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| Former 46th Ward Ald. Helen Shiller (photo: Neighbors for Angela Clay FB) |
Our readers will recall Brandon Johnson appointed Shiller to the powerful position on ZBA back in early summer. With years of following Ms. Shiller under our belt, we wondered when she would be involved in controversy again.
The answer was "not long."
In this recent Chicago Tribune article (paywalled), Ms. Shiller is accused by Streeterville residents of committing an ethics violation when she cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of a controversial cannabis dispensary in Streeterville.
The back story is a well-connected owner-operator (Green House LLC) sought a zoning variance to allow them to open a cannabis dispensary at 600 N. Fairbanks.
The problem? The proposed dispensary is within 500 feet of a school (Guidepost Montessori at 226 E. Illinois).
After neighbors and school parents mobilized in opposition and the area block club, Streeterville Organization for Active Residents (SOAR) pointed out that the location would not be able to host a liquor license due to the proximity to the school, the city zoning administrator recommended the Zoning Board deny the claim.
When the application made it to the Zoning Board of Appeals, however, the ZBA voted in favor despite opposition. Former 46th Ward Alderwoman Shiller was the deciding vote to allow the new use.
Per the Tribune article, former Alderwoman Shiller's son works with the business and helped them get their license. Deborah Gershbein, the president of SOAR, called Shiller's vote in favor "a major conflict of interest" given her son's work with the business. Shiller, for her part, claimed she would be "impartial" despite the close contact (although she has recused herself on other cases).
A few tipsters have written in to forward the article and one suggested we check out the City's "Ethics Restrictions: A Plain English Guide for Appointed City of Chicago Officials." This would apply to Ms. Shiller given her appointment by Mayor Johnson.
In the section entitled "Employment of Relatives or Domestic Partners," the ethics guide states:
Appointed officials may not participate in the making of any City decision involving any person who employs or has contacts with their relatives or domestic partner..."
Certainly sounds like Ms. Shiller has 'participated in the making' of a City decision involving a relative, but who are we to say?
Maybe Ms. Shiller got an "advisory opinion" from the City Board of Ethics approving her participation and vote, and maybe she is poised to share that opinion. Or maybe she just ignored the conflict of interest, promising that her relationship with her son Brendan would be of no consequence. But she's been here before with Brendan and cannabis shops.
Some people, including our tipsters and the local block club SOAR, seem to think she crossed the line. What say you, dear readers?
What’s most ridiculous is the school is actually a daycare. This is downtown Chicago and we want cannabis options also and yes I’m resident within 2 blocks of the facility
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry but you have your facts wrong. Yes there is a daycare there, but there is also an elementary school. This was shared at the hearing. If you don’t like the law, then ask your representatives to change it.
DeleteHelen up to her old zoning and "trash the neighborhood" tricks. Being an old block club dinosaur in Uptown, I recall all the liqueur license battles we fought again Helen. She never followed the laws governing sex offender proximity to schools either. I recall when the 3-flat just east of the front of Joan Arai school was filled with sex offenders, including child sex offenders released on parole from supposedly "overcrowded prions.". Sex offenders are not allowed to live in close proximity to schools but that rule was not followed in Uptown and particularly near Joan Arai, which was filled with Shiller-friendly employees, outside consultants, and school council members, who stripped that school of it's resources intended for kids. At the same time over 70 sex offenders were living behind Joan Arai School at the men's shelter at 941 W Lawrence, i.e. housed in the old People's church.
ReplyDeleteWe complained to police and found out that chasing down illegally housed sex offenders was a job assigned to the 23rd district detective unit and the detective unit allocated 0 time to doing their sex offender duties. Too, busy you know! Helen ranted and raved at the police when we tried to get them to enforce the sex offender laws. She resorted to her usual police are scum, police are scum, and police brutality claims. (BYW does anyone other than me see that the same 46th Ward/Slim Coleman playbook was used on a national level when the anti-police, Black Live Matter and police brutality riots were orchestrated? It was that same old Chicago activist pattern we've seen time and time again in Uptown and the West Side. Same with open immigration and city protection for illegal aliens. Seen it all before at the Ward level then taken to the national level. I digress, I recall this massive concentration of child sex offenders housed at one address close to a school was the impetus for the City / State passing laws limiting the number of sex offenders allowed to live at one address. Helen could have cared less about the danger to kids and obstructed everything we tried to do to keep the kids safe.
BTW, wasn't Brandon Johnson's endorsed and heavily financially 4th Region (Uptown area) candidate for Chicago School Board one of Shiller's longtime school teacher activist buddies? Amazing the number of expensive "flyers for Zacor" that landed in my mailbox. Zaccor was a big-time Shillerista and a member of Helen's and Slim Coleman's North Side Action for Justice group of goons. Thank God and Ellen Rosenfeld for Zacor's defeat in the Nov 5, 2024 general election so that we dodged that lefty, socialist, wing ding bullet.
Is it really a question? Of course she crossed the line! There is no shame in how these officials self-promote and enrich themselves and their families. No limit to how far she will go - even approving a dispensary right next to an elementary school! I’d like to say “unbelievable”, but sadly it isn’t. She makes a mockery of any common sense ethics standard.
ReplyDeleteNo comment on the conflicts of interest, but as far as this dispensary being "controversial": it's going next to a bar. Guess we should close that down so the toddlers from the daycare don't accidentally wander in and become alcoholics. As for illegal parking, it sounds like a good opportunity for the city to make some extra money in parking tickets. And as far as being close to a hospital? Good! When patients get scripts for opioids, they can walk down the block for some alternative medicine that won't result in addiction that puts them 6ft under when they OD. No wonder the petition got less than 1000 signatures.
ReplyDeleteDidn't the city privatize illegal parking so a parking ticket will not bring in any revenue for the next seven decades?
DeleteInside Publications did a story on this decision by ZBA, and Shiller's vote, on Nov. 6. Her vote 100% sealed the deal. There are several good reasons neighbors put forward why this is a bad location, the nearby school is just one of them... two other dispensaries within walking distance to this site.
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