Alders review proposed Chicago parking meter sale

CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago aldermen say they're finally getting a look at information tied to a change in the city's controversial parking meter deal, but Mayor Brandon Johnson isn't saying what he thinks of the proposed sale.

The consortium of investors that makes up "Chicago Parking Meters LLC" has agreed to sell its interest in the city's on-street parking revenue to the Stonepeak private-equity group. It'll be the first time the concession has changed hands since the city under former Mayor Richard M. Daley originally agreed to give up the rights to parking meter revenue in 2008, in what's widely considered to be one of the worst financial contracts in the history of municipal government.

But before the concession can be sold, Chicago aldermen are able to approve the transaction, and Mayor Johnson told reporters at City Hall on Tuesday that his team has worked to get information to City Council "with expediency."

"I'm going to do my part to give City Council all that it needs in order to make a sophisticated response," the mayor said. "That authority relies solely on the City Council to make that decision."

One frequent mayoral critic, Far South side Ald. Anthony Beale, said aldermen are "just now" getting information about the proposed sale from the Johnson Administration, and accused the mayor's office of moving slowly.

"They held this for over 30 days, and gave it to us with less than two weeks to go over the entire deal," said Ald. Beale (9th Ward).

Ald. Beale joined more than 20 other aldermen in signing a letter pledging to vote down the sale in protest over the mayor's office's handling of details surrounding the transaction, but he's not saying now whether he still intends to vote against it. City Council has scheduled a hearing for June 25 with executives from Stonepeak, and JP Morgan has extended a July 1 deadline for action on the sale.

It's not clear whether City Council can order or request changes in the meter contract; the mayor and Ald. Beale both used the term "ironclad" when describing its terms, including a requirement that the city reimburse the contract holder for any meters taken out of service for street repairs or neighborhood festivals. "We don't have much room to go through the deal itself," Ald. Beale said.

And the mayor, who last year entered a bid to buy back the meters only to abandon it later, would not say whether he supports this transaction: "I'm doing what the law requires me to do."