>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Nick Blumberg Brandis Friedman has the evening off.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> They took 98% copied and pasted but took out key components.

>> Competing plans to reform renters rights.

Work their way through City Council.

We hear from supporters of both proposals.

>> We deserve a city government who are members works for.

>> And entrepreneur Liam Stanton joins us to talk about his campaign for Chicago.

Mayor.

First off tonight, 2 candidates hoping to succeed Congressman Chewy Garcia didn't gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

>> Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez and former Latino Victory Project Executive Director Mira launched Independent bids for the 4th congressional district seat after Garcia's last-minute announcement that he wouldn't run again, cleared a path for his chief of staff to secure the Democratic nomination.

But earlier today, the state Board of Elections voted unanimously that CS came up more than 1000 signatures short and Sigcho Lopez was short more than 1200 signatures.

Both would-be candidates slammed the decision is harmful to the democratic process.

They want to challenge the election board's decision they can do so in Cook County Circuit Court.

State officials and advocates for people with autism are celebrating a new program aimed at making traffic stops safer.

The Blue envelope program is a statewide initiative recently signed into law and aims to ease communication between law enforcement and drivers on the autism spectrum.

It provides a blue envelope to hold a driver's license registration and insurance information and alerts officers that the driver may have different communication needs.

The envelope also has a space for an emergency contact and guidance on how best to interact with the driver.

Advocates say it's rooted in a basic idea.

>> What if something as simple as a blue envelope could create a pause.

pause that prevents misunderstanding.

pause that replaces fear with understanding.

Pause that can change an interaction.

>> Maybe even.

>> Save a life.

>> The Freon Lopes will be available at Dmvs and other locations statewide starting January.

1st.

The Shedd Aquarium sounds a note of cautious optimism after 4 rescue beluga whales arrive safely in Chicago.

The female blue.

Those are among 30 whales rescued from the defunct Canadian Water Park.

The closed to the public in 2024. the park threatened to euthanize the whales when Canadian authorities blocked their transfer to China.

In addition to the shed other facilities in Georgia, Texas, California and Spain offered to rehome the whales shed.

Officials say they'll be keeping a close eye on the Nuba Lucas ensuring they begin to eat socialize and explore their new habitat.

The shed has committed to taking as many as 10 of the shuttered water parks.

But Lucas, we've got much more about this story on our website.

Up next, what to know about to propose renters ordinances?

We hear from both camps right after this.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> More than half of Chicago households rent and the longstanding debate over how the city should protect those residences in the spotlight.

Once again, 2 amendments to the city's 40 year-old ordinance that covers landlord and tenant responsibilities are under consideration in City Council in June, Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced the protecting renters ordinance or pro.

Then last week, a group of Alderman countered with the Fair and accountable.

Illinois renters ordinance or fair.

Both proposed many of the same changes but a few key differences are emerging as sticking points.

Joining us to talk about the proposals are that said Castaneda commissioner of Chicago's Department of Housing, Jonah Karsh organizer with the Metropolitan Tenants organization.

Michael Glasser, president of the neighborhood Building Owners, Alliance and Gilbert Villegas 36th Ward Alderman and City Council Zoning Committee chair.

He represents parts of the northwest side including Belmont, Craig and Hermosa and Humble Park.

Thank you all for being here.

We appreciate your time to see and hear So there's been a lot of conversation about what went into these ordinances.

Some of the folks backing them.

Commissioner Castaneda, if I can begin with you for the stakeholders that you worked with while drafting pro.

Yeah, absolutely.

For the last couple of years, the Department of Housing has been running the advisory committee on renting right.

And that has allowed us to have an opportunity to talk to.

But Lambert, stakeholders and housing justice advocates.

We've had folks like the Chicago Land Apartment Association.

We've had folks like the metropolitan its organization, and we've got feedback from the Chicago Realtors, much of what was put into the ordinance does actually reflect feedback from both camps.

Alderman biggest, what were the stakeholders you worked with while putting together fair?

Yeah.

So our colleagues as well as on the ground talking to landlords as well as renters to explain to them what pro could potentially do and do some concerns.

And that's why we work collectively.

