Lyons Township Official Rarely Shows Up For Work: Colleague

COUNTRYSIDE, IL – Christopher Getty gets full-time pay for two elected positions – Lyons Township's supervisor and the village of Lyons' mayor.

Whether he works full time for the township is in question, at least for one colleague.

In an interview early last week, the township's elected clerk, Elyse Hoffenberg, said she rarely sees Getty in the office. She said he attends the township board's monthly meetings and perhaps comes in a couple of other times a month.

Last week, Patch spoke with the township's elected assessor, Patrick Hynes, just outside his office. He said Getty shows up to the office and accused Hoffenberg of lying.

Hynes then walked back to his office, declining to answer any other questions. In March, he won the Democratic primary for Cook County assessor and is expected to trounce his only rival, Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis, in the November election.

In response to an inquiry, Getty said he is on duty around the clock and frequently at the township hall in Countryside.

"When not at the hall, I am often in one of the 18 different communities throughout the Township meeting with residents, business owners, and area officials," he said in an email.

As township supervisor, Getty makes $74,000 a year. His mayoral pay is $86,745, up from $47,000 in 2020.

Last week, Hoffenberg, a Democrat, publicly released video of Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek, a former Democratic state senator, kissing her in her office. She described it as a peck and said that she told him it was inappropriate.

Hoffenberg released the video because of a public records request from Liz Gorman, her GOP opponent for a Cook County Board seat in the November election. Gorman sought the footage from the evening of July 13.

Before releasing it to Gorman, Hoffenberg sent the video to the media. She suggested that Getty, an independent congressional candidate, worked with Gorman to alert her to the kiss.

In last week's interview, Hoffenberg said Getty "does work surveilling me."

"He uses government resources for his personal benefit and political gain," Hoffenberg said.

A day later, she stopped communicating with Patch.

"I am unable to comment as I have retained an attorney to look into the extensive harassment I have suffered," she said.

In Cook County, townships have three mandated responsibilities: administer general assistance to the poor, maintain roads in unincorporated areas and help property taxpayers with their assessments.

They also provide social services, but that is not required.

Because townships have relatively few duties, they often undergo less public and media scrutiny than do municipal and school boards.