Our Mayor uses the "F" word on page 27. What kind of a man is he? clearly he is fooling the public with his clean family man image. Truth is politics and giving legal work to his friends is more important. So important he drops the f-bomb in writing as the Mayor?In that capacity he should show respect. He's in a trusted postition. He shoudl resign immediately and care for his sick wife and children who need him.

I doubt that the mayor will resign. My guess is the board will go with option 2 or option 3. At the moment this looks like a one sided presentation of facts by a group of trustees who dislike the mayor. If there's litigation then not only the mayor's email will be fair game but also the trustees ' email and other documentation. If it comes to that this will go on for years.

The Mayor's e-mails tell a convincing story of one man usurping the authority of the manager and board, placing his incompetent lawyer buddies in high paying jobs, covering up mistakes, hiding invoices, bullying employees and conspiring to "outsmart" people rather than protect the taxpayers of Oak Lawn. If he doesn't resign the people should demand his resignation.

Well, I still maintain that the investigation was at least partially motivated by politics. But, Mr. Heilmann certainly has some splainin' to do. Hopefully, he will get that opportunity without a lot of shouting and finger-pointing between the two factions (I know, fat chance) and everyone can make a judgment from there.

I wonder where Mr. Hurckes stands while all the pieces are falling around. He and Mr. Heilmann apparently backed at least the 3rd District Trustee challenger, seemingly forming some sort of political association. And he's got old school connections from his days as former Rep. Lipinski's chief of staff.

Should the charges prove true, here's hoping the Village gets some of its badly needed money back.

I am aware of the fact that there may be serious legal breaches involved in the current revealings of the Villages questionable legal expenses, and that the village has been exposed to possible improper management of our tax payers funds, and that because of possible criminal acts it may well have cost us tons of money, and possible future legal issues may still come from this. At this time though the legal process has yet to weigh in on the issues involved. I concur that these may be serious matters that resulted from "actions" and not differences and if proved to be such the legal system will prevail and levee just penalties. I am asking every one involved, asking that " You do the right thing here, do what is best for those who have given you the privilege of serving". None of us are with out fault in our lives; but there are some who have done the right thing,some have accepted responsibility for their poor decisions (Such as Charles Colson) ,sought to make things right,served out the consequences of their decisions, and try to make right choices going forward. That is what I would like to see happen here.

This is a sad day for Oak Lawn The mayor came in 2005 with a promise of restoring integrity to the mayor's office. I seen personally what happened to the village the previous 14 years under the old administration. I really thought Oak Lawn was in the right direction. You can blame the trustees and Mr. Odelson all you want with charges of politial bias, but as President Harry Truman's sign on his desk said the buck stops here. Mr. Heilmann is the mayor and the president of the board of trustees. He recommened the law firm and his good buddy attorney's. Now we know why Dave fought so hard against a change in legal council. What ever happens legally, the bottom line is the village recieved poor legal advice from Dave's " Guys " and we paid through the nose for it. I hope the village can recoup some of the money wasted on hiring friends instead of the best available...

Ladies and Gentlemen, be advised that Lawyers like Doctors specialize in there practices today, however if you find that difficult to believe, just ask any Lawyer, who he or she would hire, if they had a legal problem. So if I was a Mayor, I would fire whoever was there, but in all probability their resignation would be waiting on my desk if I won the election too. That is exactly why I am a firm believer in Term Limits. Elected Officials create these little fiefdoms, and challengers at election time represent a threat to these little fiefdoms, because if a challenger does win, he'/she actually discover what the incumbents who lost was all about. It is usually a lot more then the rhetoric you hear at election time, so newly elected are regarded as outsiders, unless of course, other elected officials but the challengers on the ballot, to knock someone off a board because he/she sees things differently, not because they are necessarily bad board members, they just don't see things like the Board Members
who maybe have some pet project, and another board member says the money would be better spent doing something else, and now other board members are like sucked in to take sides, then it is us against them, and the residents of village are now short changed, because the Trustees, Alderman, whoever are now involved in a personal matter, and it is all about who can get a majority together, keep it together, who is in and who is out. The Village and is residents suffer the most.

