>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on the weekend review.

I'm Nick Blumberg.

Chicago budget hearings come to a close with no clear path forward.

>> No one has come up with a viable solution other than saying what they do not want.

And so people have to come to the table saying what they do, what what are they willing to do?

A majority of older people tell Mayor Brandon Johnson, his budget doesn't have the votes to pass.

Then more upheaval after the surprise resignation of his chief financial officer.

Chicago's Police Oversight Commission recommends 3 CPD veterans as finalists for the next top cop.

Plus, more pushback from all the people over a gun shot detection pilot program.

Meantime, Google threatens to cut off search access to Chicago students.

Amazon preps drone delivery in the south suburbs and Chicago opens its first self-cleaning public toilet to much fanfare and then someone promptly has an accident.

Briefly locking himself inside.

>> And now to our week in review panel.

Joining us are.

Justin Lawrence of Crain's Chicago Business and from W T Tw News, our own Patty Wetterling and Heather.

Thank you all for being here.

We appreciate it.

Before we get to all those stories and more a little more than 2 hours ago, the FAA took the extraordinary step of issuing a nationwide ground stop citing a telecommunications issue.

Here's some of what Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had to say.

>> There's no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones.

This is it.

Another 9.11 I just can't repeat that enough.

>> Ok, can't repeat enough.

Heather.

Certainly comforting to hear him use that phrase.

It is because we don't know what prompted the ground stop.

There of course, rampant speculation that the FAA had just incorporated artificial intelligence into its operations and perhaps that somehow contributed to that.

But we don't simply know why.

And that means that there are thousands of planes waiting on the tarmac with potentially thousands of people stuck inside being unable to get to where they're People at O'Hare has been told to just turn around and go home because there is no clear idea and ended, but he is going to get off the ground.

I mean, I think planes are landing.

And if you were in the air golden if you were on a plane, that was the worst situation.

If you're sitting on the runway right now.

But that was that was one of those reassuring statements that.

>> that's, you know, in this information vacuum when you don't really know what's happening.

>> It's it's probably may be better to wait until you Don't think of the pink elephant sort of a situation and 10 and a half 1000 delays at this last check.

Right before we went on air 2 and a half 1000 cancellations.

>> You know, the last time this happened back in 2023, days for it to get sorted out.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that that's the point.

don't think if you're at the airport I'm gonna get on a flight as soon as this ends.

I mean, the experts are saying if you're at the airport waiting, you should just go home reschedule your your plans yet.

And there is a transportation department rule it kind of capping how many hours folks can sit on a plane.

But even the fact that it is a number of hours is not necessarily that for me stop mortar there, you know, kind not a playbook for what to do with that.

Yeah, we don't.

This is only the second one sense, as we mentioned, 9.11 So.

not a clear path forward here, but a lot of folks hoping it gets resolved very soon.

All right, Heather, we got quite the unexpected bit of news this morning when we learned that the cities, chief financial officer is leaving after just 3 months on the job.

First reported by the Tribune.

Why did she say she's heading for the exit?

She said she could no longer continue to serve and maintain her integrity and uphold the professional standards, which is.

>> You know, I think everybody's eyes wide.

And at that statement later, the mayor's office said she had been largely absent from the efforts to develop Johnsons 16 or 17.6 billion dollar budget.

They also blasted her forte improperly.

Making 75 million dollar payment to the city's pension fund saying she did not have the legal authority to do so.

Now in a follow-up statement, CEO Ashley Grids back said that was just an attempt to deflect from the mayor's own misconduct.

So it was a day of sort of competing narrative this.

But Justin and I both witnessed her getting crosswise with the mayor's team really less than 24 hours after the mayor made budget proposal public.

Yeah, like other spent all day on the phone with people and trying to figure out what's going on and >> I think they're both tensions around the budget before this hearing and certainly after, but but she was just I would say, unusually candid for for someone in this position.

Part of that job is as you fight with the mayor behind closed doors and then in public, you defend his position and I guess they asked her to do things, obviously, that she was uncomfortable things.

She said the she wanted say that the budget was balanced using that hearing in order to do that, you need to be balance in future years.

she couldn't say that.

She said the mayor is measures to close a gap where 56% structurally essentially avoiding one-time solutions.

When the mayor than saying 76%.

So I know speaking to sources.

That was something that came up before that hearing, she stood her ground and was willing to say some of the things they want it or say or least not say.

And then afterwards, certainly the tension only mounted and I was just 3 weeks ago and now she's out in the middle of budget season the Mayor City Council opponents pouncing on this calling for hearings, investigations.

It's an election year.

The opponents and the the race for the 5th pouncing on this.

So it's just it's a chaotic there City Hall.

I'm sure it seems to me the the biggest source of consternation was Johnson's plan to borrow 481 million dollars to cover the cost of police misconduct.

