Unlike the criminal court proceedings that unfold at 26^th and California, where criminal defendants can be convicted or jailed for their alleged crimes, restorative justice takes a different approach – allowing people to address their harms by accepting responsibility for what they did and engaging with the people and community who are directly impacted.

In a 2022 newsletter addressing the practice, Restorative Justice Judge Beatriz Santiago wrote: “The beauty of this court is that rather than label the participant a criminal, a felon, the court gives the participant an opportunity to make amends to the victim and community for the harm caused and gives the participant a second chance. This is important because once a person is labeled as a convicted felon, their prospects to secure a good job and better himself or herself becomes increasingly difficult.”

According to the Office of the Chief Judge, nearly 500 people have participated in restorative justice community courts since the community courts began hearing cases less than 10 years ago.

For a case to be eligible for the restorative justice, the person charged must:   

• Be 18 to 26  
• Have been charged with a nonviolent felony or misdemeanor  
• Live, work or worship in one of the neighborhoods which has a community court  
• Have a nonviolent criminal history  
• Accept responsibility for the harm caused  

Victims are not required to participate in the process, but the state’s attorney must get a victim’s permission before a case is accepted for restorative justice. If the victim declines, the case can’t be admitted, according to a court spokeswoman.

The Chicago Appleseed report released this week examined the practice at three separate RJCC in Englewood, Avondale and North Lawndale over the course of three months last year.

The report found a huge shift in the types of cases these courts were hearing – from almost exclusively drug cases in 2017 and 2018 to more recent years – where 83 percent of the cases involved gun possession.

Naomi Johnson with Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts said the research team felt like many of these crimes did not have actual victims.

“That was surprising to us because it didn’t feel – it wasn’t in line with restorative justice practices that really focused on addressing harm in the community. In these cases, it was hard to find where the harm was taking place,” Johnson told NBC 5 Investigates.

Nearly all of those participating in Cook County’s restorative justice courts have come from Black or Latino communities and researchers raised concerns that the courts hearing mostly drug and weapons cases could be the result of “lack of safety, over policing and disinvestment in those communities.”

Johnson added the courts are “certainly an improvement from your traditional criminal court. They are a much better place to be than 26^th and California. However, there were certainly concerns about the amount of time that they show up in participants’ lives and the lack of community engagement in these courts.”

The researchers called for a series of improvements – including creating a task force to evaluate the courts, gain participant feedback and oversee changes to the court.

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to the Office of the Chief Judge. Through a spokeswoman, the court released the following statement:

“We appreciate that the Appleseed analysis highlights the many positive elements of our programs, particularly the low recidivism rate of young people in the Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCCs) – a rate of 13% within one year of enrollment compared to 65% for similarly situated young people whose cases are adjudicated in traditional court proceedings. We are encouraged by the ongoing success of our community courts, which have provided hundreds of young people a second chance to improve their lives and avoid having felony convictions on their records. The court is open to collaboration with our criminal justice and community partners on additional alternatives to the traditional court process to the extent the law allows.  We appreciate Appleseed’s interest in the court’s restorative justice programs, and we are open to working with them in the future on a more rigorous evaluation of the RJCCs.”

Johnson went to Los Angeles on Feb. 2 for a conference of the African American Mayors Association, then stayed to attend the Grammy Awards the evening of Feb. 4, according to his schedule.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, NBC 5 Investigates obtained his daily schedule for the trip as well as records showing charges to the City of Chicago’s American Express business travel account in connection with the trip.

Airline transaction details show Johnson traveled with executive assistant Ashlee Horton, as well as senior advisor Jason Lee and senior project manager Maurice Robinson. The names of four individuals were redacted. They appear to be Chicago police officers, part of the mayor’s security detail. When asked how many officers routinely travel with the mayor, CPD pointed to the mayor’s office. A spokesman for the mayor said, “4 is standard.”

Airfare, lodging and travel agency fees for the trip cost a combined $7,949.96, records show. But the city redacted some of the additional expenses, like rental cars and a full page of charges, citing privacy concerns.

Those heavy redactions raise questions about transparency – and just how much the trip actually cost.

“When you’re the mayor of a city like Chicago, the public has a right to know what you are doing on their behalf and is owed explanation of why that’s a valuable investment on our part as taxpayers,” said the Better Government Association’s David Greising. “To be aggressive in redacting information doesn’t follow through on that obligation and to not explain why redactions are made is fitting into a pattern of not being responsive to legitimate public interest in the mayor’s activities.”

The release of the redacted records came amid a rocky few weeks for Johnson. The Chicago Sun-Times revealed Monday that the mayor and his team left an editorial board meeting when his press secretary insisted – and the Sun-Times refused – that the meeting be off the record.

Some have questioned the optics of Johnson’s attendance at  the Grammys when there are crises at home – migrants and school shootings, among others – yet he has limited his interactions with Chicago media, sometimes going weeks at a time without taking any questions.

“Sometimes it appears that Mayor Johnson enjoys the trappings of office more than he enjoys other public parts of his work, in particular the need for the mayor to be responsive to questions to the public’s legitimate interest in what he is doing,” Greising said. “If he wants to attend the Grammys, all power to him. If he likes the Grammys, great. But he can’t enjoy those benefits of office and not uphold his end of the bargain and be responsive to the public’s interest, as channeled through reporters often, in what he is doing.”

“The mayor’s not yet a full year into his term in office. Maybe he’s learning as he goes, maybe he’ll get better,” Greising continued. “It’s not too late for a reset yet but the clock is ticking and that time is running out fast.”

“This kind of careful tracking of the mayor’s activities that NBC 5 is doing that is a reminder to the public that the mayor is spending our money and a reminder to the mayor that we’re watching as well,” he added.

The three commissioners’ staff met for more than five hours to come to an agreement on the market value of the 326-acre site, ultimately landing at $124,691,296. The value is for one year, taxed at the commercial rate of 25%, rather than the vacant rate of 10% that the Bears wanted after demolishing the buildings on the property. That taxing rate was set because the buildings were still on the site through December, officials said.

At a hearing last month, an attorney for the Bears contended last month that the property should be valued at $60 million after the team submitted two appraisals, one placing the value at $60 million and the other at $71 million. At the same hearing, an attorney for three suburban school districts – which rely on property taxes for their funding and intervened in the Bears’ appeal – argued the property is worth $160 million.

That left a $100 million gap between the two sides, who negotiated for months but were given a deadline of Feb. 17 to reach a deal. They were unable to come to an agreement, putting the decision back in the hands of the Board of Review.

The Bears purchased the site that once housed the Arlington International Racecourse for $197.2 million in February 2023, looking to build a multi-billion dollar stadium development on the site with restaurants, stores, a hotel, residential real estate and more.

As the Bears moved to buy the site, during the triennial reassessment, the Cook County Assessor’s office increased the value of the property from $33 million to $197 million. That would have hiked the tax bill proportionally, nearly six-fold. The Bears’ attorney argued that increase amounted to “sales chasing,” in violation of state law.

Because property taxes in Cook County lag by a year, the former owner Churchill Downs was on the hook for that first bill at the higher value. Churchill Downs negotiated a one-year deal with the school districts for a $95 million value. The assessor’s office then raised the value again to $192 million and the Bears appealed once more.

After failing to reach a deal with the school districts by Saturday’s deadline, the Bears’ attorney sent a letter kicking the decision back to the Board of Review, asking them to consider several factors: the previous settlement value of $95 million, the Bears’ demolition of the buildings on the property, as well as similar commercial real estate sales.

Chicago Bears Jan 30

Bears, suburban school districts $100M apart in valuations of Arlington Heights site

Chicago Bears Jun 2, 2023

The Chicago Bears' Battle Over Arlington Heights Property Taxes, Explained

Commissioner Samantha Steele said her team reached a value of $138 million.

“We looked at comparable sales over the past two years, we analyzed the appraisals, we looked at the sales submitted in both appraisals and we looked at what assets were left,” Steele said, adding that she felt the attorneys on both sides had substantial arguments. “I always say, value, it’s an opinion. Us appraisers are taught it’s an opinion of value and so while you may have one opinion, I could have another – generally they should be somewhere in the ballpark.”

Now that the Board of Review has reached a value, it will be sent back to the assessor’s office for certification by the end of the month. Once the value is certified, the Bears or the school districts could appeal to the Property Tax Appeal Board or file a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, though both would likely be lengthy processes.

The Bears have long said they needed property tax “certainty” before developing the site, which would be a years-long process, and that their purchase of the land was not a guarantee that they would build.

The property tax dispute has helped put the possibility of the team staying within the city of Chicago back on the table, as they’ve since reopened conversations with the administration of Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took office after the Bears bought the northwest suburban site.

Representatives for both the Bears and the three school districts declined to comment Wednesday.

The Board of Education published Tuesday the resolution it will vote on later this week to “create a comprehensive whole school safety policy” throughout CPS. The resolution notes the Board previously adopted a resolution in August 2020 directing CPS come up with a plan to phase out School Resource Officers, or SROs. The resolution points to 14 schools that have voted to remove 28 SROs in the more than three years since.

Thirty-nine of the district’s 634 schools have voted to retain a total of 57 full-time SROs. Officers have been inside CPS schools since 1991. The new resolution directs the CPS CEO to develop a new, more holistic districtwide policy that “must make explicit that the use of SROs within District schools will end by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.”

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, NBC 5 Investigates obtained video recordings of five briefings Board members and CPS leadership held in late January with Chicago aldermen as well as state and federal elected officials to discuss the change. Those briefings, at times, grew contentious.

“I do want to say that I wholeheartedly am disappointed in your decision to remove the police officers from our Chicago Public Schools.” 29th Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro told district and Board officials. “I think a lot of our principals and our LSCs made it very clear that some of our schools do, in fact, require and need police officers to be present. I think your decision places our students at more risk and harm than ever before.”

“Your holistic approach, although I applaud it, needs to be studied a little more before we remove them completely or before we remove them at all,” Taliaferro continued, adding, “I would ask you to reconsider and I know for different reasons, many of you are supporting this. But many of you don’t have children in these schools, especially in inner city schools, especially on the West Side and South Side of Chicago. That’s like me saying it’s okay to put our kids at risk because my kid isn’t there.”

CPS Feb 1

Proposed CPS calendar shows classes starting a week later in 2024 due to Democratic National Convention

Edgewater Feb 1

Officials, parents speak out after shooting near Senn High School leaves teen dead, 2 others wounded

Chicago Public Schools Dec 14, 2023

Could CPS' school choice change? Board of Ed considers plan that could impact selective enrollment

Ald. Matt O’Shea said two SROs have made a difference at Morgan Park High School in his 19th Ward.

“They’re approachable for the students who might have an issue, who might be in a crisis; they’re there to protect the students and faculty if God forbid something should happen,” O’Shea said.

Those who want the SROs removed from schools have argued that their presence promotes a prison-like environment. The resolution highlights disparities in discipline: disproportionately higher suspension rates and calls to police involving African-American students and students with disabilities, when compared to other demographics.

If the resolution passes Thursday, it calls for CPS to present the new policy for the Board of Education’s approval by June 27, 2024, to take effect before the new school year. Mayor Brandon Johnson has made eliminating the use of SROs a top priority – just months before the first members of Chicago’s newly elected school board are phased in.

Also central to the briefings was the Board’s move to pass a new five-year strategic plan for the district, which includes, among other initiatives, a shift away from selective enrollment high schools. Aldermen were critical of the timing of that effort as well, its passage slated for the summer – again, before the newly elected Board members take office.

“If we look at it as glass half full, it is: you go out and do this engagement and create a strategy that you think is the best thing for the next four years. But if you’re looking at it glass half empty, it might be saying you’re creating a strategy that’ll tie the hands of the first elected school board if they have to be limited to that, right?” asked 39th Ward Ald. Samantha Nugent.

“Somebody could argue, right, that this would bind or hold an elected school board to decisions made right before they were, they came to be in office,” Nugent said.

Some have raised other concerns about timing of the unilateral decision to remove SROs – after three fatal shootings outside three different Chicago high schools in recent weeks.

“I am definitely not in support of removing the ability for Local School Councils to make the decision on their school resource officers. Just yesterday we had a melee over at Westinghouse, and without the support of the police department on scene, that situation could have been exponentially worse,” 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin said.

CPS said schools can use the funding that would be spent on SROs for what they called “alternate safety strategies,” like hiring counselors, or positions like “restorative justice coordinator” or “climate and culture coordinator.” CPS said schools that have opted to remove their SROs have already used $3.9 million in reinvestment funds to date.

“We are living in some fairly challenged communities and while I understand the need to bring additional resources, I don’t think it should be either/or,” Ervin said. “I think we should be able to do both and I’m hopeful that the resources, the reallocations that you all are making to the neighborhood schools will help make them not only safe environments, but good environments for learning because again, we have some very challenging situations.”

The resolution notes, and CPS’ Chief of Safety and Security Jadine Chou highlighted in the briefings: the district will continue to partner with Chicago police.

“When we say we’re phasing out the SRO program, it does not mean we are phasing out a relationship with the Chicago Police Department,” Chou said.

Still, some took issue with taking the decision away from the schools themselves.

“If the principal and LSC says it, I have no problem with it, but for the CPS Board to arbitrarily say we’re going to take them out without consulting with the aldermen, the principal, I think it’s a terrible idea,” 38th Ward Ald. Nick Sposato.

When asked about the comments made by aldermen in the briefings, CPS said the matter has been under review for years.

“In partnership with the Mayor’s Office, the Chicago Board of Education has been reviewing the District’s approach to whole school safety,” CPS’ statement reads.

“The resolution calls for the District to build on work that has been undertaken over the past several years and promises to elevate the policies, practices and resources that support the physical, emotional, and relational safety of all staff and students in our schools.” the statement continued. “We expect we will expand on some of the current school-level work, including wrap-around supports, restorative justice, healing-centered practices, reengagement strategies, and facility needs.”

The Board passed a resolution in December outlining “values and parameters” for Chicago Public Schools’ new five-year strategic plan it hopes to have in place before the next school year beginning in the fall of 2024. That resolution notes that the city is “still confronted with long-standing challenges and opportunity gaps” that it says are driven by “long-standing structural racism and socio-economic inequality.”

“This is the foundation upon which our current school choice system was built — an under resourced system that has pitted schools against each other and has had the effect of sorting students based on performance outcomes and selective admissions criteria, which ultimately reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity,” the resolution reads.

To address those issues, the resolution said the district’s new five-year plan will include goals to “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.”

CPS has 11 selective enrollment high schools that are some of the highest ranked not just in the city, but nationwide. Admission to those schools — which include Northside College Prep, Whitney Young Magnet High School and Walter Payton College Preparatory, among others — is extremely competitive.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, NBC 5 Investigates obtained recordings of five internal briefings officials from CPS and the Chicago Board of Education held in late January with city aldermen, as well as state and federal lawmakers to discuss the framework for the new five-year plan. Aldermen criticized the way the resolution was written, saying it suggested selective enrollment in the district will come to an end.

“People are very proud of our selective enrollment schools in the city,” 39th Ward Ald. Samantha Nugent said in the first briefing. “It is something that people talk about all over the country, I mean, Michelle Obama writes about it in her book, how life changing it was for her.”

“I think it’s okay to have some really good things and to be proud of it and work to find ways to make things better,” Nugent continued. “But I think as written, we – I’m guessing a lot of colleagues are going to tell you they’re getting a lot of calls and it’s creating quite a bit of problems, at least for me, it’s causing a lot of stink in the ward.”

“Do you understand parents don’t have the confidence in the Chicago Public Schools in their neighborhoods? And they leave,” 31st Ward Ald. Felix Cardona said at a later briefing.

“That’s what we’re trying to address, sir,” Chicago Board of Education Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland replied.

“You’re taking away their choices. And that’s not right,” Cardona continued.

Todd-Breland said the resolution did not have any plans to close selective enrollment schools nor did it include any official action taken.

“Unfortunately your messaging has been completely, just terrible,” state Rep. Jaime Andrade said during another session. “Because I have a panic of all parents that that is the message that CPS is delivering, that selective enrollment schools will change, they will be closing as a selective enrollment school and they will be changing just to regular neighborhood schools.”

“I agree, there has been a lot lost in translation here and in messaging here on this topic in particular, because in fact we didn’t say anything about selective enrollment schools but this is the direction that people have taken,” Todd-Breland said.

“I just think the messaging has to be clear that those schools are not going anywhere, right?” Andrade later added. “Because all you’re going to do, if that is the plan, you’re actually going to create the most segregated CPS system ever.”

State Sen. Javier Cervantes shared his experience as a parent whose daughter attends a CPS performing arts school.

“I have to travel 20, 25 minutes every day to pick her up, but that’s a choice as a parent — I wouldn’t want to take that choice away from parents,” he said.

Board of Education members repeatedly tried to alleviate elected officials’ concerns.

“What we can say is we’re not closing any of these schools, but we are evaluating all of these policies and practices,” Todd-Breland said. “We’re at the beginning of this process.”

Lawmakers also criticized the timing of the new five-year plan — scheduled to be put in place shortly before terms expire for the appointed members of the Board of Education, and the city’s first elected school board members take office.

Amid the ongoing dispute, the Board of Review on Wednesday informed both the Bears and the districts that it let the Cook County Assessor’s valuation of the 326-acre property stand at $192 million, which would roughly quintuple the team’s property tax bill.

The Bears bought that property that once housed the former Arlington International Racecourse for $197.2 million in February 2023, aiming to build a multi-billion dollar stadium development on the site with restaurants, retail, residential real estate and more.

Meanwhile, as part of the triennial reassessment, the Assessor’s Office increased the value of the property from $33 million to $197 million. Property taxes in Cook County lag by a year, leaving former owner Churchill Downs on the hook for the first bill at the higher value. Churchill Downs appealed to the Board of Review, then negotiated a one-year agreement with the school districts, which rely on property taxes for their funding and intervened in the appeal, for a $95 million value.

The responsibility for the bill then shifted to the Bears, who continued to negotiate with the districts.

At a January 30 Board of Review hearing on the issue, the Bears’ attorney said the team submitted two appraisals, one for $60 million and the other for $71 million. The Bears’ lawyer argued the Assessor’s Office inflated the value of the land relative to other, similarly sized sales, asking the Board of Review to reduce the value to $60 million.  

In that same hearing, the school districts’ attorney said the appraisal they submitted found the site to be worth $160 million, leaving a $100 million gap between the two sides.

In allowing the Assessor’s $192 million value to stand earlier in the week, the Board of Review gave the two sides until Saturday to reach an agreement.

But in a letter obtained by NBC 5 Investigates, the team’s attorney on Friday kicked the decision back to the Board of Review, asking the three commissioners to consider several factors: the previous settlement value of $95 million, the Bears’ demolition of the 86 buildings on the property, similar commercial real estate sales and more.

The Board of Review is expected to reach a decision on the value next week. The value is then slated to be sent to the Assessor’s Office for certification around the end of the month.

Once the value is certified, if a settlement hasn’t been reached, the Bears could appeal to the Property Tax Appeal Board or file a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, though both would likely be lengthy processes.

“If the Bears want Arlington Heights to happen, I think they’re going to have to budge way further than they want to,” NBC Sports Chicago’s Bears Insider Josh Schrock said.

The Bears have long said — even as they purchased the site — that they needed property tax “certainty” before they can build. And the battle over the property taxes has put the possibility of staying within the city of Chicago back on the table, as the team has reopened the conversation with Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took office after the Bears purchased the Arlington Heights property.

“I think the stagnation in the talks between the school districts and the Bears can only tell you that the Bears are at least really considering trying to find a way to stay in the city,” Schrock said. “I think there’s more momentum that way now than there was a year ago.”

