In hopes of attracting the finest of Long Grove’s bright minds to its highest office, the Village Board is turning the role of village president into a paid position.
After the next election for that office —in the spring of 2017 —whoever wins will receive a $1,200 monthly stipend, totaling $14,400 for a year, according to the ordinance that the trustees approved. The new law will have no effect on current Village President Angie Underwood, who will finish her term as Long Grove’s last volunteer executive.
“Long Grove has a tremendous wealth of professional people,” said trustee Stan Borys, who proposed the change, and whose position will remain volunteer along with the other trustees. “We need to get more of them to run. Hopefully it will encourage multiple people to run.”
The ordinance passed 4-2. Trustee John Marshall voted against it, as did Underwood, who asked to be called despite no tie-breaking vote being needed.
“This proposal is out of left field, as far as I’m concerned,” Underwood said. “I wanted it for the record that I was against it.”
The ordinance leaves Village Manager David Lothspeich will about a year and a half to find enough budget space to start funding a new position —one that was never described in Long Grove’s comprehensive plan, and came up with little public discussion. It was briefly discussed at the Aug. 25 meeting, officials say, and became law during the next session.
Borys said his intent was to lure more of Long Grove’s most talented residents into running for village president, because the community needs stronger leadership. Officials in several capacities in the town of 8,000 people have said that Long Grove’s economy first started struggling around 2001, and worsened during the Great Recession. It has rejuvenated recently with an influx of new property ownership and renters in its downtown, and with the continued success of its Sunset Grove and Menards shopping areas.
But Borys compared the village to the Soviet Union that his parents moved away from: ostensibly a democracy, with each election containing a sole candidate.
“There’s only been one person running for more than a decade,” he said, noting that Underwood ran unopposed in 2013, as did Maria Rodriguez before her. “Long Grove deserves better than that. The question is, how do you attract people to the office?”
Borys’ answer: A salary that is less than 10 percent of the $155,000 annual income that the U.S. Census listed as the Long Grove average, for a job that Underwood said she spends about 30 hours a week on.
The stipend will come with no strings attached — the next village president will be able to spend it as he or she pleases. Both Underwood and Borys agreed that the office-holder spends plenty of personal funds in the performance of duties, including many gallons worth of gas.
Neither Underwood nor Borys wished to comment on if this was a vote of no confidence against Underwood.
But Borys guaranteed that he would not seek the job in 2017.
“Lord, no,” he said. “I see myself neither running for that office nor re-running for trustee. This four-year term is it for me. It’s taking too much time away.”
Underwood said she had not made up her mind about seeking a second term. Neither gave any recommendations for who they would like to see run; but in her blog, Underwood wondered if one of the current trustees already has the job, and the salary, in mind.
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“Time will tell us if a future mayor just voted himself a salary,” Underwood wrote.
Borys said that if the money pushed anyone thinking about filing for village president over the tipping point, a more robust democracy would be worth the expense.
“People who otherwise would not have given this a thought, maybe this will jostle something in their brain,” Borys said.
Twitter @RonnieAtPioneer