Darien Agencies Want Smoother Relations

DARIEN, IL – Leaders from Darien and the Darien Park District are meeting next month to build a better relationship, officials said.

The two agencies have suffered a rocky relationship at times.

At Monday's City Council meeting, Mayor Joseph Marchese said the council and the park district board plan to hold a joint meeting in June. No agenda or time for the meeting has been released yet.

He said a professional facilitator is being hired for the meeting, who he said could ask tough questions of both sides.

"It's really important that we have an agenda that gets to the nuts and bolts of things," he said.

At a council meeting earlier this month, the mayor said the goal was to build a stronger working relationship with the district. He said the two entities would develop core values, identify common interests and find ways to work together.

The facilitator would collect the data and produce a report, Marchese said.

He said the meeting would allow the two boards to talk face to face. As such, the mayor said he, the city administrator and the district's executive director would not attend.

Last fall, park district officials took exception to criticism of the park district in documents related to the city's strategic plan.

At a council meeting last June, Darien officials expressed their frustration with the park district in the city's effort to move events such as Darien Fest to the parks.

They contended the district was placing unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles in the way of an agreement.

The tide turned in August, with Darien Fest held at the district's Westwood Park.

In 2020, the park district stopped letting the now-defunct Darien Chamber of Commerce, which had ties to the city, hold Darien Fest at Community Park. It resulted from a dispute over damage from the previous year's fest.

The city and the park district are separate public bodies, with their own elected boards.

Marchese does have one major link to the park district. His wife, Cathy Marchese, has served on the park board for more than a decade.