While views on how to address public safety are divided, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced his new plan Thursday, which he says will address the root causes of crime.

The special meeting of the Chicago City Council was a last-ditch effort to put the non-binding question to voters on the March 19 ballot. 

The Chicago City Council voted to reject an effort to upend the system used to punish officers for 60 years, triggering what is likely to be a fierce legal fight that will determine whether, and how, city officials can hold officers accountable for serious misconduct.

The six-month delay means that workers in Illinois outside Chicago will have more flexibility to take paid time off than those in the city until July 1.

Mayor Brandon Johnson reversed course Tuesday, averting a showdown at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

The new rules, issued Thursday, came several days after the president of the Better Government Association warned Mayor Brandon Johnson that the administration’s efforts to restrict access to meetings of the City Council were “inequitable and likely illegal.”

If 30 members of the Chicago City Council vote Wednesday to reject the changes to the police discipline system, a judge will likely decide whether Chicago officers facing a suspension of at least a year or termination have the right to have their cases decided by an arbitrator rather than by the Chicago Police Board.

In a highly unusual move, Mayor Brandon Johnson will ask members of the Workforce Committee to reject a key part of the proposed contract extension, which would give some Chicago officers the right to have their discipline cases decided by an arbitrator rather than by the Chicago Police Board.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday rejected using state funds to continue building a migrant base camp in Brighton Park, citing environmental concerns.

A handful of Chicago City Council members want voters to weigh in during the March primary election on whether Chicago should stay a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. 

Work will not resume Tuesday, while the review of the 800-page report by Illinois Environmental Protection Agency officials continues, said Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

New restrictions on where members of the public can sit during meetings of the Chicago City Council are “inequitable and likely illegal,” David Greising, president of the Better Government Association, warned Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

Construction began earlier this week in Brighton Park on the massive tents that will house at least some of the more than 1,000 migrants living in police stations across the city and at O’Hare Airport.

“The imminent addition of significant new shelter space,” means the Amundsen Park field house is no longer needed as a migrant shelter, Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

A probe by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that aldermanic prerogative has created a hyper-segregated city rife with racism and gentrification.

Mayor Brandon Johnson touted what he called the “Unity Initiative” as his city officials announced that crews will start building the frame of a winterized base camp to shelter as many as 2,000 people near 38th Street and California Avenue as soon as Wednesday.