I'd like to set.
Hi.
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I'm good.
Yeah. Good to see you too.
Know I'll be president. 88. You think myself.
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better?
Right? He says it takes a while. I know.
Well, it never ever
computers all week.
When I,
he's late, late, late, late.
I don't know.
It's right there next to him. Okay. It's right next to him.
Um, because I've never signed on. Okay.
Just makes me insane.
I dunno. Well, I'll go say,
oh,
thank you.
I'm sitting right.
I'm not going to have
there 22 years.
How my know why. Okay. Cheryl, can I Your search?
Yeah. Yeah. What's
three something on?
Oh, I think we've talked to her. That address.
Oh, she's actually come to a couple of meeting.
I'm like, why you guys?
Right.
Why? Right.
Oh my God. Are you f*****g hurting? Sorry.
Now.
Yeah,
we should Critical update.
I know. Respect.
So you
That's my subject.
Sorry. They, I have to sign in to pull off the deck
and the computer had to restart.
Yeah, that's actually second text. Oh, yes.
Nobody gives nothing.
So they,
I apologize for the delay folks.
We're just waiting on one
or two more colleagues for a quorum.
When they not on tax, they get paid to be on tax.
A not accept. Not to me.
We getting paid to be on time, so target up longer on time.
Uhhuh, any job you get on, you got to be on time.
You keep not being late. They fire you, your Honor.
You miss Steve.
You dad doesn't.
Good morning everybody. The time is now 1235.
The meeting of the Committee on Aviation is called to order.
We will now have a roll call to establish a quorum.
Alderman Hopkins. Alderman Dow.
Alderman Robinson. Alderman
Harris Alderman Lee. Present
Online.
Alderman Quinn. Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Coleman.
Alderman Rodriguez.
Alderman Teris.
Present. Alderman Burnett.
Alderman Irvin.
Alderman Cardona.
Alderman Wabe. Alderman MITs.
Alderman Sato. There. Alderman Nugent.
Alderman Napolitano.
There are 10 members present, including myself.
We have a quorum.
Alderman Mitts, alderman Curtis, alderman Tebar,
alderman Lee and Alderman Irvin have request remote access
for today's Committee on Aviation meeting,
having a quorum already.
Pleasant. Can I get a motion?
Recommend approval of these Rule 59
requests, alderman Harris.
So moves all in favor, say aye.
All opposed in the opinion, the chair, the ayes have it.
At this time, we will begin the public comment period
outta respect for everybody's time.
Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
We have two public speakers. Our first speaker is Mr.
Tony Stokes.
Hello everyone. Um, my name is Tony Stokes and, um, hold,
Hold on one sec. Let's,
I'm sorry. Can we make sure that MIC is,
uh, active and
Testing, testing? Can
you hear me?
Okay?
Hello everyone.
Um, my name is Tony Stokes and I'm a Hudson news worker
and, um, a proud member of Local One Unit United here.
Union. Uh, I'm here today because, uh, myself
and my coworkers have been working without a union contract
for about five months now.
Um, we are currently the lowest paid, uh,
concession unit workers at the air at Chicago's airports.
Uh, we make 1810 an hour while, um,
at least everyone else makes at least 21, uh, 20 an hour.
Um, I moved here to Chicago about three years ago,
and I've lived all over the United States,
but when I got to Chicago, I knew that this place was home
and that this is where I wanted to be.
Um, I, I'm a writer. I'm an artist. I make comics.
I I hope to go to school here one day
and I wanna make Chicago my permanent home.
But with our current wages right now, wage, like that's
becoming less and less possible.
Um, I, there are even times where,
um, I skip meals to make ends meet,
and even I have to go to work in dirty clothes
because I can't afford the washing machine at my apartment.
Um, and yet,
like I work at Hudson stores five days a week
and there's, it's full of food
and we have workers working hungry.
Um, a uh, all the other workers at the airport in terms of
concessions, they get a free meal.
And I believe that would be a godsend, uh,
for us Hudson workers to get a free meal as well.
Um, I deserve, we deserve better
and Chicago deserves better.
Uh, the city of Chicago is considering biz
to operate retail concessions at terminals one and three.
