The hiring of a new lawyer for Aurora’s legal department was narrowly approved by the City Council at its meeting Tuesday after sparking a debate about hiring practices amid the city’s budget crisis.
Aurora Mayor John Laesch has said the city is facing a nearly $30 million shortfall in the 2026 budget, which is currently being developed. One of the ways Laesch is working to bridge that gap is by putting in place what he has called a “hiring slushie,” as opposed to a full hiring freeze.
That means the city is not hiring any new employees, even for currently-open positions or positions that become empty when an employee leaves, unless first approved by the mayor’s office, Laesch has said.
Aurora’s Corporation Counsel Yordana Wysocki said at Tuesday’s meeting that she’s looking to bring in a new lawyer to deal with labor and employment matters, which the city currently contracts out at a cost of over $300,000 each year. The new part-time employee would instead cost the city around $164,000 each year, which includes both salary and benefits, according to numbers city staff shared at the meeting.
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The hiring of the new lawyer started the Tuesday meeting on the consent agenda, which is typically reserved for routine or non-controversial items all approved with a single vote.
But before that vote, Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, asked for the item to be pulled and considered separately, saying she felt the city shouldn’t be hiring anyone until its budget is in order. In her years as alderman, she has never had so many of her residents and others from the city come up to her and comment on an item, she said.
“This has nothing to do with the qualifications of the candidate. I feel this particular person is very qualified for this job,” Smith said. “This has everything to do with the position the budget is in right now.”
So, she and other aldermen suggested delaying the vote until further along in the budget process. Ald. Daniel Barreiro, 1st Ward, recommended delaying the vote until after City Council is presented with the full proposed budget, which is expected to happen next month, so aldermen could see how the pieces fit together into the overall picture.
But Wysocki said that, if the hiring was delayed, it is likely the city would lose the good candidate lined up for the job. And, since the new hire is actually a cost savings, the longer the city waits to bring that person on, the more it will have to pay since the work isn’t going away, she said.
Smith said she understood that cost savings are expected from the hire, but also that the savings were just estimates. Laesch pushed back against this, saying that the outside legal costs for work set to be covered by the new lawyer would actually be cut from the budget, making it a true replacement with savings.
Some costs related to outside attorneys would still be necessary, particularly for litigation, according to Wysocki. But, she said those costs were not factored into the numbers when calculating expected savings, as the savings only represent work previously done by outside attorneys that would now be done by the city’s new lawyer.
The mayor’s office will be allowing departments to hire for positions that are either “mission critical” or if the cost is offset by savings somewhere else, and this position hits both requirements, Laesch said.
While some aldermen spoke of wanting to delay the vote, others said that while they understood both sides, the city needs to look for savings.
“I always like to bring it down to the math,” Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, said at the meeting. “If the math makes us save money, let that math speak for itself. I really believe that.”
However, the city should revisit this in the future to make sure money really is being saved, he said.
City Council members voting in favor of hiring the candidate were Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward; Franco; Michael Saville, 6th Ward; Javier Banuelos, 7th Ward; Edward Bugg, 9th Ward; Keith Larson, at-large, and Will White, at-large. Voting against were Barreiro; Juany Garza, 2nd Ward; Jonathan Nunez, 4rd Ward; Smith; and Shweta Baid, 10th Ward.
With that vote, Michele Niermann was appointed as assistant corporation counsel III. She most recently has worked at Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd., but previously served in the civil division of the Kane County state’s attorney’s office, where she was chief for several years.
Baid said her constituents had questions about the position and hiring process, including whether or not the job was posted online.
Wysocki said it was not, and that she had reached out to a number of people she thought would be interested since she had a specific thing in mind. Specifically, she was looking for someone with experience in labor and employment law as well as with local governments, both of which are niche areas, plus she was looking for someone with a personality that would work well with those in various city departments, she said.