BREAKING: Meeting Downtown

First, the Chicago News Cooperative had this:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to close the city’s 2012 fiscal shortfall will feature funds from tax-increment financing districts, increased sticker costs for drivers of sports-utility vehicles and a fee hike for businesses with permission for valet parking and loading zones, the Chicago News Cooperative has learned.

  A day before Emanuel was scheduled to publicly unveil his first annual budget proposal, mayoral aides began briefing aldermen in closed-door sessions at City Hall on Tuesday morning.

  After initially rejecting the idea, Emanuel now will tap some surplus TIF dollars to help balance the city budget and also fund Chicago Public Schools and other local taxing districts, sources told the CNC.

  Aldermen who had been briefed and asked to remain anonymous said the administration’s 2012 plan also included switching the city from a ward-based garbage pick-up system to a grid approach. Beginning to phase in the new system would save $20 million next year, an alderman said.

Then the Tribune picks up the ball and adds this tidbit:

• Absent from the briefings was any discussion of cuts at the Chicago Police Department. Although the mayor has pledged to maintain the number of cops on the street, he has not ruled out merging of district police buildings or cutting layers of management.

  Police and fire personnel account for most of the city’s day-to-day spending.

And now, word coming in that there's a big exempt meeting at 35th Street today. Who's in and who's out? What's getting closed or disbanded this time? Who's got the scoop?