Chicago Bears Jan 30

Bears, suburban school districts $100M apart in valuations of Arlington Heights site

Chicago Bears Jun 2, 2023

The Chicago Bears' Battle Over Arlington Heights Property Taxes, Explained

“This is all part of the long, slow dance that many of us expected between the Bears and their next home,” said longtime Bears commentator David Haugh.

“It’s essentially: Who is going to blink first? And I believe the Bears are wanting people to think they’re prepared to wait, to wait it out,” Haugh said.

“Why did the Bears get in this position to begin with? They wanted to own their own stadium. That’s how you get ahead as an NFL owner. The McCaskeys want to be able to keep the money they make at their own stadium,” he added. “This is a game of leverage.”

“Once they get it all built, they’re going to make that money back in concerts and tourism and should they ever want to sell the team, the valuation is going to go through the roof because you have all of that land,” Schrock said. “I think in the end it’s just going to be: how much do the Bears value that? And are they willing to eat a little bit upfront for the pay down the road?”

Representatives for the school districts and a spokesman for the Bears did not respond Saturday to requests for comment on the failure to reach a deal.

That decision puts heightened pressure on the Bears and three area school districts, which rely on those property taxes for their funding, to reach an agreement in their ongoing negotiations over exactly how much that 326-acre site is worth.

The Bears bought that property that once housed the former Arlington International Racecourse for $197.2 million in February 2023, aiming to build a multi-billion dollar stadium development on the site with restaurants, retail, residential real estate and more.

Meanwhile, as part of the triennial reassessment, the Cook County Assessor’s Office increased the value of the property from $33 million to $197 million. Property taxes in Cook County lag by a year, leaving former owner Churchill Downs on the hook for the first bill at the higher value. Churchill Downs negotiated a one-year agreement with the school districts, which intervened in the appeal, for a $95 million value. The responsibility for the bill then shifted to the Bears, who now continue to negotiate with the districts.

At a January 30 Board of Review hearing on the issue, the Bears’ attorney said the team submitted two appraisals, one for $60 million and the other for $71 million. The Bears’ lawyer argued the Assessor’s Office inflated the value of the land relative to other, similarly sized sales, asking the Board of Review to reduce the value to $60 million.  

In that same hearing, the school districts’ attorney said the appraisal they submitted found the site to be worth $160 million, leaving a $100 million gap between the two sides. The Board of Review’s period to accept a settlement closes Saturday, with the valuation slated to be sent to the assessor’s office for certification at the end of the month.

Once the value is certified, if a settlement hasn’t been reached, the Bears could appeal to the Property Tax Appeal Board or file a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, though both would likely be lengthy processes.

“If the Bears want Arlington Heights to happen, I think they’re going to have to budge way further than they want to,” NBC Sports Chicago’s Bears Insider Josh Schrock said.

The Bears have long said — even as they purchased the site — that they needed property tax “certainty” before they can build. And the battle over the property taxes has put the possibility of staying within the city of Chicago back on the table, as the team has reopened the conversation with Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took office after the Bears purchased the Arlington Heights property.

Chicago Bears Jan 30

Bears, suburban school districts $100M apart in valuations of Arlington Heights site

Chicago Bears Jun 2, 2023

The Chicago Bears' Battle Over Arlington Heights Property Taxes, Explained

“I think the stagnation in the talks between the school districts and the Bears can only tell you that the Bears are at least really considering trying to find a way to stay in the city,” Schrock said. “I think there’s more momentum that way now than there was a year ago.”

“This is all part of the long, slow dance that many of us expected between the Bears and their next home,” said longtime Bears commentator David Haugh.

“It’s essentially: Who is going to blink first? And I believe the Bears are wanting people to think they’re prepared to wait, to wait it out,” Haugh said.

“Why did the Bears get in this position to begin with? They wanted to own their own stadium. That’s how you get ahead as an NFL owner. The McCaskeys want to be able to keep the money they make at their own stadium,” he added. “This is a game of leverage.”

“Once they get it all built, they’re going to make that money back in concerts and tourism and should they ever want to sell the team, the valuation is going to go through the roof because you have all of that land,” Schrock said. “I think in the end it’s just going to be: how much do the Bears value that? And are they willing to eat a little bit upfront for the pay down the road?”

When reached for comment on the Board of Review’s decision, a spokesman for the Bears referred back to the comments the team’s attorney made during the hearing last month.

A spokesman for the school districts declined to comment.  

The city crafted a change to its bus ordinance in December in an effort to stop so-called “rogue buses” from dropping off scores of migrants unannounced throughout the Chicago area. City council approved the changes.

The city’s ordinance requires that bus companies apply for and get permission from the City of Chicago before dropping off migrants at the city’s designated landing zone. 

Wynne filed the lawsuit in federal court in January – only after the city had filed a series of lawsuits of its own in state court against bus companies it alleged had violated its new regulations. To date, the city’s law department says that it has filed 95 violations against 30 bus companies.

In a response filed late Thursday to Wynne’s lawsuit, attorneys representing the city allege that “there is nothing to (Wynne’s) claims, and (the lawsuit) should be dismissed.”

Wynne Transportation, which has been paid by the Texas government to transport migrants to Chicago and other U.S. cities – filed the lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance and arguing it infringed on interstate commerce laws and the rights of migrants.

“It’s just like anybody trying to get on a bus and trying to go to their chosen destination. And the city of Chicago’s ordinance is interfering with that,” attorney Mike Kozlowski said during an interview with NBC 5 Investigates last month. “And when we’re talking about immigration, that’s a federal issue. The City of Chicago is not allowed to legislate on an immigration issue.”

The city argues in its response that the new regulation “does not discriminate …  (and applies) equally to buses from Illinois or elsewhere.”

Attorneys for the City of Chicago also wrote that Wynne “wants to be able to drop off scores of migrants on the streets of Chicago without heed to the basic safety and traffic management concerns that underlie the City’s regulations.”

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to an attorney for Wynne Friday for a response to the city’s latest filing. We have not heard back as of news time.

It’s not immediately clear when another hearing date will be set.

NBC 5 Investigates spoke to two law professors Friday, both of whom agreed the Johnson administration could potentially prevail in getting the case tossed out.

“My own assessment is that the complaint is largely a political complaint and not a serious legal complaint,” said Steve Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois – Chicago who teaches constitutional law. “What I mean by that is that the Texas governor has set up this immigration program with an eye toward politics and that the complaint is simply furthering the Texas governor’s political agenda, and shipping migrants to cities like Chicago. Now it’s not a serious legal complaint because the claims that the bus company alleges in the complaint, simply don’t hold water. And the city’s response that was filed this week is really a good indication of why those claims don’t hold water.”

Nadav Shoked, a professor of law at Northwestern University characterized the lawsuit as “weak” and said “We all understand the logic and the background for this, the only thing the city is doing is regulating how people can arrive in the city. It is not stopping anyone from arriving in the city – it’s not even deterring anyone from arriving in the city. That’s why – even without knowing anything about the law – it is easy to see why the city is correct in arguing the lawsuit is somewhat silly.”

In a statement, the city’s law department said its response explains why the lawsuit should be dismissed.

On Sept. 5, 1979, Eyvonne Bender and Susie Ovington were headed to a shopping center in Morton Grove when they vanished. A search party discovered their bodies in a nearby forest preserve later that night. More than four decades later, their families are still waiting for answers.

“It’s frustrating,” said the girls’ classmate Tom Sprague, who has spearheaded a renewed push to solve the crime. “It’s just so slow and we can’t get any information from the police department.”

Morton Grove police said they’ve reviewed the case several times over the years: in the early 2000s, followed by a cold case investigation in 2005, then starting fresh in 2020. A spokesman for the department said Thursday that police have recently offered to speak directly with the families about their efforts.

But the families have cast doubt on the police work, noting that department’s own timeline of the investigation shows gaps with seemingly little action taken for years at a time. The families also say they’ve learned little from police, despite repeatedly asking for updates on the case.

Morton Grove Sep 5, 2023

44 years after 2 teens killed in Morton Grove, a renewed push to solve the cold case

Morton Grove Oct 26, 2023

Newly obtained DNA reports give glimpse of investigation into unsolved 1979 Morton Grove murders

NBC 5 Investigates previously filed an open records request with Morton Grove to see the case file and learn exactly what steps police have taken in the decades since the crime.

When that request was denied, NBC 5 filed a lawsuit alleging the village violated the Freedom of Information Act. That court case is still ongoing.

Last week, Morton Grove police sent evidence to a lab in Florida that specializes in DNA testing on old and degraded surfaces. That update came two months after the Morton Grove Village Board approved the funding.

After decades of delays, Sprague again questioned why it took so long between that approval and when the evidence was sent. A Morton Grove police spokesman said investigators needed to have their “ducks in a row,” which included coordinating with other labs to ensure the testing’s admissibility.

Sprague said there’s hope this latest step will yield results – but highlighted his and the families’ frustration.

“This is not just an Ovington and Bender family issue,” Sprague said. “This is about the people of Morton Grove and the surrounding communities. If you’re someone that lives in one of those communities and God forbid something happens to one of your loved ones, your son, your daughter – is this the police department you want investigating their murder? I don’t think so.”

“I think it’s time the people of Morton Grove rise up and demand more from their government and more from their police department,” he added. “The people of Morton Grove deserve better than this.”

As Susie and Eyvonne’s families wait, the reward for information leading to an arrest has grown to $20,000.

“People know what happened, not just one person, I think multiple people know,” Sprague said. “We just need people to talk.”

“Everyone is still very, very hopeful that this can get solved,” Sprague said.

Anyone with information on the case can call (847) 663-3815 to speak directly to a detective or submit a tip anonymously via the hotline at (847) 663-3828. Tips can also be shared by emailing tipshotline@mortongroveil.org or tips@cookcountycrimestoppers.org.

The latest spending increase – signed last week – does not extend the contract terms but now brings the total value of Favorite’s contract to more than $149 million.

Favorite Staffing has faced public criticism over shelter conditions and the company’s high-priced invoices, which have cost the city more than $96 million so far, according to the city’s migrant spending portal.

An NBC 5 Investigation last fall found the company routinely billed the city for 84 hours per week for its employees – including overtime. The Johnson administration has said it has since worked to reduce the hourly rates and encouraged the company to hire locally to avoid inflated rates used to cover housing and transportation costs for employees.

It’s the third contract spending increase for Favorite Healthcare Staffing since the City of Chicago renewed its $40 million contract in October to provide staffing at the city’s 28 migrant shelters.

On December 29, Johnson signed a $30 million spending increase.

Just last week, the mayor’s office confirmed to NBC 5 Investigates that the increases were used to pay for the costs of invoices. Favorite’s contract currently runs through October 2024.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Ronnie Reese, a spokesman for Mayor Johnson said: “these are ARPA funds and the costs they are utilized for are from 2023, not new costs in 2024.”  

NBC 5 Investigates also reached out to Favorite through a spokeswoman who deferred contract questions back to the mayor’s office.

When asked why Favorite didn’t testify at Tuesday’s hearing, a spokesperson for the company said: “DFSS staff appeared at the hearing to answer questions about the shelters, including Favorite Healthcare Staffing. (Company) representatives were not present.”

Questions about Favorite have only increased in recent months after internal memos surfaced showing the Johnson administration was aware in late October about pests, food concerns and illnesses in the city’s largest shelter in Pilsen.

Cell phone videos shared by migrants have shown water dripping from ceilings at the city’s largest shelter in Pilsen where 2,500 people have been staying.

The death of 5-year old Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, who collapsed and died on December 17 at a Pilsen shelter only amped up questions about healthcare and conditions at city migrant shelters.

Beatriz Ponce de Leon, the city’s Deputy Mayor of Immigrants, Migrants and Refugee told NBC 5 Investigates Tuesday: “It was conflated in many ways that the child died as a result of being in that shelter – there’s no evidence to that. We don’t know yet why that child passed away but as soon as there is a closure we will be able to share a conclusion to that.”

A spokeswoman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office told NBC 5 Investigates there was no update on the child’s cause of death.

On Monday, the Johnson administration again postponed enforcement of its 60-day shelter stay limit just days before nearly 2,000 migrants were expected to be evicted from their shelters. Under the new extension, migrants will be able to stay in their shelters from as early as mid-March to as late as the end of April.  

With only 7,500 migrants eligible for housing assistance and roughly 1,000 or more work permits issued, Ponce de Leon was asked if the City was concerned about the real possibility of some of the migrants becoming homeless?

“We are doing everything we can to mitigate against people who are experiencing homelessness. As we talk to the county and state about that – it is a consideration,” she said before adding that the city is advocating for more flexible federal dollars that could be used for housing, transportation and healthcare.

There are also efforts underway to coordinate with the county, state and charitable organizations to address potential housing gaps in the future.

The team’s attorney argued at a Cook County Board of Review hearing that the property should be valued at $60 million and taxed at the 10% rate for residential and vacant land, due to the work done to demolish the existing structures on the site, versus the 25% tax rate for commercial properties.

The Bears’ lawyer said the team submitted two appraisals of the site, one for $60 million and the other for $71 million, and contended the assessor’s office inflated the value of the land relative to similar sales in the area.

Three surrounding school districts – which rely on property taxes for their funding – intervened in the Bears’ appeal. The schools submitted an appraisal finding the site to be worth $160 million, leaving a $100 million gap between the two sides.

The Bears announced in September 2021 they had reached an agreement to purchase the 326-acre northwest suburban site that housed the former Arlington International Racecourse for $197.2 million, and closed on the property in February 2023.

The previous assessed value of the site was about $33 million. The Cook County Assessor’s Office reassessed the site and placed its value at $197 million.

The racetrack’s previous owner, Churchill Downs, was on the hook for that increased tax bill and filed an appeal arguing it was worth $37.2 million. The school districts at that point argued it was worth $150 million. The two sides reached a settlement of $95 million, but it was a one-year agreement, forcing the Bears to revisit the issue as the responsibility of the tax bill transferred to them.

Following that agreement, the assessor’s office again raised the value to $192 million, the Bears’ attorney said Tuesday.

The team has long said they need what they called property tax “certainty” in order to put shovels in the ground, hoping to build a multi-billion dollar stadium district with restaurants, stores, residential real estate and more.

Negotiations between the Bears and the school districts over the value of the property remain ongoing – but the clock is ticking.

If they don’t come to an agreement, the Board of Review will rule on the dispute near the end of February, Commissioner Samantha Steele said.

Selina Taylor and her family were driving home from a Juneteenth celebration in 2021 when a speeding Chevy Malibu ran the red at Pershing and State, hitting her vehicle.

Taylor and her 3-month-old son Sebastian Junior were killed. Taylor’s partner Sebastian Taylor and their then-12-year-old son David were severely injured.

The driver of the Malibu and a passenger fled on foot, leaving the car behind.

“These last two-and-a-half years for me have honestly been terrible,” Selina Taylor’s sister Keyona Armstrong said. “It’s taken a toll on my mental health. Sometimes I can’t – I just don’t really sleep at night because of this.”

“I’m always thinking about my sister,” she added.

Both Armstrong and Sebastian Taylor said they got no information from Chicago police – leaving them in the dark about what happened that night.

“I didn’t find out anything from police,” Armstrong said.

NBC 5 Investigates filed more than a dozen open records requests with various agencies on this case. As the months dragged on without an arrest, one of those requests was for all Chicago police reports, to see what steps they were taking – if any – to find the driver.

That request was denied, so NBC 5 Investigates filed a lawsuit, alleging CPD violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

“Unfortunately, this is not an unusual occurrence,” said attorney Matt Topic, who represents NBC 5 in this and several other lawsuits over FOIA violations. “The Chicago Police Department has a very bad track record of being transparent with the public and even the families of victims of crimes about what’s going on in these cases.”

“The law is structured in a way that public bodies are required to be transparent,” Topic added. “It shouldn’t require lawsuits to turn over records.”

“There’s a great number of people who’ve lost loved ones, lost children, lost parents, and I think they ought to know a lot more about why the police department can’t seem to clear these cases,” Topic said. “And part of the way to get to that, if they won’t answer your questions, is to demand records from them and that takes lawsuits.”

Of the roughly 37,000 hit-and-run crashes the city saw in 2021, Chicago police made arrests in just 95 cases, according to city data obtained and analyzed by NBC 5 Investigates. This case ultimately was a rare hit-and-run where Chicago police did find a suspect: Tevin Gray, who was indicted on two counts of reckless homicide and four counts of leaving the scene of an accident in December 2022. He has pleaded not guilty.

The indictment came nearly 18 months after the crash. But the nearly 500 pages of reports obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show CPD had several clues pointing to Gray far earlier than that, and let months go by without documenting any steps taken to solve the crime.

The crash report filled out the night of the incident lists a registered owner of the Malibu. Court records show that owner is the same woman Gray was accused of attempting to strangle in a 2018 domestic battery charge.

Six days after the crash, records show CPD searched the Malibu and found a debit card with Gray’s name on it inside the car, as well as bags of cocaine and fentanyl.

After that, the file shows no activity for more than three months. It wasn’t until October 2021 that CPD documented the next update: CPD received a DNA report identifying Gray as a match to DNA found on the steering wheel airbag of the Malibu. Investigators then requested additional testing on a gun found in the car.

Then, nothing. No updates in the file for another five months.

Meanwhile, as CPD’s investigation seemingly stalled, records show Gray was arrested in November 2021 by Rockford police on unrelated weapon and drug charges – booked in the Winnebago County Jail, where he remains today.

Still, for months, there’s no evidence in the case file that Chicago police even knew he was in custody – and no documents showing they took any steps to find him.

In March 2022, NBC 5 Investigates aired a story revealing Illinois State Police were pursuing the Malibu just before the crash – and noted the lack of an arrest.

Just nine days after that report aired, records show CPD picked up the case again for the first time in more than five months. Investigators contacted ISP and met with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. Then – more than nine months after the crash – they began to search social media for Gray, even though they found his debit card in the first week, and got a DNA match six months earlier.

left for dead Jan 22

Left for Dead: Records reveal new details on hit-and-run as Illinois State Police continue to withhold videos

left for dead Sep 1, 2023

Left for Dead: Family of teen injured in hit-and-run sues car owner, criticizing Chicago police ‘inaction'

left for dead May 19, 2023

Left For Dead: Alleged Driver in Deadly Hit-and-Run Later Accused of Shooting at Off-Duty Officer

“I don’t want my sister to be swept under no rug,” Armstrong said. “I want people to feel like, if that happens to them, ya’ll want somebody to say something too.”

Armstrong said she also asked police for years to see video of the crash captured by the surveillance camera of the Dawson Technical Institute at that intersection. NBC 5 Investigates filed an open records request for the footage with City Colleges, and when that was denied, filed another lawsuit to ultimately obtain it.

The video shows an ISP SUV arriving at the scene just 41 seconds after the crash.

ISP’s internal investigation cleared its troopers of any wrongdoing, saying the pursuit that reached speeds of more than 100 miles per hour was not a pursuit at all, in part because they did not activate their lights and sirens.

But after watching the video for the first time, Keyona disputed ISP’s version of events.

“I see why they don’t want me to see it,” she said. “It don’t take a rocket scientist to find out you pulled up right after this man hit my sister. You was behind him, he just was driving faster than you.”

Gray has pleaded not guilty to both the charges in connection with the crash, as well as the charges in Winnebago County, where he remains in jail on a $1 million bond.

Armstrong said, as her family continues to grieve, the lack of response from both CPD and ISP feels like a lack of accountability.

“That’s a whole human being,” she said. “What if that was your family? What if that was your baby?”

NBC 5 Investigates asked Chicago police about the gaps in time in their investigation. A CPD spokesman did not respond.

Selina Taylor and her family were coming home from a Juneteenth celebration in 2021 when their car was hit by a speeding Chevy Malibu that ran the red at Pershing and State Street. The driver fled on foot, leaving the Malibu behind.  

