Journal Editor

Representatives of a Chicago billboard company are scheduled to meet with Des Plaines officials this week to discuss the possibility that the company will be permitted to erect one or more outdoor advertising signs along local tollways.

"We haven't gone away," said attorney Dan Dowd who is representing Image Media, Inc. "We're looking to be treated fairly and equally with the other companies that have been permitted to erect signs."

Those "other companies" are believed to be Viacom and Lamar Outdoor Advertising, two of the largest billboard companies in the country. Within the last year and a half, the two firms paid millions of dollars to purchase the rights to erect 10 billboards along the Northwest and Tri-State tollways. Those rights were secured from Des Plaines City Council in May of 2003 by Premere Outdoor, Inc., a company partly owned by convicted felon James Dvorak who has been a close friend for years of then Des Plaines Acting City Manager Bill Schneider.

Lamar in July 2003 paid Premere $10.5 million to buy the rights to erect 10 billboards, according to Des Plaines City Attorney Dave Wiltse. Lamar later sold back five of those rights to Premere Media, Inc., a company whose president as of Aug. 16, 2004 was Dvorak. Not long after that, media giant Viacom, which owns among other things CBS television, bought the rights for those five signs at an undisclosed price.

A majority of Des Plaines aldermen in 2003 voted in favor of granting Premere the lucrative billboard rights. In exchange, the city would be paid fees for inspections of the large signs, their impact on the city, and $25,000 for three years to pay for fireworks displays.

Image Media has been trying to garner permission from the city to erect one or more billboards since spring 2003. In an Oct. 20, 2004 letter to Wiltse, Image Media President Michael Scheid said that when he first delivered a letter to Schneider about the billboard issue at a June 25, 2003 meeting, he was encouraged by Schneider's response. Scheid said Schneider informed him that 10 permits to build signs would be available on a "first come basis." But, said Scheid, "At a subsequent meeting in August 2003 his opinion changed and he said we would not be able to utilize any of the 10 permits and suggested we purchase permits from Premere." Scheid in the letter said Premere's asking price was outrageous. "He (Schneider) suggested we wait until the first 10 are built or file a text amendment."

To date, of the 10 billboard rights granted by the city more than a year ago, only three have been built. The owner of those three is Lamar. Just last week, aldermen agreed to open the door for Viacom to apply to erect five billboards. That approval was granted after a number of billboard companies threatened to sue the city if they are not allowed to erect outdoor advertising signs in Des Plaines as long as they meet normal building code requirements. Where Lamar and Viacom will eventually build those signs is uncertain even though Premere in 2003 submitted a list of 17 potential sites. In early September, the city placed a moratorium on new billboard construction after it learned of Dvorak's connection to Premere. Earlier in the year city officials became aware that Dvorak, who was an employee of a company hired by the city to sell and market property earmarked for redevelopment at Mannheim and Higgins roads across from O'HAre Airport, has been a close friend of Schneider's.

"My guy was led to believe that billboards were left open to all comers," said Dowd in a Nov. 12 front page story published in the Journal. "He believed initially that the city would issue 10 billboard permits and he'd get a chance to get some. If he knew Premere would get all 10 he would have done something immediately. He wasn't treated equally as Premere. The question is 'why?' "

Added Dowd last week, "We've been knocking on the door for more than a year." He explained that Image Media has signed contracts with several property owners where signs can legally be erected adding that some of the 17 potential sites along the Northwest and Tri-State tollways will prove in the end to not meet city, state and federal requirements allowing their placement.

"My client is very hopeful if he is treated equally he'd be given the privilege of putting up several billboards," Dowd continued. He added that in the end, it's very possible that the city will allow more than 10 billboards either along tollways or at some other heavily-traveled locations. But said, Dowd, "My client believes that there are only a handful of locations along the tollways that meet all the requirements."