Progressive Caucus lays out 2018 legislative priorities

CHICAGO (January 31, 2018)–With just over a year to go before the next municipal election, the Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Caucus mapped out its policy priorities for 2018 on Wednesday.

“We set out to accomplish a robust legislative agenda at the beginning of this term, and we’ve already achieved a great deal,” said Progressive Caucus Chair Ald. Scott Waguespack (32). “But there is much more work to be done to advance our goal of building a more just and equal Chicago.”

Progressive Caucus 2018 Legislative Priorities

Workers’ Rights

• Airport Labor Peace Ordinance: While the Progressive Caucus played a critical role in passing the Service Employees International Union Local 1 airport workers labor peace agreement last September, there is still work to be done to ensure the ordinance is fully implemented to ensure workers at Chicago’s airports receive a raise to $13.45 an hour and the right to choose a better future with SEIU Local 1. The Progressive Caucus is committed to vigilantly monitoring the implementation process and continuing to advocate for the rights of airport workers.

• Airport Security Officers Ordinance: In 2017, Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans ordered the word “police” removed from badges, uniforms, and vehicles of Aviation Security Officers, and ordered changes to job duties which require Chicago Police Department officers to respond first to a disturbance at the airport. Aviation Officers must now request CPD officers when they observe a disturbance at the airport, rather than responding directly, as they have in the past. This ordinance amendment, spearheaded by Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), would require the Department of Aviation to return police powers to Aviation Security Officers. The Progressive Caucus believes that the changes Commissioner Evans ordered violated the spirit of the original ordinance, which established Aviation Officers’ police powers. The amended ordinance returns the Aviation Security personnel to their original purpose as “law enforcement” and “peace officers.” Aviation Security Officers are hardworking members of SEIU Local 73, and the Progressive Caucus stands with them.

• Fair Workweek Chicago Ordinance: The Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance addresses the changing nature of the workforce, especially for hourly and part-time workers hired by major corporations. Increasingly, major corporate employers have made it common practice to ignore the input and real time needs of their employees in the scheduling process. Scheduling logistics do not just apply to corporate interests: working families need notice to have autonomy and structure in their lives beyond the workplace. This ordinance, which was introduced in June 2017, would address these challenges for both workers and employers. It would give workers more control over their schedules, require employers to first offer existing employees additional hours prior to hiring additional workers, and require employers to provide clear expectations about hours and schedule on an ongoing basis. It will also require clear expectations about hours and schedule from the start. The Progressive Caucus, along with the Fair Workweek Chicago Coalition, will push for passage this year.

Education

• Special Education: The Progressive Caucus has already achieved one education policy victory in 2018–pressuring Chicago Public Schools’ leadership to come before the City Council Education Committee and testify about the gross mishandling of special education resources. As a result of that hearing, CPS has committed to allocating $2.6 million this year and $5.2 million annually moving forward to fund 65 special education positions. The Progressive Caucus is encouraged by this step in the right direction, but will continue to fight for full funding of special education in CPS alongside allies such as Raise Your Hand and the Chicago Teachers Union.

• Social Workers, Nurses and Librarians: The Progressive Caucus plans to introduce a resolution urging CPS to ensure that every Chicago Public School has a full time librarian, as well as a nurse and a social worker on site everyday. Currently, students in three out of four Chicago Public schools do not have access to a librarian. There are only 250 full time nurses in CPS–not nearly enough to serve the more than 600 schools, and only 275 social workers for the nearly 400,000 students in the system. These workloads create serious hiring challenges for prospective clinicians, often compounding the limited access that many students deserve. These troubling misplaced priorities must be addressed, and the Progressive Caucus is committed to calling attention to this problem and demanding solutions.

• Protecting CPS schools: The Progressive Caucus urges the Illinois State Board of Education and Illinois General Assembly to enforce CPS’s compliance in the state mandated Chicago Educational Facilities Master Plan (CEFMP) as described in SB 630 before they are allowed to close any more schools. As the recent tumultuous school closing hearings have shown in the case of the four Englewood high schools and National Teachers Academy, certain actors with access to CPS leadership and the Mayor have been able to influence school facility decisions that have disproportionately affected African American students. Nowhere in prior iterations of the CEFMP have the proposed school actions been discussed.