We ask you to vote no on any concessions
ordinance that includes Hudson.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you Ms. Stokes, our second speaker.
Thank you all for coming in.
Our second speaker is Mr. George Blakemore.
I'd like to add Alderman Lopez
to the Quorum. Thank you, alderman.
Thank you, sir. Uh, it was just ridiculous.
They, they just came and, and showed up and marched out.
What was that purpose they wanna raise?
Why are you here, Mr. Blakeman, with these concessions?
How many black people have
concessions at our airports?
I'm here because of racism.
That's what motivates me to come down and,
and speaking these various meetings.
Racism. And then they have ordinance dealing
with noise pollution.
Sure, you're going to have noise pollution at, at, at midway
and these other air and the airport mostly midway.
Who's gonna get those contracts?
When I come, I come motivated
to make sure black people receive good
service contracts and jobs.
I'm not your typical a public speaker,
and when I finish, I don't want any comments
from the altars little nasty
comments about me.
I, I always respect you all.
And if you don't want to hear what I have to say,
maybe you shouldn't be a Altman.
And because if you got some kind of mental
or physical handicap, don't blame it on me.
Don't abuse me if you can't walk, talk or,
or blind and can't read.
Don't I? I didn't make that happen to you.
So when you put yourself in a position to, to be insulting
to someone, then they fight back and be insulting to you.
So again, it's very important for a man of Mr.
Blakemore caliber to come to these meetings.
This was ridiculous. They just ma marched out.
They just gave him t-shirts
and said, go down here, uh, uh, whatever your name, and,
and we need more money.
And they just march out.
They don't even know how government don't work
in the interest of the people.
So the, the clock is ticking out on me.
Now, when they stop, I don't want your comments.
And if you make little nasty comments,
I'm gonna say little nasty things to you.
It doesn't give you the privilege
because you have a handicap
For you. And
it's not, you all should have stopped here.
You all supposed to stop him, not me.
So it's something evil, something un-American here.
Thank you Mr. Blakemore.
This concludes the public comment period.
Moving on. Item number one is the approval
of the May 20th, 2025 Rule 45 report
for the Committee on Aviation.
If there are no questions, can I get a motion
to recommend approval of the report?
Alderman Nugent. So moves all in favor, say aye.
Aye. All opposed in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it.
Young.
Item number two, an ordinance
2 0 2 5 0 0 1 9 9 7 1.
Transfer of interest and concession redevelopment
and management lease agreement from URW airports, LLC
to A-S-U-R-U-S, commercial airports.
LLC. Amber Ritter,
managing Deputy Commissioner from the Department of Aviation
is here to discuss.
Folks, we're, we are having some technical difficulties,
I apologize, but I think
it's important that we move forward.
Amber,
give us one sec
Testing. This one works.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Council members, uh, committee members, uh,
for your time this afternoon.
Um, again, I'm Amber Ritter from the Department of Aviation,
and I want to, I'm here to present an ordinance, uh,
to you all for a change of ownership, uh,
for our T five Master concessionaire, URW, uh, airports,
uh, which is now known as Al Roddam Co Westfield,
to a company, uh, that is purchasing, uh, that entity,
which is a Mexican company called Grupo Aport.
Este or Aser ur please excuse my Spanish.
Um, I took Russian. Sorry.
Um, so, uh, I'm here today
because, uh, the lease, you know, requires
that if there's a hundred percent change in ownership
of the tenant, that we do need city council approval.
And so I am recommending your approval.
Um, this is a great company and a great opportunity for us,
and I'll explain, uh, why.
So a little bit more about URW.
I had some slides, but we'll just, we'll just talk
through them with the technical issues.
Um, URW as you, uh, all might be aware, um, is CDAs tenant
for, uh, the majority of our concessions in terminal five
of O'Hare, uh, under a concession, redevelopment
and management lease agreement, which is dated from 2011.
And that lease currently expires in 2039.
So we do still have a fair amount of term left on the lease.
Um, URW has been a fantastic partner to the city, uh,
throughout the term of that lease.
They, uh, designed and built and operate.
