{"id":548483,"date":"2010-04-30T17:30:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T21:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01348046fbff970c"},"modified":"2010-07-19T20:19:35","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T00:19:35","slug":"state-adviser-wants-mccormick-place-privatized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/548483","title":{"rendered":"State adviser wants McCormick Place privatized"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Kathy Bergen and Ray Long<\/em> at 4:09 p.m.<\/p>\n

The General Assembly’s chief adviser on
\nMcCormick Place delivered a
\nsweeping blueprint for change Friday, calling for privatization of
\nconvention center management and a state-imposed easing of restrictive
\nand costly show-floor work rules. An interim legislature-appointed
\nczar would oversee the transformation.
<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe proposal, if ultimately approved, would lead to the ouster of Juan
\nOchoa, chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition
\nAuthority, the state-city agency known as McPier that owns and operates
\nMcCormick Place and Navy Pier. And it would reduce McPier to a
\nstripped-down caretaker role, reducing its payroll from 400 to somewhere
\n around 35 or 40 employees. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n "Chicago has to show it’s
\nchanging the way it does business in the convention and trade show
\nindustry in fairly major ways," said Jim Reilly, the adviser who briefed
\n legislative leaders on his recommendations Friday. "There are half a
\ndozen shows potentially on the bubble and they’re not going to wait …
\nif another five or six left, it’s over for Chicago."
<\/br>
<\/br>Reilly’s
\nrecommendations will be studied over the weekend by a House-Senate
\ncommittee co-chaired by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate Pres.
\nJohn Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats. The panel is expected to propose
\n legislation early next week.
<\/br>
<\/br>Senate Minority Leader Christine
\nRadogno, R-Lemont, said she is not prepared to sign off on the measures
\nbecause no specific legislation has been presented, and she hasn’t
\ntalked to her GOP caucus about the issues, said Patty Schuh, Radogno’s
\nspokeswoman.\n <\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Kathy Bergen and Ray Long at 4:09 p.m. The General Assembly’s chief adviser on McCormick Place delivered a sweeping blueprint for change Friday, calling for privatization of convention center management and a state-imposed easing of restrictive and costly show-floor work rules. An interim legislature-appointed czar would oversee the transformation. The proposal, if ultimately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}