Today’s edition of the Park Ridge Journal gives Mayor Howard Frimark’s side of his recent tie-breaking vote to give up to $2.4 Million of public money to one of his big-ticket campaign contributors, Napleton Cadillac (“Mayor Backs Incentive Vote,” Feb. 6).  One comment by the mayor speaks volumes:

“I’m not ashamed of my vote at all.”

To those who have paid attention to Frimark’s four-plus years of public life, that comes as no surprise.  The thought that there might be something unseemly about the quid pro quo appearance of a public official casting a deciding vote – or any vote – for the benefit of one of his major contributors is most assuredly a stranger to Frimark’s mind.  That’s because he, like many of his peers who control the governments in places like Chicago, Cook County, Niles, Des Plaines and Rosemont, operate as if from the premise that what’s good for them and “their people” is, by definition, also good for “The People.”

That’s one of the founding principles of what Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass calls “The Combine” – the bi-partisan collection of Democratic and Republican officeholders and their well-connected cronies who have been fleecing Illinois taxpayers since downstate Combine power-broker William Cellini first dipped his beak in the public trough during the administration of Gov. Richard Ogilvie.

But what is actually more stunning than Frimark’s shamelessness in bestowing such largesse on Napleton is his seeming contempt for the intelligence of his constituents, as evidenced by several of the justifications for Napleton’s sweetheart deal that he offered The Journal, presumably with the expectation that the residents would swallow them hook, line and sinker.

Let’s start with the $400,000 giveaway to help Napleton clean up the environmental contamination that it caused at its old Meacham & Northwest Hwy location.  As reported in The Journal article, Frimark wants us to believe that’s really not a giveaway at all because Park Ridge will eventually get that money back after that property is redeveloped by PRC Partners LLC and the new property taxes start coming in. 

Of course, that alibi begs the question of why we would have to “get that money back” if Frimark and his alderpuppets hadn’t already given it away?  It also assumes a fact not in evidence: that PRC wouldn’t develop the old Napleton property if the City didn’t gild the lily with $400,000.

Another bit of misdirection is reflected in Frimark’s claim that the $400,000 comes from Tax Increment Financing District (“TIF”) funds rather than the City’s general fund, so it doesn’t really contribute to the City’s projected $600,000 2008 budget deficit.  But despite his hasty retreat into the alternate reality that is government fund accounting, Frimark appears to miss the fact that it’s still our money.  So even though it might not affect the 2008 budget, the windfall for Napleton means that our TIF fund still will need an extra $400,000 to dig itself out of the multi-million dollar hole it’s already in.

But where Frimark really hits his politician’s stride is when he cynically plays the “fear” card: If we don’t give away all these “incentives,” dealerships like Napleton will sell themselves to the highest bidders, like Des Plaines.  He even quotes Des Plaines mayor Tony Arredia as saying: “Howard, if you don’t want any car dealerships in Park Ridge, or you don’t want to make any deals, we’ll take them over in Des Plaines.”

Assuming Arredia actually said it, the bottom line is that we can’t compete with Des Plaines in a battle of the incentives – and it’s the height of foolishness to try.  That’s because Des Plaines has almost 59,000 residents v. our approximately 38,000; it’s total area of almost 16 square miles dwarfs our 7.1 square mile size; and it’s annual budget is more than double that of Park Ridge.  Des Plaines is also home to several Fortune 500 companies, as well as many industrial and commercial businesses that provide far more in the way of non-residential tax revenues than Park Ridge is capable or producing under any circumstances.

But more to the point: Do we want to be like Des Plaines?  Maybe that’s a question that should show up as an advisory referendum on the November ballot. 

Meanwhile, however, we can’t help but wonder just how much more of our money this shameless mayor and his sycophantic aldermen can give away before the people of Park Ridge say: “Enough!”

By now you should have received your February issue of our taxpayer-paid propaganda sheet known as “The Spokesman.”  The new issue features a cover article titled “Business retention report shows healthy climate of growth” [pdf] which creates the impression – without actually coming out and saying it – that our local economic development is going great guns.  Which is what Mayor Howard “Growth and Development” Frimark wants us to believe.