Um, all of the concessions that you see in Terminal five,
except for the very newest ones that we've, uh, we've been
to council, uh, for approval of leases on,
which are direct leases with the city.
Um, that's over 30 restaurants and shops,
and they grossed about $80 million in sales in 2024, um,
which is a great service to the airport, a great service
to our rates and charges
and a great service to our traveling, uh, passengers.
Um, in addition and importantly,
they have been great partners in, um, improving
and in, uh, always increasing their A-C-D-B-E uh, rates.
Their most current rate is about 40%, which is very high.
We're very happy with, uh, that number.
There's always room for improvement of course,
but that's a great, great number.
And so, uh, we applaud, uh, the efforts
that they have done within our community.
Um, they, what importantly, I just wanna say
that this purchase of the, of the, the, the interest
of the master concessionary here will not affect the
operations of any of our
existing concessions in terminal five.
So URW actually, um, is a developer
and so they have operators under them that are subtenants
and sublicensees that operate the actual concessions.
So as a re direct result of the sale,
there is no anticipated change in the
concessions program at Terminal five.
It won't change any of the concepts, it won't change any
of the A CDB partners,
nor will it affect any of the employment, um,
of the concession workers that are, um, you know,
serving the public each day.
Nor will it affect the management team that we work
with on a daily basis, many of whom are here with us today.
I just wanna introduce Brian Petro from, um,
our URW management team.
Always, um, a, a great partner in everything we do.
So I wanna talk a little bit about as oar, the company
that is, uh, purchasing URW.
So one thing I'll just mention is they're purchasing
URW nationwide.
So URW also has leases in, uh,
other large airports including JFK and LAX.
And so Assor is purchasing
that interest in all of those spaces.
So it's not just, uh, O'Hare.
Um, assur is a respected operator airport infrastructure
and concessions in 16 airports throughout Mexico,
south America, and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico.
So they already have a US presence.
Um, they have great airports that they, uh,
have in their portfolio, including San Juan, Puerto Rico,
Cancun and Rio Negro Columbia.
Many of us have probably been to some
of those great airports and great destinations.
They've operated since, uh, 1998
and have achieved about $500 million in commercial
revenues in 2024.
So they are, um, a, a solid partner
that we're really looking forward to working with their CEO
and, uh, CFO uh, Adelfa Castro Rivas is in town here
for this hearing and looking forward
to meeting you from Mexico City.
Um, and I would like to introduce him.
Mr. Rivas, you can come.
Thank you Amber. We're very excited
to be here in the city of Chicago for Azure
and URW Airports is a strategic acquisition and glow
and growth platform in the US and beyond.
We see a strong and strong growth
and excitement in the city.
It's important for us today to say
that the current base airport management team
will remain in place.
No changes are planned as a result of this transaction.
The team has built a strong relations with the CDA partners,
A CD B'S airport concessions,
and also local local stakeholders
and we will continue to do so.
Azure started 25 years ago as a result of the opening
of the Mexican airport aviation
to the private entities.
It was more or less the same the time when the US Federal
government published the Pilot Project Act.
So we started 25 years ago with nine airports in Mexico.
The main airport is the case of Cancun Airport.
It's a 32 million passengers a year.
We operate with more than 60 airlines around the world
and we operate with more
or less hundredth different destinations.
Cancun Airport has been able
to grow its commercial revenue per passenger
of the last 25 years at the pace
of almost 20% per year.
This represents a lot of benefit for the city,
for the companies that are working there.
Also for the government
because it's taking a part of this, uh, rent.
In the case of San Juan Puerto Rico airport,
we came there in 2013 as a result, as I said,
of the Pilot Project Act.
We have been there for the last 12 years, I think with a lot
of success for everybody.
Also, the commercial revenue there has increased
from $4 per employment to
more than $8 per employment.
Finally, the case of Gro,
which has duplicated since 2017 up to now
Azure is, is a company that is, uh, celebrated
the last month 25 anniversary
of being trading it share in the New York Stock Exchange
and also in the Mexican bullosa.
93% of the equity is trading in the markets
as who was the first one, uh, airport group in the Americas
to trading it share in a market.
