Wednesday's Chicago City Council meeting, its first since the August recess, was action-packed, as members cleared a backlog of items that included settling several police misconduct lawsuits.Members also approved a new Zoning Committee chair, protected some Northwest Side residents from gentrification, added incentives to locate more data storage facilities in the city and confirmed a new chief procurement officer.$15 million in police-related settlementsThe council voted to pay $15 million to settle police misconduct lawsuits, including cases linked to two of the department’s most notorious members, Jon Burge and Ronald Watts. The payouts stem from five lawsuits filed in state and federal courts since 2019. They now go before the full Council at Wednesday's meeting.The biggest settlement — $11.6 million — would go to Anthony Jakes, who falsely confessed to being an accomplice in a 1991 murder when he was just 15 after being beaten by members of Cmdr. Burge’s infamous “midnight crew.” Jakes spent 20 years in prison before being released in 2012.During a Finance Committee hearing on the settlements earlier this week, Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) asked city attorneys “what’s the plan” to handle, what he believes could be as much as $10 billion worth of settlements still in the pipeline.Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged that the mountain of judgments, tied to what he called a “culture of abuses” by police, is “one of the disrupting aspects of our finances in Chicago.”“We’ve had such bad leadership where commanders and superintendents and former state's attorneys — they were all involved in this ring that led to real harm against Black and Brown people. It’s an element that we’re gonna have to continue to unpack because these payouts, quite frankly, are a form of reparations,” the mayor said. Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over a Chicago City Council meeting Wednesday at City Hall.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Mayor gives up fight over Zoning chairA nearly year-long stalemate that has left the City Council’s powerful Zoning Committee without a permanent chairperson ended Wednesday with the appointment of Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), the Council's dean who also serves a vice mayor. Burnett offered himself up as a compromise choice after the mayor was unable to round up the votes to confirm his top choice, progressive firebrand Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th).Zoning Chair Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) resigned last fall after being accused of bullying and intimidating colleagues to prevent a Council vote on a non-binding resolution that would have allowed voters to weigh in on whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city. Ald. Felix Cardona (31st) brought popcorn to munch on during breaks in the action at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. He shared some with Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) when the meeting was recessed briefly to remove some disruptive protesters. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Keeping housing affordable on Northwest SideDetermined to prevent longtime middle-class residents from being priced out of their homes, the Council agreed to cover a broad swath of the Northwest Side with a protective blanket that includes dramatically higher fees for developers who want to demolish multi-family apartment buildings to make way for luxury single-family homes.Tenants in parts of Logan Square, Avondale, Humboldt Park, West Town and Hermosa would also receive the “right of first refusal” to purchase their buildings if and when they come up for sale.Ald. Bill Conway (34th) warned that right for multi-building tenants would have the “opposite effect of what we’re trying to do.” It is, he said, “terrible economic policy” that would “disincentivize investment in Chicago neighborhoods.”But Ramirez-Rosa, who represents Logan Square, countered that “action must be taken to preserve the character and diversity of neighborhoods” and prevent developers from tearing down what he called “middle housing.”The argument that the local alderperson knows what’s best for their wards was denounced as the height of hypocrisy by champions of ShotSpotter, who have made the same claim about keeping the gunshot detection technology.Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) called it the “audacity” of “do for me, not for thee.” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) speaks during a Chicago City Council meeting Wednesday at City Hall.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Keeping data in ChicagoEyeing a potentially lucrative new source of revenue, the Council agreed to require the massive amounts of computer data generated by the city to be stored within the United States and included financial incentives for contractors who store that data in Illinois and Chicago.Companies vying to store city data — including information on parking tickets, city fines and fees — would receive a 2% credit for storing that information in the state of Illinois and a 4% credit for storing data in Chicago.Procurement chief approvedAlderpersons also signed off on Johnson’s appointment of Sharla Roberts as the city’s new chief procurement officer. The all-important department charged with overseeing city contracts has been without a permanent chief since Aileen Velasquez, a holdover of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration, was forced out and given an undisclosed negotiated settlement to compensate her for the early end of her mandatory term.Lopez urged Roberts to consider raising the percent of city contracts set aside for minorities (26%) and women (6%) and creating a separate classification for “African-American descendants of slaves.” Lopez also urged Roberts to remove “barriers” stopping people from wanting to do business with the city, resulting in the “same players getting the same contracts year after year.”With Roberts at the helm, Ald. David Moore (17th) said he is confident there will finally be "equity for everyone" in city contracts.Contract Equity and Oversight Chair Emma Mitts (37th) called the state of city contracting “sad and sickening,” adding: “We have got to change the way we’re doing things.” Ald. David Moore (17th) speaks during a Chicago City Council meeting Wednesday at City Hall.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Top cop honored for work during DNCThe Council also approved a resolution congratulating city department heads — led by Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling — for helping Chicago shine during last month’s Democratic National Convention.Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) told Snelling he deserves to be hailed as a hero — just as his predecessor Garry McCarthy was after the 2012 NATO conference — for leading from the front during the DNC. Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling chats with Ald. Emma Mitts on Wednesday at City Hall before the City Council meeting.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Moment of silence for slain hostageAt the behest of Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), the Council’s lone Jewish member, there was a moment of silence for 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was among six hostages whose bodies were recently recovered by the Israeli military after being kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.Goldberg-Polin was among hundreds of people taken hostage in that attack. He was abducted while attending the Nova Music Festival.Last month, his parents delivered an emotional address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. On Wednesday, an emotional Silverstein read a portion of the eulogy that Rachel Goldberg-Polin had delivered at her son’s funeral in Israel.