Under mayor and new manager, leadership changes continue at Rolling Meadows City Hall
The leadership reorganization at Rolling Meadows City Hall under Mayor Joe Gallo and City Manager Rob Sabo continued Tuesday with the swearing in of a new fire chief, which followed the recent appointment of a new public works director.
The city council Tuesday night also voted to create an assistant city manager position - at one time thought to be a costly and controversial proposition.
Family, friends and fellow firefighters crowded into the council chambers for the ceremonial oath of office recitation by Fire Chief Pete Sutter, a 21-year member of the city's fire department who worked his way up from firefighter/paramedic, lieutenant, battalion chief and deputy chief. Sutter formally began his appointment to the $167,706-a-year position after the Aug. 12 retirement of Jeff Moxley, who spent more than three decades with the department.
That followed the Aug. 8 hiring of Aaron Grosskopf as public works director, after Rob Horne resigned in April to become assistant director in neighboring Arlington Heights. Grosskopf, who was recently public works director in Gilberts, started his career as a summer laborer with Oswego Township during high school, later became the township's operations manager/safety coordinator, and then street superintendent in Woodstock. He's being paid $146,000-a-year in Rolling Meadows.
Sabo took the helm of day-to-day city operations in January after aldermen ousted longtime city employee Barry Krumstok over of a lack of alignment with their vision and other issues. Sabo's first hire in May was Finance Director Molly Talkington.
Sabo's last major hire will be his No. 2 - a combined assistant city manager/community development director. Aldermen preliminarily agreed to establish the position in city code with their unanimous first reading vote Tuesday, with a second reading to follow Sept. 13 and recruitment and hiring by the end of the year.
As assistant manager, the new hire would develop near- and long-term vision and goals for the city, oversee implementation of sustainability initiatives, prepare contracts and ordinances, and perform some human resource functions, Sabo said.
In the dual role, the person would oversee the city's zoning and land use planning processes and projects, plus assist with economic development and revitalization efforts, Sabo said. Community development functions have been operating as a division of the public works department under Assistant Public Works Director Jo Ellen Charlton, and formerly Horne and his predecessor Fred Vogt.
"Given that we do anticipate some added traffic coming to our area and are already planning for how that is going to impact us, this position will be certainly involved in evaluating the different components that come with economic development," Sabo said in reference to the proposed Chicago Bears redevelopment at nearby Arlington Park.
Because the new role would fill a currently vacant position in the city's budget - resulting in no budget, fee or tax increase, Sabo said - that was enough to get two aldermen initially opposed to the concept - Kevin O'Brien and Jon Bisesi - on board.
Alderman Nick Budmats has been a proponent of the assistant manager position for far longer.
"We've been waiting for this, and it's what the city's been needing for a long time," Budmats said. "This is exactly what we need to move forward and have a sustainable plan in the unlikely event that something were to happen to (Sabo) and that there's an orderly transition. Because the last orderly transition wasn't so orderly, and it was very difficult for the people who had to assume those roles."