Dear Neighbors,
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, an opportunity to spread awareness about the impact of domestic violence and show support to victims. So, you can imagine my disappointment that not enough of my colleagues were present to establish a quorum for a hearing on domestic violence in the Committee on Police and Fire last week. I was in attendance, as I have been advocating for years for structural changes and increases to how gender-based violence funds are distributed. However, I am not a member of the Committee on Police and Fire, so my presence could not count towards quorum. Following the hearing, I joined Alderwoman Lee and Alderwoman Gutierrez to discuss opportunities to reschedule this important hearing. When we fail to show up for survivors, we signal to them that we don't care about them. Domestic violence is already underreported, so showing up in these moments is especially important.
This week, the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy, which I chair, is holding a meeting. Our agenda includes Alderman Martin's ordinance prohibiting City departments from procuring single-use Styrofoam products, Alderman LaSpata's Water 4 All ordinance, and two resolutions my committee staff worked on with high school interns. The first resolution calls on the City to implement more tools and resources to mitigate the health impacts of rising temperatures; the second resolution calls on the Illinois General Assembly to pass the POWER Act, which would establish a statewide regulatory framework for data centers. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 8th, in Council Chambers at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle. For information on how to attend a committee meeting or submit public comment, click here.
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- Thursday, October 8, 12:30 p.m., City Council Chambers:
Committee on Environmental Protection & Energy meeting
- Monday, October 12:
Indigenous Peoples Day
- Wednesday, October 14, 10 a.m., City Council Chambers:
City Council Meeting
- Thursday, October 29, 10 a.m., City Council Hall Room 1103:
Urban Forestry Advisory Board
- Thursday, October 29, 4 p.m., 49th Ward Office:
Annual Candy Crawl
- Saturday, October 31:
Halloween
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Updates on Data Center Regulation Efforts
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A panel of experts discusses the findings in the Department of Environment's Sustainable Data Center report before the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy in July
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The full City Council passed Alderwoman Hadden's data center benchmarking ordinance in September. Data centers are now required to report their energy and water use under Chicago’s benchmarking ordinance, providing essential information to the task force as it develops its regulatory recommendations.
Additionally, Alderwoman Hadden joined Mayor Johnson and Alders Robinson and Manaa-Hoppenworth to introduce a 12-month moratorium on any new data center in Chicago. The introduction is part of the recommendations from the Sustainable Data Center report, which calls on City Council to pass a temporary moratorium. The moratorium will allow the Interdepartmental Data Center and Community Protection Task Force, established in August by an Executive Order issued by Mayor Johnson, to develop a modernized regulatory framework for a new generation of data centers.
Alderman Sposato also introduced a 6-month data center moratorium at September's City Council meeting, which is seen as more favorable to the industry. Finally, Alderman Conway introduced an ordinance that would modify the City's zoning code for new data centers to trigger a Planned Development. As currently written, Chicago's zoning code permits data centers by-right in all manufacturing, commercial, and non-residential districts.
All legislation introduced to City Council in September that would impose any regulations on data centers (the two moratoriums and Ald. Conway's zoning ordinance) was referred to the Committee on Committees and Rules at the request of labor partners who stand to benefit from the temporary construction jobs that come with new data center development. The Committee on Committees and Rules is often referred to as "the committee where legislation goes to die." To move any item out of the Committee on Committees and Rules, the chair would need to call for a meeting and add the item to the agenda for a re-referral vote to a more appropriate committee. Alternatively, if an item is not taken up by the Committee on Committees and Rules within 60 days, anyone on City Council can invoke Rule 41 of the City Council Rules of Order to force a vote on the matter at a regularly scheduled City Council meeting.
Alderwoman Hadden is in discussions with her colleagues and the Department of Environment on the best path forward. Keep your eye on this space for updates.
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Revised Parking Meter Sale Passes City Council
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This month, City Council approved a revised deal to sell Chicago's parking meters from Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, a consortium backed by Morgan Stanley and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, to Stonepeak Partners. Our City's parking meters were infamously sold to Chicago Parking Meters, LLC in 2008 for a one-time payment of $1.2 billion—a transaction that has been dubbed the worst financial deal in any major US city. Since the initial sale, Chicago Parking Meters, LLC has reported approximately $2.2 billion in revenues.