Selina and her 3-month-old son Sebastian Junior were killed. Her partner Sebastian Taylor and their then-12-year-old son David were severely injured.

“I’m just tired. Stressed out. Mad, angry. And it feel like ain’t nobody doing nothing about it,” said Selina’s mother Sherry Taylor.

“Somebody needs to pay for this,” she continued, through tears. “I can’t take it.”

Sebastian Taylor said for months, police wouldn’t answer his questions – leaving him in the dark about what happened that night.

left for dead Sep 1, 2023

Left for Dead: Family of teen injured in hit-and-run sues car owner, criticizing Chicago police ‘inaction'

left for dead May 19, 2023

Left For Dead: Alleged Driver in Deadly Hit-and-Run Later Accused of Shooting at Off-Duty Officer

Until NBC 5 Investigates obtained the Illinois State Police’s 500-page report on the agency’s internal investigation into the incident. It revealed multiple troopers pursued the Malibu, hitting speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, before calling it off shortly before the crash.

ISP cleared their two troopers who started the pursuit of any wrongdoing – in fact, they determined it was no pursuit at all, because they never activated their lights and sirens. But something in the report stood out.

A nearby Illinois Department of Transportation employee reported seeing the Malibu, with an ISP SUV following closely behind. Records show a state police captain was behind the wheel, and then first on the scene, 41 seconds after the crash.

Upon learning what the IDOT employee witnessed, ISP investigators suspended a planned interview with the captain, his version of events nowhere to be found in the 500-page report. NBC 5 Investigates then obtained the captain’s personnel file, and found he submitted for retirement 12 days after the crash. A check with ISP’s internal investigation office showed “no open or pending cases” that would prevent him from retiring in good standing.

In a statement, an ISP spokeswoman said the captain would have been interviewed if he had not retired. But because the agency had “definitive evidence” that neither he “nor any other officer was pursuing the offender’s vehicle immediately prior to the crash, there was no reason to interview him after his retirement,” the statement reads.

It’s not clear why the captain retired – he did not respond to our request for comment.

Selina Taylor’s sister Keyona Armstrong said her family has still never learned anything about that night from police – only from NBC 5.

“How the news people, they willing to help us and you guys are supposed to be the ones who help us, because y’all the police and y’all didn’t deliver at all – nothing,” Armstrong asked.

Upon obtaining the internal report, NBC 5 Investigates filed another request for dash cam videos from ISP’s investigation. ISP asked for – and NBC 5 Investigates sent – a money order to get the records.

That was nearly two years ago and ISP has, to this day, sent nothing in return. NBC 5 sued for the records, arguing ISP violated the Freedom of Information Act. A judge agreed and ordered the agency to turn over the videos more than a month ago. They still haven’t. And by continuing to withhold them, they’re now not only ignoring state law – they’re defying a judge’s order.

“Police say they’re supposed to serve and protect but it just feels like they disobeyed their own laws and neglected to take accountability for their own actions,” Armstrong said.

Sebastian Taylor has filed a claim against ISP in the state’s Court of Claims. That case is still pending.

But Selina Taylor’s family says they still feel trapped in that night – even as time marches on.

“She was almost home. Four blocks away, but y’all chasing the car and now she’s gone and that is not right,” Sherry Taylor said.

“Even though it’s going on three years, it do just feel like yesterday,” Armstrong said. “It just feels like time stopped then.”

But the two civic leaders have both publicly criticized each other’s decisions related to housing and additional services for asylum seekers.

“I don’t know if I would characterize that me and the governor are at odds. Look this is an enormous amount of stress on the entire country,” Johnson said. “It’s not like the migrant crisis is only happening in Illinois or the city of Chicago.”

Johnson went on to add that during his recent trip to Washington he discussed with the Biden administration other ways in which cities playing host to migrants could potentially get additional federal funding. He did not provide specifics. Congress has so far seemed unwilling to take up a measure that would address additional funding related to migrants. 

More than 34,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since Aug. 2022.

With buses still arriving – albeit a slower pace this week than in recent weeks – and Chicago’s 28 migrant shelters at capacity, it leaves open questions about what and how the city plans to approach the migrant crisis going forward. There are additional questions about what will happen to the nearly 1,900 migrants who potentially face a looming Feb. 1 deadline to leave their current shelter under the city’s 60-day stay limit policy.

Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the policy was the result of a state decision to reduce additional funding for housing assistance.

He added that the City of Chicago would “work really hard to find as many options as we possibly can” when asked if migrants forced to leave their shelter next week would be relegated to warming buses at the city’s landing zone.

He did not address a follow-up question about if there was a backup plan if there weren’t enough buses.

“The state of Illinois committed to 2,200 beds,” Johnson said. “We could really use those right now.”

Earlier in the week, Pritzker told reporters he was “deeply concerned” when asked about the City of Chicago’s intention to not open any additional shelters.

“We do not have enough shelter as it is in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said. “The city has not told the state where they would like us to put our resources…We can’t help if they don’t identify those locations.”

In November, Pritzker pledged $160 million in state funding to help address the migrant crisis – including $65 million that was intended to build a base camp for migrants on a vacant lot in Brighton Park. Those plans were scrapped after the environmental test results revealed the soil was contaminated with mercury and other toxic metals.

Both Pritzker’s office and the Johnson gave conflicting statements over where and how that money would be spent.

Johnson told reporters today: “The state has locations that have been recommended. The state has been in conversations with the Archdiocese,” before later adding that: “shelters do not have to be solely set up and built in the city of Chicago.”

Late Wednesday afternoon, Pritzker’s spokeswoman responded late this afternoon to request for comment, saying what the governor said holds true.

“We have not received (shelter) locations from the city but eagerly await them,” she said.

Supporters of the Dickens Greenway project quickly point to its benefits, which include increased curb extensions and accessible bike lanes on a less crowded section of Dickens Avenue in Lincoln Park.

“I would say for people that are reluctant to welcome infrastructure and changes that are going to make everyone safer – they just need to really remember that the streets are for everyone, not just for people driving,” said Rebecca Resman, founder of Chicago Family Biking.  

Her daughter Sloane Resman is now 10. She was just six when she first spoke out in support of the greenway at a public meeting on the project, a reality now years in the making.

“I really just wanted to make an impact,” Sloane said. “I wanted to kind of like, stand up for what I believe in… because my mom’s kind of like my hero.”

Certain sections of the greenway allow for contra-bike lanes and one-way vehicular traffic that cyclists say makes them feel safer than busier nearby streets with committed or shared bike lanes, like Armitage Avenue, one block to the south.

“I think it’s better than how it was years ago because it’s safer and more protected,” Sloane said after riding on the Greenway.

“There’s a lot of support and excitement about this project going in and becoming a bigger part of a hopefully bigger network that we’ll see across the city,” Rebecca Resman added.

One of the points of contention, however, is the closure of a section of Dickens near Stockton to vehicular traffic – a change to the project that was made with seemingly no public notice. All iterations of the publicly available project plans reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates show no indication of the closure.

Area residents said they were not notified of the closure before it was in place, and while there is new signage posted to warn motorists, NBC 5 Investigates recently recorded video of several drivers pulling onto Dickens from Stockton, then turning around – seemingly unaware of the change.

Opponents of the project have also raised concerns over a change made to the funding source.

Project details published as early as 2019 and again in 2021 said the majority of the project was to be paid for through federal funding. Records show this was noted in materials presented at each of the three public meetings held on the project prior to its installation.

But a May 2023 city contract reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates showed that $910,000 in city-based funds were being used – specifically 2022 Divvy funds from the city’s bike share program.

“The project is being paid for with funding from Chicago’s bikeshare system that is designated for transportation purposes, including the installation of bike and pedestrian safety projects. CDOT manages a wide-ranging and dynamic capital program, where it is not uncommon to adjust funding sources for projects to maximize the use of funds and optimize efficiency and effectiveness in delivering projects for communities,” a CDOT spokeswoman told NBC 5 Investigates.

The spokeswoman would not say why the federal funding was removed from the project. Advocates say the use of Divvy funds is appropriate for the greenway project, paying for improvements to cycling infrastructure with money coming from cyclists themselves.

“There is no need for this. This is a solution waiting for a problem and it is not going to work out well,” said Ed Fitzpatrick, a Lincoln Park resident and long-time opponent of the project.

Fitzpatrick said he and others are opposed to greenway project for a variety of reasons, particularly safety concerns over Oz Park. The greenway runs onto a sidewalk between the park and Lincoln Park High School, an area that often sees heavy foot traffic.

He also said there’s been lack of transparency about certain aspects of the project – including the use of $910,000 in city Divvy funds when the project was originally touted as largely paid for with federal dollars.

Fitzpatrick pointed to a June 7 letter from CDOT in which the agency told him it had with withdrawn the Dickens Avenue segment from a federally funded program. Fitzpatrick told NBC 5 Investigates he thought that meant the project was on hold. It was not.

In an email sent more than a month later on July 20, 43rd Ward Ald. Timmy Knudsen wrote to the then-commissioner of CDOT telling her he was excited to discuss the project – including the potential “landing point” that would mean Dickens would no longer have car access onto Stockton.

In a recent newsletter, Knudsen said his office “has heard concerns … about the newly closed portion of Dickens Avenue,” adding that it was CDOT’s decision.

He also wrote that “they were prioritizing this project after hearing consistently from neighbors (and experiencing personally) the traffic confusion and safety issues (at) this intersection.”

Fitzpatrick said he attempted to meet with the alderman on several occasions, but was turned down.

“It says to me that the alderman apparently has other concerns that are unrelated to what his constituents think. And well I’m not sure to whom he’s answering but he’s not answering to this neighborhood,” Fitzpatrick said.

Knudsen declined our request for an interview.

In an emailed response, his aide said the 43rd Ward office has run a “public, open and community driven process” and Knudsen will continue to monitor the project and requested additional signage go up to help alert everyone to the changes.

In December, Chicago’s city council passed an amended traffic ordinance that imposes fines and threatens impoundments against bus companies that fail to comply with the city’s new requirements for dropping off migrants.

The new ordinance includes provisions that require bus companies to provide advance notice, apply for and receive approval from the city before dropping off migrants at the city’s designated landing zones.

To date, the City of Chicago has filed at least 95 lawsuits against so-called “rogue bus” companies it alleges have failed to comply with the city’s latest ordinance. Since taking effect in mid-December, two buses have been impounded, which cost two companies more than $3,400 a piece to get the buses out of a city impound lot, according to the city’s law department.

One of those buses was an affiliate of Wynne Transportation, according to attorney Mike Kozlowski, who represents Wynne Transportation and the other bus companies that have been fined by the city.

“It’s unconstitutional for a number of reasons – it’s really trying to address an immigration issue,” Kozlowski told NBC 5 Investigates. “And when we’re talking about immigration, that’s a federal issue.”

Kozlowski said the ordinance also violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14^th amendment because, as he says, the ordinance is intended to address a specific group of people – migrants coming to Chicago.

Kozlowski wants a federal judge to rule in Wynne’s favor. If it were to go in their favor, he says they would attempt to use that ruling to dismiss the pending cases against the bus companies in state court.

In an emailed statement from the city’s law department, a spokeswoman confirmed to NBC 5 Investigates that the city has received the complaint, “but does not comment on ongoing litigation.”

This isn’t the only litigation related to the influx of migrants. Earlier this month, New York City filed its own lawsuit against 17 bus companies. That lawsuit alleges that the companies made as much as $1650 per passenger.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made no secret of the fact that his administration has helped bussed migrants away from Texas – including sending 37,100 to New York and 30,800 to Chicago – according to a news release Abbott’s office put out Friday.

No hearing date has been set for Wynne’s lawsuit in federal court. The bus companies have pending court dates next month in state court related to City of Chicago’s fines.

In the past year, more than 30,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago, according to the city’s latest figures. Shelter space is nearly at capacity. According to the city’s latest census data, nearly 600 people were awaiting placement in a shelter, with 300 stuck at the city’s designated “landing zone,” a drop-off point for migrants entering the city.

The migrant crisis has caused ongoing pain points in the country’s third largest city – both financial and logistical.

Volunteers who were hoping to bring in a mobile shower unit for migrants to use at the landing zone were told Wednesday morning by city officials they wouldn’t be able to hook up to the water supply.

In a statement, a city spokeswoman said the volunteers had not coordinated their plans with the city.

NBC 5 Investigates found the city has spent at least $156 million over the past year on migrant operating costs, including giving $96 million to a Kansas-based company, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, which staffs the city’s migrant shelters.

NBC 5 Investigates was first to report last week that on Dec. 29, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a new spending increase contract with Favorite Staffing worth $30 million, now bringing the total spending value of Favorite’s contract with the city to more $70.2 million.

Pritzker told reporters Wednesday he’d like state lawmakers to consider approving a supplemental spending measure that would “backfill” the $160 million he earmarked in November to help Chicago address the migrant crisis.

State lawmakers are expected to return to Springfield next week.

The governor said lawmakers wouldn’t need to do this immediately, but that: “We want to make sure we are filling all the buckets that we’ve drawn from to make sure we’re dealing with the crisis at hand.”

The injection of money that Pritzker announced more than two months ago was initially meant to help support Chicago’s efforts to house migrants.

At the time , the governor’s plan included $30 million to help launch a migrant intake center to welcome new arrivals and help identify which people may not want to stay in Chicago.

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Another $65 million was expected go to rental assistance and other services, and another $65 million was earmarked to help create a winterized tent community that could house up to 2,000 people for up to six months.

The state cancelled the City of Chicago’s plans to house up to 2,000 migrants at a once-vacant lot in Brighton Park after environmental concerns were raised and lab results found levels of mercury and other toxic metals in the soil.

The state also took responsibility for opening a new shelter, which opened Wednesday at an old CVS pharmacy in Little Village which could house up to 220 people.

While touting that “progress is being made,” the governor acknowledged that he was “concerned” that Congress may not act on a bill that would potentially provide much-needed federal aid to cities playing host to migrants.

“So I’m concerned,” he said.

When asked if that meant the City of Chicago and the state would be left footing the bill, he said: “Yes. And philanthropy. We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have.”

When asked what the state could do to address so-called “rogue buses” that have been popping up in Chicago suburbs and the city dropping off migrants without warning, Pritzker said lawmakers may be able to weigh options but there were no current mechanisms that allow the state to act. The governor also hinted – without sharing details – that there are efforts underway to deter more planes with migrants from arriving in Illinois.

“I don’t want to give away our strategies. We are trying to prevent those companies from leasing their planes to the state of Texas,” he said. “In general, you can’t tell a group of people or an aircraft that it can’t come somewhere. On the other hand I would say there are other things that would be a significant deterrent and they are already working.”

City records show this contract spending increase was signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson on Dec.29 and is connected to the original $40 million contract renewal the city signed with Favorite in October.

The source of the funding for the new spending increase appears to be a state grant from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to the Johnson administration for comment, we are waiting for a response.

The new contract amendment does not specifically state why the spending increase was necessary other than:

“That the circumstances said to necessitate the change in performance were not reasonably foreseeable at the time the Contract was signed, or that the change is germane to the original Contract as signed, or that the change is in the best interest of the City and is authorized by law.”

The city’s new online spending portal shows since Dec. 2022 Favorite Healthcare Staffing has been paid more $93.7 million.

The spending increase comes after the Johnson administration renewed its agreement with Favorite Healthcare Staffing in late October.

The controversial Kansas-based company has come under criticism by the Chicago City Council and members of the public for its exorbitant hourly pay rates, which the Johnson administration has repeatedly said it negotiated to lower.

An NBC 5 Investigates investigation previously uncovered how Favorite Staffing routinely billed the city at 84 hours per week for most its staff – including overtime.

If Favorite were to continue billing at that pace, NBC 5 Investigates found it could cost taxpayers between $220K to $859,000 per year per employee – even at newly reduced rates.

NBC 5 Investigates has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for additional invoices and are awaiting those records.

The Johnson administration has previously defending renewing the contract with Favorite – saying it inherited the contracts from the previous administration – and that if it needs a company to staff the city’s shelters.

But even with the new lower rates, staffers hourly rates still range between $40 to $156 per hour.

Favorite has also come under criticism recently from migrants and volunteers, who raised concerns about the conditions inside the migrant shelter located on S. Halsted in Pilsen where a five-year old boy – Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero died in December following a medical emergency.

The cause of the boy’s death remains under investigation, but there were reports that child was sick and had a fever prior to being transported. Medical volunteers have also raised concerns that the medical assessments being provided to the migrants are inadequate.

In a statement released after the boy’s death, Favorite Staffing’s Keenan Driver said:

“We are heartbroken to learn of the death of a child at a Pilsen shelter on Sunday, and we send our deepest condolences to his loved ones and community. We take the safety and wellbeing of all shelter residents seriously. Our team is working closely with the City of Chicago and other authorities to support an investigation into what occurred.”

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to Favorite again Thursday for comment on the contract increase and the criticism of the food and healthcare. A spokeswoman for Favorite referred questions back to the city.

In an email, Ald. Andre Vasquez told NBC 5 Investigates that alders approved the grant money tied to the increase in early November, but the city’s records show the contract with Favorite was not amended until Dec. 29.

NBC 5 Investigates found nearly half of those calls for service – or more than 200 – were for missing persons or runaway teens, a figure authorities acknowledge is likely an undercount.

As part of our investigation, NBC 5 Investigates requested and reviewed 10 years’ worth of police runs to the facility as well as 911 audio and several hours’ worth of body camera footage since Gary Police began using the cameras this summer.

The records revealed a recurring pattern of problems at the facility.

In 2023 alone, there were 24 reports of missing persons or runaways at the Crisis Center.

And the recordings themselves were telling – police can be heard voicing their frustrations on their body cameras – including one sergeant who called the Crisis Center “a pointless facility” and another officer who can be heard saying it was “rough.”

The Crisis Center accepts children ages 12 to 20 for both temporary and long-term care. According to its website, children can be referred to the facility from the Indiana Department of Child Services and the state’s juvenile justice system. Others there have problems at home or a history of running away.

During one conversation with workers, a Gary Police sergeant can be heard saying: “I’m not trying to be funny, but what is it that y’all do here?”

His remark came as officers were there to take a runaway report but workers were interested in having the officers lecture an unruly teen in the next room.

The police records raise questions about the activities inside the facility and how the children there are behaving and being watched.

While some police reports and body camera footage did make references to teens returning, the records did not make clear how often this happened, how quickly the teens were recovered or if there were instances in which children remained missing.

The facility’s executive director would not agree to an on-camera interview and did not answer those questions.

The Indiana Department of Child Services spokesman would not answer NBC 5 Investigates’ questions about if DCS was aware of how many children have eloped in the past decade. NBC 5 Investigates filed a public records request to find out. That request is still pending.

Online records show over the past decade the Crisis Center has inked contracts with Indiana state agencies like DCS worth a total of more than $5 million, according to the state’s online contracts portal.

The facility’s executive director Marion Collins did not answer NBC 5 Investigates follow-up questions about the sheer volume of incidents or what efforts the facility has undertake to address these incidents.

In an emailed statement, Collins said this:

“The Crisis Center is a non-profit organization located in Gary, IN. We have been providing youth services since the 1970s. We prioritize the safety and well-being, physically and emotionally, of our clients. The Crisis Center is an emergency shelter for at-risk youth. We provide shelter, food, care, therapeutic and educational services to at-risk youth between the ages of 12 and 20 years of age who have either run away from home, been displaced from home or are removed from their homes by The Department of Child Services (DCS) or children that are placed through the Juvenile Probation System.

