Nine years ago, the night of March 30-31, 2003,  my  beliefs about how our
political systems runs were shattered by former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s illegal
destruction of Meigs Field, Chicago’s lakefront airport. At that time I was the
President of the Friends of Meigs Field, an organization with over 5,000 members
that had helped achieve the compromise between Mayor Daley and former Governor
George Ryan that was to keep Meigs open until 2026.  I was called by the media
in the middle of that night, drove to the airport and witnessed the events of that evening.

While the Federal Aviation Administration did investigate the incident and did find that federal funds were misappropriated to destroy the airport, no one has been prosecuted for the actions of that night.

Today was a two meeting day.  I attended two Committees of the City Council meeting in the City Council chambers. 

When you enter the Chamber there is a small table with agenda and pink  forms for members of the public to fill out if they want to make a public comment.
Most committee meetings are held with very few members of the public in attendance.

The 10:00 a.m. meeting was the Chicago City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate.

The Committee approved two ordinances to execute leases at two city owned locations. 

A renewal of the lease at 1427-29 S. Keeler to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago for use as a play lot. The lease will run until December 31, 2016. Rent one buck.

A lease of vacant property at 2954 West Lawrence to a non-profit, Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly, which serves immigrants.  Rent one buck.

The organization received a grant from the United States Department of Human Services to create an urban garden/farm on the location. I found this puzzling but the organization works with refugees who were “skilled farmers” in their countries of origin. The grant will be used to build raised garden beds, a hoop house, a farm stand and benches. Excess produce will be sold to residents of the area and local restaurants.  (I assume they are going to use raised beds because of the soil quality or lack thereof.)

The lease runs until December 31, 2015 and can be terminated by either party on sixty days written notice, except the city can not cancel the lease during the growing season.

Then the Committee approved four separate ordinances each permitting the sale of city owned property: an industrial vacant parcel to Lumber Street LLC in the 25th Ward for $750,000; a vacant lot to be used in perpetuity as a parking lot to the Centennial Missionary Baptist Church in the 3rd Ward for $17, 500; an industrial building and adjacent land to be used as a multi-use facility by the New Life Covenant Oakwood Church in the 8th Ward for $65,000; and a frame two-flat in the 30th Ward for $5,000 pursuant to the Preserving Communities Together (PCT)Program.

It was the sale of a property for $5,000 that made me pick this Committee meeting to attend. 

After the meeting I spoke to a man with the Department of Housing and Economic Development.  He told me where to find the list of city owned property. You can get to it here.  Its 245 pages long with 34 entries per page.  That’s 8,330 parcels that the city owns. I was surprised to see six parcels in my ward, the 43rd, listed.

The PCT Program has designated properties that are available for $5,000 plus holding cost.

Requirements:

I.  PCT properties conveyed to developer for re-sale generally require the property to be rehabilitated and re-sold to an income-qualified owner-occupant within 12 months of acquisition.   Financing for the costs of acquisition and rehabilitation of the property in the form of an acquisition and rehab mortgage, construction mortgage, letter of credit, or construction escrow, and evidence of property insurance shall be required prior to closing.   

II. Applicants can apply to acquire properties to rehab and keep as their principal residence.  In such cases, the purchaser must generally meet income guidelines of household income of 80% of area median income or less.

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The second meeting at noon was the Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation. 

If the city council hadn’t ceded oversight of the NATO summit to the new Mayor and the private business group running the show I think this is the committee that would have been in charge. But instead of that task, today the Committee had a published agenda with three items.  But without explanation two items were not dealt with.

So the only item was the appointment of Benjamin R. Armstrong to serve as Commissioner of the Chicago Park District (CPD) for the remainder of the unexpired term of Robert J. Pickens who resigned. The term will be effective immediately (upon approval of the entire City Council) and expire April 25, 2014. 

Most Chicagoans would recall Mr. Armstrong as B.J. Armstrong of the NBA Champion Bulls team. Mr. Armstrong is currently a sports agent.

The toughest questions asked of the appointee was what he would do to get more boys (Query: what about the gurls, aldermen?)  involved with basketball. 

And one alderman from the south lakefront stated that she was concerned about parity between the north side and the south side parks. 

No Alderman asked what qualified Mr. Armstrong to be on the board of a public body that owns more than 8,100 acres of green space, making the CPD the largest municipal park manager in the nation.  The Chicago Park District owns and manages 580 parks and is also responsible for 26 indoor pools, 51 outdoor pools, and 26 miles of lakefront including 23 swimming beaches plus one inland beach.

The Committee voted unanimously to approve the appointment.

And the Chair moved to adjourn the meeting.

And then a citizen in the gallery objected. He had submitted a public comment form and wanted to speak. 

The citizen, George Blakemore (shown in the photo), attends many public meetings particularly Park Board Meetings and meetings of the Cook County Commissioners. The Chair disregarded him saying,” It’s just an appointment. I am not taking any comments.”  

There are lots of reasons why Alderman Burnett’s action is troublesome. I plan to find out if he actually violated parliamentary procedure in omitting the public comment period without a motion and vote. But it certainly shows a lack of respect for open transparent government. 


For the record: The CPD also owned an airport, which it could have sold to the City of Chicago for around a billion dollars, which would have allowed the CPD to fix all of the infrastructure issues in the park system. Instead, the appointed park commissioners bobbled their heads when former Mayor Daley destroyed the park systems very valuable aviation asset in the middle of the night. 

On March 4, 1789, the first session of the U.S. Congress is held in New York City as the U.S. Constitution takes effect. However, of the 22 senators and 59 representatives called to represent the 11 states who had ratified the document, only nine senators and 13 representatives showed up to begin negotiations for its amendment. (Source: History.com)

March 4,1837, Chicago was incorporated.  And the month before its 175 birthday the city has been named "the most corrupt" city in America in a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs. 
Its the aim of this blog to encourage citizens to become engaged and involved in creating a less corrupt city and then eventually the least corrupt city.