* From the mayor-elect…
Mayor-elect Lightfoot to spend Wed and Thurs in Springfield
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot will spend Wednesday and Thursday in Springfield. On Wednesday, Lightfoot will address the Illinois House of Representatives and meet with Governor JB Pritzker, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Speaker Michael Madigan, and Leader Jim Durkin. On Thursday, Lightfoot will address the Illinois Senate and meet with President John Cullerton, Leader Bill Brady, and Leader Kimberly Lightford.
Address to the House of Representatives
When: Wednesday, 4/10, 3:15pm
Where: House of Representatives Floor
Press availability: This address is open press. Lightfoot will be available for comment following her address.
Address to the Senate
When: Thursday, 4/11, 11:15am
Where: Senate Floor
Press availability: This address is open press. Lightfoot will be available for comment following her address.
…Adding… Times are being firmed up…
Updated: Daily Public Schedule: Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2019
What: Gov. Pritzker to greet Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot ahead of their first meeting in Springfield.
Where: Illinois State Capitol, Governor’s Office, Springfield
When: 1:30 p.m.
Note: No additional media availability.
* Meanwhile…
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot released the following statement in advance of the Wednesday Finance Committee meeting.
“From day one, I’ve stood with the grassroots movement to seek transparency and community input in Lincoln Yards and The 78. I’ve advanced a set of priorities throughout this effort, including the need for clear and specific plans from the developers to boost inclusion of minority- and women-owned businesses.
“I am appreciative of Mayor Emanuel and Finance Committee Chairman O’Connor for agreeing to defer Monday’s vote on Lincoln Yards and The 78 to allow my team additional time to seek clarity and address our concerns. Based on subsequent conversations with Mayor Emanuel, community stakeholders, and a number of aldermen, we expect that this deal is likely to pass tomorrow.
“As a show of good faith, my team had productive meetings today with both developers. As a result of those conversations, I am pleased to report that both developers agreed to meaningfully strengthen their commitments to minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises (”MBE” and “WBE”) from the original terms. The increases would lift the overall M/WBE participation by $80 million to $400 million overall. In addition, both developers agreed to add language to the redevelopment agreements to provide explicit controls for the City to measure and require compliance with actual utilization of M/WBEs on the projects. These changes represent a vital sign that my administration will be able to make progress toward an equitable and fair deal for our communities.
“There remains much more work to do in this regard, and I am hopeful we’ll be able to get there. Under the terms of both redevelopment agreements, we have confirmed that the City has additional controls over these projects, which I am confident will allow for us to further improve these deals and to bring community voices into the process going forward.
“There are likely sufficient votes to advance these proposals tomorrow. I am not yet the mayor, and I recognize that the current administration and City Council must decide whether to carry this vote forward according to the interests of the constituents they serve. Either way, upon swearing in, I will engage with the community and committed activists who have advocated forcefully for affordable housing, park space and the responsible use of tax increment financing dollars for many months. And in making future decisions about these and all other deals, we will work with stakeholders to allow for robust community input from the beginning and throughout.”
- Fast Eddie - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:10 am:
Whelp that was a fast flip-flop. Suddenly no longer opposed to TIFs? Suddenly we only have one mayor at a time?
Will the mayor-elect be more circumspect about an elected school board now?
- lakeside - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:29 am:
It is a gift that we’ll shove along Rauner and Rahm within six months, but this last month of waiting is tough. Excited to have more public money thrust at developers.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:32 am:
== to meaningfully strengthen their commitments to minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises (”MBE” and “WBE”) ==
I hope there is follow up to make sure they are working with real MBE and WBE companies. Too many times when I was doing contracting (on both sides), I saw businesses that were the husband’s business but on paper 51% owned by the wife so they could claim to be WBE.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:33 am:
TIF’s are such a scam. They are a massive diversion of desperately needed revenue AWAY from the public treasuries. They are diverted BEFORE they get there subverting the democratic process of the peoples representatives “appropriating” it.
Corporate Welfare like this creates local funding problems down the line.
TIF’s benefit developers
The people’s needs suffer
and ultimately
higher taxes
to replace that which was
siphoned off.
And here we thought
her honor
would be different
attentive to the people
well….
like all politicians….
- Amalia - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:39 am:
well, there are a bunch of other concerns about these proposals besides who gets a piece. like should money be taken from other purposes by the use of TIF, whether these are too dense, should there be more open space, and how will these contribute to traffic, around the developments and to and from the developments. think broader.