Dan Sodaro wouldn't have the guts to stand up and fight these legal bills. If elected hed sit up their kssing daves but along with carol his buddy whining about poor dave while his buddies rob uis blind. Thank you district 3 voters.

Especially since the mayor gave dan sodaro a thousand bucks. Not bad for his wife to claim the mayor doesn't know him. Its called would-be Hush money

This has all the markings of a witch hunt. I believed in Dave Heilman when I voted for him and I still believe and support him. I believed then as I believe today that he is a good man, honest and dedicated to the people of Oak Lawn. The trustees that joined him on the Unity Party ballot believed it, too. Dave has not changed since taking on the mayoral responsibilities, however, I can't say the same for the trustees. We all know if you take something out of context it can be painted to draw whatever picture desired. I just never thought I'd see this level of conspiracy in Oak Lawn. It's shameful.

Dave Heilman is a good man. There's nothing that this report has to say that will make me believe otherwise. The one thing I do believe is the best defense is a good offense. The only person not grandstanding is Dave. Doesn't seem that he's needed to yet the rhetoric from the trustees and their outside supporters is deafening. As I said earlier, this really stinks.

Cmon Dave stop tooting your own horn!!! What did you read the report with?? Are you blind or just stupid

why should the mayor resign? in the real world he would be terminated!! in any other walk of life a lot of village employees would be terminated, unoin, non union whatever. im still not fully recovered from the hangover the fire department's shinanigans left a few years ago, it sickens me that my family are tax payers in the dissapointment known as oak lawn. they're paying for all this crap and how will they be treated? they'll just raise their taxes, really? really?

Facts on the table:

- Burt Odelson, current Attorney District 218
- Tom Phelan making claims against the mayor (just after the election last year (notice how he held out o just after the election in 2009!)
- The new law form Querry & Harrow is parnered by Mike Stillman former President of District 218
- Replacement law firm hand picked bu Tom Phelan and generously donated to him
- Burt Odelson and Mike Stillman serving together on the Brother Rice board (see online)
- Mike Stillman and Dr. Byrne (current superindentent of District 218 being neighbors)
- Tom Phelan's spouse hired by District 218 in 2008 as apolitical appointment.

Questions: Were the processes in hiring at District 218 followed to the core. Did Phelan advertise this position in his e-mails? In no, why not? Can we FOIA the hiring process records of employmemt application (online) with the Dir of HR at District 218 (to determine if any prejudice towards hiring Phelans spouse may have occured)? What about e-mail communications between Phelan, Byrne, and Stillman. Maybe you want Phelan to answer this in writing direct (just to clear the air)? Perhaps call Dr Byrne and Mike Stillman? Does Phelan use the "F" word as routinely as Heilmann?

Too bad no repeat performance this year at De Ja Brew for the barstool gang (and Jane running out the door).

Whoever you are that does not have the guts to post under their own name, you obviously know NOTHING about me, my husband or my family and friends. If you have a problem with Dan or I, first of all, please learn how to spell. Second, please have the guts to post your own name. Don't pretend to know us. You don't.

Dave stop using all these names to plead your case. Blame Phelan and Odelson all you want but your law firm buddies screwed up and you know the truth is out now

Again I am not taking any sides in this debate that obviously has got out of hand. However in the real world, if anyone did anything that would be considered illegle, one of three agencies would be investigating namely Cook County States Attorney, Attorney General of the State of Illinois or the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Trust me when I tell you this if anyone holding political office in the Village of Oak Lawn did anything wrong, one of the above mentioned Law Enforcement Agency's would be investigating this, with Supoena Power and the residents of the Village would not be paying the freight. All I know is with the form of Government that operates the Village of Oak Lawn is there is a Village President (NO MAYOR) Trustee's (No Aldermen or Alderwomen) and a Village Manager who is responsible for the day to day operations. Every Department head reports to the Village Manager, the "quote" "unquote" Elected Officials may or may not have the opportunity to vote the selection of the Village Manager for specific positions Up or Down, but I am not even certain of that.
I am not trying to demean any of the elected official's. The Board as we know it does perform important tasks, like formulate budgets, expand or decrease staffing but again the Village Manager would need to put those requests on the agenda, for the Board to discuss the request and weigh the Pros and the Cons and render a decision. All the comments here seem to favor or to disfavor someone.