But most of what is written is pretty much just factually-unsupported feel-good fluff which, when you really think about it – actually sounds pretty un-promising.

Let’s start with the first paragraph, which states that the City “utilized the data-collection instrument to survey 41 businesses.”  Is 41 a statistically significant sampling, or just a semi-meaningless number?  We’d also like to know what’s a “data-collection instrument” – is that a fancy way to say “broom” or “trash bin”?  And when they say that of the 41 businesses surveyed, “28%” were “retail” and “10%” were restaurants, do they really mean that they surveyed 11.48 retail businesses and 4.1 restaurants?  Why not just name the businesses, which would be a whole lot more informative (but which might explain, come to think of it, why they didn’t do it).

The second paragraph tells us that “growth in product and service offerings” indicates a “healthy business climate.”  We don’t know where that theory comes from, but we’ll take their word for it for purposes of this discussion.  The City reports that 32% of the 41 responding companies (13.12 of them?) “introduced new products, services or capabilities in 2007”; and within 18 months another 17% (6.97) “anticipate introducing new products or services.” Adding those up would still mean that less than 50% of those 41 businesses are experiencing, or expect within 18 months, a “healthy business climate” – and that’s assuming that, for example, a restaurant can satisfy the “new product” standard by as little as offering a new flavor of Jello for dessert.  

The third paragraph gives us some factoids about those businesses.  But does it really matter to the health of our business climate whether “43% are family owned” or “8% are not-for-profit”?  Of course not – just some irrelevant information to create the appearance of substance.  If the City wants to give us some meaningful information, why isn’t there any mention of whether (and if so, by how much) the City’s sales tax revenues have increased? 

The final three paragraphs talk about employment and expansion.  We question how “healthy” is a business climate where  “[e]xpansion/ renovation dollar investment is projected to exceed $22 million” yet only creates “20 new jobs”?  Or how the City administration can appear to brag about an anemic 2.11% “net gain” of “83 full time positions” (out of 3,930 full-time employees of the 41 responding businesses) following a virtually non-existent 0.10% growth (4 full time positions) in 2006?

But of course, in the parallel universe that local government inhabits, all of this makes sense so long as you don’t ask any questions, you try hard not to think about what you’re being told, and you just keep on paying your increasingly higher property taxes and fees for stagnant, if not declining, services.

Corporate Welfare, Park Ridge Style:  As reported on this site and in both local newspapers this week, the City is giving Napleton Cadillac $400,000 of our money to grease Napleton’s sale of its old Cadillac dealership location to Uptown developer PRC LLP, for construction of more multi-family housing. 

The purchase price of that property?  Bill Napleton refused to answer that question posed by First Ward Ald. Dave Schmidt, as well as Schmidt’s question about what Napleton paid for the property.  Napleton also wouldn’t, or couldn’t, come up with a good answer to 7th Ward Ald. Frank Wsol’s question about why this could be considered a good deal for Park Ridge.  Napleton did admit, however, that the property was appraised at between $4 Million and $5 Million, so it would appear that this is yet another case (see, e.g., Executive Office Plaza) of greed over need.

But that’s not all.  Over the next 15 years, Napleton gets to keep up to $2 Million of what would otherwise be the City’s sales tax revenue.  In return, Napleton will remodel its new location and stay in Park Ridge for those 15 years.  So effectively we’re giving – not lending, but outright giving – Napleton the money to remodel its new dealership. 

The architect of this windfall to Napleton?  It sure looks like Mayor Howard Frimark, whose mayoral campaign fund received a $1,000 contribution from Napleton.  Frimark apparently assumed the role of the City’s lead negotiator with Napleton and then got to cast the tie-breaking vote to approve the deal.  Now that’s convenient.

