- September 08, 2005 07:59 PM EDT

SECTION: BUSINESS; ZONE: N; Pg. 5

LENGTH: 1142 words

HEADLINE: What's eating consumers?;
Telemarketers, but Washington, state are offering help

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant. Special to the Tribune. The Associated Press contributed to this report

BODY:

Imagine a world where no one called during dinner to discuss your long-distance service. No more running to the phone to find dead air when you get there. No more messages on your answering machine inviting you to a suspicious "Disney" vacation.

For years consumers could only dream of such freedom from telemarketers. This year, however, it might actually happen.

Money for a national do-not-call list was approved Feb. 20 when President Bush signed a government-wide spending bill. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris says consumers can start signing up for the free service this summer and the registry should be working by September.

Over the last decade the telemarketing industry has grown from an annoying steady stream of sales pitches to what most people find an unbearable, unstoppable torrent.

The Direct Marketing Association, the trade group of telemarketers, which had been hoping to stave off regulation, started a do-not-call list service back in 1985. People who did not want to receive sales calls could sign up and reputable telemarketers would take them off their lists. But it did not push the list very hard.

Consumers have tried all kinds of amusing schemes and electronic tricks to fight telemarketers. The main strategy is to waste the telemarketers' time so that telemarketing becomes less financially attractive.

Some consumers even pay for a $40 "telezapper" that promises to eliminate your number from telemarketers' computers. There is some science to these devices. Telemarketers use a computer to mass-dial. The tones that the phone zapper emits are not secret and mysterious. They are the same tones you hear when you call a disconnected number. In other words, the tones will tell the telemarketing computer you've moved. You don't have to buy a phone zapper, you can just download the tones at junkbusters.com and put them on your answering machine.

Consumer rage over telemarketers swelled over the last decade, but the federal government, persuaded by lobbyists from banks, credit card companies and phone companies, did nothing.

Finally, states started listening to consumers and cracked down themselves. The state do-not-call lists are no longer voluntary. Telemarketers must pay for the lists and use them. If they call people on the list, they get fined.

Last summer, Illinois finally jumped in to the game. By the time the service is scheduled to be up and running in July, 26 other states, inlcuding Wisconsin and Indiana, will have programs in place. The state programs have proved popular. According to a survey by the AARP, 40 percent of Missouri's residents have signed up.

Before money for the federal list was approved, the Illinois Commerce Commission began planning Illinois' program, known as the Restricted Call Registry.

"Right now, we're proceeding with the state mandate to set up the list, but we're also monitoring developments at the federal level," said Beth Bosch, spokeswoman for the commission.

Ideally, the databases eventually would be one and the same, but those logistics haven't been worked out, she said, noting that the emphasis is on simplifying the process for consumers.

"We still have the Illinois law requiring us to move forward with this program and that's what we're doing," she said.

For the Illinois list, consumers will pay $5 to join (which may go down in time) and telemarketers not only have to use the list, they have to pay $1,000 to get it. Right now the commerce commission is looking for a vendor to manage the list. Until they do, there is no way to sign up.

"We had many people who called immediately," as soon as the legislation passed, said Bosch. They continue to call, clamoring for the relief the list would provide. Consumers will start seeing advertisements this spring about how to sign up, and the commission hopes to have the program started by July 1.

The federal list will have the usual limits. It will not cover some of the most intrusive callers, those from businesses like phone companies that are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and not the Federal Trade Commission. You'll also still hear from companies that claim to have "an existing relationship" with you.

At first, some legislators balked at the $16 million start-up pricetag. In December Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.) said they didn't see the need. Consumers, thinking these legislators ought to get a taste of what it's like to be in the sights of a telemarketer, bombarded their offices with telephone calls and they relented.

People can enroll in the do-not-call registry through the Internet or a toll-free number. They would need to renew their registration every five years. The program will eventually be funded by fees from telemarketers, but it's free for consumers to join.

Telemarketers would have to check the list every three months to determine who does not want to be called. Telemarketers who call listed people could be find up to $11,000 for each violation.

The FTC, which received 64,000 comments on the proposal, nearly all enthusiastic, expects up to 80 million people to join.

Telemarketers recently sued to block the list, arguing that it would violate their free speech rights. But judges so far have rejected telemarketers' attempts to equate their offers of cheap long distance with serious political discourse. So far appeals courts have backed the state laws. Case law has held that regulations on commercial speech are fine as long as they are narrowly drawn and serve a strong interest.

"The FTC is singling out this form of advertising now, what will be next?" DMA President Robert Weintzen said in a statement.

Fending off telemarketers

There's more than one way to get rid of telemarketers:

- Get on the current voluntary do-not-call list. The Direct Marketing Association runs lists to stop three annoying kinds of sales pitches: junk mail, spam and telemarketing calls. Go to their Web site, www.dmaconsumers.org, and sign up for all three lists. You can get the forms to mail in there.

If you're not online, you can also write them a postcard with your name, full address, phone number and signature. To get off telemarketing lists, write to: Direct Marketing Association, Telephone Preference Service, P.O. Box 1559, Carmel, N.Y. 10512. To get off mailing lists, write to: Direct Marketing Association, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 643, Carmel, N.Y. 10512.

- Join Illinois' Restricted Call Registry, which is expected to start up in July. Go to www.icc.state.il.us/rcr/home.aspx.

- Join the national list. The Federal Trade Commission will announce rolling eight-week phone enrollment periods for eight national regions. It's too early to sign up now, but keep posted at www.ftc.gov/donotcall.

- When telemarketers call, don't just hang up. Say the magic words: "Put me on your do-not-call list."

-- Carol Vinzant
YOUR MONEY.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC: Illustration by Violet Lemay.

LOAD-DATE: March 4, 2003

SECTION: BUSINESS; ZONE: N; Pg. 7

LENGTH: 941 words

HEADLINE: Big changes for hedge funds;
Once thought unsafe, they're luring small investors

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant. Special to the Tribune

BODY:

When average investors become aware of hedge funds, it's usually because of trouble, such as the near collapse in 1998 of Long Term Capital or the multimillion-dollar loss incurred last year by the Art Institute of Chicago.

But as the bear market grinds on, hedge funds have an improved image because they are either making money or at least not losing it nearly as fast as everyone else.

Thus far this year, the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index, which tracks a broad spectrum of hedge funds, was down only 4.8 percent, only about a fourth of the loss of the broad market as measured by the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Overall, 94 percent of the 3,000-some funds that New York-based Hennessee Hedge Fund Advisory Group tracks have beaten the S&P 500 this year.

When the rules for mutual funds were drawn up in 1940, regulators, still reeling from the financial chicanery of the 1929 crash, set up rules to protect investors.

They figured rich and sophisticated investors could take care of themselves and were allowed to invest in the then-fledgling hedge fund industry without government protection.

Only decades later did investors come to realize that the strategy known as hedging wasn't necessarily as risky as it was perceived, and today more middle-income investors are trying to elbow their way into what was once considered a club only for the rich.

Over the last decade, the hedge fund industry has grown exponentially. It now stands at about $500 billion to $600 billion, up from only $20 billion in 1990.

Despite the new interest, the public still knows little about how hedge funds operate, partly because of a Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that prohibits them from soliciting investors.

Hedging is the practice of limiting risk by both buying stocks long and selling them short.

Hennessee divides funds into 23 strategy categories, including short-selling, event driven and merger arbitrage.

"Anyone who is lumping hedge funds together, and addressing them as a collective group, does not understand hedge funds," said Joe Nicholas, author of "Investing in Hedge Funds" and chairman of the HFR Group of Companies, which analyzes hedge funds.

The funds that have done best this year are the funds that sell short. According to Hennessee, such funds are up about 18 percent this year.

Much of the resentment against the industry is bred by this technique, in which an investor borrows stock from a broker and sells it in the belief the stock will drop. When it does, he buys it back for a cheaper price and pockets the difference.

Main Street investors used to have the idea that shorting stock was "un-American," said Charles Gradante, the chief executive of Hennessee.

The hedge fund managers that became famous on Wall Street--Michael Steinhardt, George Soros, Julian Robertson--all got rich making big directional bets on which way the market would go, especially by betting it would go down.

"The manner in which they made money," said Gradante, "led people to believe that hedge funds were cowboys, wild and woolly."

But today those big directional bets make up only 5 percent of the industry, and though they might not be the Wild West anymore, hedge funds are still a long way from mutual funds.

Some big differences

The main differences in regulation between the two is that mutual funds can't leverage as much--that is, bet more than they have--can't sell short as much and can't let managers take a cut of performance instead of a flat percent of assets.

But the hedge fund camp takes exception to the notion that they are totally unregulated. Jeffrey Kuchta, chairman of Chicago-based Hedge Advisors Inc., points out that many hedge funds have to report their holdings to the SEC.

"First and foremost, hedge funds are not unregulated," he said. "You can't just go out there and run roughshod and do insider trading."

Hedge fund fees are much higher than those of mutual funds. A typical mutual fund might take 1.3 percent of assets. The hedge fund manager might take 1 percent, then 20 percent of profits. The people paying higher fees are not being bamboozled; the higher fees allow them access to the funds with the highest returns, and the ability to try exotic strategies.

Mutual fund companies, worried about losing both their talented managers and their investors, have been offering up vehicles that could be described as hedge fund lite: They stray into hedge fund strategies without giving up the regulated structure. About a dozen funds like this exist, such as the Merger Fund, the Arbitrage Fund, and Boston Partners Long-Short Equity.

These funds typically charge much larger set fees that, unlike with hedge funds, won't go down if the fund doesn't make money.

Last summer Charles Schwab rolled out Schwab's Hedged Equity Fund, which shorts 20 percent of its assets. The fund requires a $25,000 minimum investment, rich by most standards, but not those of the hedge fund industry where the typical minimum is $1 million.

So why would small investors be trying to break down the doors to hedge funds if the cost is higher?

In a word: returns. According to Van Hedge Fund Advisors, through September about half of hedge funds actually showed gains while the average mutual fund lost one-quarter of its value.

Nicholas argues that hedge funds don't pose any more of a problem for unsophisticated investors that other investment vehicles such as penny stocks.

He thinks full and clear disclosure, not prohibitions, should be the way to keep investors safe in hedge funds.

"Certainly, anyone who is allowed to buy stocks should be allowed to buy hedge funds," Nicholas says. "Are stocks appropriate for widows or orphans?"
YOUR MONEY.

GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 2PHOTO: Joe Nicholas, chairman of the HFR Group of Companies, which analyzes hedge funds, says not all funds are the same. Photo for the Tribune by Leigh Daughtridge.
PHOTO: Jeffrey Kuchta, chairman of Hedge Advisors Inc., says, "First and foremost, hedge funds are not unregulated.". Photo for the Tribune by Leigh Daughtridge.

LOAD-DATE: November 12, 2002

SECTION: BUSINESS; ZONE: N; Pg. 5

LENGTH: 1023 words

HEADLINE: Two schools of thought on economics;
Today's lesson: market behavior

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant. Special to the Tribune

BODY:

To economists, Chicago is not known for its hot dogs, the oratory of its politicians or its ill-fated North Side baseball team, but for how fervently scholars on the South Side embrace the notion that markets are rational and efficient.

The University of Chicago won more Nobel Prizes in economics in the 1990s than the Bulls did NBA championships. Milton Friedman, Merton Miller, Myron Scholes and Eugene Fama are just a few of the economists on the team, all with the stature of a Michael Jordan, or at least maybe a Scottie Pippen, in the finance world.

The "Chicago School" of economics is known as a math-heavy, conservative theory that holds that people can be predicted to act in their own self-interest.

However, in 1995 this bastion of conservative economics thought hired Richard Thaler, a prominent economist from the opposing camp: behavioral economists. The behaviorists think economics is more unpredictable because people don't always act the way they should. Procrastination, lack of self-control, overconfidence, bad decisions and sometimes even generosity all get in the way.

This made discussions at the school, already boisterous, even more fun.

"Most of the finance faculty are uncommitted to either camp, which means they can and do criticize both groups," Thaler said. "We like to say that we all receive the same hostile reaction to our ideas. Gene Fama gets beat up in workshops just like anyone else."

Fama himself thinks that's all just part of the intellectual tradition.

"Everybody argues at Chicago, with the goal of eventually being vindicated by data," he said.

Behavioral economics is in vogue now. Behavioral research tends to be much more accessible, even sexy, compared to traditional economics. Terry Odean of the University of California-Berkeley, for example, has shown that "trading is hazardous to your wealth," that is, the more investors trade, the worse they tend to do in the market. Odean went on to find a certain class of investor who is prone to this "overconfidence" in its ability to outsmart professionals: men.

As the market has fallen, the public has gravitated even more toward the behavioral way of thinking because it offers a more satisfying explanation of the bursting tech bubble.

To the efficient market camp, stock prices are rational because they reflect all the currently available information. So, they were as rational in 2000 as they are now, even though they are now 50 percent to 75 percent cheaper and investors have lost $7 billion.

"Bubbles are identified on hindsight," Fama said. "Tech prices, like all prices, are correct now, given currently available information."

Behaviorist think that prices were irrational, that people got greedy and started expecting the market to continue to crank out the double-digit returns of the bull market.

"As their gains accumulated, [investors] developed what I have called a 'house money' mentality," said Thaler, "thinking that the money they had made in the last few years offered a psychological cushion against future losses, much like gamblers who have won some money early in the night feel as if they are free to gamble."

The schools, however, are not always polar opposites. The theories try to explain different aspect of economics: The efficient market theory tries to explain how stocks are priced, while behavioral economists focus on how individuals behave (and misbehave) with their money.

Both take a dim view of individual investors who think that they can beat the market, and both offer some lessons that individual investors can learn and incorporate in their own finances.

The efficient market theory holds that you can't beat the market because whatever information or insight you have into a stock (aside from the illegal variety of hot tip that former ImClone Chief Executive Sam Waksal is accused of dispensing), that information is already built into the stock price. While some money managers may have a winning streak, very few, if any, can beat the market averages over a meaningful amount of time.

So, if you can't beat the market, the next best thing is to join it. Buy an index fund, which will buy all the stocks in a broad market index such as the Standard & Poor's 500 or the Wilshire 5000. As an added bonus, having a machine do the work cuts expenses by more than 1 percent a year.

The Vanguard 500 index is the most popular fund in the country because so many investors have caught on to the genius of indexing. Fama, himself an index investor, is pleased. The popularity of index funds has saved investors untold millions.

The behavioral school has more direct advice on how to watch yourself and keep yourself from making typical human mistakes.

Behaviorists note how poorly people save for their own retirement, which they would not do if correctly acting in their own self-interest. To fix the problem, Thaler got employees at a midsize company to agree to commit part of their future raises to savings. The vast majority of workers signed up and stuck with the plan, increasing the group's saving rate from 3.5 percent to 11.6 percent over 28 months..

Whether people can successfully commit to this kind of plan without an external mechanism is unclear. Thaler fears that the promise may fall the way of most New Year's resolutions.

Individual investors tend to let their emotions get in the way of their stock decisions, too. Thaler said people are so reluctant to admit they made a mistake that they hold onto their losing stocks, which often then slip further down.

Thaler co-manages two mutual funds, one of which tries to "identify mispriced securities that result from behavioral biases of key market participants." The Behavioral Growth Fund has offered an annual return of 3.7 percent since it started at the end of 1997.

One of the benefits of applied behavioral economics is that it can get investors to act rationally and in their own self-interest, the way that the Chicago School says they should have been acting anyway. Few are expecting that the market will be able to be tamed or trained.

As J.P. Morgan once said, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
YOUR MONEY.

GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 2PHOTO: University of Chicago economist Gene Fama belongs to the efficient market camp, which believes stock prices are rational because they reflect all the currently available information. "Bubbles are identified on hindsight," he says. Photo for the Tribune by Stephanie Diani.
PHOTO: Richard Thaler is a proponent of behavioral economics, which holds that the markets are unpredictable because people don't always act the way they should. Tribune photo by Chris Walker.

LOAD-DATE: September 8, 2002

SECTION: BUSINESS; ZONE: N; Pg. 5

LENGTH: 1258 words

HEADLINE: Getting a grip on using eBay;
A quick guide on how to buy and sell in online auctions

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant. Special to the Tribune

BODY:

If you haven't tried it yet, eBay, the mammoth online auction site, may seem like a new national sport that everyone except you has learned to play. The site has 42.4 million registered users who are collectively buying, selling and bidding on about 7 million items at any given moment.

