Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Finance Committee signs off on blank-check Olympic promise

Sun-Times:
The City Council’s Finance Committee today set the stage to remove the single-biggest impediment to Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid — by authorizing Mayor Daley to sign a host-city contract that amounts to an open-ended guarantee from Chicago taxpayers.

Chicago’s reluctance to match the blank-check promise to cover Olympic losses made by Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro was the major criticism cited by the International Olympic Committee in an evaulation report issued last week.

Today’s Finance Committee vote signals the removal of that road-block. If, as expected, the full Council signs off on Wednesday, the about-face will be communicated directly to IOC members — through letters, phone calls and in-person — before the IOC’s Oct. 2 vote.

The ordinance guarantees that aldermen will have, what Corporation Counsel Mara Georges called “tremendous oversight” over Olympic spending and operations, as the Civic Federation has recommended.

Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) and Budget Committee Chairman Carrie Austin (34th) will be ex-officio members of the Olympic Organizing Committee set to replace Chicago 2016 if the IOC chooses Chicago.
How do you feel about the Olympics coming to Chicago in 2016?

UPDATE 7:23 PM Ald. Lyle figures in this excerpt from Clout Street.
The same may vs. shall dynamic played out in another provision to allow--but not require---public interest organizations to analyze the Olympics for the council.

Georges said alderman had requested "discretion" on the issue, explaining the reason for using the word "may."

Alds. Bernard Stone (50th), Freddrenna Lyle (6th) and Helen Shiller (46th) spoke in favor of maintaining council "discretion." Mandating outside oversight would amount to "ceding our authority," Shiller said.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) disagreed, saying that without outside oversight "the City Council would take on the role of a clerk."
UPDATE 7:44 PM More from Crain's

The contract guarantees that Chicago will spend whatever is necessary to put on the Olympics as well as absorb any operating losses. Such losses are seen as unlikely, but the City Council, which previously had authorized a maximum backstop of $500 million, balked at a blanket guarantee.

“We’ve come a long way from where we started,” said Ald. Manuel Flores, (1st), who pushed Mr. Daley for more disclosure of the financial risks and safeguards for taxpayers. “Now we have to ensure what we wrote in the ordinance is actually put to work.”

The council’s willingness to authorize the guarantee seemed in doubt in June, when Mr. Daley announced he would have to sign the blanket commitment when he arrived in Lausanne, Switzerland, for a presentation to the IOC.

The City Council and the 2016 bid committee reached a deal after the Chicago bid committee agreed to provide detailed quarterly financial reports on the process and information about who gets Olympic contracts. The project has an estimated budget of $4.8 billion.

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