Barrington Hills mayor hasn't decided on new village attorney

About two months have passed since Barrington Hills village attorney of more than 30 years resigned, but a replacement has still not been named, despite a plan to have that done at Monday night's board meeting.

Days before the Aug. 26 board meeting, the law firm of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella resigned at the request of Village President Martin McLaughlin, who cited the Illinois attorney general office's finding that the village violated the Open Meetings Act in April 2013 under the firm's watch.

At the Sept. 29 meeting, the board approved a plan for trustees to choose three village attorney finalists from among the applicants and give McLaughlin the final say.

Last week, the three finalists made presentations before the president and the board, but McLaughlin has not yet made a decision.

"This one is completely on me," McLaughlin said. "The board is prepared to move on it, but I am not."

Trustee Mike Harrington asked McLaughlin if he would be able to present his selection at a special meeting in five business days.

"I just don't want to see this dragged out for an extended period of time," Harrington said.

McLaughlin said he did not think a special meeting would be necessary and that he would have his decision ready for the next meeting in November.

Currently, the duties of the village attorney are being done by Patrick Bond of Bond Dickson and Associates. Bond's firm was one of the eight that applied for the position but was not chosen as a finalist.

After the meeting, McLaughlin said village statute gives him sole power to name the next village attorney, meaning he is not bound to select from the three finalists picked by the board.

"Statute doesn't bind me to those three, or eight, or ten," McLaughlin said. "So this is us going through a process."

"I'm actually going to do some deliberative review here. At the end of the day I'm looking for municipal expertise at a municipal rate to protect our taxpayers from the village."

The next regular village board meeting is Nov. 20.