DuPage forest preserve to cut 8 administrative jobs

Eight administrative posts will be eliminated as part of a restructuring plan at the DuPage Forest Preserve District that's projected to save about $1.5 million a year.

Forest preserve commissioners Tuesday approved an organizational chart that will be implemented over the next three months. They say the changes will increase efficiency and reduce costs.

"It's a complete reorganization," commission President D. "Dewey" Pierotti said. "It's going to streamline the total operation of the forest preserve."

The district now operates with 12 directors and two deputy directors who all answer to an executive director.

Under the new structure, the executive director will have just six directors overseeing the agency. The six other director spots and both deputy posts will be gone.

"We're basically going to empower the staff underneath the directors more than we have in the past," Finance Director Jack Hogan said.

Hogan, for example, will become director of administration and finance. In that role, he will oversee the finance, human resources, information technology and administrative services departments.

Commissioner Shannon Burns said this is a good time to streamline the district's command structure.

"The old organization fit who we were 10 years ago," Burns said. "But the times have changed, and our needs have changed."

The reorganization will call for some employees to be demoted and given new job titles. But most of the changes are possible because dozens of longtime employees are expected to retire early after the district adopted an early retirement incentive program through the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.

The program allows eligible employees who are at least 50 years old and have at least 20 years of service credit with IMRF to purchase up to five years of additional credit before retiring.

Of the more than 300 people employed by the district, about 65 are eligible for the program. So far, more than 40 have agreed to participate.

In addition to the cost savings, officials say the early retirement program will have a positive impact on morale because remaining workers may see opportunities for career development and advancement.

"It's going to help the younger ones move up," Commissioner Marsha Murphy said.

Employee morale is one reason why the board didn't want to wait to implement the restructuring, even though the district has been operating since early September without an executive director.

In August, the district announced the departure of former executive director Arnie Biondo and named John Lapinski to replace him.

But Lapinski, who is the trial court administrator for DuPage County's chief judge, since has decided not to take the forest preserve job because of a longer-than-expected recovery from a medical issue.

Commissioners, who voted three separate times to hire Lapinski before discovering he couldn't take the job, have yet to develop a plan to search for an executive director.

"We don't know how long it's going to take to get an executive director," Murphy said.

Initial work on the restructuring plan began in the spring and significant progress on the final draft came over the past two months.

Burns said it didn't make sense to keep staff members waiting and wondering what the reorganization would involve. "We should have been moving on this a long time ago," she said.

Commissioner Linda Painter said acting now is the right thing to do for staff morale.

"It's unfair to people to leave them dangling," Painter said. "We needed to make a decision and move forward."