- Rich Hein/Sun-Times Media
- Chicagoans may have been hosed in the parking meter deal, but that doesn’t mean it’s illegal, a panel of appellate judges ruled.
A panel of Illinois appellate judges won’t dispute that Chicago’s parking meter deal is a big loser for the city.
It was the latest development in a lawsuit brought by attorney Clint Krislov on behalf of the IVI-IPO, a public-interest group. The suit was filed in 2009, just weeks after the city transferred control of the meter system to Chicago Parking Meters LLC, a consortium of investors, for 75 years. In return, the city received nearly $1.2 billion upfront.
They argued that the city still has the ability to do whatever it wants with streets and sidewalks, regardless of whether it has to pay millions of dollars for it. They claimed that the public “enjoys” the benefits of the privatized meter system, such as the new pay boxes that take credit cards. And they said that the private company now bears the risk that future revenues will fall off—even though CPM is on pace to recover its investment within the first 15 to 20 years.
The judges said as much by concluding with a word of caution: “We urge the City and the City Council to debate and act wisely in the future when seeking to ease the financial crisis.”
