AIRPORT CHIEF TURNS BIG PROFIT ON LAND DEAL
William Gaines and William PreseckyCHICAGO TRIBUNE
Du Page Airport`s top executive made a million-dollar Lombard land deal after a village official with airport contracts voted to rezone the executive`s property.
That vote proved a boon to airport director Roger Marquardt, whose 6.8-acre homestead was transformed from a residential area to a more lucrative multifamily zone.
Before the rezoning, the property was valued at $216,000, records show. Three months later, Marquardt and his wife sold the land to a developer for $1.1 million.
Critical in rezoning Marquardt`s property was Lombard Trustee Timothy Krisch, a surveyor whose company has received at least $70,000 in no-bid airport work since 1985.
Twenty days after Krisch`s 1989 election to the Lombard Board of Trustees, Marquardt authorized the largest of Krisch`s airport payments, a $15,649 no-bid contract. Three months later, Krisch cast a crucial vote to rezone and annex Marquardt`s property in unincorporated Du Page County, effectively quadrupling its value.
Both men say there was no conflict of interest in Krisch`s voting on Marquardt`s property while he was under contract to the airport director. Krisch, owner of Lombard-based Land Surveying Consultants of Illinois Inc., said he never discussed the land deal with Marquardt before his favorable vote.
Marquardt said that Krisch`s vote merely went along with a master plan for the village that recommended eventual annexation and development of that property. He added that Krisch is a competent surveyor and that he never attempted to influence his vote as a trustee.
''I bet I haven`t talked to Tim Krisch five times in the last five years,'' Marquardt said.
The business relationship with Krisch is one of several that Marquardt maintains that blur the boundaries between his public and private enterprises. Records show that two other men directly involved in the annexation and rezoning last summer of Marquardt`s J-Mar Farms near Illinois Highway 53 and St. Charles Road have also received no-bid airport contracts authorized by Marquardt.
Attorneys John Brechin of Lombard and Joseph Ricely of Glen Ellyn have been paid thousands of dollars in the last two years for work related to the Du Page Metropolitan Airport Authority`s controversial efforts to increase its land holdings to nearly 3,000 acres.
At the same time the two lawyers were under contract at the airport, they were representing the airport director in his private efforts to annex, rezone and sell his property.
Brechin and Ricely are also Republican committeemen in Du Page. In addition, records show that Ricely was the registered agent for an appraisal firm owned by Marquardt`s wife, Judith, a Lombard real estate broker.
The airport has a $705,657 no-bid contract fund for land-acquisition costs, but it is unclear what portion of that the lawyers received, since airport officials have resisted repeated requests to make those totals available.
A review of some receipts, however, shows that Ricely billed the airport $11,000 last year for two months of work related to the airport`s land-acquisition program.
Marquardt, who authorizes those payments, said in an interview Friday that he saw no conflict in any of the relationships and said that to suggest otherwise is ''muckraking.'' In addition, he said there was no reason to require bids on the contracts since the airport pays rates approved by federal aviation regulators.
''Why should we bid?'' Marquardt said. ''They only get paid what the state and feds approve.''
The Tribune reported in May that the 3-year-old airport authority has become a Republican patronage haven and that strong ties to the Du Page County Republican organization characterize much of the authority`s governing board and top officials, as well as its consultants and advisers.
The chronology leading up to Krisch`s vote on the annexation and zoning of Marquardt`s property illustrates some of the questions about potential conflicts of interest at the authority.
In 1988, the Lombard Village Board, as part of a long-range planning process, received a recommendation to extend water and sewer lines to serve the area, including Marquardt`s property if annexed.
Nancy Manna, the Lombard trustee whose district would include the annexed property, voted against the measure, saying she opposed spending taxpayer money to expand the water mains in anticipation of new development. The proposal passed, however.
Krisch later announced his intention to run against Manna and won her seat on the Village Board in April 1989. Three weeks later, Krisch received a $15,649 airport surveying contract, which Marquardt authorized. At the time, Marquardt`s petition for annexation and zoning was pending before the village`s Plan Commission.
In July, the Village Board gave preliminary approval to Marquardt`s proposal. In August, Krisch cast a crucial vote officially annexing Marquardt`s property into Lombard and rezoning it for multifamily
construction.
According to the meeting minutes of the six-member board, an extraordinary majority of five votes was required to approve the annexation. Krisch voted with the majority in approving Marquardt`s proposal by 5-1. Among the other trustees voting to approve the plan were two GOP York Township precinct committeemen.
Marquardt maintains that Lombard Mayor Richard Arnold also cast an affirmative vote, making the tally 6-1, but the minutes do not reflect this and Arnold says he does not remember if he voted.
Krisch, whose Lombard surveying company is undergoing a reorganization of its assets in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, said his airport contract had nothing to do with his favorable vote.
''It might look that way, but it is not true,'' Krisch said. ''I don`t have any contact with Marquardt. He didn`t ask me to vote for it. I voted for the annexation because I`m in favor of the plans for the village to grow in that direction, and it was a key parcel.''
Manna, the trustee whom Krisch beat in the election, said she would have voted against the annexing of Marquardt`s property into her district because no limit was imposed on the number of dwellings that could be built on the rezoned property.
''They gave them carte blanche; they could build as many units as the classification of zoning provided,'' Manna said. ''We never did business like that. A developer had to present a plan.''
Three months after the trustees voted, Marquardt and his wife sold the property to Northbrook-based J.P. O`Connor & Co. for $1.1 million. Plans by the developer call for constructing 111 residential units on the property.