Sauk Village Police Chief Ordered To Leave, Locked Out Of Station
SAUK VILLAGE, Ill. (CBS) -- The mayor and police chief in Sauk Village were in court Tuesday, trying to get a judge to overturn a law passed by the village board that led to the police chief getting locked out of the station a day earlier.
As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, it all started when two Sauk Village trustees showed up at the police station on Monday, and told Chief Robert Fox he was no longer in charge and had to go.
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A heated exchange followed, the SouthtownStar reports. The trustees – Derrick Burgess and David Hanks – ordered Fox to leave. Fox said on the mayor had the authority to issue such an order.
Burgess pressed the matter, saying, "You're not God."
The trustees asked police officers to remove Fox, but they did not respond.
Fox, according to the paper, went to lunch. When he returned, the locks had been changed.
It is all the result of a power struggle between Mayor Lewis Towers and the village board. Towers appointed Fox without board approval, and the board responded by passing a law placing a limit on the mayor's appointment powers.
The board never approved a salary or contract for Fox, either, and after a $4,600 check was issued to Fox last month at the mayor's request, the board put Treasurer Genorise Carmichael and village manager Henrietta Turner on paid administrative leave for a week for paying him.
Now, Mayor Towers is in court trying to rescind the law. It was not immediately learned if any ruling was issued in court.
Fox said he still planned to show up for work Tuesday as usual.
The SouthtownStar contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
