[remote or in-person; 10am-1:30pm] 2025 Chicago budget hearing: Board of Elections, Human Resources, Environment, Admin, Animal Care & Control, City Treasurer

Chicago City Council

Finance

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024
10:00 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. CST

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121 N La Salle St Chicago, IL 60602 (Directions)

2nd floor, Council Chambers

This is an assignment to document a 3.5-hour portion of Chicago City Council’s 2025 budget process.

You have the option of documenting this meeting in person or remotely.

If you choose to attend in person, an additional hour will be added to your total assignment hours. Please note that there may be increased security and restrictions; use a clear bag if possible and leave large water bottles, thermoses and pepper spray at home. If you choose to document remotely, the meeting will be live-streamed at https://www.chicityclerk.com/.

At this link, scroll down to “Meeting Notices.” Look for “Watch now” and click on the link with the meeting title to go to a livestream page. If you don’t see a link for the meeting, you may be early or the meeting may be starting late. Wait a few moments and try refreshing your Internet tab.

Other notes and pre-research resources

For more info and resources, see our Chicago Documenters Guide to the City’s 2025 Budget Process (in 2024).
Chicago Councilmatic: This civic data org’s website has a lot of the information that can be found on the city’s database in a more user-friendly format, as well as context on City Council and alders.
Applicants who completed 2025 budget season training on Oct. 21 or 22 will receive an extra hour of pay on each assignment they submit.
New this year, we are capping departmental budget hearing assignments at 3.5 hours (plus 2 hours outside work). Please take note of the time slot indicated in the assignment title. You will be paid for the full 3.5 hours regardless of whether the meeting starts late or a break occurs, but you should conclude your coverage when the end of your shift arrives. In the event that a meeting runs past the end of the afternoon shift, we will assign someone to take notes on the remaining portion. More details here

Check the source website for additional information

Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Live reporting by Adlyn Morrison

Addy Morrison @sweet_as_banana

Hi, my name is Addy Morrison w/@CHIdocumenters. Today I'll be live tweeting the 2025 Chicago Budget Hearing: Board of Elections, Department of Human Resources, Department of the Environment, Department of Administrative Hearings, Animal Care and Control, and adding City Treasurer

10:06 AM Dec 3, 2024 CST

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You can find details of the meeting here: chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Meeting/?meeti…

chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Meeting/?meeti…

Addy Morrison @sweet_as_banana 3/37

The meeting has begun at 10:08am.

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We now begin with public comments. The first one up is Chicago's 'Concerned Citizen' George Blakemore who is concerned about the lack of aldermen at today's meeting.

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Next is Mr. Tyrone Muhammed. He is here to speak on the Hemp Ordinance. He is a business owner. He presented an ordinance over 3 months ago to Ald. Burnette who gave it to Ald. Lee and he assumes to the Mayor. He's upset that the ordinance wasn't presented as written.

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Mr. Tyrone Muhammed is also upset that his ordinance wasn't called to the table and he believes it's because he wasn't apart of the democratic party establishment.

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Next is Steve Dale a certified animal behavior consultant, a radio host of WGN of 30 years, and a Volunteer Task Force on Companions animals and Public Safety for Chicago. He comes to advocate that CACC receive more funding from the city. The lack of funding leads to euthanasia.

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Next is Lucy Kay. She is also here to advocate on behalf of CACC (Animal Care and Control). She is concerned about the lack of transparency and wants an audit to address animal welfare concerns.

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She continues to say the CACC has inadequate staffing and leadership which has lead to unsanitary conditions, and poor treatment of animals of animals at the shelter.

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Ms. Ayana Simba of the Illinois Environmental Council testifies on behalf of over 100 organizations highlighting the Department of Environment's progress and lack of enforcement power.

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Ms. Simba calls for restorations of the DOE's enforcement authority in next year's budget, citing 50% drop in environmental inspections and inequitable outcomes.

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Ms. Jessica Jackson is now up. She says the only way the city would be concerned about dogs is if there were illegal immigrant dogs. She is serious. She goes on to say the city cares more about illegal immigrants than Americans who are kicked out of their properties.

