Burr Ridge Official Cites Communists In Skipping Meeting

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge Trustee Zach Mottl was a no-show at the Village Board's remote meeting this week. He blamed a video program that the village was using to conduct the meeting, saying it was compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.

Before Monday's meeting, Mottl emailed Mayor Gary Grasso and other officials to complain that the meeting was being held through Zoom, a video communications program. He said he needed a phone number to call in because he does not have access to Zoom.

"Who requires Zoom to participate in an open meeting?" Mottl said. "I don’t think that’s legal. What number does the public use to call in? Also Zoom is not a secure platform. Governments have been advised not to use it. It is compromised by the Chinese Communist Party. Our government should not be using it, even on the local level."

The mayor responded, "The meeting is scheduled to be conducted via Zoom. That was communicated to all last Thursday. There is no call-in number for Trustees to this meeting."

Mottl has called into meetings in the past. In a text message Thursday, Mottl told Patch that the change to Zoom was "arbitrary and last minute."

According to the Poynter Institute's PolitiFact, researchers have found Zoom has security vulnerabilities. It is less clear whether China has used Zoom to spy on Americans, but experts say China has the capability of doing so, PolitiFact said.

Many public entities are using Zoom to conduct their meetings, a way of curtailing the spread of the coronavirus.

Mottl has had many differences with Grasso and the other trustees. They censured him twice this year for repeatedly calling Grasso a "mobster," saying it was an ethnic slur against the Italian American mayor. Mottl denied he meant it as a slur.