The first thing you need to know about the controversy over a Will County township trustee’s eligibility to hold office is that State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow is doing his job by enforcing the law.
The second thing you ought to know is that Joliet Township Trustee Karl Ferrell has no plans to resign. Ferrell told me he didn’t know his felony convictions made him ineligible to hold municipal office when he ran for trustee last year and won.
If the situation reminds you of the legal gymnastics that eventually resulted in Roger Agpawa being allowed to be mayor of south suburban Markham, you are not alone. Ferrell is hoping for the same outcome.
“I’m trying to get a restoration of rights,” Ferrell told me.
We chatted by phone Wednesday about how Glasgow’s office notified the township of Ferrell’s ineligibility to hold office. Ferrell was elected last April, but the ineligibility matter arose in September, Ferrell said.
Ferrell said he believes the state’s attorney is retaliating against him because of protests over a Black man who died two years ago after he was in the custody of Joliet police. Glasgow’s office investigated and announced no police would face charges in the Jan. 29, 2020 death of Eric Lurry.
Ferrell, who heads a Joliet chapter of Black Lives Matter, led a demonstration outside the state’s attorney’s office last year to protest the decision to not charge police.
“There was nothing indicative that I was ineligible at any point, until after I started my community organizing work and organizing actions against the state’s attorney, which was way after the election,” Ferrell said.
Glasgow’s office declined to comment. It is unclear how the state’s attorney became aware of Ferrell’s convictions, nearly six months after the election. Once the prosecutor learned of Ferrell’s ineligibility, however, Glasgow had a duty to enforce the law.
That’s what happened with Agpawa in Markham. Perhaps it was inquiries I made to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, or maybe Markham citizens asked Foxx what she was going to do about the ineligible felon elected mayor of their town.
Regardless of how she learned of the situation, once she became aware Foxx went to court and got a judge’s order saying Agpawa could not be mayor. That was part of a saga that lasted years and ended with a change in state law and an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that said Agpawa could be mayor.
Even though ignorance is no excuse for violating the law, let’s give Ferrell the benefit of the doubt and accept his explanation that he didn’t know he was ineligible when he ran for township trustee last year.
By his own admission, however, the prosecutor notified him in September he was ineligible to serve.
“They said if I resigned quietly they wouldn’t make it a big issue,” Ferrell said.
As someone ineligible to hold public office, Ferrell’s votes could be voided by a court ruling. Suppose Ferrell cast the deciding vote in a 3-2 township board decision to award a contract. The contract could be voided. A court might find that taxpayer funds were illegally spent. The situation creates a proverbial can of worms.
The best outcome in my opinion would be for Ferrell to resign immediately. The next-best solution would be for Glasgow to go to court and get a judge’s order to remove Ferrell from office.
I’m all for second chances. Agpawa liked to say he became a model citizen after his federal conviction for mail fraud 20 years ago as part of a scheme to steal money from an insurance company. Agpawa served the community as fire chief of Country Club Hills for many years.
Ferrell, 41, was sentenced in 2010 to four years, six months in prison for three felony convictions involving drugs and a weapon, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records. Ferrell was charged after a 2009 police raid of a Joliet home.
He was credited for time served while awaiting trial and released from prison in 2011 after serving about two years. I have every reason to believe since his release, Ferrell has turned his life around. He works as a tradesman and is active with his union, Local No. 33 of Painters District Council 14, he said. He’s a father and community activist.
That doesn’t change the fact that rules are rules, and the rules say felons are ineligible to be township trustees in Illinois. I wish Ferrell the best in his efforts to obtain a restoration of rights from the governor of Illinois.
Ferrell told me he thinks Glasgow should help him by appealing to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on his behalf. I told him I didn’t see it that way. Public resources should not be used for personal or political gain, I said. Ferrell should use private resources to pursue his goal, I said.
I told Ferrell I didn’t believe his public criticism of Glasgow or activism about the Lurry case had anything to do with Glasgow’s role in the situation regarding Ferrell’s eligibility to hold office. Ferrell thinks the state’s attorney’s motivations are political.
“That was my thing, was that it was 100% retaliatory,” he said.
The Lurry case has put the Joliet Police Department under state and national scrutiny. Months after Lurry’s death, Joliet police Sgt. Javier Esqueda leaked video to a Chicago TV station. The video showed police officers slapping Lurry, pinching his nose and searching his mouth while in the back of a squad car. The coroner later ruled Lurry died of a drug overdose.
Esqueda has faced backlash for his whistle blowing. His colleagues kicked him out of his union. He faces trial for criminal charges of official misconduct. The Joliet police chief was fired for insubordination after she requested an administrative hearing for Esquada. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is investigating the practices of the Joliet Police Department.
Black Lives Matter certainly has plenty to criticize in Joliet and Will County. However, Ferrell’s claim that Glasgow is retaliating against him is misguided.
Ferrell’s eligibility to hold office has nothing to do with the Lurry case or the practices of the Joliet Police Department. It’s simply a matter of the Will County state’s attorney doing his job by enforcing the law.
The law says Ferrell is ineligible to be a township trustee, and until he rectifies his eligibility situation he should resign from office and save taxpayers the trouble and expense of obtaining a court order to remove him.
Ted Slowik is a columnist at the Daily Southtown.