Our endorsements:

Mayor of Park Ridge:            Dave Schmidt

Park Ridge Park District:      Rick Biagi
                                          Scott Duerkop
                                          Pawel Matula

School District 64:               None of these

School District 207:              Marijo Bustos
                                          Eric Leys
                                          Margaret McGrath
                                          Edward Mueller

Police Station Ref. No. 1:      No

Police Station Ref. No. 2:      No

Irrespective of whether you accept or reject these endorsements, make sure you vote!

Polls close at 7:00 p.m. 

Park Ridge is at a crossroads. 

Under the past four years of Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark’s administration, city expenses have increased faster than revenues, producing multi-million dollar deficits.  Our property taxes are rising at a rate that outpaces inflation and would exceed the tax caps – if the city wasn’t exempt from them. Our basements regularly flood due to aged and inadequate sewers, while our streets and sidewalks crumble.

In short, it is in danger of becoming a far different place than it has been, and that most residents want it to be.

Meanwhile, Frimark has acquired an edifice complex that he is trying to treat by burying us in 20+ years of multi-million dollar debt for a big new police station that is wanted by only a few instead of being needed by many.  And rather than look out for the welfare of the majority of taxpayers and residents, Frimark concerns himself with questionable dealings with “friends,” campaign contributors and the special interests who seem to consider Park Ridge as just another place to make a buck.  Some examples:

• He cast the tie-breaking vote to give his $1,000 campaign contributor, Napleton Cadillac, up to $2.4 million in outright payments and sales tax revenue sharing from City coffers;

• He tried to get the city to pay the owner of the American Insurance property at 720 Garden $200,000 more than the price at which the city’s own appraisal valued that property; and

• He recently accepted $1,500 from Park Ridge Taxi and its owner, who is trying to preserve his taxi monopoly from competition by other taxi companies.

But that’s not all.

In running for mayor in 2005, Frimark reported accepting $84,966 in contributions. Since then, Frimark already has reported collecting another $71,035 for his re-election bid. That’s over $150,000…for a job that is supposed to be very part-time (because we have a $200,000 a year city manager to manage things) and, consequently, pays just $12,000 a year.

But more troubling than those boxcar campaign dollars in light of Illinois’ history of pay-to-play government and Frimark’s own propensity for sweetheart deals, is how that his campaign contributions have been raised. 

Over $24,000 has come from Norridge resident Sam Spiros Markos and a collection of his businesses, many of whom are based out of offices in the strip shopping center on Dempster next to his now-leveled Crystal Palace banquet hall.  $7,200 of that was contributed to Frimark’s original election bid, but a whopping $17,000 has come from Markos Inc. since Frimark’s election – including a few thousand dollars used by Frimark to help elect 6th Ward Alderpuppet Tom Carey in 2007.

And another $30,000-plus has come from just 15 individuals and their businesses, including that $1,500 in the last couple of months from Oakbrook Terrace’s Park Ridge Tax & Livery, Ltd., under new owner (and Oakbrook Terrace resident) Dean Dinev, who is currently trying to keep any spare taxi licenses out of the hands of competitor American Taxi.

In contrast, challenger Dave Schmidt, who is running a true “grass-roots campaign, has collected only $26,062 ($2,600 of his own money). His biggest contributor is Park Ridge resident Tony Svanascini, who contributed $4,646 for a campaign event and whose company, Park Ridge-based Americaneagle.com, Inc., services the City’s website on a contract given out years ago, before Schmidt became an alderman and in such a small dollar amount that it did not even need Council approval. Schmidt’s next biggest contributors (after himself) are his brother ($1,000), his law firm ($1,000), and one of his law partners ($1,000).

We don’t see many Markos- or Park Ridge Taxi-style pay-to-play opportunities there.

But while Schmidt’s avoidance of the pay-to-play to which Frimark seems to gravitate would be reason enough for us to endorse Schmidt, there are many more reasons that deserve mention. 

