The La Grange Village Board has unanimously approved a three-year contract with Lauterbach and Amen LLP to manage the village’s finance department, a move officials say will professionalize operations and improve financial reporting.
The decision comes after the finance director and accounting manager both left in 2025. The village has operated with temporary staffing and existing staff since then.
The new arrangement will assign two permanent professionals to the village and provide additional resources as needed.
The board hired the accounting firm through a competitive request for proposals process. Village President Mark Kuchler, Trustee Peggy Peterson, and Clerk Paul Saladino—all with accounting or audit backgrounds—led the evaluation.
Kathleen Morley will serve as finance director. She has more than 35 years of accounting and financial management experience and previously worked for the villages of Kenilworth and Northfield. Her background includes managing enterprise resource planning software transitions, a skill the village will need for an upcoming project.
Joanna Katterman will serve as assistant finance director. She has accounting experience in Indian Head Park, Willowbrook, and Orland Park, with expertise in audits, financial reporting, payroll, and software implementation.
Trustee Beth Augustine said the hiring made sense.
“It’s not an overhaul. When I started on the board, we had a person in there for three decades. He retired,” Augustine said, in her second four-year term. “His replacement left after a year or so for another job. These are hard roles to fill. It’s not like you can bring in a CPA and they can do it. Municipal accounting is different than balancing the books for a company.”
The contract runs through December 31, 2028. The village budgeted for the expenditure in its 2026–2027 fiscal year budget.
“We did what other towns are moving to. We hired a finance firm that specializes in municipal accounting,” Augustine said.
Village President Mark Kuchler said the village has never had a dedicated finance department liaison before and will now have two. He said the village selected the firm to professionalize the department, not primarily to save money.
He noted that the accounting firm’s advantage is its depth: if one assigned professional leaves, the firm can provide a replacement. For large projects, the firm can bring in additional staff at various levels.