Chicago will pay a $33,000 fine for illegally tearing up Meigs Field airport without proper notification. And the city will have to repay $1 million of airport funds that Mayor Richard M. Daley illegally diverted from O'Hare and Midway airports to give to the destruction contractors.
And with the more than $550,000 the city has already spent attempting to fight the fine and repayment, hapless Chicago taxpayers are out close to $1.6 million, and they've lost a world-class airport that generated $57 million a year in economic activity for the city.
The FAA announced the final settlement with the city Monday. The city admitted no wrongdoing.
"But this $1 million payment and $33,000 fine sends a clear signal to other cities that the FAA is serious about upholding its regulations and that AOPA is serious about holding everyone's feet to the fire when it comes to protecting airports," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. AOPA filed the original complaints that resulted in the fine and fund repayment.
"Many of us always thought that the civil penalty of $1,100 per day was 'chump change' to a city with the budget of Chicago," said Boyer. "But whether he admits it or not, it shows that Daley violated FAA regulations and could have put aircraft at risk."
And for the future, it won't be chump change. That's because after Meigs, AOPA successfully lobbied Congress to increase the fine to $10,000 per day, to make it much more painful for another city to attempt a midnight airport raid. Notice of the proposed closure must also be published in the Federal Register, so it can't be done in the dark of night again.
by AOPA