Chicago City Council committees tackled separate quality-of-life issues Monday, approving one measure that would crack down on dirty restaurants and another that officials said would expand and improve the city’s public art program.
The restaurant ordinance was advanced by the council’s License Committee as industry officials complained that it could punish good operators and, in some cases, impose penalties that exceed the seriousness of the offense.
Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th), who co-sponsored the measure with Mayor Richard Daley, called it “an important and comprehensive piece of legislation that is necessary in a world-class city like Chicago.”
The ordinance, which is expected to undergo only minor alterations before it is considered by the full City Council Wednesday, provides a “wake-up call” to the industry, Schulter said.
Under a key provision, the city’s Board of Health would classify code violations as “critical,” “serious” or “minor,” and inspectors would be required to suspend a license on the spot if a critical infraction were discovered that could not be corrected during the inspection.
The ordinance also would permit revocation of other licenses–including liquor and general business licenses–along with the food license if an operator has been guilty of repeated code violations.
The Illinois Restaurant Association endorsed the measure but only reluctantly, asserting that it targets an entire industry even though serious transgressions can be traced to a small number of bad operators.
Passage of the ordinance could alarm the public about widespread problems that don’t exist, said Lawrence Suffredin, the association’s attorney.
An entire convenience store or supermarket could be shut down under the ordinance “because the potato salad was not good in the deli,” added David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
But Schulter, who is chairman of the License Committee, was unmoved.
“The onus should be on them,” he said. “They should not have a problem in the first place.”
Under proposed changes in the public art program, approved by the council’s Special Events and Cultural Affairs Committee, the existing requirement to spend 1.33 percent of the construction cost of new municipal buildings on art would be expanded to outdoor site improvements such as street median, bridge and open space projects.
The city’s Public Art Committee, an appointed board, also would get new tools to catalog, conserve and oversee care of city-owned art works.
Aldermen declined to consider a proposal that would have increased a requirement to use Chicago artists for work purchased under the public art program.
Currently, local artists must get at least 50 percent of the commissions. Some advocates have called for a minimum of 75 percent.
Artists Paul Sierra and Tom Scarff said the city should support its home-grown talent.
But others, including Michael Lash, the city’s director of public art, said that such a move could prompt other cities to impose similar requirements in their programs, hurting Chicago artists.
Adopting the 75 percent figure also could give the impression that Chicago artists “could not compete toe-to-toe” with counterparts elsewhere, Lash said.
The city spends about $400,000 a year for new art under the program.
