Ethics complaint against Palatine mayor dismissed

Not a single piece of evidence was introduced, not a lone word of testimony spoken before officials dismissed a former councilman's ethics complaint against Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz.

The three-member ethics commission Thursday unanimously found Warren Kostka's charge fell outside its jurisdiction, giving the panel no authority to hear the matter.

Kostka, who served on the village council from 1997 to 2005, requested the commission assemble after seeing an advertisement by Schwantz's employer in a recent Palatine Area Chamber of Commerce publication. Von Sydow's Moving & Storage Inc. invited anyone with moving needs to call Schwantz, dubbing him both the sales manager and mayor of Palatine.

"There's definitely a commingling of their personal, commercial and political interests in the ad, and it gives them an edge. No one else can compete in the marketplace," Kostka said after the brief hearing. "He (Schwantz) should've been told he shouldn't do that."

Schwantz said afterward that as a salesman, he has no authority to do marketing or advertising. But he doesn't believe his company did anything inappropriate.

"To say I'm the mayor of Palatine is a statement of fact," Schwantz said. "They're very proud of that and proud to have me as one of their employees."

Kostka also ran against Schwantz in last year's contentious four-person race and frequently appears before the council to complain about flooding in his house, blaming the village for ineffective flood control programs and imploring officials to buy him out.

At a July 12 council meeting, he called the ad a misuse of the office of mayor and a misuse of the good name of the village. He brought up a case from February in which the ethics commission dismissed a complaint against Councilman Aaron Del Mar, but not without a stern warning from Schwantz that elected officials must be held to a higher standard.

Councilman Jack Wagner, who chaired the panel in Schwantz's absence, agreed that nothing in the village's ethics ordinance addresses Kostka's complaint, especially since Schwantz wasn't the one who placed the ad.

He confirmed the village had to pay a court reporter and its legal counsel to appear at the hearing and considers the matter over.

Ethics: Village ordinance doesn't address complaint