Still No Word From Illinois Attorney General
16 Months Since AG Opened Meter Lease Deal Investigation
It was May of 2009.
That’s when Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan opened a consumer fraud investigation into the Chicago parking meter lease deal.
At the time, the AG seemed curious to see if consumers had been defrauded, and if the “transaction and implementation” of the new meter system was on the up and up. So Madigan’s office issued subpoenas to the three main players–Chicago Parking Meters, LLC (the company that got the lease), CPM’s majority stake holder, Morgan Stanley, and LAZ Parking, the operational partner for the meter system.
But it’s been 16 months since those subpoenas were issued and so far, not another peep on the subject from Madigan’s office.
By contrast, when David Hoffman was the Inspector General for the City of Chicago, and while admittedly not a consumer fraud investigation, the IGO took approximately six months to scrutinize and prepare its report on Chicago’s parking meter privatization.
So we tried reaching out to the Attorney General’s press office to check the status of the investigation.
After over six weeks of multiple calls (to both office and cell phones), messages left with staff, voice mails, and a handful of e-mails to AG Press Secretary Robyn Ziegler, we finally gave up and began directing our energy toward contacting Deputy Press Secretary Scott Mulford.
Mulford, after a few phone messages and a round of e-mails over a pair of weeks finally responded on behalf of the AG’s office.
“At this time…we will decline comment on the parking meter matter,” said Mulford.
When pressed further on the curiously long time the investigation seemed to be taking, Mulford’s only elaboration was, “Robyn and I can tell you that time lines are not attached to matters that call for a thorough examination by our office.”
Looking for some perspective and insight into the investigative process that takes place within the AG’s office, we tracked down former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan to ask him a few questions.
But Ryan, who was the Illinois AG from 1994 to 2002, and now a professor at Benedictine University, respectfully declined to comment.
Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd) raised a proverbial eyebrow when reminded about the time elapsed since the Attorney General’s initiated its probe.
“I would have expected they would have come out with a statement they were still looking into it,” said Waguespack. “A statement would have been appropriate.”
Not surprisingly, Avis LaVelle, spokesperson for Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, one of the entities being investigated, had no comment on the status of the AG’s investigation either.
Alderman Leslie Hairston (5th), one of the five no votes against the meter lease deal in the city council, was perhaps the most vocal council member about the implementation and botched initial transition of Chicago’s 36,000 parking meter system.
Hairston’s personal experiences with the the new meters and the chaotic transitional period made her a voice of outrage on behalf of drivers frustrated with all the initial problems.
From all accounts it was at Hairston’s behest that Madigan’s office began looking into the potential consumer fraud issues related to the meter privatization. But even Hairston hasn’t heard back from the AG’s office.
“All I can tell you is Lisa Madigan, promised me her office would look into these issues,” said Hairston.
Madigan, running for a third term as Illinois Attorney General, may also be weighing a run for Mayor of Chicago according to the Chicago Tribune.
In the meantime, quarters will continue to drop into parking meters and pay boxes on the streets of Chicago, and time marches on for another 73 years.
Don’t hold your breath. AG Madigan also launched an “investigation” into AT&T’s violations of state video franchising laws two years ago. She puts on a brave face for the cameras but in the end doesn’t do much.
What about the city employees enforcing violations on private meters? That seems pretty fraudulent to me.
In my opinion, the AG should have come to some conclusions by now.
If there’s nothing there, and the three companies are found to be operating properly then the AG should clear them publicly.
Honestly, I never bought the whole consumer fraud thing. A few meters had the wrong info on them or were programmed incorrectly and were over charging. Boo-hoo. It’s human error. So what?
To me, this investigation was a political move by the AG. She was taking advantage of the rage over the parking meter lease deal.
If Madigan runs for Mayor, what do you think the chances are that she’ll ramp up this probe to further her political career?
But, by letting this investigation to continue, without any closure, it makes it look like something wrong is going on.
