Find out the latest legislative updates from this month’s City Council!
Legislative Updates
PRO/FAIR
Mayor Johnson introduced the Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO) earlier this year. Our office is deeply in support of any efforts that further the goal of renter affordability and tenant rights. While Ald. Vasquez did initially have some concerns about the impact of the ordinance on smaller landlords of owner-occupied buildings, these concerns were addressed in negotiations.
Unfortunately, due to a competing ordinance that was introduced—the FAIR Ordinance—PRO was deferred and published. While it’s disappointing that it was not passed, we are hopeful that both groups will be able to come to a compromise that benefits renters in Chicago, and will continue to work toward that end.
Chicago Parking Meter Sale
Earlier this year, we held a hearing in the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights about Stonepeak’s ownership of Omni Air International, which is one of ICE’s largest contractors of deportation flights. Omni has a history of human rights abuses on these flights, which we heard about in detail during the hearing. Before and after that hearing, we raised concerns about allowing a company that financially benefits from these human rights abuses also benefitting from Chicago infrastructure. We are proud to say that as a result of that public pressure, City Council was able to secure Stonepeak’s commitment to sell Omni, a sale which was finalized this past weekend.
In addition to the sale of Omni, City Council members were able to secure a much better deal on the parking meters, including:
- An upfront payment of $75,000,000 to the city
- A 5% share of annual Net Operating Income (NOI) generated by the parking meters
- A 2% transfer fee on any future sale of CPM
We are grateful for the work of fellow City Council members in securing a deal that is much better for the future of the city of Chicago—and one that does not betray our values as a Welcoming City.
As a result, Ald. Vasquez joined 32 Alders in voting yes on this deal, and it passed City Council.
Bond Debt
City Council also voted on a measure that would require 3/5th of City Council to vote in support of a bond before it is approved. While we are generally in support of efforts to reduce City debt, a 3/5ths majority risks holding up infrastructure bonds that the city depends on to complete infrastructure improvements that are necessary for safety, and are too large to be funded within a particular year.
The measure passed, but as the majority was not veto-proof, we anticipate that the Mayor may veto. In the meantime, Ald. Vasquez hopes to introduce an ordinance that would include transparency measures to get City Council more frequent and detailed reporting on city debt, including:
- Reporting on spending from bond accounts, how they were allocated and for what purpose;
- Regular reporting on interest rates, including the credit rating for each open bond/debt instrument and how that impacts interest;
- Timely notification when bonds are securitized and repackaged, and reporting on how those sales will impact spending and interest rates.
Legislative Introductions
SMART Streets Expansion
The Smart Streets pilot was introduced in 2024 to improve traffic safety. Smart Streets uses cameras mounted on City vehicles and CTA buses to encourage safe driver behavior, improve parking compliance to reduce crashes and pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, and increase transit efficiency.
Since its launch, drivers who blocked bike and bus lanes have been fined nearly $4.5m, and Chicago has raised $2.6m in revenue from tickets. Most people who got a ticket did not commit another infraction, which points to the program’s success. However, commercial vehicles (e.g. delivery vehicles) have continued to rack up tickets. This is one argument for expanding the program: if the scope of this program is limited to the pilot area, companies can continue to rack up fines without curbing this behavior. But if the program expands citywide, our hope is that companies will finally crack down on enforcing this policy among drivers.
The proposed expansion ordinance would expand the program citywide, and add some additional reporting requirements, including a comparison of the number of citations issued, the underlying covered offense types, and collection rate between type of vehicle and commercial vehicles vs. private vehicles.
This ordinance will be up for debate in the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety next Friday, October 9th, at 10:30am. We invite you to attend and voice your support if you’re able!
Referendum Questions
Individual wards can introduce referendum questions for their residents to vote on, so they can get a sense of their community’s position on an issue. After discussing some of the most urgent issues on the minds of our neighbors at the Policy Town Hall, we introduced the following referendum questions:
- Should the City implement ranked-choice voting?
- Should the City pass a moratorium on new data centers?
- Should the City implement Bus Rapid Transit on Western Ave?
These referendum questions have been referred to the Committee on Rules for further discussion.