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\nJudge Diane Larson issued her order in response to long-time LGBT activists Andy Thayer\u2019s and Rick Garcia\u2019s July 25th motion for a preliminary injunction to force the Chicago to follow the OMA after the general public was largely barred from attending and testifying at both the May 18 and June 22 meetings of the City Council.<\/strong>
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\nThayer and other advocates for rights of the homeless had attempted to attend May meeting to protest the impending passage of a $15.8 million TIF giveaway of city funds to help build a luxury high-rise residences on the lakefront, just yards away from homeless \u201ctent cities\u201d underneath the Lake Shore Drive viaducts.
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\nThe activists from the Uptown Tent City Organizers and North Side Action 4 Justice groups contended that the Council and the ward\u2019s Alderman James Cappleman were rushing through the TIF ordinance so as to beat a July deadline under which it and all other future developments using city funds would be required to set aside significantly higher resources for affordable housing units. At the June Council meeting, Alderman Ed Burke noted<\/a> “there is an urgency to this matter,” according to the minutes of the meeting (01:16:37).
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\nWhile yesterday\u2019s ruling covered just part of the activists\u2019 July 25th motion, a final ruling on the suit as whole, if the City is found guilty of violating the OMA, could invalidate all final decisions made by the Council at its May 18 and June 22 meetings, including the $15.8 million TIF ordinance for luxury housing finally passed at the June meeting. <\/strong>5 ILCS 120\/3, Sec. 3(c)
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\nYesterday\u2019s ruling covered the activists\u2019 contention that, to quote the OMA, \u201cAny person shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials under the rules established and recorded by the public body,\u201d and that the Council\u2019s actions violated the Act (5 ILCS 120\/2.06, subsection g).
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\n\u201cWhile this is just round #1 in this suit, it is a crucial victory not only for affordable housing advocates, but for everyone in this City who has a beef with City Hall,\u201d said Thayer, a co-founder of Chicago\u2019s Gay Liberation Network and a member of Uptown Tent City Organizers. \u201cOver the past few years we\u2019ve seen the City Council pass a series of deeply unpopular measures, from phony reforms that don\u2019t really reform the police, to a whole series of increased taxes targeting mostly poor and moderate income people, increasing the chasm between the rich and the rest of us. Mayor Emanuel and the Aldermen are able to ram through these regressive measures in part because they concoct their Council meetings in way where no visible opposition is allowed.\u201d
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\n\u201cWe know that approximately 25% of the homeless identify as LGBTQ. For our gay alderman to be pushing city tax dollars to fund luxury housing rather than housing for the homeless is absolutely unconscionable,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cWhen I heard that affordable housing advocates had been barred from the City Council meeting as I had been, I enthusiastically agreed to become a co-plaintiff. Yesterday\u2019s decision by our judge was a breath of fresh air in a city polity that is too often skewed to the rich and powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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