Last year eBay, one of the few Internet successes, sold $5 billion worth of treasures and trash. EBay puts the power of the computer and the Internet behind the temptation of the garage sale.

However obscure your obsession, eBay will indulge it. Someone would have to spend years trolling garage sales to find the likes of, say, a postcard of the West Side stadium where the Cubs played before moving to Wrigley Field. On eBay that desire can be satisfied in seconds. Although collectibles seem to weigh heavily on the minds of eBay shoppers, brave and industrious shoppers can also find everything from new designer clothes to electronics.

When the online auction craze started in the mid-1990s, eBay was one of dozens of sites; now the field has narrowed. Specialty sites offer their own auctions and a few withered general competitors remain, such as Yahoo Auctions. To really find something rare, however, a dedicated shopper is going to have to learn the eBay system. So, how do you get set up?

The first step is simply to get yourself an account, which will require you to come up with a user name, a credit card and an email address. After you buy something, you will have to make arrangements to pay the seller yourself.

But be warned: There is a small risk--exactly how small eBay isn't saying--that you will end up feeling ripped off by your purchase. If so, there is not usually an easy mechanism to complain, let alone find a remedy. And the seller will be ill-equipped to handle a direct credit card payment.

So, Tip No. 1 is that your shopping life will be made infinitely easier if you hook your credit card up to an online person-to-person credit card payment service, so you can zap virtually anyone money. PayPal is the main one; Billpoint is eBay's version. The services take a tiny cut from the seller but cut down enormously on your paperwork and hassle.

If you're unacquainted with eBay, stroll around the site. Use the "Browse" features to look at all the categories of things out there. By going deeper and deeper into subcategories, for example, "Books, non-fiction, travel," you effectively walk down the aisle of a store. You will quickly find, however, that the aisles are about three miles long.

That leads us to Tip No. 2: Browsing is for suckers; search instead. Browse if you want to see all 26,000 Beanie Babies for sale, or if you want to subject yourself to the electronic version of a retail barker: eBay's "featured items." Sellers pay extra so they pop up at the top of the screen.

Tip No. 3: Regard anything tagged "featured item" as suspect. One recent example was a diet plan that promised a weight loss of 99 pounds.

To avoid a browsing odyssey, figure out what you're looking for and use "Search." Try to remember every obscure area of interest you have. Look for memorabilia from your hometown, goods emblazoned with your last name or rare plants for your garden.

Remember also that this is not a perfect system. Your search may turn up more or less items than you suspect. EBay's computers routinely miss items that should pop up in your search. If a search is turning up too few items, check your spelling. If you happen upon an item you like that has been misspelled, you may be at a bidding advantage because other bidders may not find it.

Sorting through the 'junk'

Whatever you are looking for you will soon find another category of junk colliding with your search terms. If you want Lego toys, you will brush up against a Japanese brand of pottery with the same name. Weed out these distracting items by specifically excluding them from your search. For example "lego -(japan, japanese, pottery)."

Tip No. 4: Check out the seller before you buy. EBay works on a feedback system. The little number next to the seller's name represents the number of pleased customers minus the number of annoyed customers. So, don't be so easily impressed by just a big number. Be sure to click through to see if the seller has a history of complaints.

Tip No. 5: The easiest way to get ripped off is through excessive shipping and handling charges. If the price isn't posted, be sure to ask. If the seller only offers an extravagant shipping method, ask for something cheaper before you bid.

Once you have determined that you do want to buy something, you get to the hardest part of eBay: figuring out what your bid should be and sticking to it. The high bid prices on eBay are deceptive. You may see a new digital camera with a current bid of $6, but if the auction is going for days more, that price is meaningless.

So Tip No. 6 is to figure out what is a fair price by comparison shopping for similar items. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to get out of your chair. You can just look in online stores. More importantly, check other eBay auctions going on. Then--and this is the most important step--search for the item with the "Completed auctions" category. This will show what price the item has actually fetched and what your competition is. Checking the actual sales price will give you the most realistic price range.

EBay pros, however, rarely bid in flat dollar amounts. That's because there's a flaw in the eBay system. You would assume that if you entered $16 and if someone later bid $16.12 and the bid increment (minimum amount separating bids) is $1, you would win because $16.12 would be thrown out. However, under eBay's system of volleying bids back and forth, you could lose.

And that takes us to Tip No. 7: Bid in random odd cents. There is no conclusive evidence this will pay off; the result still depends on whether you bid the most, but you can outbid someone by just a penny.

Tip No. 8: Stick with your price. This will take all your strength. Everyone who's played on eBay for a while has had this experience:You find an item you covet, you bid a high price, it looks as if the item is yours, then someone outbids you. Suddenly, you are outraged that someone would "steal" your item from you. You retaliate by bidding higher and higher. If you win, you are almost inevitably stricken with buyer's remorse. If, however, someone pounces on your item in the last seconds of an auction, you also feel cheated.

The only way to avoid both scenarios is to bid the highest price you would want to pay.

"But if you have joined even one Internet auction, you probably know [rational bidding] is a fairy tale," wrote Stanford Professor Robert E. Hall in his book "Digital Dealing."

Swim with the 'sharks'

Buyers flock to eBay so they can be sharks and outbid someone at the last second, Hall explains. "They watch the last minute of an auction, hitting the refresh button every few seconds, poised to hit the submit button for their own bids a few seconds before the auction closes," Hall said. EBay encourages this behavior by its timed endings; other auctions do not close the auction for a set time after the last bid.

If you can't beat them, you can join them. Tip No. 9 is to become a little sneak yourself. The only way around these little snipes that come in and steal your item away is to do it, too. The easiest way to do that is to "watch" an item by hitting the binoculars icon. It allows you to stalk your prey silently. Then, in the last 15 seconds of an auction, you bid and hope your computer doesn't jam up.
YOUR MONEY.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC: Illustration by Francisco Caceres.

LOAD-DATE: April 30, 2002

SECTION: BUSINESS; ZONE: N; Pg. 7

LENGTH: 1180 words

HEADLINE: Founders putting a lot of stock in Archipelago;
They say it's the exchange of the future

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant. Special to the Tribune

BODY:

When news rocked Enron stock on Nov. 28, investors got to see first-hand the benefits of all-electronic trading. The Enron trading post at the New York Stock Exchange was overwhelmed with people dumping the stock. The specialist, the trader who manages all the trading in a particular stock, was so swamped that he stopped trading.

Investors who had access only to the NYSE had to sit tight. Meanwhile, investors with access to electronic trading networks, such as Chicago's Archipelago, kept trading. Over the next half-hour, the price on the electronic networks fell from $2.60 to $1.10 a share before the NYSE started trading again--at $1.10.

An Enron crisis, to be sure, does not happen every day. But there are plenty of little snags and snarls that translate to lost investor cash. A host of upstart electronic trading networks hope to reconstruct the stock market, smooth out those rough spots and make trading cheaper in the process.

At the head of that campaign is Archipelago, which gained approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission last October to become the country's newest stock exchange. Unlike conventional exchanges, Archipelago has no grand, stone edifice and, more importantly, no trading floor. Archipelago occupies only a few floors at 100 S. Wacker Dr., an undistinguished gray office tower in the South Loop. Archipelago, which processes 2 million trades a day, is by some measures the busiest exchange in Chicago and the biggest of the country's upstart trading platforms known as electronic communication networks (ECNs). As a group, these ECNs are giving the old stock markets a run for their money. By the fourth quarter, they were involved in nearly half of Nasdaq trades and about 6 percent in stock markets that have a trading floor, such as the NYSE. The work is revolutionary, but the office has all the excitement of an insurance company.

"The reason there's a lot of yelling and screaming in [traditional] trading rooms is inconsistency," insists Archipelago President Michael Cormack. "We have a lot of computer space that's really quiet that just hums away running trades through, consistently and without a lot of yelling."

When all the dust settles from the changing market structure, co-founder and CEO Jerry Putnam, 43, aims for the company to be one of three major national markets. "And we've done it from here," Putnam says. "We don't have to be the Second City when it comes to stock exchanges."

Putnam came up with the idea for Archipelago in 1997 when he was running a day trading company, Terra Nova. A new trading rule, aimed at getting brokers to handle their customer orders more openly, allowed for the creation of ECNs.

As an ECN, Archipelago already acted like an exchange: It was how buyers and sellers met. But Putnam wanted exchange status so Archipelago could share in trading tape revenue. To become an exchange, Archipelago had to get SEC clearance to become its own regulator. It sped the process up by merging with the Pacific Stock Exchange, which was already a regulator.

Archipelago probably helped itself by merging with the REDIbook ECN. Since Archipelago specializes in back-end computer equipment and REDI is known for a friendly front end, Bear, Sterns trading analyst Amy Butte, thinks it's a good match.

Plus, the deal allows Archipelago to keep a presence as a broker-dealer, just in case this whole stock exchange thing doesn't work out, Butte said. "Because this space is still like the Wild, Wild West," Butte said, "it creates a great hedge for the users and owners of the system."

Archipelago's original liability was a small customer base. So Archipelago designed a sophisticated computer system to link up with traders everywhere. The strategy was risky: it's like sending your business to your competitor.

To understand better what Archipelago does, picture it as a stereo store. Instead of just selling you its own goods, the clerks look through all the ads, find the best price for the stereo you want and get it for you. The Archipelago computer keeps track of how reliable and quick the various brokers and stock exchanges are so that if there's a tie in price, it knows which to choose.

Soon the disadvantage became an advantage: Customers knew they could get the best price anywhere by coming to Archipelago, so that's what they did. According to Butte, Archipelago enjoys the reputation of always trying to find what's known in the trade as "best execution," a complex mix of speed and price.

Archipelago now makes up about 30 percent of the ECN market, according to Greg Smith, trading analyst at J.P. Morgan. It currently matches 60 percent of its orders with its own customers, up from only 5 percent when it launched.

Competitors take notice

To fight back, traditional markets have spruced up their electronic networks, so that traders will not need ECNs as much. That could spell trouble for ECNs, especially those like Archipelago that are more known for routing orders well to many destinations rather than being the destination traders want to reach, Smith wrote in his latest report. "Over time we expect routing to become more of a commodity," he said.

The biggest difference that individual investors are likely to notice is during what is often the busiest and most treacherous part of the trading day: the open. Pros get into their office hours early to strategize how to play out the first few minutes of trading. Casual investors would be wise to steer clear of the rapid price swings. When individual investors decide to place an order after work at night, that order is usually executed at the open. They often get a bad price.

To change that situation Archipelago is planning to introduce a sort of giant matching system known as a "call market." Each morning, Archipelago will throw all buy and sell orders together in a sort of electronic hopper. The computer will figure out one price for everyone. The process aims to make trading fairer.

"The call auction is a natural way of strengthening the price discovery process at the open and making it more orderly," said Robert Schwartz, a professor of finance and economics at Baruch College and an expert on market structure.

The process is similar to how the specialist open stocks on the NYSE, but the non-computerized process takes so long that specialists often have to delay the opening of stock trading, Schwartz said.

The question for Archipelago will be whether they can attract enough orders to make the auction run smoothly, Schwartz said.

Individual investors, of course, cannot choose where their broker sends their orders. However, this fall the SEC just started demanding statistics from broker-dealers and trading venues on how fast they execute trades and whether they get a good deal, compared to the current market price.

Regulators hope this data will force exchanges to compete and brokers to use the fastest and most efficient trading systems. Even if Archipelago fails to make it as a major exchange, however, it has helped consumers by forcing the bigger markets to become leaner, faster and more efficient.
YOUR MONEY.

GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 2PHOTO: The trading "floor" at Archipelago features the hum of computers instead of the noise of a traditional stock exchange.
PHOTO: Chief Executive Officer Jerry Putnam (left) and President Michael Cormack run Archipelago out of a nondescript building in the South Loop. Photos for the Tribune by Peter Thompson.

LOAD-DATE: March 5, 2002

SECTION: REAL ESTATE; Pg. 3; ZONE: C

LENGTH: 657 words

HEADLINE: RENTAL BUILDINGS REEL IN TENANTS USING ONLINE LURE

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant, Reuters. The San Francisco Examiner contributed to this report.

DATELINE: NEW YORK

BODY:

People are willing to spend extra money to live near work or get to the beach, but will they pay more to live in a place with quick access to the Internet? The Internet building is betting they will.

The unassuming five-floor brick building in Manhattan's trendy East Village is the world's first residential building with high-speed direct Internet access in all its apartments, according to Gregory Salgado, sales director for Real Renters, a real estate firm that handles the building.

Tenants pay above-market rents--$1,500 to $1,750 for a one-bedroom apartment, plus fees for access to the building's T-1 cable that allows users to access the Internet up to 55 times faster than the fastest popular modem.

The main purpose of the high-powered cable is to circumvent the greatest source of frustration with the Internet, a long wait to download material.

In a neighborhood where sixth-floor walkups and bathrooms without sinks are not uncommon, Salgado hopes the Internet amenity will develop from merely an indulgence to a standard apartment building option.

"The main thing we have is the proximity of all these outrageously cool people," he said of the downtown neighborhood.

"Cool" is the word Salgado uses to describe his tenants--so far students, models, businessmen and computer workers who started moving into the building on April 1, 70 percent of whom opted for the Internet option. The first cyber-commune feels like a college dorm, with neighbors chatting in the lobby and planning a keg party to inaugurate their living experiment. But unlike a dormitory, a lot of conversation involves bandwidth, download speed and the building's nascent web-site.

Some tenants have a serious purpose for their heightened Internet access, but most admit they are just playing. Ed Figlar is a computer consultant for several large corporations whose mainframes have a software glitch that will make them inoperable at the stroke of the year 2000. With the T-1 cable, he can link clients' computers from home and read code faster. "I'm going to triple my business easily," he said.

For that difference in speed, tenants pay $85 to $115 a month to their Internet provider, Spark Internet, of which Salgado is the chief executive.

He has plans for another nine buildings in New York and predicts 20,000 to 25,000 New Yorkers will live in buildings with T-1 cables within three years.

Tenants in the building share the cable's bandwidth, so if all 28 apartments were on-line at once, an unlikely event Salgado says, the speed would be divided by 28, still about double the speed of a common 28.8 modem.

In San Francisco, landlord Arlan Hurwitz also offers free Internet access and on-site computer classes for any tenant who wants them. Now his building is full, there's a waiting list to get in, prospects appear more highly qualified with better jobs and higher incomes, and the property is worth half a million dollars more than it was a few months ago.

Hurwitz's 112-unit building--which he bought 26 years ago after starting his investment career with duplexes and four-plexes--is in a blue-collar area of Anaheim, Calif., which like much of Southern California has been mired in a flat rental market for most of the decade.

"I was having 10 units vacant each month," he said. A 10 to 15 percent vacancy was the norm for the last five years, and there was nothing that distinguished his building from many others in the area.

Hurwitz said the free Internet idea came while he was in the shower. He refined it with the help of a friend, Rainer Freytag, president of Adman Internet Marketing in Orange, and publicized the offer by erecting a red-and-white vinyl banner that cost $400.

That was just before Christmas. During January, normally a slow post-holiday period, Hurwitz said he got 57 inquiries from prospective tenants--and "48 of them came because of the sign," he added.

LOAD-DATE: June 2, 1996

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 494 words

HEADLINE: Asaro puts Des Plaines behind him

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Fellow city managers warned Larry Asaro before he came to Des Plaines four years ago that the city could be politically volatile.

And he knew that he would become the first city manager in a town that had debated for years whether to even have one.

What he didn't realize was that a few months after he started, the city would hold a referendum on whether to switch yet again, to the strong-mayor form of government, which would have eliminated his job.

"If I had known before I came up here, I probably would have had second thoughts," Asaro said.

The proposal for a strong mayor lost. But the candidate who had pushed it, Michael Albrecht, was elected mayor.

Now that Asaro has left his post to become county administrator for Peoria County, the debate continues on whether the city should be run by a home-grown, elected mayor or by a professionally trained manager.

Still, Asaro, former president of the Illinois City Managers Association, lists forging the role of manager as his biggest accomplishment in Des Plaines, where he came after being city manager in Galesburg.

"Every year about 52 towns across the country adopt the city manager. We don't lose places once they start - less than 10 (a year), usually highly political places," Asaro said.

Des Plaines would easily fit into that category. But in a March referendum, voters supported the position, and recent ordinances have strengthened it.

