City Council Finally Gets It Seven Months After The Fact

Noticeably absent was mayoral chief of staff Paul Volpe, who lead the city's push for this lease deal when he was he chief financial officer, despite being aggressively invited by Ald. Moore.

Some highlights of the hearings, according to the Sun-Times, included 46th Ward Alderman Helen Shiller and surprisingly, 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney (whom was openly supportive of the deal initially), pointing out how many blocks of metered city streets are not being ignored by motorists and how it seems to be effecting retail businesses. Tunney and Shiller actively inquired on how rates could be "renegotiated" or in other words, lowered.

While the intelligent answer for both the lessee and the city, would be to allow market forces to set rates, attorneys for the city seemed to indicate that lowering rates would require the city to compensate CPM, LLC for alleged lost revenue.

5th Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston, accosted CPM officials again today, claiming she was overcharged significantly when she paid $32.50 to park near Sears Tower.

The Chicago Reader's political blog, Clout City reported some laugh out loud quotes including, one from Tom Lanctot, from the Blair Company who, when asked if other cities were looking at this type of privatization deal said, "There are a number of cities in the United States that want to copy the success of Chicago," Lanctot said.

But, the quote that seemed to best sum up the feelings of the City Council members came via the Reader from 28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith, who's spent 26 years in the city council saying, ""This is the worst deal I've ever seen."

Really Alderman? Us too.