Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Mitchell Armentrout

Regulators reject Peoples Gas effort to fund controversial pipe program

2023-12-14T16:37:55.484-06:00

Peoples Gas crews work on installing a new 12-inch main in the Albany Park neighborhood in June 2019.

Victor Hilitski/for the Sun-Times

Regulators on Thursday brushed aside dire warnings from Peoples Gas about dangling meters, gashed sidewalks and other safety issues that the utility claims will be left hanging unless the state allows it to keep funding a long-maligned pipeline replacement program.

The Illinois Commerce Commission unanimously rejected Peoples Gas’ request for “clarification” on its order last month that cut off spending for the pipe program pending an investigation into the project, which is years behind schedule and billions of dollars beyond initial budget estimates.

That edict was issued last month by the commission as it slashed a request from the utility to raise rates on its 884,000 Chicago customers by a collective $402 million, down to $301 million.

Peoples Gas filed an emergency motion Dec. 1 arguing it needed the commission to allow it to spend $134 million to wrap up “critical safety and reliability work” on the pipe program that’s already underway before they can safely comply with the commission’s ruling.

State regulators pull plug on $1.5 billion rate hike sought by ComEd

Commission chairman Doug Scott said Thursday Peoples Gas “has an enduring responsibility” under state law to maintain “an adequate, safe and reliable system.”

The panel previously noted its order “will not remove any funding related to emergency response to leaks, pipe breaks, or other critical safety measures.”

Scott also criticized Peoples Gas for introducing new evidence in the rate case — a quasi-judicial process — and suggested they request a new hearing, which the utility indicated it would.

“While we wish the Commission would have granted our emergency request, this decision opens the door for us to request a rehearing — something we are likely to do in the coming days,” a Peoples Gas spokesman said in an email.

The gas company has also warned that shutting down the pipe program will result in “hundreds” of jobs being cut in the new year.

Ahead of the commission’s decision, numerous labor unions filed letters urging the state to reconsider its funding. An attorney for Gas Workers Union Local 18007 wrote that funding was needed “to finish in-progress construction that would otherwise leave neighborhoods all across the city partially torn up, dangerous and in disarray.”

Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, called the utility’s effort “a media play that used their workers kind of as hostages.”

“It was, in our view, completely inappropriate and disingenuous, and the ICC saw it that way too,” she said.

In 2007, Peoples Gas put a price tag of $1.7 billion on the massive plan to replace about 2,000 miles of old pipes that deliver natural gas to Chicago homes, but — before the ICC stepped in last month — costs were expected to land well over $8 billion by its completion in 2040.

Under the approved rate hike, most Chicagoans will see their monthly gas bills increase by about $6 starting in January.

Regulators reject $1.5 billion ComEd rate hike

2023-12-14T16:18:54.402-06:00

On Thursday, the Illinois Commerce Commission turned down a $1.5 billion rate hike sought by ComEd.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

State regulators on Thursday rejected a new grid plan and $1.5 billion rate hike sought by ComEd, saying the utility’s proposal “failed to comply” with a sweeping clean energy law signed two years ago by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The 4-1 decision from the Illinois Commerce Commission sends ComEd back to the drawing board for a plan that lines up with the 2021 law that aims to phase out carbon emissions — and it means Chicagoans will see much smaller electric bill increases than expected in the new year.

ComEd’s proposed rate hike, filed in January, would’ve raised the average Chicago area residential electric bill by $6.72 next year, with subsequent yearly hikes totaling $17 by 2027. That would mark an 18% jump from today’s average $93 bill.

Regulators reject Peoples Gas effort to keep funding controversial pipeline replacement program

ComEd said the billion-dollar hike was the cost of beefing up the electric grid for the landmark climate legislation, which also has a goal of rolling out a million electric vehicles by 2030. Additionally, the utility said it needs to better equip its system for severe weather that has become more common due to climate change.

An administrative law judge previously suggested the commission cut ComEd’s rate hike down to $400 million, but the panel ended up tossing out their rate plan completely on Thursday, ordering the utility to come back within three months with a new plan.

In the meantime, customers’ bills are expected to see only slight increases starting in January. The impact to the average ComEd household bill — calculated through lengthy, arcane formulas — wasn’t immediately clear, but was guaranteed to fall far below ComEd’s initial ask.

The commission also shot down a $1.3 billion hike sought by Ameren, which powers most of Illinois outside the Chicago area.

Pritzker’s signature climate law has seen slow progress on clean energy, green jobs promises

ICC chairman Doug Scott said the companies’ plans “represented billions of dollars that would be shouldered by ratepayers.”

“While the commission recognizes that there will be costs to achieve the state’s clean energy goals, [the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act] specifically requires the companies to ensure that their plans incorporate cost-effectiveness principles and sufficiently consider affordability,” Scott said at the commission’s Loop headquarters.