Schmidt, although a relative newcomer to Park Ridge, has developed an appreciation for its unique character that befits a lifelong resident.  Yet he is not mindlessly anti-development, favoring projects that enhance the current character of the community rather than substantially change it.  And unlike the current occupant of 505 Butler Place, Schmidt is a true fiscal conservative who believes in balanced budgets and using long-term debt only for long-term needs that won’t mortgage our community’s future for short-sighted wants.  That’s why Schmidt wants to spend our hard-earned tax dollars for better sewers, streets and sidewalks instead of on a big new multi-million dollar police station. 

Even more important, however, is Schmidt’s commitment to defeating the Culture of Secrecy and letting the taxpayers know the truth about how their government works…and how it doesn’t. 

We’ve seen how secrecy has turned the State of Illinois into one of the most corrupt in the nation, and continued secrecy – including abuses of the Illinois Open Meetings Act – has started doing the same to our community.  While Frimark hides in closed sessions and absurdly insists that we can afford both flood relief and a new cop shop, even as we teeter on the edge of yet another multi-million dollar budget hole, Schmidt has blown the whistle on such abuses and lies – and was then condemned by Frimark and his alderpuppets for doing so.

We don’t need another four years of a stereotypical politician who takes credit for everything and accepts blame for nothing, someone for whom truth always runs a distant second to political expediency.  What we do need is a public servant who believes in honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability.

That’s why Park Ridge needs a man like Dave Schmidt as its mayor.  And we need him starting tomorrow.

Cop Shop Referendums: “No” and “Hell, No!”

There are three advisory referendum issues on Tuesday’s ballot.  Two are limited to the City of Park Ridge, and relate to a new police station, while the third addresses Todd Stroger’s ludicrous Crook County sales tax.

The first question is the citizen-initiated police station referendum:

“Shall the City of Park Ridge replace its current police facility with a new, larger structure at a cost of at least $16.5 million plus additional, but currently unknown, costs for the land on which it will be situated and bond interest?”

That’s really the only legitimate referendum on this issue, placed on the ballot by over 70 resident signature gatherers during the dead of winter after the City Council’s six Alderpuppets sat on their thumbs when Ald. Dave Schmidt proposed putting that question on the ballot by simple Council resolution.

The second question is the attempt by newly-stringed Alderpuppet Frank Wsol to confuse the voters with something that sounds less expensive and harmful than the first question – in the hope of getting a “Yes” vote that he can say negates the “No” vote that the first question is likely to draw:

“In adopting a capital project to improve the administrative/public and police facilities, shall the City of Park Ridge require as conditions of issuing any bonds for such improvements that the total spent, absent interest and operational costs be less than $16.5 million dollars and the facility be located at 505 Butler Place with land already owned by the City?”

Voters need to remember that Wsol has been a new cop shop “whore” since his campaign against former cop Bob Kristie back in 2007, when Wsol supported the 40,000 square foot “Taj Mahal” cop shop to match Kristie’s support of such a facility.  Since that time, and in response to public opposition to such a plan, faux fiscal conservative Wsol has tap-danced around the issue with various twists and tweaks designed to sneak the biggest cop shop he can get away with past the taxpayers – after not wanting to go to referendum with it at all.

The bottom line to both of these referendums: The City is in a financial crisis that nobody but Ald. Dave Schmidt is willing to admit.  Every dollar spent on a new police station is one less dollar that can be spent on more important things like sewers, flooding control, streets and other essential infrastructure items.

Consequently, we strongly encourage a “No/No” vote on both referendums.    

Don’t Waste Your Vote On Caucus’ Dist. 64 Charade

We here at PublicWatchdog have been unabashed critics of what is known as the “District 64 and 207 General Caucus,” that quasi-official “organization” that rises from its slumber every other year to hand-pick and endorse a collection of generally decent but malleable residents who can be counted on to rubber-stamp pretty much anything the administrations of High School District 207 and Elementary School District 64 want to do.

