Return to 2023 City Budget Hearing [Overview] MORNING
Live reporting by Isabelle Stroobandt
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Pension obligations, Department of the Environment, Growth in Mayor's Office staff

Izzy Stroobandt

08:59 AM Oct 6, 2022 CDT

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Today we will hear presentations from:
1) Susie Park, Budget Director - Office of Budget and Management
2) Jennie Huang Bennett, Chief Financial Officer
3) Reshma Soni, City Comptroller - Department of Finance

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We’re waiting for 15 council members to show up for a quorum and we can get started. Presenters will give an overview of the the 2023 budget proposal for their department.

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Still waiting on three more council members to join for a quorum.

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In these moments I’m truly confused by how City Council members just don’t show up on time — or at all, in many cases.

Like, where are y’all at?? Is there something more important at 9:00am today than how the City’s money will be spent for the next year??

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We are finally called to order at 9:26am. Doing a roll call

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Ald. Pat Dowell is Chair for the Committee on Budget and Government Operations and is leading the meeting.

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First round of questioning is limited to 10 min per Alder, and second round is 5 min per Alder.

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Each department has 72 hours or less to submit any information requested through the chair.

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There is nobody scheduled for public comment today.

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Susie Park, Budget Director for Office of Budget and Management is now presenting.

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Park: The budget gap increased to $1.2 Billion in 2021 because of the pandemic

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Park: “Now, as we prepare to discuss the 2023 budget, I am in awe at the resilience of this city,”

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Park: “With this budget, we will be putting more dollars toward our pension funds”

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Park: The proposed gap for this year continues “to focus on community safety and a stable financial recovery” … there are “no new taxes”

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Park: The city gathered feedback and input from residents on their priorities and what success looks like to them … the 2023 budget is the City’s “stability” budget

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Park’s comments conclude and we’re moving to Jennie Huang Bennett, Chief Financial Officer

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Huang Bennett: “After three decades of pursuit of a casino, the City approved a new Chicago casino this year, which will generate $5B of new value to fund police and fire pension funds,”

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Huang Bennett: “The city climbed a debt ramp in 2022,”

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Huang Bennett: “Because of the debt reduction, the city can fund the largest investment plans in the city’s history … without an increase in our debt load,”

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Huang Bennett: “The city has the wear with all to start paying down our pension debt because of a strong Chicago economic recovery,”

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Huang Bennett: While our pension accomplishments have been significant, what it really means is we’re meeting minimum payments on our pension credit card.

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Now moving to Reshma Soni, City Comptroller for the Department of Finance.

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Soni: The clear path program has waived $22 million of ticket debt in just six months

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Soni: Enhancements to payment plans that were implemented in 2021 allows motorists more time to put less money down for fees

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Soni: This budget includes reforms related to administrative hearing debt

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Soni: The UBR home program has allowed homeowners to have $55M forgiven after a year in the program

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Ald Mitts and Sposato have joined as members of the committee.

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Starting off questions with one from Chair Dowell: Can you define what aging means when doing fund sweeping?

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Soni: We’re looking at funds we have established since the inception of the city to see if they can be swept for revenue —for example: landscape deposits that were returned, grant funds that expired before fully being used

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Dowell: I noticed a $40M increase for hospital claims, that seems really high — what’s the increase?

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Soni: What we’ve seen in the past year due to inflation, the costs are increasing by 10-14% — most of the 70 providers we use are asking for an increase of that much. Lack of staffing, greater needs is driving up the overall cost.

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Dowell; You mentioned awarding a contract for a third party administrator — who is that?

Soni; Not chosen yet, in the process of going through that

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Starting the questioning with Ald. Michelle Lee, 11th Ward.

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Lee: Can you explain the $242M advance pension payment? What will that look like if the market doesn’t recover?

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Huang Bennett: That debt outstanding will continue to accrue interest, so advance payments we can make — and the number we’ve calculated here — we expect to save us approx $2B

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All from Lee, moving on to Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd Ward

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Waguespack: What is the outlook on the advanced payment pension from rating agencies / investors?

