Chuck E. Cheese's dodges hearing
Oak Lawn holds off on disciplinary action for restaurant with history of disorder
Oak Lawn trustees are giving Chuck E. Cheese's another chance.
Despite expressing skepticism that recent safety and security changes implemented by the company will actually solve the restaurant's long-standing problems with fights and disorderly behavior, trustees Tuesday declined to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the children's restaurant chain.
Instead, Trustee Terry Vorderer, who represents the district where the Chuck E. Cheese's outlet is located, suggested forming a committee composed of himself, representatives from the police and fire departments, and citizen representatives from each of the village's six districts to monitor the restaurant's progress for the next six to eight months.
“Personally, I don't think [the problems] are going to end, but I feel it's fairer to give this company a fair shot at it,” said Vorderer, who expressed concern about the cost that any legal wranglings with the corporation might bring.
“It may be well-spent money, eventually,” he said, “but right now, I think I would have to say let's try to work this within our board and our community before we start throwing thousands of taxpayers' dollars and trying to solve it.”
The board's 3-2 decision not to open disciplinary proceedings against Chuck E. Cheese's comes two months after a violent incident inside the restaurant brought renewed attention to ongoing safety concerns there.
On Aug. 27, a male patron head-butted his niece after she spat in the face of his girlfriend, according to a police report. The niece allegedly retaliated by punching him in the face before fleeing the scene, police said.
When an Oak Lawn officer tried to detain the man, he yelled an expletive and shoved the officer, the report states. Police arrested both him and his niece, whom they caught up to at a Walgreens in Evergreen Park, and charged each with battery and disorderly conduct, according to reports.
Since 2011, Oak Lawn police have responded to more than 300 calls and made more than two dozen arrests at the 95th Street restaurant, mostly for battery and disorderly conduct, according to village data.
In one 2012 incident, two men fired multiple shots into a car parked in the Chuck E. Cheese's lot, according to news reports. A 20-year-old man with alleged gang ties who was sitting inside the car is believed to have been the intended target. He was uninjured, and the gunmen escaped.
Over the years, the village has worked with CEC Entertainment, the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese's, to enhance safety at the location.
CEC has installed surveillance cameras and monitors throughout the establishment, rearranged its interior to increase visibility and sight lines, and added “rules of conduct” signage to enhance compliance with restaurant policies.
Chuck E. Cheese's also has paid to have multiple Oak Lawn police officers work a security detail inside the restaurant Thursday through Sunday, and in 2014, it voluntarily relinquished its liquor license.
Even Kimco, which owns the shopping center, has done its part to improve security at the location — enhancing exterior lighting and paying for a police car to sit in the parking lot outside the store, Mayor Sandra Bury said.
Problems have persisted, however.
Following the most recent violent incident in late August, village officials convened a meeting with CEC Entertainment executives, who flew in from Texas, to discuss the latest safety and security issues at the restaurant.
The groups parted with an agreement that CEC that would hire Donald Green, an experienced security consultant and author of a book on shopping center security, to conduct a detailed security assessment at the Oak Lawn location.
CEC provided Green's findings to village trustees in late September and company president Roger Cardinale on Tuesday presented them and the resulting security enhancements his company had made at the Oak Lawn restaurant.
Among the improvements cited were the hiring of an additional off-duty police officer to provide on-site security on weekends; the outfitting of game room attendants in brightly colored vests to make them more identifiable; the enhancement of both interior and exterior lighting; an increase in the prominence of code-of-conduct messaging; and the repositioning of a number of popular games that had been located side-by-side to decrease the potential for crowding.
In addition to in-store enhancements, Cardinale said Chuck E. Cheese's also had taken steps to increase its visibility and involvement in the Oak Lawn community by joining the Chamber of Commerce, arranging for the company's mascot to visit Advocate Children's Hospital and raising funds for the purchase of iPads for children receiving treatment at the hospital. The company plans to hold additional fundraisers in November and December, he said.
“All told, we've spent over $50,000 in executing on our recommendations in Mr. Green's report and in our effort to improve our engagement in Oak Lawn,” Cardinale said. “This investment is money well spent to improve the security of our restaurant for our guests and our employees and repair and restore our reputation in this community.”
While Cardinale's presentation was well received by trustees, officials still expressed doubts that the changes would eliminate the restaurant's problems and wondered what more could be done.
“If all of these things are implemented and all of your suggestions and your expert's suggestions after his next site visit are implemented, and all of those things are implemented and the problem continues, where do we go then?” Bury asked CEC's president.
Cardinale responded that while he could not guarantee that another incident would never occur, the company would do everything in its power to prevent additional violent outbreaks at the establishment.
“I would hate to see that the actions of a few people stop the 100,000 people that come through those doors and all the other kids that find a safe place at Chuck E. Cheese's to have a good time,” said Cardinale, who emphasized that he would feel comfortable allowing his own children to work at the Oak Lawn restaurant.
Alex Olejniczak, one of two trustees who voted to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Chuck E. Cheese's, countered that he would not feel comfortable with his teenage children working at the restaurant and was concerned about the company's “lack of a sense of urgency” about the problems there.
“I'm glad that you came in today, but I read through the whole presentation that you put there, and to me, it's just ‘Give us another chance to continue doing the things that we said we were going to do for years,' ” he said. “And I do believe that enough is enough.”
In the end, however, Vorderer's desire to offer Chuck E. Cheese's an adequate chance to implement its changes won the day.
“The fact that you're here — the [president] of this company — impresses me, and I believe there's a commitment here to make it better,” he said, while acknowledging that he would not hesitate to go forward with disciplinary proceedings if an additional serious incident were to occur at the restaurant.
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