I wanted to take a moment to respond, or at least, comment, on the PubDog article from 02/27 regarding the upcoming Park District Board election.

First, thank you for supporting my efforts to maintain some semblance of order to the filings for the original 10 candidates. As you know, I objected to Giordano and Mizialko’s paperwork and was successful on both challenges. I too was troubled by the apparent attack on me and my fellow challengers by the editors at the Herald, castigating us as undemocratic for our objections. As I stated in my open letter to the Herald as well as to the PRU, if we as citizens find it abhorrent that people can be bounced from a ballot for failing to bind their paperwork together or forgetting to file a Statement of Economic Interest with the Cook County Clerk, then we should speak to our legislators about changing the laws. As an officer of the Court, I am sworn to uphold the laws of the United States, and that is precisely what I did when filing my objections.

Was I also concerned that a slate of four people backed by the SEIU might be on the ballot? Absolutely. Was that a motivating factor in my objections? Most certainly. However, the bottom line is that all candidates must follow the rules, including myself. I took painstaking efforts to insure that my paperwork met all of the rules because I take this candidacy very seriously. Why shouldn’t all of the candidates be held to this same standard?

As for the other open question you posed to Nick Milissis regarding our “slate” and alleged connections to Barton and Dudycz, I wish to set the record straight.

I decided to throw my hat in the ring in this election because I was very concerned about the SEIU taking over control of our Park District. I am the father of four young kids (soon to be five). My entire family uses Park District programs and facilities on a regular basis. I want to make sure that we continue to have nice facilities and good programs at a reasonable price for everyone in our town. I am a fiscal (and social) conservative and I believe strongly that elected officials have a profound duty to the taxpayers to be good stewards of taxpayer money. I want to see the Park District thrive with the money they already have allocated to them. I would also like to see the Park District come up with some unique ways of increasing revenue (for example, by increasing sponsorship opportunities) without going to the taxpayers or to the users for increased fees.

The Park District Board is not a stepping stone position for me. I have no aspirations to run for higher office. I simply want to see the Park District continue to be a source of pride and enjoyment for our community.

Dick Barton is a fellow member in the Knights of Columbus with me and I have used his firm for some PR work for my own law firm. I have known Dick for probably 5 years and count him as a good friend. When I first thought about running for the Board, I contacted Dick to get his thoughts. Dick was excited to hear that I was contemplating running and promised to support me in any way he could. I also know Steve Hunst from my regular workouts at the Community Center and Steve also offered his complete support. Before I knew it, I had the support and backing of Sal Raspanti, Marty Maloney, Mary Wynn Ryan and Nick Milissis.

Soon thereafter, Dick offered to help me with compiling my candidacy paperwork and also enlisted the help of Bob Dudycz to review my paperwork to insure that it contained no errors.

I have given no money to Dick Barton (other than a check for $50.00 to cover the fees he incurred when we used his UPS Store account to allow my petition circulators to get their forms notarized) or to Bob Dudycz.

I have not asked for any campaign contributions nor do I intended to solicit any. Because I was originally facing the prospect of four candidates backed by the SEIU, I thought it might be wise to meet some of the other candidates and see if any of us were like-minded in our views of the Park District. I met Nick Milissis, Pawel Matula and Scott Duerkop shortly after filing my paperwork and came to the conclusion that we all had much to gain by pooling our financial resources together to challenge the SEIU. The four of us have formed an “alliance” so that we can share the costs of brochures, yard signs and other such materials. Let me assure you that there is no other hidden agenda or quid pro quo at work.

Dick has offered his ongoing help with our “alliance” by giving us some campaign advice and helping us with putting our brochures together. We are not paying Dick any money to provide his advice or assistance. Also, I can unconditionally state that I have no political connections to Dick Barton or Bob Dudycz nor am I connected in any way politically to Mayor Frimark.

I hope that this answers the questions you may have had about my candidacy and about our “alliance” (entitled “4 The Parks”).

If you have any further questions of me, I would be happy to answer them for you.

Sincerely,

Rick Biagi

Thank you!!!!!!!! It is facinating to me how people feel commfortable starting, saying and repeating things with no evidence. Kind of like Hannity.

I can just see the e-mails flying around town….”did ya hear Frimark did this???”

There are plenty of real reasons not to vote for him. Thank you for pointing that out!

Rather than engage in idle speculation, if anyone sees signs being removed or has firsthand knowledge of such unauthorized sign removal, he/she should inform the Park Ridge Police. Otherwise, people, let’s let the voters focus on the many substantive issues that distinguish the two candidates from each other.

That might explain why he’s got his cronies stealing Schmidt signs in the middle of the night.  Frimark is a total limp weenie.