Skokie’s Board of Trustees on June 5 approved a motion to hire legal firm Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins to help implement three reforms in village government that voters approved in last November’s referendums.
“I support the selection of this law firm,” Trustee James Johnson said. “I’m very grateful to our village manager for managing this process so far.”
Skokie’s decision to outsource legal help versus utilizing its own legal counsel comes as Skokie looks to add nonpartisan language into its attorney selection process, given that two members of Skokie’s legal team have Skokie Caucus Party ties. Skokie’s Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge was elected as a Skokie Caucus Party candidate when he served on the Board of Trustees prior to joining Skokie’s legal team. The Skokie Caucus Party website
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lists Assistant Corporation Counsel Jim McCarthy as its chair, a role he was elected to in 2008.The Board allowed the village to spend no more than $36,750 on Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins’s services. The legal assistance help will provide Skokie with a report suggesting an implementation process, public presentation of implementation plans, an assessment of village codes, draft ordinance changes, a check of compliance with election laws and help with district mapping, a memo prepared by Assistant Finance Director Michael Aleksic said.
The November 2022 election saw Skokie residents approve these referendums, which require the village to change Skokie’s Board of Trustee elections to be nonpartisan, establish staggered trustee terms and create four districts to be represented by one trustee each, with two at-large trustees for the entire village.
Skokie chose Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins after issuing a Request for Qualifications that brought back three candidates. According to Aleksic’s memo, the sourced candidates included Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins; Michael J. Kasper, and Odelson, Sterk, Murphey, Frazier, McGrath. The chosen candidate, Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, has worked with more than 30 municipalities by providing general counsel and has decades of experience in election-related matters, the memo states. Among the municipalities Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins has worked with are the villages of Niles, Orland Park, Tinley Park and Lombard, it said.
Village Manager Lockerby at the June 5 meeting said the village and Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins are expected to have an implementation plan by the end of the calendar year to prepare for the April 2025 election. He also said written feedback and comments on how to continue forward with the referendum’s implementation are welcome. Updates will be provided on the village’s website and “milestone” moments will be announced in the coming months.
“The first step is a considerable amount of research on (Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins’s) part so we’ll know more after that,” Lockerby said.
The referendum will eliminate political parties in Skokie’s Board of Trustees election. Five of the six trustees currently on the Board belong to the Skokie Caucus Party, in addition to a Skokie Caucus Party mayor and clerk.
Assistant Village Manager Nicholas Wyatt, Management Analyst Alex Franz, Lockerby and Aleksic made up the Evaluation Committee that chose Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, the memo said.