Burr Ridge Official Asked To Resign

BURR RIDGE, IL — The Burr Ridge Village Board has no power to remove Trustee Zach Mottl, but his colleagues can express their formal disapproval of him — and they regularly do. At Monday's meeting, the trustees plan to vote on a resolution to censure Mottl, a onetime mayoral candidate. It would be the fourth such censure. This time, thought, the trustees also are asking for his resignation.

The first censure was in November, accusing Mottl of disparaging staffers in his communications with them. The other two were in the spring when he repeatedly referred to Mayor Gary Grasso as a "mobster," which the board deemed an ethnic slur against the Italian American mayor. Mottl denied it was.

This time, the resolution is, in part, about an opinion piece that Mottl published in Burr Ridge Patch. He said speculation existed that local police could be involved in organized crime that victimized residents, pointing out such corruption happened in the early 1980s.

The resolution alleged Mottl referred to the 1980s corruption to intimate "that residents should be concerned about current Police Officers committing criminal activity in the execution of their duties." This, the resolution states, impugns officers' character and raises unfounded concerns.

Mottl's commentary was a big focus at the board's meeting two weeks ago, in which officials took turns criticizing the trustee. In response, Mottl said the police chief had ignored his questions about what the trustee saw as an increase in crime in town.

The resolution also took Mottl to task for statements he made during the same meeting about a proposal to create a local court to deal with ordinance violations.

"Trustee Mottl suggested, without any basis, that the adjudication program would be abused by Village officials so as to give favor to friends and associates and in particular, that the Village Attorney’s office would also abuse the adjudication program in order to increase legal fees," the resolution says.

The resolution also states Mottl has "irrevocably compromised" his ability to serve as a trustee. It asks that Mottl immediately resign from his position.

It's likely the board will vote unanimously for the censure, as it has every time before.

In an email to Patch, Mottl said Burr Ridge residents are the losers in the censures because they pay a lot of money to the village but do not get much for it.

"I think it’s sad that we have a corrupt and inept village board that allows itself to be a rubber-stamp for a corrupt and dirty mayor," Mottl said. "They do this every time I hit on something that is true, but they don’t want the truth to come to light, like when I ask tough questions or demand better from the staff and agencies who devour our tax dollars. But that isn’t grounds for censure. That is me doing my job as a trustee, exactly what I was elected to do. These baseless censures are just Grasso abusing his power to silence a political opponent, gaslighting me, and are seeking to eliminate the only member of the board who demonstrates any ability to think critically, hold staff accountable, and demand better from our village government."

Mottl lost to Grasso in the 2019 mayoral election. Since then, Mottl and the trustees have disagreed for months over a variety of issues.

The battles have extended to relatively mundane issues. In late May, Mottl voted against a resolution honoring the four decades of service of Village Clerk Karen Thomas. He blamed Thomas for allowing Grasso to serve as mayor, alleging he did not meet the residency requirement.

Grasso later said Mottl "reached a new low" for himself and his family name when he "disparaged" Thomas.

In that case, Mottl did not draw a censure.