As as a council members to figure out what we can do to put forward an ordinance that I think forces compromise, as you stated before, there are things that we agree with some things we don't agree with.

The administration has reached out to me and said, hey, we like some of the things that you you have a new ordinance that not in ours.

So the question is, how do we figure out a way to continue dialogue so that potentially could be some type of compromise.

John Dickerson know one of the key pieces of pro is this idea of just cause eviction requirements for folks who aren't familiar.

Can you tell us about what those are and why your organization is advocating for Sure.

So right now in the city of Chicago landlord has the right to not renew a tenant's lease for any reason or no reason at all.

Unfortunately, we see this used to disguise retaliation frequently.

We also see it as a tool of Gentrify ERs who want to come into neighborhoods.

And have worked with buildings that were completely empty.

People were given just 120 days to leave what the just cause requirements do is say that if a tenant is being displaced for a reason that isn't their fault, not for any of the reasons on the screen that they would be entitled to relocation assistance from the landmark.

We think it's a vital measure that's necessary in order to protect tenants.

And to be clear that that relocation assistance, that monetary assistance yet its monetary assistance that is designed to help cover the cost of attendance move in the event that they're being rather terminated their lease for no fault of their One thing I do want to say in regards to what's on the screen, it is not true that if a tenant refuses to sign a lease with a rent increase, that they would be entitled to relocation assistance.

That is only the case.

If the rent increase was offered, quote, with the intention of encouraging the tenant not to renew.

So this is just trying to prevent bad behavior.

It is not the intention of protecting renters coalition to prevent landlords from increasing rent Michael Glasser.

You know, as as a building owner and someone who works with other owners, what's your reaction to these?

proposed requirements around a just cause eviction?

It's terrible.

absolutely.

First of all, it's a lot of talk about affordability.

Adding more burdens and housing providers making it more burdensome for us to run or buildings only increases the cost of housing and it goes the opposite direction of the goal that some of many of us share of making housing more affordable.

This notion of just cause eviction.

It's not a good name.

I prefer to call them endlessly.

Ce.

And the problem with that is housing provider, we call ourselves housing providers that we have words.

We.

very diligent in putting folks in our building that will be good tenants.

And if we know that certain tenant has endlessly synonym title meant to a lot of medically renew their lease, we're going to be so careful and who we put in that building.

That's many, many folks that have blemishes on their credit reports or have a criminal background problem.

Bankruptcy.

We're not going to rent to them out of fear that we're going to be with them for forever.

And so for for many reasons, it really deprives.

The owner of the ability to Preet their building.

And it's also at the service to tenants who might feel that other tenants are harassing them or or noisy.

And the only recourse that a landlord would have or housing preventer would have would be evasion, which only added to the number of evictions out there and make it in evictions permit breach of contract.

A very tough to prove and commissioner cast.

And yet I know pro also contains a tenants Bill of rights.

What does that involve and and what what enforcement look like for those rights?

Yeah.

Ultimately what we would want to be able to do through pro is to build out the Bureau of Rental Housing Services.

This will be a service.

Both for tenants and for landlords.

In fact, that would be one of the biggest expenses of services to landlords and what that will mean for things like the tenant Bill of Rights is that it will be a place where you can come to adjudicate any issues that might occur between a landlord and a tenant when they're trying to have things like peaceful enjoyment of their home.

The other thing that the tenant Bill of Rights will do is that it will codify services and protections for gender based violence survivors to ensure that they have recourse in the instances where they have Feis that violence in their own homes.

Alderman you the fair keeps enforcement with the Department of buildings rather than creating that new entity.

The commissioner just discussed.

What do you think?

That's the right approach.

This and talking about we have a budget deficit here.

Then the budget deficit here to city Chicago.

And so we're trying to figure out how to minimize costs, how to streamline processes.

And so the fact Department of Buildings has staff that's in place in the public housing staff.

There's opportunity there to take a look at using that current staff in order put forth services will ultimately help the people of Chicago.

So we're concerned about adding more additional cost to the budget.

Additional pension liability.

I think there's ways that we can do what our current staff commissioner is there a significant cost here?

So everything from pro would be covered from within the Feast of the rental registry, which art here to ensure that the smallest impact goes to the smallest landlords and the largest impact goes to the biggest landlords.

