Burr Ridge Trustee's Mobster Comment Was Ethnic Slur: Board

BURR RIDGE, IL — For a second time, the Burr Ridge Village Board censured Trustee Zach Mottl on Monday, accusing him of making an ethnic slur about the mayor. At a board meeting in late March, Mottl said he thought Mayor Gary Grasso was a mobster.

The board unanimously supported the censure resolution, which also took Mottl to task for saying Village Administrator Doug Pollock was lying about a tax issue at the March meeting.

During Monday's nearly two-hour session, Mottl was given two minutes to make his case against the censure resolution. Grasso later blocked Mottl from voting on the measure. Mottl, meanwhile, alleged one of the trustees had made racist comments about African Americans.

In his speech, Mottl said it was improper for the board to censure him for expressing opinions. It was the duty of trustees to hold village staff and the mayor accountable, he said.

"It's my opinion that Gary is a mobster based on the observations of the mayor's activities and those of his associates, and he's even taken campaign donations from convicted mobsters," Mottl told his colleagues, who were all connected to the meeting remotely because of the coronavirus.

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 his speech, Mottl said Grasso has tried to silence him.

"If the trustees improperly censure me, you all are allowing yourselves to be used as political pawns by the mayor to abuse and harass a political opponent via an official act of government," Mottl said.

Two minutes into Mottl's speech, Grasso called for the board to vote on the censure. Mottl received less time to speak than residents get during public input, when speakers are limited to five minutes.

Trustee Guy Franzese then asked to speak about the censure and got to do so for 2 1/2 minutes. He said he had expected Mottl to change his behavior after the trustees voted unanimously in November to censure Mottl, accusing him of making demeaning comments about higher-ranking village staffers. And Franzese noted Mottl said he wanted a "reset" in relations at a February meeting.

Franzese said the mobster comment was an insult to Italian Americans, including himself, Grasso and Trustee Tony Schiappa.

Mottl interrupted Franzese's comments to say the mayor muted him and blocked him from continuing his speech. "That's illegal," he said.

When Grasso said Mottl was not recognized, Mottl responded, "This is a kangaroo court. You are a mobster. You engage in criminal activity."

Schiappa said he was offended as an Italian American.

"I don't believe any of his comments or his name-calling to be productive at all," the trustee said. "I believe if there are problems he sees, he needs to go through the process and identify the problems. There are no problems. He's creating problems for the village. There is no corruption in this village. We have a fine mayor. We have a fine board of trustees."

Mottl interjected, "You're a mobster."

"You're calling me a mobster," Schiappa said.

The mayor said Mottl was insulting ethnic groups.

Mottl said his accusations had nothing to do with Grasso's ethnicity. "It has everything to do with your behavior," he said.

Then Trustee Al Paveza was given a chance to speak. As he started by saying he had been a trustee for more than a quarter century, Mottl interjected, "Way too long."

Paveza said he had never seen a trustee as abusive and negative as Mottl.

Mottl then interrupted again, "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. When Patch reached him Tuesday, Paveza said he never said anything like that. Burr Ridge, he said, is made up of many ethnicities. He said he and Mottl had been friends, but Mottl changed after he lost last year's mayoral race to Grasso.

In an interview, Mottl said he heard Paveza make such a statement twice before the 2019 election and that the comments disturbed him. According to the 2010 Census, African Americans make up 1.4 percent of Burr Ridge's population.

The mayor barred Mottl from voting on the censure resolution, but he did not cite specific legal authority do so.

The censure serves as a reprimand and has no enforcement mechanism.