Biggest Staff Shakeup In 60 Years As 2 New Glencoe Departments Created

GLENCOE, IL — Village officials plan to implement the most substantial reorganization of staff operations in more than 60 years, creating two new municipal departments by combining some parts of Glencoe's government and separating others.

“I am pleased and proud to see our organizational structure evolving to meet the needs of the Glencoe community," said Village Manager Phil Kiraly.

"As evidenced by our exceptional performance in our most recent customer satisfaction survey in 2023, we have a high bar of service to maintain." Kiraly said, in a statement announcing the changes. "I know our new organizational structure will allow our team to continue to strive to not only maintain but exceed those standards."

Effective Jan. 1, the village manager's office and the finance department will merge into what will be known as the Administration and Finance Department.

According to village staff, the reorganization will improve internal operations and resident services by assigning employees where they will best serve the community.

Several promotions accompany the changes, which were approved by the village board at Thursday evening's meeting as part of Glencoe's 2024 budget.

Nikki Larson, finance director since 2018, will be promoted to deputy village manager and chief financial officer.

In that role, she will act as Kiraly's primary deputy overseeing village operations.

Margaret Schwarz, the current assistant finance director, will be promoted to assistant chief financial officer.

She will lead the daily operations of the new department's finance division.

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Sharon Tanner, who was appointed assistant village manager in 2015, will next month become the village’s first human resources director.

She will focus on keeping the village an "employer of choice" and will oversee the village's diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, or DEIB, efforts, according to an announcement of the reorganization.

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To support the reorganization, village officials plan to hire a human resources generalist and a support and network engineer to the new department early next year.

They also are looking for a new assistant village manager to lead special projects and engage in day-to-day operations.

Assistant Village Manger Jon Pape was in line to transition into the role, but he has taken a job in another town and plans to resign next month, according to staff.

The second new department will be created by spinning off development services from the Public Works Department, which, uniquely among local governments, has historically included operations, engineering and development services.

Citing the increasing complexity of building, zoning and planning efforts, village staff determined that the structure was no longer a good idea and decided to create a new Development Services Department.

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It will be led by Taylor Baxter, who was hired in 2019 as development services manager, and will be responsible for all planning, zoning, building and code enforcement.

"I’m grateful to our staff who will take on new and ever more challenging roles," Kiraly said, "and am deeply appreciative to Village President [Howard] Roin and the Board of Trustees for their support of our vision for the organization.”

Last month, trustees unanimously approved a plan to waive competitive bidding to spend up to $80,000 on office furniture renovation as part of the reorganization, which will involve installing modular, moveable office walls to create more private office space.