We have a three-year implementation plan and that ramp up does include existing staff from the Department of Buildings and the Department of Housing.

And then anyone else that would be hired.

This is a revenue neutral ordinance.

So it would be all from within that same pot of money.

And ultimately it would mean that the bureau would be there to serve again, both landlords and tenants services like having things like model leases and other things that landlords have not had access to before.

>> Yeah, the rental registry also comes with the registry fee.

just in terms of of having that registry of available units, you know, John Carse, what would that mean for tenants?

>> Yeah, it's it's a great transparency measures so out.

One of the things that I really appreciate about the protecting renters ordinance is the amount of data that it would allow the city to collect one of the reasons that we struggle to figure out, for example, how many small landlords we have in our city is that we just don't know because we don't keep the data the rental registry that's proposing to protecting renters ordinance would include detailed information landlords would pay a fee to register, but not the smallest Lambert who would be exempt.

Those other landlords would pay no more than $5 a month per unit and that money would go towards both the administration of the registry and the Bureau of Rental Housing Services to a proactive enforcement and education of rights.

One of the biggest gaps that I see in my organization which assist tenants across the city response to thousands of cars a year on a hotline.

Is that the landlord might be breaking the law.

But if your only recourse is to take them to court and sue and the city's not getting involved, it's really hard to have justice for tenants that are being wronged in real time.

I think the bureau solves that.

I'm concerned in the ad says ordinance does not include a funding mechanism for the registry.

So so you have the reason why doesn't include red rental registries because we've we've been in discussions based on the ordinance that we propose that there's technology out there that currently being used in different cities and states that.

The tenants, I'm sorry, owners themselves.

so they have you have registries before closure.

They also do registries for rental and but they do is they work with the banks in order to to put to pay for those costs.

But they also work with the housing providers as well.

It doesn't create whole new bureau.

also allows for the technology to continue to be up up up to speed.

Could we see the proposals put forward by the new bureau is that it includes department of Technology.

Innovation, creating a whole new platform here.

And so there's off the shelf technology didn't exist that we can work with its proven technology that would getting up and running quicker and we don't have to be in charge of So we have a tenant.

We have someone that's actually working with us that would be able to provide this information on a monthly basis real time.

Another issue that I want to get to, you know, both plans put limits on security deposits pro goes further to ban certain, you know, move in fees.

Michael Glasser, what's your reaction to that proposal?

>> You know, we've surveyed.

Tenants and learn that.

It's about even mix between tenants provided an option between a refundable security deposit.

Maybe a month month and a half rent versus moving fee which might be 30 to 50% of a month's rent, which is non-refundable.

Tenants are split on that.

Oftentimes tenants who more challenge to come up with the money to get an apartment prefer pay the move in fee of say 350 or $400 to get the apartment rather than come up with a month and a half rent for security deposit.

So we believe that there should be choices and the folks that are best able to make those choices come through the marketplace, the tenant and the housing provider to make the choice between them and those folks are more than capable and have been more than capable and not be unduly restricted bylaws that really just make life a lot more complicated for everyone before we run out of time.

The other wrote earlier today on Facebook there, some negotiations are already underway.

But you were, you know, calling out the mayor for.

>> You know, attacking supporters of fair rather than coming to the table.

What do you hope to see out of negotiations going forward again when he introduced this fair ordinance?

Within 2 days, we had the administration reach out to us to talk about, there's some things in there that we can support.

We see that there's a lot of similar some of the language how we've worked together.

That's great.

However, when you start going up public and you start criticizing the only for putting forward a proposal that that is very similar, but it's just not 100%.

This just this reminds me budget.

2 point.

Oh, where the mayor was able to get most of what he wanted.

But we have some just we had some disagreements on certain things.

This it the way that program right now we feel that ultimately is going to end.

causing renters.

So we're concerned about that.

We've got about a minute left.

But commissioner casting into what are you looking for in terms of negotiations moving forward?

I think that the ultimate right, that there are some points where we can agree on.

We all want to see that there is more production, that vacant land is brought back into productive use.

A vacant properties are back into productive use.

>> And ultimately we want to meet this moment.

We know that this is the first substantive update to pro to the residential, Mr.

