CHICAGO: THE WATCHDOGS: City Hall's $62 million blunder

Ending a costly court fight that City Hall blundered into, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has paid more than $62 million to settle a dispute with the private operators of four city-owned parking garages downtown, records show.

The payment last month ended City Hall’s long and unsuccessful legal fight against claims from investors in the four privately operated garages under Millennium Park and Grant Park.

The dispute dates back six years. That’s when aides to former Mayor Richard M. Daley mistakenly approved a parking garage in the new Aqua building at 225 N. Columbus Dr.

Under the 2006 privatization deal, the Daley administration received $563 million to lease the parking garages for 99 years. As part of the deal, the city wasn’t supposed to allow any new competitors in a vast area surrounding the garages.

But less than three years after the Chicago City Council approved the deal, the Daley administration allowed the Aqua garage to open to the public just a block from the nearest of the privatized lots.

Arguing that that violated their deal, the operators of the garages filed a claim against the city, asking for at least $200 million.

The case went to an independent arbitrator, who ruled in 2013 that the city had breached the contract and should pay $57.8 million in compensation to the parking garage investors.

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

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Eight TSA Workers Arrested in Dallas in Stolen Parking Pass Scam

Eight U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees were among nine people arrested in connection with stolen parking passes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, police said today.

Airport police found stolen airline employee-parking placards had been sold for $100 each to TSA workers. The passes would normally cost $34 a month or $400 a year, according to a police statement.

The passes were among 129 that went missing from an American Eagle Airlines Inc. office inside an airport terminal in March. An airline employee has been arrested on a felony charge involving the theft of the passes, police said. The carrier is a unit of American Airlines parent AMR Corp.

TSA misconduct, and the agency’s handling of it, has been a concern in Congress. The Government Accountability Office said in a July 31 report the agency hasn’t been consistent in meting out discipline for infractions ranging from sleeping on the job to stealing travelers’ laptops from security lines.

One TSA employee faces a felony charge of theft for selling the placards to colleagues, police said. The other six government workers face misdemeanor charges for using the stolen passes. The airport didn’t release names of the arrested employees, saying the investigation was continuing.
Via: NewsMax

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