A Cook County judge is allowing Orland Park’s ongoing lawsuit against former Mayor Keith Pekau to move forward while throwing out one of the village’s claims against him.
While Pekau sought to dismiss the village’s claims for declaratory judgment and breach of fiduciary duty, only the latter was successful. The lawsuit, filed almost a year ago, aims to block Pekau from disclosing confidential information about the village he gained access to as mayor and require him to return the records he obtained.
“The village maintains that former public officials do not have the authority to unilaterally disclose confidential governmental information acquired through their public office,” village officials said in a news release.
Pekau said in his motion to dismiss the village failed to state a declaratory judgment claim because the village failed to show efforts to take other actions, such as seeking municipal penalties against Pekau, before filing its lawsuit.
But Judge Kate Moreland’s order says because declaratory judgment defines the legal rights, obligations or status of disputing parties, “this is precisely the kind of dispute the legislature intended courts to resolve prospectively — even if the allegations could be addressed under an alternative cause of action or in a different venue.”
The only relief available through declaratory judgment is a declaration of rights.
Moreland also denied an effort by Pekau to strike “all references to enjoining or prohibiting Pekau from engaging in future speech” as unconstitutional.
“The village is not seeking relief related to speech that is not grounded in or does not owe its existence to Pekau’s role as the village’s mayor,” Moreland said in her court order. “Therefore … the restraint does not restrict a public employee’s constitutionally protected speech and is not a ‘prior restraint.'”
A news release from Pekau highlighted Moreland’s dismissal of the breach of fiduciary duty claim, which the Cook County judge said in her July 6 order requires the village to identify actual harm suffered as a result of Pekau’s actions.
Moreland agreed with Pekau’s motion to dismiss that claim, which said “the village admitted that any harm it can link to Pekau is merely potential future harm.”
“The remaining issues are now limited to requests for declaratory judgments, and I remain confident they will ultimately be resolved on the facts and the law,” Pekau said.
Pekau also said, as he has over past months, that taxpayers deserve to know what confidential information was allegedly disclosed, which laws Pekau violated and “why they continue paying for a lawsuit that now consists only of requests for declaratory judgments.”
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The village’s news release states while Moreland’s order “dismissed certain limited allegations relating to pleading issues, it did so in a way that permits the village to amend its complaint.”
While Pekau raises questions about the village’s continuation of a lawsuit he says has “steadily narrowed,” the village said it previously offered to dismiss the suit if Pekau agreed to return village records and stop spreading confidential information.
Moreland in January denied another motion Pekau put forward to end a court order that required he remove confidential village information from his blog and social media and barred him from publishing other information. The temporary restraining order remains in effect, according to the village.
Since Pekau’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit failed, the village is hoping to consolidate the case with a separate lawsuit Pekau filed against the municipality, which the former mayor opposes. Moreland is scheduled to decide whether to consolidate the two cases during a hearing at 10:30 a.m. on July 30.