By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
According to information provided by the City of Elmhurst Brewpoint Coffee CEO and founder Melissa Villanueva has been disqualified from representing the First Ward as an alderman on the Elmhurst City Council due to her incentive agreement with the City. City attorney Donald Storino said that if she served, it would be a Class 4 felony.
Villanueva, one of four residents who applied for the seat vacated by Mark Sabatino, who resigned a few months ago when he moved out of the area, disagreed with the City’s interpretation of the law.
At the City Council meeting held on Monday, July 6, Mayor Steve Morley said he would be deciding soon on the residents he planned to propose for Ward 1 seat and the seat in Ward 4, a seat left open when Kevin York resigned from his seat about the same time as Sabatino. Morley said he planned to have the Council vote on his nominees at the meeting on July 20.
About a week prior, attorney Donald Storino issued a memo to City officials stating that Villanueva was ineligible to serve because of her ownership of a business that entered into a redevelopment agreement with the City.
The agreement provided $60,000 in incentives to Brewpoint to partially subsidize a construction project. The money came from a special account generated through property taxes in the tax increment financing (TIF) district where Villanueva’s North York Street coffee shop is.
The agreement was signed in February 2017 and is in effect for 11 years. She would not be eligible to run for alderman until the agreement expired in 2028.
Storino said there was a state law barring any municipal officer from having a financial interest directly or indirectly in city contracts. Exceptions exist, but none were applicable in this situation, Storino said.
The City attorney also noted a provision in the agreement indicating that no city official can have any financial interest in the redevelopment project in question.
In a statement released last week, the city said the language in Brewpoint’s agreement was similar to that of other redevelopment agreements with incentive recipients.
Mayor Morley released the following statement: “I sincerely appreciate all interest in the vacant positions and encourage all applicants to continue to seek opportunities to offer their time and talent to the City of Elmhurst.”
