The Chicago City Council would receive 30 days to review any future deals Mayor Richard Daley reaches to privatize city assets for more than $100 million under an ordinance introduced last week by Alderman Tom Allen.
The proposal comes as the city’s deal to lease its parking meter system to a private consortium for $1.1 billion has come under sharp criticism because the private managers failed to provide the resources needed to update or fix broken meters in a timely manner, while rates have quadrupled in some areas.
Another groundbreaking deal to privatize Midway Airport for $2.5 billion fell through earlier this month because the private consortium that was to run the airport could not raise the financing for the transaction amid the international credit crunch.
The City Council was given little time by Daley to review those deals, along with two others — the city’s $1.8 billion lease of the Chicago Skyway toll bridge and the $563 million lease of its downtown parking lots — as the mayor sought quick approval to finalize the deals.
“These are monumental, once-in-a-lifetime decisions. We shouldn’t do it in the dark. We shouldn’t hide the ball. And we shouldn’t do it in a way where the general public is left out in the cold,” Allen said in published reports.
