. Mr. President, um, um, let me just say
that, um, I guess the chairman agreed to give us a hearing
on June 5th and a vote on June 5th
and seeing that I was gonna withdraw my motion.
Anyway. Thank you so much Mr. Chairman.
All very well. So your motion has been withdrawn.
Uh, alderman Bill, your motion is withdrawn there very well,
but then there's no other mil miscellaneous
business for date and time.
The next meeting, Alderwoman Harris,
I've, I've, um, handed up a Just a second.
Alderwoman Harris, the date and Alderwoman Harris.
One a second, please. Uh, excuse me.
This meeting is not adjourn.
Could you all please just hold your voices
until we finish all business?
WO Harris,
I've handed up an ordinance to the clerk said in the date
and time of the next meeting.
Very well. Thank you Madam Clerk.
Please read the ordinance.
Be ordained by the City Council of the City
of Chicago, section one.
The next regular meeting of City Council of City
of Chicago shall be held on Wednesday, June 12th, 2024,
beginning at 10:00 AM in council chambers on the second
floor in City Hall, 1 21 North LaSalle Street, Chicago,
Illinois, section two, that's ordinance shall effect mb.
And for from passage, Michelle Harris, eighth Ward,
WO Harris. I move
passage in the omnibus
Hearing. No objections.
So ordered on the omnibus.
I move the matters in the omnibus be passed
by the first most favorable roll call vote
by the Committee on Finance
and associated unsuccessful motion to reconsider
Hearing no objections.
Sole ordered for adjourn adjournment.
All the woman hears on motional
Ajour. There's being no further business
before the body.
I move that we adjourn,
Hearing no objections.
So ordered the meeting is adjourned.