Burr Ridge Official's Job In Jeopardy?

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge Trustee Zach Mottl is trying to push aside Village Administrator Doug Pollock as the village responds to the coronavirus emergency. At least for a time Friday, Mottl appeared to have the support of two of the other five trustees.

In an email to the mayor and trustees Friday, Mottl said he, with the support of the two other trustees, was calling for an emergency meeting for Friday night or Saturday to designate Evan Walter the acting village administrator during the emergency.

On Monday, Mottl released text messages he exchanged with trustees Anita Mital and Joe Snyder on Friday. Mottl wrote to them, "What do you think about making Evan the acting village manager for the crisis? I think it would be best for BR. He's the detail guy, he's the competent one. Also he's much younger than Doug and for health reasons Evan should be boots on the ground and Doug should be home."

Mottl continued, "Plus Evan has been doing it already. Might as well give him credit and recognition and pay for it. This would be a temporary thing until the crisis has passed."

Mital responded, "Evan has my vote. He is exceptional." And Snyder wrote back, "Agree."

There was no discussion about an emergency meeting in the texts provided.

In an interview Monday, Mital said she only told Mottl that Walter was doing a good job. She said she didn't want to make any administrative changes "at this time."

"Doug is doing a great job. The mayor, Doug and Evan are all doing a wonderful job," Mital said in an interview. "They are competent. Mr. Mottl wanted to know whether Evan was doing a good job. Everyone is playing their part well. There is no problem with Doug and the mayor."

Mital said the first line of Mottl's text was "Do we think Evan Walter is doing a good job?" She said she agreed with that but did not read the rest of Mottl's text message.

"We are actually very busy with work and personal lives in this time of crisis," she said in a later email. "In this time of crisis, we should be putting our fires, not starting them!"

Snyder, who owns an insurance agency in Darien, wouldn't take questions from Patch about the issue. "Not interested, partner," he said before hanging up.

Early Friday afternoon, Mottl sent a email to Mayor Gary Grasso, the other trustees, Pollock and Walter, recommending Walter as the acting administrator during the emergency.

"Evan has been handling the village's response to the crisis thus far," Mottl said. "He has previously demonstrated an exceptional grasp of fast-moving and complex issues, as he did with handling Sterigenics for the village."

In an email, Mottl said he suspected that after he sent the email to the board, someone, possibly Mayor Gary Grasso, contacted trustees to "slow the roll." He said Mital later sent him a message saying, "Zach, at this time let's leave everything as is. We will acknowledge (Walter's) exceptional work when we do his annual review.”

Grasso and Pollock did not return messages for comment Monday. Pollock became the administrator in 2017 after serving as the village's longtime community development director.

Mottl, who lost to Grasso in last year's mayoral election, has tangled with the mayor a number of times in recent months. Grasso persuaded the board to censure Mottl in November, accusing the trustee of making demeaning comments to staff.