Chicago Lawyers’ Committee Files Lawsuit Demanding More Transparency and Accountability for City TIF Decision-Making and Allocations
On April 15, 2022, after months of fruitless efforts to gain access to public records, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, together with counsel Loevy & Loevy, sued the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development and the Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Investment Committee for violations of Illinois’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Open Meetings Act (OMA).
“Although the Mayor pledged more transparency and announced “sweeping reforms” in 2020 to how the City administers the TIF program, we have yet to see that take hold, said Aneel Chablani, Chief Counsel with Chicago Lawyers’ Committee. Instead, one of the signature pieces of the purported reform, the TIF Investment Committee, which was intended to bring accountability and an equity lens to decisions about public funding for development, operates behind closed doors. The Mayor also promised a more robust “but-for” analysis to evaluate the appropriateness of TIF allocations for private applicants. Yet efforts to obtain records through the FOIA process to shed light on the development of that analysis and how it is being imposed on new applications have been unsuccessful.
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee is committed to supporting advocacy seeking to bring accountability, transparency and equity to the City’s TIF decision making process. In 2019, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee represented two community-based organizations in a lawsuit challenging the use of $1.3 billion in TIF funds to support Lincoln Yards, a luxury development on the near north side and a perfect example of how the City diverts public funds away from under-resourced Black and Brown communities and supports development in areas that would naturally see private investment. Although the 2019 litigation was dismissed for lack of standing, it brought additional attention to the long-standing efforts of community-based organizations advocating to use TIF for its intended purpose and support economic development in areas on the South and West side that have been struggling for decades with blighted conditions that have deterred investment.
After meeting roadblock after roadblock while trying to access records from the City, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee was left with no recourse but to file litigation. The complaint, filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chancery Division, asks the Court to declare the Department of Planning and Development and the TIF Investment Committee in violation of FOIA and OMA laws and to require them to provide the documents requested and ensure that going forward TIF Investment Committee meetings are publicly accessible with timely notice, agendas, and minutes.
A copy of the Complaint is available here.