Burr Ridge Lawyers Eye Mayor's Lawsuit Against Rival

Burr Ridge IL

22 March, 2021

8:04 AM

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BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge's lawyers charged the village $35.50 for copies of the mayor's private lawsuit against a trustee. It's a relatively small amount of money. But it raises the question of why the village government would spend money on a copy of a private lawsuit filed by Mayor Gary Grasso against Trustee Zach Mottl. It is separate from village business. When asked Friday about the expenditure, Mayor Gary Grasso said he did not know why the village's law firm, Storino, Ramello & Durkin, spent it. He said he couldn't see an obvious connection to village business, but said he would check with the lawyers. Later Friday, Grasso emailed Patch with an answer. "I checked with counsel today and confirmed that due to Trustee Mottl's bombastic attacks on my ethnicity at Board meetings and the resulting amendments to the defamation complaint because of those attacks, they reviewed the pleadings to see if there was any exposure for the Village," said Grasso, who is Italian American. "Thus, Mottl's detrimental actions continue to cost the village and its taxpayers." The trustees have blamed Mottl for $60,000 in spending related to his public records requests and other issues. Most of that money has gone to the law firm. Mottl disagreed with the number, saying the law firm is charging the village too much. "It's clear they are spending a fortune trying to figure out how to sue me," Mottl said in an email to Patch. "Abusing one's position and using taxpayer money to punish, defame, sue and silence a political opponent is wrong." In the April 2019 mayoral election, Grasso handily defeated Mottl. Afterward, the mayor sued Mottl, claiming the trustee defamed and libeled him in the campaign. Among other statements before the election, Mottl accused the mayor of committing tax fraud because he had taken two homestead property tax exemptions — one in Burr Ridge, the other in Chicago. A person can only take the exemption at one place, a primary residence. The mayor responded that Cook County mistakenly applied an exemption to his Chicago property. In his email to Patch, Mottl said he stood by his contention on the mayor's exemptions as well his allegations that the mayor deals with questionable people. "My criticisms of Mr. Grasso have nothing to do with his ethnicity and everything to do with his actions and behaviors," he said. The trustees have censured Mottl for what they say are ethnic slurs against the mayor. For instance, Mottl regularly calls Grasso "godfather." In the email, Mottl said Grasso, a lawyer, acts like a "godfather" in that he uses the "legal system as his weapon of choice to punish, abuse and silence his critics."