New Lawsuit Challenges Park Payment to Latin School – Oops, Too Late!
The law suit proved too late as the Park District has already secretly paid the Latin School back, despite a court settlement mandating public disclosure! Will the law breaking and arrogance at the Chicago Park District ever stop?
Our reaction:
The Park District performed one of its trademark slight of hand tricks on September 23 in the courtroom of Judge Arnold. When Clint Krislov, prominent class action attorney, representing the taxpayers of Chicago, presented his Petition to stop the payment of public money to the private Latin School and its contractors in furtherance of the secret and illegal Agreement to build Latin an artificial turf soccer field in Lincoln Park that was struck down by a previous court action, the Park District surprised everyone by saying it has already secretly paid Latin. No information was disclosed as to the amounts actually paid and all the recipients of the Park District largesse. The Park District was obligated by the earlier court settlement to publicly disclose a schedule of these payments.
In a perfunctory hearing, Judge Arnold then brushed aside the Krislov Petition accepting the position that it was too late to lock the barn door, although Krislov argued that the Park District should be enjoined from continuing to pay money for illegal no-bid construction contracts taken over from Latin.
Although the lawsuit will continue, on behalf of taxpayers, to pursue the moneys that were illegally paid to Latin and its contractors, the next legal step is an immediate application to the Appellate Court to overrule Judge Arnold and enter an injunction to prevent further waste of taxpayers money.
The original press release:
The Chicago Park District and the Latin School were sued again on September 22 in the Circuit Court of Cook County in another round of litigation arising as a consequence of the secretly negotiated deal to build a reserved use Latin School soccer field in Lincoln Park.
Today’s lawsuit is a Taxpayer’s Derivative action challenging any attempt of the Park District to pay public funds to the Latin School or its contractors for the illegal soccer field construction which was stopped in a previous court action filed by Protect Our Parks, the volunteer community watchdog organization.
The new lawsuit alleges that an Agreement of the Park District to pay Latin School over $ 1.35 million of public tax money as reimbursement for the Court voided original Latin Agreement is a violation of taxpayer’s constitutional rights and the Park District’s own rules with respect to public contracts.
The exclusive, private Latin School itself does not pay the real estate taxes which support maintenance and improvements in the park, which Latin School monopolizes as its private playground.
Protect Our Parks hailed the taxpayer action and repeated its contention that the Park District is trying to complete its private deal with Latin School, now with public money, and that three or four soccer fields could be build in needy underserved neighborhoods with the money that the Park District wants to give to Latin. If built, the Gold Coast Latin soccer field would become the most expensive soccer field in Chicago and crowd out all the open, clear and free public uses previously enjoyed in this park meadow.
The motion for a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) to enjoin repayment to either Latin School or contractors will be heard on September 23 at 9:30 in Chancery Court, Daley Center, Room 2502, by Judge Arnold.
About us
We are a growing group of neighbors who are outraged at the secret deal concluded between the Chicago Park District and the Latin School of Chicago, a private (and very wealthy institution). This deal is to build a soccer field in the park near the bridge to the North Avenue Beach.
The Latin School is paying for much of the construction, but not all, and the Park District is paying for the maintenance. According to the contract some 880 hours of prime-time, kid-friendly hours are being given to the Latin School for their exclusive use.
This amounts to the majority of the time that schools and after-school and summer programs would need such a field. Also, advertising and sponsorship signage is permitted on the facility. This strikes us as a partial privatization of public park land.
If there is a genuine need for a soccer field on the site, well and good. The Park District has a process for capital improvements. But we are skeptical that it is so important to put it in Lincoln Park. If a private entity wants to contribute to improve a park or plaza, well and good. But that doesn’t (or shouldn’t) give them exclusive, long-tern use of a public asset.
Overall: This is bad policy, bad process and and bad politics.
We have incorporated as tax exempt organization as “Protect Our Parks” because we see the fight to stop the privatization of Lincoln Park as part of a larger fight to keep our public spaces free and open. The Committee to Keep Lincoln Park Public or “Save Lincoln Park ” is now a project of Protect Our Parks.
Contact: info@cklpp.org
Who is responsible for signing off on this project?: part 1
We decided to do some investigative work on Saturday around the construction site and found this sign showing the “South Lincoln Park Athletic Field”, signed off by the Commissioners of the Chicago Park District
Flickrshow will appear here!
M. Laird Koldyke has four children in Latin School and is also on the board of the Chicago Park District. He is the son of the founder of the investment firm Frontenac, and worked for his father in the firm until he spun off his own investment companies. He was named to the board of the Chicago Park District by the mayor. The family is very powerful. His wife, Dede Koldyke, is on the advisory board of the Trust for Public Land, which is supposed to be protecting the very land that the family is taking for their own children’s private use. Here’s an excerpt from the TPL’s website:
(One of the main missions of TPL is to work “in cities and suburbs across America to ensure that everyone – in particular, every child – enjoys close-to-home access to a park, playground, or natural area.”)
The Park District has said that Koldyke did not participate in the vote that would give his children exclusive access to park land that he controls as a board member of the park system. But with this kind of connection on the board, would you expect anyone else on the board to raise a fuss? The fix was in.