Serendipity is an interesting thing. It’s defined as “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary), and it seems to occur for many people at unusual or fortuitous times.
So when we saw the Page Two article in today’s Park Ridge Journal titled “Ryles Touts Endorsements” and learned that mayoral challenger Larry Ryles is being endorsed by the three “former, living Mayors of Park Ridge,” the first word that came to mind was “serendipity.”
That’s because the City just received a report (which we wrote about in our 02.14.13 post) describing what an economic black hole the Uptown TIF has been, and is likely to remain for the rest of its “natural” life (until 2026) – and perhaps even beyond, if the City seeks and receives State of Illinois approval to extend it another 12 years. In discussing the TIF, the Kane McKenna consultants gingerly avoided identifying the three public officials most instrumental in saddling us with that albatross.
But if you guessed the “former, living Mayors of Park Ridge,” give yourself a cheroot.
For readers who didn’t reside here that far back, or who don’t remember the past (and risk, as Santayana warned, being doomed to repeat it), the following is a brief history of those three amigos and their roles in the current TIF fiasco.
Former mayor Ron Wietecha (1991-2003) spent most of his 12 years as mayor wasting bushels of our tax dollars (somewhere north of $1.3 million?) battling O’Hare International Airport – including blowing $650,000 on a new airport at Peotone he deceptively called an “investment.” When not obsessed with O’Hare, Wietecha was leading his Homeowners Party-dominated Council in passing the Uptown TIF – before curiously resigning in September 2003, halfway through his term, and only days before the Council meeting at which he was to answer Council questions about that Peotone “investment.” Shortly thereafter, he packed up and moved to Barrington.
Unlike Wietecha, former mayor Mike Marous (2003-05) was never elected mayor by popular vote. Instead, he was installed by a vote of the aldermen after Wietecha abandoned ship. Rumor has it Marous got the job by cutting a deal with one particular Council faction: he agreed to support then-ald. Mike Tinaglia for mayor against then-ald. Howard Frimark in the 2005 election if that faction went along with what Marous wanted in connection with the Uptown TIF development project.
Not surprisingly, given Tinaglia’s shellacking by Frimark and the TIF’s becoming an economic train wreck, Marous and his fellow political schemers have been pretty tight-lipped about that particular grand bargain. But we’re betting he’s breathing a sigh of relief that former-ald./political schemer Rex Parker didn’t succeed in having the signature Uptown TIF building at six corners named the “Marous Building.”
As for Frimark (2005-09)…well, what can we say about ol’ “Let’s Make A Deal” that we haven’t said before – other than that, even now, he’s telling anybody who will listen that the Uptown TIF is a great deal for Park Ridge.
We got our hands on a copy of the three amigos’ endorsement letter – more serendipity, it turns out – and had to chuckle about their statement that Ryles “will continue to support the future, positive, impact of the Uptown Redevelopment.”
How? By throwing even more millions of tax dollars down the toilet in order to help those three “former, living Mayors” keep their perp roles in this fiasco under the radar so that they can continue to escape accountability for this TIF goat rodeo? Or by stiffing the school districts and the Park District on the payments due those bodies under the Inter-Governmental Agreements the City used to buy them off so they wouldn’t file court challenges to the TIF?
Page 16 of the Kane McKenna TIF report warns that “difficult decisions will be required from a fiscal management perspective” if the TIF isn’t extended another 12 years, or if the school districts and the Park District don’t agree to being stiffed by the City.
When it comes to “difficult decisions,” those “former, living Mayors” rarely, if ever, got one right; and the closest they came to “fiscal management” was when they left office and kicked the can down the road to the next guy.
No wonder they’re endorsing Larry Ryles.
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