Journal Reporter

The City of Des Plaines Monday night approved a $215,000 settlement with Prime Site Group LLC over a disputed 2003 contract extension with the company.

The city council voted 5 - 2 in favor of the settlement. Aldermen Carla Brookman (5th) and Laura Murphy (3d) voted against the settlement. Before casting her nay ballot, Brookman said, "I can't support any kind of payout without an independent investigation." Murphy echoed the remark.

First Ward Ald. Pat Beauvais believed an independent investigation would cost the city more than the initial $415,000 contract with Prime Site.

The settlement revolves around a 2003 contract extension with Prime Site that did not receive city council approval. Mayor Tony Arredia told the Journal in April that he does not recall signing or authorizing the letter that approved a contract with the firm through July 2004.

The city hired Prime Site in 2001 to help market the Mannheim-Higgins Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Dist.

Controversy over the contract extension surfaced earlier this year when it was discovered a Prime Site employee, former Cook County Undersheriff James Dvorak, assigned to work with Des Plaines, was convicted of income tax evasion and bribery in the 1980s and served time in prison. He is also a reported friend of Bill Schneider, the city's former economic development commission director and assistant city manager.

Schneider resigned from his post in May after officials discovered he spent time in prison for mail fraud and is a close friend of Dvorak.

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