Investigations

City of Aurora Staff Aided Development of Privately Owned Tourism App at No Cost to App’s Owner, a Mayoral Ally

For the last several months, the city of Aurora has been proudly promoting a new mobile app aimed at drawing more visitors to its downtown attractions.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin celebrated the Destination Aurora app in one of a series of State of the City speeches late last year touting an array of accomplishments in the western suburb he leads, Illinois’ second most populous city.

“This is innovation at its core, to better economic development in the city of Aurora,” Irvin said at the address, focused on “Innovation, Technology, and The Future.” The app offers residents and visitors information on dining, theater, parking, places to stay and more. The city’s been promoting the app on social media, its website, its email newsletter and in Irvin’s own speeches and videos.

But it’s not Aurora that owns the app — it was developed by a company whose owner’s firms have received multiple lucrative contracts and incentives from the city, and who has supported the campaign funds of Irvin and his allies.

The city has no contract or other official arrangement with the app’s owner, an Aurora spokesperson said after multiple requests for comment.

Despite the lack of a formal arrangement, emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided to WTTW News show members of the city’s staff collaborating for months on the app’s development and promotion — members of the city’s IT department, including its leader; marketing and communications staff; staff from the mayor’s office; and Irvin himself.

The unusual arrangement means municipal employees worked, while on the taxpayer’s dime, on a privately held product not subject to any formal agreement with the city of Aurora.

City officials did not respond to a follow-up question about whether it was appropriate for municipal employees to aid the development of the app in the absence of a clearly defined arrangement.

The app was developed in partnership with APS Data Technologies. As WTTW News has previously reported, APS owner Harish Ananthapadmanabhan and his partner in the firm JH Real Estate have received millions in incentives from the city of Aurora for their businesses. Those benefits include transferring city-owned property to JH at no cost, TIF district proceeds, tax credits and $5.6 million in loans, $2.8 million of which are forgivable.

In February, the Aurora City Council approved two deals with JH to redevelop two additional downtown properties with incentives that include additional TIF proceeds and millions in historic tax credits. And APS was awarded a three-year, $2.5 million contract for a STEAM education program last year.

Illinois campaign finance records show that Ananthapadmanabhan, his business partner and businesses they control made nearly $100,000 in political contributions to Irvin, his allies, and members of the Aurora City Council between 2019 and 2023.

“Mr. Ananthapadmanabhan approached the city with an app concept for a smart city parking app,” a city spokesperson told WTTW News in an email. “Through multiple discussions spanning several months, City leadership worked with APS Data Technologies to tailor the app to best suit the current needs of the city, thus creating the current iteration of the app, which serves as a one-stop shop for entertainment and dining in Aurora, specifically downtown.”

Some of the featured listings — including city events, parking information, and restaurant reservations — appear to display external web pages within the app’s frame. One section of the app features a discount code for five restaurants, two of which Ananthapadmanabhan and his business partner co-own. It also has a feature that appears internal which allows users to purchase tickets for shows at four venues owned by the Aurora Civic Center Authority, a sister agency overseen by a mayoral-appointed board.

The city told WTTW News that user data from the app is controlled by APS.

In an email, Ananthapadmanabhan said he would not respond to questions about the app until after Aurora’s general election on April 1, which is preceded by a Feb. 25 primary. Irvin is running for reelection against Aurora Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president Karina Garcia, Ald. John Laesch, former Ald. Judd Lofchie, and Ald. Tes Mesiacos.

Ananthapadmanabhan added in his email that “there is nothing to hide” and said that APS has been involved in the app’s development since 2018. He did not respond to a follow-up request seeking documentation of that timeline.

The emails demonstrating months of city employees assisting with the app were obtained by Austin FitzCorbett, a local IT professional. Unable to find any public-facing information on whether the city had funded the app’s development, he filed FOIA requests seeking such documentation and was told it did not exist. A city spokesperson never responded to his request for information about who owned the app, FitzCorbett told WTTW News.

Told that WTTW News had confirmed the app’s ownership, FitzCorbett said he was unsure why a successful businessman like Ananthapadmanabhan did not receive compensation for the app.

“I’m not saying he’s not a good person, but why would he spend months of his time, months of his company’s time to make an app for free like this … It raises concerns in my head of backroom deals,” he said, noting the multiple agreements JH and APS have with the city.

While FitzCorbett says it can be beneficial for the city to have good relationships with businesses, he’d like to see it proceed differently in the future.

“The city continues to tout being a place for entrepreneurs, that they want to create a tech industry here,” he said. “The city absolutely could have opened up a request for proposals and brought this to the Aurora community at large and said we want this kind of app, and who’s gonna make it for us.”

Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg

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