* Heather Cherone at WTTW…
The Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus endorsed on Monday a long-stalled plan to put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department, joining the City Council’s two other major caucuses in a revolt against Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Eight months ago, Lightfoot promised to introduce her own plan for an elected board to oversee the CPD after she dropped her support for the measure crafted by a coalition of community organizations under the umbrella of the Grassroots Association for Police Accountability, known as GAPA, saying it would limit her ability to keep the city safe.
Lightfoot has yet to do introduce her own plan despite telling reporters for months it was on the verge of being introduced. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WTTW News on Monday afternoon.
Lightfoot’s decision to drop her support of GAPA put her at odds with several of her allies on the Chicago City Council, and ultimately led to supporters of GAPA joining forces with the supporters of a competing proposal known as CPAC to craft a compromise measure known as Empowering Communities for Public Safety.
They now apparently have enough combined votes to override a mayoral veto. So, she could wind up with an elected school board and an elected police board - two promises she made and then backtracked on.
* Fran Spielman at the Sun-Times…
Under the compromise, Chicago voters in the 2022 primary would be asked to approve a binding referendum empowering a civilian police oversight commission to hire and fire the police superintendent, negotiate police contracts and set CPD’s budget.
Lightfoot would lose the power to hire and fire the police superintendent. Her Law Department and hand-picked negotiators would lose the power to negotiate police contracts.
And Lightfoot and aldermen would be stripped of the power they now hold to establish the CPD budget, ceding that power as well to an 11-member civilian oversight commission that would have nine elected commissioners and two mayoral appointees.
Even if voters reject the binding referendum, the 11-member commission would have the final say in disputes over police policy unless two-thirds of the Council decides otherwise. The commission also would be empowered to take a vote of no-confidence in the superintendent and hire and fire the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. […]
“I wear the jacket, as every mayor does, for violence in this city, for crime in this city. And the notion that we’re gonna outsource that to someone else and have no responsibility — no ability to impact this — I don’t know anybody who thinks that’s a good idea,” Lightfoot said last month during a conference call with City Hall reporters.
Nobody except a super-majority on the city council, that is.
* Meanwhile, here’s Greg Hinz at Crain’s…
The operator of a proposed Southeast Side metal-shredding and recycling plant is suing the city for more than $100 million in damages, contending officials have improperly stalled and otherwise gone back on their word to let the facility begin operations.
Southside Recycling contends Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration buckled to political pressure and “repeatedly violated” a 2019 agreement, “as well as its own rules and guidelines.” The 2019 agreement set terms of how the company, then operating as General Iron, would move to a 175-acre site at 11600 S. Burley Ave. from its location near the Clybourn Corridor in Lincoln Park. Read the lawsuit at the bottom of this story.
“Following a two-year zoning, rulemaking and permitting review process, SR built the most environmentally conscious recycling facility in the country and has fully complied—and then some—with every city requirement necessary to be granted an operating permit,” the lawsuit states. “Yet, when it came time for the city to follow its own rules and promises and to award the permit to SR, the city chose to avoid, delay and suspend its review of SR’s permit application.”
The suit asks the U.S. District Court to order the city to issue the final permit needed to open the new facility, on which Southside Recycling says it’s already spent more than $80 million. It also asks for “damages well in excess of $100 million.”
* Sun-Times…
The company’s complaint makes a number of arguments that RMG has repeated for more than year as it addressed objections to the move to the Southeast Side. But it also accuses the city of violating its constitutional rights as a landowner. By not issuing a final permit to operate on its own land, the lawsuit claims, the city “has effectively taken the value of RMG’s property without just compensation.”
“This illegal taking is particularly pronounced because the City lured RMG into permanently ceasing operations at the North Side facility and constructing a new facility on the Southeast Side,” the complaint said.
* And then there’s this…
The Chicago Park District is conducting a “broad investigation” into complaints that dozens of workers at the city’s pools and beaches regularly committed “sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, workplace violence, and other criminal acts” – sometimes against minors.
Confidential reports obtained recently by WBEZ show investigators with the park district inspector general’s office have already gathered evidence corroborating accusations against at least three male lifeguards for sexual assault, harassment or retaliatory threats against their subordinates – including one incident involving the sexual assault and attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl. The park district’s watchdog says its investigation is “wide-ranging, comprehensive and robust,” with more reports to come.
More…
“Where appropriate, I’ve urged them to make referrals to the appropriate criminal law enforcement authorities,” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
When asked if police had been contacted by the park district, the mayor replied, “I don’t have specifics on that, but I’m urging them to do that if the investigation determines that criminal conduct has taken place.”
That’s a pretty weak response.
It’s not mentioned in this Tribune story, but why would a parent ever encourage a kid to work as a Chicago lifeguard with that cloud hanging over the Park District?…
Numerous park districts say they’re well behind their lifeguard hiring goals, with dozens of slots left to fill as opening day approaches. The lingering effects of the pandemic have complicated an already difficult task, some managers say, making teens (and their parents) more reluctant to seek the quintessential summer job. […]
The Chicago Park District also faces a dearth of applicants this year. Chief program manager Alonzo Williams, testifying at a City Council committee hearing earlier this month, put some blame on the COVID-induced shutdowns of a lifeguard apprenticeship program for two years running.
