Ethics Committee Asks for Citizens' Input, Examines Hiring, Firing Authority

While Niles village manager George Van Geem oversees the day-to-day running of village government, he doesn't have authority to hire and fire, Niles Ethics Committee members noted at their meeting Wednesday, as they started discussing whether to give the manager more authority. 

Clarifying the roles of the village manager and village attorney were two of the major agenda items for the meeting. Ethics Committee chairperson Jim Hynes, who is also a Niles trustee, also issued a call inviting Niles citizens to give the committee input on ethics.

The village formed the ethics committee after former mayor Nicholas Blase pleaded guilty to mail and tax fraud charges and served about 10 months in federal prison. He was released in early March. Niles trustees passed an ethics ordinance in January, in the interest of making government more transparent and preventing wrongdoing.

Earlier:

Village Manager's Role

At Wednesday's meeting, Hynes noted the village manager doesn't have his own authority to carry out some of the functions of running the village, such as hiring and firing. Instead, this power derives from the trustees' authority.

"Even the board sometimes gets confused with the roles of board and village manager, and what he can and cannot do without (the board's approval)," Hynes said. 

"To me, and this is my opinion,…I think if you're the village manager you should have authority to hire and fire anyone below a certain level in the organization."

He asked ethics committee member Matthew Lagodzinski to research and clarify what authority the village manager holds, versus what trustees' approval is needed for, and report back by October.

"It would be helpful sitting down with George to find out what he’s lacking in authority that he should have just for good management," Hynes explained. 

Hynes also said he wanted to get the mayor's input on whether shifting the village manager's authority could improve village operations. 

Village Attorney's Role

Village Attorney Joe Annunzio said his role changed from focusing on corporation counsel duties to policing wrongdoing around the time that former Mayor Blase was charged. 

It's not possible for him to exercise both roles at the same time, he said. For example, if a village employee came to him seeking legal advice in his role as corporation counsel, and if he listened and determined they had committed a violation, he would be obligated to report them in his "policeman" role, he said. That would serve as a disincentive to employees to seek advice about the proper ways to conduct business.

"My concern is that, if people share information with me, people may have to tell me certain things that, if I am beyond the corporation counsel, I have to report them. How can I be counsel....when they know when they come to me looking for advice, they could get turned in?" he asked. 

Mike Siegel, an ethics committee member who is an attorney by profession, said, "One of the things that has to be spelled out is, who is Joe's client? Is it the mayor or the village as a whole? If it's the village as a whole, and I'm an employee, I have to know that when I talk to him, it's for the best of the village as a whole."

Hynes asked Siegel and board member Randy Greco to gather information on the village attorney's proper role and report back to the committee by October.

The committee also decided to move its meeting dates to Tuesdays from Wednesdays to avoid schedule conflicts.  

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