In late June the Illinois Appellate Court ruled in favor of the Park Grill in its fight against the Cook County assessor, dropping the curtain on the latest act in one of the more sensational scandals of Mayor Daley’s reign.
As the Sun-Times reported, the Park District gave the restaurant a sweet deal to boot, agreeing to pick up the cost of their water, gas, and garbage collection, which together may cost taxpayers at least as much as the restaurant pays to use the space.
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Anything else? Oh, yes—how could I have forgotten? O’Malley had a child out of wedlock with Laura Foxgrover, the daughter of a former judge jailed years ago on unrelated corruption charges. Foxgrover worked in the division of the Park District that oversaw the bidding process. As the Sun-Times so artfully summed things up: “The Chicago Park District awarded a 20-year lease to run the swanky restaurant at Millennium Park to a businessman who got a top Park District official pregnant during the negotiations.” Foxgrover said she had nothing to do with awarding the contract.
In contrast, a concession agreement gives someone permission to operate on a public space—say, a hot dog vendor who roams around the park. Concessionaires don’t have to pay property taxes.
For my money, the most compelling part of the story is why Park District officials didn’t just call the contract a lease to begin with. Is it possible they didn’t know the difference between a lease and a concession agreement? Or were they trying to give the Park Grill a very substantial property tax break because, you know, it’s so risky operating a restaurant in the middle of one of the city’s tourist meccas?
Suddenly the Park District was on the hook for a huge property tax bill. You might think that as a tax-exempt governmental body it wouldn’t have to pay. But under our convoluted property tax system the district is only exempt if it owns the building or if it’s renting from another governmental body.
I don’t know who’s putting these things together, but, please, for sake of this city, keep them far, far away from the Olympics.
