Zach Mottl Running for Trustee While Bribing Cook County Official

Burr Ridge IL

08 March, 2021

11:07 AM

Description

In 2018, Atlas Tool and Die Works and its owner Burr Ridge Trustee Zach Mottl, located in Lyons, Illinois, applied for a Cook County Class 6B Sustainable Emergency Relief Property Tax Incentive (SER). The SER is designed to provide emergency property tax relief to Cook County industries. Amongst a variety of qualifications for the program, the applicant (company) must submit evidence of economic hardship and blight. http://blog.cookcountyil.gov/e... In July of 2018, Atlas' application for the SER to the Cook County Board of Commissioners stalled in some lower committee of the Cook County Board. Atlas' owner and Burr Ridge Trustee Zach Mottl stepped up and reached out to Jeff Tobolski, Cook County Board member (at the time) representing Lyons. Mottl agreed to pay a $750 "campaign donation" to now convicted felon Jeff Tobolski who promised to "sponsor" Mottl's SER application— insuring its passage by the Board. Link to the self-admitted bribe:https://www.bettergov.org/news... Zach Mottl agreed to the deal and paid the $750 bribe to Tobolski—who is now cooperating with federal investigators after he plead guilty to federal corruption charges and admitting to having accepted multiple bribes totaling more than $250,000. Mott's payment to Tobolski is reported as deposited on September 30, 2018. See page 3 in the attached link:https://www.elections.il.gov/C... Jeff Tobolski held up his end of the bargain, sponsored the application, and the Class 6B SER was approved by the full County Board on September 12, 2018. Please see https://cook-county.legistar.c... Keep in mind that this property tax break will cost all other tax paying citizens in Cook County over $870,000 for the first ten years it is in force. In his own emails to felon Jeff Tobolski, Zach Mottl claims Atlas is "bleeding cash pretty badly", "literally sweating payroll", "running on fumes", and that "every single dollar matters." These emails are at the bottom of the bribe article referenced above. Sounds like Atlas is in dire straits and really, really, really needs the property tax help from Cook County, doesn't it??? WRONG! No sooner than eight (8) days after the Cook County Board approved the SER for Mottl's company Atlas, with Zach Mottl in charge, began donating large amounts of cash to Mottl's failed D86 referendum opposition: the "District 86 Vote No on Tax Increase" Political Action Committee (PAC) of which Zach Mottl is the Chairman. From the period September 20, 2018 to May 11, 2019, Mottl's company Atlas donated a total of $31,669.80 to his D86 Vote No campaign. See pages 8 and 9:https://www.elections.il.gov/C... Wait—there is more: Trustee Zach Mottl's company Atlas donated more cash, a total $10,532.40 to Zach's Political Action Committee (PAC) "ZAX PAC" for his failed 2019 Burr Ridge Mayoral campaign. See pages 8 and 9 of https://www.elections.il.gov/C... A grand total of $42,201.48 is donated by Trustee Zach Mottl's company Atlas Tool and Die Works to his own two political action committees. Yet Zach cries poor, claiming Atlas is "bleeding cash pretty badly", "literally sweating payroll", "running on fumes", and that "every single dollar matters". Zach Mottl throws a lot of cash around for his personal political agendas even though he claims to be "poor" to the Cook County Board to get the $870,000 property tax relief. Now all of the Cook County taxpayers must pay for his greed and selfishness.