2023 City Budget Hearing [Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability; Buildings; Water Management] AFTERNOON

Presenting for Department of Buildings is Matt Beaudet, Building Commissioner:

Beaudet: I’m very pleased and proud to report that the communities experiencing 10% growth are all on S/SW Sides.

Beaudet: We remain busy on inspections side, completing over 30k by the 311 system

Beaudet: We’ve demolished 164 buildings this year

Beaudet is difficult to follow, apologies.

Read the proceedings from this morning here: https://twitter.com/izzystroobandt/status/1579828944949641218

Follow along with the stream here: https://www.chicityclerk.com/

In addition to Beaudet, there are several representatives from the Dept of Buildings here — they very quickly went through names but it won’t be helpful in the long run unless they re-identify themselves before speaking. I’ll refer to them as reps if not.

Ald Waguespack starts the questions:

Waguespack: I’m assuming that on the one IT platform where everything is integrated — will there be annual upgrades to that system? What’s the outlook on how long it’ll last?

Beaudet: We know we can’t pass a building code and come back to it twenty years later, so we’re hoping the same for this system. We don’t want it to be static. It’s in AIS budget whether they use bonds and how it’s funded.

Waguespack: 30k inspections asked for by 311, what percentage typically requires follow up?

Beaudet: About a third of them are founded, we also encourage folks to call their landlord to see if there’s an easy fix first

Waguespack: Who takes the lead on your task force? I’ve had a couple that drag for years. How aggressive is your department on going for “gang houses” or vacant buildings?

Beaudet: It’s a joint task force with the police, we go out there and usually find a lot of violations

Beaudet: We turn that info over to the police who file the case, that’s when the owner usually lawyers up and the delays come in

Ald O’Shae: List of registered vacant proprieties in my community through the chair

Ald Sadlowski-Garza: What’s the criteria to have a building demolished?

Beaudet: It varies — there’s a sliding scale. The goal is to save the building, but when they hit a certain point it moves to demo court.

Ald Scott: no comment

Ald Rodriguez: questions around language access — Last year we talked about your inspectors and being able to communicate with folks — where we at?

Beaudet: We’ve jumped 5% since last year — from 12% to 17% bilingual staff

Rodriguez: “It’s a serious issue given that the work your department does impacts all our communities … being able to communicate with folks, particularly when it comes to correcting wrongs,” is important …

Rodriguez: To get a building inspected via 311, do you have any data on timing?

Beaudet; It varies because the calls are triaged — depending on priority. If there’s a life safety issue, we get to those right away. A hanging gutter might take longer.

Rodriguez: Commends the department on their sensitivity when handing particular situations, namely a hoarding situation in his ward recently.

Ald Tunney: We’ve been talking about efficiencies and departments talking to each other — I’m really unimpressed with the idea that we’re not further along in creating more seamless technology — when are we getting to the point where we can say we’re at top dollar?

Tunney: If we didn’t have the construction in Fulton Market, we’d be in trouble. Where do you see this economy going? I’m not feeling it in the ward, and I also have a view of downtown and I don’t see any [construction crane] in my window and I used to see 8-10.

Beaudet: We’re seeing the growth where it needs to be, South and West Sides — if it’s going down in downtown, COVID has hit that pretty hard

Ald Cappleman: What steps are being taken so plans that have been approved by the City aren’t hit with additional requirements?

Beaudet: Many of those are self-service permits — not reviewed by us but by architects and when inspectors view the site they find mistakes or omissions by the architect they then issue additional changes — “that’s the risk they are taking to get the permit faster,”

Cappleman: So it’s to their advantage to not use these self service permits?

Beaudet: It’s to their advantage to use a very good self service architect

Cappleman: There’s a lot of discussion about tiny homes …

Beaudet: We’re very supportive of it, but we want to make sure we do it right. We’ve got to give folks the quality of life too, we need insulation, pads for frost, running water and sewage.

Beaudet: We hope to see some tiny homes put in place this year — there’s no reason not to have them. We currently have the one house one lot that’s been changed for coach houses and ADU’s, so we’re on the right track.

Cappleman: Are these tiny homes geared toward people in encampments or toward people who want to downsize? Who do I ask about these?

