Court Dismisses Challenge to Legislative Counsel Ordinance
An
Illinois appellate court recently upheld a decision by a village board majority
to retain legislative counsel against a variety of challenges by the village president, including that the board's decision unlawfully interferes with the president's executive authority and that the law firm had a
conflict of interest. Jones v. Brown-Marino, et al., 2017 IL App (1st) 152852-U.
In
2015, four trustees on a seven-member board desired to adopt an ordinance to
retain legislative counsel to advise the board members. They discussed hiring a law firm
that had previously represented them in a case against the village relating to
certification of their names on the 2015 ballot.
Two
days before the board passed the legislative counsel ordinance, the village
attorney filed a lawsuit on behalf of the village president seeking to stop the
trustees from passing the ordinance. The suit also sought
to invalidate the legislative counsel ordinance or have the court disqualify the
trustees’ law firm from serving as legislative counsel due to an alleged
conflict. The
village president argued the legislative counsel ordinance unlawfully usurped
his executive authority to appoint attorneys for the village and unlawfully
stripped certain duties and authorities from his duly appointed village
attorney. He also alleged the ordinance was invalid because it failed to
specify the time period in which it would be effective, and because there was
allegedly no prior appropriation in the village budget to pay for legislative
counsel.
The
appellate court ruled in favor of the trustees, dismissing the village president's case. The court held that a village board is statutorily authorized to retain
legislative counsel, that the ordinance was effective for as long as the board
majority so desired, that the legislative body was not usurping the president’s
executive authority, that there was an appropriate line item in the budget for
legal services, and finally that there was no conflict of interest with the village in
allowing the majority trustees to select their trusted law firm to serve as
legislative counsel.
Post
Authored by Adam Lasker, Ancel Glink
Disclaimer: Ancel Glink is the law firm serving as legislative counsel for the majority trustees.
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