The Caucus so dominates the election process for District 64 that we rarely even have contested races for those school board seats because the Caucus effectively scares away anyone who might consider challenging its candidates.  And from what we understand, this year there weren’t even contests for the Caucus endorsement, as only four people sought the four Caucus slots. 

So it looks like the voters of Park Ridge, who have seen the District 64 portion of their property taxes soar while the District’s overall academic performance and achievement stagnate, once again have no choice for the District 64 Board. 

But maybe we have more of a choice than looks would suggest.

If you are fed up with this monopolistic Caucus system and the unimpressive results it has posted both as to candidates for the District 64 Board and in the classroom, we suggest a protest vote…or, actually, a protest non-vote: When you go to the polls, vote on all offices and referendum issues except the District 64 Board candidates.  That won’t stop them from winning, but it will effectively reduce the electoral “mandate” that these gofers can claim when they get into office.

Even to as smug and insulated a group as the Caucus, 4,000 votes out of 10,000 cast is a lot less convincing than 8,000 out of 10,000.  And a notably lower vote total might also serve to encourage non-Caucus candidates to step up and challenge the Caucus endorsees two years from now.

So give it a try.  All you’ve got to lose is academic mediocrity at a premium price.

The final mayoral debate last Thursday night, sponsored by the Park Ridge Journal, provided another opportunity to assess the respective positions and philosophies of incumbent Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark and his challenger, First Ward Alderman Dave Schmidt, on city government and the issues it faces. 

For those of you who could not attend, resident Charles Melidosian (communications director of the Dave Schmidt mayoral campaign) has posted the debate on YouTube in segments related to each question asked by the moderator, along with opening and closing statements by the candidates.  We strongly encourage you to view those segments, all of which highlight the many differences between Frimark and Schmidt on matters of public policy, on the issues, and on personal style. 

Some of them also suggest that the current mayor may deserve another nickname besides “Let’s Make A Deal” – like Howard “The Liar” Frimark.  Or if that term offends the sensibilities of some of our more gentle readers, perhaps Howard “The Prevaricator” Frimark.  And the question which we believe best illustrates how truth is a stranger to Frimark is the one about taking campaign contributions from those who do business with the city – what’s commonly known here in Illinois as “pay-to-play.”  

Frimark begins with the blanket denial, “I have not taken any money from any business that does business with the city,” which he nevertheless tries to excuse by stating that he doesn’t have a problem with such contributions “as long as I don’t vote on the issue.”  He then launches into his big finish, first claiming that Schmidt “says that I’ve taken two million dollars from Napleton” before going into full Bill Clinton (“I have not had sexual relations with that woman”) mode by staring straight at the audience while insisting: “I haven’t taken one red cent from Mr. Napleton.”

Well, Mayor Liar, we have checked and checked and checked, and we can’t find any evidence whatsoever that Schmidt ever accused you of taking $2 million from Mr. Napleton – or from anybody else, for that matter.  What he has accused you of doing, as have we, is taking a $1,000 contribution from Napleton Cadillac [pdf], an accusation which the State Board of Elections confirms as true by reporting on its website that you received that exact contribution back on November 5, 2004, early on in your first mayoral campaign.  And as Ald. Schmidt and we have repeatedly pointed out, you paid off on that contribution on January 28, 2008, when you cast the tie-breaking vote [pdf] to give that same Napleton Cadillac $400,000 to clean up the soil contamination on its site, and up to an additional $2 million of city sales tax revenues over 15 years.

So much for not voting on things that benefit your campaign contributors, eh Mayor Liar?

Fortunately for Park Ridge taxpayers, that sweetheart deal fell through before any money could be paid when GM/Cadillac pulled Napleton’s franchise.  As reported in the April 14, 2008, edition of the Park Ridge Journal (“Park Ridge: Car Dealership’s $400,000 Incentive Out The Window”), however, that didn’t stop Frimark from trying to get at least the $400,000 of clean-up funds into Napleton’s hands – until the City Attorney said such a payment would be improper. 