Settlements originally back in August when the mayor sort of unveiled the 882.0, 4 million.

>> Million dollar gap.

He said we're going to include that in the corporate front and that gap includes what we think we need to pay for police misconduct settlements that changed by the time he introduced his budget to city Council.

Instead he wanted to file for a significant portion of Almost 266 million dollars.

So that meant that the gap that they had to solve was much smaller.

And that's where this is at.

76 is at 56.

That's where that call came.

Also in that CFO Chris back said that it would cost the city about 190 million dollars to borrow 350 million dollars of that 481.

That is astonishing amount of money on top of money, sort of going to cover horrifying police misconduct, allegedly And and when I sat down with the mayor after the budget, I asked him about those interest costs pushed back.

He said he didn't think those was what were accurate.

Another source of tension between the mayor and somebody who's supposed to be his top financial both that the cost to borrowing and then also the city has outstanding borrowing authority already that the city council has previously approved.

I know that was also a point of >> contention leading up to that hearing.

How much the the CFO Day falls.

We you know, plate.

She came from ratings agency and should her job before this was just very simply numbers this.

The math adds up.

The math doesn't add up.

And if it doesn't add up, we're going to your credit and not a political calculus.

Yeah, a different sort of approach she took to it and I think it was maybe clearly not a great fit from the start.

And Patty, just sort of as as a reporter watching this from the outside Chicago in.

>> I mean that the the amount of turmoil, public turmoil that we have seen with the city budget process the last couple years are hard to wrap my head around when I'm hearing hundreds of millions, hundreds of millions.

And it's kind of like how did we get to this point?

>> And having lived here long enough to have lived through administrations where they were constantly patching finding weird in unusual ways to patch it.

And knowing that that's unsustainable, it's just kind of like when are we going to get off this treadmill and get ourselves and to some sort of stable ground and it does.

It feels like that's a long way off.

But it's also like that gap seem so massive.

How are you feeling at and is there some way for them to have a better working relationship to be making some of these deals?

>> You know, maybe in meetings versus having these open fight.

You don't necessarily see these kinds of open battles say with the Illinois General Assembly putting yeah, I don't think that Chicagoans are necessarily used to that.

We nobody here Necessairly wanted the rubber stamp, right.

But now when it seems like chaos and you already have chaos at like federal level, it's just kind of like could there be some grown-ups anything?

Interesting point because Johnson has been asked about that a number of times and he says Chicagoans were poorly served when there was no chaos on the city council.

When you had Mayor Staley and then Emanuel sort get 49 to one are 48 to 2 votes they say he he often says that those were some of the decisions that got us into this But are you saying that maybe there was a negotiating going on behind the scenes to get to that point where you're not losing.

Show us.

The mayor says the city is better off for having all of this chaos out front and in person.

And Justin and I.

>> personally agree because it gives us a lot One.

We all get to vote on how much we coming up in February well.

You know, just in to that point, budget hearings came to an end this week.

There's a block of all.

There's a majority of all others who say the mayor's budget doesn't have the votes to pass.

What happens next?

You know, this was a crazy budget week even before the silver lining of the roughly resigned on a Friday morning.

>> So essentially, 28 alderman one fewer Tamara letter before the budget outlining their concerns say, hey, you just don't have the votes to pass this.

You need 26 votes to pass it.

We have the majority.

You include the corporate head tax that we said you should not to increase the city's least tax, which airframes a sort of a tax on big tech.

But it hits lots of things that hits the mayor.

The mayor is opponents keep to say if you're in a bouncy house, you know, if there's a lease tax on that.

But more importantly, every business that reads, we says software, he's this tax and that small businesses, big businesses, everything everything in between and they say they're opposed to that.

The mayor wanted to take it from 15% to 20%.

They say he doesn't have the votes for that.

Add that to the head tax and the 75 million dollar per commuter payment that received.

We're looking at over 400 million in unsolved in pass here.

And there's no clear way out the 31st.

Deadline is coming So the problem for everybody, both the mayor and his opponents is that there's no other way other than a property tax for increasing the least has to generate in the neighborhood of 230 million dollars, which the city needs just because of math.

>> So if you don't want to raise the lease tax and you don't want to raise property taxes because oh, my God, the voters in February are staring everybody down, right?

What do you do?

Well, you could cut.

We've heard that a ton of time that the biggest department the Chicago Police Department going to make hundreds of millions dollars of cuts.

You're going to cut police operations.

Nobody wants to do that.

So this again for the 3rd year in a row is the proverbial rock and a hard place for everybody involved.

There's there's 3rd option, but it's not.

equally hit.

And that is it doesn't quite bring into 3 for that.

>> Raising everybody's garbage collection.

You could phase over time.

You could to make everybody angry.

Currently a fugitive for those of us who don't pay yeah.

