CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago aldermen on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first substantive change in the city's controversial parking meter contract since it was first enacted nearly 20 years ago.
The 46-3 vote clears the way for the private equity group Stonepeak Partners to buy the meter contract from its current owner for about $2.53 billion. In exchange for the "yes" vote, Stonepeak's agreed to pay the city a $75 million "transaction fee," which will go toward worker pensions, and give a cut of future net profits from meter revenue.
Stonepeak won more support before the vote when it announced Monday that one of its subsidiaries had reached an agreement to sell Omni Air, a charter flight operator involved in deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security. That had been a sticking point for some members of the council's Progressive Caucus and Latino Caucus.
"This is a good deal," North side Ald. Scott Waguespack said about the deal he and a group of aldermen negotiated with the assistance of the city's Law Department. "This is the first time we've really been able to get something out of it." Ald. Waguespack (32nd Ward) was one of five aldermen who voted down the original meter deal in 2008, at the time citing an accelerated timetable for consideration of the proposal.
And that timetable was cited by one of the Stonepeak agreement's main critic, West side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward). "Some of the same things that were stated in 2008 are playing out again in 2026," he said, suggesting that the Council was rushing to vote on the measure that faced a deadline of Wednesday for adoption. "We chose to cower down and sell out for $75 million."
Ald. Waguespack said the Council had a responsibility to honor the contract, and criticized suggestions that the council should hold out: "If those people had a better idea, they should have brought it to the table a year ago."
In the months leading up to this vote, Mayor Brandon Johnson had consistently refused to say what he thought aldermen should do with the potential sale of the widely unpopular parking meter contract, saying it was City Council's responsibility. Following the vote, he told reporters that he's glad Chicagoans were "at the table."
"It's a stronger deal than it was before," the mayor said, "and I'm grateful for the collaboration" with his administration.
Agreement will yield $75M transaction fee, cut of future profits
Agreement will yield $75M transaction fee, cut of future profits
