Zion’s mayor returns to City Hall

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Updated: January 24, 2012 1:47AM

In case you missed it — and you certainly did — Zion Mayor Lane Harrison returned to City Hall Monday night.

Harrison, who missed six-straight meetings due to an undisclosed illness, presided over a special meeting before an audience of only two reporters.

The meeting agenda — which was posted at City Hall but not listed on the town website — included two proposals to borrow a total of $5 million aimed at staving off a financial meltdown. Harrison told the City Council that Zion faces a budget crisis because of “baseball,” Zion Commissioner Shantal Taylor said.

Harrison was referring to the city’s disastrous dealings with the Lake County Fielders, an independent minor league team whose owners include Academy Award winner Kevin Costner. The Fielders have filed a $10.7 million lawsuit that alleges the city, Mayor Harrison and former economic development director Delaine Rogers individually and stadium property owners, specifically Delisle, engaged in fraudulent actions that killed stadium construction.

The agenda called for the City Council to consider the proposals to borrow money, but commissioners did not call for a vote, Taylor said.

On Monday, the Fielders attorney, Stephen Boulton, sent the Zion city attorney an email that referenced the city’s proposal to borrow cash.

“It is our understanding that the City of Zion is seeking loan financing,” Boulton wrote. “My client reserves the right to contact any lender to state our position on the matters between it and the City.”