The Latest Breaking News from City Council

Interviews with Chicago City Council members, experts and a WBEZ analysis of the contract show minimal financial benefit to the city and few specifics about who pays for related costs, such as security and clean up.

BERKELEY, Calif. — Managers in city offices across Berkeley have spent the better part of the year trying to recruit staff and patch holes in work schedules as vacancies careened upward, leaving some departments operating with too few employees to provide the services residents need and expect.

Councillors endorsed £29m of savings proposals, over £10m of which require public consultation. This includes raising Council Tax by the full 4.99 per cent permitted under Government proposals.

DENVER — Denver’s local emergency declaration responding to a surge of migrants arriving in the city is not set to expire Jan. 17 after the Denver City Council approved an extension Monday afternoon.

LOS ANGELES — If the last week was any indication, Mayor Karen Bass starts her tenure with the wind at her back.

NEW YORK — A packet of drugs in a McDonald’s salad. Vacuum-sealed marijuana in a lunch box. Hennessy cognac in AriZona Iced Tea bottles and Ciroc coconut-flavored vodka in Poland Spring water bottles.

The Illinois Gaming Board has to ask some serious questions — that’s it’s job — about the Bally’s casino project when the body meets next year to take up the matter for approval. Chicago has to get this right.

City councils are typically nonpartisan. Odessa residents are wondering if that’s still the case after the local Republican Party helped elect new council members.

Austin is charged with taking sump pumps, a dehumidifier and kitchen cabinets as kickbacks from a developer overseeing a $50 million development in her ward.

LOS ANGELES — Should Mark Ridley-Thomas be paid his salary as a Los Angeles City Council member — his exorbitant, more-than-$229,000-a-year salary — even though he's been indicted and is awaiting trial for betraying the public trust by taking bribes and engaging in fraud and conspiracy?

A coalition made up of legal advocates and a law firm is suing Dallas over a new rule that subjects people to fines of up to $500 for standing on road medians, arguing it is unconstitutional and will disproportionately impact homeless residents.