Niles Mayor Andrew Przybylo Pledges To Abide By Term Limits

NILES, IL — After admitting he sought advice from outside attorneys on whether the village term limits rules could be suspended to allow him to run again, Mayor Andrew Przybylo has pledged not to pursue a third term in office in two years.

Przybylo said Friday he was "tired" and had "decided not to run" in the 2021 election, the Niles Journal reported. Last year, the mayor told the Journal he was considering whether he could be exempted from term limits because he was not confident someone else could manage the completion of ongoing development projects.

Przybylo, 67, has served on the board for nearly 30 years, first as a trustee. He became village president in April 2013 in the same election voters approved term limits through a pair of conflicting referendums. Village officials recognize the version that limits trustees to three four-year terms and mayors to two such terms.

The term limit rules were confirmed at the Jan. 22 village board meeting, where Przybylo confirmed he had requested an opinion from the law firm Ancel Glink last April on whether existing term limits can be set aside for a specific election to allow a term-limited elected official to run again.

"It was I, on behalf of the elected officials, who asked for the memorandum, and if you think I should pay for it, I'll consider it," Przybylo told Trustee Joe LoVerde. While the request did not mention any specific office, the mayor said he took responsibility for it now "so you don't make a big deal about it."

"You said in the other room you didn't have [anything] to do with it," LoVerde said, remarking on a lack of transparency in the village.

"I checked my records," Przybylo said.

Speaking of transparency, the mayor said, the park district could have televised its board meetings when LoVerde was in charge of it, but it did not.

LoVerde, who is not seeking another term on the board, said he did not think any of the trustees had asked for the memo. He told Pryzbylo an "intelligent person can only think this was geared toward you wanting to know if you could change the term limits and run again," and mentioned the mayor's "insulting remarks in the Journal newspaper that no one on on this board is capable."

In March 2018, Przybylo told the Journal he was "leaning" toward pushing for a term limit exemption and a chance to run for mayor again in 2021. The legal opinion from the outside law firm was dated April 5, 2018. The mayor has not responded to a query regarding whether any trustee had asked him to seek the opinion.

LoVerde went on to suggest that Przybylo is "someone who thinks he's right on every single issue and thinks he's a dictator, and tells everybody what to do," but said he would not be intimidated or fooled.

"I don't expect to have you fooled Joe, I don't even calculate you into my equation," Przybylo said. "You're playing to the cameras Joe, you always do and you always have."

Przybylo told Pioneer Press he "never said I was going to put forward a referendum to allow an exemption to term limits," but his opponents had "made an issue of it."

In a statement, the Voice of Niles Party said Przybylo refused to support the re-election of trustees who would not back an exception to term limits for him. When trustees Dean Strzelecki, Denise McCreery and LoVerde refused, Przybylo formed the Neighbors Party to run against them. The mayor has not responded to a query regarding the claim.

"Term limits were imposed by referendum and last year Mr. Przybylo spent tens of thousands of dollars in village funds seeking an advisory opinion on the circumstances under which they could be over-turned. The only current elected official to whom these term limits apply would be Mr. Przybylo," it said, questioning whether Przybylo would abide by his pledge not to seek a third term and criticizing the mayor's use of "hundreds of thousands of dollars on vanity projects."

The Neighbors Party has been accused of forging nominating petitions ahead of the April 2 election. Przybylo, who recruited the slate of Melic Bookstein, Paul Drakontaidis and Izzy Pachecho and is consulting with the campaign, called the accusations "deplorable." He told Patch last month that he knew neither he "nor any known volunteers to me had perpetrated a fraud."

In 2015, the Cook County Inspector General recommended Przybylo be fired and placed on the ineligible for rehire list after finding he engaged in "years of willful disregard to his fiduciary duty" and gave false information to investigators who had been probing how much work he was actually doing as secretary of the Zoning Board of Appeals, according to sources with direct knowledge of the investigation. The county requested his resignation but did not place Przybylo on the ineligible list, according to a summary (IIG15-0218) of the investigation.

After selling White Eagle Banquets, the Niles venue founded by his father, the same year he resigned from his Cook County job, Przybylo received approval last summer to open a video gambling cafe in Wheeling. He has not responded to a request for comment.