>> Mayor Brandon Johnson made a big revision to the proposed budget which may be an expensive consequence of the city and the future of Chicago Police Department.

Meanwhile, the trial of Michael Madigan entered its 6th week with a new face.

Former 25th Ward Alderman and FBI mole Danny Solis and a former senior staffer and Mayor Johnson's administration was facing misconduct accusations before his departure here.

With all that and more is our spotlight.

Politics team Amanda, Vicki Hatter, Sharon and Nick Blumberg.

Hello again, everyone.

Heather, let's start with you because you've done a great deal of reporting on this.

Mayor Johnson reversing his initial proposal to cut 162 vacancy PD positions responsible for implementing the city's consent decree white.

He reversed course here.

Well, it came on the heels of an investigation.

I worked on with pro that found that really the city's efforts to comply with the consent decree are at a tipping point with police reform advocates losing faith.

>> And the very real possibility that this reform effort will cost city taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for the foreseeable future.

Hundreds of millions of dollars that the city does not But by the same token, the mayor was under significant pressure, not just from us in the news media, but also the Attorney General, Kwame Raoul and monitoring teen charged with keeping track of the city's progress that warned if those cuts were ratified.

But the city council, it would have been a death knell for those reform efforts because as you said, it would have cut 162 vacant positions from the city's reform efforts and really reduce the city's ability to train officers on all of these new policies that they have spent so long developing to ensure that the police department no longer routinely violates the constitutional rights of black and Latino Chicagoans.

So he really had no choice.

I think the larger question, I really don't know the answer to how are these in the budget to begin Why was this even a possibility and how are the city going?

How is the city now going to restore those cuts and pay for them, which could cost as much as 24 million dollars, which the city again just not And we're going to find people to fill 162 positions because if they are vacant and now you're going to fill and obviously pay those folks, that's that's hopefully a lot of work to get done.

we had a question is why are they vacant for so long?

Yes, you're right.

We need And these positions have been consistently hard to fill because they do tend to be offered at a lower pay rate than sort of others of sworn police officer positions.

But that means that you're competing free people.

What's in the U.S. still tight labor market doing very specialized work with very specialized sort requirements.

These positions are critical to the city.

But can the city even fill don't if they are budgeted for I think is a real question.

Heather is something that you mentioned.

So the average cost of Chicago Police Department officers average, of course, $150,000 annually, including benefits.

>> And so as you said, restoring these 162 positions to the city's spending plan could swell the city's budget gap by more than 24 million complicating efforts to reach a budget agreement by the deadline, which is December 31st.

Where does this put that effort?

It is a really difficult problem and it is getting more difficult seemingly every day.

So we know the city council's refuse to raise property taxes by 300 million dollars.

>> Now Mayor Johnson last week said okay, well, how about 150 million dollars?

And all of my reporting from every older person I talk to us said basically No, which now.

And there's some concern that a law that did not get past in the veto session will make it difficult for the city to collect taxes that they were expecting on cell phones.

So that opens up a little bit more of a deficit.

And you have older people are really frustrated that there's really nothing in this budget that they can take back to their constituents and say, look, we're going to do this great thing because there's no money and it costs money to do good things so that older people are saying, look, if you're going to ask me to take this really unpopular vote, you kind give me something to give to the people back in my ward.

>> It's not clear how any of that comes Clinton out.

There have been no budget hearings this week.

Everybody is off for the Thanksgiving holiday, which means that once everybody comes back to work on Monday, they are only going to have 29 days to figure out this deal.

And of course, there's a little holiday called Christmas in of you have short be grateful for the break.

So Amanda.

>> former 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis testifying in X, Illinois, House Speaker Michael Madigan's corruption trial.

As a reminder, Madigan has been indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges.

But Italy's have to say and met again, by the way.

Also, reminder, pleading not guilty to this.

He says he did nothing wrong.

>> And the reporting on this has been that is the oldest far.

A lot of this was a repeat, really, of the so-called ComEd 4.

But this is what have seen describes several times as popcorn viewing party political insiders.

I said, you know, grab years, in it what you have had happened in court is >> that you're being able to see in at again looking Stern is how he's been described.