We are a licensed, open residential emergency shelter that provides an environment that is therapeutic and focused on trauma-informed care for our kids. As such, the kids are not in custody or detention at the Crisis Center. Our staff at the Crisis Center are certified in CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute). CPI is an evidence-based de-escalation and crisis prevention training. CPI is designed to change behaviors reducing conflict for the care, welfare, safety and security of our clients while utilizing a crisis prevention approach. It is our policy for the safety of our children if a child elopes from our shelter and leaves our property that we immediately call the local police to ensure they can be located as quickly as possible and returned safely to our facility.”

We cannot address specifics concerning any particular resident or situation to maintain the confidentiality of our clients.”

A mother’s concern

On Labor Day weekend, body camera footage from Gary Police shows officers looking – but not finding – a 17-year old runaway named Alexx.

In an interview during late September, Alexx’s mother, Crystel Myers told NBC 5 Investigates that her son walked away from the facility Labor Day weekend but was not discovered for three days.

And it was her family – and not police – who ultimately found Alexx wandering the streets of Gary.

“I was very upset and I was demanding answers and calling and calling and calling…” Crystel Myers said during her interview with NBC 5 Investigates.

(Reporter’s note: Crystel Myers died in November while NBC 5 Investigates was still conducting research for this story. Her family made it clear she wanted her story to be shared).

Alexx’s journey to the Crisis Center began after series of incidents back home in Greenfield, Indiana, which ultimately left him in the custody of Indiana’s Department of Child Services.

“He tried to stab me a year and a half ago at 15. So he had to stay with his dad. I understand again, my reality is not something that everyone understands. But again, I don’t have to endorse it, I just have to accept it,” Myers said at the time of our interview.

Myer’s sister confirmed she witnessed the incident and Greenfield Police acknowledge a run to Crystel’s house involving a juvenile in 2022 but did not provide further detail.

At the time of our interview, Crystel told us her son was missing for two days before she was notified, which is what prompted her family to drive more three hours from outside Indianapolis all the way to Gary.

Body camera footage also captured this – Gary police questioning why the facility waited nearly an hour to call them after Alexx had run away.

Gary Police Officer: “Why are you just now calling it in …”

Crisis Center Worker: “Because we normally give them 30 minutes before we call the police. (Because) half the time they are run, they go right there to the playground and on the premises when you’ll call, they be on the premises.”

 NBC 5 Investigates found this wasn’t an isolated.

During another incident captured on body camera footage, police discuss another teen who ran away 30 minutes after she was brought over from the Lake County juvenile detention center.

During the conversation, the Gary Police officer can be heard asking: “She was allowed just to walk out?”

The Crisis Center worker replied: “You said was she allowed to walk out?”

Another officer says: “Yeah. I mean she was on suicide watch??”

The Crisis Center worker replies: “She wasn’t on suicide watch here, she was on suicide watch there.  Not here.

“Did you do a suicide screen on her?,” the officer asked.

To which the Crisis Center worker said: “No, she wasn’t here long enough to do anything with her.”

NBC 5 Investigates obtained this footage through a series of public records requests that also uncovered the dozens of fights and disturbances.

NBC 5 Investigates learned Crystel’s son was moved to a more secure facility in Indiana where he continues to get treatment.

For months, we’ve been asking to the see billing records to understand how much in state Medicaid money is flowing back to the facility.

We’re told our request is still pending.

Another man, who asked not to appear on camera out of fear he could get kicked out of the shelter, said his family is sleeping in the same large room where the 5-year-old boy, Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, was found unresponsive and died Sunday.

In a statement sent Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office confirmed that the cause of the child’s death remains under investigation – but that the child “does not appear to have died from an infectious disease, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health, and there is no evidence of an outbreak at the shelter. The CDPH team will continue to evaluate the situation.”

The city’s statement has not muted growing concerns among volunteers and migrants themselves who told NBC 5 Investigates many people inside the shelter are sick and that there is not adequate access to healthcare.

NBC 5 Investigates reported Monday how medical volunteers have complained they’ve been denied access to the shelters.

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to both the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Cook County Health Department with questions about the conditions inside and reports of additional illnesses on Tuesday. So far, neither organization has responded to our questions.

Favorite Healthcare Staffing, which operates the city’s migrant shelters, sent a statement to NBC 5 Investigates Monday evening, which read:

“We are heartbroken to learn of the death of a child at a Pilsen shelter on Sunday, and we send our deepest condolences to his loved ones and community. We take the safety and wellbeing of all shelter residents seriously. Our team is working closely with the City of Chicago.

According to mayor’s office, the boy’s family arrived in Chicago on November 30, and on that same day, underwent intake at the shelter at 2241 S. Halsted.

“According to the incident report, on December 17, the Martinez family left the shelter for part of the morning and early afternoon, returning at 2:32 p.m. Approximately 13 minutes later, shelter staff witnessed a medical emergency and immediately responded by calling 911, after which staff began administering first aid to the child. Shelter staff performed chest compressions while waiting for emergency responders to arrive. Chicago firefighters and paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and immediately transported the child to Comer Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced deceased,” according to the city’s Tuesday statement.

One volunteer – who toured the shelter on Monday – told NBC 5 Investigates that the building was cold, people were sick and that they did not have adequate space to isolate and that crews appeared to be cleaning.

Veronica Saldana is one of two volunteers who toured the migrant shelter.

“I’m really concerned about all those sick kids. We were told only about 30 people were seen yesterday and there are well over 2,000 people in that shelter,” Saldana said, referring to health assessment teams who were on site on Monday.

Saldana told us she spoke to the parents of Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero on Monday who were having a hard time with the loss of their 5-year-old son.

“They’re very upset but they say they are being treated well. And just not really saying much,” she said.

NBC 5 Investigates was told the family was moved to another shelter where they were being provided care and housing.

“This is horrible to do to people,” Benitez said. “Trying to catch up on everything that I missed. I know I’ll never get that time back.”

Attorney Anand Swaminathan of Lovey & Lovey filed the civil lawsuit on Benitez’s behalf.

“We’ve now seen this far too often. The Chicago Police Department, where they either convinced themselves that this is the person who committed the crime, or they simply decide I’m just going to close my case,” said Swaminathan, adding, “How many more people are sitting in prison for crimes they didn’t commit? We know there are hundreds of people who have filed petitions in court that are trying to prove their innocence.”

NBC 5 Investigates found that 58 innocent people have received compensation for their wrongful convictions in Chicago over the past 13 years, according to court records. These exonerations have cost Chicago taxpayers nearly $300 million in compensation. These payouts have increased dramatically in 2021 and 2022, when taxpayers spent on average nearly $61 million each year to compensate people who were wrongfully convicted in Chicago.

“Sometimes, these cases resulted in as much as a $2 million a year judgement,” said Swaminathan, adding, “So his case could cost the taxpayers of the city of Chicago over $50 million possibly if it goes to trial. Frankie Benitez would settle for far, far less than that, because he wants this to be over.”

Instead, exoneration cases often drag on for years, and that’s not the only cost to taxpayers.

“A typical wrongful conviction case to go from the day we file a lawsuit to the day of the trial will cost the city of Chicago around $5 million per case, just in paying its own defense lawyers to defend the case,” Swaminathan said.

He’s not just talking about the city’s own attorneys. Even though taxpayers already pay the salaries for more than 200 city lawyers, NBC 5 Investigates found Chicago has paid more than $51 million in additional taxpayer money to outside law firms to help defend the city in most of these 58 wrongful conviction cases, according to payment records we obtained.

“I mean, there has to be some kind of justice,” Benitez said.

The 53-year-old Benitez hopes the city settles his case quickly so he can find his own place to live, especially since he can’t find full-time work.

“I don’t have the resources right now. It’s hard. Living with family. I love them to death. They’re there for me. But, I want to do things for me that I’m supposed to be doing,” added Benitez.

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to the city’s law department and asked why it spent so much extra money on expensive outside counsel to fight these wrongful conviction lawsuits. It wouldn’t give us details but said it analyzes each lawsuit on a case-by-case basis.

NBC 5 Investigates also reached out to the Chicago Police Department about Benitez’s lawsuit but was told that it does not comment on pending litigation.

Volunteers and those staying in the shelter say people are falling ill at the large temporary shelter on South Halsted.

While the cause of the child’s death remains unclear, the Chicago Fire Department confirmed that four other people – mostly children – were transported from the shelter with fevers on Monday.

The Chicago Department of Public Health said the cause of the 5-year-old boy’s death was unclear, but that it was investigating and “responding to what is a deeply tragic occurrence.”

In a statement, a CDPH spokesman said that there also have been reported cases of chickenpox in both children and adults at the shelter at 2241 S. Halsted, where the child was found unresponsive and later died.

Medical volunteers also told NBC 5 Investigates that they’ve been denied access to the shelters – turned down from offering their services.

They shared with NBC 5 Investigates a recent text message between a medical volunteer with the Migrant Mobile Health Team and the city of Chicago’s contractor, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, which staffs the city’s migrant shelters.

In the text exchange, the medical school student volunteer asks if they will be moved to doing triage at the shelters once Chicago police stations have been cleared of migrants. The Favorite staffer replied: “… At this time, we don’t believe we will need help in the shelters.”

Favorite Healthcare Staffing released the following statement to NBC 5 Investigates:

“We are heartbroken to learn of the death of a child at a Pilsen shelter on Sunday, and we send our deepest condolences to his loved ones and community. We take the safety and wellbeing of all shelter residents seriously. Our team is working closely with the City of Chicago and other authorities to support an investigation into what occurred.”

Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, a physician and medical volunteer, told NBC 5 Investigates that she feared it would take a tragic event to change something.

Dr. Figueroa said a medical student volunteer from the Migrant Mobile Health Team – which had been providing medical assistance to migrants temporarily living at police stations – was granted access to the migrant shelter on South Halsted on Monday afternoon. Figueroa said she believes the child’s death was the catalyst that led the volunteers to gain access.

“I wish I could say that I didn’t expect this, but I expected this to happen,” she said. “I expected there to be some atrocity in the building and that would finally give us that leverage. It shouldn’t be like that, if people state that they are suffering, we should just believe them.”

Figueroa also co-founded the Pilsen Food Pantry, where she said migrants have been showing up asking for food, clothing and medicine.

Food pantry volunteer coordinator Veronica Saldana became emotional when talking about the hurdles she watched unfold.

“It shouldn’t take people dying for you to do something – for you to ask for help,” she said.

During a city event, Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was “deeply sorry and hurt” by the death of the child, but defended the city of Chicago’s efforts.

“I want you to hear me good, They are showing up sick. Do you hear me?  They are showing up sick. The issue is not just how we respond in the City of Chicago…” Johnson said.

When asked about why volunteers were being stymied from providing medical assistance and if he would provide a response to the criticism that medical care has been inadequate, Johnson replied:  “So there are volunteers that want to provide medical assistance?”

When NBC 5 Investigates told him “yes” and that they are medically trained to do so, Johnson said: “I don’t know where you are getting that information from what I can say is this, that the conditions in which people are arriving in, there is no secret that they had been showing up sick. That’s not a secret that there has been ambulatory runs – even at police districts.”

Mayor Johnson did not respond directly to the question about if he would respond to criticism about the care.

NBC 5 Investigates – and other news outlets – have reported on the efforts of the Migrant Mobile Health Team – a group of up to 250 medical community volunteers who have provided medical assistance to migrants at Chicago police stations.

Their head coordinator even testified during a City Council committee hearing in late September where she described the pain points in trying to coordinate with the city of Chicago.

The city of Chicago released the following statement late Monday:

“The City of Chicago is currently sheltering 13,992 new arrivals at 27 temporary shelters. Many new arrivals survive brutal and dangerous journeys to border states and are promptly and inhumanely shipped out with little to no triage. In border states, new arrivals are spending the night outdoors without a shower, running water, or food. Border states do not take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of individuals they load onto buses. This carelessness directly contributed to the death of a three-year-old girl in September of this year and may continue to have devastating effects.  

When new arrivals reach our city from the Southern border, the City of Chicago puts forth every effort to keep them healthy. Decompressing police stations was crucial to new arrivals’ wellness as we have implemented thorough health screenings at shelters. Public health screenings are provided to all new arrivals to identify individuals with acute medical conditions or emergencies that should be directed to an emergency room. Once placed at a City shelter, all new arrivals are offered opt-in transportation to Cook County Health (CCH) for a medical intake or a sick visit.  

The shelter at 2241 S. Halsted St. houses a large population of new arrivals who might have multiple needs for evaluation. For this and any other shelter, anyone with acute medical needs that requires immediate attention should be transported to the nearest emergency department for assistance. 

Additionally, the Chicago Department of Public Health funds healthcare partners to go onsite to shelters weekly to provide shelter-based care to individuals who might not have plans to go to CCH. City shelters also receive healthcare referral lists to provide new arrivals that are interested in seeking care directly and on their own. Transportation to nearby emergency departments is provided to shelter residents with acute needs or who are experiencing urgent medical duress.  

Many new arrivals receive catch-up vaccinations during their scheduled medical encounters at the Cook County Health Belmont Cragin migrant clinic, as well as from other Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and other providers caring for new arrivals. The Chicago Department of Public Health continues to support shelter-based care through its partners, including on-site screenings, infection prevention, and vaccinations. 

An investigation is ongoing and any changes to safety protocols for staff will be made based on the findings. Currently, physical health protocol in an emergency (i.e. chest pain, difficulty breathing, decreased responsiveness, confusion, unstoppable bleeding, severe pan, blue or unexplained pale skin), shelter staff are directed to call 9-1-1 and report any medical emergencies in line with the Critical Incident Reporting protocol. Shelter staff may also refer people to Cook County Health, FQHCs, Shelter Base Care (LCOs) for non-urgent care. 

We are at a critical point in the humanitarian crisis and the city is facing the challenge to provide shelter for the daily influx of new arrivals sent to Chicago from the southern border. All temporary emergency shelters that have been opened were selected due to the large capacity they can safely serve; the facility is in good condition, requires minimal upgrades and are available for emergency activation within a short timeframe. With the fluid nature of this endeavor, and the high number of individuals arriving each day it is vital we provide safe, secure, and temporary emergency shelter for asylum seekers to receive necessary services to resettle in Chicago or another destination with dignity.  

The Johnson Administration has continuously worked to improve shelter conditions by renegotiating inherited contracts, issuing RFPs, and prioritizing safety. We are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with the Department of Family Support Services and mutual aid groups on improving this operation.  

Chicago continues to prioritize safety and improving our New Arrivals Mission, but any life lost prematurely is a grave tragedy. The death of a child is a deeply tragic event, and our condolences go out to the Martinez family. The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is coordinating with the Cook County Medical Examiner, who is investigating the cause of death, along with the Mayor’s Office and other city agencies to investigate this incident. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

Prosecutors allege Burke used his political clout and influence in an attempt to steer people doing business before the City of Chicago to use his personal law firm that specialized in property tax work.

During the trial, which has lasted nearly six weeks, jurors have heard from a number of witnesses and watched secretly recorded video of Burke captured by former Chicago alderman Danny Solis, who was working as an FBI mole.

Burke’s attorneys attempted to discredit Solis and the evidence presented against Burke, arguing Solis – the former alderman – was trying to mitigate his own bribery case.

Burke and his co-defendants – long-time aide Pete Andrews and developer Charles Cui – have all pleaded not guilty.

In a case built around alleged extortion, Duffy argued none of the government’s witnesses went to law enforcement, saying:

“Nobody complained. Nobody thought they were a victim until the FBI knocked on their door and started playing their tapes and said: ‘oh listen to what Ed Burke said, I think you’re a victim.’”

Throughout the trial, prosecutors have alleged that the recordings and wire-tapped phone calls illustrate how Burke was eager to use his political clout in hopes of acquiring business, including a recorded call where Burke can be heard saying: “Did we land… the tuna?”

Prosecutors argue that was a reference to Burke’s desire to gain property tax business from a New York developer interested in the re-developing the city’s Old Post Office.

During their rebuttal Friday afternoon, prosecutors argued that defense attorneys attempted to “distract” jurors from the evidence – specifically the secret recordings of Burke, which captured Burke saying things like: “if we aren’t signed up, I’m not going to do any lifting for this guy.”

And later: “the cash register has not, uh, rung yet.”

Jury instructions are expected to begin Monday and could take several hours before jurors could begin deliberating. Judge Virginia Kendall told jurors that she will not be a “Scrooge” and will allow jurors to deliberate as long as they need, but will not make them deliberate during Christmas week.

Should the jury need that long, deliberations would resume on January 3rd.

Burke – 14th Ward alderman for 54 years and longtime chair of the powerful City Council Finance Committee – was indicted on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery. He’s accused of using his government positions to lure in business for his private law firm specializing in property tax work. Also charged alongside Burke are his longtime aide Peter Andrews and real estate developer Charles Cui.

Prosecutors laid out four separate episodes for which Burke is charged. He’s accused of taking official action as he pursued tax work from the developer of Chicago’s Old Main Post Office, halting the remodeling of a Burger King in his ward as he sought their business, getting involved in an issue related to a pole sign for a Northwest Side Binny’s, as well as threatening to withhold support for the Field Museum’s fee increase proposal after his goddaughter’s internship application fell through the cracks.

“For the past weeks, you have heard about a pattern of unlawful activity,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur began the prosecution’s closing argument Wednesday.

“Standing at the center of that steady drumbeat of unlawful activity is this man, Edward Burke,” she said, gesturing to Burke.

“Mr. Burke used his authority… to satisfy his own greed and to line his own pockets,” MacArthur continued.

“These actions,” she said, “flipped our system from right to wrong, from legal to illegal, from above board to thoroughly corrupt.”

Central to the case are wiretapped phone calls and secretly recorded meetings, some of which prosecutors played for jurors again in closing. That included a 2017 call in which Burke asks fellow alderman-turned-FBI-mole Danny Solis about getting business from the developer of the Old Post Office.

“So did we land the, uh, the tuna?” Burke can be heard asking.

“That’s a financial tuna that he’s referring to,” MacArthur told the jury as her closing argument continued into Thursday. “Mr. Burke, in his mind, was seeking to land a financial tuna for himself and his law firm.”

Earlier in the week, Burke’s defense called Solis to testify and he conceded – he agreed to wear a wire after he was confronted with evidence of his own alleged crimes, and he lied to Burke at the direction of the FBI.

Thursday, MacArthur told jurors that while Solis may have lied, “It is the words and actions of Mr. Burke that are really the focus in this case.”

After MacArthur’s methodical closing argument stretched for roughly seven hours split over the course of two days, it was Burke’s team that had their chance to make a final pitch to the jury.

“The government has provided to you a lot of noise and confusion,” Burke’s attorney Joseph Duffy said.

“They still haven’t figured out what crime he’s committed,” Duffy continued. “It is not your job to clean up a mess.”

“They promised you a corruption case. Ed Burke lined his pockets,” Duffy said, before drilling down on a point his team has made repeatedly over the course of the trial. “In three years, you know how much money went into his pocket? Nada. Zero.”

Duffy pointed to Solis as pushing both Burke and the developer of the Old Post Office at the direction of the FBI.

“Solis needed somebody to hire Ed Burke. Why? Because Danny Solis did not want to go to jail,” Duffy said. “He’s a corrupt public official. He’s cooperating with the government. He told you: whatever the FBI told me to do, I did.”

Duffy also highlighted both Burke’s method for recusing himself from City Council votes on matters related to clients, as well as the efforts by other public officials like then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Dick Durbin to push the Old Post Office renovation forward

“Solis told you what we’ve been telling you for weeks: Nobody needed Ed Burke’s help,” Duffy said, “except Danny Solis.”

All three defendants on Wednesday declined to testify in their own defense. Defense attorneys were expected to finish closing arguments Friday and the jury is poised to begin deliberating early next week.

A packed courtroom watched as Burke’s defense attorney Chris Gair questioned Solis for nearly three hours in one of the trial’s most-anticipated sequences.

