Department of Water Management
The Department of Water Management oversees treatment and delivery of the city’s drinking water and the first stages of wastewater and runoff removal. Wastewater treatment and oversight of the city’s interior waterways is handled by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, a separate governmental unit with its own elected board.
Change Highlights and Context
- DWM’s commodities line items have increased significantly. Price fluctuations and supply shortages of water treatment chemicals were cited by the Lightfoot administration last December in the passage of SO2021-5647, which granted the Department of Procurement Services emergency authority to enter into or modify contracts up to a value of $1 million without City Council approval. Contracting records show at least two DWM purchases made under the authority in 2022, both for the maximum $1 million, one for liquid chlorine and one for liquid blended phosphate and phosphoric acid. In the 2023 proposed budget, major commodities budget increases for DWM include:
- Drugs Medicines and Chemical Materials appropriation: up from $11.9 million in 2022 to $23.9 million in 2023, a 100.8% increase.
- Material and Supplies appropriation: up from $8.6 million in 2022 to $10 million in 2023, a 16% increase.
- Repair Parts and Materials appropriation: up from $7.4 million in 2022 to $9.3 million in 2023, a 24.6% increase.
- Technical and Scientific Equipment appropriation: up from $336,000 in 2022 to $560,000, a 66.7% increase.
- DWM staffing increased dramatically in the 2023 budget, with 22 new full-time positions and a further 269 new full-time position equivalents in hourly wages. The 2023 budget increases DWM’s total staffing complement by 291 positions/FTEs, a 13.3% increase from 2022.
- The largest share of the increase in hourly positions comes from apprentices, with 103 FTEs budgeted. Other new hourly positions budgeted include 65 new motor truck drivers, 30 hoisting engineers, 30 plumbers and 24 construction laborers, representing a substantial increase in the department’s work crews.
- A new Managing Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner position have been added, part of a citywide increase in upper management positions. Across all departments, taking into account the various assistant/deputy/managing title variants, the 2023 budget adds 45 new Director or Commissioner positions.
- DWM’s Professional and Technical Services (outside contracting) line item has been reduced $3.4 million, down 7.9% from $42.6 million in 2022, but remains the department’s largest non-personnel expense category.
Department of Buildings
Change Highlights and Context
- The majority of DoB’s staffing increase comes from new inspector positions, including masonry, plumbing, cooling plant and electrical inspectors.
- Two new Assistant Commissioner positions have also been added, part of a citywide increase in upper management positions. Across all departments, taking into account the various assistant/deputy/managing title variants, the 2023 budget adds 45 new Director or Commissioner positions.
- Other than personnel expenses, the largest increases in DoB’s budget are a $553,139 increase in Professional and Technical Services (outside contracting), up 19.2% from the previous year, and a $201,218 increase in equipment lease and purchase, up 204.1%.
- Other than the removal of a $750 Court Reporting line item, DoB’s budget stayed the same or increased across all categories.
Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability
The CCPSA is a new body created by the July 2021 Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance. The seven-member commission is currently filled with interim appointees, who will be replaced with the winners of the first CCPSA elections in the 2023 municipal election.
CCPSA recommends candidates for Chicago Police Department and Police Board leadership, drafts and has power to approve CPD policies, and reviews the departmental budget and goals for CPD.
Change Highlights and Context
- 2023 will be the first full year of CCPSA as an active and independent department. Mayor Lightfoot appointed the seven interim members on August 29, 2022, and the commission held its first meeting on September 29, 2022. Most of the department’s appropriated positions are new this year.
- The 2022 budget appropriated roughly $2.1 million for Professional and Technical Services (outside contracting) for CCPSA. In 2023 that appropriation has been reduced -92.4% to $158,500, driving the overall departmental budget reduction of -9.35%
- CCPSA’s roughly $1.9 million in salaries makes up approximately 60% of the new department’s budget. Apart from salaries, the department’s largest budgeted expense is $200,000 in property rental.
