Several City, State, And County Officials Address Residents At South Side Community Meeting

17th Ward Alderman, David Moore, recently invited several elected officials to address residents at his Fall Quarterly Community Meeting. Photo Credit: Provided by the Office of 17th Ward Alderman David Moore
17th Ward Alderman, David Moore, recently invited several elected officials to address residents at his Fall Quarterly Community Meeting. Photo Credit: Provided by the Office of 17th Ward Alderman David Moore

Several City, State, And County Officials Address Residents At South Side Community Meeting

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Alderman of the 17th Ward, David Moore, recently hosted the Fall Quarterly Community Meeting for his ward and invited numerous elected officials to come and briefly address their constituents. Not only were the officials able to give updates on their work, but attendees were also able to ask questions and many officials stayed until the end of the meeting to talk with residents one-on-one.

Cook County States Attorney, Kimberly Foxx, spoke to the crowd at Alderman Moore’s meeting to share first of all what her office does and how she approaches her work. Additionally, she spoke about the legalization of marijuana in Illinois and what her office is doing to vacate certain marijuana convictions dating back to the 1950s.

“Back in January, I announced that not only would we not prosecute marijuana offenses, knowing that it was going to be legalized, but our office pledged, and we are well on our way, to vacating the convictions of anyone who has ever been convicted of marijuana prosecution for 30 grams or less and we are going back to the oldest record that we have which is from 1956,” said Foxx. “They don’t have to do anything but wait for a letter to come in the mail from our office telling them that it’s done.”

Another guest at Alderman Moore’s Fall Quartley Community Meeting was newly elected State Representative Aaron Ortiz who represents the 1st District of Illinois which includes parts of Gage Park and Chicago Lawn. Ortiz took office in January of 2019 and during the recent meeting, he reflected on the state legislation that has been passed this year.

Ortiz said some of the work done this year, including increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, was “very important for the working class in our city.” He added, “One of the biggest highlights that we’ve been able to do at the state level this year is pass House Bill 833 which Governor Pritzker just signed into law and makes it so senior citizens do not have to reapply every single year for senior exemption status.”

Another guest at the 17th Ward Fall Quarterly Community Meeting was Kari Steele, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Steele took the time to share what the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago does and shared that as president, she is interested in finding ways for the organization to implement new green infrastructure concepts.

“We deal with all of the water that leaves your house and we are a totally separate agency from the City of Chicago that provides your drinking water,” said Steele. “Basically, when you are running your dishwasher, taking a shower, washing your clothes, or flushing the toilet, that water has to go somewhere and it goes to one of our seven treatment plants and we treat the water there before it’s released into the waterways.”

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