Mt. Prospect hires consultant to help planning process

Mount Prospect leaders will hold a pair of meetings in coming weeks to identify a new list of strategic goals for the village.

As part of the process, the village has hired a professional facilitator to, in the words of Mayor Arlene Juracek, help yield an “actionable strategic plan.”

The village board this month agreed to hire Lynn Montei, former executive director of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Association, at an estimated maximum cost of $15,400.

Several trustees were a little taken aback by the cost.

“I am shocked by the sticker price,” said Trustee John Matuszak.

But only one trustee, Paul Hoefert, voted against the hire.

Hoefert said he is in favor of strategic planning, but is concerned at the expense, especially considering that the village also will have to reimburse Montei for mileage.

“It blows my mind when you pay someone $15,000 to do this and then they actually charge us 50 cents a mile,” he said.

However, most trustees agreed with Juracek that it will help to get an outside perspective.

Trustee Michael Zadel said past strategic planning sessions “have never really come up with what I consider to be a comprehensive strategic plan. I feel that the time has come to take an objective view.”

“We as a board need to make sure that we’re providing direction to staff, as opposed to the other way around,” he added. “This is a tremendous opportunity to do that.”

Although Trustee A. John Korn voted with the majority, he expressed reservations on the basis of prior experiences with outside consultants.

“I was less than thrilled with some of the reports and some of the input,” he said. “However, I will ... keep an open mind on this.”

Juracek said Montei comes highly recommended by Assistant Village Manager David Strahl. She said she is familiar with Montei’s work with the DuPage County organization, with which Juracek had extensive contact during the creation of electricity deregulation legislation.