Yeah, maybe stop raping girls.
* Related…
* 2 Chicago police officers shot in Lawndale on West Side, officials say: “This is the 29th officer in 2021 with the Chicago Police Department shot at or shot,” Brown said. “The fifth and sixth officers shot in 2021. These totals for the last 15 months are 108 shot at or shot. Sixteen shot in the last 15 months.”
* Chicago weekend shootings: 48 shot, 6 fatally, since Friday citywide: Chicago was hit with its most violent weekend of the year, with a 2-year-old girl, a 13-year-old boy and two Chicago police officers among 48 people who were shot.
* CPD Unveils Revised Search Warrant Policies Following Botched Raids
* Lightfoot has named interim leader for Chicago civilian police watchdog agency, official says
* Getting Hosed: City Offers 91-Year-Old Retired CPS Teacher A “Payment Plan” For A $57,000 Water Bill: Getting Hosed was going to be a single story about a couple billed $58,000 for water they didn’t use. Now, it’s more than two years of chronicling unfair and potentially unlawful water billing practices in Chicago. The CBS 2 Investigators have found the City department whose taxpayer-funded responsibility it is to provide safe, affordable drinking water has utterly failed consumers and undermined our investigative efforts at every turn.
- RNUG - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:45 am:
Mayor Daley must be spinning in his grave fast enough to power the entire city.
- Blue Dog - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:45 am:
When violence and civil unrest keep people like myself from visiting Chicago, and businesses are shuttered, who on this 11 person civilian police board will take the phone calls
- Uptown Funk - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:46 am:
This is what happens when you have a Mayor who never wants to take responsibility for anything, refuses to follow through on her campaign promises, and blames others at the first possible sign of a problem.
- Just Me 2 - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:50 am:
Let’s just elect every city department and then we don’t need a mayor or city council anymore.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:51 am:
First, start here.
Chicago Mayors own.
Ask Mayor Bilandic, snow notwithstanding.
If Lightfoot can’t grasp that rule to governing then she’ll never grasp why all sides are seemingly going after her.
- 1st Ward - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:55 am:
Queue Jesse Sharkey and Stacey Davis-Gates reminding residents the CTU has consistently backed police reforms like these, were always against the relocation of General Iron consistently fighting against environmental racism, advocate for low income residents and teachers getting lower or free water bills i.e. water is a human right, and they have always supported an elected school board. These are the types of reminders that get the “slightly approve” and “no opinion” Lightfoot crowd to slightly disapprove along with moving some “slightly disapprove” to “strongly disapprove”. Not a good day for Lightfoot and I imagine she will continue to self-inflict more problems on these issues.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:00 pm:
===They now apparently have enough combined votes to override a mayoral veto. So, she could wind up with an elected school board and an elected police board - two promises she made and then backtracked on.===
When you are truly and grossly inept abd you go against what you said as a candidate to *show* everyone how truly and grossly inept you are that you’re against yourself in the end… you may not be the leader you thought you are or would be as a mayor.
- Sox Fan - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:01 pm:
==Yeah, maybe stop raping girls==
Almost as important, maybe stop covering it up too.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
===who on this 11 person civilian police board will take the phone calls===
LL takes your calls?
- Actual Red - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:17 pm:
As Rich notes, this elected police board was a major campaign promise for Lightfoot, and given her pretty massive win it’s not outlandish to claim a mandate for this change. I hope the council finally gets it together and passes this with or without her.
And Blue Dog, the reason there was civil unrest in 2020 is precisely because the police lack accountability and many residents just don’t trust them. CPD by its own admission mishandled protests and escalated tensions.
- Voted for Epton - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:22 pm:
Lollapalooza is back so that should get LL the youth vote.
- Nets Fan - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:23 pm:
The super-majority won’t hold. We’ve seen Black Caucus fall apart, because it just takes a majority for them to sign-on. But Im sure Sawyer convinced them that worst case it forces MLL to finally release her own plan.
I still agree w all the takes that MLL is failing the politics game miserably.
- Montrose - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:23 pm:
But, hey, remember all those fun memes of her sternly looking at people at the beginning of the pandemic? #winning
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:25 pm:
===Lollapalooza is back so that should get LL the youth vote===
Not if they watch the video
https://twitter.com/Ryan_Johnson/status/1394688168796987392
- Bob Meter - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:27 pm:
“Old school” policing is dead. It’s time for a new generation of leaders to take over and implement new progressive policies. An elected police board is a great start.
- Jockey - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:31 pm:
Tip for reporters: the CPD upper echelon are also bailing out.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:38 pm:
In the Sun-Times article, Spielman’s use of the term “hand-picked negotiators” is decidedly not objective. Sad to see her use such language.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:39 pm:
Let’s get an 11 person board of social justice warriors to run the city, police and fire board, school system and completely do away with the mayor’s office because she’s not woke enough
- Montrose - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:40 pm:
*Not if they watch the video*
That video does an amazing job of capturing so many things that are wrong with the Lightfoot administration.
