How much has Chicago approved through sole-source procurement this year? Its contracts file, retrieved September 15, 2026, shows $1,132,902,756.30 in sole-source awards approved this year, the latest dated August 27 — 16.2 percent of the award dollars the file shows approved in 2026, and more than the $638.7 million approved as sole source across all eleven years from 2015 through 2025. One record accounts for $1.05 billion of it: a ten-year contract, approved July 13, to operate and maintain the Airport Transit System at O’Hare International Airport. Without that record, 2026’s sole-source total is $82.9 million, below 2025’s $100.5 million.
City of Chicago Contracts (rsxa-ify5), contract and modification records since 1993, retrieved September 15, 2026 · this page reads the 2,755 records filed under the procurement type SOLE SOURCE, approved October 11, 2002 through August 27, 2026 · a record’s award amount is read as what that award or modification adds, consistent with the file’s description and one contract’s records · “sole source” is the file’s label, and an award is not a payment · vendor names appear only when they carry a business or institutional marker · no vendor, department or decision is judgedHow the file counts a sole-source dollar
Each record in the file is an award or a modification of one, and its award amount is what that record adds — a reading consistent with the file’s description, which says contracts can be modified “to delete scope and money,” shown as negative amounts, and that a $0 blanket award means the total “Depends Upon Requirements.” So a year’s total is what was approved that year, not what a contract is worth over its life. The Chicago Police Department’s Taser contract with Axon Enterprise shows how that adds up: five sole-source records since 2018 total $110.9 million, including a modification approved June 24, 2026 that adds $39.8 million. Eight of 2026’s 19 sole-source records carry $0.
One contract, $1.05 billion
The largest record is contract 356057, approved July 13, 2026 for the Chicago Department of Aviation: the operation and maintenance of the Airport Transit System at O’Hare, with a term from July 10, 2026 to July 10, 2036, specification 1318223, and a vendor filed as AOR Transit. The same vendor name is on every record in the file whose description names the Airport Transit System.
| Contract | Procurement type, as filed | Records | Approved | Award total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T27020 | (none filed) | 1 | July 18, 1994 | $0.00 |
| T26358 | (none filed) | 7 | March 10, 2004 – July 11, 2011 | $159,246,529.10 |
| 25743 | RFQ | 13 | December 22, 2011 – December 5, 2025 | $643,999,134.20 |
| 356057 | SOLE SOURCE | 1 | July 13, 2026 | $1,050,000,000.00 |
Why was the new contract procured as sole source? The file’s fields do not say — its description names the service, not the reason, and this page did not read the linked contract PDF. What the fields do show is the sequence: the previous contract, whose procurement type reads RFQ rather than SOLE SOURCE, gathered 13 records and $644.0 million between December 2011 and December 2025, and the next one arrived as a single sole-source record of $1.05 billion.
Sole source, year by year
| Year approved | Records | Contracts | Sole-source award total | Share of all approved award dollars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 28 | 20 | $36,024,461 | 1.0% |
| 2016 | 32 | 28 | $4,866,847 | 0.1% |
| 2017 | 42 | 31 | $50,049,194 | 1.0% |
| 2018 | 38 | 23 | $95,604,162 | 1.8% |
| 2019 | 29 | 24 | $61,984,706 | 1.0% |
| 2020 | 29 | 24 | $62,567,000 | 0.8% |
| 2021 | 20 | 15 | $64,124,970 | 1.2% |
| 2022 | 27 | 21 | $38,788,125 | 0.6% |
| 2023 | 47 | 42 | $65,452,778 | 0.4% |
| 2024 | 45 | 36 | $58,701,768 | 0.7% |
| 2025 | 36 | 29 | $100,512,801 | 1.0% |
| 2026 (file retrieved Sept. 15) | 19 | 12 | $1,132,902,756 | 16.2% |
Is 2026 a break from that pattern? Only because of one record. From 2015 through 2025 the sole-source share of approved award dollars ran between 0.1 and 1.8 percent a year; in 2026 it is 16.2 percent. Set the transit system contract aside and the year’s other 18 records total $82.9 million, under 2025’s $100.5 million, the largest of the eleven years before.