And the first one, also in the case
of the New Yorker Stock Exchange.
We are here to support the company
and we are here to support from an economical perspective
for the future growth that we see in this city
and also in the us
Just from a financial perspective,
last year we crossed the year
with a billion dollars cash in hand.
Our, uh, leverage is very low
and we're looking for different projects for the future.
Hi, thank you for the time and your attention.
And this is, uh, concludes my remarks. Amber,
Thank you Adolfo.
Um, and that concludes my, uh, remarks.
I thank you for considering, uh, this change in ownership.
Are there any questions from committee members?
If there are no further questions, can I get a motion?
Alderman Quinn. So moves all in favor, say aye.
All opposed, any opinion of the chair? The ayes have it.
The do pass recommendation will be reported out at the next
City council meeting on Thursday, October 16th, 2025.
Uh, I'd just like to add, uh,
for the last several years we've enjoyed a strong
relationship with our partner, Westfield,
and look forward to continue working
with Aser moving forward.
Thank you for your leadership out O'Hare.
Thank you. Thank you counsel.
Item number three is ordinance
2 0 2 5 0 0 2 0 0 1 6
on intergovernmental agreement
by noise compatibility Commission
for noise compatibility programs at Midway
International Airport.
At this time, I'd invite Deputy Commissioner Aaron Frame
from the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for your time.
As chairman said, my name is Aaron Frame.
I'm one of the Deputy Commissioners with the Department
of Aviation and sitting to the right of me
as is Vilna Vilna is the Assistant Commissioner
who manages the noise programs.
We have two ordinance requests
for your consideration this afternoon.
The first, as chairman said, is related to Midway
the original intergovernmental agreement
for the Midway Noise Compatibility Commission was approved
by the City council in 1996.
Uh, the original term was a nine year term,
and then, uh, the department came back to, to counsel, uh,
in increments of time, notably in 2005,
20 10, 20 15, and 2020.
And we are coming back to you today, uh,
for another five-year term.
The CDA does support, uh, the extension of the term
of the MNCC intergovernmental agreement.
Uh, that is, uh, the regional noise, um, policy group.
Uh, the CDA finds great value in that organization
and we, uh, would very much appreciate your
favorable consideration of the ordinance.
The IGA itself, um, is attached to the,
the ordinance request,
and ideally, uh, counsel would approve
that IGA as the template.
And then we would execute that in a series
of bilateral agreements between the city of Chicago
and each of the suburban members.
There are currently nine suburban members
who participate in the Midway Commission.
As I mentioned, that PO that commission does oversee all
of the CDA noise programs for Midway.
They meet on a quarterly basis at a
local banquet hall near Midway.
And all of those meetings are subject
to the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
Mr. Chairman, are there any
questions on the Midway Ordinance
Committee members?
Any questions, uh, regarding Midway Airport?
Noyes compatibility,
seeing none, can I get a motion
to pass Alderman Nugent?
So, moves all in favor, say aye.
All opposed in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of Ordinance 2 0 2 5 0 0 2 0 0 1 6 will be reported out
at the next City Council meeting on Thursday,
October 16th, 2025.
Before we move on, I'd like to add Alderman Dowell,
alderman Robinson and Alderman Irvin to the quorum.
Item four is Ordinance
2 0 2 5 0 0 2 0 0 1 7,
an intergovernmental agreement
with O'Hare Noise Compatibility, commission
for Noise Compatibility Projects at O'Hare International
Airport and Chicago DRA Con boundary
here to speak on this Deputy Commissioner Aaron Frame from
the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The intergovernmental agreement
for the O'Hare Commission is very similar
to the Midway Ordinance, but not identical.
So again, the intergovernmental agreement was first approved
by City Council in 1996 for original term of nine years,
and the department came back to City Council
for Renewals in 2005, 20 10, 20 15, and 2020.
Um, for those of you, uh, with packets in front of you or,
or up on the screen, uh, we do have a map
to show you the geographic extent of the commission.
It is quite large. The school districts
that you see are shown in the bright green.
There are 18 school districts that are currently members
of the O'Hare Commission.
And the community boundaries are shown in the,
in the more muted green.