Tan an ordinance in 40 years.

We know that important that we lead the way in ensuring that renters are protected because we cannot have a housing for all vision.

does not include I wanted to add as his own teacher, we're going to build build, build in order to deal with the supply issue, which is actually squeezing renters.

All right.

I'm sure this conversation will continue in the weeks and months ahead.

But that's all the time we have for right now.

Commissioner, that to Jonah Karsh Michael Glasser and aldermen get biggest.

Thank you all for Thank you.

And up next, mayoral candidate Liam Stanton on his bid for Chicago's highest office.

Candidates hoping to get on the ballot for Chicago's mayoral election can begin circulating petitions next week.

Well, the election is still more than 6 months away.

A number of candidates have already announced their campaigns.

Entrepreneur.

Liam Stanton is one of them and he says Chicago is ready for a different perspective.

The raw just park native hit the gas platform prioritizes making the city more affordable, safe and small business friendly.

And Liam Stanton joins us now to talk about his campaign's Frank.

Thanks for being here.

Thank So you're coming at this.

You know, not from a background as a politician.

Much like the last couple folks elected mayor of Chicago.

What do you see is, as you know, your qualifications for leading the city?

Yeah, I think I you know, I grew up and Rogers Park in life and Chicago in the youngest today from a huge Gaga family and a long line of public servants.

So my grandfather came as an immigrant Queen Street cars.

My dad's service, Chicago police officer.

>> So I kind of that that rooted in the neighborhood values thing, which I think is it's key for this next mayor to have that perspective.

And I think it brings some interesting comes from outside of politics.

started and run small businesses.

run large global organizations.

And I think that that mixture of being rude, our neighborhoods and having sort of the sense of urgency in creativity and executive to run large businesses organizations is really key for the city right now.

So, you know, among the items on your platform, you support term limits for older people, reducing the size of city council.

How do you plan to convince all the people to put themselves out of a job?

Well, I think there's it's an issue thing.

I think that I've been asked this before common sense and it will rain.

And ultimately think there's ways we can do phase it in where you say, hey, listen, you know, grandfather in the current ones over time, we can do it.

ultimately we need to look at changing reforming city government because not delivering enough for for Chicagoans right now.

So I think those are ideas that we have and we have plenty more that will improve lives.

The city, the city's most recent forecast 1.1, 6 billion dollar budget gap next year.

You've said you know, property tax increase should be off the table.

How would you tackle that deficit?

Yeah.

I think if you look at I would back up and look at our budget process.

It is right now and I think we have a fundamentally broken process to to address our budget.

You look at last year we had a lot of information that wasn't being shared across the city council.

So the mayor had access to report.

He didn't rip right release it to city council.

They redact and release it.

So the first thing is we need to have a collaborative process with our budget.

We can't get in a situation where the mayor and city council have competing budget every year.

That's not productive and it doesn't improve lives for for Chicagoans.

So Nick, we would look at, you know, how do we first find savings?

You know, we look at procurement.

We look at a news office space.

We look at different things.

We can find immediate savings in this budget but do it in a collaborative way to in partnership with City Council instead of against them.

Do you think that I mean that that's significant budget, you know, gap to come up with it just from sort efficiency savings cuts, are there additional revenue streams that there are other things you like to see happen there?

Yeah, I think we need to start focusing on growth.

So I think there's I like I like the phrase cheap and cheerful.

So there's a lot of things we can do.

They're cheap and cheerful to bring more revenue to city.

You know, I like the idea making Chicago the small business capital, the world.

I think we have 100,000 small businesses in the city employee.

About 60% of our workforce.

I want to make it easier to start expand and grow small business here.

And I think when you do that, you get large.

Employers are going want to relocate here.

Getting larger pores want to expand here.

So that's one idea in terms of growing the other ideas.

We want a rematch in the The loop forever been a place where it's just designed for profits.

Workers.

I want to see more tourists there.

I want to see more Chicagoans spending time there.

We've got a lot of ideas about how to do that.

And that's a virtuous cycle.

If you get people spending time downtown spending tax dollars are spending money, middle generate revenue for us.

There are things you can do to start growing.