If you're in a firefighter above, you pay a you pay much more than the 8, $9, a month that city residents pay.

But that is a ward by Ward.

Fight.

If Alderman Brendan Reilly, I think might support that.

And he represents the downtown where there is almost exclusively high rises writer, bigger buildings.

If you're in the bungalow Belt.

Gray and tax people Yeah.

I mean, I think like you said as an outsider, a citizen who isn't.

>> Super familiar with these negotiations are like, how do we get into this pickle?

Yeah.

With these.

For 800 million dollar deficit, like where is all the property tax going?

Where?

Where are we losing money?

Well, and as older people are trying to sell for that, they're also upset about this.

A gun shot detection pilot program.

The mayor's office kind of announced without a lot of details and then said they're making some changes.

What are the details?

They're just they there was set to be a hearing about this on why there hasn't gunshot detection.

>> An RFP bidding process isn't over yet.

And before the city's procurement officer said, Ken, it's in your meeting, but we're launching a pilot that he could be ready in as little as 2 weeks.

Hasn't come to pass.

Obviously in the interim, there was a non-binding referendum question to Chicago and 70%.

So they support some form of contact.

Gunshot detection technology coming back.

So there was a second hearing with the procurement officer in and she said, we're scrapping here sort of modifying that pilot.

We're expanding it.

We're going to use the companies that are bidding on the for larger contract.

don't know exactly when it's going to start.

It could take 6 months months to run its course.

And alderman even Alderman Jason Ervin, who is the Mares?

One of his closest allies on the council was kind of he just threw his hands up.

If know what say again, what you're telling English, I think is what he saw and plain English.

So there was a lot of confusion about what's going on there.

Well, and it's interesting, you know, we got some information, you know, from a recent survey that there is.

>> You about the public sentiment when it comes to gun shot detection.

Tell us about what we A majority of Chicagoans think it's a good idea and that it will probably lead to officers getting 2 gunshots faster and that will reduce gun crime.

But they're also a majority of Chicagoans who are concerned that it will waste officers time.

>> And lead to improper arrests.

And I think that that is why this issue has been so difficult for both the mayor and his critics and everybody else to navigate because it sounds like a great idea, right?

Get officers to wear shots are fired faster, but there are real problems with the previous gunshot detection system.

Cities had to resolve several lawsuits that came out of it.

And the question is, is that the right way to be using our officers, which course plays into larger questions about what should the police department be doing and what should officers be charged with addressing?

Well, sticking with the Chicago Police Department for a mission for a minute.

Thank you for that.

Perfect segue.

Last night we learned the 3 finalists that the community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability have put forward.

>> To be Chicago's next police Superintendent Department veterans all tell us about.

That's right.

No outsider.

This time around in Jul know Vallas who was a finalist back in 2023.

>> Chris, Poppy, in on you and Antoinette for city are the 3 finalists now or city would be the first woman to lead the Chicago Police Department.

She was also promoted the day before Superintendent Larry Snelling retire announced his retirement to be his number 2.

I think many people in the city saw that as snowing sort of pointing to his nose and then pointing chief or Sadie as as his pick for it.

But now it's in the hands of the mayor who has 29 days.

He's already wasted one it's taking away year.

>> To to make his pick, which of course, then must confirmed by the city council.

And until then interim Superintendent, Fred Waller continue to lead the department.

Does look at any outsiders?

Well, we know that they did.

We don't know who those outsiders were, sort of why particularly thought these 3 CPD veterans would be the right one to lead.

It is a break a little bit than in years past.

Cpd dating back to the daily arrests.

Had this rotating cast of outsider and insider and outsider and insider.

But since Superintendent David Brown is pretty much reviled across the political spectrum for his leading the department between 2020 2023.

I don't think it's a surprise that the community Commission for Public Safety and accountability looked internally, especially when the police department has shown significant strides in reducing homicides to near historic lows and is also struggling to comply with the federal court order to form itself.

my my takeaway from the 3 all coming from within is I think those might be the most likely to to accept the job as well.

Right?

Because this has been a process that has also been fraud because of the.

>> The upcoming election.

The mayor's opponents have said no, you have to cancel this processor at least delay it until we know for sure whether he will be elected or someone else will take over in May.

It's not really they would have had to change the law to do It's governed by law how this is done.

So I was not shocked that the there are 3 internal, you know, offers to the mayor and now hold select them that person will have to take the job knowing that that there could be a new mayor in May that.

Doesn't like their performance given, but even removing them would also be different avenue from.

does city council vote yeah, but that the looming election, I think, is going to be kind of fit the story in the background constantly for the next little while.

>> All right, switching gears, Patty, lot of people rely on Amazon for quick deliveries.

Now.

The companies touting a plan it says will make it even quicker won't be by truck.

It'll be by is there's a little bit dark sci-fi.

