[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 45 (Monday, April 22, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3006-S3009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE FIX IS IN ON O'HARE AIRPORT

  Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, in the upcoming discussion on the 
expansion of O'Hare, in which I know the Presiding Officer has been 
deeply involved, one of the issues the Senate will be debating will be 
a competitive bidding requirement for the contracts and concessions at 
O'Hare Airport. I intend to offer an amendment that would apply Federal 
competitive bidding procedures to the contracts at O'Hare and which 
would require the city of Chicago to disclose the recipients of those 
contracts.
  The lead articles in the two major Chicago newspapers over the 
weekend illustrate precisely why this competitive bidding amendment is 
essential. The two papers, taken together, report a pattern of flagrant 
and chronic abuse in the city of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune reports 
that Mayor Daley's pals get rich yet again on a huge public works 
project that the city of Chicago thoroughly misrepresented. 
Simultaneously, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that, because of a budget 
crisis, city workers get the choice of unpaid days off or layoffs. That 
is the pattern: The connected guys get the bucks; the ordinary guys get 
the shaft.
  Yesterday, the Tribune reported that a major Chicago deal was enacted 
with the aid of an intense public relations campaign that misled the 
citizens of the city and the State on a number of key issues. That 
deal--Soldier Field--followed a distinctly Chicago pattern. After the 
deal was rammed through, we find that misrepresentations were so 
egregious that it is difficult to call them misrepresentations and not 
outright fabrications. We also find that several political friends and 
allies of both the mayor and the Governor make serious money off their 
inside connections.
  I will read from the Tribune. The title of the article is ``Bears 
play, Public pays.'' It is by Andrew Martin, Liam Ford, and Laurie 
Cohen.
  I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Chicago Tribune, Apr. 21, 2002]

                        Bears Play, Public Pays

             (By Andrew Martin, Liam Ford and Laurie Cohen)

