Since “The Manor” was annexed to Park Ridge’s Second Ward, Rich DiPietro has been the only alderman it has ever had.
DiPietro, known as “Uncle Rich” to some, “Richie D” to others, and labeled “Lord of The Manor” by the authors of Park Ridge Underground, has been a member of the City Council since 1995. He was elected and re-elected as a member of the Homeowners Party, facing (to the best of our knowledge) only one opponent – in 2003, when he defeated a badly underfunded political unknown by a mere 21 votes (298 v. 277).
But don’t let his quiet grandfatherly manner and Peter Falk/“Columbo”-esque style fool you. Richie D knows exactly what he’s doing and almost always gets what he wants – as was seen this past Monday night (Nov. 5) when he and three other aldermen allegedly beholden to Mayor Howard Frimark put the final touches on a sweetheart deal for the developers of Executive Office Plaza (“EOP”).
By a 4-3 vote, DiPietro, 4th Ward Ald. Jim Allegretti, 5th Ward Ald. Robert Ryan, and 6th Ward Ald. Tom Carey gave EOP developer Park Ridge 2004 LLC, led by Frimark supporter Bruce Adreani and his Norwood Builders, 8 more condo units than the 160-unit maximum the city’s recently-rewritten zoning ordinance permits. And they did it under the guise of ensuring that the developer will make 50 of those 168 units “senior housing,” although that “senior housing” requires only 1 “senior” (55 years old or older) per unit and allows an unlimited number of non-senior residents so long as they are age 21 or over.
Termed a “travesty” by 1st Ward Ald. Dave Schmidt, who led the opposition to this end-run around the zoning laws and was joined by 3rd Ward Ald. Don Bach and 7th Ward Ald. Frank Wsol in voting “no,” the passage of this variance finally got some of the residents opposing it asking the same question about DiPietro that they had previously asked about variance cheerleaders Allegretti and Ryan: “What is he thinking?”
As with Allegretti and Ryan, we don’t claim to know. But as with Allegretti and Ryan, some clues might be gleaned from public records that provide some useful transparency concerning Richie D’s political friends and relationships.
For those of you without a scorecard, DiPietro is the owner of Cross Tech Communications, a printing and graphic services business located at 111 N. Jefferson in Chicago. Cross Tech got $2,470 of sign business from Frimark’s mayoral campaign back on 2/17/05. Was it merely a coincidence, then, that Richie D personally contributed $250 to Frimark’s campaign on 3/26/05 – and an even bigger coincidence that Cross Tech dropped $440 of “in kind” (e.g., in printing services) contribution to the Frimark campaign on 3/31/05? Cumulatively, that’s $690 in contributions for $2,470 in revenues – PDF, not a bad deal at all.
And in a similar type of coincidence, Cross Tech contributed $2,250 and got $3,281 of printing business – PDF from Citizens for Strong Schools (“CSS”), the campaign fund that supported the District 64 tax increase referendum this past April. Cross Tech’s “in kind” contribution was made on 2/15/07, with $1,958 of business coming back to Cross Tech on 3/21/07 and another $1,323 of business received on 3/23/07. That’s not quite as profitable as the contributions to Frimark’s campaign, but it clearly beats a sharp stick in the eye.
These figures also don’t include any goodwill that DiPietro or Cross Tech may have earned from rubbing (or bending) elbows with other big CSS contributors like Norwood Builders (at $1,500) and PRC Partners (at $2,000) – PDF
Not all of these relationships involve political contributions. For example, in another one of those increasingly unsurprising coincidences, DiPietro used Norwood’s EOP project architect, OKW Architects, Inc., for his own business in 2000, a fact that he disclosed at the August 20, 2007, City Council meeting – PDF after one of OKW’s principals, Park Ridge resident Andy Koglin, spoke in favor of the EOP project. And for those of you without a scorecard, OKW is also the architect for PRC LLC, the developer of the Target Area II condos and townhouses which DiPietro also supported.
Once again, we have no hard evidence that any of these transactions and relationships provided a quid pro quo for DiPietro’s “yes” vote on the EOP variance. But they reveal a direct economic relationship between DiPietro and Mayor Frimark, as well as an indirect one (through CSS) with Norwood Builders – relationships that might (and we stress might) have influenced DiPietro’s decision-making on a Norwood project like EOP that Frimark also favors; and which could influence his decisions on other matters in the future.