Grafton Twp. official expands on reasons for resigning

Many people associate lawyers with sanitized, Orwellian language that paints even the most dramatic events in beige technicalities.

But Crystal Lake attorney Joe Gottemoller spoke in no uncertain or equivocal terms last week, when he resigned as Grafton Township attorney.

It is perhaps not surprising that a professional, well-respected lawyer would part ways with elected officials who squabble over everything from who should post meeting notices to who owns freezers.

Gottemoller's resignation letter, which I wrote about last week, speaks for itself. But my conversation with him the day after he resigned shed further light on his reasons for leaving the township.

A municipal attorney is supposed to advise his clients on how the relevant statutes and case law apply to them. But in Grafton Township, that advice fell on deaf ears, according to Gottemoller.

"From a lawyer's perspective, no one was listening to anything I was having to say," Gottemoller said. "I was in a no-win position. There was nothing I could say or do that was going to be followed.

On top of that, Gottemoller was getting sucked into the vortex of Grafton Township politics.

"Both sides decided at some point in time that I was giving their secrets away to the other side," the attorney said. "I can't keep secrets between board members. I'm not allowed to do that. I represent the township, not any individual party."

He added: "There was a swirl of rumors and innuendos - the business of the township was not being addressed."

In Gottemoller's letter and in his conversation with me, he elaborated on three issues the township, in his opinion, needs to resolve to move forward: the lawsuit over the proposed new building, the sale of the current township offices to the highway department and the ownership of the Grafton Township Food Pantry.

The legal maneuvering over whether to build new township offices, Gottemoller opined, is irrelevant now that the matter will be on the ballot in 2010 - before or about the same time the case is resolved in court.

I asked if continuing to lavish money on the lawsuit, by either side, was a waste of money. "You said it," replied Gottemoller, who urged the township and the plaintiffs to settle the lawsuit.

Gottemoller then turned to the sale of the township offices to the highway department. Under the terms of that sale, township employees and officials would have to vacate the Vine Street building in November.

But Gottemoller said the officials who prepared the sale to the highway department did not dot all their i's and cross all their t's.

"There's a question as to whether the deed's valid at all," he said. "After you fix the deed, you have to decide, 'Where is the supervisor and the clerk going to work?'"

Finally, Gottemoller said someone needs to make a formal motion to donate property to the food pantry, which recently announced it is moving to another location in Huntley.

"The conversion of public property to private property, quite frankly, bothers me," the attorney said. "This was property that needs to have the proper papers to transfer it, and those papers have not been produced by anyone."