You know, some candidates and elected officials are calling a for the city to, you know, buy back the parking meters as a as a source of revenue.

Where do you stand on that issue?

I think we need to look at what, what, what the return is on that.

I think alderman actually had a pretty interesting idea recently on this about potentially using the pension funds as sort of assets that to back acquire those back but ultimately need to look what is the best deal for taxpayers and doesn't make sense for us.

I would really take a good hard look at I don't have a lot of faith in this current mayor to be honest, needed to make a great deal there.

But I think the council and I think hopefully others can make sure that we make a firm deal that isn't taxpayers best interest, your public safety platform includes a call to bring back the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system.

There's a recent analysis from you, Chicago that actually found officers responded to 9-1-1.

Calls in a dozen south and west side neighborhoods.

4 minutes faster after ShotSpotter went offline.

Why do you think it's something the city needs with?

That study was completely flawed.

It compared cold winter weather months with warm weather months for to more crime.

It didn't include actual gunshots and shootings in that analysis.

There's other things were just totally apples and oranges and made to look at the way it was.

I think ultimately shot spotter.

technology should get resources to people who need them when they need them.

If you look at shot spotter, it's ultimately about if there's a gunshot in the city, we want officers to get there to be able to to respond to that.

And that's ultimately what it's about.

We had an incident this this Saturday where, you know, it 40 minutes from the time of gunshot to the time responding officer.

And I think that's just not not appropriate in the city.

You've also called for improving safety on the CTA.

According to recent Chicago Police State, a serious crime on the system is down and there is an expanding security presence.

Our current efforts not going far enough.

I think there were the right direction from when the sheriff spend more time on the That's fantastic.

we're seeing a more focus on that because ultimately CTA is a tremendous tool for affordability.

>> The CTS way for a lot of people on our city to see friends, to get to work to all these things.

And I think the next step is for It's so if you look at fair Vision, Gates and what's happened in San Francisco, they've really done a great job driving down incidents, driving down cleaning hours and actually increasing revenue, citing fare evasion games.

We would actually push to about those up.

You've also advocated for universal child care or Chicagoans.

How would you fund that program?

Great question.

You childcare is one of the things I have.

2 young kids.

Childcare is a huge expense for You know, I think through savings and other things we can we can find pilot money for that.

Just because we want to fund new programs doesn't mean we can't find the money else we have to do.

We can this mindset of we can't do anything new.

We have to have the approach that we need to find the savings to fund new programs.

So I think that's a good one to start with.

You've also called for taking another look at the safety Act, particularly the pretrial release system.

You know, state lawmakers have had some discussions about those so far.

No significant progress toward amending the law.

How would you try to work with, you know, the governor and legislators to make those changes, you know, coming in fresh to Springfield without prior relationship.

I think it's all about collaboration that's across board.

I think if you look at not only with Springfield but with council, the mayor's office has totally changed from 10, 2050, used to be rubber stamped, you know, to come in council do or sprinkle it is the times change.

I think it's time for a collaborative leader.

Someone come in and build relationships and can do that.

I've got a lot of experience my career doing that.

So I think having relationships and investing in Springfield, investing with counsel, I think would be would go a long way these days.

Yeah, we've got a little under a minute left, but you mentioned, you know, some of the fraught relationship between Mayor Johnson, members of the city council.

What worked you think needs to be done to repair those relationships?

I think we need to refocus ourselves away from ideology on execution on getting things done for Chicagoans and getting, you know, making improving lives.

Right now.

There's so much talk about ideology and this and that what actually improve someone's life.

How do you get people enough?

People together in a coalition to effect an outcome?

And that's really what I'd be focused on.

Alright, Chicago mayoral candidate Liam, stand to thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for him.

And additional candidates running for mayor have also been joining us on Chicago tonight.

You can visit our website to find those interviews at W T Tw dot com slash mayor 2027.

And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

You can stream Chicago tonight on our W T Tw YouTube channel every evening and catch up on any programs you may have missed.

Join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10.

We leave you tonight with more from that beluga whale rescue that the Shedd Aquarium was part of.

This is the important stuff, folks now for all of us here in Chicago tonight, I'm Nick Blumberg.

>> Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> A closed captioning is made possible by Clifford and Clifford Law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death that