The Spin: George Floyd’s death looms large at Chicago City Council meeting | Police union vs. Mayor Lightfoot intensifies | Black GOP U.S. senator takes swipe at Durbin over ‘token’ comment

The Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and the resulting calls for social justice continue to echo through the halls of local, state and federal government, including today’s virtual Chicago City Council meeting.

Nine progressive aldermen refused to vote for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 package today, after they were unable to secure a guarantee from the administration that none of the federal money coming to the city for pandemic relief would go to the Police Department. It stems from growing calls for law enforcement reforms amid a line of unarmed African Americans who’ve died at the hands of police officers across the country.

The power struggle didn’t end there. A group of aldermen pushing a measure to have Chicago police removed from public schools — concerned it creates a school-to-prison pipeline — saw the measure blocked by one of Lightfoot’s top allies.

Meantime, the outspoken head of the Chicago police union is holding his nose — but not his tongue — over the mayor’s move to give the head of her security detail leadership control over the Chicago police officers assigned to guard City Hall and her Logan Square home.

Welcome to The Spin.

The Tribune’s John Byrne and Jeremy Gorner write: “Mayor Lori Lightfoot has given the head of her security detail — a retired deputy U.S. marshal who was running a private security firm when she got elected last year — leadership control over the Chicago police officers assigned to guard City Hall and her Logan Square home.”

“The units were previously led by multiple commanders all at one time, including different commanders across different floor levels at City Hall,” mayoral spokesman Patrick Mullane said in a statement. “This latest effort will ensure that the department’s operations and resources that are centralized in one or two primary locations are coordinated under one command rather than multiple individuals.”

The directive about the mayoral detail didn’t sit well with new FOP head John Catanzara, a frequent Lightfoot critic: “The mayor was the one who hired an outsider to head her protection up because she didn’t want CPD to protect her,” Catanzara said, referring to Smith. “And after all the railing she’s done against CPD, don’t even bother giving her the courtesy of signing up for that detail.”

Chicago Police Department’s first deputy superintendent announces upcoming retirement: Anthony Riccio who as first deputy superintendent is second in command, will retire Aug. 1 after 34 years on the force. Jeremy Gorner has the story here. His exit comes as a new top cop settles in and his role changed during the the sweeping reorganization of the department.

The justice system: Two days before a hearing that could have set him free, the courthouse shut down. Now inmates like LaRon Warren wait, as they try to dodge coronavirus. The Tribune’s Ray Long has the details here.

From The Hill: “Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) took a swipe at Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) after Durbin called the GOP police reform bill a ‘token, half-hearted approach.’”

Scott, the only black Republican senator, took to Twitter and responded: “Y’all still wearing those kente cloths over there @SenatorDurbin?”

The Hill notes: “Scott was referring to a photo-op by congressional Democrats in the Capitol Visitor Center the day they introduced their own police reform legislation, during which they kneeled and wore traditional African kente cloth stoles.” The move drew criticism, but Durbin’s office reminds that he did not participate in the photo op.

Durbin spokeswoman Emily Hampsten said the senior Illinois senator already has apologized to Scott.

“The minute Sen. Durbin heard that he had offended Sen. Scott, he sought him out on the floor and apologized. What Sen. Durbin took issue with in his floor speech was not Sen. Scott’s bill, but that the Senate Majority Leader would short circuit this critical debate and fail to make the changes needed to prevent the killing of Black Americans by police officers,” Hampsten said. “Addressing systemic racism and changing policing in America requires and deserves more than one Judiciary hearing, one floor vote, one conversation. As Sen. Durbin stated on the floor, let’s not do a half-hearted approach. This deserves the full and bipartisan attention of the Senate.”

Read The Hill’s full story here.

Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending plan passes despite objections over possible police funding: The Tribune’s John Byrne and Gregory Pratt write: “The mayor’s package includes big chunks of money to help cover the city’s public health response to the virus, to prop up Chicago’s airports and to set up housing and workforce programs to try to aid people who’ve lost income due to the crisis.

“It also sets aside $40 million to respond to a potential resurgence of the disease as the city continues to reopen and more people come into close contact with one another after months of sheltering in their homes.”

The mayor’s finance team last week said none of the money is currently earmarked for policing, but couldn’t guarantee that would be the case down the line — prompting nine aldermen to vote against the measure, which still passed. It points to the overlapping and urgent crises of COVID-19 and policing in this country and beyond. Read the story here.

Chicago cops-out-of-schools plan potentially blocked by Mayor Lori Lightfoot ally: The Tribune’s John Byrne and Gregory Pratt have the details here.

Activists push for plan that would give community panel the power to fire Chicago cops: The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt has the details here.

Chicago’s cocktails-to-go measure gets the go-ahead: The Tribune’s John Byrne has the details here.