Meanwhile, Back At The Budget Ranch:  While our City Council was busy giving Napleton its sweetheart deal, it was also busy figuring out ways to gouge us ordinary citizens with more taxes to fill the $600,000 budget hole for 2008.  Get ready for yet another 5% increase in the City’s share of our property taxes, an increase in the taxes when you buy/sell real estate, a 5-10% increase in water rates, or a combination of these. 

But just think how good you’ll feel when you go to purchase a new Cadillac in the remodeled Napleton dealership you helped pay for.

But There’s Always Money For More Land:  As reported by Craig Adams in this week’s Park Ridge Journal (“Alderman Upset Over Treatment Of Taxpayer $$$,” Jan. 30), the City Council agreed – in another “closed session” – to offer American Eagle Insurance $1.1 Million for its property at 720 Garden Street, presumably as the site for the proposed new police station.  Amazingly, the City’s offer was $200,000 more than the City’s own appraisal [pdf], which led First Ward Ald. Dave Schmidt to complain that the Council is “treating the taxpayer money like Monopoly money.” 

This isn’t the first time, Alderman.

Ald. Schmidt v. The “Culture of Secrecy”:  And speaking of Ald. Schmidt, he once again proved to be The People’s champion not only by protesting the closed sessions that seem to be used more and more by the Frimark Administration to foster its Culture of Secrecy, but also by releasing to the press certain memos from lame-duck City Mgr. Tim Schuenke – one about the City’s attempted acquisition of the 720 Garden property [pdf], the other about the City’s police department investigation [pdf] which discussed a possible “separation agreement” (a/ka/, a “buy-out”) for Chief Caudill.

We applaud Schmidt for recognizing that the Illinois Open Meetings Act (“IOMA”) exists to ensure that as much public business as possible is done in full view of the press and the public; and that while IOMA permits certain limited matters to be dealt with in closed session, it does not require it.  So the bottom line is that any time our aldermen vote to go into closed session, they are doing so not because they have to, but because they want to.  

Those citizens who have been going to City Council meetings for years have some experience with bizarre and ridiculous behavior by our elected and appointed public officials.  But even the most jaded of the Council Watchers are reporting that Monday night’s meeting may have set new lows in our version of the Republic form of government.

For those who haven’t yet heard, the Council effectively handed more than $2 Million of your tax dollars to Bill Napleton and his car dealerships in what was nothing less than theater of the absurd – featuring two of Mayor Howard Frimark’s simplest alderpuppets: Ald. Don Bach (3rd Ward) and Ald. Tom Carey (6th Ward).  And their respective skits, while very different in theme, illustrate just how much Park Ridge has fallen under Frimark’s greasy thumb.

Let’s start with Carey, who reportedly gave the impression that he was unsuccessfully auditioning for the television show “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” when he appeared to become totally baffled with simple addition and subtraction in connection with an amendment to the Napleton resolution that increased the amount of the City’s sales-tax sharing – first by $20,000, then by $40,000.  He seemed too stumped to even articulate what was bewildering him, despite the prompting from his lord and master, Mayor Howard, who must have been wondering: “I paid $3,100 [pdf] for this guy?” 

The fog still had not lifted over Carey’s head when it was his turn to vote, and he momentarily lost his powers of speech – although some members of the audience now insist that Frimark was drinking water at that time.  When Carey regained his voice (or Frimark swallowed?), he voted “present” – ensuring a 3-3 tie (Schmidt, DiPietro and Wsol voting “No”, Bach, Allegretti and Ryan voting “Yes”) and giving Mayor Frimark the right to cast the tie-breaking “Yes” vote in favor of his $1,000 campaign contributor.

But amazingly enough, Carey’s brain-cramp pales in comparison with the outright buffoonery of  Ald. Bach, who prefaced his vote by excoriating Bill Napleton (gracing the Council with his presence to ensure that the “done deal” really got done) for not only disrespecting the Council but also insulting the goodwill of the people of Park Ridge by holding them up for the $2.4 Million of environmental clean-up money and sales-tax sharing.  Bach noted that he had purchased his current Cadillac from Napleton but that when it came time to buy his next one, he would be going elsewhere.