Police Reform

• FOP Contract Reform: The Progressive Caucus supports a resolution introduced by the Black Caucus in 2017 demanding critical reforms to the Fraternal Order of Police contract, and joins in the Black Caucus’ commitment to vote against the contract if the Emanuel administration does not address the reforms.

• Community Police Oversight: The Chicago Police Accountability Task Force was clear in its report that the City should create a Community Safety Oversight board with the power to oversee CPD, COPA and all police oversight mechanisms. The Emanuel administration promised that an ordinance creating such a body was forthcoming in early 2017, but today, aldermen continue to wait for draft language that is being crafted by a coalition of community organizations. Knowing how critical community oversight is to restoring public trust in CPD, the Progressive Caucus is eager to move forward with such an ordinance in 2018.

Hiring that Represents Chicago

• Fighting Workplace Discrimination: Rampant racial and gender discrimination has permeated the culture of several City Departments. At recent hearings, it became clear that the City of Chicago has to work to ensure fair hiring and employment practices that represent and protect Chicagoans from discrimination. The Progressive Caucus will continue to seek accountability and redress in the departments where bigotry has been exposed, including the Department of Water Management.

• Strengthening Minority Contracting: The Progressive Caucus is focused on developing more equitable contracting and hiring practices with the goal of stimulating the local economy by hiring locally and requiring racial and gender parity in employment. The diversity of Chicago is an asset that must be promoted, and should be reflected in the demographics of every single employer in the city.

Protecting All Chicagoans

• Welcoming City Ordinance: The Progressive Caucus is committed to protecting all residents of the City of Chicago, regardless of immigration status. Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) and Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), with 26 co-sponsors, introduced amendments to the City’s Welcoming City Ordinance to ensure all immigrants are protected under Chicago’s sanctuary policy, without exception. At a time where the White House is undertaking illegal measures against undocumented Chicagoans and their families, the Progressive Caucus continues to fight alongside undocumented Chicagoans, immigrant rights organizations, and the ACLU of Illinois for the passage of amendments to the municipal code that would further prevent collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE.

• Protecting Public Health:  Every Chicagoan deserves access to affordable, comprehensive and quality medical and health care. The Progressive Caucus fought against the closing of several public health clinics in the City of Chicago, and has since demanded that the City of Chicago Health Department establish more public health services for Chicagoans in need. While Governor Rauner continues to gut public health and social services throughout Illinois, Chicago must redouble its investment in providing essential health services to all Chicagoans, especially low-income and underserved communities. In 2018, the Progressive Caucus will work to oppose cutbacks in needed public healthcare provided by the City.

Housing Justice

• Just Cause Eviction: Housing is a human right. At a time when growing numbers of Chicagoans face rising rents, the Progressive Caucus will work towards legislation that will ensure renters may only be evicted for just cause. Some form of “just cause” is the law, by some counts, in seven states and fifteen cities, including Berkeley, Los Angeles, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

• Keeping the Promise Ordinance: The Progressive Caucus continues to support the principles of the Keeping the Promise Ordinance, which is stalled in committee at present. The Chicago Housing Authority has an important role to play in ensuring all Chicagoans have access to dignified and affordable housing. The Keeping the Promise Ordinance would: (1) integrate CHA housing into low-poverty areas of the city to transform Chicago’s history of race- and class-based exclusion of low-income families and families of color from “opportunity areas” in the city, (2) prevent further net loss of low-income housing by adopting a city policy of one-for-one replacement of standing public housing units; and (3) ensure CHA is meeting its mandate by improving transparency and accountability at the agency. Caucus members will push forward with Keeping the Promise in 2018.

• Building New Affordable Housing Units Throughout Chicago: Progressive Caucus members represent a diverse cross-section of Chicago. The Progressive Caucus supports the construction of mixed-income developments that bring new affordable housing units into the market. The Caucus will continue to advocate for the approval of developments that create safe, stable and affordable housing across Chicago with a priority on low poverty opportunity areas.

