The village of River Grove’s financial reputation took a hit recently, so officials have hired a consultant to help strengthen their image with investors.
The Village Board has brought in Kane, McKenna and Associates, a Chicago-based financial services firm, to help them raise their bond rating. The village’s bond rating recently dropped from A to BBB, due in part to tax revenue lost when Dominick’s and CW Price closed a few years ago.
Now that a new grocery store and a retail store have replaced those two shops, the village is working to get back the revenue it lost and survive financially in the meantime.
Phil McKenna, one of the owners of the financial firm, met with members of River Grove Village Board in September with advice on how to do that.
One of the recommendations was to create and pass an ordinance adopting new financial management policies for issues like revenue, the village budget, expenditures and other issues.
River Grove Mayor Marilynn May said the village had no official ordinance in place when it came to policies regarding the village’s finances,
“That’s what we’re doing now,” she said. “We didn’t have it in ordinance form and it was something that he [McKenna] said we should do and we jumped on it right away.”
They’ll also be going out for bids to get a line of credit from a bank, which the village can use to access money quickly in case of a financial emergency. The village has already stopped subsidizing garbage pick-up for residents in the village to create savings.
May said despite taking these measures, they’ve always been on course financially, according to staff and contracted financial experts.
McKenna believes implementing these measures will help improve the village’s standing with bond-rating agency Standard and Poor’s.
“We want to make sure it improves and doesn’t move in the other direction,” McKenna said. “We realize finances have been tight, but you have to put some policies in place.”
River Grove Village Attorney Bart Smith said the village has worked with McKenna’s firm in the past and the Village Board has been meeting with him on how to craft the financial planning ordinance. He believes the board will possibly vote on it at the Oct. 1 Village Board meeting.
“It’s still under consideration by the board, but we’re trying to create some new rules of operation,” Smith said. “If we were all full-time, it would be easier to assess the impact of certain ordinances. Trustees are part-time and it’s more difficult to make decisions and to evaluate the impact of what this ordinance will be.”
River Grove Trustee Tracy Aller, who’s chair of the village’s finance committee, said this is something that needs to be done.
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“Every government is having financial issues,” she said. “We’re trying to be proactive and we will upgrade and update our policies.”
May has been optimistic about the progress being made.
“I really see good things on the horizon,” he said. “There’s going thing happening. These are hard decisions but we have to do it.”
Twitter: @DavidDPollard