ComEd spokesperson Shannon Breymaier said the utility still needed to review the commission’s full order, but “based on comments made from the bench, we can say at this time that we are very disappointed with the outcome as described.

“Regardless of the language in the order, we remain committed to working with all stakeholders, including our regulators, to deliver a cleaner, more equitable, and brighter energy future for the northern Illinois communities we’re privileged to serve,” Breymaier said.

Regulators cut Peoples Gas rate hike, pause funding for over-budget pipe replacement program

Michael Carrigan, the downstate commission member who was the lone vote against nixing ComEd’s plan, said he still thought the utility’s proposal went against state law, but that it could have been modified “without delay in implementation.”

Consumer advocates hailed the decision as a sign of “a new era” for utility regulation in Illinois.

“This is a reset,” said Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board. “We need to approach these new problems and new goals for the state in new ways.

“I’m just really glad to see that [commissioners are] taking that to heart and understand that CEJA was written to preserve affordability and make sure that the benefits of the clean energy transition go to the citizens of Illinois, and aren’t just a cash cow for the utilities,” Moskowitz said.

ComEd, which is owned by publicly traded Exelon Corp., had asked regulators to increase its profit rate, which currently sits at about 8%, up to about 10.7% by 2027. The ICC’s order grants them an 8.9% return on equity.

“Utilities in Illinois have been able to just not do great work in the past, and they’ve gotten away with that,” said Abe Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group. “The commission is holding them very tightly to the law, saying ‘this was not good enough, you’re noncompliant and you’ve got to do it over.”

The decision caps a tough year for ComEd that saw two former ComEd executives and two former consultants convicted in May of a nearly decadelong conspiracy to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to benefit ComEd.

Madigan, slated for trial next year, has pleaded not guilty.

ComEd has said it’s implemented “comprehensive reforms” with more oversight and employee training to make sure such wrongdoing “can’t happen again.”

Supreme Court review of Indiana case could affect guilty verdicts in ComEd bribery trial, lawyers say

Shelved migrant tent camp cost Chicago almost $1 million

2023-12-13T19:16:52.511-06:00

An aerial view of the migrant camp construction site at 3710 S. California Ave. on Dec. 5. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office shut the project down due to soil contamination.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times (file)

The city of Chicago spent nearly $1 million to convert a Brighton Park lot into a migrant shelter before the controversial project was shut down this month by Gov. J.B. Pritzker over environmental concerns, city officials confirmed Wednesday.

But Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office says the $985,621.21 of taxpayer money didn’t go to waste because the land at 38th Street and California Avenue “has been assessed and further prepared for future use.”

State environmental regulators determined there were too many harmful metals and other toxic substances detected on the property for it to safely serve as a winterized tent shelter housing up to 2,000 of the asylum-seekers who continue to arrive to Chicago from the southern U.S. border.

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Johnson’s office had contended the land could be made safe for temporary residential use, over the vehement objections of environmental activists and a vocal contingent of Brighton Park residents who protested for weeks against any shelter coming to the Southwest Side neighborhood.

The mayor pushed back Wednesday when asked if the Brighton Park investment was a mistake.

“There were 4,000 people living in police districts and the airports, 4,000 sleeping outside, on the floor,” he said. “Could I ask a different question? Is it a mistake to not address the crisis? To not plan for it? One would say resoundingly that yes, it would be a mistake not to plan for it. I’m planning for it with everything in me.”

Before Pritzker’s office pulled the plug — despite committing $65 million to private contractor GardaWorld for work to create a winterized tent community — city officials spent the $985,600-plus on equipment, materials and professional services.

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The price tag for the city, which has been leasing the Brighton Park land from a private owner since late October at $91,400 a month, includes the cost of the environmental assessment that found toxic chemicals, including cyanide, pesticides and the long-banned, cancer-causing compounds known as PCBs.

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, said the city wouldn’t be reimbursed by the state.

“The GardaWorld contract is with the state. So, whatever Garda expenses were incurred, that would be the state’s responsibility,” she said.

A state spokesperson said the Illinois Department of Human Services does not expect to lose money on the Brighton Park site, and plans to use GardaWorld for converting a former CVS in Little Village into a shelter for migrants.

“No money has been paid and there are no plans at present to pay GardaWorld for work done at 38th and California. IDHS appreciates GardaWorld’s partnership and will leverage their expertise and experience to quickly stand up the Little Village site,” the spokesperson said.

The Brighton Park camp is off the table, but the tent city idea is not, Pacione-Zayas said.

“The land assessment is still happening at 115th and Halsted. And right now, we’re looking at 2024 with our predictive models as well as our cost savings and trying to figure out within our [housing and shelter] stock what makes sense to consolidate and what makes sense to continue to expand,” she said.

With all of the controversy generated by the tent city proposal, Pacione-Zayas was asked whether the Johnson administration hoped to avoid using tents.