“On June 6, 2016, the FBI showed up at your house at about 8 o’clock in the morning?” Gair asked Solis.

“Yes,” Solis replied.

“And you were darn scared, right?” Gair pressed. “Yes,” Solis answered.

Confronted with evidence of his own alleged crimes, accused of taking bribes like cash and trips, Solis then spent more than two years wearing a wire on some of the city’s biggest political players, secretly recording roughly 20,000 phone calls and meetings.

Those recordings are now key evidence in the case against Burke, who was indicted in 2019 on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery – accused of using his immense government power to steer business to his private law firm specializing in property tax appeals.

Prosecutors allege Burke – 14th ward alderman for 54 years and chair of the powerful City Council Finance Committee – attempted to strongarm developers of the city’s Old Main Post Office, a Northwest Side Binny’s and a Burger King in his ward into hiring his firm.

Burke’s defense maintains he never profited from any of the alleged schemes, calling it “a bribery case without bribes.” His attorneys on Tuesday pointed to Solis’ motivation in recording Burke and lying to Burke at the direction of the FBI.

“Your reason to cooperate with the government was to save yourself, wasn’t it?” Gair asked Solis, who responded, “Yes.”

Gair drilled down on Solis’ outreach to Burke throughout his cooperation, asking, “When you had meetings with Mr. Burke or phone calls with Mr. Burke, it was almost always you reaching out to Mr. Burke, yes?”

“Probably, yes,” Solis replied.

“And that was because you were trying to help yourself with your own criminal problems, correct?” Gair pressed. Again, Solis responded simply, “Yes.”

Prosecutors have called Solis – who signed a deferred prosecution agreement as part of his deal – one of the city’s “most significant cooperators in the last several decades.” He also wore a wire on former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, indicted on federal corruption charges last year and scheduled to stand trial in the spring.

Burke’s attorney ended his questioning of Solis Tuesday by drilling down on that deal, asking Solis what his understanding was of the penalties he may have faced for his alleged wrongdoing at the time he agreed to cooperate.

“You understood it was years in prison?” Gair asked. “It could be,” Solis responded.

“You’re not going to be serving years in prison?” Gair replied, to which Solis said, “Not according to my agreement.”

“You’re not going to serve any days in prison?” Gair asked. “That’s correct,” Solis said.

“You’re not going to serve any hours in prison?” Gair continued. “That’s correct,” Solis repeated.

“You’re not going to be indicted for anything?” Gair asked, eliciting from Solis a third and final, “That’s correct.”

Prosecutors – who rested their case earlier in the day Tuesday – chose not to question Solis, and Burke’s defense attorneys rested their case.

Also charged alongside Burke are his aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui. Closing arguments are slated to begin Wednesday afternoon.

Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration temporarily halted construction at a controversial base camp for migrants in Brighton Park just days after an environmental assessment report revealed levels of mercury and other contaminants in the soil that exceeded environmental limits.

Pritzker’s spokeswoman told NBC 5 Investigates the pause in construction is due to the Illinois EPA, which has additional questions about the number of samples collected at the site and how the contaminated soil was removed and disposed of.

Discussions between officials with the state and the city were expected to take place Monday.

The base camp location – near the intersection of 38^th Street and California – is designed to temporarily house up to 2,000 migrants. The city wants them removed from sleeping in airports or outside Chicago police stations as winter arrives.

The 800-page report, compiled by the city’s contractor, Terracon Consultants, revealed that levels of mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic substance were found in the soil. Additional remediation efforts were planned through Dec. 8, the report says. A map included in the report reveals that the mercury was discovered near an area labeled as “Sleep 1” – where one of two large tent-like structures were erected last week.

The contaminated soil was removed and disposed of at the Laraway Landfill and contractors placed six inches of gravel on top to mitigate any exposure the soil.

It was not clear Monday afternoon how long the temporary pause would last.

During an unrelated court hearing Monday involving aa lawsuit filed by Brighton Park residents who oppose to the site’s use, an attorney for the City of Chicago said the site is now “cleaner” than it was when the city signed a land use agreement and identified its potential use.

There are questions about how soon the city knew contaminates existed, however.

NBC 5 investigates captured video Tuesday of trucks hauling in gravel and pavers smoothing it out.

And the report itself notes the city’s contractor showed up on Nov. 14 to further explore and collect more samples where mercury had been detected.

They returned again on Nov. 21 to sample the air, with additional samples being collected through Dec. 1.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to answer questions about the contaminates when NBC 5 Investigates asked him last Tuesday.

“The assessment is ongoing, the full report will be provided by the end of the week,” he said.

Johnson did not respond our questions on Friday, hours before the report was released, or again Monday morning at a city event.

A spokesman for Johnson has not responded to our follow-up question.

A spokeswoman for Pritzker said they hope to better understand the methods used before determining whether to resume construction.

A University of Chicago – Illinois professor told NBC 5 Investigates that the mercury found at the Brighton Park migrant site could have been harmful to humans but she was pleased to read that it had been remediated.

Environmental Health professor Dr. Susan Buchanan with the University of Illinois Chicago – reviewed the environmental assessment report at the request of NBC 5 Investigates.

She says the city’s remediation efforts appear to be sufficient but says it’s a reasonable concern for the state to want to review the report.

“That the mercury they found would put humans at risk but they removed it,” she said. “The levels they found in the soil not in air coming from the soil, those put people at risk only if they ingest the soil. So putting the six inches of crushed rock on top should be fine on a temporary basis.”

Her comments to NBC 5 Investigates came Monday before Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that the state will not move forward with the Brighton Park location.

In an emailed statement, Pritzker’s office wrote:

“… the State of Illinois will not proceed with an asylum seeker shelter at the 38^th and California site. IEPA cited concerns related to insufficient soil sampling and remediation. Given the significant time required to conduct additional sampling, to process and analyze results, and to implement corresponding further remediation, the State will work with the City to identify alternate shelter options. 

The State is expediting efforts to launch the previously announced brick-and-mortar shelter site in Little Village with plans to have 200 beds available to families and people with disabilities. Since the City of Chicago selected the Brighton Park site, the State has requested alternate sites from the City as any additional shelter will operate as part of the City’s current shelter system. The State is also working with the Archdiocese of Chicago to explore additional options for brick-and-mortar shelter sites.”

The statement went on to state:

“IEPA conducted a thorough review of the Environmental Investigation and Corrective Action Summary prepared for the City of Chicago and identified several concerns with the sampling and remediation work performed at the Brighton Park site. IEPA found:

1. The limited nature and insufficient number of soil borings conducted at the site does not provide a comprehensive assessment of environmental conditions across the site.
2. Additional soil sampling is needed to further determine if there is additional contamination at the site and to fully investigate potential sources of contamination that were identified from historical site use.”

A construction pause was expected to continue through Tuesday as the Illinois EPA reviewed the 800-page environmental assessment report the revealed that mercury and other toxic substances were discovered in the soil of a Brighton Park base camp site that’s expected to house up to 2,000 migrants.

In a statement released alongside the report late Friday night, the city said the contaminated soil had been removed and disposed of at an off-site landfill and that further remediation efforts were expected in the coming days to address other toxic contamination found on site. The 800-page report details how other toxic metals – including arsenic and lead – were discovered along with semi-volatile compounds.

An attorney representing the City of Chicago in a lawsuit filed by Brighton Park residents opposed to the site told a Cook County judge that the city left the site “cleaner” than it was when it started.

The City of Chicago inked a land use deal with the Barnacres Corporation in October to use the land for the proposed migrant base camp – designed to remove migrants from sleeping at airport or outside Chicago police stations.

The six-month land use agreement – with cost more than $91,000 a month – included a clause that allows the City of Chicago to get out of the deal if the land was not deemed to be suitable.

“You’re not gonna get in any trouble and I’m certainly not gonna get in any trouble at this stage in the game,” Burke can be heard telling fellow Ald. Danny Solis during a meeting in October 2016.

Solis was secretly recording that conversation – and many others – as an FBI mole.

Those recordings underscored the prosecutor’s main allegations in their case against Burke, one of the most powerful politicians in Chicago history.

Federal prosecutors allege Burke made several attempts – using his power as alderman and finance committee chair – to steer business to his law firm.

In that same 2016 meeting, Burke can be heard telling the developer of Chicago’s Old Main Post Office, “we’d love to present our firm to you,” and later adding, “between Danny and I there aren’t too many people around town we don’t know.”

Burke’s defense team has looked to poke holes in the case by pointing to Solis’ cooperation with the feds as he was himself under investigation for taking bribes – and highlighting for the jury that none of the alleged schemes of bribery and extortion resulted in any personal gain for Burke.

Late Wednesday after court had ended for the day, Burke’s attorneys made a motion for a mistrial after a witness on the stand referred to the “old school“ Chicago way of doing things. When asked by the prosecutor to clarify what he meant, he said: “very corrupt.”

Burke’s attorney said that was opinion that violated the court’s order. Judge Virginia Kendall did not issue a ruling but asked both the prosecutors and defense team to submit their arguments in writing and the judge would address it Thursday morning. 

NBC 5 Investigates watched as truckloads of gravel were hauled in Tuesday afternoon as pavers rolled back and forth over the site’s surface.

Records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show the vacant lot near 38^th Street and California has a history of industrial use that dates back nearly a century.

During a morning news conference Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said an environmental assessment was still ongoing and a full report is expected to be available by the end of the week.

The location near 38^th Street and California has drawn public criticism and a lawsuit from area residents who have criticized the Johnson administration’s information sharing and transparency surrounding the site selection.

Records by NBC 5 Investigates show the site was once used as a zinc smelter and was part of a railyard.

Over the weekend, Ald. Julia Ramirez, whose ward includes the site, posted a letter to social media noting that there’s been “bad communication” and a “lack of transparency from the city” regarding the site – adding that her office was made aware of “toxic metals in the soil.”

When NBC 5 Investigates asked Johnson Tuesday to confirm what specific contaminants had been located at the site, Johnson said “the assessment is ongoing” and “the full report will be provided by the end of the week.”

“I hear your question, you’ve asked why are we still moving forward – because that’s the process we’ve been administrating from the very beginning,” Johnson said when pressed further about the city’s approach to move forward without the environmental assessment.

Johnson went on to say that information is not being withheld and that the aldermen and community partners have been made aware of the process. He added that, historically, his office has identified and then assessed potential sites for migrants.

“This notion that there’s been a lack of information or transparency, I call false on that,” he said when pressed by a reporter about the criticism of his administration’s transparency. “I have told the truth… and I will always tell the truth.”

Johnson pointed to community meetings, press conferences and contracts that have been reported on dating back to September when it was announced that the city had inked a $29 million contract with GardaWorld to create a proposed “tent city” base camp that could house up ton 2,000 migrants.

A spokesman for Johnson said that GardaWorld delivered “multiple pieces of equipment and materials for the base camp” on Monday. On Tuesday, GardaWorld was set to lay out materials, measure and begin placing base structures on the site.

“If there are no complications, erection of the base camp may begin as early as Wednesday, Nov. 29,” the spokesman said. “… common mitigation strategies are ongoing and anticipated for completion by the end of this week, weather permitting. The City is confident that the property will be suited for the purpose for which it will be used.”

Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that the state would help with operations of the base camp among other efforts as part kicking in an additional $160 million in funding to help with the migrant crisis.

Since last August, more than 22,000 migrants have re-settled in the Chicago area.

Johnson’s comments Tuesday came as he announced additional efforts by the faith community to help ease the city’s burden on finding housing for migrants and removing them from sleeping outside of Chicago police stations as winter approaches.

Senior Pastor John Zayas announced that 17 Chicago-area churches will begin playing host to migrants in the coming days. Zayas later told reporters the churches will act as temporary shelters for up to 20 migrants at a time for a period of up to 60 days. During that time, the churches will work with city providers to help provide “wrap around” services for migrants who are seeking housing or work.  

That power was again under a microscope as Texas-based fast food mogul Shoukat Dhanani returned to the witness stand for a second day of questioning.

Burke was indicted in 2019 on charges of racketeering, extortion and bribery – accused of dangling his immense government power to reel in business for his law firm specializing in property tax reductions.

Prosecutors say Dhanani was a potential client Burke tried to lure. Dhanani owns roughly 800 fast food restaurants across the U.S., including 150 Burger Kings in the Chicago area – one of which is located in Burke’s 14th Ward.

Burke was connected to Dhanani through a mutual friend, Texas politician Rodney Ellis. Burke can be heard on a wiretapped phone call – played for the jury this week – discussing Dhanani with Ellis, saying, “I’d also like to get some of his law business.”

Dhanani testified Tuesday that he met with Burke in person in June 2017 when he came to visit the Burger King at 41st St. and Pulaski Rd., walking around the property with the alderman as his company awaited a building permit to begin remodeling the location.

Following the site visit, Dhanani said he then went to lunch with Burke at the Beverly Country Club, where Burke gifted Dhanani a set of salt and pepper shakers that bore his name, and discussed his law firm. Days after the visit, the Chicago Department of Buildings issued the permit and construction at the Burger King was allowed to begin.

In October, months after that visit, Dhanani said the city abruptly halted the remodel.

Dhanani testified Tuesday that he returned to Chicago in December 2017 to meet with Burke in an attempt to resolve whatever issue was causing the blockage. When prosecutors asked why he believed the work had been shut down, Dhanani said, “My gut feeling was maybe because I had not responded about the property tax business, maybe that’s why… I did not see any other reason why it would be shut down.”

Burke’s defense attorneys on Wednesday continued their cross-examination of Dhanani, drilling down on a lunch he had with Burke at the Union League Club during that second visit.

“In this meeting at the Union League Club, Mr. Burke did not threaten you?” Burke’s attorney asked.

“Correct,” the businessman answered.

“He did not demand that you give him legal business otherwise he would hold up your remodeling, did he?” Burke’s defense continued.

“Correct,” Dhanani said.

Dhanani said Burke advised him “to get involved more in the Chicago politics” and invited him to a fundraiser at Burke’s home for the upcoming Chicago mayoral race.

Dhanani donated $10,000 to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, changing the course of the race and propelling Mayor Lori Lightfoot to victory in all 50 wards after the allegations against Burke were unveiled ahead of the 2019 election. His company also sent Burke’s office a list of all its Burger King locations in Illinois, though he ultimately did not transfer property tax work to Burke’s law firm.

On Wednesday, Burke’s attorneys attempted to paint Dhanani as eager to connect with the alderman for his own gain, highlighting another wiretapped call in which he told Burke he could not attend the fundraiser, then inquired about getting his Burger King business into Chicago’s airports.

“… last time, we discussed a little bit about those closed McDonald’s at Midway Airport,” Dhanani can be heard saying in the January 2018 call.

“Yes,” Burke responds.

“What, what do we need to do, or should we do to get started to see if we can get in with the Burger Kings?” Dhanani asked.

Ultimately, the remodel of that Burger King resumed and was completed by April, Dhanani said.

Burke’s defense team has argued prosecutors have mischaracterized what occurred and that the case represents: “… a bribery case without bribes and an extortion case without extortion.” 

Burke was indicted in 2019 on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery, accused of using his official positions as longtime 14th Ward alderman and chair of City Council’s Finance Committee to steer private business to his law firm specializing in property taxes.

Also indicted alongside Burke were aide Peter Andrews and real estate developer Charles Cui.

All three men have pleaded not guilty.

During Tuesday’s testimony, jurors heard from Shoukat Dhanani, the co-CEO of the Dhanani Group, which owns roughly 150 Burger King locations in Illinois. 

The Burger King near 41st and Pulaski is one of a handful of landmarks prosecutors are using to illustrate their case — alleging that former alderman Ed Burke used his political clout to yield certain outcomes – including attempting to steer business to his own law firm.

Before a planned meeting with Dhanani, who is from Texas and wanted to meet with Burke about a remodeling permit for a Burger King in the 14th ward, Ed Burke can heard on a recorded phone call telling a mutual acquaintance “I’d also like to get some of his law business…”

During testimony Tuesday, Dhanani told jurors after the two met it was clear to him Burke’s desire to gain his business. 

When Burke’s ward office later became aware that remodeling was underway, prosecutors allege Burke’s office put a stop to it. 

Dhanani said he thought the work stoppage could be a result of him not using Burke’s law firm. He later testified he did send Burke a list of all 150 franchise locations in Illinois to see if they could get him a reduction in property taxes. 

And he later testified he felt compelled to do it because otherwise “our life would be pretty difficult” at that particular Burger King location.

A former field museum executive also testified Tuesday about Burke’s power —  saying an executive meeting was called after Burke’s goddaughter was overlooked for an internship. The HR manager said that was not standard practice.

Prosecutors alleged in opening statements Thursday, Burke was a “bribetaker” and “an extortionist” who – as 14th Ward alderman and powerful chair of the City Council Finance Committee for decades – “stayed continuously on the hunt to get what he wanted.”

Burke was indicted in 2019 on racketeering, extortion and bribery charges, accused of dangling his immense government power and sprawling political influence to draw in private clients for his law firm specializing in property taxes.

But Burke’s defense team painted an entirely different story, saying he was a very active public servant who was a “steward of the ward” he represented for more than 50 years.

Late in the afternoon Friday, prosecutors called an FBI agent to the stand who said authorities wiretapped Burke for nine months, estimating he made or received approximately 50 to 60 calls a day.

“Making calls is what Ed Burke does,” his defense team said about allegations Burke applied pressure to reverse a city decision on a pole sign for a liquor store.

His defense team also argued their client was “very worried about kids and people from underserved communities… being priced out” of educational institutions, which is why, they said, Burke opposed a fee increase for the Field Museum – not because his goddaughter’s internship application fell through the cracks. 

Following opening statements, the first witness called to the stand was an Elmhurst University political science professor who gave jurors what she called a “schoolhouse rock” overview of Chicago city government – including what alderman do, how they are elected and the power that a committee chair wields – acknowledging that the immense power of the Finance Committee.

“As mayors came and went, Alderman Burke was the one constant of Chicago City Council,” the professor said.

Burke and his two co-defendants – long-time aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui – have all pleaded not guilty. 

Attorneys for Andrews and Cui attempted to distance their clients from Burke Friday, with Andrews’ attorney telling jurors his client was a “lunch pail guy” who worked part-time in the 14th Ward office.

NBC 5 Investigates is learning more about safety concerns on the CTA prior to Thursday’s Yellow Line train crash.

For years, federal regulators have called for the CTA to install a sophisticated train control system to help prevent crashes and derailments like Thursdays. NBC 5 Investigates found out why the CTA didn’t follow the safety recommendations.

It comes down to money. Even though the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended specific changes to the CTA’s train control systems for years, CTA leadership has said making those changes would take up their entire budget.

In 2009, Congress mandated all freight and commuter railroads implement something called the Positive Train Control system or PTC.

“Congress mandated that all freight railroads, commuter railroads like Metro, adopt Positive Train Control,” said Joseph Schwieterman, transportation expert at DePaul University. “It’s high tech that can stop trains, slow trains down when they’re in harm’s way. [It] basically takes human error out of the equation when you have an accident [or] incidents involving track blockages from other trains.”

While the majority of railroad lines, including Amtrak and Metra, use the PTC system today, the CTA was able to get an exemption.

“The old line transit systems like the CTA, the New York subway, made the case that just the age of the system, the number of cars they have, all that made it really complicated to get done in a tough urban environment where it’s hard to put up signals that are needed for the relay transmissions,” Schwieterman said. “They made the case, but I think we see actions like this, there’s going to be a push to get rid of those exemptions for rapid transit.”

CTA Nov 16, 2023

Radio traffic sheds light on CTA Yellow Line crash, one of worst in agency's history

CTA Nov 16, 2023

Chicago officials provide update after 38 people injured following train crash involving CTA train

Six years after Congress passed their mandate, a CTA Blue Line crash brought a renewed focus to the system.  
On March 14, 2014, 34 people were injured in the Blue line crash at O’Hare and federal investigators found the driver of the train had dozed off before the crash.

