CCTP Campaign Cash Shows Relationship Between Donors, Government

TINLEY PARK, IL — In 2018, Robinson Engineering donated $1,000 to Concerned Citizens for Tinley Park, the political party of mayor Jacob Vandenberg and three sitting trustees. The same year, the Village of Tinley Park paid the firm more than $1.2 million for road work and repair throughout the village.

South Street Development LLC also donated $1,000 to the campaign. In September 2018, the trustees approved that developer’s apartment complex that is planned to go up south side of South Street, just east of Oak Park Avenue.

Martin Ozinga III, too, donated $1,000. The village paid Ozinga Ready Mix Concrete, Inc., his family’s business, $23,302 for construction projects that year.

These, however, were not the party’s top contributors. They tied for 10th place — along with five others — in the list of top 10 campaign contributors for Concerned Citizens for Tinley Park.

In all, Concerned Citizens for Tinley Park, known as CCTP, raised $47,099 from 59 different donors in 2018. Of the 16 contributors listed, nine were paid by the village for contracts and services that year. The largest contract was $1.2 million. The smallest, more than $3,200. One contract was reimbursed.

Does this mean that the village was up for sale in 2018 and campaign dollars were exchanged for lucrative village contracts, as some critics have claimed? Not at all. No evidence exists to support that. Under Illinois law, quid pro quos are illegal, but donating to campaigns and holding government contracts is not.

But what the examples do illustrate is the relationship between the money that finances campaigns and the people or firms that secure a government contracts. Think of it like a calling card, campaign finance experts say: When you’re casting about for windshield or roof repair, the contractor who left his card on your car window just might be the one who gets the job.

Money doesn’t necessarily buy the position. But it can get someone in the door.

“Campaign contributions can make you familiar — they can get phone calls returned and meetings set up, so groups are interested in being on a candidate’s radar screen,” said Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “They want to have access and be favorably perceived.”

Transparency about donations
Although contributions are legal and even routine in municipal elections, the response from the candidates, village and contributors was anything but conventional.

No candidate or representative from CCTP would respond to Patch’s repeated requests for comment. In a Feb. 22 email, an unnamed representative wrote: “What questions do you have regarding the committee?” No further comment was offered after that.

Village administrators quickly complied with formal data requests, however, and when they were pressed to provide more details, they reluctantly agreed. “The Village is under no obligation to provide further explanations of those documents,” Brad Bettenhausen, Tinley’s finance director, wrote in an email to Patch.

Brian Godlewski, who is running for trustee as an independent candidate, disagreed. “It's really important to know who is contributing, especially when someone is doing business with the Village of Tinley Park,” he said.

Rizza Enterprises, which operates Tinley’s longtime car dealerships, donates to multiple candidates each election season. Chief Financial Officer Dan McMillan explained why.

“We don’t expect anything in return,” he said. “But we want to support the community’s candidates, and they tell us that one of the worst parts about running is raising the money.”

“We don’t give large amounts. But we believe it’s a good part of the democratic process to support the campaigns,” he said.

Rizza was the only contributor contacted that responded to requests for comment.

Reviewing campaign contributions and understanding how they influence policy or practice is important, Redfield and other civics experts said, because that information holds elected officials accountable. Citizens need to be able to understand why decisions are made or determine potential conflicts of interest. Transparency, they said, is a civic right.

“They need to know: Is your loyalty to your contributors or is your loyalty with your constituents?” Redfield said.

What the data shows
Patch reviewed the money that CCTP collected through the 2018 reporting season. Reports for the beginning of 2019 are not due until March 31, two days before the April 2 election. In the interest of fairness, Patch decided to review the data available before voters headed to the polls.

None of the candidates have yet reported contributions for the open trustees seats. Independent candidates Brian Godlewski and Jeff Mech said they are self-financing their campaigns and don’t expect to meet the threshold the state requires for filing.

The review showed that ICD Development, also known as Inter Continental Real Estate and Development, topped the donor list with $6,500 to CCTP. The developers designed, built and manage Odyssey Country Club and Odyssey Fun World. Tinley paid the country club $10,089.80 in 2018 for a South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association meeting. SSMMA reimbursed Tinley the money, Bettenhausen said.

Heyday LLC, owners of The Whistle Sports Bar and Grill, and one of the top grossers of video gaming receipts for the state, came in second, with $3,500.

That is unless you couple the amount Joe Rizza Ford donated with South Street Development. Joe Rizza is a partner with South Street Development. Rizza Ford’s $3,500 contribution would push it to second place, with $4,500. Add in the $1,000 from Sosin Arnold, & Schoenbeck — David Sosin is South Street’s attorney — and that pushes the donations to second place.

“This is a project we’ve been doing now for more than 15 years, and we’ve been through many administrations” McMillan said. “They all supported it.”

“As we said, we support the democratic process and we’ve donated to ‘both sides’ of campaigns throughout the years.”

Motivations and explanations
Rizza, however, is not the only one to spread its cash among many candidates. Sosin Arnold, & Schoenbeck, Homewood Disposal, Lenny’s Gas N Wash and South Street Development also donated to trustee Michael Glotz’s campaign coffers. Glotz split from CCTP in 2017 to form his own party, One Tinley Park.

And, like with Rizza, many of the contracts or projects have been in place for years. Robinson Engineering, for example, is a longtime Tinley contractor.

Because other contributors would not respond for comment, it is difficult to know why they opted to back the parties they did. As Redfield pointed out, some may do it because they believe in the candidate’s ability to lead or because they back a party’s policy platform.

And while they may not be trying to influence public policy, whatever the motivation, they should be open about talking about their donations.

The same goes for candidates and public officials, Redfield said.

“I think this is all troublesome,” he added. “It’s troublesome if none of them want to speak about something that really is a matter of public record.”

See Patch's list of CCTP's top contributors with information about work and services they performed for Tinley Park.

• How CCTP spent its money in 2018
• A review of One Tinley Park’s campaign finances
• How One Tinley Park spent its campaign cash