- ChicagoVinny - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:41 am:
Sounds to me like maybe the vote was going to go through anyway and this allows her to claim victory and move on.
- lakeside - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:43 am:
Second RNUG’s point.
At the risk of saying the quiet part loud, couldn’t Lightfoot extract these promises and then wind down the TIFs when she becomes mayor? That’s what I’d do, but I am spiteful.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:51 am:
It’s a done deal now, but the TIF for Lincoln Yards was just bad poker by politicians desperate to produce “job-creating” press releases. Flipped their hole card right at the the start.
That’s prime real estate, and they ain’t making any more of that.
Heck, you’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars of private capital being poured into the redevelopments of the old Post Office and Cook County Hospital buildings.
If those white elephants could attract private capital — which could go anywhere in the world — Lincoln Yards didn’t need any public incentive.
- Starfruit Surf Rider - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 9:54 am:
Regardless of how LL feels about the TIF’s, I don’t know why she didn’t use this for more political cover. She could have said she is still opposed to it, tried her best to make it better, but it is out of her hands. Put it all on Rahm’s reign instead of giving it a ceremonial green light.
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:05 am:
News Flash-Big Money prevails in huge redevelopment! And who exactly is surprised?
- ce303gjq3p90 - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:11 am:
There is a serious political risk to being labeled “anti-business” right out of the gate. It would have made every decision/reform/action/tax etc be viewed through the prism of the “anti-business” Mayor. Not the hill to die on at this point.
- Fav Human - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:18 am:
I’m thinking she was going to lose, and so extracted a cookie or two to make it look good.
husband’s business but on paper 51% owned by the wife
And how do you prevent this? I know a guy who adopted a daughter from S America. He had another naturally. He could set up a biz 40% him, 30% the kids, and it could be M&W owned.
Assuming he got along with the kids
- Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:20 am:
What I heard is “Give my allies a cut and you can go ahead “. What I have seen of gender and racial preferences in contracting is that costs go up and corruption flourishes. The good of giving people a leg up may have been worthwhile in the past. Don’t think they are today.
- City Guy - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:24 am:
The City and other entities do look for fraud in MBE/WBE programs including site visits. People go to jail for fraud. Windy City Maintenance is one example of the City cracking down on a WBE that wasn’t.
- d. p. gumby - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:12 am:
TIF abuse is serious. Reform is needed to look at legitimate economic contribution v. illusory benefits, especially as to schools.
- Blue Dog Dem - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:45 am:
The good news? She didnt campaign on being a free market capitalist.
- Return to Sender - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:38 pm:
Took us a week to see who mayor-elect Lori Lightweight really is and how she plans to operate. At least Rahm was honest and consistent about who he is. Glad she talked with developers. What about everyone else?
- Angry Chicagoan - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:00 pm:
It’s kind of astounding to see Lightfoot give up her mandate before she was even elected. Very poorly played….on this evidence she is going to be a weak mayor. The council was clearly deferring to her, and she folded.
- Dr Kilovolt - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 2:08 pm:
The fix is in. Chicago taxpayers will line the pockets of these developers friends of Rahm, who have already been gifted prime real estate for pennies on the dollar, for decades. Some of Daley’s corruption was chump change next to this.
- Dr Kilovolt - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 2:14 pm:
That was supposed to be [cough]friends of Rahm[cough], but the site ate my text.
- James - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 4:18 pm:
She had no leverage. The TIF deal was greased. Rahm basically laughed at her, gave her 48 hours. Council had been bought, cheap. Think of the South and West side aldermen proponents with no development in their wards–what did they get for their votes? Oh, but it was good for the whole City, see? Agree with Word–Lincoln Yards developer didn’t need TIF help.
- first 100 days - Thursday, Apr 11, 19 @ 3:13 am:
I do believe Lightfoot is and intends to be a reformer. And that she had little leverage.
But it is strange to see her in just a week greenlight Lincoln Yards and signal that she’s likely to keep Police Superintendent Johnson and Schools Superintendent Jackson. The three biggest issues were crime and violence, education and charter reform and development for the rich v. for the neighborhoods. And those are also the three biggest levers a mayor has - most money, most effect on the city. She said she launched her campaign out of strong opposition to Rahm. Was she strongly opposed to his polices at Streets and San? Divvies? Or does she believe Jackson and Johnson were bowing to Rahm on things they would have preferred to do differently? I could potentially believe that.