I truly believe that if everyone involved in this disagreement, was totally open and honest, you would most likely find out, that whomever did whatever it is they are being accused of, really didn't do anything illegal, but whatever it was they did, someone else on the board is either unhappy that the person whatever, and/or they are displeased with the way it was done. However the biggest problem is a few different things. #1 If someone really and truly feel that whatever happend was illegal, why not go to the place where people can get indicted and incarcerated, for their in appropriate behavior if that existed for two very good reasons, one it would not cost the Village any money, which apparently we don't have, they have all ready asked employees to take a cut in pay, and to take ZERO DAYS, which is inexcusable, considering how much money is being wasted here on ATTORNEYS. It is just sad to know, no matter how much money is wasted, voters have such short memories. I might be as wrong as two (2) left shoes, but the only people who realize anything out of this situtation weather it be good or bad will be the same people, who is or was spending the VILLAGE OF OAK LAWNS MONEY, like a drunk sailor on shore leave. But they difinetly are not doing it for the betterment of the Village or the RESIDENTS of OAK LAWN, as they promised to do when they were sworn in. This appears to be a classic example of people with very fragile egos.

Having the opportunity to read the odelson report, I have to say it is a waste of valuable taxpayer dollars. I'm not saying Dave wasn't in way too deep. He's definitely guilty of trying to do too much and meddling, which is a trait of all politicians. Most of the opinions here are totally one sided. Andy alleges every author siding with Dave is Dave himself. Maybe Dave is posting, but I know he's not the author of all posts backing him. I'm not an attorney or a politician blind with hatred, but the report is nothing more than a compilation of excerpts of emails and then opinions expressed by an attorney with a well known axe to grind with Dave. Having phelan work on it just adds to the report's clear bias. Some of Chimenti's comments are obviously attempts at self deprecatory humor and nothing more.

Chimenti thanking Ernie for sharing his vast experiences and copying other village staff does not reveal incompetence. Odelson has his own history of blunders. Misuse of taxpayer money is not a sin solely attributable to Dave. How about the many legal opinions requested by Bob and then nothings ever mentioned again? What happened to the office decorating investigation? Back room deals? Let's start with the 111th street TIF. Why did Bob decide it was a "good" TIF after saying he was opposed? Anything to do with the 2007 election. If all emails sent by all trustees is released, much collusion will be exposed. Again, Dave should've left the legal business to the manager and the chimenti cool was a failure, but there are more stories than this to tell at village hall.

It is surprising nobody is speculating who released the report. Could be either side based on it's contents, which are repetitive and really don't say much. Another thought is why is Brian still employed? All if this should be turned over for investigation by COMPETENT, INDEPENDENT, and IMPARTIAL parties. In the end it will cost us tons of money. Even if Dave chose to resign, it still should be investigated, otherwise the report will always be remembered as a political act and nothing else.

No concrete proof here but ask yourself who has the most to gain.. Who wasn't at the board meeting tuesday.. Who campaigned in 2009 and said legal bills were too high,voted against k-mart tif,edgar funeral home. Has ideas on running for Mayor again...... Jerry Hurckes .................. I always say Dave posts here because he is the only one who has all this insider info to slam all his opponents, his posts read like a lawyer wrote them, plus only Dave would believe he is innocent in all this legal mess he has himself created for the village.Dave honestly,face up, you made mistakes in your choices for legal council,whether it was blind friendship,loyalty,ego or arrogance. You must now reap what you have sown

If this were truly such a big issue why is not being reported out side of the Oak Lawn Patch? Has any one in authority consulted The attorney General or any other media outlets? What I see so far is political mud slinging and accusations. Let's stop the non-sense, if laws have been broken, let's get the ball rolling and move forward with an impartial investigation.

