Daily Daley

No one else on the City Council seems to be laughing these days. 

DALEY NEWS

No word on how Mayor Daley is spending his holiday weekend. So I’m going to assume it involves large amounts of alcohol and some high-grade, quasi-legal explosives purchased out of state.

DALEY CHATTER

The mayor closed on the city’s purchase of Michael Reese Hospital this week — the future site of an Olympic Village, should, god-willing, we get the Olympics.  And after two weeks of Olympic glory, the buildings will be turned over to a developer and turned into condos. That’s the plan, at least. A $1.1 billion plan. And we all know how well plans get executed when City Hall is involved.

With all the hoopla about the small City Council revolt brewing over the Olympics, it’s easy to forget that the games aren’t Daley’s only headache these days. The mayor continues to deal with aldermanic outrage over the parking meter fiasco. The council had a hearing on the deal yesterday and, boy, were they shooting off righteous indignation like Fourth-of-July bottle rockets.

The parking meter deal hit tragically close to home for Ald. Leslie Hairston after a meter charged her $32.50 for overnight parking, but she only wanted to park for two hours. So remember folks: though you might be getting screwed at the meter, so are your aldermen.

Of course we can’t really blame aldermen for their role in passing the deal. I mean they are just aldermen, you can’t expect them to actually read the legislation they’re voting on. Just ask Ald. Dick Mell, who said, "How many of us read the stuff we do get, OK?. I try to. I try to. I try to. But being realistic, being realistic, it's like getting your insurance policy. It's small print, OK?" Someone remind the city’s printing office to run off a copy of the large print edition for Alderman Mell, will ya? We don’t want to strain the man’s vision.

That’s all, folks. Have a great holiday weekend!

An important announcement, a search for the Mayor and some juicy political gossip

SPECIAL EDITOR'S NOTE: A moment of your attention please, dear readers.  We plan to begin profiling one Daley fan and one Daley hater each week and in order to do a bang up job, we need your help.  Since we'd love to feature anyone from the average Chicago citizen to a possible elected official here and there, we need your suggestions.  Know anyone who would like to be featured?  Shoot us their details, contact information and a little backstory to dailydaley@gmail.com and we'll take it from there.  We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming...

DALEY NEWS

Still at an unfortunate loss for how the Mayor officially spends his days, we turn to less reliable, but more entertaining sources.  For instance, while it tells us nothing worthwhile about His Honor's political or policy priorities, we're somewhat certain that he lunched at O'Brien's today and sat near a man with a questionable sense of humor. 

On second thought, maybe there is some value in this "news."  O'Briens is on the Riverwalk and this allows us a moment to reflect on that over budget, behind schedule, TIF-funded boondoggle, er, civic improvement. 

Not entirely unrelated perhaps, we'd love to know what prompted this outburst.

DALEY CHATTER

In case you'd like to know which Aldermen are supporting limiting Chicago taxpayers' exposure to possible Olympic cost overruns, here's a complete list.  For those keeping score at home, that's just 12 out of 50 Aldermen that think a limit should be placed on how much we'll have to possibly pony up.  Don't see your Alderman on the list?  Why not give him or her a ring and ask why?  Don't know who your Alderman is?  We've got you covered.

Not normally inclined to take seriously anything that appears in Michael Sneed's column (for many reasons such as this), we'll go ahead and mention the rumors swirling around that Mayor Daley will not be endorsing Todd Stroger in his eventual re-election bid for Cook County Board President.  WBEZ has some more color for us here.

Finally, one of our fellow Chicagoans had quite the fun idea today.  Alas, no one indulged her.  Let's remedy that, shall we?  Leave your question idea in the comments and maybe even a guess as what the Mayor's answer would be.

Photo by Chicago Tribune

Mayor Daley remains composed in the face of widespread criticism

DAILY NEWS

Our trials and tribulations in the effort to once again start receiving the Mayor's schedule are still continuing.  On the off chance that someone from the Mayor's press office is reading this, please start returning our phone calls.  Come on, it's not so hard.  You pick up the receiver, push some buttons.... well, you get the idea.

Sheesh... we love covering the Mayor for all you good folks, but sometimes it's hard not to feel jealous of this guy for instance.

DALEY NEWS

Coverage of the Aldermanic pushback (if one can even call it that) continues with this Tribune roundup.  Dare we say there is a tone of disappointment being expressed here in regards to the resolutions being introduced to limit taxpayer liability for the Olympics?

Of three newly introduced measures, only one appears to have the potential to seriously damage the mayor's Olympic quest, and that proposal appeared to have only scant support in the council.

