Thursday, March 26, 2009

Way Overdue





Click here.

23 comments:

  1. Let us know when you find the Letter of Intent from Target.

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  2. Can someone point out the letter of intent from Target? I don't seem to see it.

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  3. Classic "document dump" I'm sure she's banking on there being so many links etc that most folks will just ignore it.

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  4. Hey, its a start. Keep the transparency coming!

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  5. I feel cheated

    Shiller posted extracts from the City Council Journal of proceedings, which includes onlya very highly redacted version of the the agreements, which are legal contracts, so completeness is critical to accountability

    (Sub)Exhibits «A", "C-1", "C-5", "D", "F", "G-2", "L", "N" and "O" referred
    to in this Wilson Yard Redevelopment Project Area Redevelopment Agreement unavaiable at time of printing.

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  6. The Journal provides a snapshot of the agreement at time of passage, but is of limited usefulness in terms of accountability because the agreement gives the City's Commissioner of Planning authority to make changes without further public process.

    18.01 Amendment. This Agreement and the Exhibits attached hereto may not be
    amended without the prior written consent of the City and the Developers.

    "City" is defined as the City of Chicago, an Illinois municipal corporation (the "City"), through its Department of Planning and Development ("DPD")

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  7. Exhibit O which we don't have, for example, is the statement of community benefits

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  8. "Hey, its a start. Keep the transparency coming!"

    Yeah, keep it coming!

    How about next scanning & posting Holsten's quarterly project progress reports, required under section 3.09 of the redevelopment agreement

    should be about 13 of those by now (Q1-Q4 2006-2008 and Q1 2009) I figure

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  9. the TIF annual reports do not show expenditures under $5K a shot, but we can see from adding up the listed beneficiaries and comparing it to the total expenditures that there ARE unlisted beneficiaries

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  10. I give this experiment about an I for incomplete

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  11. Nice map lines. The union funded rehab at 4550 N Clarendon got cut out of the Wilson Yard TIF.

    Who drew up these map boundaries?

    The Wilson Yard TIF snakes its way around to gobble up recently constructed properties.

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  12. Has the Wilson Yard TIF already delivered on its promise to provide affordable housing?

    Uptown Preservation Apartments
    Another ordinance acknowledges the intent to issue up to $10 million in housing revenue bonds, $1.1 million in CDBG funds and $557,273 in TIF financing for the rehabilitation of 77 units of affordable rental housing in the Uptown community.

    Community Housing Partners XI LP plans to rehab the Uptown Preservation Apartments, three buildings located in the City's 46th Ward at 900 W. Windsor, 927 W. Wilson and 4431 N. Clifton avenues, to help preserve their long-term affordability.

    Source: City of Chicago

    Uptown Preservation Apartments: Project consisted of the sale and rehabilitation of multiple affordable apartment units dedicated to tenants with incomes at or below 60% of median income. Mr. Miceli represented a community-based not for profit corporation in connection with the sale and acquisition of the Project. The sale was structured to permit the not for profit partner to acquire the Project for less than its fair market value, which triggered Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credits. The not for profit then sold the Project to a new limited parthership which includes an affiliate of the not for profit. Financing included the not for profit accepting a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank and loaning the proceeds to the new partnership; accepting a grant from the City of Chicago, sourced in Tax Increment Financing funds and loaning the proceeds to the new limited partnership; providing the new partnership with an acquisition loan relating to the sale of the Project; and making a loan based upon the sale by the not for profit of the Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credits generated by the sale of the Project to the new partnership. The new partnership itself borrowed funds generated by the sale of City of Chicago Variable Rate Demand, Multi-Family Housing Revenue Bonds; the Bonds are secured by a Letter of Credit issued by LaSalle Bank National Association, and the Letter of Credit is secured by a Reimbursement Agreement, which in turn is secured by a mortgage on the apartment units. Additional loans from the City of Chicago and Illinois Housing Development Authority completed the financing. The new limited partnership executed and entered into an Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership resulting in Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity. The new partnership rehabbed the Project and entered into a covenant to continue the affordable character of the Project for thirty (30) years. Mr. Miceli's not for profit client has retained an interest in the Project and has positioned itself to receive substantial funds at the time the various Project loans are repaid, as well as a share of cash flow.
    Source

    That second link is to President Obama's old law firm of Miner, Barnhill and Galland.

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  13. Does anyone have recommendations for medicine when researching the Wilson Yard TIF?

    Everytime I dig into it it's one huge black hole of participating parties with conflicts of interest.

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  14. Crap. The entire lot of it.

    A lot of this was easy enough to find, and these aren't the documents that we wanted to see, anyway.

    Hugh gave an "I" for incomplete.

    I give it an "I" for insulting.

    For each TIF, you will find an overview, annual reports and all legislation passed by the City Council pertaining to the TIF.

    We see the wording of the legislation but where is the all of the legislation with the names, dates, values and signatures?

    The amendments look like drafts, not the final version.


    I just have this mental image of Helen wallowing in her own crapulence thinking that she's been about to silence the critics; when, in fact, she's done no better than to fuel the flames.

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  15. This is good. Not because it means she is turning over a new leaf, as many people have mentioned, this documentation is incomplete.

    What it does mean: She believes TIF transparency cannot be fully stopped, and she is trying to get "in front" of the issue before it passes.

    Bring on the (slightly better) transparency!

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  16. This looks like she is using Alderman Shiller dot com to disseminate the information. That seems to be her personal or campaign website.

    Which is fine, unless her city office staff is uploading the information.

    This should rightfully be on her official city site if any city employee is involved in uploading the information.

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  17. wombat: Great question. I guessed that the Alderman would post her disclosures to her own campaign website that is supposed to be paid for and updated by campaign staffers and not taxpayer funded Ward staff.

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  18. Shiller and her staff did NO scanning, there are no new documents here. They gathered up documents from the Planning Dept. They give themselves credit for putting it all in one place, but there is nothing new here, in the sense that if you were already following the TIFs and knew your way around the Clerk's website, and knew to ask for the TIF annual report CDs, ALL of this was already available.

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  19. Hugh: I was thinking that was the case. I've seen all these documents before. However, they are now posted to Shiller's campaign funded website. That's new. And that may be an ethics violation.

    The bad news. I have a sense that most of the alderman post their updates to their own campaign funded websites so nobody really cares about the lapse.

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  20. Why are funds collected to build the Wilson Yard project constantly being diverted to so many other project Shiller wants? Are we to subsidize EVERY ONE of her ridiculous whims?

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  21. "...they are now posted to Shiller's campaign funded website...And that may be an ethics violation."

    well, the docs are public docs, so they can be used for ANY purpose, private, public, commercial, not-for-profit, political - they can literally be republished anywhere for any purpose

    now if Shiller's staff, who are City employees, are sitting in a taxpayer-funded City office using City computers to maintaining Shiller's campaign website on taxpayer time, well...

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