By TODD WESSELL

Journal Editor

The Illinois Attorney General and Cook County State's Attorney's offices will soon be asked by Des Plaines to conduct criminal investigations into the circumstances surrounding the awarding of rights to a suburban company to erect 10 billboards in the city.

The decision to ask for the formal probes was arrived at during a telephone conversation Monday between Des Plaines City Attorney Dave Wiltse and License & Judicial Committee chairman Ald. Don Smith (7th). It comes five days after a three-hour committee meeting in which members agreed to forward additional information about the matter to the U.S. Attorney's office. City officials took their concerns to federal authorities in mid-September. It also comes after concerns were expressed by Ald. Smith about the city's role in approving those rights.

"If business has been steered to anyone in the city, that's wrong and something's got to be done about it," said Smith in early September.

And in related matters, one Des Plaines alderman, Pat Beauvais (1st), Monday night expressed support for a call to hire a private law firm to represent the city in a potential lawsuit over the future installation of large billboards along local tollways. Also, Ald. Dick Sayad (4th), initially one of the strongest supporters of allowing Premere Outdoor, Inc. the right to erect 10 billboards in Des Plaines, admitted at Monday night's Council meeting that "maybe we made a mistake." He said action now has to be taken to override the city's agreement with Premere in May 2003 to grant the company the lucrative billboard installation rights.

The city's discovery in August that convicted felon James Dvorak, a close friend of former Des Plaines acting city manager Bill Schneider, had a personal connection to Premere Outdoor, Inc. resulted in the city holding off issuing any billboard construction permits until answers could be found to a number of questions.

In the weeks following an early September meeting by the License & Judicial Committee where the billboard matter was discussed, numerous additional discoveries have been unearthed. Those findings include the fact that Dvorak was an officer of Premere Outdoor and Premere Media, Inc., two companies formed to secure and sell billboard rights. Premere Outdoor's success in convincing enough aldermen to grant it the right to erect 10 billboards in Des Plaines paved the way for the company to sell off those rights only 42 days after council approval on May 19, 2003.

At last week's License & Judicial meeting, Wiltse reported that Lamar paid Premere Outdoor $10.5 million for the billboards in a July 1, 2003 stock purchase agreement. While half of that sum went to Premere's three shareholders for payment for five of the billboards, the other $5,250,000 was placed in an escrow account. It was deposited there to allow Lamar time to determine whether it wanted to build the remaining five signs. If Lamar decides it does not want to erect the five remaining signs, which appears to be the case, the $5,250,000 will be returned to Lamar and the rights to the five signs assigned to Premere Media, Inc. That company could then sell off those rights to another billboard company. Media giant Viacom, which owns among other things CBS television, has expressed a strong interest in buying those five billboard rights from Premere. In a recent letter to the city, Viacom told of its intentions adding that it "is prepared to defend this position to the fullest extent allowed by law."

Other key developments in the billboard matter, many of which have been reported exclusively in the Journal, include the fact that the shareholders of Premere Outdoor, who so far have been paid millions of dollars, were Dvorak, Heather Loss and Leonora Nicosia. Mrs. Loss is the wife of Joseph Loss, Premere's attorney, secretary and project manager, who met several times with local officials to secure the billboard rights. Another revelation is that Dvorak has been a close friend and frequent lunch partner of former city official Bill Schneider who resigned earlier this year after admitting that he was convicted of mail fraud in the mid-1990s against the company he worked for. The company Schneider was employed with at the time is the same firm that inked an agreement with Des Plaines more than a year ago to build a casino here if state permission is obtained. Where Illinois' 10th casino will be located has yet to be determined. Whichever company and community is selected will reap millions of dollars in benefits.

Schneider in his capacity with the city in 2003 not only was the top administrator but he was in charge of land use and redevelopment matters. When former City Manager Scott Miller left his job here in December 2002, Schneider was appointed acting city manager.

The Journal also reported that Ald. Sayad, Ald. Tom Becker (6th) and Mayor Tony Arredia had lunch with Dvorak on at least one occasion each within the last year. Arredia said that after he learned about Dvorak's criminal background following their lunch, he was livid at Schneider for arranging the meeting stating, "Don't ever do that to me again." Becker, as chairman of the city's Community Development Committee, has a leading role in zoning and land use issues. He said in a recent Journal article that Dvorak would participate in meetings in City Hall where the redevelopment of the Mannheim-Higgins area was discussed. A company Dvorak worked for until August of this year, Prime Site Group, LLC, was hired by Des Plaines in 2001 to market the development of Mannheim-Higgins property. Schneider most likely played a major role in hiring Prime Site.

Premere Outdoor's other shareholder prior to the sale to Lamar in 2003, Leonora Nicosia, is the wife of Joseph Nicosia, an Oak Park businessman recently convicted in an insurance fraud scheme. He is awaiting sentencing.

At Monday night's City Council meeting, local resident and former Des Plaines city employee Marty Moylan, asked council members to hire a private law firm to advise the city if laws were broken in the Premere billboard matter. He explained that the law firm should be hired to keep additional billboards from being erected. Moylan also asked aldermen to ask the Chicago Crime Commission and/or the Illinois Crime Commission to conduct hearings into the billboard matter.

"In the late 1980s and 90s the city tried to get rid of billboards," said Moylan, who headed Des Plaines' building inspection department when Mike Albrecht was mayor. "We got fireworks and chump change while others got millions," added Moylan referring to the city's agreement with Premere that called on the company to pay the city $25,000 a year for three years to fund local fireworks displays.

Ald. Beauvais Monday said she supports Moylan's suggestion of hiring an outside law firm.

"I don't want to go through with these contracts, " said Beauvais referring to the city's agreement with Premere.

Both Smith and Sayad said that council members will next publicly discuss the billboard issue on Monday, Nov. 15 in City Hall. Smith said he believes City Attorney Wiltse wants to discuss the issue of billboard lighting and what the city's position should be if Viacom takes its pursuit of the right to erect five billboards to court.