Rolling Meadows council reverses vote on chairman choice

The Rolling Meadows City Council Tuesday overturned a previous vote and approved the reappointment of Glenn Gercken as chairman of the Plan Commission.

At the April 22 meeting the council voted 4-3 against the reappointment.

Mayor Tom Rooney, obviously taken by surprise that night, asked for a motion to reconsider and called for an executive session on the matter Tuesday.

When the council voted again after the closed session, Aldermen Brad Judd of the 4th Ward and Mike Cannon of the 1st Ward still voted no. Aldermen Robert Banger Jr. of the 5h Ward and Jim Larsen of the 7th Ward changed their votes. Aldermen Len Prejna of the 2nd Ward, Laura Majikes of the 3rd Ward and John D'Astice of the 6th Ward voted in favor of Gercken both times.

Gercken, who has been on the plan commission at least 20 years, said after the meeting that he enjoys serving Rolling Meadows and will continue on the commission as long as the council wants him to.

"You get to see potential developments before they happen," said Gercken. "We have a lot of good discussions and put in changes that protect the health and safety of the community." Banger said after the meeting that Gercken is doing a good job on the plan commission, but "it just felt so good to vote no."

He was irritated with Gercken's remarks at informational meetings held to discuss the fire department's proposal to move the two fire stations. After the informational meetings the council went on record 4-3 approving the plan.

"I don't think question-and-answer sessions are the place to repeat your opinions over and over again," said Banger. "And some of the things Glenn said sounded out of touch with reality."

Rooney said keeping a commissioner's comments on city issues separate from his work on the panel is important "to respect his rights as a private citizen. Sometimes other folks feel that some of the ways commissioners express things on issues might signal that they might not be as careful when they're commissioners."

Rooney said a similar situation happened a few years ago early in his term as mayor, which started in 2011.

At that time the city council voted against Prejna's reappointment to the Fire and Police Commission. Prejna had been publicly critical when the council rejected a grant to build a third fire station because aldermen did not think the city could afford its share of the costs or additional staffing. Prejna then ran for the council in 2013 and was elected.