Journal Editor

The possibility that former Cook County undersheriff and convicted felon James Dvorak having another connection to the City of Des Plaines has prompted Ald. Don Smith (7th) to join in the call for an investigation into the scope of Dvorak's involvement in city matters.

According to documents obtained by the Journal this week and from informed sources, Dvorak is the president of a company that it appears successfully convinced aldermen in 2003 to allow the installation of 10 large billboards along the Northwest and Tri-State tollways in Des Plaines. As city officials recently learned, the company, Premere Outdoor, Inc., sold its billboard rights to another company, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, without the city's prior knowledge or approval. That fact prompted the holding of a meeting of the city's License & Judicial Committee last week in which aldermen directed City Attorney Dave Wiltse to find out what exactly happened with the sale or transfer of ownership of Premere's assets, including billboard rights.

According to committee chairman Ald. Smith (7th), he was recently informed by Wiltse that it appears that Premere recently changed its name from Premere Outdoor, Inc. to Premere Media, Inc. and that Dvorak is one of the principals of the company along with Joseph Loss, a Lombard attorney.

Wiltse said yesterday (Thursday) that he has no information to confirm that Dvorak is president of Premere Media, Inc. However, a check by the Journal with the Illinois Secretary of State's office Wednesday shows that James Dvorak, whose home address is in Antioch, is listed as president of Premere Media, and Loss the corporation's secretary. Records also show that the company was incorporated on July 8, 2002. Further, state records obtained by the Journal recently list Dvorak as having been a manager of Rolling Meadows-based Prime Site Group LLC, a company hired by the city in 2001 to assist with redevelopment of the Mannheim-Higgins area. Dvorak's address on those records is the same Antioch address listed on Premere's corporation records.

Ald. Smith Wednesday called for an investigation into the billboard matter. He said Dvorak's involvement with Premere needs to be looked into especially in light of the fact that Dvorak's name in recent months has surfaced on two other matters connected with redevelopment in Des Plaines. Those two subjects were the potential redevelopment of the Fisherman's Dude Ranch property on Golf Road and the Mannheim-Higgins property acquisition and redevelopment plan. It's believed that Dvorak introduced Rolling Meadows-based Prime Site Group LLC to city officials about three years ago when the city was strongly considering annexing the Fisherman's Dude Ranch property. Prime Site is a firm that assists with land development and marketing. The city eventually annexed the acreage and is awaiting its development. It's believed that Prime Site played little or no role in that project. And Dvorak, later as an employee of Prime Site Group LLC, worked with the city on redeveloping the triangular-shaped Mannheim-Higgins property. City Council members recently agreed to pay Prime Site $215,000 as part of a settlement with the company after it was learned that someone from the city had extended the contract with Prime Site without City Council approval, as required.

Des Plaines officials first learned of Dvorak's employment with Prime Site and involvement in the Mannheim-Higgins project in April. At the same time, it was revealed that then assistant city manager and Economic Development Commission Executive Director Bill Schneider was a close friend of Dvorak's. A short while later, Schneider resigned from the city after he informed Mayor Tony Arredia that he had been convicted of mail fraud in the mid-1990s after he and his brother embezzled a large sum of money from his employer at the time. His employer then was a company owned by Chicago real estate billionaire Neil Bluhm who for the last few years has been trying to land a casino in Des Plaines.

Dvorak, the second-in -command in the Cook County Sheriff's office in the 1980s, was convicted of bribery and income tax evasion and served seven years in prison. He was regarded as a street-wise Chicago cop who had become a major player in the Cook County Republican Party. It was also alleged that Dvorak had close ties to organized crime.

At last week's License & Judicial Committee meeting, aldermen decided not to issue any more permits to erect billboards in Des Plaines along local tollways until questions about Premere and Lamar can be answered. In a letter to aldermen dated Sept. 1, City Attorney Wiltse said that in June or July the city was informed by Lamar that it had purchased the assets of Premere "and were the new company entitled to the permits." Despite repeated attempts by the city to obtain documentation from Lamar or Premere confirming that the sale of Premere's assets had taken place, no such records have been received, said Wiltse. He added, "The staff never intended that permits could be sold. The question of sale of company assets and the disposition of allotted permits should be addressed by the committee."

It's believed that the value of owning the billboards or owning the right to obtain billboard permits is high. There are some estimates that a single, two-sided billboard could generate as much as $60,000 a month if it's located along a heavily-traveled tollway near O'Hare Airport. At $60,000 a month, annual revenue could top $700,000 per two-sided billboard. What price Lamar paid for the billboards is not known. An attempt by the Journal Wednesday to contact a representative of Lamar for comment was not successful.

According to Wiltse, the city agreed in 2003 to grant Premere the right to install 10 large billboards along local tollways. Permits for three of the billboards have so far been issued and billboards installed.

Wiltse said that questions about the ownership and sale of the 10 billboards prompted his request to have the matter reviewed last week. He said he has heard three versions of what has happened with the billboard ownership including one that five of the signs have changed hands.

"I'm, not sure," said Wiltse. "That's why we went to aldermen."

Telephone calls made to Loss and Dvorak this week by the Journal were not returned.

What came out of last week's committee meeting, said Wiltse is that his office was directed to investigate what has transpired between Premere and Lamar. Wiltse added that it's "questionable whether the permits to erect billboards went along with the sale." He added that he probably won't have a report ready for aldermen to review until October.

In 2003, aldermen approved an agreement with Premere that calls for the city to be paid a $15,000 impact fee per each of the 10 billboard locations, $25,000 per year for three years to pay for a local July 4th fireworks display, and use of one sign by the city for two months per year. When approval was granted, aldermen Carla Brookman (5th) and Tom Christiansen (2d) voted against the proposal. Brookman said the amount of money the city would be paid to allow the billboards was not enough in comparison to the amount of money the signs would generate for the owners. Also, Brookman has repeatedly called for an independent investigation into Prime Site's relationship with the city. Fellow aldermen have balked at that suggestion. Dave Niemeyer, Des Plaines' city manager, recently released a report on the city-Prime Site relationship. Brookman has said that the report raises more questions than it answers.

"I don't know what to make of it," said Smith of the billboard issue, in particular the sale of Premere's assets including the permits. "It strikes me as something that doesn't smell right. A company asks the city for the right to put up billboards then sells it. I don't know if they are entitled to do that."