Now, the mayor has a new headache: minority contracting.
Only 7.2 percent of the $329 million base contract with Cubic Transportation, the Ventra vendor — minus financing costs — is shared by black contractors.
Chicago firms are getting a 9.6 percent piece of the pie.
Twenty-six percent of that 9.6 percent is going to a white woman who once served as former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s campaign manager for “marketing and outreach.” Carolyn Grisko, who started her own firm after running Daley’s 1995 campaign, said she has been working on the Ventra contract “since Day One”— not just since the rollout went south.
“We did all the branding, advertising and community outreach. We had to develop all the advertising in-station and out-of-station,” Grisko told the Chicago Sun-Times. Her 12-year contract coincides with Cubic’s and is valued at $8.3 million over the life of the agreement.
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