Sleepy Hollow looking for someone(s) to run

After the Feb. 24 election, which is a primary for township officials who run on partisan ballots, there will be an April election for local village officials who are nonpartisan.

As of Feb. 5, every village has enough or more than enough candidates running to fill all of the positions vacant except for Sleepy Hollow. We have one candidate for village president and two candidates for the three vacant village trustee positions.

This prompted me to do a little research about our neighboring communities. Every village but ours pays their officials. The village of Carpentersville's president is paid $1,000 per month and the trustees are paid $500 per month regardless of whether they attend the two meetings per month.

The village of East Dundee president is paid $100 per meeting attended and the trustees are paid $75 per meeting and $35 for Liquor Commission meetings.

The village of Gilberts has four meetings per month and its president is paid $120 per meeting and its trustees are paid $60.

Dundee Township board members are paid $135 per meeting which are held once or twice per month depending on need.

The village of West Dundee has three meetings per month and the village president and some of the trustees have opted to revert to their pre-raise salary.

"It's always difficult in tight financial times when the state starts pulling funding to localities that it usually provides," said West Dundee Village President Larry Keller. The $40 pre-raise salary was $110 for village president and $80 per trustee.

The village of Sleepy Hollow, long-noted for the wonderful volunteerism of its Service Club, also has a volunteer president and a volunteer board. They join the ranks of the presidents and boards of Community Unit School District 300, the Dundee Township Library and Dundee Township Park District in receiving no public money for their services and expertise.

Sleepy Hollow Village President Stephen Pickett is completing his second four-year term and is now running for a third.

"I like the village of Sleepy Hollow and I like public service," Pickett said. "I enjoy returning something to my community. The role of president depends on how much you want to take on."

As president, Pickett helped form the Metro-West Council of Government. It is an organization open to all mayors, village presidents and village managers of Kane, Kendall and DuPage counties. "We help each other out by keeping an eye on Springfield and Washington who keep creating unfunded mandates," he said. "At these meetings I can represent Sleepy Hollow and be aware of what is happening in our region."

He is also a member of the Metropolitan Mayors Council founded by Chicago Mayor Daley and this helps him find out what the Illinois Department of Transportation has in store for us out in the suburbs.

The village of Sleepy Hollow has six trustees, each responsible for a different aspect of our community. They are Todd Prigge, Public Buildings and Environmental; Donald Ziemba, Finance; Dennis Fidala, Building and Zoning Enforcement; Steve Wind, Police and Public Safety; Russell Getz, Parks, Roads and Streets; Scott Finney, Water and Sewer. Pickett says he likes to shift their roles around every few years so that they can get "a better perspective of the village."

There is one position Pickett says that he would not change and that is of Donald Ziemba, who is running for a third term as trustee this year. He is a CPA and "finance" is his thing. He takes this responsibility very seriously.

In future columns I will write about this year's other candidate, Russell Getz, and also the person who will be a write-in candidate.