But then he turned around and voted “Yes,” explaining that he had talked to “about 30 people” in his ward who were all in favor of the Napleton windfall – the implication being that Bach didn’t like the deal but was just mindlessly doing what his constituents told him to do.  Because we can’t yet prove that Bach was lying about those 30 people, we can only surmise that he had to question upwards of 100 residents to get 30 affirmatives, or that he first told those 30 people that without these concessions Napleton would leave Park Ridge, causing the end of the world as we know it.

Apparently Ald. Bach is unfamiliar with the following quote from Edmund Burke (the British statesman, Don, not the Chicago alderman) about the obligations of the people’s representatives:

    Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Speech to the Electors of Bristol [November 3, 1774]

The net effect of Bach’s betrayal of his constituents is that Napleton may have lost one $40,000 sale but gained $2.4 Million.  In other words, Bach won’t give Napleton $40 grand of his own money, but he gladly gave Napleton a whopping $2.4 Million of our money! 

But while Carey and Bach may have been dumb and dumber, the person who really sold Park Ridge taxpayers down the river on this deal is our wily but ethically-challenged Mayor, who not only was involved in the negotiation of the Napleton deal with one of his elite $1,000-and-up contributors, but also cast the deciding vote for that deal.  Not lost on the audience was Frimark’s repeated references to $100,000 of sales tax proceeds as “Napleton’s money,” even before the deal was approved.

Of course, Frimark’s alibi is that his status as a beneficiary of Napleton’s largesse is a matter of public record, and indeed it is.  But as with most things Frimark, this deal smells.  In our opinion, a completely ethical official in his shoes would have done the honorable thing and recused himself from both negotiating and voting on such a matter.  After all, at some point Carey would have found a calculator to help him with the addition and subtraction and then cast his vote as instructed. 

But Mayor Frimark clearly sees himself as the William Beavers of Park Ridge: The “hog with the big nuts.”  And so long as he’s surrounded by enough little piglets doing their best to keep him happy, our town will remain “for sale” – and not even to the highest bidder, but to those with connections to the mayor.

Last week we wrote about how lame-duck City Mgr. Tim Schuenke was aiding and abetting Alderpuppets Robert Ryan and Tom Carey in their proposed giveaway of as much as $2.4 Million of our money to Napleton Cadillac and PRC LLC, even as he was proposing a $600,000 deficit budget for 2008-09 and warning of future financial problems. (“Another Done Deal?”)

But Schuenke apparently isn’t content simply to throw away our money – he and his allies, including Mayor Howard Frimark, also want to keep us in the dark about how it’s being done.

Let’s start with the Napleton/PRC fiasco.  Even though the agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting shows that the Sales Tax Rebate Agreement is scheduled for a vote, the City/Schuenke have deprived the public of the ability to read and consider for themselves the terms of that agreement by not posting it on the City’s website (as of 12:01 a.m. today).  Although PublicWatchdog published that agreement [pdf] on January 11 (“The Napleton $2 Million Secret”), that’s no substitute or excuse for the City Manager leaving it off the City’s website of materials related to tonight’s meeting – unless, of course, his goal is to keep the public in the dark.

And that’s not the only thing on tonight’s agenda that Schuenke, et al. seems intent on concealing from us.

The Council is scheduled to adjourn to closed session “to Discuss Land Acquisition” without even identifying the City’s purpose for acquiring the land, or the land it is considering acquiring.  We have reason to believe, however, that the concealed purpose is to discuss a site for the latest big-spending project, the new cop shop; and the site in question is 720 Garden Street, allegedly owned by American Eagle Insurance.

As best as we can determine from our own independent recollection and a review of selected Council meeting minutes, the Council has never formally established a set of criteria for any potential cop shop site in order to determine whether that site is “ideal,” “preferred,“ or merely “suitable.”  Consequently, the Council has not even publicly discussed, much less reached an agreement on, whether the 720 Garden Street site is the best one for the new cop shop.

