Homer Glenn, IL. (ECWd) –
Homer Township, its public officials, and its residents filed suit today in Will County Circuit Court seeking a court order prohibiting the unlawful distribution of Homer Township Road District personal property and the unlawful jurisdictional transfer of Road District highways, all to the Village of Homer Glen.
The Village of Homer Glen, after the referendum to dissolve the Road District failed, announced it was seizing the Township Road District’s property and transferring highway jurisdiction to the Village.
After the current Road Commissioner, Mike De Vivo, attended a political caucus, and did not get slated, it is alleged that Vivo and the village decided to fast-track the seizure of the road district property to effectuate its transfer prior to the spring election, leaving the new, incoming road commissioner with no equipment with which to perform his duties.
Some of the allegations:
- Late last summer, the Village of Homer Glen informed Homer Township Supervisor Pam Meyers that it was going to seize the assets (equipment and real property) of the Homer Township Road District (“the Road District”) and that it had convinced the Township’s Highway Commissioner, Mike DeVivo, to simply give such assets to the Village through a transfer of “stewardship,” which is a term that the Village made up and not a process established by law.
- In exchange for the Highway Commissioner signing away these assets owned by the taxpayers, the Village would give him a job with the Village. The conveyance of all of the Road District’s assets to the Village would allow the Village to suddenly have a public works department that was subsidized, in part, by taxpayers in other jurisdictions.
- The Township knew there was no legal mechanism to abolish the Road District by, essentially, giving it away to the Village, but that if the electors of the Road District wanted to abolish it, they could do so by referendum.
- On November 3, 2020, the electors overwhelmingly voted not to dissolve the road district with a vote of 11,632 no votes (approximately 56%) to 9,127 yes votes (approximately 44%)
- Notwithstanding this vote, and in a deliberate and unlawful attempt to circumvent the will of the voters, the Village of Homer Glen and the Homer Township Highway Commissioner, Mike DeVivo, have fast tracked their efforts to gift the Road District‘s assets to the Village.
- This lawsuit seeks a declaration that such action is unlawful, and a permanent injunction to prevent the illegal transfer.
The Plaintiffs:
HOMER TOWNSHIP, an Illinois township, Sean Reilley, Maria Reilley, Rich Polaski, Quinn Polaski, Ed Kalas, Margaret Sabo, Ellen Moriarty, Kathleen Kruczek, individually and in her official her capacity as Clerk of the Homer Township Road District, Kolbe Kruczek, Jacob Kruczek, Pamela Meyers, Individually and in her official capacity as Treasurer of the Homer Township Road District and Supervisor of Homer Township, Ethel Rodriquez, George Offord, Cheryl Bromberek, Bill Bromberek, Denise Clements, Roy Adcock, Laura Adcock, James Kuzma, Karen Szynkowski and Tom Fijan
The Defendants:
VILLAGE OF HOMER GLEN, an Illinois municipal corporation, the HOMER TOWNSHIP ROAD DISTRICT, an Illinois special district,
MIKE DE VIVO, in his official capacity as Homer Township Road District Highway Commissioner
Read the lawsuit below, or here:
Complaint with Exhibits 4843-6484-0911 v.6