Federal regulators once again urged CTA to adopt the PTC system.

“The O’Hare crash we had a number of years ago is a good example where Positive Train Control likely would have stopped the train. It, in effect, overrides human error, human judgment, so those types of accidents can be avoided,” said Schwiederman.

NBC 5 Investigates found communication between the CTA and NTSB showing that CTA leaders dismissed the recommendation, saying it would cost $2.4 billion to implement and would disrupt service for CTA customers.

The two agencies have gone back and forth for years. The NTSB has gone as far as suggesting it will advocate for federal financial assistance for the CTA to implement the system.

They also suggested the cost to implement the system could be incorporated into a multi-billion-dollar grant request the CTA had already made to expand the Red Line.

Yet CTA leaders did not follow through, and the federal recommendation report into the O’Hare crash is still listed – nine years later — as “open- unacceptable.”

But upgrading the system is still not part of CTA’s plan. NBC 5 Investigates combed through the five-year strategic plan for CTA and Metra, released in 2018. In it, Metra allocated $385 million to install the PTC system, but the PTC system was not among any of CTA’s priority projects.

As recently as last month, the CTA’s 2024 budget recommendation plan lists one of its goals as meeting “regulatory requirements,” which “might include new systems, such as positive train control (PTC).”

“Tough for the CTA to get this done,” Schwiederman said. “There’s so many older vehicles, and it is a complicated system with tunnels that make it hard for the signals to come through. So they’ve taken a slower approach on that. Yesterday we saw there’s some downsides to that strategy.”

Eight years later, Schwieterman points out the CTA has made other critical improvements since the O’Hare crash.

“They’ve made really good progress, getting their track back up to speed, also station facilities to improve conditions for individuals. The CTA felt the cost benefit of Positive Train Control just wasn’t there,” said Schwieterman.

In addition to being very expensive, the PTC has other downsides, according to Schwieterman.

“We know the Positive Train Control does have some downsides, to that there were outages; their errors can cause delays. We saw that on Metro trains. It’s very tough to turn trains around quickly when they get to the terminal,” said Schwieterman.

That power was central to the prosecution’s very first appeal to the jury.

“Ed Burke’s corruption arose from the very potent intersection of opportunity and power,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman said. “The opportunity for self-dealing and the immense power he could exploit to take advantage of those opportunities.”

Burke was indicted in 2019 on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery, accused of using his official positions as longtime 14th Ward alderman and chair of City Council’s Finance Committee to steer private business to his law firm specializing in property taxes. Also indicted alongside Burke were aide Peter Andrews and real estate developer Charles Cui.

“He was a bribe taker and he was an extortionist,” Chapman said of Burke. “Between 2016 and 2018, at the very height of his power, he corrupted his position as an elected official for one reason: He did it to line his own pockets with money.”

Prosecutors laid out four “episodes” the jury would hear about over the course of the trial, expected to take about six weeks. In his opening statement, Chapman detailed alleged schemes by Burke to withhold his support for a fee increase for the Field Museum of Natural History in exchange for a paid position for a friend’s daughter, as well as three he’s accused of orchestrating to extort business for his law firm: holding up permitting on a Burger King in his ward, soliciting work on the Old Post Office redevelopment, as well as with permitting for a pole sign on the Northwest Side.

“He stayed continuously on the hunt to get what he wanted, whether it was business for the law firm or that job from the Field Museum,” Chapman said. “And that is why he is sitting in this courtroom today.”

Burke was indicted after the feds convinced then-25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis, who was himself under investigation, to wear a wire for more than two years on some of Illinois’ biggest political figures: Burke as well as former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, also indicted last year.

Solis, who signed a deferred prosecution agreement in 2018, played a central role in the opening statement of Burke’s defense.

“In summer of 2016, Danny Solis was in a world of trouble,” said Burke’s attorney Chris Gair, “because Danny Solis was a corrupt alderman and the FBI had been investigating him for years, and the FBI had him red-handed, so the FBI did what they do: They showed up at his door early in the morning and said, ‘Gotcha.’ And Danny Solis did what he does: He lied, he squirmed. He weaseled. Then finally he had to admit, they had him.”

“The government threw him a lifeline,” Gair continued, telling jurors Solis cooperated with the feds “with one object in mind: to keep himself from going to prison. And it worked. He saved his skin.”

Defense attorneys dismissed the prosecution’s portrait of Burke as a scheming power broker, saying he was a dedicated public servant who did not enrich himself via his work as an alderman.

“Mr. Burke never asked for anything from anyone in this case,” Gair said. “Not for money, not for legal business, not for anything. Never. There will not be one witness who tells you that, there will not be one document that says that.”

“He never made money at all,” he continued. “This is a bribery case without bribes and an extortion case without extortion.”

Burke’s defense played publicly for the first time clips of those recordings captured by Solis, telling jurors Burke is “old school in his dedication to helping people in this ward and this city.”

“Ed Burke is old school and if there’s a problem with city government, he knows somebody. He knows just about everybody in this city,” Gair said, after introducing jurors to Burke’s wife and four children seated in the front row of the courtroom.

The opening statements of Burke’s defense team were slated to continue Friday morning, followed by the opening statements of Andrews’ and Cui’s attorneys.

The jury was sworn in Thursday afternoon following four days of jury selection and a several-day delay after an attorney tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The jury is comprised of nine women and three men, as well as three women and one man serving as alternates. The jurors range in ages from 20 to 69, largely hailing from the suburbs, with the majority reporting they had never heard of Burke before the trial.

NBC 5 obtained audio of the CTA traffic control tower trying to get in contact with a CTA train operator- moments before the derailment that led to 23 individuals being hospitalized and 15 more suffering minor injuries.

The striking thing about this audio is the timing of it. More than an hour before the crash, we hear a warning that a maintenance vehicle will be on the tracks in the area where the collision eventually occurs. Then the audio gets more frantic in the moments before the crash.

At 8:53 am Thursday morning, the CTA control tower alert train operators that there was personnel and equipment on the tracks between Howard and Oakton. 

The next transmission from the control tower is just minutes before the crash around 10:29am. The CTA control tower repeatedly says, “Stop your train please.”

It’s unclear if the train the control tower is referencing is the one that is involved in the crash and derailment.

Moments later, the control tower confirms a crash has occurred between the train and a “snow flat bed train”.

“They have made contact with some equipment at Chicago…which has caused injuries on the train at this time,” said the CTA control tower operator moments after the track.

“Today it looks like we have a worst case scenario where either technology or human error, both happened at the same time,” said Joseph Schwieterman, transportation expert with DePaul University. “This raises the question whether the operator on the other line could have been incapacitated in some way or distracted.”

Worst CTA crashes, derailments in Chicago history

NBC5 Investigates has found that Thursday’s CTA crash on the Yellow Line – which injured approximately 38 people is the most consequential crash involving a CTA train line since February 4, 1977 – nearly 47 years ago – when two CTA “El” trains collided on the elevated Loop tracks at the corner of Wabash and Lake, causing one train to fall completely off the tracks. 

Eleven people were killed in that crash and another 180 people were injured, in the worst “El” accident to date. 

“We’ve had derailments as well, they are sort of inevitable when we run a big railroad like this, that may not be attributed to be human error,” said Schwieterman.

 Before Thursday’s crash, the second-worst crash occurred on March 24, 2014, when A CTA Blue Line train ran into a post at the O’Hare station, and went up an escalator at the end of the track. 

Thirty-four people were injured, including the train operator, and the CTA paid out more than $11 million in damages resulting from that crash. 

In that case, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the driver of the train had worked for twelve days in a row, and had dozed off before the crash. 

Just a year before, on September 30 2013, an unoccupied “ghost train” – which had been left in a storage yard with its power still on — rumbled for nearly a mile down the Blue Line tracks and then hit another train full of passengers at the Harlem Station in Forest Park during the Monday morning rush hour.  Thirty-three people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Another high-profile incident occurred more recently, on September 24, 2019, when a southbound Brown Line train collided with a Purple Line train – also heading southbound — near the Sedgwick station in Old Town. 

There were no injuries, but passengers were removed from the trains, and one person – a diabetic – was taken to a hospital..

The Yellow Line saw it’s last major incident in 2015, when an embankment along the tracks collapsed. The line was out of service for the next five-and-a-half months while CTA engineers repaired it. 

The collapse was caused by a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District construction project at a nearby sewage treatment plant.  The collapse required the building of a brand new embankment “from scratch,” according to CTA engineers — which spanned 1200 feet – nearly a quarter-mile. 

The reconstructed line was finally re-opened on October 30, 2015, with a big ceremonial ride full of local officials and dignitaries.

“Trains do move in pretty good speeds on the Yellow line, one of the longest stretches with not a lot of stops on the CTA rail system that opened into Howard. the trains get moving pretty quickly. We call it the Skokie swept for reasons designed to be a relatively high speed,” Schwieterman.

 NBC 5 Investigates also found roughly nine incidents specific to the Yellow line since 2015- ranging from derailments, vehicle collisions and at least one pedestrian death.

May 18, 2015 – An embankment along the Yellow Line collapsed, cancelling the line’s service for five-and-a-half months while CTA engineers repaired it.  The collapse was caused by a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District construction project at a nearby sewage treatment plant.  The collapse required the building of a brand new embankment “from scratch,” according to CTA engineers.  The reconstructed embankment spanned 1200 feet – nearly a quarter-mile.  The line was finally re-opened on October 30, 2015, with a big ceremonial ride full of local officials and dignitaries. 

February 11, 2016 – A southbound Yellow Line train derailed near the Dempster station at about 9:30pm.  No riders were on board, and no one was injured.

February 23, 2016 – A Yellow Line CTA car derailed, suspending service at about 7:40p.  Details aren’t included in the news reports at the time.

April 4, 2016 – A car collided with a CTA Yellow Line train at a grade crossing at East Prairie Road in Skokie, killing one woman in the car, and injuring another passenger in the car.  Five passengers from the train were treated at hospitals for “less serious” injuries, according to news reports at the time.

January 6, 2018 – A vehicle collided with a Yellow Line train near Niles Center road in Skokie, sending the train operator and a person in the vehicle to the hospital.

January 1, 2020 – A woman standing on the tracks was hit and killed by a Yellow Line train near the border of Evanston and Skokie.

June 9, 2020 – A Yellow Line train derailed near the Oakton Station at the beginning of the afternoon rush hour, suspending service.

September 17, 2020 – Some kind of medical emergency occurred near the Yellow Line’s Oakton Station, according to news reports, which stopped Yellow Line trains for about an hour.

March 26, 2021 – A teenaged-boy was hit by a CTA Yellow Line train in Evanston, east of Dodge Avenue near the Howard Street station.  It’s not clear from news reports what happened to the boy.

CTA did not respond to our questions about the control tower audio, or the collision itself.  

The new spending comes on top of the more than $400 million the state says it has already contributed to the crisis thus far, the governor’s administration said.

Pritzker told reporters the financial assistance – which will come from the state’s Department of Human Services budget – is needed to help remove people from sleeping at airports and outside Chicago police stations as winter approaches.

“We’re stepping in here to try to help and to accelerate this process. It isn’t moving fast enough and we just can’t have people on the street. This is a humanitarian endeavor – we cannot have people freezing on the streets of Chicago,” the governor told reporters Thursday morning.

The governor’s plan includes $30 million to help launch a migrant intake center to welcome new arrivals and help identify which people may not want to stay in Chicago. Another $65 million will go to rental assistance and other services; and another $65 million will be earmarked to help create a winterized tent community that could house up to 2,000 people for up to six months.

NBC 5 Investigates has reported on two proposed locations – including one at 115^th and Halsted and another at 38^th and California in Brighton Park. The latter of those two locations has drawn several public protests with neighbors opposed to both the influx of migrants and the environmental concerns about the site itself.

Records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show the city of Chicago agreed to pay Terracon Consultants up to $50,000 to conduct an environmental assessment on the land. A mayor’s spokesman told us this week the testing was “ongoing” and they expect results “soon.”

The mayor’s office has not responded to follow-up emails asking for a response to the governor’s remarks Thursday.

On Wednesday, Mayor Johnson provided scarce details about the city’s new approach to the crisis – including a new “tiered 60-day limit” on shelter stays.

Additional details are expected to be released Friday by the city.

Over the past year, more than 22,000 migrants have made their way to Chicago – many seeking asylum from countries including Venezuela.

As of Wednesday, more than 1,800 people were still living outside police stations.

What isn’t immediately clear – will the state money be enough with the city already spending close to $40 million per month on migrants?

And there are other questions – where will the new facilities and services be located? And why wasn’t this partnership announced sooner?

In response, Pritzker said: “the city has operated its own methodology process and it hasn’t moved fast enough…”

The governor said the improved intake process could begin immediately but it will be up to the city of Chicago to identify a piece of property suitable for a base camp that could hold up to 2,000 people.

Governor Pritzker said he was hoping the new investments would help eliminate “bottlenecks” that occur with getting migrants into shelters.

Outside the Chicago police district 18, NBC 5 Investigates found evidence of the bottlenecks the governor was referring to.

We found people still living at the Chicago police district who we’d met and previously interviewed six weeks ago. One man told us he came to Chicago from Venezuela a week ago. He said he’s concerned about living on the streets and knows winter will be “very cold.”

While details were scarce, Johnson said this would include new financial commitments from both Cook County and the state of Illinois.

Johnson told reporters the new plan would involve a tiered 60-day stay limit for migrants in city shelters, more resources to help integrate new arrivals into the community as well as adding personnel at arrival points who could help send migrants to new locations if they don’t want to stay in Chicago.

Johnson also said the new approach will involve fining bus companies that might ignore the city’s curfew or unloading rules.

When pressed by reporters, Johnson denied that the city was “rolling up the welcome mat” by saying “We are a welcoming city. We will always be a sanctuary city.”

Further details are expected to be revealed this week when the state of Illinois and Cook County are expected to announce additional funding and resources to help address the crisis.

The latest census from the city shows that more than 21,000 migrants have arrived over the past year. More than 1,800 people were still awaiting placement and have been staying at airports and Chicago police stations.

With colder weather approaching, the city has been looking for locations to relocate those individuals, but have faced political pressure and protests from residents of numerous wards.

In September, the city inked a $29 million contract with the company GardaWorld to help operate a series of base camps sites.

Johnson also did not provide an answer when pressed about the status of two proposed base camps that would house migrants in tent communities – one located at 115^th and Halstead appears to be viable while the city is still assessing a controversial site in Brighton Park at 38^th and California.

NBC 5 Investigates has uncovered new details about environmental testing being done at the Brighton Park site.

The tests could help uncover whether the site is contaminated as the city weighs whether to place people there.

Records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates through a Freedom of Information Act request show the City of Chicago recently hired a company – Terracon Consultants – to conduct and environmental assessment of the property.

Their testing plan calls for testing the groundwater and soil for toxic chemicals and heavy metals – including lead, mercury, silver and zinc among others.

“Our concerns are for the safety of the people who the city wants to put here this is an industrial site. It used to be a freight terminal they used to have a zinc smelter on here,” said Anthony Moser, a member of an environmental group that’s raised questions about the site.

 Records provided to NBC 5 Investigates shared not only the testing plan for the site but also photographs of the land, soil and aerial maps showing the site has been used for various industries dating back to at least 1938.

We shared the documents with Dr. Susan Buchanan, an environmental and occupational health professor with the University of Illinois -Chicago. When asked if she people should be placed on the site.

 “It definitely gives me pause to think about putting people there. I know that this is a really difficult situation. We need spaces to put up people in the short term. But it does give me pause that this is a potentially contaminated site,” Buchanan said.

When pressed about whether she would look to other sites, she said.

“I would wait for the test results, the soil results to see and I don’t know if zero levels is going to be attainable. So it’s really a balance of risk,” she said.

A spokesman for Mayor Brandon Johnson said that testing is ongoing and that they expect results “soon.” He refused to say if the city has made a lease payment to the owners of the property.

The licensing agreement shows using this land could cost Chicago taxpayers more than $548,000 over the next six months. The city says it can get out of the deal if the land is deemed to be not suitable.

When asked about when the tents could go up, Mayor Johnson did not answer but said on Monday:

“… It’s incumbent on my office to be as thorough as possible…”

NBC 5 Investigates has left additional emails with the mayor’s office since Monday asking for a more specific timeline. We are still waiting to hear back.

We also called the company doing the testing, but a spokeswoman there referred our questions back to the city.

Burke and attorneys on both sides filed into the courtroom wearing masks Thursday. Judge Virginia Kendall announced the positive test result, adding that two other attorneys were not feeling well and likely to test positive themselves.

She dismissed the jurors and paused the proceedings until Nov. 16 in accordance with CDC guidelines, cautioning everyone: “Stay healthy and make sure you drink your orange juice and get your sleep.”

The trial began Monday but was already expected to have days off Friday for Veterans Day, as well as on Nov. 14 and 15 due to a prior obligation impacting the judge’s schedule.

The trial – years in the making – still doesn’t have a jury after three full days of jury selection, in which Kendall and attorneys individually questioned 54 prospective jurors. Sixteen were struck for cause, leaving 38 who survived to the next round. They need nine more to make it through the questioning, for a total of 47 prospective jurors, before moving forward in the process to ultimately seat 12 jurors and 4 alternates.

Prior to the positive COVID-19 test, Kendall on Wednesday afternoon pushed attorneys to speed up questioning of prospective jurors in order to finish jury selection by lunchtime Thursday. Now, selection will continue the morning of Nov. 16, with opening statements expected that afternoon.

The scheduling setback came just hours after a back-and-forth between prosecutors and defense attorneys late in the day Wednesday gave a glimpse of the showdown to come.

Long the city’s most powerful alderman, Burke was indicted in 2019 on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery, accused of using his official positions as 14th Ward alderman and Finance Committee chair to steer business to his private law firm. Also indicted were Burke’s aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui.

Those charges came about after the feds convinced then-City Council colleague Danny Solis – under criminal investigation himself – to wear a wire on Burke for two years.

Those bombshell recordings will be played for the first time during the trial, but the big question remains: will Solis testify?

Prosecutors maintain they do not plan to call Solis as a witness, but defense attorneys again Wednesday insisted they will, in order to detail his cooperation with the feds. Solis signed a deferred prosecution agreement in 2018.

Burke’s defense attorneys told prosecutors and the judge on Wednesday that while they will call Solis as a witness, they won’t directly say that to the jury in their opening statements, which serve as a “preview of the evidence that the jury’s going to hear,” said former federal prosecutor Dylan Smith.

That maneuver enables them to discuss Solis and his motivation, but leaves them “wiggle room” to back out of calling him if they decide it’s too risky, according to Smith.

“Trials are really about dueling narratives, dueling stories,” Smith said. “When you’re a defense lawyer, one of the things that’s difficult about that is putting together evidence that you can use when you ultimately argue your case to the jury in closing.”

“You have to work backwards from your closing argument, in a sense, and think about what you can piece together that will give you something to argue with,” Smith continued. “I suspect that the defense may be strongly considering calling Solis to give them something that they can argue, for example, that the schemes that Burke is charged with participating in really were manufactured by the agents and prosecutors in cooperation with Mr. Solis and that Mr. Burke’s conduct is being taken out of context.”

“Their hope would be to essentially tar the government’s case with whatever baggage they can elicit about Mr. Solis,” he added.

“At the same time, you don’t necessarily want to promise to the jury that they’re going to hear from Solis, because at that point you’ve set expectations,” Smith said. “Why lock yourself in if there’s some chance that you’ll decide on balance the risks outweigh the benefits to calling him?”

