Evanston's Fuzzy Legal Fee Math

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 20, 2010 3:40PM

We're living in some harsh economic times. And while few cities are facing the ginormous $654 million budget hole that Chicago is, there's still not very much - if any - financial wiggle room for most local governments. Which is why this story from the Sun-Times out of Evanston is such a head-shaker as that town has racked up $40,000 in legal fees in an attempt to recover a $635 assessment tax from a resident in a case that has already been rejected by the Supreme Court twice. It seems the City of Evanston wanted to pave a gravel alleyway next to the condo building where Padma Rao lived and assessed residents in her building a $635 fee for the construction and removal of a tree. But Rao refused to pay.

Rao, however, figured that because the tree wasn't in the way of the gravel alley, it couldn't "magically jump in the way of a paved alley." So it wasn't necessary to take it down, she said.

And taking down a live tree for no reason ran counter to the basic precepts of her Hindu religion, which forbids the needless killing of any living thing and requires practitioners not participate or acquiesce in such acts.

Said Rao: "That was my own motivation. According to my religious beliefs, I'm not supposed to kill anything for no reason. If you kill something because you need food or shelter, or in self defense, that's justifiable. But if it's pointless, it if doesn't serve a purpose, then it's unacceptable. It's abhorrent. And you can't fund someone else to do it. You're just as guilty."

And so the legal fight began. Three years later and the City of Evanston has rung up $40,000 in the legal fight. At this point, it's worth mentioning that despite the ongoing legal battle, the tree was cut down anyway in 2007 and, according to one attorney for the city, at one point the city offered to pay Rao's fee but she refused, sticking to her guns. And it could cost her a whole lot more. Said the attorney, Elke Tober-Purze, "What happens next, sadly, is she could lose her property in a scavenger sale if she doesn't pay the assessment immediately. They go after people for unpaid taxes, and this concerns a tax on the property." Well as long as they get that $635 back, which is roughly 1.6 percent of the $40,000 spent on the case so far.