A lawsuit by the York Township supervisor to get the township clerk to keep ”proper” office hours will be dropped, both sides in the dispute said Wednesday.
The suit, a mandamus action, was brought in 1984 by Supervisor Lenore L. Davenport against Kezia E. Thompson. Davenport did not seek re-election last year and was succeeded by Jack O`Brien, who continued the case. Thompson was re-elected in 1985.
Davenport`s complaint was that Thompson did not have her office open enough hours to serve the public properly, thus allegedly hampering the orderly conduct of township business.
O`Brien said Wednesday, ”We`ve got everything pretty well worked out between the two of us.” He said a township employee is assigned to work in the clerk`s office, to keep it open and functioning, for certain periods and spends the rest of the week working for the supervisor.
Robert Peck, a Western Springs attorney representing Thompson, said, ”We thought it should have been dismissed at the time it was filed. They had no legal grounds to support it.” He said previously that there is nothing in state law to require the township clerk to keep certain office hours.
Members of the township board have been reluctant to pay Peck`s legal fees. They made partial payment on some of the fees late last year and asked for more information on others, saying they seemed to have no validity. Peck told a reporter then that all his claims were proper.
The township also has paid its regular attorney, Edward J. Vertovec, to represent Davenport and O`Brien in the dispute, and the fees for the two attorneys amount to several thousand dollars.
