Watchdog Group Challenges Burr Ridge's Handling Of Comments

BURR RIDGE, IL – A watchdog group filed a complaint last month against Burr Ridge over its handling of public comments during a meeting about a controversial proposed truck stop.

The Elmhurst-based Citizen Advocacy Center alleged the Village Board violated state law and the First Amendment in selecting speakers during public comments.

However, the village said it was fair in its process and followed the law.

The complaint was filed with the attorney general's office.

At the late October meeting, residents against a proposed QuikTrip truck stop just outside the village's limit filled the meeting room.

In the complaint, Jack Bentley, the center's attorney, said the village only allowed certain people to speak, favoring elected officials.

And the lawyer said Mayor Gary Grasso asked audience members who wanted to speak to sign a list with their name and address. Those who signed the list were recorded as being against the project, Bentley said.

After a village trustee proposed the board reconsider its previous opposition to the truck stop, Mayor Gary Grasso opened the floor for public comment "while simultaneously discouraging further comments by implying they would be a waste of time," Bentley said.

The requirement to sign a list with addresses poses a "chilling effect" on free speech, Bentley said.

Bentley suspected the village would say it never required that residents include an address, which is exactly what the village argued in its response.

But he said the attorney general found in 2014 that residents would feel pressured to provide such information to get the right to speak. The attorney general said the request has a chilling effect.

In the end, the only public comments were against the truck stop, meaning the audience only heard one side of the issue, Bentley said.

"Perhaps there were no audience members there that night who wished to speak in favor of the gas station being built, but this is a question we will never know the answer to, given the fact that Mayor Grasso cut off public comment before everyone had been given their opportunity to speak," Bentley said.

In the village's response, its attorney, Thomas Halleran, said that was untrue. He pointed to two points in the meeting video in which Grasso asked for those who were in favor of the project to speak. No one answered.

He also noted QuikTrip representatives addressed opponents' concerns.

As for the list, Halleran said 12 of the 13 residents who spoke signed their names. The mayor recognized the two elected officials, he said, because they had new information to offer, not because of their status.

The attorney general has yet to rule on the complaint.

At the meeting, the board stuck with its original opposition to the QuikTrip project.

The DuPage County Board has the final say on the truck stop because the project would be in an unincorporated area.

But because Burr Ridge, as the closest town, objected, then the truck stop must pass the County Board with a three-fourths vote, not just a simple majority.

Shortly after the meeting, QuikTrip withdrew its proposal.