Wasco district not happy about its legal costs
The Wasco Sanitary District is lashing out at Campton Hills officials over $45,000 in legal costs racked up during a recent spat between the two taxing bodies.
But village officials say the district brought much of the expense upon itself.
The dispute stems from a question raised after the village's April incorporation over control of the sanitary district, which provides water and sewer service to about 1,000 Campton Hills residents.
In October, Campton Hills conceded the district should not be absorbed by the village, but not before requesting thousands of pages of district documents under the Freedom of Information Act, which the district says cost more than $10,000 to process. The sanitary district says it spent more than $30,000 in addition on a lawsuit aimed at protecting its autonomy.
"The Wasco Sanitary District has been besieged by the village of Campton Hills," Robert Skidmore Jr., vice president of the sanitary district board of trustees, said in a statement this month.
"These fruitless acts only waste the money of the taxpayers of both the Wasco Sanitary District and the village of Campton Hills," Skidmore said, adding he believes the village is waging a "baseless campaign to cause hardship and smear the (district's) reputation."
Village President Patsy Smith responded with disbelief. She said the village was billed only $77 for processing the document request, and the lawsuit could have been avoided if the district had pointed out that its boundaries extend slightly beyond the village's -- meaning it legally couldn't be absorbed.
"Why didn't they charge us $10,000 for the information?" Smith said this week. "Why didn't they just come to us and say they're not wholly within our borders? That's all that had to be done."
Bill Braithwaite, attorney for Campton Hills, added the document request wouldn't have been so cumbersome "if they were keeping proper records."
Skidmore said the sanitary district complies with all record-keeping laws and public information practices.