Mayoral candidate Gery Chico tried to refocus attention on the dwindling reserves the City of Chicago gained from the privatization of the parking meter system and Skyway this morning at City Hall. The attorney and longtime supporter of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley introduced an ordinance today that would prohibit the city from using long-term reserves to balance budgets by establishing two "irrevocable trusts" for the money left from the Skyway lease and the $76 million that will remain in the meter fund once the City Council ratifies Mayor Richard Daley's final budget, as is expected. The bill also calls for the city to replenish the parking meter fund at a rate of $16 million annually for 20 years, or until $400 million is back in that pot.

Chico said he introduced the bill now because his campaign needed to properly research a "mechanism that works" to protect and restore the reserves; he also said it was inspired by the recent downgrades of Chicago's bond rating. It's a certainty that the legislation won't be heard before the council's final vote on the mayor's last budget, which depends heavily on one-time reserve funds.

That doesn't mean Chico, who repeatedly served in leadership positions for the mayor over the years, likes Daley's last spending plan, however. He called it a mistake, in fact. "You cannot fill budget holes ... with quick hits like that," he said, referring to the reserves that prop up the 2011 budget. (Chico also criticized the meter lease itself. When asked what his position on the lease was the end of 2008, when the council passed the meter lease at Daley's insistence, Chico, who was then the mayoral-appointed president of the park district board, said he was "focused on park issues. I really did not have a forum to speak on it.")

A side note to this story: Chico, of course, is not an alderman. But his introduction of the reserves ordinance today demonstrates a little-known fact about City Council's legislative process. Anyone is able to offer a bill for council consideration through the City Clerk's Office, presently headed by Miguel Del Valle (one of Chico's competitors in the mayoral primary). Kristine Williams, a spokeswoman for the clerk, wrote in an email that the clerk does accept proposals from residents and will introduce them into council at the next available meeting. Like bills drafted by aldermen, they are referred to the appropriate committee and are dealt with by committee chairs. Williams said the clerk's office encourages residents to work with their aldermen if they want to introduce an ordinance.