Live reporting by
Ayesha Riaz
Chicago Public Library branches in Little Village (Toman) and West Lawn will be the first city-owned buildings to have solar panels.
Afternoon, covering City of Chicago's Committee on Budget and Government Operations for @CHIdocumenters. Meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30PM.
01:42 PM Jan 23, 2024 CST
The livestreamed video of the meeting shows the Chicago seal and a repeated automated voice warning/reminder about the Rules of Conduct during the Public Comment period and meeting.
Chair Jason C Ervin calls meeting to order and quorum is established at 1:47 PM.
Time is given for public commentary with 1 speaker: Mr. Blakemoor. He comments that its unfortunate that more people are not speaking up and that the city spends thousands of dollars on bad websites.
He mentions that the chair was late, and is angry with Item 3 of the agenda and the transfer of funds for the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights. His last comment is that the ethical thing to do in city council would be to introduce term limitations.
The committee approved last year’s Monthly Rule 45 reports of October, November and December 2023.
3 Items are listed on the agenda. From the Office of Budget and Management: 1) Annual Appropriation Ordinance Year 2024 amendment within Fund 925. There is also a substitute sent around the members.
From City Council, 2) Resolution regarding City Council Office of Financial Analysis Director, and 3) Transfer of funds within Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights for Year 2023.
Item 1 includes: $2 million for solar at 2 Chicago public libraries, Dept of Public Health requests $294,000 for vax program, CPD requests $308,000 from state grant for organized retail crime and $9000 for impaired driving program.
Alder Villegas (Ward 36), asks to elaborate on total cost of solar program for Chicago Libraries and if there are existing solar operations?
The cost is mentioned to be more than $2 million. This project is being run as a pilot and there are currently no solar projects with city-owned buildings.
Alder Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) asks about organized retail crime grant. Sergeant Ryan Delaney states that the funds cover the national conference, Cook County regional organized crime conference, and investigative overtime. The task force includes 9 people.
Alder Dowell and Chairman Ervin clarify the question of management and not operation: who are the other people in charge on the task force and if there are external partners? Dowell asks for a list through the chair of the members of the task force.
Alder Dowell asks if the focus on retail theft is along the rail lines or just in stores? Delaney confirms that it is for both.
Alder Lee (Ward 11) asks about what funds will be going to: establish a pilot program to report hate crimes, to increase recording of hate crime, hate instances, and hate graffiti.
Opportunities for public to go to community-based organizations as safe zones to assist the person, either in their native language or with cultural sensitivity.
Alder Moore (17th Ward) requests additional info about CPD's request of $109,000 for impaired driving program. The program is in partnership with the Department of Transportation.
Chair Ervin states something confusing: “I’m gonna ask the committee to pass on this, after which I will potentially not report this item out--received a phone call on this but I do want to pass it out of committee.”
Alder Moore asks for clarification and Jason Ervin reiterates: “I would like to pass it out of committee but not report it out” and “if we do not pass it out of committee, it would be another month that we have to go through this.”
Moore replies “That’s fine too. I think we should too. If we need to hear it, then I think we should hear it, not just pass it out.”
Chair Ervin seems strained, talks about not wishing to create a negative atmosphere for an individual (does not state the individual’s name). Alder Moore wants to address why we need to remove this person and what the issue is since it is the first time he is hearing about it.
Alder Michelle Harris (8th Ward) suggests moving the meeting to executive session ‘considering the nature of this’ to discuss the mystery topic.
Alder Sposato (38th Ward) addresses Chairman Ervin and their previous personal conversation about the subject matter yesterday, and asks “Am I the only person you called and talked to about this?” Ervin says he was not.
Meeting resumes and Items 2) Resolution regarding Financial Analysis Director and Item 3) Transfer of funds within Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights for 2023 are both passed. Alders Mitchell (7th Ward) and Moore (17th Ward) are listed as no’s.