       As construction at Soldier Field advances, a Tribute 
     analysis of the $632 million project shows that the public 
     bill for the stadium renovation is higher than city officials 
     have said it would be while benefits to taxpayers--in terms 
     of promised parkland and additional part revenues--fall short 
     of what was promised.
       The bottom line is that the new Chicago Bears stadium will 
     get one of the largest government contributions in the 
     history of professional sports, a fact obscured by a public-
     relations strategy that tried to divert attention from the 
     public costs. Among the Tribune's findings
       City officials have said the public bill for the project 
     won't exceed $406 million; in fact, another $26 million in 
     public costs is buried in bond documents. That money brings 
     the total public tab to $432 million.
       While Mayor Richard Daley praised the Bears's $200 million 
     contribution to the project as ``unheard of'' for a publicly 
     owned stadium, neither the mayor nor anyone else involved in 
     the project noted that the city's contribution also might be 
     unprecedented.
       Officials with the Chicago Park District, which owns 
     Soldier Field, have called the renovated stadium a good deal 
     for the agency. But an internal Park District analysis shows 
     the agency will make $900,000 less the first full year the 
     stadium is open, figures that officials now dispute. 
     Meanwhile, the new stadium is expected to double the value of 
     the Bears franchise, experts said.
       Proponents of the stadium renovation pointed to the 
     creation of 19 acres of parkland for Chicagoans. But 
     officials counted landscaped medians and sloped berms beside 
     a parking garage as part of the acreage, according to one of 
     the project's architects, Dirk Lohan.
       In reality, only about 10 acres of usable parkland is being 
     created, according to an analysis by Friends of the Parks, 
     which is suing to stop the renovation. The lawsuit could be 
     decided at a hearing Thursday.
       ``You're not able to play on a slope or on the middle of a 
     roadway,'' said Erma Tranter, the group's president.
       The strategy to sell the Soldier Field renovations, mapped 
     out in a 1990 memo by the Bears' public-relations firm, was 
     based on emphasizing the new stadium's amenities, such as new 
     parkland and expanded lakefront parking in an underground 
     garage, while downplaying public costs for the Bears 
     facility.
       ``The problem with the current debate is that it is too 
     often about the Chicago Bears and not about the future of 
     Chicago and its prized lakefront,'' according to the memo, 
     crafted by the firm, Burson-Marsteller. The public-
     relations advisers recommended a strategy recommended a 
     strategy that includes changing ``the conversation from 
     `public funding for the Chicago Bears stadium needs' to a 
     civic-led discussion'' about such things as preserving 
     Soldier Field as a landmark and ``doing things right, the 
     Chicago way,'' said the memo, a copy of which was obtained 
     by the Tribune.
       The Soldier Field deal contradicts previous public 
     statements from the mayor and Gov. George Ryan, who had 
     balked at government financing for the stadium.
       It also ran counter to a trend in the NFL in which teams in 
     lucrative markets such as the Washington Redskins and the New 
     England Patriots are paying most of the costs for their 
     privately owned stadiums, the Tribune analysis found.
       Meanwhile, in nearly every city where government subsidies 
     were used for a publicly owned NFL stadium in the last 
     decade, a referendum was held to ask voters whether they 
     approved of the idea. In Chicago, the city went to court to 
     stop a proposed referendum on the plan.
       Daley on Saturday defended his support for the Soldier 
     Field project, saying the $200 million private contribution 
     was unprecedented and the public portion was paid for by 
     taxes on hotel rooms, not property taxes.
       Had the city not proceeded with the stadium deal, the mayor 
     said, ``Soldier Field, what are you going to do with it?''
       Daley appeared to confirm the Friends of the Parks 
     allegation that the project would only create 10 acres of 
     usable parkland, not 17. ``They're building 10 acres of open 
     space and another seven acres of landscape in all of that. 
     That's what you need to make it environmentally friendly.''
       The city's longtime point man on the Soldier Field deal, 
     Edward Bedore, a former city budget director who now is a 
     lobbyist for the city, Park District Supt. David Doig and 
     other Park District officials declined to be interviewed.
       Bears Chief Executive Officer Ted Phillips and former Bears 
     President Michael McCaskey declined to comment.
       Barnaby Dinges, a public relations consultant for the 
     project, said the Park District will save money in the long 
     term by not paying the increasing costs of maintaining an 
     old, deteriorating stadium.
       ``There are tremendous benefits to this project,'' Dinges 
     said. ``After 30 years of trying, the Park District, the 
     Bears, the city and the state finally found a plan that does 
     right by taxpayers, park and Museum Campus users, the 
     lakefront, sports and entertainment fans and the people of 
     Illinois.''
       In written responses to questions, Park District officials 
     said that the Bears' contribution to the project far exceeds 
     what most other teams have chipped in for stadiums. Park 
     District officials also stood by their estimate for new 
     parkland, which was revised from 19 acres to 17 acres after 
     the deal passed the state legislature and more precise 
     calculations were made.
       ``This figure includes the planted medians, which amount to 
     just a fraction of an acre,'' the statement says.
       Lohan, the architect, said, ``A berm can have plants on it, 
     and isn't that part of a park?''


                            a deal is struck

       Although most of the principals would not comment, others 
     familiar with the deal suggested that the decades-long logjam 
     over a new Bears stadium was broken because of a confluence 
     of several key points. There was a flash of inspiration by 
     the Bears' architect about how to squeeze a new stadium into 
     a historic landmark, an infusion of cash from the NFL and a 
     change of leadership in the governor's office and the Bears' 
     executive suites.
       At the same time, the deal created a huge public-works 
     project with plenty of hefty contracts for friends and 
     political allies of City Hall and Springfield. For instance, 
     the bond work went to former proteges of Bedore's, security 
     for the construction site is provided by an alderman's 
     brother's firm and the local partner for the construction 
     team is a major Ryan contributor whose vice president was 
     chairman of the governor's inaugural ball.
       The Soldier Field project was sold to the public, in part, 
     because of the $200 million contribution by the Bears, which 
     is the largest private contribution for a publicly owned NFL 
     stadium. But the Bears are contributing only about $30 
     million of their own money. The remainder comes from $100 
     million from the NFL and the sale of personal seat licenses 
     to season-ticket holders.

