How the Park Ridge City Council interacts with advisory boards is under scrutiny following accusations of inappropriate communications involving the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
At the Monday City Council meeting, two separate issues were raised regarding communication and transparency: whether the council should have liaisons to boards and what role liaisons should play, and whether there was inappropriate communication involving the commission and aldermen in efforts to create a comprehensive plan.
“There has been a lot of communication behind the scenes,” said Park Ridge resident Ginger Pennington. Pennington, who previously received information through a Freedom of Information Request, said she had just gotten more information before the meeting that amounted to hundreds of pages of communication.
Much of the controversy involves affordable housing and how, or if, the issue should be included in the comprehensive plan. The purpose of the plan is to guide future development and land use decisions in Park Ridge. In a letter to the council, Pennington included documentation showing some of the communication between alderman and Planning and Zoning commission Chair Jim Argionis.
In one email to Argionis, Alderman Charlie Melidosian stated, “Perhaps as the chair, you should have final approval/edits over any document that comes from your Commission to City Council to ensure it reflects the sessions and commissioner feedback you presided over.”
The email continues with Melidosian thanking Argionis for his work and the need to “course correct” what he considers to be “inappropriate actions by staff.”
Recently two city staff members instrumentally involved in the creation of a comprehensive plan left the city’s employ. Jim Brown, the city’s director of community preservation and development, and John Carlisle, the city’s senior planner, have left their positions within the past few weeks.
Pennington writes that Melidosian’s email inaccurately characterizes city staff conduct. She stated that staff did accurately present the commission’s viewpoint rather than disregard it in response to outside pressure and criticism.
Planning and Zoning Commission member Rebecca Mills also addressed the council and provided a written statement. She stated that “recent occurrences raise serious concerns about transparency and questionable protocols associated with the Comprehensive Planning process.”
She stated that directions were given to city staff by Argionis that were not approved by the entire planning and zoning commission and that there appeared to have been backroom discussions by some City Council members.
Park Ridge City code states, “An elected official of the City may not have any undisclosed communication with any member of a City Board or Commission concerning any issue that is pending before that Board or Commission.”
Days before the meeting, Argionis denied that he is opposed to affordable housing or that he wanted to remove certain proposals from the plan without the direction of the commission.
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He said the commission was receiving drafts from staff that were “not in line with what the council or commission had talked about,” and that he was simply following “guidance” that he believed was provided by the City Council last year in regards to some of the proposals included in the plan.
After Mills and Pennington spoke, Zoning Board of Appeals member Missy Langan took the podium and took issue with their approach. “It is not OK to attack people because something didn’t turn out the way that you wanted,” she said. “This is no way to go about bringing the community together.”
At times the controversy spilled over into other parts of the meeting. During the city attorney’s report, Melidosian began asking questions about the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act. The line of inquiry led to a terse exchange when Mayor Marty Maloney interrupted and said he thought Melidosian’s questions were more about him than general board business. When Melidosian protested, the mayor said, “I was trying not to embarrass you.”
The meeting ended with a lengthy City Council discussion about communication, transparency, and alderman serving as liaisons to advisory boards and commissions.
First Ward Alderman John Moran said he thought liaisons for some boards and commissioners were beneficial. He said that sometimes junior city staff members were not at the full council meeting and were therefore unable to answer questions the City Council might have.
City Manager Joe Gilmore agreed with Moran, stating that if there were no aldermen serving as communication liaisons, staff would likely write a brief recap of the work of commissions and boards, but that this might not be fully satisfying to council members and would not provide the same type of perspective an alderman could.
Seventh Ward Alderman Marty Joyce observed that sometimes the Zoning Board of Appeals or Planning and Zoning Commission could be “flummoxed” by the council’s final decision and have questions for a liaison as to why the council acted the way they did.
Separately, several aldermen and the mayor discussed with the city attorney the city’s policies regarding ex parte communications, which are communications not made openly to all involved parties, as well as the disclosure of information and what changes, if any, need to be made.
The discussion ended with Mayor Maloney suggesting the matter be resumed in two weeks’ time, allowing the alderman the chance to digest the information and for legal questions to be answered.