That is not surprising is he's in conversations with these apparent clients really hookups that he got through Alderman Scalise what is seen as a favors or.

>> As you have that jury saw and heard described as a quid pro quo.

I mean, you had Solis saying that twice, literally those words.

He says that this is not something that the FBI >> pressured him to do, even though of course, he knew that they were listening.

So that is what you've really had play out.

Is unveiling?

He is the star witness?

He was the FBI's inside guy and through several schemes.

The jury is taking being taken through these tales of how it was that Solis was working with Madigan to use Madigan's power as speaker of the Illinois House allegedly to bring in work to his law firm, in essence, took to make money.

you know, as and as mentioned, Solis has admitted to a slew of unethical behavior.

Does this diminishes his credibility on the stand?

I think that's the eternal question that federal prosecutor has staff themselves when they want to decide.

>> Whether or not they're merely going to play the audio and video recordings likes Elise helped them obtain or whether they want to actually call that person to the stand because let's remember the reason that solely started working with the feds in the first place is because he was the head of the very powerful as owning committee and city council.

And he was, you know, the FBI's came to him and said we've got all this evidence that you've been accepting bribes, that you've been accepting, you know, the free use of a you know, all sorts even rebels.

Yeah, right.

Even unseen missiles.

And then that, it's popcorn stuff there.

Although maybe you might want to put the pup going down for some of the But, you know, don't.

this is clearly someone who has reputational damage to contend with.

And also, you know, depending on the jury member, they may or may not look kindly on somebody who flips on their colleagues there.

All certainly I think they would try to weed those folks out during the jury selection process.

But, you know, they they kind of have to play this on a case-by-case basis.

You know, Solis testified in the comment for case in in the Burke, a certain the and yeah, you're right.

But yes, testifying as a witness for the defense and the bird case.

You know, they brought him up there to say, you know, this is someone who is not a reliable narrator.

So it it's going to you know, a tough road.

But he's the star witness think what you have to keep in mind again is that you are hearing and seeing the video and recordings.

>> And that to me changes things you might have perhaps an unsavory character.

Sure.

But you're not trying to get beers and hang out or even elect a guy at this point, right?

He's no longer an elected official.

So when you hear these things play out, that to me is what could be.

very striking for members of the Okay.

So back to the mayor's office because Heather, his former communications director runner Ranieri's recently coming under fire.

What's he being accused what he is accused of a slew of misogynistic and sexist and inappropriate behavior in the mayor's office.

And we do know that he was the subject of these complaints and that they were found to be sustained and that he was recommended for additional training.

>> And it's not clear why he was allowed to keep his post after these complaints.

Now we can tell from the documents that we and a number of other news organizations obtained via the Freedom of Information Act that he did go through some sort of counseling or reprimand series with the mayor's chief of staff.

Christine, a past Yoan Isaias.

But we do know that she recommended wrist, a restorative justice procedure.

And it's not clear how you can address complaints of misogyny, inappropriate behavior.

in one case, inappropriate touching after work event with that sort of approach.

So there are lots of questions about not only the mayor's decision to appoint raced to this very important position which gave him really authority over the mayor's sort public facing message, but also his inability to sort of make sure that the other employees in his office were in a safe and non hostile work environment.

Yeah, I think it's pretty tough to try to employ something like a restorative justice circle.

>> You know, as as forward thinking and progressive than idea, some folks might see that as when there is such a power disparity between the 2 people involved.

These are not peers here that are involved in the allegations.

So that's a huge complication for dealing with the problem like this.

few seconds left, Heather, 30, maybe possible political consequences for the mayor for this.

And, you know, have they said anything publicly in response to all that's come out?

They have not.

Now the mayor had promised to hold weekly press conferences every Tuesday.

We didn't get one today, perhaps because of the holiday, perhaps perhaps not.

But I think again, the question is, you know, the buck stopped with him.

He wears the jacket for the people in his office.

And if they, >> you know, made sort of infractions and he didn't hold them accountable.

I think that's questions the taxpayers want to know because all of these people we're paid by taxpayer dollars as they are.