Chicago Executive Airport chairman to leave

Kevin Dohm's successor as chairman of the board running the Chicago Executive Airport will likely be less of a front man and more of a sideman, if the statements of Wheeling officials are any indication.

Dohm announced his resignation in a letter last week to Prospect Heights Mayor Rodney Pace, who also announced his resignation last week.

Dohm's resignation had been demanded by David Kolssak, one of the airport board members from Wheeling. The board is composed of representatives from Wheeling and Prospect Heights, the two towns governing the airport.

Kolssak and Wheeling officials had said they were concerned that Dohm had stepped beyond his role as outlined by the Intergovernmental Agreement on the airport forged between the towns.

They were particularly concerned over the hiring of an airport consultant, John P. Kennedy of Airport Corp. of America. Officials questioned whether Dohm had the authority to hire Kennedy without approval from the board.

"Do I feel vindicated? Not really," Kolssak said this week. "Do I think it's the best thing for the airport? Absolutely.

"He was overstepping his boundaries. He was creating a situation where he was almost like the airport manager."

Kolssak said Dohm was making deals, courting businesses and hiring consulting organizations at a cost of thousands of dollars per year without the knowledge of the board.

"We still don't know what this consultant was paid to do," he said.

Things will be different with the next chairman, Kolssak said, adding the new chairman will be a consensus builder that will work closely with the board.

Wheeling Acting Village President Judy Abruscato sounded a similar strain. She said it is important to find someone who will follow the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Agreement.

Pace, who was in Dohm's corner throughout the controversy, said Dohm did a wonderful job as chairman.

"He gave a leadership quality to the board," Pace said. "He was very knowledgeable about aeronautics and the way an airport should be run. We were very lucky for the time we had him."

Pace said Dohm likely ran into trouble because he saw things that needed to get done and weren't, so he did them.

"Obviously, some people didn't approve that," he said.

But he said those issues could have been resolved by having a meeting.

"To get beat up in the press and by Wheeling the way he did, I didn't think that was warranted. A meeting (laying out the ground rules) would have been sufficient."

Dohm, who was unavailable for comment, saw himself as a victim of the crossfire between Wheeling and Prospect Heights.

In Dohm's letter, dated Sept. 13, Dohm said he accepted the job two years ago "with a great deal of personal trepidation for I was painfully aware of the acerbic relationship between the airport's custodial partners, Prospect Heights and Wheeling."

He said the airport has languished because of the inability of the partners to find common ground.

Over the past two years, he said, it became clear that the intergovernmental agreement "was woefully lacking in substance and did not achieve its original goals."

He referred to the "pettiness" and "mistrust" of Wheeling and its "misinformed" officials.

"I must have misunderstood my responsibilities as outlined in the IGA. I always put the needs of the airport first followed by the desires of the two municipalities."