Nearly a year after former Mokena village administrator John Downs retired from public service, his many accomplishments over a 34-year career — 27 as the village administrator in Mokena — are still being remembered.
Downs, 58, of Mokena, was presented in late June with the Robert B. Morris Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed by the Illinois City/County Management Association to those who have retired from a minimum of 20 years of service in local government and have made “significant contributions beyond their own communities, including service to the association and the profession.”
Downs was nominated by seven colleagues: Russ Loebe, former village administrator of New Lenox; Kurt Carroll, village administrator of New Lenox; Kirk Zoellner, assistant village administrator of Mokena; John Tomasoski, village administrator of Mokena; Scott Niehaus, former village administrator of Tinley Park; Paul Grimes, village administrator of Orland Park, and Alan Zordan, director of economic and community development in Mokena.
Downs said one of the things he feels “best about” in receiving the award is “that this award is from the peers in our profession.”
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“To be honored by my peers is an awfully great thing,” Downs said.
Loebe, a 2011 recipient of the award and a long-time colleague of Downs’ who said he and Downs “came up through the ranks together,” was prominent in Downs’ nomination.
Loebe said the award honors “not only a manager who is successful in doing good work for their community — and clearly John fits that criteria to the ‘nth’ degree — but also for managers who also help (further) the profession…”
He said Downs was among the honored village managers who “went beyond the four corners of the community,” citing Downs’ involvement in promoting issues such as self-insurance pools for municipalities, “literally saving all those communities millions of dollars in premium…”
Loebe said Downs’ extensive volunteer work included setting up a pool of volunteer village managers who would be accessible to smaller communities that did not have a professional staff and might need the experience and expertise of a professional manager from time to time.
He said Downs also was part of a team that volunteered on weekends to help educate newly-elected officials of municipalities about the workings of local government.
“He helped advance good quality local government by doing those things,” said Loebe, emphasizing that it was done on Downs’ free time.
Zoellner, who began working alongside Downs in 2003, agreed that Downs was a worthy recipient of an award named for the first professional village manager in the state of Illinois and one who advanced the profession.
“A commitment like (John) had to Mokena for 27 years just is unheard of in our profession,” Zoellner said. “We’re in a business where many times due to political considerations and changing things… I think the average tenure for a village administrator is five years or so.”
Zoellner said Downs’ career spanned some “very challenging times” that included Mokena’s explosive growth, an urgent need to address the water problems in the village — problems Downs said spanned his entire tenure in Mokena — and an economic downturn that began in 2008 and affected the village for several years.
Zoellner said the fact that Downs remained on the job through it all “speaks very much to his commitment to the local community and the people he was responsible for serving.”
Downs admits there were times when he thought about whether sticking it out was the best option, especially during “politically tumultuous” situations, but he always had a willing partner in his wife Pat to turn to during those times.
“My wife was basically the person (who) was always there for me,” Downs said. “She certainly helped me find my way many times…She kept me grounded during the most difficult times and was always there in support… “
Downs said his career, which began in downstate Jerseyville as a park district manager who often took on the role of a village manager, was strongly influenced by the work ethic he learned as a part-time employee for the United Parcel Service during his college years at Southern Illinois University.
He said the experience was “one of the greatest things that happened to me in my life.”
“I learned early on that if you were going to work for someone and be successful and survive, you had to work hard,” Downs said. “Hey, when you go to work. . . work hard.”
With years of hard work and the satisfaction of knowing he had done his best to always put the “customers” of Mokena first, Downs and his wife can relax and enjoy retirement.
Downs said the couple plans to remain in Mokena indefinitely while they enjoy family, fishing, photography, golfing and renewing old acquaintances.
“We plan on staying here — enjoying the community — enjoying it as much as a civilian as I did when I was employed by the community,” Downs said. “And I don’t plan on that changing.”
Ginger Brashinger is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.