Convincing the city that Des Plaines could be run by a manager wasn't easy, Asaro said.

"We're not here to be political," he said. In a city of frequent political battles, Asaro wasn't one to join in.

Instead he usually sat by, taking notes and nodding to whatever presentation or confrontation he faced.

Asaro's agreeableness hasn't pleased everybody. Ald. Carmen Sarlo said he would like to see someone with more "spunk," a "take-charge guy," to replace Asaro.

And Albrecht said that while Asaro has done a good job of showing the city the way a city manager should work, he could have been more assertive.

But Asaro hasn't always done what the City Council wanted.

In a recent investigation of the award of a compost hauling contract, in which the city blamed Asaro and Public Works Director Jerome Matula, Asaro refused to give the council-recommended punishment to Matula. Both men maintained they had saved the city money in an emergency situation by bypassing city committees.

In his campaign to make the city more professional, Asaro laid out a uniform purchasing policy and a personnel policy, revised building codes and started downtown development. And the actual physical office of the city manager was finally completed last year.

Asaro, 47, grew up in south suburban Cook County and attended Lyons Township High School. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Northern Illinois University, and served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He is married and has two grown sons.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Despite the Des Plaines furor, Larry Asaro says most towns stay with a city-manager form of government once they take the plunge. "We don't lose places once they start," he says. Tribune photo by Jerry Tomaselli.

LOAD-DATE: 06-09-92

SECTION: TEMPO NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW; Northwest Talk

LENGTH: 258 words

BYLINE: Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Taking his leave: After four years of working with one of the most rancorous city councils in the area, Des Plaines City Manager Larry Austin Asaro was sent off in a friendly - even sentimental - fashion last Thursday.

About 50 staff members, politicians and City Council groupies said good-bye to Asaro at a cocktail party at Knicker's, one of the city's poshest restaurants and a definite cut above the sports bars where Asaro and council members usually went for beer after council meetings.

"We've had our ups and downs and run the gamut of every emotion associated with government," Mayor and emcee Michael Albrecht said of Asaro.

The city also presented Asaro with several gifts, some serious, but most memorably a bobbing bird to mimic Asaro's style of nodding at any speaker no matter how long, boring or adversarial.

Asaro, known for being diplomatic and apolitical, finally got to express some opinions about the council with his imaginary parting gifts: a long pole to Ald. Jim Healy to make it easier for him to sit on the fence on issues; The Male Self-Assertiveness Guide to Ald. Carmen Sarlo, one of the most boisterous aldermen, and a guide on how to win strong mayor referendums for Mayor Albrecht, whose involvement in a strong mayoral campaign would have eliminated Asaro's job six months after he took it.

Asaro, who will start June 1 as Peoria County Administrator, reviewed his several major accomplishments in the city and the problems now facing it and said, "Maybe now isn't a bad time to leave."

LOAD-DATE: 06-01-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 9; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 331 words

HEADLINE: Suburb's sales tax may be vetoed

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Des Plaines Mayor Michael Albrecht has 10 days to decide whether he will veto a local sales tax of one-half of 1 percent.

The City Council passed the tax, earmarked for street and sewer repairs, by a vote of 5 to 3 Monday, one short of the number needed for a veto override. That would take 6 votes - two-thirds of the council.

Albrecht said he has not decided whether to impose a veto, which would be his first in three years in office, but will seriously consider the option.

If he does veto the tax, he said, he will leave the council enough time to try to override it before the June 1 state deadline for enacting home-rule sales taxes.

The next opportunity for the city to institute a sales tax would be in September 1993.

There are actually two ordinances involved in the tax: one to create the tax and one to designate the estimated $2.3 to $2.8 million collected annually to continue work on an estimated $30 million needed in sewer repairs and $40 million in planned street repairs and reconstruction.

Albrecht said his objection is to designating the money toward infrastructure repairs when the city may need it elsewhere. Des Plaines could face up to $1.7 million in added expenses and lost revenue next year because of possible state mandates, the loss of the income tax surcharge, and the city's decision to pay $480,000 annually to withdraw from the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County.

Ald. Carl Haupt and Mary Childers said they voted against the tax because they believe they can find other ways to trim the budget to pay for the repairs.

Albrecht said the city will have to change its priorities in next year's budget, possibly reducing infrastructure repairs and turning to alternative sources of revenue such as user fees and sewer fees.

Aldermen who favor the tax, however, said they believe the city will only create more costs by putting off needed repairs.

"The infrastructure cannot be denied," Ald. Nick Chiropolos said.

LOAD-DATE: 05-21-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 2; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 298 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines to vote on city sales tax

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

A proposed half percent city sales tax is getting strong support from some Des Plaines aldermen, but Mayor Michael Albrecht isn't yet buying into the idea.

Albrecht says he may veto the tax if it gets final approval from the City Council. The mayor is not necessarily against using such a tax to raise city revenue but does question whether the money should be earmarked for street and sewer repairs, as proposed.

The city should keep its options open because of possible financial drains such as loss of the income-tax surcharge, state mandates, a tax cap and the recession, he said.

In addition, he said, the city is considering plans to build a $12 million library and would need revenue for that too.

"We are going to have to do some serious prioritizing," Albrecht said.

The tax, which is expected to generate between $2.3 million and $2.8 million for the city each year, won preliminary City Council approval at a special meeting Tuesday night. The vote was 5-1 to approve the tax, with two aldermen absent.

A second reading of the ordinance will be up for council approval Monday.

The council's Finance Committee last week approved the tax, which would not apply to food, drugs or automobiles.

Ald. Bill Schneck said he called the special meeting Tuesday to prevent someone from deferring the ordinance. In order to go into effect this year, the ordinance must be approved by June 1.

City attorney Judy Kolman said the council would need a two-thirds majority, or six votes, to override the mayor's veto.

Ald. Carmen Sarlo said he favors the sales tax because it will take some of the burden off increasing property taxes. "I hate to see us go out for bonds without any resources to pay for that except John Q. Property owner," Sarlo said.

LOAD-DATE: 05-15-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 8; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 237 words

HEADLINE: Masseuse fights closing after 'touching' charges

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Saying that any sexual contact with clients was accidental, the owner of a Mt. Prospect massage parlor has gone to court to stay in business.

Oehui Kim, owner of the Sports Health Spa, at 1657 Busse Rd., has filed an appeal in the Chancery Division of Cook County Circuit Court, seeking to regain her business license.

The village revoked the license in March after an undercover Cook County deputy sheriff testified that after paying for a full-body massage, everything got massaged.

The massage parlor will remain open until the case is settled, Village Manager John Fulton Dixon said.

Ben Goldwater, Kim's attorney, said that any genital touching was accidental, and that since the money exchanged was for the massage, and not for any sexual act, no prostitution took place.

"There was no evidence of any sort of prostitution," Goldwater said. "The event that supposedly took place contained a moment of 'touching.' . . . That doesn't sound to me like an attempt at sexual gratification."

Goldwater added that the Cook County state's attorney had decided not to press a criminal prostitution case against the parlor.

But, "whether or not there was prostitution is not the issue," Dixon said. "My concern is that it was an immoral act."

Dixon said the undercover officer was sent in after police received three complaints of similar sexual massages at the business, which opened last summer.

LOAD-DATE: 05-14-92

SECTION: CHICAGOLAND; Pg. 9; ZONE: C

LENGTH: 452 words

HEADLINE: Good-old-days poem raises suburb ruckus

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

A little-noticed glass case in the lobby of Des Plaines City Hall has given some officials a case of discomfort in today's world of political correctness.

The exhibit from the Des Plaines American Legion and its Auxiliary Post contains a poem entitled "You Remember the Real America." Written about 20 years ago, it now drips with irony given the recent turmoil in Los Angeles following the verdict in the case involving four police officers in the beating of Rodney King:

"When riots were unthinkable," it begins. "When you left front doors open./When socialism was a dirty word./When ghettos were neighborhoods."

Published by the conservative Americanism Educational League in Orange County, Calif., the poem harkened back to "When a boy was a boy, and dressed like one./When a girl was a girl, and dressed like one."

It also lamented the loss of the days "when you weren't made to feel guilty for enjoying dialect comedy."

Such musings had never prompted "any adverse feedback," Edward Rankin, the league's executive director, said Monday. None, that is, until now.

After seeing the poem, some aldermen and city officials blasted it as decidedly inappropriate for display in City Hall.

Ald. Mary Childers called the tract "hateful" and questioned how the city chooses what it will allow in its display case.

Added Ald. Jim Healy: "I think it's racist, sexist, anti-Semitic. You name it."

Healy, saying he doesn't want the city to get involved in censorship, said that at the next council meeting he will ask that the display case only be used by city departments.

Rankin explained that the reference to boys and girls was written as part of a "nostalgia piece" to decry "the unisex trend as much as anything else . . . the long hairdos and what-not" of the late 1960s.

As for "dialect comedy," he said, "Many people, whether Polish or Jewish or what-not, thought dialect comedy was funny. It certainly wasn't meant to demean anybody.

"Then everbody got supersensitive."

The woman who installed the display, which centers on the Legion's Poppy Day, said she didn't find the verse offensive.

"I just thought it was a nice poem," said Irene Sauer, Poppy Day chairman for American Legion Auxiliary Post 36.

In any case, this wasn't the first time the display case prompted a quest for ideological neutrality.

The city recently posted a disclaimer in the case after some officials voiced concerns over a March display from the National Organization for Women that included a Michael Dukakis button from the '88 presidential campaign. It also featured buttons promoting gay and lesbian rights.

The NOW display, City Manager Larry Asaro contended, wasn't "exactly mainstream."

LOAD-DATE: 05-13-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 554 words

HEADLINE: 6 eye Des Plaines mayor's job; but 1 may opt for manager

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Half-a-dozen Des Plaines residents say they are considering running next spring for the seat of Mayor Michael Albrecht, in the wake of his defeated bid to make the position full-time.

But one of them, former Mayor Jack Seitz, said he may instead apply to replace City Manager Larry Asaro, who is leaving at the end of the month to become supervisor of Peoria County.

Seitz, 61, was an alderman from 1967 to 1981 and mayor from 1981 until he lost to Albrecht in 1989. The city manager's position was created in 1988 under his administration, and he said he thinks he can fill the position professionally.

"If I were to be offered and accept the position, I don't think I'd get involved in the politics," said Seitz, a management teacher at Oakton Community College who will be retiring this summer.

Although having been mayor doesn't disqualify Seitz, it is sure to become an issue in a city that has argued over the roles of the manager and the mayor for about 20 years.

Though Seitz said he has put a mayoral campaign on the back burner, at least five other people are considering running: Albrecht, three of his four foes on the City Council and a leader of a citizens group.

Although Albrecht, 42, has not announced whether he will run for a second term, it is widely assumed he will.

He said recently that he is still undecided about the election, but has become more cautious because of the referendum in which voters refused to make the mayor's position full-time.

Meanwhile, aldermen and the citizens group that waged the campaign to put the question to voters have gained confidence.

The prospective candidates agree that if their goal is to take Albrecht out of power, there should only be one other candidate to oppose him. But they don't agree on how that one person should be selected.

Citizens for Responsible Government, which planned the referendum drive, will not become a political campaign organization or make any endorsements, said its chairman, Jackie Somerville.

But many members of the group are supporting Ted Sherwood because he has no political baggage and has a strong network in the business community, Somerville said.

Sherwood, 70, a semi-retired businessman, now is on the economic development commission.

Unlike most of the the people who oppose Albrecht, Sherwood agrees with the mayor that knocking down the Behrel Deck parking garage is necessary for downtown development.

But some in the community say that Citizens for Responsible Government isn't really staying out of politics. "If a high-ranking member of their group is running for mayor, I don't see how they can say they're not involved," said Ald. Mary Childers.

Childers, 42, one of Albrecht's most constant critics and who led an investigation into controversial compost hauling contracts, has not yet decided whether to run.

And Ald. Carl Haupt, who has led periodic charges against the city's lawyers, said he is considering the job and has already gotten support from his family and from work and church to run.

Ald. Carmen Sarlo, another possible candidate, said Sherwood's candidacy would not necessarily deter him from running.

"I say, 'Never say never,' " said Sarlo in regards to his possible candidacy.

Sarlo has been an aldermen for all but four years since 1973.

LOAD-DATE: 05-09-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 551 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines leans toward a sales tax

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Joining a growing number of suburbs that are turning to the sales tax as a way to increase municipal revenues, Des Plaines is considering a local tax of one-half-cent per dollar.

Revenue generated by such a tax, recommended this week by the City Council's Finance Committee, would pay for a variety of capital improvement projects, including street and sewer-system repairs. The tax would raise $2.3 million to $2.8 million a year, depending on the economy, officials estimate.

Members of the City Council are expected to vote on tax on May 18. The Finance Committee's recommendation came two days after the Cook County Board approved the county's first sales tax, a controversial three-quarter-cent fee that applies to all items except food, medicine and automobiles.

Both bodies' actions mirror the growing trend by a number north and northwest suburbs of turning to sales taxes as an alternative revenue source in response to the region's economy taking a bite out of sales tax revenues and strong opposition to higher property taxes.

The proposed Des Plaines tax would take effect in September and raise the total sales tax in the city to 8.25 percent. Currently, the sales tax rate is 7 percent, of which the city receives one-seventh back from the state.

Money generated by the tax would be used to fund repairs on streets, sewers, sidewalks and possibly the Behrel Parking Deck that many say divides the downtown.

City officials said they favor a higher sales tax for a number of reasons.

"What we're thinking of doing is making it a little fairer," said Ald. Carmen Sarlo, referring to the alternative of raising property taxes. "Maybe it isn't the fairest thing in the world, but at least it's not just hitting the property owner."

Ald. Bill Schneck said he favored the plan because Des Plaines residents already pay home-rule sales taxes when they shop in many neighboring communities.

The city would join suburbs such as Skokie, Niles, Morton Grove, Buffalo Grove, Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect, Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg that have increased or adopted a local sales tax within the last two years.

Though there is no limit on the amount of sales tax a home-rule municipality, such as Des Plaines, can levy, communities are prohibited from increasing the figure more than 1 percent annually, Des Plaines Comptroller Greg Peters said.

Approximately $2 million would be divided evenly between projects that would renovate streets and sewers, according to officials.

Des Plaines started a 20-year, $53 million program in 1986 to overhaul its sewer system, including separating sanitary and storm sewers in some parts of the city, said city engineer Tom Oakley.

About 20 percent, or 40 miles, of the city's streets need resurfacing or reconstruction, Oakley estimated.

In addition, Des Plaines will need $5 million in order to catch up with needed street repairs over the next five years, he said.

The tax would also be used to repair curbs and, in conjunction with a program that splits the cost with residents, improve sidewalks.

Sarlo said some of the money should be used to repair the Behrel Parking Deck, which the city has not been improving because it originally expected to demolish the unpopular structure, but later scrapped those plans.

LOAD-DATE: 05-09-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 4; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 449 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines considers linkup with Metra's Wisconsin Central

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Des Plaines officials are considering a new commuter railroad station for Metra's planned Wisconsin Central line.

The proposed route has taken a turn that diverts it from the existing station in downtown Des Plaines, so the city would need a new depot if trains are to stop there.

And to increase Des Plaines' chances of being a stop on the line, City Manager Larry Asaro is urging the city to join in the planning process for the line by joining the transportation unit of the Northwest Municipal Conference - which the City Council rejected last year.

When planning began on the commuter line in 1986, the train was to start in Antioch on the Wisconsin border and turn at the Chicago and North Western tracks in Des Plaines, stopping at the station there before heading into downtown Chicago.

But the plans have now shifted. The new proposed route passes the North Western tracks, connects to O'Hare and hooks up with the Metra Milwaukee District West line in Franklin Park.

Des Plaines aldermen rejected a proposal to join the transportation unit a year ago because of cost. The same $5,000 annual cost may be an issue again.

The startup date for the train remains uncertain because the transit agency has not yet lined up financing for the commuter line, said Metra spokesman Marla Karlin.

Municipalities are expected to pay for the construction of stations and parking lots. But Asaro said he does not know how much that could cost the city, in part because the size of the parking lot would be determined by a ridership survey.

In order to cut down on expenditures, Des Plaines is considering sharing the cost of a station with Prospect Heights, Asaro said. The city also will consider placing a station at Central Road, near Maryville Academy; at the Pace garage on Northwest Highway; at Howard Street at South Park; or near Pratt Avenue close to Rosemont and the Horizon.

