Barrington. A $3 million quid pro quo?
The President and Vice-president of the South Barrington Park District Board of Commissioners are Pete Perisin and Shelby Elias. These two have been instrumental in pushing through the Plymouth Brethren “church” school and superstore deal, by fair means and foul, despite the glaring evidence that this would be detrimental to the community and to the Park District’s tax base.
The million dollar question is…why?
I can tell you exactly why. Pete Perisin and Shelby Elias are both realtors.
www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/.../peter.../aid_89123/
www.compass.com/agents/2306278/
To understand the significance of this, I have to explain some of the extraordinary rules that the PBCC imposes on its members. The PBCC place great importance on living in close proximity to their Gospel Hall or “Church” - ideally within walking distance, but at the very most, within 10 miles.
The present Gospel Hall for the Chicago PBCC congregation is in Melrose Park, due south of O’Hare International Airport. The proposed new Gospel Hall is 27 miles away by road. The 10 mile radius catchment areas for the old and new hall have no overlap - so when the new hall is built, and the old hall closed - every single PBCC household will be moving to the Barrington area - and there are more than 60 households. With the need to both sell their old houses, and to buy new ones, that is 130 or more real estate transactions over the period of a year or two.
The brethren in any congregation will typically all be loyal customers of one or two realtors. That is because they have very specific housing requirements relating to their religious rules, and there is usually an informal “group buying” arrangement where the realtor will tip off the PBCC about suitable properties for homes or halls in exchange for the loyalty of the community. It would be extremely simple for PBCC elders Steve Johnstone and Dale Diener to ensure that Pete Perisin and Shelby Elias got the lion’s share of the brethren members' real estate business, in exchange for facilitating the purchase and rezoning of “Area N” at a remarkably cheap price.
What would a deal like this be worth to our “volunteer” Commissioners, Perisin and Elias?
Brethren do not live in cheap homes. They do not live in townhouses, or apartments. They like to be as far from their neighbors as possible, and nothing suits them better than a McMansion on at least an acre of ground. Their average home value is going to be at least $800,000.
So assuming 130 real estate transactions - 65 sales and 65 purchases, that is a total of $104 million. Taking a conservative realtor’s commission rate of 3% , our friends the President and Vice-President could benefit to the tune of $3,120,000.
The whole scheme is a realtor's wet dream. What other possible use for the land could bring 130 high value transactions in to their bank accounts?
I would suggest that the lawyer for the “various residents of Barrington” brushes up on “Conflict of Interest” law.