Nov. 18--Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday hailed passage of his ordinance to require the city to take various steps before approving big-ticket privatization of municipal assets as an important moment "for the future of this great city," even as questions remain about how effective it will be to prevent debacles like the parking meter lease.
The City Council adopted Emanuel's privatization rules without dissent. They require public meetings, an independent financial review and an explanation of the benefits of proposed privatizations before a City Council vote. But they apply only to privatization deals for assets worth at least $400 million and services worth at least $3 million, and they will require the city to set aside only 10 percent of the proceeds from any such lease.
Emanuel has worked hard to present himself as more transparent and collaborative than former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Wednesday's action gave him an opportunity to contrast his record on privatization deals with that of his predecessor, who oversaw the widely derided 75-year lease of the meters in 2008, as well as leases of city parking garages and the Skyway.
"When you evaluate all the decisions that have been done, either about the parking meters, the parking garages, which are separate, or the Skyway, at no time did the city ever have a structure in place to make an educated judgment and decision," Emanuel said.
The vote to permanently set up a process will shift some responsibility for vetting possible privatizations to aldermen, the mayor said.
"All of us, collectively, will be on the line to make it with our eyes open, with the information available and the time to evaluate that information, to make a judgment and a decision with all the information available and public," Emanuel said.
In practice, Emanuel has enough control over the City Council to get majority backing for nearly any proposal he strongly supports.
And officials from the city Law Department told aldermen this week that the new rules will not apply to deals like Emanuel's controversial 2012 agreement to allow conglomerate Interstate-JCDecaux to build 34 digital billboards up to 100 feet tall on city property alongside expressways, because the company built the billboards itself.
Nor will the safeguards apply to any deals involving the city's intellectual property, officials said.
When Emanuel unveiled the proposal this summer, Laurence Msall, president of the nonpartisan Civic Federation budget watchdog group, applauded the overall move but said requiring just 10 percent of proceeds from any deal to be set aside was "a fundamental problem."
Emanuel administration officials say Wednesday's passage is not tied to any particular plans by the mayor to privatize a city asset.
In other City Council action:
--Emanuel said he has told aldermen they need to find a replacement for ousted City Council watchdog Faisal Khan by the end of this year. But the mayor again avoided wading into the quagmire of trying to show leadership on setting specific rules to make sure the next legislative inspector general has the authority and funding to effectively investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the aldermen who pick him.