The mere fact that the owner of that site might be willing to sell it shouldn’t be the – or even a – dispositive factor when we’re looking for the best location for a facility that is supposed to serve our community for the next 30-50 years and cost us $20 Million or more.  Until the qualities and suitability of 720 Garden Street, or any other site under consideration, have been measured against a set of agreed-upon criteria that have been publicly debated, the Council’s running into closed session to hide this process from us citizens is nothing short of cowardly, irresponsible and outrageous.

Schuenke and the aldercowards are also scheduled to retreat into closed session for another discussion of which of the seven big and expensive law firms they’ve been interviewing to conduct an “investigation” into the Park Ridge Police Department should get the job.  Why discussing the qualifications of law firms for such a purpose keeps on occurring in closed session is a question Schuenke and the Council has not answered, other than with the typically bureaucratic and juvenile “the law permits us to do it.”  You can almost hear the “Nyah, nyah, nyah nyah, nyah” in the background.

But we have acquired a copy of a memo from Schuenke [pdf] in which he proposes a cheaper alternative to the full-blown law firm investigation: an unidentified consulting firm – the only consulting firm interviewed – “that does management audits of Police [sic] departments in order to determine where improvements can be made in terms of management of the department.”  And guess what?  Schuenke says it would “be much less costly” than the big law firm investigation, although the real kicker is that it “would probably involve some sort of separation agreement with Chief Caudill.”

Bingo!  How convenient for our on-his-way-out-the-door-and-heading-back-to-Wisconsin City Manager to hand Mayor Frimark a way to get rid of yet another senior City staffer so that Frimark can install one of his own lackeys in that position.  And at the same time claiming that such an option would save the taxpayers the money that Frimark, Schuenke and the Council have devoted the past couple of months to interviewing for the “right” law firm to spend it on!

Given how Frimark’s alderpuppets control a majority of the City Council, the only question that appears unsettled is whether Des Plaines Deputy Chief of Police Angela Burton – a/k/a Mrs. Mike Rozovics, wife of the head of a local accounting firm and yet another of the $1,000-and-up contributors [pdf] to Friends for Frimark – will get the job now, or will they let Deputy Chief Tom Swoboda be a place-holder just long enough to boost his pension?   

Yes, it all smells rotten.  And as the saying goes: “A fish stinks from the head down.”

This week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate reports that this Monday night (January 28), the Park Ridge City Council is scheduled to vote on giving Napleton Cadillac – along with favored Uptown developer PRC LLC – as much as a $2.4 Million windfall of our tax dollars. (“Napleton deal heads for council,” Jan. 24).

This irresponsible giveaway appears to have been engineered by a two-thirds majority of the City Council’s Finance and Budget Committee, specifically two of Mayor Howard Frimark’s most dependable alderpuppets, Robert Ryan (5th Ward) and Tom Carey (6th Ward), with plenty of assistance from lame duck City Manager Tim Schuenke. 

In a pleasant surprise, the chair of that committee, 2nd Ward Ald. Rich DiPietro, seems to have temporarily shed his customary go-along-to-get-along ways and is proclaiming his opposition to this deal as currently structured because it gives away a little more than he thinks it should.  For a consummate “Yes”-man like Richie D, that’s the equivalent of John Hancock signing the Declaration of Independence – so we’re giving him a round of applause for that. 

And we’re giving him another round of applause for finally figuring out that the City has no business tossing away $400,000 of our tax dollars to bail Napleton out of its own environmental problems just so it can sell its property to PRC, presumably at a nice fat profit – one that will be $400,000 fatter thanks to us taxpaying chumps.  DiPietro, clearly on a roll, even notes that the $400,000 could be better used to pay down the City’s still-substantial (over $2 Million?) TIF debt; and that bailing out Napleton could set a bad precedent for the City in dealing with future environmental problems on private land. 

