Story posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010
New Trustee Expected To Come From Plan Commission
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
Several appointments by Mayor Robert Callero, including a new village trustee, were on the agenda for last night's (Tuesday) village board meeting.
That new trustee likely came from the plan commission and zoning board of appeals.
Besides a new trustee to replace Kim Biederman who unexpectedly stepped down last November, the appointment of a new plan commission and zoning board of appeals commissioner was also on the agenda for last night's meeting. As of last Monday, village development director Chuck Ostman said the plan commission and zoning board of appeals had no pending vacancies on its seven-member board that he was aware of. It is therefore likely that Callero needed to fill a vacancy on the plan commission because he named a commissioner to the village board.
Callero did not return telephone calls to the Journal & Topics Newspapers this week.
Several village trustees criticized Callero's last appointment to the plan commission of Chris Hanusiak last November. They weren't critical of Hanusiak's qualifications, but of Callero not employing the long established practice of using a committee, that included Ostman, to help select new plan commissioners.
Callero responded saying he had over 20 applications from another recent vacancy and made his choice with input from Trustee Joe LoVerde from that group.
It is unclear whether Callero used that committee to select the new commissioner named last night. Callero is under no such obligation to use any committee in the selection of a new trustee.
Earlier this month, Callero told the Journal & Topics that he was in the process of interviewing about a dozen candidates for trustee. With last night's appointment, half of the sitting Niles village board has been appointed, not elected by voters, since the April 2009 election.
At the last village board meeting in November, trustees also formalized terms of succession for the chairman, vice chairman and secretary of the plan commission and zoning board of appeals should a vacancy arise. Since last April's election, Alan Weel and James Hynes were both taken from their positions as plan commission chairs to become village trustees.
Weel replaced longtime trustee Bart Murphy and Hynes replaced George Alpogianis, who was elected last April but resigned under pressure from the Cook County State's Attorney last June because of felony convictions in his past that disqualified him from serving under Illinois law. The plan commission and zoning board of appeals chairman as of last Monday was Thomas Kanelos.
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