Pingree Grove makes offer to hire new communications manager

The village of Pingree Grove is hiring a new communications manager after parting ways with the woman who previously held the job and fought hard to keep from getting fired.

Former communications manager Paula Eaton said she signed a separation agreement with the village last week.

The parting was a mutual decision, Eaton said, declining further comment.

The village board voted Thursday night to make a conditional offer of employment to an unnamed candidate for the position, which was renamed "office and communications administrator," with a salary not to exceed $50,000. Trustees Ray LaMarca and Nick Campbell were absent.

Village officials declined to say which candidate they picked out of six who applied for the job.

Eaton had maintained that the board's intention to fire her, after she was asked to resign, was politically motivated, because she had supported former Village President Greg Marston in the April election won by Village President Steve Wiedmeyer. Wiedmeyer denied that the board's intention was politically motivated. After Eaton argued her case publicly, board members decided instead to implement a performance plan for her in late July.

Eaton's separation agreement was approved by the village board Aug. 17. A job description for the newly renamed position was posted on the village's website Aug. 18 through Aug. 21 and also publicized with the help of Metro West Council of Government, Finance Director Tom Walter said.

The village received six resumes, including one from a candidate who had already been interviewed by the village board in July, Walter said.

"The candidate that was interviewed back in July had to reapply pursuant to our posting," he said.

The applicants were narrowed down to two finalists, one of whom was the July candidate, Walter said. The village board interviewed the second candidate Thursday night before making its decision.

The offer of employment is conditional upon factors including background and drug screenings, Village Attorney Dean Frieders said. The office and communications administrator might also be appointed village clerk in the future, Walter said.

Eaton declined to disclose the terms of her separation agreement. The Daily Herald submitted Tuesday a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of the agreement from the village, which Frieders said the village will respond to "as soon as we can."