Ted Siefer's City Hall It was a week of spice, bed bugs, abandoned buildings, gambling

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HIRSCHMANN

THE quote-of-the-week award goes to Ward 12 Alderman Keith Hirschmann. "There are a lot of scourges, a lot of things to worry about in the city," he told members of the Administration Committee on Tuesday.

True, and city officials took aim at several of these scourges last week: spice (a.k.a. synthetic pot), abandoned buildings, bed bugs and, at least in the view of Hirschmann, poker machines.

Hirschmann launched a crusade against the devices after it was revealed earlier in the summer that a West Side pizza shop that was the target of drug bust had apparently relied on the machines for revenue far more than fresh slices.

After meeting with police officials and the city clerk, Hirschmann drew up detailed amendments to the ordinance governing "amusement devices," which he presented to the committee on Tuesday.

The amendments had two main components. One would raise the current $2,000 annual permit fee by $500, with the additional revenue going to a special account to support the investigative work required to prove a poker machine is being used for gambling. The other would require criminal background checks for permit seekers.

CRAIG

The machines, in case you haven't heard, generate about $240,000 annually for the city.

It's safe to say most of the aldermen haven't been too receptive to the several ideas put forward by Hirschmann, one of the board's two Republicans, since he rejoined the board this year. But his ordinance had a good hearing, even if the committee's chairman, Alderman Joyce Craig, was skeptical.

LUDWIG

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Ted Siefer's City Hall It was a week of spice, bed bugs, abandoned buildings, gambling

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