Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd) was grilling a witness about the assessed value of property sold by the city to a developer when the witness interrupted.
Reifman, whose last day on the job is May 20, was patiently answering Waguespack’s questions about the Cortland/Chicago River tax increment financing (TIF) district at an April 8 meeting of the City Council’s finance committee.
Months before the City Council approved both complexes, the planning department’s Reifman kept showing up in the press and at public meetings “plansplaining” the need for the combined 28 million square feet of development and $2.4 billion of TIF subsidy.
To some, this indicated an ethically challenged duality: Reifman was both a public servant and a megadevelopment cheerleader.
Not that he’s heavy-handed. At a microphone, Reifman is carefully deferential to prying aldermen and dissident neighbors. This trait was on constant display at the many hours of public meetings that led to the approval of Lincoln Yards and the 78.
Midway through, a reporter’s query made Reifman pause—”I’ll go off the record”—and he let loose an expletive-laced slam at an alderman who’d questioned him at the hearing. It was a “just between us insiders” moment that no reporter quoted.
