Newport Township appeals attorney  fees from legal battle with Road District

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Updated: January 24, 2012 8:20AM

Newport Township is fighting an order from a Lake County judge instructing the township to pay about $100,000 in attorney fees from a civil legal battle between Newport Township and the Newport Road District.

Earlier this week, township attorney Robert Long appealed Circuit Judge Christopher Starck’s Dec. 13 order that Newport Township approve and pay legal fees in the lawsuit filed by Newport Township Highway Commissioner Dan Dziekan.

The legal battle began in 2009 after Dziekan sued the township for refusing to pass a budget and pay road district fees, according to Dziekan’s attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer of Ancel, Glink Diamond, Bush, DiCianni and Krafthefer law firm. Newport Township refused to pay the road district for about three months’ worth of work, Krafthefer said.

Dziekan did not immediately return a call seeking information about how much money was owed to the road district.

The matter went to mediation in September of this year. While budgetary issues were resolved, the matter about paying for legal fees was not.

“It cost over $100,000 in fees just because they refused to pass the budget. This is all taxpayer money being paid to represent both sides,” Krafthefer said.

Litigation like this typically gets resolved in three to four years, she said.

“Because it was emergency litigation it was resolved within a couple of months. That’s why it was so expensive,” Krafthefer said.

Newport Township refused to pay road district employees and cut payment so that road trucks could not be refueled during some severe weather, Krafthefer said.

“They (Newport Township) just believed they could control what the road district was doing. One unit of local government can’t shut down another one. They were trying to put the road district out of business,” Krafthefer said.

Long said that the lawsuit was filed by “a township commissioner who is upset that his annual budget wasn’t approved” in the motion he filed in court.

Long said that his appeal was filed because the court is intervening in the legislative process.

“The court is intervening (and) is crossing the line from judicial into legislative. There are limits where the court is supposed to stop in dealing with the legislative process,” Long said.

The original complaint was to have the court approve that the township allocate money for the road commission, Long summarized. This is “directly intervene(ing) in the legislative process,” he said.

He also pointed out that Dziekan’s legal fees are more than double what his are.

Long’s legal fees are around $30,000 while Dziekan’s legal fees are about $70,000.

Under the facts of this case, Long maintains that the court has no right to interfere with the legislative process. He also said that the township is supposed to set the road district’s budget and performs monthly audits.

A township cannot refuse to pay a legally incurred bill for the road district and has no say in the road district’s day-to-day operations, according to Jerry Crabtree, assistant director of Township Officials of Illinois.

“The only time the board has over the road district is when the budget is approved. The road district is a separate unit of government. After the budget is approved, … the board cannot advise the road commissioner on what or how to spend it,” Crabtree said.