Environmental Protection

• Fossil Fuel Divestment: Ald. John Arena (45) has worked closely with environmental organization 350.org to lead the way on a legislative initiative to divest City stocks and bonds from fossil fuel companies, to be completed over the next five years. It also calls upon the Pension Boards of Chicago’s four pension funds to immediately cease any new direct investments in fossil fuel companies, divest promptly in any direct holdings, and request fossil fuels be removed from commingled funds within five years. The Progressive Caucus supports the broader goal of establishing investment policy that mandates investment in ESG (environmentally responsible, sustainable and good governance practices) compliant investments and seeks to join other major cities by committing to move the City to 100 percent clean energy sources by 2030.

• Coal Tar Sealant Ban: Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) and Ald. John Arena (45) introduced this legislation in partnership with Sierra Club Illinois to ban coal tar sealants from being sold or used in the City of Chicago. Pollution from coal tar and other pavement sealants containing high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is a major problem in the Midwest. This ordinance will help prevent dust from coal tar, a known human carcinogen, from being tracked into our homes. It will protect aquatic organisms in Illinois’ waterways from sealant runoff containing high levels of dangerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

• Recycling Contract: The Department of Streets and Sanitation recycling contract is up in 2018, and the Progressive Caucus is committed to ensuring that the new contract is a good deal for taxpayers and for our environment. Today, the City’s recycling program falls far short of where it should be, and aldermen lack the data they need to evaluate it effectively. The Progressive Caucus has already entered an Order demanding a full audit of the City’s recycling and waste management programs. In the coming months, the Progressive Caucus will continue to work with the Illinois Environmental Council, Sierra Club Illinois, the Chicago Recycling Coalition and other environmental groups to push for transparency and accountability for the new recycling contract to ensure a better deal that better protects public health and the environment moving forward.

Responsible Financial Stewardship

• “Back to Basics” Tax Increment Finance Reform: The Progressive Caucus introduced the “Back to Basics” TIF ordinance in 2016, with the goal of limiting the use of tax increment finance dollars to redevelopment projects in “blighted” areas, in which the property in question is vacant and/or obsolete, and that can prove that the project would be unable to move forward without TIF support. This ordinance is sorely needed, as TIF today is notoriously used in already financially stable or even thriving neighborhoods, and is handed out to development companies that could adequately finance the projects in question through private means. The Progressive Caucus will work to move the ordinance out of the Finance Committee in 2018.

• Property Tax Reassessment Order: Earlier this month, Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22) and 21 cosponsors introduced an order to require the City’s Law Department to challenge property tax assessments on seven downtown commercial buildings. The order focuses on buildings that sold for more than twice as much as value assigned them by the Cook County Tax Assessor. The Progressive Caucus has long advocated City Hall to challenge the process creating an imbalance in our property tax assessment system that starves our public schools and other City agencies of needed revenue. This order is one tactic that aims to call attention to this problem.

• Progressive Revenue in the FY 2019 Budget: Every year, the Progressive Caucus pushes for progressive revenue options to ensure that the very wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes, and that the Emanuel administration does not balance its budget on the backs of working families. The Caucus has advocated for State action to generate progressive revenue, including a progressive income tax, a graduated city income tax and a financial transaction tax. The Caucus has also pointed to service taxes as a major potential source of revenue. According to a 2012 report from the Office of the Inspector General, taxing services like accounting, tax prep, bookkeeping services, portfolio management and others at a rate of 2.25 percent could generate hundreds of millions annually. The Progressive Caucus will continue to advocate for these revenue options and more in the FY 2019 budget.

“This is an ambitious legislative agenda, but it is sorely needed if we are to ensure that our city is on the path toward becoming a place where working families can thrive,” said Ald. Leslie Hairston (5). “We are united in our commitment to working in coalition with all of our City Council colleagues to pass these ordinances and more in 2018.”

The Progressive Reform Caucus of the Chicago City Council is dedicated to creating a more just and equal Chicago, combating all forms of discrimination, and advancing public policies that offer genuine opportunity to all Chicagoans, especially those who have been left out of our society’s prosperity. The Progressive Reform Caucus includes Ald. Sophia King (4) Ald. Leslie Hairston (5); Ald. Roderick T. Sawyer (6); Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10); Ald. Toni Foulkes (16); Ald. David Moore (17); Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22); Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29); Ald. Scott Waguespack (32); Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35); and Ald. John Arena (45).

 

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