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Home My WebLink About05/26/1998 CS minutes MAYOR Gerald L. Farley t~(i\~'i7fl0n OO~ ' ~dlLIU~ @~ 1J@ \ z. -I u -0 ~ TRUSTEES George A. Clowes Timothy J. Corcoran Paul Wm. Hoefert Richard M. Lohrstorfer Daniel A. Nocchi Irvana K. Wilks Phone: (847) 392-6000 Fax: (847) 392-6022 TOO: (847) 392-6064 VILLAGE MANAGER Michael E. Janonis Village of Mount Prospect VILLAGE CLERK Carol A. Fields 100 South Emerson Street Mount Prospect, Illinois 60056 MINUTES CLOSED SESSION MAY 26,1998 The Closed Session was called to order at 9:36 p.m., in the conference room of the Senior Citizens' Center, 50 South Emerson Street, for the purpose of discussing Property Acquisition and Personnel. Present at the Closed Session were: Mayor Gerald L. Farley; Trustees George Clowes, Timothy Corcoran, Paul Hoefert, Richard Lohrstorfer, Daniel Nocchi and Irvana Wilks. Also present were: Village Manager Michael Janonis and Assistant Village Manager David Strahl. There were no Minutes of prior Closed Sessions offered for consideration. Property Acquisition Village Manager Michael Janonis indicated that staff had met earlier in the day with the Meersmans to talk about their openness to developing the vacant parking lot and surrounding parcels at the northeast corner of Busse and Wille. Mr. Janonis indicated that Bob Meersman and his two daughters were involved in the discussion. Overall, the meeting went very well with Mr. Meersman indicating a high level of openness to relocating from their current property fronting on Northwest Highway. Mr. Janonis reminded Board members that he would be coming forward on June 2 with an Ordinance authorizing acquisition of Parcel 3 at the Pontarelli Clocktower development. Board members reconfirmed their desire to consider such an Ordinance. Mr. Janonis also indicated that staff had met with the Alter Group to discuss the feasibility of a build/lease option for Village Hall. After listening to their presentation and Brian Caputo's analysis of their economic proforma, it made no sense for the Village to consider such an option under present circumstances. It was recognized that under almost all cases, the Village had the ability to borrow money at lower interest rates than the private sector and would not have to cover any additional profit margin that the developer would build into a long-term lease. Mr. Janonis also indicated that he was now more willing to recommend to the Village Board that acquisition of all available parcels especially within Phase I should be undertaken as soon as we are aware that they are on the market. In particular, the property immediately west of Subway Express had been on the market for a number of years previously. It was possible at that time to pick up the property for less than $100,000. Subsequently, it was bought by a speculator and the property is currently being marketed at $195,000. An appraisal by the Village indicated that the current value with improvements was approximately $165,000. After short discussion, there was consensus among Board members that the Village be more aggressive in the property acquisition, especially where properties were actively being marketed. Personnel Village Manager Michael Janonis confirmed to Board members that Finance Director \J ~ Brian Caputo was leaving the employ of the Village to accept a similar position with the City ~ of Aurora, Illinois. Mr. Janonis indicated that he made reasonable efforts to keep "-..0,...... _ Mr. Caputo here in Mount Prospect because of his outstanding performance during his - two-year tenure with the Village. In discussing possible replacement options, Mr. Janonis indicated that he had contact with a Finance Director in a neighboring town who had expressed some interest in seeking the Mount Prospect position. This person had considerable experience and would be able to step in with a relatively short learning curve. Mr. Janonis indicated, however, that the person was currently receiving a salary in excess of the highest paid Department Director with the Village. Mr. Janonis was also concerned that this person would probably not stay with the Village for more than five years as they would be seeking positions with greater responsibility and compensation. The other option would be to do a more traditional search with the hope that a qualified candidate could be identified at a lower starting salary. Mr. Janonis pointed out that his consideration of seeking out a qualified person directly was due to the fact that there were a number of large projects which were currently pending with the Village including the upcoming computer conversion, the 1999 Budget, Downtown Redevelopment and the Capital Improvement Program. There was considerable discussion among Board members regarding the relative merits ofa full-blown recruitment versus directly seeking out an individual to fill the position. It was recognized by everyone that the Finance Director's position was critical in terms of the long-term operation of the Village. Discussion ensued about salary inflation and whether a lower starting salary for a candidate might result in other additional costs such as the requirement for outside consulting services. The other concern expressed was that of the internal impact a higher starting salary would have on other Department Directors. Trustee Hoefert expressed his opinion that notwithstanding Mr. Janonis' points, he felt that the best course of action would be to conduct a full-blown search. ~~ I~ d?! ~~ d~ dl? 2)~ I!!S@ Mr. Janonis indicated he would take all of the comments under advisement and continue to review options. He indicated that he would report back to the Village as soon as he had more information. Mr. Janonis indicated that he was continuing to review various options for filling the Village Clerk's position. These included maintaining the status quo structure of a Village Clerk and a Deputy Village Clerk; appointing the Village Manager to serve as Village Clerk with appropriate support staff or looking at the possibility of a part-time Village Clerk with appropriate support staff. Mr. Janonis further indicated that the latter two options were designed primarily to add additional staff to the administrative side of operations. Mr. Janonis explained that he would look to take the current Clerk's salary and split it into two positions. There was some discussion regarding the legality of the Village Manager appointing himself Village Clerk. He indicated that the initial opinion of the Village Attorney was there was no such prohibition. Trustee Wilks questioned that and indicated she had talked with a representative of the Illinois Municipal League who indicated that there might be a question of change in form of government that would require a Referendum. Additionally, Trustee Wilks offered that several communities had experimented with eliminating the traditional Clerk's position and had subsequently gone back for a variety of reasons. Other Board members felt that if an organizational change were legal, then it was up to the Village Manager to assess the situation and make a recommendation to the Village Board. There was a general recognition of the legitimate effort to expand manpower within the same relative resources allocated to the current Clerk's office structure. Mr. Janonis also inquired whether residency for the Village Clerk was an issue. The consensus of the Village Board was that residency would not be a major issue. There was no other business discussed in Closed Session. The Closed Session was adjourned by unanimous vote based on a Motion by Trustee Lohrstorfer and Seconded by Trustee Hoefert at 10:07 p.m. Respectfully ubmitted, C<7- MEJ/rcc