New Hawthorn Woods mayor speaks about his town, goals

Unlike many of the other new suburban mayors taking office this month, Hawthorn Woods' Joseph C. Mancino didn't have a tough election battle against a longtime incumbent or another political rival.

Mancino ran unopposed for the post. His predecessor, Keith Hunt, didn't seek re-election, and no other candidates were on the ballot.

Mancino, a business owner who's served on village committees, was sworn in May 2. He took time to talk to the Daily Herald in e-mail about the village and his goals for the mayor's office.

Q. What is your vision for Hawthorn Woods?

A. My vision for Hawthorn Woods is the same as most residents in our village. I would like to have a community-centered village, where all residents have a true, vested interest in our direction. I envision a spirit of cooperation in governance, pride in service for all volunteers, a continuation of our rural way of life with new development and gathering areas that are reflective of our residents. I envision Hawthorn Woods as a place where families want to live, learn and pray, and (one they) are proud to call home.

Q. What will be your first priority as mayor?

A. A tough question (with an) answer that seems to change often as I begin service. One of my first priorities would be to evaluate our government structure and organization, and begin to formulate a more businesslike approach to operations. Our village is basically a small business. Many of the components related to good business management have not been applied to our own government. I will be engaging the staff and village board to reorganize how we operate to make better use of our resources, our staff and our volunteers.

Q. What will be the first initiative, project or proposal you develop?

A. A thorough review of our communications. (I want) a new Web site, a new e-mail list serve for residents and potentially televised village board meetings. We will also be looking at our committee structure and activity and how their activities can be better communicated to the board. This will include new appointments to committees, a new set of commitments from those appointees and more interaction between committees and the village board.

Q. How do you think you can best serve the people of Hawthorn Woods?

A. By spending time interacting and communicating with the residents, learning their desires and reflecting those desires to our board and staff.

Q. Hawthorn Woods and many other villages in the area are in economic crisis, with layoffs and program cuts either enacted or looming. What needs to be done to stabilize the village's financial ship?

A. We will be approaching our village government as a small business. With all the layoffs of staff that occurred in 2007, the remaining staff has been burdened with duties that do not make best use of their skills. We also have not been utilizing best accounting standards in our finances. These two aspects combined, I believe, have hurt Hawthorn Woods financially during the downturn in our economy. We will be reviewing our organization with an eye toward best utilization of staff and their skills. We will be looking at restructuring staff to better reflect a business operation. We will also be writing and implementing a new policy and procedure manual for both operations and accounting, something that has been lacking in the village for some time. Our goal is to best utilize our current resources while trimming waste, standardize our accounting practices and finances, review our current assets for any potential revenue and bonding sources, and prepare our village operations for the certain bounce back of the economy.