Eleven stations are already proposed in other communities, including Prospect Heights, Wheeling and Buffalo Grove.

Another cost of the route change for Des Plaines will be the loss of repairs on the S-curve of Northwest Highway that goes under the tracks. Asaro said one of the reasons Metra decided not to take a turn at the bridge was a potential $5 million cost to redo the underpass.

Mayor Michael Albrecht said the wooden train bridge that straddles the curve was built as a temporary structure about 50 years ago.

The curve used to cause one or two fatal accidents a year, the former police officer said, but a concrete divider has stopped that.

According to police, in 1991 there were nine accidents that caused injury and 23 that caused property damage at the curve.

LOAD-DATE: 05-08-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 405 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines watchdog group remains after smoke clears

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

After Des Plaines voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to make the mayor's job full time, some people expected Citizens for Responsible Government, the group formed to fight the plan, to fade out of the picture.

Even its chairman, Jackie Somerville, said she had envisioned that the group would re-form only when issues heated up in City Hall. But interest from the approximately 500 people who contributed to the referendum campaign did not die out after the election.

"I thought that might be the ending, but it isn't. I see people in the store . . . and they say 'please don't stop,' " Somerville said.

In the next few weeks, Somerville said, the group will be meeting and deciding which direction to take and how to tackle city issues.

One thing that is now certain: The group will remain a presence. It aims to have at least two members at every meeting of City Council committees, where nuts-and-bolts decisions are made.

"Committee meetings are important because there you can see what's going on . . . before it gets to City Council," Somerville said.

The group is not without critics. Mayor Michael Albrecht, the proponent of the full-time plan, contends that all the group does is criticize the way the city is run, without offering positive solutions.

At a recent City Council meeting, Somerville laid out some of the group's goals.

Since then, the council followed her advice by changing some wording to give more strength to the city manager ordinance and opening up the city's freedom of information policy.

The council discussed, but did not pass, a measure to fire two of the city's lawyers, who opponents had suggested give bad advice in favor of Albrecht.

Somerville said she considers the issue dead for now, but the group will continue to watch the lawyers' performance.

The group has already started researching the city manager form of government in case Albrecht follows through on his suggestion to put the issue of the balance of power between mayor and manager to a referendum, she said.

Ald. Mary Childers, who is connected to the group though she is not a member, said she sees the organization changing from an ad hoc group to a watchdog.

But one thing Somerville doesn't want is the group becoming a campaign organization for next spring's election.

Members can support whom they choose, but the group will make no endorsement, Somerville said.

LOAD-DATE: 05-06-92

SECTION: TEMPO NORTHWEST; Pg. 2; ZONE: NW; Northwest Scene

LENGTH: 347 words

HEADLINE: A big night for Clearbrook

BYLINE: Carol Vinzant

BODY:

While men in tuxedos and women in gowns and furs listened to Mike Carney and his orchestra at the Ritz-Carlton last weekend, the reason they were there was not far out of mind.

That's because some of the 500 people attending Clearbrook Center's annual benefit ball have children of their own who attend the center or are friends of those who do, according to co-chairs Mary Ann MacLean and Jan Lundal.

The not-for-profit center based in Rolling Meadows started as a school in 1955 and has grown to serve the needs of about 600 children and adults with developmental disabilities in a variety of programs.

"We help the clients to reach the highest level of their own independence. The highest functioning people end up with jobs and a paycheck. The lowest functioning end up as kind as possible," said A.J. Gallagher Jr. of Palatine, vice chairman for membership on the board of directors.

Despite the recession's squeeze on many charities, the ball passed it's goal of raising $300,000 for Clearbrook's clinic, MacLean said.

Even those without children at the center were reminded of the work they were contributing to. Clearbrook clients who participate in the center's workshop, where they earn a paycheck as well as self-esteem, put together complimentary baskets for the guests and, before dinner, guests watched a video of activities in the workshop.

"One of the things we want people to leave here with is the idea that these people can work," MacLean said.

Not only did guests leave with a greater understanding of the center, but some left with raffle prizes such as trips to London, Australia or the 1993 Superbowl at Los Angeles. Others got a chance to meet with prominent local businessmen, including Gordon Segal of Crate and Barrel, which gives the workshop packing and assembly business, and Howard Dean of Dean Foods. Thanks to Nancy McCaskey, who co-chaired the event last year, two Chicago Bears figures, husband Mike McCaskey and Mike Ditka, in tux with polka-dotted cummerbund and bow-tie, attended the event and drew the raffle tickets.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Enjoying a light moment are Gordon Segal (from left), Jack Sander and Andrew McKenna. Photo by Carolyn Kaster.

LOAD-DATE: 05-06-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 386 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines to put 1 person in charge of hiring contractors

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

In the wake of a seven-month investigation into an allegedly mishandled compost-hauling contract, Des Plaines has established a new policy for hiring contractors and buying materials.

A joint meeting of the City Council's Finance and Engineering Committees decided Monday to approve a plan designed by city manager Larry Asaro that designates one person as the city's purchasing agent.

While the city will not be able to hire an employee for those duties until the 1993 budget is worked out, a Finance Department staff worker will start doing the job soon, Asaro said.

"We don't have that extra person right now. It's a full-time position. . . . It needs to be someone who knows how to buy," Ald. Bill Schneck said.

The purchasing agent would work under the city manager and would consult the council if deviations in the policy are needed.

According to Ald. Mary Childers, the position would simply take responsibilities away from several people in each of the city's departments who are in charge of hiring contractors and buying supplies.

Aldermen hope the agent will not only make purchasing uniform throughout the city, but will be able to buy in bulk and find contractors with good prices.

In addition, the city will no longer require bid bonds for jobs under $15,000 in an effort to attract smaller contractors. For those, the city will simply withhold total payment until after the job is completed satisfactorily.

But, abiding by the results of a March non-binding referendum, the council kept a requirement that contracts for more than $5,000 go through a formal bidding process.

The way the city handles bids and awards contracts came under scrutiny last August when Public Works Director Jerome Matula awarded an $18,200 compost hauling contract to a firm owned by Robert Albrecht, brother of Mayor Michael Albrecht.

Matula had Asaro's approval, but did not consult the Public Works Committee, as required. Both Matula and Asaro contended they awarded the contract on an emergency basis and actually saved the city money.

After a lengthy investigation, the council decided to recommend that Asaro suspend Matula for one month without pay and not give Asaro a raise this year. Asaro, who is leaving for another job downstate, did not enact the punishment against Matula.

LOAD-DATE: 05-01-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 545 words

HEADLINE: Older homeowners take heart in helping hands

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

It was Christmas in April Saturday in the northwest suburbs - and not just because the weather made it seem more like December.

A group of about 100 volunteers, mainly from the real estate and building trades, got together to bring to the suburbs the nationwide Christmas in April program, which makes home repairs for elderly and disabled people.

The repair sessions were held Saturday in 165 cities, sponsored locally by the Northwest Suburban Association of Realtors.

This year the volunteers worked on two houses, one in Inverness and one in Des Plaines.

With 55 organizations and businesses donating goods and cash, the crews were well-equipped with about $4,500 for each house, spokesman Dan Grant said.

Workers, who in normal life were everything from bankers to carpenters to students, gathered for a doughnut breakfast at 7 a.m.. They got awkward white paper jumpsuits to protect their clothes and heard some final instructions before they loaded two buses, one to Des Plaines, one to Inverness. Some didn't finish up until 12 hours later.

There were still a few odd jobs left, but for the most part the one-day elves accomplished their holiday-style magic.

Volunteers felt "great, a real sense of satisfaction, to be able to see the before and after, what a difference," said chairman Bob Baldwin, who worked as captain at the Inverness site.

The house's owner, a woman in her 70s who asked not to be identified, said she was impressed with all the work, including replacing the kitchen sink.

"They were doing quite a bit. I think they were very conscientious people, especially the ladies . . . very, very excellent," she said.

The owner of the Des Plaines house, an 82-year-old man, was not there to see the work. He had had a stroke the day before and was in the hospital.

Workers went ahead with all the work they promised, replacing a leaky picture window, gutters, carpets, and the refrigerator and toilet as well as painting the entire inside and outside and doing some landscaping.

In addition to all the planned repairs, workers kept consulting with house inspector and Des Plaines team captain Bruce Fisher to do extras, such as making the mailbox less wobbly or replacing a light fixture.

The Des Plaines crew had the added bonus of six volunteers from vocational programs at Maryville Academy, which houses abused and neglected children and teens.

In the coming years, the group plans to set up a committee of religious leaders of different faiths to select people who need help in each of the 15 communities it serves, from Niles and Park Ridge out to Wheeling and Schaumburg.

"I volunteered to be with people and to help other people that need help," said Jason Kwiotek of Maryville.

All the commotion and scores of workers aroused the curiosity of neighbors. A man in a Santa Claus suit passing out lunches created even more puzzlement.

"Most of the neighbors don't know what's going on and I'm sure they're dying" of curiosity, said Bob Schmadebeck, who lives near the Des Plaines home.

But the improvement is great for the image of the neighborhood, he said.

"The inside alone would have taken a week. It won't look like the same old place when they're done with it," Schmadebeck said.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: While no strings of lights or boughs of holly are evident to give it away, it's Christmas in April as volunteers flock to the home of an 82-year-old Des Plaines man to make some repairs. Tribune photo by Jose Osorio.

LOAD-DATE: 04-29-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 316 words

HEADLINE: Censorship bid fails in Des Plaines

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

The Des Plaines Public Library decided last week it would not remove the book "Slim Down Camp" from its children's section, despite the objections of some parents who say it contains "profanity and immoral situations." But officials said they will seriously investigate creating a special young adults section for similar books.

Ann Piscitello, who collected 50 signatures on a petition saying the book about a 14-year-old's adventures at a weight reduction camp contained "repeated profanity and immoral situations," said she thought her group received a fair hearing from the board and would not take the next step of taking the complaint to court.

The board held a public hearing earlier this month on the Stephen Manes book, which contains references to masturbation and strip poker.

Petitioners said they wanted a special teen section so such books could be placed out of the easy reach of younger children who might be using the section designated for 4th through 8th graders. The library said taking it out of the section of its intended readers would be tantamount to censorship.

Citing surveys from the National Center for Educational Statistics, Kathleen Ciampi said the library needs a young adult section as a transition for the one of four library patrons who fall into the young adult category defined as 12 to 18 years old. Nationwide, 84 percent of public libraries have young adult sections, she said.

"We asked the library to establish a young adult's section and we think it would be a positive addition to our community . . . a way they can update the library and help us, too," Piscitello said.

The board agreed to have a staff member investigate the possibility of such a section, what kind of books it would contain and what ages it would serve, Library Administrator Bernard Oppenneer said.

No timetable has been set for the possible new section.

CORRECTION-DATE: May 5, 1992

CORRECTION:

Corrections and clarifications.

A headline in the April 28 Northwest section, "Censorship bid fails in Des Plaines," may have been slightly misleading. Petitioners who wanted a book removed from the public library's section for 4th through 8th graders say they were not seeking to ban the book. They say they were asking for a young adults section, usually defined as being for those 12 to 18, for books such as the one at issue, "Slim Down Camp." They noted that while the library board said it wouldn't move that book now, it agreed to consider creating such a section. The Tribune regrets the lack of clarity.

LOAD-DATE: 05-07-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 4; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 408 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines mayor gets a job
Albrecht says forest post won't interfere with city duties

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Mayor Michael Albrecht, rebuffed by Des Plaines voters in an attempt to make his job full-time, has taken a job as a Cook County Forest Preserve police officer. But he says that doesn't mean he's giving up his strong role in the city.

"I'm the mayor for another year, and I'm going to do the best job I can," Albrecht said.

Taking on a full-time $30,000 a year job at the Busse Woods Forest Preserve near Elk Grove Village will mean he has less time to spend in City Hall, Albrecht said. But he still plans to be in the office on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Albrecht said he will still be available for residents "unless I'm out arresting a deer or something."

Albrecht said he has a new plan to organize city projects into teams, such as a downtown development team, to handle specific issues. The teams, each headed by a city employee, would speed up work and increase accountability, he said.

He said he will continue to push for annexation, growth and downtown development, with the demolition of the infamous Behrel Parking Plaza as a hope and a comprehensive downtown plan as an immediate priority.

"The '80s just passed us by. The rest of the area was developing and Des Plaines got nothing," Albrecht said.

Albrecht said he had been looking for a new job for months and the new job was not a direct result of the sound defeat on March 17 of a referendum proposal for a full-time mayor.

The part-time mayor position has an annual salary of $6,000; if the position had been changed to full-time, the salary would have grown to $55,000.

Some aldermen and city employees said Albrecht became less assertive after the referendum proposal was defeated, and the mayor has said he would be leaving more decisions to the city manager.

"I think his initial reaction was understandable. I think he's back on track," planning director Lou Pagones said.

Opponents of the mayor fear that lying low may have been a tactic while Albrecht made grander plans.

Albrecht said his standing campaign organization, known formally as Citizens for Albrecht and locally as "The A-Team," will also examine its image problems.

The mayor said opponents "say we've got an evil plan to run the city," Albrecht said.

The next mayoral election will be in the spring of 1993. Albrecht and several of his foes on City Council and in the community are considered likely candidates for the post, though no one has officially announced.

LOAD-DATE: 04-24-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 4; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 460 words

HEADLINE: Mt. Prospect putting near beer with real thing to protect teens

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

It is now just as illegal to sell non-alcoholic beer and wine to minors in Mt. Prospect as it is to sell them the hard stuff.

The village's new ordinance is one of a growing number of such laws being passed around the country on the theory that the ersatz beers will encourage teenagers to get in the habit of drinking them and graduate to alcoholic brews.

Mayor Gerald Farley urged passage of the law Tuesday "in order to be sensitive to young people in the community who are in the stage of their lives when they are forming habits and developing social skills."

Village Manager John Fulton Dixon said the ordinance was prompted by the small amount of alcohol that even "non-alcoholic" beers contain and on a determination not to give the impression that drinking beer and wine is condoned.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, beers may be labeled "low alcohol" if they have less than 2.5 percent alcohol, "non-alcoholic" if they have less than one half of one percent alcohol and "alcohol-free" if indeed they are. Beer normally is 4 to 5 percent alcohol.

The village law had the support of Police Chief Ronald Pavlock and the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, which stated in a letter to the board that fatal car crashes involving drunken minors usually involve beer.

Trustee George Clowes said he objects to the reactionary tone of the law and does not think police should be spending their time monitoring the sale of non-alcoholic beverages.

"I just don't think this is a public safety issue," Clowes said. "When teenagers get to be 18, they're old enough to vote . . . they're old enough to drive a car 65 m.p.h. It's silly to say they're not old enough to drink non-alcoholic beverages."

Makers of the non-alcoholic beers, while saying the beverages are marketed toward and consumed by an adult market, contend that laws such as Mt. Prospect's solve no problem and may create one by making non-alcoholic beers seem forbidden and therefore desirable to teenagers.

Village trustees modified the ordinance to ensure that it applied only to look-alike beverages and not to the myriad other grocery products that also contain alcohol, such as vanilla extract and soy sauce.

Critics predict that if Mt. Prospect teens really want to drink the non-alcoholic beers, they could just cross the border into Arlington Heights or other suburbs.

Teenagers who do learn to like the taste of non-alcoholic beer could later find that they are part of the 10 percent of the population naturally predisposed to alcoholism, argues Paul Teodo, vice-president of the alcoholism treatment center of Central Du Page Hospital.

And recovering alcoholics of any age should stay clear of the "near" beers, he said.

LOAD-DATE: 04-24-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 647 words

HEADLINE: Trouble brewing over teenagers, non-alcohol beer

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

It's touted as a healthy alternative to drinking beer. But lately, some authorities have charged that non-alcohol beer is more dangerous to teens than its scant alcohol content suggests.

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency calls the non-alcohol brew, often packaged and labeled to look like beer, a "training beverage."

Now legislators around the country are beginning to pass laws that would put the same age requirements on buying the look-alike beverages as for the real stuff.

Mt. Prospect trustees are to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would declare the non-alcoholic beverages legally alcoholic, meaning you'd need a license to sell them and have to be 21 to buy or drink them.

"I think it's a pathway for many young people to start their experience with alcohol," Mayor Gerald Farley said.

