Well, after reading that "Settlement and Mutual Release" I feel like I need a shower... and I just took one an hour ago.

I think everyone knew it was going to cost about as much as we would get back. Even on personal matters sometimes it feels like your spending so much time chasing down ten dollars you wonder if its worth it.

One thing confuses me though. Although the mayor says we would have a net of 96k, instead of 450k in fees, didn't we have a net of 17k + the forgiven debt that's 46k and the 20k from the third party administrator making the net "refund/credits" 83k? Did I read this wrong?

In the end, the mayor's settlement suggestion would have given us more, but the investigation seems like it could have yeilded way more had things gone a little differently.

So we paid $436,672 plus $10,477 to get 566,000. Nice. Who hired Godfrey & Kahn? And people say the Tressler firm over charged us? What about the money paid to Odelson for his initial "study"?

Godfrey and Kahn, $436,672 WOW!!!!
Hired in May 2011. Not even a year and the leg work was already done for them by Phelan, Odelson and Q&H. It pays to be a friend of Tom's I guess.
Odelson and Sterk, $10,477
Odelson’s final report estimated economic damages of $10 million to the village
Now let's see the real report that Details those "estimated economic damages"
Querrey and Harrow, $6,392 (Sterk's son is an attorney at Q&H)

What happens now? Will the Brain Trust subpeona G&K, O&S, and Q&H?

Dr. Bury obviously has not previously read a release and settlement agreement drawn by professional attorneys. There is nothing untoward or unsavory in the above document. It does precisely what it says it's supposed to do; settlement and mutual release.

I don't know too many people who pretend to know everything about the human eye that professionals know, and I find it disturbing that so many people do purport to know everything about the law.

It's easy for people to take shots and cast aspersions at lawyers and the practices and procedures of the legal system, but just because someone may not fully understand or be cognizant of the nuances of certain things doesn't necessarily make them suspect. The suggestion that the agreement is somehow tainted or "dirty" is inappropriate. Besides, if anyone has an issue with the settlement and mutual release agreement, I would suggest taking it up with the board of trustees that approved it.

Have any of you "burning tax dollar" politicians ever put out a feeler in these cases to see if a local lawyer might like to help the town he lives in at a reasonable rate?? Please stop burning our tax dollars!! PLEASE, I'm broke!!!!

For those of you who are experiencing issues with commenting, we are working out some bugs in our new comment moderation system. I will approve those comments that violate our terms of use as quickly as I can. Now I need to approve this comment.

I say blame it all on Jerry Hurckes.

This is sad for Oak Lawn

You should be able to leave comments automatically but I will still check back. Please edit yourselves.

What is the relationship between Tom Phelan and Godfrey & Kahn?

This investigation was more about exposing corruption on the part of the Mayor and his hand-picked attorney's than just the money.I remember a year ago the Mayor and all his blogger buddies saying Tressler did nothing wrong and they were innocent.. Ask yourself this question.. Why would a so-called innocent party agree to pay $ 500,000 dollars if they didn't do anything wrong. This means they were guilty of mishandling village money. The Mayor offering legal advice ( in this article ) to the board during this case was like the fox telling the chickens where to sleep in the Hen House!!! The Mayor never wanted the investigation,tried to interfere during the investigation and actively tried to label this as an attack on him. One more thought, why was the mayor allowed to be in on the investigation process in the first place?? He should have removed himself from the whole investigation because of personal and professional bias.. I wonder if the Mayor was the one who was fighting for a confidentiality agreement?? This issue is far from over. Dr. Bury is right, this whole process is dirty.The people have a right to know about the entire process because it does concern our tax dollars. Individuals who have nothing to hide should welcome the cleansing light of the truth...

Some readers who leave comments are still getting 'pending approval' comments but their comments appear to be making it on to the board. I am checking notifications.

It appears by them paying us that we won?/ Doesn't the party who loses usually pay the attorney fees because they were at fault?!?!??

Scott, I don't know where your comment is coming from regarding the firefighter in question, or what it has to do with the story, so I deleted it. No personal attacks, please, or I will turn on the comment moderation. I don't have time to be a junior high cafeteria supervisor, but will if I must.

I write not just as a lawyer but as a resident and taxpayer of Oak Lawn (not life long like Andy, but over 18 years) with a wife who has owned - and at times struggled with - a business in Oak Lawn for now over 30 years.

As for the Tressler settlement, you made a nice speech above, but you omit some things. Maybe there was "something there" as you say. More likely than not, there was. However, they did pay back $500,000.00. I don't call that getting away with anything. The taxpayers did get screwed, but not just by Tressler firm; read the numbers above and tell us that we didn't get screwed even more. The best thing about any settlement is that all parties involved have reached the point at which they determined it's time to hang it up. Could be cost, could be lack of will to continue, could be a multitude of reasons, but at the end of the day, it's done. The perfect settlement of any legal claim is one where the paying party feels they paid too much, and the receiving party feels they got too little. Thus is the Tressler matter. My guess is they weren't happy to fork over 500K, and related guess that the board wanted more, but everyone decided to call it quits.