“My hope is that we’ll be able to shelter people as needed and put them on a path to self-sufficiency. How we get there is highly dependent upon what is incoming and what is available with respect to resources,” she said.

The number of migrants being bused to Chicago — many by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in an effort to shift the burden of resources to cities led by Democrats — has declined in recent weeks since President Joe Biden’s administration reinstituted a policy deporting many Venezuelan arrivals at the border.

More than 25,700 migrants have made it to Chicago since last year, and 13,777 are living in shelters across the city. As of Wednesday morning, another 354 were staying in police stations and 221 were at O’Hare Airport awaiting shelter spots.

CTA will reduce train speeds on Yellow Line in response to crash, federal investigators say

2023-12-12T17:27:30.933-06:00

Authorities investigate a CTA Yellow Line train that crashed into a piece of snow removal equipment on Nov. 16.

National Transportation Safety Board

The CTA will lower the speed limit on the Yellow Line once it finally reopens after a train crash and derailment last month that sent 19 people to hospitals, according to federal investigators.

National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said Tuesday that the CTA informed her agency it would reduce maximum train speeds from 55 mph to 35 mph on the North Side route, and down to 25 mph in the area near the Howard station where a train slammed into a snowplow on the track Nov. 16.

The Yellow Line remains closed more than three weeks after the collision that critically injured three people, including the operator, who “did not do anything wrong” according to the NTSB’s preliminary investigation, Homendy said.

The operator knew the plow was on the tracks for a training exercise and even passed it on an earlier run before the crash happened about 10:30 a.m. on a clear, 61-degree day, Homendy said.

But the operator didn’t know the plow’s exact location, and engaging the train’s emergency brake systems only slowed the train from 54 mph to 27 mph at impact, the NTSB noted in its initial six-paragraph report. It happened just after a bend in the track that may have reduced the operator’s visibility down the track.

A full investigation is expected to take months as federal officials examine the wrecked train’s components and try to recreate crash scenarios, Homendy said. Investigators are focusing on CTA rail signals, railcar brakes and track conditions that caused the wheels to slip at other points in the route before the crash.

CTA officials said the line will remain closed while they’re “engaged in an extremely thorough review of all aspects of the Yellow Line mentioned in the NTSB preliminary report, from signals to tracks to equipment, as well as testing trains to ensure safe operation.”

Homendy said the CTA sent her agency a Nov. 30 memo outlining the new Yellow Line speed limits, also noting that they are “cleaning the running rails to remove the debris and organic material that [the NTSB] identified.”

The CTA also said it would modify its track maintenance program and said they “have instituted some additional supervision,” according to Homendy.

But CTA officials “have not indicated any changes to the design or configuration of the system right now,” Homendy said, as the NTSB probes why a signal system that was configured for the train to stop within 1,780 feet actually needed 2,745 feet.

Thirty-one people, including the operator, were aboard the train as it approached the plow, which had six workers on board, the NTSB report says.

The plow was “stopped about 370 feet north of a red signal indication,” while the Yellow Line train was going 54 mph — below the 55 mph limit — when the operator got a signal command to stop due to the plow being about 2,150 feet ahead.

The operator “immediately initiated a full-service braking application.” After seeing the plow, the operator hit the emergency brakes and got the train down to 27 mph. Multiple braking systems working at once were unable to prevent the collision.

Video from inside the train showed the operator followed protocol by remaining standing as the collision approached, and he appeared “very engaged and looked to be in full control,” Homendy said.

According to a police report, the impact ejected another CTA employee from the snowplow. First responders found the man trapped under the plow.

The operator, who has not responded to Sun-Times requests for comment, told investigators “he was having some difficulty stopping the train” earlier in the route. A train system designed to stop wheel slippage was engaged the entire time, train logs showed.

The NTSB is investigating whether “debris or organic material” might have extended the stopping distance.

Two days after the crash, the NTSB suggested such residue could have been a factor in the crash.

The NTSB also said the CTA had been telling drivers that Yellow Line trains could stop faster than they actually can in the section of track where the crash occurred. The CTA had been using stopping estimates for older, lighter trains, the NTSB said.

Investigators are also probing whether a positive train control system — designed to automatically stop a train if an operator runs a signal or slow it down if it’s moving too fast — would have made a difference.

The NTSB recommended that system nationally in 2009 and to the CTA specifically in 2014 after a Blue Line train crashed into the terminal at O’Hare International Airport. The CTA was not required to install the technology because it’s exempted from the type of federal oversight given to Metra and Amtrak.

Damage to the Yellow Line train and other CTA equipment was estimated at $8.7 million, according to the NTSB. At least seven lawsuits have been filed against the CTA regarding the November crash.

Attorney Joseph Murphy, who represents six of the passengers, said in a statement that the CTA should have taken special precautions to ensure the safety of passengers.

“Whatever safety measures are now being recommended are too late for the people hurt due to avoidable incident,” Murphy said.

