He’s back…
George Koczwara was voted in as Orland Park’s village manager at a special board meeting on May 12. He was approved for a one-year, $207,000 deal.
He served in that position from 2019-2024. The board voted 4-2 to bring him back with trustees Michael Milani and Cindy Nelson Katsenes voting “no.”
They had concerns that the job wasn’t posted and were hesitant because Koczwara helped on new mayor Jim Dodge’s campaign and they said that village managers should be politically neutral.
Trustee William Healy was absent for the vote. He originally showed up at the meeting and said that he had a conflict and needed to leave early. He left during an executive session and was not present for the vote.
While no one on the board spoke publicly about the hiring, after the meeting, Dodge told the Regional News he worked with Koczwara when he was a trustee on the board and Koczwara has great knowledge of the community.
“He’s worked here for five years, and he has very good performance reviews,” Dodge said of Koczwara. “I worked with him for a couple of years, and I was a part of the original interviews.
“At the moment, given the intensity and speed that we’re going to move, I made a commitment that we were going to make rapid and substantive changes and this is one of them.”
Interim Village Administrator Jim Culotta will move back to his assistant role, Dodge said.
Koczwara was not at the meeting and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
In 2024, Koczwara did not have his contract renewed as village manager.
Then-mayor Keith Pekau and members of the village board praised Koczwara and said the decision not to renew the contract, which was up on Oct. 14, was not because of performance.
Pekau said they wanted to wait until after the April 1 election so whomever was on the board could make the important decision of picking a manager. Koczwara was free to keep working without a new contract with plans of renegotiating after the election.
Koczwara served out his contract but left after Oct. 14 and Culotta has served as interim manager.
Aside from Milani and Katsenes’s concerns, two members of the public took issue with his hiring before the vote.
Carol McGury, who ran for a trustee spot this year but lost, congratulated the new board members but told Dodge that there should have been a more thorough process.
“When you ran, you talked about audits being delayed, budget issues and all of these personnel issues that you talked about publicly,” she said. “He [Koczwara] was the village manager at that time, So, I question that if this was your platform what is the thought process to reinstate the man that was accountable for all of the things you were running against?”
Resident Joseph Solek, a longtime meeting attendee, said he couldn’t get into the board room when Dodge and the new trustees were sworn in on May 7 because he was told only families, candidates and employees were allowed in. He noted that Koczwara was standing in the employee section.
“It gave the appearance that his position was predetermined as a done deal,” Solek said. “What happened to your promise of transparency? Why was the open position of village manager not publicly advertised to attract other candidates?”
Dodge said after the meeting that criticism of Koczwara is politically motivated.
“Some people want to carry on the campaign,” Dodge said. “One of the things that I’m trying to communicate to everyone on staff about this selection tonight is that the political pressure in the office of the mayor is gone.
“I’m going to give everyone that works for the village a fair chance. [After] one year, we’re going to look around and see where we are. A lot of comments tonight were pure politics.”
Koczwara was originally hired by the village in 2019, two years after Pekau was elected. Pekau inherited Joe La Margo as the village manager and the two were constantly at odds and there were investigations and lawsuits that followed and La Margo ended up paying the village $30,000 in a settlement.
Other business
There was a discussion about Downtown Orland Park to catch the new board members up to speed on its progress.
No action was taken or decisions made, but Dodge said he wants Edwards Realty to know that the village will work with the developers if any changes are needed throughout the process.