Mayor's Office

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s deputy communications director Tom Alexander has been selected to serve as chief operating officer of Chicago’s 1871 technology hub; Alexander began working in the Mayor’s Office in 2011, and previously worked in the Governor’s Office and at the University of Chicago

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday nominated Maria Guerra Lapacek to succeed Rosemary Krimbel as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection; Lapacek is currently first deputy director of the Office of Legislative Counsel and Government Affairs for the Mayor’s Office; Krimbel has been tapped to serve in a new position that will conduct multi-departmental city code reviews and introduce modernization initiatives

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday announced plans to break gound on the development of the tentatively-named Quad Community Arts Center in the Oakland neighborhood on the city’s Near South Side; Emanuel said the facility, for which development is in early stages, would be modeled after the 30,000-square-foot Ping Tom Park Field House in Chinatown and include a swimming pool

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration was ordered by the Illinois Department of Labor to rehire former budget analyst Valerie Tolson and pay back wages after Tolson was let go after moving from her Chicago home in July of 2009 due to domestic abuse; Tolson was denied a residency waiver from the city at that time; City Hall spokesperson pointed out the incident occurred before Emanuel took office; Policy for City Hall employees who require a leave due to abuse was established last year

Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a statement saying he is “grateful” for JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s $15 million commitment to workforce development in Chicago that was announced on Tuesday and comes as a result of the financial institution’s $250 million, five-year New Skills at Work initiative; Initiative will facilitate the formation of workforce training programs by providing data on employer demand

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to sit on an Aspen Institute panel to discuss training workers for available jobs in the United States; Emanuel is scheduled to return to Chicago Thursday evening to speak at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass at St. Pius Church

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday announced his appointment of Scott M. Ando as chief administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority, which is charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against Chicago Police officers; Ando – who has 35 years of law enforcement experience at the city, county and federal levels – serves currently as acting chief administrator of the IPRA

Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced to the City Council on Wednesday an ordinance that would allow the city to temporarily provide two rooms of unused office space in the Martin Luther King Community Center, located at 4314 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood, to the Hadiya Pendleton Foundation nonprofit for $1; Foundation aims to provide after-school programs for young people