Chicago delays vote on parking meter sale, risks litigation

By Sean Reed | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A long-awaited vote from the Chicago City Council to move forward with approving the sale of the city’s parking meter infrastructure between two private entities has again been delayed.

After weeks of back and forth, aldermen in Chicago have likely kicked the approval of the controversial sale months down the road, as the council doesn’t meet in August.

The parking meters were sold for a 75-year term by former Mayor Richard M. Daley for $1.15 billion in 2008. The infrastructure will all return to city ownership after that term.

Finance Committee Chairmanwoman Pat Dowell announced before the committee’s meeting Monday that a vote to advance the ordinance from Mayor Brandon Johnson to approve the private sale would be delayed – providing little reason.

Stonepeak, a New York investment firm with a pending $2.53 billion bid for the infrastructure, previously threatened to sue the city to recoup legal fees if the council rejected the sale.

In response to The Center Square, a spokesperson for Stonepeak said it had no comment.

“You’ll never see me again. We get a little money. I’m gone. It’s okay. My legal costs get paid. What Morgan Stanley and the existing ownership group choose to do does not involve me at all,” James Wyper, a senior managing director at Stonepeak, said in a previous hearing.

Budget Committee Chairman Jason Ervin, a strong ally to Johnson, told multiple media outlets he seeks to delay the sale while chasing down a different solution to allow the city to buy back the meters, even after the mayor ditched his bids for a publicly funded buyback.

Following a recent hearing, where Stonepeak addressed its commitment to transparency and noted it waived any confidentiality, seller Chicago Parking Meters LLC waived its end of the sale’s confidentiality agreement that the city cited as being the reason the city couldn’t discuss their previous bid.

“The city executed a confidentiality letter agreement last year,” said city attorney Jim McDonald in a previous committee hearing. “There’s ambiguity in the clarifications that CPM provided as to whether or not that fully provides us the ability to talk to the city council about the documents you’re referring to.”

Johnson then sent a memo to committee members explaining the city dropped efforts to buy back the parking meter infrastructure due to the cost of interest and increased tax liability that would fall on the city.

Members at the last committee hearing raised additional concerns about the investment group’s holdings, including a company that conducts contract migrant return flights.

Because the committee delayed the vote, the council will miss the agreed upon deadline to either approve or deny the sale, as set between the city and both ends of the sale. The deadline is July 24.

If parties agree to extend the deadline into the fall, it would be the third extension in as many months.