Daley Blames Latest Meter FAIL On "Glitch"

By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 29, 2009 2:40PM

On Wednesday, a bevy of new parking meter boxes across downtown stopped working, leading to free parking for many. Yesterday, Mayor Daley blamed it all on the media a computer glitch, acknowledging frustration with the new system: "Let's be realistic, everybody's frustrated about what took place [Wednesday], the glitch that took place." But some elected officials were more vocal in the frustration.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) told CBS 2 his vote in support of the new meter deal, "was probably the worst vote I cast in 18 years as an alderman." Hindsight is always 20/20, eh? He also suggested possibly trying to get out of the current deal, saying, "This calls into question whether the vendor has breached their contract and giving the city the opportunity to renegotiate this contract." But that charge was dismissed later by Mayor Daley, who pointed out that money from the deal has already been factored into the budget and forcing a renegotiation of the bill would place a large hole in the budget, saying, "We just filled our budget $40 million -- you can't go back to taxpayers for $40 million." Thanks, MayDay, because we'll need that money to pay for our "Don't Blame Me, I voted for Joravsky and Dumke" bumper stickers. [Also worth checking out on a regular basis: The Expired Meter.]