Lake Zurich close to deal with new village admin

Lake Zurich is close to hiring its next village administrator, as the village board expects to finalize a contract in the next few weeks.

“We have made an offer,” said Trustee Dana Rzeznik, who declined to identify the candidate due to ongoing contract negotiations.

The hiring will fill the position of former village administrator Bob Vitas, who received an $85,000 cash payout as part of his separation agreement with the village in December 2011.

Trustee Tom Poynton said the board’s experience in that situation played a factor in the their administrator search.

“We were looking for something significantly different from we had,” Poynton said. He described their ideal candidate as a strong staff manager with excellent communication skills who would follow the directions of the board.

Other key abilities the board looked for in candidates, according to Trustee Rich Sustich, were budget planning skills and experience in economic development, as Lake Zurich tries to reach its stated goal of a balanced budget over the next several years.

Roy Witherow, the assistant administrator under Vitas, has served as interim village administrator since mid-January. He was part of a pool of about 40 applicants for the full-time position.

Applications for the position were made available on the village website and in several trade publications in November last year, after Vitas submitted his resignation letter to Village President Suzanne Branding. The board and Branding narrowed the field down to about five candidates and conducted interviews over the last two months, according to Rzeznik.

The trustees expect to finish the deal and introduce the new administrator within the next few weeks.

“Ideally, we’d like to have this person hit the ground running at our first meeting in May,” said Sustich.