And the Journal article goes on to point out that GM/Cadillac usually takes from 6 to 18 months to negotiate a closure with dealers such as Napleton Cadillac, which suggests that Frimark and the City likely were negotiating Napleton’s sweetheart deal at the same time Napleton was negotiating its closure with GM/Cadillac.  Gee, could Mayor Liar have known that Napleton Cadillac was going to be closing all the while he was negotiating that sweetheart deal?  Might Mayor Liar have been trying to make sure Napleton could get the $400,000 to clean up the site so that it could be sold in a “clean” (i.e., more valuable) condition to Park Ridge Corp., LLC (more commonly known as “PRC”, the developers of the Uptown shops and residences), as the Journal article also reports?   

And since we’re talking about pay-to-play, we think it’s appropriate to point out that Park RidgeTaxi just tossed another $500 [pdf] into Frimark’s war chest to go with the $1,000 it contributed last month [pdf].  Now we can watch how Frimark’s alderpuppets on the City Council further stonewall the application of American Taxi for five of the City’s eight unused taxi licenses in order to preserve Park Ridge Taxi’s monopoly on taxi service in Park Ridge.  

Frimark will tell you this isn’t pay-to-play, however, because the current owner of Park Ridge Taxi (Dean Dinev of Oakbrook Terrace) is “a good friend” of his who he’s known for about five years – which would make that before Mr. Dinev acquired Park Ridge Taxi from Lee Carpenter, whose wife contributed $500 to Frimark’s first mayoral campaign [pdf] back in February, 2005, just two days after Frimark voted to preserve Park Ridge Taxi’s monopoly from competition by…wait for it…American Taxi.

Pay-to-play in Park Ridge city government?  How about it, Mayor Liar?  

In A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse: Part 1, we noted that our number one resident politician, Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark, appears to have mastered the technique of telling the voters things that appear superficially truthful but which really aren’t.  In that post, we took on Frimark’s published statements about the current budget deficit and the new police station.

Today we will look at two more of his “Q & A with Mayor Frimark” from his campaign website:

What is your plan to increase revenues?
I am investigating a number of valid proposals, all of which have benefits and consequences. As mayor, I gather all the information and seek the opinion and counsel of local businesses, residents, the city council and subject matter experts in order to fully understand the impacts of any proposal. Some that I am feel have merit include: licensing of bill boards, a special tax on cell towers, increasing non-resident commuter parking prices, aggressive promotion of the Taste of Park Ridge to bring more patrons to the businesses in Park Ridge, corporate sponsorship for Taste of Park Ridge events and festivities, expanded marketing of our successful “shop-local” programs and ultimately continue our business-friendly overtures to attract and retain sales tax producing establishments into the Uptown, Higgins corridor and other city business areas.

Frimark has been mayor for four years, an alderman for two years before that, and – according to his incessant self-promotion – he has lived (and sold insurance) in Park Ridge for 38 years while being a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, United Way, Jaycees and the now-defunct Economic Development Board. 

So why is it that only now is he “investigating a number of valid proposals”?  And for the proposals he has identified, why doesn’t he have some dollar figures attached?  Could it be because he already knows that none of these ideas have any chance in the world of generating enough additional revenue to even merit serious discussion?

Take “licensing of bill boards” – what the heck is that about?  Unless somebody’s hiding them, we can’t think of enough bill boards within the City limits to make a meaningful revenue difference no matter how much the licensing fee might be.  Or is Frimark suggesting that Park Ridge turn into a bill board “farm” – kind of like a “wind farm,” except that instead of a scores of wind turbines you get scores of bill boards all over town.  Now that sounds attractive, doesn’t it?

Or how his proposal for “a special tax on cell towers”?  As best as our research discloses, that’s not even legal – although that probably wouldn’t stop Frimark from proposing it if he thought people might fall for it.

