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As you may recall, in December aldermen bitched about being pressured to approve the privatization deal in just two days in December, but did it anyway. Then, as public outrage grew, aldermen Joe Moore and Leslie Hairston introduced separate resolutions last month calling for additional hearings on the terms of the deal and the performance of LAZ Parking, the contractor hired to manage day to day operations of the meters. Moore’s was sent to the council’s finance committee while Hairston’s was referred jointly to the committees on finance and license.
On Wednesday I got in touch with Donal Quinlan, a spokesman for finance committee chairman Ed Burke, and asked for the status of the resolutions. He checked with committee staff down the hall and then came back and told me they were still trying to find a time in the next several weeks that worked for everyone involved. “Because there are multiple sponsors, we’re still working to schedule it,” he said.
Hairston, meanwhile, voted against the deal and still thinks it stinks. She called for hearings in order to look specifically at how rate hikes were implemented after control of the system was turned over to Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the entity that leased the meters, and LAZ. She’s still furious from her own experiences of trying to feed quarters into meters whose rates weren’t properly posted.
