Name: Mayor Lori Lightfoot spent $104,000 on upgrades to her City Hall conference room, including 75-inch touch screen
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot spent $104,000 on upgrades to her City Hall conference room, including 75-inch touch screen

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneApr 14, 2021 at 11:33 amAs Mayor Lori Lightfoot prepared to warn the city about a yawning budget deficit last summer, she lined up more than $100,000 in upgrades to her City Hall conference room — a project that included installing a 75-inch touch screen monitor, records and interviews show.During that time, the mayor also kept tabs on the upkeep of the garden that adorns City Hall’s rooftop — a closed-to-the-public oasis where she sometimes meets with friends and associates — and the whereabouts of a honey bee colony that once existed up there. Her interest in the rooftop garden’s condition spurred the administration to spend an extra $10,000 of taxpayer money on its upkeep.AdvertisementCity officials received an estimate on the mayor’s fifth floor conference room project in August 2020, as Lightfoot forecast for what she called records released by the Department of Assets, Information and Services in response to a public records request shows.Lightfoot spent $104,682 on the taxpayer-funded conference room upgrades, a figure that included roughly $66,000 on equipment and $38,000 on labor, records show.AdvertisementThe mayor’s office declined to make anyone available for an interview.“During the pandemic, the mayor’s office had to adapt to the virtual way of doing business, which required some significant upgrades in technology and equipment,” a Lightfoot spokeswoman said in a statement.While the upgrade accounts for a small fraction of the city’s annual government spending, it came as Lightfoot and her administration grappled with a historic budget shortfall. Months later, the mayor pushed through a $93 million property tax hike — one that includes annual increases — at the same time she talked about making cuts and before asking the public to pay more to the city’s coffers.The mayor also raised funds to close the budget hole elsewhere, including a plan that for the first time would issue speed camera tickets to Chicago motorists captured on film traveling at as little as 6 mph over the speed limit.Records show Lightfoot also spent about $9,000 on an “EagleEye” camera and videoconferencing kit, $6,000 on a touch screen TV with built-in apps, and $488 on a wall mount for “extra heavy” TVs, records show. The mayor also spent almost $7,000 on a presentation switcher, $1,000 on a phone dialer key pad, and $919 for a ceiling microphone.“Continuity of government was one of Mayor Lightfoot’s top priorities throughout the pandemic, as we know the essential role the city plays in providing services to residents, and the technological upgrades allowed us to preserve and execute on that priority,” her office said.Mansoor Kamal, the city contractor who performed the work, also defended the expenses.“It makes her more efficient. I never sell a customer something if that customer doesn’t need something,” Kamal said. “If it wasn’t needed, I wouldn’t have installed it.”AdvertisementKamal, who was awarded a technology contract to service City Hall in 2012 and has been renewed nine times, compared Lightfoot’s touch screen to the one used by cable news networks on election nights.“It’s connected to computers and can see security cameras from the city, they have a connection with the emergency management system and other computers for local presentations and from Zoom meetings,” Kamal said. “It’s a pretty elaborate system. It’s not just a TV.”Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, however, questioned the purchases and said the spending is “oblivious to the scarcity” faced by many residents.“In the big scheme of things, $100,000 doesn’t seem like a lot, but it could benefit our communities a lot,” Rodriguez Sanchez said. “I don’t think the mayor of Chicago or anybody in the city should be spending that amount of money on technological equipment to have Zoom meetings.”Before the upgrades, Lightfoot’s conference room had access to equipment that allowed the mayor and other officials to watch live video. In March 2020, the Tribune interviewed Lightfoot there just before she announced the historic shutdown of Chicago’s Lakefront Trail. At the time, a smaller screen against the wall was airing live footage from Lakefront Trail video cameras.AdvertisementThe conference room overhaul isn’t the first time Lightfoot has received criticism for her spending on the fifth floor. Lightfoot took heat early in her administration for , which was first reported by the Sun-Times.Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s budget director also faced questions in 2008 in the building.Records released by the city also show that, around the same time Lightfoot’s administration was upgrading her conference room last summer, she was working to beautify City Hall’s private rooftop garden.Last September, Lightfoot emailed AIS Commissioner David Reynolds and Transportation Commissioner Gia Biagi about maintenance on the garden and said she wanted to know who was in charge of upkeep.“I write because while it is intended to be a wild prairie, to my untrained eye, it does not look well maintained,” she said. “There are many dead bushes that have been dead for a long time. The plantings seem starved of water and nutrients.”Biagi replied that she would “get to the bottom” of the situation.Advertisement“Maybe you can also tell me what happened to the bee colony that used to be up there,” Lightfoot said in her response.Acknowledging that the garden “needs some love for sure,” Biagi again wrote Lightfoot to say she would follow up on a revised maintenance schedule and a few projects were in the works to reset the garden. Biagi also said the bees would be back but had been removed “while some work was being done on the roof.”About two weeks later, Biagi said a contractor was starting work there soon and would continue into spring 2021.“By the way, the picnic table is a little bit sad … okay if we replace with some better outdoor furniture?” Biagi added.Lightfoot again asked who was responsible for normal maintenance and the bees.“I have not seen anyone up there all summer, literally not once,” Lightfoot said. “Who will make sure on an ongoing basis that a regular cadence of maintenance is done? And what about the bee colony?”Advertisement“As for the picnic table, it is new this summer and I paid for it,” Lightfoot added. “What was up there before was a metal table and chairs that heated up during the summer weather and thus was extraordinarily uncomfortable to use. The new table is supposed to have a multiyear durability.”Biagi did not address the table again in her reply but said she had reassigned personnel “who have more experience managing roof gardens and their contractors.” She again assured Lightfoot that the bees would be coming back.A transportation spokesman, however, told the Tribune the bees were removed in 2016 — three years before Lightfoot became mayor — due to renovations on the roof and won’t return until the work is completed, which could take several years.Records show the city spent $47,864 on rooftop garden maintenance in 2018, $47,744 in 2019, and $57,603 in 2020, with the extra $10,000 coming after the mayor asked for improved maintenance.Twitter Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneApr 14, 2021 at 11:33 amAs Mayor Lori Lightfoot prepared to warn the city about a yawning budget deficit last summer, she lined up more than $100,000 in upgrades to her City Hall conference room — a project that included installing a 75-inch touch screen monitor, records and interviews show.During that time, the mayor also kept tabs on the upkeep of the garden that adorns City Hall’s rooftop — a closed-to-the-public oasis where she sometimes meets with friends and associates — and the whereabouts of a honey bee colony that once existed up there. Her interest...

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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot spent $104,000 on upgrades to her City Hall conference room, including 75-inch touch screen

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