I think an impartial investigation would be a good thing too. The Odelson report is a collection of selected email and document extracts intended to prove a case against the mayor. Odelson isn't a neutral party as mentioned before. And there are obviously trustees that want the mayor to resign or not run again. So this is political. I wondered why Odelson seemed so concerned about not discussing report details on mic and said he didn't want to be sued. Now it's clear why. These are allegations with no rebuttal opportunity by the mayor and Odelson may realize that prevailing in court will be difficult. So present the "evidence" to the State's Attorney and see what comes of it.

If it comes to litigation I'm sure that the correspondence of the finance manager city manager and trustees will also be fair game. That's where we'll find the interesting story imo.

Also I think the comment that everyone who posts in support of the mayor must be the mayor himself is hysterical. It shows a short sightedness on the part of his critics who may have thought that throwing any allegations out there would cause a movement against the mayor. Not the case and so of course anyone supporting the mayor must be the mayor. Too funny.

This is so sad, our town is in the midst of huge financial challenges as are most, we are seeing more and more businesses closing, empty store fronts, dilapidated properties, empty foreclosed homes making neighborhoods look terrible, the 111th street mess, and our leaders are busy fighting amongst each other. Do we have any one who is putting the people who elected them first? Let's get this situation resolved and move on to building up our community. As leaders you are elected to serve, and I for one feel as if that has become secondary to the self preservation of your offices.

Who knows how much this investigation will end up costing the taxpayers of Oak Lawn. Many thanks to Phelan for opening up a can of nothing.

Jimmy you forgot Meggorman. And sue kelly is a step above the friend category

Lady

Tom Phelan is on a witch hunt. His ego is scary! Just watch how arrogant and combative he is. Let's stop all this, work together to make Oak Lawn a better community where our government does not , "nit pick" each other. Set an example of fairness, politeness , you guys are on TV each week...we see who you are ...your character comes shining through...the good and the bad. Stop fighting....leave your ego's at home before going on TV.

Where is Dave Heilman's birth certificate? How do we know he was really born in Oak Lawn?

Meg Gorman was hired by Phelan. Sue Kelly is very, very personal with Phelan.

Queery Harrow website: Kevin L. Sterk Kevin L. Sterk concentrates his practice in general litigation, insurance defense, public utilities, education law, and transactional work. Mr. Sterk has worked with Querrey & Harrow since 2009, having served as a law clerk prior to being admitted to the Illinois Bar. Before joining Querrey & Harrow, Mr. Sterk gained valuable experience clerking for a local law firm which practices municipal liability law and education law.Mr Sterk is actively involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Brother Rice High School Alumni Association. He resides in Oak Lawn.

An investigation "with a purpose"
By
Casey Cora
on May 18, 2010 5:00 PM | Permalink
Heilmann is pointing to a two-month-old conversation between finance director Brian Hanigan and Burt Odelson in which Odelson allegedly revealed that two trustees - Bob Streit (3rd) and Tom Phelan (6th) "are out for blood" and that they wanted "Heilmann's head on a platter." Hanigan said he did relay to Heilmann that the village board's approval of an inquiry was "an investigation with a purpose." "But (as for) what that purpose is, people can draw their own conclusions," he said.

Dave give it a rest this site is not a courtroom!! Allegedly... do you know what the word means?? You always say I've done nothing wrong. I'm alleged to do something wrong,Tom and Bob are alleged to be out for blood, My lawyer friends allegedly screwed up, my e-mails were allegedly taken out of context etc. You are not changing anyone's minds with your legal mumbo jumbo Mayor. The facts will present themselves, hopefully in a real court of law

Check out the Fire Department Deposition by Phelan in 2008. Under oath he lies about his wife's "gossip" and admits that he went around the board and witheld information from one Trustee in particular. Lorraine, you should have a copy.

Tommy Boy, Dave trained you well! Only difference, he is good and you are bad.

Or maybe they are both bad

Why did Streit proclaim in the debate that he never hired an immediate family member for any govenment job? Why does Phelan belittle his spouses salary at the government job he brokered for her in District 218? Why does Wachovia deny that Phelan works there any longer? Put the pieces together.

