By Jeff Vorva
Orland Park will be on the lookout for a village manager next spring.
Current manager George Koczwara, whose contract expires Oct. 14 and was not renewed by the village board, resigned in June but plans on fulfilling his obligations until that date.
Mayor Keith Pekau said that an interim director will be named to take over in October and the process of searching for a new director will take place after the April election.
During a June 17 board meeting, Pekau and trustees praised Koczwara for his work and the decision to not renew the contract was based on a desire to have the new board have a say in who the village manager is and not his performance.
Koczwara was hired by the village in 2019.
Even though he received public kudos for his work and trustee Sean Kampas said that he hoped Koczwara would stay on “for a long time,” the village manager submitted a letter of resignation shortly thereafter.
Koczwara did not have any comment on the situation.
Pekau said earlier this week said he didn’t know Koczwara planned to resign until the next morning after the meeting. The mayor said that the village manager was aware of the board’s plans months in advance.
“That was the first we had heard about it,” Pekau said of the resignation. “If that’s what he wants to do…obviously we were very clear in our intent to keep him on and negotiate a contract in April.
“Apparently, that was something he wasn’t interested in.”
Pekau and trustees Kampas, Joni Radaszewski and Brian Riordan have terms that expire in 2025. Pekau said in 2023 that he planned to run for mayor for a third and final term.
When he was first elected in 2017, Pekau had inherited Joe La Margo as his village manager. The two were not on the same page on various issues and controversy, investigations and lawsuits ensued. Earlier this year, La Margo paid the village $30,000 in a settlement.
At the June 17 meeting, trustee William Healy said that giving La Margo a contract to be the village manager before the election was “devious.”
Pekau has insisted that the village manager’s contract should be in line with the board and beginning a contract after an election was the prudent course of action.
“We’re trying to time it up right so that whoever is coming into the board – anyone new – will be involved in the process,” he said.
