Public Meetings Report

ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD/SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

BY SCOTT PEMBERTON AND DOCUMENTERS

June 19

The inaugural meeting of the 8th Police District Council (Chicago Lawn) saw council members taking questions from attendees, asking them to complete a survey about the role of the council, and resolving technical issues, including website and email access, to support the council’s goals to be more transparent and accessible. This district is the second largest of the city’s twenty-two police districts. It comprises nine wards and ten community areas, including parts of Ashburn, Archer Heights, Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, Midway, and West Lawn. The council plans to rotate its monthly meetings to each of the community areas in the district. The district councils are one of two new bodies launched this year to ensure “police oversight, accountability, and public safety,” according to the initiative’s website. The other agency is the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA). While the districts’ responsibilities are to “improve policing and public safety, the CCPSA is charged with advancing “systemic reform.”

June 20

The day after the Chicago City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks, and Building Standards approved the Warehouse as an historic landmark at its meeting, City Council made it official. From 1977 to 1982, when the City closed it amid building safety concerns, the Warehouse made its mark as the birthplace of House music. The popular West Loop nightclub at 206 S. Jefferson was also considered a safe space for Black and queer Chicagoans. Landmark status offers protections from demolition and some alterations. Two other notable decisions were made by the Committee: an iconic Hamm’s beer sign can now be displayed again outside Archie’s Iowa Rockwell Tavern., and an amendment to “Planned Development No. 965” was presented to ensure that cannabis-related business activities can be approved at Scottsdale Shopping Center at 79th Street and Cicero Avenue.

June 21

At its meeting, the Department of Public Health’s Board of Health learned more about an initiative to measure the intensity of hot weather in Chicago. The City will be part of a nationwide effort to track temperatures in eighteen cities on a single day in July (the day was not specified in the meeting). The program is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Two hundred volunteers are needed to follow routes in the city with sensors attached to their cars. In 1995, South and West side residents were hardest hit during a five-day heat wave that took more than seven hundred lives, mostly poor, elderly, and Black. The committee also heard about Chicago’s broader environmental health plans under a Healthy Chicago 2025 initiative, whose goal is to reduce the city’s racial life expectancy gap by dealing with environmental factors. About $30 million in American Rescue Plan funds and bonds are on the table for several new environmental justice initiatives, including a network to monitor air locally, remediation of polluted sites, and an impact assessment to measure results.

At its second meeting with recently elected Mayor Brandon Johnson presiding, the City Council addressed two settlement payments, both of which were approved unanimously: one for one million dollars to the estate of Sharell Brown, who was killed by a CPD officer in May 2019, and another, in an unrelated case, to Arthur Brown for $7.25 million. Brown wrongfully spent thirty years in prison for an arson and two resulting deaths he wasn’t responsible for. He also received the same amount from Cook County. The Council spent no time on Arthur Brown’s settlement, but there was some back and forth over the Sharell Brown settlement, which was approved by a vote of thirty-five to fifteen. The Council also passed resolutions recognizing Pride Month, Juneteenth and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, whose headquarters is in Chicago at 5656 S. Stony Island Avenue. Founded at Howard University in 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first sorority for Black women. Alumni include Vice President Kamala Harris, novelist Toni Morrison, and actor Phylicia Rashad.

June 28

At its meeting, the Chicago Board of Education got a look at the proposed 2024 fiscal year budget for CPS, which comes to $9.4 billion (an increase of $500 million), and received an update on Whole School Comprehensive Safety Plans. They are designed to give schools and their Local School Councils (LSCs) the opportunity to consider the needs of their individual schools in a unified way. This approach took effect in 2021, after school safety commanded more attention in 2020 amidst calls for the removal of school resource officers (SROs). These SROs were supplied by CPD at an annual cost of $33 million. Each spring, LSCs choose how they will use SROs in their schools: two officers, one officer, or no officers. Those that cut back or eliminate SROs are supposed to receive the corresponding funds for other items, such as culture and climate positions like social workers or therapists. Board president Miguel del Valle, who faced protestors outside his house in 2020 due to his support of SROs, announced his retirement this month. Broadly, the CPS 2024 fiscal year budget breaks down into $8.5 billion for operations (day-to-day expenses); $155 million for the capital budget, which is used for school buildings and infrastructure; and $785 million for debt service—payments for principal and interest on bonds issued to fund the capital budget.

June 29

At its meeting, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted in support of two resolutions aimed at supporting and protecting queer and trans-affirming care and expression. Public commenters largely supported this stance, but some argued that it wasn’t enough. Latonya Maley, executive director of Affinity Community Services, thanked the commissioners for pushing the resolutions forward. Other commenters called for better maternity benefits, especially where it concerns the treatment of Black women and birthing by hospitals. Resolutions to inquire and work to understand and improve the treatment of Black women in hospitals, especially in regards to birth, were passed unanimously. There was a show of support for workers and small business through wage increases and better parental leave for SEIU Local 73 members and small business grants. Commissioners addressed myriad other items during the three-hour meeting, including support for a statewide prohibition on the sale of flavored nicotine products; which thirty-five sheriff’s department positions were reclassified (and why); a commissioner commending Fair Transit South Cook Pilot Program for “stellar performance” and an increase in Metra ridership; and concerns about information sharing between the sheriff’s department and other government agencies. Several commissioners voiced support for Wear Orange Month (June) as it was ending. The month calls attention to the tragedy of gun violence.

The selection of a new CPD superintendent is moving forward,the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) reported during its meeting. COPA has interviewed several candidates; three nominees will be selected in a closed meeting and sent to the Mayor by July 14. The mayor has until August 14 to choose one of those candidates or reject them, explain why, and ask COPA for three new nominees. Among COPA’s stated goals is to address a backlog of aging cases. Chief administrator Andrea Kersten explained that the process, which would begin July 1, includes 1,400 cases ranging from two to four years old. She believes delays in resolving cases might affect disciplinary action and wants cases resolved in two years in the future. Cases related to violation of Rule 14, which prohibits officers from making false reports, and officer-involved shootings will not be considered during this process. Updates on progress towards other goals included that the Commission has received an officer wellness strategy from CPD, that some officers are completing a training program, and that CPD has reported distribution of guidelines about how to treat migrants.

This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.