Chicago Reader:

As for defending the deal, it’s pretty clear that the mayor’s central argument is that $1 billion in the bank today is worth more than anything 75 years down the road.

and also here:

In a damning 45-page report issued this afternoon, city inspector general David Hoffman said the Daley administration’s “hasty” consummation of the parking meter privatization deal–as well as the absence of deliberation in the City Council–cost taxpayers at least $1 billion.

“Because the deal was presented to the City Council with very limited information and because the Council scheduled its vote a very short time later, there was no meaningful public review of the decision to lease the parking-meter system,” the report says. “What is standard in the PPP [public-private partnership] ‘best practices’ model–informed deliberation, transparency, and full analysis of the public interest considerations–was not present here.

“In addition, the driving force behind the decision to lease the parking meters was the City’s short-term budgetary need. While we do not question the seriousness of the City’s budget problem that was presented in Fall 2008 because of the recession, the hasty, ‘crisis’ nature of the decision-making process meant that the short-term budget problems and the large upfront payment the City was receiving overshadowed all other legitimate, long-term, public-interest issues.”