Editor note: This story was updated to clarify that CTA’s incorrect braking distances apply only to a specific portion of the Yellow Line.

Cook County Jail detainees can get state IDs under new program

2023-12-11T05:30:00-06:00

Detainees leaving Cook County Jail will soon be able to apply for a free state ID on the way back to society. Part of the jail can be seen in this 2021 photo.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Detainees on their way out of Cook County Jail will soon be able to take a key resource with them on the journey, under a first-of-its-kind ID program being launched this week by state and county officials.

Starting Monday, some detainees leaving jail custody on electronic monitoring will be handed a free state ID, a critical and often elusive steppingstone that hasn’t been available to former inmates as they try to find housing, jobs and other foundations to rebuild their lives, officials and advocates say.

The pilot program, announced by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, is thought to be the first in the nation offered to inmates at the county jail level.

About 2,300 people awaiting trial in Cook County will be eligible to apply for an ID in the first phase of the program, including about 1,800 already released on electronic monitoring and 500 poised to exit the jail at 26th Street and California Avenue.

Dart told the Sun-Times he’s aiming to eventually offer ID applications during jail intake for all detainees before trial, with the goal of giving them a better chance at turning things around when they’re heading back into the community.

State and federal prisons — where inmates’ release dates are concrete — have similar ID programs for people serving out sentences, but it’s a resource that’s just as vital to people waiting for their cases to play out from behind the jail walls, Dart said.

“For folks who come into our custody, an ID isn’t just a nice thing to have in your wallet. It’s the only way you can get a job, or a work permit, or find housing,” Dart said. “There are a million things this throws up artificial hurdles for.”

Sheriff Tom Dart pictured at an August news conference.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Dart’s office has tried for years to launch an ID program, but was tripped up by the “transience” of the jail’s population. While some are detained for months or years at a time, many are only held for a few days or even hours. Inmates would start an ID application and then be released before it was completed, the sheriff said.

“A lot of people who end up here don’t have IDs at all, or their belongings are being held as part of an investigation. Mom has all the vital documents, or Grandma. It gets complicated,” he said.

Under the new effort, officials have lined up detainees with established addresses, some who previously had an ID and others with access to vital documents — birth certificates or Social Security cards — to apply for their first ID.

Illinois Secretary of State office workers have trained sheriff’s office staffers on taking ID photos and other procedures to process ID applications.

“It’s enormously important to provide ex-offenders with essential resources and tools, and hopefully make them self-sufficient,” Giannoulias said before the announcement. “That’s how you help reduce recidivism and help people reintegrate into society.”

The program doesn’t require extra taxpayer dollars, according to Giannoulias, who said he would like to expand the program to other Illinois jails.

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Many people leaving prison or jail reenter society without any documentation, making it challenging to obtain any other forms of identification or apply for school, jobs or social services. It can then take weeks to get the paperwork they need to even start rebuilding their lives in earnest, advocates say.

“If we’re certain enough of a person’s identity to take away their liberty, we should be certain enough of who they are to give them an ID,” said Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of the John Howard Association of Illinois, a civilian correctional oversight organization. “Giving people as much as we can to be able to live productively benefits them and our communities.”

Sodiqa Williams, senior vice president of reentry services at the Safer Foundation, called it “socially disabling” to reenter civilian life without an ID.

“If you can give people housing, it cuts down on recidivism, and having an ID is paramount to finding housing,” Williams said. “This is a step in the right direction.”

Chicago public safety committee advances new ‘hate incident’ reporting system

2023-12-08T16:55:36.788-06:00

Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) pictured at an October City Council meeting.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Chicagoans could soon be able to call 311 to report swastika graffiti, white supremacist pamphlets and other “hate incidents” that can precede violent attacks against people from marginalized groups, under a new plan advanced by a key City Council committee Friday.

The “Chi vs. Hate” ordinance aims to collect reports of disturbing acts that might fall short of a crime, but hint at more troubling actions to come as hate crimes spike in Chicago and beyond.

Tracking those noncriminal incidents — also defined as “derogatory insults; name-calling or gestures; bullying; use of identity- or status-based slurs or pejoratives; verbal online or written abuse and harassment and the placement of hateful or offensive material in public view” — could help police prevent worse instances, according to sponsoring Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th).

“We must stop hate at its roots, and this initiative gives us the tools to do just that,“ Silverstein said before the ordinance was unanimously approved by her colleagues on the Public Safety Committee. “We want to make reporting as easy as possible, ensuring that victims and witnesses have a direct line to share their experiences 24/7 and 365 days a year.”

Silverstein, the Council’s only Jewish member, introduced the ordinance in September as a response to numerous studies showing surges in hate crimes against people in the Black, Jewish, Asian-American and LGBT communities, among others.

Hate crime reports surge

Since then, there has been a dramatic uptick in reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia following Hamas’ Oct. 7 ambush on Israel that spurred the war in Gaza.

