KLEPT, Calderone wants the lawyers paid or no one gets paid [FP]

At 10:00 AM on Monday, December 4, the Village of Forest Park will hold a special meeting of the board of commissioners. The meeting will vote on the bills that were left unpaid after the last meeting.

At the regular meeting Commissioners Patrick Doolin and Terri Steinbach voted to pass all but a few line items of the package, which included over 200 bills. Commissioner Tim Gilliam was absent and Mayor Tony Calderone and Commissioner Mark Hosty refused to approve any of the bills unless the bills connected to the law firms Giglio & Del Galdo and Hervas, Condon & Bersani were approved. See Forest Park Review (Josh Adams).

The Giglio & Del Galdo bills were part of the village’s plan to acquire eight properties for parking and a police substation. (Does Forest Park need a police substation?) According to Doolin the scope of this land acquisition was more aggressive than he had been led to believe. So he and Steinbach were caught off guard by the large number of properties.

Further Doolin questioned why the legal work was done by Giglio & Del Galdo instead of the law firm Forest Park has on retainer, Storino, Romello & Durkin. Giglio & Delgaldo is closely associated with Ron Serpico, political boss and Melrose Park Village President. The firm tried to get District 209’s legal business recently.

Hervas, Condon and Bersani represents disbarred attorney Anthony Bruno, who is under investigation by the feds for corruption and was the contractor for the Forest Park water project.

Doolin also thought the $1,500 bills for each appraisal were too high. Doolin, a realtor, said a thorough appraisal should cost $250-500 and a drive-by appraisal—presumably the homeowners did not grant access—should cost $50-150.

I will re-iterate my theory that municipal law firms are money laundering operations protected by attorney-client privilege. Law firms get paid now so they can fill their coffers to make contributions for the spring elections.