Or “aggressive promotion of the Taste of Park Ridge”?  How much more “aggressive” should the City be with our tax dollars to promote an event run by the private “Taste of Park Ridge, NFP” corporation (“Taste, Inc.”)?  Oh, but wait…it looks like there are some changes going on over at Taste, Inc., because the old Taste, Inc. was  voluntarily dissolved [pdf] just last month and a new Taste, Inc. [pdf] has been formed.  Could that mean another behind-the-scenes sweetheart deal is in the works for whoever the new “owners” are?

What is being done to help control flooding?
We been [sic] working diligently to balance the need for flood control and other infrastructure improvements as much as possible during difficult times. In my campaign in 2005, I promised we would do these things, and progress has been made. New relief sewers have been designed and constructed, and more are on the way. I would have liked to have seen more of these things done, but in a declining economy, which is resulting in a corresponding decline in property, sales and other tax revenues for the city as well; it is simply bad government to raise your taxes to pay for these things to a greater degree than we have.

As we noted in our post New Cop Shop Widens, Not Plugs, Budget Gap, under Frimark’s “leadership” relief sewer installations dropped from a paltry 1,240 linear feet in 2007 (before the economy cratered) to only 940 linear feet – about three blocks’ worth – in 2008.  Of course, Frimark isn’t very forthcoming about those figures, most likely because both totals are outright pathetic for an upscale community such as ours, especially given the chronic nature of our flooding and the adverse effects it has on both our quality of life and our property values.

And only someone as totally shameless as our mayor would insist that it’s “simply bad government” to invest any more in relief sewers while at the same time pushing the pedal to the metal for a big new multi-million dollar police station – or asking the State of Illinois for $20 million in stimulus funding for the new cop shop, but only $3.5 million for sewers. 
To our citizens who are easily bamboozled, Frimark’s pronouncements can easily pass for something akin to the truth. 

But one thing is certainly true: if anybody in Park Ridge is an expert on “simply bad government,” it’s ol’ “Let’s Make A Deal” himself.         

In Taxi-Cab Confessions, we wrote about how Park Ridge Taxi, the Oakbrook Terrace based company apparently owned by Oakbrook Terrace resident Dean Dinev, was putting on a public relations blitz that might be directed to the renewed application of American Taxi for five taxi licenses that would allow it to pick up residents in Park Ridge – a market Park Ridge Taxi currently monopolizes.

In that same post we also wrote about how, back in February of 2005, when Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark was still just an alderman and mayoral candidate, he voted against American Taxi’s application for a Park Ridge license. Two days later, Frimark’s mayoral campaign fund got a $500 contribution from the wife of Park Ridge Taxi’s then-owner, Lee Carpenter.  What a coincidence!

So Monday night’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting should be of interest to Park Ridge residents, especially those who consider themselves free-market types, because it featured a guest appearance by Dean Dinev and about 10 of his drivers.  Mr. Dinev spoke at length in favor of his company’s monopoly and against American Taxi’s even getting so much as a City Council hearing on whether the residents of Park Ridge might be better served to have a more open taxi market.

Which makes sense, given that his monopoly extends not only to the regular taxi service that most of us know and sometimes use but also to a proposed contract [pdf] for transportation services for high school District 207’s Special Education Program – because a Park Ridge license appears to be needed in order to qualify for that contract.

Can you say “Bingo!”?  We’re betting Mr. Dinev can, both in English and in Russian.

This being the final weeks of a hotly-contested mayoral election between Frimark and 1st Ward Ald. Dave Schmidt, however, the focus of the COW discussion went beyond just taxi service.  Schmidt noted that Dinev’s company recently (Feb. 25) made a $1,000 contribution to Frimark’s campaign fund, and he suggested that the contribution might look like classic Illinois pay-to-play government in light of Dinev’s lobbying of the Council to deny a licensing hearing to competitor American Taxi.

That last remark drew an immediate rebuke from meeting chair and Frimark lapdog, Alderpuppet Jim Allegretti (4th Ward), who banged his hand for lack of a gavel and sharply noted that, as mayor, Frimark doesn’t vote. 

