Brandon Johnson
Ald Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward) is set to leave the City Council March 31 in order to lead the Chicago Park District, where he will oversee the city’s 600 parks and 6,000 employees.
Budget Director Annette Guzman told WTTW News the dashboard was designed to answer questions she and her team fielded during the fraught negotiations over the city’s 2025 budget.
“Any action that amplify fears of deportations makes Chicago more dangerous,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
The scale of the challenges that confronted Mayor Brandon Johnson during his first 20 months in office is likely to be eclipsed Wednesday, when he is scheduled to testify in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee about the city’s self-proclaimed status as a sanctuary city.
Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged that the reform effort, which began in earnest when the consent decree took effect six years ago, remains a work in progress.
“I loved being the alderman of the 35th Ward,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 36, said. “But you can’t turn down a job like this when you love Chicago as much as I do.”
The measure passed by the narrowest possible margin with the support of the entire Progressive Caucus and all but four members of the Black Caucus.
The Chicago City Council is set to vote on the proposal Wednesday, after a week-long delay fueled by outrage whipped up on social media, the budding 2027 race for mayor and the lack of trust many alderpeople have in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s ability to steer the city through rough financial seas.
Chicago officials would have an additional $87 million to spend on a host of programs designed to repair the city’s tattered social safety net, but the Chicago City Council used those funds to balance the 2025 budget and avert a property tax hike.
Inspector General Deborah Witzburg urged Mayor Brandon Johnson in July to form a task force as part of an effort to “implement a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to preventing, identifying and eliminating extremist and anti-government activities and associations within CPD.”
Cydney Wallace, who serves on the board of directors for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, has been named as the 21st member of the new school board.
The Department of Law “selectively acts in opposition to the OIG’s investigative work when OIG’s work may result in embarrassment or political consequences for city leaders,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg wrote.
Civilian Office of Police Accountability Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten much of the last 12 months at odds with the city’s top cop and the head of the city’s police oversight board.
A 20-second video released Wednesday by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office of a small City Hall room crammed with gifts his office accepted on behalf of the city is “not a substitute for public access to public property,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.
No longer will gifts accepted by Chicago’s mayor on behalf of the city be covered by an “unwritten arrangement” dating back to the late 1980s during the administration of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, Board President William Conlon said.
The lawsuit is the latest indication that the Trump administration, which is attempting to strip self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding, will target Chicago directly.