The city says it is using the cement barricades to close businesses that are refusing to pay huge fines to reinstate business licenses. They said all of it is happening because the businesses are delinquent on county property taxes.
A federal lawsuit is calling it a "scheme" and "extortion."
A chain and giant cement blocks, placed by the city of Harvey, are stopping Benecia Gonzalez from operating her auto shop. The blocks were placed in front of her business and others because they are refusing to pay an annual fine of $20,000 dollars for a "one-year" business license, which is usually around $250, depending on the size of the business. The businesses were denied licenses and told to pay those "fines" in settlement offers, because they are delinquent on their Cook County property taxes.
"Which it's the job of the Cook County treasurer to collect, not the city of Harvey," said attorney Rob Hanlon with Netzky Olswang Law Group. "And so what they're attempting to do is circumvent the statutory scheme, just so that they can extort money out of individuals for something they don't have the power to do."
Hanlon recently filed the lawsuit on behalf of Gonzalez and other business owners. The lawsuit alleges that the effort from city officials is a "scheme" to "extort money from local businesses."
"You've got a unit of government that's just simply gone wild," Hanlon said.
He pointed out that even if the businesses pay that "fine" for their licenses, that money does not go towards their property taxes.
"It's unconstitutional," Hanlon said. "Because it's deprivation of the rights of each of those property or each of those businesses to be afforded due process of the law in the courtroom."
The City of Harvey strongly refutes the claims, saying they're erroneous and baseless and that the city upholds transparency, fairness, and the law.
"Claims that business license fines and enforcement efforts, including the use of cement barricades, constitute 'extortion' or a 'scheme' are patently false," a statement from the city read.
The city says it counts on county property taxes to operate and that when business don't pay their fair share the burden gets shifted to the homeowners who end up having to pay more, adding that hundreds of commercial properties are behind, owning more than $12 million in property taxes.
READ MORE | Giant concrete blocks obstruct Harvey businesses; city says owners delinquent on property taxes
"The small business owner will say, 'hey if I have to pay $20,000 to keep my business license, how am I going to catch up?'" Harvey Mayor Christopher Clark said. "Once again, if they were a good corporate citizen in the first place and did what they were supposed to do, they would have paid their taxes already and if they had paid their taxes, they wouldn't be in this situation."
The federal lawsuit also says that business owners who rent buildings had paid for business licenses they couldn't receive, because their landlords are delinquent on property taxes. The lawsuit also alleges that some citizens who have expressed concerns at public meetings have been unfairly arrested.