North Cook News

Rolling Meadows Third Ward Alderman Laura Majikes has filed a complaint against fellow Alderman Joe Gallo over his “loutish and rude” behavior immediately following the Feb. 12 City Council meeting, a source told North Cook News.

“He was dropping F-bombs aimed at Laura just before we went into closed session,” the source, speaking anonymously due to the sensitive nature of the investigation, said. “I heard at least one. The mayor told me he heard three.”

City manager Barry Krumstok is investigating, the source said, and a report might be completed as early as next week.

A second source, also speaking anonymously, confirmed the investigation.

Neither Majikes nor Gallo responded to a request for comment.

At the council meeting, Gallo, who is challenging Mayor Len Prejna in the April 2 elections, defended himself in the face of a resolution that informed the National Safety Council (NSC) that the city had not given Gallo permission to apply for a grant under NSC’s Road to Zero program, an initiative to reduce highway fatalities. Gallo, who defeated eight-year incumbent Alderman Brad Judd in the city’s Fourth Ward in April 2017, told council members that he had the authority to apply for the grant on his own.

“I feel I'm a valid representative for the city of Rolling Meadows," Gallo said at one point in the discussion. He later tried to downplay his actions by saying, "this is the equivalent of me taking my business card and putting it in a fish bowl at a restaurant to receive a free lunch."

But the bottom of the grant application states that it is a "legally binding" document, which could put the city on the hook for costs under the program.

Judd said that Gallo has no more right to act on his own that any other council member.

“There is a procedure for these things, and he didn’t follow it,” Judd said.

During the meeting, Prejna said that the program sounded like it had merit but chastised Gallo for acting on his own.

“As the city attorney has stated, it would be like someone saying, 'Well, I'm going to apply to get a snowplow into my ward because I think we really should have one of those,'" Prejna said.

Other council members likewise criticized Gallo's actions.

“The way this has been handled is an embarrassment to the city,” said First Ward Alderman Mike Cannon.

This isn’t the first time Gallo’s public behavior has been called into the question.

At an August 2018 meeting he can be heard saying, “doesn’t matter. He f****** inflated prices. This is a joke.”

The open mic expletive came as a representative of the R.C. Wegman Construction Company was about to the address council about the costs of a new firehouse for the city.

Gallo calls himself a "Management Analyst" on his LinkedIn site.