Burr Ridge Mayor Takes Control Of Info To Patch

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge's mayor has made no secret his distaste for Patch's coverage of village government. Now, he is requiring the village's interim administrator to run comments to Patch past him.

Through a public records request, Patch on Friday obtained an email containing Mayor Gary Grasso's order to interim Village Administrator Evan Walter on the flow of information to Patch.

In late April, Patch sought Walter's comment on a memo in which the village's longtime finance director, Jerry Sapp, said he was told by the village to either resign or retire. At the time, the village was trying to oust the Sapp, who had served in the position for a quarter century. (The village later entered a settlement with Sapp.)

Walter forwarded Patch's request to Grasso, saying, "I will not be responding."

The mayor answered, "Exactly right. Going forward no commentary to him w/o my prior review and approval."

If the public records are an indication, Walter did not forward the mayor's order to other officials and employees in the village government.

On Friday afternoon, Walter emailed to Patch a village policy from 1995 designating the mayor as the village spokesman.

Earlier this year, Grasso accused Patch reporter David Giuliani of being in an alliance with then-Trustee Zach Mottl, the mayor's political rival. The mayor also has taken Patch to task for its reporting on his relationship with Filippo Rovito, owner of Capri Ristorante, who has been the subject of a number of controversies. In particular, Grasso said Giuliani used the word "ties" to describe his connections to Rovito.

"Giuliani, despite his own surname, added that word because Capri's owner and I have Italian surnames," Grasso wrote in a piece that he posted on Patch. "He does it to imply wrongdoing where there is none. He does it to defame and fan the flame of anti-Italian-American stereotyping. He can get away with it sadly because we apparently are the last ethnic group the media can libel with social impunity. Having to deal with online-click reporters like patch-etic David Giuliani is part of the mayor's thankless job, too."

Grasso's email to Walter was about three weeks after the April 6 election. In that election, Grasso and his allies succeeded in ousting Mottl from the Village Board.