On January 4, Chicago Transit Authority president Frank Kruesi called a press conference to announce that the CTA had decided to reject Citgo’s offer of a discount on fuel for its buses. Kruesi said the $15 million proposal was doomed because Citgo was offering the wrong kind of fuel. “If we accepted this proposal, we would not be able to run reliable transit service,” Kruesi told reporters. “Our buses would be stranded all over the region, and we would be doubling our emissions in the buses that use it.”
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“Frank reversed everything,” says Jacqueline Leavy, executive director of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, a watchdog organization. “By law, the board members are the decision makers at the CTA. Frank Kruesi works for them–he’s paid staff–not the other way around. If the board doesn’t know about the offer, they can’t realistically put their budget together.”
Citgo initially extended the offer in mid-October as part of informal discussions with 26th Ward alderman Billy Ocasio and Congressman Luis Gutierrez. “They said they were making record profits because of the spike in gas prices after Hurricane Katrina and they wanted to give something back,” says Gutierrez. “In New England and New York they were offering heating fuel. That wouldn’t work here because we use a different type of heating fuel. Billy and I thought about gasoline for buses. It made sense because the CTA was talking about going broke.”
According to Ocasio, Kruesi felt that if the CTA took Venezuela’s money, it would anger congressional Republicans and Bush administration officials, who might retaliate by cutting Chicago’s federal transportation funds. “He said, ‘I don’t want to take the risk of accepting $15 million here and losing $30 million from the feds,’” says Ocasio. “He was very definitive about it, very certain.” But Ocasio researched the matter and discovered that the Bush administration had not opposed Citgo’s offers in other cities. “Citgo is an American company,” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters at a December 8 press briefing. “They’re helping Americans in need. That is a good thing. That is as it should be.” (Actually, though the company’s still based in Houston, Citgo’s been owned by Venezuela since 1990.)
On January 4 they held their press conference, with white, black, and Hispanic politicians coming in from all over the city to take a few swipes at Kruesi. “I can assure CTA management that they will not be well received in Springfield as we prepare the 2007 budget,” said north-side state rep Larry McKeon. “When you come with your hat in your hand, there better be a check for $15 million in it,” added south-side state rep Marlow Colvin.
The blindsiding illustrates the reality of sitting on a public board. By law, board members are supposed to make policy. In real life the Daley administration expects them to keep a low profile and do what they’re told.