[[Page S3007]]

       The public portion, $432 million, is being financed by an 
     extension of a 2 percent city hotel tax originally levied by 
     the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to pay for Comiskey 
     Park.
       On its face, the city's portion of the Soldier Field 
     project is the largest public contribution in the NFL, in 
     which stadiums are larger and generally more expensive than 
     those in other professional sports.
       The next-biggest public contribution for a football stadium 
     is in Cincinnati, where taxpayers paid $400 million for Paul 
     Brown Stadium, the Bengals' new $449 million home, according 
     to a Tribune analysis of NFL stadiums built in the last 
     decade.
       Precise comparisons are difficult because some stadium 
     deals, including the deal for Soldier Field, provide 
     amenities outside of the stadium. Similarly, some stadiums 
     include costs for land acquisition. Some, like Soldier Field, 
     do not because they are on publicly owned property.
       The cost of building just the stadium at Soldier Field is 
     estimated at $383 million, prompting the Park District to 
     claim that the Bears will pay more than half the cost of the 
     new facility. But critics say that calculation is imprecise 
     because it does not include the cost of amenities that will 
     primarily serve the stadium, such as the parking deck south 
     of Soldier Field and landscaping on stadium access roads.
       Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based sports 
     consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd., said the high cost of the 
     stadium and the public contribution reflect a decision to 
     keep the Bears playing on the lakefront in a historic 
     landmark rather than building a new stadium elsewhere.
       ``A 61,000-seat open-air football stadium on a clean site 
     would likely cost less than $400 million,'' Ganis said.


                           creative financing

       Officials have pegged the public cost for the project at 
     $406 million, but the actual amount is $26 million higher, 
     thanks to some financial moves designed to skirt a 
     legislative limit on the value of bonds sold to pay for the 
     deal, the Tribune found.
       Soon after the legislation was passed, it became clear that 
     the project's costs, including the cost of issuing the bonds 
     would exceed that limit, documents and interviews show. The 
     funding problem worsened after Sept. 11 because a sudden drop 
     in Chicago tourism threatened to erode the hotel tax revenues 
     that would be used to pay off the bonds. Shortfalls would 
     require the city to tap its share of state income taxes.
       The solution involved a financing device that allowed the 
     Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to raise $425 million on 
     the bond sale in October while keeping the original value of 
     the bonds at the legislative limit of $399 million. This was 
     done by setting such low prices on some of the bonds that 
     investors were willing to pay extra to buy them; the extra 
     amount, or premium, wasn't included in the value of the 
     outstanding bonds.
       The total public bill comes to $432 million after adding $7 
     million in interest income on the bond proceeds.
       While the public costs of the deal are higher than 
     advertised, the benefits to the Park District appear to be 
     lower. The agency's claims that it will make more money from 
     the new Soldier Field are belied by its documents.
       ``Neighborhood park users win because a renovated Soldier 
     Field will generate at least $10 million in net annual 
     revenues for neighborhood park programs,'' Supt. Doig said in 
     a 2001 letter published in the Tribune.
       According to a city memo last year to Chicago aldermen, the 
     Park District's profit from Soldier Field had been about $9.5 
     million a year. That figure will drop to $8.6 million in 
     2004, the first full year the new stadium will be open, a 
     Park District forecast shows.
       But even the $8.6 million profit forecast is inflated 
     because it includes an annual subsidy from the Illinois 
     Sports Facilities Authority that was wrapped into the Soldier 
     Field legislation, meaning that one public agency essentially 
     will be funding another. That subsidy, which will come from 
     Chicago hotel taxes, will total $3.6 million in 2004.
       In the written responses, Park district officials said that 
     the $8.6 million forecast for 2004 didn't include another 
     contribution from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority--a 
     $1.5 million annual payment for Soldier Field improvements--
     and a projected $500,000 fee from the Chicago Fire.
       The soccer team, which played at Soldier Field before the 
     renovation, plans to play at the new stadium in 2004 but has 
     made no commitments beyond that year, a Fire official said.
       Documents obtained by the Tribune did not include revenue 
     forecasts beyond 2004. Park district officials said they are 
     optimistic that revenues will continue to grow but declined 
     to provide specifics.