But that’s not quite true.  Or maybe Allegretti just didn’t remember the January 28, 2008, Council meeting when he and fellow Alderpuppets Don “Air Marshall” Bach (3rd Ward) and Robert Ryan needed and got Frimark’s vote to break the 3-3 deadlock and give Napleton Cadillac (a $1,000 contributor to Frimark’s 2005 campaign fund) up to $2.4 million of our tax dollars in what amounted to a quasi-bribe to keep his dealership in Park Ridge. The relevant excerpts from the minutes of that Council meeting can be found by clicking here [pdf].

So while Frimark normally doesn’t vote on matters before the Council, who’s to say that he wouldn’t get a chance to vote on American Taxi’s license application if it were to come to a vote and…oh…say…Alderpuppet Tom Carey (6th Ward) decided to once again vote “Present”?  Or if…oh…maybe…Ryan missed yet another meeting?

On the other hand, it’s looking less and less like there will be a vote on taxi licenses, given the comments of Frimark’s alderpuppets Monday night that American’s application doesn’t even deserve a public hearing, much less a Council vote.  “There obviously is not a need [for taxi competition] because no one has said that there is,” posited “Air Marshall” Bach. 

Yes, we guess that a cool $1,000 to help get ol’ “Let’s Make A Deal” re-elected says more than enough for Bach and the rest of Frimark’s Council.  

4th Ward Alderpuppet Jim Allegretti was the topic of an article in last week’s Herald-Advocate that deserves special mention – not just for what it says about Allegretti himself, but for how it reflects on his political lord and master, Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark.

In “Alderman: Work interferes with budget meetings” (March 19), the H-A pointed out that for the fourth straight year he’s been in office, Allegretti has missed the City Council’s annual Saturday budget workshop.  His excuse: He works on Saturday afternoons when the workshops are held. 

We don’t begrudge anybody making a living, and a lot of people in Park Ridge work Saturdays and even Sundays.  In a tough economy, many of us are just darn happy to have a job that requires Saturday and/or Sunday hours.

But public service requires more than just phoning it in; and we already have seen another of Frimark’s Alderpuppets, Robert Ryan (5th Ward), get well-deserved criticism from the H-A for having the worst attendance of anybody on the City Council despite having the least responbilities of any member.  So the last thing we need is yet another alderpuppet joining the MIA ranks, even so predictable a Frimark “yes”-man as Jimmy A. 

Allegretti’s missing budget workshops may be even more problematic than Ryan’s absences, however, if only because he might be the biggest spendthrift on the Council – which is saying a lot when he’s surrounded by the likes of Alderpuppet Don “Air Marshall” Bach (3rd Ward), who was willing to throw $2.4 million of our money at Frimark campaign contributor Napleton Cadillac weeks before it announced it was closing; Ryan, who never met a consultant’s study on which he wouldn’t spend bushels of City funds; and Alderpuppet Rich “Richie D” DiPietro, who has been mindlessly rubber-stamping City giveaways of our tax dollars since before the City’s 2002 waste of $650,000 on a Peotone airport.   

Allegretti, you might remember, also is perhaps the biggest cheerleader for a new multi-million dollar police station.  Heck, he even opposes any kind of advisory referendum on a new cop shop because he thinks he was elected to make decisions like that without citizen input.  And he also has been a strong opponent of reinstating the City’s debt ceiling – a voluntary cap on how much debt the City can undertake.  When it comes to fiscal responsibility, Allegretti makes drunken sailors look positively frugal. 

So when Allegretti misses a budget workshop, it’s a lot like an illiterate missing a reading lesson – or an alcoholic skipping an AA session.

Allegretti, however, understands at least one type of money matter: making sure Mayor Frimark’s re-election committee is well funded.  Which is why, just last week, Allegretti added another $500 to the $1,000 he previously contributed, making him (at least for the time being) the single biggest reported contributor to Frimark’s campaign – even bigger than usual suspects like James Davlin ($1,000), Bredemann Toyota ($1,000), Joe Dickerson ($500), Owen Hayes ($500) and Marilyn Goll ($500); and newest “big-hitter” Joseph Chiczewski ($1,000), a real estate guy who gives his address as 505 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.  