Alderpeople first learned about the proposed sale ahead of a June Committee on Finance hearing, where it was revealed that the City also submitted, and then ultimately withdrew, a bid to repurchase the parking meters at approximately $800 million more than Stonepeak offered. Other concerns, such as Stonepeak's acquisition of Omni Air in 2025, which has been reported to facilitate cruel and inhumane deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security, were also addressed during the hearing.
The terms of the contract between the City of Chicago and Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, have been revisited several times since it was passed in 2008 and deemed ironclad. However, the sale of the parking meters presented a unique opportunity to revisit these conditions and see whether the City could secure better terms for Chicagoans. Since the hearing in June, alders—spearheaded by Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowery, Chairwoman Dowell, and alders Lee, Villegas, Burnett, and Waguespack—have engaged with Stonepeak to discuss opportunities to improve the new agreement.
After months of conversations, Stonepeak Partners agreed to the following terms:
- Transfer Fee: Stonepeak committed to a one-time transfer fee of $75 million to the City at closing, which will be applied to the City's pension obligations. Additionally, the City will receive 2% of any future sale of this asset.
- Profit Sharing: The City will receive 5% of annual net operating profit. This is projected to generate approximately $376 million over the remaining 57 years of the lease.
- Elimination of True-Up Costs: The City will no longer have to make up any gaps in projected revenue each year, as required under the previous contract with Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.
- Divestment from Omni Air: Stonepeak sold its Omni Air holding the day before the deal was finalized in City Council.
- Workforce Commitments: The compromise requires that at least half of the parking meter workforce reside in Chicago.
Alderwoman Hadden voted yes on the sale, which is an improvement from the original agreement penned and codified in 2008 under a different legislative body. Thank you to the leadership in City Council for advocating for these improvements for the remainder of the lease contract.
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Competing Changes to RLTO Delayed at City Council
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This month, two competing ordinances to overhaul the Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance were delayed for a final vote by the full City Council. The coalitions behind both ordinances have agreed to come to the negotiating table to identify compromises.
A substitute Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO) passed the Committee on Housing and Real Estate in September. The changes removed the just cause provisions, which opponents had stated made the allowable reasons to end a lease overly restrictive and relocation assistance excessive. Other components of the ordinance, such as the rental registry, establishment of the Bureau of Rental Housing Services, banning of junk fees, and making the eviction counsel program permanent, remained in the substitute ordinance.
The Fair and Accountable Illinois Rental (FAIR) ordinance, introduced by Alders Villegas, Lawson, Waguespack, and Cardona, also passed the Committee on Zoning, Landmarks, and Building Standards in September. FAIR maintained some of the changes in PRO, including establishing a rental registry, disallowing many junk fees, and continuing the eviction counsel program. However, tenant advocates expressed concern that FAIR would roll back some tenant protections, including the Fair Notice Ordinance requirements for 6-unit owner-occupied buildings. Other concerns included the lack of a funding mechanism for the rental registry, how owner information is captured, and moving ordinance enforcement to the Department of Buildings, which lacks the personnel and expertise to carry certain components of the ordinance.
Both ordinances were proactively blocked from a vote during the full City Council meeting this month, as alders and advocates on both sides agreed to work through the remaining differences to identify a pathway forward. I am confident Council will be able to reach a solution that addresses the remaining concerns while strengthening tenant protections in Chicago for the first time in 40 years. Keep your eye on this space for updates as they become available.
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Chairwoman Hadden Calls on the ICC to Reject Peoples Gas' Rate Hike Request
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In September, Alderwoman Hadden joined State Senator Guzman and advocates from Citizens Utility Board and Illinois PIRG for a press conference calling for the ICC to oppose Peoples Gas's rate hike request. After the press conference, Alderwoman Hadden delivered a letter to the ICC, signed by 38 alderpeople and state lawmakers, urging it to reject the rate hike request.
For years, Chicagoans have carried the burden of utility rate hikes while Peoples Gas has reported record-breaking profits year-over-year. As America's affordability crisis worsens, Peoples Gas's request to increase its profit margins even more is unconscionable and only deepens the pockets of its out-of-state parent company, WEC Energy Group.
You can watch the full press conference via our socials. We covered the rate hike filing in depth in a previous legislative newsletter, which you can read here. The ICC is expected to issue a decision on the rate case this fall.
