The hidden message: It's none of your business

What is it with Morrison's attorney bills? The city treats them like national security secrets.

A few months ago, Alderwoman Marti Wood got to look at the bills from attorney Tim Zollinger, but only under certain stringent conditions: An employee had to watch her in a basement conference room at City Hall, and Wood couldn't take any notes.

No kidding.

Attorney bills had gone up, and she wanted to see why. That's one of the main reasons we elect City Council members — to watch over spending.

The attorney's client is the mayor and City Council. So it makes little sense that a council member has to go through such hurdles to see public records.

Of course, personality issues could be at play here. No love is lost between Wood and City Administrator Jim Wise, who has control over the records. She questions a lot, which rubs Wise and Mayor Roger Drey the wrong way sometimes.

Would pro-administration members have gone through such an ordeal to view attorney bills? I don't know. The better question: Are the others even asking to see the documents in the first place? I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

Earlier this year, we had a struggle getting the reasons behind legal bills from a Chicago law firm that charged the city $320 an hour — quite a bit more than most firms.

The total bill from last spring was $1,408.

At a meeting, the mayor said the bill was for an issue involving public records and General Electric, whose now-closed plant caused industrial pollution in Morrison.

We sought those records, and the city released records relating to our request for a settlement agreement between Morrison and General Electric. The city earlier tried to keep the agreement a secret, but after a couple of months, it realized it was doing so illegally.

The legal bills from the Chicago firm, Chen Nelson Roberts, were from March 2011, a month after the city released the agreement to Sauk Valley Media.

So the bills were for something else, but what? Wise said he didn't know, referring questions to the mayor, who didn't return calls.