North Cook News

Rolling Meadows 4th Ward Alderman and mayoral candidate Joe Gallo was censured by City Council Tuesday night on a 5-1 vote, with Gallo the lone vote against the motion.

In making the motion, Mike Cannon, 1st Ward Alderman, cited the “hostile, profanity-laced verbal assault” by Gallo on a fellow council member following the Feb. 12 City Council meeting.

“The verbal assault was like nothing I ever witnessed,” Cannon said in his remarks before the vote. “Nothing even comes close. If this were the private sector, he [Gallo] would have been separated from his job.”

A Feb. 22 story from North Cook News cited a source who said that after the Feb. 12 meeting, Gallo “was dropping F-bombs aimed at Laura [council member Laura Majikes] just before we went into closed session. I heard at least one. The mayor told me he heard three.”

The vote came before the completion of an investigation into Gallo’s behavior by City Manager Barry Krumstok. The report has been delayed, a source close to the investigation said, because some witnesses have been reluctant to come forward.

“Some other things will be coming out,” the source, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the investigation, told North Cook News. “But as it looks now it will probably be after the elections.”

The elections for alderman and mayor are April 2.

A censure is a disciplinary action by elected officials against a colleague, a “judgment involving condemnation,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.

Gallo has offended his colleagues before the verbal assault on Majikes. He was reprimanded by the council after applying for a federal highway grant without the approval of, or consultation with, fellow council members, and 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 address the council concerning the costs of a new firehouse for the city.

Gallo is challenging incumbent Len Prejna in the mayor’s race. Fellow councilman John D’Astice (6th Ward) is also running, as is Planning and Zoning Commission Vice Chairman Dave Whitney.