Opinion: No dual role for DuPage board members

Any mayor, village president, alderman, councilman, trustee or other office holder seeking election or appointment to the DuPage County Board must resign from that post if he or she becomes a county board member, according to a legal opinion from State’s Attorney Robert Berlin.

But two DuPage mayors campaigning to become county board members aren’t convinced Berlin’s conclusion is correct.

Elmhurst Mayor Pete DiCianni and Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso both say they plan to continue in their municipal roles if they are elected to the county board.

On Tuesday, Grasso said he hadn’t seen Berlin’s three-page opinion, which was sent last week to county board Chairman Dan Cronin. He received different legal advice from his attorneys.

“My research shows that you can hold both positions,” he said, “and I intend to hold both.”

DiCianni said he also did his own research before concluding that he could serve as both a mayor and county board member.

“While I am disappointed in the opinion by our DuPage State’s Attorney,” DiCianni wrote in an email, “it is in fact an opinion.”

Grasso is one of four candidates seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to fill three District 3 seats on the county board. In District 2, DiCianni is in an eight-person race to decide the Republican nominees for three seats.

DiCianni said he would drop the pay he receives as mayor if he becomes a county board member, a position that pays about $50,000 a year.

District 2 board member Jeff Redick, not seeking re-election, said Berlin’s opinion was sought because Cronin is in the process of finding nominees for two vacancies on the board.

In the opinion dated Jan. 20, Berlin wrote that a DuPage board member can’t simultaneously hold an office with another unit of government that has “a contractual relationship” with the county. Examples of a contractual relationship include investigative task forces, emergency management, storm or wastewater management, highway maintenance, easements and intergovernmental agreements.

Even if that relationship doesn’t exist, Berlin indicated that “simultaneous tenure is still prohibited at common law if the duties of the two offices conflict so that the holder of one cannot, in every instance, properly and faithfully perform all of the duties of the other.” While nothing prevents local office holders from seeking election or appointment to the county board, Berlin concluded that they must resign from their office if they become a county board member.

“That’s not what we’ve been told is the law,” said Grasso, who cited Peter Silvestri as one example of a local elected official serving dual roles. Silvestri is a Cook County Board commissioner and the village president of Elmwood Park.

Redick acknowledges that there’s a legal disagreement.

“I’ve got people telling me that this can happen,” Redick said. “But our state’s attorney emphatically stated in that opinion that it can’t happen.”

Meanwhile, three village trustees seeking county board seats said they would step down from their municipal posts if they are elected to the county board.

District 2 challengers Elaine Zannis and Zachary Wilson agreed with District 5 candidate Ed Young in saying they wouldn’t have enough time to serve in two elected offices.

“I want to do the best job that I can there,” Zannis said. “I also don’t want to compromise my work as a trustee. To give something 100 percent of your effort, you’ve got to be there.”