                         Friends land contracts

       The Park District may be coming up short at Soldier Field, 
     but some political supporters of Daley and Ryan are not.
       Bedore, who retired from City Hall in 1993, has served as 
     the city's consultant on Soldier Field for years. A former 
     budget director for both Daley and his father, Bedore lists 
     Michael Daley, the mayor's brother, as an attorney for his 
     consulting business, records show.
       The lead bond underwriter for the Soldier Field bonds was 
     George K. Baum and Co. of Kansas City, Mo., which beat out 
     several Wall Street companies for the work. Though the 
     financial advisers for the Illinois Sports Facilities 
     Authority ranked at least two other firms ahead of Baum, 
     sources familiar with the deal said City Hall demanded the 
     Baum get the assignment.
       Baum's Chicago office is headed by two former city budget 
     officials and Bedore proteges, Anthony Fratto and Albert 
     Boumenot. Baum also had been selected to sell bonds for 
     Millennium Park, another project that Bedore launched for 
     Daley.
       When Baum was selected for the Soldier Field work in March 
     2001, the firm never had been lead underwriter on a deal for 
     more than $350 million, according to the information service 
     Thomson Financial. Baum collected fees of at least $1.3 
     million for the deal, bond documents and interviews show.
       Jerry Blakemore, the sports authority's chief executive, 
     declined to comment on the bond deal, as did the authority's 
     financial advisers. Fratto and Boumenot could not be reached 
     for comment.
       The prime contractor for the Soldier Field renovation, 
     selected without competitive bidding by the Bears, is a joint 
     venture that includes two national firms with stadium-
     building experience and Kenny Construction, a Wheeling firm 
     whose principals are campaign contributors to both Daley and 
     Ryan. The company's vice president also was chairman of 
     Ryan's inaugural ball.
       Security at the construction site is being provided by 
     Monterrey Security, a 3-year-old firm that is partially owned 
     by Santiago Solis, the brother of Ald. Danny Solis (25th), 
     one of Daley's closest allies on the City Council.


                          Breaking the logjam

       Despite decades of squabbling over a new stadium for the 
     Bears, the football club's fortunes began to change in late 
     1998.
       That fall, the Bears' architect, Benjamin wood, raised the 
     possibility of renovating Soldier Field, an idea that had 
     always fizzled because there didn't seem to be a way to fit 
     enough seats along the sidelines without ruining the 
     stadium's historic charm.
       During a visit to Chicago, Wood measured the distance 
     between the colonnades of the stadium and thought he might be 
     able to squeeze a stadium into Soldier Field by positioning 
     all the skyboxes and club seats on one side.
       The result: a narrower field that would fit within the 
     stadium's colonnades while positioning most of its seats 
     between the 20 yard lines. Seats in that area offer better 
     views and higher prices.
       In January 1999, George Ryan became governor, replacing Jim 
     Edgar, who had fought with Daley for years over stadium 
     deals. Ryan vowed to work with the mayor and the Bears to 
     resolve the stadium issue ``short of spending taxpayers' 
     dollars on a new stadium.''
       A month later, McCaskey, who had openly feuded with Daley 
     over stadium proposals, was ousted by his mother as Bears 
     president and replaced by the more amiable Phillips.
       With a new design for a stadium in the works, Phillips was 
     a crucial funding boost in March 1999 when the NFL approved a 
     program to help bib-city teams build arenas by offering to 
     match a team's contribution to a stadium project.
       Daley and Phillips later used the NFL money to pressure 
     state legislators to pass the stadium deal during the fall 
     veto session in 2000, saying the money could disappear unless 
     it was used quickly.
       The day the legislation was rushed through Springfield 
     infuriated some legislators.
       ``It came out of left field carried by a Hall of Fame bevy 
     of lobbyists and lawyers who told us that the sky is falling, 
     the world would come to an end, civilization would end as we 
     know it, unless we did this deal in the next 72 hours,'' 
     state Rep. William Black (R-Danville) told his colleagues.
       But late last week, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello indicated the 
     legislative rush may have been unnecessary to land the NFL's 
     $100 million commitment to the Bears.
       ``There wasn't a specific time frame,'' he said.