Beaudet: Can be for anyone — there’s no one size fits all for the clientele of a tiny home. If you’re looking at subsidized housing — that’s DOH.

Dowell: Mayor has allocated $3m toward tiny houses — how many do you think that will create?

Beaudet: Hard to say, they vary in size and purpose.

Ald Nicole Lee: Requests the breakdown of 311 requests in ward and violations that have been issued — any trends, or things to broadly address through legislation

Lee: If you are an immigrant and you’re renting and don’t know your rights — you might be scared to place a call. Language accessibility is huge for your department in that regard.

Ald Napolitano: Do you feel there is an inability for your department — not because of your guidelines but legal issues — to go after these abandoned properties that are an eyesore in the community? “It seems like it’s a never ending process right now”

Beaudet: It’s a struggle because we do have to go through the legal system — we can’t just fine someone without going through the courts.

Beaudet: In this country there are very strong property rights that we have to deal with — we need to move toward a receiver focus: where a property is managed by someone else when the owner stops, but the owner keeps paying the bills

Ald Leslie Hairston: I see you’ve attempted to address some of the issues I brought up years ago … I’ve got nothing but a bunch of buildings in my ward …

Hairston: Have we updated the building registry fines online?

Beaudet: They haven’t changed

Hairston: Okay so either those aren’t being enforced or the fine isn’t high enough

Hairston: The average age of the resident in these is probably 82 — so this isn’t always an issue of not wanting to comply but not having the ability or resources to do so

Hairston: Do we have a way of tracking frivolous complaints? Someone who calls because they’re upset about something minor and call people to the same building repeatedly — and while we investigate that, there are real risks left unchecked

Beaudet: We need to address that because it is a waste of resources

Ald Sposato: You mentioned problems with judges — if neighbors showed up and expressed concern — would that help?

Beaudet: I’d assume so — most of what they see is from lawyers. It will go a much farther way to hear from people who are impacted first hand than a lawyer.

Sposato: Supportive of the bilingual growth — “most of my inspectors are Eastern European” or speak Spanish.

Sposato: I call it the “neighbor war complaints” or “the disgruntled tenant,” — the frivolous or false complaints — could there be consequences for that?

Beaudet; I would like to, but many of these are anonymous so we don’t know who is calling

Beaudet: It’s tough for our inspectors too because we’re walking into a lot of domestic situations — and a lot of time the first question is “who called you?” — to them, you’re taking the other persons side

Ald Emma Mitts: What would be the one thing you’d like to see coming out of COVID?

Beaudet: We need to automate more — prepandemic, we had many walk ins, but now we’ve made it so people don’t have to walk down to city hall to get a permit. The easier it is to get a permit, more people will get them and less contractors will be working without a permit

Mitts: What’s your process with working with a bank?

Beaudet: The case is filed against anyone with a financial interest in the property — banks have limited ability to fix a property that is still occupied or hasn’t been foreclosed on — later treated as any other owner would

Mitts: “It’s a big problem, that’s all i know … something has to change along those lines” … I have to agree with you that people showing up at these courts is so important … we should look back at advocacy groups for that

Ald Mitchell: O’Shae’s request of vacant properties for my ward as well … building registry was mentioned several times — can you explain what happens when a building is added?

Beaudet: If a building is vacant, it has to be registered and re-registered depending on its purpose

Beaudet: Knowing they’re vacant helps us know if there are people there who might need help, and it’s good for you to know what properties are available

Mitchell: There’s nothing we can do if they’re on the list for years?

Beaudet: Unfortunately, there’s no law against having a vacant property. They’re required to maintain it — but many sit on the property hoping that in the future they’ll make bank in some way

Mitchell: There’s buildings that are vacant in my ward that are owned by people employed by the city — is there anything special we can do to hold those people accountable?

Beaudet: HR would have to handle tying responsibilities to employment

We’re taking a five minute break. Be back at 3:50.

Okay — we’re back and the first few questions from Curtis were inaudible because they didn’t turn off the background music.

Ald Taylor: “Unless you’re Stevie Wonder blind,” you can see there are problems at Parkway Gardens, yet they’re passing inspections — what’s up?