Throw in ugly reactions to the ongoing housing crisis for Venezuelan migrants bused to Chicago from the southern U.S. border, and the city has run the gamut of bigoted displays as political divisions ratchet up across the nation.

“Clearly, we’ve seen a rise of antisemitism. We’ve seen it in our ward, as far as seeing swastikas come up,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th). “We’ve seen anti-LGBTQ graffiti up as well. We know that with the migrant crisis, it adds another layer for our newest Chicagoans being treated as though they’re not a part of our city.”

The ordinance’s definition of “hate incidents” was tweaked to exclude “free speech expressions protected under the First Amendment, and acts already classified as crimes.”

Reports on hate incidents would be taken by 311 nonemergency operators, and could also be submitted online or on the city’s CHI311 mobile application.

The ordinance also calls for police officers who witness hate incidents to report a description of the incident and contact information for the alleged target and perpetrator to the city’s Commission on Human Relations.

The police department would also be required to “maintain a publicly available online dashboard” of hate incidents and update it on “at least a monthly basis.” The dashboard must include the “date, location, ward number, bias category and offense description” of each hate incident, the ordinance states.

The Human Relations Commission would publish annual reports that include recommendations on how to address problem areas.

“It’s important that we keep accurate tracking of hate incidents...and again, to combat hate of any kind,” Silverstein said.

The ordinance is slated for a full Council vote on Wednesday.

New discount rates a ‘game-changer’ for Chicagoans struggling with heating bills

2023-12-04T05:30:00-06:00

Naomi Davis is founder of the environmental and social justice group Blacks in Green, which has championed a system to prevent utility shut-offs in low-income neighborhoods for years.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

After persuading state regulators to slash requested rate hikes sought by natural gas companies in Illinois, consumer advocates and environmental justice activists are hailing a new discount rate system that’s expected to help prevent more utility shut-offs in lower-income neighborhoods across Chicago.

The Illinois Commerce Commission on Nov. 16 ordered Peoples Gas and other utilities to implement the tiered discount rate system — the second of its kind to be introduced in the nation— by October 2024, promising to expand the pool of Chicagoans eligible for help with their heating bills.

The new system was approved as part of the decision that also saw regulators cut a rate hike requested by Peoples Gas from $402 million down to about $301 million.

Peoples Gas warns of lost jobs, dangerous conditions unless regulators OK pipe replacement funding

That’s still a record-high increase — which will tack on $6 to the average monthly household bill, as estimated by consumer watchdogs — but the revamped discount rates will deliver much more help to the people who need it most, advocates say.

“This is an absolute game-changer for people struggling with their heating bills in brutal Chicago winters,” said Karen Lusson, senior attorney for the National Consumer Law Center who argued before the commission on behalf of the nonprofit Community Organizing and Family Issues.

The new energy edict sets five tiers of discounts for households in relation to federal poverty guidelines. They range from a 5% discount for customers with a household income up to three times the federal poverty level, up to an 83% discount for those below half the level.

New natural gas bill discounts based on customers’ household incomes in relation to federal poverty guidelines will be introduced by next October.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Any customers documenting such financial hardships will be able to see the discounts on their bills, unlike existing assistance programs that are reliant on government funding that typically dries up each year with only 20% of eligible customers getting help.

And the new discounts will apply to a customer’s entire bill, not just fixed delivery costs, as Peoples Gas pushed for in the rate case. Lusson said that was a key component in advocates’ goal of ensuring customers don’t have to spend more than 3% of their monthly income on gas bills.

“If you’ve got a $275 heating bill, but you only got a discount on the $30 customer charge, that’s just not going to make a difference,” Lusson said, calling the new system “a model for commissions across the country.” A similar discount structure took effect last year in Washington state.

In an email, a spokesman for Peoples Gas said regulators “ordered additional support for customers with lower incomes, and we plan to carry out its approach. The next steps are for us to file an implementation plan and take part in industry workshops with the Commission to address the detailed administrative mechanics of the reduced rates.”

Black Peoples Gas workers say in lawsuit they’ve faced discrimination working for the Chicago utility

Naomi Davis — founder of the environmental and social justice group Blacks in Green, which has championed the tiered discount rate system for years — said Peoples Gas has “a duty to serve all of the people in the service territory that you’ve been awarded.”

“You have an investor-owned utility with a monopoly franchise and a guaranteed profit rate of 9.44%. How many businesses sit on that type of luck?” Davis asked.

She pointed to Black neighborhoods on the South Side, including Englewood, where about 20% of customers in the 60621 ZIP code were sent disconnection notices in September and about half were hit with late fees, according to an analysis by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.

For many, the new discount system will be “the difference between another month of partial pay and some oxygen,” Davis said.

