Longtime Elk Grove Trustee Czarnik plans to step down next month
Involved in nearly every facet of village government for 32 years - from helping run the annual Hometown Parade to establishing the community healthy nurse position - Elk Grove Village Trustee Nancy Czarnik said she plans to step down from her elected position next month.
Currently the longest-serving trustee, Czarnik was appointed to fill an opening on the village board in November 1989, then went on to win election and reelection eight times, often as the top vote-getter.
Czarnik has served with three mayors, 11 fellow trustees and three village managers. And she's attended 649 village board meetings, adopted 1,859 ordinances and 1,989 resolutions.
After all that, she says it's time to hang it up.
"Time to get some new ideas and new blood," Czarnik said at a recent village board meeting as she fought back tears.
"It's time to step back and devote my time to my family and to enjoy traveling without time constraints," she said. "It's been my highest honor and deepest privilege to have served this exceptional community, and to work with all these marvelous boards, personnel, managers, chiefs, administration, public works, fire, police - everyone."
Czarnik, an Elk Grove resident since 1968, first got involved in village government on the plan commission in April 1989. But then-Mayor Charles Zettek, looking for a west-side resident with a business mindset, soon appointed her to the village board.
Czarnik was a bank loan officer, and her husband, Frank, for whom an annual college scholarship is named, was a longtime youth sports coach and Elk Grove Park District board commissioner.
Over the course of more than three decades on the village board, Czarnik has served on nearly every committee. As a member of the parade committee, she helped establish the Hometown Parade in 1997 as a feature that could complement Rotary Fest.
She co-chaired other village festivities, including the 40th- and 50th-anniversary celebrations.
Today, she serves as deputy mayor and is chair of the capital improvements committee and Business Leaders Forum.
Mayor Craig Johnson said he plans to appoint Tammy Miller to fill the remainder of Czarnik's term, which ends in April 2023. The village board will vote on the appointment at Czarnik's last meeting, Nov. 16.
Miller worked for the park district from 2000 to 2019, holding roles including director of leisure services, and facility manager of the Hattendorf Center, farmhouse museum and skate park. Before she and her husband relocated to Elk Grove in 2000, Miller was an educator and coach in the Omaha (Nebraska) Public Schools for nearly two decades.
She currently works part time for That's Caring, a gift basket company, and volunteers with the Community Character Coalition and Prince of Peace United Methodist Church.
Johnson said he nominated Miller because of her government experience and glowing reviews from park district officials and others he talked to.
If approved to the position by the village board, Miller plans to run for election in 2023.