Mary Richardson-lowry

And this has been, you know, something that's been in development for a while.

You know, I remember, I believe it was last year, I was interviewing the city's, uh, you know, top attorney, Mary Richardson Lowry, and basically asked her, you know, "Should there be some sort of a global settlement, uh, you know, to try to resolve some of these misconduct cases?"

Mm-hmm.

What'd she say?

It was.

Yeah, I can't speak to why the mayor in particular wasn't as involved, although my understanding is that the corporation counsel, Mary Richardson Lowry, was very involved in assisting the alders with their negotiations.

But my understanding is that it was a process really led by a few alders, including Alderwoman Pat Dowell, Nicole Lee, Alderman Scott Waguespack, Ed Burnett, and Gil Villegas, who really stepped up to hammer the deal out.

In terms of That involvement, I think this is sort of, uh, reflective of a pattern we've seen more and more over the past few years under the Johnson administration, where city council is just taking a much more active role in how the city itself is governed.

I wanted to have different points of view.

And I think through that process and also involving the technical assistance of Mary Richardson Lowry from our Corporation Council and Mark Rattari, who was our Special Counsel, and some support from the finance department you know we were able to you know chop it up throw out ideas uh alternatives um go back and forth on the negotiations and that's how it happened

The city gets a $75 million upfront payment, kind of a transaction fee when the deal closes with Stone Peak.

You get 5% of net revenues going forward, 2% of any future sale if the meters are sold again, which could happen in 20 years, and a break in the very costly true-up payments to compensate the ownership team every time a meter is taken out of service for a special event, construction or anything else.

We used every tool available to us to protect our residents and defend our city.

And I'm grateful for the leadership of my corporation counsel, Mary Richardson-Lowry.

She filed on my behalf 80 legal actions against the Trump administration, defending our communities from ICE and fighting to bring home federal dollars for life-saving programs.

And the executive actions that we pioneered here in Chicago, protecting immigrant communities, holding federal agents accountable, and using the power of city government to defend our residents.

And we are not going to stop with city-owned property.

For too long, private speculators have been allowed to hold land vacant while surrounding communities bear the cost of disinvestment, blight, and blocks stripped of opportunity.

And one of the first charges I'm giving our new corporation counsel, Renee Hatcher, is to build on the work of Mary Richardson-Lowry by further developing and executing an aggressive legal strategy to change that, to ensure that the use of every single lawful tool that's available to us, to move privately held land that is harming our communities out of speculation and into productive use.

Because land should not be a vehicle for speculation and extraction.

And then one ally, Alderman Walter Red Burnett.

The mayor himself took a back seat, but his widely respected chief legal officer, Mary Richardson Lowry, was at the table.

And Mariah, before I let you go, what does this all mean for drivers in the city? Are we going to see any changes in the parking meter rates?

Yeah, so not as of now, but the city council sets the rates for parking meters and rates haven't increased since 2021.

I believe next week.

Mary stepping down? I know Mary Richardson-Lowry was still on the stand at City Council yesterday.

I saw her there.

But I think after this parking meter deal goes through, she's out.

How was that resolved?

Well, the firm has filed what the city's top lawyer, Mary Richardson Lowry, called a disinvestment certificate.

basically promising to sell that airline at their earliest possible opportunity.

Now, members of the public or the media were not allowed to see that certificate because it contains private information.

Breaking news out of City Hall.

Mayor Brandon Johnson says Mary Richardson Lowry is resigning as corporation counsel.

She came out of retirement to take that job in 2023 and was the first black woman to hold the position.

Mayor Johnson says he's chosen UIC law professor Renee Hatcher to take over the role.