Soap Opera at Stormwater Management

I serve as one of the 6 mayors and along with 6 Lake County board members we act as the board of directors for the Lake County Storm Water Management Commission (SMC). This commission's mission is to coordinate the stormwater activities of over 90 jurisdictions throughout the county.

Over the 15 year history of the organization it has had a history of overstepping boundaries, and for the last decade most municipalities had been very unhappy with the performance and bureaucratic inefficiencies of the permit process. This coupled with the interjecting of the Director, Ward Miller, into local issues which were not SMC related led to a acrimonious relationship to say the least. A variety of Mayors told me this when I agreed to serve as the board member for the 12 municipalities I represent. I did however go in with an open mind.

As it turns out I did not get much of a chance to evaluate the organization as it was, because after about 3 months the Chair, Stevenson Mountsenior (County Board Member District 17) fired Ward Miller with zero discussion and or feedback to the board.

At the next board meeting he appointed a search committee chaired by him and 2 mayors and 2 county board members. This board used the Lake County HR department to screen and whittle down applicants. This committee then presented two candidates, one external the other internal, to the full board. Sadly that night only 9 members of the board attended the interviews. One candidate interviewed poorly and the other did quite well.

After a lengthy discussion on the candidates one was chosen over the other, which to me was suprising since the one that the interviewed poorly (my opinion) was the one selected. We decided to vote unanimously to recommend the external candidate that was selected by the majority for the job. The goal here was to show solidarity for the new director.

That fragile 9-0 vote barely lasted to the parking lot. One of the minority mayors immediately started to regret the vote, and to be candid so did I, however not as vocally. The next day one of the members of the County Board decided to breach the confidentiality of the executive session and tell other board members who voted for whom. To say the least I was somewhat surprised to hear the accuracy of the supposedly confidential voting in executive session related to me by someone at the county who was NOT in the board room.

Apparently at the county board meeting the next day quite a few people were quite upset with the board for not hiring the internal candidate and some county board members on the SMC felt the urge to discuss the vote as a way of defending their actions.

A movement then appeared to not approve the selected candidates contract. By the way I was against that particularly nasty piece of business, my feelings were and are, we voted, we lost, move on and make the best of it.

So yesterday guess what? The gentlemen we hired told us he was not going to be taking the position, for unspecified reasons. So we are either back to square one or we hire the internal candidate.

While this may seem kind of bland here on the blog, there are a variety of subterfuges, back stabbing and intrigue that I can't relate because of the nature of executive sessions in the State of Illinois