Former Lake in the Hills employee appointed to village board
Newly appointed Lake in the Hills Trustee Suzanne Artinghelli believes she brings "a unique perspective" to the previously all-male board.
"The biggest advantage to that is the diversity," said Artinghelli, 50, who has lived in the village 13 years and spent her adult career working for local municipalities. "You are not getting a collective voice. I'm pretty level headed. I think that it will be important as a woman to speak for my population of the village."
Village President Russ Ruzanski recently appointed Artinghelli to replace him on the board. She will serve the remaining two years of Ruzanski's trustee term.
Ruzanski said he interviewed five women and two men who applied for his seat. "Susan had a lot of experience," he added.
Lack of diversity on the village board was among the issues Ruzanski campaigned on when running for president. He criticized his predecessor, Paul Mulcahy, for appointing four middle-aged white men since his first term began in May 2013.
"If we're always getting the thoughts of one segment of the population and not including the other segment of the population ... I think that is absolutely where we should be right now," Ruzanski, 70, a retired sales manager for Coca-Cola Chicago who served as village trustee since 2011, said at the time.
Artinghelli is not the first woman to serve on the board.
Denise Barreto - the town's first black trustee elected in 2009 and 2013 - quit in July 2015, after serving six years, citing a lack of diversity in McHenry County.
Artinghelli was a police dispatcher and later a 911 dispatch supervisor for the village, where she worked nine years before her position was cut when the village consolidated with SEECOM (Southeast Emergency Communications) - a privately run consolidated emergency communications center in Crystal Lake that provides dispatching services for several local police and fire agencies. She was an appointed member of the McHenry County Emergency Telephone System Board for six years until her Lake in the Hills job ended.
She previously worked as a 911 dispatcher in Schaumburg for 15 years, and now works as a police records supervisor for the village of Carpentersville.
"I had such a good experience working for the village," said Artinghelli of her career with Lake in the Hills. "I wanted to continue to serve and help people in my own community."
Artinghelli said she plans to run for village trustee after her appointed term is up, and be at community events getting to know residents. "I really want to ... hear what they have to say, and gauge what their concerns are," she said.