Article: Comptroller rejects plan that would require competitive bids on routine Chicago deals. (Walter Knorr)

CHICAGO - Chicago's comptroller yesterday turned thumbs down on a proposed city ordinance that would require the city to competitively sell plain-vanilla bond issues.

Speaking at The Bond Buyer's Midwest Public Finance Conference here, Walter Knorr defended the city's practice of selling bonds through negotiation, saying that the cost differential between offering bonds through competitive and negotiated sale "is minuscale."

"It's a very narrow dance floor we're playing on," he said.

Knorr pointed to 1993 statistics that showed average spreads for negotiated deals at $8.40 per $1,000 par value, while those for competitive deals were $7.60 per ...

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