Huang Bennett: We won’t know for a while, but the contributions we’ve made for the past couple of years has been recognized

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Waguespack: What’s the difference between the “more aggressive approach” to TIFFs?

Park: We’re following the same methodology but going through TIF by TIF to see what is a part of a program

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Waguespack: The RFP for third-party contractors and consultants — who we’ve heard aren’t getting paid on time — what does this third party do for expediting those payments?

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Soni; We’ve been looking at what is causing the delay in house, and working with DPS. From a timing perspective, trying to see how we can get this to flow better between departments + utilizing technology advancements.

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Waguespack: What are you targeting with that risk management funding? “We want to see these numbers come down, I think they are — but where are you working on that?”

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Soni: We have a risk management division within Finance that manages risk for the entire city. Making sure all contractors have the proper insurance and recovering costs from contractors.

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Ald. Harry Osterman, 48th Ward, is now speaking:

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Osterman: “It is my strong belief that we should have a department of environments, for many reasons.”

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Osterman: “It is only going to get worse. For our City to have a coordinated, robust response to this, it would feel like having a Department of Environment would be the way to go.”

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Osterman: Four years ago, the Council created the Department of Housing. Think about what they’ve done in the last few years? “Department of Environment, I think, could do the same thing.”

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Osterman: Every community has seen more people experiencing homelessness and with mental health problems … “We are not meeting the moment for what’s going on”

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Osterman: “We’re putting a lot of money toward this, but I don’t believe we’re dealing with it in a robust way with city employees that are on the ground, in the communities, helping support these people.”

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Osterman: The other part is the shelter system, “I don’t believe we’ve learned a lot from our COVID experience,”

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Osterman: “I would like to see, before a final budget vote, a more crystallized, on the ground plan that includes city employees that are doing this, it includes our non profits and includes a more robust shelter system to deal with what we’re dealing with,”

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Moving onto Ald. Ariel E Reboyras, 30th ward.

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Reboyras: Asks how we’re funding the “immigrants we’re getting on a daily basis today” coming to the City

Park: There’s a grant from FEMA that is now available to us — for shelter, transportation, food and wrap around services + $5M contingency amount the Mayor has set aside

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Dowell: Followed up on how much we expect to receive from FEMA

Park: What we’ve requested through the end of this year is about $16M

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Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd ward, is now speaking.

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Rodriguez: I remember meeting a family at one of the [asylum] centers … “it’s not lost on me that these people are seeking a better life”

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Rodriguez: We have a ton of non profits doing the work, at their own costs. I’m curious as to this $5M, what’s that for? Are we thinking of supporting the non profits?

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Park: The $5M is really meant to be a contingency, for the city. There’s a lot of conversation around the city becoming an umbrella and we would submit their costs to FEMA for reimbursement.

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Rodriguez: “The Latino caucus want to be involved with this and engaged, want to be at the table, but we want to make sure the nonprofits doing the work are also a part of this effort, I couldn’t be more clear on that..”

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Rodriguez: “I want a conversation about increased infrastructure spending on the Southwest side of Chicago, the fact is that we’ve got old infrastructure over there that needs repair,”

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Ald Timmy Knudsen, new 43 ward Alder, passes on questions.

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Ald. David Moore, 17th Ward, is now asking questions:

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Moore: On the lack of property tax increase: I’m always reminded when Rahm was supposed to go $800m, then went $500m, and then came back and asked for the $300m — “people can not stabilize their life that way,”

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Moore: This $100m for public safety — $36m of it will go to consent decree, which tells me I’m left with $64m

Park: The $100m is additional — “that is brand now”

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Moore: Helicopters, what’s the expected cost?

Park: $11m for the two

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Dowell: Can you break the $42m facility number down?