       Mr. FITZGERALD. I will read an excerpt from that article:

       The park district may be coming up short at Soldier Field 
     but some political supporters of Daley and Ryan are not. 
     Bedore, who retired from City Hall in 1993, has served as the 
     city's consultant on Soldier Field for years. A former budget 
     director for both Daley and his father, Bedore lists Michael 
     Daley, the mayor's brother, as an attorney for his consulting 
     business, records show. The lead bond underwriter for the 
     Soldier Field bonds was George K. Baum and Co. of Kansas 
     City, MO, which beat out several Wall Street companies for 
     the work.
       Though the financial advisers for the Illinois Sports 
     Facilities Authority ranked at least two other firms ahead of 
     Baum, sources familiar with the deal said City Hall demanded 
     that Baum get the assignment.
       Baum's Chicago office is headed by two former city budget 
     officials and Bedore proteges, Anthony Fratto and Albert 
     Boumenot. Baum also has been selected to sell bonds for 
     Millennium Park, another project that Bedore launched for 
     Daley.
       When Baum was selected for the Soldier Field work in March 
     2001, the firm never had been lead underwriter on a deal for 
     more than $350 million, according to the information service 
     Thomson Financial. Baum collected fees of at least $1.3 
     million for the deal, bond documents and interviews show.
       Jerry Blakemore, the sports authority's chief executive, 
     declined to comment on the

[[Page S3008]]

     bond deal, as did the authority's financial advisers. Fratto 
     and Boumenot could not be reached for comment.
       The prime contractor for the Soldier Field renovation, 
     selected without competitive bidding by the Bears, is a joint 
     venture that includes two national firms with stadium-
     building experience and Kenny Construction, a Wheeling firm 
     whose principals are campaign contributors to both Daley and 
     Ryan. The company's vice president also was chairman of 
     Ryan's inaugural ball.
       Security at the construction site is being provided by 
     Monterey Security, a 3-year-old firm that is partially owned 
     by Santiago Solis, the brother of Alderman Danny Solis, one 
     of Daley's closest allies on the city council.

  What the Tribune has reported is flagrant, conspicuous, insider 
dealing. The friends and allies of the mayor get rich on huge public 
works projects that are, to begin with, misrepresented to the people. 
We have seen it with Millennium Park in Chicago, and we are seeing it 
now with Soldier Field. Does anyone really believe it is going to be 
any different with the O'Hare expansion?
  The only difference with O'Hare will be the scale and the scope, both 
of the misrepresentations of the consequences of the project and of the 
amount of money that will flow to the friends and allies of the mayor.
  Chicago is indeed the city that works, and it works the same angle 
over and over. The city cut the template on this kind of a deal: Ram it 
through, fabricate the details, and watch as the money comes home to 
daddy.
  And what about the ordinary guys? A headline in the Sunday Chicago 
Sun-Times: Daley to city workers: Take unpaid days or face layoffs. The 
paper reports:

       Mayor Daley is asking unions representing all city 
     employees except police and firefighters to make a painful 
     choice--take five unpaid vacation days, put off their raise 
     for six months or face 425 layoffs--to generate $15 million 
     in savings to help solve Chicago's worst budget crisis in a 
     decade. . . .

  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this article 
from the Chicago-Sun Times from April 21, 2002.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

           Daley to City Workers: Pick Unpaid Days or Layoffs


  ``Don't hold your breath,'' replies police union chief; other labor 
                              groups upset

                           (By Fran Spielman)

