For example, Cotter and Company, a wholesaler to 6,000 True Value hardware stores, sought a package of public subsidies to keep their headquarters and operations in Chicago. In February 1996, while the final components of the package were working their way through City Hall, Burke toured Cotter's headquarters, at the end of which he handed out his business card from his private law practice and asked for the company's property tax appeals business. Cotter decided to hire Burke in March 1996 and finalized the arrangement in June 1996. An unprecedented $2.8 million cash grant from the City to Cotter, never publicized by the Daley administration, was included in a $20 million bond issue approved by the Finance Committee and the city council by July 31, 1996.