Despite past allegations, Rosemont re-ups security contract with Monterrey
Rosemont has re-upped with a clout-heavy Chicago security firm to handle crowd control and entry checkpoints at village event venues, despite past questions over the original 2015 deal.
As a result, the new three-year contract with Monterrey Security Consultants now includes a "no black cloud" provision that requires the firm to notify the village if the company is ever placed under investigation. If so, it could be grounds for termination.
Mayor Brad Stephens said the new contract language was the idea of Trustee Jack Dorgan, who suggested Monterrey sign an affidavit agreeing to those terms.
"Monterrey sent it back within 15 minutes," Stephens said after the village board's approval of the security services agreement Monday.
Stephens has long-denied corruption allegations tied to the 2015 no-bid deal published in a July 2019 Chicago Sun-Times story. The report, citing unnamed sources, said FBI agents were interviewing current and former village employees about the Monterrey agreement, as well as problems within the village's public safety department.
Despite the village's long history of no-bid deals and Stephens' defense of the Monterrey selection, the allegations led the mayor and his staff to launch a formal request for qualifications in June. Monterrey and three other private security firms applied, but an internal village committee ended up staying with Monterrey.
"They by far are the most experienced," Stephens said, adding that the other firms wouldn't be able to provide as large of a level of staffing for bigger events.
The village selection committee included Matt Rose, one of the village's attorneys; event venue managers; and public safety department officials.
The contract will provide armed and unarmed Monterrey security guards for events at the Allstate Arena, Rosemont Theatre, Parkway Bank Park and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.
In the 38-page request for qualifications, village officials encouraged the selected firm to hire off-duty and retired Rosemont officers "because it provides highly-qualified and experienced staff with specialized knowledge of the village's security and law enforcement needs." Others hired to work security can be sworn, off-duty officers in Illinois in good standing or recently separated in good standing, and have no known history in the last five years of excessive force, false arrest, harassment or similar conduct, according to the village document.
The village previously kept some 90 sworn or retired police officers from Rosemont and other towns on call as so-called "security specialists" to handle off-duty work at the village-owned venues. But officials decided to outsource security with an eye toward reducing costs and liability.
In a separate three-year contract approved this week, the village hired Aurora-based Andy Frain Services to provide ushers at village venues, marking a return of the legacied local firm to Rosemont. The village had been using ushers under a deal with Event Venue Services, run by Rosemont Exposition Services, but the division is no longer in operation.