Secrecy is the cost driver in Burr Ridge government

Burr Ridge IL

01 March, 2021

12:09 PM

Description

In trying to fabricate a controversy out of the cost of my Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Mayor Gary Grasso and his go-along board have unwittingly exposed the real problem plaguing the cost of governing Burr Ridge – lack of transparency. If I as a trustee have to FOIA to get information that under law should be available to everyone, imagine how little of the truth Burr Ridge residents are getting about what's going on with their government. That's why one of Elena Galinski's and my promises after we get elected on April 6 is complete transparency of all government activities, and the posting and quick resolution of every FOIA request on the village's website. In addition, we intend to end the practice of paying lawyers for their counsel in how to respond to FOIA requests, unless it's absolutely necessary. Good, honest government doesn't need a fleet of lawyers, and their high hourly fees. In fact, the more open government the fewer the lawyers needed. Transparency is free. As former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, quoting the Freedom of Information Act, reminded us: "It is a fundamental obligation of government to operate openly and provide public records as expediently and efficiently as possible in compliance with the act…all records in the custody or possession of a public body are presumed to be open to inspection or copying." Only a government agency seeking to block or withhold information needs lawyers involved in FOIA's to the degree we see in Burr Ridge. Otherwise, well-trained FOIA officers, meaning regular office staff at the village, should be able to handle 99% of the FOIA requests. Another major concern is that Burr Ridge has zero controls in place to rein in these excessive legal bills, because the mayor and members of the board clearly don't view the costs as problematic. Legal spending is approved after the fact, once the charges are already incurred, and without the Board knowing what the lawyers even charged for. No detailed billing is provided to the Board. Who is allowing this? The rubber-stamp board, that's who. At the last Board meeting on February 22, I literally had to pound the table to wake the trustees from their slumber so they would not agree to pay a $25,000+ bill that no one, not even the lawyers who billed us, could offer one word of explanation what it was for. Without me fighting for the taxpayers, the bill would have been approved. That's gross fiscal negligence, and it's unnecessarily costly to the taxpayers. Speaking of wasting money, take the case of the suspension of our Finance Director Jerry Sapp. We still have no idea why Jerry isn't back working full-time when he's indicated to me and others that he wants to return. Meanwhile, we are still paying his salary of $130,000 a year, and just in the past two months alone we have spent $13,000 in legal fees in a dispute over his suspension. We have spent thousands more in prior months, and by my tabulation, the village's bill is approaching $100,000 in legal costs and other expenses related to this mess. But that $100,000 is nothing compared to what could be coming down the road – an age discrimination suit that could cost Burr Ridge over seven figures. It's on record that Grasso suspended Jerry to make way for "younger qualified candidates." Another case of lack of transparency and responsiveness to residents is Jennifer Fox's story of essentially being a prisoner in her home every weekend last summer because of the noise coming from the County Wine Merchant. Jennifer told the Patch that the noise from drunken karaoke singers was "brutally unbearable." She called the police multiple times but apparently a noise ordinance we have in Burr Ridge was never enforced. Jennifer was told by the police, in fact, that they could do nothing about it since there was no noise ordinance. This makes no sense. I would like to get to the bottom of this quickly, but I will likely yet again have to resort to FOIAing the village since the Chief of Police and village staff won't answer my emails. That's unfortunate because this should have been addressed directly by the mayor at last Monday's meeting with promises of arriving at a solution. Instead, Grasso said he had spoken with Jennifer and that she had a valid complaint. "I think you and I are on the same page," he told her. Tell us exactly what page is that Mr. Mayor? No doubt others have some of the same complaints, but they are either too intimidated to come forward, or believe it won't do them any good to come forward. It's a sad state of affairs when our residents suffer at the hands of a government hiding behind high-priced lawyers, and obscuring the truth so they can protect insiders, cronies, and campaign donors.