In Plainfield School District 202, school officials this year decided to ban all look-alike drugs from school property, including non-alcoholic beer as well as a mint version of chewing tobacco. They reasoned that lunchroom supervisors and hall monitors don't have time to waste trying to tell the difference between a Sharp's - a non-alcoholic brew - and a Harp - real beer.

The Mt. Prospect ordinance would apply to non-alcoholic wines as well. But because officials believe teenagers are more prone to drink non-alcoholic beer, that's the beverage that gets the attention.

Rep. Manny Hoffman (R-Homewood) has proposed a state law that would prohibit the sale of these beverages to minors. The bill failed last year, but Hoffman, in his last term, is trying again this session.

The legislation is based on both the small percentage of alcohol that the "non-alcoholic" drinks actually do contain, and the message they may send teenagers that drinking is socially desirable.

Regular beer is 4 to 5 percent alcohol by volume. But by using different brewing methods, it is possible to produce non-alcohol beer, defined by the federal government as containing less than 1/2 of one percent alcohol; alcohol-free beer, which is just what is says; or low-alcohol beer, which has less than 2.5 percent alcohol.

Brewers deny that their non-alcohol product is likely to lead teenagers down the road to drinking. The brewers say they market the product to legal, adult drinkers as a lighter alternative to beer, but they oppose laws to keep teenagers from buying it.

"They may backfire because they create a forbidden-fruit aura," said Richard J. Klemp, director of government affairs for Miller Brewing Co.

Klemp said he expects Hoffman's bill, and a similar measure under consideration in New York state, to fail. But, according to Miller's law department, restrictive laws have been passed in Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi and Nebraska.

Many people, even those concerned with alcohol issues, said they were unaware that minors can buy the non-alcoholic drinks. Dominick's Finer Foods instructs all its clerks to require over-21 identification for the non-alcoholic drinks, spokesman Rich Simpson said.

Denise McDonald of Chicago, a member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the organization has no official stand on teens and the non-alcoholic beverages.

"If it was a 14-year-old, it would be a problem. But if it's a 17-year-old who does have the ability to drive and it makes him feel like an adult and he's drinking it instead of beer, I guess it would be OK," McDonald said.

Klemp says the laws are unnecessary because kids aren't inclined to drink the non-alcoholic beers anyway.

"Kids who drink beer don't drink it for the taste. They drink it for the alcohol. I just don't think anyone's going to drink Miller Sharp's to make them feel like a big shot," Klemp said.

Teenagers say the ersatz beers carry about as much status as going to the prom on the bus with your cousin and getting home by 10 p.m.

LOAD-DATE: 04-22-92

SECTION: TEMPO DU PAGE; Pg. 2; ZONE: D; Du Page Scene

LENGTH: 302 words

HEADLINE: Helping out the young in need

BYLINE: Carol Vinzant

BODY:

About 450 of Clarendon Hills' corps of volunteers transplanted themselves in downtown Chicago at the Drake Hotel last weekend in hopes of raising money for infants, children and their mothers.

Unlike other swank charities that may be out of reach for many people, the Clarendon Hills Center of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago offers a reasonable charity activity for area residents, publicity chairwoman Judy Petrole said, so the annual dinner dance was a gathering of community regulars.

"This is a pretty big event in Clarendon Hills. It's the people you usually see professionally and personally," said pharmacist Skip Lubinski. "For me, it brings me out from behind the prescription counter and I get to see them socially."

Dressed in everything from office attire to metallic sequined dresses, attendees bid on silent auction items such as furs that volunteers took shifts modeling. A wide variety of large and small raffles were held, including a Gem Station, where guests bought one of 300 packets donated by Zabler Jewelers: 299 had a cubic zirconium, one had a real diamond.

To make the event more appealing to single participants, this year tickets were changed from a couple price to $80 per person, Petrole said.

With all the events going in the "fun fund-raiser," the center appeared to have topped the $40,000 it raised last year.

"It's a pretty good deal. Everybody wins . . . and the money goes to sick kids," president Lindy Steeves said.

With monthly trips down to the society's care center in the city, members don't easily loose touch with what their charity is all about, Petrole said.

"They're the working poor. They're really proud and they do want to pay for things," Petrole said of the center, which offers a sliding fee scale, but turns no one away.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Athletic gear was popular in the silent auction. Photos by Ed Zurbano.
PHOTO: Lyndy Steeves models for Cathy Weiss and Jim Stange.

LOAD-DATE: 04-20-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 417 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines manager may be Peoria-bound

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Des Plaines City Manager Lawrence A. Asaro plans to leave by June to become the administrator of Peoria County, if the Peoria County Board approves his appointment Tuesday morning.

Asaro, 47, who said he began actively looking for other jobs in December, said he took the job because it would be "a career move, a different job, and larger responsibilities."

Asaro said he will try to help the city in finding a replacement, but he is not sure what the hiring process will be or if it will become a political tug of war between Mayor Michael Albrecht and his rivals in the City Council.

Aldermen have suggested filling the position temporarily with Comptroller Gregory Peters or hiring an administrator from a temporary agency.

As the city's first city manager, Asaro has had to forge the role of his position on the city, which adopted the office in 1988. In Des Plaines, a city known for its political bickering, Asaro has often had to sit in the precarious position of working with both the mayor and his foes on the City Council. The job, many say, has not been easy.

"I can't blame him. He's been kicked around for four years," Ald. Nicholas Chiropolos said.

The role of city manager had been debated in Des Plaines for about 15 years before the position was adopted. Only six months after Asaro was hired, the city had a referendum on adopting a strong-mayor form of government that, if it had passed, would have eliminated Asaro's job.

The debate continues to this day. Voters recently voted against making the mayor's position full-time, a move its opponents say would have handicapped the manager.

"Every city has its cycles of political infighting. Des Plaines may be different in that it seems to go on a little longer. We certainly have had our ups and downs, you can't deny that. But you have that anywhere," Asaro said.

Asaro, who also worked as city manager of Salem, Ill., Marion, Iowa, and Galesburg, Ill., would have many similar responsibilities as county administrator. Although the salary offered matches his Des Plaines salary of $72,000, fringe benefits will make the job really worth more than $80,000, Asaro said.

Asaro was the finalist of 70 qualified applicants, said Gary F. Stella, chairman of the search committee. He already won the approval of the committee and the board's executive committee. Stella said he hopes for a unanimous vote Tuesday.

He said Asaro was selected for his experience with budgeting and economic development.

LOAD-DATE: 04-15-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 532 words

HEADLINE: 2 Des Plaines female janitors charge gender discrimination

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Aside from the collection of brooms and cleaning supplies, the janitor's closet in the Des Plaines City Hall isn't typical.

Two female custodians have hung a copy of a federal code of ethics for government employees and a highlighted newspaper article that claims female workers are more productive than their male counterparts.

Protesting what they say is unfair distribution of overtime, irregular enforcement of paperwork requirements and nepotism, Rita Linoski and Linda Hersha, have taken their complaints to the City Council and federal workplace regulators.

"They don't like women. Public Works is called the man's world," Linoski said of the department where she and Hersha work.

Hersha has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that she has been discriminated against during her four years with the Public Works Department as a meter reader.

Her complaint charges that she received the unusually harsh punishment of suspension for being one or two minutes late to work several times and exceeding her allotted sick leave by four hours. In addition, she claims she was turned down five times for a Street Department job even though she has proper licensing for the position.

The women are registering their complaints as the council is analyzing the work patterns of the city's five janitors.

Public Works Commissioner Jerome Matula said he could not comment on the employment commission complaint, but said his department is not different from other municipalities in its treatment of women.

"They're a little more restricted because of some of the heavy work," Matula said.

But Hersha said she could handle the work and needs more understanding from the department of her being a single parent.

"All I want is an equal shot. I can lift 195 pounds," Hersha said.

In an interview, Ald. Mary Childers suggested that Matula is to blame for putting women in his department in low-ranking or clerical positions.

According to the city's Human Resources Department, Public Works employs 90 people, 7 of whom are women, including the two custodians and three clerical workers. Two work at the water plant.

The janitors' situation was brought to the council's attention last month when the women complained that their supervisor, Thomas Johnson, was giving undue overtime to his brother, also a janitor, while telling the women no overtime was available. They also complained that the brothers were not filling out required worksheets that record daily activities.

Johnson said the allegations of unfair treatment are untrue and based on personal grudges.

"I was shocked," he said. "It hurts me inside, not for me but for my brother, because he didn't do nothing."

Johnson said he has his and his brother's worksheets, but has not yet given them to the council's Public Works Committee.

In the meantime, the city will have Johnson's brother report to the Police Department, where he cleans, rather than to his sibling. And Matula said he had already directed Johnson to fix inequities in the overtime system.

Even so, Childers said, "I think there is a problem here with relatives supervising each other."

LOAD-DATE: 04-14-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 1042 words

HEADLINE: Commuters hop on Pace van wagon

BYLINE: By David Ibata and Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Pace may have hit on a way to get suburbanites out of their cars and into mass transit, however unorthodox that transit may be.

The Pace V.I.P. Vanpool program has received such a warm response since its rollout last autumn that the Pace plans to nearly triple the size of its van fleet to 65 vehicles.

The plan represents mass transit at the grass-roots level: Pace puts together a pool of riders with a volunteer driver, gives them a van, bills passengers their fares, pays for gasoline and upkeep, and lets pool participants take it from there. They set up routes, stops, schedules and contingency plans in the event that a driver takes ill.

Originally, the agency intended to buy 24 vans in the first year of its program and perhaps 40 the next year. But its board of directors now believes there is enough demand to justify buying 65 vehicles at a total cost of $2.7 million.

The expenditure will be made out of Pace's positive fund balance for capital projects and will not need special authorization from the board of the Regional Transportation Authority, said Pace spokeswoman Mindy Laflamme.

No previous van pool promotion here has taken off the way Pace's has. The reasons likely are convenience and economics.

In exchange for fares averaging $78 a month, Pace picks up the costs of fuel, insurance and vehicle upkeep. Pace owns the vehicles and essentially lends them free to volunteer drivers, whose fares are waived in exchange for their taking responsibility for the vans and their routes.

The provisions address the biggest objection to van pooling. Most other programs place a heavy burden on the driver, requiring him or her to sign a van-leasing agreement and take responsibility for making lease payments and collecting fares from riders to recoup his or her costs.

The successful van pool programs here, such as that at Allstate Insurance Co. in Northbrook, make it easy for participants by having a third party - typically, one's employer - own the vehicles and take care of upkeep and billing.

Pace estimates that it will need at least 25 vans just for Sears, Roebuck and Co., which is expected to move 5,000 Merchandise Group employees from downtown Chicago to Hoffman Estates this fall, said Terrance Brannon, planning and development manager for Pace.

So far, 70 Sears workers have signed up to be drivers or backup drivers, said Shamus Misek, supervisor of van pool services for Pace.

The volunteer drivers will be screened and will have their credit and driving records checked. Besides getting a free ride to work and limited personal use of the vans, drivers may be able to buy their vehicles from Pace after a prescribed number of years or miles, Misek said.

Pace now will match up interested employees who live in the same area as the drivers. Participants usually will be able to decide the number of riders in their pool and hence, the size vehicle they need - a 7-passenger minivan, 12-passenger conversion van or 15-passenger maxi-van.

A bigger van means more riders and lower fares. Many people, though, have opted to pay an extra $10 or so a month to get a mini-van, which means more leg room and fewer stops.

"The main thing is to see that the group is going to be viable," Misek said.

Six more employers, including Du Page County at its Wheaton governmental center and Pace at its Arlington Heights headquarters, have concrete plans to start van pools, Misek said. Van pools are operating to such destinations as Ameritech Services Inc. in Hoffman Estates and United Airlines in unincorporated Elk Grove Township.

Indeed, a group of United employees from the south suburbs had been renting a van on their own but switched to the Pace program as soon as it started.

"It's worked out very well," said United spokesman Joe Hopkins. "It's a good marriage between Pace and our employees."

That is the kind of situation private van pool companies such as VPSI Inc. fear.

The subsidiary of Chrysler Corp. filed a formal complaint with Pace last winter, alleging that publicly subsidized Pace was competing unfairly with private transit operators, which VPSI said was a violation of federal law.

Specifically, VPSI contended that it was in danger of losing to Pace three van pool groups at American Telephone and Telegraph Co. in Naperville, because the Pace program offered lower monthly fees to van pool riders.

Pace responded that VPSI was in the business of leasing vans, not providing transit, and said VPSI had no standing to bring its complaint.

VPSI had supplied vehicles for a van pool experiment sponsored by the RTA and the Chicago Area Transportation Study. The largely unsuccessful 30-month promotion ended in early 1991.

Pace expects to subsidize up to 32 percent of the fares of van pool passengers, though the program presently is breaking even on operating costs because maintenance is low and the relatively new vans are still covered by manufacturers' warranties, Laflamme said.

Pace officials said their portion of operating costs covered by van pool fares is at least 68 percent, nearly twice the target of 35 percent that Pace sets for its conventional bus routes.

Pace has been sending representatives to large suburban employers, especially those planning on relocating or setting up a new office.

When companies move to or around the suburbs, Misek said, employees are often left without their usual public transportation, and they cannot count on working close to home. Those workers usually are the most receptive to van pooling.

When Sears, for instance, surveyed its Merchandise Group employees, it found that most live in the Naperville area, in the southwest suburbs or on Chicago's South Side. Sears spokesman Greg Rossiter said that some people have been with the company since before 1973, when the company moved from its old West Side headquarters to Sears Tower.

Many companies may be forced to adopt van pooling and other programs to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, which by 1996 will require companies with 100 or more employees to take steps to reduce driving by their workers by at least 25 percent. The act will affect an estimated 5,400 companies, with nearly 2 million workers in the Chicago area.

LOAD-DATE: 04-09-92

SECTION: TEMPO NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW; Northwest Trends

LENGTH: 388 words

HEADLINE: HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Moviemakers come to the northwest
Yes, there's life after Hollywood

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

John Milinac grew up in McHenry but went out to Hollywood to learn the tricks of the trade of special effects and to make a name for himself.

Yet, he decided that the California lifestyle wasn't for him and returned to the Chicago area in 1990.

So he was surprised when the first picture he worked on, "Backdraft," did some filming right in McHenry County. "I was tickled," Milinac said.

"I would say that of most of the people who are working on movies in the area, a large percentage is brought up through family relations. It's a tight-knit group," he said. "And I know a lot of people who are transplanting from the large market on the West Coast to the Midwest, which is growing as a film-making area."

Being a special effects expert in Chicago may have been risky at first, but because Milinac is known in Hollywood, he gets a good shot at the pictures that do come here. Currently on a three-month stint on Warner Brothers' "Innocent Blood" in Pittsburgh, Milinac, 31, now gets calls to work not only in McHenry or Chicago, but all over the country.

"I'd rather be the big fish in a small pond than a slightly bigger fish in an ocean," he said.

Whether Milinac likes it or not, the trade can leave long months with no work. But working on three pictures is enough to make it through a year. Even when pictures are scarce, Milinac still has to be choosy about which pictures he'll sign on to. If a picture drastically under-budgets its special effects so that they will come off poorly, he won't do it. "Not to sound snobby, but when your reputation is at stake you have to be concerned which pictures you do," he said. The life now isn't always glamor and big explosions. Some of the special effects are as mundane as making sure the burners come on in a stage kitchen.

He says he hasn't found a niche yet, but is more focused on mechanical effects and pyrotechnics and not on makeup.

"In keeping things safe you want to be aware of everything that can go wrong," he said.

He said he plans out the sets after reading the script, looking at the location and talking with the directors. He plans based on experience, trial and error and watching other movies. In some movies he works alone, while in others he is a part of a team.

- - - - - - - - - -
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Sidebar.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: John Milinac operates a baseball launcher during work on the movie "The Babe," much of which was filmed in the area.

LOAD-DATE: 04-06-92

SECTION: TEMPO NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW; Northwest Trends

LENGTH: 351 words

HEADLINE: HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Moviemakers come to the northwest
Putting on a good face

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Whether you're the victim of a recent fatal gunshot wound or just want to look like one, Judy Mercurio of Park Ridge can take care of you.

She started off doing regular and special effects makeup for actors, but wanted work with more certainty, so she went to mortician's school.

"You always like to work with film companies, but you do what you have to do. You can't just wait for the big pictures," she says.

Mortuary science seemed like a natural second career because making up corpses and actors uses many of the same skills and material, she says.