There are currently 37, uh, communities, including the city
of Chicago, cook County,
and DuPage County, as well as the 34 other suburban members.
And finally, the O'Hare Commission is unique in
that there are six wards that are members
of the O'Hare Commission, similar to the Midway Commission.
The Intergovernmental agreement is a group
of bilateral agreements between the city of Chicago
and each of the suburban communities, the county members
or the school districts themselves.
The goal of the ONCC is to oversee all
of the CDAs Noce programs for o here.
This commission is a larger group.
They do meet throughout the year.
They have a, a committee structure of four
or five standing committees and a
few ad hoc committees as well.
And similar to the Midway Commission, the O'Hare Commission
conducts all of its meetings in accordance
with the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
Mr. Chairman, are there any com any questions
regarding the O'Hare ordinance?
Questions from committee members? Alderman Harris?
Hi, um, I just, what are the six awards that are, um,
part of the commission?
Uh, those are predominantly wards
that are on the northwest side near the airport.
Those wards are
36, 38, 39, 40, 41, and 45.
Thank You. Thank you.
Thank you Alderman Harris. Alderman sdo.
Thank, thank you chairman. Thank you.
Aaron, just, just a question for you.
So when we're expanding it, so exactly
how does expansion work?
'cause everybody thinks it's gonna be you're here
and now the people that are there are gonna get it.
So can you explain it a little better to me that you,
as you know, you hear at the meetings all the time,
everybody thinks they should get the new windows,
so we're expanding it.
Does that mean, I dunno, how do we go about expanding?
Is it, did we change the, the sound
decibels or how does that work?
Thank you Alderman.
Um, so the alderman is talking about the, the noise contour,
which is the imaginary line that identifies which
of the homes are significantly impacted, uh,
by aircraft noise.
There's a noise contour approved by the FAA for here,
as well as a separate noise contour approved
for midway alderman.
To your very question, um, from time to time, uh,
the noise contour is updated.
Uh, we did that in 2022 with the FA, a approval
of the terminal area plan that we all call tap.
Um, we are currently finishing the last
of the homes affected by the OMP,
the O'Hare Modernization Program.
Um, we're currently on what we call O'Hare Phase 19.
One of the things that we hope to do in the next six
to 12 months is to talk about that next step.
What happens after the OMP homes?
Clearly many of the residents are still experiencing
significant amounts of airport noise.
So because that noise contour is adopted, the next thing
that the CDA wants to do is approach the airlines
and ask for the next potential round of funding.
Uh, there are differences between the O'Hare
program and the Midway Program.
And so our goal is to secure funding in order
to keep that program going.
Over time that noise contour can expand
or shrink depending on what's going on with the air traffic.
The noise contour
that was approved in 2022 is based on
projection of noise in the future.
It is not representative of current conditions today.
So because that was done, um, shortly
after the pandemic, it is a little bit more
of a conservative outlook.
Um, but it is a little bit larger than the OMP
contour that we have today.
Um, so once we are, um, able to secure funding,
then we would go back to the Noise Commission
and talk about a new round of eligibility.
And at that point in time, we would start talking about, uh,
reaching out to homeowners to gauge their level of interest.
Okay. Thank You. Thank you.
Thank you Chairman. Thank
You. Alderman Podo.
Alderman Napolitano.
Thank you Chairman. Hey Aaron, how are you? Hi, alderman.
Just a very quick question.
Um, When talking
or in talks of expanding the, um,
the O'Hare monetization program
or the noise contour, um, going forward,
and I'm sure you already know, I mean,
I'm sure you're already doing this, are they going
to work in the fly quiet program as well?
Because I mean, I, I'm not gonna get into it here,
but it, it's going to change.
It's kind of outside the contour.
So I just hope that could be part of that process
because you invest a lot of money into a contour.
And I'm a big fan of the fly quiet program,
don't get me wrong, but it kind of juts outside of it.
So I just, I I foresee this becoming all
of our problem in the future.
So yes, whatever we can do,
Alderman, thank you for the question.
As I mentioned, the contour
that was recently approved is associated
with the terminal area plan
that contour will have a useful life.
