Debt, Economic Development Priorities for Park Ridge Mayoral Candidates

There was a noticeable absence at the forum for candidates running for political office in Park Ridge on Thursday — one of two mayoral candidates was not present. Larry Ryles, the challenger candidate to current Mayor David Schmidt in the consolidated election in April, said he declined the invitation from Schmidt to attend because there were not any ground rules for the debate, which both candidates agreed to follow.

“There’s no parameters set; there was no mediator at the time [the debate was presented],” Ryles said. “There were no rules on answers, debates and rebuttals. There has to be rules.”

Ryles said in the other debates Schmidt and he had agreed to — on March 7, 13 and 14, the candidates signed a set of rules they would abide by.

“It’s something hosted by my opponent in an uncontrolled environment,” Ryles said.

Schmidt said he assured Ryles, in an email, that it would be a neutral format, and questions would be taken from anyone in the audience.

“I think what he means by controlled environment is that he doesn’t want to actually debate me,” Schmidt said. “He wants to answer questions without having to respond to points that I might make.”

Ryles said it seemed unusual to receive an invitation to a debate from Schmidt.

“I never heard of an opponent inviting an opponent to a forum, and I don’t know when the mayor’s office got into the business of hosting forums,” Ryles said.

In addition to Schmidt, aldermanic candidates for the Second, Fourth and Sixth Wards spoke at the public forum about their positions on a variety of topics including tree replacement, the city’s tax levy and red-light cameras.

When asked what the biggest problem Park Ridge was facing right now, Schmidt said the debt the city is saddled with from the deficit in the Uptown TIF 1 fund.

A Tax Increment Finance, or TIF, district is created when a local government freezes the tax base on properties within a certain area. All new property taxes in that district, which are generated by an increase in property value since the year the TIF started, are put into a special fund established for redevelopment projects within the district.

Schmidt said, while the city cut expenses and approved budgets with surpluses in the general fund the last three years, the city was paying bond debt for TIF 1 with money from the general fund.

“What this means is that, even though we’re generating surpluses in the general fund and we’ve cut spending, and we have good management of our finances, we’re still hamstrung, we’re still handcuffed by the Uptown TIF debt, which is going to be a constant drain on us,” Schmidt said.

In an interview with Patch, Ryles said the biggest problem Park Ridge was facing was the lack of economic development and no plan.

“We have no economic development director, we have no economic development department, we have no economic development consultant, we have no economic development committee,” Ryles said. “The only way to solve any problems with the TIF, and to solve any problems with the Uptown development is through attracting retail, and making the Uptown development a significant piece of your economic development program.”

Schmidt said the city was meeting with a consultant next week to discuss options for dealing with the Uptown TIF deficit. He said they will look at refinancing and renegotiating payments to local school districts that are part of the TIF agreement.

“Unfortunately the options appear to be very few, and none of them are very good,” Schmidt said.

There was another reason Ryles did not attend the forum on Thursday, he said. Ryles' son was taking part in the arrow of light ceremony, a transition from cub scouts to boy scouts.

“That’s an unmissable thing for a father,” Ryles said.