That proposal is being advanced by Alderman Manny Flores of the 1st ward.  Before you go getting all excited though, you should know that the proposal only seeks to limit our financial liability to $500 million and when all's said and done, Ald. Flores says he still supports the bid.  And of course that $500 million cap has already been voted on and approved by the City Council twice before.  Maybe the third time's the charm in Chicago.

Nevertheless, observers say that a resolution of this nature could harm Chicago's standing amongst the other cities competing to win the Games and an official who was in charge of the Atlanta Olympics seems concerned on our behalf:

"You don't want to put a land mine in the ... middle of the road," said A.D. Frazier, who was chief operating officer of the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996 and is a Chicago 2016 supporter.

Heavens no.  Not a landmine.  Although we've got a few ideas on where it could be placed.

If you're getting the feeling that there's nothing on this earth, much less a landmine, that can stop the Olympics from coming here, you're probably correct.  Mayor Daley certainly seemed unfazed by any of the grumbling according to this placid portrait painted by the Chicago Reader's Mick Dumke yesterday.  Content with the state of things, the Mayor as usual delighted with some classic utterances like this one:

“Unions are good,” Daley said, and then added, “They’re not all evil.”

The Mayor was of course talking about the unions because the City Council had just approved a measure to force unpaid days off for non-union city workers.  The Mayor is of course urging the unions to accept a similar deal.

Maybe those "evil unions" are the ones that are now reneging on an agreement for unpaid days off that are meant to avert mass layoffs.  Incidentally, the amount that would be saved by such a layoff is $76 million per year.  Quick, how much is that Olympic guarantee again? 

The mayor is back and town and there was no welcome home party for him at the City Council meeting yesterday. In fact, at the first meeting since the mayor returned from Switzerland, Aldermen for the first time in (ever?) -- stood up to Mayor Daley.

Three proposals were introduced to stop tax payer liability on the Olympics. Ald. Manuel Flores introduced an ordinance to cap the city's liability for 2016 losses at $500 million, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, introduced a proposal to require bid committee chief Patrick Ryan to explain to Aldermen many financial aspects of the 2016 effort, and Ald. Edward Burke and Ald. Patrick O'Connor called for the Civic Federation to analyze the Olympic bid.

Since returning from Switzerland, the Mayor has offered several excuses as to why he put taxpayers on the line - saying he never actually signed an agreement and that this wasn't his idea.

"If they (Alderman) want to be against it, fine-they can be against it," he said. "This is not Mayor Daley's idea. Let's forget that. This is not Mayor Daley's idea. This is not Mayor Daley's plan. We went though a whole process several years ago with the U.S. Olympic Committee, and we got strong support, and we were the finalists-they selected Chicago on behalf of the United States of America. We represent the United States of America-not just Chicago. . . . If they oppose it, I have no problem with that."

The Mayor promised more details on the plan would follow and that when he had them he would brief the press on it.

Well Chicago, get ready to fork over $3.3 Billion.

Photo: Chicago Tribune

DALEY NEWS

Mayor Richard M. Daley today leaned on a longtime fix-up man to sanitize Streets and Sanitation as he demoted the department's head to his old job in Fleet Management.

Thomas Byrne will take over for Michael Picardi, under fire after investigators found garbage-truck crews slacking off on the job last year — among other things, urinating on the very streets they were supposed to keep clean.

It didn't help that Picardi was running the department in December, when the Daley administration decided to cut costs.  Rather than pay overtime, city officials left side roads packed with snow until workers could take care of them during working hours.

Picardi promised to fix things, but the mayor lost his patience. Daley demoted him to City Hall's chief fleet manager, cutting his pay by more than $16,000.

Byrne, brought to the city's beleaguered transportation department to oversee accountability there in 2005, now has another turnaround job on his hands. Daley:

In every job he has had, Tom has proven that he is an experienced
manager who is committed to operational efficiency and accountability —
and that is what I expect him to provide in the new role.

The Sun-Times' Fran Spielman explains how this political romance began:

Twenty years ago, Daley ran for mayor on a promise to bolster school
security with a campaign commercial that showed him slamming a locker
door shut. He forged a bond with Byrne, who was head of the school
patrol unit at the time.

For Byrne, being at the right place at the right time has become righting what's wrong in Chicago — at least in the mayor's eyes.

DALEY NEWS
Mayor Daley is back from his Jordanian vacation today and he wasted no time battling back criticism over his plan to stick taxpayers with the bill if the city bungles the budget for the Olympics.

