Buffalo Grove welcomes new village manager
Buffalo Grove is bragging about its new village manager.
On Monday, the village board welcomed Dane Bragg as the successor to William Brimm.
Bragg's three-year contract calls for a base salary of $170,000.
His predecessor earned more than $168,000, although deferred compensation brought his basic compensation to $175,000. Brimm declined taking any raises for the last two years.
Bragg attended the meeting with his family. He said, however, he will be spending the next few weeks finishing up his duties as city manager in Galesburg.
His appointment received unanimous approval, with both Village President Elliott Hartstein and Trustee Lisa Stone singing his praises.
Bragg's selection culminated a 90-day process during which the village received more than 100 applications.
"There was one individual who quickly emerged on everyone's short list. and we are very, very lucky to have him with us tonight," Hartstein said. "Dane has a wealth of experience in many areas, which will allow him to provide strong leadership to our great staff and all our departments."
Stone said Bragg and Deputy Village Manager Ghida Neukirch were at the top of her short list.
Bragg, who spent the day casing out homes in the area, spoke briefly, saying, "It truly is an honor, and I look forward to working with all of you, as well as Ghida," whom he called "top notch."
After leaving the meeting, Bragg said he is prepared to deal with the heavy demands that attend the job of village manager in Buffalo Grove, where there has been wrangling between the board and Trustee Stone.
"I think that in any situation as a manager, whether it is downstate or the metro area or out west or the Midwest, you deal with those situations. And I think the best thing you can do is provide the information and communicate and try to meet the needs of all the board members."
When asked whether the city council in Galesburg was contentious, he said, "It could be at times. We always had different issues and different board members fall in different areas depending on the issue. And different board members have different requests or demands for information, and so you just try to meet those as best you can."
As for differences between Buffalo Grove and Galesburg, he said, "The biggest difference obviously is the suburban market, as opposed to a central city situation where I have been in Galesburg. "What's appealing to us is it's a great community, (with) great schools, a great park and recreation system. There is a lot of opportunity. That is what brought us here."
He said Galesburg has a larger total budget - about $71 million. "But a lot of that was focused on capital work. Our operating budget was around $21 million, so it was a similar size to Buffalo Grove."
Bragg has served as Galesburg's city manager since 2007. Before that, he served as assistant city manager for Decatur, for which he also served as director of economic and urban development. He has a bachelor of arts in urban planning from the University of Illinois and a master of business administration from Millikin University. He holds an advanced certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners.
While in Galesburg, Bragg restructured the city's budgeting process, resulting in a reduction in operating expenditures, a reduction in long-term liabilities and debt, and a budget that allowed the city to maintain services and achieve policy goals without increasing taxes, according to the Buffalo Grove website.
In addition, he implemented a Business Innovation Grant Program to increase retail business in the downtown. He also managed the preparation of a Downtown Revitalization Strategy and worked with state and federal legislators to secure more than $36 million in grants for railroad grade separation projects, as well as negotiating a $7 million line of credit for capital projects, and implementing the downtown TIF district and the downtown facade programs to promote new investment in the central business district.