Conflict concerns in Ela Township
One of John Barrington’s duties as Ela Township assessor is to estimate market values for most property for tax purposes.
His wife’s job is to challenge those numbers and get them reduced for her clients. When she does, she collects a commission.
Bonnie Barrington’s Suburban Appeal Inc., registered to the couple’s Miller Road house in Lake Zurich, has been seeking property value cuts for clients in Ela Township and elsewhere for nearly a year.
Officials in the Lake County chief assessment office say attorneys have reviewed Suburban Appeal’s handling of Ela cases and found them to be legal. However, her business and its connections to her husband’s elected position have drawn concern from county officials and government watchdogs alike.
David Morrison, deputy director of Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said the potential pitfalls could include Suburban Appeal gaining an advance look at assessments, or John Barrington consciously or unconsciously dinging land owners with higher market values if they didn’t hire his wife for a case.
John Barrington, in a statement he issued on behalf of the couple, said there is no conflict of interest and that he represents the best interests of all Ela Township residents. He said he and his wife were in the property valuation business before he started as Ela’s assessor in January 2010.
“It isn’t necessary, nor required, for us to change our occupations because of my position,” wrote John Barrington, who declined an interview request for the couple. “It’s not uncommon for spouses to work in the same industry, and examples of this occur here in our local government.”
Concerns about Bonnie Barrington’s business intertwining with her husband’s elected post prompted Lake County’s chief assessment office last year to seek the legal opinion on the relationship, officials said.
“It’s just a situation that we’re going to continue to monitor,” Lake County Chief Assessment Officer Martin Paulson said.
Paulson’s office includes the Lake County Board of Review, which decides cases alleging unfairly high property values set by a township assessor. Bonnie Barrington or someone else from Suburban Appeal brings cases to the board.
Because of uneasiness that continued about Suburban Appeal, Board of Review Chairman Thomas Cooprider said, a safeguard was enacted that applies to certain cases involving the Ela Township assessor and his wife’s company.
John Barrington’s office may not directly recommend a value reduction change to the Board of Review for his wife’s clients, Cooprider said. Such township assessor recommendations typically are eligible for electronic entry by the county without a hearing in public.
“We made the decision as a board that all the cases coming out of Suburban Appeal would have to be heard,” Cooprider said. “And if they (Ela assessor’s office) were going to make a recommendation, they have to do it in the format of a hearing.”
Paulson’s office not only has the Board of Review, but it oversees the work of local township assessors and acts as a resource. The townships have the primary responsibility for valuing property for assessment purposes.
On her website, Bonnie Barrington’s Suburban Appeal states her company will negotiate with local property assessment authorities and handle cases before boards of review in Lake and McHenry counties. Consultants work from “our home office” to cut costs and pass the savings to clients, the website states.
Similar to other companies, Suburban Appeal bills clients 25 percent of the tax savings if a property assessment is reduced. The business had about 30 cases from Ela Township on the Lake County Board of Review’s schedule in January. Officials said appeal decisions are not tracked, because they can be overturned by a state agency or in Lake County circuit court.
Illinois secretary of state records show Bonnie Barrington incorporated Suburban Appeal on March 15, 2010, a little more than two months after her husband started as Ela’s assessor. Paulson said she had worked for another appeal company before launching her business.
Bonnie Barrington listed herself as Suburban Appeal’s agent with an address at the couple’s Miller Road home. John Barrington provided the same home address on a statement of economic interest form he filed with Lake County.
Although the Barringtons have a right to follow their career paths, said Morrison from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, he raised a concern about the appearance of a property value reduction business being headquartered in the Ela Township assessor’s house.
Joseph Calomino, state director of the conservative-leaning Americans for Prosperity advocacy group’s Illinois chapter, said the Barringtons should be as transparent as possible to assure the public and property owners there is nothing improper. John Barrington was a guest speaker at an Americans for Prosperity property tax forum in Lake Zurich in June 2010.
“I think it certainly is an unusual situation,” Calomino said of the Barringtons.
John Barrington was a deputy assessor under former Ela Township Assessor Pamela Hoffman until she resigned after 13 years in November 2007. Paulson said Hoffman is Bonnie Barrington’s mother.
Ela Township includes Lake Zurich, Kildeer, Long Grove, Deer Park, Hawthorn Woods and unincorporated areas.