Jun 3, 2009 6:29 pm US/Central
Parking Meter Woes Dominate City Council Meeting
Inspector General's Report Said City May Have Lost $1 Billion In Meter Deal
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Mayor Richard M. Daley came to the defense of the controversial Chicago parking meter lease deal a day after
a scathing report by his own Inspector General.
The mayor called it "a very responsible agreement," that will protect the taxpayers of Chicago.
But complaints about the new parking meters took center stage as the City Council met Wednesday morning.
"There was a process that was hurried, rushed, highly pressurized, that did not allow for full deliberation," Inspector General David Hoffman said in his report. "There was a lack of any meaningful debate or meaningful deliberation in City Council."
Stung by the Inspector General's criticism of the council's 40-5 approval of the contract just two days after the final bid was approved, aldermen were trying to save face Wednesday. They approved an ordinance calling for a minimum 15-day study period of any similar deals in the future.
"We might have to start rethinking, period, the concept of giving our government away and taking it from the people and giving it to private entities," said Ald. Tom Allen.
Ald. Bernie Stone disagreed, saying the Inspector General will soon be telling Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella how to run the White Sox and Cubs.
"It's no joking matter when thousands of citizens here are putting their hard-earned dollars into those machines and they're not getting their time," Ald. Leslie Hairston said.
Hairston was one of the five aldermen who had voted against the lease deal.
North Side Ald. Joe Moore thinks the council should vote to cancel the contract outright.
But Daley said were the contract to be canceled, the city would have to start laying off more people and raising taxes.
Daley said that without the lease deal, vital city services would have to be cut. And he predicted that even with the revenue it creates the city will still find itself in the red to the tune of as much as a half billion dollars.
The Inspector General conducted a five-month investigation, and concluded that city officials had failed to do their homework and got ripped off in the 75-year, $1.2 billion lease of the city's 36,000 parking meters to a private firm.
The city approved the privatization deal in December as a means to plug a staggering budget shortfall. The deal handed over the meters to Chicago Park Meters LLC, a firm owned mostly by Morgan Stanley, which in turn handed over operation of the meters to LAZ Parking.
The private firm was given the right to set meter rates, which skyrocketed across the city when the privatization took effect. The firm also did away with the city's policy for free parking in most areas on Sundays and holidays.
Complaints about the high new rates and a lack of signage informing motorists of the new rates and rules led many drivers to avoid parking at meters, and others to vandalize them.
Before the Inspector General's report, there were other reports that suggested the city sold off the meters for less than they were worth.
On May 21, Chicago Reader writers Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke
reported an analysis indicating that the city lost money on the parking meter deal, and suggesting the city could have reaped as much as $3 billion.
As a result of the Inspector General's report, there could be a push for more extensive review periods before city officials sign off on any leasing deals in the future.
CBS 2's Mike Parker contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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