Mayor Lightfoot gives City Clerk Anna Valencia a congratulatory shoutout on the birth of her first child: On April 15, the clerk and her husband welcomed a baby girl. During today’s virtual Chicago City Council meeting the mayor took a moment to congratulate the new mom.

The mayor and other Chicago-area elected leaders are helping to host an LGBTQ+ social hour on behalf of presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden tomorrow night.

Lightfoot, Chicago’s first openly gay mayor, with a growing national political profile, is expected to make the case for Biden while hammering Republican President Donald Trump’s record on LGBTQ+ rights; his administration on Friday finalized a rule that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care.

Biden won’t be at the event. Other hosts include Illinois state Rep. Lamont Robinson D-Bronzeville, the state’s first LGBTQ African American legislator; Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Debra Shore and Cook County Board Commissioner Kevin Morrison, 15th, the first openly LGBT commissioner. More details here.

It’s not a fundraiser, a Biden spokesman tells The Spin. Anyone interested in attending can sign up here.

Lightfoot isn’t the only prominent Chicagoan campaigning for Biden on Thursday. The group “Women for Biden” is holding a national call with hosts Valerie Jarrett, a Chicagoan and senior White House adviser in the Obama-Biden White House, along with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, frequently mentioned as a possible Biden running mate. ABC News reports that the event will “commemorate Juneteenth, which marks the day when the last people who were still enslaved were told they were freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery.” For information about attending that virtual event, click here.

It won’t be a throw-open-the-doors-and-put-out-the-welcome-mat moment, but Cook County government offices — largely shuttered since Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a statewide shutdown order amid the COVID-19 outbreak — will reopen to the public July 6, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced this morning.

It’s not exactly big news: Last month, Preckwinkle inked an executive order anticipating county offices under her purview would reopen in July. On Monday, department heads and bureau chiefs in Preckwinkle’s and other elected officials’ offices were required to show up to headquarters and direct employees on returning to work, according to that order. County clerk’s office employees returned June 1.

Over the next several weeks, staffers who’ve been working remotely will return to government offices in phases, Preckwinkle said this morning at a news conference.

“We’ve been through a difficult time,” Preckwinkle told reporters. “While we’ve made incredible progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 over the last few months, the pandemic is clearly not over,” so face coverings along with social distancing will be required.

Here’s what else will be required: Staff and visitors alike will enter the county’s main offices at 118 N. Clark St. through a large white tent where they’ll undergo an initial health screening and then have their temperatures checked; no one will be allowed in the building with a temperature exceeding 100.4 F.

Once inside the building, physical distancing signs will instruct that no more than three people can be on an elevator at a time, sneeze guards will be in place at information desks, and the building will undergo stepped-up cleaning of bathrooms, elevators and office spaces. Additionally, high-efficiency air filters in the HVAC system will be replaced more frequently.

Rejoining the world Chicago? We have a four-star guide for your day as you stumble back into the light: The Tribune’s Christopher Borrelli has the details here.

The traffic is back as. Cars and trucks back on city, state roads as more businesses reopen: The Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski has the details here.

Metra says coronavirus will cost commuter rail agency $605 million – $70 million more than expected – through 2021: The Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski has the details here.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker was on the call Monday when, as The New York Times reported, Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors to spread a misleading claim that new COVID-19 spikes in some states are the result of increased testing. But unlike a recent governors’ meeting where he mixed it up with President Donald Trump, the governor didn’t speak, his office tells The Spin.

From the Times: “Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s explanation that a rise in testing was a reason behind new coronavirus outbreaks, even though testing data has shown that such a claim is misleading.”

Here’s why: “In fact, seven-day averages in several states with coronavirus outbreaks have increased since May 31, and in at least 14 states, positive cases have outstripped the average number of tests that have been administered, according to an analysis of data collected by The New York Times.”

The (sort of) response from the governor’s office: Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh wrote in an email that the governor was on the White House call, but “he didn’t speak.” Asked whether the governor had concerns about Pence’s statement, the written response said: “He has always followed the guidance of public health experts and that’s led to Illinois leading the nation in declining COVID cases.”

Let’s go back to June 1: That’s when Pritzker told Trump during a call with governors that he’s been “extraordinarily concerned” about Trump’s rhetoric in the wake of unrest that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police, and urged the president to call for calm. You can read my Tribune colleague Jamie Munks’ story about that here.

Amid pandemic, Pritzker signs bill into law that temporarily expands vote by mail: “Roughly 5 million Illinois voters will receive applications to vote by mail for the November election as a result,” the Tribune’s Dan Petrella writes. Read the story here. Petrella also notes that “mail-in voting has become a partisan flashpoint during the pandemic, with President Donald Trump railing against expansion efforts despite having voted by mail in Florida’s March primary.”

Former Illinois legislator, horse racing lobbyist Robert Molaro dies: The Tribune’s Dan Petrella remembers him here.

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Twitter @byldonovan