'Disheartening' Barrage Of Requests To Burr Ridge

BURR RIDGE, IL — Former Burr Ridge Trustee Zach Mottl may be gone from the Village Board, but he is not forgotten.

The village's legal bills are evidence of that.

Last week, trustees noted the village spent $5,268 with the Rosemont-based Storino, Ramello & Durkin law firm on Mottl's Freedom of Information Act requests in December. No one mentioned Mottl by name.

"One individual's name is attached to it, which I find unacceptable," Trustee Russell Smith said. "We're trying to save money as a village, and if we have a resident out there that has gone berserk with FOIAs, it is something we cannot sustain. It's disheartening."

Mayor Gary Grasso said it seemed the resident had "unlimited" money and time to pursue the requests.

"We have to respond as a village. It is costly. It is a waste of money. None of these requests have any real issues with the village," the mayor said. "It's a citizen's right to do it, and the citizen wants to waste taxpayer money and waste his or her own money."

Trustee Tony Schiappa said he did not think it was any of the requester's money. He gave no explanation. A message for comment was not returned.

In November, the trustees had a similar discussion about the costs of Mottl's requests.

In the final months of 2021, Mottl, who lost his for re-election last April, turned over the results of some of his requests to Patch.

In one case, the information showed that Grasso informed his son, who works for a real estate services firm, about a possible business opportunity involving the vacant TCF Bank property in town. Another request revealed information about how the mayor would approach the redevelopment of County Line Square.

Before the election, the village released information that it said showed that the taxpayers had spent $60,000 over 15 months in dealing with Mottl's public records requests and legal matters initiated by him.

At the time, Mottl said many of the legal expenditures in question were for the trustees' censure resolutions against him, efforts to block and remove him from meetings, and ways to frustrate his public records requests. He also said the lawyers were overcharging the village.

In an email to Patch on Wednesday, Mottl expressed similar sentiments, calling the costs "outrageous" and "grossly excessive."