CHICAGO (WLS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday stood by his administration’s handling of an unsuccessful effort to buy back Chicago’s parking meters, as scrutiny grows over why the city’s offer exceeded the next closest bid by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Chicago placed a bid topping $3.3 billion to regain control of the meters while Stonepeak, a new firm, moves to purchase them from the current operator. At a City Council finance committee hearing last week, alderpersons were told the city’s proposal came in about $800 million above Stonepeak’s offer.
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David Greising, who leads the Better Government Association, said the attempted deal would have deepened the fallout from Chicago’s original parking meter lease.
“Well, if this had gone through, it would have added incredible insult to the injury. Injury of the original parking meter lease, which is held out as one of the all-time great flops by the city in its history,” he said.
Speaking at City Hall, Johnson rejected criticism that the administration had mishandled the bid.
“Well, we didn’t outbid anyone, we didn’t go through on it. Right,” he said. He added, “So we didn’t do what some people were alarmed by. We didn’t do that.”
Alderpersons further questioned the lack of transparency around the process, which unfolded under a non-disclosure agreement. Ald. Matt O’Shea of the 19th Ward said the administration made its bid “almost a year ago while we’re in a protracted ugly budget negotiation.”
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O’Shea said the secrecy was alarming, adding, “This is money we don’t have and yet this administration carelessly puts in this secret bid and doesn’t share it with anybody, that’s very disturbing.”
The details of the bids became public only last week. Johnson said council members now have the information they need.
“Once the information was allowed to be presented, the city council has everything that they need. They can vote on it in July, they can vote on it in September, they can vote on it in October,” he said.
Greising said the process should have been more open.
“When the city is dealing with assets of the scale of the parking meters, at the very least, members of city council ought to be aware of what is going on, because the stakes are so high,” he said.
The proposed resale of the parking meters still requires City Council approval. With budget season approaching, the administration’s handling of the bid may further strain relations between the mayor and council members.
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