Nearby $1 billion worth of city services on the line D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray has agreed to call an emergency meeting for a vote on dozens of critical but possibly illegal contracts worth nearly $1 billion — 24 hours before a stop payment order takes effect.

Gray, in a letter to Attorney General Peter Nickles, said he is willing to have the council on Jan. 19 consider the 90 option-year contracts, none of which were reviewed by the council as the law requires. Nickles agreed last week to deliver the package for a vote on the condition that he “receive written assurance that the Council will ratify the contracts en masse.”