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Hi neighbors,
It was so great to see so many of you out for our Clean & Green this Saturday. It was such wonderfully messy fun cleaning up the streets and sidewalks with all of you! I also had fun meeting with Pack 4606 over at St. Helen Catholic Church. Scouts, if this gets to you through your parents, thank you for all of your questions! I hope I get to help you with an Eagle Scout project someday.
I'm excited for two items I've led on and which passed through committee in the past week to come before the full City Council on Wednesday. I shared previously on the Living Wage for Musicians Act Resolution which passed through the Committee on Workforce Development last week. Yesterday, the Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity unanimously voted on an ordinance that would create transparency on minority contracting and resident hiring commitments made by those seeking approval for major developments in the city. In the past nine years, over 270 such Planned Developments have been approved; only two have met the equitable contracting and hiring commitments they made. Now the public–and elected officials–will finally know how the measure up to their goals.
On a more sober topic, I share the frustration of so many of you concerning the preliminary budgets being presented to our CPS schools. On the heels of a $300m+ CPS property tax increase as well as last year's reductions in positions like crossing guards and Safe Passage workers, it's beyond discouraging to see CPS leadership suggesting further cuts in educational positions to balance their budget. All of this is happening while CPS' fails to pay its cafeteria workers a decent wage. During briefings on this budget for alders last week, CPS officials could not name any actionable revenue sources they were working on to close their $733m projected budget gap. As someone about to start a 15 year CPS' educational journey with my kids, this is unacceptable. I'll be reaching out to all of the board members who represent parts of the 1st Ward to ask what actions they plan to take.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
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