Taxpayers deserve answers on departures Citizens should know what they're paying for with expensive contract buyouts

Let's start with this basic premise: Taxpayers deserve to know why they're paying Libertyville's administrator to leave.

And they're not just paying him a little bit. Taxpayers will have to come up with $107,141, plus the cost of family health and dental insurance for six months, for Chris Clark to stop working for them.

That includes $16,346 for 25 unused vacation days, all accrued during slightly more than one year on the job. Essentially, the payout is the same as what Clark would have made in 7½ months at the helm of the village administration.

Now, maybe Mayor Terry Weppler and the village board can give a good explanation for the costly breakup. But they haven't so far and don't seem inclined to, with Weppler saying "we've agreed to go our separate ways" and blaming legal advisers for counseling him not to disclose more.

It's a convenient excuse - one we hear a lot - but it gives far too much weight to the interests of the departing employee over everyone else and far too much comfort to those in government who might otherwise be faced with mea culpas for a hiring decision made 15 months ago.

Keeping the details about Clark's departure under wraps is a disservice to taxpayers who have to foot the bill, to village staff who might be left wondering where they stand, to other potential employers who will be equally in the dark and to Clark himself, who might be blameless.

Now comes word of four-year Vernon Hills manager and veteran village employee John Kalmar being asked to resign. Perhaps the reason and financial terms will be made public at a village board meeting today. We hope trustees in Vernon Hills do not follow Libertyville's lead in saying yes to a payout, but nothing more.

Such deals might be done in the business world, but what of that? Government, unlike private business, carries a mandate for openness and a duty for prudent use of the public's money. Though laws allow governments to draw a cloak around some discussions about personnel, they certainly don't set up the expectation of secrecy coupled with hefty payments.

In fact, we propose a new paradigm. How about requiring disclosure about the reasons for unexpected departures as a condition of any severance payouts?

Which brings us to the next step for Libertyville, which presumably will be hiring a new village administrator.

In 2016 the Libertyville board authorized paying up to $18,000 to consultant GovHR USA, which brought in 54 applicants. Clark, the five-year administrator of Cary and former assistant village manager in Glenview and Grayslake, got the job, which came with a $170,000-a-year salary and praise for Clark from Weppler and others.

What went wrong? How does Libertyville avoid going down the same road again? Will it write a contract with the new hire that results in nondisclosure and payouts if the relationship goes south?

All great questions, for which taxpayers deserve answers.