CHICAGO — City leaders have a jammed pack agenda Tuesday from funding for migrants, ShotSpotter and borrowing more than a billion dollars for affordable housing.
Mayor Brandon Johnson campaigned on ending the ShotSpotter program and he did earlier this year. Though it is staying online through the fall, Johnson says the technology that detects gunfire in some of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods is ineffective and leads to over policing.
A number of aldermen say the system maybe flawed but it is better than nothing. They are trying to wrestle control of the technology out of the hands of the mayor and make a ward-by-ward issue. It is unclear how the contract could be constructed if aldermen are successful.
In regard to the issue of migrants, Johnson will ask city council members for an additional 70 million dollars. He says that will fund migrant services through the end of the year. So far, close to 40,000 migrants have been bussed or flown to Chicago since August 2022.
The city is running about 20 shelters to house and feed close to the 10,000 migrants that are temporarily staying there.
The mayor will also ask city leaders to approve a $1.4-billion-dollar borrowing plan aimed at building more affordable housing and community development.
The issue was set for a vote in the Finance Committee early this week but hit some roadblocks when some alders attempted to amend to the proposal to allow for more oversight.
The committee will take up this issue again Wednesday before the full city council is set to meet. A frequent critic of the mayor, Alderman Bill Conway was one of the driving forces behind the proposed changes. He spoke to WGN on Monday.
“It’s no secret that there are issues of trust between the mayor’s office and City Council stemming from Brighton Park, NASCAR and ShotSpotter and GarterWord and FavoriteStaffing to name just a few off the top of my head,” Conway said.
Another item needed to discuss is whether to raise the mandatory retirement age for police officers from 63 to 65. The federal order of police has supported this idea.