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The early revenue numbers also fell short of expectations because the meter company voluntarily suspended writing tickets — as the deal with the city allows it to do — on March 21. That move was intended to allow the firm to focus on solving the technical problems.

Because the company is not writing tickets, it seems many Chicagoans are getting away with parking for free. A company audit of a section of the North Side found 41 percent of occupied spaces filled by motorists who were not paying, according to the company records.

Now, however, the parking company wants to resume writing tickets. The meter company “has notified city of desire to get enforcement back into effect,” the documents show.

Last year, before the privatization and the rate increases, the city reported parking meter revenues of almost $24 million. This year, despite its rough start, the parking meter company has received revenues of almost $35 million through October and expects to hit a total of about $46 million between Feb. 13 and the end of the year, the records show.

Examining the parking company’s numbers so far and its 2010 projections, financial experts said they expected that private investors would be happy with the deal.

“There is little doubt they will recoup their investment in a relatively short period of time,” said Dennis Enright, an investment banker who specializes in privatization deals for NW Financial in Jersey City, N.J.

Mr. Enright added that the Daley administration got about as much as it could have from a private bidder, given the economy. But he said the city’s taxpayers would have been better served by holding onto the system.

“The value the city could have captured was probably double what they got,” he said.

Like Mr. Enright, the economist Roger Skurski calculated the current value of the deal. Mr. Skurski said his conservative estimate was that “the city could have earned about $670 million more by keeping the asset.”

Alderman Waguespack said it was too easy for the mayor to give the meter system away “for a quick shot in the arm.”

“Now they’ve burned through that,” he said.

The alderman recently introduced a measure that would require an “independent third-party valuation” of major asset lease proposals before any future privatization deal is completed. The legislation would require “a comparison of public retention and private leasing over the life cycle of the agreement.” Only 12 of the Council’s 49 other members have signed on as co-sponsors.

The city’s $2.5 billion deal with a private company that wanted to take over Midway Airport recently fell through, but the mayor remains eager to revive that effort. And he has met with consultants who have suggested other assets that the city could lease, with speculation swirling around the future of Chicago’s water system.

Before entering into the parking meter deal, the city hired a consultant whose confidential report suggested the lease could generate $650 million to $1.2 billion for the city.

The report was not disclosed to the public until after the check from the winning parking meter bidder cleared. Officials say revealing a consultant’s valuation analysis before a deal closes would hurt the city’s chances of getting the best possible deal.