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Ms. Jackson wonders where Kwame Raoul, the Illinois Attorney General hiding. She understands he is Haitian, maybe he is missing due to I.C.E. so that the criminals may be prosecuted.

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A speaker whose name I missed, is here to address concerns about his family's property. He claims Cook County and the City of Chicago of taking his family property due to emanant domain and not paying him. This violate the 5th & 14th amendment "on top of other federal laws."

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This ends public comments.

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Director Janice Sotogray presents the 2025 budget report for Chicago Board of Elections. The board aims to improve accessibility and voter engagement in Chicago elections. Board plans to update voter form, conduct citywide survey, and improve election infrastructure.

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Ald. O'Shea asks executive director Charles Holiday, Jr. about combining efforts with the county to save money. Mr. Holiday suggests the City of Chicago and Cook County leadership getting together with the Board of Elections discuss the cost savings.

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Ald. Quinn expresses skepticism about merging Chicago Board of Elections with the county, citing voter choice and infrastructure needs. Mr. Holiday highlights potential cost savings from reducing the number of precincts and replacing them with accessible early voting sites.

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Vice Mayor Burnett asks about the cost of school board elections and early voting. He also goes on to question how much the City of Chicago would save considering that the suburbs have many more elections than Chicago.

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Ald. Lopez echoes his previous collogues about merging the City of Chicago with the Cook County Board of Elections. He adds 68% of the voters support merging with the Cook County.

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Ald. Taylor inquires on the training of election judges. She then retells the difficulty voters had in her precinct b/c some portions of her precinct merged w/another--unbeknownst to her. This confused the voters and caused some to not vote.

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Ald. Taylor wants the BOE to revamp due the training of the judges due to their mishandling of the election in her ward.

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Ald. Hadden also questions how much money Chicago would save with merging the county with the city. She goes on to say that while efficiency is wanted, effectiveness should be prioritized.

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Ald. Reilly asks about vacancies (there are 14). He asks how many will be cut (there will be 0).

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Ald. Reilly criticizes the BOE for placing voting locations in the 47th ward/downtown that lack parking. He always sends alternative locations and the BOE always chooses Maggie Daley Park (MDP). Ald. Reilly says his constituents are not at MDP again and he is over the excuses.

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Lastly, Ald. Reilly voices it isn't difficult to merge Cook County's BOE with the Chicago's BOE. Cook County used to administer all of Chicago's elections. "We're talking like this is some untried experiment."

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This concludes round one. We are now on round two.

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Ald. Lopez inquires about removing inactive voters from rolls. An unknown speaker discusses voter roll purging: inactive status, ect., and says expensive individual investigations can be conducted for more active purging.

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Ald. Lopez inquire how the BOE informs the public of polling locations when precients merge. A Mr. Max Beaver with the BOE states mailers are sent and the board tries to push voters to the website to find out their polling place.

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The committee is breaking for lunch and will reconvene at 1pm for the next department: Human Resources.

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The committee has reconvened at 1:09pm. We now hearing from Human Resources.

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Daniel Fristrom, from the City Council's Office of Financial Analysis proposes the Department of Human Resources have a 13.49 million budget for FY 2025--an 8% higher than FY 2024.

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Next, Commissioner Sandra Blakemore presents the 2025 budget requests for the Department of Human Resources.

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Commissioner Blakemore discusses the Department of Human Resources' (DHR) performance management program, employment services, handling of do not hire list, and harassment cases.

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Ald. O'Shea expresses concern over sexual harassments cases in city government.

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Ald. Lopez asks about the city budget, personnel, and the long hiring processes with focus on external factors affecting background checks.

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It is 1:40p.m. and my time to live-tweet the Chicago budget event has been completed. Thank you so much for reading.

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Agency Information

Chicago City Council

chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov

(312) 744-3166

@ChiCouncil

See Documenters reporting

The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago and consists of the Mayor and Aldermen elected from each of the City’s fifty wards. Source

If you attend a meeting in person, be prepared to go through a security checkpoint and show photo ID.

Meetings are also livestreamed at https://www.chicityclerk.com/.

Recordings of past City Council meetings may be found here: https://vimeo.com/user100351763/videos/sort:date.

See also: “What to Expect at a Meeting of Chicago’s City Council” via the Better Government Association.