Streit FOIAs Private Citizen's Email Suggesting He Has 'Low-Grade Mental Disorder'

Caption: Brian McCarty, a proud 1972 graduate of Oak Lawn Community High School and Hollywood success, wants residents to know that he is a real guy.

A funny thing happened during an Oak Lawn-kid-made-good’s visit to his hometown for the Thanksgiving holiday: he got caught in the whirling, toxic toilet bowl of Oak Lawn politics.

Brian McCarty, a 60-year-old Academy Award-nominated soundman who now divides his time between a coastal town in Australia and Chicago, popped in on the Nov. 11 village board meeting. He says that the “chaos” wrought by one Tidy Bowl man in particular, Trustee Bob Streit, piqued his interest.

For the past several weeks while visiting family in the area, McCarty has been trying to post rebuttal comments on the anonymous pro-Streit political blog, the Oak Lawn Leaf. Some village board members purport to have linked the Leaf to the long-time, third district trustee.

“I started writing fairly extensive rebuttals to their stupidity,” McCarty says. “At first I didn’t know what it was. They would never print comments expressing alternate views, so I started commenting on their Facebook page.

He was soon banned from commenting on the site’s Facebook page. McCarty also found himself the subject of an article insinuating that he was former village trustee Tom Phelan, a onetime Streit ally-turned-nemesis.

“I’m a real guy,” McCarty said. “I have a lot of family here. I was 20 years in L.A. when I was actively doing my movie career and moved to Australia 15 years ago. This is still home. ”

Not only is McCarty a real guy, he has the scars to prove it from when he was hit by a red light-blowing motorist at Southwest Highway and Central Avenue in 1967. He grew up on Major Avenue and 91st Street, went to St. Gerald School and studied music under the legendary Oak Lawn Community High School band director Richard Pettibone.

He even caught a glimpse of the green stovepipe-Oak Lawn tornado when his mother told him to go look out the window to see if a tornado was coming.

McCarty, now 60, went on to a successful career in Hollywood, working with such luminaries as John Travolta, Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone, Dolly Parton and the Coen Brothers. Three of the sound production teams he collaborated with received Academy Award nominations for their work in “On Golden Pond,” “Altered States” and “Dick Tracy.”

After his pop-in at the village board meeting, McCarty shared his views as a private citizen in an email to Oak Lawn’s elected officials about the “black hand” behind the “thinly veiled” anonymous Oak Lawn Leaf “designed to undermine the current government which can only be viewed as bitter and spiteful reasons.”

“This is especially true when the spurious allegations go unanswered in a misguided attempt to act ‘civil’ in the face of such an onslaught of what can only be described as a low-grade mental disorder …It’s what bullies do,” his email went on to say.

McCarty soon found what he thought was his private email correspondence to village officials at the center of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by Streit. This is the same trustee who last year suggested an ordinance requiring elected officials and village employees to divulge who they’re in bed with as part of a revamped ethics code.

According to Streit’s freedom of information act request -- acquired by Patch through the Freedom of Information Act -- the trustee demanded “any records of communication with one ‘Brian McCarty,’ who has previously communicated with the village via this [EMAIL ADDRESS].”

Streit also asked that the “full communications, source and headers of any communications” be provided. The trustee’s request was partially denied by the village attorneys because private identifiable information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act.

McCarty plans to file a complaint with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. On Monday, McCarty said he was the center of an article on the pro-Streit blog insinuating that he was Phelan.

“Even with all they have the audacity to suggest that I don’t exist,” McCarty said. “To me that’s the egregious thing. [Streit’s] abusing the FOIA process. It becomes not a tool toward better government but a harassment tool on a private citizen.”

But McCarty admits he already knew things were kind of haywire with the village. While channel surfing one day in Australia, he stumbled upon a repeat of truTV’s “Speeders Fight Back.”

“I’m zipping around and there is a show with [former mayor Dave Heilmann] playing a traffic court judge and it mentioned Oak Lawn,” McCarty recalled. “I was just appalled. I’m not a big fan of reality TV. All of a sudden I’m wondering, ‘what the hell is going on in Oak Lawn?’”