Plans by Waukegan City Council members to hire their own law firm to complement work done by the city corporation counsel Elrod Friedman may be derailed by a mayoral veto.
Mayor Ann Taylor filed her veto Monday with the City Clerk’s Office of a proposal narrowly approved by the council at its Jan. 21 meeting creating a path for the members to retain their own attorney instead of the corporation counsel.
Taylor said there are no funds appropriated in the budget for additional lawyers, there is no reason to duplicate efforts because the corporation counsel does the legislative legal work and she believes it is politically motivated with the primary on Feb. 25 and the general election on April 1.
“There’s no reason to do this,” Taylor said. “The corporation counsel does not work for me. They work for the city of Waukegan. The (aldermen) voted them in.”
The mayor’s veto is slated for placement on the City Council’s agenda for its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, where the nine-member legislative body will have the opportunity to override Taylor’s action with a minimum of six votes.
Hatched at a Jan. 6 meeting of the council’s Government and Operations Committee by Ald. Victor Felix, 4th Ward, and Ald. Keith Turner, 6th Ward, the idea was approved 5-4 by the council on Jan. 21.
Turner said at the council meeting he felt there is a “perception” opinions offered by attorneys from the corporation counsel are, “colored or influenced by the mayor’s office.” He gave no specific examples at either meeting.
“There is a perception that there’s often concerns about opinions offered about operations and procedural initiatives, and more specifically investigative concerns pertaining to ethics complaints and conflicts of interest,” Turner said.
When the idea was discussed at the Government Operations Committee meeting on Jan. 6, Turner declined to give additional reasons when Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, asked for a broader explanation.
Felix said at the committee meeting he utilizes the services of the corporation counsel frequently, but there is “a consensus there’s a lot of influence from the mayor’s office that would want to contradict what some of the aldermen would like to push forward.”
“The reason why we would want a specific attorney to represent the aldermen is for those reasons on the legal side to help us push things forward,” Felix said.
During the Jan. 21 council meeting, Taylor said all money in the legal budget is covered by an existing contract with the current corporation counsel. The only funds available for additional lawyers would have to come from elsewhere.
“Since 87.8% of our budget already goes toward salaries and employees, the only thing it could come out of is capital improvements,” she said. “The easiest one for that to come out of would-be road funds. So that would mean we have to revamp our spring road program by about 50%. We can’t just manufacture money.”
Ald. Thomas Hayes, 9th Ward, is a practicing attorney. He said more lawyers, “always overcomplicates things, is always a bad idea” and he dislikes the principle.
“This is going to create turmoil and chaos within the City Council,” Hayes said. “We don’t know who we’re supposed to listen to, what advice we’re supposed to hear. We might get conflicting opinions. I’m stunned we would even consider using city resources, taxpayer dollars, to provide lawyers for the aldermen.”
Joining Turner and Felix voting for the proposal were Ald. Jose A. Guzman, 2nd Ward; Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward; and Ald. Michael Donnenwirth, 7th Ward. Hayes, Florian, Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, and Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward, voted against it.
Though mayoral vetoes are rare, the attempt to block the council’s move to hire its own legal counsel independent from the existing corporation counsel is Taylor’s second veto, Taylor issued her first veto in October of 2023, when the legislature wanted to approve her choices for department heads.
Though the council voted 5-3 to limit the mayor’s hiring authority, it failed to override that initial veto. Several individuals in City Hall involved with city government for over three decades did not recall a veto before Taylor’s 2023 move.
