Politics & Government
Politics Appears In Niles Board Meeting
After one trustee put on the meeting agenda a topic highlighted in his campaign, other trustees called it campaigning at a public meeting and said it was inappropriate.
The Niles village board's meeting agenda became political Tuesday when one trustee put an item related to his campaign for mayor on the agenda and two other trustees said that was inappropriate and possibly illegal.
Trustee Andrew Przybylo, who is running for mayor, placed on the agenda for Tuesday's "Informal Considerations" board meeting a presentation about Cook County's STAR system of performance management. "Informal Considerations" are meetings in which the board learns about and discusses upcoming issues, but does not vote.
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Trustee Rosemary Palicki commented that Przybylo has spoken about the county's performance management system in his campaign, and said it was an inappropriate use of the board's time, and the public's time, to bring a presentation on that topic to the board. She also called it campaigning at a public meeting, and possibly illegal.
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"We're in the middle of a campaign and one of the slates has advocated this," she said.
Przybylo responded he thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce the idea.
The election for Niles mayor and trustees will be held April 9, exactly four weeks from the date of Tuesday's meeting. Palicki is in the middle of her term and not up for election.
She apologized to the Cook County official making the presentation, saying he was caught in the middle.
Preston: Earlier attempts to set goals for staff
Trustee Louella Preston said she has been trying to get employee performance management for Niles for a long time, and asked back in January 2010 for the board to discuss it in an in-service meeting, but that did not happen. In 2011, she and Trustee Jim Hynes put together a list of 10 performance goals for the then-village manager, she said.
"This board has a long history of trying to manage by objective its professional staff," she said.
Good program, but...
After the Cook County performance management presentation, Trustee Jim Hynes described it as a good, professionally done program.
But no matter how good the Cook County system is, Hynes said to Przybylo, "the fact that you...put it on the agenda...is grossly inappropriate."
Przbylo: Opportunity to get good program before board
Przybylo responded, "I thought maybe this (would be) my last great opportunity, because I have no idea what’s going to happen next month."
He added, "The question should not be why is performance management being presented today, but rather why have not Trustees Hanusiak, Preston and Palicki presented anything of substance in the past four months. I submit because they have not much to offer."
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