Leadership shifts in Lombard as Ware becomes acting president
It’s time for another change of leadership in Lombard.
Trustee Bill Ware takes over the acting village president role Thursday from Trustee Peter Breen, whose shift filling the seat vacated by the death of longtime Village President William J. “Bill” Mueller is up.
Breen served the first half of the remainder of Mueller’s term beginning Oct. 2, when the board settled on how to temporarily fill the seat.
Ware will be acting village president until May 2, when a new leader elected April 9 will take office.
It took trustees more than a month to decide how to fill the leadership void left when Mueller, 76, died Aug. 18 of complications of West Nile virus.
They divided into two voting blocs, deadlocked on votes on a handful of nominations to succeed Mueller, and were stalled when trustees Keith Giagnorio, Greg Gron and Bill Ware walked out of a meeting before they were able to come to consensus.
Splitting the time between Breen, a member of one faction, and Ware, a member of the other, was the only way trustees were able to compromise and choose temporary leadership. Both said they would not run for the seat in April and pledged not to exercise a legal right to name himself village president permanently.
Ware will be sworn in during a village board meeting at 7:30 Thursday night at village hall, 255 E. Wilson Ave. He will lead until voters can select the Lilac Village’s next president in the April 9 election from candidates Giagnorio, Moon Khan and John Lotus Novak.