Park District Board Appoints Interim Executive Directors

The Glen Ellyn Park District Board of Commissioners appointed Dave Scarmardo and Kathleen Esposito to be co-interim executive directors by a 4-3 vote at Tuesday’s meeting.

Scarmardo, superintendent of parks, and Esposito,(superintendent of recreation will share the position left vacant from Cory Atwell’s recent retirement. Both will get $1,550 more a month to compensate for their additional duties.

Commissioner Sandra Minogue appointed them after the meeting’s first executive session. Minogue with Board President Ed Hess, Vice President Ron Aubrey and Treasurer William Dallman affirmed the appointment. Commissioners Melissa Creech, Julia Nephew and Jay Kinzler voted against the motion.

"I wanted to see the interim director to be one person,” Kinzler said. “I just thought it would be more appropriate and a little better to run the organization with one head. Then you could have auxiliary or assistance under that head. The other group thought two people could co-share that position.”

Before the vote, Creech said having one interim director would help. She stated that Hess prevented the board from appointing an interim during the November meeting. Hess countered and told the public that statement was made during a different set of circumstances than this current timeframe.

“At that point in time, we thought we would have an executive director appointed at that meeting because Cory had given his six-week notice,” Hess said. “We didn’t feel we needed an interim director at that point. Corry gave us time to look.”

Hess said “unfortunately,” the direction that the board went did not allow for the appointment to happen.

“I didn’t prevent the board from doing that,” Hess said. “That was the recommendation and the majority of the board decided that’s the direction it would go.”

The board also came to a 4-3 decision on appointing Tressler LLP law firm with the same factions voting yea or nay. This exact same vote also resulted during the budget and Platform Tennis votes.

“It probably has to do with the philosophy of government,” Kinzler said. “Those other issues were different. With Platform Tennis, I was worried about borrowing money for the future for a facility that not that many residents use when it could be spent elsewhere.'

“For the budget, I wanted to look for ways to save money like not having company cars or having more cell phones to pay for than park district employees. None of those issues were brought up at the meeting.”

Esposito was also appointed to be the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association representative for Glen Ellyn, while Katherine Wendland was reappointed to be board secretary.

Board officer elections also took place. Hess was nominated for president and was approved with a 6-1 tally, with only Nephew dissenting. 

For vice president, Minogue nominated Aubrey as Kinzler was chosen by Creech. Aubrey won a 4-3 decision to retain his officer position.

Treasurer Dallman nominated Creech to replace his officer position, as Dallman is not running for reelection. Creech got the position on a 7-0 approval.