Skokie trustee walks out of Village Board meeting alleging conflict of interest; mayor, other trustees disagree
As the Skokie Village Board considered an ordinance setting this year’s pay for senior village staff at its meeting Tuesday, Trustee James Johnson walked out in protest before a vote was taken, but the move did not affect the outcome of the vote.
At the previous board meeting in December, Johnson said he would walk out if the ordinance were to pass because it would violate ethics rules and be a conflict of interest. Johnson has long accused Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge and Assistant Corporation Counsel James McCarthy of politically-motivated misconduct, and Village Board members of having a conflict of interest in keeping Lorge and McCarthy in the legal department because of their connections within the village’s politically dominant Skokie Caucus Party.
“Colleagues, you’re about to steer roughly $400,000 of public money to your own political campaign leaders — individuals that you have very strong personal relationships with outside of village hall,” Johnson said during the meeting. “From my perspective, this is a clear case of political hiring or actively using your positions as elected officials to appoint your own leaders to high-paying positions in our legal department.”
Johnson is the village’s only trustee who is not affiliated with the Skokie Caucus Party. He has made four ethics complaints to the village’s Ethics Commission alleging politically-motivated improprieties on the part of various officials within the party, and the Ethics Commission has dismissed all of them unanimously.
The ordinance the village passed was to reestablish how much the Village Manager, Deputy Village Clerk, Corporation Counsel and Assistant Corporation Counsels should earn after taking into account inflation and the cost-of-living-adjustments. All village employees saw raises due to inflation.
Mayor George Van Dusen denied any conflict of interest between the Village Board and the legal department, saying that even the president of the United States appoints people who supported their campaign to their cabinet.
“There is no conflict of interest in supporting candidates whether they be Democrat or Republican,” said Van Dusen. “The village board makes policy and then it’s up to the Village Manager, with the advice and counsel of the legal department, to administer and put that policy into effect. That is how the system works,” he said.
“I find your continued repetition of the same comments to be a distraction from the real important work the village needs to get done,” said Trustee Edie Sue Sutker to Johnson. “It’s time to move on.”
Van Dusen echoed her statement saying, “You keep making the same complaint. It keeps getting dismissed. It’s time, as my colleague has just said, to move on and get on with the substance of the work of the village.”
Before Johnson walked out, he said from now on, he would leave the dais at the end of the meeting to give a public comment where he would give a three-minute presentation about the “long history of political corruption” in the village’s legal department.
“I know that some of you are tired of me speaking about this, but I will be speaking about this at every village board meeting until we have a nonpartisan legal department, which we are in desperate need of,” said Johnson.