       Mayor Daley is asking unions representing all city 
     employees except police and fire-fighters to make a painful 
     choice--take five unpaid vacation days, put off their raise 
     for six months or face 425 layoffs--to generate $15 million 
     in savings to help solve Chicago's worst budget crisis in a 
     decade, labor leaders said.
       ``It's not anybody against anybody. It's trying to keep 
     people surviving,'' Daley told reporters Saturday at a far 
     South Side school.
       Sworn police officers and firefighters would be exempt from 
     layoffs partly because their contracts prohibit them unless 
     nonsafety personnel are sacrificed first.
       But police and fire unions are being asked to contribute by 
     accepting one unpaid furlough day. That would cost the 
     average sworn police officer about $200.
       ``Don't hold your breath,'' said Mark Donahue, newly 
     elected president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
       ``Our new board will be consulted. A decision will be made 
     early next week. But I don't know that it has a great deal of 
     chance to be considered. There's a lot of frustration among 
     uniformed sworn personnel over our recent contract 
     negotiations.''
       James McNally, newly elected president of the Chicago 
     Firefighters Union Local 2, refused to comment on the city's 
     request, except to say that Chicago firefighters who changed 
     union presidents this week are ``looking for a contract.''
       Ousted Local 2 President Bill Kugelman, who got the boot 
     because of the three-year wait for a new contract, didn't 
     mince words.
       ``They've been sticking it to us all this time, and now 
     we're supposed to be nice guys? All of these unions that 
     Daley has no use for, and now he needs our help? Forget him? 
     Where was he when we needed him? They haven't done a damned 
     thing for us,'' Kugelman said.
       ``That's up to them,'' Daley said. ``You can only ask them, 
     and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to have no 
     one laid off.''
       The Chicago Police Department also is exploring the 
     politically volatile possibility of slowing the steady march 
     of recruit classes through the police academy to cut costs, 
     said Lisa Schrader, a spokeswoman for the city's Office of 
     Budget and Management.
       The training academy has been churning out about 10 classes 
     a year, each with 60 to 100 recruits.
       If rookies hit the streets at a slower rate, it would 
     reduce police protection at a time when the city is losing 
     650 to 700 officers a year to retirement and grappling with a 
     rising homicide rate that last year made Chicago the murder 
     capital of the nation.
       ``There have been internal discussions about what the 
     effects would be of delaying a class. How much would it 
     save,'' Schrader said. ``We don't want to do anything that 
     will compromise public safety. But that's one of the things 
     that's being looked at.''
       There are 13,248 sworn police officers on the street, said 
     Kimberly O'Connell-Doyle, manager of police personnel. 
     Daley's 2002 budget authorized 13,522 sworn officers.
       The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this month that 
     Daley was extending a city hiring freeze through the end of 
     the year, ordering a 5 percent cut in non-personnel spending 
     and considering employee layoffs and more unpaid furlough 
     days to close a $25 million first-quarter gap caused by lower 
     than expected local tax revenues.
       The mayor has said that tax increases on the eve of his 
     2003 re-election bid were a ``last, last, last resort,'' but 
     he has refused to slam the door on either layoffs or new 
     revenues.
       Already, the budget crisis has prompted the City Council to 
     establish an unprecedented $200 million line of credit to pay 
     the city's bills if there's a repeat of what happened in 
     February when the state was late with a $20 million income 
     tax payment.
       Late last week, City Hall began meeting with city labor 
     leaders to discuss specific union givebacks.
       At a meeting Friday hosted by the Chicago Federation of 
     Labor, union leaders representing 14,050 non-safety employees 
     got the bad news from John Doerrer, the former labor liaison 
     now serving as the mayor's director of intergovernmental 
     affairs.
       Doerrer told them the city needs $15 million in personnel 
     savings and that there are basically three ways to get there 
     unless they have other ideas: 425 layoffs, five unpaid 
     furlough days or a six-month deferral of their 3 percent mid-
     year pay raise.
       Daley has the power to order layoffs without union consent 
     so long as he goes about it as outlined by union contracts. 
     Furlough days and pay raise deferrals need union approval.
       ``They have a shortfall of 425 jobs in two corporate funds, 
     and every furlough day is [the equivalent] of 81 jobs. 
     They're looking for $15 million. They don't care how they get 
     to it,'' said Dennis Gannon, secretary-treasurer of the 
     Chicago Federation of Labor.
       ``They gave us those choices, but we're not to the point of 
     picking. The labor community chose to have the city talk to 
     fire and police and see what can happen there, then come back 
     and talk to us again,'' he said.
       Another labor leader in attendance, who asked to remain 
     anonymous, said the city ``didn't seem to have a well 
     thought-out plan . . . They just said, `Here are the options. 
     Let's see which one is most doable.' Obviously to us, layoffs 
     are the worst-case scenario, but most of the unions were 
     pretty upset with it.''
       Five years ago, union leaders allowed the city to reduce 
     its contribution to their overfunded pension funds in a 
     landmark deal that paved the way for a $20 million property 
     tax cut, head-tax relief and $200 million in neighborhood 
     improvements.
       In exchange, the city agreed to lobby the General Assembly 
     to increase the maximum retiree benefit from 75 percent of an 
     employee's highest salary to 80 percent.
       That never happened. And it left a bad taste in the mouths 
     of the union leaders whose support Daley now needs to solve 
     the budget crisis.
       ``If we go to our people and say, `The city needs a hand,' 
     they're going to say, `They came to us before, and they 
     didn't live up to their promise. Why should we help them 
     out?' '' said one labor leader, who asked to remain 
     anonymous.
       Gannon agreed it's ``pretty hard to make more concessions 
     when we're still waiting on things that were promised to us 
     years ago.''
       ``I'd like to see them pass the pension bill, see how many 
     people take retirement and then come back and talk to us 
     about reality,'' he added. ``We could actually have 600 
     people take their pensions. We might not have to lay so many 
     people off.''
       Schrader insisted the options laid out for union leaders 
     are not written in stone.
       ``We need to achieve a certain amount of savings, and there 
     are several ways we can do it. It's not that rigid. We're 
     saying, `Let's work together and be creative,' '' she said.
       The impact of layoffs on city services won't be known until 
     specific employees are targeted. But it could translate into 
     delayed garbage pickup, one union leader said.
       Ten years ago, a budget crisis forced Daley to eliminate 
     1,474 jobs, 837 of them layoffs, and cancel a $25 million 
     property tax cut that was the cornerstone of his 1991 
     reelection campaign.
       The next year, he ordered an additional 740 layoffs and 
     proposed a $48.7 million property tax increase. A rare City 
     Council rebellion forced the mayor to settle for a $28.7 
     million property tax increase and cancellation of a 
     supplemental increase to finance a new police contract.

