The following is the transcript of the comments of Sherry Craig at the February 21st, 2008 Hanover Park Village Board meeting. These comments address the elimination of the Collector position, which she has held for 23 years.
“I’ve been here in May, I will be here 23 years. And I ran with Sonya Crawshaw when she ran for Mayor. She came and asked me to run for Clerk. I had a career at the time, and I was told that the Clerk/Collector were one and the same. I’ve made decisions for the residents of this community, for the businessmen of the community, who I consider as family, as well as my family. Every four years when I re-ran for election, the Collector position was part of the Clerk position that paid my salary and my decision was made on that basis. I believe that the residents in this community are the heart of the Village of Hanover Park and the business men in this community are the soul of the Village of Hanover Park. I have enjoyed working with each and every one of them. I was very disappointed with the way this came down. We have had budget retreats and Mr. Bakes, we have eliminated positions over the 23 years that I have been here, and we’ve added many positions over the 23 years that I’ve been here. And last year when we eliminated, it was a code enforcement officer. If you all remember, I vehemently spoke against eliminating that position. We had come a long way to clean up areas in our community. I understand if you want to eliminate the position of Collector. I ask you that if you want to eliminate the position that you eliminate it at the end of the collection of the term of the Village Clerk so that anyone who would go into an election would know what they are running and what they are up against. The residents who are voting for that person would know what they are going to get by that position. Mr. Manton, someone told me that you had said I could apply for another position in the Village. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I wish to tell you that by State law, the only position that I can hold is the position of Collector. The position of Collector was set by State statute that an elected official could hold in a municipal government the position of Collector as a full-time position. People on the Board have said that they don’t know what I do. I guess I have a hard time understanding that comment because you’ve all been with me for many years, you’ve seen what I do. I’m not a supervisor who sits at a desk behind a computer. If I’m sitting at a desk behind a computer, it’s before 8:00 in the morning, or way after 8:00 at night. I’m a working supervisor; I work wherever I’m needed. If the counter is busy, I work at the counter; if there are business licenses to be issued, I’m working with those people; if the water turn-offs are heavy and I have to answer phones, I’m the last dog hung when you see me sitting at the switchboard. I’ve worked that position many times. Over the years there have been times when we’ve had horrendous weather, where a snow plow driver has picked me up in my driveway and brought me here so that I could open the switchboard so that I could answer calls from residents.
On Tuesday, just to give you an example, 580 people walked into my office to pay their water bills; 168 people over the weekend put their payments in the drop box; 416 people paid their bill by mail - all on Tuesday. I have 3 people that work in Collections, that handle phones, the counter, and over the years you have given us more to do and we’ve handled it. From the time a police officer writes a ticket, the ticket comes to my office, all the data entry is done in the Collections Department, the collections of the monies are done in the Collections Department, court dates are set in the Collections Department. When you implemented the transfer tax, that all fell into the Collections Department. Those documents are processed in my department, they’re given to attorneys and realtors and residents to record out of my department, and they come back from the county through my department. When you enacted a vehicle immobilization policy, all of those dollars come through my department, all of the paperwork comes through my department, all of the spreadsheets are done in my department. There’s a Hearing Officer twice a month, all of those documents come through my department, both before the hearing and after the hearing. It’s a very busy department, extremely.
When you enacted nice things, such as the Maxwell Street West twice a year, and the Harvest Fest, all of that was handled through the Collections Department. And as you know, Trustee Manton, you spent many hours helping me reconcile cash drawers, count money, and make deposits. There was no money expended to pay people to do that. I have never charged the Village any comp time, any overtime, ever, in the 23 years that I have been here.
So I guess I was very disappointed when it wasn’t part of the budget discussions. It’s always come through Mr. Hummel and his budget team when there were situations or when there were employees or positions that needed to be rearranged. I was disappointed that there was no discussion at the budget retreats. I was disappointed to see that it was just a direction that was given for a vote to be taken at the next meeting. And personally, in my opinion, that was very vindictive, not only to the position that you want to eliminate, but to me as a person, personally. I ask that if you wish to get rid of the position that you do so at the end of the Village Clerk’s term, which would be April 30, 2009, so that everybody who would run in the next election for the position of Village Clerk would be on an even playing field and the residents and the business men in this community would know what they were dealing with. And I thank you very much for your time.”
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President Craig asked if there was any discussion from the Board. There was none. Roll call:
AYES: Packham, Eby, Manton, Kaiser
NAYS: Nicolosi, Carter
ABSENT: None
Motion carried – Deleting the Position of Village Collector in the Village of Hanover Park
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