Being Frimark’s lapdog apparently doesn’t come cheap.  But in a State like Illinois, where pay-to-play politics is the rule rather than the exception, we can’t help but wonder whether continued lapdog status is the only thing Allegretti expects in return for his big-bucks contribution to our “Let’s Make A Deal” mayor.  

The way dishonest politicians – yes, that probably is redundant – continue to get elected is by telling lies to voters who are too ignorant of the facts to know they’re being lied to. 

So we’re going to devote two or three posts over the remaining weeks of the current campaign season to identifying statements that just aren’t truthful but which might not be readily identifiable as untruths to the average reader.  And when looking for campaign statements that just aren’t truthful, the most target-rich environment we can find is the campaign website of Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark. 

Let’s start with his “Q & A with Mayor Frimark.”

What should we do about the current budget deficit?
The deficit will be discussed during the upcoming budget meetings. I have every confidence that the 7 aldermen will come to a consensus to resolve the deficit that is acceptable to the citizens. I believe we should be able reduce the deficit and obtain a balanced budget without raising taxes in the upcoming budget hearings, but we also must consider the need for added revenue to do this and simultaneously do more flood relief work. It is important to remember that the state controls the spending of the stimulus money, and at this point has made no commitment to using those funds for local flood relief. If we are to spend more on flood relief and we accept that the state will not fund these projects, it may not be possible to do without a tax hike or cutting some city programs and services. I am confident that the council will come to a decision that will balance all of these factors.

Read that answer carefully and see if you can find anything that suggests Frimark himself has any idea of how to (a) “reduce the deficit”, (b) “obtain a balanced budget without raising taxes”, (c) “consider the need for added revenue,” or (d) “do more flood relief work.”  Frankly, folks, even the federal government can’t do all that…and they get to print their own money.

By this statement, however, Frimark shows himself to be a master of buck-passing: first he passes the budget buck to the City Council, and then he passes it to the State of Illinois because “the state controls the spending of the stimulus money.” (Hey, at least he didn’t call it “stimulation” money, like he did at the first debate)  And although he mentions flood relief twice but says nary a word about a new cop shop, his City administration’s stimulus fund request (according to the H-A story “Schmidt: Request more flood relief funds,” 3/12/09) earmarked a whopping $20 million for a new cop shop, and only a measly $2.5 million for about 10 blocks worth of relief sewers. 

Assuming that we get any of that stimulus funding for flood relief, maybe Howard can have his Taste of Park Ridge, Inc. buddies stage a community-wide reality show (“Survivor: Park Ridge”?) and let the residents of individual city blocks form teams to compete against each other for one of those 10 relief sewers? 

On this one we give Frimark a “0” for leadership and a “0” for accountability, but a solid “8” for concealing his lack of real commitment to flood control.  

What is your position on the police station?
The answers to the referendum questions will give us a good gauge of the citizen’s feelings regarding the police station. We all agree that a safer, updated facility is long past due. The only questions we have to resolve are what to do and when, and how much we should spend.

I support the plan that our public safety committee is working on. It calls for no new taxes, no new property purchases and addresses the minimum needs as recommended by the committee. The process for this facility has not even gotten through the conceptual planning stage and we are a long way from allocating tax money to pay for it.  I ask all citizens to remember that no money has been included in the 2009 budget for this because we are nowhere near complete with the concept and plan.  Since we are not ready to do any spending for the police facility yet, and may not be for two more years, it is obvious that choosing between the police station and immediate flood relief is a non-issue.

By his saying “[w]e all agree that a safer, updated facility is long past due,” it sure sounds like he isn’t sitting on the edge of his seat waiting to see how the voters will vote on those cop shop referendum questions. We believe, however, that dry basements are long past due.