Beaudet: CHA has their own standards, and we have ours. We’ve been out there and written violations and held them accountable.

The way Ald Taylor phrases her questions always makes me giggle — she truly keeps me awake in these long meetings.

Taylor: Is there coordination with CHA / HUD to discuss findings? How can we talk about legislation and policy around forced coordination? This should not be an option … “I know that’s probably more money in the budget, and I’m okay with that”

Taylor: Re: Predatory 311 calls, “I’ve got a community that’s gentrifying,” — when seniors say no to an interested buyer, they often immediately receive complaints on their properties

Beaudet: “The way 311 is set up currently, it’s anonymous and unfortunately we have to take it at face value.” When we work with seniors, we connect them with DOH that has services to work with them. … There’s no reason we shouldn’t come together as a community to help folks out

Taylor: What’re the most complaints y’all get?

Beaudet: Heat issues, or neighborly issues related to fences or work on each others properties

Taylor: Work without permits — I have some folks who are doing private deals and the only thing they have from the city is a permit — is there any restrictions on when they can do work? I get a lot of complaints of work starting at 6am.

Beaudet: They can’t use power tools until 8am, so you can call our office. We need a more robust system to flag these companies

Taylor: I struggle with fees and fines because some people can’t afford them, but these people are building million dollar properties. Are we building on repeated fees? Some properties I’ve gone to 6+ times. You need to ask for what you need in this budget to deal with this.

^^^ “building on” meaning fees grow as one property accrues them — not that they begin constructing on properties with repeated violations

Ald Vasquez: We want to make sure we have an efficient and effective gov — our office receives 311 complaints and we don’t get to see how it plays out. Part of it is because the systems don’t interact, but how can we get that information? Neighbors escalate to us when cases close

Beaudet: We have that information, and it’s frustrating for us to try to get that information out because of the systems not communicating.

Beaudet: AIS is making strides on a uniform system and master plan

Vasquez asks for second round but Dowell says she’s not sure there will be one given time

Moving to La Spata: Asking about categories where there’s a significant increase in staff: electrical code compliance and refrigerator inspection

Beaudet: Those are related to new ordinances — cooling ordinance, for example — that require separate inspectors

La Spata: “Council may want to reconsider whether anonymity in these complaints is the best process”

La Spata: We’ve talked about reactive vs proactive inspection — can you elaborate on how in the past year data has informed how we’re doing inspections?

Beaudet: I’d love to move to a more predictive model — I bring that up every year. There have been mandatory inspections — there are serious constitutional issues with that — 4th amendment rights. If we’re looking at every single rental property, that’s approx 120 years of work

Ald Sigcho-Lopez: Can you share data on trends as to if demolition fees have prevented displacement?

Sigcho-Lopez: We’ve seen tremendous issues with supply chain, in terms of recommendations to make city code perhaps more cost effective and environmentally friendly — are there any initiatives to address this? Or that we can help with?

Beaudet was about to reply but the stream suddenly just went offline? Hold please.

Ope we’re back mid-answer:

Beaudet: We’ve seen a lot of folks pivot and not have to delay construction. The design community have been appreciative that we have options in the code. For environmentally friendly, your recently passed ordinance re: alternative materials is helpful with that.

We’re moving into the second round now: only Hairston and Taylor requested.

Taylor: We had convo in 2021 around getting building owners to register — would that help with the abandoned and vacant building process? I’ve found a lot of owners in my ward don’t even live in the state, so it’s hard to work with them.

Taylor: Another thing I feel like is predatory in my ward is buildings bought up in a portfolio — they don’t keep those up. There are some buildings I don’t even want to walk into and there are folks living there.

Taylor: We’ve gotta have something that will help these small building owners

Hairston: I actually don’t have a question, you know where my issue is on 75th street. That’s it.

Dowell thanks the commissioner for his work, particularly on behalf of her constituents, and acknowledges the entire department for their quick responses.

Moving into a five minute recess as we prepare for Department of Water. Back at 4:47pm ish.

We’re back and starting up with Dept of Water Management — presenting is Commissioner Andrea Holthouse Cheng

Cheng: We expect to have completed all meter installations by the end of the year for another who has registered

Dowell: What is happening with the lead replacement program?

