Emanuel also agreed to allow CPM to increase the hours the meters stay running, extending them from 9 to 10 PM through most of the city, and until midnight in the Gold Coast and the Loop. In exchange, CPM agreed to turn off the meters on Sunday in neighborhoods outside of downtown.
To sell this swap to the public, Emanuel contended that he was playing hardball with the meter company. He also declared that motorists would end up paying less into the meters overall, thanks to free Sundays.
After several aldermen questioned the savings, the mayor awarded a no-bid $250,000 contract to Navigant to study the matter.
In the spring of 2013, just before the new deal came to the council for a vote, Emanuel aides produced a Navigant report that said that the mayor was right: motorists would indeed feed less money into the system thanks to the renegotiated deal.
Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd) remained unconvinced. “It makes no sense,” he says. “The city’s allowing the parking meter company to keep the meters going longer and increase the fees we pay. But they’re saying we’d be paying less to the meters? I don’t buy it.”
Waguespack says he pressed Steven Patton, the city’s corporation counsel, to substantiate the claim with data, such as usage and revenue figures down to the level of individual meters. “Patton said that information is protected by attorney-client privilege. I said, ‘I represent the people.’ Patton said, ‘I represent the mayor. If you want to see that data, go get an attorney.'”
In other words, if aldermen wanted information needed to make an educated vote on the reworked deal, they’d have to sue the mayor to review it, according to Waguespack.
On June 5, the City Council voted 39 to 11 to reratify the deal.
“These changes will provide much needed relief from this horrible deal,” Emanuel said at the time. He went on to thank the council for making “a little lemonade out of this lemon.”
Not all Chicagoans see it that way. For one thing, many local businesses and chambers of commerce are unhappy with free Sunday parking. They claim it cuts into their profits by enabling motorists to take up valuable spaces that would otherwise be available to Sunday shoppers.