“Several years ago, then-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ran her campaign on the promise that she would make the city of Chicago safer. It is no secret that predominantly Black neighborhoods like mine suffer disproportionate violence. What did she do upon being elected? She declared Chicago a sanctuary city, not for those suffering violence, but for newly arrived migrants. Why do they get the sanctuary and not our life-long taxpayers?”

Turnover is expected during a regime change at City Hall. However, the churn of administrative roles, including many brought on after Brandon Johnson took office, suggests a deeper and ongoing large-scale departure.

In a separate podcast from February 24th of this year called “Through the Portal”, three months before Kennedy Bartley was named Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Managing Deputy for External Relations, Bartley talked about lobbying city council members to cut the police budget. “We need to be talking about ‘Defund,” Bartley says in the podcast.

“There have been instances of crime, drinking, drug use. Folks living in the encampment using the lagoon as their restroom. Residents are rightly concerned about public health and safety there,” said Ald. Samantha Nugent.

Public records requests show the Johnson administration is spending $12,250,500 on salaries in the Mayor’s office alone—and out of that, $5,295,952 on 28 executive-level positions. Mayor Brandon Johnson has created least three more of those higher-paid positions in his time as mayor compared with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had 25. Mayor Rahm Emanuel had 16.

“Throughout this year, we were able to open enough shelters to the point where we had excess capacity. And as we looked at making fiscally sound decisions we knew that we needed to downsize the shelter system in the fall,” said Beatriz Ponce De Leon, Deputy Mayor for Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights.

For almost half a year, the city has enforced its 60-day policy to remove migrants from shelters. That policy was extended for families in March to ease the disruption on school-aged children. This school year, in an effort to condense shelters and save money, city and state officials are continuing to push children out.

“A person making $24,500 per year, living in an inherited home, could easily be taxed into poverty, and forced to sell a property they own outright, because they can’t afford the tax bills; progressive politicians are taxing people out of their own homes, and as always, the hardest hit are those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.”

The advocates say CPS is violating a federal law that requires districts to provide transportation for students with disabilities if it is in their Individualized Education Programs; As of Sept. 4, the district reported 2,226 students with disabilities had yet to be routed. Advocates are urging the state board to monitor the district as it did in 2021 and 2022.

In 2013, Jackson Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiring with his then-wife, Sandi Jackson, to illegally use $750,000 in campaign funds for personal purposes. He was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and served about half of that term behind bars before being released to a halfway house in March 2015 to finish the sentence.

The city now generates a surplus in the water fund of $4.1 million each year that it transfers to the general fund to cover other city operating expenses that don’t have their own designated revenue stream. Water Production Bureau Chief Darrell King suggests that if that transfer were reduced by $2 million, it would eliminate the need for a water and sewer rate increase next year.

“As with many wicked problems in public policy, two roads diverge — to spend or not to spend on existing programs — and we keep taking the one most traveled, ignoring that it isn’t making enough of a difference.”

Mayor Charles Griffin maintains his innocence against charges that he embezzled tens of thousands of dollars from the tiny cash-strapped south suburb, in one of the few public corruption cases against elected officials brought by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Court records show that one of Griffin’s criminal charges — misappropriation of financial institution property — was dropped earlier this year, but Foxx’s office won’t say why.

Pressed on whether CPD can afford to freeze hiring while operating nearly 2,000 officers short, Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson said: “That’s the conversation that needs to be had. And frankly, a critical actor in all of that too often is missing from that conversation: the Chicago City Council. They have to ask

“…I joined my colleagues from the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association to release a letter signed by every sheriff from our state’s 102 counties decrying political violence in any form. Our words are direct and straightforward: Violence for any reason is illegal, immoral and anti-American! … Community leaders must understand the urgency of addressing political violence head on.”