Plainfield mayor blasts village lawsuit against his law office as ‘frivolous’

Plainfield Mayor John Argoudelis criticized an ongoing lawsuit brought by the village against his law office, arguing the trustees who voted to keep it going are motivated by his election over their preferred candidate.

During last week’s Village Board meeting, Argoudelis brought up the lawsuit and called it “frivolous,” and said it’s cost the village nearly $10,000.

The lawsuit stems from 2018 after the village alleged Argoudelis did not keep his law office, located in Plainfield, up to code. Even though Argoudelis said he felt the village made him take measures which were unnecessary for a 2,000 square-foot building, he said he complied and spent about $15,000 on a smoke alarm system.

Last week, Argoudelis said he wanted to point out the “waste of taxpayer dollars” paid to an outside law firm to handle the lawsuit. On April 27, after Argoudelis was elected but before he took office, the board voted unanimously to hire the firm Ekl, Williams & Provenzale to handle the case in place of village attorneys.

Former Mayor Michael Collins, who was still in office when the law firm was hired, said it was the right decision for the village to continue the lawsuit because Argoudelis owed the village money in fines for his office not being kept up to code. He said Argoudelis’ law firm was “dragging its feet” to make the upgrades.

“I think it just casts a shadow over his administration,” Collins said in an interview.

Collins openly supported former Village Trustee Margie Bonuchi, who lost to Argoudelis in April’s mayoral election.

Argoudelis has said that such an assertion isn’t true until the judge in the case rules that he owes the village money. In one court filing, his attorney said Argoudelis’ office acted in good faith to make the upgrades but was hindered by demands from the village for more work which were “above and beyond” what the two sides had initially agreed to.

In addition, Argoudelis said in an interview that when a business is out of compliance with the a local ordinance, it typically is the village’s priority to ensure compliance and not pursue legal challenges against that business.

“No one would continue to do this,” Argoudelis said.

He also said the lawsuit was a “politically motivated and vindictive” move by trustees who were aligned with Bonuchi.

Trustees who previously have clashed with Argoudelis criticized his statements during last week’s meeting.

Trustee Patricia Kalkanis said information discussed in executive session about the dispute, which cannot be disclosed publicly, justifies the continuation of the lawsuit .

“Anybody who is a respondent to any lawsuit will characterize it as frivolous,” Kalkanis said.

Trustee Cally Larson said she had no problem approving payments to the law firm based on the information given in executive session.

In a statement, Larson also argued it was “extremely inappropriate and disturbing that Mayor Argoudelis would find it appropriate to use his position as the Mayor ... to try and stir the public and sway any board members from voting on expense items while calling the litigation expense frivolous when he is directly involved.”

Argoudelis said he checked with village attorney James Harvey if he was permitted to discuss the matter during a board meeting before making his comments. The mayor said Harvey advised him that he was not prohibited from speaking out.

Argoudelis has said he will announce the amount of money the village spends on pursuing the lawsuit each month.

An attorney from Ekl, Williams & Provenzale did not respond to multiple requests for comment.