City lawyers to Felony Franks: Buy your sign

Sign will go before city council in two weeks

05/26/2011 3:54 PM

By Ben Meyerson
Editor

2 Comments - Add Your Comment


Outside Felony Franks at Western Avenue and Jackson Boulevard, the restaurant's sign frame hangs empty over the sidewalk. Photo by J. GEIL/Staff Photographer

Felony Franks, the controversial Near West Side fast-food joint, is finally ordering the sign they say is needed to do business.

But there’s just one wrinkle. The city hasn’t technically approved it yet. Instead, it was part of an agreement struck between Felony Franks’ lawyer and the city’s lawyers Thursday morning at federal court, where the hot dog shop’s lawsuit against the city is playing out.

Felony Franks owner Jim Andrews filed a federal suit earlier this month against the city, Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) and three other aldermen, saying that they have unreasonably denied him his First Amendment right to free speech by not giving him permission to hang a sign extending over the sidewalk outside his shop at Western Avenue and Jackson Boulevard.

Andrews has said the city has kept him from getting the sign permit just because they don’t like the name of his restaurant. He’s also seeking $293,000 in damages for revenue he’s lost without the sign.

At today’s hearing, Felony Franks’ lawyer Christopher Cooper subpoenaed Fioretti, along with aldermen Pat Dowell (3rd), Willie Cochran (20th) and Ray Suarez (31st), to testify.

However, the city’s lawyers came in with a compromise — a memo stating that several aldermen would not vote against the sign when it came before the committee on Transportation and Public Way at their meeting on June 6. It would be voted on by the full city council on June 8.

On top of that, city attorney Michael Forti told Andrews that while they aren’t allowed to put up a sign until the city council approves it, as a gesture of good faith, they should go ahead and order their sign so it could be ready to go.

Cooper said Forti also told him that if the council somehow didn’t approve the sign, the city would reimburse Felony Franks for it.

“We’re hopeful that the committee will pass the right-of-way permit,” Forti said, regarding the permit Andrews needs to hang a sign over the sidewalk. “I would be surprised if the full city council voted it down if it was passed by the committee.”

The memo between the city and Felony Franks says that Dowell and Suarez “will not vote in opposition to the ordinance,” but it’s unclear what Fioretti will do.

The draft version of the memo presented in court today also says that Fioretti “will remain silent” during the hearing, and that “Fioretti will not make any efforts whatsoever to defer the ordinance without passage.”

But Fioretti, who brought an independent attorney with him to court, wouldn’t agree to that. It’s unclear what his stance will be going forward, but he won’t sign off on the agreement.

It’s not clear how much the agreement matters. According to Judge Sharon Coleman, it’s not legally binding.

“What this court said in the back is that this is the way we expect this to go,” Coleman said to the attorneys after about three hours’ worth of negotiations. “There’s nothing in this document that has the force of law.”


2 Comments - Add Your Comment



By Guy from Near West
Posted: 05/31/2011 2:42 PM

That's a good point. I'd like to know how much money the city has spent defending itself as a result of these Fioretti-related lawsuits. Is that the type of thing you can FOIA? Might make for a good Journal article.


By Can't believe this is really happening! from It's time to compromise!
Posted: 05/31/2011 2:11 PM

Sadly, hopes dashed, and with unrequited potential, the farce or the tragedy (depending on your point of view) that has been Bob Fioretti's aldermanship has left us with a legacy of expensive lawsuits against the city and its overburdened taxpayers. XO, the Congress Hotel, and now Felony Franks (I think there was one other lawsuit that Fioretti caused but haven't found it YET) could have all been prevented. Fioretti's is simply unwilling to bring people together to discuss difficult situations!