Mayor Richard Daley last week announced plans to consolidate several city departments as part of an effort to whittle down costs as Chicago grapples with a record $655 million deficit going into fiscal 2011.
Daley plans to merge the general services and graphics departments to produce efficiencies in security, custodial services, and printed materials, and to eliminate some positions.
He also plans in the 2011 budget to consolidate the Department of Cultural Affairs and the mayor’s office of special events, which are funded from the same source and have some common functions. The move will save money by eliminating some positions.
The departments of community development and zoning and land use planning will be merged to place all neighborhood development functions in one agency, allowing for greater operational efficiencies and the elimination of some jobs.
Daley earlier this month said he was considering tapping surplus tax-increment financing revenue and privatizing a handful of prominent city services and events in an attempt to whittle down the budget deficit.
The patchwork of ideas included privatizing the city’s popular lakefront festivals, including the Taste of Chicago, as well as curbside recycling and the city’s animal shelter. The city would reap about $140 million if it achieved legislative approval to free up a $700 million pot of surplus TIF revenue. Schools would receive about half of the surplus funds with other local taxing bodies receiving the rest.
Over the last several months, officials have announced a series of steps aimed at raising new revenue and cutting costs that include trimming non-safety and non-service spending by 6% to save $11 million, the auctioning off of 50 additional taxicab medallions to generate several million dollars in revenue, and the negotiation of a new contract with energy provider Exelon to save $15 million.
