Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will introduce an ordinance at next week's City Council meeting to create a $1.7 billion infrastructure trust, but it is neither clear what the trust is exactly for nor the relationship between the trust and city government. The Tribune reports that under the trust companies will build new projects, like schools and parks, and the city would then lease the new piece of infrastructure.

This is somewhat different from public-private relationships developed by Emanuel's predecessor Richard Daley. Daley sold off pre-existing public assets like the Chicago Skyway. According to the Sun-Times, the ordinance next week will prohibit the city from leasing or selling existing public assets.

Another concern is that the trust is planned to be set up as a non-profit, with five mayoral appointees, possibly making it exempt from the open meetings and public records laws required of official city government agencies.