By Hal DardickClout Street
11:22 a.m. CDT, April 23, 2014
Dozens of city employees get to park their cars for free in the upscale River North neighborhood, many on pricey piece of property, City Hall's top internal watchdog said today.
Nineteen of the employees get free parking at 366 W. Superior St. in a warehouse the city also uses to store two city vehicles, according to a report by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.
It's a perk valued at $45,600 a year, based on an estimated cost of $200 a month per space, the report states. But the value of the property “may exceed $1 million, based on a recently sold property . . . one block away,” the report adds.
 
Other city workers, including 28 from Ferguson’s office, also park free in more than 85 spaces “in the immediate area." That's according to a Ferguson spokeswoman and the report, which recommends that the city do periodic inventories and evaluation of all city properties to find out if the city is getting the most bang for the buck.
The report notes that the Chicago Infrastructure Trust has announced an effort to “re-purpose underutilized city assets,” but that effort has yet to get off the ground and Ferguson recommended that the city not wait for that to happen.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration said that since January 2011, the city has consolidated some operations and relocated and relocated others to save what it estimates is nearly $8.3 million a year.
City sale or sublease of other properties has netted nearly $5.6 million in onetime revenue, the city's response states. Further planned consolidations this year and next are expected to save nearly $4 million more a year.
hdardick@tribune.com
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