Over the past month, the committee has held hearings where alders questioned city department heads about their needs for 2024. Today, alders have a chance to propose changes to Johnson’s $16.6B proposed budget.

A balanced budget must be approved by Dec. 31, but is expected to vote on the matter next week.

Earlier today, the Finance Committee met to discuss how they would fund the proposed budget. The property levy and the 2024 revenue ordinance passed and will be sent to City Council for a final vote.

In other Chicago City Council news today, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa resigns as floor leader and zoning committee chair following the events of last week’s special council meeting.

You can find the link to watch this afternoon's meeting here

While we wait for the meeting to get started, here's today's agenda

Chair Jason Ervin kicks off the meeting. A quorum has been established. Public comment will now begin.

Commenter N. Rhodes expressed support for Ald. Ramirez-Rosa saying that he helps "the people's agenda" follow through.

Antionette Simmons also expressed support for Ald. Ramirez-Rosa. "He's here in the community, working for other people, helping the people."

Zhou Lee said Ald. Ramirez-Rosa owes the people an apology.

George Blakemore referenced Chicago's recent ranking as the most corrupt city. "You all are part of the problem and not the solution."

Linda Johnson said, "And anytime you block a Black woman from coming in to make a quorum, I got an issue with that because I take that personally," referencing Ald. Ramirez-Rosa.

Carter Trust said, "It is so important for us to remember that you have a responsibility to your constituents. Voter suppression of any kind is unacceptable. And it doesn't matter who is doing it," referencing last Thursday's special City Council meeting.

That concludes public comment.

Going out of order on the agenda, transfers of funds for both the Ethics & Government Oversight Committee and the Rules Committee passed without discussion.

On the annual appropriation ordinance for year 2023 within Fund 295, DFSS is receiving a $30.2M grant from the state to go toward migrants. The fire department received additional funds from the state to support academy training. Other funds were also listed.

Ald. Lee asked how many shelters the DFSS funding for migrants will fund and how long it will last.
DFSS reps said this funding will pay for August and September shelters. It funds a total of 22 shelters.

The agenda item on Fund 295 grants passed.

The amendment for the salary resolutions substitute ordinance is up next. It will allow the Department of Finance to create roles for compliance to be eligible for reimbursement.

This would also establish a city-wide policy on vacation carryover and recognition of vacation accrual at sister agencies.

Ald. Quinn said he would vote "no" on this item after asking if aldermanic employee salaries have been adjusted relative to compression. Aldermanic employees are not on pay schedules. The salary compression study, which is ongoing, was only for employees on pay schedules.

Aldermanic staff receive pay adjustments under the alder's discretion. Quinn said aldermanic staff are underfunded and should be part of the compression study.

This item passes.

Next on the agenda: money for construction and maintenance, snow and ice removal, salary and wages, the CTA, among other transportation and streets and sanitation matters is allocated using a portion of the Motor Fuel Tax funds for 2024.

The $3M allocated to the CTA from the MFT fund is an annual amount based on state statute.

$1.5M is allocated for traffic studies. CDOT's Tom Kearney said his team does a couple hundred traffic studies a year.

The item on MFT funding passed.

An intergovernmental agreement with the CTA and Cook County for MFT funds is next. This is for $3M. This item passed.

Amendments to Municipal Code Titles, part of the code correction ordinance, are up for discussion.

These items seek to correct areas where there was an error and clean up the municipal code.

These municipal code amendments passed.

The next item is a substitute but is also on municipal code amendments. This establishes the Department of Fleet and Facility Management and the Department of Technology and Innovation and establishes agreements regarding these departments.

Another article change in the municipal code phases out the taxi license medallion and allows for license decals to be issued.

Another article change in the municipal code would authorize the city to replace or repair damaged private water mains at the owner's expense if they are connected to the city's waterworks system.

This would allow the city to fix water mains on private property that affects the city and the property owner would be back-billed.

This agenda item passes and will be reported out during tomorrow's City Council meeting.

Now onto 2024 budget amendments, some changes were made close to the meeting.

Expenditures for Midway and O'hare funds increased, therefore revenue was also increased in the same amount.

Land sale proceeds from a one-time sale development agreement with Rush University was also listed in the revenue amendments.

Now onto expenditures, there are several reclassifications based on job titles and job codes between the Chief Information Officer and the Department of HR to best place titles and market compensation.

Additional funding for the Committee on Police and Fire, the Committee on Immigration and Refugee Rights and the Committee on special events. Cultural Affairs and recreation were also added.

An additional staffer for the Rules Committee to handle all the FOIAs requested for all committees was also added.

Item #1 and #2, a series of proposed corrections and revisions to the 2024 Budget Recommendations, passed and the annual appropriation ordinance, passed and will be reported out at tomorrow's meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m. That concludes today's Committee on Budget and Government Operations. These items will be reported out at tomorrow's City Council meeting at 11 a.m. For more information, check out .