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Heat Protections for Outdoor Workers Ordinance Updates
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Alderwoman Hadden joins Alderman Rodriguez, SEIU leadership, Arise Chicago, and the Southeast Environmental Task Force for a press conference on heat protections ahead of September's City Council meeting.
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Alderwoman's Heat Illness Prevention in Outdoor Places of Employment Ordinance faced further delays at September's City Council meeting. Alderwoman Hadden withdrew her procedural motion to force a vote on the latest substitute ordinance after well-resourced special interests applied intense pressure to kill the legislation. Despite the opposition, Alderwoman Hadden and her team remain confident that they can identify a path forward to address the concerns of the business community while implementing common-sense safeguards for some of Chicago's most vulnerable workers facing new worksite hazards due to climate change.
In September, the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed co-authored by Alderwoman Hadden, Alderman Rodriguez, and SEIU's Greg Kelley on why it's up to local legislators to pass heat protections. You can read the op-ed without a firewall at this link. You can read more about the latest version of the heat protections ordinance in the August legislative newsletter. Keep your eye on this space for updates on these efforts.
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As Alderwoman Hadden's legislative team prepares for another challenging budget season, it's reviewing reports on how the alternative 2026 budget has performed to date. They are also reviewing past years' budget analyses and survey results, all available to view on the 49th Ward website here.
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City Unveils 2027 Budget Forecast
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In August, Mayor Johnson unveiled his 2027 budget forecast. Going into 2027, the City of Chicago is projected to end the 2026 fiscal year with an $85.1 million shortfall and an $882.4 million budget gap in 2027.
The main driver of the $85.1 million shortfall is a series of untested new revenue streams that a group of alderpeople proposed and passed, but that failed to materialize. The projected $85 million gap is less than the anticipated $130 million shared earlier this summer (and covered in detail in a previous newsletter). The Office of Budget Management attributes the shrinking budget gap to revenue streams performing better than expected and lower departmental spending. In August, Mayor Johnson announced a plan to partially fill the City's projected $85 million budget gap by refinancing eligible 10-year-old city bonds, which is estimated to generate $65-$71 million in savings this year.
Rising costs and structural imbalances in revenue sources are the main drivers of the projected $882.4 million budget gap in 2027. While the Office of Budget Management anticipates local tax revenue to remain resilient in 2027, other financial obligations are set to increase, contributing to the projected $882.4 million budget gap. Bond payments and lawsuit settlements are the primary drivers of the projected budget gap, with expenses expected to increase by $334.6 million in 2027. Other contributing factors to the projected budget gap include inflationary pressures driving up energy and commodity prices, pension obligations, and rising costs tied to contractual services.
In 2026, City Council approved the largest TIF surplus to close its budget gap. In order to pass a balanced budget, the group of alderpeople who passed the alternative budget included $89 million in outstanding debt as a revenue source. Though the City made attempts to sell the outstanding debt, banks ultimately withdrew their offers due to concerns about reputational risks and unsecured debt, or debt that lacks collateral backing. Even if the $89 million materialized, it is still a one-time solution that fails to address creditors' concerns about structural revenue. Other revenue streams included in the alternative budget—such as video game terminal revenue, augmented reality revenue, and advertising revenue—have either yet to be realized or have underperformed, putting City Council and the Johnson administration back to the drawing board entering 2027 budget talks.
In September, a group of 29 alders—the same group that spearheaded the 2026 budget—issued a letter to Mayor Johnson stating their ongoing opposition to any head tax or property tax, and instead called on spending cuts to balance the budget. The City's credit rating has been downgraded in recent years for not including enough structural revenue generators in the budget and instead relying on one-time funding sources, such as large TIF surpluses. City Council would have to eliminate several departments in their entirety to close this year's budget gap without any new meaningful and viable revenue sources. Alderwoman Hadden supports efficiencies that benefit Chicagoans while also identifying progressive revenue streams that aren't balanced on the backs of Chicago's working families.
Mayor Johnson is expected to give his budget address and unveil his budget proposal during the October 14th City Council meeting. Alderwoman and her team will be reviewing reports closely as we head into budget season. Keep your eye on this space for more information and opportunities to weigh in as Mayor Johnson's 2027 budget proposal is unveiled.
