Burr Ridge Trustee Blamed For Legal Spending

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso is blaming Trustee Zach Mottl for causing recent legal expenditures. But the village's own analysis shows such spending in the first half of this budget year is about the same as previous years.

A couple weeks ago, a village employee sent the legal bill analysis to the board of trustees at the mayor's request. She said Grasso noted Mottl "has caused recent expenditures of legal time and may be reflected in these and future legal fee invoices to the village."

The email did not indicate how Mottl had caused legal spending. The analysis did not include spending since the beginning of 2020. The legal bills are with the Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins law firm.

For the five years until April 2019, the village spent an average of $6,036 a month with the law firm. For the last six months of 2019, the average monthly spending actually declined to $5,851. At that rate, the legal spending would amount to $67,477 for the 2020 budget year. That's only slightly more than the two previous years and far below the 2016 and 2017 budget years, when expenses rose to well over $80,000 annually.

In an email, Mottl said legal costs are down, so he did not know how to explain the mayor's statement. "I hope he isn't planning to use any of the village money to carry out his attacks on me," Mottl said.

Grasso couldn't be reached for immediate comment.

In last year's mayoral election, Grasso defeated Mottl with more than 60 percent of the vote. In recent times, Mottl has called the village board a "rubber stamp" for Grasso. In November, the board censured Mottl, alleging he made demeaning comments to staff. And the board recently prevented Mottl from participating in its meeting by phone, although it has allowed such a method before.

Mottl has accused Grasso of corruption and most recently exposed the mayor's attempt to use village money for a campaign fundraiser for DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin. Grasso said he didn't know it was for a campaign.