Tension runs high in City Council over cost of settlements

CHICAGO (WGN) — With the city already having blown through the $82 million budgeted to cover settlements and judgements, tensions ran high at City Hall on Wednesday as alders approved seven additional payments.

While some alders argued the settlements OK’d Wednesday are needed to make people whole, other members called for reform, saying they’re suspicious why the city’s law department keeps signing off on massive settlements.

“We have to stop setting precedent, which is settling every single time in this room,” Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) told his colleagues.

Ald. Nick Sposato (38th Ward) agreed: “This has to stop, people. This has to stop. It’s a two-way street. This can’t be a one-way street. Only we can lose and you can win? That ain’t right!”

More than $62 million approved Wednesday was to settle four lawsuits that alleged misconduct by Chicago police officers.

A combined $48 million goes to three men who spent decades in prison on a wrongful conviction. They were released in 2022. Another $8.25 million goes to another man who spent 17 years in prison before his conviction was overturned. A woman who became a double leg amputee to frostbite after allegedly being ignored by police during frigid temperatures in 2021 will receive $5 million. Another $1.2 million goes to a man who alleged former Sgt. Ronald Watts planted drugs on him.

In a non-police misconduct case, alders OK’d more than $15 million to settle a suit brought by Chicago Parking Meters LLC related, in part, to a disagreement about meter enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.