Ticket Geek. If you think Madigan’s was politically motivated, do you think Hoffman’s was too? Madigan doesn’t need the press, she never has and she has unbelievable name recognition throughout the state.
Hoffman was a nobody until his report and desperately needed the press.
Decent point Reader,
At the time, no one had any idea if Hoffman was going to run for anything. In addition, he was well within his purview for the IGO to look into this matter.
To me, the consumer fraud aspect of the meter lease deal is the weakest portion of the anti-privatization argument and it seems a little bit of a reach to open an investigation at all.
But, in retrospect, I think Hoffman might have seen a political upside to investigating the lease deal.
Perhaps you didn’t know, but Hoffman did. Makes you wonder if his process produced a result, or if his result produced a process.
Why is no one surprised about this?
The statute of limitations is 3 years. There will be 1 year left when Daley is officially out of office.
And Lance….how dense are you?
Its a LEASE.
No one…Not even Daley; can Outright Sell away the Rights to Municipal Property.
The Meters are Owned by the City of Chicago, and Maintained under a leasing Concession by the CPM/Laz group.
LAZ/CPM can lose the Lease through violations of the Contract.
City Hall Still Controls the Meter Rates…and can Increase or Decrease at will.
The City retains the LEGAL Right to Enforce Meters….via PEA’s and CPD and Ser Co.
Please don’t obfuscate DoR.
City is playing “the enforcer” for the benefit of a private company’s revenue stream. (Sure, City benefits from ticket revenue as well, so we get back to the fact that parking tickets are about revenue, not traffic control or safety.)
City can decrease parking rates only if it pays extortionary fees to the same private company for the privilege of doing its job as a city.
SS…this is not a Semantics Debate.
The City Owns the Meters…Period.
The City has the right to Enforce Its Property…Period.
The City does not Allow CPM to write Tickets for the Meters…currently.
You want to have a semantics debate…meet me at a bar, and we can discuss politics in this city over VSOP.
The problem is that the City is forcing the payment of money to the private entity without any request that it be enforced. Would the city even enforce, if called, a claim by a paper vendor that someone had taken one of his papers? No. It would be considered a waste of City resources. But if someone, god help the, fails to put in that last 25 cents in the meter, the private contract is enforced with penalties which far exceed the amount of the “lost” revenue. Frankly, its quite close to being an excessive fine under the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and I am somewhat surprised that this hasn’t been the basis of at least one challenge to the law.
In order to be an 8th Amendment violation, it needs to be a fine, not a remedial action. Remedial would be an amount to repay the Government for lost revenue (and not to help a private party collect). The ticket doesn’t repay the Government for lost revenue. And the amount must be related to the amount of wrong. A multiple of several hundred times (which is the ratio of a ticket to a quarter..) seems to be per se disproportionate.
Hello all,
Well, I found something VERY strange concerning the parking meter contract – the company, SERCO, has the same business address as MERSCORP, which is the parent company of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc (MERS – 1999), and the owner of the “MERS System” database.
You know MERS, that’s the false entity the Banks use to make fraudulent affidavits of assignment of mortgage when a homeowner contests foreclosure of thier home.
I wonder why Illinois allows these deceptive companies to operate here, especially when you can’t get a word on who regulates them.
Just found it very interesting that they share an address (although SERCO lists as suite 1000 and MERSCORP at suite 300 – but these are “virtual offices”, just look at what other contractors they have at that address http://www.rehancement.com/contact.php
I have a feeling something is very wrong about all of this…
DoR Employee :
Strange you didn’t know – Ths “City” doesn’t own the meters, an LLC does. And they sure DO use SERCO officials to issue the tickets – AND take pictures of your vehicle. http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/rev/supp_info/ParkingSupportingInfo/SupplementalParkingMeterEnforcementToResume.pdf
I know a person who installs the meters – they rent the SPACE from the City, and the City owns the SPACE…in fact, if the LLC puts one of thier meters where it doesn’t belong, it will get FINED by the City. That would be funny, wouldn’t it – if the City would fine itself???