Park: $17.2m for maintaining facilities, $10m for fascility upgrades and $15m for joint public safety training academy center

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Park: $35m for “replacement of CPD vehicles”

Moore: We have a shortage of police vehicles, we have officers and they cannot get a car. “I need to understand what that net increase is and how that increase is spread across districts,”

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Moving to Ald. Silvana Tabares, 23rd ward:

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Tabares: What are we doing with the current helicopters?

Park: Better question for CPD

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Ald Leslie Hairston of the 5th ward is now asking questions:

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Hairston: Last year you had lobbyist activities — what was spent, how many and what activities?

Park: There are two lobbyists working on Springfield items

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Hairston: Same for Dues, Subscriptions and Memberships

Park: Generally, Newspaper subscriptions for press office, Mayor dues and memberships

Hairston: For $249,000? Do they pay dues for the law department for administrative hearings?

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Hairston: I know she cut some of those for everybody else but she kept them for herself.

Park: So we kept tho —

Hairston: We’ll move on

Park: They replenished —

Hairston: We’ll move on

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Hairston: “We need to have a Department of Environment and not another office of five or six people under the mayors office,”

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Hairston: How many blue form requests were processed last year? (Requests for increased payment that don’t need city council approval)

Park: Through the chair

Hairston: These are all questions I asked last year

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Hairston: When does the city contract with CVS end?

Soni: 2025

Hairston: “What are the plans to look at other pharmacies? Ones that serve the whole city of Chicago, and not just certain neighborhoods,”

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Soni: We’ve been working with them to make sure they’re able to offer services. “With CVS, we’ve made it a point with them to say they really need to invest in the community”

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Hairston: There are no pharmacies, if you look, on the South and West sides I would say. “They’ve had more than enough time to open up some stores and yet they’ve closed them … in the Black communities,”

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Moving onto Ald James Cappleman, 46th ward:

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Cappleman: Says he’s heard of a homeless shelter that recently gave a bed to someone who had been there for 20 years, a length of time without assistance he called “borderline fraud”

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Cappleman: When residents call 911 about an illegally parked car, it’s my understanding that CPD goes out and tickets. However, when the ward office calls about the same thing — finance goes ticket. Is finance being the only response to this doable?

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Soni: That is something weee looking to see how we can “synergize” and we’re looking to see how we can do more enforcement on that

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Cappleman: I think people think that the Alderman that screams the loudest gets things done faster, that’s just not true.

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Cappleman: Is it possible to have contractor/vendor bills processed through the DOF? Would free up time for my staff

Soni: I can work with your office or any office to work on a quicker process with fees, like rent, that are the same every payment

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Cappleman: I’m just making a comment, it’s so nice to see all women at the front.

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Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th ward, is now asking questions:

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Ramirez-Rosa: How many citywide vacancies do we have currently?

Park: 5,400

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Ramirez-Rosa: Re: Line item “for software maintenance and licensing, $8.9m” — is that all for ShotSpotter?

Park: unsure, through the chair

“I’m disappointed to continue to see this in our budget, it’s a waste of public dollars,”

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Ramirez-Rosa: “Left and right, criminal court cases are being thrown out that rely on this technology … I really hope we can get that out of our budget and use that money for things that will actually make our community safe,”

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Ramirez-Rosa: Does the 2023 proposed budget have any particular funding for the trans community?

Park: I don’t know

Dowell: CDPH, which provides spending for the “LGQBT community” might be able to address that question in more detail

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Onto Ald Tom Tunney, 44th ward, is now asking questions:

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Tunney: We should take a five year look at rainy day funds, I found out that some was taken away during the pandemic, used, and then replaced. “We should have more than a one year look at things,”

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Tunney; “I’ve asked about this before, I’m surprised it wasn’t in your narrative … where are we at with” the funded ratio of pension funds?

Huang Bennett: 24% overall

Tunney: “We really need to look at those pensions, obviously it’s our number one issue”

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Tunney: I would like to have a one pager to talk about how we relate to major cities in terms of the amount of debt we’re holding

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Ald. Emma Mitts is now asking questions:

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Mitts: How many families received cash assistance?

