>> And everyone, thanks for joining us on the weekend review.

I'm Nick Plummer.

Amanda has the evening off Mayor Brandon Johnson wipes the slate clean, appointing an entirely new Chicago school board.

>> I use my authority.

people of Chicago gave me which is to hurry and make sure that our children get what they deserve.

A fiery Mayor Johnson announces his new pics and swats away criticism from older people over the rapid fire changes.

We have been transform this district.

>> It takes time.

You know, the district didn't get here overnight.

I'm starting my 4th year.

But today branded I our schools have more resources than ever before.

Meanwhile, schools CEO Pedro Martinez defends his stewardship of the district as questions swirl over whether the new board will keep him on.

What are we doing here?

>> You may not like it.

You think I would like to burn the but you know what?

I don't like careful.

just bottom of people have on the for Frustrated older people throw up roadblocks for the mayor at a city council meeting and air grievances over the school board and the shot spotter contract.

We avoid using one-time revenues for recurring expenses.

>> We don't borrow more than we need.

We don't spend more than we have.

And as Chicago faces political tunnels and a cash crunch, Cook County unveils a rosy budget for the coming year.

>> And now to our week in review panel.

Joining us are Michael Lippe Trot with Block Club Chicago Sarah Frei stat with the Chicago Tribune.

Rufus Williams with WTO N and Quinn Meyers also with block club.

Chicago.

Thank you for being here.

Let's get right to it.

Plenty to talk about this week.

Exactly.

Just days after the entire school board resigned, Mayor Johnson made 6 new pics to oversee CPS.

He says he wants to ensure stability for the district help with the transition to this hybrid board in January.

But we've got contract talks with the CTU.

We've got a budget crunch.

Quin Myers does the full board turning over risk some of that stability?

I think it's has risked already.

Yeah.

I mean, we have seen a totally new school board put in place over the past week.

Well, most of them 6 members were appointed nominee.

I should say.

>> By the mayor in combative Monday morning press conference.

We saw a couple clips from out in your in your setup.

So yeah, there the stability is at risk.

I don't know.

You know, there have been headlines about chaos and turmoil.

I want to go too far.

But there is a lot of uncertainty over who's going to be running CPS.

Will this new board fire Pedro Martinez?

Will they take out a high interest?

Short-term, 300 million dollar loan to cover a pension payments and some upcoming contract costs.

We don't know and looming over all of this is the hybrid elected school board that's going to take their seats in just a few months and going to be voted on in about 3 weeks from now.

So the school board is going to change radically very soon.

And so there's a lot going on and a lot of uncertainty.

Well into Queens point about the chaos turmoil, whether that's overstating the case or not, certainly there's quite a bit of change going on.

And, you know, the potential for some instability.

>> The roughest Williams, if you're a CPS parent or student, who's old enough to be following the news, is this the kind of thing that you think, you know, makes parents to an easy?

I think it makes everyone easy.

>> And going through the things he just pointed out.

It was already going to be some difficulty with 8. unlike its school board we've had and mayoral control over the schools as 1995.

And so this was going to be different and having 20 21 people versus 7 people is going to be challenging.

It's difficult for parents and young people not to know what's going on in the news, understand what's going on around all of this, including what happens with the teachers contract and all that's the air.

So the mayor talk much about transforming schools and even the press conferences.

And all I don't know that we really heard about with the transformation is so we come to this point where we will have electing with voting Election Day the 5th of November.

When we vote for these 10 members and they are still gets to appoint 10, still gets to appoint the present.

The board so still has control over the school's arguably until 2026. if I am a parent, if I am a student as I am a taxpayer, I am very concerned about where we are.

What happens with our schools going forward as you put it very well.

>> And thinking about a bonus down through an issue of control from how this is really set up with the beef between Brandon Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and even bigger when thinking about the city of Chicago versus CPS where the phrase has been commonly use I've been seeing is just kicking the can down the road from over decades of pensions, which is really the root of this jumping back and forth between who is responsible.

And as I think about just to this current state where Chicagoans voted with the idea of having an insider teacher, someone who been organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union having their back when it comes to this and for the entire board to resign en masse is is truly a show of bucking that control.

And Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson were here on Chicago tonight and both giving their side of the story.

But when I think about it is really going to be a testament to how Johnson going to handle this moving forward.

Well, and does having this entirely new board come in pretty much sealed, Pedro Martinez's fate or is that still be to be determined?

>> You know, one of the things I heard the mayor say is that all executives should be reviewed by their boards, except if you are a new board, how do you know how the executive is done?

You're looking at it from the outside.

Exactly.

So in order to have honest evaluation, that's kind of difficult to do with a brand new group of people coming from the left and the new board.

The 21 member board take their seats and then having the valuation of Pedro Martinez, right?

Well, you know, and Sarah, you know, Pedro Martinez kind of went on the offensive this week.

He did a whole slew of interviews, not just with us.

He was, you know, news outlets around the city.

>> Trying to make his case to seeing that public campaign surprise you at all that that approach you took?

>> You know it.

It didn't.

I think I think it's only natural you know, you as you mentioned, this has this has come down to a battle between the mayor and Pedro Martinez.

Obviously, they have completely different views on on the next steps here with with a lot at stake with the future of you know, we're talking about the political battles here, but let's not forget this is, you know, these are students.

These are families that's what's at stake here.

So a lot riding on you know, I think makes complete sense.

You know what, been all day on this, but we can I going 6.30 you know, part of this is really we've got a mayor who was part of the teachers union before became mayor.

>> And we're in the midst of negotiating a teacher contract.

So Pedro being there, Pedro Martinez being there for taxpayers as a stopgap and what the board was doing was kind of making sure as we went through all these things, let's be sure when negotiating for so it does become concerning.

When you've got the person who would agree negotiate against sitting in the other seat.

So what kind of negotiating negotiation is that?

And now that that truly for 10 for taxpayers and for children.

Well, and we heard, you know, from the CTU weighing in saying it's looking forward to working with the new board in referencing this.

You know, the mayor has pledged to transform schools in the city.

>> You know, but critics say the seat who's got undue influence in this deep do think that holds water.

Yes, obviously.

But the seat doesn't work with the board.

The seat.

He works with the CEO and Pedro is in that spot right now.

That's the place with that is is there undue influence of the union?

It's kind of what to expect when one of the union members becomes the mayor.

>> And, you know, within this time of this term, there's going to be a negotiation for a new contract.

We've heard both from the CTU and from Pedro Martinez himself advocating.

>> To you, some of the money collected by TIF districts to go toward school funding Quin.

Do you think the political will exists to reallocate that money?

let's remember that the origin of this is all it's all about budgets, about money, right?

Cps was facing a half a billion dollar budget gap.

Chicago facing almost a billion dollars next year.

This year.

We still have a 223 million dollar budget gap to deal with.

So I do think you know, the TIF angle, we'll see if there is political.

Well, I know a lot of alderman rely on those tips to prop up developments in their ward.

The Chicago teachers union suggested phasing out all tips and using that money immediately plug this budget gap.

I can tell you they're certainly not the political that you could immediately But I do think that, you know, CPS may get some more money will see.

But you know that if if the mayor has his way, it looks like they will be taking out short-term high interest loan to cover the upcoming pension payment to 175 million dollars as well as some contract costs.

It is an caution to the and that the again, because what you're doing is talking about using long-term assets to take you operating expenses.

>> You've got to deal with this again next year.

So if you have a fix, the structural issue, we haven't fixed the problem.

So using are the tip dollars to do something like that?

That's problematic.

>> And sir, you mentioned, you know, the impact on students and parents and communities.

You know, we saw this week the U.S. Charter school networks in 7 schools are going to be closing.

They're not, you know, district schools, but how much does this underscore just how emotional the start of school closures and these back and forth can get?

You know, I I think you're right.

This this is emotional.

These are again children.

We're talking about emotional for families.

People feel very attached to their community.

Schools.

>> But also emotional for, you know.

Maybe emotional is the wrong word.

But but perhaps very personal for the mayor for for the people who are kind of fighting these political battles at a high level, right?

The mayor has a lot at stake This is this is something that he has.