It also makes me think of these lyrics from Mr. Farrell’s younger days:
She knows
They all want her to go
But that’s O.K. man
She don’t like them anyway
- Blue Dog - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:54 pm:
If the mayors office doesn’t field calls from affected or irate business owners then this mayor and the city or in bigger trouble than one can imagine.
- Blue - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:57 pm:
Bob@12:27. Hows that new progressive policing working out in Seattle and Portland?
- Phineas Gurley - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:18 pm:
Friendly Bob, Fran uses ‘hand picked’ in every story related to every mayor since she started to type. It’s a tic at this point.
To the post — Why don’t we elect the head of the state police, the IL National Guard, and ISBE members while we are at it.
This drive for more elected officials is actually a consequence of a weak city council. But I’m not sure addinf another couple dozen officeholders is going to magically make police and schools better with more accountability.
- Donnie Elgin - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:20 pm:
“So, she could wind up with an elected school board and an elected police board - two promises she made and then backtracked on”
She was for it before she was against it.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:24 pm:
===actually a consequence of a weak city council===
That’s a good point. There is no advice and consent on these appointments.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:27 pm:
LP, maybe you missed the part about how she supported those elections during her own campaign.
- crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:30 pm:
==Lollapalooza is back so that should get LL the youth vote.==
yes, congratulations to Lori Lightfoot, future mayor of Bolingbrook
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:32 pm:
What’s the point of electing a mayor if all their decisions will now be made by elected boards?
- Arsenal - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:44 pm:
==What’s the point of electing a mayor if all their decisions will now be made by elected boards? ==
It’s a fair point, and on somethings I would argue it helps to have a single person at the top of the chain of command.
But MLL campaigned on these things, so…
- City Zen - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:44 pm:
But it’s a dry heat.
- Montrose - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:50 pm:
Some of you seem to equate being a good leader with being the person that makes all the decisions. That’s a really narrow, insecure view of what leadership means.
- levivotedforjudy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:53 pm:
When she demeaned the aldermen during her inauguration speech, you knew the insurrection was going to happen eventually. This is probably just the start. Then you add in the high-turnover and either getting bad advise or not listening to her staff, this is just not a surprise. Being Mayor of Chicago aint bean bag.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:57 pm:
===Some of you seem to equate being a good leader with being the person that makes all the decisions.===
Candidate Lightfoot decided she wanted an elected school board.
Mayor Lightfoot decided that campaign promise was a bad decision.
Mayor Lightfoot since that decision has publicly, as well as through Crew and Staff work, made that back peddling more about bad decisions to stop her campaign promise.
Mayors own, and the mayor makes it clear… these are her decisions, with her voice, making her case.
- @misterjayem - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:00 pm:
“Hows that new progressive policing working out in Seattle and Portland?”
How is that old
regressive policing working out in Chicago?
You remember — the policing responsible for the “violence and civil unrest” that keeps “people like you” from visiting Chicago.
– MrJM
- NorthsideNoMore - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:20 pm:
She is now understanding “we don’t want nobody, dat nobody sent” Beware the Ids of March are upon you…it just took until May.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:27 pm:
===She is now understanding “we don’t want nobody, dat nobody sent”===
Please. The things she supported in the campaign were issues backed by the nobody nobody sent folks. She has since flip-flopped on those.
- west wing - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:29 pm:
Some of her leadership problems stem from having a prosecutor style of governing - my way or the highway.
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:54 pm:
Alderpersons want to take away hiring of the police superintendent from the mayor but I’m sure won’t want to get rid of being able to get their cronies appointed to cushy desk jobs. Remind me why Chicago needs 50 alderpersons again?
- Disappointed Voter - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 3:44 pm:
The mayor has failed to unify. She fights opponents AND fights her potential allies harder. The results are for everyone to witness… Legislative failures in Springfield, an opposing city council and PR blunders left and right every week.
It’s time for the mayor to stop and reassess, make the appropriate staff changes (maybe hire a legislative director that returns phone calls and emails?), and think critically of her own actions and words like she does of everyone else.
- thisjustinagain - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 5:07 pm:
Actual Red at 12:17, how about blaming the looters, rioters, shooters, and other criminals for their crimes, instead of blaming the few police who commit misdeeds. Because burning down a Wendy’s or burglarizing businesses with no role in police misconduct is “justice”, right?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 5:09 pm:
===…instead of blaming the few police who commit misdeeds.===
“Back the Blue… instead of blaming the few police who commit misdeeds.“
I mean… whew.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 6:17 pm:
With an elected school board and elected police commission the mayor’s office becomes a pale shadow of what it has been. Chicago government is ineffective now. Maybe it needs a City Manager position to get some administrative competence.
Chicago has roughly one police person for every 200 people. That should be enough to control crime and make the streets safe.
- Blue Dog - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:31 pm:
Just maybe we should be focusing on the court system instead of the police to lower the crime rate. A civilian judicial oversight commission. Sorry. No lawyers.
- low level - Wednesday, May 19, 21 @ 11:04 pm:
She was ill prepared to begin with and hasn’t improved. No leadership.