"I either do them standing up or lying down. Everybody wants to look good," she says.

After graduating from Worsham College in Des Plaines last year, Mercurio started her internship program. She prepares corpses at two funeral homes and is trained as a restoration artist for special cases in which there has been severe damage to the face. "It's important for the family to see their family members in a restful situation," she said.

When she is not dressing cadavers, Mercurio runs Stages Unlimited in Park Ridge with her partner, Raoul Johnson of Schaumburg, who teaches technical theater at Loyola University in Chicago. They met in one of his classes and now they run a multifaceted show biz accessory company.

They rent out accouterments of safe stage violence (firearms and phony swords), teach and do makeup ranging from "nice and natural" to gory. They tour colleges and high schools around the country teaching makeup and their trade, said Mercurio, who got her start doing stage makeup at Maine East High School.

And when the business is available, they work in films, commercials and industrial shots, such as a police training film that needed to include wounds.

"If you know anything about the film business in Chicago you know that you could have three months with more than you can handle and then three months with absolutely nothing. It's always a roll of the dice, if they use local people or if they bring in their own people," she said.

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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: As co-owner of Stages Unlimited, Judy Mercurio does makeup ranging from "nice and natural" to gory. Photo by Kevin Tanaka.

LOAD-DATE: 04-06-92

SECTION: TEMPO NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW; Northwest Trends

LENGTH: 1106 words

HEADLINE: HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Moviemakers come to the northwest

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Where would you go to film a story about a quirky Pennsylvania town? A trip across the country? New England? A generic high school? A podunk town where no one wants to get stuck?

Until 20 years ago, the answer to all of these questions would automatically have been New York or Los Angeles.

Recently, though, movie scouts have been choosing towns in the northwest suburbs because of their large pool of local talent in almost every imaginable show-biz related field as well as the spectrum of urban to rural looks all within close proximity to Chicago.

Midwestern towns have an alluringly non-descript appearance that movie locations scouts are using to play almost any locale in the United States that doesn't require palm trees or Rocky Mountains in the background.

Park Ridge was featured in part of "The Blues Brothers" and in the television series "Crime Story." "The Breakfast Club" was shot in Des Plaines. Parts of "When Harry Met Sally" were filmed on Shoe Factory Road in Hoffman Estates. "Dutch" was shot all over McHenry County. "Class" and the soon-to-be released "The Babe" were shot in Barrington and Barrington Hills.

The most recent addition to the area's collection of films is Columbia Pictures' "Groundhog Day," now filming in Woodstock.

Woodstock beat out Galena and a few towns in Wisconsin for the spot, but Woodstock business owners were still cautious. Unlike most other movie shoots that involve just a building or neighborhood, "Groundhog Day" requires that Woodstock's town square masquerade for two months as Punxsutawney, Pa., the Groundhog Day goofiness capital of the world.

"It would be quite a boon for whatever town (the filming) came to. It's kind of an odd form of economic development, but it seems to be substantial ... putting the crew up, buying lumber, eating out, going to the cleaners," said Ron Ver Kuilen, coordinator of the Illinois Film Office, whose job it is to get movie companies to film in Illinois.

Concerned about parking and compensation for lost business, 26 businesses hired attorney Tom Zanck to work out their contracts with Columbia.

"The most important thing you can learn to say (to a movie company) is 'No ... No, that won't work here," said Suzy Kellett, Illinois film office director.

Everyone in Woodstock was pleased and appeased, Zanck said, when the town, like many others in demand for movie locations, passed an ordinance to deal with its newfound fame and fortune. The ordinance specifies who filmmakers have to notify within village government, costs of using off-duty police officers, and specifies that local businesses must be negotiated with individually to be compensated for business lost because of filming.

By spending money on everything from caterers to animal trainers, from staying in hotels to hiring off-duty police officers as extra security, television and feature film makers have brought $431 million into the state since 1976.

Last year alone, they spent $80 million, thanks in part to a strike in New York, Kellett said. The number of movies coming to Illinois runs in cycles. While the number of movies filmed here isn't rising, the ones that do come are spending more time and money here and using the state as a primary location instead of just a token scenery shot.

In Woodstock, most locals are going hogwild over the movie in town.

Mike Palmquist, co-owner of Knuth's Sport and Office Outfitters, which sells office supplies and sporting goods, estimates that half of his weekend business is now tourists coming to the circus of movie-making who buy souvenirs of the Woodstock-woodchuck connection.

He says his most popular item is a T-shirt that pictures a groundhog with the caption "Crime: Turning the peaceful town of Woodstock into a wild film-makers paradise."

Although a movie filming brings an impressive list of financial benefits to a town, the thing that gets most local people excited - at least the first time - is their own little brush with fame. As a thank you to the hosting town (and also for convenience), movie companies try to hire locals as the extra cast.

"They're part of the town, they're part of it," said Bob Hudgins, location director for "Groundhog Day."

In Woodstock, signs on banks and beauty salons beckon Bill Murray, one of the stars of the film, to come inside, and rumors spread about where he eats.

"I don't think a lot of people had even realized how really accessible these stars would be. Here we're rubbing elbows with Bill Murray, Chris Elliott, Andie McDowell. I've met them because they come into the store," Palmquist said.

The town has nicknamed itself Hollywoodstock.

Ninety-seven percent of the films done in Illinois are still done within a 30-mile radius of Madison and State Streets in Chicago, Kellett said. Union regulations require extra benefits if they go beyond that, she said, though sometimes, such as on "Groundhog Day," unions are willing to make concessions because large numbers of their workers live in the suburbs anyway.

One of the reasons movie-makers choose Chicago over other Heartland cities is the large number of professionals in just about every facet of the movie industry.

"We're really on the film-making map now. They can come to Chicago with just their suitcase and toothbrush. We've got everything," said Ver Kuilen of the Illinois Film Office.

"Everything" in movies includes set-builders, animal handlers, technical workers and people from non-glamorous trades such as catering and truck rental who have decided to specialize in movie-making. And many of them call the northwest suburbs home.

"We're nobody's stepchild in Chicago. The film community is recognizing the fact that they can do good quality pictures here," said Dick Oakes, a gaffer, or chief lighting technician, who lives in Mt. Prospect.

An Arlington Heights company, Show Biz Chicago, rents out makeup trailers, star loungers and an assortment of specialty vehicles.

While the suburbs along the North Shore have seen a lion's share of the area movies, with a regular stream of director John Hughes' films, that may change as both Hollywood and the tony suburbs grow slightly weary of each other. Hollywood first turned to Chicago to find an alternative to all the usual settings, but now the photogenic northern suburbs are becoming commonplace.

Having grown accustomed to being celebrity communities, several of the suburbs have passed ordinances that, while still eagerly welcoming filmmakers, set regulations.

The northwest suburbs may be able to alleviate some of the pressure on the North Shore, Ver Kuilen said.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Woodstock has taken on all of the trappings of Hollywood as the downtown has become the location of filming for the movie "Groundhog Day." Filmmakers had to negotiate with local businesses to compensate them for business lost during filming. Photo by Bob Langer.

LOAD-DATE: 04-06-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 293 words

HEADLINE: Woodstock hog wild over movie

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

While a large crew with several cameras, huge lights and an array of walkie-talkies filmed Bill Murray and a crowd of extras on Woodstock Town Square, Jacquelin Lyons shot the scene on a home video camera from across the street.

Hoping to catch a shot of her husband, an extra, or the stars, Lyons plans to use her movie of the filming of "Groundhog Day" to teach her 6th-grade class about making movies.

The stars in her eyes were already fading. "I've got Bill Murray quite a few times by now. He's kind of old hat," Lyons said.

Townsfolk have gone hog wild, selling T-shirts, mugs and groundhog masks to the onlookers and extras, including throngs of teenagers on spring break.

"They have civic pride in having their town put in a movie. People are so excited about show business. . . . It makes us feel good," said director Harold Ramis.

Columbia Pictures' "Groundhog Day" requires Woodstock's square to masquerade for about two months as Punxsutawney, Pa., the Groundhog Day capital of the world.

With all the crew members, extras and spectators in town, few business people are complaining.

Some had initially been concerned about parking, with the square partly closed off, but most say they are satisfied with an elaborate shuttle bus system set up by Columbia.

The movie company has guaranteed the businesses compensation for lost profits. And some businesses have pitched in to rent billboards around the county to advertise the filming.

Cathy Westman, co-owner of Cath-Lyn's Country Trims, who grew up in Woodstock, said the movie is bringing back the kind of crowds she used to see before strip malls drew away downtown shoppers.

"It's nice to see the square looking like it used to," Westman said.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Bill Murray signs autographs Thursday during a break in the action of "Groundhog Day" in Woodstock. Columbia Pictures has set up a shuttle bus service to the filming site. Tribune photo by Milbert Orlando Brown.

LOAD-DATE: 04-04-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 490 words

HEADLINE: Store closing in Des Plaines ends an era, threatens mall

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

When Spiegler's department store opened in Des Plaines in 1900, the Spiegler men would deliver people's goods by horse and buggy. The store survived the Depression, running tabs for its regular customers. It also survived a fire, remodelings and a move from a two-story building on Ellinwood Street into the downtown Des Plaines Mall.

But, it could not survive the current recession and shoppers' migration to outlying shopping centers.

When Spiegler's closes its doors for good in two months, it may not just be the end of an era for loyal shoppers and the end of jobs for 35 employees. City Development Director Jack Klaus said the loss of Spiegler's, the anchor store of the mall, could put a hold on a project to build two condominium towers next door, until a comprehensive downtown plan is devised.

"If the mall didn't work from the beginning, then maybe it's time to take a look at acquiring it and tearing it down," Klaus said.

The city has already bought and torn down buildings on the adjacent Ellinwood Street to make room for development, Klaus said. With Spiegler's vacating 22,950 square feet of an available 98,000 in the mall, which was already about 20 percent vacant, the mall could become another target for demolition, he said.

Clerks and regular shoppers say they were saddened but not surprised by the closing.

What was once a general merchandise store, selling everything from food to shoe polish to linens, had turned into an adult clothing store as many customers turned to outlying shopping centers.

In the last five years, since the store was bought by mall owner David Friedman, it has had to switch from household merchandise to lines that are more profitable, dropping items such as children's clothes, gifts and scout uniforms, general manager Karla Jacobson said.

But even with those changes, Spiegler's couldn't compete with the attraction of larger malls and discount clothing stores.

"The downtowns are gone. Who shops in their towns these days?" said Jacobson, who has worked at Spiegler's for 19 years.

Employees, who describe working for Spiegler's as joining a family, say the charm of the store can't be bought at Woodfield or any factory outlet.

"You could get another job, but it wouldn't be the same. It's all mass-production, and we tried to give individual service. It was old-fashioned," said Geri Beyer.

Beyer said she took the job seven years ago after one of the Spiegler clan asked "You shop here all the time. You want to work here?"

The Spieglers, who now live in the area and in Florida, were popular among customers and employees, Jacobson said. She recalled members of the family helping a widowed clerk pay her bills and buying a badly needed furnace for an employee's church.

Now most of the store's visitors are senior citizen mall walkers or employees of the mall and the adjoining First National Bank building, Jacobson said.

LOAD-DATE: 04-01-92

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 247 words

HEADLINE: Mt. Prospect in innovative mode
Village putting $50,000 in reserve to fund great ideas

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Mt. Prospect trustees this week approved the idea of spending money to pay for ideas that might save money.

It sounds a little convoluted perhaps, but village trustees decided that setting aside $50,000 for innovative technologies that will pay for themselves within four years is a good idea.

Trustee George Clowes had the novel notion, and the village's committee of the whole approved the program in a consensus vote Tuesday.

An example of an innovation that would qualify for the program would be using a bar code reader to scan the account numbers on residents' water bills, Clowes said. That would make processing faster and easier, and thus save money, he said.

Clowes said he views the plan as a way to encourage village employees to propose new procedures and more-efficient ways of doing things.

"It's a way of channeling ideas that do have a payoff, and you don't have to wait a year for the next budget to implement it," said Clowes, who modeled his program on one that existed in Dayton, Ohio.

Clowes discounted critics' charges that such a progressive program would transform Mt. Prospect into a real-life laboratory for the latest high-tech gadgets. Instead, he said, a product's cost-effectiveness would have to be thoroughly tested on the market before qualifying for the fund.

But Village President Gerald Farley opposed the plan, saying he feared products just put on the market would be too expensive and quickly would become outdated.

LOAD-DATE: 03-29-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 392 words

HEADLINE: Consumers have advocate on call in Des Plaines

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Has your get-rich-quick scheme gone poor? Has a car dealership mistreated you? Has a grocery ripped you off? If it happened in Des Plaines, there's someone to help.

The city has the area's only consumer protection agency outside of Chicago, said Bob Hinde, who runs the office and handles most of its complaints.

"I enjoy catching a scammer," Hinde said.

The cases he handles range from the severe to the silly. He has helped a woman who got too many necks in a package of pre-cut chicken. He also has fought against a company that sold $900 worm farms.

Hinde said the company, which distributed information on the wonder of worms in food products and their usefulness in breaking down landfill waste, promised that if the worms didn't turn a profit for the owner, it would take them back.

But the company didn't, Hinde said.

Hinde, a former alderman, said he voted against the consumer protection ordinance in 1974 that created the agency because he thought it would be too taxing on small businesses.

But since working in the office, he said, he realizes that the agency, which works with the Better Business Bureau, keeps businesses happy because most of them have good records and this gives consumers a way to find that out.

Unlike the Better Business Bureau, which only lists complaints, Hinde's office tries to negotiate a settlement. Hinde says he settles about 98 percent of the 350 to 400 annual complaints just by calling the business and working out a misunderstanding.

The rest of the cases go to a seven-member commission that holds hearings and can fine businesses up to $500. Occasionally, the commission will take the case to court.

But Hinde says he likes to settle problems as easily and as early as possible. "Sometimes you have to remind people, 'Yeah, maybe you did get ripped off for $17, but . . . we're not going to hang the guy,"' Hinde said.

Hinde, who also has duties in licensing, says he believes the office saves consumers thousands of dollars a year by getting refunds and settling disputes over payments.

But the office isn't without its critics: Ald. Carmen Sarlo said he objects to paying a police salary to a detective who does frequent work for the agency.

Hinde, however, defends the part-time use of the officer, saying his police skills are needed to check on complaints.

LOAD-DATE: 03-27-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 523 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines mayor rethinks election bid

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

When a bid for support to make his job full-time lost by a ratio of nearly 3-1 last week, Des Plaines Mayor Michael Albrecht may have lost more than a potential $49,000-a-year raise.

Albrecht said he is not sure whether the non-binding referendum was a measure of his popularity, but he will be more cautious in governing and in deciding whether to run for re-election next year.

"If I would have to make a decision today, based on what happened," Albrecht said, "I would probably not run again." He went into office in 1989 saying he wanted to be mayor for a long time.

Throughout the campaign, supporters of a full-time mayor said that issue was not related to or specifically designed for Albrecht. But the campaign for approval of a full-time mayor was run by Albrecht's standing organization, known locally as the A-Team.

His supporters are not taking the defeat personally.

"I'm sure there were some people who voted against the full-time mayor because they wanted to vote against Mike, but I'm sure most people voted that way just because they wanted a professionally trained city manager running the city," Ald. Tom Christiansen said.

Members of Citizens for Responsible Government, an ad hoc group that formed to put the issue to voters, heard a different message from the advisory vote. Asked whether the job of mayor should be part-time, 10,003 voters said yes to 3,520 who said no.

"It's really a clear signal that people do not like what's going on," said Ald. Mary Childers, a consistent foe of the mayor's City Council bloc.

Both sides agree that the vote will diminish Albrecht's role in the decisions of the city.

Albrecht said he will be spending less time on his job, leaving more of the decisions to City Manager Larry Asaro. Childers said city workers will now see that they are accountable to the council, not just the mayor.

The referendum is the answer to a 20-year debate over whether the town should be led by an academically trained city manager or by a home-grown, elected mayor.

The referendum vote kills the issue, Ald. Nick Chiropolos said.

"I'm certainly not going to bring it up again," Albrecht said. "That's what the system is about. The people have spoken, as they say, rather loudly."

The issue was put on the ballot by Citizens for Responsible Government, which said it was unfair and illegal of Albrecht's supporters on the council to raise the mayoral salary to $55,000 from $6,000 last August without voters' consent. The raise would have taken effect with the next mayoral term.