At the opening of the new MillerCoors headquarters (a company that received millions of dollars in TIF money to set up shop in the Loop) the mayor said not to worry. Before taxpayers could be put on the hook for the games, we’d first have to burn through the $2.5 billion buffer he’s put in place.   

But wait, let’s do the math on this. Of the $2.5 billion, $500 million is already coming from Chicago taxpayers. Another $250 million would be paid out by Illinois citizens. And $400 million will come from “rainy-day funds,”  a mythical mound of money that is supposed to come from the games itself.  Finally, another $1.3 billion would come from insurance that taxpayers would pay for. And if we’ve learned anything over the last year, it’s that you can always trust an insurance company to make good when you come to claim.

“That is our protection of the city of Chicago,” the mayor said of the $2.5 billion.

So wait, we’re protected from having to pay for Olympic overruns by… our own money?

DALEY CHATTER
The mayor’s press office continues to refuse to talk to us. I’ve left half a dozen messages during the last two weeks, but have yet to hear back from them. I’m really starting to worry. Should we round up some bloodhounds and send out a search team?

Here are some possible explanations for the continued silence from the press office:  

• Daley took the team to Switzerland, but forgot them there. They are now wandering the Alps like the Von Trapp family.

• City Hall has yet to figure out this whole “internet” thing. One tech-savvy staffer at the press office was going to check the America Onlines for the Windy Citizen when he got home, but decided he couldn’t afford to waste any of his 2000 free minutes. However, that presumes that the same staff who put up this abominable webpage are even capable of logging on to AOL.

• The entire staff of the press office were among the 1500 city employees Daley axed two weeks ago. But wait, that’s silly. The mayor’s propaganda machine is an indispensable part of the city bureaucracy. Trashmen and police officers, on the other hand, we can do without.

And finally...

• The staff of Daley’s press office are incredibly fucking terrible at their jobs. Hmmm, that one actually seems to fit.

If you have any ideas where the missing press office is, be sure to leave ‘em in the comments section.

That’s all, folks. Have a great weekend!

Image via the Tribune

Mayor Daley isn't around so remaining Chicago politicos valiantly try to fill in

DALEY NEWS

With Mayor Daley still far, far away from here, we hardly know what to do with ourselves! Apparently some aldermen are similarly at a loss. Particularly Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), who recently may have become better known as former Governor Blagojevich's father-in-law, but prior to that he would have been known as one of the clout kings of Chicago (not to be confused with the sausage king of Chicago).

Alderman Mell is soliciting the opinions of his constituents regarding the Olympics and whether we should continue pursuing them or not. Psst, Alderman, we believe that particular train has long ago left the station.

Lest we get too caught up by this seemingly responsible aldermanic action, we should remember that this is not so much the action of a responsible elected leader, but more so an impotent official who's not happy to be left holding the bag while the boss is away:

It's not that [the Aldermen] were shocked by the [Mayor's financial] commitment itself; it's more that they didn't expect that he would make it overseas while they were left to explain and defend it by themselves back at home--especially when they haven't recovered from being beaten up over rubber-stamping the parking meter lease deal.

In any event, why not let Alderman Mell know how we feel? Even if we don't live in the 33rd ward.

DALEY CHATTER

If you've had enough of the Aldermen, that's too bad. In Mayor Daley's absence, they are all that remains to infuriate and amuse. And amuse they did with their follow-up to yesterday's meeting with Olympic bid committee officials.

Of course if you don't consider the lack of any new information to be amusing, there's always this pronouncement:

“We don’t want to be caught like we were with the parking meter fiasco,” said Ald. Willie Cochran (20th). “We are waiting for the supporting documentation."

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to avoid any more fiascos? Alderman Cochran seems to be clean out of ideas here.

Photo via Chicagoist

Mayor Daley's absence allows for some interesting developments and, as always, some interesting press coverage

DALEY NEWS

Our dear leader is still in Jordan.  Hopefully he's enjoying the warm hospitality that he's most definitely not going to receive once he gets back to Chicago.  It may be hot in the Middle East, but it's getting pretty near boiling here with things like this going on.

DALEY CHATTER

They say when the cat is away, the mice will play and the City Council did their best to bring that expression to life today when they had a hush-hush meeting with the Olympic bid committee. 

If the Mayor was in town, we're faily certain that no such confab would ever take place.  What we'd have instead is Daley reassuring the Aldermen that really, everything will be fine and they'd best pipe down with their complaints right quick or they'd soon find themselves forced to get a real job or maybe discover their neighborhood to be the proud new host of new parking meters.  We're only joking of course.  The Mayor doesn't have the power to do any of that.  Does he?

