A former Crestwood trustee is suing the village’s mayor, claiming his bi-weekly car allowance constitutes a pay raise in violation of state law.
The lawsuit filed this week in Cook County claims Mayor Lou Presta’s car allowance violates an Illinois statute that prevents elected officials’ salaries from changing during their current term.
The village approved Presta an automobile allowance of $250 every two weeks around July 1, 2013, but failed to pass an ordinance on it 180 days before the beginning of his current term, said John Toscas, an attorney and former Crestwood trustee who filed the lawsuit. Presta was elected to the mayor’s office in April 2013.
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“I just don’t like someone thinking they can do whatever they want,” said Toscas, who lost the 2013 mayoral election to Presta. “And because the board, they’re his rubber-stamp board, they just approved it.”
The automobile allowance was granted to offset the cost of traveling to, among other places, Chicago, where the village was fighting numerous lawsuits filed against it, Presta said.
“(The allowance) is something the board approved and we’ll let the judge decide,” Presta said.
Toscas, who was a village trustee when the allowance began, claims he found out about it through payroll records and advised the mayor and board that the village could only reimburse the mayor for travel expenses, not increase his salary by $6,500 annually.
Both the office of the Illinois Attorney General and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office were contacted, Toscas said. After months of investigation, Toscas was told a taxpayer lawsuit would have to be filed as the statute lacked any enforcement component.
One part of the Illinois Municipal Code defines how compensation is paid to municipal employees and officials. Toscas’ lawsuit cites the section titled “Fixing salaries,” which states, “salaries that are fixed by ordinance for those officers who hold elective office for a definite term shall neither be increased nor diminished during that term and shall be fixed at least 180 days before the beginning of the terms of the officers whose compensation is to be fixed.”
The lawsuit, which names Presta and the village as defendants, asks that a judge declare the $250 biweekly salary bump illegal and have Presta forfeit it.
It also seeks a judgment against Presta to force him to return the money he collected from the automobile allowance and any other “just and appropriate” monetary relief, including attorney and legal fees.
Toscas sought re-election to the village board in 2015 but his campaign was sidetracked when he had an operation to treat kidney cancer. Toscas first was elected in 2011.
Earlier this month, Crestwood’s board of trustees approved a $15 million settlement with hundreds of current and former residents who claimed they or family members were harmed by the village’s longtime use of a contaminated well to help supply drinking water in the south suburb. Hundreds of lawsuits were filed by about 350 people alleging they or their family members were harmed by drinking water from a contaminated well over the years.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.