Matt Murphy, a former Republican state senator from Palatine, is now working as a lobbyist for Arlington Heights during ongoing Bears stadium negotiations.
Associated Press File Photo 2016
Arlington Heights officials have re-upped their contract with two lobbying firms for another year — to the tune of $120,000 — representing their interests in the stalled, yet ongoing, Bears stadium saga.
The $10,000-a-month consulting agreement with Mac Strategies Group gives the Northwest suburban municipality a seat at the table in Springfield, where the NFL franchise’s ask for subsidies for a new stadium — at either the 326-acre Arlington Park site the team owns, or the Chicago lakefront — have been rejected so far.
Mac is led by political and media operative Ryan McLaughlin, and counts former Palatine Republican state Sen. Matt Murphy among its top advisers. Murphy has worked behind the scenes with Arlington Heights officials on their proposed settlement of the long-running Arlington Park property tax dispute between the Bears and three local school districts, the Daily Herald reported last December.
Ryan McLaughlin
Half of Mac’s monthly retainer paid by the village is funneled to a subcontractor, GR Consulting, led by former Chicago Democratic state Rep. Art Turner Jr. and Larry Luster, a former communications staffer for the Illinois Senate Democrats and Black Caucus.
Village Manager Randy Recklaus said he and other village officials are in contact with the lobbyists more than once a week, and those meetings are only expected to ramp up when the General Assembly returns to session in November.
“Obviously this is a major development, and we want to make sure number one that we’re aware of what’s going on in all of these different places, and number two that we’re communicating with all of the right people and getting our message out and making sure that we’re doing all we can to protect our interests,” Recklaus said.
Randy Recklaus
The new agreement, approved by the village board earlier this week, is for one year, but the parties have the ability to get out earlier.
The three school districts — Palatine Township Elementary District 15, Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 — had an initial one-year agreement with lobbying firm Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies until last February. The contract is now month to month, with the three districts splitting the $9,000-per-month fee, a spokesman for the districts said Thursday.
The Bears have a roster of lobbyists walking the halls of the state capitol and Chicago City Hall, where they convinced Mayor Brandon Johnson to endorse their latest proposal for a new $4.7 billion stadium and redevelopment on the lakefront. The deep bench includes Craig Willert Consulting, Government Solutions Group, Maxfair, Sorling Northrup and Point of Difference Strategies, according to lobbyist registration filings with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office.
Lisa Duarte
Leading the Bears’ legislative efforts is the last firm’s principal, Lisa Duarte, who was Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first assistant deputy governor for budget and economy. Duarte helped negotiate the gambling expansion bill and consolidation of police and fire pension systems, and was responsible for identifying essential and nonessential businesses under the Restore Illinois plan during the pandemic.
Pritzker and leaders of both legislative chambers hold the purse strings to public subsidies, and the governor has said it would be “near impossible” for any Bears legislation to get done in the upcoming fall veto session.
At an unrelated news conference last week in Algonquin, Gov. J.B. Pritzker reiterated that the Bears’ latest stadium proposal and bid for public subsidies is a “non-starter” for him and legislative leaders.
Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
“What I’ve said is that what they’ve put forward is a non-starter. That doesn’t mean that the state can’t be involved in any way,” Pritzker told the Daily Herald last week. “It does mean though that they’ve got to come back with something that’s tenable for the taxpayers of Illinois so that we end up not being on the hook in a way that’s going to cost people more money.”
“I’m happy to listen to any proposals that come, but right now I haven’t heard something that would make sense for taxpayers or Springfield,” he added.
· Daily Herald staff writer Alicia Fabbre contributed to this report.