But back to that "secret" meeting.  It was a tale of two stories as the Tribune and Sun-Times covered it in their own unique ways.  The Tribune coverage seemed intent on telling us to move along, there's nothing to see here:

A Chicago 2016 spokeswoman said the meetings are not an about-face for bid organizers, who are led by businessman Pat Ryan. Rather, they were a decision the bid team made "as we're going throught this in in real time and hearing things and responding to them," said Chicago 2016 spokeswoman Mica Matsoff. "It wasn't that he excluded this on Monday."

In case an official spokesman for the bid committee (let us repeat, the bid committee) didn't convince you that this is no big deal, further assurance was provided by the Mayor's mouthpiece, the ever-present Jackie Heard:

“Nothing is out of the ordinary here,” said Jacquelyn Heard, the mayor's spokeswoman. “Aldermen are routinely briefed by mayoral staff and others, and those briefings are never public. . .  The mayor did say he would bring it before council. The briefings don’t cancel it out.”

So let's recap.  The folks charged with bringing the Olympics here and a person whose job it is to speak for the Mayor (who you may have heard is a supporter of the Olympics coming here) are both telling us that this is nothing unusual, nothing important, certainly nothing to focus our attention on.  I don't know about you, but I'm sold!

Meanwhile, the Sun-Times continued to give the floor to the Aldermen in their take.  While not exactly productive either, it certainly is entertaining:

“There are some people who believe it’s always better to apologize than ask permission. But, this is one of those situations where they would have done themselves a whole lot of good to take the flak up-front,” [Alderwoman] Preckwinkle said.

Apologize rather than ask permission.  Hmmm, what does that sound like?  Does it sound like 45 of 50 Aldermen approving a parking meter lease deal and then falling all over themselves to say they made a mistake? 

But why on Earth are we even bringing up those silly parking meters anyway?  Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th) does a darn good job of reminding us how futile that outrage now is:

“There’s a lot of anger out there looking for a focal point and the Olympics allow a focal point. The parking meters are one more thing they’re angry about. But, the parking meter deal is done. The Olympics is something they can impact,” he said.

Of course he's referring to the Aldermen here, but maybe all Chicagoans should imagine that they're being spoken to.  After all, just because one battle is lost doesn't mean another one shouldn't be fought.

Photo by Substance News

 Photo courtsey of the Wall Street Journal

The Mayor is off today, apparently still in Jordan the only place hotter than Chicago.

And while the Mayor spent last week selling off the city to get the Olympics, today Chicago2016 tried to close the deal with the people. Around the city bid organizers hosted various fun runs in various parks in honor of International Olympic Day. Celebrity Olympic guests even included Jackie Joyner Kersee and Michael Conley while North Avenue beach served as the site of a multi-sport extravaganza for volleyball, basketball, soccer and fencing.

Wow. If that doesn't make you wish the Olympics would come to Chicago, what would? How about a promise of higher taxes and more clout?

Luckily, there was some backlash today. 1st Ward Ald. Manny Flores is now saying that he will introduce an ordinance that will limit the city's liability for the Games to $500 million.

According to his interview on WBEZ

"To just simply say, 'Well, we're going to write a blank check and we're gonna put the City of Chicago, hold the City of Chicago responsible for that blank check,' I can't sign on to that

You go Manny.

DALEY NEWS

Look, really, don't worry. We would have told you earlier, but we didn't want you to worry — not that there was anything to worry about.

That, essentially, was the message from Patrick Ryan today.

Ryan, the head of the Chicago 2016 team trying to lure the Olympics into the city, told reporters that he knew weeks ago that Chicago would need to accept full financial responsibility for the 2016 games if they happened in Chicago.

He didn't tell reporters earlier because it could have caused bad publicity before the mayor's trip to Switzerland, Ryan said.

I think had we announced
something before we went over we would have weakened our position with
IOC members, and we would have maybe had a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Even if the city lost money trying to fund the games, an insurance policy would cover it, Ryan said: Chicago 2016 would take out $1 billion in extra security for the games. Premiums would cost $15 million to $20 million.

So why did city officials accept this deal? Ryan said the city had no choice.

They have never given the games to anyone who didn't sign the host city contract.

That host city contract basically ties Chicago to any financial risk.

Say a sponsor drops out. That's on Chicago. Or a country drops out of the games, as the United States did during the 1980 Moscow Olympics. That's on Chicago. Or September 11 happens again. That's on — no, wait.

A 9/11 wouldn't even get close to hitting this!

Calm down, people. Trust Risk-Master Ryan. You wouldn't want to toss and turn in bed for months.