Former Hoffman Estates manager to help search for next one
Hoffman Estates' last village manager, Peter Burchard, has been hired to start the search for his successor's successor.
Burchard had served the village for 16 years — the last 10 as manager — before moving on to the job of Naperville city manager for another decade. He now runs a consulting firm.
The Hoffman Estates village board this week hired Burchard at $6,000 for the first 40 hours of work to help locate and assess candidates to replace current Village Manager Jim Norris, who last week announced he will retire in early November after 22 years on the job. He has been the village's longest-serving manager.
The first step in the search process is expected to be village board members speaking individually with Burchard about what characteristics they'd like to see in a new village manager and what their expectations are for the search process.
“He thinks we'll get good candidates, and he thinks it can be done relatively quickly, but it's very hard to actually say how quickly in many ways,” Mayor Bill McLeod told trustees at Monday's meeting.
Nevertheless, McLeod doesn't anticipate an overlap of more than a few weeks — if any — with the end of Norris' tenure.
The cost of the search is expected to be reduced by having the village handle much of the paperwork involved rather Burchard or a staff of his own doing it, McLeod added.