Sex | McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski Mum On Sex Addict's Hiring At Gym

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Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski refused to answer several critical questions during a deposition concerning a convicted felon and sex addict getting hired at an indoor gym owned by the suburban village where Tobolski is mayor.

Tobolski has provided conflicting information concerning the employment of the felon, Felice "Phil" Vanaria, who was a political volunteer in Tobolski's successful run for county board last year.

Tobolski was deposed in July as part of a lawsuit filed by a victim of Vanaria. Vanaria pleaded guilty in 2007 to official misconduct and bribery for conning the woman into a sex act in return for a nonexistent government job. Vanaria was then a Cook County employee and had a history of government jobs and complaints against him by women.

Tobolski is not named in the lawsuit but was deposed about Vanaria getting hired for a part-time job at the village-owned McCook Athletic Exposition Center, known as the Max, in early 2010. About the same time, Vanaria began working for free on Tobolski's campaign.

In the deposition, Tobolski repeatedly refused to answer what was said in a meeting between him, Vanaria and Michael Del Galdo, the village's attorney for the Max, after Tobolski said he learned of Vanaria's felonies. Tobolski cited attorney-client privilege, but the victim's attorneys, Dana Kurtz and Heidi Sleper, will ask a federal judge next week to compel Tobolski to answer.

Vanaria's victim is suing the county, and a Cook County assistant state's attorney asked that Tobolski's deposition be kept secret, arguing Tobolski's words could be taken out of context. A judge denied the request Thursday. In a statement, Tobolski praised the judge's decision, saying its release would set the record straight.

Tobolski has provided conflicting information about Vanaria's employment.

In January, Tobolski indicated in an interview that he had previously known about Vanaria's criminal background and had research done on whether his hiring was legal.

Del Galdo confirmed this, writing in a statement in January: "Attorneys conducted research on whether Mr. Vanaria was eligible for public employment, and there was no state law or local ordinance that prohibited his hiring."

This week, in a timeline provided by his office, Tobolski said he only learned of Vanaria's convictions in November 2010, after Vanaria failed a background check, but months after he had been hired. Tobolski emphasized that Vanaria had been hired and paid by the management company running the Max for the village at the time " not the village itself. Village records, though, show McCook was paying Vanaria directly. A Tobolski spokesman said the village did that during a transition period in management.

Tobolski said he had nothing to do with the hiring of Vanaria. Facing being fired, Vanaria resigned from the Max in early 2011.

Kurtz, one of the victim's attorneys, asked Tobolski in the deposition: "Now, had you known that Mr. Vanaria had been convicted of . . . official misconduct and bribery, would have hired him to work at the Village of McCook?"

"You know, I am nobody's confessor," Tobolski replied. "When I am looking at an employment issue, I do what I have always done. If there is not a legal basis to deny employability, then I would not deny it."