Transforming public schools something he has said.

He feels like he was was elected to And, you know, that's kind of his his name reading on the line there.

Yeah, I do think it's important to look at this in the larger context of what has happened in the past 6 months to a year.

>> The mayor is putting its foot down on the school board issue.

good shots he's been challenge left and right over and over by the city Council, we will get with an was not able to see to his preferred zoning chair.

compromise.

Walter Burnett.

So the mayor's power in question repeatedly.

And I think at that very come by the Monday morning Press comes, we saw him saying enough whether that will be respected will say, well, let's talk about yeah.

I mean, let's talk about some of those challenges.

41 Alder people signing an open letter calling for public hearings on school board appointees.

>> That did not happen.

At least not yet.

They're also talking.

You know, there was some talk about using subpoena power to call in board members for hearings, which the city's top lawyer says they can't do.

You know, Michael, how much more do you expect older to see all the people trying to weigh in on this issue?

We've got know they want to have a hearing next week to hear from board members, but seems like there's a lot of frustration there and maybe not a lot of power.

They can exercise here.

city council's deadly fighting for control in the midst just this mess right now.

>> myself as well as Quinn.

We were at City Hall on Wednesday when move to adjourn was being the late night fire went off and it's something where you can is just so hectic and it feels rather hectic.

And from.

The battle at this point between Johnson and the City Council and CPS over just taken control of the situation right now from Monday to Wednesday to what is likely going to be an extended process when it comes to just navigating these waters to the election to the election.

And afterwards, I don't know exactly what the compromise will be because as roof Roof is mentioned, taking out a high interest loan at this point.

It's going to be very shortsighted decision.

The older people pushed for them to have influence on the board appointments and have influence on just how Johnson's handling the situation.

I don't know when it comes to subpoenas and taking people.

The hearings, Johnson said himself, they can have as many hearings as they want.

His authority is enshrined as far state government.

So I'm not sure what the outcome will be.

As far as all the people.

But this is a non-stop.

you know, to to your point, I think that's something we have to keep in mind.

That's really call coloring.

>> Everything that's been going on the past few weeks and including the CP Estimate is.

>> The mayor is he's fighting so many battles on so many fronts.

And, you know, he's he's extending a lot of political capital to get some of his, you attempting to get some of his ideas through and at a certain point, you know, isn't going to come down to light prioritizing, right?

He's going to have to pick his battles.

And so what will those battles wall of the missing this is the this is the thing.

You know, to your point, there is a city council that's now feeling more empowered.

>> And one to do things and some of the issues that came up with the press conference was really we've had strong layers Chicago for a very long time with that.

Mayor Daley and Mayor Daley, we've had Mayor Washington.

We've had our army manual had Mayor Lightfoot.

>> All strong mayors and this mayor seeing that nobody's ever come at them in the ways in which they're coming at him.

And so this this battle will continue.

But there are certain things that a truly within his purview and certainly the schools are.

One of those things is very fitting on Monday that.

And almost it was very poetic and way that Johnson's coming to got moment happened in a church.

>> And just seen like you said him.

Hourly expressing and what people for the most part, the first time seeing him display how he feels as far as feel like he's attacked.

Think you keep his composure, right?

Feeling that.

And added layer of this that him being a black man has been influential to the criticism that he's receiving that he's receiving in response to some reporters, questions saying, well, is it time for the black man?

Are you expecting the black man to take control, respected black man to get rid of these problems immediately and just seeing that.

For every black person, a black man in professional America.

You know, you're under and added microscope.

And it's really easy.

For you.

Your judgment clouded when it comes to what is expected of other people.

What is a criticism for other people versus is this criticism coming to me specifically as a black man?

Yeah, an he is definitely doing his best to navigate And I hope that he can just get through that when it comes to this combative relationship with the media who was ultimately going to have to take the brunt of this cleanup where the sit-down do add that Btw the city announced he's going to be doing as far as interviews to lay out what the city's going to do to get through this situation with CPS shot spotter and a billion dollar budget deficit.

He's going to be the media.

Well, I will say the mayor is welcome for sit-down Awt to do you all those a lesson should know.

