Memo: Chicago pulled $3.2B bid for meter buyback

CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- We're now learning how close Chicago actually was to potentially buying back the rights to the city's parking meter revenue, and why the Johnson Administration backed out.

City Council may vote as soon as July 15 on whether to let the private equity group Stonepeak Partners buy the remainder of the much-reviled 75-year meter contract for about $2.5 billion. Stonepeak's James Wyper told aldermen during a City Council hearing last month that he'd heard the city bid $800 million more than their bid before pulling back.

"You have a right to understand this transaction," Wyper told members of the City Council Finance Committee at the time.

Now, Mayor Brandon Johnson's office has sent a memo to committee members that confirms those details.

In the memo obtained by WBBM Newsradio, the mayor's team says the city first bid $2.8 billion dollars last fall, then added another $500 million, then went to $3.2B in December after the sellers reportedly said nothing lower than $3 billion would be accepted.

But Chicago's acting chief financial officer Steven Mahr says the city pulled its bid when it realized that it would need more than parking meter and ticket money to pay off the loan needed to buy the meters back.

The memo also confirms that the city is no longer under a controversial non-disclosure agreement that it says prevented the mayor's team from talking about the bid with aldermen. Stonepeak's James Wyper attempted to ingratiate himself with City Council members last month by offering information that the Law Department said it could not: "It's ridiculous that you've been asked to make a decision on the basis of no information."

The city is not a party to the sale, but the ordinance allows City Council to vote up or down on the transaction between private parties. Mayor Johnson has repeatedly refused to say whether he believes aldermen should approve the sale, saying it's up to Council.