City says it raised $55 million to cover NATO summit costs
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com March 29, 2012 5:22PM
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Updated: May 1, 2012 8:24AM
Chicago has raised $36.5 million from corporate donors and identified $19.1 million in federal security grants to cover the cost of hosting the May 20-21 NATO summit, officials said Thursday.
“It absolutely means that taxpayers will not be on the hook,” said Lori Healey, executive director of the NATO Host Committee.
“The money we’ve identified from private sources and federal grants is sufficient to cover the estimated cost of the summit.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration had pegged the cost of hosting the NATO and G-8 summits at $40 million to $65 million.
Healey said there were “some adjustments based on fewer official movements” after President Barack Obama shifted the G-8 Summit from Chicago to Camp David.
As a result, the $55.6 million raised from corporate donors and identified in federal grants will be enough to cover the cost of security, traffic control and sanitation services during the summit, as well as the cost of marketing and decorating the city and hosting private receptions for world leaders, Healey said.
“Remember how we had a program to light the buildings downtown for the Olympic bid and make the city look fabulous with banners? That kind of stuff. It’s a great opportunity to showcase the city,” she said.
The NATO Host Committee has posted the names of 34 corporate donors that are a who’s who of Chicago business, without revealing the size of their donations.
The list includes: UPS; Walgreens; Wal-Mart; AECOM; Allstate; Corning; DLA Piper; Edelman; Grosvenor Capital Management LP; McDonald’s; John Buck Co.; Joseph Freed Associates; Honeywell; ITW; JP Morgan; Raytheon; Citi; Duke Energy: FedEx; Health Care Service Corp.; Baxter; BMO Harris Bank; Chevron; CBOE; United Airlines; GE; Motorola Solutions; Pepsico; Caterpillar; CME Group; Exelon; Abbott; AT&T and Boeing Corp.
City Hall had initially talked about having out-of-state police officers assist Chicago Police in handling protesters.
But Healey said Thursday that Police Supt. Garry McCarthy “feels as if the Chicago Police Department has sufficient resources to cover this event — with the caveat that it is standard practice for law enforcement in big cities to exchange tactical units.”
