The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority’s legal bills have now blown past the $1 million mark in its ongoing lawsuit with its former leader.
In a recent email to Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-7th, SSCVA President and CEO Phil Taillon told Niemeyer that the organization has spent $1,303,406.98 on the lawsuit against Speros A. Batistatos since he sued it and its board leadership in 2021 alleging age discrimination, Niemeyer told the Post-Tribune. Niemeyer asked Taillon for the legal spending during a November County Council meeting in which the council approved 6-0 the SSCVA’s $6.3 million budget for 2026 that included doubling its legal line item to $300,000 from $150,000 in 2025, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
Taillon in his email to Niemeyer said the SSCVA spent $29,743.16 in 2021; $15,931.50 in 2022; $73,101.60 in 2023; $251,245.36 in 2024; $719,656.10 in 2025; and $213,729.26 in the first three months of 2026. At the time Niemeyer asked for the expenses, the Post-Tribune had reported that as of June, the CVA’s legal fund had a -$266,198.48 balance, but SSCVA Chief Financial Officer Nicole Wolverton said they’d be able to transfer funds to cover it before the end of the fiscal year.
Batistatos sued the SSCVA on August 29, 2021 — a month after it fired him — alleging it violated the law in the handling of his contract renegotiations due to his age as well as misspent federal Payroll Protection Plan funds in violation of the CARES Act, a claim the board disputes.
Niemeyer, who said he was already annoyed that “citizens or elected officials have to beg for information,” said he was shocked at the eye-watering amount and would’ve voted “No” on approving the budget until the CVA provided detailed information on how it was covering the bills.
“Did they have to carve out line-items to move (the legal expenses) to another? Where does their income come from, and what is operational versus other funds? And did they have insurance?” Niemeyer said. “I do understand that there are confidentiality concerns, but if I’m doing the job for the people, I feel entitled to have my questions answered.”
Niemeyer also hopes that the Indiana General Assembly takes notice and fortifies the statutes governing “quasi-governmental” bodies. Currently, the County Council approves the SSCVA’s budget, and while the SSCVA is not a publicly funded agency, it is funded through casino and hotel tax revenues, according to its website.
“I think all quasi-governmental agencies need more oversight; the (Indiana Economic Development Corporation) has a lack of transparency. These things need to have oversight by an elected body because there’s such a cloak of darkness,” he said. “I’m not blaming anyone, but (these budgets) beg review, and the General Assembly needs to improve the people’s government.”
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Indiana State Representative Hal Slager, R-Schererville, declined comment as to whether the General Assembly has its eye on more oversight. But he too was “shocked” at the exorbitant bills and wondered how the SSCVA is paying them.
“When I was a councilman for the Town of Schererville, we used to get sued often, and the first thing we did was let our town attorney know, and he immediately notified our insurance carrier for what to do next,” Slager said. “The fact that they appear to be shouldering the cost without insurance suggests a real failure in management.”
Both Batistatos and his Indianapolis-based attorney, Sandra Blevins, declined comment. In a motion Blevins filed April 2 to extend the time to respond to the SSCVA’s motion for summary judgment, however, she acknowledged that the SSCVA and Batistatos started mediation on March 13.
“Plaintiff’s counsel has spoken with the mediator multiple times in the past week with several proposals and understood from the last discussion with the mediator yesterday that settlement remains under discussion … It is true that the SSCVA Defendants have not increased their settlement offer in the past week,” Blevins wrote. “It seems customary for the SSCVA Defendants to continue expending public resources for attorneys’ fees by working on a response to Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment instead of focusing those resources on settlement. Plaintiff’s counsel has learned that the SSCVA Defendants have incurred $1.303 million in attorneys’ fees to defend this action. Plaintiff has incurred half as much.
“Plaintiff’s counsel has repeatedly told defense counsel that this case could have been settled for less than the SSCVA Defendants have incurred in attorneys’ fees. Given the current level of settlement discussions, that is definitely true.”
The Post-Tribune asked Taillon via email whether the SSCVA is using insurance money to cover any of the lawsuit expenses and, if it isn’t, will the CVA have to scale back event sponsorship as it did in 2025 (/2025/04/19/south-shore-convention-and-visitors-authority-has-less-money-for-festival-sponsorships/). Taillon said he can’t comment on an active lawsuitt but that “taking information out of context for a newspaper article will not help the plaintiff or defendant in this case.”
“Since I have taken leadership of this organization, I have made the best decisions possible on behalf of our organization and the county that we serve,” Taillon said.
A 2024 Post-Tribune analysis of some of the legal bills the tourism agency has racked up in litigation revealed that it had paid $237,835.80 between 2021 and November 2024 to Indianapolis-based Barnes and Thornburg, which is representing the SSCVA as an entity. The SSCVA paid Barnes & Thornburg $10,692.50 for November and December 2021; $51,525.68 in 2022; $51,578.20 in 2023 and $124,039.42 in 2024, according to the invoices SSCVA attorney Scott McClure sent as part of an Access Public Records Act request the Post-Tribune filed in August 2024.
McClure didn’t include invoices for work performed by David Westland, who represents SSCVA Board Chairman Andy Qunell, Treasurer Matt Maloney, board members Brent Brashier and Matt Schuffert, and former member Tom Dabertin as individuals in the case.
While they don’t directly list the attorneys’ hourly rates, an average of one of the monthly bills shows that the agency is paying Barnes and Thornburg roughly $413 an hour in legal fees. The Board also voted in March 2024 to allow the SSCVA to pay the legal bills of board members named in Batistatos’ suit even if they’re no longer serving on it.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.