Chicago approves first responder training center contract - Uncut version
On March 13, Chicago City Council approved a contract with a controversial Los Angeles based company to build a controversial fire and police training center in West Humboldt Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side. The very idea has been controversial for many reasons, but the two biggest arguments against it boil down to (a) the new training center wouldn’t address the root causes of violence and crime, so the $95 million that was supposed to go into it should be spent on schools, jobs and mental health services, and (b) this would just gentrify the neighborhood and push people out. More than a few people opposing the training center believe that police are fundamentally racist and corrupt tools of the bourgeoisie exploiters the system, so they oppose anything that doesn’t involve police abolition on general principle.
Me.. As someone who’s been covering the West Side of Chicago for over 3.5 years now, I can sympathize with the argument that there better and, on the long run, more productive ways to spend the $95 million. And I can’t ignore the many testimonies of cops being pretty racist. But I also can’t ignore all the complaints from the black, West Side residents who feel under siege from crime and gang activity on their blocks and in commercial areas. And while there is something to be said about how people are sometimes too eager to call police when mental health services and restorative justice would work better, I haven’t been convinced that some kind of police isn’t needed to investigate things like the murder of Demitrius Griffin.
(I spoke to his family a few days after his body was discovered. Thinking about it still haunts me)
it’s a complex issue - but all of the complexities got brushed over. And it frustrates me to no end, that all too often, both supporters and opponents wind up saying “[the other side] doesn’t understand what things are really like, and the real issues we’re facing. They’re not even from the community, and they don’t represent us.” They seem unwilling to admit that there are many opinions on the topic, and that there’s no real West Side wide consensus. And it’s hard not to notice that most of the supporters tend to be older than 30, and most of the opponents tend to be younger (though there are exceptions on both sides).
I bring all of this up because, as the construction contract neared the full City Council vote, my editor at Austin Weekly News asked me to write about both the final City Council vote and the Budget Committee vote a day before. I’m not surprised that a lot of the resulting article got cut. But there are some important chunks of the article that are just plain missing, and some allusions to it where kept. So I decided that this was one of the situations where it was important to present the full article, as submitted, to give you a better idea of what actually went down.
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2019 © Alexa Rogals/Wednesday Journal Inc
Amidst the protests up in the gallery and outside the door of the Chicago City Council chambers on March 13, the aldermen voted 38-8 to give an $85 million construction contract for the controversial West Garfield Park police and fire training center to Los Angeles -based Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Operations, and Maintenance (AECOM) corporation. All of the West Side aldermen voted in favor.
Later during the same meeting, the aldermen gave a final approval for the zoning changes that will allow restaurants to open near the training center, in what would otherwise be a strictly industrial area. As previously reported by Austin Weekly News, while Peach’s sit-down restaurant and a black-owned Culver franchise were businesses this was geared toward, nothing in the ordinance obligates those businesses in particular to take advantage of it. That particular vote came as part of the routine “last most favorable roll call” motion, and, unlike the previous vote, it passed with barely a whimper from the few protestors that remained in the gallery by that point.
The March 13 cleared the last hurdle in building the joint fire and police training center at 4301 W Chicago Ave. While much of the opposition still centered around the very concept of spending around $95 million on the new training center, during the March 13 meeting and the March 12 meeting of the city council’s budget committee focused on the city’s decision to go with AECOM in particular.
Chicago Reporter reported that the company, which has worked on multiple projects in the city in the past, had a history of cost overruns, fraudulently billing clients and cost overruns. The incidents compiled by the online magazine include a project to design and manage a “2,000-bed jail in Detroit,” which was halted two years into construction “ due to allegations of corruption in the contracting process and $100 million in cost overruns.” It also noted that “AECOM’s Australian unit paid the U.S. equivalent of $201 million in 2015 to settle claims that it inflated traffic projections for construction of a large toll road in Brisbane.”
As noted during the March 12 meeting, David Reynolds, the current Chicago Fleet Management Commissioner, worked as AECOM’s vice president in 2006 - 2009, two years before he got his current job.
Reynolds didn’t address his employment during that meeting, but he did try to address aldermen’s concerns about cost overruns. He emphasized several times that the budget was capped at $85 million, and that, if AECOM goes beyond that, it would have to cover the costs out of its own pocket.
Retiring Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who is currently in the running for city treasurer against a West Side state representative Melissa Conyears-Ervin (D-10th), questioned whether AECOM was the lowest bidder or lowest most responsible bidder.
