The Village of St. Joseph will discuss moving forward with hiring a Village Administrator at Tuesday’s board meeting.
The board will meet at 7 p.m. Comments can be sent to tasmetzer@gmail.com with full name, phone number, and address in the email. Visitors are also welcome per Illinois Department of Public Health COVID-19 regulations.
This is the second time the board has discussed the potential of a Village Administrator in 2020. The conversation began in June.
The topic was explored in 2009 when the board of trustees went through the process of getting their ducks in a row, then working with Range Riders, a consulting group of retired city managers and administrators who help local municipalities hire an administrator.
The Village had resumes in hand when the board split 50/50 on the hire.
Village President Tami Fruhling-Voges said that she is in favor of the hire because, she feels the municipality should be run like a business.
“You have elected officials that sometimes are elected with a lot of knowledge on various different things, but not necessarily on how to run the village,” Fruhling-Voges said. “And so you have the way we are set up right now between committees and the mayor basically running the village. And that can work out for you from time to time. And maybe not so much from time to time.”
As a former trustee, Fruhling-Voges said that trustees and mayors with full-time jobs oftentimes do not have the time it takes to run a municipality, especially one that is looking for growth.
“There’s so much that doesn’t get done in a timely fashion,” she said. “You have people working part-time on projects. So everything seems to take that much longer to get accomplished. And it’s not as consistent as having someone doing the day-to-day functions as an administrator.”
The Village administrator’s responsibilities might be as wide as managing staff to staying on top of zoning issues, state mandates, grant writing, finances, budget and building relationships with the business community.
“The (staff) in the office are wonderful; they do an awesome job,” Fruhling-Voges said. But they’re busy doing the daily work they’re hired to do.”
Fruhling-Voges said that she oftentimes puts in more than 40 hours a week herself at $300 a month. While she gave up her job to do the work, Fruhling-Voges said that she is not interested in becoming the Village Administrator.
“I just want to be the mayor,” she said. “I was to be the one out amongst the public, advocating for the Village, read to the grade school kids and be accessible to the people.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m so busy doing the daily stuff that I’m not able to do the things that I think is important as a mayor.”
Fruhling-Voges said that the Village of St. Joseph might be farther along at this point in time had they hired an administrator in 2009.
“I can only imagine where we would be at by now,” she said. “So that’s why we’re having this discussion. I think we can make some improvements for the village and the residents.”
Broaching growth in the St. Joseph area comes with varying opinions, even within her own family. Her husband, for one, believes that the Village is good where it’s at right now. Fruhling-Voges said that there is also the thought that if a municipality isn’t growing, they’re dying.
“Pretty soon you’re going to fall behind on other things, too,” she said.
“I’ve always been one that advocates for responsible growth,” she said. “You don’t want to grow too fast and not have your infrastructure ready for it.”
According to Fruhling-Voges the St. Joseph school system is also looking to grow, having lost about two dozen students in recent years, according to the Illinois Report Card.
It is also her belief that hiring a Village Administrator will spur on economic development within the St. Joseph community.
But, of course, the Village will have to pay their future employee, should they decide to hire a Village administrator. Just like every other municipal employee, the administrator would be paid out of general funds.
“Sometimes you have to spend a little money to make money,” Fruhling-Voges said.
“But if you bring in an administrator who is efficient and knows what he’s doing, you could probably save money on attorney fees, maybe even some engineering fees.”
The Village discussion might include discussion on what type of qualifications and job experience the board wants the administrator to have. Fruhling-Voges said that having those parameters set up will help the Village be successful from the beginning of the process.
“I want to make sure that we do our homework and figure out exactly what it is that we want that we think would fit into the community,” she said.
She also said that the board might discuss whether or not the administrator would live in the community, giving them a little more “skin in the game.”
These discussions might take six months to a year prior to making a hire, she said.