Park: 5,000

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Mitts: Where are those families from my ward? I would like to know that. We have no knowledge of how the city is helping.

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Mitts: Mental health issues and homelessness run “hand in hand,” … coming out of the pandemic we don’t fix things from before we’re just looking at moving forward, those problems were there before the pandemic and “just have compiled” now.

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Mitts: Chicago has a huge problem now, not just mental illness on the street but mental illness in folks like us sitting right here in this room

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Mitts: “We legalized marijuana but a lot of them have convictions and we’re not even addressing that,”

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Mitts: “We need to do a better job on homelessness. Just looking at the city survey and the homeless coalition survey, I’m wondering who was counting what. The disparity — who were they counting?”

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Mitts: “These are the things I’d like to see addressed in the budget, and then I can get around to public safety”

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Mitts: “It seems like things aren’t connected, when it comes to a lot of these services… they’re being implemented and we’re spending dollars, but they’re not being connected… That’s when you see the fruits of your labors, when you connect the dots.”

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Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th ward, now asking questions:

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Sposato: Can we set up a foster family program for asylum seekers? What’s wrong with that?

Just a suggestion feeding off comments from colleagues.

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Ald Brendan Reilly, 42nd ward, now asking questions:

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Reilly; Through the chair, let us know if you plan to eliminate any vacancies

How many non union employees are going to receive salary increases?

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Park: We’re looking at a broader study but it’s not yet known.

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Reilly: Why aren’t we doing zero based budgeting?

Park: We did that during the pandemic — scratching the things we felt we could cut. There are other costs that are increasing, we’re facing inflation.

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Reilly: Under Mayor Daley, Mayor’s office had 60 or so staff and now there’s 127 … 16 people in press office, I think Daley had 4. Why so many people in press?

Park: There’s a director, digital media, a photographer — we will lay out the mission of each section through chair

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Reilly: What purpose does an office under the mayor serve then there’s another department doing the same work?

Park: The mayors office brings the work together citywide, there are a lot of citywide investments that are coordinated through the mayors office

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Reilly: You’ve got 66 people doing policy … “it just seems like a lot of people in the Mayor’s office and other Mayors have made it work with less”

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Reilly: Advocating for “consolidated invoices” … why can’t we reconcile this and get folks one invoice, one time a year so they have predictability in what they owe to the city? “Why can’t we get this straight?”

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Now moving onto Ald Marty Quinn, 13th ward:

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Quinn: What is the total number of blue shirt officers?

Park: 8729

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Quinn: So at best we will stay there?

Park: We will have to see what the attrition is

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Quinn: Last year we talked about incentivizing officers to stay, one thing that strikes me is advertising in Cicero for police officers. Starts at $90k, you don’t have to live there — how do we compete?

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Quinn: What’re we doing to prevent losing officers we spend money to train?

Park; Investments, Police upgrades, facilities, parental leave

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Quinn: The $100M as a part of Mayors budget — is part of that license plate reading?

Park: No

Quinn: So if we want a reader, it has to come out of menu?

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Park: No, we have $5m budgeted for cameras and license plate readers in addition to menu funding

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Quinn: Concrete cost will go up at least 10% next year — will there be increases in menu?

Park: that’s something we can look at

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Huang Bennett: We have the wear with all to continue on in future years without the federal funding layered on in our corporate fund

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Quinn: What’s the plan for the 2% revenue from sports betting?

Huang Bennett: It’s not a significant amount of money

Quinn: What did Niel Bloom say? We’re gonna lose $11-12m?

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Huang Bennett: Sports betting is a very small portion of casino revenues, I seem to recall it was about $2m

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The committee is now going into an hour long lunch. We will resume at 1:15pm.

I’m gonna start a new thread for the afternoon portion of the hearing — it’ll be linked below shortly!