Chicago alderman on parking meter sale: 'If the deal doesn't improve, we shouldn't approve it'

Added: 2026-06-09

[00:00:00]called one of the worst deals in Chicago history and the history of the nation perhaps as well. In 2008, the city privatized its parking meters and now with 57 years left on the contract. The private company behind it wants to sell those rights to a New York investment firm. But this time, city council members say they're not going to put a rubber stamp on this. More than 20 have signed a letter refusing to approve the transfer. Joining us now is 34th W Alderman Bill Conway, who has been very vocal on this. We were just looking at the deal that you have right there with you.

[00:00:31]>> We have 300 wonderful pages here. I've become intimately familiar with this. A lot of people, I guess, read a Bible at night. I read the parking me.

[00:00:38]>> Oh, wow.

[00:00:39]>> I'm I'm a lot of fun at parties.

[00:00:41]>> Yeah. So, this is this is the original deal that you're that you carry around.

[00:00:44]>> Yeah. Well, it was the original deal was in 2008 and then in 2013 it was revised.

[00:00:49]So, this is that revised agreement in 2013.

[00:00:51]>> What are your issues? Because I know that original agreement was approved by five council members, voted uh no no against it.

[00:00:59]>> 45 voted yes.

[00:01:00]>> 45 voted yes. What is your issue with it right now? Because I know there's some uh accountability that is being asked for on the mayor side of things for this.

[00:01:08]>> Yeah. So the parking meters are being sold from one private entity to another.

[00:01:14]And according to the agreement, city council has to approve that change of control. And as you noted, this was the worst taxpayer disaster in a generation.

[00:01:23]And frankly, if the deal doesn't improve, we shouldn't approve it, you know, because that's who we should be looking out for is for taxpayers.

[00:01:31]>> Yeah, that's the reality of it. But aren't you guys almost forced to approve it? Because the window of getting out of it is very small. Explain like the one clause that allows the city to get out of this deal or at least prevent it from being sold, changing hands. Well, what what uh one paragraph does say in there is says notwithstanding anything else in this agreement, city council must approve a change of control. So, we do have some ability to uh potentially improve the deal. And that's what we need to be looking out for and see if we can improve it for taxpayers.

[00:02:02]>> When you talk about improving the deal, what does the new improvements, if that's what you want to call it, what would they look like for taxpayers?

[00:02:11]Well, this is I mean we're not buying the parking meters back. We're not getting out of this deal. So, it certainly has to be something something reasonable that we can talk to. And I you know, I want to keep the negotiations a bit private here, but you know, it it we're a long way really from uh even getting to that point of what a potential concession would look like.

[00:02:32]>> One of the I mean, let's just talk about the possibilities. All right. And one of the possibilities is you could push for a transfer fee of the sale. I mean, what would would that provide relief to taxpayers? What would that what would that money be used for?

[00:02:47]>> You know, and I'm hesitant to negotiate in public on this, but certainly it's no doubt this was a terrible deal and clearly the city of Chicago has significant fiscal challenges right now and something that perhaps could alleviate that on some level might be possible like you mentioned.

[00:03:05]>> So, this lease runs out 2084 I think is the date. any idea uh uh based on any research maybe that you've done there within council of how much money this has already costed uh taxpayers?

[00:03:18]>> Well, it it uh the um you know depends how you look at it, but you know you sort of you get per year the operator gets about 150 million a year and depends on what you look at terms of the expenses that go towards the maintenance of it as well. So the the owners of the parking meters have already gotten double their money back on this deal.

[00:03:39]And so and actually that has shown um you know it's it has not been disclosed what the parking meters are being sold for but if I were to make a guess it'd be about $3 billion and that's and we're already 20 years into this give or take and it's worth noting the original deal the city sold them for $1.15 billion.

[00:03:57]And so do you so are you saying that you know for a fact that this company has already made at least $2 billion based on based on this contract that >> well that would be the that would be the transaction for that. Yeah. But and I think that's been publicly disclosed that you know that this has been uh that they've gotten their money back multiple times over already and now they're going to sell the rest of this concession.

[00:04:18]Like you said the worst deal for taxpayers in a generation. We're not getting out of it. Hopefully, we can talk about improving it slightly, but these got to be something that is that is commercially reasonable here.

[00:04:30]>> Um, you know, it was kind of like a get-richqu scheme uh when we when the city signed this deal cuz they they were like more than a billion in the hole and they were they got a billion off the top and okay, everything's great. But we still have problems. So, how are we to believe that city council is going to make better choices now than they did, you know, uh a couple decades ago when they first signed this deal? Well, I'm I'm trying.

[00:04:55]>> You know, I like I like to think if I was there in 2008, I would I would have been a no vote, certainly. But it is, you know, it's I think we in city council, we try and bring, you know, our our lived experience and skill set to try and do what we can for the city. I, you know, I I don't know a heck of a lot about a lot of things, but I've been a lawyer for 20 years. I used to work in in investment banking. I teach finance at Depal University. So, I try and bring a little of that expertise uh to city council and all of my colleagues have various lived experiences that that uh that they bring and we're doing we're doing the best.

[00:05:29]>> And I don't mean to put you in the crosshairs, but I figure since we've got you on the couch, >> we got to ask.

[00:05:34]>> I want to ask you from this perspective because obviously we know what happened before. We're we're now here. Uh we do see oftentimes a lot of uh supporters, allies of the mayor. I'm curious um for council, how many people are on your side versus how many people want to just give it the rubber stamp.

[00:05:52]>> Well, it's it's really hard to say at this point because it's not there's not a potential deal on the table. It's not like the the concession owner has said, "We'll give you X if you vote yes."

[00:06:04]Like, that has not been a a you know, it hasn't gotten that far. And frankly, it's good we're being deliberative about this. one thing back in 2008. Part of the reason the things sailed through is because council didn't have a chance to do their diligence on it. So, we're not going to compound compound that mistake.

[00:06:20]But I said it before, I'll say it again.

[00:06:22]If the deal doesn't improve, we shouldn't approve it.

[00:06:25]>> All right. Very well said. Especially considering the financial climate right now. We just can't afford to just keep giving, you know, passing the bucks for access. In the city, we have a terrible fiscal situation and it's going to take really a generation of earnest focus to get this city on track fiscally regardless of this