Cheng: There are 387k lead service lines in Chicago, we’re at over 200 replaced and on track to meet 600 by end of year. Current focus is daycares in low income neighborhoods and breaks and leaks.

Waguespack: You had a contract for $95k with a communications group — what’s the point?

Cheng: Yes, for lead service line outreach. They work with community based orgs to get the word out.

Waguespack: Water conservation — what’re you doing there and do you have education programs across the city?

Cheng: The two biggest prongs are divided into what the city can do (replacing aging water mains, leaks) and what the homeowner can do (getting a meter so they can fix any leaks or wastes) … we also have a kit that helps people conserve water that we provide w/ meter instal

Waguespack: Yiuve got a pretty big increase for drugs, meds and chemicals — is that prices changing?

Cheng; Chlorine and phosphate increased drastically (water treatment chemicals) in cost and we’ve been trying to work on negotiations

Waguespack: Going over to disconnecting downspouts — one of our biggest issues seems to be flooding in alleys, garages and basements — it doesn’t seem to be the case that downspouts are always pointed away from neighbors. Are we looking at all sides of this?

Waguespack: The only proposed solution from CDOT is a green alley, which costs $500k — the only solution seems to throw money at a problem that’s not getting fixed because we’re dumping water into the alley

Cheng: “Obviously we’d rather have the water in the alley than in peoples basements” but we’re looking into ways to mitigate that flooding, “it’s a continued conversation”

**for anyone who has registered

Cappleman: Children are unfortunately the barometers for lead toxicity in the city… Are we looking at that to guide our focus?

Cheng: You’re right, it’s lead paint that causes elevated lead levels in Chicago. As those get lower, you look to other contributors in the environment. We take water samples at the locations where there are elevated lead levels in blood just to be safe.

Cappleman: Are you collaborating with MWRD on rain barrels?

Cheng: Yes, we do a lot and as recently as a week or two ago.

Ald Lee: How many service lines are being replaced each year?

Cheng: We’ve done over 200 so far this year… on average there’s 4k-5k breaks a year so we estimate those replacements in addition to the daycares for next year

Ald Moore: For resurfacing work, “we have to do better at making sure they clean up and are doing these jobs a lot better in terms of finishing,” … “I can go to certain areas and it’s more smoothed out”

Cheng: “Every contractor needs to make sure they’re finishing up because that is peoples neighborhoods,” … work with us and we can communicate to those crews.

Ald Hairston: “What is in your rules or practices for subcontractors that do shoddy work, that leave the neighborhood in disarray? — and i’m particularly talking about the parkways in my ward…”

Hairston: What is your policy to remove cones and cement blocks after construction is finished? I have stuff left behind for months and there as been “no demonstrable effort” made

Cheng: This year has been a tough year for capital work, so some of that was due to things like the 150 strike —

Hairston; No, this is before that. I asked these questions last year. “I will not accept those excuses”

Cheng: They shouldn’t be leaving stuff behind and when we find out about them we enforce

Hairston: I want to know what policy, who inspects — who is it that’s not doing their job?

cheng: The policy is the work needs to be completed according to all the specifications

Hairston: Who enforces that?

Cheng: Our entire department …

Hairston: “You don’t even know, stop making stuff up.”

“My tax payers pay a whole lot of dollars to look at those concrete barriers every day.

“It would be different if I didn’t ask these same questions last year — but I did, and it’s just not acceptable,”

Hairston; You ignored my question last year

Cheng: I don’t believe I did, I’ve enforced those policies even harder this year — will get you more info through the chair.

Dowell: I know this will come up again, so it will be helpful through the chair if you can give us the written policy, who in the department is responsible for enforcing that, and their phone number so that person can be held accountable.

Sposato: A bombshell was dropped on Nugent and I recently — they’re talking about submitting claims to the clerks office for people who have a flood for compensation. I’ve never heard of that? Have y’all?

Cheng: I haven’t heard of that, it would probably go to Law or Finance

Dowell: Is there a do not hire list for contractors?

Felicia Rawlings, Rep for Water: Normally that list would come through procurement services, usually CPO’s final decision

Dowell: Do you charge fines for when companies do work that the city has to fix?

