City budget passes...   Minor changes made.  Public Safety cuts made, as well as Mental Health Safety Net Clinics closings.

Emanuel’s budget passes City Council on unanimous vote

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter November 16, 2011 11:52AM

Highlights of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget

◆ $6.3 billion total budget

◆ 32,400 city employees, down 22.8 percent from the 42,001 employees just a decade ago

◆ $410 million in spending cuts and other efficiencies.

◆ 385 employee layoffs on Jan. 1 and 150 more on June 30 when seven primary-care clinics partner with federally qualified health centers.

◆ 3 police station closings — Wood, Belmont and Prairie — freeing roughly 60 officers for street duty and scores more now assigned to police areas who support district operations.

◆ 3 police and detective areas — down from current five.

◆ Merge police and fire headquarters and specialized units overseeing anti-terrorism, marine activities, helicopter and bomb and arson.

◆ $147 million a year in added revenue by raising water and sewer rates by $120 a year for the average homeowner, doubling those rates over the next four years and locking in annual cost-of-living increases after that.

◆ $28 million in added revenue by raising the weekday parking tax by $2 — billed as a congestion fee — at garages and outdoor lots that charge more than $12.

◆ $14.8 million in added revenue by raising city stickers fees by $10 for small- and medium-sized vehicles and $15 for SUVs and trucks. Weight limits would remain the same. Annual cost-of-living increases would follow.

◆ $14 million in added revenue by raising the city tax on hotel rooms by one percentage point — from 3.5 to 4.5 percent.

◆ $ 6.2 million in fees with a fivefold increase for downtown loading zones and by doubling the annual license for valet parking.

◆ $14.6 million in added revenue by increasing an array of fines for criminal and nuisance offenses punishable by vehicle impoundment, including fly dumping, drag racing, narcotics and noise violations.

◆ $25 million in revenue by selling sponsorships for or advertising on blue recycling carts, garbage trucks, snow plows, light boxes, bridge houses and lifeguard towers or by selling ads on city websites.

◆ $50-per-year refuse-collection rebate for condominium owners in 2012, down from $75, followed by three years at $26 and a phase-out in 2016. Phase-out paid for by raising a handful of parking fines by $10 and $15 apiece.

◆ 8 fewer library hours each week by closing on Monday and Friday mornings, but only when school is in session. When school is out, there will be no cuts.

◆ 183 fewer library employees.

◆ $20 million restored to the rainy day raided by former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

◆ 3 city departments eliminated — Environment, Revenue and Office of Compliance.

◆ 12 mental health clinics consolidated into six.

◆ 7 primary-care clinics to partner with federally qualified health centers in mid-year.

◆ 5 to 7 days for Taste of Chicago, down from 10 days.

◆ Phase out free water perk for hospitals, universities and non-profits.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $6.3 billion budget and the $220 million in taxes, fines and fees needed to pay for it received unanimous approval from the City Council Wednesday.

Duplicating the unanimous budget votes that dominated the Daley years was a triumph for the rookie mayor — even one who honed his lobbying skills on Capital Hill.

Aldermen approved the mayor’s spending plan after weeks of negotiations that tinkered at the margins but let the big stuff slide.

Emanuel credited his experience “on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue” for the budget compromises that set the stage for unanimous vote.

“I too was a legislator. That’s where I got elected on my own. And I will respect the role you [aldermen] have to play as a former legislator myself,” he said.

“I also believe having worked in President Clinton and President Obama’s White House that, if you provide leadership and level with people and are willing to show that type of leadership, that you will give people who have their own ideas the confidence to also stand with you,” he said.

“The easy thing is to vote no. The hard thing is to vote yes and make the choices that are responsible to that yes vote.”

In the end, all 50 aldermen voted “yes.”

They agreed to swallow the mayor’s plan to more than double water and sewer rates over the next four years and to lock in annual cost-of-living increases after that.

They went along with his plan to raise city stickers fees across the board by $10 to $15, also followed by annual inflationary increases. They raised the city’s hotel tax, imposed a $2-a-weekday hike in parking taxes whenever the daily fee rises above $12 and raised a laundry list of criminal, nuisance and parking fines.

Despite neighborhood concerns about the perception of public safety, aldermen also signed off on the mayor’s plan to close the Wood, Prairie and Belmont district police stations, the first station closings in more than 50 years.

The budget also calls for laying off 385 employees on Jan. 1 and 150 more in the middle of the year.

The main objections were against Emanuel’s plan to reduce library hours and services, consolidate 12 mental health clinics into six and reduce the ranks of police and fire dispatchers in a way that could send 911 response times and employee burnout rates through the roof.

Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) said he bet Emanuel that the mayor’s first budget would be approved unanimously. Burke urged his colleagues to deliver that 50- 0 vote “so he’ll pay off.” After more than two hours of debate, they did just that.

One by one Wednesday, aldermen rose to praise Emanuel for his willingness to compromise and for rejecting quick-fix solutions favored by his predecessor that only postponed the day of reckoning.

“Obviously, as a child, you never learned the game kick the can because you are not doing it in this budget,” Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) told Emanuel. “To make an omelette, you’ve got to break some eggs. ... But it wasn’t just one agency that got all the pain. It was shared. We are on the right track for the first time in many, many years.”

Ald. George Cardenas (12th) added, “This is a bitter pill. But the medicine is needed to get us healthy again.”

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) noted that he led the charge against the last few Daley budgets because they raided reserves to put off tough choices for another day. Those short-sighted decisions only made Wednesday’s difficult decisions even worse.

“This is an honest budget,” Moore said.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th) called the budget vote “tough and hard.” But he argued that “sacrifices had to be made” — even when it comes to raising what has been a bargain price for Lake Michigan water to rebuild century-old water and sewer lines.

“If we don’t do this, our streets will sink,” Reboyras said.

Ald. Will Burns (4th) said some of his constituents urged him to cast a protest vote against the closing of one of his neighborhood police stations. But Burns noted that four community meetings with police brass convinced him that the consolidation plan would work.

“I believe Supt. [Garry] McCarthy and your administration that our community will receive additional police officers and that 21st District officers familiar with our community will remain,” Burns said.

“On the South Side, there is a tradition to distrust what folks downtown will do with us. Promises made are not always promises kept. But, I believe you will keep those promises.”

Two-thirds of the shortfall will be erased through personnel reductions, departmental consolidations and other efficiencies. That’s a sharp contrast from the trick bag of one-time revenues that Daley used to avoid tax increases for the past two years.

In an interview this week with WBBM-AM Radio, Emanuel said he asked for “major, major changes” in his first budget and that he’s pleasantly surprised he’s getting just about all of it in, what he called a clean “break with the past.”

A big change will be providing garbage service through a more efficient grid system, instead of doing it ward by ward, he said.

“Seven functions now will now be competitively bid between a private entity and city employees — like we’re doing with recycling,” he said. “A comprehensive wellness program, changing the way we deliver health care and how you pay for it. Public safety.

“At every level, there is fundamental change. Not one, not two, but close to 10 or 11 items. And I’m very appreciative of the fact that fundamental change is in tact and their understanding of the necessity of that.”

If there was a City Council fight, the mayor had legitimate reason to believe it would have been about the three police stations he plans to close, the 1,252 police vacancies he wants to eliminate or about his plan to raise water and sewer fees sky high.

He rightly anticipated pushback over $2-a-weekday parking tax increase cleverly billed as a “congestion fee,” even though it’s confined neither to rush periods or the congested downtown and River North areas.

Instead, aldermen swallowed the big stuff — and 28 of them signed a protest letter seeking to tweak Emanuel’s spending plan at the margins.

Two weeks ago, Emanuel agreed to accommodate rebel aldermen by: softening the blow of his library cuts; restoring funding for graffiti removal, vacant lot cleaning and overnight homeless services; gradually weaning non-profits off free water and raising city sticker fees across the board instead of confining the increase to large vehicles.

On Monday, he bent a little more in a way that softened the blow for condominium owners who receive a $75-a-year refuse collection rebate to compensate them for the cost of private scavenger services.

That was enough to appease aldermen and bolster the mayor’s claim that he wants a partnership with the City Council, not a rubber stamp.

Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s City Council floor leader, attributed the broad support to three factors: a mayoral campaign focused on city finances that laid the groundwork for tough decisions; a well-crafted budget and Emanuel’s willingness to solicit ideas and compromise.

“If you put all that together, there’s not a lot of people out there feeling they didn’t have an opportunity to impact this budget — either on large issues or smaller ones related to their individual communities,” he said.

For every police station closed, McCarthy has estimated that 20 officers could be made available for street duty, plus scores of additional officers now assigned to police areas who support district operations.

McCarthy has also argued that the newly consolidated stations — Wentworth, Monroe and Town Hall — would emerge as they top three in the city when it comes to the number of officers assigned.

Daley loved to pitch a shutout on the budget, the most important vote of the year in the City Council. He snarled at dissenters, dissed them from the podium and, sometimes, made them pay for their “no” votes. His first budget passed by a vote of 38-8.

Emanuel is known for his hardball politics, but aides insist he expected budget dissent and has no desire or intention to get even.

“Whether it’s two, five or 20 [no votes], that’s how democracy works. He’s been a legislator. He knows that,” said a top mayoral aide who asked to remain anonymous.