But, sad to say, Richie still doesn’t quite have the cojones to openly reject any and all tax-sharing arrangements with Napleton even though any such arrangement – irrespective of the amounts or percentages – can set the very same kind of bad precedent that the environmental bailout will, but with much larger costs to the taxpayers.  And because tax-sharing isn’t limited just to those relatively few properties with environmental problems, it allows virtually any business to play the “We won’t come to/stay in Park Ridge unless you give us some of your sales tax money” card.

Giving in to that kind of extortion – and extortion is exactly what it is, only gussied-up with the warm and fuzzy term “tax-sharing” – is also bad economic policy because it creates a false sense of Park Ridge’s value as a retail market.  Face it, folks: If Park Ridge needs to bribe businesses to come here or stay here, then not only are we lying to ourselves about how attractive a market we are, but we’re also setting ourselves up as easy marks for the carpetbaggers who would like nothing more than to pull us into bidding wars with other communities, many of whom have more money and more available sites than we do.

For those of you keeping score at home, Ryan is the alderman who met privately with the developer of the Executive Office Plaza project before ignoring hundreds of his constituents and voting to give EOP the extra density zoning variances that could add between $500,000 and $1 Million to its profits.  And Ryan’s campaign treasurer, local realtor Owen Hayes II, was disciplined by the State of Illinois for trying to make a quick $200,000 profit from the City by selling it a parcel of Busse Hwy. property without disclosing he was the owner. So Ryan appears very comfortable with relocating our money from the public treasury into the pockets of private business owners. 

Carey’s main claim to fame this far into his budding political career is that Frimark recruited him to run for 6th Ward alderman and bankrolled Carey’s campaign [pdf] to the tune of more than $3,100, or almost 40% of Carey’s total funding, making Frimark by far the single largest contributor to “Citizens for Carey.”  What do you think the chances are that the mayor might have a few ideas for Carey on how good this deal is for Park Ridge and for Napleton, who itself just happens to be…wait for it…one of Frimark’s $1,000-and-up campaign contributors?

But let’s not forget our very lame-duck (but still toxic to Park Ridge’s economic health) City Manager, Tim Schuenke, who not only endorses the deal but also trivializes the $400,000 environmental handout by claiming that “[t]axes on the new development [in Uptown] will pay for that $400,000.”  That’s the same Tim Schuenke who, in a story that shares the very same page of the H-A with the Napleton story, predicts a $600,000+ budget deficit for fiscal year 2008-09 and warns of future budget problems due to rapidly escalating pension expenses. (“Schuenke predicts $600,000+ shortfall for city budget next year,” Jan. 24)

Gee, Tim, wouldn’t that $400,000 you’re giving away to Napleton/PRC fill almost 2/3 of this coming year’s budget deficit – without us having to wait to 2010-11 or whenever it is that the TIF will actually dig itself out of its current multi-million dollar hole and finally start paying for itself?

Fortunately, Schuenke is scheduled to retire on February 29 and is reportedly heading back to his native Wisconsin, so this may be the last of his mischief.  We can only hope that the City hires a new city manager who either is from Park Ridge or at least wants to become invested enough in our community to actually care about its long-term future.  Unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like this Napleton fiasco – along with the 2008-09 red-ink budget – are Schuenke’s going-away presents to the suckers of Park Ridge. 

But if most Park Ridge residents don’t really care about how they keep being bled – by higher and higher taxes that go not for essential city services but into the pockets of special interests who all seem to be tied in some way or other to Mayor Frimark and his Merry Band – then nobody will show up at the Council meeting Monday night to tell the Council “No!”  And Ryan, Carey, and two other alderpuppets to be named later by Frimark, will do whatever it takes for what looks like a “done deal” to actually become one.

And the easier it becomes for Bill Napleton, who praises this deal as “a positive thing for Park Ridge and for Napleton,” to be proved half-right.

Last week Gov. Rod Blagojevich agreed to a mass transit funding bailout that will raise the sales tax in Cook County and several collar counties served by the mass transit system.  But “Hot Rod” Blago, ever the calculating politician, attached a $30 million “string” to his deal: Senior citizens will get free rides on our mass transit systems. 