“They can take a breath and stay connected to their power. These are very high-quality changes for those who are most vulnerable to disconnection. That’s what justice calls for here,” said Davis, who’s still pushing, along with the Campaign to End Energy Poverty, to see the changes codified into state law.

Abe Scarr, director of Illinois PIRG.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Illinois PIRG director Abe Scarr acknowledged the expanded discounts will be subsidized by other ratepayers, “but there are societal benefits to that.” That can include preventing customers from being disconnected and resorting to unsafe practices, like using an oven to heat a unit, he said.

“Just because we’re helping more people out at the bottom, it doesn’t mean we should take the eye off the ball. We still need regulators to be focused on keeping rates reasonable and affordable for everyone,” Scarr said.

For information on existing assistance programs, visit helpillinoisfamilies.com or call (833) 711-0374.

Peoples Gas challenges ICC ruling that cut funding to pipe replacement program

2023-12-01T15:49:06.79-06:00

A Peoples Gas crew member works on an Albany Park neighborhood gas main in 2019. The utility has asked regulators to allow it to continue funding a controversial pipeline replacement program into next year.

Victor Hilitski/for the Sun-Times

Peoples Gas filed an emergency motion with the Illinois Commerce Commission on Friday urging regulators to allow them to continue work on a controversial pipeline replacement program next year, or else risk leaving some customers with meters “dangling” dangerously from their homes and hundreds of union workers out of jobs.

In a sweeping ruling last month, the Illinois Commerce Commission put a halt to the utility’s perennially delayed and over-budget pipe project, pending an investigation into what consumer watchdogs have long derided as a mismanaged waste of ratepayer dollars.

Regulators ordered Peoples Gas to cut $265 million in spending for the project, but the utility says it needs to dedicate $134 million to wrap up “critical safety and reliability work” that’s already underway before they can safely comply with the commission’s ruling.

The company asked the commission to “allow it to finish projects that are already in progress, to avoid having duplicate systems in place, metal plates on streets in disrepair, traffic barrels and barricades in place, and meters left dangling on customer residences and businesses,” it wrote in the 19-page filing.

A gas pipeline is exposed under a sidewalk outside a Southwest Side home, where Peoples Gas warns projects will be left in limbo Jan. 1 if regulators cut off funding for a controversial pipe replacement project.

Peoples Gas

In a statement, a Peoples Gas spokesman added the utility “is working to minimize job losses as part of the ICC’s order to pause the work, but knows several hundred jobs will likely be lost — mostly union construction jobs.”

When they handed down their Nov. 16 decision, the commission said in a statement the “pause will not remove any funding related to emergency response to leaks, pipe breaks, or other critical safety measures.”

Peoples Gas disputes that and asked for the commission to “clarify” its order by Wednesday.

Abe Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, suggested the utility’s request was an effort to recoup some of the money commissioners took away when they slashed a record-high rate hike request of $402 million from Peoples Gas down to $301 million. That’s still an all-time high and is expected to add an extra $6 to the average monthly Chicago household bill starting in January.

Regulators cut Peoples Gas rate hike, pause funding for over-budget pipe replacement program

Approving the emergency funding would tack on an additional $9.1 million to the rate hike, according to Illinois PIRG.

“Nothing in the order prohibits Peoples Gas from making prudent safety investments or appropriately concluding in-progress projects,” Scarr said in an email. “If Peoples Gas remains confused, we encourage the Commission to provide clarification without restoring any of the pipe replacement budget.”

Sarah Moskowitz of the Citizens Utility Board, pictured at a March protest.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, called it “outrageous for Peoples Gas, which has been rolling in six straight years of record profits and just received a record rate hike, to claim that it suddenly doesn’t have the resources to conduct repairs to its system and pay its workers.”

“This is further proof that the ICC did the right thing when it issued a long-overdue order that the utility pause this needlessly expensive program — pending an ICC investigation — that after 10 years had not yielded any significant safety improvements but has caused a dire affordability crisis for customers who have seen their bills skyrocket,” Moskowitz said in a statement.

Peoples Gas’ plan to replace all pipes in Chicago could cost consumers much more

Consumer advocates have long complained the project hasn’t prioritized neighborhoods with the most pressing needs and passed on rising costs to ratepayers who have been hit with monthly surcharges to fund the project. The current $15-per-month surcharge expires at the end of the year under state law.

Peoples Gas has maintained it’s the cost of keeping infrastructure safe and reliable. Ed Maher, spokesman for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, said the replacement program is “badly needed on a system where the majority of pipes are more than 80 years old.”

Unless the commission approves the funding, about 1,000 jobs will be lost before Jan. 1, according to Maher, including about 200 from his union. Maher suggested the commission could have ordered a study of the program without cutting funding.

“What they’ve done here is not only halt the modernization program, but they’ve wiped out funding for emergency repairs … It’s playing a very dangerous game, putting people out of work and threatening the safety of the system,” Maher said.

