Allegretti’s Selective Recollection:  Monday night’s City Council meeting provided yet another glimpse into the parallel universe inhabited by 4th Ward Ald. Jim Allegretti.  The alderman was quick to criticize Mayor Dave Schmidt’s formal announcement of his selection of Joe Sweeney as his 1st Ward aldermanic replacement, contending that the vetting of Sweeney was “markedly different” from the vetting process he went through in 2005 as the handpicked choice of then newly-elected Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark.  But that contention was promptly challenged by 2nd Ward Ald. Rich DiPietro, who questioned Allegretti’s recollection of his own process.

We also question Allegretti’s recollection, although we can point to one significant difference between Frimark’s appointment of Allegretti and Schmidt’s appointment of Sweeney: Schmidt pro-actively disclosed that Sweeney had contributed $150 to Schmidt’s mayoral campaign fund, while Frimark – and Allegretti himself – stayed stone-cold silent about Allegretti’s $300 contribution to Frimark’s campaign, which he then followed up with a $200 contribution just a few weeks after his appointment.  Can you even spell “transparency,” Jimbo?

Smile, Mr. Carey…You’re on Council Camera: Mayor Dave Schmidt has stated that he is willing to forego his first year’s mayoral salary ($12,000) because of the City’s financial woes.  To date, however, the City has been unable to figure out the legalities of how not to pay him, so he just received his first $1,000 payment – some of which he announced he was using to purchase a video camera with which to tape Council meetings for uploading to the Internet and (hopefully) linkage to the City’s website, at no cost to the City.

But leave it to the City Council spendthrifts to find fault with the City getting something for free.  Ald. Tom Carey (6th Ward) complained about it being a unilateral decision by Schmidt, although City Atty. Everette “Buzz” Hill noted that under state law anybody can videotape or record Council meetings.  And Alds. Don “Air Marshall” Bach (3rd Ward) and Allegretti raised concerns about the cost for the person running the camera, web site maintenance, etc.  Schmidt responded that he already has volunteers lined up to run the camera and put the video on a web site to which the City’s website could link for free.

No wonder the Alderdunces don’t get Schmidt: The only “volunteers” they understand are the ones who keep demanding tens of thousands of our tax dollars.

Veto! Mayor Schmidt also announced at Monday night’s meeting what may be the first-ever mayoral veto of a City Council decision: The Council’s recent vote to increase the already $2 million 2009-10 budget deficit by an additional $39,000, thereby giving a variety of private local organizations a total of $271,000 instead of the budgeted $232,000.  Schmidt’s veto will come before the Council for a vote at the June 15th meeting, at which time the Council will need four votes to over-ride it.

PublicWatchdog applauds Mayor Schmidt for being the “adult” trying to stop the “children” from further raiding the “cookie jar.”  And we also give a wag of the tail to Ald. DiPietro for his suggestion that, instead of going over-budget, the Council reallocate the budgeted amount so as to increase funding to those “social service” organizations (e.g., The Center of Concern) while reducing funding to those other, non-social service organizations (e.g., The Kalo Foundation, Brickton Art Center, the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra).

We still think using tax dollars to fund private organizations is bad public policy, but DiPietro’s idea appears to make the best out of a bad situation.

Since runway 9L27R opened on November 20, 2008, we have heard a steady stream of complaints from those Park Ridge residents in the path of that runway.  All of a sudden, residents whose interest in airplane noise had been virtually non-existent were now up in arms, and looking for something – anything – to be done about the planes using that new runway.

As can be seen from the FAA’s 2/5/09 letter to Mayor Howard Frimark [pdf] detailing its reponses to specific questions and comments by Park Ridge residents at the December 18, 2008, “Town Hall meeting,” the FAA does not appear inclined to volunteer anything to change the current status quo.  As it points out at page 13 of that letter: “The FAA conducted the [Environmental Impact Statement process] in full compliance with [the National Environmental Policy Act] and in coordination with all relevant Federal, state, and local agencies.”  That doesn’t leave much room for negotiation.

We here at PublicWatchdog think it’s way past time for a reality check in connection with this new runway situation, and also a rational plan of action based on that reality check – two things which have been sorely lacking since Richie Daley’s rolling thunder review began cutting a noisy swath through the Belle Plaine corridor six months ago.

Let’s start with the reality check. 

Reality 1.  O’Hare is one of the world’s busiest airports and it sits less than two miles from the western border of Park Ridge.  It just completed a $500 million-plus expansion featuring a new runway and control tower.  Who in their right mind honestly believes that O’Hare won’t run as many planes in and out on that runway as the FAA allows – and pocket as many passenger fees as Richie Daley can spend on sweetheart deals for his cronies?

Reality 2.  The more flights that use the new runway, the less flights use 22R and 22L.  Which means we’re caught in a zero-sum game: every time the 5th and 6th wards get noisier from flights using 9L27R, the 1st and 2nd wards get quieter.  This has cast Park Ridge in the role that Lincoln warned about in 1858, albeit in connection with slavery: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  Unless and until all of Park Ridge gets behind a single plan for dealing with airplane noise, we cannot expect anybody in authority to take sides in an intramural battle between various areas of the same community.   

Reality 3.  Nobody – not Richie Daley, not Springfield, not Washington D.C., not the FAA, not even our neighboring O’Hare suburbs – seems to care one bit that the new runway has brought airplane noise to new areas of Park Ridge.  Which is why not one of our U.S. Senators or one of our U.S. Representatives (including our very own congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky) has stepped up to the plate in any big way for us in the O’Hare battle.

Reality 4.  Litigation has proved to be totally ineffective in combating O’Hare expansion, as the last remaining members of the Suburban O’Hare Commission (“SOC”) – Bensenville and Elk Grove Village – demonstrated so expensively over the past five years since Park Ridge withdrew from SOC.  And we hear that the ORD-REST group got precious little encouragement from the attorneys with whom they have talked about the prospect of suing O’Hare, Chicago, the airlines, the FAA, or the EPA.

Reality 5.  In the absence of any clear and convincing legal or political weapon in our arsenal, installing more noise monitors and collecting more sound and pollution data is an exercise in futility – nothing more than a hollow don’t-just-stand-there-do-something reaction that is likely to result in nothing more than wasted time, money and effort.  Instead, we need to focus, not on more data gathering, but on changing the noise measurement standard from the average decibels over a 24-hour period (the Day/Night Sound Level, or “DNL”) to something that more accurately reflects the heightened decibel levels only during those periods of time when planes are actually flying over Park Ridge.   

In view of these unfortunate realities, we need a plan that’s decidedly different from the same old, same old that has gotten us (and our neighbors) exactly nowhere.  So here it is:    

The City (through Mayor Schmidt and/or City Mgr. Hock) should meet in person A.S.A.P. with both of our U.S. Senators and the nine Congressmen/women who represent the suburbs surrounding O’Hare: Jan Schakowsky (D. 9th), Melissa Bean (D. 8th – former Park Ridge resident), Peter Roskam (R. 6th), Judy Biggert (R.13th), Mark Kirk (R. 10th), Michael Quigley (D. 5th), Daniel Lipinski (D. 3rd), Danny Davis (D. 7th) and Luis Guitterez (D. 4th).  And the questions posed to them should be simple and direct: “What, if anything, are you willing to do to help reduce the noise and pollution from the planes flying over Park Ridge?” And: “What, if anything, do you need from Park Ridge to help you do it?”    

The answers to those two questions will tell us, more than anything else, whether we have any real chance of improving our situation vis-a-vis the new runway, and airplane noise and pollution from O’Hare generally; or whether we are just spitting into the wind.