Burr Ridge Mayor Accused of Lying. Did He?

BURR RIDGE, IL — A Burr Ridge resident this week accused the mayor of lying at a Village Board meeting. It was during a discussion over whether the village should increase the mayoral salary to $30,000, from $6,000 currently.

Did the mayor lie? The short answer is no.

Resident Patricia Davis, who has researched mayoral salaries in nearby towns, told the board that the mayor of Willowbrook, Frank Trilla, makes $18,000 a year. But Mayor Gary Grasso said the number was $25,000, a number he used in a letter to residents.

"That's a lie, mayor. Sorry," Davis said.

Grasso said Davis was mistaken.

"I would never call you what you called me," he said.

As it turns out, the mayor of Willowbrook's total salary is $24,000. Of that salary, $6,000 is for the mayor's responsibility as liquor control commissioner. Under state law, mayors serve in that role. That is reflected in Willowbrook's liquor control ordinance, which sets the $6,000 salary.

Despite this, Davis has emails from Willowbrook officials saying that the mayor has been collecting $18,000 a year. That also is true.

Trilla does not perform the liquor control duties, which have been handed to one of the village trustees, who collects the $6,000. So Trilla has been getting $18,000 a year.

But under village ordinances, the Willowbrook mayor has the right to collect a total of $24,000, one of the highest mayoral salaries in the area.

Contacted by email, Davis was not willing to concede her charge that the mayor was lying.

In her email, she quoted Dr. Seuss, 'I meant what I said and I said what I meant.' She said Grasso gave the wrong number in the letter to residents.

"Of course he is going to try to inflate the reporting of salaries to justify his own 500% raise," Davis said in the email. "My spreadsheet gives FACTS derived from extensive research. The numbers don’t lie. Mayor Grasso is just plain WRONG, and he didn’t appreciate being called out on it, but that’s par for the course for our mayor."

She did not answer requests for a phone interview.

In an email to Patch, Grasso said his recollection was that Trilla told him the compensation for liquor commissioner was $7,000, but it is actually $6,000.

"Mayor Trilla is the rare exception for a mayor in designating the role to someone else. As I stated — he chose not to be (liquor commissioner) and that money is being paid to his designee," Grasso said. "But my statements were more accurate that Ms. Davis' statements and her public slur of me at the Board meeting was unjustified and unwarranted."