Orland Park Village Manager A Finalist For Wisconsin Spot

ORLAND PARK, IL — Orland Park's Village Manager is among several finalists for a city manager spot in a Wisconsin suburb.

George Koczwara, who was hired to the Orland Park role in 2019, is one of four up for city manager of Janesville, Wisconsin, reports radio station WCLO.

The station reports the other candidates as Scott Feldt, county administration of Kewaunee County in Wisconsin, Kevin Lahner, city administration in Waueksha, and Todd Wolf, former city administrator of Sheboygan, both in Wisconsin.

The candidates will be put through a series of interviews and selection activities March 2 and 3, as well as a community reception with the finalists on March 2 at the Rotary Botanical Gardens, the station reports. The city plans to make its decision by April.

Koczwara came to Orland Park from a finance director role with the City of Crystal Lake. He was hired in 2019 for a three-year term, at a salary of $170,000. He replaced Joseph LaMargo, who was pushed out of office in May 2019 by Pekau, and who was later hired as village manager for Portage, Michigan.

Pekau and the Orland Park Village Board last month approved asking voters in April to decide whether the village should move away from its decades-old form of government that makes the village manager role essential.

A referendum question will ask voters to consider a change from a government that gives a village manager final decision-making ability in many matters, to one that returns that authority largely to the mayor, with a board of trustees also weighing in.

Pekau said at the time that the change would mean the mayor and board of trustees would "be responsible for the principle final executive and administrative decisions of the Village and be accountable to the voters."

He asserted the shift from current "manager/council" form to a basic "trustee/village" format would not eliminate the role of village manager, but would mean the mayor and board would "create ordinances that create a village manager’s position along with delegated roles and responsibilities that will be virtually the same as they are currently," Pekau contended in the email.

Pekau in his email said that the desire to move back to a previous format "in no way reflects upon the job that our current Village Manager does. He works closely with me and the board and we have a great working relationship."