“From the government’s standpoint, they’ve made a decision apparently that they can admit the evidence in the form of recordings that were made of Burke without needing to call Solis and exposing him to cross-examination from the defense about what they would argue is the sweetheart deal he received,” Smith continued. “On the other hand, it is risky for the defense because Solis, after all, can provide a lot of context for those recordings and maybe things get worse when you hear from him. So there are risks on both sides there.”

Prosecutors raised the issue of defense attorneys discussing Solis in openings at the end of the day Wednesday, arguing references to Solis’ motivation would be “not relevant or probative until such time as he testifies in this case,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane MacArthur.

But Kendall said she would take defense attorneys, “as officers of the court,” at their word that they planned to call Solis and thus could discuss the alderman-turned-mole in their opening statements.

“They may be stuck at the end,” she told prosecutors. “No defense attorney wants to say something and have you say, ‘Where was that?’”

A display in the hallway touting historical public corruption convictions – listing the likes of former Illinois Govs. Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan – was covered at the request of Burke’s attorneys.

The display was hidden behind brown paper, much like Burke’s windows were the day the FBI raided his offices in late 2018.

Indicted in 2019 alongside aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui, Burke is accused of using his official positions as 14th Ward Alderman and Finance Committee chair to steer private business to his law firm.

Burke is the longest serving City Council member in Chicago history and was a towering figure in city politics for more than 50 years. He’s charged with 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery, brought on after the feds flipped his then-fellow Ald. Danny Solis, convincing Solis to wear a wire for two years.

Burke’s trial entered its second day of jury selection on Tuesday, with prospective jurors coming from all across northern Illinois. They were again asked a litany of questions, many centered on their knowledge of the case, their own political involvement and their understanding of what an alderman does.

Attorneys on both sides wanted to know: how closely have these prospective jurors been watching?

“They are attempting to discern how well-informed they are,” said political science professor Dick Simpson, who served on City Council with Burke in the 1970s. “People who know a lot about Chicago politics already have a firm view of Ald. Burke and it’s probably negative.”

One defense attorney played a word association game with a juror from the suburbs, offering: “Chicago politics.”

Her reply? “Messy.”

Prosecutors asked another who moved out of Chicago as a child: “When you lived in the city, did you have any interaction with your local alderperson?”

“At nine years old, no,” she responded, to laughter.

While most of the 20 screened on Monday said they had not heard of the case, some of the 17 questioned on Tuesday said they had seen a few headlines, but nothing more.

And while the majority said they had little knowledge of Burke, there were some small connections.

One prospective juror said her husband previously worked for Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, where he had suffered an injury and went before the Finance Committee Burke controlled for decades in order to get compensation.

Another said her neighbor is the son of Ed Vrdolyak, who – alongside Burke – led the City Council bloc opposing Mayor Harold Washington in the Council Wars of the 1980s.

Still, most said they had heard little to nothing about the case and had not formed opinions on any of the defendants – likely soon leaving Burke’s fate in the hands of 12 people wholly unfamiliar with his power.

By the end of the day Tuesday, the judge and attorneys had questioned 37 prospective jurors in total, striking 11. They need to reach 47 before seating 12 jurors and 4 alternates, meaning jury selection will continue Wednesday and likely into Thursday.

But when 53 prospective jurors from all across northern Illinois were asked if they had ever heard anything about the corruption case against Ed Burke – fewer than 10 raised their hands.

“I think this is probably one of the most significant public corruption trials of a generation,” said former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who acknowledged her 2019 victory was tied to the scandal.

Burke was indicted in 2019 on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion and bribery – charged with using his positions as 14th Ward alderman and Finance Committee chair to steer private business to his law firm. He has pleaded not guilty, as have the two other defendants in the case: Burke’s longtime aide Peter Andrews and real estate developer Charles Cui.

Those charges came after the feds convinced fellow alderman Danny Solis – confronted with allegations of his own corruption – to wear a wire on Burke and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, indicted last year.

“It may well be the end of an era,” said political science professor Dick Simpson, who served on City Council with Burke in the 1970s. “The Mike Madigans and the Eddie Burkes are not likely to come again.”

Now, years in the making, the curtain has lifted on one of Chicago’s most closely watched criminal trials in years.

Burke’s trial began Monday with jury selection. One by one, prospective jurors were asked about their occupations, feelings on law enforcement, where they get their news.

Most said they had little interest in local politics – many who lived in Chicago said they did not know their ward or alderman.

Those who are selected to serve on the jury will soon learn, as the proceedings are poised to lift the veil on the Chicago machine.

Judge Virginia Kendall ruled last week that a political science professor’s expert testimony can be included, in part because “the structure of Chicago’s City Council is not inherently understood through common sense; nor does it parallel that of other large municipalities.”

“Jurors need the basic information about the structure and processes of Chicago’s City Council to put into context the facts that they will be discerning,” Kendall wrote.

Now, after spending his entire life building a political empire, Burke’s fate could soon be decided by 12 jurors who likely never knew his name – or his power.

A total of 20 jurors were questioned Monday. Jury selection continues Tuesday and the trial is expected to last six weeks.

First elected in a special election to replace his late father as 14th Ward alderman in 1969, Burke spent his entire adult life building a clout-heavy empire.

He was a prolific political fundraiser, controlling three campaign committees worth millions. A property tax attorney, Burke also helped private clients navigate county government to slash their bills. In his role leading judicial slating for the Cook County Democratic Party, Burke was gatekeeper for anyone who wanted to be a judge. And he chaired the powerful City Council Committee on Finance for more than 30 years, with both an army of patronage workers and the ultimate say on the city’s most pressing matters.

“You have to understand that 80 to 90% of the important legislation in the City Council goes to the Finance Committee. You can’t pave a street unless you pay for it,” said political science professor Dick Simpson, who served on Chicago City Council alongside Burke in the 1970s.

“His staff was larger than all of the other staff of the City Council. And he controlled things like workman’s comp,” Simpson added.

Far and away Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Burke seemed untouchable. But in late 2018, the feds came knocking – and Chicago stood still. An FBI raid on his ward and City Council offices sent shockwaves through the political landscape.

By 2019, Burke was charged with one count of attempted extortion, accused of withholding his support for a building and driveway permit for a Burger King in his ward in an alleged attempt to solicit a campaign contribution and steer the company to use his firm for their property tax work.

The charge shifted the course of the city’s politics. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot recognizes the scandal – and her response, highlighting other candidates’ connections to Burke – was instrumental in her 2019 victory, just months after that FBI raid.

“I think at that moment, the tide turned,” Lightfoot said. “Chicago has been a town dominated by machine politics, and Ed Burke played that game with the best of them.”

“But I think people were just sick and tired of the corruption, and were open to the opportunity that I think my candidacy presented at that time,” she added. “So there’s no question that it definitely played a big and I think deciding role in my first run for office.”

In May 2019, prosecutors unveiled a superseding indictment against Burke, charging him with 14 counts of racketeering, extortion, bribery and more. Also indicted alongside Burke were his longtime political aide Peter Andrews and developer Charles Cui. All three have pleaded not guilty.

That indictment was the culmination of a sprawling, years-long investigation. The feds built their case against Burke meticulously, taking the extraordinary step of turning a City Council colleague into a mole.

Caught in allegations of his own corruption, then-25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis agreed to wear a wire for two years on Illinois’ biggest players: Burke, as well as House Speaker Michael Madigan, also indicted on racketeering and bribery charges last year. Madigan has also pleaded not guilty, with his trial set to begin in the spring.

“Essentially the feds said to him, let’s make a deal,” Simpson said of Solis’ arrangement. “You wear a wire and help us get the information. We will let you do without jail time.”

Solis signed a deferred prosecution agreement in 2018, and those bombshell recordings will come to light for the first time at Burke’s trial.

Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, noted that the tapes are key in the government’s case because the charges were based on Burke’s own words.

“As we used to say back in the day, it’s almost impossible to cross-examine tapes,” Lightfoot said. She stripped Burke of his position as Finance Committee chair upon taking office in 2019. But she noted she had seen the way Burke operated years before.

“It’s no secret now that he tried to use his power to get me years ago, to dangle a judgeship in front of me,” Lightfoot said. “This is a man who understood how to maximize power and how to get what he wanted.”

Burke chose not to run for reelection in 2023. He remains the longest serving alderman in Chicago history. Now, nearly five years after that FBI raid, it’s not just Burke on trial – it’s the entire Chicago machine.

“I think this is probably one of the most significant public corruption trials of a generation,” Lightfoot said. “Ed Burke is somebody who was on the lips of so many generations of FBI agents and former AUSAs, and the fact that he’s been charged and now it’s going to trial is a very significant development, not only in the history of public corruption cases, but frankly, in the history of the city.”

“It may well be the end of an era,” Simpson said. “The Mike Madigans and the Eddie Burkes are not likely to come again.”

NBC 5 Investigates was first to report the news of the contract Thursday.

According the terms of the licensing agreement, the city will pay the property owners, the Barnacres Corporation, $91,400 a month for the use of the land. The city may also erect temporary tents, bathroom facilities and sleeping pods for families or individual men or women on the site.

Brighton park residents have voiced opposition to the controversial site near 38^th and California and filed legal challenges, citing environmental concerns with the property.

What is unclear is why the city would ink the licensing agreement if it was still assessing whether or not to use the land.

NBC 5 Investigates attempted to speak with Mayor Johnson on Friday following a speech at the Union League Club, but his handlers ushered him out through the kitchen. The mayor did later speak to a group of reporters – including a crew from NBC Chicago – at a separate event where he was asked about alders’ criticism that they have been blind-sided and unaware of certain decisions about the migrant situation.

“Well look, we have women who are pregnant who are sleeping on the outside, we have this incredible influx of migrants that have arrived in the city of Chicago. And I’ve said repeatedly that we are moving with expediency to get people out of police stations and off the floors and inside. And what we have done on a very consistent basis is that we have been in constant communication with alders around this dynamic,” Mayor Johnson told reporters.

In an interview Friday with NBC 5 Investigates, Ald. Julia Ramirez – whose ward includes the proposed site near 38th and California – was critical of the Johnson administration – saying she understands they have a lot to handle with the influx of 20,000 migrants over the past year, but that she was not made aware of the contract signed for the land use.

“When it comes to the lease, I believe that we do deserve answers – we need an answer to the administration about that lease. I was not aware that that lease was signed. Things do come off very contradictory, I just want my constituents to know that I apologize with things coming off as contradictory,” Ramirez said.

She later added: “When something like this leaks out it’s showing the contrary of the administration continuously moving without informing me and more importantly informing the constituents of the 12^th Ward.”

In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, the mayor’s office said:

“The City of Chicago is at an increasingly critical point in the new arrival mission, with more than 3,200 asylum seekers sleeping on the floors of police stations, at O’Hare Airport and outdoors in inclement weather. For this reason, the City is pursing all potential locations in its plan for temporary shelter, including the property at 3710 S. California, and entering into lease agreements, license and occupancy agreements, and right of entry agreements where sites may be used for intended purposes.

The City is currently in the process of determining if there are any environmental issues affecting this potential location. The City will analyze the results and determine next steps. We will then notify residents of the final site determination, and if viable, share further operational details on the plan.

No final decision has been made regarding base camps on the property at 3710 S. California. If the site is not used for its intended purpose, both parties can terminate the agreement.”

A copy of the licensing agreement shows the city will pay the owners of the lot $91,400 a month for use of the land. The terms of the deal appear to be for six months, but allows for time extensions that could come with a three percent increase in the “licensing fee.”

The contract also states that the lot comes “as-is” and makes no guarantees about its conditions or “compliance with laws and regulations, including… those relating to health, safety and the environment.”

Area residents have raised concerns about the lot’s environmental history.

The owners of the property, the Barnacres Corporation out of Markham, IL, declined to comment Thursday when NBC 5 Investigates reached out about the contract.

The controversial location near 38^th and California has sparked numerous protests and public backlash – including one recent incident in which 12^th ward Ald. Julia Ramirez reported being assaulted while in a crowd that had gathered near the site.

A virtual meeting on the Brighton Park location is set for Thursday night.

The city has been in search of locations to assemble so-called base camps that could help remove up to 3,000 migrants from sleeping on the sidewalks or inside Chicago Police districts.

Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked about the status of the site near 38^th and California during a Wednesday news conference.

Johnson said the city was “still assessing. So I think this was raised before – there are a lot of environmental dynamics that have gone on in the city of Chicago that have gone unaddressed for a very long time.”

The mayor went on to compare the current situation in Chicago to the TV show “Property Brothers,” where prospective homebuyers acquire property and then discover issues along the way.

He added: “so I have do my due diligence to ensure that the environmental space is palatable for such a site to exist.”

When pressed by NBC 5 Investigates Thursday about why Johnson did not mention the contract to reporters, a spokesman for the mayor said he did not address it because he was not specifically asked about it.

Concerns about the ongoing environmental assessments – coupled with the work being done on the property – prompted Brighton Park resident Anthony Moser to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the city seeking a copy of any agreements or contracts.

He received a copy of the agreement Wednesday.

“(The city) didn’t announce the contract, they didn’t announce the site and they didn’t tell us that they had signed a deal for it. I don’t know what definition of transparency that would fit… yet no one seems to know what’s going on,” Moser told NBC 5 Investigates.

A spokesperson for the city’s law department said that the Barnacres Corporation signed the contract on Oct. 26 but that the city didn’t finalize it until Nov. 1.

In a statement released Thursday evening Alderwoman Ramirez said:

“The city did not inform me that a lease had been signed. I continue to be frustrated and disappointed in the administration’s lack of transparency with my community and am deeply concerned that a lease would be signed prior to a full environmental assessment taking place. The city owes 12th ward residents an explanation, which I hope they will get at the community meeting tonight.”

NBC 5 Investigates was first to report the news of the new agreement on Wednesday.

Over the past month, a series of NBC 5 Investigates reports exposed how the Kansas-based company has been paid more than $56 million within the past year and has routinely billed the city at 84 hours a week – including overtime – for most of its employees who worked at migrant shelters spread across Chicago.

Our review of previous invoices found that during one week, Favorite billed the city for as much as $580,000 for one shelter, the Inn of Chicago, the city’s largest shelter that houses more than 1,500 migrants.

If the company continues to bill at similar rates of 84 hours per week for each worker, it could lead to Chicago taxpayers having to shoulder six-figure annual pay rates for each of the workers, running between $220,000 to $850,000 per worker – even with the newly reduced pay rates.

Starting Oct. 1, hourly rates will run between $40 to $156 per hour.

Which rates the employees receive depends on if the employees are local hires or are from out of town and if they need Favorite to cover their housing and travel expenses. The mayor’s office has said that the previous rates were inflated to cover those administrative costs for housing and travel.

During a briefing with reporters Thursday, First Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas said the Johnson administration had little choice but to renew the deal, because there aren’t enough local providers in the pipeline to replace Favorite at 25 city-run migrant shelters.

“If we were to kill this contract, who would staff these spaces? We would get slammed and critiqued on that. And so we are being responsible while trying to come up with new ways to be responsive and also sensitive to the fact that the city of Chicago is paying for this, and all of this is falling on the shoulders of Chicago,” Pacione-Zayas said.

During the briefing with reporters, Pacione-Zayas provided an update on a request for proposal – put out this summer – that seeks to have local providers staff some of the city’s migrant shelters.

She told reporters that the city had received 21 proposals from nine different agencies to staff as many as 11 of the shelter sites. Even if all 11 are eventually staffed by local providers, that could still potentially leave Favorite to operate the remaining majority — if not all the sites.

When asked if she saw a future without Favorite being involved, Pacione-Zayas said it’s unclear and likely won’t be fully understood until the local applicants are vetted and the city can determine if it could eventually be able to “disengage with Favorite.”

Pacione-Zayas also side-stepped a question when asked if the city should consider conducting an internal audit based off reporters’ findings that Favorite billed the city with exorbitant overtime costs, saying:

“I am concerned about staffing our shelters with Chicagoans and making sure we can move people off the streets and out of the floors of police stations and airports,” she said.

For weeks, Favorite has not responded to our repeated question about its billing processes or rates; but in a one-sentence statement, said: “We look forward to continuing to work with the city on this important mission,” the statement attributed to Keenan Driver with Favorite Healthcare Staffing read.

On Sept. 5, 1979, 17-year-old high school seniors Susie Ovington and Eyvonne Bender were headed to a shopping center when they disappeared. Hours later, their bodies were found in a nearby Cook County Forest Preserve, both shot multiple times.

Their families still feel the heartbreak as if it happened yesterday.

“I’m sorry but it’s been hell,” said Eyvonne’s mother Irene Bender. “She was my baby and all this happened because some stupid idiot out there – and I’m sorry if I use those words – that had to take her life for no meaning, for anything. No reason.”

In the 44 years since the murders, the families of both girls said they’ve heard virtually nothing from Morton Grove police.

“We maybe hear from them once a year, if that, or I might call up and say, ‘What’s going on? Anything going on? But I still get the same story over and over again,” said Eyvonne’s sister Sheri Peterson. She said her family still holds out hope for a break in the case.

“We’re not giving up. Absolutely not giving up. We hope that one day we get clarity, especially for my mom and dad,” Peterson said.

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Some of the girls’ high school classmates have since taken up the search for answers, offering detectives their time, knowledge and even money, in hopes of finally cracking the cold case that haunts their hometown.

“I know it’s solvable. We just need the police to help us,” said Tom Sprague, one of the classmates involved in the effort. He said he’s attempted to connect the Morton Grove police with individuals who may have information on the case, and even offered to pay for more advanced DNA testing, to little avail.

“If I had a nickel for every time I had someone say to me, ‘Tom, yeah, I’ve reached out to the police department to give them information and they never called me back…’” Sprague said. “I don’t think they care. I really don’t. If you cared, you would do more. If you cared, you’d be responding to the families’ inquiries.”

Morton Grove police have declined multiple requests for an interview. The department said they understand the families’ frustration, noting the case has been reviewed several times over the years, and investigators started fresh again in 2020. Since the 44th anniversary of the crime last month, police added that the renewed attention on the case has resulted in 25 new tips, and they encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

But in order to find out what specific steps have been taken to solve this crime, NBC 5 Investigates filed two Freedom of Information Act requests.

The first was to the Illinois State Police, which does DNA testing for local law enforcement agencies across the state. Through that request, NBC 5 Investigates obtained about a dozen reports, dating back to 2005.

A report in 2008 shows the first mention of a suspect, whose name was redacted. An RC bottle and two cheek swabs were compared to DNA found under Susie’s fingernails: not a match.

The reports show another flurry of activity in 2011 – Morton Grove police sent clothing, fingerprints, hair samples and more to the state lab. No hits yet again. What’s more, one report noted that hair can only be compared within six years of the offense. By then, the murders were already well past that window.

The reports are just one small piece of the puzzle, leaving the girls’ loved ones with more questions than answers. Still, they said it was more than they had ever seen.

“Never. I’ve never seen anything, the Ovingtons, the Benders have never seen that. Absolutely not,” said Sprague.

“Do they still have the DNA?” Peterson asked. “Do they still have all this material? But we never received anything, belongings and stuff, so I don’t even know if the police still have it in storage. We really don’t know.”

The second open records request NBC 5 Investigates filed was to Morton Grove for their records on the case. That request was denied, with the village saying the records are exempt because disclosure would obstruct the ongoing criminal investigation.

On Wednesday, NBC 5 filed a lawsuit in Cook County to compel Morton Grove to turn over the reports, to see what’s been done, as the families continue to search for answers.

“There’s something very disturbing going on here, the fact that you have to file a lawsuit to get this information after 44 years,” Sprague said.

“I say, let’s do it,” Peterson said of the suit. “And let’s get some answers here. And you know, I don’t want no sugarcoating and saying, ‘We’re working on it’ – well, show me some proof that you’re working on it. We don’t get anything from them.”