But the more creative deceptions are to be found in his second paragraph, where he says that “we are nowhere near complete with the concept and plan” for the cop shop, yet he put in for $20 million of stimulus funds which are supposed to be awarded to “shovel ready” projects!  So, Mr. Mayor, are you lying to us when you say that a decision on the cop shop is nowhere close to ready, or are you trying to pull a fast one on the State of Illinois by looking to grab $20 million for a cop shop project that isn’t “shovel ready”?

And we fail to see how choosing between a new cop shop and flood relief is a “non-issue” – especially since Frimark himself made just such a choice when he requested $20 million for a cop shop and only $2.5 million for relief sewers – a choice we’re pretty darn sure the vast majority of Park Ridge residents would not have made. 

But so long as blind voters can’t tell a nod from a wink, and so long as they keep believing Frimark’s bunkum, he just might get another four years to tell them what they want to hear while he and his cronies continue to do what they want to do.

According to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, this week (March 15 through March 21) is “Sunshine Week” – a time to celebrate our right to know what our various governmental bodies are doing, and why.

This special week, although created and celebrated by the news organizations who are supposed to keep us ordinary citizens informed about our governments and the people who run them, should be even more important to those of us who live here in what the Chicago Tribune recently labeled the “State of Corruption” because of all the graft and corruption that permeates government at all levels, much of which is embodied in secret deals that favor special interests while driving up the cost of government for the rest of us.

Not surprisingly, there are Pollyannas who will actually insist, with a straight face, that there is no graft and corruption here in Park Ridge.  And the most prominent of those is our very own mayor, Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark, who brags that his is the most open government in the history of Park Ridge.

Of course, Frimark conveniently fails to mention that his is the first Park Ridge administration to receive a “Worsty” – a dubious achievement award given out by the Illinois Press Association to those governmental bodies and officials who ignore the requirements of the Illinois Open Meetings Act (“IOMA”).  The Frimark Administration earned its 3rd Place “Worsty” for trying to hold what should have been a public meeting (involving the interviewing of city manager candidates) at the private Park Ridge Country Club, where Frimark is a member. 

But that “Worsty” is little more than the tip of the iceberg regarding the extent the Frimark Administration will go in its attempts at subverting IOMA and keeping the doings of Park Ridge government concealed from the voters. 

For example, Frimark himself held “private” discussions with the owner of the American Insurance building at 720 Garden, which Frimark wanted to buy as the site for a new police station even though the City had not yet committed to building a new station or had agreed on the specific size of such a facility.  And when the City’s appraisal came in at approximately $400,000 less than the owner’s appraisal, Frimark was critical of the City’s appraisal and requested a new one.

But when Ald. Dave Schmidt (1st Ward) blew the whistle on those secret dealings by going public with them – something he had every right to do under IOMA – Frimark and his Alderpuppets made a grand show of “condemning” Schmidt, even though they knew in advance that such a “condemnation” had no legal effect because Schmidt’s conduct was completely lawful under IOMA.

Frimark was also involved in the behind-the-scenes negotiations of a planned $2.4 million tax windfall to his campaign contributor, Napleton Cadillac, for which he also cast the deciding “yes” vote; and in the behind-the-scenes negotiations to give the developers of the Executive Office Plaza development, his campaign contributors Norwood Builders and Bruce Adreani, a variance to build 8 units more than our Zoning Code allowed.  Neither of those secret dealings saw the “sunshine” until right before it came time for the vote on them, too late for the public to react in a meaningful fashion.

And on a more basic level, take a look at the names of all the people whom the mayor has appointed to serve on the various City boards and commissions.  Unless you know any of them personally, chances are you know nothing at all about them – not even the ward they live in or their occupations – because nothing about them is posted on the City’s website.  Not much “sunshine” there, either.

We applaud the ASNE for formally identifying a “Sunshine Week” to honor and advocate for more openness in government.  But for the people of Park Ridge to get honest government, we need “Sunshine Week” every week of the year.

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.