>> I I'm going with the dirt eye dug into this a little bit.

You know, they have rolled rolled out drone delivery other places.

Markets, especially in Texas is the most notably.

>> They're actually expanding supposedly like 500 more markets by the end of the year.

The FAA, our good buddy that that they are cool with it with that and saying that there could potentially within Lake the next 3 to 4 years.

3.5 million drones in the sky.

They deliver only up to Lake 5 pounds.

That's the maximum amount of a package that they can deliver.

>> And so the question is, what do you need that badly?

That ways that little and a half an hour.

That's kind of what the promise is.

the folks in Texas are complaining that it sounds like flying lawn mowers in the air over their home.

So they are getting pushed back on a noise complaints which are basically being ignored in that.

If you remember, Heather, you remember this.

We covered this a lot.

The fight over the change in the O'Hare playing.

Yeah, yes.

And I guess the drones kind of follow.

Highways like flight path highways.

And so if you live under one of those highways, you're getting a lot more of the noise than other people.

I think it's interesting when we're like, what do people need that badly?

Somebody said that their daughter wanted a ham sandwich and so had a drone deliver him.

And I just feel do we need him you don't know people's relationship it?

I know.

I know I'm a chocolate that badly.

I just think let's we really need to think about this really yeah, I would just I am I'm a lot.

I I'm happy to be a lot.

I thank in a week where my e-mail doesn't don't work.

I feel.

>> Satisfied.

And being a lot and I don't know that I need a hand to get the lead lower.

like bloating?

Yeah.

Out of the sky.

They wouldn't be in Chicago.

By the These are Denver.

Lies Yeah is yeah.

But it could be in yeah.

The flying lawn mower.

interesting environmental Just another environmental concerns that federal revenue for the proposed Amtrak project in Britain.

Bridgeport.

>> They found, you know, sort of minimal affects their city hall of the people still want to haul everybody in and ask him questions, Can that really do much at this point?

mean put a lot of political pressure on them.

I think it is going to eventually end up in court.

>> Just as we sit here, this you know, in the last hour, Amtrak has said we will.

coming back to city Hall.

But we need to complete this process first, which includes public hearings on December second and 3rd, I believe, and they say we can come back after at the the hearing has already been scheduled before that.

So they're essentially saying we can't you can come back, but we can't do it in your time.

So that will be interesting to watch.

But yeah, this is I don't know what can be said.

That's going to get the core opposition that lives in Bridgeport on board with this project.

But eventually like I said, this one up in court.

And I think everybody's trying to make sure that they have everything sorted before it gets what one project a lot of folks can agree on that.

>> They don't want to see Chicago overrun by rats.

There's an expansion of an effort to control the population through some more humane means tells the birth control.

>> This kind of started bubbling when people really started realizing the poison rodenticide can also impact other wildlife.

And there were in Lincoln Park, some owls that suffered from rodenticide poisoning after eating rats.

so Lincoln Park was the first place where a trial was underway.

Now Wicker Park is taking it up.

All new park just launched one on their own lake new.

But these are S s ays that are doing this, not the city.

So this is, you know, these private sort of chamber of commerce like things trying to clean up their business areas during streets in sans budget hearing the commissioner said it would cost about $5,000 per block to implement rat birth control.

And and I think he did some quick math and that was like 100 million dollars.

So we know that's not happening.

But I think it speaks to people's greater understanding that poison is not the way to go.

The inspector general issued a report on streets in sand saying we are heavily if not almost completely reliant on rodenticide some poison instead of integrated pest management, which, by the way, would also include humans not tossing garbage out constantly for the rest eat, but street since and has been working a lot on replacing carts.

That's like one huge thing.

And Ali, I was in every single cart had a whole this big on its lid and getting those carts fixed, replaced law Andrew those things and all snowballs But, know, a little bit, I think anywhere we can get will help at right to remain.

You're no, no, no rats at this table But we heard about the time.

Also, our thanks to Justin Lawrence, Patty, Wet >> And Heather, sure around.

And we're back to wrap things up right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Joyce Foundation.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support these donuts.

>> And that's our show for this Friday night.

Whether you're looking for ways to stay active this winter or just want to enjoy some time outdoors.

We've got you covered with a list of Chicago area ice rinks to skate.

You can find it at W T Tw Dot com slash news now for all of us here at the week in review.

I'm Nick Blumberg.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy, stay safe and stay informed.

>> Have a great weekend.

All right.

The city opened very fancy self-cleaning public bathroom and someone almost immediately trapping himself inside.

I mean, I kind of feel the grace of God >> Ingles just shut it off us.

I'm going 9 paper pencil.

mean, it's you know, it's you know, it's the kind of thing that.

>> To the liberating.

But as a woman, I have every public restroom now that, you know, whenever I go reaction.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Clifford and Clifford Law offices wishing