Ruling expected soon in Geneva mayoral ethics complaint case
Kane County Judge David Akemann said Wednesday he would issue a written ruling "in fairly short order" whether to deny a request for him to continue reviewing how the Geneva Ethics Commission handled an allegation against Mayor Kevin Burns during his re-election run last spring.
Burns' opponent in the election, Tom Simonian, complained to the commission in March 2017 that Burns and Deputy Fire Chief Mark Einwich had done prohibited political activity using city time and resources.
When the commission ruled against him, Simonian asked the court to review it.
Simonian filed a complaint after a woman told him she saw a man in a fire department vehicle deliver a campaign sign to Burns' house.
At the ethics commission hearing, Einwich said the sign became wedged under the truck in a store parking lot. He texted a phone number on the sign to ask what to do with it, and received a message directing him to drop it off at an address on Kaneville Road.
Burns testified he received the text, and did not recognize the phone number.
Simonian has alleged Timothy Moran shouldn't have been involved because his term on the commission had expired. He also claimed a commissioner displayed a Burns yard sign, and asked the mayor-appointed commissioners to recuse themselves.
The commissioners stated they could be impartial, and denied Simonian's request for a continuance and to subpoena the emails and records of Einwich's and Burns' city-owned cellphones.
The city now contends Burns and Einwich deleted the texts immediately to free storage space.
Simonian's attorney, Timothy McLean, argued Wednesday that if they did delete messages, they violated state law regarding preservation of electronic government records. He also said it seemed unbelievable the mayor and Einwich would not recognize each others' city phone numbers, given their lengthy tenures with the city.
Neither Burns nor Simonian attended the hearing.