THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2006
Blase Pleads; Excellent Memo
Off The Record, By TODD WESSELL
Thoughts and squawks about people, places and things in and around Des Plaines...
As reported in the Journal last week, Niles Mayor Nicholas Blase pleaded not guilty into federal corruption charges that for many years he steered insurance businesses to a local company he had a special kick back deal with.
Blase was arraigned in federal court yesterday (Tuesday) in downtown Chicago. He appeared before a federal judge about two minutes, and that was the end of it. Blase for many years served as Maine Township Democratic committeeman. He has been Mayor of Niles for the last 45 years...
Des Plaines School Dist. 62 Board of Education members Monday night met with one of its attorneys to brush up on collective bargaining matters. The gathering was to begin preparations for contract negotiations with the district's teacher's union. The union's current five-year contract expires in June...
Kudos to Mayor Tony Arredia for pursuing his dream of creating a mini-Millennium Park along Campground Road in Des Plaines (see story elsewhere in today's Journal). In his last meeting on the subject last week, Arredia became aware, to a degree, of the scope of the project that will necessitate working with various governmental agencies. But, he said, he's not discouraged and will continue moving forward...
About two weeks ago, the Journal published a lengthy story that revealed the contents of numerous emails between city officials and potential developers of property near Mannheim and Higgins roads. Two of the most interesting documents we read after our filing of a Freedom of Information request to obtain the records, were memos written by Tim Angell, the city's deputy director of Community and Economic Development and by Angell and City Manager Dave Niemeyer.
The memo written solely by Angell, dated Nov. 2, 2005, is a two-page document in which he lays out details of a city staff review of redeveloping the Mannheim-Higgins property. Angell asserts in the memorandum his belief why the city should seek competitive proposals to develop the property stating, "For such a significant redevelopment opportunity, it is my professional recommendation that issuing a RFP would allow the city to gauge interest from the larger development community, determine potential revenue streams that could generate from the site's redevelopment, and verify that construction of hotels and restaurants are the site's highest and best reuse."
In short, Angell's report is excellent---one of the best on any single matter this reporter's ever read written by a government employee.
The other memo, compiled only three days later and authored by Angell and Niemeyer, is more indirect on the Mannheim-Higgins subject. It is a document sent to Mayor Arredia and aldermen listing the "pros and cons" of whether an RFP should be sought for redevelopment of the acreage, or whether the city should negotiate an exclusive deal with a single company, Raymond Management, Inc. Near the end, the memo states the options facing aldermen and recommends that the matter be discussed in a meeting where the public would not be allowed to attend.