The Will County Board’s Executive Committee voted Thursday to hire its own legal counsel to represent the county board over the objection of the state’s attorney’s office.
Board Chair Judy Ogalla said the Will County state’s attorney’s office cannot “fairly and clearly” represent the county board, the county executive’s office and the clerk’s office and said it has a conflict of interest.
“If our voice is not being heard, the voice of the people is not being heard,” said Ogalla, a Republican from Monee.
The issue arose after the county board last month passed a resolution ceasing the planned widening of 143rd Street in Homer Glen by a 12-9 vote, with 10 Republicans and two Democrats voting to stop the project and requesting an alternative plan. County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant signed the resolution Feb. 16 but then vetoed it the next day, saying that she had inadvertently signed off on it.
Action to hire its own legal counsel to represent the county board is final and does not need full county board approval, said Kim Fladhammer, the board’s chief of staff.
County Board Chair Judy Ogalla, a Republican from Monee, presides over Thursday’s Executive Committee meeting. (Michelle Mullins/for Daily Southtown)
The executive committee is also recommending the full county board direct Will County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow to challenge the county executive’s ability to veto a resolution and file litigation that the county board’s resolution to stop the 143rd Street project is valid.
The full county board is expected to take up those actions next week.
Assistant State’s Attorneys Mary Tatroe and Scott Pyles said the county board has no authority to hire its own counsel or file litigation against the executive.
“The state’s attorney is the duly elected legal counsel for the county board,” Tatroe said. “You have no authority in statute to hire an attorney because the people of this county have voted to have Jim Glasgow represent this county board and you do not have the legal authority to usurp his authority as a countywide elected official.”
If there are attorneys who try to bill the county for their work on behalf of the board, Tatroe said they will advise the finance department not to pay those bills.
Tatroe said a difference of opinions does not rise to the level of a legal conflict.
“The state’s attorney is impartial,” Tatroe said. “We have always been impartial. We call the balls and strikes as we see them. We are well aware that the political landscape changes year to year, week to week, month to month, day to day. Do you think that every elected official in this county should be able to hire a private attorney when they have a disagreement with the state’s attorney?”
Ogalla said the procedure the board has followed for two decades is under attack and said members cannot trust the process.
“If we can’t trust the process that we go by month after month after month to be true, then what are we, who are we?” Ogalla said. “I sit here. I come every month. I dedicate my time and yet what I’ve been doing is not valid? It’s a problem.”
Board member Dan Butler, a Republican from Frankfort, said the county board needs legal advise it can trust.
“We definitely don’t feel that the state’s attorney has got our interest at heart,” Butler said. “What we feel is the state’s attorney is defending the executive and that is a different branch of government. … There should be no opposition. The truth is the truth and it will come out in our system and there is no problem with tempering our system.”
Bertino-Tarrant said the state’s attorney has made it clear the board is acting outside its authority.
“If county board members can lawyer shop whenever they disagree with the (state’s attorney’s) opinion, our county government will grind to a halt as lawsuits are filed whenever an elected official doesn’t get their way,” she said.
Board Democratic Leader Jackie Traynere said the board does not have legal authority to direct the state’s attorney to file litigation deciding the board’s resolution is valid.
“Once this gets in front of a judge it will be decided in favor of the county executive,” Traynere said.
Engineering work to widen 143rd Street to five lanes from State Street/Lemont Road to Bell Road began in 2009, but the county has recently begun negotiating with property owners to acquire 116 easements necessary for expansion. The board in November approved quick take proceeding for the land acquisition.
Homer Glen residents and elected officials attend Thursday’s Will County Executive Committee to fight the 143rd Street widening plan. (Michelle Mullins/for Daily Southtown)
In the last few months, residents and elected officials of Homer Glen and Homer Township have been actively protesting the plan and asking the board to reduce its scope. Widening it from two lanes to five lanes would destroy their quality of life, invite more traffic, noise and pollution, take their land and disrupt the rural nature of the road, residents said.
Jeff Ronaldson, director of the Will County Division of Transportation, said the project is needed to improve safety. The last traffic count from December saw more than 14,200 cars per day on the stretch of the road.
Ronaldson said he is waiting on county board actions to decide how he will proceed. The county has received $7 million in federal grant money for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to put towards the project as planned. If the veto stands, the county board would have to vote on an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation to appropriate those federal grants, Ronaldson said.
Kimberly Pady, a Homer Glen resident, said it is clear that the issue has moved beyond the 143rd Street expansion project.
“When a decision made through the rightful channels of democracy is at risk of being overturned due to an alleged mistake, it undermines not just the decision itself, but the very principles of accountability, transparency and respect for the electorates’ will,” Pady said.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
