At last Thursday's Village Board meeting, the chair of the Estates Property Owners' Association Vacancy Committee, Linda Wagner, and James Costello, who had been the president-elect for the Estates POA before resigning from the organization following the mayor's appointment of a new trustee from that section of the village, spoke about their discontent about the process under which the trustee was appointed.

Costello spoke at the previous Village Board meeting, at which the mayor appointed John Mauk, a candidate whose name had been submitted via petition, rather than Robert Rothschild, the Estates POA's recommendation to the mayor, and chose once again to make known his displeasure with the mayor's decision. Wagner, who had been unable to attend the May 4 meeting when Mauk was appointed, outlined the procedure that the Estates Vacancy Committee went through in recommending a candidate to the mayor.

Citing a desire for the board to pay more attention to the village's unique form of government and the POAs, Costello berated the use of petition in the appointment of a new trustee to replace Lawrence Kettner, who resigned from the board because he was moving away from the village. Costello called the use of petition, "a detriment of our unique form of government." He went on to note that although each of the trustees and the mayor were officially elected, in fact what happened was they were appointed by each of their POAs. "I think our POA system is a spectacular system, I think it is what makes us unique, I think it's what makes the panel in front of me unique, with the average tenure of over 20 years is that we don't have a new insurgent party coming in and wiping out everybody," said Costello. "If we want to go to a truly Democratic system, and we want to have the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and the Green Party and the White Party, so be it, let's do it that way but it only seems to serve some people's purpose when they can't do it through the Property Owners' Association."

Costello went on to explain that the Estates POA, like the other POAs in the village, has a 10-15 member board, which discusses issues ranging from where a stop sign is needed to larger issues, and then proceeds to make recommendations to the village board of trustees. "I think that's served us well, most of you sitting up there would not have engaged in a political fight for your seat, and I think we've had a better quality of people serve this village for a long, long time," said Costello. He then noted that if an insurgent candidate wanted to be added to the ballot, all it takes is 15 signatures. "So there is absolutely, positively room for discussion and debate."

Calling the appointment of the mayor, "a miscarriage of justice," Costello stated his belief that this was the first time a mayor turned down the recommendation of the POA with regard to the appointment of a trustee. He then asked the board to remember and consider the fact that, "This POA system has served us exceedingly well, it separates us and when you desecrate it we have a very, very hard time getting good, qualified people to spend the time that they have spent doing the work of the POAs."

Wagner called what she had read and heard about what took place at the previous meeting "troublesome" and went on to describe her side of the recommendation process. "I want to make it perfectly clear that the person, John Mauk, is not at issue. He is very qualified and I know he will serve well in the trustee position. It's the process I wish to comment on," stated Wagner. She went on to note that when the Estates POA received a letter from the mayor, requesting that the names and résumés of persons whom the Estates POA would recommend, the vacancy committee placed articles in each of the local newspapers soliciting candidates. She explained that when the cutoff date of March 22 was approaching and the committee was not receiving submissions, they contacted everyone whose name had been recommended to the board. This list of names included Mauk's. According to Wagner all those people declined.

Wagner stated that by March 22 the only two people who said they would consider the position were Costello and Rothschild and noted that Costello withdrew his name in support of Rothschild. Nine days later, according to Wagner, Mauk contacted her to say that he reconsidered and was interested in submitting his name for consideration. The vacancy committee agreed to interview him, as well as Rothschild and then presented both names to the Estates Board of Directors.

"The board voted to submit only Mr. Rothschild's name," said Wagner. "This, in part, was based on the fact that Rob has a deep history with our association, having served as a board member, vice president, president, served on village committees and has a broad spectrum of the knowledge of our village issues. We felt he also had the pulse of our association, as well as the village." She went on to note that historically, trustees have gone through the ranks of the POA boards, although that is not always the case. Mauk, said Wagner, though he has served the village well, has not had the depth of experience with the Estates POA and has declined to serve on the POA's board of directors. "When the board voted to submit only Mr. Rothschild's name, we did not think there would be an issue since our two recent past appointment recommendations had been only one after several people had been interviewed," stated Wagner.

The mayor immediately responded to the Estates' recommendation of Rothschild, said Wagner, requesting three names. "I contacted the mayor and advised him of what I've just relayed here, explaining that at no time did we ever have three names. I told him about Mr. Costello and Mr. Mauk and he was aware of our consideration of John. He requested to have Mr. Mauk's résumé forwarded, as John had been advising to the village on the village hall project and he wanted to see how his qualifications would fit in with upcoming village needs." Noting that she was only the messenger and the matter needed to be dealt with by the Estates board of directors, Wagner explained that the board chose once again to only submit the one name. "We felt it was inappropriate to be asked for a specific name when the mayor already knew of Mr. Mauk's qualifications and could appoint him or anyone else without a nod from our POA. A second letter was sent. Then came the petition, which no one denies the constitutional right to use as a vehicle as a process of government." Wagner stated that if the petition had been submitted to the board of directors during the selection process, or had the board heard from the over 240 people who had signed the petition, rather than it circumventing the POA and going directly to the mayor, the board would have been compelled to send both names to the mayor. Wagner described this as having, "made a mockery of the appointment process and the community agreement." Wagner concluded, "I personally am concerned that when a village government is driven by litigation, petition, inaction, that that's when people decline to be involved or stay involved."

Costello then directly questioned the mayor about whether or not he specifically requested Mauk's résumé. The mayor denied mentioning Mauk by name until the last conversation with Wagner, in which she told him that the board interviewed Mauk and he asked, "Why didn't you send his résumé then?" Mayor Hecken stated that he took issue with that accusation and concluded that the appointment was "yesterday's news."