One of the comments to our August 3 post about Taste of Park Ridge (“TOPR”) and the private corporation that runs it on an exclusive no-bid, no-contract, no-accountability basis, Taste of Park Ridge NFP (“Taste Inc.”), inquired about the City officials who gave away TOPR to Taste Inc. back in 2005.

That’s a good point, because while we have called Taste Inc. on the carpet for its sweetheart deal and its secrecy, in situations like this it takes at least two to tango: the opportunistic private individuals/organization that want something from government, and the typically (for Illinois, at least) complicit/clueless public officials who blithely give it away.  Oh yes…and let’s not forget the sheep-like voters, who are happily distracted from the harsh realities of incompetent and/or corrupt governance by the bread and circuses our politicians cynically provide.

As we’ve previously pointed out, the Taste Inc.-sters cashed in on the opportunity given them in June 2005 by then-mayor Howard Frimark and then-Alds. Don Crampton, Kirk Machon, Rich DiPietro, Jeannie Markech, Andrea Bateman, Kim Jones, Jim Radermacher, Jim Allegretti, Mark Anderson, Joe Baldi, Rex Parker, Mary Wynn Ryan, Jeff Cox and Frank Wsol.  So instead of running TOPR through the planned City committee that was going to be subject to the Illinois Open Meetings Act and would be returning all profits from the event to the City, the Taste Inc.-sters promptly set up their private corporation answerable to nobody and began running TOPR for what appears to be solely Taste Inc.’s benefit.

During its first four years in operation, Taste Inc. produced no reports for the City and didn’t even file IRS Form 990 tax returns – facts ignored first by Frimark and those fourteen aldermen who gave TOPR away, then by Frimark and his stripped-down Council of Alds. Dave Schmidt, Rich DiPietro, Don Bach, Jim Allegretti, Robert Ryan, Tom Carey and Frank Wsol.  Rather than call Taste Inc. to account for its activities, all those officials were too busy being “politicians” – working the beer tents or otherwise making themselves visible to the voters by helping run the TOPR circus.

But last summer, Mayor Schmidt finally called Taste Inc. to account for its activities.  And for the first time ever, Taste Inc.’s Dave Iglow and Albert Galus showed up at a Council meeting with a “report” [pdf] which claimed $266,652 of “gross receipts” but said absolutely nothing about the profits produced by those revenues. 

We had to wait until March of this year to see Taste Inc.’s first-ever IRS From 990 [pdf], which inexplicably reported only $163,391 of total revenues (what happened to that $266,652?), but also reported a whopping $65,221 of “excess” – what most of us in the real world call “profit.”

In addition to the gross revenues discrepancy, we also noticed that Taste Inc.’s Form 990 doesn’t report the $20,000+ in free City services (police, fire and public works) that Taste Inc. received, even though there is a specific line item (Page 3, Part III, Line 5) asking for “[t]he value of services or facilities furnished by a governmental unit to the organization without charge.”

We wonder whether Taste Inc. president Dave Iglow, who signed that Form 990, or Taste Inc. accountant James Vourvoulias, who prepared it, have an explanation for those discrepancies; and, if so, whether they will share that explanation with the public that effectively puts that $65,000 in Taste Inc’s bank account.  And we have to wonder whether our Mayor, our City Council, or our highly-paid City Manager will even bother to ask for such an explanation.

We also have to wonder what particular public policy causes the Mayor and the City Council to keep giving away $20,000+ a year in free services to a private organization that is pocketing $65,000+ in profits originally intended for the City’s coffers, even as that same City Council cuts police officers because it can’t afford the $100,000-per-officer annual cost. 

But, then again, what can we expect from public officials who, if not actually “in bed” with the Taste Inc.-sters, do their best to keep Taste Inc.’s pillows fluffed?