Perk For Burr Ridge Eatery Granted Properly: Official

BURR RIDGE, IL – The former top official of Pace, a suburban bus agency, had the power to grant a Burr Ridge restaurant a decade's free use of a parking lot at night, an official said Thursday.

According to Pace's records, Capri Ristorante in Burr Ridge is the only private business in the suburbs to receive such a perk.

In an interview, the agency's spokeswoman, Maggie Daly Skogsbakken, said such agreements would be approved on a case-by-case basis. They are reviewed by the agency's lawyer, she said.

In the case of Capri Ristorante, the agreement never went through the agency's board.

Patch asked Skogsbakken whether the executive director may approve such an agreement in the future without going through the board.

She said the executive director "might or might not."

"It's difficult for me to anticipate," she said.

The agreement in question was approved by then-Executive Director TJ Ross in 2015. Ross, who was at the helm for two decades, retired in late 2018.

Asked which businesses could get such a benefit, Skogsbakken said, "If a request comes in where we can help a community, we will look at it."

If the request for Capri Ristorante came from the village, it was unclear who took the lead.

Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso has close ties to Capri Ristorante's owner, Filippo "Gigi" Rovito. As a lawyer, Grasso has represented Rovito in a number of instances.

Grasso served as mayor from 2005 to 2012, leaving when he was elected to the DuPage County Board. He returned as mayor in 2019. While he was away, his wife, Janet, won a four-year village trustee term in 2015, a month after the agreement was signed.

The Grassos' son, Michael Grasso, owns BLU Valet, which provides valet services for Capri Ristorante. The valets often park cars in the nearby Pace parking lot.

Over the years, Capri Ristorante's representatives have touted the agreement with Pace when parking issues have come up at County Line Square, where the restaurant is.

Last year, Rovito proposed a lounge called Are We Live at the shopping center. Protesting neighbors worried about issues such as noise and parking. They pointed to the agreement with Pace, with their attorney, Neal Smith, questioning it. He argued a government body could not grant free use of property to a private business.

Zach Mottl, a former village trustee, filed an ethics complaint about the agreement with the state's inspector general. The inspector general turned over the matter to Pace for an investigation.

Pace has apparently finished the inquiry. But the agency declined this week to release its report in response to Patch's public records request. It pointed to a provision in state law that allowed it to keep the records in question secret.