Anyone with information on the case can call (847) 663-3815 to speak directly to a detective or submit a tip anonymously via the hotline at (847) 663-3828. Tips can also be shared by emailing tipshotline@mortongroveil.org or tips@cookcountycrimestoppers.org.

NBC 5 Investigates has confirmed with U.S. Army Reserves that Robert Card is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in Saco, Maine.

A manhunt was still underway Thursday afternoon for Card whose whereabouts were unknown.

Court records reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates show that a judge granted a prosecutor’s request Thursday to withhold from public view certain information contained in Card’s arrest warrant.

The assistant attorney general wrote that “an arrest has not yet been made and disclosure of information in the affidavit may impede on the law enforcement’s ability to conduct their investigation. A number of witnesses still need to be interviewed.”

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that over the summer his commanders sent him for psychiatric treatment after he reported hearing voices and made threats to shoot up a National Guard base. A law enforcement bulletin stated Card was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks before being released.

Maine laws allow for gun ownership without a permit, and two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News that the suspect legally purchased the weapon used during Wednesday night’s shootings.

Maine also has a “yellow flag” law that allows law enforcement to take away an individual’s firearms, but only after they’ve been taken into protective custody and if a medical professional finds a “likelihood of foreseeable harm.”

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It wasn’t immediately clear what specific action was taken after the suspect’s mental health treatment.

An emailed statement to NBC Boston from a court spokesperson said mental health cases and weapons restriction cases are confidential.

The family of the suspected gunman told NBC News that he had been experiencing an “acute” mental health episode for months and had a “manic belief” that people were saying negative things about him before Wednesday’s massacre.

On Thursday, NBC 5 Investigates spoke to Former State Rep. Kathleen Willis, who was the chief sponsor of Illinois’ red flag law in 2018.

“In the state of Illinois, if you are put into a mental health facility, that automatically revokes your FOID card for a certain period of time, and I guess we need to recognize why was that not done in Maine or was this in the pipeline to be done and hadn’t followed through?” she said.

Illinois’ law allows individuals to petition the court directly to remove firearms from their loved ones if they pose a risk of danger to themselves or others.

“And it’s not a permanent taking away of their guns,” Willis said. “It’s a temporary taking away of guns until they get their life back in order.”

Another major difference between the gun laws in Illinois and Maine: In wake of the Highland Park massacre last summer, Illinois passed an assault weapons ban.  

The Johnson administration has faced growing criticism over the increasing costs of caring for and sheltering migrants, 19,000 of whom have arrived in Chicago over the past year.

The latest census from the city shows more than 11,000 asylum seekers were staying in the shelters this week with more than 3,000 living at Chicago police stations.

NBC 5 Investigates was first to reveal that Favorite Healthcare Staffing has received at least $56 million over the past year to staff the migrant shelters, city finance records show. The bulk of the criticism, raised by city aldermen and citizens alike, has been over the hourly rates.

An NBC 5 Investigates’ review of invoices for 400 Favorite Healthcare Staffing employees showed that Favorite routinely billed for 84 hours of work per week for most of their employees and that those rates ranged from nearly $50 to $156 an hour for regular pay and from $75 to $234 an hour for overtime during the four-week period we examined.

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Invoices show how millions of dollars flowed to Favorite Healthcare Staffing to staff migrant shelters

migrants Oct 13, 2023

Chicago charged $7.2M to staff migrant shelters during four-week period, invoices obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show

For employees assigned to housekeeping, according to the invoices, Favorite Healthcare Staffing billed the city of Chicago for four weeks at a median pay rate of $17,000 for each of their housekeepers. At that rate, taxpayers could have potentially paid a median rate of approximately $221,039 annually for each housekeeper supplied by Favorite.

When it came to employees assigned to security, the invoices show that Favorite charged Chicago taxpayers a median payrate of $24,000 apiece for each security guard, for four weeks’ worth of work. That translates to an annual charge, for each security guard, of $312,000.

The invoices also show that for one registered nurse at the shelters, Favorite billed Chicago a total of more than $64,272 for four weeks’ worth of work. At that rate, taxpayers could’ve potentially paid more than $830,000 in a year for this single nurse.

“Whether it’s a federal tax dollar, a state tax dollar or a Chicago tax dollar, it’s still money being wasted. And so we need to see a much better result from the Johnson administration,” Ald. Brendan Reilly said Wednesday outside the city council chambers. “They claim they’ve negotiated better rates; we will need to see the proof of that. Anything is a better rate than $24,000 a month for one security guard…”

The Johnson administration has said that the hourly rates were inflated to cover administrative costs like housing and transportation and that it has worked to re-negotiate those rates, including in this latest agreement.

While the new contract does detail rate reductions, which the Johnson administration says will lead to additional costs savings, the reductions weren’t equally dispersed among all positions, according to an NBC 5 Investigates’ review. Some rates were reduced more than others.

And what hourly rates the workers receive could depend entirely on if they’re hired locally from Chicago or if they are from out-of-state and need Favorite to continue to cover their housing and transportation expenses, according to the contract. The newly reduced rates ranged from $40 to $156 per hour.

For example, an NBC 5 Investigates’ review of the new rates found that while Favorite Staffing used to bill for $80 per hour for some of its workers, those rates will be reduced to $68 per hour if the staffer requires housing to be covered, or as low as $48 if they’re a local hire.

According to NBC 5 Investigates’ previous analysis of invoice records, Favorite Healthcare Staffing billed for 84 hours per week including overtime for most of its employees. That means – if the company continues to bill at those hours – the newly reduced hourly wages for some positions could still cost taxpayers between $264,000 to $374,000 annually for each worker.

Other positions under the new contract, like facility managers and nurses, remained as high as $108 to $156 per hour before overtime according to the contract. That means even with hourly rate reductions, Favorite Healthcare Staffing could still charge the city for six-figure annual salaries for most of its employees working in the shelters.

Favorite Healthcare Staffing has not returned repeated calls and emails this week seeking comment.

A spokesman for Mayor Brandon Johnson did not respond to the recent criticism but did state in an email that the “Johnson administration has been working closely with Favorite to control costs, which encourages Favorite to shift to a regional rather than a national staff recruitment model.” The emailed statement went on to state that the Johnson administration has re-negotiated these rates and that starting in October “the city will see another significant reduction in staffing rates…” and that the company will “focus on hiring local candidates almost exclusively” going forward.

In its commitment letter, dated Oct. 16, Favorite Healthcare Staffing acknowledged that that staffing needs will be “directed by the city of Chicago” but that “any further changes in rates must be approved by both Favorite and the City of Chicago via an amendment to the current contract.”

In the past year, city financial records show nearly $60 million has flowed to an out-of-state company, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, which holds the contract to staff the city’s migrant shelters.

As aldermen spend the next few weeks in budget hearings, there are more questions about whether the mayor’s current budget proposal will cover the costs for sheltering migrants or if there are local providers who could save the city some money.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget proposal allocated $150 million to cover the cost of migrants, but some aldermen have raised questions about whether that figure would cover the current costs in the coming months.

For months, NBC 5 Investigates has been following the money billed by Favorite Healthcare Staffing. After denying our initial request for a year’s worth of records, the city did provide us with four weeks’ worth of invoices from this spring, from April 22 to May 19, detailing payments to 400 Favorite Staffing employees.

Our analysis found that Favorite Healthcare Staffing billed for 84 hours of work per week for most of their employees and that those rates ranged from nearly $50 to $156 an hour for regular pay and from $75 to $234 an hour for overtime during the four-week period we examined.

For employees assigned to housekeeping, according to the invoices, Favorite Healthcare Staffing billed the city of Chicago for four weeks at a median pay rate of $17,000 for each of their housekeepers. At that rate, taxpayers could have potentially paid a median of approximately $221,039 for each housekeeper supplied by Favorite.

When it came to employees assigned to security, the invoices show that Favorite charged Chicago taxpayers a median payrate of $24,000 apiece for each security guard, for four weeks’ worth of work. That translates to an annual charge, for each security guard, of $312,000.

The invoices also show that for one registered nurse at the shelters, Favorite billed Chicago a total of more than $64,272 for four weeks’ worth of work. At that rate, taxpayers could’ve potentially paid more than $830,000 a year for this single nurse.

Johnson’s office has said that it has since re-negotiated this contract that it inherited from the previous administration and that the hourly payrates we found in the invoices were inflated to cover administrative costs like housing and transportation costs for out-of-state employees.

The Johnson administration has also said it has encouraged hiring locally and put out a request for proposal to look for local providers interested in operating shelters. That process is still ongoing. An Oct. 6 deadline application has since been extended.

A spokesman for Johnson did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking a response on what are the new rates.

NBC 5 Investigates did speak to Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who is Mayor Johnson’s floor leader.

“The city is working to bring those prices down, including negotiating working directly with Favorite and putting out a request for proposal to say, ‘Hey, we want to find local nonprofits to hire people locally…,’” Ald. Ramirez-Rosa said.

NBC 5 Investigates also shared our findings with Joe Ferguson, the former inspector general for the city of Chicago. When asked if he thought taxpayers should still be concerned, he said: “Unquestionably yes. We are negotiated back from the worst-case scenario.”

Ferguson said the pandemic proved that governments do have the ability to provide real-time information to the public and that the city could do a better job with transparency by making all the invoices public.

NBC 5 Investigates’ initial records request for a year’s worth of invoices was denied by the city as being “unduly burdensome.” The denial letter said that redacting more than 400 pay statements would put a burden on the department.

“We have the capacity for real-time transparency that could allay concerns that we are just burning money and we need to get on top of that as well,” Ferguson said.

Online job postings show in the past month Favorite Healthcare Staffing was looking to hire more than 150 positions in Chicago, at rates lower than what previous invoices show. But what and where those positions are for is somewhat unclear. Through a spokeswoman, Favorite Healthcare Staffing has not responded to multiple requests for answers. An emailed message left for a Favorite recruiter also went unanswered.

Prosecutors and attorneys for Burke and two co-defendants – Peter Andrews, who worked in Burke’s ward office, and real estate developer Charles Cui – appeared before Judge Virginia Kendall Friday afternoon to settle lingering disputes over the wiretapped calls and secretly recorded meetings that prosecutors intend to play for the jury.

Burke was the longest-serving alderman in Chicago City Council history, who represented the 14th Ward for 54 years before he chose not to run for reelection earlier this year. He also served as the longtime chair of the powerful Finance Committee. In 2019, Burke was indicted on 14 charges including bribery, attempted extortion and racketeering, with prosecutors alleging he used his official position to steer business to his law firm specializing in property tax reductions.

The indictment alleges Burke solicited legal work for his assistance with the redevelopment of Chicago’s Old Main Post Office, as well as with permitting for a Burger King in his ward. Andrews is accused of conspiring in the alleged Burger King extortion attempt. Prosecutors also allege Cui hired Burke’s law firm after the city denied his application for a pole sign permit, and Burke then attempted to assist in that process. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Instrumental to the government’s case against Burke was former 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis, who was himself the center of a federal investigation when he struck a deal in 2018 known as a deferred prosecution agreement, in which prosecutors agreed to dismiss a bribery charge against him in exchange for his cooperation in their wide-ranging corruption probe. Solis wore a wire during meetings with Burke, as well as with former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, indicted last year on 23 counts including racketeering and bribery.   

There are a total of 147 tapes to be entered as evidence in Burke’s trial, which begins Nov. 6. Attorneys for both sides argued Friday over which portions of those tapes should be included or removed. In discussing the first of their objections, Burke’s attorneys argued that a June 2017 call should include him telling his assistant, “… let me take this call, I’ll get back to you in a second.”

When questioned about the relevance of that portion of the recording, one of Burke’s attorneys noted that the alderman had two assistants in two different offices who read all his emails and listened to his voicemails, adding that when he called into his office, it was “like rapid-fire” with his agenda items for the day.

Burke’s attorneys said they wanted to give jurors the context that he was jumping from call to call in order to show “the volume of calls and subject matters he deals with.” His attorneys said they assumed prosecutors would argue Burke was “laser focused” on the allegations in the case, while they argued that the inclusion of more of the recordings would give the jurors context “to show his mental state, his lack of intent, his busy-ness and his distraction.”

“A good example is Danny Solis,” one of Burke’s attorneys said. “He’ll have an hour-long conversation with Danny Solis and there’s a small snippet the government wants to play and it sounds like he’s laser focused on the Old Post Office, and that’s not the case.”

Kendall told Burke’s attorneys that the defense can play the segments in question during their cross-examination of witnesses, or in making their own case, at which point they indicated they would withdraw their objections to many of those recordings at issue. Some of the recordings remained in dispute at the conclusion of the hearing Friday, with Kendall expected to rule on those and other outstanding motions in the final pre-trial conference scheduled for Monday morning.

Favorite Healthcare Staffing holds the contract to staff the city’s migrant shelters.

The city has spent nearly $60 million on staffing shelters, according to previously released city financial records.

With more migrants arriving by busloads each week, city leaders have expressed concerns about the growing costs and have raised calls for additional funding from the state and federal governments.

As of Friday, more than 18,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago over the past year, according to a city count, with more than 11,000 staying in city shelters and more than 3,000 people living at Chicago police stations.

“The situation is unacceptable,” 25th Ward Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez told NBC 5 Investigates this week. “These contractors, they are basically imposing on us – in my opinion – it’s unacceptable and that’s what we will be looking into in the next few weeks to modify this in the budget.”

To better understand where those dollars have flowed, NBC 5 Investigates filed open records requests asking for a year’s worth of invoices submitted by Favorite Healthcare Staffing.

The city denied our initial request as overly burdensome, but after amending our request, the city did provide four weeks’ worth of invoices covering parts of April and May of this year.

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As part of our review, we examined Favorite staffing invoices covering 400 employees between April 22 to May 19.

As we previously reported, Favorite Healthcare Staffing billed the city $20,000 for a single nurse during one week last December.

The new invoices show that despite hourly rates being reduced this spring, Favorite Healthcare Staffing still billed the city for $16,536 for that same nurse to work seven days in April.

All told, in the four weeks we examined, the company charged Chicago more than $64,000 for the services of one nurse, who was working at the YMCA High Ridge shelter.

He wasn’t alone.

Our analysis found even after hourly rates appeared to have been reduced from the December invoices we examined, the lowest paid staff rates were $50 an hour, and the most expensive was $156 per hour before overtime.

That means – if you were to extrapolate those costs in a year’s time – Favorite Healthcare Staffing could have potentially charged the city six-figure salaries for some employees working inside the shelters.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has said that the hourly rates were inflated in the contract to cover administrative costs like hotel rooms for out-of-town employees and that it has since re-negotiated the contract.

We asked a spokesman for the mayor repeatedly what those new rates are but have not received a reply.

Following his budget address this week, Johnson told reporters that he had “re-negotiated the emergency contract that I inherited multiple times” and mentioned a request for proposal the city put out in an effort to further reduce costs and “hire Chicagoans as well as Chicago businesses.”

That request for applications had an initial deadline of Oct. 6, but during last month’s council committee meeting on migrants, Johnson’s First Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Paciones-Zayas told city council members the deadline would be extended because of so many questions they had received from potential providers.

“I told you Favorite should’ve been gone. They have not set the standard for what we do in our city,” said Ald. Jeanette Taylor during a council committee hearing last month.

The costs have led to criticism.

In Taylor’s ward, staffing invoices for the shelter at former Wadsworth School totaled $1.4 million during the four-week period we examined.

At the Inn of Chicago, the city’s largest shelter that has held as many as 1,500 migrants, the total was $1.6 million. At the Social Club shelter located in the Loop, it was $1.2 million.

“For me, if you are going to spend that much tax dollars on Chicagoans, it should go to Chicagoans. To get to the point that it becomes a point of recycling those funds in our economy, is where we want to be,” said 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez, who chairs the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

We reached out to a spokeswoman for Favorite multiple times this week seeking comment but have not yet heard back.

NBC 5 Investigates also asked the mayor’s office for an interview to discuss future plans, but we’ve haven’t gotten a response to that either.

Mattresses are pressed up against the police station as a small group of people played dominoes.

There’s a mix of optimism and uncertainty. People who’ve left their home country – for many, that’s Venezuela – have come to Chicago seeking a better life.

But it’s unclear where they will end up.

The number of migrants living at temporary shelters set up at Chicago police stations has ballooned to more than 2,500 people, according to the city’s count, part of the 17,000-plus who now call Chicago home. Their stays at police stations are supposed to be temporary – but some of the people said they have been living at such buildings since August.

Colder days are ahead, and it’s not clear when the winterized tents the city promised will be up and running, or where they’ll be located.

One woman said that she has medical needs, but is concerned about leaving the police station out of fear she could lose her place here.

NBC 5 Investigates wanted to know more about the migrants’ experiences and their medical needs after a volunteer group – the Migrant Mobile Health Team – testified before Chicago’s City Council last week about issues they’re seeing.

The group, created with the help of University of Illinois Chicago second-year medical student Sara Izquierdo, said they are filling a gap in medical care created in part by the city’s response to the crisis. Izquierdo told council members that her group has crowdsourced to raise money, and without city tax money has helped provide medical care and assessments to the migrants living at police stations.

Her group has grown to more than 250 volunteers since May. Medical students like Sara and doctors volunteer their time to help treat migrants living at the city’s police stations.

“All of these volunteer organizations have truly just saw the need and filled the need. There’s really no other way to put it,” said Sara Cooper, a UIC medical student and native of Venezuela who volunteers with the group.

Cooper says she and her colleagues have treated barbed-wire wounds and helped women who have had no pre-natal care.

And there is a widening gap – Cooper and Izquierdo say – created by the city’s response.

“We need collaboration from the city,” Izquierdo told council members last Friday.

During her testimony at a committee hearing, Sara Izquierdo was critical of the city’s spending.

NBC 5 Investigates found the city has at least $57 million so far on Favorite Healthcare Staffing – a Kansas-based company that staffs the city-run shelters.

An invoice from last December shows the company billed the city $20,000 for a single nurse’s invoice for one week.

“There’s no reason that one nurse working for seven days should get paid $20,000 when you could take that $20,000 and install a triage system like ours saves people’s lives. There’s no reason for that,” Izquierdo said. “There’s no reason that we should be spending the money on 400 ambulances, when people are coming for concerns for diarrhea, sore throat, things that can be managed otherwise, and a better way, but aren’t managed at all.”

The mayor’s office has said those hourly rates were inflated to cover administrative costs like hotel rooms for out-of-state employees and that it is now working with Favorite, encouraging the company to hire more locally.

“We’re not talking about creative solutions. We’re just talking about paying large corporations and large companies like GardaWorld inordinate amounts of money to put more band-aid solutions on things,” Izquierdo said.

The $29 million contract with GardaWorld is aimed at moving people out of police stations, but where the so-called tent cities will go up is still unclear.

The volunteers with the Migrant Mobile Health Team said they met Thursday with the Chicago Department of Public Health to discuss needs.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department referred questions to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office. The mayor’s office had not responded to an email seeking comment as of Friday afternoon.

A spokesperson released the following statement on behalf of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office, the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services:

“The City of Chicago is coordinating with various providers to try to ensure that new arrivals undergo health screenings and have access to healthcare as needed. New arrivals receive health screenings and have access to medical care via a clinic operated by Cook County Health. 

The Chicago Department of Public Health provides complimentary support by funding onsite clinical providers in new arrival shelters and by coordinating Medical Reserve Corps volunteers to perform screenings in Chicago Police Department districts so that new arrivals can be connected to care. Separate from clinical care, the Chicago Department of Public Health has a dedicated team that provides infection control consultation to congregate settings, including Department of Family and Support Services-run shelters.”

(Update: an earlier version of this story misidentified the Chicago Department of Public Health as the Cook County Health Department. It is corrected above).