He also comes on WTO and put right.

Exactly.

And we would love for him to continue doing as he will it to the sit-down.

Well, and you know, when you mention ShotSpotter because we can't, you know, forget about at the City Council on Wednesday, he got.

>> Alderman Anthony Beale blocked every old run of the mill item that the mayor introduced and he's been leading the charge to try and keep shot spotter around.

I mean, there's also been a fundraising campaign to try and keep it around that, you know, that the mayor said he was going to veto the ordinance in favor of ShotSpotter.

Does this this fight seem to be going anywhere.

it's, you know, shot spotter has taken outsize role in the conversation for over the past year since the mayor said, you know, you know, talked about phasing it out in a ran on this as a campaign issue.

>> I do think it's going to continue to, you know, other people who have pushed for this ordinance to give the superintendent power to potentially enter into a contract.

you know, are going to continue calling for that.

The mayor said, you know, that's illegal mining about interview telling it, which kind of cancel the special city Council meeting this week, which could have overturned that veto.

So it's going to remain in issue.

But I don't think I don't see Shotspotter returning to Chicago streets any time soon.

If at all, even though you know, businessmen, some business people have raised 2.5 million dollars to pay for it for a couple months.

At least the mayor about that and totally dismiss said at his press conference this week.

Well, and, you know, given that contentious relationship between the mayor and the council on a number of issues, and as you mentioned, that billion dollar budget deficit facing the city.

I mean, Sarah, how how complicated is this upcoming budgeting season that we're heading into going to right?

Exactly.

So I I mentioned before the many battles the mayor is is fighting it really all all comes down to budget season.

He needs the city council.

>> To try to address needs City Council's health to try to address this year's budget deficit, the the enormous deficit they're looking at next year.

And, you know, this is coming at the same time that he is fighting with them on ShotSpotter.

He is fighting with, you on CBS and so how much good will he has among council could really could really play a huge role in the budget situation.

If you trust his property taxes and where where is the current level of goodwill going to go even gonna go farther down?

Well, no, because keeping up with campaign promises.

That was one of the ones he made was out of the room.

Texas.

>> So as a property tax payer, I'm happy any stick to on the table, right?

because he also said that he was going to cut emergency responders and we see that there's layoffs happening where firemen and Washington famously said politics ain't beanbag.

So in trying to pull together coalitions that he's going to need to get any of these done, it's going to take some some work to do that.

>> Because there needs to be progress on some of these fronts for a city.

Well, and we heard in the setup package, Cook County Board, President Toni Preckwinkle painting a >> pretty rosy picture of the upcoming budget and lauding the county's fiscal responsibility.

You know, Rufus, you think she was sending a message to the city?

Perhaps the message recently received by everyone at all of the parallels that you just pointed out.

>> That there is all the things that you would hope the city would be able to be in the same place yet.

They're not so lessons to be learned of lessons had been learned otherwise.

But, >> you know, she's also a very seasoned politician, has been in that role, has been in the automatic role and knows how to pull together these coalitions.

Our mayor doesn't have that same level of seasoning And there's not the factions that exist on the city council do not exist on the county board.

It is different political climate in some ways and a fraction of the number of people on the county board of commissioners worse.

The city council.

I want mention schools again, see the difference in ability to work with a much smaller group work with much larger.

>> And speaking of always being welcome on W T Tw will know President Preckwinkle is scheduled to join us on Monday.

So looking forward to hearing from her some other budget.

Sarah, the CTA board unveiled its new budget for the upcoming year and they are continuing to sound the alarm about the fiscal cliff Transit's facing in Twenty-twenty 6.

Remind us what the issue is their right.

So so right now we're not on CTA, not quite having some of the sand fireworks as city council, maze enough.

>> The region's transit agencies have been plugging there.

>> Budget holes with federal federal COVID relief money that is going to write out in Twenty-twenty 6, which means next year.

We're going to be talking about enormous budget deficits in the hundreds of millions of for budgets that are much smaller than the city's budget.

what we know about and that's that's the big question that that is every transit agencies mimes.

Well, and there's been the legislation proposed to merge CTA, Metra, Pace, RTA.

