Burr Ridge Trustee May Be Censured Again

BURR RIDGE, IL — At its meeting Monday, the Burr Ridge Village Board is set to consider censuring Trustee Zach Mottl for a third time and giving itself the power to expel members from meetings for disorderly conduct. In response, Mottl said he considers the censures "a badge of honor" in his effort to protect the public's interest.

The latest resolution to censure Mottl cites his comments at last week's meeting in which he accused the village administrator and the finance director of lying and being incompetent. It also noted he uttered ethnic slurs against Mayor Gary Grasso, an Italian American, at that meeting. Mottl called Grasso a mobster several times during a discussion before the vote on his last censure, which also was for calling the mayor a mobster.

The resolution said Mottl directed an ethnic slur at Trustee Tony Schiappa, also an Italian American. Mottl called Schiappa a mobster.

The resolution also took Mottl to task for saying Trustee Al Paveza had been on the board for too long. It referred to other disparaging remarks about Paveza. During the meeting, Mottl interrupted Paveza to say, "You told me you didn't want any more blacks to come to the village. Isn't that what you told me?"

Paveza did not respond to the charge, but later told Burr Ridge Patch that he did not make such a comment. According to the 2010 Census, African Americans make up 1.4 percent of Burr Ridge's population.

Also on Monday, the board plans to vote on a change to its rules. Under a new provision, with a two-thirds vote of the board, a member can be expelled from a meeting for disorderly conduct. Such conduct would include any violation of the rules of order, according to the proposed rule.

In an email to Patch on Thursday night, Mottl said he was given no heads up on the latest censure.

"What I do know is this amounts to abuse and misuse of official resources by Grasso and his rubberstamp board," Mottl said. "They want to stifle any dissenting opinion and stop my attempts to reveal the improper and illegal activity that I believe has occurred in Burr Ridge. The fact that the whole purpose of this biased proceeding is to interfere with the exploration of potential abuses is, itself, validation of the premise attempted to be thwarted."

Among the issues Mottl has raised is that developers and others with business before the village have contributed to the campaigns of village board members. He also contends the village kept a restaurant's underpayment of sales taxes a secret from the state.

In reaction to the censures, Mottl said in his email, "I take it as a badge of honor and a validation of my efforts. If I have to be publicly flogged by these brutes at every single meeting for the next year, I will do it to protect the public’s interest."

At the last meeting, Grasso and trustees objected to Mottl's interruptions of others. Mottl, whom Grasso defeated in a landslide in last year's mayoral election, said the mayor often muted him during the meeting, in which officials were connected remotely because of the pandemic. Mottl was limited to two minutes to speak against the censure, while another trustee got even more time to argue for it.

Mottl has said before that his mobster references have nothing to do with Grasso's ethnicity. Rather, he said he was speaking about the mayor's behavior.

He was referring to an issue that came up during Gary Grasso's unsuccessful 2018 bid for the Republican nomination for attorney general. During the campaign, Champaign CBS affiliate WCIA ran a story about Grasso titled, "Shady campaign cash flows to GOP candidate." The story detailed a donation from a person that federal authorities indicated had connections to a mobster.

In November, the board censured Mottl, saying he had made demeaning comments to staff. And last week, trustees did so again, noting Mottl had called Mayor Gary Grasso a mobster. The board said that was a "criminal ethnic slur."

The censures serve as reprimands and have no enforcement mechanisms.

In a text message to Patch on Friday, Mayor Grasso made the case for the censure against Mottl.

"Using his office to publicly demean staff, call a fellow trustee and the mayor a criminal ethnic slur and disparage another trustee because of his age is an embarrassment to Burr Ridge," the mayor said. "Unfortunately, all the board can do is censure him. In the private sector, he'd be terminated."

The board's meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday at Village Hall. Members of the public are encouraged to connect to the meeting remotely. Visit the village's website for more information.