Rawlings: Normally some type of liquidated damages or something in the contracts

Mitchell: Can you give us instances throughout Chicago within the past four years where contractors violated city protocol and consequences?

Cheng: That’s our 803 damages — that’s something we track heavily. We get money back from that. We will look and see what we have

Ald Harris: Where are we at with the 100 year old main installations?

Cheng: I think you’re referring to our accelerated capital program …

Cheng went over numbers, it was fast. She said they’re close with two categories and have surpassed goals in the rest. They won’t finish the lines by end of year but within the next few.

Ald Cardona: Chicagwa — how much money did you receive for that?

Cheng: “We didn’t receive any money,” we had some pro-bono work done and we had awareness built around water treatment

… We’re looking at potentially selling it, but there are more hoops to jump through

Ald Taylor: “Whose bright idea was it to move John Gallagher? Cuz when I had him in the 20th I had no water problems, now I have all the water problems in the world.”

Taylor: Do you all go back out and look at the work that has been done? They block the streets, they block the sidewalk, they don’t clean up at the end of the day … when it comes to me complaining, they just keep doing it.

Taylor: “They literally didn’t put up any signs, they just start doing the work” … They don’t do this 24-48 hour thing we’re supposed to do to notify constituents, they’re just waking up and being told to move their cars.

Taylor: “We gotta do a better job at holding these folks accountable,” … “There is a debate [between residents and the contractor on damages] and I’m expected to pay for it ultimately out of my menu funds,”

Taylor: What’re we doing about folks whose water is cut off — during covid nobody was supposed to have their water turned off, but it was. What’re we doing to help every day folks with water bills? We’re still giving other cities water but we won’t give it to our residents?

Ald Vasquez: There’s a bunch of questions and concerns that I have, but the recent flooding is our most pressing issue right now…

Vasquez: — it was referred to once as a hundred year storm, that makes sense looking backwards but moving forward I don’t think it’ll be 100yrs before another flood

Cheng: We’re looking at a pilot with flooding

Vasquez: I understand the Chicagwa campaign was to help communicate with the public, but it’s more helpful to communicate how residents can be prepared for storms and catch basins

Cheng: We want to add more information to that website, we’re looking to build on top of what we did with Chicagwa

Vasquez: Do you track or have any engagement with streets and san about needing to change the street sweeping schedule so falling leaves don’t clog the catch basins? The answers we get hear after year are insufficient

Cheng: We don’t track that but we can definitely start those conversations

Vasquez: Are there conversations with CDOT to discuss how we can change curb design to assist in the water management?

Cheng: We just started those discussions and down the pathway of tracking 311 requests

Vasquez: I don’t wanna say we’re being reactive, but we sort of know what direction this is headed …

Vasquez: Do you feel the city would be better off with a department of the environment that you can work with?

Cheng: We involve that in our day to day now, I feel like bolstering what we do right now would be the most efficient.

Cheng: “We’ve woven the things we’ve learned through the [old] Dept of Enviornment into our work” that we do now

We’re back to Hairston now — unless I missed that this is a point of clarification, she’s starting the second round.

Ope, never mind, moving to Ald Taylor — this is definitely second round:

Taylor: I’ve tried to get some streets done and they’ve been rejected because of water work, when will those happen?

Cheng: In those cases we try to coordinate and if not we let the project go, if you can get us the information we can go from there

Vasquez: In the beginning of this term our office was working on a pilot project for cured in place piping — it was a saving the trees initiative

Cheng: There we’re two ways to do it, one way worked and one didn’t. We found the method that worked is not liked by contractors

Cheng: So, we have to go back and reevaluate the original method and get approval from Dept of Pub Health

Vasquez: Looking at the workforce in your department, it leans heavily white and male — what’s the plan for more equitable hiring?

Cheng: We’ve been working as an industry in general to improve diversity and equity — we’ve done some improvement in new hires.

Cheng: Our latest hires, we are at 33% Black, 27% Hispanic, 4% Asian

We’re finally wrapping up — Dowell is thanking the commissioners for their time.

The budget hearings will resume tomorrow at 9am. We are recessed at 6:18pm.