Which departments hold the sole-source dollars
| Department, as filed | Records | Contracts | Sole-source award total, 2015–2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aviation | 38 | 21 | $1,148,604,800 |
| Police | 17 | 7 | $116,111,427 |
| Technology and Innovation | 5 | 4 | $78,741,658 |
| Business & Information Services | 15 | 3 | $73,842,017 |
| Emergency Management and Communications | 19 | 5 | $65,606,162 |
| Public Safety Administration | 11 | 7 | $58,221,368 |
| Fire | 5 | 2 | $45,092,885 |
| Transportation | 35 | 6 | $43,346,126 |
Aviation leads with $1.15 billion across 21 contracts — $98.6 million without the transit system contract — and the Police Department follows with $116.1 million across 7.
The largest sole-source contracts on file
| Contract | Department, as filed | Vendor, as filed | Records | Approved | Award total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 356057 | Aviation | AOR TRANSIT | 1 | 2026 | $1,050,000,000 |
| 60663 | Police | AXON ENTERPRISE INC | 5 | 2018–2026 | $110,870,781 |
| 16761 | Technology and Innovation | INFOR PUBLIC SECTOR INC | 14 | 2009–2025 | $100,139,181 |
| 5418 | Children and Youth Services | BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO | 3 | 2004 | $87,644,000 |
| 14591 | General Services | MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY | 4 | 2007–2008 | $87,000,000 |
| 14592 | Aviation | MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY | 2 | 2007 | $75,000,000 |
| T27781 | Business & Information Services | UNISYS CORPORATION | 2 | 2004–2007 | $56,391,283 |
| 6988 | Aviation | EXELON ENERGY COMPANY | 1 | 2004 | $53,333,333 |
Two smaller patterns in the file
The Office of the Mayor is the department on 52 sole-source records totaling $3.6 million, and 44 of them describe legislative consulting, $3.3 million filed across 18 different years from 2004 to 2026. Emergency procurement is rarer still: 587 records in the whole file, with the most emergency dollars in 2020, $17.2 million across 38 records.
What the file confirms, and what it cannot tell you
Confirmed, as filed: each record’s procurement type, department, vendor name, approval date, contract dates and the amount it adds. What no field in the records read here holds: why a contract was procured as sole source — the linked contract PDFs, not read for this page, may say more; what was actually paid, which is a different city file; whether a contract’s full award will be spent; and which of 196 vendor names without a business or institutional marker belong to individuals — those names are not shown here.
Where the record lives
The contracts file sits on the city’s data portal, with a column for links to PDF copies of contracts. Every figure here recomputes from the file as retrieved September 15, 2026; the file updates daily, so later approvals will change the 2026 totals.
The bottom line
Asked how much Chicago approved through sole-source procurement in 2026, the city’s contracts file, retrieved September 15, answers $1.13 billion, the latest approval dated August 27 — 16.2 percent of the year’s approved award dollars, against 0.1 to 1.8 percent a year from 2015 through 2025. One ten-year O’Hare Airport Transit System contract is $1.05 billion of it, and the vendor on it is on every record in the file whose description names that system. Why this one was sole source is not in the fields read here.
Two more questions the file can answer
How much sole-source contracting does the file hold in all? $4.02 billion across 2,755 records and 1,457 contracts since October 2002. And which sole-source contract has been modified most? A Chicago Department of Transportation contract, T26824, whose records reach revision 33.
- Source: the City of Chicago Contracts file (rsxa-ify5), retrieved September 15, 2026: every record filed under procurement type SOLE SOURCE (2,755) and EMERGENCY (587), plus yearly totals for all records.
- Amounts: each record’s award amount as filed, summed by approval year or by contract number; shares of all approved award dollars are our arithmetic.
- Airport Transit System history: records of any procurement type whose description contains “Airport Transit System” or “people mover.”
- Vendor names: shown only when they carry a business or institutional marker; 196 names without one were withheld, and no vendor address was read.
- Not here: no reason for any procurement decision, no judgment of any vendor or department, and no claim about payments.
Computed by KCM Desk from the City of Chicago’s contracts file, retrieved September 15, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.
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