THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006
Another Lawsuit On City's Hands
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
If Charles Baldacchino hopes to gain public support for his relentless legal attacks on the City of Park Ridge, he is wrong.
At least, according to reactions made, and not made, at Monday night's City Council meeting, where his filing of still another lawsuit against the city and the Uptown redevelopment project was revealed.
His latest complaint against the city's guarantee of a $4 million loan to PRC Partners from LaSalle Bank was met with a barrage of criticism from one aldermen, two residents, and one well-known citizens' organization.
Baldacchino is a strong critic of the methods the city has used to put together the redevelopment agreement for Uptown with PRC Partners. On Apr. 28, he filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court, charging that the city's guarantee of $4 million of a loan to PRC by LaSalle Bank is illegal and unconstitutional, because it "advances public funds for a non-public purpose."
His appeal of a dismissal of his earlier complaint against the Uptown redevelopment agreement is still pending in the same court. In the past year, his first lawsuit and appeals have led to delays in construction and land purchase closings, while PRC and the city deal with the litigation.
Most aldermen kept their silence at Monday's City Council meeting, but their head-shaking and body language indicated they are rapidly losing patience and becoming angry with Baldacchino's legal actions.
This issue has even spread to whether or not city officials should even associate with Baldacchino, and verbal advice from city attorney Everette Hill not to associate with him, and not to discuss the pending litigation with him in any way. This sparked a small but sharp debate between Mayor Frimark and Ald. Donald Crampton at Monday night's meeting.
"The city attorney has advised me that city officials shouldn't associate with Mr. Baldacchino in any way nor discuss this issue with him," Frimark said. "That sends a wrong message to the residents." He said he saw an alderman with Baldacchino near an Uptown business on Saturday morning, Apr. 29. "They were laughing, talking and enjoying conversation," the mayor said.
Acknowledging that he was the alderman involved, Crampton objected to the mayor's remarks.
"First of all, he may have seen me in the general proximity of Mr. Baldacchino, but not in close conversation with him. Secondly, it is not his right to tell me with whom I can associate or talk," Crampton said. "He is over-reaching and over-reacting to Mr. Hill's advice. There is a difference between discussing the lawsuit with Mr. Baldacchino, which I agree shouldn't be done, and chatting with him. We all have the right to associate with anyone we wish to, and it is not his right to try force us to do otherwise."
In a strange sidelight to this whole affair, Baldacchino has often spoken at city council meetings, pleading his legal case and criticizing the city for not only violating state laws and its own zoning code, but for the city's responses to his legal complaints. This didn't happen at this week's council meeting, however, since Baldacchino made no public statement. He instead sat with his head down during the whole meeting.
The guaranty of LaSalle Bank's loan has enabled the city and PRC to schedule closing on PRC's purchase of the former water reservoir site at Touhy Avenue and Northwest Highway for about June 1, which would clear the way for the start of construction of Phase III of the redevelopment project shortly thereafter. Baldacchino's suit is designed to stop that process while the courts consider the merits of his complaints.