Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ethics reform legislation was unanimously approved by aldermen Thursday after changes were made to address concerns from neighborhood chambers of commerce.
The new ordinance, which also was sponsored rookie Ald. Will Burns (4th Ward), will limit gifts and prohibit loans from lobbyists to city officials and their spouses or domestic partners. Other provisions will increase the amount of information about lobbying activities that appears online.
Chamber officials had expressed concerns they would be required to register as lobbyists and pay hefty fees. But language was added to the ordinance Thursday that would exempt unpaid volunteers or employees of local chambers from registering as lobbyists. Paid chamber members still would be required to register and pay a $350 fee, like other lobbyists.
Emanuel praised aldermen for passing the new lobbying rules as well as a 20-year airport concessions contract.
“Today was a victory for the taxpayers of the city of Chicago across the waterfront of issues,” the mayor said.
The council also approved an earlier curfew time for children under 12, who will now have to be home at 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. on weekends.
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), who brought his 8-year-old daughter to Thursday’s council meeting, said children in his neighborhood had lobbied him when they heard about the curfew measure.
“When I came home, they were playing on the front lawn and they came up and asked me if I would vote against the curfew,” O’Shea said.
Aldermen also passed an ordinance that would require banks to better maintain foreclosed properties.
Emanuel said he and the ordinance’s chief sponsor, Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), will meet with financial institutions next week to find a “common strategy” for preventing foreclosed homes from costing taxpayers millions of dollars. In 2010, the city spent more than $15 million to maintain or demolish vacant properties.
The council also passed an ordinance intended to combat industrial lead pollution. Ald. Daniel Solis (25th) introduced the measure after high levels of dangerous lead emissions were discovered near two schools in the Pilsen neighborhood.
Among the ordinances introduced at Thursday’s council meeting were:
- A revamp of the city’s Police Board, which has disciplinary powers over officers. The measure, sponsored by Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd), would force members of the board to post their votes online and set attendance requirements. The nonprofit Chicago Justice Project reported in 2009 that board members frequently missed meetings and only upheld 37 percent of the police superintendent’s recommendations to discipline sworn officers.
- New requirements for gun ranges. The administration introduced the plan in response to a federal appeals court decision against the city in a lawsuit challenging Chicago’s ban on gun ranges. Under the new rules, licensing fees for ranges would be reduced from $4,000 to $2,000, managers would have to keep a log of customers and ranges would not be allowed within 500 feet of churches, schools, parks and other public buildings.
- The Chicago Clean Power Ordinance, which would clamp down on emissions of carbon dioxide and particulate matter from the city’s two coal power plants. The chief sponsors are Ald. Joe Moore (49th) and Solis.
- Ald. Lona Lane’s proposed ban on pet chickens in her 18th Ward. Lane had unsuccessfully sought a citywide ban.