Island Lake to offer interim police chief permanent job

By the narrowest of margins, the Island Lake village board voted Thursday night to draft a contract to offer the interim police chief a permanent position.

Trustees have battled over the issue since Mayor Tom Hyde appointed John Fellmann to the interim job in January after the board declined to renew Fellmann's one-year contract.

Now, an almost entirely new board split down the middle on offering him a permanent contract.

"I want to know how you feel," Trustee Fran Sadoski said to the board. "Whether (Fellmann) accepts (the contract) or not is a whole other story."

Sadoski and Trustees Donald Verciglio and John Ponio voted to approve drafting the contract. Trustees Deborah Herrmann, D.B. Saville and Richard Garling voted against the measure, but Hyde broke the tie in favor of it.

"As far as I'm concerned, the man can move on," Garling said before the vote.

Saville at one point requested the mayor sign an affidavit saying if the board gave Fellmann a contract Hyde would never again make an interim appointment.

"I don't even want to sign anything," Hyde responded. In the past, trustees voted to cut Fellmann's pay and benefits, saying they hoped it would discourage Hyde from pushing through the chief he wanted. The board recently voted against even more pay cuts for any interim chief.

"This gentleman has been working for Island Lake for a while," Ponio said. "I think he deserves the opportunity to have a contract or move on."

Herrmann said she was tired of the issue and felt it should be dropped.

"I don't want to talk about it at all," she said. "This shouldn't even be on the table."