There's been some hearings on that.

>> You know, what do we know about whether that's moving forward?

Still too early, right?

Yes, so, you know, as you said, there's legislation to to merge the transit agencies into one.

>> We have heard that that will you know, becoming up during the veto session, which means we're looking at.

We're looking at next If I had to take a guess, I would say maybe like an 11th hour, you know, and obsessions situation.

But that's just my guess.

And so, yes, it's we've still got a couple months to see what happens.

>> It's just challenging here.

This COVID money situation continually come up when that money was never going to be long-term money.

But it seems a long term decisions were made based on church will short term money that was coming >> It's really, you know, I I think about that a lot.

And, you know, obviously the city got COVID money.

The county got COVID money.

The transit agencies.

One thing the transit agencies did that that some of these other agencies did not do was they just put it towards plugging budget.

They they lost so much money it so quickly.

And they just said we can't keep buses and trains running.

If we don't put this money towards, you know, hiring people keeping keeping everything running, keeping it going in >> yeah, holes but doesn't give the structural exactly what we continue to see happening in all these agencies that we've got structural issues that create these deficit.

And that's the battle that's the argument that CTA President Dorval Carter has made multiple times is that this comes down to a decades-old problem with the way transit is funded, which is the argument he is making in Springfield to try to get more body.

And speaking of the one-time man at the top of the hill there, Michael Madigan, former House speaker.

>> Jury selection is underway as of today, 11 had been seated.

They need one more and 6 alternates.

It is a very slow pace so far.

This is a pretty high-profile case.

But Michael, should we expect this to be a slog based the pace?

It's going right now.

>> It's come said is this is going to be one of the defining corruption cases of this decay.

If not this 1st quarter of the century, when it comes Illinois politics and thinking about the legacy that Mike Madigan has at the state house.

I would expect this to move any faster.

If anything, I would expect this just slow down.

>> Well, and there was also a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that significantly weakened a really important federal bribery law, which could be a boon to mat against defense.

I mean, queen, if you're a federal prosecutor, are you worried this this big case could go bust?

don't about going bust, but I think it is in the back of their head to mutilate it about about 6 months right?

>> And that certainly they're looking at the comp with that so-called comment for case that happened.

2023.

>> The their lawyers want that to be retried because of this change in how the Supreme Court is interpreting the bribery statute terms of per 2 of these and that sort of thing.

So, you know, I do think that is a factor here and has narrowed the definition of bribery.

>> He is a shrewd as they call Mike Madigan is.

It'll be interesting to see all this works out because as you watch him move the maneuver over the years, just issued as they come.

>> Yeah.

And one imagines that that's going to at at the heart of the case that the degree to which he exercised control over the General Assembly.

But certainly seems like there many issues yet to be resolved with As Michael says, you know, this is case for the ages, but we've had a number of it's right.

A number of them very recently and over many years that a person very recently.

And you mentioned before just >> the unusual kind of dynamics with the mayor about about the the mayor being a little bit.

>> Less powerful than past I'm struck by thinking that.

Chicago Illinois have always been places where these these very powerful figures looming over politics.

you've been for very powerful figures to cut us off.

But that's what we'll have to leave it tonight.

We are out of time.

So our thanks to Michael left, right, Sarah Frei stat.

>> Rufus Williams and Quinn Myers and we're back to wrap things up right after this.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation, additional support is provided by.

>> And that's our show for this Friday night.

If you need some help getting in the Halloween spirit, check out our website for our list of 13.

Of course, chilling choices for Halloween, heart arts and culture events in the Chicago area.

Now for the weekend review.

I'm Nick Blumberg.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

Alright.

Or any going to be out there running the marathon this coming Sunday.

>> O coming up okay.

Sharing them they get from the sidelines or statement God was going to say, I mean, it's either from the sidelines or stay home what you got I certainly don't have the stamina.

I will be I will be on the sidelines with a sign cheering my heart out >> Now 26 owner of an it was going to set a record this year.

I would hope Yeah, I do.

And to Closed caption he's made possible by Robert a cliff.

>> And Clifford law, a personal injury law firm