Following a vote by the Chicago City Council Wednesday, the city has approved a total of $8.7 million in settlements during the first half of 2017.It’s an amount much smaller than what the council had approved last year at this time. By the end of June 2016, the city cleared the way to pay $14.3 million toward settling 11 lawsuits.Among the lawsuits aldermen voted to settle included a $1.2 million payout to the family of an 11-year-old boy who was killed in December 2013 police pursuit.Had the suit from the family of …