New Tinley Village Manager Moves Room To Tears During Appointment

TINLEY PARK, IL — The Tinley Park Board of Trustees appointed Assistant Village Manager Patrick Carr as retiring Village Manager David Niemeyer's official replacement, at the Tuesday evening Board of Trustees meeting held at the Tinley Park Convention Center.

Carr will start his first day as Village Manager on Saturday, just one day after Niemeyer is slated to officially retire.

Carr, who has been serving the village for nearly 16 years as Director of Emergency Management and 911 Communications, was promoted to Assistant Village Manager in 2017. In this role, he oversaw village public safety operations and information technology.

During his tenure, Carr was tasked with managing new programs, cost reductions and grants that have brought the village several million dollars in cost savings, and most recently, he led the COVID-19 response that included PPE distribution to businesses and residents and the establishment of the first mass vaccination site in Illinois.

"It's now time to get down to work, and I have the best team moving forward to execute on some exciting plans for the future" Carr said. "Our work in local government is about service. We service more and more, implement policies, service to our teammates, to give them the tools to do the mission, and service to our residents, to give them a safe community. It's all about service before self."

Carr thanked a handful of people, including family, friends, an old professor and mentors, such as late Police Chief Michael J. O'Connell, who died after complications from heart surgery in May 2011. Carr recalled his first in-person interview for the emergency management position years back, when he was seated alone in a room with O'Connell.

"He kept glaring at me, and I thought, 'What the hell did I do,' Carr said, laughing. "He then breaks the silence and says, 'Sox or Cubs?' and I said Sox, then there was a big smile and laughter in the room. That broke the ice with Mike."

Emotional, Carr gave a message to O'Connell.

"He took me under his wing for the next five years. Mike, I did it. You said I could do it, and I did it," Carr said, while pausing to contain his emotions. The room filled with applause and brief tears from both officials, and attendees.

Carr continued by saying he had the honor to work with Tinley Park leaders such as former mayors Ed Zabrocki and Dave Seaman, who were both in attendance. Zabrocki took to the podium at the meeting, recalling moments spent with Carr over the years.

"Being a village manager is an extremely difficult situation. We started out by having eight bosses, and eight bosses want to tell you what to do. And many times those eight people disagree amongst themselves, which is a real challenge for the village manager," Zabrocki said. "One thing that I would say about Patt Carr, he will tell you, not what you want to hear. He will tell you what you should hear. And to me, that is your mark of a very good village manager."

Niemeyer, who had been working with the village since 2014, was also honored at the meeting. Capping off his village manager career here in Tinley Park, Niemeyer called working with the village a great time in his life. He said what he will miss most is the "great teamwork."

"It's been an honor working for this great community, I can't really think of a better way to kind of cap my city manager career," Niemeyer said. "It's everything I expected and more, and I will definitely continue to work for, and help Tinley Park in any capacity I can. I'm very confident that you'll have a bright future moving forward."