Chicago parking meter firm could get $15.5 million from city to settle pandemic-era dispute
Chicago's infamous deal to privatize the city's parking meters could soon cost taxpayers another $15.5 million to settle three yearslong disputes with the company that now owns the meters.
City attorneys have recommended the City Council approve the settlement with Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, which bought the city's parking meters for $1.16 billion under former Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2008. The Finance Committee is set to vote on the proposed settlement on Monday.
Mayor Brandon Johnson's office said the settlement stems from three disputes with the company dating back to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's decision to take some metered spaces out of service while state and city stay-at-home orders were in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It resolves three claims: the City's alleged failure to enforce meter violations as required under the concession agreement; the suspension of parking tickets during the height of the pandemic; and a later dispute over the distribution of meter revenue between the City and CPM," Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said in a statement on the proposed settlement.
The company had sought to force the city to reimburse them for thousands of parking spaces that were taken out of service during the pandemic. Lightfoot also announced in the early months of the pandemic that the city would stop ticketing cars for parking violations unless there was some kind of public safety threat to provide a measure of financial relief for drivers.
The $15.5 million settlement would be a tiny fraction of the $322 million Chicago Parking Meters had sought in arbitration, and even the $120.7 million the city's own appraiser estimated the city's maneuvers cost the company.
"This agreement brings an end to years of costly litigation at a fraction of the potential financial exposure," Richardson-Lowry said.
In addition to the $15.5 million payment to Chicago Parking Meters, the settlement also calls for the city to step up parking meter enforcement for one year. The company gets a portion of all parking tickets issued for failure to pay meters.
