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Rolling Meadows city manager gets 6% bonus one year into new job

A year into the job, Rolling Meadows City Manager Rob Sabo has been awarded a 6% bonus for completing and surpassing 30 key performance goals, aldermen decided this week.

Those goals included engaging in discussions with officials in neighboring Arlington Heights in preparation for the redevelopment of Arlington Park property and its impacts on Rolling Meadows. Sabo also was charged with decreasing the city's average processing time for residential and commercial permits by 35%, and facilitating other efficiencies in city services.

The 6% performance bonus, unanimously approved without debate by the city council Tuesday night, is slightly more than the maximum 5% raise aldermen said he'd be eligible for when they extended a job offer to him Nov. 30, 2021, but the size of the raise is ultimately the council's discretion.

That brings Sabo's annual base salary up to $180,200, from the starting salary of $170,000 when he began duties in the top administrative post on Jan. 4, 2022.

Sabo, then assistant city manager in Highland Park, took over at Rolling Meadows city hall after months of turmoil amid the firing, litigation and out-of-court settlement involving longtime previous City Manager Barry Krumstok.

The leadership reorganization under Sabo and Mayor Joe Gallo has continued over the past year, with the appointment of new finance and public works directors, a fire chief, and this week, an assistant city manager/community development director.

Glen Cole was named to the $141,000-a-year post by Sabo, who considered 58 applicants for the newly-created position. Cole was the assistant to the village administrator in Lake Bluff for the last six years, and a management analyst in Mission, Kansas before that.

Creating an assistant manager position was once considered controversial in Rolling Meadows because of its budgetary impact, but Sabo last year was able to convince the two remaining aldermen opposed to the concept because the new role would fill a vacant position in the city's budget.

Cole will not only be Sabo's right hand man on day-to-day city operations, but also will oversee the city's zoning and land use planning processes and projects, plus assist with economic development and revitalization efforts.

Community development functions had been operating as a division of the public works department.

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