Village Of Valleyview

Issue 48 - Its Your Money

Oct 10, 2003

Issue 48 will appear on the November Ballot. Issue 48 concerns the payment of former Councilwoman Sue Huber's, personal attorney bill. In April of 2003 the Village Council passed Resolution 2003-11 authorizing the payment of Ms. Huber's personal attorney bill which she incurred while defending her seat on Council in 2001.

Resolution 2003-11 was passed with Councilman Graves, Councilwoman Huber, Councilman Williams voting yes for the payment and Councilwoman White, Councilman Parrish and Councilwoman O'Brien voting no and Mayor Raylene Graves voting yes to break the tie. The resolution would go in to effect in 30 days after passage. During those 30 days, a petition was circulated to place the issue before the voters of Valleyview. That petition was validated and Resolution 2003-11 was placed on the November Ballot as Issue 48.

Ms. Huber claimed that the Council at that time was going to take action to remove her from her council seat so she hired an attorney. The attorney contacted the Village Solicitor and informed him that the Council did not have the authority to remove Ms. Huber from her council seat. No action was taken by the council and Ms. Huber retained her seat on Council.

From inspection of the bill presented by Ms. Huber for the payment of her attorney, it appears that over half of the billed hours were for the research of the removal of the then Mayor, Mike Russolillo. Ms. Huber had claimed that she had hired the attorney to defend her seat on Council, but from the appearance of the bill the attorney was also directed to research the removal of the Mayor.

Ms. Huber had asked that the Village pay her attorney bill for the hours she directed her attorney to research the unrelated matter of removing the mayor and not for only defending her seat on Council.

The residents will have the right on November 4th to decide if the Village should pay Ms. Huber's personal attorney bill. It is the resident's money that she wants to use to pay for her own personal bills.

See the related story -
Councilmember Threatens to Sue Village