After some dissent, Villa Park makes police chief its new manager

Villa Park’s police chief is now the village’s manager, but not every trustee agreed with the move.

The village board voted at a special meeting Wednesday to make Michael Rivas the new manager, replacing Matthew Harline.

Harline had served as the village manager since June 2022. His contract expired May 12, the day new Village President Kevin Patrick was sworn in. The board voted to not renew Harline’s contract.

Trustee Deepasriya Kumar voted “no” on both items. She said she did not have anything against Rivas but did not like the way the matter was done. She said nobody had consulted her before the meeting but that it seemed other trustees had been.

Patrick said the previous village board had discussed Harline’s contract and performance in closed-door sessions several times in recent months.

Trustee Jorge Cordova, who voted against letting Harline go, also said he believed trustees had discussed the matter individually with Patrick in what he described as a “serial meeting.” He questioned whether doing so may have violated the Open Meetings Act.

Cordova ran against Patrick for president.

In introducing the motion to make Rivas the manager, Patrick said the village needs “renewed leadership” for a “failed development” at the Metra train station and a “stalled” development on Villa Avenue. He also said that a finalized copy of the current budget has not been available for several months.

In a candidate questionnaire the Daily Herald published before the April 1 election, Patrick wrote that Harline had made the budget process “more participatory” and that Harline showed forward thinking and the ability to unify staff that would be “extremely beneficial.”

“The process was never transparent to me,” Kumar said, adding she would have preferred to have Rivas have a temporary or probationary role as manager.

She asked the trustees to explain why they favored letting Hartline go. None answered after Patrick suggested they should respect the privacy and confidentiality of Hartline and Rivas.

Rivas was a candidate for the manager position in 2022, Kumar said.

He worked for the Wood Dale police department for 29 years, then as chief in Sleepy Hollow. He became Villa Park’s chief in 2021.

Rivas has a master’s degree in public administration.

“It is up to me to build your trust and up to me to build your confidence in my management of this great village,” Rivas said, addressing critics of the matter who spoke at the meeting and on social media.