Back in the 1960s the Illinois Secretary of State was a fellow named Paul Powell, who had a propensity for accumulating unexplained cash – over $800,000, back when that was “real” money – in shoeboxes in the closet of his hotel suite in Springfield.   Powell’s pet phrase when describing a sweetheart deal (at the taxpayers’ expense, of course) was: “I can smell the meat a’cookin’.”

Those in attendance at Monday night’s City Council meeting might have caught more than a whiff of cooking meat as Fourth Ward Ald. Jim “Billboards” Allegretti did his best (or worst, depending on your point of view) to seal the deal on zoning text amendments that would permit Generation Group, Inc. (“GGI”) to put up four billboards along the Tollway by the Renaissance office plaza, which could bring the City $400,000 down and another $184,000 over the next 20 years.

“Billboards” has been GGI’s go-to guy on this matter since it was brought to the Council back in June, and by the August 17 meeting he was leading Alds. Robert Ryan (5th) and Frank Wsol (7th) in their successful 3-2 vote – over the opposition of Alds. DiPietro and Sweeney, with Alds. Bach and Carey absent – to make the City, instead of GGI, the applicant for the zoning code text amendments needed for the billboards, ostensibly because with the City as the applicant the Council had the power to trump any unfavorable decision on the application by the Planning & Zoning Commission (“P&Z”) that it did not have if GGI was the applicant.

But perhaps the more significant difference between the City being the applicant and GGI being the applicant, although not mentioned by “Billboards,” was what we identified in our post of November 9:

Carrying the water for GGI in this matter is 4th Ward Ald. Jim Allegretti, who seems hell-bent on changing City ordinances to enable the City Council to trump P&Z decisions about billboards.  And he appears to be “gaming” the process by getting the City to be the applicant rather than GGI, which allows GGI to avoid the disclosure requirements under the City’s ethics ordinance [pdf] that were adopted at the April 2, 2007 City Council meeting [pdf] in the face of accusations by then-mayor (and Allegretti puppeteer) Howard Frimark that more-stringent disclosures were “motivated by politics rather than integrity.”

With the City as the applicant, GGI has been able to avoid the required disclosure of the identities of its directors, officers and those shareholders holding a larger than 3% stake in the company.  And such disclosures might be problematic for GGI, especially in view of its ties – through, at minimum, the mutual involvement of Joseph Loss – with Premier Outdoor, Inc., the company that in 2003 got a deal with Des Plaines for up to 10 billboards, and whose officials back then included Loss, former Crook County undersheriff and convicted felon James Dvorak, and convicted felon Joseph P. Nicosia, Jr.  

But all these curious circumstances don’t necessarily mean that GGI’s proposed billboard deal with Park Ridge is kinked up.  “Billboards” Allegretti might actually be telling the truth when he insists that his keen interest in this billboard deal is simply to get $600,000 in revenue for the City’s beleaguered treasury.

After all, “Billboards” is the proven fiscal conservative who:

* voted for giving away $270,000 of taxpayers’ money to private community groups, even as the City was facing a $2 million budget deficit;

* voted for giving $2.4 million over 15 years to Napleton Cadillac, even as it was closing down its operations;

* wanted to build a new $16 million-plus police station without even holding a referendum;

* opposed passing on $400,000 of water rate increases to water users, thereby forcing the City to eat all those costs; and

* opposes the reinstatement of the City’s debt ceiling.

Just passing through the water rate increase would get the City the same $400,000 of up-front cash that it will get from the GGI deal.  And according to a story in the Sept. 22, 2004, edition of The Journal (“Convicted Felon Linked To Firm That Won Billboard Rights From Des Plaines”), two-sided billboards like the ones being sought by GGI “can fetch as much as $12,000 per month” for each of the two sides.  If those figures are still accurate, that means GGI can expect to generate $1,152,000 from its four Park Ridge billboards…each year! 

So why, exactly, is “Billboards” Allegretti so intent on locking Park Ridge into a deal that will get it a measly $30,000 a year, on average – just 2.6% of GGI’s annual take?   

Stop over at City Hall at 7:30 p.m. on January 18, 2010, when this item is next on the City Council’s agenda, take a sniff or two, and maybe you’ll catch the scent of pot roast in the air.