Des Plaines has gone back and forth on the question of a full-time or part-time mayor several times since 1972. But the only real action was a 1979 non-binding referendum in which voters defeated a part-time plan.

Then, in 1981, candidates ran on platforms calling for a full-time or part-time mayor. The part-time advocate, Jack Seitz, won and changed the position and salary after he was in office, an action that Albrecht said was illegal.

The issue was complicated when the city hired an administrative assistant and later the city manager in the 1980s.

LOAD-DATE: 03-25-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 289 words

HEADLINE: Mt. Prospect to stick with agency planning balefill

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Although they are worried about financing and the possible environmental impact of a garbage baling and transfer station planned nearby, Mt. Prospect trustees have decided to stay in a regional waste agency so they can have a voice in changing its plans.

"It's important for us not to opt out. We would be cutting off our only means of control," Trustee Irvana Wilks said.

With their approval Tuesday, Mt. Prospect, Wilmette and Winnetka bring the total to 19 of 26 municipalities that have agreed so far to back the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County in its $90 million plan to build a balefill and three baling and transfer stations.

Des Plaines, which borders the controversial baling station, Monday became the first and only town so far to pull out of the agency.

Hoffman Estates, Northbrook and Northfield appear to be wavering in their decisions.

William Abolt, executive director of the waste agency, said that remaining members will not be adversely affected by dropouts.

Trustee George Clowes, who cast the only vote against refinancing the agency, said the agency is using unrealistic figures to scare people into thinking they need to create a governmental body to handle landfills.

The agency projects that their disposal cost per ton will be $38 in 1996 and $57 in 1998, compared to private sector costs of $72, but Clowes said his own calculations show the private sector only charging $43 per ton. Mt. Prospect is currently paying $26 a ton, he said.

Clowes said that he does not think the agency's projection that Mt. Prospect's disposal costs will skyrocket from $858,000 in 1991 to $5 million by 1999 are credible. Abolt said the computations were done by objective experts.

LOAD-DATE: 03-21-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 741 words

HEADLINE: Tax hikes play to mixed reviews
Arlington getting bigger library; no pool in Crystal Lake

BYLINE: By Joseph Kirby and V. Dion Haynes. Tribune reporters Rob Thomas and Carol Vinzant contributed to this article

BODY:

In Arlington Heights and Palatine, officials were rejoicing. The feeling in Prospect Heights and McHenry, where referendum questions failed, was more of gloom. And in Roselle the mood was of bewilderment.

It was that type of election.

Voters did not seem to adhere to any common thread or follow any specific pattern in casting their ballots on a broad range of referendum issues across the region. The night saw the approval of several large tax increases, the rejection of minor tax hikes, and vice versa.

In short, Tuesday night left many scratching their heads.

"I guess the voters have spoken," said Mike Sutich, a trustee of the fire protection district in Roselle, where residents voted down a measure to exceed the tax cap by 13 percent to fund full-time firefighters. "I just don't know what it means."

It will most likely mean the end of full-time service in Roselle at the conclusion of this year, according to Sutich. Before the district implemented full-time fire service last year, it relied on volunteers, he said.

In Crystal Lake, Tuesday's vote means that no outdoor pool will be built, at least this year. The approval question was trounced 3-1.

"People are concerned about their taxes. They are really fed up," said Jerry Walsh, a member of Homeowners Advocating Lower Taxes, who opposed the pool. "If the pool had gone through, people's taxes would have gone up, and people don't want that."

Voters, apparently fearing higher taxes, also shelved a proposal to increase the library district tax rate in Prospect Heights and stopped a bid by Mt. Prospect to buy a local water utility.

But the anti-tax sentiment did not run rampant. Area voters approved by large margins a handful of other proposals that will increase taxes, including one to expand the Arlington Heights Memorial Library and another to do the same for a neighborhood policing program in Palatine.

"I think the people realized that after the last referendum lost, we listened to them," said Mary Jo Cullen, president of the Arlington Heights Library Board. "We went back to the drawing board and created a completely different plan that offered value for the dollar."

In spite of all the talk of taxes, the tax rate had little to do with Des Plaines voters' decision to keep their mayor's job a part-time position. Mayor Michael Albrecht had sought to make it full-ime.

Northwest suburban school proposals also received mixed reactions from voters.

In Richmond Consolidated School District 13 in McHenry County, a request to raise the property-tax rate to cut a projected $2 million deficit passed by just 50 votes.

The district now may raise the tax rate by 56 cents, averting cuts in sports and extracurricular activities. The new tax rate will cost the owner of a property valued at $100,000 an additional $70.62 a year.

"We're ecstatic," said Supt. Audrey Brown. "One boy came to school and gave me a high five. We can throw out our cut list and think about the future."

And voters in Cary showed overwhelming support for a proposal by School District 26 to sell $5 million in bonds for a new elementary school.

But in McHenry School District 15, a request to raise the property-tax rate lost by more than 700 votes. School officials say they may be forced to lay off several teachers in the next few years to help relieve a $1 million deficit.

About the only place where officials were not licking their wounds after their defeat was Mt. Prospect, where voters rejected the region's costliest proposal: a $23.5 million buyout of the Citizen Utilities of Illinois, which serves about 7,000 households there and in Prospect Heights.

The buyout plan was opposed by utility officials, who apparently tried to woo voters into rejecting the proposal.

"People hadn't heard boo from (Citizen) until we said we were going to buy them out," said Village Manager John Dixon. "All of a sudden they have open houses, improve service and set up a 1-800 number. Maybe we should make this a referendum every year so they can keep this up."

Elsewhere, Highland Park-area voters approved the consolidation of School Districts 107, 108, and 111. Under the binding referendum, the districts would merge July 1, 1993.

In another school issue, Libertyville voters rejected a $15.1 million bond issue to expand Libertyville High School, a $32.2 million bond issue to build a new campus and a request for a tax increase.

LOAD-DATE: 03-20-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 248 words

HEADLINE: No good reason for a lockout in Des Plaines

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Police officials in Des Plaines have found a key to the hearts of city residents.

It all started when Des Plaines police got sick and tired of "slim-jimming" for people locked out of their cars.

Authorities developed a program to make spare keys cut from credit card-size plastic that could be carried in a wallet. This allowed absent-minded citizens to open their cars when the keys were left inside.

The program has become so popular that people have asked the police department to make similar plastic keys for homes and offices.

And the city has decided to do just that.

"The reason we got into it was we had 3,200 lockouts a year, people locking their keys in their cars," explained Sgt. Robert Neil.

Since 1990, the department has sold more than 1,000 of the plastic keys for $2 each. The keys last for about 2,000 uses.

"If you lock yourself out more than that," Neil joked, "we take your house and car away from you."

The city also has received calls from other cities asking how the program works. Keys are available to Des Plaines residents or non-residents. Call 708-391-5400 for an appointment.

But local locksmiths, who sell the credit-card keys in prices ranging from $3 to $7, may not be so enthusiastic about the police getting into the key-making business.

"I think they should leave the locksmithing business to the locksmiths," said Jim Riddle, an employee of a Des Plaines lock company. "We're not going out and arresting anybody."

LOAD-DATE: 03-12-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 5; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 396 words

HEADLINE: Ethics probe spurs new purchasing plan

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

One of the outcomes of Des Plaines' six-month investigation of an allegedly mishandled contract is a new urgency to install a formal citywide purchasing policy.

City Manager Larry Asaro said the city has been planning to make an explicit policy for more than a year, but the controversy surrounding an $18,200 compost-hauling contract awarded without council approval in July to a company owned by the mayor's brother has hurried up the process.

The purchasing policy, which calls for a purchasing agent to work with department heads on all purchases and contracts, could save the city up to 10 percent of its buying costs, Asaro said.

"I think time has caught up with us," Asaro said.

The city's current method, which has evolved out of state statutes, internal memos and longtime practice, however, works fine for Mayor Michael Albrecht.

"We have guidelines that have been set by the state. . . . The bidding process is well-defined," Albrecht said.

Asaro drafted the policy in November, but the council is only now set to begin discussions.

Ald. Carl Haupt said that aldermen have not taken interest in the policy because the ethics ordinance that is currently under discussion, another offshoot of the compost hearings, should be completed first.

The purchasing policy prohibits gifts to employees or officials from any city contractor and spells out the policy for excluding a contractor from city work.

The policy also continues the current city policy of requiring a formal bidding process for all contracts over $5,000.

A March 17 non-binding referendum question will also ask voters if the city should keep the $5,000 limit. Asaro said the city had briefly considered raising the limit to $10,000, but the idea died out.

Ald. Tom Christiansen, however, said he favors raising the limit because it would cut down on the bureaucracy of the committees.

Voters are expected to split on the bid question, and on other proposals that would require the city to ask voters before raising the salary of elected officials by more than 5 percent, along the same lines that divide them on a proposal to make the mayor's job full-time.

Citizens for Responsible Government, which introduced all three questions, supports the part-time mayor and the $5,000 limit. Citizens for Albrecht supports a full-time mayor and ending the $5,000 limit.

LOAD-DATE: 03-11-92

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 989 words

HEADLINE: Tax hikes face voters in suburbs

BYLINE: By Joseph Kirby. Carol Vinzant contributed to this article

BODY:

In Arlington Heights, the question is whether to spend $9 million to nearly double the size of the village's highly regarded library. In Palatine, it's whether to raise taxes to expand a successful police program. And in Des Plaines, the question is whether to have a full-time mayor.

At a time of tax caps and tax protests, not to mention the recession, these and other northwest suburbs are asking for more tax money - in some instances, a lot more - so their communities can meet an ever-growing demand for services.

The money is needed, they say, to protect the future of their communities and to ensure that they remain desirable places to live.

But suburban officials also agree that most of the March 17 referendums can be reduced to one question: Are taxpayers willing to pay more to get more?

"These are not the best of times to be trying to pass a referendum," said Mike Sutich, a trustee of the Roselle Fire Protection District, which is asking to go over the collar county's 5 percent tax cap and increase its levy 18 percent to maintain the suburb's full-time fire protection.

Officials can take some heart in the fact that a number of big-money referendum issues across the region were approved last November in the face of rampant anti-tax sentiment.

One of the costliest referendums this time is seeking to make the Arlington Heights Memorial Library the largest in the northwest suburbs through an $8.9 million expansion and renovation project. The project would build a two-story, 56,000-square-foot addition to the current 76,385-square-foot structure, which would be redesigned to maximize space.

Library officials say the addition is needed in the wake of service cuts caused by a severe space crunch. Voters rejected a similar proposal in 1989.

An Arlington Heights house with the median home value of $169,000 would cost the owner an extra $15.75 a year in property taxes, according to library officials. That's not such a high price for a staple long seen as one of the village's crown jewels, officials believe.

"If a person borrowed a hardcover book from the library, instead of buying it new, that would be their cost of the expansion," said Executive Librarian Kathleen Balcom. "It's a great value."

So far, the expansion proposal, which lost by 800 votes last time, seems to have gained the nod from many. Said Library Board President Mary Jo Cullen: "There is a big change this time. I think things will be different."

Arlington Heights may have one of the most expensive referendums, but Des Plaines easily can lay claim to the most controversial.

At issue is whether the current part-time mayoral position, which pays $6,000 a year, should become a full-time, $55,000-a-year post. The question, which could radically alter the roles of other suburban mayors, has divided the city.

On one side is Mayor Michael Albrecht, four aldermen, and a standing campaign organization, Citizens for Albrecht, pushing for the full-time post. They are pitted against four other aldermen and Citizens for Responsible Government, an ad hoc group formed last fall to get the question of a full-time mayor on the ballot.

Those who want to keep the mayor's job part-time argue that a full-time mayor is not necessary, and that Albrecht has introduced the concept to secure his plans for a long reign over the city of 53,000.

Albrecht, however, counters that the city has grown and changed, as have its problems and issues, and therefore so must the role of its chief executive. Further, he denies that the move is a political maneuver on his part and that the next mayor, whether him or not, would be better able to serve in a full-time capacity.

"They are trying to make this a Mike Albrecht issue and that is not the issue," said Albrecht, a retired Des Plaines police officer. "The person running for office has to make a full-time commitment."

The issue, which has been debated in Des Plaines for at least 20 years, came to head last August when the council voted to alter the post after the 1993 election. Albrecht cast the deciding vote. Opponents claimed the ordinance was illegally rushed through council, and has since been rescinded.

Since then an all-out battle, replete with pins, buttons and lawn signs, has been waged. Both sides claim the upper hand, but voters are not showing their cards.

Though not as controversial, a referendum to build a $3.5 million outdoor swimming pool in Crystal Lake has flared some tempers.

The pool, backed by the Crystal Lake Park District and Mayor George Wells, has met strong opposition from some residents concerned about the effect on the district's future tax rate. The referendum would not raise the rate, but would prevent the district from reducing it after it paid off its existing debt.

Proponents say the pool, which would feature water slides and sand play areas, is necessary because the village's lake is being overused and the project would not directly cost any money.

In Palatine, voters may decide whether their suburb will have an innovative crime prevention program on a villagewide scale.

The program, Neighborhood Based Policing (NBP), operates in two of the village department's five police beats.

In the three beats that operate under the old system, officers are rotated. In the two NBP beats, officers are permanently assigned to patrol areas where they have authority to coordinate police protection.

The method has been so well-received by residents of the two districts that those in the other three areas want the program, according to trustees.

"People have been telling us that the program provides a bond between citizens and officers," Deputy Chief Walt Gasior said. "We want to bring that to all residents of the village."

The cost of the program is estimated to be $647,940, which would cost the owner of a $180,000 home an extra $33 a year in property taxes, Gasior said.

LOAD-DATE: 03-07-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 816 words

HEADLINE: PG book? Parents want clue

BYLINE: By Sue Ellen Christian and Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Joani Heavey of Des Plaines says she is not some kind of reactionary, but when she takes her two sons to the library, she wants to know whether a book in the children's section contains foul language or sexual innuendos.

"We're not religious fanatics trying to get our kind of religion into the library," said Heavey, 39, whose sons are 9 and 12.

"I believe in allowing my kids to be exposed to things to a degree. But I want a thermometer; I want help."

To accomplish that end, Heavey and some other mothers are leading a campaign urging the Des Plaines Public Library to develop a system to identify which books in the children's section include what they consider to be offensive material, such as foul language or sexual situations. "Movies are rated," Heavey said.

The issue arose when the 11-year-old son of Ann Piscitello, one the mothers spearheading the campaign, checked out a novel called "Slim Down Camp" from the children's section in the library last November.

The mothers, along with 50 others who signed a petition, want the book about an overweight boy's experiences at "Camp Thin-na-Yet" put in the adult section rather than the section for 4th- through 8th-grade readers.

"Slim Down Camp," written by Stephen Manes, is a first-person account of Sam Zimmer, a 164-pound boy whose overweight parents send him to camp to lose weight. The 157-page novel includes references to masturbation and a pornographic magazine. It also includes language that some people may find objectionable.

Even better than putting the book in the adult section, the mothers believe, would be to create a list of offensive books and somehow set those books apart from others.

The problem with providing such a thermometer, says library administrator Bernard Oppenneer, is that not every parent's temperature rises at the same material. "They want us to ascertain what is objectionable, no matter what level of objection a parent might have," he said.

"We can't do that."

And, Heavey said, "You don't want an orange dot on every book with profanity, because those are the books the kids will check out."

"Slim Down Camp" has been around for 11 years and has been checked out only 23 times in the past seven years.

It may not be a particularly popular book, but it raises the question of just how a book makes it onto a library shelf, especially one in the children's section in the basement of the Des Plaines Library.

The parents group has decided to take its complaints to a special three-member Management Committee of the Library Board of Trustees, who will review the book.

Oppenneer said the parents' request to provide such content information is impossible. "What Mrs. Piscitello's child can read is one thing. What Mrs. Jones' child can read is an entirely different thing."

This year, two trained children's librarians will select the $45,000 worth of books - about 1,500 different titles - that will be bought for that section of the library, said Oppenneer. They will consult resources, including periodicals, journals and special reviewing services that judge the book on its pre-publication copies, to decide whether to purchase it.

At the request of the parents, three librarians, two of whom are the mothers of sons, reviewed "Slim Down Camp" according to the library's selection guidelines.

"The committee felt that the phrases and words objected to, when read in the context of the story, were typical of children interacting in the setting described and were appropriate to the characters and the story," Oppenneer said in a letter sent last week to Piscitello.

