Journal Editor

Members of a Des Plaines City Council committee will huddle in a closed-to-the-public meeting Monday night to discuss the possibility that the city will be sued over the subject of billboards.

Following the closed executive session, aldermen will convene in an open meeting where the billboard issue will be further discussed and citizen input solicited. Legal & Licensing Committee chairman Ald. Don Smith (7th) said that what will be discussed in the open meeting may depend in part on what aldermen discuss and decide in the closed meeting. Monday's closed meeting will be held in City Hall at 6 p.m.

Des Plaines officials are concerned that media giant Viacom will file a lawsuit if city permits for as many as five billboards are not issued. Viacom has informed the city that it purchased the billboard rights to five outdoor advertising signs from Premere Media, Inc. after Lamar Outdoor Advertising decided not to pursue erecting those billboards. Lamar bought Premere Outdoor, Inc. in July 2003 shortly after Premere secured the right to erect 10 billboards along the Northwest and Tri-State tollways in Des Plaines. Lamar, one of the nation's largest billboard companies, chose to keep the rights to five of those 10 billboards and sell the rest to Premere Media, Inc. Lamar paid $10.5 million for the 10 billboard rights.

City officials have questioned whether Premere Media can sell or transfer the rights to the five billboards. Viacom says its purchase of the five billboard rights requires the city to issue permits for those signs as long as those permits meet city code.

"We'll see how it goes. We'll play it by ear," said Smith of Monday night's open session.

In the meantime, members of a special Illinois Crime Commission committee have scheduled a public hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in Des Plaines where the city's billboard issue will be discussed. The meeting will be held at the Doubletree hotel at Touhy Avenue and Lee Street. Questions have been raised in recent months about the city's agreement with Premere Outdoor, Inc. to grant the company the right to erect 10 billboards. One of the shareholders of Premere Outdoor was convicted felon James Dvorak, a former Cook County undersheriff and chairman of the Cook County Republican Party.