Mayor
Rahm
Emanuel today is expected to name business executives, a labor leader and a
former
City
Hall watchdog to serve on a new board that aims to lure billions from
private investors to help pay for public projects.
The first chairman of
the Chicago Infrastructure Trust will be James Bell, who recently retired as
executive vice president of
Boeing
Co.Rounding out the panel will be Diana Ferguson, a former chief
financial officer at Sara Lee Foodservice; David Hoffman, the former city
inspector general; Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor;
and Ald.
John Pope,
10th.
Bell said that for the trust to work, the city "clearly (was) going
to need the credibility of an outside independent board." Trying something novel
is necessary, Bell said, because although the city has financial constraints it
still has to repair decaying infrastructure.
"We can't keep writing
checks if we don't have money," said Bell, who also is a member of World
Business Chicago, the private business group Emanuel has authorized to be the
city's economic development arm.
"Getting the private sector to invest in
municipal infrastructure is something that will have to be proved out. It will
be looked at by people who are trying to see if this concept and innovative idea
really works," Bell added.
The board will craft deals with private
investors as members of a nonprofit trust not subject to all the same rules as
city government. The trust will work directly with the city and its sister
agencies to determine which big-ticket projects to undertake as it attempts to
rebuild the city.
Ramirez was on hand when Emanuel introduced the concept
and has touted the plan as a jobs program. It makes sense to have labor
represented on the board, Ramirez said.
"It's smart and it's a call to
collaboration that we've been looking for," Ramirez said. "I wasn't sure if he
was going to put a labor person on it or not. Some of the boards are so heavily
stacked with business and that doesn't always work. It's crucial for you to get
the different perspectives available at table."
Ramirez has had a rocky
relationship with the mayor. The Chicago Federation of Labor sat out the mayor's
race, and one of Emanuel's early moves as mayor was threatening unions with
layoffs if they didn't agree to work-rule changes.
Later, Ramirez worked
with the administration to develop a wellness program for city workers. But last
month, the mayor angered organized labor when he called for raising retirement
ages for city workers and freezing cost-of-living increases for retired
employees for 10 years as a way to fix the ailing pension system.
"The
hope is that you use any opportunity to establish a meaningful dialogue,"
Ramirez said. "This is not a pro-mayor, pro-labor thing. It's about putting
people back to work."
Union investment funds also are expected to put
money behind some of the projects the trust will undertake.
Hoffman's
nomination is meant to signal that the members will operate above board.
Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor, gained a reputation for challenging Mayor
Richard
Daley's administration. He left the post in 2009 to make an unsuccessful
Democratic bid for the U.S. Senate. During the mayoral campaign Hoffman lent his
name and credibility to Emanuel when he backed Emanuel's "ethics and good
government agenda."
"This idea has great potential, but only if it is
done the right way. Success will require at least four things: very strong
transparency, oversight including from the IG, full public deliberation and
decisions based on the merits, not connections or loyalties," said Hoffman, a
partner at the law firm Sidley Austin.
During the contentious City
Council debate on the infrastructure trust, aldermen insisted that one of their
own be appointed to sit on the board. That's Pope, who represents a diverse
Southeast Side ward.
To address council concerns, Emanuel ensured a
council vote on every trust-financed project involving city money, assets or
property. And the mayor issued an executive order requiring the trust board to
pick analysts to evaluate each deal and to conduct annual financial reviews of
the trust.
The mayor also added some ethics and sunshine provisions, but
good-government groups and critical aldermen said they did not go far enough.
Some aldermen said the board still has too much unchecked power to make deals
that could affect city finances for decades.
The first undertaking of the
trust is the relatively modest, noncontroversial example called Retrofit
Chicago, in which private investors would lend the city up to $225 million to
make energy efficiency improvements to city buildings.
"Our nominees are
professionals of the highest magnitude who will operate in a transparent
fashion, and will bring to the board the strictest fiduciary and ethical
standards," Emanuel said in a statement.
Emanuel will formally nominate
the board at the June 27 council meeting.
