The link to the Des Plaines Journal provides some interesting reading.

To all of you who previously commented about billboards versus hotels I suggest you check it out… THIS is what the 12/23 PW post was about. Do we want this kind of crap going on in Park Ridge? NFW!!!

And what the hell is Allegretti, or any of the rest of them voting with him, thinking?!?

I have to confess, when all of this started I was not aware of all of the crap that went on in Des Plaines not so long ago relative to billboards. I really appreciate the job being done here by PW… where, oh where, is the in depth reporting by the HA or Journal?

Listening to Allegretti near the end of the debate on the billboards makes me wonder whether the grease on this deal is coming from the billboard company or from the owners of Renaissance Center who will get some pretty sweet rent from the billboard company?

And BTW, since the billboards will be going up on the Renaissance property and benefiting those owners, why weren’t they also required to be the applicants for the text amendments?

Maybe Joe Ardovitch got tired of paying Owens legal fees.

I’m still wondering why Frankie DiFranco stuck his nose into this one. That was a big show put on by Allegretti’s suite mate. First time ever if I recall.

it’s impressive that Allegretti is now speaking without notes. He is better rehearsed these days!

Someone should invite the City Attorney from Des Plaines to PR to discuss the billboard issue. DP fought against billbaords twice and was successful…as successful as they could be after some bad policy decisions from former alderman.

Allegretti (and his law partners DiFranco and Wilson) want “revenue” because of the $2 million budget deficit that the jackass himself voted for, before he voted to increase that deficit by giving more money to community groups.

Good catch 3:02. I knew that Ardovitch name from somewhere, and a quick Google shows his company as the Renaissance owner who applied for a text amendment a year or so ago to allow medical offices there.

3:39, there’s got to be more to it than that. My guess is referral fees. Loss gets introduced to Allegretti, maybe through some DiFranco connection, Allegretti puts up the proposal before the Council, then Loss gets introduced to Owens, Owens kicks back a referral fee to DiFranco and DiFranco makes sure Allegretti gets a thank you of some kind? Anything is possible, but I’d bet my house DiFranco’s big concern here isn’t the City budget. I don’t think it’s Allegretti’s big concern either.

Isn’t it also strange that this Generation Group company does not come up on Google, has no Switchboard listing, or website that I can find? If anyone finds any info on this company please post… it’s strange to say the least. Of course if you google “Joe loss” + billboards all kinds of interesting articles come up, such as this one: http://www.illinoiscrimecommission.com/news/contentview.asp?c=21370

None of the Loss billboard companies have websites. It looks like every time Loss goes to some town to get billboard permits, he registers a new company. The only place to find anything on these companies is the Secretary of State’s corporate filings. The Generation Group is filed and the agent is Loss but the filing doesn’t have any information about who the president or managing partners are.

References to the Illinois Crime Commission were in the story links PW posted in the article.

The mayor sent out an e-mail saying that the city attorney believes that the city assessing an “impact fee” would be legally prohibited, so none of the money that GGI is talking about paying the city might actually come in.

This is sounding worse.

It’s interesting that guys who would never be caught dead at a PR Council meeting were there; Frank DiFranco, Dave Nelli, Jim Debruzzi. Now I get that there are many family relationships in place but still, why would they all show up for this particular issue if they didn’t have skin in the game?

Mr. Loss sounds like a really bad character whom we should avoid like H1N1.

8:50:

That’s why the City being the applicant instead of GGI is so suspicious, because it prevented any scrutiny of who are the officers, directors and investors in GGI. Allegretti supposedly is a cousin of DiFranco, and DeBruzzi is married to Geri DiFranco, and Wilson is a law partner of DiFranco (not sure where Nelli figures in), so that could explain something about the deal.

But where do Ryan and Wsol figure into it so that they would vote (with Allegretti) to make the City the applicant?

I read one of those Journal articles you linked to (9-22-04) and it said that one two-sided billboard can generate $480,000 a year for the billboard company, so four billboards in Park Ridge could get Generation Group ALMOST $2 MILLION A YEAR! No disclousers is really fishy.

I guess I must be missing something. Is the amount of money a company could earn the issue which makes the lack of disclosure fishy?

I’ve heard other folks discussing the meager amount (compared to the possible income for the company) which has been offered to Park Ridge for the zoning change. If the amount weren’t considered meager, would the zoning change be more acceptable, even desired? At what price point does that happen?

12:09 pm –

I’m not looking at the amount of money as the standard for whether the zoning change is acceptable, but whether it’s more likely that the deal is rigged to put money in somebody’s pocket who might not want the public to know it’s going there. Which might also explain the vote for making the city of Park Ridge the applicant instead of Generation Group or the property owner.

Other folks are looking at the amount of money being offered as I said. Your comment gave the impression you saw the amount of money as the fishy issue. Businesses making money isn’t fishy in itself, it’s how they try to do that which can look fishy.

The money the company could earn or the money being offered is not what makes any of this fishy. The company owner is more than experienced in how getting permits is done. The owner went to the council instead of to the zoning commission. Doing that alone is what makes the whole thing fishy.

There are only two reasons to get the council to make this application instead of the company. Those reasons are to hide from disclosing the ownership investors, probably because of who the owner is associated with, and to make sure the the council gets the final word no matter what the zoning commission said.

The way all of this got done and Allegretti’s part in it and his confession to voting for ordinances based only on this subject is the fishiest part of all.

11:48:

I am all for complete disclosure but that applies to you as well. With that in mind, I need you help. You see when I first saw that number in the original post (12K per side of a billboard), I found the numbers to be amazing!! The problem is I cannot find a single shread of data to support that they are true, or at least true today. Virtaully all the data that I can find (Clear Channel for example has 2-3K)would indicate a 4 week rate of well under half that figure – well under!! You can go to Clear Channel your self and look at their rate card.

I agree with the prior poster about the money should not be the driving issue but you sure hammered it in your post. Therefore, I am going to need more data from you besides the 2004 article. Put bluntly, there is not a single piece of information that I am aware of that would back up your contention of “ALMOST 2 MILLION A YEAR!” It sure makes for some good outrage but, from what I can see, there is no truth to it. If the rates are 2K you would have to divide your figure by 6.

I’m not 11:48, but I have read up on this.

In a recent Journal-Topics article it was reported,

“Rosemont is unique when it comes to billboards primarily because of its close proximity to O’Hare Airport. Billboard advertisers are drawn to the heavy vehicular traffic, which is why a large number of outdoor signs are in place along tollways near O’Hare.

According to village records, Rosemont owns approximately 10 separate billboards that feature 14 sign faces. Last year, those billboards generated $1.8 million for village coffers. So far this year, the village has reaped $1.2 million from those outdoor signs.”

In an email I sent to a friend, I did some calculating for fun.

$1.8mil. annual income / by 12 months = $150K per month / 14 sign faces = $10,714 per month per sign face (average)

Even if you (very conservatively) halve the Rosemont amount for the Park Ridge location, say $5K per month per sign face, you get $40K per month for 8 sign faces x’s 12 = $480K annually. Going out 20 years, a very conservative potential of $9.6mil.

But maybe 11:48 has his own resources and calculator.

Anonymous on 01.02.10 8:50 am

Interesting is an understatement.

Anybody pick up a flyer from DiFranco’s Morningfields today?

Very interesting.

9:36 am, what kind of flyer? What did it say? Are they closing, too, or are they lobbying for billboards?