Burr Ridge Trustee Says He Was Blocked From Meeting

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge Trustee Zach Mottl accused the Village Board of disconnecting him from this week's remote meeting. But Mayor Gary Grasso said Mottl was muted because he was interrupting the meeting and that he was never barred from voting.

Mottl, whom the board has censured three times before, spoke in opposition to a program in which the village pays for tents and tables to support restaurants struggling under pandemic restrictions.

He said he had gone to restaurants recently in Downers Grove, Oak Brook and Riverside. Those towns, he said, do not provide such subsidies to restaurants, instead making room on sidewalks and streets for outdoor dining.

"They gave them the flexibility to make their businesses successful, but they did not pay for it," Mottl said.

He questioned why Burr Ridge Administrator Doug Pollock, a village trustee in Riverside, did not push for a tent program in that town.

"Here in our town with our money you want to do it simply because it benefits the mayor's buddies. That's the only reason I can see. It is so wasteful," Mottl said.

Burr Ridge Trustee Guy Franzese responded it was "too bad" that Mottl did not dine in Burr Ridge. "He eats elsewhere, but not in Burr Ridge," he said.

Mottl interrupted to say that a Burr Ridge restaurant executive was a convicted drug dealer and sex offender.

"I'm not going to eat until we get those types of enterprises out of our town," Mottl said.

Grasso warned that Mottl would be disconnected if he interrupted the meeting again.

Mottl shot back that the mayor was doing so because the executive in question was a Grasso campaign donor.

A minute later, Mottl could be heard uttering the word "mobster." He has labeled Grasso a mobster several times before, drawing two of his censures, with the board saying the word was an ethnic slur against the Italian American mayor.

A few minutes after he said "mobster," Mottl emailed Burr Ridge Patch to say the board had disconnected him.

"They removed me from the meeting by cutting off my call, and they repeatedly blocked me from calling back in," Mottl said. "They refused to let me vote. They refused to let me speak as a member of the public."

He showed an email that he had sent to Pollock a few minutes earlier requesting that he be allowed to take part in the meeting. He said in the email that he would like to speak as a resident during public comment. He told Patch he got no answer.

Several times afterward, Grasso asked whether Mottl was on the phone to vote on issues. He was told Mottl was not.

In a text message to Patch, Grasso said Mottl was muted for "disruptive outbursts." He noted one trustee and the village attorney became disconnected because of technical issues that have occurred before during virtual meetings.

"Both were able to call back in immediately," Grasso said. "If Zach was inadvertently disconnected or disconnected himself, which is more likely, he could have easily called back in if he really wanted to do so."

Grasso pointed out that he repeatedly asked during the meeting whether Mottl was on the phone.

"He never tried to call in. He wants to play the victim. He was not," the mayor said.

In a message to Patch, Mottl said the mayor was lying and should not be allowed to get away with it. Mottl sent a recording to Patch that he said demonstrated one of his attempts to be reconnected to the meeting. In the recording, an automated voice says, "This meeting has been locked by the host."

Mottl said he attempted this process multiple times, all with the same result.

Patch reached out to Pollock about Riverside's efforts to help restaurants. He said Riverside's version of the tent program included expansion of outdoor dining into the public right-of-way.

"The village staff in Riverside worked with the restaurants to determine their needs and wants for expanded outdoor dining, and it was determined that the best approach was to block off sidewalk and parking spaces on Burlington Street and allow expanded outdoor dining in the public right-of-way," Pollock said in an email. "There is no room for tents and to my knowledge, no desire by the restaurants to erect tents. Yes, I did support the expansion of outdoor dining in Riverside and voted to approve an ordinance allowing the expanded outdoor dining and giving the staff the resources to implement the expanded outdoor dining areas."