Politics & Government

Mayor Says Tapes of Executive Session 'Exonerate' Him

Mayor Dave Heilmann provides choice clips of Jan. 8, 2008 village board executive session.

Mayor Dave Heilmann has provided clips from a recorded January 2008 Oak Lawn Village Board executive session that he says exonerates him of the charges levied against him in the Odelson Report.

“They’re for broadcast,” the mayor said.

The village board hired Burt Odelson in December 2009 to conduct an into the former village attorneys–Tressler, Soderstrom, Maloney & Priess—after legal fees tripled over a three-year period during the time the firm was in the village’s employ.

Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Some trustees have implied that Heilmann fought terminating Tressler to protect his friends working at the firm. The village has since to conduct another investigation into Tressler’s attorney fees.

Heilmann has maintained that the Odelson Report is a against him by other village board members.

Find out what's happening in Oak Lawnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“You won’t find a report like this anywhere in a legal audit; that’s not what this is,” said the mayor, who claims he still hasn’t read the Odelson Report. “Ask any firm that does this. You will never see what happened here.”

On Jan. 8, 2008, the village board met in a marathon executive session to discuss Oak Lawn firefighter Sharon Januszewski’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the village.

According to the , the mayor kept the village manager and trustees in the dark after the village was denied insurance coverage that would have protected Oak Lawn taxpayers from a costly court settlement in the Januszewski case.

Further, the report maintains that Tressler had already opened litigation against the insurance company two months earlier, presumably without the village manager’s or the board’s knowledge. Tressler subsequently lost the “unauthorized” litigation resulting in additional and separate legal fees of $100,000.

Tressler has denied the accusations and says the village still owes the firm $96,000. The firm's Freedom of Information Act request to get a copy of the audio recording of the January 2008 executive session was denied by the village. Tressler has since filed a lawsuit.

Heilmann provided almost two minutes of audio clips, which he says proves that the village board was kept fully apprised of the litigation against the insurance company and developments in the Januszewski case.

“I find myself in this strange position of not even wanting to address this nonsense,” Heilmann told Patch, “and yet not wanting to let someone accusing me go unanswered.”

The mayor says he has copies of most of the village board’s executive sessions, which are still recorded on cassette tapes. (Watch the accompanying video and listen to the audio clips.) Heilmann said the clips prove that Village Manager Larry Deetjen and trustees were kept fully apprised of the village’s denial of insurance coverage and developments in the ongoing Januszewski lawsuit.

“The accusation as I understand it is that I had knowledge that others didn’t,” Heilmann said. “That I, as the mayor, pay the bills. (Some trustees) have been spouting off about a managerial form of government. The village manager and representatives OK all the bills. They didn’t have knowledge ahead of anyone else. It just didn’t happen.”

In the clips provided to Patch, Heilmann is heard encouraging village board members to call the Tressler attorneys if they had any questions about the firm’s recommendations in settling with Januszewski.

Heilmann also outlines the village’s benefits and risks in going after the insurance company for its denial of coverage, with Tressler attorney Kathy Elliott providing counsel.

Deetjen praises the attorneys’ “excellent advice” and encourages trustees to authorize a $200,000 settlement offer.

“Did Mr. Odelson ignore this tape because it refuted what he was claiming?” Heilmann asked. “How is it he would only listen to some tapes? There’s no reason for that other than it completely refuted what he was saying.”

Up until mid-2009, when the mayor’s relations with his Unity Party slate-mates, trustees Alex Olejniczak and Tom Phelan, disintegrated, “suddenly the village attorneys got bad,” Heilmann said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here