The commission next meets Dec. 14.

Chicago City Hall is owed billions of dollars it hasn’t managed to collect

2023-12-01T05:30:00-06:00

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has inherited a massive amount of unpaid fees, fines and other debts — $6.4 billion. That’s money that could have been used to bolster the city’s cash-strapped coffers.

Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times

With his first budget, Mayor Brandon Johnson could have reopened more mental health clinics, addressed homelessness without pushing for a controversial tax on high-end real estate transactions and hacked a bigger chunk off the city’s mountain of unfunded pension liabilities.

By the city’s accounting, he could have been able to do all of that while taking bigger swings at other campaign promises without breaking a sweat over a projected $538 million budget shortfall — and still had millions to spare for the city’s burgeoning migrant crisis.

There’s just one thing Johnson would have had to do to make this fiscal fantasy come true: Force a generation of debtors to pay up.

The city of Chicago is owed more than $6.4 billion in unpaid fees, fines and other debts that have piled up since 1990, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.

That raises the question of why the perennially cash-strapped city hasn’t gone after late-paying scofflaws harder over the past three decades.

The eye-popping unpaid tab — which could have covered almost 40% of the mayor’s $16.77 billion budget — include outstanding payments from thousands of people, companies and other entities.

And interest is accruing by the day on many of their debts, some dating to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s first full year in office.

The $6.4 billion in delinquent payments include:

Nearly $2.9 billion in outstanding administrative hearing debt.
More than $2.3 billion in old parking, speed and red-light-camera tickets.
Nearly $723 million in unpaid water bills.

The longstanding money owed amounts to an average debt of almost $3,026 for each adult resident of the city.

But officials say it’s a much smaller group of scofflaws who have sidestepped the most substantial payments — many of them from outside Chicago.

City officials say they can’t provide the full list of debtors, citing litigation with some of the biggest offenders and the burden of tallying up the huge volume of the rest.

Johnson’s city comptroller acknowledges that most of that money is unlikely to ever end up being collected.

But, with budget troubles expected to deepen in years ahead, officials agree more should be done to boost the city’sy collections.

“A lot of good could be done in city government with $6 billion,” says City Hall Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, who says this is “an issue that needs attending to,” though it isn’t one that her watchdog office has evaluated “in a holistic, big-picture way.”

City Hall Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.

Jim Vondruska / Sun-Times

“If city operations are running so ineffectively as to leave enormous amounts of money on the table, then the city’s failing to meet its basic obligations to operate effectively and efficiently in the service of Chicagoans,” Witzburg says. “There are many, many needs of Chicagoans that could be met by better-resourced government programs.”

No ‘blood from a turnip’

Data provided by the city Department of Finance shows the biggest share of unpaid debts are from administrative court hearings — the result of violations issued by police, the Department of Streets and Sanitation and other city agencies — from 1998 through early October. Annual unpaid debts still top $100 million from 19 of those 25 years, a total approaching $2.9 billion.

Unpaid tickets issued to drivers make up the next-biggest chunk of the debt — including $1.6 billion in parking tickets that have been handed out since 1990, $428 million in red-light-camera tickets since 2003 and more than $263 million in speed-camera tickets since 2013. Altogether, that’s nearly $2.3 billion that’s outstanding.

The city has been left high and dry on water bills to the tune of nearly $723 million since 2000, including more than $433 million on accounts still listed as active. Utility customers who have been shut off owe about $289 million.

Outstanding ambulance bills and other miscellaneous overdue costs have built up beyond $415 million since 1993. Tack on another $66 million in outstanding tax debts and $22 million in building inspection fees since 2004, and the scofflaws have collectively shorted the city by over $6.4 billion.

Johnson’s first budget leans on one-time revenue, hopes for federal, state help to avoid tough choices down the road

City Comptroller Chasse Rehwinkel — who worked in the offices of the Illinois comptroller and state treasurer before Johnson tapped him as Chicago’s top accountant — says such debt backlogs are “not totally alien to large municipalities.”

“Collecting really old debt is very difficult,” Rehwinkel says. “A lot of it is a function of entities that don’t exist, companies that have dissolved, people who have left the country, people who were involved in fraud. There’s just no way to claw back some of that money.”

City Comptroller Chasse Rehwinkel.

Pat Nabong / Sun-Times

Some of it is owed by lower-income residents, and you “can’t get blood from a turnip,” he says, so City Hall focuses collection efforts on “first-tier” debts incurred over the past three years, followed by “second-tier” debts up to five years old and then “third-tier” debts dating back 10 years.

“Beyond that, it’s generally sunk costs,” Rehwinkel says.

Suburban scofflaws

That’s why the main recovery targets are “relatively recent scofflaws who owe the city a lot of money and have the means but are skirting responsibility,” he says.

