Despite video, ex-Lombard trustee denies flashing badge

Ex-Lombard Trustee Steve Sebby denies it, but a surveillance video indicates he may have flashed his village badge at a local business owner before uprooting a former political rival's campaign signs.

Sebby, a village board member for eight years before he was elected last spring to the Glenbard High School District 87 board, says he was "just picking up litter off the public right-of-way. I don't have a clue what they are talking about."

The signs belonged to current Lombard Trustee Laura Fitzpatrick, who is running in the Feb. 5 Republican primary for a seat on the DuPage County Board. She contacted police after learning from the business owner that her signs had been removed.

Sebby and Fitzpatrick were on opposite sides of the emotional debate over saving the DuPage Theatre, which was torn down last spring.

Video from surveillance cameras at the Phillips 66 gas station at Main Street and North Avenue was reviewed by the Daily Herald. It shows Sebby talking to two employees and showing his trustee badge, a metallic shield in a leather wallet-like holder, shortly after 11 a.m. Jan 4. During his introduction, his name is clear on the audio.

The business representatives can be heard telling Sebby to contact the village with his concerns that the signs were illegally placed. If so, they said, village employees could remove them. Sebby then leaves.

About an hour later, another surveillance camera shows a dark-colored pickup truck and a man, fitting Sebby's vehicle and physical descriptions, return. Lombard code enforcement officers drive white vehicles carrying the village logo, the words "Code Enforcement Officer" or nothing.

The man then removes several signs, walks to the edge of the camera's view with the collected signs, and when he turns around he no longer has the signs. Another camera shows the man pitching the signs into an empty lot.

"I find it disturbing to have someone go to a business owner and kind of bully them, especially when the signs were posted legally," Fitzpatrick said.

William Heniff, of the village's community development department, said code enforcement officers were out often and would have removed the replacement signs, which are in the same spots as the ones removed a week ago, if they had been illegally placed.

Sebby also denied showing his trustee badge. "That's not a good thing to do," he said.

Lombard police have asked the DuPage County State's Attorney's office to look into the case.

"I just think it is more appropriate for an outside agency to investigate," Chief Ray Byrne said.

Longtime Village Manager William Lichter said he's never heard of a former trustee using an old badge improperly after leaving office.

"They retain their badges as a souvenir … as a memento of their service," Lichter said. "There's never been a problem that I've been aware of."