Legal opinion drives out Arlington Hts. volunteer commissioners

Three architects have resigned from the Arlington Heights Design Commission, including two who have served for many years, due to a legal opinion that handicaps their doing business in the village.

As well, some in Arlington Heights are questioning just how many residents who sit on volunteer village commissions and boards might be affected by this ruling — and might choose to step down rather than risk losing business.

The opinion, issued by Village Attorney Jack Siegel, says that not only are commissioners prohibited from representing private clients before the Arlington Heights village board or any commission, but a commissioner’s firm or company is also prohibited.

Trustee Joseph Farwell disagreed with the legal ruling, which he calls an interpretation of board policy.

“It makes it virtually impossible for our local talent to serve on that commission and frustrates the overall purpose,” Farwell said. “We need to look at the policy. A strict interpretation is stifling the purpose of the committee.”

The matter is tentatively on a village board agenda Sept. 15, but Farwell thinks it should have been discussed sooner.

He was unhappy that the board appointed a new member to the design commission last week, before the board had a chance to discuss relaxing its policy.

The new member is Linnea O’Neill, an Arlington Heights resident and the planner and landscape architect for the village of Northfield who has served on the commission before.

The design commission, established in 1995, rules on architectural and landscape designs for new construction and remodeling. While its decisions can be appealed, they carry great weight with the village board. In the heyday of residential teardowns in the last decade, the commission was accustomed to long, heated meetings.

Village President Arlene Mulder credited the design commission for the appearance of the downtown and residential neighborhoods.

“Accepting those letters of resignation was the hardest thing I had to do,” Mulder said. “They are all talented and very ethical people.”

Still, she said, it was important to make the O’Neill appointment so the commission has a quorum. If the village board changes its policy and all three commissioners want to return, the board can expand the commission to seven members, she said.

The commissioners who quit are Ted Eckhardt, a member since 1995; Jim Tinaglia, who has served about nine years; and Kirsten Kingsley, who served a decade on the zoning board of appeals before four years on the design commission. All three are working architects.

Eckhardt, president of CD Group in Mount Prospect, thinks it is critical that working architects serve on the commission and that recruiting them will now be difficult.

Both Eckhardt and Tinaglia said they would consider returning if the policy changes.

“The legal opinion doesn’t give enough credit to commission members that we have inner ethics and don’t know when to recuse ourselves and at what point there’s a conflict of interest,” Eckhardt said.

Tinaglia, whose office is in Arlington Heights, said he resigned reluctantly, because he needs to do business in the village.

“I think it’s unfortunate,” he said. “It’s hard to operate a business in town if you participate in a volunteer commission like that.”

Farwell said the general ruling that no member of a firm affiliated with a commissioner can represent a client before the village board or any commission or board could affect other professions and panels, too.

He said it’s hard to know where the line would be drawn, saying the zoning board, plan commission, building code review and even Arlington Economic Alliance panels could be affected.

“This is asking too much of these people, who are very talented volunteers,” Farwell said. “We risk filling very critical positions with people with little or no experience.”

Mulder said she thinks the Economic Alliance, made up of businesspeople, might be immune because it is not a regulatory group.

Bruce Green, architect and chairman of the Arlington Heights Plan Commission, said he did not think the ruling affected anyone on his panel, but he added he himself would resign rather than reject a job.

Two years ago, members resigned from the Arts Commission over a legal ruling that barred them from exhibiting their own artwork at a commission-sponsored event.

“There was murmuring then,” Farwell said. “Now there’s a larger murmur. Isn’t there another way?”

Farwell, however, said he agrees it is important to avoid the appearance of impropriety by any commissioner. If the majority of the village board upholds the policy after a review, he said he will go along with it.

The legal opinion that led to the debate was issued by Village Attorney Siegel after Mulder received a complaint. Neither she nor Village Manager Bill Dixon would identify the complainant, but Dixon said it was a former village official who was neither an employee or an elected official.

Siegel, who issued an opinion and then a follow-up opinion expanding it, said he had not been aware that it was typical for commissioners to step back from their own private client, then let someone else from the firm represent the client before a commission or the village board.

This practice violates the village’s ethics ordinance and board policy, Siegel said, and “raises some question of the appearance of impropriety.”

The issue is whether there is any financial benefit, he said.

“This is not directed to the design commission but anyone — architect, engineer, lawyer, planner — any number of members of professional organizations appear as advocates for their clients,” Siegel said.

The village board has the power to change the policy and ordinance, he said.

Alan Bombick, chairman of the design commission and also an original member, praised the commissioners who resigned and said their work had contributed to the success of the downtown and the village overall.