COMMENTARY-- New Ordinances Being Enacted

The village board has been working quite diligently to create a more modern ordinance structure, that allows the village to run more efficiently. We have passed a variety of beatification ordinances that have been quite successful, removing signage and making the downtown cleaner and more attractive is one example. Over time the board has slowly realized that to streamline and make the village run more efficiently that there needs to be a more centralized control over village operations.

To this end tomorrow at our regular board meeting we will be discussing the following ordinance-- Item 8.3 that will grant the Mayor the ability to appoint his successor. This is quite revolutionary only 6 communities have done this before in the state of Illinois, the community you know the best is Rosemont.

In addition as the current trustees leave office the Mayor will be granted the privilege of appointing trustees as opposed to having them elected. This will save the village approximately $107,000 every two years, which is how much the trustee and mayoral elections cost the taxpayers.

There is also a salary adjustment for the Mayor to a more manageable and fair wage which will change as our population changes, the formula is $10 per resident for the annual wage of the Mayor. I plan on donating some of this to charity by the way.

While I realize that these ordinances radically change the way this village does business I think they will allow us to move in a more progressive and aggressive direction. While I think this ordinance will pass I would like to promise the residents that as long as I remain Mayor I will use these powers granted to me wisely and keep moving this village forward. Please come to tomorrows village board meeting to express your support of these progressive and modern ordinances.

Tomorrow I am going to write a post about how I will create a variety of task forces that will improve the process of running village government. I hope that getting citizen involvement in these vital committees will allow me to move this village into the 21st century.