To nobody’s surprise (least of all ours), none of the folks who operate Taste of Park Ridge NFP (“Taste Inc.”), the private corporation with the no-bid monopoly on the Taste of Park Ridge event (“TOPR”) since June 2005, showed up at Monday night’s City Council meeting to answer Council questions about their seven-year stewardship of the City’s premier event.

As Mayor Dave Schmidt quipped about the no-show excuses given by Taste Inc. vice-president Albert Galus, it seems like Galus and all of his fellow Tastees – Dave Iglow (Pines Men’s Wear), Dean Patras (Broadway Livery Service), Sandy Svizzero (Parkway Bank), Barb Tyksinski (All on the Road Catering), John Warnimont (Activision Electric), Jackie Matthews (Rainbow Hospice) and Mel Thillens (Thillens Service Corp) – are unavailable to attend a Council meeting “for eternity.”

The Tastees, however, did send the City a well-crafted (albeit undated) “Press Release” that sounds like they’ve already “lawyered up,” as terms like “aldermanic purview” and references to “federally protected rights” and Illinois statutes like “35 ILCS 120/11” don’t normally trip lightly off the tongues of non-lawyers like Mr. Galus or his fellow Tastees.

But the most notable information in that entire Press Release is Taste Inc.’s admission – or maybe it should be called a confession – of what we’ve suspected for a few years: that for the first four years of its existence, Taste Inc. really wasn’t a not-for-profit organization, as the Tastees always claimed when bragging about their thousands of hours of uncompensated volunteer service for TOPR.  Instead, we now find out that Taste Inc. was just a standard for-profit business, the profits from which the Tastees could lawfully treat however they wanted, including by stuffing their pockets with them if they so chose. 

And those profits were enhanced each year at the taxpayers’ expense by approximately $20,000 of free City services “donated” to the for-profit Taste Inc. during 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008; and then donated to the belatedly not-for-profit Taste Inc. for the past 3 years.   

We actually enjoyed, in a twisted sort of way, the Tastees’ “spin” (or was it just an outright lie) about how they didn’t realize they weren’t really a not-for-profit until they discovered “a paperwork error” that made Taste Inc. “an S corporation instead of the 501(c)(6) as desired.”  Yeah, right. 

Even if we bought into that fairy tale, the Tastees should have discovered that “paperwork error” when it came time to file Taste Inc.’s 2005 tax return, since they would have needed their 501(c)(3) or (c)(6) certification from the IRS to file the IRS Form 990 (which not-for-profits file and which are published on GuideStar) instead of the IRS Form 1120S filed by regular “S” corporations that are private and not published on GuideStar.   And they should have had three more of the same “I could have had a V-8” moments with the filing of each of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 tax returns.

And even if we assume the most extreme version of Taste Inc.’s fairy tale, in which the Tastees somehow didn’t discover that “paperwork error” until they closed down the original Taste Inc. and re-incorporated as a 501(c)(6) in March 2009, why did they continue the charade and not admit until August 2011 that Taste Inc. hadn’t been a lawful not-for-profit for its first four years in business? 

Which raises the question of what other TOPR-related things the Tastees have not been truthful about – including what Taste Inc. has done with all the TOPR revenue over the past 7 years, whether any of the Tastees have been taking dough, and/or whether they have been giving sweetheart deals to friends and favored vendors, all while taking the $20,000+ a year in City services.   

That’s what Ald. Dan Knight appears to have been trying to find out when he recently asked Taste Inc. for “cash flow statements” – and what Taste Inc. is trying to prevent the City from finding out when, “exercising its federally protected rights,” it unequivocally refused to produce them.

This being Illinois, schemes and outright scams by people in and around government at any level should no longer surprise us.  That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised by what is looking more and more like a scheme hatched back in 2005 by then-mayor Howard Frimark and the Tastees to hand over TOPR not to an ad hoc committee of the City (as Frimark initially proposed) but to the private Taste Inc. – a scheme that was eagerly rubber-stamped by a semi-clueless City Council that, back then, was too busy dodging all those pro-Frimark purple ribbons to pay any real attention to the no-bid, no accountability giveaway of the City’s premier event.

That’s the way government waste and corruption works in Illinois.  To paraphrase our late U.S. Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen: $20,000 here, $100,000 there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

But the end of Taste Inc.’s TOPR gravy train may be in sight.  The future of TOPR is on the agenda at this coming Monday night’s (08/22/11) Finance & Budget COW, at which F&B may explore alternatives to the TOPR monopoly by the secretive and arrogant Taste Inc. crowd.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE (08.22.11)

On Friday, August 19, Taste Inc.’s Albert Galus ratcheted-up his arrogance another few notches by demanding that Mayor Dave Schmidt apologize for Schmidt’s comments about Galus’ and his fellow Tastees’ refusal to appear at last Monday night’s City Council meeting or otherwise provide the Council with various information and documentation about Taste Inc.’s operation of TOPR for the past 7 years.

We think that’s hilarious, in a sick and twisted way:  Having already been caught misleading – if not outright lying to – the citizens of Park Ridge about Taste Inc.’s being a not-for-profit corporation during its first four years of operation, Galus apparently is adopting “the best defense is a good offense” strategy by trying to put Schmidt on the defensive.  We hope Schmidt doesn’t let that happen, because allowing a totally shameless Galus to hijack the debate on Taste Inc.’s continuing monopoly of TOPR and/or to blunt the long-overdue inquiry into whether Taste Inc. actually defrauded the people of Park Ridge would be its own breach of the public trust. 

We feel no need to comment on most of Galus’ self-serving drivel, but a few of his “respect” lines are irresistible:   

• “As an elected official, you owe me, the taxpaying citizen, respect.” 

No, Fatuous Albert, Schmidt doesn’t.  As Edmund Burke noted, an elected official (like Schmidt) owes his constituents his “industry” and his “judgment.”  Schmidt has been plenty industrious in his first two years in office, which is why he has been able to pare the City’s annual deficit down from multi-millions to what we are hearing will be a couple hundred thousand dollar for the just-completed fiscal year, despite having several of his cost-cutting vetoes over-ridden by the Council; and his judgment, especially as it applies to Taste Inc. and TOPR, appears to be spot-on.

• “Additionally, I demand respect from you on behalf of all other volunteers in Park Ridge who strive to build a community that edifies one another.”

You have no right and no authority to demand anything for the true “volunteers” in Park Ridge – the ones who do what they do without sucking money out of the taxpayers’ pockets, without shameless self-aggrandizement and promotion, and who are transparent and accountable to the public for their activities.  In that regard, you appear to have so little in common with those true “volunteers” that your claiming the “volunteer” sobriquet for yourself is itself borderline fraud.

• “When you disrespect me in public fashion as you have done, you disrespect every citizen in Park Ridge.”

No, Albert, you and your fellow Tastees are the ones who have been “disrespect[ing] every citizen in Park Ridge” for the past seven years – and you continue to do it by thinking that those citizens are so stupid and/or gullible that they might actually buy into this latest public relations scheme of yours.  

Obviously, Albert, you missed the memo that most of us got as young kids – the one that says “respect isn’t owed, it’s earned.”

If you and your fellow Tastees want respect, Albert, start earning it by opening the Taste Inc. books and records to prove to this community that Taste Inc. hasn’t been just a self-serving, special-interest, pocket-lining scam since you folks took it over in 2005.  Until you and your fellow Tastees come clean, you’ve already received way more respect – and taxpayer funds – than you deserve.

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