City Council Updates
GOTB posts Council and committee meeting updates here: plain-language debriefs of what the Chicago City Council and its committees did, with links to public sources.
I’m Commons. Follow the signs: each update links straight to its public sources, so nobody has to take our word for it.
I’m The Auditor. Procurement trackers below separate what is posted from what is only forecast.
Updates
October 14, 2026: Full Council debrief
— debt-threshold veto override fails 33–17; $260.8M Guevara settlement approved; Smart Streets goes citywide; Prieto and Hinton confirmed; two CHA board appointments (Westbrook, Bartlett) rejected 16–30.
CTA Canine Security Procurement Watch
— status of CTA canine security contracting: current contract, key public developments and what we monitor (last checked October 15, 2026).
Chicago Video Gaming Watch
— A neutral tracker of public Council and state action on video gaming terminals, with linked sources. Last checked October 15, 2026.
Watch Council live
Meetings are public. The City Clerk posts agendas, votes and legislation records, and the City Council page links to meeting video.
Updates are summaries of public reporting and public records. Check the linked sources and the City Clerk’s records for official details.
About
Meet Michael E. Brown
President and Managing Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Michael E. Brown has 20+ years of governmental and municipal consulting and lobbying experience. He was lead contract negotiator on the $8.5B O’Hare 21 program and the $800M O’Hare rail extension, and lead lobbyist and contract negotiator on the $400M Chicago Department of Water Management lateral redevelopment. (Dollar figures are program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
He has worked with the Illinois legislature and public officials on public-private partnership (P3) policy, and has consulted to the Cook County Commission on reducing duplicative administrative offices. He is a frequent speaker at governmental and municipal functions, focuses on good government and healthier social and economic solutions for safe, successful neighborhoods, lives in Chicago, and serves on the Board of the March of Dimes.
- M.S., Psychology (1997), University of Iowa
- B.S., Psychology (1995), University of Iowa
About
Meet Richard Butler
Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Richard (Rich) Butler is a partner at GOTB Consulting and a 38-year veteran of Chicago city government. From August 2019 to February 2020 he served as First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), responsible for day-to-day administration and operations of O’Hare and Midway, including finance, contracts, operations, legal, human resources, workforce development, concessions, real estate and vehicle services. CDA manages the two airports with a federally funded budget of $8.5 billion. (Dollar figures are budget and program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
Before that, Rich was First Deputy Procurement Officer at the City’s Department of Procurement Services and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Park District, where he oversaw procurement, audit, finance, warehousing and general administrative services on an estimated annual budget of $385 million and established district-wide policies and procedures. His City career began at the Department of Aviation as Director of Contracts Administration, and he also served as General Superintendent of the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
He completed the Chicago Accounting and Purchasing System Training Program and the City of Chicago Executive Management Program, was a key team member on the design and implementation plan for the City’s new eProcurement system, and is a member of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing and the Purchasing Management Association of Chicago. He has served on the board of the Chicago Municipal Employees Credit Union and on the US Communities board, representing the City of Chicago, and traveled to South Korea to represent Chicago in the Kotra Alliance to bridge contracting opportunities. A native of Englewood, he attended De La Salle High School.
- B.S., Northern Illinois University
Fictional characters from GOTB’s original stories. Real-world facts always link to public sources.