The story was written for 4th to 6th graders and the committee agreed with that age range, the letter stated.

The library says that before receiving a borrowing card for their children, parents must sign a form stating that they are aware that there are no age restrictions on borrowing of library materials. They also must accept the responsibility for their children's selection of materials.

But the parents say the library should do its part, too, and help parents make informed decisions, since they can't read every book their child checks out.

Some parents have suggested the library establish a special teen section or a system requiring parental permission before children can check out certain books. Whatever the approach the library uses, the parents want a system established to provide them with a red flag of sorts, so they know a book contains material that some might consider inappropriate for children.

While it is perfectly legitimate for a library user to question a book selection, the parents' last-resort suggestion of placing "Slim Down Camp" in the adult section, away from its intended readership, is censorship, said Anne Levinson, assistant director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association in Chicago.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: "Slim Down Camp," a novel by Stephen Manes, includes language some people say is objectionable.

LOAD-DATE: 03-04-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 5; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 281 words

HEADLINE: Mt. Prospect acts to keep its businesses

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

To meet the needs of all businesses in the community - not just those downtown - Mt. Prospect Village President Gerald "Skip" Farley is proposing a second, villagewide economic development commission.

Although the details are still sketchy, the nine-member commission would include a cross-section of the business community and would help out with the recently started practice of business retention visits that are, so far, being conducted by village trustees.

"Some of the reasons businesses pull out and leave are really very miniscule. They just get ticked off about something. I find that very unfortunate," Farley said.

In part, he said, the idea for the commission came from the increase in vacancies in Mt. Prospect's industrial parks, particularly Kensington Center.

Mt. Prospect recently joined the growing number of suburbs that are sending representatives to local businesses to see if the city can prevent any problems or plans to leave.

The new economic development commission, which has yet to be worked out by staff or the Board of Trustees, would step up the number of visits to at least two per month, Farley said.

The village already has the Business District Development and Redevelopment Commission that handles everything from facades to development schemes in the downtown area, but they will be busy enough with an ongoing plan to redevelop the downtown triangle, Farley said.

Farley also proposed that the village consider putting out a publication that would tell prospective businesses about the city with specific data on services, taxes and demographics.

Trustee Irvana Wilks estimates the program would cost $10,000.

LOAD-DATE: 02-28-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 380 words

HEADLINE: Des Plaines spares downtown garage

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

People in town may say it's ugly, in need of repair and divides Des Plaines' downtown, but the Behrel Parking Plaza is going to stay, at least for now.

After hammering out the details and the design philosophies of a downtown redevelopment project for about seven months, the City Council decided Tuesday after only a few minutes of discussion to scrap plans to demolish the infamous four-story parking garage.

If everything goes according to plan, developer Ray Franczak will still start building two eight-story condominium buildings and a small retail area next to the deck this fall.

Last month, the Des Plaines Zoning Board of Appeals and Plan Commission approved the project, including the removal of the garage. But the council's Municipal Development Committee and the Committee of the Whole, which includes all aldermen, later recommended that the garage remain.

It wasn't that anyone had decided that they liked the garage. Aldermen were just unwilling to spend the money to replace it.

"How can we spend $3.8 million on . . . appearance?" asked Ald. Carmen Sarlo, who is proposing that the city instead give the deck a face lift.

Opponents of the garage have not given up hope. Mayor Michael Albrecht said he still believes the deck must and will go.

Economic Development Director Jack Klaus said the garage was a development mistake of the 1970s that needs to be corrected to bring downtown back to life.

"There's an expression, 'Those who do not learn from history's mistakes are bound to repeat them.' We're living that," Klaus said.

City planning students from the University of Illinois are sometimes taken on tours of downtown Des Plaines and told "that's what not to do," Klaus said.

The Franczak plan may still be altered in the final approval stage, when it will have to pass through all the same committees again.

How much the project will cost the city, without the deck demolition, has not been determined, City Comptroller Greg Peters said.

The city had expected to pay $8 million to $9 million on the original plan.

Economic Development Commission Chairman Richard Vanderwoude said the city should consider holding off on downtown redevelopment until completion of a comprehensive downtown plan, expected this year.

LOAD-DATE: 02-21-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 1; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 759 words

HEADLINE: Towns put priority on businesses

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

As the economic picture remains gloomy, more and more towns are focusing efforts on keeping businesses in their communities.

Municipalities are starting to make stronger contacts with local businesses as an inexpensive way to keep jobs and industry in town, said Jack Klaus, Des Plaines economic development director.

By staying in touch with business owners and making regular visits, the city lets the commercial sector know that the city is there to listen and troubleshoot.

"A Mitsubishi plant coming to town is a big deal, but saying Mark Antenna is going to stay - who cares?" Klaus said. "Well, I care. It means 100 jobs."

Mark Antenna, a small manufacturer of commercial microwave antennas, was considering moving out of its rental space in Des Plaines and buying a property. Company officials picked a site that would allow them to remain in town, but had some problems with neighbors parking trucks on a nearby narrow street.

Klaus said the city found that the parking was illegal and got the offenders to line up the trucks on their own property.

"The city of Des Plaines worked very closely with us. It was through their help that we were able to get some of the problems surrounding the property we wanted to buy fixed," said Mary Erhardt, president of Mark Antenna.

In addition to helping the company work out the parking problem, the city also guided them through the permit process and assisted the company in obtaining an Illinois industrial revenue bond.

Mayor Michael Albrecht said business retention is especially important in Des Plaines because it has the most jobs in the area.

According to the 1990 "Where Workers Work" survey conducted by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the city has 53,866 jobs. In addition to real estate and other business taxes, those jobs generate sales taxes for the city when those workers eat and shop in town.

The idea of making an effort to keep businesses satisfied is, however, not new to the recession. The Golden Corridor, which extends along the Northwest Tollway from O'Hare to Elgin and includes McHenry and part of Kane County, has been stressing the importance of retention programs for about three years, said Kris Howard, Golden Corridor Council executive director.

"Most new jobs are created by expansion of existing businesses, not by attracting new ones," Howard said.

During the summer of 1991, representatives from Elgin and Des Plaines went on a speaking tour, teaching municipalities in the Golden Corridor about reaching out to their businesses, assessing their problems and concerns and helping them stay put.

Most of the 40 municipalities in the corridor gave a good response to the lesson, and some are developing their own programs now, Howard said. Mt. Prospect and Schaumburg have started similar programs.

Programs vary from town to town, but the basic idea is that a team of volunteers goes out to area businesses to see if they are having any problems and how the city could help.

According to Pat Kotnaur, executive director of the Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce, the problems range from needing job training programs or wanting more space to having low water pressure.

The meetings among members of the business community also lead to networking and sharing ideas.

"It's a real eye-opener. You learn what people are really thinking. It builds a lot of good will," said Janet Hansen, executive director of the Mt. Prospect Chamber of Commerce.

In Elgin, where volunteers from the chamber of commerce visited 63 companies last year, a survey is also sent out to set up a set of statistics about business needs and characteristics, said Kevin Kelly, manager of economic development for the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce.

The programs are generally more important to towns that are already pretty well built out, such as Des Plaines, and aren't busy trying to attract new businesses, Klaus said.

"My feeling is that we have a lot of businesses, but we're growing too. We want to keep what we have happy, and we also want to attract new businesses," Kelly said.

Even development-rich suburbs are getting into the action.

"Schaumburg has been blessed," said Kathy Shaw, chairwoman of the village business development commission's subcommittee on business retention and expansion. But "it's really important to stroke the businesses you have." Schaumburg's program includes monthly breakfasts for area businesses.

"You learn a lot. You find out who's going to expand and who has problems," Shaw said.

LOAD-DATE: 02-20-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 410 words

HEADLINE: Trash in streets prompts Des Plaines crackdown

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Des Plaines has started a citywide crackdown on residential fire and building code violations, beginning with door-to-door inspections of the Terrsal Park area.

Mayor Michael Albrecht said he decided to make an example of the neighborhood near Howard Avenue and Mannheim Road after he took a tour of the area and found excessive garbage in the streets and lots.

"My patience has expired. . . . Some people living out there obviously don't care what kind of neighborhood they live in and that's not acceptable," Albrecht said when he announced the program's start at the beginning of February.

Since then, inspectors from the fire, police and building departments have been touring the densely populated townhouse neighborhood. So far, about 20 units have been inspected, officials said. The neighborhood is roughly bordered by Howard Avenue, Chestnut Street, Pine Street and Terrsal Park.

Flammables kept near heat sources, water damage and the lack of working smoke detectors have been the most frequent problems, Fire Lt. Gary Hausler said.

"We gave out four smoke detectors and 12 batteries. Instead of giving them a ticket, we give them a battery," Hausler said.

Police have towed 12 abandoned cars out of the three-block area and tagged another six, Albrecht said. Those found dumping garbage will be fined a minimum of $500, he said.

Although the area was targeted because of a history of violations, he said, residents have been working with inspectors in the recent effort.

"We've had nobody even hesitate to invite us in. We do it on a positive note, that we're doing it for safety," said police Officer Larry Gniot.

In the inspection of seven buildings, police have made interesting and possibly life-saving discoveries, Gniot said. In a basement where two residents were sleeping they discovered a month-old severe gas leak, which was immediately repaired, he said.

Three baby chickens that appeared to have been intended for cock-fighting were found in another basement, Gniot said.

Though many residents are cooperating, those who do not comply with the city codes will be taken to court, Albrecht said.

After this neighborhood, the city intends to target other as-yet undetermined problem areas of the city.

Community Development Director Louis Pagones said he attributed the problems in the area to cramped housing. If the area were built today, only about half of that density would be allowed, he said.

LOAD-DATE: 02-20-92

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 462 words

HEADLINE: Camps work full-time on mayor vote

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

Should Des Plaines have a full-time mayor? That has become a perennial question in the city, where the issue has been debated since the 1970s.

Voters will have their say in a referendum on March 17, but there's no guarantee that the City Council will abide by their decision.

That has not stopped residents and officials on both sides of the issue from waging all-out, highly organized campaigns.

The issue came to a head last summer when the council deadlocked and Mayor Michael Albrecht cast the deciding vote to make the mayor's post a full-time job and raise the annual mayoral salary from $6,000 to $55,000 after the next election in 1993.

Albrecht's opponents claimed the ordinance had been illegally rushed through the council.

"We already have a city manager. You need a professionally trained administrator, not someone who gets in there by knocking on doors," said Ald. Mary Childers.

Albrecht, who originally ran on a platform favoring a strong-mayor form of government, said the city of 53,000 needs a full-time mayor whether it is him or someone else.

"People need to know this is a full-time commitment. A city the size of Des Plaines needs a full-time mayor. We're not just an isolated town anymore. Issues need to be handled on a regional basis," Albrecht said.

Although no one has officially declared his or her candidacy for 1993, Albrecht is expected to run and this controversy has brought out at least four likely opponents.

Opposition Alds. Childers and Carl Haupt, former Mayor John Seitz and former Chamber of Commerce President Ted Sherwood all say they are considering running.

Residents who protested the change formed the ad hoc group Citizens for Responsible Government last fall and circulated petitions to get the full-time mayor question on the ballot. In response, the council rescinded its ordinance raising mayoral pay.

Citizens for Responsible Government also submitted two other referendum questions for the March ballot. One asks whether pay raises over 5 percent for elected officials should be subject to referendums. The other asks whether the city should keep its contract bidding requirements.

Since the full-time mayor controversy erupted in August, the usual council rift has widened and partisan bickering develops over almost every issue. Although the council has recently been calm, the residents drawn out for the pay-raise issue still attend most meetings.

Opponents of a full-time mayoral government wear pins to the council meetings that say, "Part-time mayor, keep it!"

While both sides are waging letter-writing and door-to-door campaigns, Albrecht and his supporters, known locally as "The A-Team," have hired Art Hanlon, a campaign adviser who ran Albrecht's 1989 campaign.

LOAD-DATE: 02-16-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 3; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 485 words

HEADLINE: 2 officials may pay for roles in Des Plaines dispute

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant.

BODY:

An investigating committee has recommended a 20-day suspension without pay for Des Plaines Public Works Director Jerome Matula for his alleged mishandling of a city compost hauling contract, an alderman announced this week.

Ald. Carl Haupt also said the committee recommended that City Manager Larry Asaro not get a pay raise this year because of his role in the controversy.

The committee, appointed last fall to investigate a July hauling contract, reached its conclusions behind closed doors two weeks ago, but refused to discuss the disciplinary action taken, saying it was a personnel matter.

Haupt, a member of the committee, said that if he did not reveal the results, people would feel the four months of inquiry, costing $3,400, had been a waste.

However, Mayor Michael Albrecht, several aldermen and Asaro say that the matter should have remained private.

"Every employee deserves the basic courtesy to not have their reputation and character impugned publicly for what may or may not have been an infraction," Asaro said in a statement.

Ald. Mary Childers, chairman of the investigation committee, said she is awaiting an opinion from the city attorney on when or how the findings should be released.

Last week, Haupt suggested that the city should include prohibitions against disclosing the results of a closed session in its proposed ethics ordinance.

The issue of whether the results of the inquiry should have been released is the latest in a long line of controversies involving the compost hauling contract.

The controversy began last summer when Matula, with Asaro's approval, awarded an $18,200 contract to Albrecht Enterprises, which is owned by Robert Albrecht, the mayor's brother.

Under city policy, contracts over $5,000 must be approved by a committee. Matula and Asaro, however, said that they had no time to get the Public Works Committee's approval in order to take advantage of a limited-time offer of a nursery to accept the compost without charge. They maintain that the situation was an emergency and that they actually saved the city money.

As a longtime city employee, Matula should have been careful to follow policy, by giving all contractors the same specifications for the bid, and consider the appearance of giving an irregular contract to the mayor's brother, Haupt said.

Matula said he declined comment on the advice of his lawyer.

Haupt said the committee also recommended that the incident be considered at Asaro's evaluation by the City Council this month, which will probably result in no raise for the city manager.

However, the committee cannot dole out discipline: that authority belongs to the city manager. Asaro declined to discuss whether he would or has carried out the recommendations.

The recommendations included no actions against Robert Albrecht or his company since no collusion could be found, Haupt said.

LOAD-DATE: 02-15-92

SECTION: NORTHWEST; Pg. 6; ZONE: NW

LENGTH: 437 words

HEADLINE: Waste site foes won't back down
Des Plaines residents to protest transfer station permits

BYLINE: By Carol Vinzant

BODY:

Undaunted by official approval of a garbage transfer station along the Des Plaines River, local environmental groups and area residents vowed Tuesday to continue their grass-roots protest aimed at scuttling the project before construction begins.

Ald. Nick Chiropolos of Des Plaines said a group of local residents will solicit the help of legislators and will consider staging demonstrations when construction of the facility is to begin in June.

The citizens also will protest the granting of further permits to the garbage-baling station, which was approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency on Friday.

"We're up against money and power," Chiropolos said. "This is strictly power politics."

The transfer station, which was proposed by the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, is to be built near River and Central Roads on unincorporated land near Des Plaines.

According to the waste agency, a coalition of 26 municipalities, the relatively new process of compacting and baling garbage will cut down on the use of landfill space. But detractors of the plan contend that the long-term effects on the environment are not known.

Opponents of the transfer station claim that potentially toxic liquid squeezed out of the garbage in the baling process and drained into sewers will be released into the Des Plaines River during heavy rains. They also object to the site because of possible odor, traffic and flooding problems.

Permits for the project are still needed for sewer usage and air filtration, said William Abolt, executive director of the waste agency.

The project may also be required to get yet another permit if authorities determine that the station would interfere with wetlands.

Abolt on Tuesday criticized continued opposition to the baling station.

"Continued efforts to stand in the way of any other permits are not based on substantive issues," Abolt said. "The major issues, traffic, flooding, were all resolved a long time ago by the cOunty Board."

Chiropolos said he will also propose at Des Plaines budget hearings Wednesday night that the city suspend funding to the waste agency and consider withdrawing from the coalition.

City Manager Larry Asaro said pulling out from the agency would be difficult because it would require the city to pay its share, about $1.25 million, of the coalition's debt immediately.

The $18 million transfer station, set to be completed in 1994, is part of a $65 million baling project that includes a balefill bordering Bartlett and Elgin and two other stations in Rolling Meadows and Elk Grove Township.

LOAD-DATE: 02-13-92