When the FAA does the environmental review
for the fly quiet program, we anticipate that a new contour
beyond the tap contour would be created
and adopted specifically for the fly quiet.
That's important because nighttime flights get a 10 decibel
penalty and it would be appropriate to
reassess the noise contour to make sure
that we're capturing the noise from that concept
of spreading out the noise during nighttime hours.
So we have a noise contour now,
but we do believe another one will be,
uh, approved in the future.
I, I appreciate it, Aaron. Thank
you very much. Thank you Chairman.
Thanks Alderman. Alderman Lopez.
Thank you chairman. Uh,
and members of the committee, I just have a quick question
with regards to Appendix A of the ordinance
where it says the members of
of the O'Hare Commission shall direct further
development, blah, blah, blah.
And it talks about both the airport improvement program
grants as well as pa uh, the PFCs,
the passenger facility charge funds.
How much is being paid
through either of those two program funding
sources? Alder at the airport?
Alderman, thank you for the question.
Uh, currently for O'Hare, no PFC funds are being used for,
uh, O'Hare sound insulation,
but we have used them in years past.
Um, I would defer to my coworkers in the CDA finance
division for additional details. Um, are they
Here?
They're not, but we can,
we can research that for you, alderman. So
Then if you could provide through the chair what we are,
what we are collecting on an annual basis,
what we are collecting per air, per airline, uh, for the
PFCs and where that money is going.
Um, because my concern is that, you know,
we keep tapping into things
and there's only so much of that going around.
So either they're gonna have
to raise the pf the passenger facility charge
and thereby increased prices on Travelers
or something else is gonna have to give.
So if you could provide that same with the a IP grants so
that we could see where exactly
that's coming from and where it's going.
Um, and then lastly, the general revenue,
the airport revenue bonds, do we use those
for this program as well?
Are we intending to use that?
We have in the past, yes.
Uh, that and usually And how much was
that in the past? It's,
We'll, we'll look that up and get that to you.
We, over time we've used a mix
of bond funding plus PFCs plus the A IP grants
and all of that we can look up for
You. And do we know what that
mix is gonna look like under this
program or do we have a projection of what
that's gonna look like under this program?
We do. We have a couple of contracts
that we're finishing now for sound installation near here
for homes associated with the OMP.
Once that's done, as I was speaking to, um,
alderman Napolitano, we would then approach the airlines
and start that conversation about how would the next round
of funding, um, be determined.
No, I get that. I was here for that.
I'm just trying to figure out,
I'm assuming you have an anticipated number of households
that are gonna be impacted by this, correct?
Yes. What is that number?
Uh, through the TAP Environmental.
Um, we identified approximately, uh, 7,000 homes
that could be eligible.
So 7,000 homes. How many were under the previous map?
That I'd have to check for you. Roughly.
Is it roughly the same size?
Um, no, it's a little bit larger on both
sides of the airport.
Farther to the west and farther to the east.
So how much did we spend the last time?
I'll, I'll find that out for you. Okay.
So I think with these kind of
endeavors, chairman,
it really would behoove the departments actually come
with numbers too, so that we could see what exactly
were authorized authorizing.
Um, because this, I'm sure you are all aware of
what your target audience is, what we anticipate spending,
what we're gonna ask the airlines for.
Um, we're not winging it, no pun intended,
but you're not really sharing much of that with us in this.
So I think it'd great if we had
that information publicly available moving
forward. Thank you. Thank
You.
Thank you Alderman Lopez, we have a special treat today.
You know, alderman Dow
and Alderman Irvin were here with us virtually.
Uh, but they're both here, uh, live.
And so, uh, thank you both.
Um, are there any other committee members with questions?
Alderman Cardona moves to pass. All in favor say aye.
A opposed in the opinion of the chairs, the ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of this ordinance will be reported out at the next City
council meeting on Thursday, October the 16th, 2025.
There being no further business before the committee.
Can I get a motion to adjourn? Alderman Sdo.
So moves All in favor say aye.
Opposed in the opinion of the chair as the ayes have it.
Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting
of the Committee on Aviation is adjourned.
Thank you for your time.