Anybody who stops to think about this even momentarily might wonder about the relationship of a sales tax increase to free transit for seniors.  There is none – Blago just wanted to pander to a heavy-voting special interest group with another entitlement.  “But what about all those seniors who will be paying the higher sales tax but don’t ride public transportation” you might ask?  Blago and his brain-trust are counting on nobody thinking past the superficial “for the seniors” gloss and being able to see just what dubious public policy it really is. 

Thinking about this particular “for the seniors” pandering by Blago reminds us of another “senior” entitlement at a local level, one we wrote briefly about several weeks ago (“Some New Year’s Resolutions For 2008”):

For the Park Ridge Senior Center Members:  Get rid of your sense of entitlement. While your approximately 1,200 members shamelessly pay a paltry $22 in annual membership “dues,” the Park Ridge Park District is burning through almost $150,000 of our tax dollars each year to give you what amounts to a private club. And a number of you aren’t even Park Ridge taxpayers!

The Park Ridge Senior Center, owned and operated by the Park Ridge Recreation and Park District, is also supported in part by tax dollars from other governmental bodies such as the City of Park Ridge and Maine Township, as well as by charitable foundations like the Park Ridge Community Fund.

In the past few weeks the Senior Center got some well-deserved kudos in both of our local newspapers for some 30 or so of its members making 54 blankets for wounded soldiers coming home from Iraq.  Although we question the wisdom of that war, we are staunch supporters of those sent to fight it and believe they deserve the very best this country has to offer – in supplies, equipment and medical treatment while they’re over there, and in medical treatment, education, training, employment and support services upon their return. 

But we do question the cost-to-benefit ratio of the Senior Center, at least in connection with the way it has been operating for at least the past decade.  That’s because not only is the building’s use limited solely to seniors, but it’s membership is only around 1,200 seniors, a significant percentage of whom aren’t even Park District residents and taxpayers. 

That wouldn’t be so bad but for one very troubling fact: The operations of the Senior Center have been burning through hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars.  The Park District is estimating an almost $183,000 loss for 2007 alone!  At that rate, one could argue that the taxpayers simply gave more than $150 to each of those 1,200 members in 2007; or that those 54 blankets cost us almost $3,400 apiece!  And for 2008, the Park District is budgeting [pdf] a $188,000 operating loss!!  Why?

One reason is that those Senior Center members pay ridiculous “membership dues” of $30* per year, apparently to try to maintain the charade that they aren’t really receiving welfare from the District’s taxpayers.  That’s less than the cost of a Sam’s Club membership, for crying out loud.  If that was kicked up to only $100 a year – less than 28 cents a day, still an incredible bargain for having their own clubhouse – the red ink from the Senior Center could be cut in half.  

And seniors, don’t even think about playing that “we’ve paid taxes here all our lives” card with us – because we’re not pandering politicians willing to buy that tripe in order to buy your votes.  A majority of you are probably sitting on more net assets than most of the non-senior households in town, starting with that house you bought 30-40 years ago that’s appreciated 8-10% per year on average.  And you already got a full return on your taxes, and then some, from all that taxpayer-subsidized public education and recreation your kids got (and your grandkids are now getting?).

If you want discounts just because you’re still breathing after all these years, be content with the early-bird specials at places like Denny’s that only have to answer to their stockholders.  Otherwise, it’s time to get off the public dole and start paying the costs of what you use.  Or you should start sharing that facility with other Park District customers and activities.
 
If we have any hope of stopping government from shoving its hand ever deeper into our pockets we need to start distinguishing “essential government services” from all the amenities and frills that some special interest or other wants – and too often gets from the unprincipled politicians who are continually trying to buy their popularity with our money. 

In the case of the Senior Center, the hard cold fact is that there’s nothing “essential” about that seniors-only playhouse on Western Avenue that warrants it getting a $188,000 handout from the taxpayers this year…or any other year.