“The price was set at $85 million,” Reynolds responded. “[AECOM} was found to be the most responsive and most qualified.”
Pawar also asked about cost overruns. Reynolds responded that they have a “long history” of projects in Chicago and that they checked AECOM’s references and found them “to be satisfactory, with no concerns.”
Tara Stamps, who ran against Ald. Emma Mitts (38th) in 2015 and 2019, argued that the fact that the city was pushing ahead with the contract given that a new mayor would be sworn in within three months was “fundamentally inappropriate, disrespectful [and] undemocratic to continue this project.”
“I suggest that this matter be postponed for three months,” Stamps said. “And based on ACOM’s history of financial mismanagement and impropriety, will probably cost working-class Chicagoans a heck of a lot more [than $85 million].”
The committee wound up sending the project to full council, with all West Side aldermen in attendance voting in favor.
By the time the March 13 meeting was scheduled to start, a large crowd, much of which made up #NoCopAcademy movement and other opponents to the training center, filled the second floor lobby. Other than a few members who signed up to speak ahead of time and guests invited by aldermen, nobody was allowed to sit inside the chamber. In this reporter’s experience, such restrictions have been common during controversial votes. The police officers providing security for the council chambers usually justified it as city hall already being crowded, though that was usually achieved by aldermen inviting hand-picked guests to fill seats.
While the gallery seat in the third floor balcony was originally closed as well - ostensibly due to heating and air conditioning issues - it was opened once the replacement equipment was brought in. And even though some protestors were eventually allowed up there, a significant portion remained in the lobby.
This reporter wound up watching the meeting from the balcony. While the officers at the balcony usually crack down on public standing up, using visible non-phone cameras or sitting in the aisle, the security was, at least at first, not as strict this time around.
As the council prepared to vote on the AECOM contract, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) drew attention to the protestors still in the lobby.
“As I begin my remarks, I’m told there are approximately 300 people outside the doors of this chamber,” he said. “There are about 40-50 seats that are open, and I hope that we’re going to be democratic, representative body.”
Ramirez-Rosa, who opposed the project from the get-go, and he reiterating criticisms here, arguing that the better way to address crime violence is to invest in schools and jobs.
“[Rahm Emanuel’s administration] closed 50 public schools, they closed mental health clinics,” he said. “We were told there wasn’t enough money to spend in our neighborhoods. But we do spend money on AECOM.”
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), echoed the comment made by Ald. Michael Scott (24th) two weeks earlier - that the fact that Mitts and other West Side aldermen were re-elected showed that the community at large was with them on their support for the training center. And he noted that, as someone whose ward includes the current police academy, he witnessed first-hand how such a facility could make the community safer and encourage redevelopment.
“30 years ago, the area wasn’t safe,” Burnett said. “But we feel safe because the young recruits. And we [are] also eating in our resultant. And all these restaurants in our area would [not be there] if it were not for police academy being right there in the community.”
He also touted the fact that Peach’s and Culver locations would be opening near the training center, describing it as “a great thing for the community.”
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) reiterated a talking point often used toward the opponents of the training center - that most of them don’t live in the community. But the rest of the speech became inaudible as one of the activists stood up in front of the balcony glass in protest. The officers told him to sit down, arguing that having someone this close to the glass was a safety hazard, leading to guffaws from other protestors.
After a tense confrontation, the standing protestor and several others were escorted out, with some of the others leaving in solidarity.
“If you talk to people, I guarantee they will tell you that they want people there,” Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) could be heard saying as the gallery quieted down.
In her closing statements, Mitts said that it was important that the community work with the police, saying that they “can’t teach our children the police is bad” and expect them to call for help when it’s needed.
But it was Emanuel who ultimately had the last word. He described the project as just one component of the city’s renewed investment on the historically neglected West Side. He also cited the Hatchery food business incubator, the conversion of Legler branch library into a West Side regional library and the new Damen/Lake ‘L’ station as other examples.
“[The training center] is exactly what the West Side needs,” Emanuel said. “That will literally jump-start - not by itself, but with other investments.”
And while the mayor said he appreciated everyone’s comments, he insisted that it was the right way to go.
“And I think [as the result] that something diff is going to happen in West Humboldt Park community, take it on a different path,” Emanuel said. “Because we tried the other path in the last 35 years. That hasn’t worked.”