The closer the election, the bigger the lies

Burr Ridge IL

01 April, 2021

12:35 PM

Description

Election Day for seats on the Burr Ridge Board is approaching, and my political opponents, feeling the heat from my inquiries into their secret deals in village government and their other questionable business activities, have fabricated several lies about me. The lies include a false accusation that I bribed a Cook County Commissioner to get tax relief for my family's business, Atlas Tool Works in Lyons, and that I support defunding the police. They have even put words in my mouth about women and residents -- words I never said. These are slanderous lies, supported by absolutely nothing. This is a case of dirty politics at its worst. And their behavior says more about them than it does about me. Grasso and his rubber-stamp board have knowingly and maliciously manipulated the facts to defame and damage me. Why? Because I won't stop shining the bright spotlight of transparency and good government. As a result, they want to grind me out, ruin my business, hurt my family, scare me off, and generally trick the voters into thinking I'm the bad guy. The opposite is the truth. The tax break they have referred to was obtained without political help. It was a simple matter of completing the application and qualifying based on objective metrics. Anything the Cook County Commissioners had to do with the process was a "Ministerial Act," meaning it was not discretionary and they were obligated to approve it as part of their official duties. Our company met the qualifications established under their law. All the records concerning this are open for anyone to see. By the way, the tax relief we earned through legitimately qualifying for the program helped immeasurably. I have since hired over 20 new employees at high salaries and have invested millions back into the business. As a result, our business is now thriving. My family and I are delighted to share the good times with our amazing team, all of whom have enjoyed raises and multiple rounds of bonuses since we got the company back on track. Our company has also been a good corporate citizen, even donating $25,000 to the Amita Health Foundation in the early days of the pandemic to help ensure our own Hinsdale hospital had enough PPE and ventilators. So I'm working hard at growing the tax base in our region and helping families put food on their tables. What makes the career politicians, including my opponents, angry is they want that money for themselves so they can reward their cronies with our tax dollars. And here's the blatant hypocrisy of my opponents: they approved giving the same type of property tax break to Trustee Schiappa's buddy from Oremus Materials. Schiappa promised the town would see significant sales tax revenue, $200,000+ a year, but that turned out to be a bait-and-switch. After Oremus got support from Burr Ridge for its property tax break, we found out most of their sales were non-taxable, resulting in minimal sales tax revenue for Burr Ridge. Regardless, I would have supported their 6b (the property tax incentive for businesses) because it's one of the most important economic development tools Cook County has. Without it, there is little reason for companies like mine or Oremus, and our resulting jobs, to stay in Cook County. Adding to the steaming pile of hypocrisy from my opponents, residents will recall that during my run for Burr Ridge Village President in 2019 the very same people who are now engaging in the nastiest campaign Burr Ridge has ever seen said that they were against negative campaigning. In fact, Grasso himself stated, "because he [Mottl] brought gutter politics into the Burr Ridge Mayoral race in 2019, I have sued Mottl." Yet today we have Grasso and his rubber-stamp board practicing far worse against me and at times against my running mate, Elena Galinski. What I said about Grasso's tax fraud was true. He would like you to think it's not, but he was double dipping on tax exemptions. In contrast, the libelous things my opponents have published don't have a shred of truth. Those who have published these false things will be dealt with appropriately, in time. For now, and what the voters of Burr Ridge should be asking, is which of these two factions is actually offering to take care of the things we care about? Citizens have told me they don't like the acrimony and I'm sorry this is how it's come to be; I had no idea doing the right thing could be so hard. And I understand that no one really cares about what they have done to me. But I also know residents do care about issues that matter to them like taxes, crime, roads, sidewalks and services like snow plowing. The residents who think critically and objectively now know that, together with Elena Galinski, I'll do the hard work to stand up for your interests. I'll fight for transparency, ending wasteful spending, bring back competitive bidding on all contracts, lower your property taxes, keep organized crime out of town and more. I'll demand that we get the most out of our tax dollars and that our police have the gear and the motivation to actually do something about the rising property crime in town. Contrary to what my opponents claim, if you look at the actual votes they reference, I do support a secure and safe town. A smart resident checked the record and here is what she found: 2-22-21 - Mottl voted YES to purchase ballistic shield for police 12-14-20 Mottl voted FOR subdivision surveillance camera 11-9-20 - Mottl voted FOR additional police training 10-26-20 - Mottl made a motion (passed) for subdivision surveillance camera 10-12-20 - Mottl voted FOR training for a new police officer; voted FOR subdivision surveillance camera; voted AGAINST a suggested elimination of rank of police corporal, 5-26-20 - Mottl voted FOR the purchase of additional ammunition for police 3-9-20 - Mottl voted FOR hiring one patrol officer and one sergeant While I do support the police, I also support holding our entire staff accountable to do better. No one is above improvement, including the police. With Elena's background in quality data and metrics, we will make Burr Ridge use objective metrics to measure how successful our police force is with our tax money and how well the public works team is doing on snow plowing and other work. We will be using actual data, not opinions and feelings, to hold ourselves accountable. Elena and I will make sure that residents get a new and easy to search website where meeting notices, minutes, FOIA's, and other information is open and easy to find. We will make sure budget reporting is done at least monthly and that all expenses are compared back to the actual budget. And we will make sure that without all the waste, more money is available to pave roads and sidewalks, without raising your taxes. And we will always be open and honest with you and never put our interests over yours. In contrast, what have my opponents offered that really matters to you? Nothing. Their whole campaign is essentially smear and destroy Zach at all costs so we get rid of him and get back to our business. Well what business is that? It seems to be the business of quietly and calmly dealing themselves and their buddies fistfuls of our tax dollars while keeping residents in the dark. It seems to be about forcing out older, experienced employees at great expense and risk to the village. It seems to be about making sure organized crime has a happy home here. In fact, on April 19th, just after the election, the planning commission will take the first steps to approve giving a convicted violent rapist and heroin dealer with known ties to organized crime a nightclub that will create more noise and crime for already aggravated residents. Their business is about bringing in a conflicted judge to oversee a kangaroo court so they can squeeze more dollars out of residents with less accountability, and so they can make life easy for their buddies but harder for the rest of us. Their business is about more trucks in town and the resulting noise and damage to our roads, streets being one of the most expensive systems Burr Ridge has to maintain, yet zero taxes to help pay for them. I said we should have put a gas station there to generate revenue for the town but no good ideas from me ever fly with this rubber-stamp board. If they win, Grasso will have total control of his rubber-stamp board. No board voice will be left to challenge him. Hiking his pay by 200% will be just the start. At a recent board meeting, Trustee Franzese said that he would be open to raising the pay of all the elected officials in town. So residents should expect Grasso will get the 500% increase he was originally seeking and so will everyone else. Then, they will bring back home rule, which we already defeated once. In every one of these cases, I was the ONLY voice speaking out against these bad policy decisions. I'm taking on the corrupt, career politicians and trying to get our Burr Ridge government to operate in an honest, efficient and transparent manner. If I fail, you only need to look to towns like McCook, Rosemont, and Cicero to know what Burr Ridge will become. Help me continue my good work by voting only for me and my friend, Elena Galinski, for Burr Ridge Trustee on Tuesday, April 6. Vote for the two of us to send a loud message that corruption, cronyism, and the resulting tax hikes will not be tolerated here.