Based on the projected costs of continuing the litigation weighed against the probability of further recovery, I would suggest that the Mayor, the Manager and the Village board did the right thing here.

To your FOIA point, if everything has been so secretive and concealed from the voters and taxpayers, why have there been so many "investigations" , reports and presentations of findings? And, most importantly, how would we all be able to read the settlement agreement, read news about it and discuss these matters now. The calls for transparency in "the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act" are hollow at best, sophistry at worst. If you want to read more, submit a FOIA request to Clerk Quinlan, but in any event, the matter has been concluded. To that purpose, I congratulate the Village president AND the Board for closing the book.

John, I completely agree that the settlement was the right thing for the taxpayer as a way to curb escalating attorney fees. As far as "in any event, the matter has been concluded," I'm not so sure. The voters have yet to speak on this issue.

I don't know how well FOIA has worked or not...I've read a LOT of these boards, and a few times I've seen mention of people wanting more information and it not being forthcoming. Not many, though.
My BIGGER concern is the concept of a 'closed' meeting. I'm sorry, but there should NEVER be a meeting held that Oak Lawn taxpayers are not allowed to view. Perhaps there is to be silence from the gallery, but everything the board or any committee does should be open to the public, every single time, without exception. We LITERALLY pay their salaries, AND elect them...we the people, the taxpaying public ARE Oak Lawn. The town is NOT the mayor, or the village manager, or the clerk, or the trustees. It is US. We should keep unelecting people until they realize they answer to us, not the other way around. This isn't a petty kingdom with barons and ministers. We voted them in, we should vote out whoever thinks they can do deals without doing them in the open, for all the world to see.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant, folks, lets open our eyes and let the sun shine in.

Hey Dave you stole my line!!!

Which one, Andy? I seem to use every space they allow me...I'm bound to say something good by accident, eventually.

Cleansing light of the truth,or as you wrote sunshine is the best disinfectant Very good line by the way!!!

For you were once darkness, but now you are light. Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible.

Paul: Ephesians 5:1-20

Good Morning John! You will get no argument from me about the need for change in our fair Village. I have no idea how the future will play out but I can tell you and anyone that the excessive legal costs are harmful - perhaps not as harmful though as petty and vindictive leadership might be. If I was a business looking to invest in Oak Lawn and all that I knew about it was what a saw on public board meetings, I would run as fast and far as I could. This hurts us. You can't put a dollar amount on that. It's like 3rd grade all over again, while a great opportunity to move forward is squandered. I won't deny that I get fired up about it. Frankly the lack maturity and engagement in this community from the top down are at best an embarrassment. The community and people deserve better.

Your points regarding lack of engagement in the community are absolutely correct. I also recall Andy's having mentioned that the general attitude is that for the most part, if something is going on in one area, the only people who care about it are the folks in that area and that there are few - if any - who seem to care about what goes on Village-wide. Deadly accurate.

Andy, remember the old Faber/Webb line? "There are 55,000 people in Oak Lawn, and if 50 ashow up at a board meeting, it's a big deal. That's why we can do whatever the #### we want." A successful democracy requires an informed electorate.

The Sad thing is in Oak Lawn is no one votes 14% turnout in the last local election in 2011. I think that will go up a little in 2013 as it is a Mayoral election.For good or Bad Oak Lawn has been a very Political town for decades. Arguments at the board meetings have been going on long before the cameras were present. What John says is very true.He has been going to meetings for a long time and what Oak lawn needs is not only an informed electorate,but also an engaged electorate.

Like everything else, you usually get about what you deserve...taxpayers complain, but do little or nothing about it. Like most thieves, politicians enjoy high rates of recidivism in their jobs. Instead of a judge setting anyone free, we elect the fox to watch the henhouse, then wonder where all the eggs and chickens went.

Dave you are right I was there back in the Day. One floor was taken off the development and once the housing market tanked the village had to pay to get the other parking lot back behind the vfw hall,that was included in the old tif district!!!! One of many lousy development " choices " by the old coalition party..

And the men who hold high places Must be the ones who start_ To mold a new reality closer to the heart_ The Blacksmith and the Artist reflect it in their art; forge their creativity ctth_ Philosophers and Ploughmen each must know his part to sow a new mentality ctth. You can be the Captain and I will draw the chart_Sailing into destiny Closer To The Heart

Thanks, Andy. Don't forget the infamous comment made by the then business development director. He told me to my face that if my wife and the other property owners on her block (South side of the 5200 block of 95th) persisted in their refusal to sell to Mid-America, the Village would either condemn them all or just build on that parking lot, deprive all of those businesses (the VFW, Deja Brew, Angelo's, Goalpost, Annie's and then Mal's) of their parking and - I quote here - "they can just die and rot on the vine." That was the level of contempt the Village officials had for the people who built the businesses that had been there for decades. If Heilmann, Quinlan, Phelan and Olejniczak had lost that 2005 election, that project would have continued, and those places would all be gone. My wife took tons of grief then from a lot of people, but she stood up for what she thought was right and stood against what she thought was wrong.

I know that nobody is perfect - not Dave, Tom, Alex, Bob or Larry - but we have come a very long way on what I think is the right path.