Tuesday, December 2, 2008
News / Clout City The latest lease deal
Posted by Mick Dumke on Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 7:06 PM
We know it'll cost more to park on major city streets, and lots of minor ones as well. What's not certain is whether the parking meter lease deal is good one for taxpayers. The mayor and his administration argue that it is; next the city council will have the chance to weigh in. But the whole billion-dollar agreement could be wrapped up as soon as Thursday morning--just three days after city officials first viewed the bids on it. Here's the timeline of the deal:
Friday, February 8, 2008: The city issues an RFQ inviting firms to bid on leasing the meters. Chief financial officer Paul Volpe says it's a way "to be innovative in our approach to managing city assets." Final bids are due December 1.
February-March: City officials review initial application information submitted by potential bidders to determine whether the firms are qualified. The city won't say how many bidders were rejected, how many were accepted, or how many were involved altogether; that won't be released until the deal is approved and underway.
Thursday, August 14: Volpe announces that the city faces a $420 million budget deficit. The figure grows to nearly $500 million in the coming weeks as revenues from real estate transfer taxes dry up.
Wednesday, October 8: Less than a week after most aldermen were first briefed on it, the City Council votes 49-0 to approve the Daley administration's $2.5 billion deal to lease Midway Airport.
Wednesday, October 15: Mayor Daley releases his 2009 budget, which he hopes will be balanced, despite the city's "financial challenges," with hundreds of layoffs, service reductions, cash from the Midway deal, and an anticipated $150 million infusion from a parking meter lease deal.
Wednesday, November 19: The City Council approves the administration's budget, with some line-item changes, by a 49-1 vote.
Monday, December 1: It's the due date for the lease bids, and even though city officials are supposed to be looking at them all for the first time, they move quickly to establish that a deal's in place. "We open the envelopes and the winning bidder is the highest bidder," budget department spokeswoman Lisa Schrader explained later. Of course, the City Council needs to sign off before any agreement goes into effect. Early in the work day--at 8:34 a.m.--a staffer for 14th Ward alderman Ed Burke, chairman of the City Council's Committee on Finance, submits an agenda [PDF] to the city clerk's office for the committee's December 3 meeting. It has one item on it: consideration of the parking meter lease deal. At 3:03 p.m. the clerk's office receives a letter [PDF] from Mayor Daley calling a full meeting of the council for December 4 "for the sole purpose" of taking up the lease deal. Also that afternoon officials begin leaking news of the deal to City Hall reporters and Mayor Daley calls a press conference for the next morning to provide details.
Tuesday, December 2: Daley, Volpe, and other city officials announce a spinoff of Morgan Stanley, which in 2006 leased the city's downtown parking garages, will pay the city $1.15 billion in return for 75-year control of the parking meters. Rates will start going up in 2009 and may climb to more than $6 an hour within five years.
Wednesday, December 3: The Finance Committee will meet at 10 a.m. If precedent is any indication, aldermen will have questions but the deal will be approved.
Thursday, December 4: The full council will meet to consider the lease deal. Same deal with precedent. Some aldermen will probably wonder, as they have before, if the city will find anything to lease in 2009, given that Daley has predicted $200 million deficits for each of the next several years.
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You should not waste your time knocking Daley, he is Irish. He will be forgiven!
I agree. To all Italian Americans: Change you name to a Irish, they NEVER do anything wrong. To all you daley lovers, pay until it hurts!!!! Know he made parking meters a high line expense! The cost of a BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN, that people from Chicago can't afford to enjoy!!
NEW SIDEWALK TOLLWAYS TO RAISE BILLIONS FOR CASH-STRAPPED CITY In a bold yet innovative move, City Hall today announced the launch of a new sidewalk tollway system, where pedestrains must pay one dollar per block to walk on sidewalks within Chicago city limits. "This will raise much needed capital for infrastructure improvements," Mayor Daley said. "I think citizens are really going to like this solution. And they're getting a great value!" Pedestrains can purchase a pre-loaded I-Pass for $2,500.00 or can pay the slightly higher rate of $1.25 per city block and wait in longer lines if they choose to pay in cash. Gates and lanes will usher pedestrians smoothly through each tollway and prevent anyone from walking for free. "Chicago really is a great city," said Lincoln Park Trixie. "It's so worth paying more for everything, to live in this filthy, crime-ridden community overrun with corruption and ne'er do wells. Life is really hard here and getting harder all the time! Why would anyone ever want to live anywhere else?"
From the SCC blog: http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/ From the comments section on the article titled: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 A Bentley? and referring to a statement, made by the mother of the man accused of murdering Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew, to the broadcast news media and recently aired by the local news stations: "Hi, Im a Lincoln Park liberal, and enjoy this site. Ive watched the video of the mother. Is there someone on this site that could translate what she said, thank you. 12/03/2008 07:35:00 AM ---------------------------------- Good question link libby. The translation is impossible without a short history lesson first, however. Your kind voting democrat for so long have put two things into play. 1. The Cook county states attorneys will not charge felonies for almost anything. Someone breaks into your car and takes it? Felony possession of stolen motor vehicle? No sir! Misdemeanor criminal trespass to vehicle. The punishment for misdemeanors is nothing, or next to it. Also the quest to lower the murder rate has persuaded the upper brass of the CPD to reclassify homicides as death investigations and murderers as mutual combatants. I have personally seen a woman who willingly and intentionally stabbed her blood (not play) cousin through the heart, over a white castle french fry dispute, let go scott free. This has taught the following lesson to generation upon generation of ghetto dwellers... "do whatever you want, including murder. There will be no consequences for it" 2. Chicago and Cook Co. courts will hand out major cash to any allegation of police misconduct, no matter how blatantly false. Why just this year a fella told a court a tale of police abuse of authority that was obviously a scene from the film "Scarface". Two of the officers accused of this were not even working at the time the hood rat alleged he was mistreated by them. He was paid tens of thousands of dollars anyway. This has taught ghetto dwellers the following lesson... "lie blatantly to the courts and you will be paid for it" So if we put these two factors together and use them as a social translator for mamas rant we can see that she is saying. "I do not care if my son is innocent or guilty. He is of the ghetto and we are not accountable for any of our actions. This includes holding a seven year old child face down and shooting him in the back of the head at point blank range. Regardless if my son is a murderer or not I should be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars just because he has been accused of it." Never learned that in all your years at U of C did ya? Dont forget, your voting record made this possible. Keep voting this way because you endorse this behavior. By voting the way you have you have shown that you endorse paying money to the parents of those who execute children. Sleep well tonight. 12/03/2008 03:19:00 PM" Enjoy.
I expect the US Attorney's office will look into this matter VERY CAREFULLY. This deal is fishier than a sardine factory.
Is there a candidate brewing to end this insane Daley run at dictatorship?
I love downtown and Daley!
It's my fault for constantly electing Democrats!
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