With Mayor Daley essentially asking for a blank check to pay for the Olympics, the taxpayers of Chicago could use a little boldness from their City Council. But Manny Flores, one of the few aldermen occasionally willing to stand up for good government, seems to be retreating from his vow to fight for a $500 million cap on public spending for the games.
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This was right on the heels of the parking meter debacle, and many aldermen were sensitive to accusations that they routinely rubber-stamp the mayor’s costly ideas. As coverage of the host-city contract spread, Flores rounded up 11 of his colleagues to cosponsor an ordinance that would cap taxpayer risk at $500 million, a limit many aldermen thought they’d already established in a 2007 ordinance guaranteeing the city would cover overruns of the costs of putting on the games. (While that ordinance set a $500 million maximum, it included a giant loophole, granting the mayor authority to enter into “such further undertakings, agreements and documents as may be necessary or appropriate to the City’s submission and implementation of its bid for the Olympic Games.”)
The mayor responded to the Flores proposal by letting aldermen know a cap was absolutely unacceptable. To create the appearance of opening his plans to public scrutiny—in contrast to the way he pushed through the parking meter lease—Daley sent his Olympic planning team out to hold public hearings in all 50 wards (they’re still being held). He also signed onto a council resolution calling for an independent study of financing for the games. The council then asked the Civic Federation, a budget watchdog group, to coordinate the study, and the federation farmed out the project to the British firm L.E.K. Consulting. The report is due August 28.
But even if it had no chance of passing, a public debate on the cap would have damaged Daley’s Olympic efforts, shining a spotlight on the city’s fiscal troubles—the soft underbelly of the Chicago bid—and providing a forum that could energize the opposition. Given all that, it’s remarkable Flores found 11 aldermen to sign on in the first place.
The way Flores sees it, the oversight body should monitor the finances of the 2016 bid committee, which still hasn’t released a full list of its vendors and contributors. Bid officials have even asked for an extension on filing their 2008 tax-exemption statement with the federal and state governments. Now it conveniently won’t come out until after the IOC’s October 2 decision.