Objection to Trustee Candidate's Petition Appears Headed for the Long Haul
Attorneys spend most of first day of village electoral board hearing haggling over timeline.
Photos
Anyone who attended Round One of Andrew Skoundrianos vs. 3rd District Village Board candidate Dan Sodaro and expected a fast conclusion is just going to have to wait.
Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, Sodaro's attorney, told the village electoral board that she planned to file a motion to dismiss Skoundrianos's objection that her client committed fraud and perjury when filing his nominating petitions to run for the 3rd District village trustee.
Sodaro is going head to head with an entrenched incumbent, Bob Streit, who is running for his sixth term on the village board. Streit sat in a back row of the board chamber during the proceedings.
Sodaro is a twice-elected board member of Ridgeland Dist. 122 and is the board's current sitting president. Provided he survives the challenge, Sodaro has said that if elected he would resign from the school board.
Attorneys representing the village, the objector and the candidate spent most of the hearing haggling over a briefing schedule to respond to motions to dismiss the objection and a simultaneous records check before Cook County.
Skoundrianos' only comment during the afternoon was to question the next scheduled date of the continued hearing—Jan. 14.
"Mr. President," Skoundrianos said to Heilmann. "I do have a job, and I don't think I can make it day."
Heilmann told Skoundrianos that he didn't have to be present at the next hearing because evidence would not be presented. The electoral board would be ruling on a records check and the motion to dismiss.
The electoral board also moved on a motion for a records check of voters' signatures on Sodaro's petitions against voter registration records at the Cook County Clerk's office.
Should the validity of signatures be questioned, the Cook County Clerk's office would make the final determination whether to strike those signatures from Sodaro's petitions.
According to the state election code, candidates in local municipal races are required to gather signatures between 6 to 8 percent of the total voter turnout in the last consolidated election. Sodaro collected 96 signatures.
Heilmann said the hearing could wind its way through the court system, should the loser in the hearing appeal the electoral board's decision in Cook County Circuit Court.
Although time is of the essence, ballots for the April election won't be printed until the end of February.
"We have about 40 days," Heilmann said.
After the hearing, which lasted all of 25 minutes, Sodaro said the decision on who would serve the village's 3rd District belonged back to the voters.
"I didn't get into this thinking I'd have a prolonged court battle," Sodaro said. "I got in this to have a campaign and have my name on the ballot and give the voters their choice."
Krafthefer said she wouldn't be filing a motion to dismiss the objection if she didn't think her client had a case.
"Just as candidates are required to have certain legal components in their nominating papers the objector is required to have certain elements in the objector's petition," Krafthefer said. "We believe that they don't have the sufficient ones."
The hearing is continued until 9 a.m. Jan. 14. Should the village electoral board overrule a motion to dismiss, a tentative next hearing date was set for Jan. 18.
All proceedings will take place at Oak Lawn Village Hall, at 9466 S. Raymond Ave.
oaklawnmom
9:54 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
i would really stop typing untruths. i'd hate to see you in court for LIBEL!
Beattie
1:46 pm on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Are we to believe that a Walgreens clerk has the interest and resources to hire a lawyer to challenge a trustee's petition? The liar is and always has been Streit. Ask the people he and his wife have been confronting at their homes around Christmas. Running scared Bobby??
122Sue
3:00 pm on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
the comments in these stroies are a disgrace. stick to the issues. you bash a person because of where he works? that is the issue here? I dont live in the third district so I cant vote but I have watched SOdaro on the school board. he is a politician like the rest of them. raise taxes, raise taxes, raise taxes. And borrow when you cant raise taxes just like they do in springfield.
QC
3:14 pm on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
What are the residents of Streit's district thinking? Bob is a Scam Artist Extrordinaire.
Andy's attorney and Streit's attorney are one and the same. Dennis Brennan. The same Dennis Brennan that Streit INSISTED be hired by the Bank Of Montreal to handle Oak Lawn Bonds. He also happens to be Streit's attorney for his roofing business.
http://www.dennisbrennanlaw.com/experience.html
DENNIS BRENNAN
Attorney at Law
HONEST, DEDICATED, EXPERIENCED
Testemonials
“I wouldn't use any other firm to protect my mechanics
lien rights. Dennis Brennan will work tirelessly for you
also ."
Robert J. Streit, the President of Sealtite Roofing &
Construction Company
Where's Madigan's Testamonial for Streit and vice versa? I wonder.
PS 122Sue: Streit and his Buddies on the Board just keep moving money around. It will ALL backfire sometime SOON. Expect a "raise taxes".
Also that "person" is an APPOINTED OFFICIAL on the Oak Lawn Board of Appeals.
oaklawnmom
4:16 pm on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
hey 122sue..........do you have kids in the district? have you seen the things that the district has given the students in the past few years? any taxes that were raised in this time were for SPECIFIC reasons.....not "just" to raise taxes. have you walked into any of the 5 new or remodeled schools? have you noticed the additional minutes to the school day? have your children taken technology classes? have they been in art or music the past 2 years? has the leadership in the district gotten better? has the district been removed from the "watch list"? the answer i have to all these questions is "yes." all these things are thanks to dan sodaro. and if you don't have kids in the district well then you should still thank him because these children are YOUR future leaders.
dh1
8:40 am on Thursday, January 6, 2011
You know Dan Sodaro isn't paying a dime in legal fees. The blonde hotshot attorney was referred by Dave who dragged Sodaro into this. She is hoping to take over work at the Village. Thanks mayor Heilmann!
Sandra Bury
9:14 am on Thursday, January 6, 2011
"blonde hotshot attorney?" What is this, 1960? If you can tell me what her hair color has to do with her ability to defend her client, I'd be interested. I don't know the attorney and am not aligned with either party involved. I just really am annoyed at that type of comment in this century.
dh1
9:37 am on Thursday, January 6, 2011
everyone respects her including me. I';m sorry if I offended anyone. I didn't mean to. but people should be asking many questions as to how Sodaro found her, why he's getting free legal representation and what she's being promised for future work int he village. the answers should annoy yuou more.
Albert in a can
5:24 pm on Thursday, January 27, 2011
dh1
"Get along li'l doggie"!
Albert in a can
5:48 pm on Thursday, January 27, 2011
dh1
"Ernie's Shadow
3:54pm on Monday, January 24, 2011
I bet you feel foolish now."!!!!
QC
8:04 pm on Thursday, January 6, 2011
dh1
Trustees #2, #3, #4, and #6 and their token female, the Village Clerk, (I'm sure you're one of them) are what's rotten in Oak Lawn.
Read on.
"As Madigan put his political force behind the project, firms and lawyers associated with him saw new business flow their way from the Oak Lawn Village Hall. All told, Madigan's allies now stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The speaker recommended the new village attorney, and he helped raise campaign money for ---the village trustee who recommended another connected law firm to work on the water project.--
After nearly three decades as speaker and just as long as a kingpin in the state Democratic Party, Madigan commands a culture that trades favors as currency and rewards the loyal.
Oak Lawn officials invited Madigan to Village Hall earlier this month. They gave him a framed proclamation, a tour of their new emergency operations center and a catered meal from Palermo's on 95th Street. His spokesman Steve Brown said there was no connection between Madigan's support for the water project, his recommendation for the village attorney and his political support for a trustee.
Streit is the village trustee who received Madigan's fundraising help. Tom Phelan said there was no "quid pro quo." LOL