Rolling Meadows, Palatine mayors want ‘seat at the table’ of potential Bears stadium authority

Ahead of what could be a consequential Illinois General Assembly session for the Chicago Bears’ future in Illinois, Rolling Meadows and Palatine officials Thursday called on state lawmakers to give them a role in overseeing a potential stadium next door in Arlington Heights.

The elected councils in the two Northwest suburbs that border the Bears’ 326-acre Arlington Park property will vote early next week on resolutions formalizing that request. Lawmakers return to Springfield for the start of the fall veto session Tuesday.

The General Assembly is expected to consider legislation allowing Arlington Heights to create a municipal stadium authority, clearing the way for the Bears to build a publicly-owned stadium at Arlington Park without paying property taxes.

The bill is seen as a vehicle to keep the Bears in Illinois — whether in Arlington Heights, Chicago or another Cook County municipality with a population above 70,000 — and keep the NFL franchise from utilizing similar legislation approved by Indiana.

As proposed, Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia would have the power to appoint all five voting members of the authority’s board of directors.

Mayors of Rolling Meadows and Palatine each want to be able to appoint a member of their own, calling for the potential governing board to be expanded to seven. Under their proposal, any town within a half-mile of a local stadium authority’s territory would get a seat on the panel.

“We want the Bears to stay in Illinois, and keeping them here should include the communities that will live next door,” Rolling Meadows Mayor Lara Sanoica said in a joint announcement with Palatine’s Jim Schwantz Thursday afternoon. “We are asking for a seat at the table on decisions our residents will live with for decades.”

Schwantz stressed the communities “are not asking to control this project.”

“A seat on the authority makes sure the transportation, infrastructure and public safety needs of our residents are part of the conversation from the start,” he added.

Reached after the announcement from his neighbors, Tinaglia committed to “never forget” about Rolling Meadows or Palatine as stadium planning discussions continue. However, Tinaglia suggested that collaboration would take the form of intergovernmental agreements among the towns or an advisory commission, as opposed to seats on the authority board.

“We’ll work together to make sure that they’re heard and that their concerns are understood and tackled,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that they are partners with us on this thing for sure.

“I’m not sure how this stadium authority exactly gets appointed,” he added, “but we’re going to do it in a really, really transparent, smart way so that all the bases are covered and everybody has what they deserve coming to them.”

The latest request comes months after Sanoica and Schwantz, along with Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly, asked to be involved in the planning of infrastructure upgrades around the Arlington Park site.

While supportive of a Bears move to their backyards because of what it could mean for economic development, the mayors also have pressed the team to complete a transportation/traffic study that would substantiate the club’s request for $850 million in public infrastructure funds.

In the proposed resolutions — to be considered by the Palatine village council at 7 p.m. Monday and the Rolling Meadows council at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday — officials from the two towns say local communities should have “a voice in the transportation, infrastructure and public safety decisions they will live with, not only when the stadium opens, but when its lease ends, its bonds are retired, and the question of what comes next arrives.”

They also note regional models for NFL stadiums across the country, saying that most are governed by states, a legislated partnership of affected local governments, or both. As part of their public pitch, Rolling Meadows officials also released a 64-page report on the city website that outlines every stadium authority in the NFL and how it is governed.

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority — the state agency that oversees Rate Field and financed the 2003 renovations of Soldier Field — is governed by a seven-member board: three members are appointed by the governor, three by the Chicago mayor, and the board chair is appointed by the governor with the consent of the mayor.

“Boards like this exist across the country and include neighboring governments that share the impacts of the stadium,” Schwantz said. “Any public authority will be stronger with members who bring independent judgment and answer to more than one constituency or unit of government.”

cplacek@dailyherald.com