Aldermen lower the boom on Olympic planners after pledge backlash

Chicago aldermen lowered the boom on Mayor Daley’s Olympic planners on Wednesday for concealing the need to sign a host-city contract that amounts to an open-ended guarantee from local taxpayers.

Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan has said he knew several weeks ago that the International Olympic Committee would insist that Chicago match the full-government guarantees pledged by rival cities.

But, Ryan chose to keep it quiet until last week, when Daley made the pledge to IOC members meeting in Switzerland.

That kind of hide-the-ball strategy has “poisoned the well” with the City Council, according to Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), whose ward includes the proposed Olympic Village.

Daley also waited until after the 2007 mayoral election to come clean about the need for a $500 million Olympic guarantee after initially pledging that “not a dime” of taxpayers’ money would be used to host the 2016 Summer Games.

“There are some people who believe it’s always better to apologize than ask permission. But, this is one of those situations where they would have done themselves a whole lot of good to take the flak up-front,” Preckwinkle said.

“They anticipated that not everyone would be happy about this, so they decided to wait until after they’d done it to let us know, which, in a democracy, is bad practice.”

Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said she’s tired of getting “beat up” by South Side residents livid about the mayor’s blank-check pledge at a time when Chicago can ill afford to bankroll bread and circuses.

“People in my community are in my face saying, ‘You were tricked. He said you weren’t gonna have to. Now, he’s saying you must. Who’s watching the shop? Who’s representing us?’” Lyle said.

Earlier this week, Ryan said he needed 45 to 60 days to line up the $1 billion worth of private insurance policies needed to shield taxpayers from any risk beyond the $500 million the City Council has already pledged.

But, with public and political support for the Olympic bid fading fast, Ryan could not afford to wait 45 to 60 days. He needed to do something to stop the bleeding.

Whether or not Wednesday’s closed-door briefings were enough to smooth ruffled aldermanic feathers will not be known until the City Council takes another vote on whether to give Daley the authority to sign the host-city contract.

And that won’t happen until Ryan spells out the carriers, costs and conditions of the private insurance policies he’s lining up.

“There wasn’t much new information today — other than, ‘We’re putting it together’… They asked for a little time to put together the whole package,” said Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd). “I’m not yet convinced. We need to ensure that, whatever budgets we’re looking at, that taxpayers are not on the hook.”

With a City Council vote at least a month away, Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s floor leader, refused to rate the chances that aldermen would derail Chicago’s Olympic bid.

He would only say that aldermen are feeling the heat.

“There’s a lot of anger out there looking for a focal point and the Olympics allow a focal point. The parking meters are one more thing they’re angry about. But, the parking meter deal is done. The Olympics is something they can impact,” he said.