I saw Phelan claim on tv his wife only made some ridiculous amt per year after deducing childcare costs it came out to about $7/hr. Does anyone buy that? How does she feel having him say that on tv?

OakLawnGal
Deetjen etc.

Brian Hannigan is the Village Finance Manager. I am still unclear why HE did not catch the double billing. That's where it should have been caught.

Dear mr Wilson, mr. failin is chairman of the finance committee. shouldnt he catch it two? i think we need some more detectives.

Auditor did you even read the full report? Guess not. The board could decide to negotiate with the law firm to recapture overbillings. Or they could file a law suit against the law firm. A third option would be to file a law suit that includes the Mayor and Hannigan. But if they do that then speculation is that the Mayor could pursue emails, documents, correspondence etc from ALL of the trustees as a part of discovery. I'm not sure what they'd find but if half the stuff mentioned here about Phelan is true it would certainly be interesting to find out. Who's clueless now Audtor? Lol :)

Let's leave people's kids out of the comments here. One more comment about any village board member's children, you will be banned. I've said this before.

ol gal do you really think after almost a year, the trutees don't know Dave will go after them if he is blamed for his law firm buddies screwing up?? He could have checked the emails already!!! All the " stuff " on Phelan was blogged either by Dave himself or his buddies. Listen Dave knew this was coming he has been working to block,attack and diffuse the lawyer investigation for months. it didn't work let the process play out.

Oak Lawn Gal,
While it may be an option to sue the Mayor and Hannigan, it is unlikely. No, let's say it is almost impossible. The lawsuits here should only be against the two law firms: Tressler's firm and Chiamenti. In that case, the e-mails of trustees are irrelevant and would never be seen. I can hear davey crying now. By the way, wasn't it freaky how Norm Chimaenti referred to the mayor as Davey and they cackled like school girls about how smart they are compared to everyone else?

Auditor if you read the materials again there's an email where Hannigan tells the mayor that in the June budget summary he did not report outstanding legal fees of $200k - $250k to the board or village manager. If true then he under reported the budget totals. There's no reply from the mayor that I saw but presumably the report was given with the inderstated totals. One option for the Odelson group would be to alledge collusion or mismanagement of public funds (I'm not a lawyer so that actual charges might be different). If that's what the board decides to pursue then all communications would be open to review in discovery imo. Do I think that will happen? Not sure. They would have to have evidence of collusion and the current report was produced by people with a bias imo. So it's hard to predict how solid any evidence is and what they'll do. I completely agree that they should pursue the law firms to get any overbillings back.

What became of this?

Thursday, June 26, 2008
Proviso Board President Chris Welch Sues Former Proviso Lawyers Burt Odelson and Mark Sterk. Welch Also Sues Former Employer James J. Roche!!!
Proviso School Board President Chris Welch has sued the District's former lawyers, Burt Odelson and Mark Sterk, of Odelson & Sterk, Ltd. He has also sued his former employer, James J. Roche, of James J. Roche & Associates.

From the south town: This sounds more balanced and objective.

Tressler’s fees for one “runaway” civil case skewed the average of what the firm charged the village. A sexual harassment lawsuit filed by firefighter Sharon Januszewski in 2006 was settled in September 2009 for $850,000. Sartorio said defending the village in that case cost $930,000 and that Tressler’s other bills averaged about $550,000 a year over 41/2 years, comparable to what the village’s prior law firm was paid in 2005. The village paid nearly $556,000 to Klein Thorpe and Jenkins for legal fees in 2005.

I see a 6 thousand dollar difference here if not for the harassment case, Unless there is some evidence of illegal activity, stop the political rhetoric and mud slinging; get back to the issues of our community.

John it looks like (745 ILCS 10/1-101 et seq.) Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act applies to civil cases and not criminal allegations?

https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=57+DePaul+L.+Rev.+1021&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=432cdb0d31af3234a5c42a129d6d78bc

John ... so if they attempted a lawsuit regarding mismanagement of public funds or conspiracy to defraud would those be tried in the criminal court? Thanks.

