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Attorneys for the Village of Niles asked five candidates who are running for the village’s elected Ethics Board in the April 4 election to stop using the village’s official seal and imagery of village hall and a village sign to make it appear as if the candidates have official village backing.
The attorneys ordered the five candidates to immediately cease and desist, in a letter sent March 2, from using the village’s corporate seal in a flyer promoting their candidacy, arguing that using those images may lead voters to think the candidates have the village’s endorsement.
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Illinois experts in campaign ethics say they generally advise candidates to steer clear of using official symbols and images in their campaign materials.
The letter, obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Pioneer Press, states “it has come to the attention of the Village that the Candidates are circulating, distributing, and or otherwise communicating materials that use the Village’s name, seal, or likeness thereof to promote their candidacies.”
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The letter, from the law firm Odelson, Sterk, Murphey, Frazer & McGrath is addressed to five of the 11 candidates for ethics board: David Carrabotta, Lisa Emmett Stechman, David Laske, Joy Alfonsi and Paul Kotowski. Attorney Daniel Kelley also received the letter, but told Pioneer Press he only represents one of the candidates in a separate action.
The images of these candidates appear on a flyer promoting what it says are “recommended candidates” underneath a picture of the Village of Niles Municipal Building and proclaiming what it says is “independent honest oversight assuring trust and confidence in Niles government.”
The second page of the flyer shows a picture of a village sign and its “where people count” motto alongside an image of the Leaning Tower with a short explanation of the referendum that brought about the change from an appointed to an elected ethics board.
Current ethics board members Jerry Acciari, Carol Bagley, Randy Kash, Jill Boysen and Vera Pandev are all running for election, as is another candidate, Linda Bartucca.
In the letter, attorney Ross Secler of Odelson, Sterk, Murphey, Frazer & McGrath writes that the flyer in question implies that the village has endorsed the candidates.
“Such unauthorized and illegal use leads to the risk of misleading voters into believing the communications are official and/or the Village supports these candidates’ candidacy,” Secler wrote.
The village is prepared to take further legal action against the candidates, the letter states. It asks the candidates to “provide a response with proof and confirmation that the Candidates have ceased all such illegal and unethical conduct and communications no later than 5:00 PM on Thursday, March 2, 2023.”
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Steve Berlin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics, said the arguments in the letter are consistent with how the Chicago Board enforces its own ethics rules.
“We have consistently advised candidates for City elected office that they cannot use certain City-owned property in electioneering communications,” Berlin wrote in an email to Pioneer Press.
Matt Dietrich of the Illinois State Board of Elections said the purpose of rules around how government property and insignia may be used in election literature is to avoid the appearance of an official sanction of a particular candidate or ballot initiative
“What they’re saying is that denotes an official endorsement, which is a lot of the reason why the election interference section exists,” Dietrich said.
This often comes up with municipal imagery like police cars or village halls, he added.
“Where this tends to come up a lot is when a candidate for a municipal or county office uses a police car, for example, in one of their ads, and so that’s the kind of thing you are not supposed to do,” Dietrich said.
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Violating this statute would be a class B misdemeanor, Dietrich said, and while the State Board of Elections has a hearing process for complaints, he said the State’s Attorney would ultimately decide whether a complaint merited prosecution.
In Chicago, Berlin noted that a recent law does allow for some uses of the city’s seal for electioneering purposes — “but those uses are indeed narrow, and require disclaimers,” he said.
The portion of Chicago law Berlin was citing states that the city seal may appear in visual campaign media as long as it is an incidental appearance “as opposed to an element of primary focus, and... the visual media contains a clear written disclaimer that it is not related to the City’s official business.”
Mayor George Alpogianis said he links the flyer to current Village Board candidate and former Trustee Chris Hanusiak and current library board Treasurer Joe Makula.
“I think it’s terrible that Chris Hanusiak and his cronies are misleading our citizens once again,” he said, accusing them of “bringing dirty politics into our village” and “lying to our citizens, not telling them the whole truth.”
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Hanusiak told Pioneer Press he didn’t know of the flyer or the cease and desist letter: “I have no idea what this is about.”
“I don’t understand what he means by lying,” he said. “About what? All these people that he’s talking about are of good character and should be supported.”
Makula, who circulated petitions for one of the candidates named in the cease and desist letter and whom Kelley frequently represents in legal skirmishes, told Pioneer Press in an email that the two images show things in the public way and were used as identifiers.
“Nowhere does it mention any endorsement by the Village,” Makula wrote. “One side has pictures of the candidates the other side states that there is no relation between these candidates and Village officials or employees (sic). “It’s not a letterhead, a Village seal, no village officials (sic) name appears here whereas the Mayor has been endorsing candidates in many races.”
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Paul Kotowski, one of the candidates featured on the flyer, disputed the claims in the letter and said it was unclear to him how he and the other four candidates had misappropriated the village’s imagery.
“If you read the text of the brochure, we’re very clear that we’re not current Niles employees, or elected officials or appointed officials, so this claim that the piece is suggesting — that Niles is officially endorsing us—is inaccurate,” he said.
Kotowski said putting an image of a government building on a flyer did not constitute illegal action.
“If we were to follow that logic through, then every time a U.S. congressional candidate posted a picture in front of the flag or the Capitol building, then that would be illegal because it would suggest that the government is somehow endorsing the election,” he said.
However, he added, “if this ends up being litigated, I will obviously obey whatever a judge orders me to do.”
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Attorney Dan Kelley, to whom the letter was addressed, said he referred the letter to David Carrabotta, whom he is representing in another matter, but is not the legal representative of the other four candidates.
However, he said, he found the letter surprising.
“I looked at the photographs... and what the letter is complaining about and what the photographs show seem to be different,” he said.
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Kelley said the village was “really stretching a point” in his eyes.
“The photograph in the campaign literature was a photograph of the exterior of the village hall and the letter talks about the misuse of the village’s official seal,” he said. “If they were misusing stationary or printing literature that looked like it came from the village government that would be one thing.”
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Alpogianis personally circulated petitions for ethics board candidates Vera Pandev and Jeffrey Kash, their nominating petitions show.
Emmett-Stechman, Alfonsi, Carrabotta and Laske did not immediately return requests for comment from Pioneer Press.
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