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Spotlight on Environmental Justice Community Work
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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is "an organization of 2 million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide — and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society". With local chapters across the country, SEIU helps workers mobilize for better pay, the right to unionize, and more while supporting legislative changes that support workers' rights.
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Share Your Favorite Environmental Organization
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This year, the Committee on Environment is looking for more opportunities to engage with Environmental Justice organizations and spotlight their great work throughout the city. Each month, we'll share information on different organizations, their mission, goals, and how to get involved.
Do you have an organization you think should be highlighted? Share it with us at this link!
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In Other Environmental News
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2nd Annual Clean-Off Challenge
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Cleanup Club Chicago is leading Chicago in a second Clean-Off competition this year, this time against Philadelphia AND Los Angeles! The goal is to see which city can clean up the most trash in October, and all litter cleanups will count whether done at a group event or individually. All litter cleanups must be submitted through the form on the Clean-Off webpage, and photos are required. For more information on the rules and how to participate, please visit the official webpage here: https://www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org/the-clean-off.
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Register Your Native Pollinator Garden
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The Department of Streets and Sanitation launched its native and pollinator garden registry. Native and pollinator gardens help to support local wildlife and ecosystems. They also help act as a natural defense against erosion and help manage stormwater.
To review the native and pollinator garden guidelines and register yours, click here.
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Reduce Your Carbon Footprint By Signing Up for the Citywide Composting Program
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In the fall of 2023, the Department of Street and Sanitation (DSS) announced its first-ever citywide composting initiative, a Food Scrap Drop-Off program, which allows all Chicago residents to bring their household food scraps to a drop-off location located throughout the city.
Since rolling out the program, over 6,000 households have signed up to participate, and over 300 tons of food have been diverted from landfills! That is the equivalent of approximately 24,000 gallons of gasoline!
Due to the success of the program, Streets and Sanitation expanded its drop-off locations to include three more sites, for a total of 20 sites across the city, including one at 6447 N. Ravenswood Avenue in Rogers Park! Participation is easy! Simply sign up for a nearby drop-off location, collect food in sealed containers, and bring the collected materials to the green carts at the drop-off sites. Upon collection, these materials are transferred to a composting facility, where food scraps are processed into compost, a valuable product that looks and smells like rich soil and can be used to improve soil health.
The 20 food scrap drop-off sites are:
- Avondale – 3143 N. Rockwell St
- Belmont Cragin – 5605 W. Grand Ave
- Bowmanville – 5333 N. Western Ave
- Brighton Park – 3359 S. Maplewood Ave
- Edgewater – 5853 N. Broadway
- Englewood – 611 W. 69th St
- Garfield Ridge – 5600 S. Central Ave
- Grand Boulevard – 4352 S. Cottage Grove Ave
- Irving Park – 4605 W. Lawrence Ave
- Logan Square –2460 W. Cortland
- Lower West Side – 1944 W. Cullerton St
- Morgan Park – 11059 S. Homewood Ave
- Near South Side – 1758 S. Clark St
- North Lawndale - 1817 S. Pulaski Rd
- Norwood Park – 6453 W. Higgins Ave
- Pullman - 1012 E. 103rd St
- Rogers Park - 6447 N. Ravenswood
- West Edelson – 3720 W. 55th St
- West Englewood – 1756 W. 74th St
- West Town – 2505 W. Grand Ave
All kinds of food scraps are accepted with the program, including meat, bones, and dairy, as well as fruit and vegetable scraps and old leftovers. A full list of accepted and unaccepted items is available here.
Food in our landfills contributes more to methane emissions than any other landfill materials. Composting is one simple way that Chicago can reduce its emissions while enriching our soil for future produce.
For more information on recycling and the Food Scrap Drop-Off program, including drop-off sites and where to sign up, please visit www.chicagorecycles.org and view the educational video.
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Follow the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy on Social Media!
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Chairwoman Hadden launched social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook for the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy!
Make sure to follow these accounts to stay updated on:
- Updates on EPE happenings
- Legislative progress
- Committee Hearings
- Urban Forestry Board updates
- Shoreline Advisory Board Updates
- City Council Recaps
- And more!
- Environmental Justice News
- Local, State, Federal and Global updates!
- City Council Happenings
- Recap videos
- Updates on important legislative happenings
You can find us on Instagram @chicagoepe and on Facebook at Chicago Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy.
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