O.k. thanks John. I thought you might have posted 745 ILCS 10/1-101 et seq to suggest the mayor and board could not be held liable for over billing.

John interesting information. Thanks for posting.

You should have GONE to law school, after you finished your remedial grammar course.

Mayor Dave saying to the attys in ? that he will find a way to outsmart 'em sounds like willful and wanton conduct to me!

Bob I said lawyers not firemen

And as far as your comment about fireman. Any fireman has done more good for society on one of their bad days then you have done in your whole life. Knock off the nonsense and just say thank you.

Bob Lanz
As a leader of the Oak Lawn Fire Dept and someone who works for the Village of Oak Lawn you are an embarrassment. Attacking residents verbally on these forums is NOT acceptable behaviour. Residents deserve better than this. Any resident should have the ability to speak their mind on any issue without being attacked by staff. shame on you Bob Lanz. You should leave Oak Lawn because YOU ARE NOT WANTED.

Once again you guys deflect the issues, Never said Dave was an evil person, Heck I even campaigned for him in 2009!!! . Once the lawyer stuff came out I started to doubt the truthfulness of the mayor. Sorry my opinion,I have nothing against firemen, Mr. Lanz attacked me I have never even met Mr. Lanz. I will continue to point out what I believe are falsehoods on these blogs. If crimes were committed,they must be investigated regardless of all the partisan blogging ( on both sides ) on this site. At least I use my own name so I'm open to attack that's fine with me. The cowards who hide behind fake names and attack people personally and not factually should be ashamed of themselves. Justice will be done no matter what is said on these blogs

From the Village web site:

Our Vision: To be the premier first generation south suburb of the Greater Chicago Community in which to live, work and play.

Our Mission: To enhance the village quality of life through thee delivery of public services that preserve the health, safety, and welfare of our residents, businesses, and visitors. The Village is committed to achieving excellence and will deliver our services reliably, efficiently, and in a fiscally responsable manner.

Now look at all the exchanges here, if they address these two statements bravo, if they are personal attacks, differences of opinion that present no opportunity to dialog responsibly and reach a resolution shame on us. Are we at all concerned about simply taking the moral, right and legal roads. The beauty of Democracy is that we can differ in our opinions and interpretations, but true democracy is still centered on service to the people, doing what those we represent ask us to do as long as we are within the law.

Is this discussion even about the story? My neighbor told me that I should check out the Patch but I will never return after reading these comments. In fact, I'm ordering a better security system for my home and reassessing my decision to move into this town after realizing that I live in a town with a bunch of nuts.

Hey thug b gone you forgot to mention the a-1 report ( 500 or more) before election, tressler gave another 5,000 to Dave you forgot to mention that so that's 10,000 already not including Chementi also contributed in late 08

Sam you have to look at the il. state board of elections site go to committee search check chicago for city unity party for name, you must check the inactive committee's box since Dave took all the money out and closed the account!!!

Let's see April of 2009, what was happening then? Dave, Jane, Toms, Alex up for election, but Tressler only gave money to Dave? Guess there should be no complaints of what did with the campaign funds so Failin should stop slurring about it at deja brew every night.

I believe, from what I've researched, that the entire Unity Party, c/o Dave Heilmann founder, benefited from all of the campaign contributions to the Unity Party. In parting ways, I understand Mr. Heilmann donated the remaining funds to Ms. Quinlan's campaign since she did not recieve any monies from the Unity Party for her initial campaign.
It's hard to phathom why this is so upsetting for any of the other board members. Their campaign coffers appear to be healthy.

Dave calm down take a chill pill, now your saying the money was donated to the whole unity party, yet you take all the money and give it to your candidate sayin it's your money which one is it??

Actually, he took it from the Unity party to the Friends of David Heilman party. He just started a new party recently. I also see large donations to him from tressler, ending in 2009 when the contrat ended. $5K a pop over how many years or payments! I would say there was a conspiracy here with money.... Follow the money honey!

Anything said during board meeting hours is hidden under Tort law and they will walk free. However, if they willingly made the recommendation baased on the amount to his campaign war chest, then you have a claim.