Alderman Flores Proposes More Transparency for the City

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 14, 2009 2:20PM

Chicago Aldermen Manuel Flores (1st), Rey Colon (35th), and Brendan Reilly (42nd) proposed The City Asset Lease Agreement Disclosure Ordinance Wednesday that will require documents related to the lease and sale of city assets (i.e., parking meters, downtown parking lots, the Skyway and Midway Airport) to be published and tracked publicly. The ordinance applies to agreements worth more than $10 million.

“This is the next step in our efforts to make Chicago government more transparent and more accountable to the public,” said Flores in a press release. “We need to provide the public with the details of agreements, such as the Skyway and parking meter leases, which have brought in more than $3.5 billion in revenue to the City. The public needs to see where this money is coming from and where it is going.” Currently that information is available online, but is scattered across several websites that are difficult to navigate. “Our City assets are worth billions of dollars and they belong to the people,” said Reilly. “Recent asset lease agreements have generated tremendous revenue for the City and Chicago taxpayers deserve an honest accounting of each dollar of that revenue. Requiring the City to publish a quarterly accounting document will ensure that the people can review their government’s balance sheets.”

Flores recently pushed through a TIF "sunshine ordinance", requiring the city to post all TIF documents on a city-funded website. He's also, like Tony Peraica, quite easy to find on Twitter where he constantly updates.