Holy cow....this article is the best present Andy ever got. Thanks patch for giving Andy something to do this week. Go ahead Andy have a blast, blog away. Best Day Ever !!!!!

What really gets to the mayor, is Phelen beat him at his own game and seems to have got away with it. We { the people } really need to make a change in the Oak Lawn governing body. These wanna be big time politicians are too busy fighting each other and covering their butts to care about a needed street sign or any local issues that need to be addressed.

The only one who wins are the lawyers. A lawyer's answer to anything is more lawyers. The sooner we can vote this lawyer out of office the better.

A real issue I have here is official village business and communications being conducted on email systems outside the control of the village IT infrastructure. There is no reason for village business to be conducted on an aol account, an sbc account, or a private domain account. These accounts are often shared, and confidential information being read not just by family members, but a family members friend who might use this computer.

The controls in place on a personal residential account are in no way up to the industry standards of a properly secured business email account. Anyone working for the village, conducting business electronicly, should be signing a computer usage policy that states that they will only conduct village business, and ONLY village business, using the systems provided by the village.

What a waste of our money and everyone's time..Everyone knows family and friends get jobs as each group of people work through their term. If it's legal just tell us and most of the time the people are very capable of doing these jobs. This all starts when the politicians hide everything! We may not all be college graduates, but we are not all Stupid. Anyone can see this has always been the way business is done. This may not be right but it happens. Your campaigns should be built on honesty and transparency. The person who just tells it like it is and wants to help the community should get our vote..

Thanks for this article, Lorraine. Will Patch be making the Mayor's press release available?

Does Godfrey and Kahn have anything to do with the subpoena? Why would they comment on it?

Dr. Bury and many others are asking for transparency in government. Be careful what you wish for. The question is if EVERYBODY involved can advocate for a transparent look at what EVERYBODY did here. That includes the mayor, the manager and the trustees. Let's see everything that's out there. Transparent is as transparent does.

The recap seems to be that Odelson gets 25K to launch the initial "investigation" into Tressler's overbilling. Phelan's frat buddy's firm gets 450K to collect 500K for Tressler's overbilling. Before the board spends away another dime, the taxpayers may be up 25K from all that. Great work there across the board. Efficient use of time and taxpayer resources. Nice.

The winners? Tressler, Querrey & Harrow, Odelson and Godfrey & Kahn. The losers? All of us who pay taxes to support this circus.

And, while The Patch is talking about friends helping friends, doesn't anybody find it curious that Stillman is now a partner or something at Odelson's firm? Small world.

"Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught." ~J.C. Watts

Nobody wins. Everybody is bloodied when guns are pointed at each other. Phelan shoots, the Mayor retaliates. blah blah blah

I thought Phelan explained himself very clearly in his email rebuttal in part four of the report. And in my opinion you cannot compare Tressler to Querrey. Querrey did their job, whereas Tressler certainly did not, and overbilled the village as well!

To me the mayor looks really bad by attacking like this. Focusing on the "frat" brother? That report was very thorough and well done I thought. And Godfrey seems like the first law firm for Oak Lawn that appears to know what they are doing.

But one thing I do not know is who are the village attorneys now?

Phelan,

Lie #1: Your spouse worked for District 218 in April 2008. You put out an e-mail with Mike Stillman's color photo saying what a great job he did as D-218 president (in January 2008). It was just about the time the market crashed, and that was the return favor (a job for your family)

Lie #2: District 218 applications are kept online. No record of any process was followed by the school district human resources. It was clearly political.

Lie #3: you were well aware of any legal overspending prior to 2009. Phelan chose to ignore it until after the election. Partly because of Jerry Hurckes and the fear of his coalition.

My suggestion are they are both gone, enough is enough. Why do we even accept this Oak Lawn has gone down since they have been office. I am wrong?
REALLY!!!

Deflect and blame Deflect and blame That's Dave's answer to everything. Hey Dave how is the investigation going?? If the FBI had something they would have mad arrests by now doesn't take a year and a half if it was as bad a you say Davey. I do know your law firm buddies that you hired were investigated and did pay the village $500.000 dollars in a settlement and you didn't look too good in that report.

I don't live in Oak Lawn any longer, and after reading all of the things that have gone on, I'm glad. I say all the time, politicians lie and tell you what you want to hear, while going behind your back and doing what they want in the first place....getting the best of the worst is usually the best you can hope for.

It seems to me that if the residents of Oak Lawn want to end this particular nightmare, they would be smart and elect a completely new group to run their village. Unfotunately, all currently in office are tainted by this farce.

>Oh Brad FYI
>Johnson Peterson Murray SP replaces Querrey and Harrow as village attorney effective immediately.
"We did not hire Mr. Querrey or Mr. Harrow,” Deetjen said. ha ha good one Lar,. “We hired personnel we thought could do the job … They’ve done an outstanding job.” I am so proud of Larry. He actually said this with a straight face
Translation: We hired Paul O'Grady? What? O'Grady worked for Queery and Harrow ,hmmm, and His NOW Law Firm?<
>O’Grady will become the managing director of Johnson Peterson Murray’s Chicago office, which is expanding into Illinois. The legal team that handled all of Oak Lawn’s governmental work will remain intact and follow O’Grady to the new firm.<

Where do you come up with this stuff?? Spy novels?? You know a bit too much for just a John Q. Public blogger

Oh vote, FYI < I've been following Your story for awhile now. Not looking too good in those documents, but the attacks are bringing you up to my speed.
Keep fanning the flames Jr<

http://oaklawn.patch.com/articles/village-changes-legal-counsel