Dick Barton likes the spotlight.  Which is what one would expect from a friend and political confidante of Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark.

Barton, who is in the home stretch of his one-term career on the Park Ridge Park District Board of Commissioners, is reputed to be – along with former Maine Twp. Supervisor Bob “The Dude” Dudycz – the juice behind the slate of Park Board candidates headed by “best boy” Nick Milissis.  Barton also is the head of Barton & Barton Ltd., a public relations firm that got a nice contract to do public relations for Maine Twp. when The Dude was top dog there.

But we’ve heard that Barton inadvertently caused a bit of a stir over at Mary Seat of Wisdom by mixing business with pleasure – or, in this case, mixing business with the recent Knights of Columbus fish fry held at MSW.

Barton, a Knight of Columbus himself, appears to have arranged for Park Ridge Taxi – which we have heard (but have not confirmed) is a current or prospective Barton & Barton client – to “donate” free taxi service to whoever wanted/needed a ride home from the fish fry.  As we hear it, some “moderate” MSW parishioners interpreted the free taxi service as an invitation to over-indulge – in something other than the batter-dipped, deep-fried cod.

If that was all there was to it, however, we would let the local “Carry Nation”s slug it out with Dickie Barton and the Knights, and call it a day.

But Barton, consummate promoter that he is, was unwilling to leave it at that.  So he wrote a letter to the Herald-Advocate (March 5, 2009) praising Park Ridge Taxi owner Dean Dinev and his “hometown company” for its free rides for over-codded fish fry patrons, who Barton proudly admitted to (over?)-serving.  And that’s okay, too – although we’ve heard talk that Barton’s signing of the letter as a representative of the Knights of Columbus may have overstepped his authority just a tad. 

It also appears that Barton was fudging the truth a little bit when he called Park Ridge Taxi a “hometown company,” because Illinois Secretary of State records [pdf] show that both “Park Ridge Taxi & Livery Ltd.” (formerly known as “Park Ridge Taxi & Limousine Limited”) and Mr. Dinev himself are based in Oakbrook Terrace; and we can’t find any record of him or his company in Park Ridge, even though his dispatch office is in the Park Ridge Metra station. 

But where this fish-fry incident could really get interesting is when Frimark and his Alderpuppets consider the application by American Taxi Dispatch, Inc. for five (5) taxi licenses.  American is making another attempt to break into the Park Ridge market currently monopolized by Park Ridge Taxi, a task which has proven to be about as easy as an American company gaining membership in a Japanese keiretsu. 

American’s latest effort was on the agenda for the City Council’s February 23 Committee of the Whole meeting, where an American representative sat through almost the entire agenda before finding out that his license issue was being kicked over to a future meeting.  A review of the City Mgr’s “Cover Memorandum” [pdf] for that February 23 COW meeting, however, reveals that American came before the Procedures & Regulations Committee back on February 1, 2005. 

At that meeting, Park Ridge Taxi’s then-owner, Lee Carpenter, speaking like a true monopolist, objected to competition from American on the grounds that another taxi company would hurt his business.  And apparently moved by Carpenter’s plea, the P&R Committee voted 4-2 to reject American’s application – with one of those 4 “no” votes coming from then-Ald. (and then-mayoral candidate) Howard Frimark.

So can you imagine what a coincidence it must have been that just two days after Frimark’s vote to preserve Park Ridge Taxi’s monopoly, his mayoral campaign fund received a $500 contribution from Lee Carpenter’s wife, Patricia? [pdf] (originally reported on the Park Ridge Underground) Cynics might consider that a version of a typically corrupt Illinois pay-to-play government deal, but we’re sure that Frimark has a perfectly logical explanation for it.

Meanwhile, however, we offer a couple of suggestions to the owner of American Taxi: If you want to improve your chance at those five licenses, your check – preferably written by your wife – should be made payable to “Friends for Frimark for Mayor.”  And it probably wouldn’t hurt if you hired Barton & Barton as your p.r. company.