Such debtors — who likely number in the hundreds — are “mostly not from Chicago” and own properties that have racked up debt while the owners have taken advantage of legal mechanisms and loopholes “to skirt responsibility,” according to the comptroller, who won’t name names with city lawsuits pending.

Over the summer, the Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago highlighted the case of a Northbrook real estate investor whose businesses have skipped out on $15 million in rat-related tickets on properties across the South Side and the West Side over several decades.

Before taking anyone to court, the city says it uses “various methods to collect the debt internally,” sending collection notices, seizing vehicles, scrutinizing business licenses and more.

If those actions don’t get people to pay up, the city refers cases to a collections agency that can file liens and garnish wages and bank accounts.

After that, these cases can drag on in courts indefinitely.

“It is frustrating to me,” Rehwinkel says. “If somebody is using all the mechanisms they can think of to get around those fees, they’re hurting the residents of the city of Chicago. We’re making concerted efforts to make sure that number is lowered.”

Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), who chairs the City Council’s Finance Committee, says, “We really don’t have the luxury of ignoring these people in institutions, companies and organizations that ignore their debt. So we will be making sure that our department aggressively seeks out the city’s money. We can’t afford to leave anything on the table.

“As we are looking for new revenue sources,” Dowell says, “this is definitely an area we cannot overlook.”

Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd).

Pat Nabong / Sun-Times

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally on Mag Mile to draw attention to Israel-Hamas war

2023-11-24T13:44:47.252-06:00

Protesters wave Palestinians flags as they march on the Magnificent Mile on Friday. Hundreds who marched called for divestment from major companies that support Israel.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Protesters blocked traffic along the Mag Mile for more than an hour on Black Friday to condemn violence in the Gaza Strip, declaring they wouldn’t accept “business as usual” in Chicago’s signature shopping district while thousands of families suffer overseas.

“While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping,” pro-Palestinian activists said outside the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue, handing out pamphlets detailing the civilian death toll that has soared since the surprise Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since.

The Near North Side demonstration played out on the kickoff of the holiday shopping season as details emerged in the four-day cease-fire that Israel and Hamas agreed to in a hostage-prisoner swap. Hamas on Friday released 24 of the roughly 240 hostages the militant group has held in Gaza for more than a month, while 39 Palestinian prisoners were expected to be freed by Israel later in the day.

Hamas frees 24 hostages in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners as part of cease-fire swap

While many in the Chicago crowd of about 1,000 activists said they were heartened by any pause in violence, they agreed the deal wasn’t enough to end the long-term misery — and they were skeptical of its timing.

“It needs to be way longer than four days. It needs to be permanent,” said Hanaa L., a Whitney Young High School senior who attended the rally on a brisk morning the day after Thanksgiving with classmate Eisha A.

Protesters, including Whitney Young students Hanaa (left, with sign) and Eisha chant during a Black Friday protest on Magnificent Mile where hundreds called for divestment from major companies that support Israel.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

“I think they’re really just stopping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Then after that, they [Israel] are going to start killing people again,” Hanaa said. “There are over 5,000 children who have been killed already. How can you sit there ... when our own [U.S.] government is helping fund it?”

More than 13,300 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. At least 1,200 people have died in Israel, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack.

Protesters organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network of Chicago brought their boisterous messaging to the ritzy shops along Michigan Avenue, where Chicago police shut down traffic for demonstrators about 12:30 p.m.

A customers takes a video as protesters scream at Starbucks customers during a Black Friday protest on the Magnificent Mile.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Snowplows blocked eastbound streets to discourage protesters from heading to DuSable Lake Shore Drive, which activists blocked to traffic last weekend.

Throngs of tourists and shoppers whipped out cellphone cameras as they approached the spectacle of activists blocking the entrances of the Victoria’s Secret store at 734 N. Michigan Ave. The protesters also targeted the nearby Starbucks Reserve Roastery.

Two women tried to force their way through the line of protesters into the Victoria’s Secret Black Friday sale, but were briefly turned away after a shouting match with activists who chanted, “Shame, shame!”

“Why don’t you think about what Hamas has done?” one of the women shouted back.

Two shoppers, who were trying to get into Victoria’s Secret on Michigan Avenue, scream at protesters blocking the entrance during a Black Friday protest on Magnificent Mile.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Each store entrance was blocked for only a few minutes.

Some customers who received the same “shame” treatment from protesters at Starbucks returned “shame-shame” hand gestures to the crowd from behind the second-story cafe glass. Another couple flashed middle fingers from a rooftop deck.

Most of Michigan Avenue was reopened by 1:40 p.m.

Pilsen resident Zach Cheikho said he and the other protesters succeeded in “occupying the streets.

“The Magnificent Mile, in terms of brick-and-mortar business, in terms of consumerism, it is the hub in Chicago,” Cheikho said. “So we have to make it clear that it’s not business as usual.”

Protesters wave Palestinians flags as they march during a Black Friday protest on the Magnificent Mile.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times