Members of Waukegan’s City Council plan to retain an attorney or a law firm to represent their interests independent of the city’s corporation counsel, though they have yet to articulate the lawyer’s role.
Ald. Keith Turner, 6th Ward, originally proposed the idea late last year, but he has yet to say what he thinks the lawyer will do for the city. Ald. Victor Felix. 4th Ward, pushed the idea at several council meetings and hopes the additional counsel will help get more legislation passed.
After the council voted 5-4 to begin the process of hiring a legislative counsel on Jan. 21, Mayor Ann Taylor vetoed the plan six days later. She has concerns about the cost and the lack of any budgeted funds before the fiscal year ends on April 30.
“There’s no reason to do this,” Taylor said before issuing the veto. “The corporation counsel does not work for me. They work for the city of Waukegan. The (aldermen) voted them in.”
The council voted 6-2, with one member absent, Monday at City Hall overriding Taylor’s veto and setting the stage for adding a legislative counsel to aid the alders in their effort to craft laws.
Before the vote, Taylor said the individual or firm cannot start before May 1 when the 2026 fiscal year starts and a new budget will be in place. The budget planning is already underway. She said details remain to be worked out. She said she senses some of the motives are political.
“You could put 10,000 attorneys in a room and you’re going to get 10,000 different opinions,” Taylor said. “It’s very rare you’re going to get (that) even among partners,” she added, referring to the law firm representing the city.
“That’s why you guys all sit as a group, talk things out and give us one opinion,” the mayor said. “I also thought it was a highly political thing.”
When the measure was originally approved, Turner and Felix voted for it along with Ald. Jose A. Guzman, 2nd Ward, Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward, and Ald. Michael Donenwirth, 7th Ward. Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, voted against the measure in January, but changed her vote Monday assuring the override.
Bolton said though she voted against the proposal in January, she was unhappy when the mayor said the idea might be a political move. She talked about a time in 2019 when Taylor had a conversation with an attorney for one of the groups vying for a casino license.
“When I received numerous calls reminding me about that, it really made me change my vote,” Bolton said.
Taylor, a member of the council in 2019, said she and two of her colleagues spoke to the attorney in question when a query was made about placing an item on the agenda for a meeting.
“I wanted them to be heard because I thought it would stop them from going further,” Taylor said.
With the path to hiring a legislative counsel clear, Turner said no work has been done yet on the attorney’s role, but he anticipates taking a request for proposal to the Lake County Bar Association to find applicants.
“We have not created a scope of work,” Turner said. “We don’t know all that’s going to encompass. We haven’t all talked about this at one time. I don’t anticipate a significant cost. It’s going to be hundreds or thousands of dollars.”
Felix said he hopes the legislative counsel will help foster, “a partnership together with the mayor and get these things passed.” He believes it will be a step in the right direction.
“The attorney will help us push some of these projects forward, (like) our code compliance,” Felix said. “This is the kind of thing we want to do already. We don’t want to wait another two years.”
Voting against the override were Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, and Ald. Thomas Hayes, 9th Ward. Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward, was absent.
