After watching the minutes of the 12/21/09 City Council meeting posted on the Melidosian Motionbox site, we can’t seem to shake the feeling that there is more to this Generation Group, Inc. (“GGI”) billboards deal than meets the eye – although we’re still unclear about whether the missing part of the equation involves stupidity, corruption, or a little bit of both.

Is there a smoking gun that we can point to? 

No…because stupidity (or ignorance masquerading as stupidity) of public officials is, sadly, so commonplace it is almost expected, especially when the management of public funds is involved.  And when it comes to political corruption, even iron fists like the U.S. Attorney’s office and the F.B.I. usually have to resort to “flipping” corrupt insiders to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 

But one would have to be hopelessly naïve to think that Park Ridge is somehow immune to political graft and corruption, if only because we’re talking about a unit of government within what is commonly known as “Crook County,” situated in what the Chicago Tribune has branded the “State of Corruption” – and bordering on a city that has been so corrupt for so long that the term “Chicago-Style” has become more identified with kinky government than with hot dogs.

So when considering the billboards deal proposed by GGI, we think that a little background information might be useful – and we suggest a line of stories from the Des Plaines Journal about that city’s experience with a billboard company, Premere Outdoor, Inc., that has at least one thing in common with GGI.

Back in 2003 when Premere Outdoor got permission from Des Plaines to erect 10 billboards, its attorney happened to be…surprise!…Joseph Loss, one of the attorneys (along with the ubiquitous Park Ridge insider, attorney Jack Owens) for GGI.  And…surprise again!…one of Premere Outdoor’s shareholders just happened to be Heather Loss, reportedly the wife of Joseph Loss.  And two other Premere shareholders just happened to be convicted felon (and former Crook County undersheriff) James Dvorak, and the wife of convicted insurance fraud schemer Joseph Nicosia.

Not the most savory cast of characters, is it?

Just in case anybody doubts there is big money in billboards, a story in the December 1, 2004, edition of the Des Plaines Journal (“Billboard Backlash Is Concern For EDC”) reported that 42 days after Des Planes gave Premere Outdoor the rights for 10 billboards, that company was sold for $10.5 million to another sign company, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, which then sold the rights to 5 of those 10 signs to Premere Media, Inc. – reportedly, an affiliate of Premere Outdoor – before Premere Media sold those rights to Viacom, the media giant, for an undisclosed sum.

What does that mean for billboards in Park Ridge?

Well, thanks to Ald. Jim “Billboards” Allegretti and Alds. Robert Ryan and Frank Wsol providing the 3-2 majority vote (over Alds. Rich DiPietro and Joe Sweeney, because Alds. Don Bach and Tom Carey were absent), the City of Park Ridge, rather than GGI, was the applicant for the zoning code text amendments needed for the billboards.  That meant that GGI was able to avoid being the “applicant” – which, under the Park Ridge ethics ordinance, would have required GGI to disclose the identities of all its officers, directors and anyone having a 3% or greater ownership interest in GGI.

Was the decision by Allegretti, Ryan and Wsol to make the City the applicant stupid? Corrupt? Other? All of the above? None of the above?

For the time being, that’s your own personal call. 

But to provide some kind of frame of reference, consider that 3% of the $600,000 GGI is offering to pay the City – presumably a mere fraction of GGI’s potential take on the four billboards – is $18,000.  But that same 3% of the $10.5 million Premere Outdoor got from its sale of what effectively might have been little more than 5 billboards in Des Plaines yields a nifty $315,000.

Hmmmmm.  Sniff, sniff.