Lakewood crisis averted, Trustees remain, Village President concedes to reality –

LAKEWOOD, IL. (ECWd) –

We had previously written about Paul Serwatka, Village of Lakewood’s President, “removing” two trustees from their positions as Village Trustees.

During the Lakewood Village meeting tonight, the village clerk refused to call the complete roll-call of trustees, and a trustee asked the attorney if the president’s alleged removal of trustees was legal or not.

After a lengthy response, the Attorney stated the president did not have the power to remove trustees from office, and it did not matter if they were elected trustees, or trustees appointed to elected trustee vacancies.

Village President Serwatka appeared slightly surprised by that response and went on a several minute discussion of his thought process on how he believed he had the authority to remove the trustees. He again asked the attorney if the president could remove a trustee, and the attorney replied that he could not.

The meeting then continued on, taking several public comments, with one asking the president to resign.

From all appearances, this village president is moving out of the village shortly.

Video of the first portion of the meeting, including public comment, is below and was provided by Lakewood resident Steven Gough and with his permission. Please excuse the quality as it was recorded on a cell phone, while being played on a television, from a live Facebook broadcast:

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