* CORRECTION: We originally listed the annual dues as $22, but that was the old rate (although the new rate is also cheaper than a Sam’s Club membership).  We apologize for the error.

The winter air may be crisp, but around Park Ridge City Hall it’s also redolent with the smell of sweetheart deals.  Napleton Cadillac is inhaling the sweet scent of a potential $2 Million windfall sales tax-sharing agreement on its new property (formerly Tom Noe), while PRC continues to sniff around for $400,000 from the City to clean up the contamination on the old Napleton site it intends to buy for the construction of more condos.

The noses of cops and ordinary citizens alike are perking up to the perfumed breeze wafting in from Des Plaines along with rumors of a new “imported” police chief who is the wife of one of Mayor Frimark’s friends and campaign contributors.  And who can miss that down-home smell of meat a’cookin’ as the City continues its search for some more private land it can take off the tax rolls for the big new cop shop.

As any long-time Illinois resident knows, whenever you smell a “deal” you can usually find a campaign donor – often one of the heftier contributors to a heavyweight politician – lurking in the shadows waiting to cash in.  When it comes to Park Ridge politicians, the big dog is indisputably Mayor Howard Frimark.

And when it comes to Frimark contributors, the big dog looks to be the family of Sam Markos [pdf], owner/operator of Crystal Palace Banquets and, it appears, several other businesses whose principal offices are listed as 2648 Dempster, Park Ridge [pdf].  The Markos Family “Empire,” along with the contributions each entity made to the “Friends for Frimark for Mayor” (FFF) campaign fund, include:

·  Sam Spiros Markos [pdf] (and “Spiros Sam Markos”) ($3,000);
·  Crystal Palace Banquets, Inc. [pdf] ($4,200);
·  Crystal Landings LLC [pdf] ($3,500);
·  ENK Brentwood LLC [pdf] ($1,500);
·  Market Square Lot 2 LLC [pdf] ($2,000);
·  Market Square Schaumburg LLC [pdf] ($4,500 ); and
·  Markos Management Corp. [pdf] ($2,000).

The grand total: A whopping $20,700 to FFF between December 17, 2004 and December 27, 2006.

From what we can see, no other contributor or group of related contributors to FFF comes close to matching that number.  But the Markos Family interests also hedged their bets by making $6,500 in contributions – from “Spiros P. Markos” ($1,500), Market Square Schaumburg LLC ($3,000) and ENK Brentwood LLC ($2,000) – to Frimark’s opponent, Michael Tinaglia, putting them among Tinaglia’s largest contributors as well.

That kind of hedging also suggests that the Markos interests may be more like “players” than like “good government” types, especially now that we’re getting a whiff of the newest aroma emanating from City Hall in connection with this week’s Park Ridge Zoning Board of Appeals meeting agenda [pdf].  That agenda indicates that somebody has applied for “several variances” of a “major” nature for the property at 2648 Dempster Street – the Markos property – “as part of the construction of a new CVS Pharmacy.”

The City’s website has posted no other reports or documentation to explain anything more about the variances being sought, or what the exact nature of Thursday night’s ZBA proceeding will be.  Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising given Park Ridge’s “A Culture Of Secrecy” and the fact that it took more than a year from the date Trader Joe’s signed its lease in Uptown for the City to admit that Trader Joe’s had committed to a store in Park Ridge, but it is troubling nonetheless.

These variances for CVS will be considered by the sitting ZBA members [pdf], who serve as our new zoning code’s enforcers in major variance matters such as this.  And if you don’t know what the ZBA procedures are in connection with major variances, you might want to take a look at the relevant sections of the City’s new Zoning Ordinance [pdf].

A CVS pharmacy may be a fine addition to the northwest edge of Park Ridge; and if that provides a nice pay day for the Markos Family so much the better – so long as that pay day doesn’t come at the expense of Park Ridge taxpayers or violate the zoning ordinance.  If it does, you can be sure the Watchdog will pick up the scent.