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.
7 Responses to “New Lawsuit Challenges Park Payment to Latin School - Oops, Too Late!”
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September 23rd, 2008 at 01:10 PM C'mon, Tom, Latin School does not "monopolize" Lincoln Park.
September 23rd, 2008 at 02:04 PM Me again. The Park District did everything it was required to do in compliance with the settlement agreement. After the public hearings and the meetings with community groups and all the newspaper articles, EVERYBODY knew that this payment to Latin would be made. It's not accurate or honest to create the fiction that the CPD "secretly paid Latin."
September 23rd, 2008 at 08:05 PM The summary above says: "The Park District was obligated by the earlier court settlement to publicly disclose a schedule of these payments." If this is true, and the payments were made with the required disclosure, then it would be fair to say that the Park District "secretly paid Latin". Such an action on the part of the Park District, if true, would reflect badly on the Park District's integrity and good faith.
September 23rd, 2008 at 08:49 PM The Latin School soccer field deal has smelled from the very beginning. It was a corrupt deal that Latin desperately needed to swing for its athletic program. What do you call it when, after a "secretly negotiated" agreement for its construction in a public park and intended for the reserved use of the rich, exclusive Gold Coast Latin School is struck down by court action, a million plus dollars of public money is revealed to have been paid to that same private school without public taxpayers knowing that the money has been paid, the amount, the date of payment or any other open public record of that payment? I call it secret. And yes Latin School does monopolize Lincoln Park as its only outdoor athletic facility. Just come around and spend a day watching the Latin students take over the public park every day. We are keeping count to document the Park District guilty purpose. And yes the Park District is not a model of integrity and good faith. It is not enough to hold your nose and take this travesty lying down.
September 23rd, 2008 at 08:55 PM Perhaps instead of relying on Protect Our Parks' summary of the settlement agreement and their accusations of secrecy and illegality, we could ask the group to post the actual document on this website and highlight the part that they contend the Park District violated.
September 26th, 2008 at 07:15 PM Dude - we have been putting EVERYTHING on our web site from day one. UNLIKE the Park District who lies and calls meetings at the last minute and requires the public to come to their meetings in the middle of the work day, and who had said the Lincoln Park Advisory Council and Friends of the Parks supported the deal when they DID NOT, unlike the Latin School who had labored to keep the entire mess a secret and to this day has admitted no wrong doing --- we have posted all our court documents and answered every question put to us and displayed our arguments and research on this web site for almost a full year (and we are all volunteers). Just go to: http://www.cklpp.org/2008/5/17/we-sue-we-win-the-first-round (which is there in plain sight on our home page).
September 26th, 2008 at 11:53 PM OK, excellent job posting a lot of the actual documents on your website. This is a fairly specific question asking you to show evidence supporting your statement that the payment of money from the CPD to Latin was illegal because it violated the terms of the settlement agreement. Read Eric's comment above and then respond to whether the CPD failed to make a "required disclosure."