Buffalo Grove mayor delays committee appointments after trustee complaints

Buffalo Grove Village President Beverly Sussman was forced to delay the appointment of new members to several village committees Monday after a village board member took issue with her methods.

Trustee Joanne Johnson said she and fellow board members did not receive background information about new appointees to panels such as the Buffalo Grove Days Committee, Health Commission, the Ethics Commission and the Rick Kahen Commission for Residents with Disabilities.

"We're going to be working with these people. These people are typically the boots on the ground for policy that we set," Johnson said.

Trustees Eric Smith and Gregory Pike joined Johnson in voting to postpone the appointments until next month. Trustees Andrew Stein and Lester Ottenheimer III voted against the delay, and Trustee David Weidenfeld was absent.

In the past, Johnson said, the village board has screened candidates by interviewing them or examining their biographies and applications.

"You're asking us to vote for people that we know nothing about" she said Monday. "They're just names on paper."

Sussman later said she will be sending the candidates' applications to board members.

She said that with some committee assignments, such as the planning and zoning commission and the board of fire and police commissioners, she sends resumes to the village board, and the trustee who serves as the liaison to that panel often interviews the applicant.

But for those who were under consideration Monday, the process is less extensive.

"I wasn't trying to usurp power in any way," she said. "I just felt that these people that were being put on the committees and commissions, there was no problem doing that."

In an internal memo issued this week, Sussman said she handled the process "incorrectly" and apologized.

"Trustee liaisons should have been contacted before any appointments were made," she wrote.