Wheeling parks official asked to resign over Wickes land flap

A Wheeling Park District commissioner has been asked to resign by his fellow commissioners over a conflict within the board regarding the vacant Wickes property.

Mike Kurgan said another board member, whom he did not want to name, approached him on behalf of the rest of the board last month and asked him to step down.

Kurgan, however, said Thursday he has no intention of resigning and that no one has since repeated the request.

Board President Tom Webber confirmed Thursday that the rest of the commissioners discussed the issue and decided the best action was to ask Kurgan to resign.

"Because of the situation and the way everything played out, it was a very reasonable request," he said.

The conflict started in March, when the park board discussed the Wickes property in executive session.

The district was pursuing information on the sale of the property. Kurgan, who is a real estate broker, has ties to Sam Kabbani, a developer who works in the same building as Kurgan.

Kurgan is not partners with Kabbani, but the two have done business before.

Kabbani confirmed that he had looked into the Wickes property with Kurgan's help, but said he makes inquiries into a lot of open lots in town to see if they are viable for a development.

Webber contends that Kurgan didn't leave the closed meeting-- where the board talked about Wickes -- fast enough when he knew he had a conflict of interest.

Kurgan, however, said he left the meeting soon after he understood they were talking about Wickes, and didn't hear any details that he could have passed to Kabbani--such as if there were going to be an offer made by the park district or what the intended use would be.

However, Webber said some days later Kurgan took Kabbani to see a few people that the park district was interested in talking to, and that information could have been gained only through the executive session.

"(Asking him to resign) was to protect him as much as anything," Webber said. "If it kept going in the wrong direction, his livelihood could be affected."

Kurgan said he doesn't know what Webber is referring to and said Webber has been using innuendo to make personal attacks.

"Since I left the room I don't have a clue what's going on with this property," Kurgan said.

Kurgan also alleges that park district Executive Director Jan Buchs approached him in January, suggesting he talk to Kabbani about pursuing a development on the Wickes site for the good of Wheeling.

In the closed session, Kurgan said he first thought they were talking about Wickes in general. But when he realized the park board was interested in acquiring the property itself, he was flabbergasted.

"I was caught off guard," he said. "I would never, ever jeopardize my real estate license."

Buchs, meanwhile, denied she ever spoke to Kurgan about the Wickes site or Kabbani.

In April, the park board -- minus Kurgan -- met in executive session again and discussed Kurgan.

This was unknown to him at the time. He said he thought the session was just about Buchs' annual evaluation, and when that was completed, he left the building.

The rest of the board stayed behind and discussed Kurgan, eventually agreeing to ask him to leave the board.

Kurgan said he later listened to a recording of that discussion and became incensed.

"They can't have a meeting about me; I'm not personnel," Kurgan said. "I'm taking this as a personal attack."