  The Mayor's pals get rich and the workers get to choose between 
layoffs or unpaid days off. What a contrast.
  But here is a different idea: why not take it from the inside guys 
for a change? Why not take it from all the people who use their 
connections and clout to cash in on no-bid contracts

[[Page S3009]]

and concessions at O'Hare, or Soldier Field, or Millennium Park?
  Why not learn from Millennium Park and Soldier Field and exempt 
O'Hare before the Mayor can do it again? We have a competitive bid 
proposal for concessions and contracts at O'Hare. It is comprehensive. 
The Daley-Ryan forces are opposing it. I wonder why that might be?
  Maybe Mayor Daley should tell us, before the discussion goes any 
farther, who's going to pour the concrete at O'Hare? Will it be someone 
who has been lobbying for the expansion at O'Hare? Who will be hired as 
consultants or so-called ``expediters''? Who will get a cut of the 
contracts? Will it be Jeremiah Joyce or will it be Oscar D'Angelo? Who 
is going to get a piece of the action on the insurance? Is it Mickey 
Segal or is he too hot right now? What about the bonds? Who is going to 
rake it in there? Is it Baum and Co., and Tony Fratto? And what about 
the janitorial contracts? Will that be John Duff, Jr. and his sons, the 
Duffs?
  We have a chance to pass a Federal competitive bid provision for 
O'Hare in the U.S. Senate. If we pass it, it should mean a markedly 
different way of doing business in Chicago, at least at O'Hare. There 
are a number of arguments we will make, and precedents we will review. 
Mr. President, I look forward to the debate and to continuing to work 
with my colleagues on that issue.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Presiding Officer, in his capacity as the 
Senator from West Virginia, suggests the absence of a quorum.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Nelson of Nebraska). Without objection, it 
is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, are we on the energy bill at this time?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill has not been laid down yet.

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