Dave Heilmann’s Attorney Problem

Is Mayor Dave Heilmann’s "annus horribilis" finally over now that the village has settled its legal dispute with the former, former village attorneys? After spending nearly a half million on a legal investigation into alleged malpractice and overbillings by Tressler LLP formerly known as Tressler, Soderstrom, Maloney & Priess for a settlement of roughly the same maybe it really was a “political witch hunt”?

Where are the indictments? The recovery of tens of millions of village taxpayer dollars?

Unfortunately, we’ll never know what was left on the table thanks to a confidentiality clause put in place to "prevent dissemination of false or misleading information” each party agrees to respond to questions regarding the agreement only by stating that “the Parties have resolved the issues between them.”

Glad the Oak Lawn Village Board can agree on something.

Asked how he felt about the settlement, the mayor, himself a practicing attorney, said: “It’s great that we can resolve this. It’s always good to settle cases out of court. That’s always positive.”

Does he feel vindicated: “I don’t feel either way. These are questions about attorneys. I do feel bad that [Norm Chimenski, the mayor’s partner in community theater productions] was vilified for a couple of years. As we can see there is nothing there.”

Heilmann, who a year ago said he wants to put the malice behind him, told Patch he plans to run for a third mayoral term in 2013.

No challengers have stepped forward, but we hear rumors …

Quinlan vs. Lipinski Pitching Duel

Easily the best first pitch at Westside Baseball of Oak Lawn’s opening day ceremony on Saturday belonged to Oak Lawn Village Clerk Jane Quinlan.

A pretty good athlete at Mother McAuley High School, Quinlan was the captain of the varsity basketball team and played softball.

Quinlan’s was the only throw that made it over the plate among the many ceremonial first pitches tossed on Saturday.

Watch the video.

Live Blogging

Oak Lawn Patch will continue its live blogging experiment by blogging the Oak Lawn Village Board meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (April 24). That way, you can record the Ch. 4 re-broadcast and fast forward to the good parts.