Welcome to Newswire — your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what action we can take to make our city great, featuring public meeting coverage by City Bureau’s Documenters.

Quote of the Week

“We also wanna make sure that we are listening to the lifeblood of our community. The next people who will be voting for our next leaders are our young people. … It bothers me that we have a room full of young people back here, and nobody has asked them their opinion on this issue. … [T]he people who are mostly impacted by what we are discussing should be at the table.”

— Ald. Angela Clay (46th Ward) speaking against the snap curfew, urging her colleagues to hear young Chicagoan’s opinions on the ordinance.

[Chicago City Council, June 18, 2025]

Snap and veto

Mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed the “snap curfew,” sidelining the controversial ordinance. City Council passed the legislation  in a split vote last week, giving the Chicago Police superintendent power to institute a curfew to break up “mass gatherings” of youths and order minors to leave a public space with as little as 30 minutes notice. The 27-22 vote came after months of back and forth among city officials and criticism from legal and community groups. 

Johnson promptly exercised his mayoral veto powers, being the first Chicago mayor to do so since former Mayor Richard M. Daley did so in 2006. The mayor will formally share his veto at the July 16 City Council meeting. Thirty-four alders would need to vote to override the veto, flipping at least seven ‘no’ votes from the ordinance itself.

Though mayoral vetoes are rare, Johnson has previously indicated he was willing to use them. The mayor threatened to veto an ordinance in September that sought to stop Johnson from ending the city’s contract with the gunshot detection system, ShotSpotter. The technology was deactivated later that month, and Johnson opted not to veto the ordinance, which he argued was unenforceable.

  • Chicago City Council

What you can do:

Catch up on the headlines:

  • PERSPECTIVE: Curfews won’t keep us safe; they just criminalize the existence of Black and brown youth | The TRiiBE

  • Youth leadership is key as Chicago creates more third spaces, organizers say | City Bureau

Reporting on harm

The state’s African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission is awaiting a draft of the Harms Report from its research subcommittee. The report — projected to be made public in December or January 2026 — is the first of three phases “with the primary goal of researching and documenting past and current inequities faced by Black Americans in Illinois.” The research is conducted in partnership with University of Illinois Chicago Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy as a part of an intergovernmental agreement. 

The report, which will provide the basis for future policy recommendations, is broken into 11 different harm area categories, including mental and physical harm and neglect, pathology of the African American family, stolen labor and hindered opportunity and the wealth gap. 

The African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission was established by the Illinois General Assembly in early 2022. The commission follows California, where a reparations task force has released a detailed report with recommendations on how to implement reparations in the state

What you can do:

Attend upcoming meetings of the African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission: Attend the upcoming research subcommittee, 10 a.m. Thursday, July 17, or the full commission meeting, 1 p.m. Friday, July 18. Find details on all upcoming meetings and how to register for public comment here.

Four lawsuits and a budget

The city of Chicago settled four lawsuits totaling nearly $25 million for police corruption and abuse dating back to the 1980s.  

It remains to be seen where the money will come from to pay out these settlements, as the city has already spent more than double its annual budget on police settlements. So far in 2025, Chicagoans have spent at least $189.3 million in paying out more than two dozen police misconduct lawsuits .

The uncertainty of the funding source bred conflict among alders, who were torn with their responsibility to taxpayers as well as victims of police violence. 

Of the cases up for settlement, James Gibson vs. city of Chicago was the largest, totaling $14.75 million. Gibson was convicted of killing two police officers in 1989 and incarcerated for nearly 30 years before the conviction was vacated and charges dismissed in 2019. Gibson later sued the city, claiming he was tortured by detectives under the command of disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge, and he confessed to the crime  under duress. 

While settlement contributes to a larger problem of underestimating the amount of funds necessary for police misconduct settlements, going to trial would be more expensive, compelling taxpayers to pay anywhere from $30-$100 million, Deputy Corporation Counsel Jessica Felker said.

“Even as it’s uncomfortable to reckon with these decisions and with the dollar amounts that we’re talking about, it feels like the responsible choice, even if it’s an uncomfortable choice, to vote ‘yes’ on the settlement,” said Ald. Daniel La Spara (1st Ward). 

All four lawsuits were approved by the Committee on Finance, before being passed by the full City Council last week.

What you can do:

Catch up on the headlines:

  • Final tally: Chicago taxpayers spent at least $107.5M to resolve police misconduct lawsuits in 2024, analysis finds | WTTW

  • What police settlement cases are costing Chicago taxpayers | WBEZ

  • Chicago Police Torture Archive | Invisible Institute

A version of this story was first published in the June 25, 2025 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.