Elburn president candidates promise more openness

The three men running to be Elburn's president all say the winner needs to include the village board in more of his decisions.

"There needs to be a lot of change," candidate Christopher Mondi said.

"We need to see a lot of changes around communication from the mayor's seat," Trustee Jeff Walter said.

Walter has been a trustee since 2009. Opponent David Gualdoni is in his sixth year as trustee. This is Mondi's first run for public office.

Mondi worked for the village for three years, and Gualdoni for 10. Gualdoni now works in Geneva's public works department, and Mondi works for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Walter is a delivery director for OptumCare.

Village President David Anderson is not seeking re-election. He has been president since 2009.

Problems between the village board and Anderson flared in early 2016, when Anderson wanted the board to pay the village administrator to leave several months before her appointment expired. He said he wanted to reappoint Erin Willrett but knew the village board wouldn't support it.

Village presidents appoint administrators and department managers with the "advice and consent" of the village board, usually a perfunctory vote. But the board refused, and Willrett left at the end of the appointment.

John Nevenhoven, director of public works, was appointed administrator in October. But in January, when Anderson tried to appoint a new public works director, the board again protested, with some saying the job should remain vacant until a new president takes office in May. Some trustees complained they hadn't been told anything about the candidate's background or information about other applicants.

Gualdoni has long complained about such votes. "The board needs more input when we select these managers instead of a dictator style when we fill these positions," he said.

"Sometimes we didn't get to hear everything that is going on that the board needs to make good decisions," Walter said.

Mondi says the village has been mismanaged. He's particularly critical of the public works department, saying employees have not been well-supervised. And he thinks the village is small enough that some administrative positions, such as administrator and finance director, could be combined to save money.

He said the public works director should have a commercial driver's license and certifications to operate the village's water- and sewage-treatment plants so they can fill in when needed and that the public works foreman should also be a crew leader. Those moves would save money, he said.

"The way this town is run, it is getting worse as the years go on, with the way of services, the cost of sewer and water bills, everything else," he said. Mondi also wants the village to revamp its website and use social media more.

"We're not that small-town village anymore," Gualdoni said. He wants more formalized plans for public works, including a written snow-and-ice-control plan and routine schedules for tasks such as cleaning downtown streets and sidewalks. "Sometimes they clean up the downtown, sometimes they don't," he said.

"One of the big things that we don't do very well is economic development," Walter said. Instead of combining positions, he wants to get back to the original plan of having the administrator devote more time to trying to attract businesses.