Legal warning to agency serving addicts exposes a political feud in Blue Island
A nonprofit that serves recovering addicts and the homeless is challenging Blue Island’s authority to order it to shut down. Three City Council members said theywere unaware of the order and raised questions about Mayor Domingo Vargas’ leadership.
A nonprofit organization that serves recovering addicts and homeless people is challenging the city of Blue Island’s authority to order it to shut down its operations.
Three Blue Island City Council members said they were unaware of the order and raised questions about the leadership of Mayor Domingo Vargas. A central question is why Blue Island taxpayers are footing the bill for legal services to pursue a dispute that apparently was resolved in 2014.
“I can’t comment on that. That’s all pending right now,” Vargas told me before Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “They have to comply with whatever the building department says.”
Attorney Leslie Quade Kennedy of Evergreen Park-based Odelson & Sterk wrote in an Aug. 28 letter to Affordable Recovery Housing that the organization was in violation of the city’s zoning code.
“Affordable Recovery has blatantly flouted Blue Island’s zoning code,” Kennedy wrote. “You must immediately abate the zoning violation by ceasing and desisting operation of Affordable Recovery … at the premises.”
Affordable Recovery Housing is continuing its operations while it awaits a response from the city.
Affordable Recovery Housing first occupied the former Mother of Sorrows Catholic High School and convent complex at 13811 Western Ave. in 2011.
Kennedy, a former Blue Island City Council member, wrote that the property is zoned residential and that Affordable Recovery Housing needed to obtain a special-use permit to continue occupying the 250-bed facility.
The city of Blue Island ordered tenants in Affordable Recovery Housing’s residential program evicted in 2012, saying the facility did not comply with a building code that required sprinklers in rooms where people slept.
Affordable Recovery Housing sued and prevailed in 2014 when a court ruled that the state— not the city— holds jurisdiction over regulation of residential treatment programs. The Illinois Department of Human Services licenses agencies that house recovering drug users and alcoholics.
“Under the DHS regulations, plaintiff is not required to install sprinkler systems,” U.S. District Judge RobertM. Dow wrote in a rulingNov. 17, 2014. “DHS regulations preempt the city’s Life Safety Code such that the citymay not enforce its sprinkler requirements against plaintiff.”
In an interview Wednesday, Affordable Recovery Housing founders John and Mary Jo Dun leavy and their attorney said they are frustrated by a lack of cooperation from the city.
“There is a history of prejudice against recovery homes like ours,” said John Dunleavy, president and CEO. “People tend to be afraid that recovery homes are dangerous. We have a good track record at Mother of Sorrows.”
Contrary to the mayor’s claims, the Dunleavys and their attorney, Andy Norman, said the two parties are not involved in an active legal case.
“Right nowthere is no litigation,” Norman said. “There appears to be animus toward us.”
Three City Council members— Candace Carr, Kevin Donahue and Nancy Rita— told me theywere unaware of the letter ordering Affordable Recovery Housing to vacate its facility.
“None of this has been discussed in closed session, or otherwise, with any of the council members, as far as I am aware,” Carr said. “Much of city business is nowbeing conducted without the council’s knowledge.”
Affordable Recovery Housing also wants the city to respond to its requests for permits towork on a building thatwas donated to the organization. Dunleavy said he applied in May for permits towork on the former Libby, McNeill & Libby building at 13636 S. Western Ave.
Until 1968, workers produced ketchup and other products in the vast, 550,000-square-foot facility on 19 acres. In the 1980s, itwas redeveloped as the Blue Island Industrial Terminal and housed several small businesses as tenants. The last four tenants recently had to vacate the building when the city shut off the water due to a $9,000 unpaid water bill, Norman said.
“Wewant our permits approved,” Norman said. “They will not give us any response. We’re just asking for communication. That’s not unreasonable.”
John Dunleavy said he has applied for six building permits to secure the property with fencing, clean up the exterior and remove interior walls erected when the Blue Island Police Department used part of the interior for training exercises.
John Dunleavy said he’s fielding offers from trucking companies and others interested in using the property. Work on the building and site would provide employment for Affordable Recovery Housing clients and others, he said.
“Wewant to bring the building back to life and create jobs,” he said. “We’re not asking to be exempt from paying property taxes.”
Donahue said he and other council members were being kept in the dark about Affordable Recovery Housing.
“Iwas unaware of the Libby building, and I don’t remember hearing anything new in regards to Mother of Sorrows,” Donahue said.
“I might disagree with the ruling, but I respect the decision,” he said of the 2014 judgment that appeared to resolve the dispute over jurisdiction.
Since winning re-election to a second term as mayor in 2017, Vargas has fired several key city administrators.
Ousted officials include John Rita, public safety director; Shawn Te Raines, city attorney; Lori Brown, deputy finance director; Andie Trucco, deputy general counsel; and Angel Infante, building commissioner.
Vargas appointed Cary Horvath, of Odelson & Sterk, to serve as city attorney.
“Cary Horvath is the city of Blue Island’s attorney, not just Mayor Vargas’s attack dog and personal attorney,” Donahue said. “What has gone on with Mayor Vargas since May of 2017 speaks for itself, and I have said multiple times that because of his actions, we— the residents— all nowhave to suffer from a lack of leadership that’s also inefficient and ineffective.”
In a Sept. 4 reply to Kennedy, Norman wrote that the 2014 court ruling deemed the city has “little authority” to regulate the residential facility at the former Mother of Sorrows campus.
“We have had almost four years of peaceful, successful and uninterrupted operations at Mother of Sorrows on behalf of our residents in recovery,” Norman wrote.
“We suspect that this is all related to our attempts to rehabilitate the Libby Building, andwe reiterate our demands that the general contractor’s and all permit applications be approved immediately,” Norman also wrote.