Beverly Man Who Placed 'Malicious' Robocalls Has Ties To Oak Lawn Trustee

By Lorraine Swanson | Patch Editor (Patch Staff)

Caption: Cached version from the Illinois Energy Aggregation website.

The Beverly man involved in the so-called “malicious” robocalls placed to Republican election judges before the Nov. 4 election has ties to Oak Lawn’s longest serving village trustee.

James “Jim” Parrilli, was involved as a “marketing representative” for Illinois Energy Aggregation, a company started by Tr. Bob Streit (Dist. 3) and his business partner, attorney Dennis Brennan.

Streit and Brennan hire themselves out as brokers and consultants to municipalities and institutions, purchasing energy from alternative electricity suppliers at a lower rate. Their consultancy fees are included in the negotiated rates that are passed on to the institution or consumer.

The website for the company is currently being redesigned, with most of the navigation links leading to dead pages, but a cached version of the IEA website lists Parrilli as a “marketing representative.”

Streit lists himself as the company’s “president and managing partner.” Efforts to reach Streit and Brennan were unsuccessful.

The Beverly resident confirmed that he had worked for Streit’s energy aggregation company “a few years ago.”

Parrilli gained notoriety after identified himself in a series of robocalls made to Republican election judges that additional training sessions would be held the Saturday before last week’s midterm election. The Southwest Side locations where Republican elections were to report for training turned out to be vacant lots and clothing stores.

The “bogus” calls were denounced by the Cook County Republican Party and were said to disrupt the Nov. 4 election when 2,000 Republican judges failed to show up at the polls on election day. Election judges were paid $170 for the day’s work.

“We feel that there was malicious intent,” said Chicago Board of Elections Chairman Langdon Neal.

The calls are now the subject of a criminal probe launched by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, the Sun-Times reported. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has also called for hearings before the Chicago City Council.

Parrilli lost his bid last week in his run for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board. In addition to serving as the elected GOP committeeman for the 19th Ward, Parrilli is the former mayor of Maywood and former Republican committeeman for Proviso Township.

Although he has reportedly “lawyered up,”Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown said, Parrilli told Patch that “a few things need to be resolved” before he would be issuing a statement.

After mentioning that he had identified himself in the robocalls amid accusations that his intent was malicious, Parrilli responded, “exactly.”

“You can listen to the calls on WGN,” Parrilli added.

Neither Parrilli nor another GOP “election judge coordinator,” Sharon Meroni, who also placed robocalls, have been charged with wrongdoing.

In June 2012, another associate from Streit’s energy aggregation company, former Cook County Commissioner Mario Moreno, abruptly resigned and transferred his 100 shares after being indicted on federal corruption charges.

Moreno pleaded guilty to one count of extortionand received an 11-year prison sentence. The ex-Cook County Commissioner’s crime did not involve Illinois Energy Aggregation.