DuPage board given three choices for new water chief

When it came time to pick a new general manager, the DuPage Water Commission punted.

The commission is sending the DuPage County Board the names of three finalists and asking that body to decide who will lead the embattled agency in the future.

Part of a new law specifically aimed at the water commission requires the county board to approve the commission's choices for general manager. But the commission is going a step further by having the county board make the pick from the three names.

"What we want is consensus," said Larry Hartwig, a water commissioner and Addison's mayor. "We wanted to do this in a way that builds consensus and everyone is behind who is ultimately selected."

The additional hiring oversight of the board is part of recently ratified reform legislation that also requires the 13 commissioners to resign by the end of the year and elimination of a quarter-cent sales tax within five years. The legislation came on the heels of the commission's discovery that it had accidentally spent all of its $69 million reserve fund due to accounting errors.

The commission fired its financial administrator and forced the agency's longtime general manager to resign. In the wake of the financial mess, the commission spent another $2 million to get the agency solvent again and in a position to pay its bills.

Water commissioner and county board member Jim Zay said the commission sent the county board the three names, but commissioners noted who was their top pick.

"If they choose one of the others, the commissioners are going to want to talk to the board about that," Zay said. "We didn't want to snub the county board by sending them one name."

The commissioners interviewed six candidates for the post and then called back three finalists for a second interview Thursday. Their names were not disclosed.

County board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom said he hadn't received the list of finalists from the commission yet. He plans to impanel a committee made up of a few county board members and staff from the public works department to interview the finalists before making a recommendation to the full county board. He said he agreed with the commission's decision to send multiple names to the board.

"This is a staff position the state legislature went out of its way to say the county board should render their advice and consent on," Schillerstrom said. "I think it's very important the right person is hired."

The board may vote on the selection at its first meeting next month.