Yvette Shields

CHICAGO — Minneapolis has tapped its police department finance director, Kevin Carpenter, to serve as the city’s chief financial officer following the departure of Patrick Born earlier this year to lead the Metropolitan Council.

CHICAGO — A third financial advisory professional from Scott Balice Strategies LLC has opted to join Acacia Financial Group Inc. over Public Finance Management Inc., following PFM’s acquisition of Chicago-based Scott Balice last week.

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday named a task force led by public finance banker Carole Brown to recommend tax-increment financing reforms.

CHICAGO — San Francisco-based Grigsby & Associates has added two public finance bankers to its Chicago staff and opened a St. Louis office to bolster its issuer relationships and technical prowess as it aims for more senior-manager work.

CHICAGO — At its first meeting presided over by new Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved his first major piece of legislation: a council reorganization.

CHICAGO — The Illinois attorney general’s office and lawyers for a liquor distributor squared off before the state Supreme Court this week over whether the state’s 2009 $31 billion public works program — and the funding streams approved to repay bonding for it — are legal.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Public Schools’ chief financial officer, Diana Ferguson, has resigned her position effective next week, but will continue to work on a pro bono basis until a replacement is named, officials said this week.

CHICAGO — New Jersey-based Acacia Financial Group Inc. announced Tuesday the expansion of its Chicago office and a new Alaska outpost with the hiring of two former Scott Balice Strategies LLC financial advisers, Phoebe Selden and Debbie Schnebel.

The East St. Louis School District 189 board last week voted to support a state takeover of the fiscally and academically ailing system, and canceled its contract with superintendent Theresa Saunders.

After his swearing-in Monday, new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed a series of executive orders aimed at strengthening the city’s ethics rules.

CHICAGO — The country’s top-ranked financial advisory firm, Public Financial Management Inc., has acquired one of its leading Midwestern competitors, Scott Balice Strategies LLC, whose co-founder and senior partner, Lois Scott, took over as Chicago’s chief financial officer on Monday.

CHICAGO — Philadelphia-based PFM Group announced Monday it will acquire Chicago-based Scott Balice Strategies LLC — the firm co-owned by new Chicago chief financial officer Lois Scott.

CHICAGO — After more than two decades in office, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on Monday hands the reins over to Rahm Emanuel, leaving behind a legacy highlighted by major bond-financed projects and infrastructure investment, but marred by the city’s daunting fiscal challenges.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin now expects to collect at least $600 million more in tax revenues over the next three years than previously projected, but Gov. Scott Walker said most of the increase would go to pay off existing obligations, not to ease deep education and local government spending cuts proposed in his next budget.

CHICAGO — In a deal that debuts expanded disclosure about its pension obligations, Missouri will take competitive bids Tuesday on $76.9 million of refunding certificates of participation with the savings aimed at providing budgetary relief.

CHICAGO — With the clock ticking on the Minnesota Legislature’s spring session, representatives from the Minnesota Vikings and Ramsey County met with key lawmakers Wednesday to promote their proposal to build a publicly subsidized $1 billion stadium in the Twin Cities suburb of Arden Hills.

CHICAGO — Struggling to meet traffic projections for its privately owned airport in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains, Branson Airport LLC has won some breathing room from holders of $113 million of airport bonds under a forbearance agreement that staves off any enforcement actions.

CHICAGO — Wisconsin will enter the market as soon as Wednesday with up to $276 million of general obligation refunding bonds to complete a debt restructuring originally held up by the controversy earlier this year over Gov. Scott Walker’s move to curtail the collective bargaining rights of most public unions.

Missouri Department of Transportation director Kevin Keith last week announced a plan to dramatically cut the agency in a bid to redirect funds to road and bridge projects.

Illinois won an additional $454 million in federal high-speed rail funding.